Drug Abuse

Two: History and Controversy

There exists an abundance of evidence to indicate that mind-changing drugs have been used since remotest antiquity by many of the peoples of the earth, and have importantly affected the course of human history. The plant sources of these drugs—the visionary vegetables—have been worshiped as gods in many times and places, and the persons employing - the drugs as a means of acquiring "super-natural powers" have been the priests, prophets, visionaries, and other leaders of their respective soci-eties. East and West, civilized and primitive, religious thought and all that flows from it almost certainly has been importantly influenced by the psychedelic drugs, a point we examine in some detail in our chapter on drug-induced religious experience. Some magical and occult uses are mentioned in a subsequent discussion of extrasensory perception; and here we will only very briefly suggest something of the temporal, geo-graphic, and functional range of the drugs before focusing upon LSD and peyote; the substances with which we are principally concemed.

Three millennia ago, the East already had its legendary soma, re- ' putedly involved in the origins of yoga, and the West had its nepenthe, immortalized by Homer. What these substances were is unknovvn, but descriptions of their effects suggest that nepenthe probably was opium, while soma was probably a substance more closely resembling the "con. sciousness-expanders" well-known to us today.

Possibly still more ancient in its usage is the hemp plant (Cannabis indica or Cannabis sativa), mentioned at a date often given as 2737 a.c. by the Chinese emperor Shen Neng. A hemp derivative—such as hashish, marijuana, bhang or gangha—appears to have been known to the Assyrians eight centuries before Christ, and to the Scythians not later than the fifth century B.c. In India, various types of hemp deriva-tives, yielding visions, heightened concentration, and other psychedelic effects, have been in use for hundreds and possibly thousands of years as aids to spiritual development and as sources of occult power. Pres-ently, an estimated ninety per cent of the Indian holy men use hemp, often along with other drugs; and the not-so-holy men of India and other countries of the East employ the same substances in a frank search for "kicks" and to escape a sometimes barely tolerable reality. This escapist motive also underlies the widespread use of hashish in the Moslem countries, where alcoholic beverages are prohibited to the faithful. Hashish, habitually used, appears to produce a gradual deteri-oration in the Eastern user. It accounts for a high percentage of Arab worker absenteeism and for a large percentage of the mental illness, especially in Egypt. (However, the common practice of mixing hashish with Datura seeds and opium may have to be considered in assessing these ill effects.) Thus, in both the Indian and Moslem cultures, the social impact of hemp has been enormous, and rarely favorable. The impact of hemp use has been great, too, in many African Negro cul-tures, where the plant is worshiped and its use bestows supernormal powers on witch doctors and produces in the native masses effects that range from sodden intoxication to orgiastic frenzy and a homicidal ferocity such as that displayed by Lumumba and his hemp-intoxicated followers in the Congo. In our own country, the use of marijuana was until a few years ago largely limited to members of various subcultures, often of the outcast variety. Presently, its widespread use among uni-versity students is creating something of a national furor. Although physiologically nonaddictive, and possibly less harmful than alcoholic beverages, marijuana use can hardly be justified on the basis that it makes a major and positive contribution to society. Certainly, as com-pared to LSD, peyote, and other powerful psychedelic drugs, its ralue as a consciousness-expanding agent, vehicle of self-transcendence, or source of visions, is not very great. On the other hand, it is sheer nonsense to lump marijuana together in punitive legislation with heroin, morphine, or even cocaine.

In pre-Columbian Mexico and at the time of the Spanish Conquest a number of plants containing psychoactive agents were in use, including the peyote. Unfortunately, the Aztec records were destroyed upon the orders of Cortez, so that what we know of the native drug use has come down to us mainly in the form of pious attacks upon pagan practices made by the Spanish clergy or those under their influence. We do know that the Aztec priests used the plants to commune with their gods and to induce visions, and that the plants were more widely employed for purposes of sorcery and healing. One of the drugs described as being in use at the time of the Spanish Conquest was ololiuqui, long thought to be a species of Datura. However, it now has been established that ololiuqui is the white-flowered moming-glory, Rivea corymbosa, whose effects resemble those of LSD. (That certain moming-glory seeds selling on the American market yield psychedelic effects not long ago came to the attention of scientists, Beatniks, the public, and finally the U.S. Congress, where it was seriously proposed that moming-glorys be elimi-nated—raising the specter of policemen or government agents armed with plant poisons colliding with little old ladies defending their flower-covered trellises. Apparently, no action was taken on the measure.)

The Aztecs also had a sacred mushroom, teonanacatl ("flesh of god"), which they used in rites that bore a strong resemblance to the Christian sacrament and so were especially detestable to the Spaniards. 'This particular mushroom, Psilocybe mexicana, still is in use in parts of Mexico today and is dispensed by local curanderas (witch women) and curanderos (witch doctors), some of whom conduct their rituals in the curious tonal language of the Mazatecs. The chant of the curandera includes many references to Christ and the saints, but still more refer-ences to the reputation and prowess of the witch herself, who speaks directly to Jesus when in the drug-state. The Mazatecs believe that Christ gave them the drug—as certain Indians believe the peyote to be a gift of God. In recent years, a number of the Psilocybe mushrooms were obtained by mycologist R. Gordon Wasson, who several times partici-pated in the rites, and Roger Heim, director of the National Museum of Natural History in Paris. Heim and the famed Swiss chemist A. Hof-mann discovered the psychoactive alkaloid, psilocybin, which Hofmann synthesized in 1958. Hofmann is well-known as the discoverer of the similar mind-changing effects of LSD-25. Psilocybin has been one of the most widely used of the various synthetic psychedelic drugs.

Another mushroom productive of curious mental effects is the fly agaric (Amanita muscaria). 'The plant is extremely poisonous, but the toxicity is reduced by removing the skin and through other prepara-tions. It has been used for centuries in the dismal regions of Northeast Asia, mostly as an inebriant but also by shamans to induce visionary states, out-of-the-body experiences, and other typical drug phenomena. In Scandinavia, as well, the use of this mushroom has a long history and attempts have been made to link it to the legendary ferocity of the Norwegian Berserkers. In fact, the effects of the drug—depending upon quantity taken and use context—may range from dullness or mild euphoria through delightful visions and communion with deity to de-lirium and murderous frenzy.

Also dangerously toxic and of considerably more importance to history, are the Solanaceae family of drugs—the plants 'Thorn Apple (Datura stramonium), belladonna, mandragora, and the henbanes. They contain the alkaloids atropine, hyoscyamine and scopolamine, among others. These plants or their relatives are found almost every-where in the world and for countless centuries have served as poisons, intoxicants, love potions, sources of dreams and visions, and for a host of magical purposes. Datura and the henbanes were known to the an-cient Greeks and the former possibly was the drug used by the oracle at Delphi as a means of inducing possession by the god. But the greatest claim to fame (or infamy) of the Solanaceae, is as drugs employed by the European witches; and it has frequently been argued that the Witch Mania would never have occurred had it not been for these drugs.'

Under the influence of Datura, henbane, or belladonna, or some mixtures of these, the witches of the fifteenth to seventeenth centuries experienced dreams and visions of flying to the Witches' Sabbats, where they participated in orgies and blasphemous rites with the Devil and demons. By the same means, they were visited at night by demon lovers (incubi and succubi). Often these experiences were so vivid that the individuals later believed them actually to have occurred—so confessing to the Inquisitors only what they thought to be a fact.

The witches prepared Solanaceae potions, which they drank; and also an ointment, which was rubbed over all the body or upon especially sensitive areas, such as the armpits, the palms of the hands, or the vaginal walls. That the witches' ointment already was known in the fifteenth century, and that it was thought to produce dreams or illu-sions of flying and attendance at the Sabbat, is clear from a case cited at the time. A Dominican had watched a woman rub herself with the ointment and fall into a "trance." When she awakened, she claimed to have been transported to the Sabbat and to have joined in the revels there. The witches' ointment was actually analyzed in the sixteenth century by Andreas de Laguna, physician to Pope Julius III. Of a tube taken from a witch, Laguna reported that the ointment was green in color and contained hemlock, salanum, mandragora, and henbane.

