Naked Lunch (30 page)

It seems to me that barbiturates cause the worst possible form of addiction, unsightly, deteriorating, difficult to treat.

Benzedrene. – This is a cerebral stimulant like cocaine. Large
doses cause prolonged sleeplessness with feelings of exhilaration. The period of euphoria is followed by a horrible depression. The drug tends to increase anxiety. It causes indigestion and loss of appetite.

I know of only one case where definite symptoms followed the withdrawal of benzedrene. This was a woman of my acquaintance who used incredible quantities of benzedrene for six months. During
this period she developed a drug psychosis and was hospitalized for ten days. She continued the use of benzedrene, but was suddenly cut off. She suffered an asthma type seizure. She could not get her breath and turned blue. I gave her a dose of antihistamine (thepherene) which afforded immediate relief. The symptoms did not return.

Peyote (mescaline). – This is undoubtedly a stimulant. It dilates
the pupils, keeps one awake. Peyote is extremely nauseating. Users experience difficulty keeping it down long enough to realize the effect, which is similar, in some respects, to marijuana. There is increased sensitivity to impression, especially to colours. Peyote intoxication causes a peculiar vegetable consciousness or identification with the plant. Everything looks like a peyote plant. It
is easy to understand why the Indians believe there is a resident spirit in the peyote cactus.

Overdose of peyote may lead to respiratory paralysis and death. I know of one case. There is no reason to believe that peyote is addicting.

Bannisteria caapi
(Harmaline, Banisterine, Telepathine). – Bannisteria caapi is a fast growing vine. The active principle is apparently found throughout the wood
of the fresh cut vine. The inner bark is considered most active, and the leaves are never used. It takes a considerable quantity of the vine to feel the full effects of the drug. About five pieces of vine each eight inches long are needed for one person. The vine is crushed and boiled for two or more hours with the leaves of a bush identified as
Palicourea sp. rubiacea.

Yage or Ayuahuaska (the
most commonly used Indian names for Bannisteria caapi) is a hallucinating narcotic that produces a profound derangement of the senses. In overdose it is a convulsant poison. The antidote is a barbiturate or other strong, anti-convulsant sedative. Anyone taking Yage for the first time should have a sedative ready in the event of an overdose.

The hallucinating properties of Yage have led to its
use by Medicine Men to potentiate their powers. They also use it as a cure-all in the treatment of various illnesses. Yage lowers the body temperature and consequently is of some use in the treatment of fever. It is a powerful antihelminthic,
indicated for treatment of stomach or intestinal worms. Yage induces a state of conscious anaesthesia, and is used in rites where the initiates must undergo
a painful ordeal like whipping with knotted vines, or exposure to the sting of ants.

So far as I could discover only the fresh cut vine is active. I found no way to dry, extract or preserve the active principal. No tinctures proved active. The dried vine is completely inert. The pharmacology of yage requires laboratory research. Since the crude extract is such a powerful, hallucinating narcotic,
perhaps even more spectacular results could be obtained with synthetic variations. Certainly the matter warrants further research.
¹

I did not observe any ill effects that could be attributed to the use of Yage. The Medicine Men who use it continuously in line of duty seem to enjoy normal health. Tolerance is soon acquired so that one can drink the extract without nausea or other ill effect.

Yage is a unique narcotic. Yage intoxication is in some respects similar to intoxication with hashish. In both instances there is a shift of viewpoint, an extension of consciousness beyond ordinary experience. But Yage produces a deeper derangement of the senses with actual hallucinations. Blue flashes in front of the eyes is peculiar to Yage intoxication.

There is a wide range of attitude in
regard to Yage. Many Indians and most White users seem to regard it simply as another intoxicant like liquor. In other groups it has ritual use and significance. Among the Jivaro, young men take Yage to contact the spirits of their ancestors and get a briefing for their future life. It is used during initiations to anaesthetize the initiates for painful ordeals. All
Medicine Men use it in their
practice to foretell the future, locate lost or stolen objects, name the perpetrator of a crime, to diagnose and treat illness.

The alkaloid of Bannisteria caapi was isolated in 1923 by Fisher Cardenas. He called the alkaloid Telepathine, alternately Banisterine. Rumf showed that Telepathine was identical with Harmine, the alkaloid of Perganum Harmala.

Bannisteria caapi is evidently not habit
forming.

Nutmeg. – Convicts and sailors sometimes have recourse to nutmeg. About a tablespoon is swallowed with water. Results are vaguely similar to marijuana with side effects of headache and nausea. Death would probably supervene before addiction if such addiction is possible. I have only taken nutmeg once.

There are a number of narcotics of the nutmeg family in use among the Indians of South
America. They are usually administered by sniffing a dried powder of the plant. The Medicine Men take these noxious substances, and go into convulsive states. Their twichings and mutterings are thought to have prophetic significance. A friend of mine was violently sick for three days after experimenting with a drug of the nutmeg family in South America.

