Housewife's LSD trip, 1956: Harvard Psychedelic Club

Over at Huffington Post, author Don Lattin posts this wonderful archival video clip, and explains:

Here's some rare footage of an experimental LSD session that I came across doing research for my next book, a group biography of British writer Aldous Huxley, philosopher Gerald Heard, and Bill Wilson, the co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous. It's from a television program, circa 1956, about mental health issues. The researcher, Dr. Sidney Cohen, was dosing volunteers at the Veteran's Administration Hospital in Los Angeles

Go read the rest of the post. I love the part where the subject is having a transcendental realization, and a lab-coated Cohen asks her if she felt like she felt like there were no "inside," if she felt like she were instead one with everything. She replies, more or less, "well I would be if you weren't here."

Then, as she descends further: "Everything is alive. This is reality. I wish you could see it. I wish I could talk in technicolor."

Don Lattin's book: "The Harvard Psychedelic Club: How Timothy Leary, Ram Dass, Huston Smith, and Andrew Weil Killed the Fifties and Ushered in a New Age for America"

(via @BumbleWard via David Carr)

Boing Boing editor/partner and tech culture journalist Xeni Jardin hosts and produces Boing Boing's in-flight TV channel on Virgin America airlines (#10 on the dial), and writes about living with breast cancer. Diagnosed in 2011. @xeni on Twitter. email: xeni@boingboing.net.

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Anonymous

I’m an enormous advocate for lsd.

I don’t drink much, I don’t smoke, never really been into marijuana or any other drugs.

I took acid for the first time on my birthday last year. Myself and 4 friends spontaneously decided to drive 10 hours to another state to see a band play and take acid. It was by far one of the single greatest days of my life.

Not only did I experience a ‘oneness’ with the universe, but I journeyed into my subconscious, seeing visions which connected disparate ideas and concepts in a way I’d never considered before. The experience also confirmed notions that I had developed previously.

As a result of that experience, I had a newfound vigour and excitement for my studies. I’m now doing a PhD in psychology and I’m looking forward to my next trip.

It disappoints me that many people won’t experience what I did, and that some people have judged me negatively as a result of doing it.
Michael Smith

Something similar happened to me after a CT scan when I was 19. The technicians gave me a contrast solution by IV during the scan. I noticed that one tech arrived late (this was early in the morning) and spent the whole time telling the other tech about what happened last night, rather than focusing on the job of injecting stuff into me.
I was high as a kite for about two hours after the scan and nobody has ever been able to explain how this could happen.
Antinous / Moderator

I â™¥ acid. But it’s been decades, and I’m concerned that tripping at 53 might not have the charm of tripping at 18. I’m not sure that I have the ectoplasmic fiber left to face a talking brownie that looks like Barbra Streisand.
- Cowicide
  
  I’m not sure that I have the ectoplasmic fiber left to face a talking brownie that looks like Barbra Streisand.
  
  Well, then you should just start making Saturday morning kids cartoons like everyone else who used to do acid.
  - Antinous / Moderator
    
    Aren’t my comments aphasic enough?
    - Cowicide
      
      Hmmm, so you’re saying that you are still using acid and you are on it right now as we speak?
      
      Ok, you can still be a Saturday morning kids cartoon worker, but only if you help with Sponge Bob.
    - Anonymous
      
      Goodness Human, your feeble attempt at humor is incredulous. One could only hope that your personal bout of aphasia will transpire imminently and endure until you have some minute level of logical consistencyâ€¦ albeit, we will certainly not wait with baited breath, since the likelihood of this event occurring is infinitesimal at bestâ€¦ and perhaps even that is an hyperbole of fact.
- Anonymous
  
  Don’t fear. I am 55 and recently for the first time since my 30′s took mushrooms. Talk about clearing out the cob webs in the attic. Yes, it was just like 18 again only wiser!
quitterjunior

When I am inevitably put to death for this post, I plan on wasting my grand-childrens’ college funds on a platter of every psychotropic drug ever made. It is my firm belief (see Artaud, et al.), that death is either a really long Jenna Maroney dream or horrible horrible nothingness. Worst/best? case scenario, your brain will continue to fire spontaneously for quite a while when you’re in the ground. Ask that your eyes be closed… It would really suck to be the guy in a Tale of Two Cities who has to spend four hours dreading death, only to spend four years waiting for his eyes to decompose. Even f-ing static electricity could remind my moldy brain that it’s no longer itself? F that, cookie monster. When I go to a rock concert and have a ringing in my ears – that is the swan song of those specific pitches for me. I will never hear them again. Unfortunately, that is not how memories work. If I am lucky enough to anticipate my death, I will ask to taste peanut-butter-blueberry-cilantro-vagina-bacon-truffly-butterscotch on my deathbead. Sometimes when I’m sober enough to know I’m drunk, I’ll stare up at the ceiling. It spins, and I’m helpless, but I’m not uncomfortable. I don’t ask my brother about his politics. I sit and consider how tart is a thing. I want my base, mammal oblivion, but I would be disappointed if my limbo was less weird than my dog’s. Hell is other people forgetting to forgive you. C++ error in your favor. Heaven is yours, haxor.
- Cowicide
  
  If I am lucky enough to anticipate my death, I will ask to taste peanut-butter-blueberry-cilantro-vagina-bacon-truffly-butterscotch on my deathbead.
  
