
LSD: The Geek's Wonder Drug - mkrecny
http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2006/01/70015
======
parfe
In college I lived with artists. A few of their artist friends come over with
big sketch pads, pencils and whatever else artists use. They all drop acid
while telling me they can't wait to see their amazing creations once their
minds are opened. I went out for a few hours and came back to find them all
sitting around the living room.

One sketch pad had a long black squiggle on it, the same design you'd make if
you fell asleep while holding a pen to paper, and the rest had even less (One
was literally two 1" lines forming a 90 degree angle). The next day they
described the night as a huge success even though they never really attained
any of their stated goals.

I don't doubt they had a good time, but seeing them utterly fail to use the
drug as a tool kinda makes me skeptical of the productive benefits.

As a side note, if you want your ego stroked then ask a student artist for his
opinion of your work. In the two years I lived with artists not a single
negative comment was spoken by a student of anyone else's work. It was a
guaranteed self-congratulatory feedback loop.

~~~
joelhooks
I have several drawings and paintings that I did under the influence that
still amaze me today. I could never reproduce the techniques or forms. There
were many times that I wouldn't spend the entire duration drawing/painting,
but I had several marathon creation sessions under the influence of LSD.

We would always make sure to have plenty of supplies. Art or otherwise. Pen
and paper was probably the most difficult. The effects on your vision are
pronounced and drawing can be... hard. I always enjoyed oil pastels the most.
Thick and flowing pools of color. Man those were good times.

I was in art school at the time, and critique (the ability to give and
receive) was one of the greatest things I walked away with. We would formerly
critique on a regular basis in class.

> I don't doubt they had a good time, but seeing them utterly fail to use the
> drug as a tool kinda makes me skeptical of the productive benefits.

This is akin to coming onto a software project, seeing a huge tangle of
grotesque code produced by some other programmer(s), and determining that the
tools were at fault. In both cases it is not necessarily the wand, but perhaps
the magician.

~~~
yid
I would also be interested in seeing scans. LSD has been a wonderful
experience for me, undertaken roughly once a year, but with beneficial and
creative effects that last much longer.

I think the OP missed the point-- LSD isn't Aderall, it isn't something that
makes you push out more. Rather, it can unlock doors that were perhaps holding
you back.

~~~
ghotli
Or perhaps it can open doors that will end up holding you back. There are
people who are legitimate acid casualties. I know a guy who now has social
anxiety so bad that he rarely leaves his house. This was most certainly not
the case before he indulged in copious amounts of LSD and Psilocybin.

~~~
daralthus
Weed will much easily make you paranoid in my opinion. But in fact, too much
introspection can go wrong and plant ideas that don't make you go forward.

There is a saying of a guru: "If something goes bad, just drop some more acid"
but I am not sure if it is a good advice, only that it doesn't work with weed.

~~~
uxp
Anyone that is not a doctor or pharmacist who says anything along the gist of
"If you aren't doing X while taking drug Y, then you need more of drug Y" is
an idiot. Everyone is different, dosages will be different, and interactions,
chemically with other drugs and psychologically with other issues, will always
be present.

I'm all for anyone doing whatever they want with drugs, psychoactives in
particular, but taking more is usually the wrong answer. Psychoactive drugs
are not a cure-all or magic key that opens creative inspiration in uncreative
types, just as much as taking Vicodin won't give you an erection lasting for
more than 4 hours.

------
moultano
If you have any predisposition towards psychosis, in family history or
personally, please avoid LSD.

For those firmly rooted, it might be pleasurable or productive to become a
little less so. If you're already sometimes on the edge, LSD can push you
over.

This happened to one of my best friends. Growing up he was crazy, creative,
always saw things a little differently, prone to manic behavior. After a year
of regular LSD use he was unable to form a coherent sentence. Please be
careful.

~~~
d2
Thanks for posting this. I've had two friends profoundly affected by the drug.
One is now schizophrenic after taking a large dose and will have a lifelong
struggle. Thankfully he is supported by his family and his mom is a
psychiatrist.

The second took a large dose about a decade ago and after being a very
conservative straight guy. Mormon. Straight A's. Didn't take drugs or drink.
He immediately dropped out of school, moved in with a prostitute and decided
he wanted a sex change. That was 10 years ago. Last year he had sex
reassignment surgery in Thailand.

In both cases I suspect the drug opened pathways that were suppressed. I see
LSD as a truly mind altering drug. In rare cases it alters minds for the
better. In many cases it exposes latent problems that can be debilitating and
life-destroying.

~~~
jackowayed
I honestly can't tell if you're presenting the 2nd story as a good thing or a
bad thing. I doubt that LSD made your friend transgendered (especially since
it's been 10 years).

Given that your friend is transgendered, it's probably a lot better that she
figured it out while in school instead of when she was 40 and had a wife and
kids, even though dropping out of school and getting one's sex reassignment
surgery in Thailand are pretty bad ideas.

~~~
djcapelis
One small point of confusion with your otherwise good post: Some of the Thai
surgeons are the best in the world for that particular procedure... going
there is not typically considered a bad decision.

~~~
mbenjaminsmith
Actually Thai surgeons in general are very good. I recently entrusted my
fiancee to one and the medical care she received was outstanding.

The fastest growing tourism segment here is medical tourism. High quality care
at a relatively low cost & lots of good food.

~~~
jackowayed
My mistake. Thanks for correcting me (both of you). I had gotten the
impression that people went to Thailand for cheap surgeries that usually
worked out but that it was a little sketchy/suboptimal/risky.

------
simonsarris
Reminds me of Paul Erdős, who used amphetamines (think Adderall) for a similar
purpose.

 _After 1971 Erdős also took amphetamines, despite the concern of his friends,
one of whom (Ron Graham) bet him $500 that he could not stop taking the drug
for a month. Erdős won the bet, but complained that during his abstinence
mathematics had been set back by a month: "Before, when I looked at a piece of
blank paper my mind was filled with ideas. Now all I see is a blank piece of
paper." After he won the bet, he promptly resumed his amphetamine use._

~~~
nandemo
The difference is that amphetamines, though potentially addictive and
dangerous, can actually help you do math or programming. I'm skeptical that
people can code better (if at all) while on LSD.

