Anthony Bourdain’s struggles with substance abuse have been well documented over the years, both in his own writing, and in the press. But in a new interview with Tech Insider, the chef goes into detail about the “very, very, very positive experience” he had with one psychedelic drug: LSD.
Before launching into the enlightenment he attained from dropping acid, Bourdain assures us that he took a lot of LSD as a young man—just so we know he’s qualified to speak on the subject.
“You know, I don’t know that my third eye opened, or I became part of some cosmic unifying theory. Nothing like that,” Bourdain says, as trippy sounds and images float in the background. “It gave me the ability to understand that there are other angles to look at things, opened me up to the possibility of alternate perspectives. It was helpful to me and in some ways inspiring to me.”
Basically, we have some good LSD to thank for the genius that is Kitchen Confidential and Parts Unknown. Still, Bourdain gave some sound advice for those thinking about experimenting with psychedelics on their own.
“If you are mentally healthy—it is generally agreed upon that you are of sound mind and body, with, I think, a good self-image and a sense of self-worth—[and] you don’t have a family history of schizophrenia or manic depression, I would be open to careful, probably supervised, use or experimentation with LSD,” Bourdain says. “I always found it useful to be around someone with previous experience, when doing it, in an environment you feel safe and controllable.”
Though Bourdain clearly read The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test many, many times, the chef says he no longer feels the desire to take LSD. He’s learned what he needed to from the drug, and it’s now time to move on.
[via Tech Insider]