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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
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.
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!'
"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....
is the license under which a book is released more interesting than the book itself.
I have some of the most vivid memories of what I was doing while I was spun on acid.
I don't know if that is a good or a bad thing but I certainly know that no matter what it was that I was saw, thought about, or did, LSD opened doors in my life that I would never have explored otherwise.
Absolutely. Everyone should take LSD at least once in their life. It really opens your eyes to things and I still have many insights into life that I think I might never had without it. I took it about 10-15 times (last time was more than 10 years ago.) I have never had a flashback, and only one 'bad trip' (which was terrible, but is really a product of the environment you expose yourself too while on it.) LSD has really been demonized but I think it is pretty harmless. If you really can't bring yourself to take LSD, try shrooms. You get the same affect but for a much shorter time.
Much more interesting, exciting and enlightening.
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
P.S. Since I advocated the use LSD or shrooms, please note: Never, ever, ever, ever take it alone and if you have never taken it, take it with some one who has. If you don't follow those rules, you will have a bad time. Guaranteed.
"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."
Speaking as a slashdot reader, geek, and one who may have been known to--purely hypothetically speaking, of course--indulge in an occasional bit of recreational chemistry... (Though violently allergic to cannabis, it seems.)
Cannabis "culture" can f*ck right off. So can "psychedelic culture".
Feel free to use them. Some of it's REALLY fun. A lot. Repeatedly. I approve. (Assuming one is aware of the potential risks, etc.)
However, "psychedelic music" makes me itch, patchouli makes me gag, if I never see a dirty set of half-assed dreads on a white suburban boy again I'll be ecstatic, candy-ravers should have their own hunting season, and drum circles make me wish I owned a HMV so I could re-enact that line from Conan where he says "Crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and hear the lamentations of their women." Vroom.
Sorry. I find it indefensible. It's as if I tried to create "beer culture" or "vodka culture" or maybe "swiss cheese culture" and pass it off as a valid lifestyle choice. Not to mention it spoils it for everyone who may want to try the substance in question but just can't stand the people who DO it.
Treat it like having a beer after work, y'know? Don't call it a "lifestyle" or a "culture" and then proceed to fail your hygiene check. I'm all down with being able to ingest whatever makes you happy. Have fun, just make sure to get the good stuff.
(And stop HUGGING ME! STOP! BAD TOUCH!)
All of your questions (and more) can be answered right here. But I'll answer these ones directly:
-Getting the real thing? Only an issue if you choose to do shrooms, potency varies *greatly* between patches. LSD is always returns consistant results. On the other hand, the fungus gets you about 6 hours total, while acid is 12.
-Music/environment/people? Tough one. Complex subject. I personally like the following: Pink Floyd/outside in the woods (no one else around plus nature is a great setting)/1-2 other people max who are tripping with me as well
-Things going bad? Always remember you have complete control of the situation. At times you might lose yourself (you will if it's a good/strong enough trip) but keep in mind you can change the way the trip is going at any time. If you feel funny and don't like something almost guaranteed one of three things will change it: Change the music, change the lighting, or go to the bathroom.
Since you mentioned you have smoked before, I highly recommend doing so right after popping whatever substance you choose. It will make the voyage from reality much smoother and not quite as abrupt. It sorta smacks you hard and fast if you do it sober.
Only other advice I can give is: "relax, don't panic and enjoy it". Try to take your mind off of what you just did after you eat them so you're not thinking about it all the time. I like to take my watch off and if you're out in nature, take a walk somewhere that will last at least 30 mins, preferably an hour (you'll start to feel it definately by then).
# fuser -v
#
When I was in high school, LSD was the drug of choice. I'm not kidding -- more people were around, dropping acid, than doing cocaine or pills or speed or anything else. Certainly all that stuff was there, too, but you could barely go to class on your average Thursday and be assured that nobody in that class was tripping on LSD. And I mean everybody did it. The jocks did it. And you know what? As far as I can tell, it "opened their eyes" to pretty much exactly ... nothing. Those clowns acted like jocks act pretty much the world over. If you met them at a party and they were tripping pretty hard, they would babble at you with some sheepish grin on their faces, but the rest of the time they were getting into fights, date-raping girls, tricking out cars, getting drunk, and refusing to pay for abortions just like the rest of 'em. If anything, their experiences with LSD only opened them up to start taking E when that came on the market, and subsequently some of those guys fried their brains out pretty good getting into that whole culture. (On the plus side, it seemed to make them a lot less aggressive/violent.)
So yeah, maybe if you're curious about certain kinds of brain experiments you can conduct on yourself, and you're a contemplative enough person to get something out of it, then maybe you should add LSD to your checklist of "things to do before I croak." But otherwise, you're just taking drugs. I can't really tell who'se worse, though ... the people who just take LSD to get high, or those hippies who still walk around yammering about how great it is to take drugs, not realizing that while they were stoned and not paying attention, pretty much the whole world started taking drugs, and nonetheless, the utopian society of like-thinking individuals enlightened by LSD never happened. Pity.
Breakfast served all day!
That's interesting considering it's physically impossible to be allergic to marijuana
Why is it impossible? Allergies are not caused by ANY danger in the allergen itself. Allergies are caused by your own body's immune system falsely labeling a particular thing as being dangerous when it really isn't. All the symptoms of an allergy are the same as the symptoms of a cold or flu bug - extra mucus production, coughing, raised temperatures, nausea, swelling etc - are all actually being caused by your OWN body. Those reactions are ways you fight off the foreign intruder. Your body chooses to raise the temperature, because your body is better able to survive the ordeal of being too hot than a lot of foriegn microbes are. Your body chooses to produce extra mucus, to trap the microbes at the source and keep them from passing into the lungs. Your body initiates nausea to try to expell the bad microbes from your stomach. etc, etc etc. All an allergy is, is your own body choosing to kick in those reactions in response to something that wasn't actually a threat after all, but it has a bad pattern-recognition that has "learned" incorrectly that a particular thing is bad for you, and that mistake is now stuck in your system and it won't undo it.
So, sure, someone could be allergic to marijuana. People can be allergic to just about *anything* that enters the body through the air. Anything that gives off fumes, dust, or particles. This says nothing about the danger of the actual thing in question - just about the relative stupidity of the human immune system.
The reason it's so hard to find ways to cure an allergy is that the cure is to alter your immune system, telling it, "Please cross off Foo from your list of big bad dangerous things you like to fight against. It was added by mistake." And we haven't found a way to do that without also crossing off *other* things from that list - things that it would be dangerous to cross off, like "the common cold".
Don't label something "offtopic" unless you know the topic well enough to tell what's on topic.