
LSD: My Life-Saving Drug - pmcpinto
http://www.gq.com/story/lsd-life-saving-drug
======
whistlerbrk
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_. Not in Times Square.

When done right and with the right people it can be a truly profound
experience which I firmly firmly believe all humans should participate in.
I've heard just as many people though turned off to them permanently though
through bad experiences which I (who am likely biased) chalk up to bad
settings. I'd also say properly grown mushrooms may be a better option for
most people. Finally, maybe mixing drugs isn't the best thing to do either.

~~~
BookmarkSaver
I agree with just about everything you said, except the "in nature" part.
Don't get me wrong, tripping in nature is awesome, maybe the best place to
trip. But it isn't necessary and might not even be the best for your first
time (depending on what you are doing). They real key is to not have too many
stimuli out of your control, particularly having lots and lots of strangers
around. Especially if you have to interact with them for whatever reason.

Other than that you are fine. As long as you are in full control of what you
are doing and you don't feel pressured by strangers then most people will be
perfectly comfortable. And while tripping in nature has generally been more
enjoyable for me, interacting with really good friends (especially ones also
tripping with me, one of the best parts of the trip) and seeing your familiar
surroundings with a new mind was the most valuable part to me.

~~~
earlz
About 90% of the stories I've heard of LSD ca be summarized by "I spent 3
hours watching a story unfold on my wall"

~~~
Fordrus
And, to be fair, as someone who has never done LSD and will likely wait until
it is legal and can be prescribed by a physician- that sounds like an AMAZING
experience. :)

------
kurage
LSD helped me significantly; it alleviated my ADHD symptoms, and helped me get
over my substance dependency issues over few low dose trips.

Psilocybin helped bring clarity, motivation in my life, love for nature, and
helped purge out some negative emotions by crying.

Ayahuasca has been the most therapeutic; it allowed me to revisit very early
childhood memories I've completely forgotten about, which later helped my
interactions with my family and friends. It also showed me why I was born,
which helped give me a sense of direction, purpose in life.

Forever grateful for psychedelics and the guides that help facilitate a safe
space.

~~~
selestify
> It also showed me why I was born, which helped give me a sense of direction,
> purpose in life.

Out of curiosity, can I ask why you were born?

~~~
ak39
Oxytocin. We were all born to touch and keep the oxy mojo flowing. (Just don't
get creepy about it.)

I've been on this crazy beautiful floating space rock for 43 years. My dad is
73 and ailing mother 68 this year. I have a wife who's tolerated me for 20
years. I have 3 rock springers 17, 12 and 8 years with her. I've met hundreds
of other beautiful rock dwellers asking the same question you ask. I haven't
lived a necessarily exceptional life and I don't claim to know much, but I do
know that Oscar Wilde was on to something when he said: "With age comes
wisdom, but sometimes age comes alone" ... and that kinda scares me sometimes
when I enjoy my occasional misanthropy.

Let's keep the compassion flowing, everything else is part-time occupation.

------
RangerScience
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!

------
codeshaman
I know I'm not alone thinking that psychedelics might just be the solution (or
key to finding solutions) to a lot of humanity's issues, including climate
change, fundamentalism, war..

And it's easy to understand why - because most of humanity's issues are
consequences of the spiritual health of every individual living on the planet.
If the group, as a whole, is spiritually and morally lost or deceived, things
like wars, dictatorships or disregard for nature can and do take place.

If psychedelics can heal individuals, then we can eventually heal the whole of
society, which is the proverbial moving on to the next level of global
consciousness.

Without any kind of real data, instinctively I feel like the world is going
through an explosion of psychedelic use, partly due to music festivals, partly
due to dark markets and partly due to the good press and incredible amounts of
information available online.

Another interesting aspect is that the users who experienced a powerful
personal transformation often feel the need to spread the word and rightfully
come to treat them as sacraments.

So I think more and more people will use them, which will hopefully lead us to
a peaceful, healthy future.

AI, VR, Robots, Space exploration and Psychedelics .. Interesting times
indeed.

