Non-Therapeutic Uses of LSD
Stanislav Grof, M.D.
Chapter 8, LSD Psychotherapy, ©1980,
1994 by Stanislav Grof
Hunter House Publishers, Alameda, California, ISBN
0-89793-158-0
TRAINING SESSIONS OF MENTAL HEALTH PROFESSIONALS
The extraordinary value of LSD for the education of psychiatrists
and psychologists became evident at a very early stage of its research. In his
pioneering paper, published in 1947, Stoll emphasized that an auto-experiment
with this drug gives professionals a unique opportunity to experience first-hand
the alien worlds which they encounter in their everyday work with psychiatric
patients. During the "model psychosis" phase of LSD research, when the
psychedelic state was considered a chemically-induced schizophrenia, LSD sessions
were recommended as reversible journeys into the experiential world of psychotics
which had a unique didactic significance. The experience was recommended for psychiatrists,
psychologists, nurses, social workers, and medical students as a means of acquiring
insights into the nature of mental illness. Rinkel (85), Roubicek (90) and other
researchers who conducted didactic experiments of this kind reported that a single
LSD session can dramatically change the understanding that mental health professionals
have of psychotic patients, and result in a more humane attitude toward them.
The fact that the "model psychosis" concept of the LSD
state was eventually rejected by most researchers did not diminish the educational
value of the psychedelic experience. Although mental changes induced by LSD are
obviously not identical with schizophrenia, the ingestion of the drug still represents
a very special opportunity for professionals and students to experience many states
of mind that occur naturally in the context of various mental disorders. These
involve perceptual distortions in the optical, acoustic, tactile, olfactory, and
gustatory areas; quantitative and qualitative disturbances of the thought-processes;
and abnormal emotional qualities of extraordinary intensity. Under the influence
of LSD it is possible to experience sensory illusions and pseudohallucinations,
retardation or acceleration of thinking, delusional interpretation of the world,
and an entire gamut of intense pathological emotions such as depression manic
mood, aggression, self-destructive craving, and agonizing feelings of inferiority
and guilt, or conversely, ecstatic rapture, transcendental peace and serenity,
and a sense of cosmic unity. The psychedelic experience can also become a source
of revelatory aesthetic, scientific, philosophical, or spiritual insight.
Autoexperimentation with LSD does not exhaust its didactic potential.
Another learning experience of great value is participation in the sessions of
other subjects. This offers an opportunity for young professionals to observe
an entire range of abnormal phenomena and be exposed to and become familiar with
extreme emotional states and unusual behavior patterns. This occurs under specially
structured circumstances, at a convenient time, and in the context of an existing
relationship with the experient. All these factors make this a situation better
suited for learning than the admission ward or emergency unit of a psychiatric
hospital. In a more specific way, sitting in LSD sessions has been recommended
as an unequaled training for future psychotherapists. The intensification of the
relationship with the sitters that is characteristic of LSD sessions presents
a rare opportunity for a novice professional to observe transference phenomena
and learn to cope with them. The use of LSD in the context of a training program
for future psychotherapists has been discussed in a special paper by Feld, Goodman,
and Guido. (26)
An extensive and systematic study of the didactic potential of LSD
sessions was conducted at the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center. In this program,
up to three high-dose LSD sessions were offered to mental health professionals
for training purposes. Over one hundred persons participated in this program between
1970 when it began, and 1977 when it was ended. Most of these individuals were
interested in the psychedelic experience because it was closely related to their
own professional activities. Some of them actually worked in crisis intervention
units or with patients who had problems related to psychedelic drug use. Others
were practitioners of various psychotherapeutic techniques and wanted to compare
LSD psychotherapy to their own particular discipline—psychoanalysis, psychodrama,
Gestalt therapy, psychosynthesis, or bioenergetics. A few were researchers involved
in the study of altered states of consciousness, the dynamics of the unconscious,
or the psychology of religion. A small group consisted of professionals who were
specifically interested in becoming LSD therapists. They usually spent several
months with us, attending staff meetings, watching videotapes of LSD therapy practice,
or guiding psychedelic sessions under supervision. They then had the opportunity
to undergo their own LSD sessions as part of the training schedule. All the participants
in the LSD program for professionals agreed to cooperate in pre- and post-session
psychological testing, and complete a follow-up questionnaire six months, twelve
months, and two years after the session. The questions in this follow-up form
focused on changes which they observed after the LSD session in their professional
work, life philosophy, religious feelings, their emotional and physical condition,
and interpersonal adjustment. Although we have much anecdotal evidence of the
value of this training program, the data from the pre-and post-session psychological
testing and from the follow-up questionnaires has not yet been systematically
processed and evaluated.
