The poetry of madness (part 2 of 2)

The second of two symposia sponsored by the Esalen Institute on the value of psychotic experience, entitled “The Poetry of Madness”, recorded July 31, 1968 at the Longshoremen’s Memorial Hall in San Francisco. Question-and-answer session with audience. Panelists discuss the philosophy of George Gurdjieff, whether there’s been any success in treating chronic schizophrenics, Scientology, whether anyone’s proven that reality exists, “re-educating old ideas versus assassinating them”, how to use poetry to alter one’s consciousness, the connection between LSD and schizophrenia, whether schizophrenia is the intrinsic character of man, whether inducing psychosis is a good idea, whether the shaman is the archetype of the modern-day psychotic, why the artist has to cope with madness but the schizophrenic doesn’t and how artists can redefine the concept of “reality”.