~~~
mercer
I wish I could share your optimism, but I'm afraid that while global increase
in psychedelic use _might_ bring some measurable improvement, it probably
won't be too much, and definitely not enough.

The main problems I see is that 1) the use of psychedelics is a bit of a
shortcut, and as such perhaps deceptively ineffective for long-term change (in
contrast to, say, daily meditation), and 2) humans seem to be really good at
always returning to some base-line of behavior, and I suspect that this
applies equally to 'enlightenment'. This might explain the first point as
well.

I only need to look at my friends and extended social circle(s) to see how
relatively little their frequent use of psychedelics had on them. The ones
where it seemed to have most effect were people who treated it as a more
meaningful (and/or spiritual) experience, and especially those who changed
aspects of their daily life through this.

Whenever someone brings up Steve Jobs, for example, and his mention of LSD as
life-changing, my immediate thought is: 'yeah, but he also lived in an stark,
empty house, was spiritually 'active' (don't remember what exactly, some
buddhist movement), and went as far as changing his diet and _not_ going to a
doctor when he should have. Clearly it wasn't just the LSD, but an entire way
of living to go along with that.

I'm afraid that if the use of psychedelics becomes a cultural norm, we'll just
give it a small place in our lives where it can do little harm and is defanged
of it's power. Like a nice rite of passage to go through before you get back
to 'real life'.

------
kalzium
Somehow I have the feeling that psychedelics are still kind of glorified -
mostly by creative people - and I can tell you all people are different.
People's brains are all wired differently. Because they all went through
different things in their lives. While it might help some, others might
actually be left traumatized and with horrible flashbacks! Hacking your brain
isn't easy!

It happened to me as a teenager. I had troubles concentrating, chalk boards
would melt around teachers, trains coming in as snakes hissing, swallowing and
spitting out people... at some point it stopped, but it surely wasn't always
that enjoyable being "stuck" on a trip and feeling like moving through a
dimension between dream and reality constantly. I mostly didn't care back then
and thought it was kind of entertaining.

But I know now that I have some mental issues and LSD actually amplified the
symptoms. So if you find yourself on the autistic scale and you're feeling
depressed - probably better keep away from LSD... Your head is already so busy
- try to do something more productive instead. ;)

Have to admit it was super interesting, but it left me with more bad effects
than good in the end!

~~~
stared
Depression is a big no (and other "demons").

But for autistic scale - experience of synesthesia is on the opposite edge.
[http://www.wired.com/2014/10/magic-mushroom-
brain/](http://www.wired.com/2014/10/magic-mushroom-brain/) Though, the "lack
of control" needs to be addressed before starting adventure.

I agree that "hacking one's brain" is not for everyone, and its better to be
safe than sorry.

------
colordrops
> When a freak brain hemorrhage struck out of nowhere a couple of years ago, I
> became a little depressed, stuck in a rut, and strangely fearful of death.
> So when I heard about people (in my neighborhood, even) using hallucinogens
> to push beyond their preoccupations, to help them live without fear, I
> decided that was a trip I had to take.

Ironically, I had a bad trip on LSD where I thought I had a brain hemorrhage,
and the experience damaged me for years.

