STORY SUMMARY: The narrator goes to his friend’s house. She has invited him there because she wants to take a new street drug. But this drug is special, if you take it once, the effect lasts forever. It’s supposed effect is it allows you to see the true nature of the world. Her husband has already taken it, and he is very different, referring to the objects around him as only the “the form of the thing.” The friend takes the pill and, while she is waiting for it to take hold, the narrator realizes there are two pills left on the table.

DISCUSSION: The story is clearly a rift on the allegory of the cave. The drug, in some ways, mirrors the loss of self that people talk about when taking Psilocybin. There are a few issues. First, is the drug even what it says it is? Next, if it is, how will it effect you and your ability to work and take care of yourself. And finally, assuming all that’s true, do you even want to know the truth about the world and that you’ve been living a lie your whole life? Is the nature of life truth, or happiness? Some of the people can’t take the truth and ending up killing themselves.

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