Datura-scopolamine. – Morphine addicts
are frequently poisoned by taking morphine in combination with scopolamine.

I once obtained some ampoules each of which contained one-sixth grain of morphine and one-hundredth grain of scopolamine. Thinking that one-hundredth grain was a negligible quantity, I took six ampoules in one injection. The result was a psychotic state lasting some hours during which I was opportunely restrained by my
long suffering landlord. I remembered nothing the following day.

Drugs of the datura group are used by the Indians of
South America and Mexico. Fatalities are said to be frequent.

Scopolamine has been used by the Russians as a confession drug with dubious results. The subject may be willing to reveal his secrets, but quite unable to remember them. Often cover story and secret information are
inextricably garbled. I understand that mescaline has been very successful in extracting information from suspects.

Morphine addiction is a metabolic illness brought about by the use of morphine. In my opinion psychological treatment is not only useless it is contraindicated. Statistically the people who become addicted to morphine are those who have access to it: doctors, nurses, anyone in contact
with black market sources. In Persia where opium is sold without control in opium shops, 70 per cent of the adult population is addicted. So we should psycho-analyse several million Persians to find out what deep conflicts and anxieties have driven them to the use of opium? I think not. According to my experience most addicts are not neurotic and do not need psychotherapy. Apomorphine treatment
and access to apomorphine in the event of relapse would certainly give a higher percentage of permanent cures than any programme of ‘psychological rehabilitation.’

¹
Since this was published I have discovered that the alkaloids of Bannisteria are closely related to LSD6 which has been used to produce experimental psychosis. I think they are up to LSD25 already.

Say hello to Bradley the Buyer, the best narcotics agent in the business. Attend international playboy A.J.’s annual party, where the punch is to be treated with extreme caution. Meet Dr ‘Fingers’ Schafer, the Lobotomy Kid and his giant centipede, ‘The Complete American De-anxietized Man’. And enter the dark and infernal mind of Bill Lee as he pursues his daily quest for the ultimate
merchandise … Provocative, influential, morbidly fascinating,
Naked Lunch
is an apocalyptic ride through the darker recesses of the human psyche.

WILLIAM BURROUGHS
was born in St Louis, Missouri, in 1914. Although largely unpublished for many years, Burroughs was immensely influential among the Beat writers of the 1950s – notably Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg – and already had an underground
reputation before the appearance of his first important book,
Naked Lunch.
First published in France in 1959, it aroused great controversy on publication and was not available in the US until 1962 and in the UK until 1964. In 1983 Burroughs was elected a Member of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. He died in 1997.

Burroughs’ other works include
The Soft Machine
(1961),
The Ticket That Exploded
(1962) and
The Place of Dead Roads
(1984), all three of which are being brought back into print later this year by Flamingo.

THE ADDING MACHINE: SELECTED ESSAYS
AH POOK IS HERE AND OTHER TEXTS
BLADE RUNNER: A MOVIE
THE BOOK OF BREETHING (WITH BOB GALE)
THE BURROUGHS FILE
THE CAT INSIDE
CITIES OF THE RED NIGHT
EXTERMINATOR!
GHOST OF A CHANCE
INTERZONE
THE JOB: INTERVIEWS WITH WILLIAM BURROUGHS
JUNKY
LAST WORDS: THE FINAL JOURNALS OF WILLIAM BURROUGHS
THE LAST WORDS OF DUTCH SCHULTZ: A FICTION IN THE
FORM
OF A FILM SCRIPT
THE LETTERS OF WILLIAM BURROUGHS
MY EDUCATION: A BOOK OF DREAMS
NAKED LUNCH
NOVA EXPRESS
PAINTING AND GUNS
THE PLACE OF DEAD ROADS
PORT OF SAINTS
WORD VIRUS: THE WILLIAM BURROUGHS READER
QUEER
A REPORT FROM THE BUNKER (WITH VICTOR BOCKRIS)
THE SOFT MACHINE
THE THIRD MIND (WITH BRION GYSIN)
THE TICKET THAT EXPLODED
TORNADO ALLEY (WITH S. CLAY WILSON)
THE WESTERN LANDS
THE
WILD BOYS: A BOOK OF THE DEAD
THE YAGÉ LETTERS (WITH ALLEN GINSBERG)

Flamingo
An imprint of HarperCollins
Publishers
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JB

Flamingo is a registered trade mark of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.

www.harpercollins.co.uk

This Flamingo Sixties Classic edition published 2001
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

First published in the USA by Grove Press 1962

Copyright © William Burroughs 1959, 1962, 1964, 1982, 1991
Introduction
copyright © J. G. Ballard 1993

William Burroughs asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

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