Twenty-eight years ago this week, The Amherst Student published an anonymous column titled "A Future Oriented Perversion." The author lamented the goal-obsessed attitude of American society, claiming it was a particularly acute problem at the College. "Many of us come from families where postponing momentary pleasure for the sake of a larger future goal is encouraged … By being so ever-aware about the future, we miss out on the present." In a moment of deep insight, he said, "Often the trip itself is more important than what lies at the end of it."

The solution, the author claimed, is drugs. "The so-called hallucinogenic drugs––marijuana to some extent, but primarily LSD, psilocybin, peyote, mescaline, etc.––have opened up a door, showing us another alternative … With that, our time sense is distorted, and the automatic processing of information according to utilitarian categories, which is oriented toward future time, is altered. The environment is no longer a collection of objects to be manipulated with some future goal in sight. Rather, it becomes an array of perceptual experiences that become ends in themselves, independent of past and future considerations."

Trying to calm popular fears, the experienced author explained that accounts of "bad trips" on acid were often overblown. Acid-induced hallucinations do not send you out of control, he claimed. "What [acid] does is trigger the potentialities of your own brain. Everything is completely fresh, and the flow of energy between you and your environment is overwhelming. Which is why it's best to trip in a good place on a good day. For many a situation we normally deal with is revealed through flashes of intuitive insight as an absurd or evil game."

However, the author maintained that acid use could be a part of life without becoming a way of life. "So you come down, and you're straight again. But you're different, because the possibility of perceiving and living in the world in a whole new way has been revealed … I have to warn you that if you try acid, you might re-evaluate or reject some of your goals. But you can integrate acid and its way into a larger structure that still has straight goals. I still want to be a lawyer, but I'm going to enjoy myself in the process of becoming one."