More recently, the Solanaceae "Devil Drugs" have been put to other malign purposes. In less than fatal doses they still may produce extreme confusion and the appearance of psychosis, so that individuals have been drugged with the substances as a preliminary to obtaining from some unsuspecting physician an order committing the victim to a men-tal hospital. Similarly, the confused drug-state has been used to facili-tate robbery and the commission of still other crimes against drugged individuals.

In addition to the few mentioned, we find throughout most or all of the world a great many other mind-changing plants, varying widely in the range of mental phenomena produced, and in importance for the cultures in which they exist. But to further explore this array of psycho-chemicals is impossible here, and we now will limit ourselves to a brief historical discussion of peyote and LSD-25.

'The first of these, peyote (Lophophora williamsii),2 is a small cactus with a spineless gray-green top or "button" and a brown carrot-shaped root. Found in the southwestern United States and in Mexico, its use for religious and magical purposes has been traced back as far as 300 B.c.

The peyote cactus contains a combination of apparently interactive alkaloids which together constitute the psycho-chemical also known as peyote (or, sometimes, pan-peyotl ). 'These nine alkaloids are Anhaline, Anhalamine, Anhalonidine, Anhalonine, Anhalinine, Anhalidine, Lophophorine, Pellotine, and Mescaline. Mescaline is the principal psychoactive alkaloid and is responsible for the vivid imagery always emphasized whenever peyote is discussed, but the combination of alka-loids yields the peyote effects which differ from those of mescaline alone.

Peyote allcaloids are contained in the "button," which is tufted with clumps of white "hair" or "fuzz"—explaining the botanical name Lophophora, or "crest-bearer." This button may be eaten, or a "tea" may be made from it, or it may be dried and then powdered and put into gelatin capsules. Since the methods of preparation are crude, and since the strength of the alkaloids varies from plant to plant, no exact measurement of dosage is possible when the drug is so consumed. The person preparing the drug learns to produce an effective concoction of approximately the strength desired. Although toxic elements are present, the margin of safety is very great and serious poisoning is virtually unheard of.

The psychological effects of peyote are usually experienced within one to two hours from the time of ingestion and after some preliminary physical discomfort, most notably nausea. The effects then persist for from ten to twelve hours, on the average. They may include any of the psychedelic phenomena mentioned in the previous chapter.

Peyote first was described as a narcotic in 1560 by the Spanish historian Sahag6n and a botanical description was provided by Fran-cisco Herandez, a naturalist, in 1638. 'The Spaniards, first encountering this plant, which had been sacramentally ingested since pre-Columbian times by the Aztecs and the Huichols, denounced it as a diabolical root and in 1620 a law was passed by the heresy-hunting conquistadors that tells us something of the uses to which peyote then was being put:

"We, the Inquisitors against heretical perversity and apostasy, by virtue of apostolic authority declare, inasmuch as the herb or root called peyote has been introduced into these provinces for the purposes of detecting thefts, of divining other happenings and of foretelling future events, it is an act of superstition, condemned—as opposed to the purity and integrity of our Holy Catholic faith. The fantasies suggest interven-tion of the Devil, the real authority of this vice."

Gradually, under the pressure of continuous suppression, the use of peyote largely died out among the Indians of central and southern Mexico but continued to survive among various tribes of northern Mex-ico. During the second half of the nineteenth century Indian tribes from the United States appropriated the ritual use of peyote as a result of their raids on the territories to the south. The years 1870 to 1890 witnessed a remarkable proliferation of the peyote religion as it spread by way of the southwestern Apaches and Texan Tonkawas to the Comanche and Kiowa of the southern Great Plains. It now has spread to tribes throughout the United States and has reached as far north as the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. Presently, peyotism can be considered the native religion of more than fifty American tribes including the Cheyenne, Arapaho, Chippewa, Blackfoot, Crow, Dela-ware, Shawnee, Pawnee, and Sioux.8

By 1922, the peyote communicants numbered some 13,300 per-sons, their rites being a combination of Christian and aboriginal elements serving as the mythic stmcture for the sacramental eating of the peyote. In order to protect themselves against various attacks from religious and political antagonists, participants in the peyote worship joined together to have themselves legally incorporated as the Native American Church. According to their charter, "The purpose for which this corporation is formed is to foster and promote religious believers in Almighty God and the customs of the several tribes of Indians through-out the United States in the worship of a Heavenly Father and to promote morality, sobriety, industry, charity and right living and culti-vate a spirit of self-respect, brotherly love and union among the mem-bers of the several tribes of Indians throughout the United States and through the sacramental use of peyote." 'The pan-tribal membership of the Native American Church now is said to number some 225,000 Indians. This extraordinary growth of the peyote religion among the American Indians merits some further consideration.

The beginnings of this growth are to be found in the late nineteenth century when, as a result of the Indian's unsuccessful resistance to the territorial and cultural encroachments of the white man, he was placed within the restrictive reservation system. On these reservations tribal disintegration and demoralization took a heavy toll of the Indian cul-ture. As well as destroying established economic and political struc-tures, the system served to ethnically, psychologically, and spiritually de-mythologize the Indian, stripping him of his heritage, his hope, and his spiritual identity. It would seem to be for this reason, then, that the past eighty years have yielded so great an expansion of the peyote religion. The cactus serves as a re-mythologizing agent for the Indians' exhausted mystique. It awakens the knowledge that the spirit of God has come to strengthen and comfort the red man. 'The humbled pride of hunter and warrior finds solace in the feeling of universal fellowship and empathic communion encountered in the peyote rites.

'The frequency with which the peyote rites are held may vary ac-cording to circumstances, and tribal and local custom. In general, when meetings may be easily arranged, the rites are held weekly and last from Saturday evening to Sunday moming. Special ceremonial occasions, such as New Year observances, add to the total, as do rites held when some person is sick or for a variety of other reasons. The Indians begin their long peyote ceremonies early in the evening. 'The participants enter a tipi and sit around a fire in front of which has been placed a crescent moon altar of earth adorned with a single peyote button (or, sometimes, two buttons: one "male," one "female"). The Road Chief (one of the terms for the leader), representing the Great Spirit, sings a traditional opening song, calls upon God to share in the rite, and cautions the communicants to prepare their hearts for the sacred ceremony. The peyote songs are often very simple and short. For example, an opening song of the Winnebago goes:

God's Son says: "Get up and follow Me."

Jesus said: "You shall enter into the kingdom of God."

Repetition lengthens the songs, as in another Winnebago example collected by the ethnologist Frances Densmore:

We are living humbly on this earth,

We are living humbly on this earth,

We are living humbly on this earth,

We are living humbly on this earth,

We are living humbly on this earth,

Our Heavenly Father,

We want everlasting life through Jesus Christ.

We are living humbly on this earth.

To the right of the Road Chief sits the Drum Chief who, in Chris-tianized rites, represents Jesus Christ and who sets the percussive rhythms for the ceremonial. 'The Cedar Chief, representing the Holy Ghost, attends to the use of incense and after the opening prayers throws cedar chips into the fire and censes the communicants. In addi-tion to these three peyote priests, there is a Fire Chief who takes care of the fire, guards the door, tends to the sick, and is representative of the angelic host.

Following the "smoking [with special tobacco] of a prayer," the peyote buttons are distributed and slowly eaten. All-night singing is begun and instruments are played. The participants sing hymns together and take turns at singing alone. This singing moves clockwise, each singer when his turn comes holding a holy staff and a gourd rattle and singing four peyote songs of his own choosing. Each man drums for the singer at his left as the songs go around the circle. 'The songs consist of rhythmic chants and tend to be of three kinds: the Opening and three other ritual songs, which may be sung in an ancient and now unde-cipherable tongue of probable Mexican origin; songs in the singers' tribal language; and Christianized songs in which the person of Jesus figures very prominently. In the Christian peyote rites the songs are believed to have come from Christ and the singing is regarded as a way to communicate vvith the divine.