  Are you sure about this? All at once?
icerg

3:38 – “I have never seen such infinite beauty”

I want some of that shit…
Anonymous

You’re trippin’, Mom.
Anonymous

Isn’t LSD useful in treating ptsd?
Anonymous

Fascinating video. For those interested in Psychedelics I personally prefer Ayahuasca over LSD as I found it was very life enhancing without the come down of LSD, but if you really want to open your head in 20 mins DMT is an incredbly intense btu spiritually enhancing trip

Maps.org is a very interesting website that documents the ongoing research into Psycoactives
Mitch_

I hope at some point they gave her time to do whatever she wanted. It would be a bummer to spend the whole trip sitting in a chair being asked a lot of questions without being able to listen to music or walk around outside.
- knoxblox
  
  Yes!
  
  I think if I were called on to provide an interesting experience for a first-timer, I definitely would try to gather up some eclectic stimuli. Unless there’s a steady source, they may never know when they’ll get another opportunity.
  - knoxblox
    
    Eclectic stimuli that always riveted my attention?
    Textured wallpaper, tapestries, good art, and movies that displayed awesome cinematography (IMHO, best saved for when you’re coming down, to keep your mind off of thinking about when the trip is going to end).
    
    Food was always an tangibly interesting experience, though it might not be the same for everyone, especially if you cramp easily.
    - Cowicide
      
      Food was always an tangibly interesting experience, though it might not be the same for everyone, especially if you cramp easily.
      
      Is “food” code for masturbation?
      - knoxblox
        
        No, I actually meant food. You experienced evil parakeets, I had a conversation with a talking cheeseburger.
        
        However, when I say “tangibly interesting” I mean I didn’t always interpret flavors as I expected to. Bread tasted like cardboard, and orange juice made my mouth pucker. Sugary treats tasted pretty good, though.
      - Cowicide
        
        No, I actually meant food. You experienced evil parakeets
        
        I did not have sexual relations with those evil parakeets.
knoxblox

Thanks, Cowicide and others for backing me up.

Here’s a little link from Wikipedia about the urban legends that have sprung up over time about LSD:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_legends_about_illegal_drugs

I have always sided with the theory that a bad trip stems from apprehension about taking the drug, rather than the (unadulterated) drug being faulty. I don’t remember ever having had a bad trip, though I often was a little prone to the cramping effects. People who aren’t ready shouldn’t be coerced into taking the drug. Plain and simple.

To address the matter of one’s personality being permanently changed, I think the same could be true of many highly emotionally charged experiences. I was scared of roller coasters as a kid, and I think riding the Orient Express for the first time the summer it debuted gave me a newly-found self-confidence that was an advantage during my early teenage years. I tried a great many things I would never have if I hadn’t had that experience.

Oh, and Anon, I’ve taken well over twenty doses of LSD in my lifetime and still managed to graduate from university with honors; and with the professors I had, it certainly wasn’t by chance.
- 3d bomb
  
  I agree absolutely that this idea of brain damage is ludicrous. Changing your mind is not damaging it, experiences as you point out can change your perception of life and so it is with LSD for many people. I do wonder about the long term consequences of taking any serious drugs with things like depression. Some studies showing nasty correlations between many drugs and mental health problems later in life but I won’t go into that. Nothing is concrete there as far as I’m aware. It’s just a worry of mine.
  
  What I’m definitely not agreeing with is your take on bad trips. I probably took a menu of LSD types hundreds of times over a few year period. My early experiences were what I’d call my most naive. I took huge amounts of magic mushrooms with friends my first time. Just kept eating them as I became impatient for some kind of effect and boy did that happen within a few hours. But those eary times were all such good trips. It’s only when I went off on my own and started experimenting with LSD as a way to be creative with my art that the bad trips came to visit. Those bad trips were at a time when I felt very experienced with the drug. Whether I really was or not is another matter :) But my point really is that the more experience I gained, the more bad trips I was having and I guess I put that down to my environment. Those early trips were with friends in relaxed surroundings. Later ones, well I’ll just say there were not relaxed surroundings. Still as the Joker said, you can’t make an omelette without breaking some eggs. Bad trips are part and parcel of the tripping experience. You either accept they may happen or stay away.
voiceinthedistance

Does anybody else actually believe that the doctor was trying to feel the molecules in the room when he said he was? If anybody needed a little acid, I think it was the good doctor.
Kercules