~~~
tomlin
I have ADD and am a coder. I am on Concerta (methylphenidate, a derivative of
methamphetamine) and find that my interest in math, as well as programming,
has increased significantly.

~~~
blankslate
Me too, though I prefer dexamphetamine.

I've given dex to other programmers on occasion; they're often amazed at how
much it helps them concentrate and get things done.

It's kind of like coffee that WORKS.

Hence my favourite programming beverage: grind your beans, sprinkle finely
powdered amphetamine on the top of the basket, and make yourself a nice
motherfuckiato.

~~~
dedward
Any of them ever end up with a bad amphetamine habit after that?

That's mighty addictive stuff, for someone with the wrong combination of
genetics and psychology, this could be really bad.

The drug war is full of nonsense - but amphetamines are regulated for a good
reason.

------
blankslate
I've taken enormous (read: irresponsible) quantities of psychotropics over the
course of my life: psilocybin in particular, but I've had experiences with
everything from pure LSD to exotic molecules without names.

The intensity and resonance of those experiences are such that it's sometimes
hard to reconcile with the small fraction of the population who have known
them. It's an essential part, to me, of the human experience.

That said, when I was younger I didn't always treat them with the respect they
deserve, and it's difficult to determine in retrospect the effects they've had
on my life - in part because I was still not yet fully formed when I began. I
don't regret the path I've taken, but in retrospect it seems a fluke that I've
arrived where I am with my sanity (arguably) intact; or even that I've arrived
at this age at all.

To me, these are incredibly powerful tools, with amazing potential for both
creation and destruction - but the infrastructure to support their responsible
use didn't evolve at a pace to match their sudden explosion into mainstream
awareness in the 60's, and the results were terrifying to many; alcohol can be
an amazingly destructive drug, but societies have had thousands of years to
grow comfortable with its effects, and to learn to mitigate its worst
excesses.

As a result of this (perhaps rightly deserved) fear and confusion, we've
collectively overreacted, not only banning them outright, but elevating their
status to one of our most fiercely prosecuted taboos. I sincerely hope that
this will change at some point, and that it will coincide with an evolution of
the knowledge and wisdom required to use them responsibly.

To me it's evident that there are strong positive outcomes to be gained, from
personal and artistic growth to effective treatment for psychiatric
afflictions - but more than any other substances I know of, these drugs are
chameleons that can change form entirely in response to one's approach to
them. They rarely reward foolishness or irresponsibility.

Now, as ever, cultists are everywhere; I put my trust in science. And I hope
that as the stigmas attached to these substances subside, our governments have
the sense to entrust the exploration of this potential to scientists.

~~~
blankslate
There are probably some people reading these discussions and considering
taking an "hallucinogen" for the first time.

If you're thinking about it, please, do your homework. Thoroughly. As others
have cautioned, drug use can catalyze psychosis, the permanent emergence of
bipolar disorder, etc. Consider these risks as they relate to you in
particular (your family history, etc) very carefully, and if you decide to go
ahead, be sure you prepare with as much care, consideration and thoroughness
as it deserves.

And if you do, I'd consider avoiding LSD unless you can guarantee its
legitimacy and purity. Mescaline is readily producible from common cacti (San
Pedro, et al), has a long history of safe use by e.g. native americans §, and
will likely provide you with a more helpful experience. It's also much harder
to take too much of than e.g. psilocybin or LSD, which are very easy to
consume a psychiatrically dangerous dose of.

There is a wealth of information out there - some of it spurious, but much of
it helpful. I would encourage wider use of psychedelics, but I strongly
qualify this encouragement. Not everyone should try them: some people are
irreparably damaged by their first trip, and I don't claim to be able to say
why; nor will they reward being treated without the utmost respect.

That said, after almost a decade of abstinence from tripping, I discovered
mescaline, and I intend to continue to use it up to a few times a year. Thus
far I've found it to be an extremely rewarding and positive force in my life;
I'm an atheist, but you could say it's my replacement for religion.

§ <http://www.wired.com/medtech/health/news/2005/11/69477> \- "Peyote won't
rot your brain"

~~~
blankslate
While I'm ranting: if your interest lies in becoming more productive as a
programmer, these are not the droids you're looking for. Some people have put
forward anecdotal evidence to the contrary, but I personally can't see it
being either likely or worthwhile (taken in isolation).

Good sleep, meditation, regular exercise, a good diet, vitamin or fish oil
supplements, possibly responsible use of some stimulants (caffeine,
dexamphetamine, methylphenidate, etc - I do NOT advise using methamphetamine),
quiet work spaces, trying different tactics (e.g. pomodoro technique) for
minimising disruption and improving your concentration, fostering dedication
to your craft - all of these are much more likely and FAR less risky
candidates for making you a better programmer.

And as others here have alluded to, psychedelics yield diminishing returns.
One or two trips _could_ change your life and transform your outlook,
hopefully for the better; using a psychedelic experience to collect and align
your energies up to a few times a year _could_ be a positive influence. Taking
them more often than that qualifies as abuse, and will not help you.

~~~
blankslate
And may even reduce you to ranting and muttering to yourself ...

~~~
Evgeny
Not sure if it's sarcasm or not, but I do that often without any drug
influence whatsoever.

Edit: ok, I scrolled up and now I've got it. I'm a bit slow today, maybe I
need some _stimulant_ after all...

------
WiseWeasel
I am very grateful for my experiences with LSD, and wouldn't trade them for
anything in the world.

The best way I could describe its practical long-term effects, (once you've
come down and realized you _haven't_ broken your brain) is that your previous
knowledge has been helpfully flagged as invalid, allowing you to acquire new
knowledge in a less stupid, more nuanced manner. Everything you knew about
groups of people, genders, categories of objects, in short all the knowledge
that allows you to assess a situation and make sense of the world is marked as
fallacious, and your mind is now freed to learn how the world works in a more
sophisticated manner.