The singing continues all night, interrupted briefly at midnight when the Road Chief sings the Midnight Song, walks around the outside of the tipi, and blows an eagle wingbone whistle to the four corners of the earth. As a participant describes this moment, "The sound shrilled through aeons of space and corridors of time. It echoed to etemity. When he came back to us he (the Road Chief) prayed, 'That the Universe may prevail.' "4

'The subtly changing rhythms of drum, rattle, and voice continue until dawn, bringing communion and revelation, dissolving the self into "life universal," and accompanying the emergence of visions both dreadful and glorious. In the Christian rites the flesh of the peyote is considered to be the flesh of Christ, and the subsequent visionary and other experiences may unfold in Christian archetypes. At dawn the Morning Song is sung and Peyote Woman, usually the Road Chief's wife, enters the tent and is greeted with songs of thanksgiving. She brings with her food and drink which she deposits before the altar. The worshipers then approach the altar, pray, and partake of the refresh-ments she has brought.

This, in brief, is a fairly typical peyote ceremonial, to which some tribes have added public confession, expression of remorse over sins, and other public declarations. The major ceremonies of life also may be celebrated during the peyote rites, the sacrality of the occasion lending its providence to the healing of the sick, the joining of couples in marriage, and the laying of the dead to rest.

Such use of the non-addictive and otherwise harmless peyote has been of very great value to the Indians. Spiritual sustenance apart, peyote has been conspicuously instrumental in effecting rehabilitation of countless Indian alcoholics; and the use of the substance should be credited, too, with preventing much additional destructive use of alcoholic beverages. Yet, so dangerous and wicked have the peyote rites seemed to a good many churchmen and politicians, that the peyote religion and its members have been the target of repeated attacks, and punitive legislation has been proposed and sometimes passed by various state law-making bodies. This sometimes has meant the classification of peyote as a dangerous narcotic, use of which is to be regarded as equivalent to the use of, say, morphine or heroin.5 These attempts to legally ban peyote, begun in the last century and continuing up to the present time, have been vigorously opposed by an array of distinguished anthropologists and other experts who have made first-hand studies of the uses and effects of the drugs among the Indians. Sometimes these experts have carried the day, but on other occasions the courts and lawmakers have proved opaque to all authoritative evidence; and the future of the peyote religion remains uncertain at the time of this writing—the question of the new psychedelic drugs, especially LSD and other synthetics, having arisen to complicate the issue. That peyote, for many sound reasons, should not be considered along with the syn-thetic psycho-chemicals, is evident to any careful student; but that this fact also will be evident to legislators and government agencies may be too much to hope for.

Modern scientific study of peyote began in the 1880's both in the United States and abroad. In this country, although long marketed by Parke, Davis & Co., the drug created only slight interest. It fared much better in Europe, mainly owing to the efforts of Louis Lewin, a German toxicologist often referred to as the founder of psychopharmacology.

Levvin, who first obtained peyote in 1886, published a number of articles and books in which he described in a highly provocative way the psychological and other effects of the drug and also outlined most of the more promising areas of psychedelic drug research. For example, in a preface to his much-acclaimed volume, Phantastica, a study of psy-chedelic and other drugs, Lewin declared:

"Not only are these (mind-changing) drugs of general interest to manldnd as a whole, but they possess a high degree of scientific interest for the medical man, especially the psychologist and the alienist [psy-chiatrist], as well as for the jurist and ethnologist."

'The ethnologist, Lewin thought, would find psychedelic drugs espe-cially valuable in the area of comparative religion where the researcher might find a key to the understanding of the genesis of religious experi-ences. For the psychiatrist, he proposed the psychotomimetic hypothe-sis, suggesting that some of the drug effects resembled, if they were not identical with, the mental states of psychotics and so might cast light upon the psychotic process and its etiology. This lead was followed by a colleague of Lewin's, K. Beringer, wbo subsequently published a mono-graph entitled Experimentelle Psychoses durch Mescalin. Lewin further suggested inquiries into possibilities of psychotherapeutic use, along with studies of creativity, perception, and the emotions.

While Lewin regarded the images produced by peyote as less important than some of the other drug-state phenomena, it was just this vivid and seemingly exotic eidetic imagery that impressed some other influ-ential authors including S. Weir Mitchell and Havelock Ellis. Mitchell and Ellis, by giving the impression that the drug experience was pri-marily an aesthetic one, probably—however inadvertently—did much to discourage scientific psychedelic research for at least half a century in English-speaking countries.

For example, Mitchell, a physician, described the eidetic imagery of his peyote experience so vividly that parts of his account repeatedly have been republished, creating a widespread impression that the images constitute almost the whole of the experience. To select some quotations:

"'The display which for an enchanted two hours [after entering a darkened room] followed was such as I find it hopeless to describe in language which shall convey to others the beauty and splendor of what I saw. Stars, delicate floating films of color, then an abrupt rush of count-less points of white light swept across the field of view, as if the unseen millions of the Milky Way were to flow in a sparkling river before my eyes...

"A white spear of gray stone grew up to huge height, and became a tall, richly furnished Gothic tower of very elaborate and definite design, with many rather worn statues standing in the doorways or on stone brackets. As I gazed, every projecting angle, cornice and even the face of the stones at their jointings were by degrees covered or hung with dusters of what seemed to be huge precious stones, but uncut, some being more like masses of transparent fruit. These were green, purple, red, and orange, never clear yellow and never blue. All seemed to possess an interior light, and to give the faintest idea of the perfectly satisfying intensity and purity of these gorgeous color fruits is quite beyond my power. All the colors I have ever beheld are dull in compari-son to these. As I looked, and it lasted long, the tower became a fine mouse hue, and everywhere the vast pendant masses of emerald green, ruby reds, and orange began to drip a slow rain of colors.

"After an endless display of less beautiful marvels I saw that which deeply impressed me. An edge of a huge cliff seemed to project over a gulf of unseen depth. My viewless enchanter set on the brink a huge bird claw of stone. Above, from the stem or leg, hung a fragment of the same stuff. This began to unroll and float out to a distance which seemed to me to represent Time as well as immensity of Space. Here were miles of rippled purples, half transparent, and of ineffable beauty.

Now and then soft golden clouds floated from these folds, or a great shimmer went over the whole of the rolling purples, and things lflce green birds fell from it, fluttering down into the gulf below. Next, I saw clusters of stones hanging in masses from the claw toes, as it seemed to me miles of them, down far below into the underworld of the black gulf. 'This was the most distinct of my visions. . .."7

Havelock Ellis, reading Mitchell's account, shortly thereafter tried the drug for himself and was most impressed by the imagery, declaring the peyote experience to be "above all, an orgy of vision." He added that the intellect, in the drug-state, remains unimpaired and that for this reason peyote "is of all this class of drugs the most purely intellectual in its appeal. . . . On this ground it is not probable that its use will easily develop into a habit . . ." Of all the "artificial paradises," thought Ellis, this one "though less seductive, is safe and dignified beyond its peers."8

Another noted authority inspired by Weir Mitchell's panegyric to try the peyote was the American William James. What direction peyote research might have taken had James had a good experience with the drug, no one will ever know. The great psychologist consumed one button, was "violently sick for twenty-four hours," emerged with an horrendous hangover and advised brother Henry that "I will take the visions on trust."

And so the possibility of serious American study of peyote was all but extinguished, and until recently, anthropologists studying Indians have provided almost all of the data concerning this drug. Since 1954, the writings of Aldous Huxley concerning his mescaline experiences have reawakened interest in the cactus and launched its widespread use among artists and intellectuals. Not, however, among very many sci-entists, since the more potent LSD was by then available and could be taken without the preliminary physical distress of peyote. Synthetic mescaline has been available since 1920, but this psycho-chemical, suffering from the bad and false impressions about peyote, was not widely used in expertmental work in the United States until the advent of LSD, psilocybin, and the other new synthetic psychedelics. Some mescaline research of importance was accomplished in Europe in the first decades of this century; but it is only with historical aspects of peyote that we here have been concerned.

