A Tribute To Albert Hofmann: My LSD Trip Down Memory Lane
Dr Albert Hofmann, who died last week, was the inventor of LSD. But he was not merely a chemist. He was a revolutionary.
Hofmann changed the way a whole generation looked at the world. This is the sort of statement that is customarily made about thinkers and scientists of the stature of, say, Marx or Einstein. But it is more directly and vividly true of Hofmann than any of these otherwise much more formidable intellectual titans. Freud theorised about the existence of the unconscious, but LSD made it an experiential reality, as tangible as touching stone or seeing light.
Hofmann’s discovery is still widely misunderstood. But those who have known its glory - and its agony - will also know that no one really comes back from the altered state of consciousness that LSD induces quite the same person that they were before. Like no other experience imaginable, it rips to pieces your understanding of what it is to be alive.
When you return from the unimaginable shore to which LSD takes you, putting those pieces back together can be a lifelong task. It can make you mad. But it can also make you understand that your life is not what you thought it was - that it is bigger, richer and, above all, stranger.
This epiphany-in-a-pill is an idea that makes us deeply uncomfortable for a raft of reasons - the lack of spiritual or moral effort involved in attaining the experience, the impossibility of explaining its effects to non-users, and the moral panic over its distribution and use in the 1960s and 1970s.
Nowadays, LSD has been quietly consigned to the medicine cabinet of history. It is no longer fashionable, nor widely available, nor especially potent. It has lost ground to gentler drugs such as MDMA or more violent narcotics such a crack, crystal meth and heroin. But it is in a different category from all these mind-altering substances, and ill deserves its lumping into the category of “recreational drugs: bad/harmful/dangerous”.
This isn’t to say it isn’t bad, harmful or dangerous. LSD can certainly be all those things. But LSD - like its natural counterparts mescaline or peyote - is not quite in the same category as any other mind-altering narcotic. It is potentially, I think, the only truly creative drug - that is, a drug which enables the mind to shake off the shackles of habit and conditioning and arrive at the heart of - for want of a better word - the human soul.
And it is the only “recreational” drug that has a real element of intellectual and cultural respectability, with thinkers and writers such as Aldous Huxley, Ken Kesey and Allen Ginsberg all affirming its uses, while the remarkable phenomenon we call “the Sixties” would not have happened at all without this psychoactive shamanic medicine.
Before I continue, I should make it clear that I am not a habitual or long-term user of the drug. I have taken it twice - both times when I was 15 years old. On one occasion, it gave me an experience of bliss, lasting some 12 hours, that lay far beyond words or images to express. On the other, I was cast into the darkest reaches of hopelessness and terror. I ended up running down my street naked, and being locked up in a police cell. It is not an exaggeration to say that these experiences, to this day, are always with me.
This will sound like hyperbole to anyone who hasn’t experienced the drug, so I will make an effort to explain what it was like, knowing that such an effort must fail. I wrote about it in my memoir, The Scent of Dried Roses. Here are two brief extracts:
“The tower blocks shine like mirrors and the blue of the sky seems to have concentrated and leaked out into the air, so that everything is soaked in aquamarine. There is a deep relentless and secret whirr within me, a dynamo that has been switched on to full power for the first time. I am so full of delight I want to leave my skin and melt.”
Then later:
“The panic begins to turn to unalloyed terror as I feel my very sense of self beginning to collapse into the swelling chaos of everything else… I am negated. I have gone completely mad, although everything is unmistakable, intensely real.”
The key fact of these accounts is that, whether in terror or bliss, “I am not seeing things that are not there. I am seeing things that are there…. The sensible world is merely a construction of my brain, and the brain is simply a filter that keeps unmanageable, too large information out.” LSD does not merely distort reality - it removes a filter on reality. And that is why it is such a profound experience.
I cannot in all conscience evangelise, or recommend to my children that they take it. I have suffered mental health problems much of my life - I doubt this fact is entirely unconnected with those very intense teenage mental epiphanies. But I cannot help but be grateful to have seen what I have seen, which is plainly and simply a religious vision, an a priori proof that there is more to the world than a dead material universe.
My personal experience aside, it fuelled decades of cultural experiment and output, much of it bad, but some of it good. (After Sir Paul McCartney claimed that “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” had nothing to do with LSD, I’m surprised the judge in his divorce case believed a word he uttered in court.) But the larger societal “effect” ‘ of LSD - be it in swirly-whirly graffiti, self-indulgent rock music, or tie-dye T-shirts - are a red herring, along with the appallingly dim-witted New Age movements it has left in its wake.
The art, culture and film that arose out of LSD did not have much worth - Zabriskie Point? Disraeli Gears? Journey to Ixtlan? and so on - but the fact that people took the intellectual experience of the drug seriously does speak volumes. There were even TV documentaries - one chaired by Malcolm Muggeridge - on which philosophers and academics were given the drug and filmed on camera. They spoke very highly of their experiences. LSD, they asserted, didn’t simply damage people; it changed them in ways that went beyond “good” or “bad”. This is its unique claim within the pharmacological lexicon.
Such a thing happening today is unimaginable. We live now in a world where all illegal drugs are lumped together as social evils. This represents a narrowing of our imaginations, a closing of our collective minds. Albert Hofmann’s discovery remains, I believe, of the greatest significance; and there are few mature adults - particular ones whose minds are limited by the environment in which they habitually exist - who would not benefit greatly from its prescription.
Gordon Brown would be a prime contender, I think. His dour materialism would disappear overnight. Boris Johnson has clearly had some already slipped to him in a cup of tea some time or other. But apart from him, the entire Tory and Labour front benches could do with at least one medically administered shot of acid.
That something which bio-chemically can open and even heal the mind (in some ways Prozac does something analogous though very different) is so violently proscribed speaks volumes of our times, when imagination and the spiritual itself are virtually taboo. Albert Hofmann’s great experiment was thus a failure. But one day, I still believe, both its therapeutic and philosophical uses will be rediscovered.
And one other thing. Old Albert lived to 102. What does that tell you about the therapeutic properties of lysergic acid diethylamide?
© 2008 The Independent
Thank you for an honest account, knowing that some readers will probably slam you.
Albert Hofmann has some very interesting writings available online about his experiences.
The MOST important sentence in the article : “The sensible world is merely a construction of my brain . . .”
The message of LSD - 25 and its counterparts is that ‘there is no there out there’ and it is an amazing realization. What is really ‘out there’ is a vast spectrum of frequencies. Nothing more, nothing less. The world we perceive is assembled inside our minds from the slivers of the frequency spectrum that our senses are ‘tuned into’. That is biological, physiological fact. It seems impossible, but is not.