I think everyone should take the opportunity to try it out, if given the
chance to do so in a comfortable setting (comfortable socially - roughing it
in the wild is fine, maybe even encouraged).

~~~
tokenadult
_The best way I could describe its practical long-term effects, (once you've
come down and realized you haven't broken your brain) is that your previous
knowledge has been helpfully flagged as invalid, allowing you to acquire new
knowledge in a less stupid, more nuanced manner._

I am curious about whether or not you have ever tried living in another
country with a different language and culture for an extended period of time,
and then returning to live in a more familiar culture. That too can have the
effect of flagging previous knowledge as invalid, allowing you to acquire new
knowledge. Perhaps you have done this as well, but I'm not sure about that
from what you say about yourself here. As G.K. Chesterton put it, "The whole
object of travel is not to set foot on foreign land; it is at last to set foot
on one's own country as a foreign land."

------
bliss
My tuppence: I was an average student, perhaps an underachiever - I was the
youngest in my class... Anyway around about the closing years of high school I
discovered the recreational joy of LSD, which I took despite superman comics
warning me of the dangers. For a while I dropped out (3 years) and enjoyed a
life that was devoid of computers (until that point I had spent all my time on
8bit then 16bit computers, leading up to an 8086 pc). I lived in a bedsit and
had no outlook or any desire to "get a life". At some point during an acid
trip, I found myself alone and spent a long time in introspection about where
I was and where I would like to be. Long story short, fast forward 20 years,
I'm married with a beautiful daughter, a great senior technical job with a
very public FTSE 100 media company, a couple of irons in the fire with
personal software projects I'm writing (in fact, I'm actually procrastinating
here, I should be coding!) and a generally great life. If I had continued on
my "wastrel" route those years ago, my life wouldn't have been as rosy (though
perhaps less stressful). I attribute my conversion from waster to nerd
entirely to my experiences with LSD. I thoroughly recommend it to others
(though I will caution that I have seen downsides in some of my comrades, not
deaths you understand, but longer lead-times to achieving their goals). This
article (though lacking in specifics) does resonate very strongly with my life
experience. Final question (to myself) would I use LSD again? Answer... not
sure, I've done a whole lot of living in the last 20 years, not sure I want to
reprogram the grey matter at this stage - maybe again in 10 years...

------
michaelchisari
I've had a relatively drug-free life, although I've often volunteered to be
the sober friend while everyone else imbibes. I've never regretted it, I've
had some great times not on drugs.

But if you've ever seen Little Miss Sunshine, the grandfather has a
perspective on drug use that I've adopted wholeheartedly:

 _Don't you start taking that shit. When you're young, you're crazy to do that
stuff._

 _What about you?_

 _I'm old! When you're old, you're crazy not to do it._

~~~
bliss
I agree, with my proven addictive personality (i'm a smoker!), I'm terrified
of morphine (and less pure versions), I have been in situations where the big
bad H or opium was offered but have always refused not because I was really
afraid of harm or of legality but because I was afraid that I would like it
too much. I've long held to the morbid fact that as soon as I get my
cancer/heart-failure/other terminal diagnosis, then I'll be starting Opium use
with gusto!

------
kristofferR
I predict that LSD will become much more popular in the near future due to
services like The Silk Road and Bitcoins. While other drugs can be detected
quite easily in mail with scanners and such, LSD in plotter form can't be
detected without actually opening every letter.

~~~
johkra
For people like me, who didn't know what "Silk Road" was in this context: It's
an anonymous market for drugs using Tor. [1] Bitcoins are used for paying.

[1] <http://www.bitcoin.org/smf/index.php?topic=3984.0>

------
blinkingled
My sole, true goal in life has been to attain deepest levels of consciousness,
connectedness with the being, and crystal clear clarity and to do so without
external dependencies like drugs.

I have struggled a lot with the odds and gotten only a few moments of what I
am after. But I realized one thing in the process that it requires quite a bit
of unlearning, forgiving, accepting, non-reacting and seeing it as it is. I
still haven't lost any amount of belief in the feasibility of my experiment as
I have gone closer to it - the fact that the degree and duration of my
experience can be controlled by me alone is a powerful realization.

Baba Ram Dass' book referenced in one of the comments on the wired site might
be worth trying out -
[http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00486UF8Y/ref=s9_simh_gw_p...](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00486UF8Y/ref=s9_simh_gw_p351_d0_i1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=0HNQC50P43BN7RDZJ4H1&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=470938631&pf_rd_i=507846)

~~~
cal5k
Out of curiosity - do you ever drink wine with a meal? Have a beer with
friends? Sip coffee discussing exciting new projects or dissecting a problem?

These are all "drugs". Anything we put into our body, food or otherwise, is a
"drug" and serves to alter us in some way.

You will always have "external dependencies". You are dependent on food and
water to live, social interaction to love and to feel friendship, and other
humans to make your life possible through manufacture, farming, and medical
care, among other things.

We all have external dependencies. One of the beauties of ingesting
hallucinogens is that this is the first realization you will likely have.

~~~
blinkingled
I used to drink occasionally, of course. But I have been consciously cutting
my artificially created dependencies wherever I can.

There is a big difference between dependency on food and dependency on beer
for example. Need vs. Want. I don't _need_ beer to survive, I do need water.
Beer I will use to lighten up, enjoy - water to satisfy thirst and keep the
body working. Drugs fall in mind made wants. Taking drugs to set yourself free
of bonds and compulsions that kill your being, joy, clarity - that's illogical
- you are trading one dependency for other.

~~~
cal5k
Do you eat food for enjoyment?

~~~
blinkingled
I am not sure what you are getting at. Why is your focus on giving up - mine
is on not letting it matter. I am not claiming to have given up on food -
giving up is not what I am trying to do - my focus is happiness with
understanding and minimalism. Minimalism does not equate to starving yourself
to death. It involves doing everything "needful" without attachment or false
pretenses or expectations. Doing nothing extraneous.

I am also not claiming to have been 100% done - it's my steady journey towards
that goal that I was sharing. It's all about changing gradually with full
understanding instead of looking at it as a means to some end.

~~~
icandoitbetter
> Why is your focus on giving up - mine is on not letting it matter.

That's some trivial reframing -- if you stopped eating food, it would start to
matter.

~~~
blinkingled
That would be missing the point of course. Read my previous post - there is
difference between food and beer that I illustrated.

------
tintin
Most drugs are not mind expanders, but blockage solvers. We care a lot about
what others say and think. This is blocking our creativity. But you don't need
drugs to solve this blockage. You can train yourself letting creativity flow
and don't care about what other people say.

A simple method is to start extreme. I think this applies to both graphic
creativity as for programming creativity.

They also call it "out of the box" thinking.

~~~
omarchowdhury
I agree.

