Gabe Meline inteviews Stewart Brand at KQED:

The psychedelic thing mainly was a signifier that one was part of a certain cohort, of a certain body of people who were of a certain age, who got to know each other. It was social in that sense. As a drug, I think it’s probably not as social as Ecstasy, or MDMA – which I haven’t tried, but its reputation is highly social. The formula I was working on with public events and with the WELL is that you collect a bunch of interesting in the same place at the same time, and then turn up the flame – such that they mix more rapidly, and their budding emotion is more intense. It’s just the basic formula of how you make a good party. I’m not a party animal. But maybe because of that, if there is going to be a party that I am involved in, I want to make sure it’s overwhelming.