The ‘material world’ seems solid to us because we are locked into frequency entrainment with it. This is very necessary, the problem is that we have mistaken our sensorily accesssed and assembled perceptions for ‘all that is’. Not so. This concept should be easier to understand since the advent of radio and tv. But it is still difficult because our languages don’t code for the concepts. I think (not sure) that ancient Sanskrit did.
Whoah! LSD is good for me.
In 1978 I moved to SF to find L and attend SFSU I found ‘green pyramid’ 112 micrograms a hit, take three and I did a thousand times.
Also sold it up and down the west coast helping others take a walk inside their minds and souls.
LSD imbues clarity, by diminishing the filtering chemicals for input to the mind it opens gates.
To walk through them is cathartic, enlightening, rapturous.
To the author; Acid ain’t a narcotic. And it’s purity is not diminished or lessened. The molecule is a constant.
You tripped twice, ran through the streets naked and got popped, you mentioned your lifetime of mental illness; but analogizing LS beautiful D to Prozac is a ‘Bummer’!
Sunlight
When I was nineteen I took LSD and went to the ballet. On the way home I sat in a snowy park and looked at the trees. Nothing will ever be the same again. I owe Hofmann my life.
The author seems to have had woefully too little experience with LSD to be able to make much of a tribute either to Hoffman nor the incredible powers of the drug. This is unfortunate for us but far better than any number of articles that have been written about the LSD experience without having any firsthand knowledge of it at all. It’s quite understandable that, in this twilight era during which we can only await the inevitible collapse of “civilization”, there should be little demand for a mind-expanding truth drug.
And once again we have a neophyte describing that which only the experienced should comment upon. Two trips? One good, other bad. It sounds as though the author is trying to mirror some yin & yang philosophy. Before tripping one has to be a student of life, one who studies the behaviors of her fellow humans, one who studies the chemicals ingested. I never had a bad trip, & I have tried Orange Sunshine, liquid blotter acid in several forms (Unicorn), Windowpane, Purple Microdot and others. Those trips were in the early seventies. I had observed then that most people over indulge when they dropped. They simply took too much of the stuff at one time. One time I experienced a wonderful extended trip by dropping a half tab of Orange Sunshine then after peaking taking a quarter tab at a time. I tripped for five days in this manner, & those experiences & sensations are with me even today.
Another time I dropped a half “pane” of Windowpane, peaked, then dropped another half “pane.” That wonderful, exciting, exhilarating & lucid dream state lasted for about 3 days. The intensity of life on acid cannot be described in mere words. All changes after a trip. Nothing remains the same. Life is merely life before a trip. Life after a trip is . . . Well, you may never know, will you?
I add Hoffman to the list of scientists who developed things that they thought would help and turned out to cause misery(Oppenheimer being near the top of the list).
Ask the guys who were given LSD by the government and jumped out of a window if they think Hoffman’s work was good.
The inventor of the machine gun called it the gun to end all wars, because he assumed that when humans saw what it could do to a body, they would never want to fight again.
Only an idiotic, narrow minded inventor who doesnt read history or has a limited interaction with human beings could come to such a conclusion. Being hanged, drawn and quartered is worse than what a machine gun can do and yet people used to gather to watch it happen. Bullfights are sadistic, but some people go to them. The Roman colliseum was a testament to human depravity–give a human a new means of killing and they will use it.
The creators of cocaine and heroin thought it would be a good over the counter cough medicine. Didnt work out that way.
And yet, when science goes wrong, do they get held accountable?
Nope.
Usually some other dick in a lab coat comes forward and says: we can solve science’s problems with more science.
Someone needs to dig up that Chris Hedges article on secular fundamentalism.
BTW
The man who coined the word Vegan almost lived to be 100 and he was climbing mountains in his 90s–I bet Hoffman was only able to do it in his dreams.
Anyone know where we can get some? (Smile) Long live Albert Hoffman.
Aside from the lessons and experiences themselves, what amazed me each of the eight times was the minute dosage. Two or three of those little paper squares that could have just as easily blown away in the wind instead blew me away {:o)
Therefore, I’ve always thought that “drug” is not the appropriate pharmacological term, though it is a man-made chemical. More like a catalyst, right?
I have had experience a few years ago with something which people report is a lot like DMT. I can relate to what the author said about acid. I have had both good and very frightening experiences with it. The long term after effect is a realization that life is far more interesting and beautiful than I ever imagined. If we really have only one life, which I am no longer sure of, I am glad I did not miss out on this. I am far less afraid of and depressed by this world than I used to be.
One word of warning, this type of thing is not for everyone. In my opinion, you must already be on a spiritual path to benefit from this, otherwise, the things you see about yourself, our society, and the universe might be too much to bear. Many people have had many different kinds of experiences, but they usually point to a really big multiverse, which goes way beyond the small world we usually experience. It’s humbling, for sure. There is a reason why this culture is so afraid of LSD and similar things that they are outlawed, or soon will be. Enough said.
Oh, and MAPLEFUDGE, thank you for brightening up my cloudy New England Day almost 30 years later. I remember nineteen - that was good.
By the way, I noticed a grammatical goof after I posted my last comment, and tried to edit it. It didn’t work, and I got an error message saying that it was not my comment, or it was longer than half an hour since I entered it, even though the timer said there were over 800 seconds left. Read what you post VERY CAREFULLY before you hit the button, because editing does not always work.
And it is the only “recreational” drug that has a real element of intellectual and cultural respectability, with thinkers and writers such as Aldous Huxley, Ken Kesey and Allen Ginsberg all affirming its uses, while the remarkable phenomenon we call “the Sixties” would not have happened at all without this psychoactive shamanic medicine.
I call bullspit!
One would have to be quite shallow and unaware of the influence marijuana had on both the generation and LSD to make such a ludicrous statement.
Marijuana too has elements of intellectual and cultural rerspectability, and in far greater numbers than LSD. There are literally dozens of more cerebral songwriters who have touted the many wonders of pot. These include Bob Dylan, the Beatles, Neil Young, Bob Marley, Willie Nelson, Pete Townshend, Lowell George, Phil Ochs, John Prine, Keller Williams right on through Cypress Hill (though the latter I wouldn’t consider overly cerebral). Additionally, films have portrayed High Times’ favorite cover photo in a light that, in a small way, mirrors the impact of LSD (as Marijuana is often classified as a mild hallucinogen) I wonder if our author thought any about Kesey or Ginsberg or for that matter the strangely absent Timothy Leary taking a big puff off a giant doobie.