As I have emphasized earlier, LSD training sessions are an essential
qualification for every LSD therapist. Because of the unique nature of the psychedelic
state it is impossible to reach a real understanding of its quality and dimensions
unless one directly experiences it. In addition, the experience of confronting
the various areas in one's own unconscious is absolutely necessary for developing
the ability to assist other people with competence and equanimity in their process
of deep self-exploration. LSD training sessions are also highly recommended for
nurses and all other members of the staff in psychedelic treatment units who come
in close contact with clients in unusual states of consciousness
ADMINISTRATION OF LSD TO CREATIVE INDIVIDUALS
One of the most interesting aspects of LSD research is the relationship
between the psychedelic state and the creative process. Professional literature
on the subject reflects considerable controversy. Robert Mogar (71), who reviewed
the existing experimental data on the performance of various functions related
to creative work, found the results inconclusive and contradictory. Thus some
studies focusing on instrumental learning demonstrated impairment during the drug
experience, while others indicated a definite enhancement of the learning capacity.
Conflicting results have also been reported for color perception, recall and recognition,
discrimination learning, concentration, symbolic thinking, and perceptual accuracy.
Studies using various psychological tests specifically designed to measure creativity
usually fail to demonstrate significant improvement as a result of LSD administration.
However, how relevant these tests are in relation to the creative process and
how sensitive and specific they are in detecting the changes induced by LSD remains
an open question. Another important factor to consider is the general lack of
motivation in LSD subjects to participate and cooperate in formal psychological
testing procedures while they are deeply involved in their inner experiences.
In view of the importance of set and setting for the psychedelic experience, it
should also be mentioned that many of the above studies were conducted in the
context of the "model schizophrenia" approach, and thus with the intention
of demonstrating the psychotic impairment of performance.
The generally negative outcome of creativity studies is in sharp
contrast to the everyday experience of LSD therapists. The work of many artists—painters,
musicians, writers, and poets—who participated in LSD experimentation in
various countries of the world has been deeply influenced by their psychedelic
experiences.[1] Most of them found access
to deep sources of inspiration in their unconscious mind, experienced a striking
enhancement and unleashing of fantasy, and reached extraordinary vitality, originality
and freedom of artistic expression. In many instances, the quality of their creations
improved considerably, not only according to their own judgment or the opinion
of the LSD researchers, but by the standards of their professional colleagues.
At exhibitions which chronologically show the artist's development, it is usually
easy to recognize when he or she had a psychedelic experience. One can typically
see a dramatic quantum jump in the content and style of the paintings. This is
particularly true of painters who, prior to their LSD experience, were conventional
and conservative in their artistic expression.
However, most of the art in the collections of psychedelic therapists
comes from subjects who were not professional artists, but had LSD sessions for
therapeutic, didactic, or other purposes. Frequently, individuals who did not
show any artistic inclinations at all prior to the LSD experience can create extraordinary
pictures. In most instances, the intensity of the effect is due to the unusual
nature and power of the material that emerges from the depths of the unconscious,
rather than the artistic abilities. It is not uncommon, however, for even the
technical aspects of such drawings or paintings to be far superior to previous
creations by the same subjects. Some individuals actually pursue in their everyday
life the new skills they discover in their psychedelic sessions. In exceptional
cases, a genuine artistic talent of extraordinary power and scope may emerge during
the LSD procedure. One of my patients in Prague, who had loathed drawing and painting
all her life and had to be forced to participate in art classes at school, developed
a remarkable artistic talent within a period of several months. Her art eventually
found enthusiastic acceptance among professional painters and she had successful
public exhibitions. In instances like this, one has to assume that the talent
already existed in these individuals in a latent form, and that its expression
was blocked by strong pathological emotions. The affective liberation through
psychedelic therapy had allowed its free and full manifestation.
