So, yeah. Going with the ergot thing. Sagan’s line about extraordinary claims requiring extraordinary evidence seems appropriate here.

The story may turn out to be false, but neither you nor Derek have done the work of refuting it.

Although I would never advocate doing it to anyone else, if anyone wants to put LSD into my drinks without my knowledge, I give full permission!

Ergot fungi produces alkaloids that are chemically similar to LSD, but produce effects including hallucination and burning sensations in the extremities, which Lowe notes on his blog match up the reported symptoms better than LSD.

In fact, the first synthesis of LSD was from ergot fungus.

Years ago, I read a book by John Fuller (had to dig around for it on my bookshelf) called “The Day of St. Anthony’s Fire”. Same town, sounds like the same incident. He attributes it to a spontaneous mutation of ergot fungus to LSD. Thought you might be interested in that reference.

JIm

I AM A GOLDEN GOD!

Fucking awesome.

Have you? And I don’t know what ego dysfunction would explain somebody’s need to say “fixed that for you” but I hear a lot of that crap can be dealt with by psychedelics.

This is, after all, the organisation, that sells crack cocaine in American cities whenever they have budgetary problems.

Nothing new here qualitatively, just a bigger quantity of victims.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-rWnQphPdQ

A while back I awoke one night to find the room spinning. I had an inner ear infection, but I had no idea what was going on. It was terrifying, mainly because I couldn’t figure out what was wrong with me. I even wondered if I was dying. I am of the opinion that for most people, the sudden onset of unexplained hallucinations might be a fairly terrifying experience, and with the emotional feedback caused by most hallucinogens (what is termed a “bad trip”) that could spiral into a pretty bad experience. Combine this with the fact that in the alleged CIA scenario there was no real control over how much each individual was dosed…

This is all assuming that the CIA did was is stated in the article. I’m not convinced they did. I’m just saying that the negation of the possibility on the grounds that LSD is innocuous is not logically sound. The stories don’t say that everyone freaked out. Just that some did. That’s not only possible, I think it’s fairly likely.

Skepticism’s a fine thing. Like I said, Albarelli’s claim might turn out to be false. Ergot might well turn out to be the better explanation.

But none of that changes the fact that Douchesniper’s link dismissed Albarelli’s thesis on the grounds of a paraphrase by a third party.

I assume that, by ego dysfunction, you’re referring to your own smirking absence of empathy in assuming that the experience of French villagers in 1951 would have anything to do with your own pampered drug experiences. Unfortunately, I don’t know of any drugs that will cure that condition.