~~~
edpichler
I believe on you. I read the those bad trips can be really bad. Using LSD when
you are depressed is dangerous.

~~~
danharaj
It's a shame to see this comment in gray. You're right. It's not as if LSD has
an intent to be therapeutic. It's a molecule that primes a brain for strange
experiences. There's no reason why those experiences have to be good. They can
be terrible.

------
jsmeaton
_I started to get nervous. I liked my brain the way it was. I mean, there were
some pretty big issues there... but I didn’t want a new one. I had no
interest, for example, in leaving my wife. A friend had told me a story about
a couple who’d done ayahuasca and had an epiphany that they should get
divorced, then took a second dose the same weekend and had an epiphany that
they should stay together. What if they’d stopped after the first trip?_

I find myself having similar thoughts whenever I talk or think about having
similar experiences. I've had small doses of mushrooms and LCD before which
were a combination of good and _ok_ experiences. DMT terrifies me for the
reasons above. I _like_ how I'm wired for the most part. I also know that I
can have (and have had) some very bad experiences, even just with weed.

I had a close friend that experimented with a few things I'd like to not say,
and it changed his life profoundly for a long time, and still impacts him
today 3 or 4 years later. The changes, for the most part, were mostly not good
(from my perspective). I would say that he "lost his mind" for at least a
couple of months. But he also made some changes that were absolutely positive.

I'd like to see what all the fuss is about. But do I need to? Will life as I
know it survive? For the moment I'm not seeking this experience out. I feel
like if it comes to me in the right setting I'll likely participate, but until
then, I'll sit on the sidelines and hope for the research (and laws) to
improve.

------
timonv
From a culture where drugs aren't very much taboo (Dutch), I'm very interested
in the (scientific) positive effects of hallucinogens. There seems to be more
and more research going on in this, for many taboo, field with very
interesting observations. Here's a great article (of a series) from 2014 which
hovers over several researches in the years prior and covers some essential
history: [http://www.scpr.org/news/2014/05/19/44178/psychedelic-
scienc...](http://www.scpr.org/news/2014/05/19/44178/psychedelic-science-the-
surge-in-psychiatric-resea/)

What sets me off hard on this article is that the writer hallucinated from
hash. I suppose anyone can have an off-the-charts response, but I've never
seen anyone hallucinate from it. It's also rather striking how much of a
'hero' story this is. Started as a 'typical busy guy', 'struck by lightning',
'fear of death', 'start of epic quest', 'triumphed by wonder potion'. It's all
so perfect.

Maybe I'm just paranoid, and I applaud any (including this) discussion of
taboos, but I can't help but feeling skeptic about the genuinity of this
article.

~~~
soylentcola
> What sets me off hard on this article is that the writer hallucinated from
> hash. I suppose anyone can have an off-the-charts response, but I've never
> seen anyone hallucinate from it.

I guess it depends on your definition of "hallucinate". I don't know anyone
who's had the sort of obvious visual hallucinations associated with many
psychedelics but plenty of people (myself included) have experienced mild
auditory hallucinations and strong distortions in the perception of time and
physical movement under the influence of a strong dose of cannabis.

------
purplerabbit
//my experience

var self = (function LSD(self) {

    
    
      if (self) {
        return {
          ontology: new Ontology(),
          ego: null
        }
      }
      else return self
        

})(former_self)

edit: spacing. But seriously though, LSD can encourage/force you to re-think
things you've taken for granted or never really understood. Like what time is,
or how empathy works.

~~~
Ygg2
So its basically just like dealing with bureaucracy?

Reduces your ego to null and forces you to rethink things you've taken for
granted, while contemplating your existence within rules of it.

~~~
purplerabbit
That's an interesting comparison... Definitely some merit to it. The
difference with LSD is that the rethinking occurs on more of a physical level
than a social one.

------
mempko
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? This sense of
wholeness.

Reading the experiences people have had, I feel I have had similar ones
through meditation.

Maybe these drugs are just a shortcut.

~~~
gnaritas
> 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.

~~~
Jach
I'm still skeptical. I suspect meditation can give something similar, but not
the same, as something like heroin, just like running can get you a "runner's
high". But the brain just can't produce arbitrary chemical formulas.

