“Perhaps one of the most difficult things to convey to a mind not in the hasheesh delirium . . . is the interchange of senses. . . . [T]he hasheesh-eater knows what it is . . . to smell colors, to see sounds, and, much more frequently, to see feelings. How often do I remember vibrating in the air over a floor bristling with red-hot needles, and, although I never supposed I came in contact with them, feeling the sensation of their frightful pungency through sight as distinctly as if they were entering my heart.”

—Fitz Hugh Ludlow, from The Hasheesh Eater, 1857.