Now I will admit that the absolute “power” of LSD on the mind dwarfs that of marijuana, but to leave pot out of a discussion of “therapeutic” “mind expanding” drugs is just silly.
I have taken it twice - both times when I was 15 years old.
Not too bad a piece, considering that.
LSD doesn’t bring anyone else to the party but yourself, and what you get out of it is just what’s inside you already. Explaining what you are does get more difficult after LSD ……… but if the trips worked well enough, then you won’t bother too much trying.
For those interested in exploring the meaning of such LSD/DMT-derived experiences, it is helpful to read some of the thoughtful books on the subject. My favorites are by Alan Watts (The Joyous Cosmology), Aldous Huxley (Doors of Perception), Richard Albert/Ram Dass (Be Here Now), Andrew Weil (The Natural Mind), and Jean Houston (Mind Games-for a hypnotic/non-drug version). The Tibetian Book of the Dead is helpful too.
One of the key insights from this article worth repeating is this:
“The sensible world is merely a construction of my brain, and the brain is simply a filter that keeps unmanageable, too large information out.” LSD does not merely distort reality - it removes a filter on reality.”
*Experiencing* that is a mind-opener.
LSD was developed as a chemical warfare drug and albert hoffman had a lot of help from the c.i.a targeting america’s youth…turn on..tune in..drop out…but for god’s sake don’t rock the boat.
i CAN’T take LSD. I just can’t. I have suffered from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder all my life, and I just think that LSD would make me worse. I know that there has been some talk of psychedelic therapy with OCD, but most doctors wouldn’t allow it, and i think the idea of just going on a trip myself would be too much anxiety.
I’m tired of people dissing prozac, which is basically LSD and Ecstasy’s cousin. I take prozac, and it doesn’t “zombify” me; it keeps me from falling into the abyss.
i’m also wary about the idea that LSD “changes” everything. I think of the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers cartoon in which their dad accidentally brought acid to his John Birch Society meeting. Instead of changing into peacenicks, they hallucinated they were mongol warriors, etc. So I’m a little suspicuous about the idea that it changes your very nature.
Treefrog’s got it right!!!!
No, Treefrog does NOT have it right.
The “dropping out” was not an avoidance of “rocking the boat” but simply dropping out of the conformity that was rampant at the time. Psychoactive drugs prompt the mind to see the hollowness of mainstream, corporate, consumer-driven, conservative society. The fact that so many were using psychoactive drugs was a very large part of the “activism” of the time — anti-war, civil rights, environmentalism.
Gene Therapy: a decent portion of the people who elected Ronald Reagan - TWICE - were from the generation that took the most LSD. There are plenty of millionaires today who dropped acid and turned on, but remained part of the capitalist system. There are also many who had nothing to do with LSD who were part of the activist movement.
no offsence G.T. but you need to do a little investigative research. You do not need a drug to see corporatism or its effects. LSD is part of the reason “they” won, they own your water, roads, determine who will be your president and which religion will endorse it all. I don’t want to bum you out but LSD is not what you think it is…
Synthetic drugs are not good for you why take something if you are not sick, and then only if you don’t have another option. They all have side-effects, that is unintented consequences.
The drug is a MIRROR.
And look how quickly the thread degenerated in it’s own reflection.
alaskamaid; nice.
Don’t take my word for it…look it up under CIA drug experiments. It is declassified now…
LSD is more a sacrament than a drug to many. I would strongly encourage anyone who is interested to read the book entitled ‘Storming Heaven: LSD and the American Dream by Jay Stevens; it is excellent and fascinating. It looks as if it has its own site: http://www.stormingheaven.com/ - (which I’ve not yet visited)
Some little village in 16th century eastern Europe, suffered mass hysteria and madness, since referred to as “St. Elmo’s Fire”.
It has been discovered by forensic scientists, that the true cause of this historical malady, can be traced to a form of mold that grows in stored rye wheat, this MOLD is the source of Organic LSD, Dr Hoffman took this form of LSD and distilled it down to LSD-25, and in later years several other variations on this molecule.
In 1970 Dutch drug company produce 2000 micro gram tablets of LSD-25.Several other entities both sanctioned and non-sanctioned, later produced many series of tablet and blotter forms of LSD.
My particular favorites tabs were, orange doublebarrel , purple microdot and
sunshine. blotters were any of the Grateful Dead poster series or Bullfrog and of course windowpane.
and so to the CIA and LSD, thought they DID NOT invent nor aid in its discovery, I do know they. they.(the CIA and MANY other secret Departments, with alphabetically jumbled bunch of letters for names) jumped onto the experimental “research”, train, when the psychedelic and mind altering experiences of this drug turned out to be more profound, and deeply moving to those involved , than any drug they have/had/hoped for… but alas my friends
the CIA was not responsible for putting this MOLD into St Elmo’s small perish town’s supply of rye, even a tin hat wearer would have to agree with that.
We all took acid for a quasi-religious experience, and that’s just what we got. It does open the gates of perception but wily-nily and the response to that opening over the course of a lifetime is “where it’s at”. There are other, more thorough and more effective methods of achieving the same. But we were young Americans at the zenith and joked about better living through chemistry. Put it in your pepsi and be part of the pepsi generation. In the end LSD is just a drug.
I took only took LSD twice, in the same week when I was 20. My life has also never been the same. To be terribly immodest, I am often called brilliant by friends, colleagues and co-workers when I come up with an idea or approach no one else had thought of, including people who had been grappling with a particular issue for years. I frequently say, with all seriousness, that I am not brilliant at all; I am merely a master of the obvious. What I don’t say is that I am able to really see what is actually there, as opposed to so many people who see only what their presumptions and filters allow them to see, as the author notes. LSD, even just those two wonderful and amazing trips, made me a master of the obvious, and gets me called brilliant just by observing actuality out loud.
On the other hand, my little sister fried her brain abusing acid and the vicious “white” drugs on top of psychotic bi-polar disorder diagnosed too late. She ended up hanging herself. Sorry for the bummer trip, but like any other consciousness-altering substance or practice, LSD can be abused and become highly destructive.
JIM MURRAY: I didn’t know that! Thanks for sharing! You do learn something (at least!) every day.
Interesting thread. Three LSD trips that stand out for me include: 1. Being in Miami with my family as a HS Junior and dropping acid before dinner. The roast beef arrived and I had to keep checking my own arm, as the MEAT became an extension of my own body. 2. Having SEX under the influence! Wow. One could FEEL, sense and SEE the molecules of BOTH bodies TRULY becoming integrated, as in ONE. 3. Dropping acid before a “pep rally” as the jocks came down the hill in their white undies equivalents, the students being stupified with this idiot spectacle while many of us were completely aware of and passionately opposed to the ongoing Vietnam War.