“I wish i could talk in technicolor.”…love that.
fyreflye

I’m one of those people who after experimenting with some of these psychedelics (lately, “entheogens”) decided that everything I’d believed in and had been doing were pointless and allowed my life to change into something that was not and never would be acceptable to the kind of people who were the role models of the time and who still seem to prevail even here on BB. All you have to do is look around at the current state of the world to see what “sane” people have wrought, and what lies in the dark future for a human race dominated by power hungry sleepwakers. These days I find the Buddha’s teachings and practices more useful than any drug, but I’d never have found this way without the original opening provided by LSD and mescaline. The fact that these change agents have been criminalized tells you all you need to know about our moribund culture and those who rule it.
- Cowicide
  
  allowed my life to change into something that was not and never would be acceptable to the kind of people who were the role models of the time and who still seem to prevail even here on BB
  
  So you became a tea bagger on acid?
- Anonymous
  
  Couldn’t have said it better. LSD is all about being egoless and in the moment. The moribund sleepwalkers you speak of fear an enlighten people.
Stu Mark

Who wouldn’t want to feel that way, at least for a little while?
Rob

Makes me sad this stuff is now illegal.
johnphantom

Good acid compared to schizophrenia is like taking a Jolly Rancher.

What is disturbing is the line of thought and the complete belief that it is right.

/schizo-affective, which is episodic schizophrenia
- Anonymous
  
  are you saying the effects of good acid are equivalent to having schizophrenia? sorry, dont understand.
- Cowicide
  
  Not sure I follow what you’re saying. If you don’t mind me asking, do you have schizophrenia? And, if so, are you trying to compare how you feel to what others without schizophrenia experience when they ingest LSD?
Anonymous

I liken acid to a hammer. If used properly it can be a constructive tool. But it can also be a tool of destruction in the wrong hands. And yes there are poorly made hammers and people who shouldn’t be allowed to use them. But most of us could do better than pounding on things with our fists.

I’ve taken acid and mushrooms a handful of times. Both are ways to storm through doors that many people, such as mystics, spend years and years learning to open. When you bust them all down at once, it’s an amazing glimpse, but you’re not prepared to process it all correctly because you didn’t properly work your way up to it.
Drabula

my pupils got big just watching that.
Muse

My favorite line: “I can’t tell you about it. If you can’t see it then you will just never know.”
johnphantom

“are you saying the effects of good acid are equivalent to having schizophrenia? sorry, dont understand.”

Absolutely not. Schizophrenia in comparison to acid makes acid look mild. How the hallucinations are completely real with schizophrenia makes acid mild in comparison. I have had the full range of hallucinations with schizophrenia – visual, auditorial, smell, taste, and physical. What I am saying is that the hallucinations are so strong and long living that you get to the point that you think God is giving you messages, and you must follow them. The worst I became I actually believed I was invincible, un-killable, chosen, which is very dangerous for me, and even more so for others. Thankfully, during that particular episode, I did not hurt anyone.

“Not sure I follow what you’re saying. If you don’t mind me asking, do you have schizophrenia? And, if so, are you trying to compare how you feel to what others without schizophrenia experience when they ingest LSD?”

Yes, I am recognized as disabled for having the diagnosis of bi-polar with schizo-affective disorder. I have a long history, and SS does not question my disability – I only spoke to one of their doctors for about 15 minutes, and she basically said, “yeah, you’re crazy” and given disability ten years ago.

LSD is mild compared to schizophrenia, and yeah, I’ve done a good amount of LSD. Too bad it is so hard to come by these days.

My doctor of nine years said that I should write a book about my experiences, and has shared me with other doctors, because I am lucid and remember my experiences.

I just hate having to be locked up occasionally. What is worse is when they dose me with something like 30mg of Haldol a day to control me :(
- Cowicide
  
  LSD is mild compared to schizophrenia, and yeah, I’ve done a good amount of LSD. Too bad it is so hard to come by these days.
  
  Since you don’t seem to mind talking about it and I don’t seem to mind asking you about it…
  
  Have you taken LSD after you became schizophrenic? And, if so, how did that go?
  - johnphantom
    
    “Since you don’t seem to mind talking about it and I don’t seem to mind asking you about it…
    
    Have you taken LSD after you became schizophrenic? And, if so, how did that go?”
    
    No. I would like to do it again, but the worst drug I do is alcohol. LSD has a happy component, that is not with schizophrenia. Watch the Dumbo part when he gets drunk while on LSD and you will laugh your ass off =)
gwailo_joe

My best trip: looking out of my bedroom window at night. The stars. . .the stars began to dance. And they formed a complex pattern of a Hopi sky god drumming: a symbol meant for me, one of power and mystery. Then the fog came and covered the stars. And the fog coalesced into a gargantuan pterodactyl covering the city. . .and as it beat it’s massive wings and passed over me I could feel the breeze on my face.

