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April 8, 2008 10:55 AM   Subscribe

Chemical Salvation? The history of LSD as a Chick tract. [Via]
posted by homunculus (38 comments total) 9 users marked this as a favorite
 
I recommend Acid Dreams: The Complete Social History of LSD: The CIA, the Sixties, and Beyond for a good social history of LSD.

Yes, there was a time when the US Government played mad hatter and dosed random people with LSD. After you read this book, very little will surprise you.
posted by Afroblanco at 10:58 AM on April 8, 2008 [2 favorites]


After you take acid, very little will surprise you.
posted by Elmore at 11:04 AM on April 8, 2008 [5 favorites]


Far out.
posted by nola at 11:04 AM on April 8, 2008


LSD A GO GO
posted by homunculus at 11:06 AM on April 8, 2008


Watch out for the brown acid, man.
posted by Guy_Inamonkeysuit at 11:22 AM on April 8, 2008


Everybody needs some vitamin C.
posted by caddis at 11:23 AM on April 8, 2008


Correction: Abraham Hofer did not "cure" Bill Wilson of alcoholism. He'd already been sober 20 years when he tried LSD, much to the dismay of other members of Alcoholics Anonymous.
posted by Xurando at 11:27 AM on April 8, 2008


I always found it ironic that the right end of the political spectrum, which advocates small government and personal responsibility, would desire to have a government so large and powerful that it can monitor and control what each and every citizen puts in his or her body at all times.
posted by mullingitover at 11:32 AM on April 8, 2008 [5 favorites]


The background details are priceless. "Doors of perception to remain unlocked during office hours."
posted by nebulawindphone at 11:35 AM on April 8, 2008


I was prepared to be disappointed by this.

I'm happy to say that I was not.


(Also, this needs to be made into a printable PDF and distributed before Jack Chick sues that guy into elemental ash.)
posted by loquacious at 12:02 PM on April 8, 2008


Shame kids are combining LSD with booze, video games, and trippy Jimi Hendrix posters instead of letting it do its proper job

I'm with you on that, but they aren't still doing that are they? I remember the first time I tripped in college (in the 80s), and we went to somebody's dorm room that had huge posters of those psychedelic mushroom Yes album cover posters on his walls, and was playing with a black light of some kind. I thought the experience was stupid, lame and a cliche of what the whole thing was supposed to be about. So, a friend of mine and I took off went outside, and walked out about 30 feet out onto a frozen solid Lake Michigan and kicked a soccer ball around. It was... perfect.

Most other times I did it, it was a hoot, kind of a weird enhancement to another night out, but that time there was something religious about it.

Kids should learn never to drink alcohol while tripping. Not because it will get you more fucked up, it won't. The booze will not effect you at all while you're tripping, but you will still get the hangover the next day.
posted by Flem Snopes at 12:09 PM on April 8, 2008


Burhanistan writes "Shame kids are combining LSD with booze, video games, and trippy Jimi Hendrix posters instead of letting it do its proper job of deprogramming them and allowing them to experience the present moment of awareness unfettered by mental loop-backs."

Speaking as someone who discovered it that way, if they keep doing it, they'll get there sooner or later.
posted by krinklyfig at 12:20 PM on April 8, 2008


Flem Snopes writes "Kids should learn never to drink alcohol while tripping. Not because it will get you more fucked up, it won't. The booze will not effect you at all while you're tripping, but you will still get the hangover the next day."

You can indeed get drunk while tripping, but it takes more. There were times I enjoyed alcohol while coming down, and a couple times where it really enhanced the trip, but in general I'd agree it's not necessary (and probably better without it most of the time).
posted by krinklyfig at 12:22 PM on April 8, 2008


That was pretty cool, thanks, homunculus. It reminds me a little of those "for Beginners" books which I also highly recommend, or at least I did when I was 16 or so and making my way through Marx and Freud for Beginners.

Drinking while tripping can be a bad idea because while you won't notice the 16 beers you've knocked back during the trip itself, they'll all hit you at once when you begin to come down off the acid. It's not really fun to go straight from tripping your brains out to drunk off your ass. It is, however, highly educational - you won't do it again.
posted by mygothlaundry at 12:36 PM on April 8, 2008


That's interesting. YMMV, I guess. Repetitive, ritualistic activities (like smoking or drinking) can be good while tripping. They can give you something to refocus on if you're having a thought-storm or some other weirdness is going on. The first 2-3 times I tripped I remember drinking a shitload of beer, but not feeling drunk in the slightest (I, of course, was drunk, physiologically, but could not detect any effects of the booze on my thought process). I mostly decided then just to switch to water, as the only benefit I was getting from the booze was the hangover.
posted by Flem Snopes at 12:38 PM on April 8, 2008


Good grief. I thought it said LDS. I guess I've got Mormons on my mind again.
posted by grounded at 12:43 PM on April 8, 2008


That was well done. I'd like to see DMT get a similar treatment, groovy visual aides to accompany Strassman's research literature. When people pose fear-founded queries in my presence about the "ravaging long-term" effects of LSD, I point them towards Hoffman, sharp and Limber at 100 years old. "Nothing else can save you"? That's pretty great, but a tad extreme. LSD is a catalyst, the real magic substance resides in the human brain.
posted by Curry at 12:43 PM on April 8, 2008


This would only be analogous to a Chick Tract if it insisted that all other drugs except LSD were going to Hell.