It is interesting that the LSD experience tends to enhance appreciation
and understanding of art in individuals who were previously unresponsive and indifferent.
A characteristic observation from psychedelic research is the sudden development
of interest in various movements in modern art. Subjects who were indifferent
or even hostile toward non-conventional art forms can develop deep insight into
suprematism, pointillism, cubism, impressionism, dadaism, surrealism, or superrealism
after a single exposure to LSD. There are certain painters whose art seems to
be particularly closely related to the visionary experiences induced by LSD. Thus
many LSD subjects develop deep empathic understanding of the paintings of Hieronymus
Bosch, Vincent van Gogh, Salvador Dali, Max Ernst, Pablo Picasso, René
Magritte, Maurits Escher, or H. R. Giger. Another typical consequence of the psychedelic
experience is a dramatic change of attitude toward music; many LSD subjects discover
in their sessions new dimensions in music and new ways of listening to it. A number
of our patients, who were alcoholics and heroin addicts with poor educational
background, developed such deep interest in classical music as a result of their
one LSD session that they decided to use their meager financial resources for
buying a stereo set and starting a record collection of their own. The role of
psychedelics in the development of contemporary music and their impact on composers,
interpreters, and audiences is so obvious and well-known that it does not require
special emphasis here.
Although the influence of LSD on artistic expression is most evident
in the fields of painting and music, the psychedelic experience can have a similar
fertilizing effect on some other branches of art. Visionary states induced by
mescaline and LSD had a profound significance in the life, art and philosophy
of Aldous Huxley. Many of his writings, including Brave New World, Island,
Heaven and Hell, and The Doors of Perception have been directly influenced
by his psychedelic experiences. Some of the most powerful poems by Allen Ginsberg
were inspired by his self-experimentation with psychedelic substances. The role
of hashish in the French art of the fin de siècle could also
be mentioned in this context. The Canadian-Japanese architect Kiyo Izumi was able
to make unique use of his LSD experiences in designing modern psychiatric facilities.
(40)
Since LSD mediates the access to the contents and dynamics of the
deep unconscious—in psychoanalytic terms, to the primary process—it
is not particularly surprising that psychedelic experiences can play an important
role in the creative development of artists. However, many observations from psychedelic
research indicate that LSD can also be of extraordinary value to various scientific
disciplines that are traditionally considered domains of reason and logic. Two
important aspects of the LSD effect seem to be of particular relevance in this
context. First, the drug can mediate access to vast repositories of concrete and
valid information in the collective unconscious and make them available to the
experient. According to my observations, the revealed knowledge can be very specific,
accurate, and detailed; the data obtained in this way can be related to many different
fields. In our relatively limited LSD training program for scientists, relevant
insights occurred in such diverse areas as cosmogenesis, the nature of space and
time, sub-atomic physics, ethology, animal psychology, history, anthropology,
sociology, politics, comparative religion, philosophy, genetics, obstetrics, psychosomatic
medicine, psychology, psychopathology, and thanatology.[2]
The second aspect of the LSD effect that is of great relevance for
the creative process is the facilitation of new and unexpected syntheses of data,
resulting in unconventional problem-solving. It is a well-known fact that many
important ideas and solutions to problems did not originate in the context of
logical reasoning, but in various unusual states of mind—in dreams, while
falling asleep or awakening, at times of extreme physical and mental fatigue,
or during an illness with high fever. There are many famous examples of this.