My worst trip: hanging out in my bedroom again, tripping with a buddy. I was having a comfortable out-of-body experience and saw my own body flowing over and past an edge, just leisurely melting away. Then the music stopped. And my ‘body’ stopped too, and at the very point of the edge was my eye. My eyeball then exploded. ‘Aagh!’ Now ‘my eyeball’ is everywhere. Every divot in the wall, every speck on the curtain. . .’that’s my eyeball!’ It quite sucked. The next day was Mothers Day and I went to Golden Gate Park with my folks, still seeing my own eyeballs blinking at me everywhere. For some, that might make a bad trip worse, but it calmed me and gradually the trip subsided in 12 hours or so.

But the next time I tried LSD. . .everything was cool, hanging with the peeps in the kitchen. . .and in the corner of the ceiling; a giant rotating DNA helix of eyeballs. Then walking back into my room, a helix of mine own eyes slowly emerged out of the floor.

Not really scary per se. . .but enough already. Never did it again. Never needed to.

No regrets.
- Cowicide
  
  Hmmm… not sure that you (nor I) should make children’s Saturday morning cartoons. Maybe stick with horror movies instead.
  - johnphantom
    
    I know I am getting off topic here, but…
    
    You know what disturbs me? Something I know better than the doctors? They are trying to alter the DSM IV to say schizo-affective is not a particular disorder. I go into and thankfully come back from schizophrenia on occasion, and that is the definition of schizo-affective.
    
    I take the drug they give me, and I know I have to, even though it is proven to generally reduce brain size by 14%, yet increase synapse connections by 8%. It has not only altered my brain, but has has significant effects upon my body, to the point where they settled for a significant sum with myself and others – to the tune of $1.4 billion.
    
    Funny part is, that if I had died, my family would have had less of a settlement. Yeah, the drug companies use us as guinea pigs, ’cause it is cheaper.
    - Cowicide
      
      The frustratingly ironic thing is I bet you’d have much better drug therapies to choose from if researchers weren’t hampered in studying things like MDMA, LSD, etc. over the years because of their supposedly “illicit” nature and criminalization. Who knows, with proper study there could be a hybrid or restructuring of those drugs into something really helpful. I just can’t wait till society evolves and we can get on with helping everyone without being dogged by dogma and/or corruption at nearly every turn in our society. /rant
irksome

“I wish I could talk in Technicolor…” One of the things I remember about taking acid in the ’70s was the insufficiency, the impotence of mere words.

I’m a recovering addict, 11 years removed from heroin addiction and absolutely fascinated by life with no mind- or mood-altering substances (save caffeine) and yet, despite the contradiction, the only thing I’d consider taking again would be LSD. Simply for that glimpse.

Fascinating interview; gave me that tingle in my throat.
Anonymous

This makes me want to take LSD
Sunyab

…”and a lab-coated Cohen asks her if she felt like she felt like there were no ‘inside’…”

I just spent a couple minutes trying to parse them, and I am not currently tripping.

But: Does it seem like the parameters of acceptable brain modification have shrunk a bit since the early ’60s? As a child of the Reagan ’80s, I know when I dropped acid, it was certainly not an acceptable type of brain-play. Coke, alcohol and NFL were the preferred forms. I think they still are, to a large extent.

I can’t help wishing this weren’t an historical film clip. I wish I knew her. I wish my kids were her contemporaries.
Anonymous

fantastic.
reminds me of great and wild times;)
Anonymous

I think LSD opens the brain to some branch of visualization of energy.

The internal energy is equal to the heat + Work. LSD must have some sort of way of showing us energy of systems. And Enthalpy and Entropy are somehow related.
- BW
  
  Enthalpy and Entropy are indeed related to Free Energy.
  âˆ†G = âˆ†H – Tâˆ†S
Enormo

“That is what death is going to be like. And oh what fun it will be.”

Gerald, man… you’re blowing my mind.
mermaid

About 9 mos after I had a spawn, I went through a period of 2 days of intense euphoric hallucination, it was the best trip ever. I’ve been changed ever since, never have taken LSD or mushrooms etc, but I totally understand why people do.
manicbassman

here’s some British troops trying to carry out a military exercise while on LSD

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

I think empathy was a good choice of words. Once you’ve had a good dose of LSD, it’s kind of hard to forget it and go back to the way things were, and equally hard to explain why.

I guess it’s similar in idea to Plato’s Allegory of the Cave. You’ve seen things that have forever changed your perception of the world, but it’s mighty hard to get others to understand unless you can take them along on the journey.

She was having a good trip. I was kind of hoping she’d turn around to see the curtains breathing, and the flowers of the print swaying.
- Anonymous
  
  Once you’ve had a good dose of LSD, it’s kind of hard to forget it and go back to the way things were, and equally hard to explain why.
  
  That’s called “brain damage.”
  
  Think about this: We’re talking about your personality being permanently changed by taking a drug.
  