Wait, unless you were talking about this one.
posted by resurrexit at 12:45 PM on April 8, 2008 [1 favorite]


I dropped acid well over 100 times between my late teens and early-20s. While I think it really opened my mind up to some crazy ideas, and perhaps helped to chill me the fuck out - I had friends who weren't so fortunate. Those friends were of the "OMGEVERYTHINGISANEMERGENCY!" variety. The ones who would down 12 cups of coffee the night before a small quiz in high school, so they could "cram for the exam", as if 10 years down the line, they'd move up a few corporate notches cause they scored an A instead of B on a quiz about the Civil War. When I gave a friend like that LSD, they would invariably sit there all night and ask questions and examine their trip "why is this happening? why do the walls look like they're melting? Is this going to damage my spinal cord? how long is this going to last? What do we do now to pass the time? Why am I thirsty?".

Those same people didn't walk away from LSD with an opened mind and a renewed sense of self and their place in the world. They didn't have some profound awakening of "we're all... like... ONE! Together!" or feel connected to the cosmic universe. Instead, they'd continue to go about worrying all the same, if not worse, as they now had to deal with urban legends about spinal taps revealing their one-off trip, or that they might be deemed "legally insane" were they to try it again.

Those who take LSD and just roll with it.. they're never quite the same. It's like they walked through some imaginary door that they can never go back through. In that other room, everything happens as it normally would, but now it feels different. For at least a few days after that first trip, you get this "it's all a lie" feeling, like the system is completely fucked up and broken in pieces. Some people never really come back from that frame of mind, some keep it in the back of their head as an amusing reminder.

But, there's some people who just can't handle that "red pill" awakening. Some people are just wired wrong, and mixing them with LSD is asking for trouble.

And using LSD for migraines? Whooboy. Talk about one of the worst ideas in the long, sad history of bad ideas.
posted by revmitcz at 12:46 PM on April 8, 2008 [4 favorites]


reminded me of
bad acid trip :P
thanks!
posted by kliuless at 12:54 PM on April 8, 2008 [3 favorites]


revmitcz writes "Those same people didn't walk away from LSD with an opened mind and a renewed sense of self and their place in the world. They didn't have some profound awakening of 'we're all... like... ONE! Together!' or feel connected to the cosmic universe. Instead, they'd continue to go about worrying all the same, if not worse, as they now had to deal with urban legends about spinal taps revealing their one-off trip, or that they might be deemed 'legally insane' were they to try it again."

Such people would benefit by using it with an experienced guide, which, ideally, is how everyone should experience it the first time.

Those who take LSD and just roll with it.. they're never quite the same.

Yep. Saved me from alcoholism and a complete downward spiral, and this is after having done it many times before. I'd say it saved my life, but that sometimes sounds a bit much, although it's more or less true. I had to do a lot of work on myself, but it opened the door wide too let it happen.
posted by krinklyfig at 1:04 PM on April 8, 2008


I have not been in this loop for > 10 years now, but isn't LSD very, very difficult to obtain any more?
posted by everichon at 1:18 PM on April 8, 2008


Everybody needs some vitamin C vitamin L.
posted by alms at 1:25 PM on April 8, 2008


I too would have to say that my well controlled psychedelic experiences in my early 20s totally changed my track in life, for the better. And I went to college in the late 80s and to look at me now, you'd probably say "There's a pretty straight arrow." This is where to DEA and the war on drugs really loses all credibility. To them, there's no difference between marijuana, LSD, PCP, MDMA, cocaine, methamphetamine, or glue sniffing. On it's face this is so factually untrue but the DEA has made it impossible for scientists and doctors to do the quality research to say why this is untrue.

Kids should learn never to drink alcohol while tripping. Not because it will get you more fucked up, it won't. The booze will not effect you at all while you're tripping, but you will still get the hangover the next day.


Have you ever tasted beer? I mean reeeaaallly tasted beer?
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 1:36 PM on April 8, 2008


(Also, this needs to be made into a printable PDF and distributed before Jack Chick sues that guy into elemental ash.)