Thus, the chemist Friedrich August von Kekulé arrived at the final solution
of the chemical formula of benzene in a dream in which he saw the benzene ring
in the form of a snake biting its tail. Nikola Tesla constructed the electric
generator, an invention that revolutionized industry, after the complete design
of it appeared to him in great detail in a vision. The design for the experiment
leading to the Nobel prize-winning discovery of the chemical transmission of nerve
impulses occurred to the physiologist Otto Loewi while he was asleep. Albert Einstein
discovered the basic principles of his special theory of relativity in an unusual
state of mind; according to his description, most of the insights came to him
in the form of kinaesthetic sensations.
We could mention many instances of a similar kind where a creative
individual struggled unsuccessfully for a long time with a difficult problem using
logic and reason, with the actual solution emerging unexpectedly from the unconscious
in moments when his or her rationality was suspended.[3]
In everyday life events of this kind happen very rarely, and in an elemental and
unpredictable fashion. Psychedelic drugs seem to facilitate the incidence of such
creative solutions to the point that they can be deliberately programmed. In an
LSD state, the old conceptual frameworks break down, cultural cognitive barriers
dissolve, and the material can be seen and synthesized in a totally new way that
was not possible within the old systems of thinking. This mechanism can produce
not only striking new solutions to various specific problems, but new paradigms
that revolutionize whole scientific disciplines.
Although psychedelic experimentation had been drastically curbed
before this avenue could be systematically explored, the study of creative problem-solving
conducted by Willis Harman and James Fadiman (36) at the Stanford Research Institute
brought enough interesting evidence to encourage future research. The drug used
in this experiment was not LSD but mescaline, the active ingredient of the Mexican
cactus Anhalonium lewinii [Lophophora williamsii], or peyote. Because
of the general similarity of the effects of these two drugs, comparable results
should be expected with the use of LSD; various accidental observations from our
LSD training program for scientists and from the therapeutic use of this drug
seem to confirm this. The subjects in the Harman-Fadiman study were twenty-seven
males engaged in a variety of professions. The group consisted of sixteen engineers,
one engineer-physicist, two mathematicians, two architects, one psychologist,
one furniture designer, one commercial artist, one sales manager, and one personnel
manager. The objective of the study was to ascertain whether under the influence
of 200 milligrams of mescaline these individuals would show increased creativity
and produce concrete, valid, and feasible solutions to problems, as judged by
the criteria of modern industry and positivistic science. The results of this
research were very encouraging; many solutions were accepted for construction
or production, others could be developed further or opened new avenues for investigation.
The mescaline subjects consistently reported that the drug induced in them a variety
of changes which facilitated the creative process. It lowered inhibitions and
anxieties, enhanced the fluency and flexibility of ideation, heightened the capacity
for visual imagery and fantasy, and increased the ability to concentrate on the
project. The administration of mescaline also facilitated empathy with people
and objects, made subconscious data more accessible, strengthened the motivation
to obtain closure and, in some instances, allowed immediate visualization of the
completed solution.
