61–70 of 228 posts
Is it the same six people that keep posting this every 6 to 12 weeks on here? The usual caveats apply: 1. lsd is illegal, so no quality control and no certainty that that is what you are ingesting. 2. lsd was and is a mythological drug in every sense of the word. Nothing you know about it is true either to the good or to the bad. 3. Just because there are 5 decades of propaganda about the evils of lsd does not mean t…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
If someone purchases prescription medications from a non-regulated online pharmacy in a remote, third-world country is that simply a legal risk too? Unless you synthesized it yourself or have the ability to analyze it in a lab, you absolutely cannot be certain of quality or authenticity. This is what legally enforced regulatory standards are all about ensuring. The illegal nature of the drug trade not only lacks prov…
Risk of mis-prescription: "one in 12 visits to the doctor in the US results in the patient receiving dangerous medications" http://www.in-pharmatechnologist.com/Drug-Delivery/No-improv... Risk of prescription being mis-filled: "An estimated 51.5 million errors occur during the filling of 3 billion prescriptions each year." http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12688437?dopt=Abstract Risk of manufacturing error in prescr…
I think even folks over at Erowid advise caution in dealing with these things. In that regard, conflating legal risk & qualitative risk isn't really a non sequitur. That's really all I was trying to say.
I did some LSD about 35 years ago. More than once. For a few days afterward it utterly knackered my ability to write good code, or do anything that required concentrated, logical thinking. Also, I felt like crap (think "bad mental hangover" without the horrible side-effects caused by alcohol). That said, it was a pretty interesting experience. I highly recommend it, just not habitually. Someone (Timothy Leary?) said…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Risk of mis-prescription: "one in 12 visits to the doctor in the US results in the patient receiving dangerous medications" http://www.in-pharmatechnologist.com/Drug-Delivery/No-improv... Risk of prescription being mis-filled: "An estimated 51.5 million errors occur during the filling of 3 billion prescriptions each year." http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12688437?dopt=Abstract Risk of manufacturing error in prescr…
That's all entirely fair to point out - clearly serious breaches happen, even in heavily regulated environments! I don't think failings in those arenas undermine the notion that legal risk and quality/authenticity risk of illegal drugs is very often intertwined. I think even folks over at Erowid advise caution in dealing with these things. In that regard, conflating legal risk & qualitative risk isn't really a non se…
Although I don't have evidence either way, my suspicion is that this results in a comparatively low risk in truth. It's not immediate that the legal status impacts on the risk at all.
So we have Lsd, amphetamine, mescaline, ritalin, provigil as mind drugs. Anyone tried Ritalin or provigil long term? The army uses amphetamine & provigil during long term flying missing during critical operations. So what is illegal for ordinary citizens is legal for the state. Side not Steve Jobs tried a lot of drugs in India probably a door opener for his mind as have a lot of brilliant rock artists danger being no…
Their effects are, ultimately, similar, though with a different time to onset and duration of effect.
Reminds me of Richard Feyman taking LSD. He said he had an incredible breakthrough and a moment of pure clarity on a problem he had been working on mid-trip, only to come down and realize his breakthrough was really jibberish and not insightful at all.
Another issue is that it can be very difficult to stay focused long enough to transcribe what you're experiencing mentally in any sort of comprehensible way. Just as you're a few words into your description of a vast and intricate concept, 5 completely new ones come rolling in.
Not that I'm any sort of expert, but the solution seems to be various forms of mental discipline. Meditation and trying to remain a dispassionate observer (versus an impassioned epiphany seeker) can help to slow things down and make the experience less chaotic.
First, you need to have an experienced sitter with you. You're in for the full 8-10 hours, and on the off chance you start having a bad trip (things getting really dark and scary), you need someone to ground you to reality (and change the music or location, which can often instantly snap you out of a mood).
Second, if you're generally comfortable with your own thoughts and have a positive outlook you're much less likely to have a bad trip. This is why I think it's better to do it when you're older and more mature, rather than in your late teens/early twenties. I think you have more of an ability to process what's going on. Many people have the thought at some point during the trip, "What if I get stuck like this?" which can probably lead to a slight panic if you're not good at thinking about your own thoughts and realizing the feeling for what it is.
Third, go out into nature if you can. Preferably with just your friends and not a lot of people around. It's pretty cool.
Finally, the day after you'll feel somewhat drained and probably just want to stay inside and read. The day after, you're totally fine. I think the real long-term effects are kind of just a "tweaking of the dials". I don't feel like it was some super transformative experience, but it was really interesting in a way that's hard to describe, and you learn a lot about your own mind and how it works. I also feel like it kind of cleaned the windows on the way I see the world, in that I feel more positive and open to ideas, and in some ways I feel like I might be more creative now. It might sound hard to believe, but I understand now why they're researching using hallucinogens to treat depression, PTSD, etc.
Anyway, I'm not encouraging anyone to do it, but I will say that emotionally mature people should not be afraid to do it. Also, I never got any kind of signs that it was addictive. I pretty much just did it once, did it a few months later, and that was it for me.
Reminds me of Richard Feyman taking LSD. He said he had an incredible breakthrough and a moment of pure clarity on a problem he had been working on mid-trip, only to come down and realize his breakthrough was really jibberish and not insightful at all.
Reminds me of my first experience. The trip involved getting something huge, like a big sense of "oh, I finally get it" but now, 3 years later, I'm still trying to figure out what I actually got.
I did some LSD about 35 years ago. More than once. For a few days afterward it utterly knackered my ability to write good code, or do anything that required concentrated, logical thinking. Also, I felt like crap (think "bad mental hangover" without the horrible side-effects caused by alcohol). That said, it was a pretty interesting experience. I highly recommend it, just not habitually. Someone (Timothy Leary?) said…