A fun passage from [http://unqualified-
reservations.blogspot.com/2011/07/dispatc...](http://unqualified-
reservations.blogspot.com/2011/07/dispatches-from-real-america.html)

"The serious heroin aficionado, if still functional, lives his junkie life
surrounded by poor dumb muggles who believe they're getting "high on life."
Bullshit! High is spelled _heroin_. Your muggle can't even _imagine_ high.
It's like trying to explain electricity to a blind man."

~~~
Implicated
I think, in the context he's saying meditation and drugs are similar, they're
referring to psychedelics and their ability to blur reality and perceptions.

Heroin is a whole other animal, I'm not sure you're going to find many people
comparing it to meditation.

------
danharaj
It's a tired cliche to share one's fundamentally incommunicable drug
experiences in the comments when the topic comes up, is it not? Let's have a
go at it.

The author paints an image of conflict between himself on lsd, and himself off
lsd. Himself the perceiver, and himself the analyzer. I don't think these are
integral to the experience. He mentions perceptions like '...the notion of
“teetering” was meaningless too—I was on both sides of the precipice at once'.
I can identify this dissolution of boundaries and commingling of opposites in
my own experiences. If you try to interpret the experience in terms of
dichotomies and distinctions, your words will be inadequate to describe it.
The inadequacy of such understanding might agitate you. There is something
here for the analytical mind to gain too: learning to coexist with
uncertainty, doubt, paradox, and mystery and yet keep going and keep
analyzing. You don't have to lose your head on LSD, but you'll find in the
deepest places that there is no distinction at all between the analyzer and
the dreamer.

In regular old life, too, I believe that distinctions, drawing a line between
'this' and 'that' can be as much a handicap to understanding as an aid.
Distinctions tell things apart, but unity and continuity are as integral to
reality as difference and change. The wholeness of being engendered by
psychedelic experiences is difficult to describe because distinctions are the
easy aspect of language, and wholeness the difficult. True ugliness and true
beauty walk hand in hand in that strange place. It does one well to let go of
the distinction between good and bad when one is on a trip. Forcing it won't
help though. "Have you ever _tried_ to relax? It is a paradox!"

I read Laozi for the first time at the end of a "bad" trip. It was a joy. To
this day, it is the only text that makes perfect sense to me in the waking
world and that other world, the world of dreams. That was my last trip. I
wonder how the next one will be, when the time, place, and person are right
for it?

~~~
EC1
What by Laozi did you read?

~~~
danharaj
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 translations are great because they
really try to put the work in context and preserve its delicate meanings.
That's rather important considering that the text, like many ancient writings
has been corrupted through transmission and interpolation, and translation is
fundamentally lossy.

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

------
leroy_masochist
Does anyone here have experience with ibogaine? A close friend recently went
to Mexico to do ibogaine therapy and she says it's changed her life, mostly
for the better.

They have actual clinics in Mexico where they hook you up to an IV of the drug
(oral ingestion problematic for whatever reason) and assign you a trip-sitter
who has two jobs: for the first hour or two, when the drug makes you ill in an
ayahuasca-like way, they help you get through it, go to and from the bathroom,
etc. For the second part, which lasts around eight hours, the trip-sitter just
hangs out and chats with you.

According to my friend, it was an emotionally much deeper journey than
ayahuasca, with much more pronounced long-term results.

Evidently it gets rid of a lot of your deep-seated emotional and psychological
issues (specifically, she says she's parted with "a shitload of petty little
grudges against random people"), but it also, as she puts it, "takes all of
your armor off". For example she reports that aggressive drivers used to be a
source of mild amusement, but now she gets very saddened and anxious when
another driver gives her the finger and refuses to let her change lanes.

------
ha8o8le
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...

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

------
_rc
For those who want to bypass the modal, you can type this in the javascript
console:

document.getElementById("abnm").remove();

~~~
bigDS
Readability also works:
[https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/readability/oknpjj...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/readability/oknpjjbmpnndlpmnhmekjpocelpnlfdi?hl=en)

------
aaroninsf
Obligatory erowid.org plug... if you're curious, no better place to start.

