Once, while living in Berkeley in the early seventies, I returned from a camping trip in the High Sierras, bringing home spiritual wisdom to share. Unlike Moses, however, I didn’t write it all down on a stone tablet. Instead I wrote in on the bathroom wall, right next to the toilet paper roll. I figured everyone would see it there.

What I wrote was simple and easy – “the higher you are, the higher you get.” I had just been tripping in the mountains, at Dinky Creek in the High Sierras, and I had come to realize that I had been much higher there than I had ever been down in the city.

I figured then that it was the altitude – that if I took off from seven thousand feet, I could fly higher with acid than if I started down at sea level. It might also have helped that most people, with their city vibes, lived below seven thousand feet, making it much easier for me to fly free and undistracted in the high mountains.

I thought of the Hopis up on their lonely mesas, of all the high folks living in all the high mountains of the world. I thought especially of the Tibetans living at the very top of the world. I figured that they knew the secret too – that if you wanted to connect to Spirit, you had to start out as high as you could get.

Time often puts new twists upon old sayings. New meanings gradually emerge. Now I see that it’s not just the higher altitude or the lack of nearby and unconscious people. Now I see that the elevation and quality of my own everyday consciousness is the single most important factor regarding how high I can fly on acid.

If I am centered and conscious before I trip, I will be able to follow acid’s energy to the center of my being. Then, if I am already as conscious as I can be; and if, in addition, I’m in the high mountains while I’m doing the acid, I can get very high. “The higher you are, the higher you get.” It is very important for each and every one of us, especially those of us who are trippers and shamans, to work on consciousness all the time.