Sometimes unimaginative people read my fiction and say, “You must have dropped a lot of acid.” I have to correct them… maybe 10 trips in all, but every one fascinating! (I always took small doses, and tried to take notes… as a discipline, the day after a trip I’d painstakingly go over EVERY scribbled item for bits and pieces of insight to remember until one boyfriend took off with my trip notes, since I kept some of his poetry. This is a weird planet, as Don Juan informed. I feel very privileged to have come of age in the 60’s & 70’s. I believe LIGHT conquered darkness and the seeds of a new Renaissance were planted. They may well not mature until AFTER this time of Transition… my estimate, 2020 AD when both hemispheres of our collective vision come into greater alignment. (I had planned to use THAT title for a futuristic novel, till I realized the military has a claim on it relative to their space shield/missile/star wars weapon goal. Yuck!)
It is fine to hear of these LSD experiences, but if it was really so beneficial, the world should be chock-full of Einsteins, Mozarts, Gandhis, and peacemakers nowadays. Instead, we seem to have a terrible shortage of such poeple.
Most LSD users work on Wall Street and for big corporations.
As far as Alan Watts, it was his Zen Buddhist practice and his first hand experience in other eastern spiritual traditions that made his writings so enlightening, not his acid.
It also creates self-absorbed narcissists like bruce allen.
If you took lsd as early as the 50’s you were part of a behavior control military experiment. Obviously, it seems to work.
http://www.aches-mc.org/documentation.html
Truly, the stuff may be overrated because the best hallucinogen I ever experienced was an invented concoction. My friends & I smoked pot through a water pipe apparatus stuck into a one gallon jug of cheap red wine. The pot smoke bubbled through the wine before we inhaled it. We smoked through that gallon for a whole month, then one night we smoked a bit more & drank some of the wine. We all (three of us) had some very lucid, peculiar & variegated trips. We talked about the hallucinations for years afterward. LSD was neither a spiritual awakening drug, nor a religious experience; it was simply for recreation. We had fun. We had a blast on the stuff. We sought nothing but a good time; what else would teenagers do with it during the early seventies?
Make pot brownies and you can eat enough to hallucinate.
—
Remember the peak? You experienced ying & yang simultaneously on every subject in your unconscious; an induced schizophrenia if you will.
Then you cross over to the peaceful side and everything makes sense again.
My friends and I would go somewhere outdoors where you would not have to talk to anybody!
After I understood what it was about I didn’t want to do it anymore. I feel it did break the conformity of thinking in a box. I can see things from both sides now and realize how hard it is to maintain an open mind.
You never really have it but you realize WE have it. As a whole mankind can put it together if we just get it together.
Oh I loved walking around at night thinking of the endless sky above.
I have not used it much, and do not, and never did openly seek it, but at quiet gatherings cubes of sugar or liitle tablets would appear, Dave, someone would say, try ONE! I did, and all the writings of Huxley suddenly became real and understandable, new realities opened up and have never closed. As an example an acquaintance put on a really good recording of Stravinkies right of spring, a piece of music I never liked, but as a musician could at least appreciate. Through a supremely good stereo system and a little tablet and some nibbles and a nice cup of coffee, the world changed, and what is more it never changed back. I thought when I bought this same recording and played it on my stereo weeks later that without the mind bending tablet it would not work, but it did, and worlds of music and thought/realities through literature and film have suddenly made sense, and if its not sense, well its appreciative wonder.
RIP Hofmann.
LSD, not unlike other inhibition lowering drugs such as alcohol, do not turn someone into anything,nor do they make people do anything.
The most classic case of this situation is;
” my boyfriend/girlfriend,gets abusive and hits me when he/she gets drunk”. “He / She only does this when they drink.
So alcohol makes people beat someone they supposedly care about.
I know many more people who get drunk and do NOT beat their spouses nor anyone else… I know s few people who drink NO alcohol , yet are abusive and hit their loved ones…
The drug doesn’t make one do anything that isn’t in their personality to begin with.
If a person has a “Bad Trip”, and if you do LSD, even casually, you WILL have a bad trip.
It is ALWAYS an unsolved personal issue that has, over several “trips”, bubbled to the surface of your awareness, manifesting as wildly colored dreamlike extremes of joy and wonder(good karma good trip), or terror and sorrow(bad karma bad trip)…
like our wife beating drunk in the starting blather, he was/is a wife beater. period.
the drinking of booze, depresses the inhibition center of our spouse abuser and the usual socio/religeous/ civilized, general attitude toward spousal abuse , is no longer strongenough to suppress the beaters behavior.
In short as eloquently stated earlier “YOU are what ya bring to the party”
jim
canada
jim_murray@jdz.ca
Many cultures have psychedelic rituals. “Mushrooms grow in cow flop? I don’t trust anything that doesn’t come in a nice clean gelatin capsule”. LSD is a viscious trip, like dangling your soul in the wind of your horomones and the sun of your logic. It’s like taking a chisel to your psyche, and care should be taken to use it with some deliberation. The iceberg of what you think you think melts into the ocean of all the crap that actually goes on in your neural cortex, day in, and day out, and never really freezes up solid again. At least, so I’d imagine. Thanks for bringing these human pursuits into the modern age, Albert.
oh, my favorite topic!
For any who don’t know, plant based entheogens (visionary, psychedelic, shamanic medicines), such as mushrooms (of many varieties), peyote (and other cacti), ibogaine, yage or ayahuasca (sort of a DMT mocha cappuccino with decidedly different results), and many more, including cannabis, have been used with regularity for THOUSANDS of years by virtually every native culture on the planet in some form or another - with no ill effects. In fact, in the cultures where entheogenic plants are used, and traditional social structure are maintained, there are virtually no instances of mental health problems, social unrest, crime, etc.
It is no surprise that many, if not most, ‘civilized westerners’ find this hard to imagine. It is further no surprise that so many nay sayers say nay. Traditionally, these substances are used in the ‘appropriate’ context, ceremonially, shamanically, with proper preparation, etc. and are not used for ‘entertainment’. Few westerners have had the good fortune to use these wonderful medicines in appropriate context. Further, they are not for everyone. Some people just can’t handle facing their own ego, or having their ego forcibly removed and being left to wonder who then, in fact, they actually are.
LSD is different than the purely plant based entheogens, but has similarities. Two primary differences are that it is not as strong, not NEARLY as strong - no matter how many tabs you drop (though it can provide moments and insights of such profundity that it can drop you to your knees and humble even the largest ego - it’s a great thing!) and it is different in that it does not bring with it an actual living spirit or spirits, which plant entheogens do.