It is obvious that the potential of LSD for enhancing creativity
will be directly proportional to the intellectual capacity and sophistication
of the experient. For most of the creative insights, it is necessary to know the
present status of the discipline involved, be able to formulate relevant new problems,
and find the technical means of describing the results. If this type of research
is ever repeated, the logical candidates would be prominent scientists from various
disciplines: nuclear physicists, astrophysicists, geneticists, brain physiologists,
anthropologists, psychologists and psychiatrists.[4]
DRUG-INDUCED RELIGIOUS AND MYSTICAL EXPERIENCES
The use of psychedelic substances for ritual, religious, and magical
purposes can be traced back to ancient shamanic traditions and is probably as
old as mankind. The legendary divine potion soma, prepared from a plant
of the same name whose identity is now lost, played a crucial role in the Vedic
religion. Preparations from hemp Cannabis indica and sativa have
been used in Asia and Africa for many centuries under different names—hashish,
charas, bhang, ganja, kif—in religious ceremonies and folk medicine. They
have played an important role in Brahmanism, have been used in the context of
Sufi practices, and represent the principal sacrament of the Rastafarians. Religio-magical
use of psychedelic plants was widespread in the Pre-Columbian cultures, among
the Aztecs, Mayans, Olmecs, and other Indian groups. The famous Mexican cactus
Lophophora williamsii (peyote), the sacred mushroom Psilocybe mexicana
(teonanacatl), and several varieties of morning glory seeds (ololiuqui)
were among the plants used. Ritual use of peyote and the sacred mushroom still
survives among various Mexican tribes; the peyote hunt and other sacred ceremonies
of the Huichol Indians and healing rituals of the Mazatecs using the mushrooms
can be mentioned here as important examples. Peyote was also assimilated by many
North American Indian groups and about one hundred years ago became the sacrament
of the syncretistic Native American Church. South American healers (ayahuascheros),
and preliterate Amazonian tribes such as the Amahuaca and the Jivaro use yagé,
psychedelic extracts from the "visionary vine," the jungle liana Banisteriopsis
caapi. The best known African hallucinogenic plant is Tabernanthe iboga
(eboga), which in smaller dosages serves as a stimulant and is used in large
quantities as an initiatory drug. In the Middle Ages, potions and ointments containing
psychoactive plants and animal ingredients were widely used in the context of
the Witches' Sabbath and the black mass rituals. The most famous constituents
of the witches' brews were the deadly nightshade (Atropa Belladonna),
mandrake (Mandragora officinarum), thornapple or "jimson weed"
(Datura Stramonium), henbane (Hyoscyamus niger), and toad skin.
Modern chemical analysis has detected in the skin of toads (Bufo buff),
a substance called bufotenine (or dimethylserotonin) which has psychedelic
properties. The psychedelic plants mentioned above represent only a small selection
of those that are most famous. According to ethnobotanist Richard Schultes of
the Botanical Department of Harvard University, there exist more than one hundred
plants with distinct psychoactive properties.
The ability of psychedelic substances to induce visionary states
of a religious and mystical nature is documented in many historical and anthropological
sources. The discovery of LSD, and the well-publicized occurrence of these experiences
in many experimental subjects within our own culture, has brought this issue to
the attention of scientists. The fact that religious experiences could be triggered
by the ingestion of chemical agents instigated an interesting and highly controversial
discussion about "chemical" or "instant mysticism." Many behavioral
scientists, philosophers, and theologians became involved in fierce polemics about
the nature of these phenomena, their meaning, validity, and authenticity. The
opinions soon crystallized into three extreme points of view. Some experimenters
saw the possibility of inducing religious experiences by chemical means as an
opportunity to transfer religious phenomena from the realm of the sacred to the
laboratory, and thus eventually to explain them in scientific terms. Ultimately,
there would be nothing mysterious and holy about religion, and spiritual experiences
could be reduced to brain physiology and biochemistry. However, other researchers
took a very different stance. According to them, the mystical phenomena induced
by LSD and other psychedelic drugs were genuine and these substances should be
considered sacraments because they can mediate contact with transcendental realities.
This was essentially the position taken by the shamans and priests of psychedelic
cultures where visionary plants such as soma, peyote and teonanacatl were seen
as divine materials or as deities themselves. Yet another approach to the problem
was to consider LSD experiences to be "quasi-religious" phenomena which
only simulate or superficially resemble the authentic and genuine spirituality
that comes as "God's grace" or as a result of discipline, devotion,
and austere practices. In this framework, the seeming ease with which these experiences
could be triggered by a chemical entirely discredited their spiritual value.
However, those who argue that LSD-induced spiritual experiences
cannot be valid because they are too easily available and their occurrence and
timing depend on the individual's decision, misunderstand the nature of the psychedelic
state. The psychedelic experience is neither an easy nor a predictable way to
God. Many subjects do not have spiritual elements in their sessions despite many
exposures to the drug. Those who do have a mystical experience frequently have
to undergo psychological ordeals that are at least as difficult and painful as
those associated with various aboriginal rites of passage or rigorous and austere
religious disciplines.
