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Lysergically Yours
April 16th, 1945: Dr. Albert Hoffman's work on obstetrics pharmacology at Sandoz Laboratories is unexpectedly interrupted by a "stream of fantastic pictures and extraordinary shapes with intense, kaleidoscopic play of colors."[1]
The following weeks saw Dr. Hoffman and his colleagues perform a series of self-experimentations which led to the discovery of the psychotropic effects of D-lysergic acid diethylamide 25, the most potent hallucinogen yet discovered -- and better known as LSD. The doors were suddenly flung open for a new age of exploration into the human mind. Government sanctions however quickly put an end to this line of research. Lysergically Yours, the first novel from Toronto-based author Duff supposes that this research program is still going strong, but not in the places one may traditionally think to look for it.
The reader is first introduced to Johnny, a computer science student at the University of Toronto and one-time high school acid dealer. It is through the lens of Johnny that the reader meets the book's delightfully diverse cast of supporting characters. From Lyle the punk-rock chemist to Tinka the manic witch and surprisingly affable career criminal Ivan, Duff continuously delivers with characters that you almost expect to run into the next time you're on campus despite the fact that they are so eccentric as to verge on unbelievable. As a former University of Toronto student myself, I must admit that the setting of the book was also wonderfully realized. From Convocation Hall to Lash Miller Chemical Laboratories to the basement of Hart House, Lysergically Yours romps across the university and the city bringing to life each locale that it touches.
The story itself is somewhat hard to classify. The opening throws Johnny and the reader into a very tense scene in which Johnny is the prisoner of Korean and Vietnamese mobsters and the building in which he is being held is being assaulted from outside by unknown forces. From this action-movie introduction, the story flashes back and begins to relate a decidedly non-action-movie drug culture caper story wherein Lyle and Johnny attempt to fund illegal research and a hedonistic lifestyle through the synthesis and sale of LSD. By the end however, as Johnny and Lyle find themselves deeper and deeper in trouble, the plot of Lysergically Yours verges strongly on the science fictional, yet Duff manages to wrap it all up into a bundle which leaves the reader feeling both entertained and satisfied.
At times the discussion of the technical details of drug synthesis and of various less than legal money-making schemes seem unnecessarily verbose, but perhaps they will be appreciated by those who are more familiar with the fields or even looking for a few pointers. In general however, Duff's prose is poetic in its spareness and simplicity. His dialogue also is unflowery and believable, conveying a real sense of character and situation. Even the far-sweeping conclusion of the novel, suggesting a world forever and fundamentally changed by the actions of a couple of punk rockers, is presented in a crisp and unapologetic style. As a reader, I could not help but be reminded of Neal Stephenson and, to a certain extent, Philip K. Dick.
My largest complaint with Lysergically Yours is that it is too short. Weighing in at 120 pages, the book is an easy read but leaves you feeling that it could have easily been expanded to fill twice as many. Still, in a time when most books seem to be guilty of the opposite sin, I am willing to forgive Frank Duff this indiscretion.
Another thing which makes this novel worth noticing is that it is released in affiliation with No Media Kings, an organization started by Toronto-based author Jim Munroe to promote a return to grass-roots media. In accordance with this "media of the people, by the people and for the people" ethos, Frank Duff has released the novel as a free e-text under the Creative Commons Attribution/Non-Commercial/Share-Alike license. This license not only allows the text of the novel to be freely distributed in any medium, but also explicitly allows for anyone to create derivative works from the novel for any non-commercial purpose. The use of this contract follows in the footsteps of successful science fiction author Cory Doctorow. The book is available as a physical artifact at a variety of small bookstores or directly from the author via his website where the e-book and several of his other shorter works are also available for free download.
[1] Hoffman, A. (1980) "LSD: My Problem Child," New York: McGraw-Hill.
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Very interesting to see this on slashdot.
Lysergically Yours is a good book, but is nothing compared to some of the other books available out there.
I would suggest TIHKAL and PIHKAL by Alexander and Ann Shulgin
That is, if you're interested in the chemistry... but for more casual psychonaughts, I would explore Erowid for information.
The best part both TIHKAL and PIHKAL's more interesting and (knowledgable) parts are available for FREE online via those two links. Have fun, and remember, psychoactives can be a valuable learning experience but to anything good there's equal if not more bad. Read everything with logic and don't go and turn out like Huxley.
Excuse me, I don't mean to impose, but I am the ocean
All your hits are belong to us.
So many memories.....erased.
I'll download this as soon as my mouse stops snapping at my like an alligator.
... that it would be posted by someone named Timothy.
Mmmmmmmmm.... Duff Brand LSD... (Drool)...
-- You are in a maze of little, twisty passages, all different... --
Releasing a valuable literary work under such a hippy, liberal, communist style copyright agreement? with all sorts of potential financial opportunities such as sales to Hollywood, serialisation in popular magazines, web based commercial exploitation? Is the author mad? IS HE ON DRUGS?
Jerry Garcia (quoted during an interview with Rolling Stone in 1991):
Psychedelics showed me a whole other universe, hundreds and millions of universes. So that was an incredibly positive experience. But on the other hand, I can't take psychedelics and perform as a professional. I might go out onstage and say, 'Hey, fuck this, I want to go chase butterflies!'
My largest complaint with Lysergically Yours is that it is too short. Weighing in at 120 pages, the book is an easy read but leaves you feeling that it could have easily been expanded to fill twice as many.
Oh the irony!
Free XBox, PS2
"this is a novel which deals in part with the synthesis of and culture surrounding LSD."
I see. So basically a tale of the origins of unix? :-)
I have never taken hallucinagens, so I cannot comment from personal experience, but I have always wondered whether the "new modes of conciousness" so often reported are actually new ways of looking at the world, or merely hallucinations themselves.
As a reference point, I would suggest reading the book Surely you're joking, Mr. Feynman by Physicist Richard Feynman. One chapter in particular discusses the authors experiences with halluncination in a sensory depravation chamber.
During one experience in the chamber, Feynman came to understand exactly how memories were organized in the brain. It made perfect sense, however, upon leaving the chamber, he realized that what had made perfect sense an hour ago, was absolutly rediculous. His understanding had been no more real than the things he was seeing in the chamber.
Let's make a difference
It is official; Netcraft confirms: *LSD is dying
One more crippling bombshell hit the already beleaguered *LSD community....
The book would have been much more interesting if it was Lethargically your...ZZZZZZZZZZ
LSD absorbs 47 times its own weight in excess reality.
is the license under which a book is released more interesting than the book itself.
If you can't obtain real LSD, you can always use banana peels. For real history see Michael Hollingshead [clue: he's the guy that turned Leary onto LSD!]
try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }
So if it was crap, it would still be "much better" crap because it's Creative Commons? Or, if it was brilliant, it might not be quite as brilliant, not quite as good if it where not under Creative Commons? What does the quality of the read have to do with the licensing?
"Who are in control, they are not in control of anything - they don't even control themselves!" - Glen Beck
British troops testing LSD - 14mb video, but essential viewing for those considering mixing hallucinogens with the workplace
"If you create user accounts, by default, they will have an account type of Administrator with no password." KB Q293834
Much more interesting, exciting and enlightening.