Again, these things are not for everyone. But to all the naysayers, if you haven’t seriously explored them, don’t sit around telling everyone how bad they are. Instead, just say, ‘It was too much for me, I couldn’t handle it, wow, don’t know how you all do it.”
As a follow up; Maplefudge says so much in so few words and reminds me of something virtually every ‘psychedelic’ person I have ever met has said, which is; “I can’t imagine what life would be like if I had never done psychedelics”.
I did LSD often enough to realize that set and setting for the trip made a huge difference. Done in a safe and supportive environment without too many stressers thrown at a person was a lot different trip than just casually dropping and running about in the street. Sure it changed the filters, much the way an optician would run through a number of lenses and ask if you could read a wall chart, but environments that triggered anxiety and fear could invite all the demons in your subconscious out to torment you also.
When I first did it was fairly early on, the acid was very strong and not polluted with so many by products of the manufacturing process and the tradition in my peer group was to be very careful about set and setting. It was even traditional to request a friend who would not do the drug to be your guide. Those trips were very good and did expand awareness.
But styles changed and everybody became very heedless and didn’t treat the experience with much respect, the way people do Ecstasy now. I suspect that most of the people who were damaged came out of the group who had forgotten or didn’t know how to respect the process. Among those I would include those individuals upon whom the army performed experiments.
I wouldn’t do it now because I don’t think there is any good chemical being made anymore, and I don’t know if I would be resilient enough anymore to endure the shifts in perception. I find a little mild THC every now and then is about all the perception altering I want or can handle.
I’m glad I had the experiences though, both good and bad.
Ahhh, the good old days. Acid scared me. (It scarred some, but it scared me.)
I remember the night, rain and lightning and thunder in the downstairs of the big Berkeley ex-frat house that 30 of us had transformed into a commune, a circle of us sitting around, passing joints and passing the time telling stories. A loud crash came from upstairs, then a scream. We froze at first, then raced up the stairs.
One of our housemates, tripping and entranced by nature’s energetic show outside the window had decided to become one with the elements. She jumped through the unopened window, and crashed back into the room, bleeding profusely from cuts in her shins. She danced around with ribbons of red, marveling: it’s all SO beautiful.
She was the runaway daughter of the sheriff of Marin County across the Bay. Yes, those were the days.
It would be years later, in my 30’s that I finally felt secure enough to brave my insecurities and trip. After a cascading avalanche of insight that went on for hours, I was ready for it to stop, so ready for the relentless internal vibration to tone down.
Desperate for some sort of consensus continuity, I remember telling myself, over and over again, for hours: tomorrow I will have the same social security number.
LSD taught me that I don’t need LSD - for reaching the experiental levels opened up to by LSD.
But I’d never known that without LSD. Plus this new meta-level of consciousness would not have been lit up (and I advicedly say ‘lit up’, not ‘created’, about a level of mind that’s always been here, of course, as is eternally clear in hindsight…) . One full round of the spiral up.
Use LSD/Entheogens to glimpse the insights. Then use a spiritual (including physical, and societal) practice to attain and sustain those states of emotion in the Mental Mind Muscles from the sober state. (’The sober state’ actually in “it”-self(?) being on a gliding scale of pretty wild life-states strung out in time and age - but why bother with details?).
LSD provides the map (when well explored), but the whole of that unit in us we most intimately call “our self” (and note the discrepancy in two different perspective point of “our” and “self” at once - the plural collective and the individually separate - exploring the fugue from society to me, from the written collective to the unwritten, thought-ful ‘me’) must then be included in the altering of everyday life - to a harmonized whole on a higher level of joy. Right on.
Life it-self is more trippy than any drug can provide. And LSD/Entheogens can be used to realize exactly that on a wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiider scale.
Every time’s a one-off, just like life.
The trippy field still contains us. Not the other way around. That’s the little difference to re-member when the waves stabilize.
LSD is not for everyone. And everone should have a well-induced trip to their outer limits to see that for themselves
Have a nice trip, Albert ‘Hope-man’. Lovely Singing and Dreaming.
Laughter,
Song &
Dancing
Life, death, - death, life; the words have led for ages
Our thought and consciousness and firmly seemed
Two opposites; but now long-hidden pages
Are opened, liberating truths undreamed.
Life only is, or death is life disguised, -
Life a short death until by Life we are surprised.
-Sri Aurobindo
WHATEVER YOU SAY: I was sitting in Taos, NM about 10 years ago at a cool coffee shop when a couple began talking to me and the male handed me his “business card.” It had to do with Peyote tours! I didn’t have time to pursue the option on that trip but thought it was a neat encounter.
Dr. Alberto Villoldo takes groups to PERU to participate in rituals with shaman and medicine people. Some are so spiritually astute and tuned in that they can SEE the human aura and “read” its scripting. This means they can see the onset of disease processes, even emotional trauma, and such. (Louise Hay’s book, “You Can Heal Your Life” explains the relationship between long held emotional difficulties/repressed energies and the dis-eases these give rise to over time.)
I remember when ECSTASY was being circulated in Puerto Rico among the elite as it was being given by psychiatrists to people with cancer, enabling them to open up and more completely experience their emotions in an attempt to heal their spirits. (I regret never trying it then.)
Someone did share a mushroom with me in Sedona, Arizona before we set off with a guide into the mountains for a cleansing ritual. It was a WONDERFUL, magical experience!
Since we humans use less than 10% of our brains, like computers with closed off filing systems, these natural enhancers take us to places in self that may well link us to our ancestral memories, or perhaps elements of what Jung termed “the collective unconscious.” In a society that champions murder as a banal act of necessary commerce, I am ALL for enlarging consciousness and if the plant world can facilitate it… bring it on! Who among us would not argue that we’d see a VAST improvement in domestic and foreign policy if the so-called leaders of our day were forced into solitude and given psychotropic drugs to perhaps open the interior gates to their intrinsic humanity?
SNOW CRAB: I think the same holds true for pot. I know people who smoke throughout the day, would just as soon be “high” to go to Wallmart as to go into nature’s sanctuaries to meditate and be ONE with the forces. I think this marks the difference between an addict and one who indulges periodically to connect at a deeper level recognizing the interlude AS sacred encounter.
ULLERN: I agree with your post. Doors of consciousness were opened to me in those years (age 17-21) and their perceptions were likely integrated into a larger consciousness that seeks spiritual meaning through encounters with persons of different backgrounds, ad hoc pilgrimages into nature’s most untouched reserves, and cultivating POETRY for living. It’s Blake-like really, “To behold the world in a grain of sand and eternity in an hour.” That’s the HIGH consciousness and it does not require a drug or plant enhancer; although these have been given us perhaps for that express purpose.