ITT: a lot of 100% accurate suggestion that understanding the concept of 'set
and setting' is invaluable when experimenting with altered states...!

------
jordanbaucke
" _In ten years, he believes, psilocybin will be reclassified a Schedule II
drug; there will be clinical centers, equipped with trained and certified
guides, around the country. This is his life’s mission—not only to get to the
bottom of why psychedelic therapy works wonders but to legitimize it as a
viable treatment._ "

I think that quote was the most meaningful part of this article for me,
declassifying / rescheduling drugs that are currently relegated to the
"Scheduled 1/No accepted medical use", and the DEA almost NEVER granting
research permits, not only creates unnecessary criminal felons in the United
States, it has a second harm of suppressing research into as-yet unknown
presumptive medically beneficial aspects of these substances.

------
artur_makly
and for those who seek the most purist trip and healing that blows away lsd or
any other kind of artificially lab created chemical.. try ayahuasca. its the
ulimate nuetropic and journey you can take.

2 nights ago i had My First #Ayahuasca Experience. The Quick Post Mortem

\- 10yrs of therapy.. in 1 night. \- 2x more energy. \- full chacras alignment
\- 3x more focus \- 3x less stress \- a more positive attitude \- 100x more
confidence \- deep sense of gratitude \- mega bursts of creative non-linear
thinking \- less physical pain ( stemming from long-term computer use ) \-
awareness & empathy ( which is hard for me being a lonely child ) \- due to
the pre-diet prep..i've now finally become vegan.

~~~
coldtea
> _full chacras alignment_

You know that that is mumbo jumbo BS, right?

~~~
marshray
It means something important to him, whether he conveys the idea perfectly or
not to us in this post.

~~~
coldtea
> _It means something important to him_

Well, isn't that true for anyone believing in mumbo jumbo? Shouldn't truth be
even more important?

~~~
csorrell
If you think of "chakra talk" as a particular dialect some people use to
communicate where their emotional and mental state is at, you can hear the
truth of what they are trying to say.

~~~
coldtea
How about they adopt an everyday dialect that's not choke-full of metaphysics
and New Age scents?

~~~
pantalaimon
Is there such a dialect?

It's pretty hard to describe something so outside the everyday experience with
'normal' words - I try to view such 'mumbo jumbo' as just another metaphor,
doesn't have to mean something supernatural is going in.

------
throwaway_2016
I love LSD, and I've done a few (<10) full trips in my youth. But as I've
gotten older that kind of intense experience just doesn't have the same
appeal. One thing my friends and I have discovered is the pleasantness of
micro-dosing. Put 1 tab of acid in 4 tablespoons of water, mix it a bit, let
it sit for 10 minutes, and then each person takes a tablespoon. In about 45
minutes it comes on but it's not strong at all. No hall of mirrors effect, no
out-of-control feeling, just 4 hours of laughing and a heightened sense of
being in tune with your surroundings. Highly recommended.

~~~
roddux
The only issue I have with microdosing is getting a reasonably accurate
measurement. The first time I tried it, a friend an I unintentionally dosed
(with liquid, not tabs) to what we now estimate was ~700ug... Not quite what
we were expecting for a first time!

------
s_q_b
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 is well-documented in his SF-86 (USG
security clearance form), since he knew no matter what he said they had to
clear him.

The whole document is kind of hilarious. Imagine Steve Jobs sitting across
from Federal agents explaining a traffic arrest for his driving antics, and
talking to them about acid blotters.

~~~
robotresearcher
> Psychedelics aren't for me, personally, due to anxiety

That's a tricky one. They can be very helpful for anxiety and obsessive
disorders. Getting a whack with the chemistry stick can help you settle into a
better place. But it's not ideal to go in afraid, no doubt.

The cultural terror of drugs comes and goes over time and at some moments we
can actually have real discussions and research. I hope we're swinging around
to that again.

