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cover image
Too Much to Dream
A Psychedelic American Boyhood
Rating :
rating
Author(s) :
Peter Bebergal
Pages :
232
Pub Date :
2011
Edition(s) at Erowid :
2011(pb,1st ed,vg)
Publisher :
Soft Skull Press
ISBN :
1593763824
BACK COVER #
Growing up in the suburbs of Boston and raised on secular Judaism, Cocoa Puffs, and Gilligan's Island, Peter Bebergal was barely in his teens when the ancient desire to finding higher spiritual meaning in the universe struck. Already schooled in mysticism by way of comic books, Dungeons & Dragons, and Carlos Castaneda, he turned to hallucinogens, convinced they would provide a path to illumination.

Was this profound desire for God--a god he believed that could only be apprehended by an extreme state of altered consciousness--simply a side effect of the drugs? Or was it a deeper human longing that was manifesting itself, even on a country club golf course at the edge of a strip mall?

Too Much to Dream places Bebergal's story within the cultural history of hallucinogens, American fascination with mysticism, and the complex relationship between drug addiction, popular culture, rock 'n' roll, occultism, and psychology. With a captivating foreword by Peter Coyote, and interviews with writers, artists, and psychologists such as Dennis McKenna, James Fadima, Arik Roper, Jim Woodring, and Mark Tulin, Bebergal offers a groundbreaking exploration of drugs, religion, and the craving for spirituality entrenched in America's youth.

BLURBS #
"Too Much to Dream makes Catcher in the Rye look like a Boy Scout manual. Peter Bebergal reveals the underbelly of the countercultural slogan Sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll."
-- Paul Krassner, author of Who's to Say What's Obscene

ABOUT THE AUTHOR(S) / EDITOR(S) #
Peter Bebergal is the co-author of The Faith Between Us. He studied religion at Brandeis and Harvard Divinity School and writes frequently on the intersection of popular culture, religion, and science as well as reviews on science fiction and fantasy. He lives in Cambridge with his wife and son.