Duncan Blewett – pioneer of the human psyche and founder of the U of R psychology department – passed away Feb. 24. While working at the Weyburn Psychiatric Hospital in the 1950s, Dr. Blewett theorized that the mentally ill could, in a sense, treat themselves through self-realization and self-understanding of their behaviour. Along with colleagues Humphry Osmond and Abram Hoffer, he explored LSD as a gateway to self-awareness by experimenting on himself.

In 1959 Blewett and Dr. N. Chwelos co-authored Handbook for the Therapeutic Use of Lysergic Acid Diethylamide-25: Individual and Group Procedures. The manual not only offered a scientific procedure to control the wide-ranging and often unpredictable effects of LSD, it presented a new approach to therapy – one focused less on adjustment to society and more on “maximal realization of the individual potential, the flowering, as it were, of the personality.”

Blewett later joined the University of Regina, as a founder of the psychology department. His work helped place the fledging campus on the map, leading to an international reputation for unconventional, daring scholarship. 

"Anarchy of angels"

During this time, he further developed his theories as a prescription not just for the mentally ill, but for all humanity. In The Frontiers of Being (NY: Award Books 1969), he explored ideas about human kindness and “transcendental man.” Using the psychedelic model, he predicted a new form of faith based on pleasure and joy.

Blewett’s theories traveled to campuses throughout North American, and from there entered mainstream society – touching off both a social revolution and a regulatory backlash against the scientific use of LSD.

After reading Blewett-inspired works by Aldous Huxley, Timothy Leary and others, many young people sought alternatives to the straight-laced materialism of their parents. A profound generational schism developed, lasting throughout the Sixties and the early part of the Seventies.

As well, a touchstone to First Nations culture emerged when some social experimenters – including Blewett – looked to shamanism and peyote use as a more culturally holistic, tradition-bound version of their LSD discoveries.

Psychedelic drugs remained illegal, but their influence on art, music, culture and social change was obvious and profound. Without psychedelic theory, the world would be a grayer place indeed.

Celebration planned

At the end of his university career, Blewett retired to BC’s Gabriola Island with his wife and long-time academic colleague June Blewett. According to his obituary, in 2005 he suffered a stroke and remained at home under June’s care, living “fabulously in the moment until the end.” He passed away at Nanaimo Hospital on February 24, 2007. A celebration of his life will be held March 24 on Gabriola Island. 

In Frontier of Being, Blewett identified "the Law of Feeling": when someone does something selflessly for someone else, they feel better about themselves and consequently about the world. Although famed as the original ‘LSD guru’, kindness was his true prescription.

Dr. Blewett’s passing is a time for us to consider that competitive materialism, spiritual alienation and repressive cultures remain a developmental challenge for us all. Because of his work and the social revolution it inspired, these conditions are doubtless less entrenched today than they might have been – leaving humanity one step nearer to the ‘transcendental summit’.

 SIGN THE FAMILY’S BOOK OF CONDOLENCES ONLINE

(Scroll down or search to find Dr. Blewett's name)

From ‘The LSD Handbook’ (D. Blewett and N. Chewlos, 1959)

“In the broadest terms there are, at present, two main philosophies of psychotherapy. One of these, based on the concept of ‘adjustment’ sees as the goal of treatment a happy and comfortable acceptance by the patient of the norms of his society. The other concept sees as the goal of therapy the maximal realization of the individual potential, the flowering, as it were, of the personality.”

From LSD — The Problem-Solving Psychedelic by P.G. Stafford and B.H. Golightly (New York: Award Books, 1967).

Introduction by Dr. Duncan B. Blewett

The discovery of LSD marked one of the three major scientific breakthroughs of the twentieth century… For if man is to cope with his new-found physical and biological power and responsibility, there must be an abrupt and decisive revision of human psychology. The motives which have made human history a chronology of bloodshed and brutality will otherwise certainly and shortly lead to the annihilation of the species.

The psychedelics offer the hope that we are on the threshold of a new renaissance in which man's view of himself will undergo dramatic change. Alienated and encapsulated, he has become trapped by his history in outmoded institutions which disfigure him with the creed of original sin; corrupt him with fear of economic insecurity; dement him with the delusion that mass murder is an inevitable outcome of his nature; debase him to believe that butchery in the name of the state is a sacred duty, and leave him so crippled that he is afraid to seek self-understanding or to love and trust himself, his neighbor or his God.

Only the psychedelics offer the hope that man can grow rapidly and fully enough to meet the challenge mounted by his technical accomplishments.

From The Frontiers of Being by Duncan B. Blewett (New York: Award Books, 1969).

Thus the evidence of the psychedelic model seems unmistakably clear. We are in the early stages of the development of transcendental man. The process is moving with great rapidity as it must do if the species is to survive. It is discernible in the changes that are presently occurring and that will accelerate exponentially.

As the individual becomes more loving and, therefore, more joyful and happy through the expectation of pleasure, he represents the development of a new form of faith. Without fear of pain there can be no concepts of Hell. Heaven, as Blake points out, becomes here and now. Where there is no fear, there is unitive faith that expresses itself in love.

Until now love, perforce, has come before faith, but in the men who are now being born, faith will lead love and direct its expression. To these men, faith is. No longer will it be sought after for it will be immanent, forming the very ground upon which thought appears. As Bucke put it: "The evidence of immortality will live in every heart as sight in every eye. The evidence of each will be the same."

To our gaze this will appear to be an anarchy of angels, but to the new-born it will be simply a base camp on the pathway up the mountain to greater levels of attainment than we can yet imagine. Man as a creature with four-dimensional awareness will have arrived and will begin to develop along the dimensions of being to higher and higher levels of realization. There will be much to do, for the stars are yet far off and love is still weeping in pain in many parts of our earth. But the new-born will confront these problems with joy, and lacking fear of being themselves, they will neither need nor acquire psychological defenses.

Comments

Only registered users can write comments.
Please login or register.

Powered by AkoComment 2.0!