From how I read the review I got the impression that this book sorta glorifies the use of hallucinogenic drugs. Well, they have interesting effects but troubling side effects, such as the infamous LSD flashback. The latter outweigh the former, believe me. If you're interested in what it's REALLY like, go and read Burroughs' Naked Lunch. That should cure ya :)
----- One learns to itch where one can scratch.
that Albert Hoffman is remembered only for LSD.
Fact is, he created the first nootropic (cognitive enhancing) drug, hydergine, and deserves far more recognition for that than for LSD, or any of the other drugs of far more utility that he created.
The fact that he's not recognized for this only indicates that most people would rather be stoned than smart. That's a damn shame for him, and shame on them.
Oh, and shame on the US for not approving hydergine for use. It's one of the safest drugs there is, and useful to most anyone. Unfortunately, like many good drugs, the patents are owned by non-US companies, so no US company stands to profit, and so the FDA doesn't approve it. If it were the case that nootropics weren't useful, then Nobel laureate Eric Kandel wouldn't have announced devoting the remainder of his career to creating them.
"I may be synthetic, but I'm not stupid." -- Bishop 341-B
An Indian-American Hindu committed to non-violent thought/speech/action alarmed by the global explosion of radical Islam
since the war on drugs eliminated drugs.
...this is a novel which deals in part with the synthesis of and culture surrounding LSD.
Does the authors special edition version have perforated lickable pages?
I made a quick and dirty PDF (with the cover art) for those of you who aren't into reading flat text files (i prefer PDF's myself).
http://www3.telus.net/public/gsell/ly/
Sadly reality isn't an agreement, it's a absolute. A man may think he can fly while on drugs but his perceptions won't keep him alive if he jumps off a building.
with the same ol' propogandist bullshit they've been spewing since the beginning of the War on (some) Drugs. Your brainwashing is now complete, you can move on.
Although I have not read those books, I would highly recommend Erowid as an amazing resource for all kinds of information. Anything from chemistry, to religion/psychology, to laws and culture surrounding various substances. Seriously, even if you have the slightest curosity (don't we all?) then check it out. I used to keep a printed out copy of one of Erowid's FAQ's (*very* good I might add) on my coffeetable while living in my fraternity house and still in college. It was amazing the wide range of people who read and found it interesting, most of them had zero experience with those substances asides from the general fallacies.
That being said, please be responsible with whatever activities to choose to partake in.
# fuser -v
#
I find it interesting that a drug related article made it to slashdot. I spend a lot of time in psychedelic news forums. I've consumed my fair share of LSD as well. Sometimes I just assume that slashdot readers have similar interests, but then I think that is a silly assumption. Was my original assumption correct? Are most slashdot readers (geeks?) at least sympathetic to psychedelic/cannabis culture? If so, why do you think this is?
-matthew
"THERE IS NO JUSTICE, THERE IS ONLY ME." -Death
Is there a way to print it on blotting paper?
Sheesh that should have been one of the first comments. Stupid slashdot. And I don't even do drugs. Just sweet, sweet beer.
I am of the belief that what doesn't kill you, makes you stronger. Life is full of things to experience and I'd imagine that everyone has at least one painful, scary or politically-incorrect experience in their past that taught them a valuable lesson they continue to apply.
I'm not condoning LSD or any drugs. For every politically-incorrect drug like pot or LSD, there are a hundred others like Vicodin or Oxycotin which are potentially even more dangerous and addictive, yet are doled out like they are candy by many in the industry.
IMO, all drugs are basically used to alter reality whether we want to admit it or not. Pot is ultimately used as a (psychological) "painkiller" not unlike how you might get a Demerol drip (as a physical painkiller) before a surgery, albeit the circumstances vary, the main objective is not dissimilar if you look at things figuratively. The value in using these substances is exclusively based on employing moderation and responsibility. I believe every drug has an equal potential for positive or negative consequences. LSD can make people more intelligent by unlocking areas of their brain that were previously inaccessible; alcohol can loosen peoples inhibitions and allow them to be more comfortable and relaxed; painkillers and muscle relaxers have beneficial uses -- it all depends upon how *responsible* one is in using these tools. But to completely condemn one group, while promoting another seems hypocritical to me. But at the same time, I also acknowledge that our society is becoming progressively more obsessive-compulsive and unable to moderate their consumption, so it's a real dilemma how to deal with the abuse potential.
Where things get scary IMO isn't over which drugs are good or bad. ANYTHING can be abused and destructive if not used responsibly and in moderation, whether we're talking about alcohol or oxygen. You could just as easily make yourself hallucinate by hyperventilating. But what seems scary to me is this fearful anti-drug culture which downplays the significance of responsibility in favor of making people intensely fearful of even the singular prospect of trying some politically-incorrect substance. This results in a sociological change in the last ten years where there is an almost total absence of healthy debate on the issues and the elimination of a substantive moderate/responsible-user/exerimenter demographic: people tend to be one extreme or the other: those who have never tried drugs and authoritatively claim they're evil and suicidal, or those that exercise virtually no responsibility in using them and are poster children for self destruction and lack of moderation.
In the mean time, as a result of this immoveable, hyper-puritanical polarization of drug use, we miss the opportunity to discover wisdom and insight that we could reap great benefit from.
I don't do drugs. In general, they don't interest me. Sure, during my university years I drank like a fish and still enjoy a bottle of wine or a few beers... and yeah... even the odd blinder now and then. I've never done any hard drugs (I don't count the odd joint as a hard drug, and anyway... pot gives me an hour of giggles then three of headaches and paranoia).
But Acid has always struck me as something interesting. Something I'd like to try.
So, for the newbie, what's your advice?
- How do I ensure I'm getting the real thing?
- What enviroment, music, people etc etc should I be in/with/etc.
- If things go bad, what can others do to help me through it?
- Any other pointers?
Norman Cook's Ode to Sl
And remember
Microsoft = "Free as in Drugs"(*)
BSD = "Free as in Beer.
Linux = "free as in Speach.
(*) "With Microsoft, the first hit is always free - remember that all your life. They're going to all these different websites and having them become .Net websites. They say they're not going to make any money. For now, they'll not charge you for access to your Passport environment. Maybe soon they'll charge you $50. That's $50 that they're charging you for info that they stole from you." -- Scott McNealy
Someone mod this up!
"The walls have melted, and my lab assistant Charles has turned into a a lemur that resembles the late Kaiser Wilhelm.
However, the flying mice assure me that this is perfectly normal."
I wonder if anyone who has done LSD has also had experience with lucid dreaming? I have experimented to some degree with lucid dreaming, and after discussing acid trips with friends who've had them, I kind of theorize that LSD is very similar dreaming while awake.
I'm 30 and I haven't tried LSD. It's not likely that I will, but I don't think it's wrong or particularly dangerous. It's possible I'd try it at some point if I got exceedingly bored with other means of exploring conciousness.
But for now when I get the inclination for some exploration of conciousness, I just crack out the dream journal and go from there. I guess I think of LSD as cheating a bit. Like steroids or something.
Of course, someone with experience with both might feel differently.
Cheers.