------
schmittz
There's no reason to attempt to prove (because you can't) or even speculate
(because it doesn't matter) whether any of the "best" programmers anyone has
or could suggest have done LSD or still do on a regular basis. However, I find
it odd when people seem to insist that LSD is completely unnecessary or
necessary to do things. Like it has been brought up before, Steve Jobs cites
LSD as one of the most important experiences of his life. To rate it that
highly would imply that he feels it somehow changed his psyche in such a way
that it impacted who he is today. If that's the case, then you could (not
concretely, but with good certainty) argue that LSD can have a positive effect
on people's creativity. In fact, it does not actually matter whether it does
or not so much as whether people perceive that it does (this could all be a
placebo effect). Thus, the worst arguments that can be made on each end of the
spectrum are that a) LSD is always unnecessary to foster innovation (Steve
Jobs would argue it fostered his innovation in a way that wouldn't have
happened if he hadn't tripped) and b) that everyone should do LSD at least
once because it will enable them to accomplish more than otherwise possible.
The choice is obviously personal and would work out beneficially for some and
be fruitful for others. The important part is to remove the stigma of doing
illicit drugs and to recognize that they can provide psychological benefits
that are otherwise unrealizable OR acid can give you the best time you've ever
had sitting on a couch. Most people that do it develop personal realizations
that don't extend beyond themselves and that's all. It would be nice if people
stopped passing judgment on those who belong to the other camp and instead
offered their insights into why they have or haven't felt compelled to do
acid. (Full disclosure: I've tripped about a dozen times over the last four
years)

~~~
jarin
I don't know that Steve Jobs is creative as much as he is an unrelenting
perfectionist. He doesn't design things, Apple's recent success comes mostly
from his ability to say "No, that's not good enough. Try again."

Maybe his confidence to do that comes from having experienced some sort of
revelations or profound experiences on LSD that make "good, but not good
enough" products seem even more mundane and pedestrian to him.

~~~
schmittz
That's a good point, although I would argue that he is in fact extremely
creative. However, his creativity isn't physically manifest. It lies in his
ability to translate abstract ideas about UX paradigms into devices. You're
right though, LSD could have / may have given him a new conception of what is
"perfect" that led to a his particular brand of perfectionism.

------
eof
Let me chime in here with some personal experience. I am pretty much addicted
to marijuana in terms of working and enjoying it.

That is, I don't really enjoy programming nearly as much compared to when I am
a bit baked. Mind you, I can work.. but it feels like _such_ a chore (not
always but I'm talking typically). There are a lot of us like this.

As for LSD.. I have had many revelations while tripping, some I've had to
later reject (which is a difficult process) and probably some that I should
but have not yet. However, have learned a _tremendous_ amount from whatever it
is that is happening while tripping.

I really think most people should trip their face off at least once. What it
feels like is that you are tapping into something truer and deeper (when you
are tripping, the hallucinating reality is the 'real' reality, that is how you
experience it). I don't know what is actually happening, but it can be just
absolutely amazing, or absolutely devestating.

Take for instance, having an intellectual idea of the universe; like what it
actually _is_. Some people are fascinated by thinking about these things
anyway, others can't be bothered.

Now imagine, instead of having some mathematical and intuitive understanding
of the 'building blocks' of the universe.. you were thrown into hyperspace and
pulled of your body and _shown_ what the universe is, and what your place in
it is. And it's a truly beautiful, elegant thing. And many many people have
seen the same thing (it's the universal 'mystical experience').

It's like you were pulled out of the matrix, if just for a bit, and you can
actually talk to other people about it, because it happens to lots of people
who trip.

Whether it is actually giving insight or not (it could definitely be some
idiosyncratic interaction that lsd is having with your brain to make you see
things in a certain way); it's at the very least fun, and can have a drastic
effect on the way you oritent yourself toward reality.

It can also affect your mental processes--LSD has the effect (at least in me)
of continually changing the level of abstraction I am thinking in. You see a
situation, then you see the bigger picture of that situation, and on and on
until your mind can't even fathom any thing anymore.

You set out to write a bash script to move some files, you suddenly realize an
amazingly better way to do bash scripting, which makes you realize some basic
change in the OS that would make UI 1000% friendlier, then you realize we
shouldn't be using computers at all, then you realize you are here on earth
for a purpose and you are wasting your life then your buddy is like--YO you're
spacing off and the chain of thinking starts over.

~~~
parenthesis
>>> What it feels like is that you are tapping into something truer and deeper

It might _feel_ like you are tapping into something truer and deeper, but that
doesn't mean that you are.

~~~
danenania
Ultimately, _all_ our experiences are subjective and we can't be sure that any
of them are authentic. Perception is reality. LSD really makes this fact stand
out.

~~~
billybob
Perception isn't reality. Incorrectly perceiving an oncoming car will prove
this.

There are perceptions and there are facts. This is true whether the facts are
easily knowable or not, and extends as much to the existence of God and other
such questions as it does to the sum of two numbers.

~~~
danenania
"There are perceptions and there are facts."

Do you dispute that facts are also perceptions?

~~~
lhnz
Facts are a subset of perceptions. Not all perceptions are facts.

~~~
danenania
Not all facts are facts.

~~~
lhnz
Case in point.

------
peterwwillis
What in the name of Albert Hoffman has the title got to do with the actual
article? They talk about a couple scientists and a symposium on LSD.

How is this a 'geek wonder drug'? CAFFEINE is the geek wonder drug. LSD
probably contributes less than 5% of the world's drug-induced geek
accomplishments.

~~~
blankslate
I respectfully submit that caffeine is geek oxygen.

If we're casting around for a "wonder" drug, I'd suggest looking at
dexamphetamine sulphate, modafinil, etc.

~~~
erikpukinskis
If caffeine were geek oxygen, I would be dead.

------
Alex3917
This article doesn't do a very good job explaining what it is that makes
psychedelic drugs so intellectually interesting. I'd recommend listening to
Terence McKenna talking about his childhood and how he discovered
psychedelics.

[http://matrixmasters.net/archive/TerenceMcKenna/215-McKennaT...](http://matrixmasters.net/archive/TerenceMcKenna/215-McKennaTeachTreePt1.mp3)

Alternatively, listen to Alicia Danforth's amazing talk on giving psilocybin
to terminal cancer patients to ease end of life anxiety:

<http://vimeo.com/10931182>

------
Jun8
Can't resist: "Metaprogramming is the language feature that helps you write
code that you won't be able to understand once the LSD wears off."

------
utefan001
One of my best friends committed suicide at age 18 in 1995. If LSD was not
part of his life, I am sure the suicide would have never happened.