Most researchers agree that it is not possible to differentiate
clearly between spontaneous mystical experiences and "chemical mysticism"
on the basis of phenomenological analysis or experimental approaches.[5]
This issue is further complicated by the relative lack of specific pharmacological
effects of LSD and by the fact that some of the situations conducive to spontaneous
mysticism are associated with dramatic physiological and biochemical changes in
the body.
Prolonged fasting, sleep deprivation, a stay in the desert with
exposure to dehydration and extremes of temperature, forceful respiratory maneuvers,
excessive emotional stress, physical exertion and tortures, long monotonous chanting
and other popular practices of the "technology of the sacred" cause
such far-reaching alterations in body chemistry that it is difficult to draw a
clear line between spontaneous and chemical mysticism.
The decision whether chemically induced experiences are genuine
and authentic or not thus lies in the domain of theologians and spiritual masters.
Unfortunately the representatives of different religions have expressed a wide
spectrum of conflicting opinions; it remains an open question who should be considered
an authority in this area. Some of these religious experts made their judgments
without ever having had a psychedelic experience and can hardly be considered
authorities on LSD; others have made far-reaching generalizations on the basis
of one session. Serious differences of opinion exist even among leading representatives
of the same religion—Catholic priests, Protestant ministers, Rabbis, and
Hindu saints—who have had psychedelic experiences. At present, after thirty
years of discussion, the question whether LSD and other psychedelics can induce
genuine spiritual experiences is still open. Negative opinions of individuals
like Meher Baba or R. C. Zaehner stand against those of several Tibetan Buddhist
masters, a number of shamans of the psychedelic cultures, Walter Clark, Huston
Smith, and Alan Watts.
Whether the experiences produced by LSD are genuine mystical revelations
or just very convincing simulations thereof, they are certainly phenomena of great
interest for theologians, ministers, and students of religion. Within a few hours,
individuals gain profound insights into the nature of religion, and in many instances
their purely theoretical understanding and formal belief is vitalized by a deep
personal experience of the transcendental realms. This opportunity can be particularly
important for those ministers who profess a religion, but at the same time harbor
serious doubts about the truth and relevance of what they preach. Several priests
and theologians who volunteered for our LSD training program at the Maryland Psychiatric
Research Center were skeptics or atheists who were involved in their profession
for a variety of external reasons. For them, the spiritual experiences they had
in their LSD sessions were important evidence that spirituality is a genuine and
deeply relevant force in human life. This realization liberated them from the
conflict they had had about their profession, and from the burden of hypocrisy.
In several instances, the relatives and friends of these individuals reported
that their sermons following the LSD session showed unusual power and natural
authority.
Spiritual experiences in psychedelic sessions frequently draw on
the symbolism of the collective unconscious and can thus occur in the framework
of cultural and religious traditions other than the experient's own. LSD training
sessions are therefore of special interest for those who study comparative religion.
Ministers affiliated to a specific church are sometimes surprised when they have
a profound religious experience in the context of an entirely different creed.
Because of the basically unitive nature of the psychedelic experience, this usually
does not disqualify their own religion but places it in a broader cosmic perspective.
ROLE OF LSD IN PERSONAL GROWTH AND SELF-ACTUALIZATION
During the years of intensive LSD research, the major focus was
on basic psychopathological investigation, psychiatric therapy, or some quite
specific uses, such as enhancement of artistic expression or mediation of a religious
experience. Relatively little attention was paid to the value that psychedelic
experiences could have for the personal development of "normal" individuals.
In the mid-sixties, this issue emerged in an elemental and explosive fashion in
a wave of massive nonsupervised self-experimentation.
In the atmosphere of national hysteria that ensued, the pros and
cons were discussed in a passionate, over-emphatic, and ultimately confusing way.