LSD-25, in part a derivative of the fungus ergot (C/aviceps pur-purea), is an immensely powerful psycho-chemical, one ounce of which would provide a psychedelic experience for 300,000 adult persons. A dose so miniscule that it measures no more than 1/700-millionth of the weight of an average male will yield significant mind-altering effects. As Sidney Cohen has noted, enough LSD could be carried in a two-suiter piece of luggage to temporarily incapacitate the entire population of the United States.9

As regards usual dosage, this varies widely from one therapist or researcher to the next and depends upon the aim of the session as well as upon decisions made on the basis of individual experience and gen-erally established criteria. For example, psychotherapists frequently have worked with doses as small as 25 micrograms and very often work with doses no larger than 100 micrograms. On the other hand, in treat-ment of specific types of patients, dosage may be greatly increased. Alcoholics, for instance, have been given LSD in doses of as much as 600 micrograms and even up to 1,500 micrograms—an enormous amount and a dose that should never be administered for other than therapeutic reasons.

In the case of experimental volunteer subjects, some researchers prefer a dose of about 100 micrograms for the subject's initial experi-ence; but others customarily employ doses of 300 or even as high as 600 micrograms (too large a dose in our opinion). Probably most workers in this field take into account the body weight of the subject, giving one to two micrograms for each kilogram (2.2 pounds) of body weight. Experienced subjects who have proved themselves well able to handle the doses already administered then may be given larger amounts of the drug, if this seems desirable, in subsequent sessions. Also, a dose administered at the start of a session is sometimes aug-mented with a "booster" given when the subject is, say, two or three hours into his session. Along with LSD, such other psychedelics as mescaline, psilocybin, and DMT (dimethyltryptamine) have been given. Tranquilizers, amphetamines, and other drugs also have been used in conjunction with the psychedelics, and for a variety of pur-poses.1°

The LSD effects ordinarily begin thirty minutes to an hour or so after the drug has been orally administered and then last for from eight to ten hours, the effects diminishing gradually toward the end of the session. Intramuscular injection of the drug produces a quicker onset of the effects. As distinguished from peyote, unpleasant physical symptoms occurring at the start of a session are mild or absent in most cases when the subject is not unduly anxious. Yet to all of these statements there are fairly frequent exceptions—the drug taking more or less time than that mentioned above to produce its effects; the effects lasting for sub-stantially shorter or longer periods of time than the average just cited; the effects terminating abruptly rather than gradually; and distressing physical symptoms being experienced in varying degrees for varying periods of time in some cases.

LSD first was synthesized at the Sandoz Research Laboratories in Basle, Switzerland, in 1938, by A. Stoll and A. Hofmann. However, it was not until 1943 that Hofmann discovered the hallucinogenic or psy-chedelic properties of the drug. Having concocted the LSD-25, Hofmann experienced "a very peculiar restlessness which was associated with a slight attack of dizziness." He had to stop working, returned to his home, got into bed, and there experienced "a not unpleasant state of drunkenness which was characterized by an extremely stimulating phantasy." When he closed his eyes, he saw "phantastic images of an extraordinary plasticity. They were associated with an intense kaleido-scopic play of colors." The symptoms went on for about two hours, then disappeared.

Hofmann's curiosity now was aroused. He supposed he must somehow have ingested or absorbed through his skin an unknown amount of LSD. Later, he returned to the laboratory and took what he considered at the time to be a minute amount, about 250 micrograms. However, as he soon was to learn, he had discovered the most potent of all psycho-chemicals known to man, and even 250 micrograms were more than sufficient to produce a full-blown psychedelic experience.

About forty minutes after taking the drug, Hofmann began to expe-rience once more the familiar restlessness and dizziness; but these symp-toms were followed this time by more formidable disturbances of vision, inability to concentrate, and then by fits of uncontrollable laughter. It was during World War II, there were no automobiles available, and Hofmann set out on the four-mile bicycle ride to his home, accom-panied by an assistant. Along the way, the symptoms intensified, coherent speech became a near-impossibility, the field of vision was increasingly distorted, and he had the impression that his bicycle was not moving, although his assistant assured him that he was traveling at a fast pace. Reaching home, he sent for a physician.

Hofinann now was thoroughly frightened, fearful the drug had precipitated a psychosis, and this anxiety gave a negative direction to his experience. Faces of persons present around him resembled gro-tesque, brightly colored masks. He reported "strong agitation alternat-ing with paresis; the head, body, and extremities sometimes cold and numb; the tongue metallic-tasting; throat dry and shriveled." There was a feeling of suffocation and intervals of confusion alternated vvith periods when his thoughts we,re orderly. He seemed to be standing outside his body, looked back at it as "a neutral observer," and listened to himself as he raved incoherently and sometimes screamed.

The arriving physician found his pulse to be weak but circulation was generally normal. After about six hours, Hofmann found his condi-tion very much improved. He noted that the perceptual distortions re-mained, with objects seeming to undulate and "their outlines were dis-torted and resembled the reflections one sees on choppy bodies of water." Colors continued to change in an unpleasant way and with the eyes closed he saw phantastic images undergoing constant changes of form. He noted that sounds were translated into vivid colored images.

Finally, Hofmann fell asleep, and next morning found himself tired, but altogether recovered. The hallucinogenic or psychedelic properties of the drug now were clearly recognized and Hofmann and his col-leagues initiated the work that has attracted the attention of much of the world.

Following publication of the first reports on LSD, research began rather slowly and the volume of scientific papers published previous to 1950 was not large. After that, however, this research and the publica-tions it produced soon gathered such momentum that the scientific bibliography alone contained thousands of items by 1965; and medical and other journals then were reported to be stocked with such backlogs of material that several years would be required before even the supply on hand could be published. Accompanying this torrent of scientific publications has been another eniption of printed matter—in books, newspapers, mass-circulation magazines, scholarly and literary quar-terlies, etc.—ranging from first-person accounts of psychedelic experi-ences to sober analyses of the social, political, religious, philosophical, and other implications of the drugs. This latter, more generally acces-sible literature, has flourished along with and helped to promote an increasingly heated debate concerning claims made for and against the drugs and concerning, too, such questions as who should have access to the psychedelics and for what purposes. Much fuel has been added to the flames of this debate by the emergence of a large-scale psycho-chemi-cal black market and what has come to be known as the Psychedelic Drug Movement—a "movement" in which scholars and thinkers of some eminence find themselves marching more or less in step with such diverse elements as artists, clergymen, beatnilcs, and a host of youthful adherents whose motives range from a frivolous quest for kicks to a high-minded search for union with deity. Bizarre though it often has been, this debate is of real and major importance and the present vol-ume is, to some extent, an effort to throw light on some of the questions it has raised.

Both scientific disagreement and journalistic error and excess have been instrumental in creating public confusion with regard to the psy-chedelic drugs. In discussing these drugs with "the man in the street" we have encountered, again and again, the beliefs that "LSD makes you crazy" and, at the opposite extreme, that LSD is a cure-all for mental ills that psychiatrists are keeping off the market lest it put them out of business. While neither of these beliefs is valid, one has no difficulty understanding how it is that such ideas have gained currency. And neither is it difficult to understand how, with such polarities as psycho-sis and panacea involved, what should have been serious discussion has been very often debased to the level of irrational polemic and assertion of proprietary daims.

The widely held belief that "LSD makes you crazy" is primarily derived from both medical and lay misinterpretation of the psychiatric hypothesis that the "hallucinogenic" drug-state is a psychotic or psy-chotomimetic one, resembling if not identical with schizophrenia. This hypothesis, since much modified, and by many or most abandoned as erroneous, emerges repeatedly in the press and elsewhere as a flat decla-ration that the LSD subject becomes temporarily insane. Publications carrying first-person accounts by forrner LSD subjects who had painful and grotesque experiences then do much to reinforce this belief»

That almost any LSD subject may experience, under certain condi-tions, a transient psychosis or psychosis-like state, is a fact. However, it is also a fact that a "psychosis" rarely ever will occur in a reasonably healthy subject who has not been led to expect it and who has not been exposed to stresses precipitating the "psychotic" episode. Not LSD, but mishandling of the session, is with few exceptions the key factor when a normal subject experiences an LSD "psychosis" that was not intention-ally brought about.12 As this has come to be generally understood, and as session-guiding techniques have improved, the occurrence of drug-state "psychoses" has diminished accordingly.