~~~
derwiki
I don't want to sound callous -- I'm sorry for your loss, that sounds awful --
but your comment doesn't give enough context to gain any insight. It just
sounds like "drugs are bad, mkay."

~~~
rick888
The problem is that some people can't handle LSD or other hallucinogens and
won't know until they are dead, hurt, or mentally screwed. It's this risk that
makes them bad.

~~~
danenania
Some people aren't capable of healthy romantic relationships and will cause
and experience a lot of pain through trying to have them. Should we stop
everyone from trying because some percentage will end up in abusive
situations, or with broken hearts, or even dead? Risk alone doesn't make
something bad, just risky. The question is if the potential rewards make the
risks worthwhile, and the answer for LSD for many is clearly yes. Learning how
to deal with risk is just part of life.

------
takameyer
It is amazing what psychedelics can bring to the table. Once you step outside
of the stream of consciousness society creates for us, it's tough to want to
be apart of it again. You feel free. No longer a cog in the machine, but
perhaps more an observer or tinkerer. I realized for myself that I no longer
have to be a part of that. It is truly out of the box thinking. I find myself
outside of the box and generally I'm trying to find the boundaries. This may
or may not effect my programming abilities, but it definitely puts the time I
have in this world into perspective. The ability to abstract and visualize
connections between objects has most definitely increased since
experimentation, but I'm not sure if that's a bi-product of myself programming
more, or the drugs themselves. All I know is that I would never take those
moments back, the bad and the good, as they have shaped who I am and what I
strive to be.

------
anonLSD
I offer some of the highlights of my personal experience with LSD,
anonymously, due to the very unfortunate stigma. I'm very positive on its
ability to unlock potential, trigger insights, expand perspective, and
facilitate learning, even in spite of having experienced a few bad trips.
Although the experience is deeply personal, I'll try to offer the most
concrete accounts I can.

First, of all the hundreds of little insights, interesting trains of thought,
and connections made between previously unrelated ideas, there is one
revelation in particular that floats to the top of my mind. It's this: LSD
confronts you, in an extremely visceral way, with the fact that the entire
universe that you perceive and interact with, the whole world and everybody in
it, is entirely in your own mind at all times. Sure, it's perfectly reasonable
to believe that it's all derived from an objective, external world - but
you've never interacted directly with that one, and in fact you can't.

Now, you might say that you already "know" this, philosophically. You can even
do the smug, Internet know-it-all thing and say this is completely pedestrian,
name-drop Descartes and a bunch of other philosophers, and hit me with a
zinger about how this is about as deep as "The Matrix". But I'm not claiming
that LSD leads you to the philosophical idea; I'm saying that it slaps you
right in the face with it, viscerally. It doesn't tell you, so that you have
to think about it in the abstract; it shows you, literally with your own eyes.
It's the difference between knowing what the Grand Canyon looks like from
pictures, and standing on the edge of it.

It is very common for people to describe the onset of their first trip in
terms of waking up, for the first time, ever. I'd describe it this way, too.
It feels like waking up for the first time, and realizing that you'd been
dreaming your whole life. Of course, this is really just an analogy, and it's
more than just a feeling. It's a sudden shift in your actual perceptual
processes, which are largely chemical, and have now been altered. But by the
mere fact of them being altered, you realize that the default way of
perceiving is just that - just a default. It isn't more "true" or more "real"
- it's a default, it's massively culturally constructed, and it's
characterized by a certain amount of non-questioning of assumptions. What's a
color? What's a country? What's a "week"? What's a leader? What is solid?
Which way is up? What's a job? Your brain starts trying to decompose every
concept into basic principles, and you realize that for a lot of things in the
human world, there are none. Just made-up, widespread beliefs that cause lots
of people to act as-if, and in so doing, make them "real". Again, there is a
difference between merely realizing this philosophically, and being
transported outside of the web of culturally-reinforced beliefs and observing
it from the outside.

So there's a lot of shedding of constructed concepts. What's left when all
that chaff blows away? Whatever it is, it a) seems a lot more real, and b) is
obscured in normal consciousness. I'm not suggesting that it would be
desirable to permanently lose the ability to think on the level of
appointments, check-writing, stop-lights, prospectuses, and the rest of the
"mundane". I am definitely suggesting that what is left of experience after
all that is obliterated from consciousness is worth seeing. There are
parallels here with Buddhism and enlightenment traditions. It's also extremely
common for people to offer meditation as a substitute. It's perfectly fine if
you don't want to do illegal drugs - hardly anyone will fault you. But don't
fool yourself that you're getting the same effect. I've practiced meditation
too, and while it does alter consciousness, there are many meaningfully
different altered states - they are in no way equivalent or substitutable.
(Think about it - if you can simulate an LSD trip by meditating, do you
simulate a K trip by meditating differently? Can you meditate yourself to a
heroin high by a different technique? LSD isn't just another interchangeable
"enlightened" state - they're all specific in their sets of effects. I have no
doubt that I too have missed out on plenty of profound experiences by not
taking, doing, seeing, or achieving any number of things. It's a big world.)

Sadly, this is turning into a wall of text, and I could still go on for the
rest of the day. So, I'm going to force myself to wrap up with just a few more
short highlights:

* I learned OpenGL while tripping. The subjective experience was of the information slipping into my brain effortlessly. Normally, I have to read sentences and paragraphs multiple times for them to "sink in". That time, I just skimmed, and understood. The next day, sober, I wrote a couple of neat height-field/terrain programs in OpenGL. Of course we've all learned dozens of even more complicated topics without any drugs, so this anecdote is meaningless, right? All I'm talking about is what it _felt like_ to learn it. It felt effortless by comparison to the way I normally learn. Placebo? Selective memory? Your other favorite bias? Might be interesting to know definitively - but I still had a really good time that night.

* I once won a game of Mastermind on the first turn, without making any other guesses. This seriously freaked out the other people at the table. I wasn't tripping at the time, but I was in a distinctly "trippy" mentality - so much so that I was having a mini-flashback by the end of the turn. What I had done was to realize that the room was a closed system, containing the information about the winning pattern, and that as part of that system, I might have access to the information via other channels. Basically, I just paid very close attention to the other person's body language as I fingered different colored pegs, and allowed him to inadvertently "tell" me the correct colors and order.