  In my experience, most people who take acid decide that whatever they were doing with their time before they took acid is stupid and they shouldn’t do that thing any more. No matter what it was. After two or three times, they decide one of the stupid things they shouldn’t do is take any more acid.
  - irksome
    
    @22: Ah yes, the noble voice of inexperience.
  - dagfooyo
    
    Anon, that’s a pretty broad definition of “brain damage”. If any experience that leaves you thinking differently than before can be classified as brain damage, then that would include just about every experience you can have to greater or lesser extent. “I just read the most amazing book – it totally damaged my brain with all sorts of new perspectives and ideas!”
    - Cowicide
      
      I just read the most amazing book – it totally damaged my brain with all sorts of new perspectives and ideas!
      
      So you read Ayn Rand, huh?
      - dagfooyo
        
        Hahah, no way, man. I just say “no” to Ayn Rand. That shit’ll mess you up.
      - Cowicide
        
        Thank god, I heard the brain damage you get from that shit is nearly irreversible until you get some therapy.
    - Anonymous
      
      Acid is different. It’s not an experience you have. It’s the circumstance under which you have an experience. If you were in the middle of reading a particular book at the exact moment that your best friend was brutally murdered right in front of you, it would permanently alter your feelings about the book. But it wouldn’t matter which book it was, and the new feelings would not be a form of insight into the book.
  - Anonymous
    
    Anonymous: “That’s called ‘brain damage.’ Think about this: We’re talking about your personality being permanently changed by taking a drug.”
    
    So… You do realize that the same argument applies to certain people who change completely when they find religion or have a child. Is this brain damage too in your opinion?
  - LazarWolf
    
    I don’t think I’ve met a single person who has turned their life around completely by just dropping acid. I imagine that some people do this, but only because the drug gives you a whole new perspective on life for half a day. I certainly see the world in a different way, but it hasn’t really affected my everyday life. I certainly think about it a lot, and I still trip about once every three months (although far more during the winter, when I’m home, and I have my drug dealer around, and my boyfriend to trip with me). But the most it really does is serve as a lens through which I can see things I had never even imagined before.
    
    Saying that a change in the brain is automatically brain damage is ignorant. In development, our brains change radically, based on whatever we do, or whatever happens to us. Certain areas swell, while others, unused, are left small in comparison. Certain other drugs, as someone pointed out, also change the chemicals we receive. As someone with poor serotonin receptors, I find help in 5-HTP, or MDMA, if the setting is right. Others find solace in prescription medication, which also changes their brain chemistry. Birth control effects your brain, and sometimes detrimentally. Even chocolate releases endorphins.
    
    Not everything that changes our brains is necessarily bad. Sure, there are some people who shouldn’t take acid, I’ll be the first to admit that. But for those of us who haven’t had any ill effects* shouldn’t have to deal with the stigma that acid rots your brain or anything. I mean, the chemical was used to treat alcoholism fairly successfully. It really isn’t as harmful as something addictive and physically harmful, like heroin.
    
    *By the way, anyone who has back and neck pain during acid, I advise taking some magnesium before dropping. The pain just melts away, and makes for a far more pleasant trip.
    - Cowicide
      
      I don’t think I’ve met a single person who has turned their life around completely by just dropping acid.
      
      Shit, I ran out and got 3 jobs that I worked at the same time after the first time I took acid. I took LSD, looked inwards and realized I wanted to better myself. I went a little overboard with 3 jobs, but I was young and all that money did help launch me into other things.
      
      I was like a Jamaican… on acid.
      
      [I was also probably influenced by my friend and garden center co-worker who was a Jamaican reggae musician and had lots of fatherly advice for me at the time]
  - robulus
    
    In my experience, most people who take acid decide that whatever they were doing with their time before they took acid is stupid and they shouldn’t do that thing any more.
    
    You spectacularly misunderstand what happens to such people.
    
    And then one day you find,
    Ten years have got behind you.
    No one told you when to run,
    You missed the starting gun.
    - Anonymous
      
      People attempting to ask me follow-up questions should be aware my previous, more detailed responses have not been approved by moderators. In short, I assure you my conclusions are based on first-person as well as third-person experience. Multiple suicide attempts by a beloved brain-fried housemate didn’t help either.
  - Enormo
    
    That’s called “brain damage.”
    
    Think about this: We’re talking about your personality being permanently changed by taking a drug.
    
    In my experience, most people who take acid decide that whatever they were doing with their time before they took acid is stupid and they shouldn’t do that thing any more. No matter what it was. After two or three times, they decide one of the stupid things they shouldn’t do is take any more acid.
    Well, now I can check “Meeting the creator of the ABC After School Special” off of my bucket list.
  - Cowicide
    
    That’s called “brain damage.” Think about this: We’re talking about your personality being permanently changed by taking a drug.
    
    So how do you feel about prescription drugs like Zoloft that have similar outcomes for those who take them for the rest of their lives? And, by the way, are you a Scientologist?
    
    Also, do you drink alcohol or know anyone else who does? And, if so, are you and your alcohol drinking compadres aware of the mood altering effects and “drain bamage” effects of alcoholism?
    
    Or is it only things you are afraid to try yourself that exploits your ignorance and primal fears?
randyman

I had the best day of my life back in 1974, tripping on a Cape Cod beach.

