Rabid Sharks
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Prison Blog

In which Possum recounts his experiences as an offender in the system.

Possum Bones is autistic. He has identified as a dirty kid in the past, and he’s attended multiple rainbow gatherings. He has several years left to serve in the Washington Correctional system.

He has been making art since he could sit up. He communicates better in writing than speech. If you are interested in the experience of an autistic person doing prison time, check out his Prison Blog. If you are a fan of comic art, underground/outsider music, Lovecraft, Clarke Ashton Smith, Murakami, Cixui Liu, etc.

In response to reading a psychedelic clinical trial

There's certain issues I take with clinical psychedelics. No big issues, like, people can do what they want. Personally, though. It seems like theyre trying, in very western science fashion , to make the experience completely streamlined and remove all these things that might cause discomfort or trauma. Physical discomfort such as nausea, pain in the limbs, etc. And mental discomfort like, the potential for a difficult experience on a psychological level. Well, my conviction is that the physical discomfort is a necessary, valuable part of the experience. This undertaking, this physical challenge, is part of what prevents people from taking the experience lightly. It's meant to hurt a little. And the second part, the potential for a difficult experience; it's fine to try to create an initially comforting and safe environment for the questing patient. But if it ends up being horrible, you cant strike that off as an anomaly or a mistake. That stuff is necessary. As it probably would be considered in hypnosis or something. Idk. But yea.

The concept of 'poison trial' seems relevant to that blurb. There are different kinds of poison trial. Some might be a rite of passage, others were actually similar to a trial by combat: survive the poison, and the gods have chosen to spare you ... so you must be either innocent or pardoned by the gods. Judicial decisions were made in this way. Or feats of bravery and strength such as when they parade the fakirs through the streets being bitten by cobras , while they drink an antidote. Mastery over toxins was a sign of cunning, valour, and virtue. While that dogma is subjective , one thing is true : trial by poison is assuredly a trial, and as such it builds character. After weathering a particularly trying medicine or poison, I do feel as if I have summitted some mountain. Maybe this will seem strange to you, but its true. In the past, this is a way in which I have known myself to persevere. Despite intense nausea, bodily discomfort, and in some cases the potential for bodily harm, I have proudly and willingly subjected myself to the un purified toxins of nature. Once, this is what it took. This was the price of the experience, up to and including death . Example, the red bean dance. A festival where mescal beans were consumed, 1 quarter a bean per person , despite the fact that every year, a fraction of the participants would die. While I don't entertain childish notions of shaman hood, to ignore the poison trial facet of psychedelics is to turn a blind eye to the arduous history of the field.

Elisa Carlson