Shakespeare understood a great many things. Friar Lawrence said there was no plant put on this earth that didn’t have a purpose…
LSD is a tool — and like any tool the intention and context (”set and setting”) shape its impacts.
When used by the CIA in mind control experiments it did cause tremendous harm.
When used by others in experiments intended to help people access the creativity and divinity at the core of their being, it often helped to dissolve the barriers people had to reaching those spaces.
Krishna Das says “LSD can get you in the room with Jesus. But you can’t stay there.”
And yet that flash of insight that LSD sometimes brings has been a catalyst for many spiritual journeys — including that of Krishna Das’s teacher, Ram Das.
LSD definitely played an important role for me in revealing that there were other levels of consciousness beyond our culture’s consensual reality — levels I now work to reach more sustainably through spiritual practices. Plant based entheogens can be beautiful teachers and allies too, and as part of a living entity bring their own flavor to explorations.
Hoffman himself wanted his invention to be used to help people connect with the living earth — a purpose he used it for until he reached a point where it had taken him as far as it would and he began using other means to connect with the wild.
siouxrose;
Your comments really surprised me, in a very moving way. There are stories we could talk about in each of your paragraphs, from Taos all the way through. One thing that struck me rather profoundly was how nice it is to talk about these things as opposed to all of the madness in this illusion we call the real world. Refreshing. And so much more meaningful.
You would enjoy reading Terence McKenna. As well, you can see many of his lectures on youtube.
These are truly the topics of change. What we accept as reality is like a speck of dust in relation to what’s really going on and in relation to what’s really possible. The awareness is infinite and infinite means infinite, haha, in all ways.
There is a saying; The ocean of knowledge knows no shores.
Native people call this crystal licking…it is a chemical warfare drug. It was born in a weapons laboratory and passed out indiscriminately. There is nothing holy or natural about it…
Great article, although I agree with those who say that the author hasn’t done nearly enough study. To clarify the Beatles reference, “Lucy in the Sky” was a John tune, not a Paul tune. Paul’s acid contribution was “Got to Get You into My Life,” with the words “I was alone, I took a ride, I didn’t know what I would find there. Another road where maybe I could see a different kind of mind there.”
In a book called the problem solving psychodelics, psycholgists reported their fiondings with low dose LSD treatments: The most interesting findings were:
1. Cessation of alcohol consumption by alcoholics for the 1 year duration of the study. The control group showed no change. All sunbjects has already failed AA and psychotherapy. A shocking 80% of the treated group abstained for 1 year. dUE TO POLITICS, THE TRIAL WAS NEVER REPEATED. 80%!!!! AA gets 15%.
2. Priests reported the best religioius experiences they had ever had.
3. Subjects solved problems in hours that had stumped them for years.
LSD could be of immense help to many many people but is not because of closemindedness in the population.
SEAN DONAHUE/LIZARD: Good posts.
WHATEVER YOU SAY: Not sure why my open comments surprised you. I see myself as a 21st century mystic, and naturally have gravitated towards experiences that would enhance the reach of my vision(s) and quite developed intuition.
I have read Terrence McKenna… ethnobotany, interesting way to get science and academe to give you the head’s up on trying all these tripping herbs in one’s own home laboratory!
As a one-time English teacher, I also believe that READING can inspire a similar trip… the capacity to enter someone else’s life, walk in their shoes, feel and see what they experience. It’s sad to me that lots of kids today prefer Internet, electronic games and TV to the ultimate inner voyage: that gotten from another’s written testimonial.
LIZARD: I never knew about that study on alcoholism but living in Florida where the bar scene has become an ersatz weekend place of worship, I truly believe that alcoholism is under-reported. Like sports and religion as opiate of the peoples, it plays a tremendous role in defusing the angst that might otherwise offset the gross political apathy in our land.
Lizard,
Thanks for the reminder about the study on LSD and alcoholism.
Similar results have been achieved with the use of Iboga and Ayahuasca in treating cocaine and heroin addiction — entheogens can be powerful in helping people break through many kinds of condtioning. In both cases the results were signficantly better when the plants were used in a ritual context by shamans with an established relationship with the plant.
Plant medicine is relational medicine, a conversation between beings. Synthetic chemicals tend to be more about stimulating a particular response. LSD, DMT, and synthetic mescaline seem to me to fall into a category of its own. The low doses at which their effects are felt almost suggest a kind of homeopathic action at a molecular level.
Siouxrose,
As a poet I definitely agree with you about reading!
Especially when the language is rhythmic.
Gary Snyder said “Failures of charity and compassion are failures of imagination.”
To me good art of any kind is about stretching the imagination in ways that deepen empathy and connection.
A couple points here:
1) Anyone who has never done acid is in no position to comment on it’s benefits or dangers, let alone Treefrog calling it a ‘bio-weapon’… silly. Yes, the CIA did do experiments with it for interrogation purposes, but using it as a weapon to control the population would have the exact opposite effect.
2) Acid is definitely a spiritual experience. Whenever we were on it, it was like we were in the spirit world. Every acid trip I’ve ever done is burned permanently on my brain. I remember EVERY little detail in crystal clarity.
3) Bad Trips: I firmly believe that bad trip originate within the person themselves. Whenever a trip I was on started to turn, you just re-focus and the environment will re-align. The one time that it did get a little out of hand was when the ability to speak eluded me. Therefore, I just went home and spent the rest of the night building a universe out of glow-in-the-dark stars on my ceiling.
4) Every trip I took, I always came away from it gaining some personal insight into myself.
http://www.michael-robinett.com/declass/c000.htm
I am just calling it by its history and official designation and use. Anything you can buy for $10 from a drug dealer is not a holy sacrament or for that matter serve a mandatory 10 federal prison sentence…that isn’t spiritual.
Treefrog said: serve a mandatory 10 federal prison sentence
Well, you can’t judge anything by the US Drug Law relating to it… And again, Treefrog, you can’t judge anything unless you’ve tried it. And again, yes, the CIA did study LSD as a mind-control drug… but that’s not a reflection on the drug itself, more a reflection on the evilness of the CIA.