It's people with no actual LSD knowledge who hallucinate such side effects as memory loss, significant "flashbacks", and brainfry. There are tiny percentages of actual users who have experienced some of these effects, but they're traceable to repressed psychotic drives of people who foolishly take the drug, often out of a selfdestructive urge. Drugs aren't for everybody, but fearmongering is apparently less exclusive.
--
make install -not war
I have a friend who has done them weekly for last 25 years w/no known side effects. in fact he credits the 'enlightnment' the shrooms gave him in becoming an internet multi-millionaire.
Easy to grow
I have a friend who has done them weekly for last 25 years w/no known side effects. In fact he credits the 'enlightnment' the shrooms gave him in becoming an internet multi-millionaire.
Easy to grow
Fonzi jumped a shark and all the other tv show are doing it.
for the humour/sp impaired mods
You just "get high on life." I overcame my shyness problem with a similar sort of one-time experience, but it had nothing to do with drugs, but rather a group of friends who were all "tripping" on the same wavelength in an evening.
Drugs have nothing to do with it. They're just crutches for people who don't have powerful enough imaginations.
My first week at college in undergrad. All decked out in my preppy kahkis and docksiders, trying to fit in, some of the other frosh invited me to a Grateful Dead concert in Boston MA (Fall 1993).
When I got there I was overwhelmed with sensory overload and I had not taken anything yet. My previous experience up to that point had been some high school binge drinking (think Mad Dog 20/20) and smoking pot a few times.
One of my new friends scored some paper and he offered to me what looked like a corner of some construction paper, no bigger than what a hole punch would spit out. I didn't think anything like that could do much so I ate it.
An hour later I'm running around like a mad man, still decked out in a polo shirt and kahkis. It was an awesome experience and from that moment on I felt everyone should do acid at least once in their lives.
I haven't done it in a few years, but I hope to change that. A lot of stuff builds up in your brain, locked away that needs to be cleansed every once in a while. You may have to fight some deamons along teh way, but once its over, the next day the world is a beautiful new place.
Happy travels!
You used to use LSD to experice Ego Death. But these days you get your job outsourced to india for the same effect.
-+-=-+-=-+-=-+-=-+-=-+ *** http://www.mountainfort.com *** +-=-+-=-+-=-+-=-+-=-+-
I give up.
You put up stories like this and legos and all kinds of crap.
Meanwhile you refuse real stories.
Gigantic, idiotic story, what did it do give a flashback?
What is your demographic, teenagers?
http://tinyurl.com/globalwarmingisascam
http://www.mzla.com/keith/lucid.shtml
"Would it kill you to put down the toilet seat?" -- Maya Angelou
The excerpt is very similar to something that happened to me after doing a cube of LSD (circa 70's).
A friend (also dosed) and I stood at either side of a door watching the party within the room and we both glanced up at each other and a conversation ensued between us, both of us, immediately realizing we weren't speaking, (our hands gesturing wildly to each other that same premise) refused to blink for fear of breaking this spell.
This went on for well over 50 seconds, our eyes ever widening, when finally, it just dissipated. We both simultaneously gushed each others aforementioned conversation to each other.
It was almost broadcast like, a twin thing, I suppose.
He later was best man at my wedding.
True story.
by Jim Hogshire is a good one, if you are into poppy-derived drugs. And I don't know how you couldn't be. Unless you're allergic. What a horrible life that would be.
LSD was huge in the 60's and 70's but has greatly diminished in recent years. This decline is due primarily to incredibly reduced availability on the black market. LSD is not easily produced, and the punishment for possession of even small amounts resulted in ridiculous amounts of jail time. Because of these factors youth these days hardly have the opportunity to influence their mind with LSD. This doesn't mean that kids these days don't trip, they've just found other ways. Some of the modern popular psychedelics are:
5-MeO-DiPT (Foxy) - Similar to LSD with some of the "rolling" effects of MDMA (ecstacy)
2C-I - A trippy phenethylamine
5-MeO-AMT - Very potent tryptamine
2C-T-2 - Very powerful hallucinogen
What makes these "new" drugs so interesting is that many have not yet been scheduled by the DEA. Although a few on the list above were recently added to Schedule 1 by an emergency scheduling process. Unscheduled drugs are simply chemicals that can be legally possessed and sold and therefore are done so over the internet. A lot of modern "drug dealers" buy these chemicals cheap on the internet and sell them in their locality. A couple popular distributors are:
Rac:Research
LTK Research Products
Omega Fine Chemicals
Just to give you guys an idea of what kids are up to these days
- Cary
FAIRFAX UNDERGROUND where fairfax county comes out to play
any acid suppliers in the uk?
according to quantum physics there is no objective view of the universe.
One of the most valuable psychedelic experiences is the metaexperience: that "experience" itself is a mental construct, not inherent to the experienced reality. The hallucinations typically don't survive reentry to the unmedicated state. But the happy "disillusionment" frees the user from the misconception that reality is as simple as it looks. Which is almost as rewarding as realistic astral projection.
--
make install -not war
Even while lucid dreaming I have not had full freedom, instead lucid dreams for me have been random situations or encounters that I could feel myself making choices on. Rarely was I able to do anything completely crazy like fly in a lucid dream because my conscious mind would take over and realize that wasn't possible.
LSD is like a waking dream where you have very little control. The control isn't just what you see or hear... but often what you fell and most importantly the walls you have with your normal interactions are completely invalidated. While on LSD I have seen the depths of my soul, the limits of my rationalizing and typically after a session where I tried to think have come out of it with a different understanding and vantage on issues about my own personal ego. I've also experienced a bad trip that had me believing for about 24 hours after the initial dose that I had damaged myself to the point of being unable to operate within society any more. LSD is like stepping back into 3rd person mode and looking at your life, your world, your interactions as though someone from Disney was pulling the reigns except occasionally they go pee and Tim Burton takes over for a bit.
Mushrooms tend to be a much more mellow and social experience. Doing shrooms with a group of good friends can be a really amazing experience and help you build trust and understanding with those friends that most people would be envious of.
Personally I believe everyone should do Shrooms or LSD at least once in their life... however I believe this should be with someone who is trained to help you have a good time, help you understand or someone who simply understands your goals going in. While the occasional diversion from everyone else's reality can be great, doing these drugs too often is stupid. Remember it only takes a few weeks to train new neuropathways in your brain... if you are habitually tripping you risk making some of these off-kilter synapse paths long lasting. Also, if you are already taking an SSRI or such... just don't.
Well maybe it isnt what you think it is. Is not reality an agreement of what exist/is possible? We didnt chose it but our mind did probably in its evolution. We cant fly because our mind know that its not possible and therefore will react by crashing to the ground.
