Much of Zoe Seven’s Into the Void ought to be taken with a grain of salt. Beyond the misguided, unbelievable, and hilarious disclaimer and the author’s consistent misuse of words, one still has to deal with his proclivity for sweeping generalizations and New Age beliefs. Seven claims to be a “multi-dimensional synergy-personality cluster” comprised of himself and the consciousnesses of five other people who exist in alternate dimensions. (I know, it doesn’t add up. But he has special math to explain it!) Yet if one can overlook such warts, and stomach Seven’s melodramatic delivery and penchant for conspiracy theories, this book contains a great deal of novel, thought-provoking material. Although Seven is forthright about his lack of formal education, his experiments mapping and targeting particular brain states evidence a curious and intelligent individual.

Seven is obsessed with altered states, their spiritual/philosophical implications, and the importance of first-hand experience. His fascination leads him to investigate paranormal realms (out-of-body experiences, remote viewing, telepathy), lucid dreaming, electronic “mind machines”, and—eventually—psychedelics. Although Seven was 31 when he began experimenting with drugs, many of his trips feature over-the-counter medications that are more popular among teens: dextromethorphan (cough medicine), dimenhydrinate (Dramamine), cyclizine (Marezine), and diphenhydramine (Benadryl). He goes on to make up for lost time, intrepidly logging countless voyages in only a few years, and carefully recording his experiences.

Since the 1960s, it has been fashionable to characterize the effects of psychedelics within the context of Eastern spirituality. More recently, the lil’ darlin’ of entheo-explanation has been theoretical quantum physics, which Seven uses to make sense of his visions. Although I am suspicious of autodidacts’ explanations of ultra-technical ideas, Seven weaves an intriguing tale filled with fun-to-consider possibilities. When I first read this book a decade ago, I’d never had the sort of “true hallucinations” that he describes. However, since then, my experiments with ketamine and nitrous oxide have yielded these sorts of visions, as well as serial trips, similar to Seven’s, that appear to be an “other-dimensional me” attempting to communicate with the “this-dimensional me”. As a result, Seven’s ideas about parallel Earths and “psychoporting” into the physical bodies of individuals in alternate realities are now even more intriguing to me.

Seven’s descriptions of the effects of using mind machines while on assorted psychoactives are unique to the psychedelic literature. These alone make the book worth reading. Over the course of his tale, Seven reveals himself to be a likeable character—flawed, as we all are, but inspiring in his honest exuberance. Into The Void presents flavors along the lines of many reports posted in Erowid’s Experience Vaults: raw, foolhardy, insightful, and motivated by a desire to better know one’s self and the universe.