* I once did a drawing of a woman from the neck up, while tripping. When I started drawing her hair, I got lost. I was drawing hair for what seemed like hours. I was hiding dozens of other, nested, drawings inside the texture of the hair. It still looked more or less like hair, but if you really looked at it, it was teeming with a whole bunch of unrelated drawings. Sure, I could do the same thing now, but it had never before occurred to me to try that. There is something about tripping that is inherently amenable to that kind of recursive, fractal thinking.

In short, don't knock subjective experiences. The enjoyment of music is a
subjective experience, is it not?

~~~
tajddin
"What's a color? What's a country? What's a "week"? What's a leader? What is
solid? Which way is up? What's a job? Your brain starts trying to decompose
every concept into basic principles, and you realize that for a lot of things
in the human world, there are none."

While I've personally never tried LSD, my favorite is, e, which offers a
similar, but different, opening of the mind. Since I've never tried LSD, I can
only say that e opens one in an emotional way, one that allows you to
empathize and understand the universe in a way that you otherwise wouldn't. It
also invokes an odd existential dialog within oneself about how the world
works and why we think the way we do.

I suppose I quote you because as a musician and software engineer, it is often
the case that I ask myself why it is that certain things are the way they are.
For example, anyone that's studies AI realizes that one of the harder concepts
is that of _understanding_.

How do we make a machine understand when we ourselves don't understand the
_why_ around us?

Drugs like e and LSD present an insight to us that allows us to realize that
the answer is a lot more distant than just what we perceive.

~~~
davidspi
if you were to read all of these posts, you would find a common theme: we all
experience a new level of consciousness when we trip. However, regardless of
what this new experience was or through what method it was achieved, the
presence of a new conscious experience proves that their are different types
even levels of consciousness.

this epiphany occurred to me through a drug induced change in consciousness. i
realized that every material thing in this universe is just a product of my
consciousness. this then got me thinking: how is it that material is a product
of my consciousness, yet science tells me that my brain (a piece of material
produces consciousness).

I flirted with this paradox for months. I concluded that everything in the
universe is just a system of interconnected systems of the same energy. I
thought of the things in the universe as just different manifestations of a
single type of energy at different points in space and time.

Then I read about Amit Goswami and learned some very useful scientific jargon
for what i was experiencing. Anyone who is interested in "conscioussness"
should research this man - he is leading a thought revolution

<http://www.amitgoswami.org/>

~~~
blankslate
I'm very suspicious of the use of the word "quantum" as a crowbar to pry open
respectable science and fill it with new age bullshit.

I can definitely sympathise with the flavour of insight you're talking about
though, and this guy seems to hold some credentials, but phrases like "make
brain circuits of positive emotions" trip my hippie detector.

------
kstenerud
There is a theory that the connection between the right and left hemisphere of
the human brain has been diminishing over generations (The ancients used to
audibly hear the voice of the gods, which was likely the right hemisphere, but
that ability diminished around 4-5000 years ago).

I wonder if all these psychadelic drugs are doing is enhancing the
communication between right and left, or perhaps suppressing the left such
that the right takes greater charge? The left does, after all, have very
narrow focus as opposed to the right, which processes greater but less focused
patterns.

~~~
doyoulikeworms
This is a really interesting theory to me (and probably many others). Care to
share some links, documentaries, or documents regarding this topic? Would love
to know more.

~~~
robinhouston
I assume this is a reference to the 1976 book _The Origin of Consciousness in
the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind_, by Julian Jaynes.

Richard Dawkins wrote of it: “It is one of those books that is either complete
rubbish or a work of consummate genius, nothing in between! Probably the
former, but I'm hedging my bets.”

------
tokenadult
Around the world, there are many different patterns of regulation of drugs,
and here in the United States, schedule I controlled substances like LSD can
be used for legitimate medical research. Research on new drugs is a
multibillion dollar industry in several different countries. But there is a
dearth of well statistically controlled studies of the safety and
effectiveness of LSD for any purpose. Indeed, medical research more often
pursues the issue of how to help emergency room patients who appear for
treatment of psychotic symptoms triggered by illicit use of LSD.

On the specific issue of programmer or scientist creativity and productivity,
that too is a much researched field, but again there are not well controlled
studies showing that anyone increases productivity or creativity in any
occupation while using LSD. The checkered academic career of Timothy Leary is
instructive in this regard. What research shows makes a huge difference in the
productivity and work quality of programmers and scientists is steady
deliberate practice building up problem-solving skills and growth mindset,
along with accumulation of domain-specific knowledge.

[http://stuff.mit.edu/afs/athena/course/6/6.055/readings/eric...](http://stuff.mit.edu/afs/athena/course/6/6.055/readings/ericsson-
charness-am-psychologist.pdf)

~~~
nerfhammer
It's cause LSD isn't eligible for patent. Research funds are overwhelming
steered toward drugs or medical devices that are patentable.

------
zavulon
You have to see this video, dedicated to Albert Hoffman (nominated for Academy
Award in 1998):

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xqcjNUqIAw>

YouTube keeps deleting it, so in case link goes bad, just search for this:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/More_%281998_film%29>

------
johnjhayes
LSD is steroids for meditation. A cheat and a shortcut to the hard work. But
it certainly seems to work ;-)

~~~
thret
This is what I understand it to be, as per Doors of Perception. It is on my
to-do list when I'm 70.

------
bitwize
Did anyone else see _Limitless_?

Did anyone else look at the symptoms of the drug he took (the fictional
"NZT-48") and think, "hmmm, sounds like a more extreme form of MDMA"?

Haven't tried it myself. Heard lots about it.

~~~
jmtame
why did you think it was more related to mdma versus an amphetamine? i
remember when i saw limitless the first time, i kept thinking 'is this movie
just about adderall and vyvanse?'

~~~
ellyagg
I had the same reaction as grandparent, so that's a good question. In my case,
maybe it's just because it's the closest drug I've used that matches the
description from the movie and I've never tried other amphetamines.

The bright blue skies and sun dappled leaves. The pronounced extroversion and
talkativeness that makes you think you're a suave genius. The fearlessness.
Like Jay-Z said, "MDMA has you feeling like a champion." MDMA _is_ an
amphetamine, so presumably all amphetamines may share these traits. If
Adderall does it quite to the same degree as MDMA, I envy diagnosed sufferers
of ADHD.