... really powerfull and that it would change my life. Music was so wonderfull on it. I would kill someone to feel this trip again. Pretty much all trips unless the latter one was very profound and really keeewwwwl.You see its like if life opened to you and you felt really changed by it on psychedelics. I definitely recommend doing it but you have to know what u do. Keep respect for the drug it can show you awesome stuff and everything will go fine. I recommend doing it just with a close friend or alone listening to music if its your first time. ;P
Science proved that it is gravity acting and because our body weight something we cant do anything but go crashing to the floor. Well thats what science say and i believe that our reality is acting accordingly to the laws science have found but im not sure if these laws are really absolute or if in fact they are just made up by our brain and the way it evoluted from its beginning to now. You know when the first life on earth whatever it was that found the way to fly did he first had wings or did it just tryed to do it and his brain reacted the way it wanted? You see i think reality act the way it do because we think/want it to act that way. Our brains probably work by doing what it is supposed to do in reality. Like a computer program that react to its input change he react to reality. In fact i think reality is in fact like a big virtual reality world and were the program, we play reality. Now if we could find the way to see/do non-normal things like by using psychedelics maybe we could find more truth about this game.
I have some experience with psychedelics and most of them have been very profound and life changing. I remember my first trip: it was pretty good. I dont remember much i forgot about everything but fragment the minute i came down but i remember telling myself this was
Beeing with people you dont know/trust can be freaky on drug. Just enjoy the trip dont be scared nothing can happen or well everything can happen
Some drugs, especially those that directly affect not only sensual perception, but also self-perception (in varying degrees of selfreference), can demonstrate in a learning scenario that the experienced environment is more complex than is normally experienced. This is true of many intense learning scenarios, some of which are chemically induced, others geographically (like travel, mountain climbing, SCUBA), or through human-scale prosthetics (videogames, guns, telepresence) that extend our senses or motor action.
Aberration depends on your overly strict definition of "normal". Along the lines you use, hunger is normal, and satiety from food is aberrant, dependent as it is on consuming external chemicals. While mind-altering chemical use (beyond even the legally accepted alcohol, caffeine, sucrose and nicotine) is also integral to all known societies, past and present.
Your statements admit your inability to process descriptions of experiencing the limits of perception. But taking the drugs you dismiss (and probably fear) is not necessary to understand them. Opening your mind, using your imagination, and accepting the possiblity that drugs could offer you some benefit, is necessary. Try it - you'll like it.
--
make install -not war
The best book I've read about LSD was one of the first published: John C. Lilly's Programming and Metaprogramming in the Human Biocomputer. Lilly invented the isolation tank (known from the amusing, but fictional, Frankenstein movie _Altered States_), and wrote Meta/Programming while one of the USA's foremost clinical psychoanalysts, a study for the NIMH just prior to the political outlawing of legitimate LSD research. In it, Lilly totally nails LSD's role as noise in the neurotransmission system, incidentally offering seminal insight into the nascent field of cybernetics (when the most advanced computers were dumber than your watch). And it's a really short book, without all the fancy indulgence in sensory hallucinations and utopian speculation so common in the field.
Try reading it - you might learn more not only about your self, but about your computer, and how similar you might one day become.
--
make install -not war
I once had the pleasure of meeting Roky Erickson about 20 years ago, a man with a deep history of drug abuse (including lots and lots and lots of LSD), institutional commitment and electroshock therapy. He and his mother brought his small guitar practice amp into the music store in south Austin where I worked as a teenager and kept complaining that it was shocking him thru his guitar. The amp had the ground lug cut off the power plug, and his mother explained that he always played it while standing barefoot on a damp concrete floor. I tried repeatedly to explain to him that the amp must be properly grounded and that he needed to stand on something to insulate his bare feet from the damp concrete, but his mind was so permanently fogged up that it was impossible for him to even come close to understanding why he was getting electrocuted. He was living in a state of perpetual unreality and complete absence of an attention span. His mother assured me that he was completely sober at that time and that in fact he was having one of his 'good days'. We took pity on him and sold him a battery-powered "Pignose" practice amp cheap so he could play his guitar at home without getting shocked.
They think drugs are something that bad people do in back alleys somewhere. They probably killed someone to get their fix. They've been told that rational, reasonable, responsible people could never use recreational substances on occasion without turning into homocidal maniacs.
It's pretty sad, really.
.. oh .. ermm ... VST?
; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
Yeah, like "music culture" or "computer culture" or how about "surfer culture". Utterly invalid.
How dare you get people with a common interest together and call it a culture?
"It is much more than just a drug book though, and what's better, it has been released under a Creative Commons license."
No, the *release* of a crap book under a CC license would, in that poster's opinion, be *much* better than the crap book itself. If you can't parse their fairly simple sentence through your apparent haze of antipathy to the CC license, you probably won't get much out of a book about LSD.
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make install -not war
Okay, I read the book (it only took an hour or less). I lived in the neighborhood the story describes for several years and am dating a korean girl. This made it a bit more interesting at first.
This should have been 3 times as long. The plot is barely coherent at times, although the critical events are covered it is not as verbose as one might have liked. The characters are barely developed -- they are introduced and disappear.
I found it to be more like a side-story xfiles episode, only with about 30 minutes of content. When I read a book I expect at least a 3 hour movie of development and content.
5/10.
ragemaxis
--- ask me about nihilism, I will have nothing to tell you.
The word "narcotic" is also stretched to mean much more than it used to / ought to. In particular, government agents talking about drugs will use the term as if it were equivalent to any currently illegal psychoactive. Cocaine, for instance, is frequently labeled a narcotic, which it isn't.
Codeine, on the other hand, qualifies.
timothy
jrnl: http://tinyurl.com/c2l8yr / foes: http://tinyurl.com/ckjno5
Golly, that's news to me. My experience with mushrooms was that they were fun for a while (after it started to kick in, which took more than an hour) but after about eight hours I'd start to hope that the magical light show would end and I'd be able to get some sleep before having to face the next day of classes or work! If LSD lasts longer than that, no thank you. Even during college I couldn't afford to lose a whole day tripping.
Am I part of the core demographic for Swedish Fish?
Certainly lsd or mushrooms (and other tryptamines) can be great drugs, I would recommend trying something else first. It's called DXM, which is short for dextromethorphan. It's an ingredient in over the counter cough syrups. Before you laugh, read on.
:). It doesn't matter if you get pills or syrup though. Just get one bottle to start with, this will be 300mg (pills) or 354mg (syrup) total. On your way to the checkout, grab a frappucino. Pay, go to your car, drive home. Play some music, open the bottle, open the frap. PLUG YOUR NOSE, CHUG THE SYRUP (or just take the pills 4-5 at a time) then rinse your mouth with the frapp and swallow :). Then eat a small peice of bread and chill for a while. ABSOLUTELY DO NOT SMOKE WEED WITH DXM if its your first (or 10th for that matter) time doing dxm... Absolutely do NOT DO STIMULANTS (except caffiene). This includes ephedrine, ritalin, any form of speed, extacy, etc. Have a couple drinks of alcohol (drink 'em if you've got them!) This makes it alot smoother.
I have seen others in this thread talking about ketamine, dxm is *very* similar to ketamine. It is recognizably similar to nitrous oxide as well. (They are all in the same family of drugs, disassociative analgesics).
Here's what you do: Go down to safeway or fred meyers, and buy a bottle of "robitussion cough gels" or "dexalone" or "robitussion maximum strength cough". READ THE INGREDIENTS LIST. Make SURE SURE SURE the only active ingredient is dextromethorphan hydrobromide. Make absolutely sure
If you've got percocet, vicodin, or codeine pills, or syrup, laying around (any opiate, any opiate even tramadol!) TAKE THEM. It will be the most wonderful feeling you've had your entire life, BAR NONE-better than if you've ever done extacy, by far, no comparison.
