quote:

Originally posted by limbojim:
I thought he was in the western lands.

ahh...

Yup it's a painting of Burroughs but I can't remember who painted it.

WILD ANCESTOR OF HOUSE CATS I.D.'D. http://www.livescience.com/animals/070628_cat_family.html

The worst violation of scientific research since the Holy Inquisition.
Wilson about Leary

Swiss get the go-ahead for LSD therapy for the terminally ill

quote:

Originally posted by Eric:
The worst violation of scientific research since the Holy Inquisition.

I couldn't agree more. And the fact they're testing it as a therapy for confronting the end tells you something about the difference between LSD and recreational drugs. I can't believe it's taken this long for someone else to pick up the baton.

It was used in psychiatry in a few places in the UK into the 70's.

Tim Leary's work within the prison system was incredible. He had the highest success rate ever in treating violent personalities. The "system" bounced him out on his ear before he could threaten the livelihoods of both shrinks and cops everywhere.

Dr. Leary joins the ranks of Dr. Wilhelm Reich and others who have shaken the status quo to it's roots. As the persecution ramped up, these pioneers sometimes got a little carried away, but only I believe because they were thwarted in all attempts to carry out "proper" scientific research.

Kudos to the Swiss for recognizing that the world is getting dangerously crazy, and that there have been workable therapies for many of our ills for a long time. ( Reich's therapies for cancer have cured thousands in Switzerland alone.)

It just reminds me once again about how capricious the legal system can be.

Absolutely, Reich is the other one. Well said.

quote:

Originally posted by Kradlum:
It was used in psychiatry in a few places in the UK into the 70's.

You Brits have all the fun (though the bad trips are another reason to segregate LSD from recreational drugs - waking nightmares are no fun - it makes me shudder to think of what the CIA was using it for).

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Cool Bob avatar, Etruscan

Yeah, it was a lucky find. Anyone wants to wear it - be my guest.

The Future of Putting Chips Inside Our Brains

quote:

Imagine a chip, strategically placed in the brain, that could prevent epileptic seizures or allow someone who has lost a limb to control an artificial arm just by thinking about it.

It may sound like science fiction, but University of Florida researchers are developing devices that can interpret signals in the brain and stimulate neurons to perform correctly, advances that might someday make it possible for a tiny computer to fix diseases or even allow a paralyzed person to control a prosthetic device with his thoughts.

Armed with a $2.5 million grant they received this year from the National Institutes of Health, UF researchers from the College of Medicine, the College of Engineering and the McKnight Brain Institute have teamed up to create a “neuroprosthetic” chip designed to be implanted in the brain. They are currently studying the concept in rats but are aiming to develop a prototype of the device within the next four years that could be tested in people.

The initial goal? To correct conditions such as paralysis or epilepsy.

The development of neuroprosthetics sounds good to me. Especially when compared to the current drug regimens with their attendant side effects used to treat so many diseases.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: oddmanrush,

quote:

It was used in psychiatry in a few places in the UK into the 70's.

i heard once that cary grant used it psychiatrically. apparently shot some movies on acid. true or not it's fun to imagine that the characteristic expressions may have been because grace kelly or eva marie saint's faces were melting.

edit: ah! not quite, but if you like cary grant then this is interesting

This message has been edited. Last edited by: misty,

Priceless! I never knew.

Cary Grant's use of LSD25 was well known during the 60's and 70's. But like a lot of things, people just lose interest. I remember him taking some heat in the popular press because of his defense of the therapy.
I "experimented" quite a few times and have fond memories even of the "bad trips".

The chemical itself is a catalyst. By the time one feels the "high", the LSD25 is long gone.

My "man on the street" understanding of what happens is this: That the brain is awash with serotonin, and that the "normal" amount of self censorship each of us uses to stay on task, hold conversations, drive a car etc., is basically gone. The brain becomes the plaything of whim and happenstance. The chemo-electrical impulses that the brain uses can last a while but not forever.

Thus, people can experience "time shifting" where a known and routine task such as walking up or down stairs becomes a jumble of different and unconnected staircase experiences. Where the journey down the stairs ends before it begins.

I have experienced sensitivity to lightwaves I would not normally have seen. I've experienced micro vision. At times the only thing getting through might be a color or a sound.

I stopped fooling with it when I got poisoned with strychnine. The people who make pills, that is to say the raw blank tablets the acid was put on, would use milk sugar. Sometimes they run out or sometimes some other substance is cheaper to use. Some friends of mine bought a bag of 100 acid tabs knowing that 25% of the batch were made with strychnine instead of milk sugar.
Out of six of us tripping that night, two of us got poisoned. Luck of the draw. After an hour or so of very earnest puking, things settled down into a better groove. We listened to the Firesign Theater and drove to Dunkin' Donuts. Then we watched the sunrise over Lake Michigan.
I never wanted a repeat of that acid-vomiting thing again. So that was it for me.

i stopped with the acid when i realised 5 of my friends were in psychiatric care! i spose over the years i took about 50 tabs, though whether the stuff we were getting was actually LSD is another question. laced with a fair amount of speed i'd say.

Christ, I tried the stuff so long ago it was still legal. Not as much fun that way.

I haven't tripped since I was in college, and then it was the heavilly diluted stuff obtainable in the '80s and early '90s. I don't miss it, but it's one of those things I want to do again before I die.

I used to take a lot. I'm not sure when I stopped, I think when Ecstasy got cheaper.

I am kind of tempted to do it again. I don't know. I kind of want to feel that psychosomatic shiver that you get when you swallow it, but not the "how much longer" feeling you get at the end.

I've heard that Hoffman was working on a cure for the common cold when he stumbled upon the formula.

Funny thing is; it works. You sweat like mad and poof, the cold is gone.

It does seem like going the long way around though. Maybe that's why they call it a trip.

That is ironic. But not neccesarilly the long way around. I once had a friend who worked at the high school on the Tohono O'odham (previously known as Papago) reservation outside Tucson. One of his students cured his flu with peyote buttons in less than a day - that's pretty fast acting flu medicine - I wonder if peyote was discovered in the same way?

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