Interview with Lorenzo Hagerty of the Psychedelic Salon podcast

This interview was originally posted on my psychedelic literature blog, http://www.DDubsReads.com. I hope you enjoy it. I have been interested in interviewing authors for a while now, and was able coordinated one with a man I truly admire. Lorenzo Hagerty, host of the Psychedelic Salon podcast and author of the upcoming audio book The Genesis Generation, agreed to answer a few questions for me concerning his book and other psychedelic-related topics. So thank you Lorenzo for joining us!

D Dubs: What is the title of your book and could you give a brief synopsis for my audience?

Lorenzo: “The Genesis Generation” is the story of the transformation of a 29 year-old yuppie-geek into an underground hero in the psychedelic community.

D Dubs: Who does "The Genesis Generation" focus on?

Lorenzo: The plight of a young adults faced with the prospect of being saddled with a huge debt for a college education, and/or the plight of recent college and high school grads who have already figured out that the so-called 'American Dream' is an evolutionary dead end. ... Additionally, it shows how sacred psychedelic medicines can be used in ways that don't always include large crowds and loud music.

D Dubs: I am one of those college graduates with a lot of loan debt; what would your advice be to someone in that position?

Lorenzo: Funny you should ask. In a few weeks my novel will come out, and that is one of its central themes. However, my focus is on the younger people who still have a chance to escape that debt. In my humble opinion, a large college loan can become the first step into permanent servitude. I know from personal experience.

What I would do if I had to do it over again is to avoid all other debt until I had my college loan paid off. Even if that means living with your parents a little longer. What I did was pay it off as slowly as possible, and along the line, while I was paying it off, I wound up with a mortgage, car payments, credit cards and I was enslaved to my debts. Sure, I had a lot of stuff, but I felt like a prisoner. Get out of debt as fast as you can, and if you stay out of debt you are going to find it to your great advantage as we go through the big SHIFT that has now begun.

D Dubs: What led you to the decision to write the book?

Lorenzo: On the outside chance that reincarnation is a fact, I wanted to write a book that was exactly what I needed to read while I was still in high school. And so I hope there are copies all over the place by the time I come back for another turn at this wonderful Earth Game.

D Dubs: Why have you decided to go with the audio book format over a printed or e-book version?

Lorenzo: The audience I am writing for consists primarily of young adults. Unfortunately, that demographic doesn’t have great reading habits. On top of that, since I’m publishing and distributing it on my own, it only makes sense to make it easily accessible to the tens of thousands of young people who download and listen to my podcasts each week.

D Dubs: How do you develop your writing material? Do you have any sort of routine or interesting ways of creating new ideas?

Lorenzo: I've been keeping a journal for a long time. For the past six years I've been making some of my journal entries as dialog in a novel I began as an outline. After a few years I began to flesh out the story line in more detail. By the fifth draft it was way too long. I'm now in the seventh (and final :-) draft and have cut it back down to less than 350 pages in paperback format.

Every morning I take a walk for an hour or so. Then I begin by reading/editing the previous day's work and continue on until I burn out for the day. . . . Then I do email, Facebook, etc. . . . but if I don't start on the writing first I never seem to get to it later. ... And when I hit a block of any kind, I use Gabriele Rico's technique of 'clustering'.

D Dubs: What three books should every psychonaut have on their bookshelf and why?

Lorenzo: I wouldn't presume to suggest any three must-have books. Only last year did I finally read Paul Deveroux's "The Long Trip" and Palmer & Horwitz's "Sisters of the Extreme". Two years ago I wouldn't have included them, and now I find them to be extremely important. When I first became interested in psychedelics, it was really difficult to find anything at all about them. But today there is more information about them on the Net than anyone could read in a lifetime. So follow the trails that excite you most.

D Dubs: What are some web sites that you find valuable?

Lorenzo: I think that the number one most valuable site on the Web is EROWID.ORG. Unfortunately, our schools don't teach proper drug education, and as a result a lot of people, and not only young people, have had problems. But now we have EROWID, and by the way it is one of the most visited sites on the Net. Besides us psychonauts, they are considered a valuable resource by government officials and parents who are also in need of this important information.

D Dubs: When is the audio book going to be ready for release and how will people be able to find it?

Lorenzo: Although I haven't completely finished writing it yet, I plan on starting to record by mid-April. Depending on how that goes, I hope to have it online before the end of May. It will be available for download at GenesisGeneration.us for $12.00 (U.S.), and it will run somewhere between 15 to 20 hours of audio. You will be able to download it one chapter at a time or in a single ZIP file, or both ways if you want.

D Dubs: I'd like to give you the opportunity to have the last word in this interview. You can use this as your own space to talk about anything you would like to, and this will wrap up the interview.

Lorenzo: Over and over, we hear Timothy Leary say, "Think for yourself." And I don't know any way to say it better. The only thing that is different between you and me is that I've gone public with some of the things you have already been thinking. I'm not coming up with anything original here. I've said it many times, I'm only the carnival barker, all the action is in the tent, and YOU are in the center ring!

D Dubs: Thank you for agreeing to conduct this interview with me and I hope your audio book is successful.

Lorenzo: This has been great fun David ... much appreciated.