Its hard to explain what DXM is like, but if you like this low/moderate dose, then move up to two or three bottles to try (just once or twice to experience it).
DXM is the greatest gateway to psychedelics ever (even though yes, I know it's not technically a psychedelic)... When your ready to try shrooms, etc, take your shrooms with a small dose of dxm, take your lsd with a small dose of dxm, (but avoid marijuana).. also great to mix, like i said, with alcohol, great with nitrous, and omgwonderful with opiates...
I can't stress enough how much better almost every single drug is with dxm!!! It will increase the visuals from shrooms without decreasing the insight or screwing up motor functions. Decreases any anger you might get from alcohol. Removes tolerance you get from opiates. Makes weed about 5 times stronger (not for the faint of heart, I don't like weed and i hate this mix even more, it's far far too strong, even die hard weed people dont like it...it has a verrry strange effect when mixed with weed, literally makin it 5 times stronger at least)...
Anyway, enjoy and gl! (you can get dxm powder off the net too, never attempt without a good scale if your a dxm n00b)
replacing it with NEW Folger's Crystals! (lets see if they notice the difference)
in soviet russia, halucinogenics trip on YOU
He was doing psychotheraputic research with LSD before the Feds decided the research was too dangerous to be continued: Seems there was a considerable loss to the world when this research was shutdown.
Interesting fella, this Dr. Grof. He has a fine mind and doesn't mind sharing his thinking, whether purely speculative or simply scientific and so his other works are often worth reading as well.
Everything in the Universe sucks: It's the law!
DEAD ON THE MONEY
I went in the bathroom to take a leak, stopped and looked into the mirror, and said "Why am I carrying around all the anger? Why do I hate myself so much? I really am a decent person." I flushed and walked out of the bathroom and I have felt better ever since.
10 years of therapy for $10.Wu-Tang Name: Half-Cut Skeleton Get your own Wu-Na
Acid gives the peek about 2-3hours after taking it, then its strong for a few more hours, but by the 6th hour you can feel it disapearing and your frame of mind is more coherent rather than loopy after 6hours, sure the physical effects are still quite strong, but your mind is back to 90% of its normal self or so (not like it was 3hrs earlier). So all up 12 hrs till theres barely 5% left of it, but 6-8hrs till your finishing your peak, then its tapering off.
:) though not wise to take 2hrs apart as it is not as strong as both at the same time.
You could take 2 trips at once, mmmm
Liberty freedom are no1, not dicks in suits.
As a warning to anyone here who might be considering trying any psychedelic drugs, I'd like to mention HPPD, or Hallucinogen Persisting Perception Disorder. It's a disorder with unknown causes, but is generally linked to the use of psychedelic drugs, LSD most strongly. Without describing it in too great detail, victims of the disease basically live out their lives without their "trip" ever ending; in the worst cases, the psychedelic effects one experienced while using the drug never cease.
God, man, don't say things like that. You shouldn't advocate universal LSD use. It is not a drug for everyone and even one bad trip can be seriously traumatic. I speak from experience when I say that after 5 years I still wish I had never tried the drug. I won't deny that this is because of my psychological make-up. In fact, that is exactly why it infuriates me whenever I see people like you recommending the drug. Some people have minds which should not and do not need to be opened. They're a small percentage, but its exactly this kind of hipster attitude that encourages the wrong people to try it, thinking it's going to be a wonderful experience.
Tripping is not a necessary part of life. The only worthwhile conclusions and discoveries made are the ones which are arrived at through a coherent chain of events. It's fine if you find it an enjoyable form of recreation, but please allow people to form their own opinion on whether or not it's a good thing to do. Don't try to persuade into doing it those people who have a gut feeling that it's bad for them. It may bring people like you insight, but for some it can be shattering hours of agony that no one deserves to have to live through.
I wouldn't advocate licking things while tripping on LSD. It might seem like a good idea at the time, but the next day you might wake up with the realization that fire doesn't taste as good as you thought it would.
years ago, I took a great deal of LSD, shrooms, etc after 12 years of meditation I've found most of those states of mind are available without the drugs It was fun back then, though I don't miss the 10,000 inch long ants doing the congo line in vertigo inducing patterns on all available surfaces.....I wonder if they miss me?
I know that Lsyergic Acid Diathylamide is Schedule I(Illegal, in the same token as heroin and crack) in the United States, and I would venture to guess that it is illegal to posess except for research purposes in the U.K. as well, but does anyone know if LSD is legal in any nation? The Netherlands, perhaps? I know psilocybe mushrooms are legal there, and I can't imagine that LSD is signifiacantly more dangerous than those, albeit certainly more potent.
Sleep is futile.
Sorry to crash your party, dude, but smoking marijuana is not going to improve your brain in any way. Just because people have been consuming it for a millenia doesn't mean it gets the "safe as water" stamp.
Also, a rave is not where you will find unbiased information on the safety of the popular drugs. I for one would be curious for you to describe how the drugs you take improve your life and mind.
Mushrooms are dirty. The high isn't nearly as clean as acid and I don't know what you mean by brain fry.
I know a guy who OD'd on mushrooms one night. He went home, shit in his bed and tryed to fuck his mother. That's brain fry!
"There are two major developments that have come out of Berkeley: BSD UNIX and LSD. This is not a coincidence." - Anon.
Hang on there, pardner.
.
/. post when they were 16 but certainly can't now.
I'm all in favor of giving the kids options to explore their horizons, but any suggestion that guzzling cough syrup will result in transcendental awareness . . .
I did an awful lot of hallucinogens in my day and I'd like to think I came out of it all with a greater awareness of myself and the world around me.
But at the same time, I know more than a few people who were seeking transcendence in high school, and who may or may not have been able to understand your average
In short, I developed the feeling that naturally occuring substances are OK, particularly when they have a deep tradition of meditative and/or recreational use. Examples would be the rightous herb cannabis sativa/indica, the psilocybin mushroom, a truly amazing amazonian concoction called hiauaska, and good ol' C2H6O.
If you really want a transcendental experience, brew your own beer, or better yet, grow your own dope.
I will admit LSD opened some doors for me. I did it maybe a dozen times, but not for the last 10 years. Especially on the last few trips, it left me feeling dirty.
Chemical drugs are bad, man, and that's it. Find a guy around 28-30 years old who did 'loads of E' back in the day, and you will have found an individual with greatly reduced cognitave abilites.
We're all geeks here, right? I mean every second person here is boasting about how they got their digital toaster to run Gentoo.
Then I don't see why you should be comparing different cough drop brands for their hallucinatory effects.
You can compile (or write) your own damn OS, so brew your own, grow your own, or, if that's what you really get off on, synthesize your own. I'll be happy to drink and/or smoke with you, but I'll leave the pill-popping to those who really don't care what tomorrow brings.
Besides, I'm pretty sure that DXM is proprietary. Alcohol and marijuana are most definitely GPL.
Jah Love
Like these (windows media player download)
Given that I've dosed about 105 times while in college, I thought it was right on the money... And I'm proof positive that acid doesn't cause any permanent damage - I own my own business, and have three masters degrees..... I get up every day and work.