I hope you find something non-chemical that helps you.

~~~
s_q_b
Thank you, that is very kind of you to say.

Personally, psychedelics are just too high risk with my default internal
attitude, even if they could help.

I have some odd form of somatic anxiety. It's basically chronic pain that
varies with situational anxiety. I've had seizures, so it's probably some
neurological disorder we don't really understand yet.

Mindfulness meditation, sensory deprivation therapy, CBT, journaling, and (by
far most importantly) extremely intense exercise all help. All the first and
second line treatments have failed (Benzodiazepines, SSRIs, pregabalin, MAOIs,
etc.)

Basically, learning to live with the pain was a long and difficult process. It
initially eroded my intelligence by about thirty IQ points, which was
terrifying. My LSAT score, for example went from very high 170s (near perfect)
to around 150 (dead average), before going back up.

I think most people around here could relate to how scary that can be,
especially when intelligence is a key aspect of how you self-identify.

But eventually I learned to manage it, and my normal functioning has mostly
returned.

------
triplesec
For those new to psychedelics and data on interesting ingestion, go to
www.erowid.org

------
pakled_engineer
I did a ridiculous amount of LSD made by Nicholas Sand in the 90s and never
had a bad trip. I did it in the worst possible settings due to idiocy of youth
and all is good. Don't take too much if you've never done it, and stay away
from traffic and you'll be fine.

I didn't have any profound experiences, it was just fun to do. I did liquid
and blotters, started at two doubles, then over time usually two "quads" which
is 8 hits of insane quality Sand produced acid. It was way too much but I was
never out of control, when it got crazy I just thought wow this shit is great.

I did however always get sick whenever I tried Shrooms, that was pretty awful
tripping and puking at the same time.

------
exodust
Beware of NBOMes. Only discovered in 2003, these cheap, fake substances are
commonly sold as LSD. Prior to this, a tab of acid couldn't be substituted
with an imposter substance. Now it can.

I'd be getting a testing kit, along with trusting your source and all the
other sensible checks.

NBOMes won't kill you but they are not without risk. High dosages not
recommended. They are not LSD and should never be sold as LSD.

I didn't read the whole article but anyone writing about LSD today should warn
against NBOMes.

------
dineshp2
I feel research into psychedelic drugs needs to be conducted a lot more. There
may be many applications of psychedelic drugs in treating various medical
conditions, and only by understanding how psychedelic drugs work can we begin
thinking about it's applications.

Personally though, I feel we shouldn't be promoting the use of psychedelic
drugs for recreational purposes in any form(such as commenting how awesome the
experience of using LSD was) and especially not in public forums.

------
edem
Please note that I can't read the article with an adblocker enabled and offers
to read it for 45$. Nonsense. Luckily you can hide the popup using Stylebot by
hiding the #abnm overlay.

~~~
soylentcola
For reference it worked fine for me with uBlock Origin enabled.

------
hatchback176
Pfft, why should I feel guilty about openly advocating everyone use LSD
anymore than advocating everyone learn how to drive knowing automobile
accidents kills some huge number of people?

------
sova
perfect people perfect music perfect environs perfect trips

------
peter303
I belive there are some psychologists doing therapy with some of these drugs.
Perhaps a guide could be useful. Tim Leary started that way.

------
hackercomplex
For all you fraidy cats read about "micro dosing" there is a whole community
around it with some fascinating observations.

------
tezza
Before anyone rushes to try LSD or increase your dose significantly, please do
your research[1].

Please speak to people who have used it (like me) and can assess how you
personally will handle it. I will say LSD is a broad-sword drug and should be
used with care. It is not playful. It will last as long as the dose, which may
be longer than you had planned to trip. Generally only sleep will stop you
tripping, and if you are tripping hard, you will not e able to sleep. One does
not 'sober up' like beer.

A lot of the effects depend on your personality, id, self confidence and any
bad experiences you may have locked inside. Your biological reaction may be
the lesast of concerns.

