BARRETT - ASTRAL PIPER

Previously, I wrote an essay concerning Roger-Keith Barrett and his reading of The Daily Mail. I wrote how dumbfounded I was and proposed the New Agey walk-in theory.

However, I will retract this a bit due to the fact that him reading The Daily Mail may be just hearsay. In fact, I doubt he'd have any interest in worldly events or politics. Plus, The Daily Mail, like The News Of The World, seems to be those publications that have spread disinformation about Syd, The Floyd, Psychedelia or whatever over the years. Reading The Daily Mail for Syd would be the equivalent of him going to his front lawn and yelling, "HEY, SYD-STALKERS! I'M HERE! COME HERE AND OOGLE ME WHILE I RUN ERRANDS, GARDEN, PAINT OR WHATEVER! DOORSTEP ME! IT'S LIKE STARRING AT YOUR GRANDPA! G'HEAD STARE AT OLD AND BALD 'GRANDPA' ROGER 'BOO RADLEY' BARRETT AND BORE YOURSELF TO DEATH! I DON'T CARE!"

The man did everything he could to avoid being upset.

Nope! I'm rejecting the "Roger Barrett reads The Daily Mail" jazz.

I have a rather interesting take on Mr. Barrett. Many accounts of Barrett as the Madcap & Recluse speak of a man heavily absorbed in the inner world of his mind. His own sister, Rosemary, is quoted as stating that he was more into his own mind & thoughts than anything.

Syd The Happy Piper did not die....he just retreated to the Astral inner world of Barrett's psyche.

Syd Barrett was a guy who believed in absolute freedom & saw the world with childlike eyes. When he realized how the Physical, Hylic plane...the "real world"...works, the pressures, touring, bureaucrats, corruption, death, disease, "The Machine", "The Man", etc...he grew disillusioned and his free-spirited, unfettered, often spoiled soul felt imprisoned, a slave.

This was not his world. He was not of this world. His ways were not the world's ways. This destroyed his already fragile grip on the regular world.

He found refuge in the shamanic LSD voyages but he ODed a bit on it. Mandies didn't help either. However, in his voyages, he saw stuff that Vedic rishis, mystics and medicine people saw and what Quantum Theory & it's scientists describe. In a way, the Astral, the realm of the Psychic, is real in it's own way.

And so...he retreated to THAT world, creating his own "Second Life" within his imagination, a place where the rockin', psychedelic, dionysian Piper can play and love without restrictions, barriers, sadness, heartache, decay, age, etc. To that realm, Roger Barrett retreated. His outer self, his Hylic, Physical, flesh & blood self became a different person...but only in appearance...he wasn't physically dead but he was dead to our world. He became bald, frumpy and reclusive and stopped using the nickname, Syd.

He was only his original, bouncy, fun-loving, cool, sexy, beautiful, playful Syd self in his inner world. To him, his inner world was the waking reality while our waking reality was his dreams.

Upon death though, the lovely young Piper, Syd broke free from his prematurely-aged, diabetic, cancer-ridden, bald & grey chrysalis and was now finally free to like the Psychic (Astral) & Pneumatic (Spiritual) realities full-time. July 7, 2006 was the day of his rebirth.

SYD LIVES!