~~~
terchin
I've taken MDMA (Molly) and Adderall, separately. MDMA was good every time.
The Adderall only gave me sweaty palms and the inability to stay seated. They
don't compare to each other, at least for me.

------
obvanon
All of you people wondering why people often talk of "seeing God" and other
mystical experiences while on LSD, here's the thing:

for the most part, those experiences are false

However, we tend to associate the parts of our life that are more
contemplative with the religious or the supernatural. That is why the
_descriptions_ are often religious in nature. That is, however, a limitation
of our culture. Because we have traditionally delegated those states of mind
to the idea of religions, of Church, of God and so on.

LSD will tear you apart and put you back together and you will be better for
it. However, even if it was immensely important for me, do not take LSD, even
if for this reason alone: it's illegal. I regret my LSD times for that reason
alone. I think society is wrong in that regard, but I still like society and I
am willing to put up with it being wrong once in a while.

If you want to experience the whole mind-bending experience, go study
Philosophy. Read the complicated, boring, dreary stuff. Read Kant and formal
logic and everything you can put your hands on. Whatever little thing LSD may
have done to some people, Philosophy will do to you a thousand fold. It's the
harder path, but it will give you skills that you can control at your will,
and it will make you better in every area of your life, permanently.

Philosophy is the whole book to LSD's Cliff's Notes.

------
lhnz
Not going to read the article, but will say that it produces interesting and
uncontrollable cognitive leaps. Your mind is more explorative in its
creativity. However, there are massive problems with using it this way: you do
not remember very much and cannot think coherently.

As for it making everything seem hyper-real and 'true', yes, it also does that
but it is false. If you were to remember everything from a trip, the
likelihood of most of it being useful or correct is probably pretty low.

Lastly, I agree that it is too dangerous -- I don't suffer from psychosis but
nevertheless my one experience was not enjoyable. It turned bad; I believe I
had a panic attack which I acted upon in the worst possible way. You do not
want to experience feelings of failure on LSD. Trust me. My body created
physical sensations based on my own thoughts and I lay on a bed shivering...

However, I guess it had a profound and positive effect on me. I realised that
the experience was not the one that I wanted from life and it made me reflect
on who I wanted to be and how I wanted to live. I realised that one of the
best things about my mind has always been the clarity of thought that I have
in comparison to many people. I refuse to let that go and since then I've
actively sought purpose.

------
kamis
Before jumping off any drugs, I have done more than ten years testing in
testing in expanding of consciousness including LSD trips as well. Those were
really impressive. You can see sound, hear colors, every surface gets alive.
But the best ones happened in the countryside. When you understand the way
Universe is build, how things work etc. That was wonderful!! The consciousness
was expanded... but it was just a bubble. Because when it ended after 12
hours, I understood that I knew all those things, that I had those strange
super-senses. But now I have only some flashbacks and cannot explain others
how the Universe is built. So my opinion is that life is like climbing the
mountain. We all started climbing up. But on our way we found all kind of
interesting things - bars, parties, working, career, family, relationships
etc. And climbing made some sideways, making our journey up slower. Some even
stopped or even rolled down. But everybody still have that knowledge of being
on the top of the mountain. It's deep inside. And then we found that weed,
mushrooms, lsd, salvia etc. helps us "opening our minds". But it's just like
someone grabs you by your hair, pulls up to the top of mountain, shows you
what's over there and ... releases his hand. So you just fall down, luckily to
the same place where you've taken, if not lower. I got it only after several
years of meditation when you do your consciousness expansion step by step. But
the "trip" you can get out of that is the one you cannot compare with any
drugs trip you have got before. At least it worked for me. So be careful with
all those trips as it's very easy to get on the hook because it's much easier
to have one cube either than sitting for hours in meditation. But we all have
all choices. And it doesn't matter which you choose as it's your choice.

------
Xurinos
Is this _really_ a matter of discovering new patterns? Aren't those patterns
just mutations and combinations of already-known patterns?

In that case, wouldn't a better process be to expose yourself to new
experiences, especially those that challenge you or take you out of your
comfort zones? How about reading books and watching movies you have not viewed
before? That would have a similar effect, right?

~~~
Groxx
Are you arguing for it or against it?

> _expose yourself to new experiences, especially those that challenge you or
> take you out of your comfort zones?_

I haven't, and am not saying you should, merely pointing out that you seem to
object on _principle_ rather than for a _reason_. Drug "education" when I was
in grade school amounted to massive scare tactics, usually without supporting
evidence, while they now give you similar things for ADD (but you pay a hell
of a lot more, and the chemicals have only existed for a few years). There's a
lot of general, unsubstantiated fear in this area, and a lot of irrational
trust in drug companies.

------
mman
I think it's cool to come out and say this. I have also had extremely positive
experiences with drugs as a geek.

------
truthsayer
Sounds like self-delusion fed by gratification. I know which engineer I'd
rather interact with.

~~~
DrHankPym
Don't forget, that line of respect goes both ways.

------
jasonmcalacanis
Steve Jobs admits to taking LSD.

I rest my case.

~~~
antidaily
"one of the two or three most important things [he had] done in [his] life".

source:
[http://articles.cnn.com/2011-01-17/tech/steve.jobs.life_1_ap...](http://articles.cnn.com/2011-01-17/tech/steve.jobs.life_1_apple-
chief-executive-wozniak-steve-jobs/4?_s=PM:TECH)

~~~
oggz
Would anyone like to speculate what the other thing or two is?

~~~
pluies
The two most obvious things would be founding Apple and his daughter. Pure
speculation, of course.

------
kragen
While I have great respect for many people whose lives have been changed for
the better by LSD, I have never taken it. Many of the mind-expanding
experiences they report are my daily experience.

To quote Salvador Dali:

I don't _use_ drugs.

 _I am drugs._

~~~
mattgreenrocks
This underscores something that's been running around in my head for awhile.
I'm almost certain that I had a previous worldview - one that was highly
ordered and rational - was completely wrecked by the aesthetic experience. I
wouldn't wish it on anyone, as re-writing your worldview is a scary process.