LSD takes you on a journey, and you may not come the same person. It may give
you a bad-trip, where your worst fears and memories manifest x 1000.

I have seen many stable friends flip out, even when having the same dose in
the same environment.

Always have supportive straight friends who understand each time you are
experimenting. Bear in mind you may be up for 36 hours as a result and they
need to lead their normal lives.

LSD starts as a liquid. Eating a drop or two is sometimes is how you take it.
But frequently that liquid is dropped with an eye-dropper onto cardboard. This
cardboard is perforated and torn into tiny squares.

Roughly one drop per square [also called a Tab of Acid ].

But there you go.

1\. How concentrated is the liquid acid?

2\. How much was put onto the little square?

3\. How long ago was this all made?

4\. How accurate was the (illegal) chemist who made the LSD in the first
place?

I will say that one TINY drop of acid is enough to make you trip for 24 hours.
And on the square of cardboard the LSD is not necessarily evenly distributed,
so a corner of the square can be where 90% of the active ingredient is. The
effects vary wildly: Some LSD is quite visual, some has almost no visuals but
plenty of mind-messing.

All of these factors combine to mean it is EXTREMELY difficult for anyone to
estimate what a low dose is. Especially someone experimenting for the first
few times.

Please research carefully, and if you still decide to experiment, ensure you
are in a safe environment with understanding people.

\-------

"I've read that if you take an extremely low dose it's non-psychotic but still
has a number of positive cognitive effects"

Non-psychotic depends a lot on who-you-are: not the dose. I don't know you,
and further I don't know anyone else reading this in the future.

Depending on the type of person you are, you could flip out badly on any dose.

LSD can unleash things inside you. People who you love... you may see them as
snakes/undead. You may see your face melt off. More importantly you will feel
horrified when this happens. It takes a lot of training to overcome the horror
(if it happens).

I am not going to give the green light for experimentation with something that
has such power when the downsides are so grim.

All my friends who flipped out were sold on the Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds
version of events. But the variability of the ingredients, their situation and
their personality sometimes made it awful.

\-----------------------------

[1] This is from my 2009 HN post

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=654676](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=654676)
and
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=655559](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=655559)

------
such_a_casual
All I will say about this topic is never try new drugs when you're drunk,
never.

~~~
throwaway_2016
Truth. Although the problem is that you have to maintain enough executive
function when drunk to prevent yourself from ingesting a drug. Easier said
than done.

------
cdvonstinkpot
If anyone with pets does proceed to trip- DON'T PET YOUR CAT!!!

It seeps from your pores & gets on their fur.

They'll groom themselves & have a HELL of a bad trip.

Then their liver will fail & they'll die a miserable death.

~~~
Blaque
That smells like bull. Source ?

------
stevebmark
lol@adblock block trend for time wasting articles

------
blazespin
"When a freak brain hemorrhage struck out of nowhere .. I was not new to
hallucinogens; in fact, I’d experimented with all manner of drugs in my
youth."

Out of nowhere, indeed. Doing drugs is not a harmless activity, folks.

------
imperio59
Drugs are bad. LSD has long-lasting effects not to be dismissed lightly. Best
to stay away. See all the stories of people never recovering. It's not worth
"trying it once" and ruining the rest of your life.

Get some facts about LSD:
[http://www.drugfreeworld.org/drugfacts/lsd.html](http://www.drugfreeworld.org/drugfacts/lsd.html)

~~~
jaredandrews
People are probably assuming you are trolling and don't feel any need to
explain the flagging. But... drugfreeworld is probably one of the last places
to find facts about LSD or any drug.

I would encourage you to read the wikipedia entry about the organiztion behind
the site: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foundation_for_a_Drug-
Free_Wor...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foundation_for_a_Drug-Free_World)

Almost everything on that site is misinformation, and no sources are ever
cited. There is certainly danger associated with the use of any drugs but
misinformation and fear mongering are not the way to go.

