Virtual Memories Show 627:
Seth Lorinczi
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“There’s this idea that every third generation, someone comes to upend the family myths, the things that say, ‘This is who we are and this is how we move through the world.’ My book is very much about uncovering those stories so that I, and my family, and the people who come after me, can have a different experience of life.”
With DEATH TRIP: A Post-Holocaust Psychedelic Memoir (Spiral Path Collective Press), Seth Lorinczi explores how trauma can be transmitted over generations, and how an ancient (& new) form of treatment can help overcome it. We talk about finding his family’s story of the Holocaust, trying to understand why so much of it stayed hidden, how badly it warped his life, and how he & his wife found answers in psychedelic medicine (MDMA, ayahuasca, toad (!)). We get into the long-term damage of unmetabolized trauma and untouched grief, how psychedelics allowed him to recognize patterns in his life, family history, and the universe, the challenges of researching his family’s Holocaust experience in Hungary, how his experiences led to a memoir (& a saved marriage), why Death Trip is a series of surrenders, how his close and distant relatives responded to the book, and why he thinks I should leapfrog therapy and try psychedelics first. We also discuss growing up in the punk scene of Washington, DC (and writing his next book about that), how coincidence becomes important after psychedelic experiences, how some married couples take up salsa dancing but he & his wife took up ayahuasca, how his daughter responded to all this, whether a person can change, how once you get the message you should put down the phone, and a lot more. Give it a listen! And go read DEATH TRIP!
“What are we handed by the actions or inactions of those who came before us?”
“One of the great gifts of psychedelics is that they’re utterly impersonal. They’re just a lens — albeit sometimes a very challenging lens — to look through and observe the patterns and the storytelling that we all do on a daily basis.”
“All I wanted my entire life was to feel like I was part of the conversation.”
Enjoy the conversation! Then check out the archives for more great episodes!
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About our Guest
Seth Lorinczi is a Portland-based writer who focuses on psychedelics, music, and culture. His writing appears in The Guardian, Maggot Brain, DoubleBlind, Narratively, Portland Monthly, the San Francisco Chronicle and Portland Oregonian, as well as entries in anthologies by Hozac Books and Akashic Books and other publications. Death Trip is his first book.
Follow Seth on Instagram and subscribe to his Dispatches From The Fringe newsletter.
Credits: This episode’s music is Fella by Hal Mayforth, used with permission from the artist. The conversation was recorded at an undisclosed location on the Lower East Side on a pair of Blue enCORE 200 microphones feeding into a Zoom PodTrak P4 digital recorder & interface. I recorded the intro and outro on a Heil PR-40 Dynamic Studio Recording Microphone feeding into a Zoom PodTrak P4. All processing and editing done in Adobe Audition CC. Photo of Seth by someone. It’s on my instagram.