Is that a sad thing, having a summit that stands out so clearly above the rest of my life?

Not at all. What’s truly sad – and tragic – is that nearly all people are denied the opportunity to have this experience… a precious glimpse that is, in truth, the birthright of every human being.

What a world, what a world.
Cowicide

Aw, fuck…

Naked tourist disrupts traffic, is tased three times. He was drunk AND on LSD.
dagfooyo

Such a beautiful interview to watch, I was grinning from ear to ear.

I wonder what path she followed after that experience – I would find it hard to believe she simply went back to being a 1950′s housewife. What a complete change she goes through – in the pre-interview she’s very nervous. When he asks if she’s “normal” she gets really worried like she secretly knows she’s not normal but she’s pretending so hard and she’s worried someone will find out.

And then after the dose she’s so peaceful and joyful and sincere.

It needs to be legal so everyone can try it and have that experience.
Anonymous

an old friend of mine let slip in a conversation once that he’d tried acid; amazed at this revelation from such a staid and mature person, we talked at some length. It turned out that he’d been studying law at UCLA (I believe) and answered an ad for participants in a psychology survey.

Always looking for a few extra dollars, he signed up, and found himself settled into the LA Vets hospital, with around a dozen others, being given intravenous LSD by none other than Sydney Cohen for the next fortnight.

“I kinda dropped out of law school after that. I spent some time in the desert, and by the time I got my head together, I was in the Andes, artificially inseminating high altitude sheep” is a quote that will stay with me till I die.

I tracked down ‘the beyond within’, the good doctor’s memoirs and meditations on LSD, which refers to the episode, and also to the time he gave so much acid to an elephant it dropped dead on the spot.

Great days…
Anonymous

If LSD is difficult to explain, DMT is like the offside rule.
- Anonymous
  
  “If LSD is difficult to explain, DMT is like the offside rule.”
  
  What drug is like the LBW rule?
  - boehj
    
    Ketamine.
- LazarWolf
  
  I actually found DMT really, really easy to explain, as did most of the people I’ve met. It seemed like a slightly eerier (and obviously shorter) version of acid. I felt like I was in one of Dr. Seuss’s sadder books, but it wasn’t really unpleasant. It was a bit sad, but still whimsical.
  
  Then again, the one time I took it, I was on a lot of other psychoactive substances, so that might have contributed to the experience.
Anonymous

cool.
lewis stoole

i am drinking 4 fingers of ramazzotti on the rocks;
i am certain this is what she had after her trip.
Anonymous

I find it helpful that she explains the room is in color. Since the film is B&W, I couldn’t actually tell.
Anonymous

yesterday I was watching acid and salvia trips on YouTube. those damned kids are having some extremely limited and boring trips.
Seancho

The big difference between what this lady is experiencing and the trips that most of us have taken is the legal/moral status of the drug at the time she took it. She’s been given LSD legally, by a doctor, and encouraged to explore the experience. There isnt a so much of a hint of wrongdoing to what she is doing.

Most of us had to get our LSD from our friends, on the black market, figure out how to take it without being noticed, and deal with the very real risk of arrest and imprisonment if we got caught. It’s a big difference, I think. I had some amazing experiences with LSD, but there was always a base level of paranoia surrounding the illegality that always factored into the experience on one level or another.

I remember Leary saying that there were few bad trips in the early days of LSD before it became a crime to take it.

Now the whole culture is caught up in the circular logic of “psychedelic drugs are bad because they are illegal, and they are illegal because they are bad.”

Watching the woman in this film, is there anything wrong with the experience she is having? At all? It seems profound and beautiful to me. And yet, if she wanted to go there again, after 1968, she’d be a criminal.

How long will it be before we once again allow interested parties to explore the profound mind states accessible through consciousness-expanding plants and chemicals, just as they are, in a relaxed, nonjudgmental setting, without turning them into criminals?
- 3d bomb
  
  “How long will it be before we once again allow interested parties to explore the profound mind states accessible through consciousness-expanding plants and chemicals, just as they are, in a relaxed, nonjudgmental setting, without turning them into criminals?”
  
  That’s a good question. It’s interesting look at the history of psychedelics. It’s really only in recent times that it’s been made illegal. Somehow we managed as a species to live with these drugs for thousands of years without any real harm.
  
  I also find it hard to work out that because something is considered harmful, it should be illegal. I mean bleach is harmful if you drink it but it’s not illegal. So clearly it’s only if the substance makes you feel good in some way that it is made illegal. And really, how messed up is that?
- Cowicide
  
  I had some amazing experiences with LSD, but there was always a base level of paranoia surrounding the illegality that always factored into the experience on one level or another. I remember Leary saying that there were few bad trips in the early days of LSD before it became a crime to take it.
  
  I’ve thought about that too. Also, there’s a lot less paranoia with pot if you smoke it in free countries (not the USA).
Anonymous

What an incredibly moving interview! Made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up to see her remarkable transformation.