:-)
Do I want to do acid again? No. But that's my choice. I have learned from it, but I just don't have the time anymore to spend 12 hrs trippin my balls off, and then 12 hours sleeping...
I've seen walls breathe, heard colors, seen sound. I studied for a calc final while trippin (my roommate put some in my beer) and actually UNDERSTOOD where Newton was coming from. I had struggled with Calc all year long, and walked into that final (still trippin) took a 2 hour exam in about 20 minutes and aced the fucking thing...
I made some incredible friends during that time - and we're still friends to this day 15 years later... All of us are successful in business and life... None of us have or will buy into that governmental bullshit about the stuff being bad for you...
It opened my mind to new possibilities... Some still make me chuckle to this day:
1) Every car has a "trip reset" button... It might work on that number thingy, but there's no way in hell it's going to stop your trip... I know. I've done the research, conducted about 500 trials, and it just has no effect
2) "Tie your shoes bobbie, or you'll trip...". (overheard in a grocery store)... Shit, and to think I paid $6... all I had to do was untie my shoelaces...
3) Refrigerator lightbulbs are what actually make the refrigerator cold. Winter is caused by extraordinarily large refrigerator lightbulbs that were put into the street lights all over town... Walking underneath them could freeze you out...
4) You *can* climb the walls if the hallway is narrow enough. Just don't shift your weight off the stud when you're 6' in the air...
5) Playing frisbee in a cemetary while tripping tends to piss off mother nature... The ghosts didn't mind too much though...
6) If you can't deal with the ghost of your dead grandmother crawling up your leg with a knife in her teeth (whether she's actually dead or not), then DON'T DO ACID....
7) Bats can be knocked out of the air with Everclear fireballs...
8) It doesn't matter how much alcohol you drink while trippin' - it's not going to affect you in the least...
9) Giant crayola crayons make great swords at bars... They can even stop traffic!
10) Everyone trips at The Pace...
11) Thanks Lindy, for the 50 hits...
So these flashbacks are mostly visual? Perhaps they might not be caused by the LSD use at all. I have never done any true hallucinogen, yet visual artifacts are quite common for me, and I would expect that everyone gets them. They are usually just an "under the radar" thing, mentally. It might be that the user now associates the mind-generated visuals with the LSD experience, and is more likely to notice the otherwise-ignored noise. Disclaimer: Pot/Caffeine user, has also used alcohol, nicotine, lack of sleep
http://persianews.on.nimp.org/?u=Tar_Baby
After several years of experimentation with psychedelic substances, here is what I came to: these substances can help you discover who you really are.
The problem: you must be quite strong and psychologically mature to be able to integrate this new knowledge about yourself into your everyday existence. If you are not, then at best, these memories about your (and the world's) deeper aspects will fade away and you can continue your everyday life as before.
But if you are unlucky, you might get trapped here. You have glimpsed eternity, but the trip is over and you find yourself in this sad, closed state again... then you try to get back there, with drugs or any other way... but THAT never comes back, only the pseudo-realities which can be easily created by your imagination to filfull your wishes... you delude yourself without end...
You may spend your entire life haunting that vision of beauty and perfection that you've experienced in the LSD state. If you don't find those who know what you are talking about, if you don't find somebody who can help you on the road to self-knowledge, then this single experience may bring you decades of despair and suffering.
However difficult it becomes, you cannot just easily forget it because when you get to experience your true self in a psychedelic state, then your whole body/soul/mind is absolutely sure that this is TRUE. You feel it in each of your cells. This experience gets imprinted so deeply into your soul that you cannot possibly say later that it was not real. Even if you come to the conclusion that the drug may have only activated those areas of your brain which made you feel/think that this thing, that you've experienced is somehow deeply relevant (when in fact it may be not), this does not rewire the imprinting, if it is too deeply ingrained (which is definitely a possibility with psychedelics - you can reprogram your entire self).
Here is my advice: think before you choose the red pill.
Here's a little bit as it relates to music.
Some of my jam buddies like pot alot, one of them enough to be considered a pothead. They can play pretty well while high. They also say they don't play as well, but I haven't noticed.
I simply suck at playing music of any kind while high, buthave observed an interesting effect. The night after getting high (especially if it was a jam night), jazz improvisation comes easily, and is of a more coherent, flowing nature.
This is just one person's experience, hardly a decent sample size, but it seems that marijuana can indeed have a positive effect on the mind.
http://persianews.on.nimp.org/?u=Tar_Baby
No not always. And trust me tracers are NOT an under the radar thing. ever see a picture with a dozen or more 'echos' following it, like a strobe effect? kinda like that.
Another thing that happens with flashbacks is shift in mental state, like what happens when tripping.
Now not everyone in my experience has them. How many (indeed if) and how strong seems linked to usage, 1 hit once and I doubt you'll have any. but 2-4 hits 3-4 times a week for a year and your gonna see things melt in a flashback unless you have some natural resistance. They also tend to fade with time. I know of no counter-examples to them fading out, closest is a guy who used massively, used other drugs with, and got electroshock therapy during re-hab, so his case is a-typical and to complex to attribute effects clearly. It really seems to be very minor unless you use lsd fairly heavily, and personal chemistry has an effect.
Mycroft
https://signup.leagueoflegends.com/?ref=4c3ed6600b6ea
Well when I say 'lowers IQ', it's more of a lose catch all phrase for what I see in my smoking friends and others.
They clearly cannot think or reason as fast, and somtime not as clearly, as when sober. They also tend to lose track of what they're thinking.
Now I've worked with people who swear they 'work harder' or 'work better' when high. I've found without exception this is self delusion. Usually they screw up more, go slower, and lose track of what thier doing. Best results I've seen is from people who've built up significant tolerance on 'just a ligh buzz' are only a little slower is all.
That said it is great for improving apetite, reducing nausea, and relaxing someone. It's known to be mildly helpfull with glaucoma patients. It also has anti-siezure benifits that sometimes works for epileptics when nothing else will to prevent or reduce grand maul type siezures.
And may have other benifits. At the very least it's benifit for chemo patients is worth the minor negatives.
It's just that anytime someone tell me they do X better high I know thier full of it unless X is eat lots of nachos.
