LSD researcher Gary Fisher passes on.
March 3, 2012 8:51 PM   Subscribe

Gary Fisher, early pioneer of LSD research, passed away today. The news was announced by his friend Lorenzo Hagerty, host of the Psychedelic Salon podcast.
posted by Dodecadermaldenticles (23 comments total) 10 users marked this as a favorite
 

posted by twoleftfeet at 9:09 PM on March 3, 2012 [4 favorites]


I expect some highly entertaining silence periods to come in this thread
posted by JHarris at 9:59 PM on March 3, 2012


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posted by IvoShandor at 10:06 PM on March 3, 2012 [2 favorites]


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posted by hincandenza at 10:08 PM on March 3, 2012 [30 favorites]


"Death then is a problem in identity: The more constricted the identity, the more
vulnerable it is to destruction ...

The resistance in psychotherapy is partly a resistance to change, to dying, to becoming
someone or something one previously has not been. And this always necessitates giving up part of the self. In the transcendental experience, giving up the old basic assumptions
about self is literally experienced as dying." - Gary Fisher
posted by crayz at 10:26 PM on March 3, 2012 [4 favorites]


In a strange coincidence, I was just today reading a detective novel (P.D. James A mind to murder) set in a psychotherapy clinic where they kept talking about the patients who were having "lysergic acid" treatments, and it took me until a long way into the book to realise they were referring to LSD and that it had been used clinically.
posted by lollusc at 10:52 PM on March 3, 2012


"I expect some highly entertaining silence periods to come in this thread"
posted by JHarris

I would but the keyboard keeps moving and shifting and like wow man.

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posted by marienbad at 11:09 PM on March 3, 2012


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posted by lemuring at 11:38 PM on March 3, 2012 [5 favorites]


The researchers are there, the policy isn't.
posted by lemuring at 12:07 AM on March 4, 2012


Have you ever thought about how Aldous Huxley decided to take LSD as he died? That always seemed completely appropriate to me. I mean, if you're going to take any drug to accompany your death, LSD is the way to go. What kind of nut job says "I'm about to die, and a line of coke and an espresso would help me with that"?
posted by twoleftfeet at 12:44 AM on March 4, 2012


I've heard Leary did lots of nitrous in balloons towards the end (I don't mean literally when about to die). That sounds good to me.
posted by stinkycheese at 12:53 AM on March 4, 2012


What kind of nut job says "I'm about to die, and a line of coke and an espresso would help me with that"?

James Booker in Junco Partner

Give me whiskey when I'm thirsty,
Give me water when I'm dry,
I want my lover, when I'm lonely,
And a little heroin, just before I die,
With a little cocaine, a little cocaine,
A little cocaine on the side.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 1:04 AM on March 4, 2012 [1 favorite]


Well, there was the Brompton cocktail for terminally-ill patients.
posted by daksya at 1:16 AM on March 4, 2012


Tripper, Rest In Peace.
posted by WalkingAround at 1:21 AM on March 4, 2012


He hasn't died. He's broke on through to the other side.

TR.I.P
posted by MuffinMan at 1:27 AM on March 4, 2012 [1 favorite]


I've heard Leary did lots of nitrous in balloons towards the end

Leary's path to death, including lists of every drug he took on the way there, was documented on the web. I can't find that blog right now, but Leary definitely did a blog, back in 1996, before the word "blog" existed, where he chronicled his deterioration to death. I remember that he was doing quite a few different drugs up till the end. There's a documentary; Timothy Leary's Dead. No, it was called "Beyond Life"
posted by twoleftfeet at 3:00 AM on March 4, 2012


Oh, and The Enthusiastic Death of Timothy Leary
posted by twoleftfeet at 3:08 AM on March 4, 2012


*
posted by Thorzdad at 4:18 AM on March 4, 2012


Three weeks ago I watched my mother die a painful, though mercifully quick, death.

I have done my share of psychedelics. The last, I mean the very last thing I'd've wished for my mother during her last moments was higher awareness.

When my time draws near, I'd like to eat about an ounce of dried psilocybe cubensis and, when the rush hits, go skydiving with no parachute.

Otherwise, no. I don't want hyperawareness of my body's death process. No thanks.

(I'd be happy if someone were to lay some clean windowpane on me now, though.)
posted by kinnakeet at 9:51 AM on March 4, 2012


I was not familiar with Dr. Fisher and his work. The video in the first link is fascinating and well worth the 50-minute investment of your time.

What a time. Sandoz was mailing out free LSD samples like it was candy.

I hope we see psychedelics and entheogens take their rightful place in mental health treatment. Living in the US, though, I'm not holding my breath. Leary was an irresponsible buffoon who provoked the panicky behemoth of the US government into an overreaction that still hangs over us. Millions of people who could benefit from controlled, guided, therapeutic use of LSD, DMT, psilocybin, and the whole vast armamentarium of little-studied phenylethylamines likely will never have that chance.
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posted by BitterOldPunk at 12:33 PM on March 4, 2012 [1 favorite]


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posted by Splunge at 12:36 PM on March 4, 2012


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posted by mister nice at 7:16 AM on March 8, 2012


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posted by alms at 6:15 PM on March 8, 2012


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