While the LSD-state is not, with rare exceptions, a bona fide psy-chosis, it does include many phenomena which bear a more or less dose resemblance to symptoms commonly encountered among psychotics. For example, the drug subject may experience a variety of hallucinations, delusions, abnormal body sensations, ego disturbances (de-personalization, derealization, deanimation), time and space distor-tions, and other deviations from normal consciousness; and the study of these sheds some valuable light on the experience of psychotics. 'This, however, has proved treacherous ground where hanging psychiatric labels on superficially similar dnig-state phenomena often has been un-warranted and probably harmfully misleading. A key point here would seem to be the great difference between a psychotic's and a "normal" subject's reactions to the various "disturbances" of consciousness—the healthy subject often thoroughly enjoying what, in the psychotic, may be productive of torment and panic.

In any case, one must be wary of equating experiences which may have only surface similarity. For example, the subject who has a "mys-tical experience" may feel, as in traditional mysticism, that his physical body has dissolved; but to call this "somatopsychic depersonalization," and thereby "prove" that a psychosis exists, is to make an equation that much historical evidence suggests is invalid. It is all too easy to observe a few "symptoms" and from these diagnose a "psychosis"—as, for instance, one might regard love as a "psychosis" if considered just on the basis of the "symptoms." Lovers, after all, display not infrequently such "symptomatic behavior" as monomania, folie a deux, "para-noidal" suspicion, extreme fluctuations of mood, hypermnesia (as re-gards the beloved's words), illogicality, delusions, idée fixe, ideas of reference, the belief they can read one another's mind, impaired or distorted perception (especially as regards perception of the beloved), physical states ranging from apparent neurasthenic fatigability and lack of zest to apparent hyperhedonia and hyperkinesis, and so on. But if love is a madness, then we all carry within us a powerful desire to be mad—at least once.

As to the question of whether the LSD state is identical with schizo-phrenia, we have it "from the horse's mouth" that it is not. A group of schizophrenic patients given LSD declared the two states dissimilar." With this verdict, many scientific investigators are in accord, noting important differences between schizophrenic and drug-state "symp-toms!'"

As regards the opposite pole of popular belief concerning the effects of LSD, some startling psychotherapeutic results have been reported in the treatment of particular groups of patients. This has been most notably true of therapy directed at alcoholics who, in some cases, were selected as LSD subjects precisely because they had proved intractable to all previous therapy.

In four Canadian studies, for example, seventy-two per cent of the alcoholics treated either remained abstinent (over fifty per cent of the total number treated) or reduced their alcoholic consumption through-out the post-session assessment period of about one year. Members of control groups (used in two of the studies), treated identically but with-out psychedelics, showed similar improvement in only tvventy-three per cent of the cases. These results were achieved in most instances with a single drug session; and the subjects, as in other, similar studies, fre-quently attributed their improvement to increased self-awareness, self-acceptance, religious feeling, and reorientation of values. Dosages gen-erally ranged from 200 to 1,500 micrograms of LSD.15

Good results have also been achieved, for example, at hospitals in British Columbia and Maryland, where some twenty-five per cent of the alcoholic patients were reported totally abstinent or much improved after LSD therapy. In the case of the former institution, the LSD results were compared with results of other treatments then in use which yielded abstinence in only five to ten per cent of all cases. The absti-nence rate claimed by Alcoholics Anonymous is fifteen to tvventy per cent.16

Some impressive results also have been claimed in the rehabilitation of criminals. For example, Timothy Leary and his associates treated with psilocybin a group of 33 prison volunteers due for parole. Ten months later, only twenty-five per cent of this group had been returned to the prison and then only for technical parole violations. This com-pared to a usual return rate of fifty to seventy-five per cent after eight months.17 And at Everdeen, 'The Netherlands, outstanding results in the LSD treatment of "psychopathic criminals" have been reported by Dr. G.W. Arendsen-Hein. Subjects received 50 to 450 micrograms LSD once a week or every two weeks and treatment continued from ten to twenty weeks." As Arendsen-Hein's work was capsulized in Lan-cet:

"Criminal psychopathy is an . . . obstinate (and dangerous) condi-tion, and the work of (Arendsen-Hein) . . . is of particular importance. A modern therapeutic regimen had helped many of his cases, but sys-tematic LSD treatment had been started for those who, being physically fit, non-psychotic, averagely intelligent, and anxious for recovery, were of longstanding severe psychopathic criminality and quite untouched by ordinary therapeutic contact. Under this (LSD) regimen, abreaction took place, conflicts were revealed, resistance fell, and introspection and insight increased: a new capacity for human relationships was formed. The subjects showed less fear of LSD than of other treatments and cooperated well. Fourteen of 21 cases were clinically improved though a longer follow-up was awaited. Dr. Arendsen-Hein was sure we should re-think our belief in the intractability of psychopaths: this method enables us to penetrate deeply and bring about changes in personality formerly thought impossible."

Among these criminal psychopaths the psychedelic experience fre-quently was productive of "cosmic-religious experiences," reorientation of values, and consequent feelings of "great enrichment" and increased "self-confidence." These and other therapeutic effects of the drug yielded, in turn, "marked improvement of behavior."

Treatment of sexual disorders—frigidity, impotence, homosexuality and fetishism—and some other neuroses has many times been described as both drastically shortened and made more effective when LSD was used as an adjunct to psychotherapy. For example, a London psychia-trist reported, after twelve years experience with the drug, that the average number of treatment sessions required was only 25, at a cost of about seven hundred and fifty dollars. This compared to psychoanalytic sessions spread over several years at a cost to the patient of thousands of dollars. The unique and valuable tools made available to therapists through the psychedelic drugs will be discussed in some detail through-out this book.

LSD has, additionally, been used to produce marked improvernent in mentally retarded and schizophrenic children and also in psychotic adults. Diagnostically, too, the drug is of value since, for example, at the start of a psychosis, what are to become major symptoms may appear in magnified form under the influence of the psychedelics. It is of inter-est that Czech psychiatrists, when psychotic symptoms (such as suicidal tendencies) appear in the drug-state or afterwards, do not discontinue the psychedelic therapy as do most of their European and American counterparts. On the contrary, a subject who manifests such symptoms is given LSD again two or three days later and "the symptoms clear up."19 Czech psychotherapists administer LSD to patients once a week for as many as 25 to 35 weelcs—much more frequently than is usually done in this country. Subjects in the Iron Curtain countries have mysti-cal, religious, transcendental, and aesthetic experiences, just as do sub-jects in the West. Such experiences are considered to have a certain transitory therapeutic value—increasing self-esteem and feelings of oneness with other people and with nature; but such transcendental ex-periences are regarded as having "no real content—the patient. . . [is] completely detached from reality." After the gains from the "transcendental" experience are thought to have been consolidated, the pa-tients are encouraged to become "more interested in what they will do with their real lives," and become "able to see reality with new eyes." The Czechs appear to believe that LSD is administered in the United States primarily for the purpose of inducing mystical experiences.