But I found a certain solace in the aesthetics: valuing individual moments
more, breaking the spell of materialism, thinking deeply about rather abstract
concepts, and not being afraid to embrace mystery when necessary. None of
these require the aesthetic experience, they're just by-products of a mind
that is being expanded. And they're quite similar to the insights of people on
this thread who reported dropping acid.

------
davidspi
if you were to read all of these posts, you would find a common theme: we all
experience a new level of consciousness when we trip. However, regardless of
what this new experience was, or through what method it was achieved, the
presence of a new conscious experience proves that their are different types
and even levels of consciousness.

this epiphany occurred to me through a drug induced change in consciousness. i
realized that every material thing in this universe is just a product of my
consciousness. this then got me thinking: how is it that material is a product
of my consciousness, yet science tells me that my brain (a piece of material)
produces consciousness.

I flirted with this paradox for months. I concluded that everything in the
universe is just a system of interconnected systems of the same energy. I
thought of the things in the universe as just different manifestations of a
single type of energy at different points in space and time.

Then I read about Amit Goswami and learned some very useful scientific jargon
for what i was experiencing. Anyone who is interested in "conscioussness"
should research this man - he is leading a thought revolution

<http://www.amitgoswami.org/>

------
bodski
A related excerpt from BBC Horizon documentary on Psychedelic Science with
interviews including Micrsoft's Bob Wallis on the use at the Homebrew Computer
Club and Kary Mullis (who claims that LSD was intrumental in the development
of the Polymerase chain reaction) :

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2WurhYEQyY> [Flash video!]

------
guruz
I'm a bit shocked here about people who expect LSD to make people code better
or create better art and if it does not they complain it is "not effective".

Things like LSD (or meditating, running, ...) allow you to to get your mind
into a state that enables you to look behind nature, people, society and
everything else. It's not a productivity tool and should not be used as such I
think :-)

------
mannicken
Please be careful before you go out and drop acid thinking it'll make you a
better developer. Psychedelics like that are powerful.

And by powerful I mean I've had bad trips where I thought I was being raped,
and hallucinated a giant penis staring at my face for eight hours.

On the other hand, acid is one of the best drug out there if done right, it
unclutters minds.

------
redsymbol
At first I misread the headline as "Lisp: The Geek's Wonder Drug".

Ha, maybe that works too ;)

------
GoldenMonkey
another view of supposed 'creativity benefits' to engineers:

<http://www3.sympatico.ca/ian.g.mason/John_Markoff.htm>

------
michaelochurch
I don't see LSD as a "geek's wonder drug", and I'm skeptical of many of its
purported benefits. Are those benefits real? Sure, but so are the risks. Could
most of those, for most people, be better achieved (given enough time) through
other means, such as yoga and meditation? Probably. To use geek terms,
recreational drug use scales _very_ poorly. I know a fair number of people
who've used LSD once or a few times and consider it a very positive
experience, but acidheads and frequent users seem to be among the most boring
and damaged people I've met.

Do I think these drugs are evil or that no one should use them? Of course not.
They have incredible therapeutic potential and it's a travesty that they're
illegal. On the other hand, I think a lot of people overstate their power (in
terms of the ability to improve oneself) relative to alternatives. Do these
drugs (LSD, MDMA, mushrooms, ayahuasca) have a place, for some people and in
some circumstances? Absolutely. Should psychedelic therapies be researched and
made available? Of course. Should anyone go to jail or be considered "evil" or
"hedonistic" for the curiosity to try some psychedelics? Obviously, no. That
said, I think a lot of "geeks" tend to overstate the benefits and downplay the
dangers of recreational drug use, _especially_ as a lifestyle. Timothy Leary
was actually a mess toward the end of his life, and I've seen a few
"psychonauts" crack up.

There may be benefits of long-term recreational drug use that I'm wholly
ignorant of, having never gone down that road and having no intention to do
so, but what I've seen around me recommends against that pattern. I prefer
meditation because, although it requires more time and patience, it scales
better: you get accelerating positive returns, and safely as well.

~~~
Lost_BiomedE
A lot of the benefits that would be hard to achieve through time may be due to
the shocking aspect or intensity of some of these drugs. Think of a rite of
passage, it stresses people out of their normal thought/reaction/logic
structure in order to help form a new one. Usually promises are made or
responsibilities given that are then psychologically attached to the event.
Given that, how the event is structured and to what ends is very meaningful.

The damaged people might be due to more factors than the drug. Besides
possible use amphetamines or other drugs, too, your experimental pool would
only consist of those who would choose to use these drugs a lot for lengths of
time and advertise this. There are some decent studies on use of peyote and
ayahuasca where participants use it weekly or more for many years. They scored
the same on physical well being but scored higher than the control for mental
well being.

BTW, I totally agree that the term 'geek wonder drug' is inappropriate.

~~~
michaelochurch
What you say about indigenous peyote and ayahuasca users is very true. This is
a very different use pattern from U.S.-style recreational use. For one thing,
non-shamanic users are using doses that we'd consider sub-psychedelic, at
least most of the time. The shaman knows the person and if he or she is ready
before a person is taken to a level that would be considered "tripping" by our
standards. People are only taken to that point when they are ready and know
what to expect. Still, you're right that these practices (indigenous/religious
psychedelic use) are not especially harmful-- a lot safer than our cultural
institution of heavy alcohol use.

The illegality of these drugs, in my estimation, actually encourages
irresponsible use patterns, through hard-to-control dosage and intermittent
access. There's definitely a mentality of "trip hard now because you may not
be able to get this stuff in a year" in the U.S. psychedelic culture, and the
drug laws are culpable for creating it.

------
diamondhead
Great example of irresponsibility. As we can see in the other "success"
stories written here, many unsuccessful people -exceptions are the role
models- tries it to be creative.

------
citizenkeys
Only thing I'm high on these days is life. To each his own, though.

"The goal is being high, not getting high." -Be Here Now, Ram Dass

------
diadem
If you need to take psychedelics to 'unlock the wonders of your mind' or
whatever just to do some simple programming, software may not be the field for
you.

~~~
pavel_lishin
Do you drink coffee or tea?

~~~
diadem
Yes. Are they psychedelics? No. Weird how that doesn't contradict my original
point at all.

~~~
bronson
Wow. It sounds like your mind could use some unlocking.