Mycroft
https://signup.leagueoflegends.com/?ref=4c3ed6600b6ea
Few of the deep insights bear close inspection, and it's *really* hard to bring deep-trip things back anyway. But the experience can still be useful anyway. An analogy: in the old days, loggers cut trees during winter and sledged them to stream banks with horses. Come the spring thaw the streams would flood, the logs would float, and downstream they'd go to the mill. However, the streams and rivers often had random rocks, and a log wold fetch up. Then the log behind that would fetch up on the first, and pretty soon you have a solid mass of intertwined logs running five miles upriver. These jams had to be unjammed to get the logs down, and it had to be done before falling water levels made it impossible until next year. The bigger mills had a set of jam experts on hire. The expert would travel to river and climb out on the jam with a peavey (a pole with a spike and hook for shifting logs around). He'd poke a little here, poke a little there, and find the one key log that was holding everything. Poke, shift, tie a rope around it and pull, and whoosh! - out goes the whole mess. The experts were paid *very* well. Smaller logging companies could not afford the experts. If they got a jam, their best logger would try to locate the key log and play expert. But if he couldn't, the fix was to bundle a couple of sticks of dynamite into a likely looking place in the pile. Kaboom! - and if lucky, whoosh!. If not, try a few more sticks somewhere else. The dynamite always blew a few logs to smithereens, and so the companies that could afford it used the experts instead of dynamite. But even the experts used explosives sometimes. The combination of skill and bang would unstick things, and that was what mattered. It's the same with acid in manny ways. We all get stuck inside on occasion - sometimes small jams, sometimes so big that the clear flow of our river of mind is completely blocked. Those that can afford an expert (a shrink, or guru, or whatever) or who have developed the skill themselves (meditation, revelation, or whatever) can do just fine without dynamite. For the rest of us, acid makes pretty good mental dynamite. Yes, it will smash a few logs, but the benefit of unblocking the mental and spiritual river is great. Of course, it doesn't offer much benefit when the river is flowing well anyway, so most people who go tripping seem to gradually cease after a while, except for an occasional "old time's sake". And it make lousy recreation - acid makes you look at what you've been working for years to not look at. Takes your person and life and reality itself and rubs your nose in it. But sooner or later you will meet your greatest fear, and your heart's desire. For most people, the heart's desire is the scarier. And always beautiful. Sometimes horribly beautiful, but always beautiful. Ivan
In addition to hosting PIHKAL and TIHKAL, Erowid is the largest and broadest resource online for information relating to psychoactive plants and chemicals. I'm sure alot of folks reading this thread use erowid alot... I strongly encourage people to donate to keeping it alive and healthy.
They put out an amazing newsletter for members - membership starts at $25 and donations of $200 or higher are currently being matched under a summer matching grant. Signed copies of the Shulgins' books are available at the $150 level.
---
"The U.S. Constitution - not perfect, but its better than what we have now"
Every druggie's dream: their drug accomplishing something besides a waste of time.
I wish I could slap you at this very moment.
No, I am not a violent person, but I believe you would come to realize there is somthing as reality once you feel the pain, see your blood driping on the floor and concentrate all your might on how to take revenge.
All this preposterous pseudo pilosohpy is all great as an exercise for the imagination, but in practical terms is all bullshit. AT the end you have to eat, evacuate, reproduce if you possibly can, and perhaps think a bit, to eventually be a goner forever.
All the rest is fluff, amuzing, but eventually completely useless.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
I find tremendously stupid to "enhance" reality by consistently trying to evade it.
People that regularly take drugs just do not realize the damage and grief they cause around them and the danger on which they put themseves, like if life itself, on its unadultared rawness, did not offer enough highs (and lows) to keep good naked monkeys like us entertained.
Having said this, I defend the right of any person to stone himself to death if that is his wish and if that does not put third parties at danger.
War on drugs is the dumbest idea ever invented, and the sooner their implementors and promoters are unmasked and made jobeless, the better for all.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
Ther is not such thing as drug culture, or geek culture.
The individuals that are pigeonholed on either are so diverse that to pretend they are an homogenous bunch of people is completely ridiculous.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
A passage - I think its from "the Psychedelic Experience" - which I think fits the situation Choose someone willing to listen to you sing the same song over and over again, offkey with broken lyrics. Someone you won't mind seeing you, and who won't themselves mind seeing you, drool, or laugh, or cry, or piss your pants with fear, or talk to God. Someone who will hold your hand while you take a shit to keep you from falling in and getting flushed down the drain. Someone, perhaps, a little stronger than you physically. Definitely, someone who has tripped before, more than once. Someone who has stories to tell -- and things they won't say. Someone who seems to take it all seriously, but still has a sense of fun. Definitely, someone with some degree of compassion and, gosh darn it, Wisdom. Definitely, someone who won't leave you by yourself, even for a second. If you choose someone you might get sexual with, be sure they will accept a clumsy, giggling fool as a lover, and that they won't be offended if you can't perform or forget to. Someone that can keep cool and keep you cool if you get pushy. If you find anyone who meets all these criteria, consider marriage. Try to be worthy.
If you are interested in how these inter-relate, you might be amused by Art Kleps' account of the Millbrook experiment in the 60's. It is quite informative, and hilarious at times. He can be a bit self-serving (and down right catty) in his take on the various personalities of the time, especially Leary, but even that is hilarious. Warning: Kleps was a nihilistic solipsist. Check it out!
http://okneoac.com/table.html
- Steve
Psilocybin and LSD work almost in almost identical ways on your brain, in fact they are cross tolerant. LSD lasts longer, and causes much more intense visuals. They're both tryptamines, if you want brain-fry, try disassociatives.
actually, MDMA was originally discovered and used as a Diet drug...
They had to stop it because of the "problematic side effects"...
It takes 40+ muscles to frown, but only four to extend your arm and bitchslap the motherfucker
I completely agree that weed ruins your ability to concentrate (stay on 1 task) and work quickly.
However, I do find that for some lateral/creative tasks my mind wanders over many possibilities and if I can keep them in my head long enough to remember to write them down, I find they are often from angles I wouldn't have thought of if not high. For instance pot interferes when writing low level code, but can sometimes help me break conceptual roadblocks when figuring out class relationships or other high level designs.
now this is my kind of software. stupid governments.
if i remember correctly the author is Jay Stevens. it is the most informative book on the post-hoffman history of lsd, and for that matter, psychedelic drugs.
if you wish to pursue the research in another direction, there is a book that was co-authored by hoffman and richard schultjes, the ethno-botanist from harvard. it lists most of the psycho-active substances to be found in plants, as well as detailed chemical information.
lastly, as many posters have commented on therapeutic uses, i suggest that you check out the work of stanislov grov (grof?), a hungarian psychologist who did much research in this area. i don't think his work received that much attention in the west.
I've already posted in this discussion, so I'm moot for the job...even though I have points.
DXM is an insidious drug. I've done it a handful of times, and while it's hallucinogneic abilities should not be diminished, taking it safely is far more complex than "make sure you get just DXM in your syrup."
Beyond that, dosage titration is incredibly difficult. The mg/Kg ratio depends on a variety of factors...and the drug has contraindications with just about every type of chemical out there.
Add in to that the fact that it routinely comes in formulas containing itself, acetominophen (tylenol--drink a 4oz bottle with that acetominophen inn it and there's a good chance you're dying 18 hours later...of a miserable type of toxicity....your organs will shut down one at a time, and you'll be there for the whole shebang), psuedoephedrine hCl (the synthetic--though more predictable, and arguably safer--form of ephedra. This will crank your heart up, and while even in very high doses (such as found in 1 4oz bottle) probably won't cause you much beyond a pounding heart, by it's nature makes you more prone for anxiety attacks...leading to panic attacks, etc...a bad time, at the least).....and then that still leaves the various maleates they put in there (depending on brand, locality, and popularity).....but let's not also forget Gueifennison.....an expectorant, which is put in there to help you cough stuff up. Well, if you drink alot of it, your able to cough shit up straight from your stomach. A horrible time, to say the least...