…just felt the need to clarify that Lysergic Acid Diethylamide (LSD-25 - also known by other names) is a synthetic molecule. Dr. Hoffman did not ‘distill it down’ from the ergot fungus - although he did start with related compounds present in the fungus. The mixture of alkaloids present in the fungus is responsible for the toxic effects alluded to in an earlier post as St. Elmo’s Fire. There are also similar (but not as toxic) alkaloids present in some varieties of morning glory seeds - but these are also not the same as LSD. Hoffman was ‘playing’ with ergot alkaloids - that is, synthetically altering the molecules to see if any new and interesting (and profitable) pharmacological agents might be discovered. Ergotamine is one that has been used to induce contractions during labor, it has also been tried as a therapy for migraines. LSD was just one of many ergot derivatives. The pharmacologists have been tinkering with these molecules ever since. Many of the popular mood-modifying pharmaceutical drugs widely prescribed today are based on variations of ergot derived molecules. None of them packs the punch of LSD however!
elmysterio
That should have read (10year) sentence. I really don’t see where personal testimonalials are any more valid than historical outcomes. There is a range of experience with any chemical substance and that some people find it pleasurable as based on the testimonials is fine. I question the source not a persons perception of good or bad. The value of the experience is personal just like seeing snow for the first time….
pr
That is my understanding also
Though it turned my mind into an awe-inspiring mystery,
I’m eternally grateful to LSD
And life’s the solution to the mystery
Therefore, whatever life’s mystery,
the soulution’s felt inside of us eternally
It feels like life, simply
That’s the secret of eLleSsDee,
the secret to unravelling all of ‘me’
- and still exist, feeling even more free
It feels like life keeps on making me
What a long, strange trip life must be
to Albert and his ongoing discovery
From the mid 1960’s to the mid 1970’s, possibly a majority of Anericans under 30 took LSD. If LSD produced such profound spiritual and intellectual insights in so many people, where are the concrete results? None! Among these LSD users are those who went on to run the pentagon, big corporations, become investment bankers and stock-traders. All that idealism of the 60’s for nothing! What a waste!
The current crop of up and coming radicals and anarchists generally reject all drug use, many of them even beer. I expect to see more results from them.
…
siouxrose;
Gosh, sorry for apparently giving you the wrong impression, i wrote my post very late at night. I didn’t mean I was “surprised” that ‘you’ would write such a post, what I meant was that I was pleasantly surprised to find a post here that mentioned things I have personal experience with in every paragraph. I just felt happy to see that connection here on CD, where there is usually so much debate. That’s all. Oh well.
Moving on to the ‘debate’ part;
Treefrog, by all means, don’t take “personal testimonials” or a “person’s experience” seriously!!! How sad. Anyway, if that’s how you view things, remember that whatever you yourself think or know and your own life’s experiences are simply nonsense - not meaningful.
It’s good to hear from all the old “heads” out there. I, for one, am certainly grateful to whoever discovered, produced, extracted, distributed, sold, or gave LSD to mankind. I’m also exceeding grateful to The Grateful Dead, whose musical celebrations became the perfect soundtrack to the Acid experience. Happily, most of their Live music is alive and well at:
http://www.archive.org/browse.php?collection=GratefulDead&field=year
pick a year from 1965 to 1995 and download to your heart’s content.
Whateveryousay
Maybe I wasn’t clear, I wrote that in response to essentially, if you haven’t tried lsd how can you have an opinion, hence testimonials are just that, one person experience. As if most of us don’t already live in an over stimulated artifical environment we need more artifical stimulation to see god or hear nature. Yeah, right.
Only once did I do acid. It was indeed a mind-blowing experience. It’s true that the drug does “remove the filters”. I never had an hallucination, but instead “saw into” things in intense detail. For example, dewdrops on a log shone individually and with a vivid light - making the ordinary natural object appear bejewelled. I could see motion broken down into “frames”, read signs backwards as easily as normally read, and “hear” the electromagnetic force being disturbed when a flower was picked. This experience left a deep impression on me and convinced me that alternate ways of viewing the world were entirely possible. Later I wandered about to different Zen monasteries, studying meditation for long periods of time. I eventually achieved great insights. I believe that the acid ‘trip’ I had once a long time ago was an initiator of this fortunate chain of events.
Form is fluid; Time is nothing; all things are luminous, and alive. LSD made it possible for people to glimpse how much “the progress of civilization” has brainwashed us toward being one-dimensional, tunnel-visioned, virtually-dead creatures who see only one level of things, the boss-man’s level….
treefrog;
Maybe not, but I think I did/do understand what you were/are saying. My point is that “one person experiences” are reliable data for mapping ‘reality’. The need for survival, shared culture/society, communication, and other things, as well as the existence of things like manipulative practices based on greed and power (read politics, marketing, etc), all contribute to what becomes a ‘shared world view’ or a shared view of ‘reality’, whether it be the laws of gravity or rules of society, that humans agree on and use to define the Universe that they inhabit. In fact, the Universe is by its very nature something which defies categorizations, sameness, labels, or final absolutes. The Universe is more entirely dynamic and constantly changing, infinite in nature, variety, possibility, and defiant of predictability and sameness. While repetition of events with predictable and ‘measurable’ results is observable in the Universe and, in myriad situations reliable, repetition and sameness do not accurately characterize the infinite nature of the Universe in truth, nor ‘reality’ in whatever true form it must exist, if in fact reality exists at all. The only reality I personally know of is that of infinity which, by its very nature, rejects the notion of an agreed upon anything being either the whole or true truth. In an infinite universe, through which the awareness can and may travel, one person’s “experience” is a ‘report’ of a variant that is fully valid and arguably just as real as a piece of bacon.
In terms of not needing more “stimulants” “to see God or hear nature”, LSD is not a stimulant, technically. Speed, caffeine, and sugar are stimulants, LSD is not. Granted, there is an increase of ‘energy’ one will experience with LSD, but it is not the same kind nor is it from the same sources. LSD, and entheogenic plants serve more as ‘gatekeepers’ to the windows into the greater Universe, in all its subtlety, diversity, and sheer mind blowing infinity. As siouxrose noted above, it is well known that we only use about 10% of our brain’s capacity. Psychedelics assist one in blowing open the locked doors of the rest of the ship and then allow us to take it out for a spin into the infinity that is truly the Universe. The Milky Way pales by comparison.
As a footnote to my post; I believe that psychedelics are not a substitute for meditation, for spiritual practices and the daily efforts necessary to become a better listener of nature, a seer of God, a more conscious human being. They are an adjunct, a useful and powerful tool, strong allies, great teachers, and a blessing of this infinite Universe.
whateveryousay
The great mystery serves mankind and mankind serves the great mystery, the earth is our mother it gave birth to every living thing. When lsd was created in a laboratory it created a chemical awareness or a chemical perception and choose a path. Follow the path or not the great mystery will serve you if only as a place to of return.