Returning to LSD work in the United States, in the case of terminal cancer patients the drug has been found to relieve intolerable pain for substantially longer periods of time than do such powerful analgesic drugs as meperidine and dihydromorphinone. Here, LSD's psychologi-cal effects appear to contribute in a major way to its analgesic effec-tiveness, permitting the patient to ignore his illness or to view it with philosophical detachment—sometimes retaining the improved emo-tional outlook for as long as two weeks after the analgesic effects have worn off.2° It has been suggested that LSD here reduces the ability to anticipate suffering and death—the anticipation of which itself intensi-fies pain—but this seems to us doubtful. However, the hypothesis re-ceives some support from the successful use of LSD as a preanesthetic agent in preoperative situations (100 micrograms LSD administered two hours before abdominal hysterectomy as the only premedication except atropine) .21

While assertions that LSD lacks therapeutic value are now heard less often than in the past,22 the drug continues to be described by some authors as too dangerous to be used in therapy—since it may produce psychoses, attempted suicides and panic episodes. So it may, with certain types of patients, but in the vast majority of cases it does not; in any case, this should not be understood to mean, as it often has been taken to mean, that the dangers are the same for normal persons serving as volunteer subjects in various types of potentially important research programs. Certainly, any view that there are grave risks to normal persons is not borne out by the experience of most researchers working with volunteer experimental subjects."

On the basis of a survey of a great mass of literature concerning the use of psychedelic drugs in psychotherapy, it seems safe to conclude that for certain kinds of patients, and also for certain kinds of thera-pists, these drugs have present value and an enormously greater poten-tial value. However, not every therapist is able to use the psychedelics effectively or even without some danger to himself as well as to his patients. And while, for example, alcoholics, some sex deviates, and persons with anxiety problems often have been helped by LSD and similar drugs, the psychedelics are of little use with highly dependent individuals, persons of low intelligence, or in the treatment of compul-sion neuroses. These drugs are regarded by some therapists as specifi-cally contraindicated in patients with deep depressions, with conversion or fixed neuroses and, in almost all cases, with psychotics. Thus the psychedelic drugs are no more a panacea for all mental ills than an agent that "makes people crazy."

The foregoing by no means exhausts the range of psychedelic drug research. An immense amount of work has been done with a great variety of animal organisms other than man. A large number of neuro-pharmacological studies have led, for example, to fresh hypotheses con-cerning the pathogenesis of schizophrenia. Physiological changes pro-duced in man by LSD and other psychedelic drugs have been enumer-ated in considerable detail. Among the results of these neuropharma-cological studies, we have learned at least something about how LSD works to produce its characteristically psychedelic effects. Concerning this, Sidney Cohen remarks:

"After an average dose has been swallowed, about two-hundredths of a microgram (0.00000002 gram) passes through the blood-brain barrier. This would mean that only 3,700,000 molecules of LSD are available for contact with the twelve billion brain cells, and then for only a very few minutes. Such infinite sensitivity of the nerve cells to a transient exposure to LSD can only mean that the drug acts to trigger a chain of metabolic processes which then proceed to exert an effect for many hours afterward.

"From the existing evidence it appears that the entire brain is not involved. It is in the diencephalon, or midbrain, that the extraordinary events occur. 'This region contains the limbic system, which modulates emotional responsivity; the reticular formation, which regulates aware-ness; and the sympathetic and parasympathetic centers, which control dozens of physiologic functions, from pupil size to body tempera-ture."24

That LSD affects the responsiveness of the reticular area to sensory stimuli (so enhancing the importance of environmental factors) has been shown by electrophysiologic experiments. LSD action also has been closely linked to central nervous system mechanisms regulating the way the brain filters and integrates sensory information. About these mechanisms, only very little is known.25

Apart from this strictly scientific work,26 to which should be added programs in psycho-chemical weapons research and development, much additional work of importance has been carried out in a great many areas. For example, still other psychedelic drug work has involved sug-gestive, if not very conclusive, investigation of effects upon creative (mostly artistic and technological) process and upon problem-solving and learning. Studies in the mythopoeic process and in the origins of religious ideas, investigations into the broad philosophic areas of epis-temology, ethics, aesthetics and axiology, and even parapsychological experimentation all have been conducted during recent years. Some of the most controversial work has involved the attempted artificial (chem-ical) induction of mystical and religious experiences; and to this we have given a lengthy chapter, describing and evaluating our own work and also that of others.

Having supplied this background information concerning some of the psychedelic drug work to date, we will turn our attention to some of. the other factors involved in the controversy and confusion that unfor-tunately permeate this field.

Notes from the Psychedelic Underground. A substantial contributor to the aforementioned controversy and confusion is the so-called Psy-chedelic Drug Movement which, in a general way, might be defined as consisting of the uncounted thousands of persons who make occasional use of psychedelic drugs "illicitly" and who insist upon the rectitude and value of what they are doing.

This movement and its members are far removed in almost every-way from the ranks of the socially outcast narcotics addicts with whom they sometimes are confused. Participants are mostly students, artists, intellectuals, clergymen, scientists and, in general, representatives of the more intelligent and better educated segments of the population. Drugs are obtained from friends or are purchased on the black market. The psychedelic experiences are had without medical or other professional supervision and for reasons having nothing to do with therapist-patient relationships or official research programs. The persons involved tend to feel very strongly that their motivation is healthy and ethical. The soci-ety, in their view, errs in not making the psychedelic substances more easily obtainable—so, one is justified in obtaining the drugs from black market sources. As regards Drug Movement motivation, Dr. Richard Blum, who has made extensive studies in this area, comments:

"The movement is composed of people who have taken LSD and/or other hallucinogens and see in these drugs a tool for bringing about changes which they deem desirable. The emphasis is on the enhancement of inner experience and on the development of hidden personal resources. It is an optimistic doctrine, for it holds that there are power and greatness concealed within everyone. It is an intellectual doctrine, for it values experience and understanding more than action and visible change. It concerns itself with areas dear to the thinker: art, philoso-phy, religion, and the nature and potentials of man. It is a mystical doctrine, for it prizes illumination and a unified world view with mean-ing beyond that drawn from empirical reality. It is a realistic doctrine as well, for it counsels compromise and accomodation between the inner and outer worlds. 'Play the game,' it advises, 'don't let the Pied Piper lead you out of town.' And it is, explicitly, a revolutionary doctrine, although the revolution it proposes is internal, psychological, and by no means novel. It calls for freedom from internal constraints, freedom to explore oneself and the cosmos, and freedom to use LSD and other drugs as the means thereto."27

Most of the people making up this movement have never been seen as presenting a "social problem" for the reason that the society gen-erally has no knowledge of their activities. The main exceptions to this are the less discreet students and a "bohemian" or pseudo-beatnik fringe, which also includes some student representatives. It is in this latter group that most of the psychical casualties and the more spectacu-lar incidents occur. They, and a few well-known individuals who have made the expansion of consciousness their cause, account for most of the extraordinary amount of publicity and other attention "extracurricu-lar" use of the psychedelics has received.

Even on the pseudo- or, if you will, meta-beatnik fringes of the Drug Movement intentions are usually thought of as being serious and con-structive—self-understanding, religious enlightenment, mystical experi-ence, harrnony with the universe and with other persons: these are the stated goals of the drug-takers and there is rarely much reason to doubt their sincerity. If primarily hedonic use of drugs is reprehensible, the fact has little to do with this group. What we do find, however, is a lack of respect for the potency of the drugs and a consequent careless-ness about who takes them and under what conditions. Thus, since proselytizing is rather common, psychedelics are sometimes passed along to badly disturbed individuals who certainly would have been rejected as experimental subjects by any responsible -researcher. Also, failure to provide for a proper setting sometimes results in very bad drug experiences even for those who are not seriously disturbed. Yet, and totally committed as we are to the position that sessions must be adequately guided, we find it impossible to say on the basis of our many interviews and other studies of the Drug Movement that casualties have occurred among its members with a frequency as great as that among participants in many programs directed by medical and other scientific personnel. What this means is only that in the case of the latter nonsup-portive (including inquisitorial) experimenter attitudes wedded to a psychotomimetic expectancy have proved to be even more damaging than the most haphazard drug use occurring in a basically friendly and supportive setting.