It also made me, once again, curious to try LSD for myself. Still, we’re witnessing a very good trip in this video; having heard about the bad trips, and how life-changing they can be in a horribly negative way, I’d still hesitate to take the risk. I’m told that the bad trips are reason enough why this substance is, and should continue to be, illegal.
- Cowicide
  
  I’m told that the bad trips are reason enough why this substance is, and should continue to be, illegal.
  
  Then alcohol most certainly should be illegal as well then, correct?. There are issues with “bad trips” from alcohol that happen in American streets every night and peak especially on Friday and Saturday nights that result in scores of fights and some rapes, murders and car accidents.
  
  So, please, explain to me why alcohol is legal? And, I’m curious, do you drink alcohol?
  - Anonymous
    
    You may have a point, here, although the “bad trips” that come from LSD are purportedy much more mind-altering than those that one gets from excessive alcohol intake.
    
    I do, in fact, drink alcohol, but in moderation, and perhaps that is also a difference between the two substances: unlike alcohol, LSD apparently does not need to be taken in huge amounts in order for it to have an extreme — and, in some instances, an extremely bad — effect.
    
    By the way, I’m only basing my comment on talks I’ve had with people who have had quite a bit of experience with LSD (and alcohol); I’m no authority, and am not claiming to be. I am also not trying pick a fight.
robulus

Does anyone else think she becomes 500 times hotter when she’s tripping? I find that level of engagement with the universe very arousing. That’s how I got together with my wife, in fact.
- Cowicide
  
  O_o
  
  This sounds like an interesting story.
  - robulus
    
    Indeed. Seems like a lifetime ago now. We’re keeping it very, very, real these days.
Anonymous

Oh I just love how these people talk. They have positively enchanting voices. The deep manliness of the professor’s, so professional… the lilting voice of the house wife’s… why do they sound so much better than humans on tv do now?
- Cowicide
  
  Oh I just love how these people talk. They have positively enchanting voices. The deep manliness of the professor’s, so professional… the lilting voice of the house wife’s… why do they sound so much better than humans on tv do now?
  
  I’ve thought about that myself. Maybe is was the different syntax and phonetics of the time mixed with the period’s analog recording technology that creates that magical effect?
Anonymous

I think most posting here, if old enough, didn’t do enough drugs. Acid was just another veneer in the layers of life. One that most aren’t exposed to but which nonetheless offered new information. You could take it or you couldn’t. This lady handled it very well.
Anonymous

Wow, yank an average 1950′s American housewife off the street, give her a dose of LSD, and **** POOF **** all the sudden it’s the 1960′s and 70′s. It all makes sense now, the times were almost totally defined by the drugs. You can’t get that kind of uniform reaction and whacked out world view by such widely cast people. This film is a great experimental data point as here you see her tripping out and sounding like a hippie that is still 10+ years in the future.
3d bomb

The danger of videos like this for old druggies like me is the way you re-live what it was to do it just watching other people high on whatever they’re taking. I can pretty much say that almost anyone whos taking hard drugs in their lives that watches this will become excited in some way. Whether you just smile and reminisce or as someone else said, feel that tingle. It’s hard to resist and shows just how dangerous it would be to be around people who do get really high when you’re living a life that doesn’t involve that anymore.

She was definetly having a good trip and thinking back to my year or so taking LSD when I was a teenager, I think most of my trips were bad ones. I ended up taking it alone and dissapeared into a world unlike anything I live with now. It was amazing and profound on levels I could talk about but like explaining some crazy dream to someone, it gets boring pretty quickly going into it. It was a crazy time for sure and while others here say everyone should try it, I’d argue that not everyone should. There are consequences.

My advice would be that you stay away from man made acid and instead try magic mushrooms with people you love and trust as friends. Those were the best times I ever had. Man made LSD offers a completely different kind of trip. I could label them as organic and enlightening from magic mushrooms and really non organic, harder edged hallucinatory trips with man made LSD.

I’m glad I’m older and that’s just a part of my past now. I wouldn’t take LSD again. I much prefer now to just go on creative trips without any drugs. That happens when you really get into some hobby that interests you and it’s a much safer high without any mental illness risks.
- Cowicide
  
  while others here say everyone should try it
  
  I think you hallucinated that.
  
  My advice would be that you stay away from man made acid and instead try magic mushrooms
  
  I’ve witnessed people getting freaked out on shrooms while I merely laughed and giggled on the things. Meanwhile, I’ve also seen people take LSD like party drug candy while at the same time I was battling out an epic, galactic struggle with Satan, leprechauns and evil parakeets.
  