DXM (dextromethorphanhydrobromide hcl) is seratonergically active....so it contraindicates with any SSRI or MAOI type antidepressant. (if you're on antidepressants, 90% chance it's one of these two types, or a closely related derivitive). Google for "seratonin syndrome" if you wanna see how you'll die (or live miserably) after that.
It's also an Opoid...a synthetic opiate. I've heard that it was being tested for addiction therapy...
It is also a disassociative anesthetic...most popular of which (ketamine, and dxm) have both been shown to cause vacuoles (micro perforations) in your brain. debate the merits of these findings all you wish--I care not to risk it
Granted, the effects on the brain when administered in appropriate (and low) doses (usually by accident) are very interesting. It is not a fun drug. It isn't a bad experience, but, it's more intellectual than it is entertaining. That may equate to entertaining to you. YMMV The music enhancing effects it seemed to have around threshold doses were very nice, just as the FAQ told me it would be. But, at higher doses it became a terribly bizzare experience. Which, for that sake alone, was very entertaining...I'm wierd.
But then we come to the negetive side effects. the racing heart....or the perception of it.....(I haven't hammered down what is is, but i'm sure its one of the two)....very bad. Cigarettes (as I'm a dedicated smoker) tasted like crap, and made me feel strange. I've theorized that it's the presence of small amounts of MAOI in cigarette smoke....but, I digress.
It turned 3 hours into 3 days....it would take a though and endlessly reproduce it, as if an an infinite feedback loop. Just as the FAQ described. I would ordinarily credit the FAQ with colouring my experience...but if you've tried this drug you know that it isn't very likely. the FAQ documented it, and I reccomend it to anyone with any questions AT ALL about this drug. It's very matter of fact, and the interpretation of the data is--for the most part--left up to you.
Don't get me wrong, I'm all for thorougly researching and then performing very stupid things in the name of personal psychological, chemical, and "psychonotical" experimentation and exploration...but, do some reading...
Always be as safe and informed as you can in any situation, but in a situation as obviously precarious as this, at least be informed of the risks and reasons.
You're noticing an increase in unlikely events occuring because your brain is capable of fitting a pattern to something that would normally be discarded, not because anything has actually changed.
Reality is a hallucination caused by the hallucinogenic, serotonin.
-Myke
myke@compassionatecoalition.org
http://www.compassionatecoalition.org
Actually ketamine doesn't cause Olney's lesions most likely. While it has been observed to do so in rats it doesn't cause them in primates at all. Not sure about DXM but I know it's a lot more dangerous than ketamine is.
I had a similar impression. Major questions in the book were left unanswered and unexplored, and characters were left undeveloped. The book ends at a point where it would seem to be about to get really interesting. The writing itself was certainly competent though, the prose felt like it flowed well, the dialogue was believable. I'd give it a 5/10 as well. It wasn't bad, but it was really that good either.
Also, I'm not an expert (or even knowledgable) on the subject. But I've heard it said that LSD flashback aren't chemical reactions, they're in the same vien as the flashbacks that war veterans have. Obviously LSD flashbacks aren't allways debilitating and emotionally destructive like war flashbacks are (although I suppose with a signifigantly bad trip they can be), but they are the same mental mechanism of your mind reliving an emotionally charged memory.
But again, I'm not an expert, that's what I've been told. It seems plausable to me and came from a reliable source, but I'm not sure if it's 100% true or not.
The darkness... controls the music. The music... controls the soul.
I'm being a coward, and posting anonymously, as well. I seek the input of others who've dosed.
I logged up about 30 acid trips in college, and am not too much worse for the wear. I'd say the odd occult near-disasters were a lot psychologically worse :0
I only did 'shrooms twice, and didn't eat enough either time to get the full effect. I had to, a have a little further ... enhancement from certain other substances ;-)
But one thing I noticed, was that there were a number of people who preferred 'shrooms to LSD, because they felt 'shrooming was a gentler drug, and felt more "analog" - more free-flowing, peaceful.
LSD does have a digital feel: the feeling of perceptual clarity, of reality being That Much More, the way some songs or moods hit you is pristine, perfect and monadic. You feel that you are perceiving things and people Absolutely and Completely, feeling/analyzing/grokking them far faster and more completely than possible in a sober state. Little things happen so deeply that there is no way you could ever explain they way they effect you.
LSD, I can say from experience, can be pretty rough. Strong doses make you sweat, make you shake, wire you like extremely strong coffee. And then there's the occasionally gas problem and the Shivers From Hell to deal with, the wave of cold that goes up or down your back. Then the visual hallucinations start. Many of mine, curiously, were pre-Columbian patterns. Hint: stucco ceilings are your friend ;-)
Strangely, there is a deep silence to LSD. Except for my gang's music (the Pixies' _Doolittle_ (for getting started and peaking) and the _Last Temptation of Christ_ (around the quiet down and thinking and talking time) and Koyannisqatsi (anytime!) soundtracks were essential listening to my gang's trips) the visual s happened in a rather stately, peaceful silence.
I believe it this kind of relentlessness that LSD has, which makes some people prefer 'shrooms. I found it takes about three to five trips for people to get control of themselves - the first few trips, they're floundering in the new ways their senses are operating. After that, they're pretty much fine for most minor social interactions. I've also found that people generally stop "learning" after 10 trips.
Any 'shroom eaters have input?
P.S.: Did anyone see the shadow-dudes while tripping? I'm being serious.
That's still alot better than I did. I already have add/adhd. I was lucky to be able to say three words in a row right.
At best I was a drooler who had trouble looking at the wall.
You can see why I gave up on it pretty quick.
Mycroft
https://signup.leagueoflegends.com/?ref=4c3ed6600b6ea
It's quite possible that explains the occurance of flashbacks, I honestly don't have a good explanation as to how they occur, only certain knowledge that they do.
Mycroft
https://signup.leagueoflegends.com/?ref=4c3ed6600b6ea
Not only is the licence Similary to Cory Doctorow but the story itself bears a real resemblence to Ownzored
sir (I assume)
I'd be honoured. Glad to make you smile. Good luck with your publication and good for you taking the risk and using the creative commons licence. I hope it works out well for you.
-- sir fantomas the digitally meandering
I've taken LSD perhaps a dozen times, and each time the drug has tought me a valuable lesson. I can honestly say that I don't believe I could even take LSD and have a purely recreational experience. Nor have I had any bad trips or discomforting moments during the experience that didn't directly serve to teach me something valuable about myself.
LSD has enabled me to understand my depression, restructure my priorities, improve my relationship with my parents, have more empathy for other people, and tought me how to have fun in life.
These are all lasting effects.
LSD will desocialize you and allow you to see beyond the contructs of modern culture. When all this is stripped away it is much easier to see what it really means to be a human being.
When I see people on this board use words like "druggies" and condescending language to refer to people who have tried LSD, I am saddened by the ignorance. If you have no interest in trying it / If you are satisfied with your knowledge of yourself and the greater workings of the universe / If you are reluctant to try it for whatever reason: Fine.
Personally I believe being able to act as a human being is a blessing. Besides, even if LSD had no value besides getting high and having a good time, what's the harm in that?
It just so happens that the value is immeasureable for many people.