On the other hand, the meta-beatnik fringe does display one type of behavior not found among subjects whose drug use has been limited to controlled situations--a type of behavior which, for this group, prob-ably constitutes the best single argument against their free access to psychedelic drugs. This is the tendency to become increasingly involved, as do many Eastern occultists and "holy men," in introspective "spir-itual" pursuits to the neglect of the external requirements of daily life. 'The Pied Piper does lead many such persons out of town; and he leads them into small cultish units of fellow true-believers where the interior pursuits are followed to the exclusion of almost everything else. Here, there might seem to be a kind of addiction; but, if so, it is not an addiction to drugs—rather, to cultist activities which, in this case, hap-pen to include the use of psycho-chemical substances. Certain food fadists and adherents to mental healing and spiritualist groups, for ex-ample, display the same sort of exclusive absorption with consequent withdrawal from larger social involvement.

The following case of a twenty-three-year-old male university stu-dent (S-1) is representative of attitudes and behavior to be found on this meta-beatnik Drug Movement fringe—except that in this case there does seem to be the fact or potential of psychological habituation to drug use (the only such case of possible "addiction" we have found).

When first interviewed S was a member of an Eastern (Zen, Yoga, Subud, etc.) -oriented group also making free use of psychedelics. These were purchased on the Greenwich Village black market at a price from five to ten dollars for an LSD dose that might range from 100 to 250 micrograms (according to the word of the seller and also to estimates based on the drug effects). Similar prices were being paid for mescaline, psilocybin, and other psychedelic drugs. S, by "rough estimates," had taken during a period of about one year: LSD, 6 times; mescaline, 5 times; DMT, 15 times; peyote, morning-glory seeds, and marijuana, "many times." He had discovered that the dnig-state enabled him to "feel unusually secure" and to overcome marked anxiety and inferiority feelings. Thus, he found himself "wanting to stay there" and described himself as being in danger of becoming "psychologically addicted" to the drugs. This is exceedingly rare, and his account of his emotional response much more closely resembles those described by heroin-users than those taking psychedelics.

S felt that, outside the drug-state, he had become "less responsible" than he had been previous to his psychedelic experiences. He had be-come more "carefree" and "happy-go-lucky" than he had been before. But this "carefree" state had not really made him happier and he cer-tlinly was not better adjusted. It was reflected mainly in his feeling free to cut classes and in a lack of concem about the grades he was making, and his schoolwork had suffered accordingly. He had achieved states of "mystical consciousness" and religious "illumination" (with mescaline, but not vvith the other drugs )—something he had failed to do in the past despite much strenuous work with various Eastern disciplines. But these had not produced the beneficial self-transformative effects he had hoped for and confidently expected.

Against this background we reproduce his own statement, written some six months after the first interview. It is one that might just as well have been written by any of a score of other, similar young people we have interviewed. S writes:

"LSD and other psychedelics emerged into my surroundings about the same time as Yoga and other Eastern teachings. Shortly thereafter followed my first inklings of the vital importance of modem science. . . . I have had the drugs many times. As they become more and more available to me, I avail myself of them more and more. The high is not in the drug, but in me. Each trip I take takes me to a new place; I never return the same. Pieces of music with which I thought I was thoroughly familiar, having heard them hundreds of times before, I hear as if for the first time during an LSD trip.

"Before taking the drug I feel apprehensive about the possibility of lipping out,' but during the high I am afraid I won't flip out enough. Like an organic computer I program my brain with Vedanta, I Ching, ragas, Bach, Tibetan scriptures, all kinds of 'Art,' and then tum on the metabolic switch. Presto, the ego wastes away for an endless spell, and an identity-less T lets go in order to hold on to 'the clear light of reality.' Usual dose 250 to 300 micrograms. Almost always take it with another person or group of persons. The one time by myself on LSD was very negative, communication impossible, sidewalks of New York very poor set and setting, all around frightening trip and waste of me and LSD both.

"With all psychedelics, but especially the combination of LSD and DMT, I enjoy the vision of beautiful patterns in motion everywhere: on plain cloth, on walls, in clouds and dirt yards. I seem to be able to project the pattern of my own pulsing eyes on any field. I don't feel as if this is pure hallucination since what I see is really there when I se,e it, and remains there, even if I leave and return later to look again. But when the LSD wears off the pattern fades back into plain field.

"During the high, there is nothing that is not symbolic, considera-ble, miraculous, accept-worthy (except occasionally my selfish self). All senses are heightened; touch becomes really pleasant and comfort-ing; sexual inhibitions seem nonexistent, or rather unnecessary in the first place. A feeling of complete communication on all levels, such as eye gestures, mouth gestures, hand gestures, verbal and tonal mes-sages.

"The basic problem LSD makes me confront: How to be high lilce that all the time without drugs? How does one leap from externally induced temporary ecstatic union (or self-acceptance) into the perma-nent mystical being-at-one with the whole working works? It seems lilce an idiotic misprocedure to sustain almost-heights of ecstacy from dose to dose, yet there has been nothing like it without these doses. The ecstacy came as a byproduct of not having to worry about my self, of selflessly serving others instead of trying to rule or dominate."

S was seen again briefly about one year after the initial interview and continued to be very much involved in the Drug Movement. He now was enthusiastically participating in a number of projects—making an avant-garde film, worlcing as a musician from time to time, continu-ing his Eastern studies and such practices as hatha yoga exercises and meditation, traveling to visit others with similar interests, and he was planning to return to school in the fall. Psychedelic drug use was regular and he reported having taken, while alone in a forest, a 1,250 (I) microgram dose of LSD. This had produced, as one might expect, some very bad moments for S. For a time, he panicked and lay under a tree screaming. Afterwards, however, he regained control and when the ex-perience was ended felt that some of his conflicts had been resolved.

What the overall effects have been in this case is something we are not in a position to evaluate. It is, indeed, difficult to evaluate the impact of regular psychedelic drug-taking on many of the Drug Move-ment people we have interviewed. Whether they have, as so many claim, become more creative and have improved their relationships with others often is dependent upon a rather arbitrary view of what consti-tutes increased creativity and improved relationships. Especially among the bohemian fringe group the tendency is generally toward more artis-tic and spiritual interests and away from the more practical concerns our society traditionally has sanctioned. But is this disengagement from "the rat race" and the "social games" and concomitant engagement in less orthodox pursuits, to be considered a good or an evil; a healthy advance or a sick retrogression; a finding of one's proper goals or a losing sight of them?

The same questions arise when one attempts to evaluate the rather similar aftermaths of psychedelic experience we have found among a number of other Drug Movement people who are far rem6ved, at least on the surface, from the bohemian fringe groups. A prominent professor of theology told us that, since taking LSD on several occasions, he has come to seriously question whether he would not do better to abandon the teaching of theology, in which he has long since lost most of his interest, and devote himself exclusively to painting, which he much prefers and for which he has demonstrated real talent? His lectures now seem to him to be of questionable value and preparing them has become a tedious task that he undertakes with increasing reluctance. 'The eco-nomic rewards of academic life are, in this case, considerable: "But what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul?"

Do the psychedelic drugs in fact pose a threat that a significant number of presently productive individuals will, if exposed, abandon their posts as bank presidents, manufacturers, clergymen, engineers, physicists, educators, in favor of writing blank verse or pondering the riddle of the cosmos? And, if so, do the presumed interests of state and society transcend and override the rights of individuals to dedicate themselves to esthetic or spiritual endeavors? What is really best for the person himself? And is he discovering where his true genius lies or is he succumbing to suggestions owing their exceptional potency to chemical effects and yielding subsequent self-delusion? We will not attempt to answer these latter questions, but think it extremely improbable that the psychedelic drug experience could ever make another India of a country whose citizens are so overwhelmingly rooted in Western traditions.

While the incidence of psychotic episodes and lesser but still serious mishaps is not nearly so great as some of the alarmists would have us believe, these do occur often enough among the Drug Movement people to make it quite clear that access to the drugs must be controlled and that psychedelic experiences need to be guided by persons who have been trained for that purpose.

A dramatic illustration of this occurred in one case that could have ended in a suicide. S-2, another representative of the movemenes meta-beatnik fringe, is a writer and painter in his mid-thirties. A university graduate, he traveled extensively in the Near East where he studied mysticism and experimented with hashish. Returning to this country, he associated with a group of students and ex-students seriously interested in and using psychedelic drugs. S had several LSD and mescaline expe-riences with members of this group and then decided to have some LSD while alone in his apartment. He took 150 micrograms and then, about an hour later, another 100. The drug effects seemed easily manageable and he decided to go out for a walk.