Here ya go.
posted by homunculus at 1:44 PM on April 8, 2008


It's interesting. Taking any form of drug will give you a new perspective. It did for me in the first year of my degree. People ask me about it, or mention it, and I find that I don't regret it. It really opened up my perspective in so many ways. Overuse is never really cool, but I think there is a time and a place for certain drugs, and this is frowned upon by the 'masses' somewhat.
Use what you know not what you're told. And keep an open mind.

God damn hippies.
posted by bobbyone at 3:38 PM on April 8, 2008




isn't LSD very, very difficult to obtain any more?
posted by timsteil at 4:57 PM on April 8, 2008


Maybe I meant this
posted by timsteil at 4:59 PM on April 8, 2008


I was lucky enough to spend some time with Timothy Leary shortly before he died.

He had blue shag carpeting on his ceiling.
posted by Tube at 5:03 PM on April 8, 2008


I saw him lecture at my sister's college. Homeboy was definitely a bit crispy around the edges.
posted by jonmc at 5:49 PM on April 8, 2008


I always found it ironic that the right end of the political spectrum, which advocates small government and personal responsibility...

... not to mention freedom of religion and freedom of speech.... I think both of those freedoms *should* apply to the use and regulation of psychedelics (all drugs, really).
posted by mrgrimm at 6:23 PM on April 8, 2008


I was prepared to be disappointed by this.

I'm happy to say that I was not.


I had the opposite experience. There was a lot of misinformation in that, and it basically came off as propaganda. I am fine with experimental drug use, but there have been attempts to curb recreational use of mind-altering substances since well before the 1960s, and the reason is that contemporary society relies on networks of productive, capable people, and mind-altering substances can really fuck you up. They can fuck you up in a good way, they can fuck you up temporarily, and they can also just fuck you the fuck up. It depends on a lot of factors. But the point is, in a consumer society, where there is no sacred connotation to the experience, if LSD could just be marketed as another commodity like alcohol is, you could lose the benefits of the substance, and exaggerate its negative effects (remember wine is a sacrament in a lot of ancient cultures - we just don't contextualize it as one, so we just get drunk instead of having spiritual experiences - but that could be partly our own choice).

The first two times I tried mushrooms, I had very intense & positive "enlightenment" type experiences. THe third time I felt very close to nature and very alive. The fourth time I mostly just remember feeling out of it and uncomfortable, because I had smoked too much pot in the preceding days (this was in amsterdam) and I was really not ready for a trip, but the person I was with insisted and I finally went along with it. I have not done any psychedelics since because the feeling I got that night felt a little too close to discomfort with the world, and it seemed too likely that if the wrong eye opens, so to speak, you're stuck seeing a perspective of the world you'd rather not... (And I always felt like what I "saw" on trips stayed with me, to some extent.) (I couldn't do LSD for medical reasons, so have only tried psilocybin)

So, how legal this sort of thing should be seems like a complicated question, not a simple one, and the history here is missing a lot of details.
posted by mdn at 6:48 PM on April 8, 2008


It's really not complicated. The government does not really have a place in telling anyone how they should lead their own life. The government should butt the hell out of legislating morality and protecting people from themselves. I am sick of the nanny state. We claim to be the land of the free, yet we squash freedom at every turn. If you want to fuck yourself up on drugs, I am not going to stop you. It's your choice. However, unless you are dropping quite regularly, you are likely not going to fuck yourself up on acid unless you were already headed toward schizophrenia. The same with other non-addicting drugs, such as pot. Alcohol is much more of a societal problem; it's just grandfathered. Let's ditch all these laws that portend to protect us, but are really just morality or other attempts at getting people to do good - no seat belt laws, no helmet laws, no drug laws, no prostitution laws, no pornography laws, no mandatory health insurance laws. The state should attempt to provide a safe environment in which the citizens live freely. It should not attempt to proscribe how one should live. We are not communist USSR, we are supposedly free. Too many people are scared to death of freedom. I understand why, but get over it or stop bragging about it; the hypocrisy is sickening.
posted by caddis at 7:40 PM on April 8, 2008


LSD opened my eyes. A long time ago. Since, trying 'shrooms or acid, I experienced only a derangement of my neuro-sensory system. I had already gotten the spiritual message.

It was time, as Alan Watts said in a lecture of his I remember, to "hang up the phone."
posted by kozad at 10:03 PM on April 8, 2008


And using LSD for migraines? Whooboy. Talk about one of the worst ideas in the long, sad history of bad ideas.

No, not really - for this use, LSD/psilocybin are taken at sub-psychedelic doses.
posted by Drexen at 2:38 AM on April 9, 2008




Albert Hoffman Passes ON
posted by homunculus at 1:43 PM on April 29, 2008


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