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LSD: My Life-Saving Drug

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Re: LSD: My Life-Saving Drug

#51
post #39
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd add I know several people with long term mental impairment from overuse, mostly from long term use of LSD. So while it's interesting to try, be cautious.

Here's an interesting study that seems to counter this claim: http://psychedelicfrontier.com/psychedelics-reductions-suici... http://jop.sagepub.com/content/early/2015/01/08/026988111456... Classic psychedelic use is associated with reduced psychological distress and suicidality in the United States adult population "Psychedelic users showed a significantly lower likelihood of recent psychological distress, as well a…

Clinical studies at the population level will not provide substantial evidence for or against any purported effects of individual overuse. Anecdotally, acid brain sure seems real to me. Whether it is a physiological change or merely the ideological ramification of repeatedly obliterating fundamental notions like permanence or selfness, I don't know.

Re: LSD: My Life-Saving Drug

#52
post #22

I'm a bit unusual here. I have never taken any drugs. I don't drink alcohol. I am also not judgmental. There is the concept of the waking dream. That we are always in a dream which keeps being guided by our senses. Where the mind corrects the dream based on what we feel, see, and hear. Psychedelics seem to break this process. When people say they have "Profound" experiences, do they mean they finally understand this?…

> Maybe these drugs are just a shortcut. That's exactly what they are. Few people reach through meditation what these drugs can show anyone, but meditation will get you there as well, perhaps with more control.

"More control" though might be missing the point.

Re: LSD: My Life-Saving Drug

#53
post #31
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A bad trip can be really BAD. No one wants a bad trip.

To add on to this, I know mixing drugs isn't kosher, but if this is a real worry to someone taking it, having xanax on stand-by is a good idea. SWIM came very close to a bad trip many times, on high doses, and having a "break glass incase of emergency" was enough to get through it.

I've never done psychedelics, although I was a trip sitter a few times back in college.

It was generally nice. We went out to outrageously gorgeous outdoor parks, and I kept people from wandering off cliffs.

One time, somebody was having a terrible trip (which I hear is the equivalent of an actual vacation in hell), and he stopped it with his Clonazepam prescription, which is essentially a longer lasting drug in the same class as Xanax.

Re: LSD: My Life-Saving Drug

#54
post #30
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd add I know several people with long term mental impairment from overuse, mostly from long term use of LSD. So while it's interesting to try, be cautious.

Then you should get those people in touch with the appropriate researchers. They are anomalies.

Well one of them killed himself after hallucinating people coming through the walls to get him so it would be tricky in that case. Here are some famous acid casualties http://www.wow247.co.uk/2015/07/17/bad-trip-brian-wilson-aci...

I don't think there's much in the way of peer reviewed papers because no ones going to deliberately dose one group on LSD for a long term study and most recreational users take other drugs and don't document and publish things but there are definitely issues.

Re: LSD: My Life-Saving Drug

#55
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What by Laozi did you read?

Dao De Jing. I read then Ursula Le Guin's rendition. since then i have also read Waley's translation and fragments of some others. i would say that reading widely and thoughtfully a variety of interpretations is worthwhile. The only 'layman' interpretation i find satisfactory is Le Guin's, but perhaps that is nostalgiac bias? I find other unscholarly attempts to be a bit vague and artificially 'mystical'. Scholarly t…

The translation by Jonathan Star to me to be pretty good.

Re: LSD: My Life-Saving Drug

#56
post #26

There is a lot going on in this article and I won't comment on all of it. I'll just address people who are perhaps curious about psychedelics. May I highly suggest that those wishing to experiment with psychedelics do it only in a place where you feel absolutely safe. That is, no risk of police, parents (if that is an issue), or neighbours to bother you. Additionally and I do think this is very important: in nature .…

I'd add I know several people with long term mental impairment from overuse, mostly from long term use of LSD. So while it's interesting to try, be cautious.

I know a woman who was a junior at Dartmouth. She came home for Christmas. She went to a concert with friends. She allegedly took LSD.

She woke up the next day, and didn't recognize her parents. She didn't recognize her boyfriend whom came running over.

She finished her degree 25 years later, and she still has trouble functioning in society. She never got back to that high functioning individual. She's still very smart. She can't wake up early. Can't function in a unfamiliar work setting. She basically falls to pieces if slightly stressed. She would be homeless if not for a caring/understanding financially well off family

(This is a true story. She might have had an underlying mental illness, but mental illness is not in her lineage. I'm just passing this story along.)

Re: LSD: My Life-Saving Drug

#57
post #33

Weird that he titled it "my life saving drug" and went on to say it really didn't do much for him, much less get anywhere near saving his life...

He or his editor probably did so merely for the acronym (L.ife S.aving D.rug). Not very cool

Re: LSD: My Life-Saving Drug

#58
post #46

Steve Jobs famously commented on Gates, "I wish him the best, I really do. I just think he and Microsoft are a bit narrow. He'd be a broader guy if he had dropped acid once or gone off to an ashram when he was younger." Psychedelics aren't for me, personally, due to anxiety, but they are fascinating. Jobs also rated LSD as "one of the two or three most important experiences of my life." His experimentation with drugs…

Lots of people's drug histories are in the SF-86 and got clearances. The Fed would rather you be truthful on the form and say "never again" than lie. Lying on that form is the best way to not get a clearance, let alone a host of other consequences.

Re: LSD: My Life-Saving Drug

#59
The Five S's: (S)ource: Know where you got your stuff from, so you know it's what you think it is (S)elf: Know yourself, what you need to be comfortable and have a good time, what your demons are and how to deal with them (S)ubtance: Know what you're taking; dosage, duration, effects and side effects. (S)etting: The place you are when you take it. Put some thought into it! (S)set: The place your mind is when you take it. Your intention for the experience. Your internal setting.

Tripper 101: Bad trips happen because you get stuck in a bad place inside your head. Want something to change? Change something else. Easiest thing to change? Where you are physically and the music (or ambient sound) that is playing.

Reality Mantra: Cars are hard, fire is hot, and if you think you can fly, start from the ground!

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