About a mile from home S began to experience severe anxiety ac-companied by frightening hallucinations. He thought that taxi-cab driv-ers resembling grotesque charioteers were trying to run him down. Glass buildings exploded before his eyes and the air around him became filled with countless fragments like flying crystalline needles and knife blades that he feared would slash him to ribbons. The hallucinations ended, but the people around him seemed to become increasingly menacing and, recognizing his paranoid ideation, he hurried towards home and managed to get there without incident. He locked himself in his room and lay down on the bed where at once he was assailed by a torrent of chaotic and terrifying ideas and images. These, just after the drug effects had wom off, he reconstructed (in part) as follows:

"Floor a tempest. Sanitorium. No keys, no doors, walls or locks. Who are you? Roshomon swirling on sheets of torture beach. OK, begin. Trilogy of life faces sea of death. Battalions begin their march down the brain stem. Spears of red sashes helmetted in Tibetan black. They bend the kundalini sacrum. Ant out of my behind and climb back in. Demons. Demons, a million of them. I start to sing: 'My Mother is God, My Father is God, My Brothers My Sisters all are God. God to the Right, God to the Left, God overhead and ahhhhhhhh,' now the battle begins. Black archer stretches my flesh and snaps lining of my stomach. I fire back but can't touch him. Six thousand streets pour with phlegm, each helmet holds a face, each spear holds a tear. Is this masochism? Where else can I go, can you go? I rip off my shirt and start to sweat. All those karmas. Death house walls me in. Battling eunuchs cut off their legs and roll up their pants, impale catastrophes.

Let's have it. Smell like cheese in a gym, women hiding stained socks. No love. No love. Not anywhere. Three kabuki non-actors take karate stance, grimace, pre.pare fingers for attack. Slot machines and bubble gum. Can't do the concentration camps in this incarnation. Need whole session, and besides I did them. AIEEEEEE! I'll never look away again. He plunged his fingers into my liver, splattered grin with blood. Knife scars Beirut face, coagulates black sand. Child beats my insides with a whip, then hangs by his hair. Feel him squeezing my blood. Start my chants, `om NE MASHA VAYA' but can't find a battling mantra. Find one quick, hold on. AIEEEEEE . . . EEEEE E . . . E . . . El Cosmic opera not sung. He is looking at you. He is rolling up his sleeve. He is hideous formed and fast. He is hissing at you. Watch the ant arrny, phalanxed thoughts and his circling steps. My teeth are bleeding to death. Go mad is better thought. Go mad, cop out on consciousness. Ain't no proof it even exists. AEEIIIII Ill! He leaps on my lungs. I don't even want to redemption this self. Am I that crumby little nigger street, sick with ape laughter, cockeyed and thin? You bet you are, baby, and more of that to come. Stop playing kid. 'Third one leaps onto my head throwing out all the books I had read. You're no enemy, friend. Then he dumps everything I've written, every word I know, down my throat. Vegetable soup. Army cheers as its being fed. 'They pierce pages with their spears, then start victory dance. Old faggot being beaten to death by King of Mohawks. Forty-second Street being beaten to death by naked girls. Girls, Girly Shows, I hate all this crap, B-29, Cowboys and Indians, Alabama, high school dreams and block sweat-ers, reductio ad absurdum . . . Football. Laughter-pain and Laughter. I'm copping out of this come down culture. It's back to hustling and selling hash. Greece baby, I hear you call. I want to die there on the bed of your womb. Sea ash, sea ash and AAAIIEEEEEEEI Black archers stretching my flesh, tear open my wounds. It's a belly bacchanal. My head hanging with blood, pain, remorse. All the evils. I try to cut loose but I'm too tired now. My hands clutch my skin. I kiss myself all over. I catlick. I want out of the time knot. I plead for help but there's only one sound and I can only dump that out the window. But it's not even high enough. Shiver. Groan. Try not to scream too loud or you'll get yourself busted. Oh, what a flesh saving phony. The phone."

What S has tried to recapture with the above is a series of images and ideas that became progressively more unendurable until he felt that he had to "get out of the time knot"—i.e., die. He considered jumping out of the window but was uncertain whether it was high enough. He says that he was caught up in 'powerful suicidal impulses on which he might well have acted had the phone not rung at the time that it did. This phone call, from a friend, resulted in an abrupt change of mood and ideation. He went over to the friend's house, which was nearby, and describes the remainder of his "session" as pleasant. But he feels the psychosis, as he himself regards it, would have continued throughout the session and probably worsened had it not been for the call. S doubts that he could have "hung on." Yet, looking back on this experience, he describes it as "very worthwhile" on two counts: It was a "catharsis," and afterwards he had "a sense of pride at having survived the psy-chosis."28 He has since had several other drug experiences without any recurrence of the suicidal impulse or of the other painful phenomena—no guarantee, of course, that these will not recur in the course of some future drug experience.

Since a Drug Movement census is scarcely feasible, no accurate estimation of the number of persons involved can be made. However, it seems evident that a substantial majority are under the age of thirty and that probably at least ninety per cent are clustered on the East and West Coasts. Psychedelics have been rather easily obtainable in New York City for six or seven years and Los Angeles and Boston have had their black markets at least since 1962. 'The Drug Movement appears to have its heaviest student representation at Harvard and Columbia Universi-ties. However, at some other colleges and universities as well the use of psychedelics has become a "status symbol" and is fairly widespread. Because of this factor, it is likely that many persons claim to have tried the drugs who in fact have not done so. According to one recent report, many people in New York City were purchasing and placing on their shelves a rather "Far Out" book about the drugs—their aim being to convince their friends that they, too, had "made the psychedelic trip."

Since LSD and some other synthetic compounds can be rather easily produced without expensive laboratory facilities, it is possible that the black market supplies may be coming from a number of small local producers. However, at least some of the drugs are probably being imported from other countries. When black market psychedelics first began to be sold, an LSD-soaked sugar cube could be had for one dollar and profit may not have been the main motive behind manufacture and distribution. Over the last year, however, prices in the New York City area have fluctuated between four and twelve dollars for a capsule claimed to contain about 200 micrograms. Most buyers probably paid eight to ten dollars. Since LSD, if it were legally obtainable, would retail for something like two cents a dose, it is evident that very large profits now can be made.

Some expressions of concern that buyers might be poisoned as a result of taking the black-market chemicals seem unwarranted. A clergyman has told us that an "LSD" capsule he obtained from a black-market source was taken to a chemist for analysis and was found to contain "mescaline and a little bit of heroin." However, if the capsule actually contained heroin, the most plausible explanation is that it got there by accident. This might indicate, then, that criminal narcotics interests have moved in on the psychedelic market—presenting some new and obvious dangers. Some purchasers have found that their cap-sules of "LSD," "mescaline," "psilocybin," or whatever, contained only sugar or talcum powder, a much more likely ingredient than heroin. In a few cases we have heard of, the dosage appears to have been consider-ably lighter than that bargained for. Inept or careless measuring might explain this and would also raise the possibility of exposure to danger-ously high dosages should the error lie in the opposite direction; but we have yet to hear of this occurring.

One result of the drug black market and also, it seems clear, of poor medical and political judgment, has been stringent Federal Food and Drug Administration action that has drastically curtailed psychedelic research in this country. So stringent have these regulations been that since October, 1962, the drugs have been available only to those few individuals or groups of researchers worldng under federal (only 13 in 1965) and certain state grants. Some persons already possessing a sup-ply of the drugs continued their work—but in what has been described as a "legal limbo" with the possibility of prosecution always present. And, in mid-1965, that work, too, was made clearly unlawful. Thus, we have the ironic situation that while almost all therapeutic and experi-mental work has been made impossible, there is a growing Drug Move-ment and a flourishing psychedelic black market supplying just those persons who use the drugs under conditions least likely to prove of real benefit to anyone.

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