  The moral of the story is that one person’s bliss might be another person’s epic, galactic struggle with Satan, leprechauns and evil parakeets.
  - Anonymous
    
    i at one time could not look at a giant black square on the ceiling because it was a gateway to hell, while at another time did not want to leave the bathroom because the spacemen 3 song that i kept replaying in there made it the most amazing room on planet earth. it has it’s ups and downs. i look forward to my next up.
    - Cowicide
      
      yes, yes… gateways to hell, they are everywhere it seems.
      - irksome
        
        To Cowicide@81: http://www.entrancestohell.com/entrances.php
      - Anonymous
        
        this particular entrance to hell was just a pitch black square that suddenly appeared on the ceiling; looking at it was nerve-racking as the black was pitch black and almost seemed as if i was looking into it, like that scene from the movie “house” where the guy looked in his mirror and the other side was just a pitch black endless void. in contrast to the linked images, i believe these entrances to hell would make excellent album covers while mine was something you more or less had to be there. i don’t even think they have an image of it. needless to say, i found the best way to get rid of the entrance to hell was just to leave the room, but quietly so as not to arouse suspicions that something truly horrendous was happening. we mustn’t alarm the people.
      - Cowicide
        
        i found the best way to get rid of the entrance to hell was just to leave the room
        
        Gateways to hell so easily defeated. Who knew?
      - Anonymous
        
        actually, i am afraid to say that i have found the black squared entrance to hell in one of the images in your link.
        saturday, august 2, 2008 czech republic, prague, submitted by nico.
        look into the void and tremble!
      - Cowicide
        
        http://www.entrancestohell.com/uploaded_images/DSC00490-762024.JPG
        
        Yep, think that qualifies as one. O_o
  - 3d bomb
    
    You might be right there. I shouldn’t assume my experiences will be the same for others. I did have one bad trip on mushrooms where I was hounded by little pixies made of light, for hours. I smoked through three packs of cigarettes during that trip. I guess I’m disagreeing with myself now about what to take but I think on the whole mushrooms are smoother and less problematic.
    
    Quite happy to be wrong here though. I’m talking about experiences over 20 years ago. I may just have rose tinted glasses about mushrooms now.
    - Cowicide
      
      You might be right there.
      
      Yeah, but I do agree with you that overall shrooms seem to be a healthier trip for most.
      
      Plus, I was wrong about your other comment. I was reading through more posts and I saw what you saw where some are recommending everyone else takes LSD. Or now we hallucinated it together, I dunno.
      - 3d bomb
        
        Ah your hallucinating comment made me smile and it didn’t seem worth pointing out anything after that.
        
        I like how you were open enough to correct yourself. Sarah Palin could learn a lot from that kind of thinking hehe
- Anonymous
  
  I agree with most of your perceptions but I am a veteran of over 100 trips, some organic (mushrooms, and peyote BTW peyote is comparable to no other experience…they could last days and you could peak anywhere from 12-24 hours after taking it)and have experienced bad trips with organics but never on peyote. I think, for me a bad trip can be based on over all mood and on how fast you got high. To go from a staid reality to not understanding who the self is in too short a period of time may confuse your ability to decipher your new reality, this in turn can make one want to return to home base just to get the bearings straight so to speak, of corse that would be impossible until the drug wears off, I think most bad trips are based on this fear of losing self, of forgetting who you are and resistance to just being. Living in the moment can ease fear and mitigate anxiety in real life and LSD can offer you a glimpse into being and realize the oneness from which we all come from. The person who likens it to a mental illness state or brain damage has no clue as to what they say. I will never see the world again the same way and actually am thankful for that fact. The connections I have made with others who I have experimented with are still strong today some 40 years later. Ever wonder why it is easy to get narcotic type drugs but not the mind expanding drugs?? Ain’t no accident the last thing anyone would want would be a populous with fresh deep insight into the world we live in, but keep them sedated?? NO PROBLEM!! They let that on the street.
technogeek

The hallucinogens are the only class of “recreational” drug that I’ve ever been tempted by… but I’ve never trusted anything which can cause that profound a response, so I’ve never acted on that temptation.

I remember the sixties, because I wasn’t there.
Lissamphibia

I’m surprised that no one has posted a link to Erowid yet!

http://www.erowid.org/chemicals/lsd/lsd.shtml

This site is a great resource, with the goal of making information about psychoactive substances as widely available as possible to aid in research and harm reduction.

One of their main guidelines is to: â€œKnow your body. Know your mind. Know your substance. Know your source.”

Here’s an essay that the site’s founders wrote, “Toward a Culture of Responsible Psychoactive Drug Use”:
http://www.cato-unbound.org/2008/09/08/earth-and-fire-erowid/towards-a-culture-of-responsible-drug-use/

If anyone is interested in learning more about psychedelics, and especially discussions about how to prepare for and deal with difficult experiences, I’d suggest starting with these resources:

http://www.maps.org/responding_to_difficult_psychedelic_experiences.html
http://www.erowid.org/psychoactives/guides/
http://www.maps.org/secretchief/sctoc.html

Also, for the person who asked whether LSD is an effective aid to therapy in treating PTSD, you might be thinking of the legal, clinical studies that the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (and other groups) has done regarding MDMA and PTSD. They are also studying whether LSD and psilocybin can help in easing end-of-life anxiety in terminal cancer patients.
See http://www.maps.org/home/ for more details.