”
3) Bad Trips: I firmly believe that bad trip originate within the person themselves. Whenever a trip I was on started to turn, you just re-focus and the environment will re-align. The one time that it did get a little out of hand was when the ability to speak eluded me. Therefore, I just went home and spent the rest of the night building a universe out of glow-in-the-dark stars on my ceiling.”
That sounds a little like blaming the victim to me. I see a real cognitive dissonance in some of these postings - that the drug profoundly changes you, but if you have a bad experience, tough luck, buddy, that was your own fault. Cold comfort when people are evangelizing that everyone should take it.
I’ve nothing against mind-expansion, but it does seem like LSD is a very American way of looking at spiritual exploration - a commodification of enlightenment that reinforces, rather than removes, an “us-them” mentality. For every person who became “enlightened” there are many who remained the same venial, self-centered people they always were. Take a look at the biography of Timothy Leary - by most accounts a highly unpleasant man - if you don’t believe me.
I prefer to stick to meditation and contemplating mind-expanding literature and ideas. If that sounds boring to you, I’m sorry. Whether you walk or take an airplane, you still get to the same destination.
Finally, I think once and for all we need to get rid of the “10% of our brains” canard. It has been proven untrue again and again.
peacenow said: That sounds a little like blaming the victim to me
Let me explain what I meant by that a little. I believe that the bad trip originates within the person’s subconscious… a deeply rooted fear or some personal demons that need battling. It’s not blaming the victim… If you drop acid with fear and trepidation, you will increase your chances of having a bad trip… if you take it with positive feelings, you will have a good trip. Simple as that.
“me
Let me explain what I meant by that a little. I believe that the bad trip originates within the person’s subconscious… a deeply rooted fear or some personal demons that need battling. It’s not blaming the victim… If you drop acid with fear and trepidation, you will increase your chances of having a bad trip… if you take it with positive feelings, you will have a good trip. Simple as that.”
Well, some people have trouble doing anything without fear.
I once determined the meaning of life during an acid trip…..but I got sidetracked looking for writing materials….and then forgot it….
solemnly o’er ashes, I do tread, listening to all that has been said, knowing myself, alive or dead, will go on forgetting.
*Highly* recommended book about LSD: Storming Heaven by Jay Stevens.
Bill Cosby once said:
People tell me cocaine enhances my personality… but what if you are an idiot?
LSD shows you things; it doesn’t dictate how you should be. So if people are idiots they stand a good chance of remaining idiots, especially if they take it for “kicks”. (That’s how drugs were framed by the Corporate Media of the sixties.)
So, kids believed that was why they were taking drugs.
People who can’t handle empathy will definitely suffer.
LSD is just a neurotransmitter enabling synapses to fire where they don’t normally fire. It’s nice to use more of your brain even if it creates more questions. – And the Big Mystery remains, for each to perceive.
I think it produced tremendous empathy for all things that have life. If you find yourself crying over a flower’s importance, you may have a guilt trip because your parents taught you it was HORRABLE to cry over trivial stuff. But you are seeing the flower as representing the struggle of a species and you have the power to crush it in your hands or protect it. Some may crush it, some may savor it; still others will have a bad trip feeling like such a wimp dad would disown them.
COLLINSA: Your sensory descriptions are well put and mirror what I experienced.
WHATEVER YOU SAY offered, “As a footnote to my post; I believe that psychedelics are not a substitute for meditation, for spiritual practices and the daily efforts necessary to become a better listener of nature, a seer of God, a more conscious human being. They are an adjunct, a useful and powerful tool, strong allies, great teachers, and a blessing of this infinite Universe.” That is THE point… and to those who play critic to argue for their own limitations, bravo to you; but you cannot speak for another’s experience, what they gained or lost by stepping past your own perceptual portal.
I also have many experiences with LSD that I am profoundly thankful for( the mountains of northern New Mexico also greatly enhanced them). My experience with mushroom energy will forever remain with me as the gateway to my soul. Meditation and flowers and a baby’s eyes get me there also. I’d really like to get some shrooms again.
Well in the past week or so I’ve reread some of the LSD25 history I don’t think itwas made in a weapons lab.But maybe Sandoz was.Anyways as with most folks in this discussion I had some good experiences.My thought and question is, to have made the decision to take a drug or psychedelic aren’t you already a tad different?Once again Thank you Albert Hoffman!
”
LSD shows you things; it doesn’t dictate how you should be. So if people are idiots they stand a good chance of remaining idiots, especially if they take it for “kicks”. (That’s how drugs were framed by the Corporate Media of the sixties.)
So, kids believed that was why they were taking drugs.”
It was also how it was sold by dealers. Yes, I know there were people like Owsley and the Merry Pranksters who believed in turning on as many people as possible, but the vast majority of LSD dealers were simply opportunists. Even with the LSD evangelists, however, there was a sense of commodification of enlightenment.
“People who can’t handle empathy will definitely suffer.”
Empathy is not my problem. If anything, I feel too much. I’ve been told by a friend that while on mushrooms, he could not stop thinking. Well, guess what? That’s my natural state. If I sound resentful, it’s because my personal circumstances mean that I will never be in a state when I can take LSD. So I tend to be cynical about people’s wonderful experiences with the drug.
I wanted to write a lengthy, well thought out response to this piece. But I can’t stop looking at my hand….it’s pulsating.
And I’m still damged from staring at a pizza for too long.
I’ll never forget it. It’s one of my fondest memories.
Very interesting read Tim. Read my article “A personal tribute to Albert Hofmann”
And then read if you can (it’s pure science) “Do humans have a Political Gene?”
I saw these observations on an LSD trip after taking a molecular biology/genetics course. !7 years later- last spring I did a few trips and it came back to me so I finally wrote it down.
I’ve been banned from posting on Orato but will soon have my name restored with my writings.
LSD gives me many insights into life. My current initiative is “Institutionalized Idiocy”
LSD has sharpened my senses “An email can change the world” and gives me a powerful sense of community “Laugh or cry; this is not a lie” “I trusted the RCMP” as well as many creative thoughts “Willis Wang” “The TASER Inquiry Spurs on my Lateral Thought Processes” “A pilot’s Tale” and much else.
“Crows on Crack” “The pump house” “.45 caliber politics on a Mexican beach”
“Soaring and the art of Umbrella flight” “He who bites last wins” “Last flight of the OVR”
Please feel free to enjoy the writings of an Hang Gliding/LSD/Cannabis/58 years of life enhanced imagination.
And, I enjoy change, love coming back a different person with a deeper connection!
Should be “Crows on Crack”