The LSD proselytes presented the drug quite uncritically as an easy and safe panacea
for all the problems that beset human existence. Psychedelic self-exploration
and personality transformation were presented as the only viable alternative to
sudden annihilation in a nuclear holocaust or slow death among industrial waste
products. It was recommended that as many people as possible should take LSD under
any circumstances and as frequently as they could in order to accelerate the advent
of the Aquarian Age. LSD sessions were seen as a rite of passage that should be
mandatory for everybody who reached their teens.
Failure to warn the public about the dangers and pitfalls of psychedelic
experimentation and to give instructions for minimizing the risks resulted in
a large number of casualties. Apocalyptic newspaper headlines describing the horrors
of LSD "bummers" and drug-related accidents ignited a witch-hunting
response in legislators, politicians, educators, and many professionals. Ignoring
the data from almost two decades of responsible scientific experimentation, the
anti-drug propaganda switched to the other extreme and presented LSD as a totally
unpredictable devil's drug that represented a grave danger to the sanity of the
present generation and the physical health of generations to come.
At present, when the emotional charge of this controversy has subsided,
it seems possible to take a more sober and objective view of the problems involved.
Clinical evidence strongly suggests that "normal" people can benefit
most from the LSD process and are taking the least risk when participating in
a supervised psychedelic program. A single high-dose LSD session can frequently
be of extraordinary value for those persons who do not have any serious clinical
problems. The quality of their lives can be considerably enhanced and the experience
can move them in the direction of self-realization or self-actualization. This
process seems to be comparable in every way to the one that Abraham Maslow described
for individuals who had spontaneous "peak experiences."
The official anti-drug propaganda is based on a very superficial
understanding of the motivations for psychedelic drug use. It is true that in
many instances the drug is used for kicks or in the context of juvenile rebellion
against parental authority or the establishment. However, even those who take
LSD under the worst circumstances frequently get a glimpse of the drug's real
potential, and this can become a powerful force in future use. The fact that many
people take LSD in an attempt to find a solution to their emotional dilemmas or
from a deep need for philosophical and spiritual answers should not be underestimated.
The craving for contact with transcendental realities can be more powerful than
the sexual urge. Throughout human history countless individuals have been willing
to take enormous risks of various kinds and to sacrifice years or decades of their
lives to spiritual pursuits. Any reasonable measures regulating the use of psychedelic
drugs should take these facts into consideration.
Very few serious researchers still believe that experimentation
with pure LSD represents a genetic hazard. Under proper circumstances the psychological
dangers that represent the only serious risk can be reduced to a minimum. In my
opinion, there is no scientific evidence that precludes the creation of a network
of facilities in which those who are seriously interested in psychedelic self-exploration
could engage in it with pure substances and under the best circumstances. Many
of these would be subjects who are so deeply motivated that they would otherwise
be serious candidates for illegal self-experimentation involving a much higher
risk. The existence of government-sponsored centers of this kind would have an
inhibiting effect on the immature motivations of people for whom the present strict
prohibitions represent a special challenge and temptation. An additional advantage
of this approach would be the opportunity to accumulate and process in a systematic
way all the valuable information about psychedelics that is otherwise lost in
elemental and chaotic unsupervised experimentation. This would also remedy the
existing absurd situation in which almost no serious professional research is
being conducted in an area where millions of people have been experimenting on
their own.
USE OF LSD IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF PARANORMAL ABILITIES
Much historical and anthropological evidence and numerous anecdotal
observations from clinical research suggest that psychedelic substances can occasionally
facilitate extrasensory perception. In many cultures visionary plants were administered
in the context of spiritual healing ceremonies as means to diagnose and cure diseases.
Equally frequent was their use for other magical purposes, such as locating lost
objects or persons, astral projection, perception of remote events, precognition,
and clairvoyance. Most of the drugs used for these purposes have been mentioned
earlier in connection with religious rituals. They include the resin or leaves
of hemp (Cannabis indica or sativa) in Africa and Asia; fly-agaric
mushrooms among various Siberian tribes and North American Indians; the plant
Tabernanthe iboga among certain African ethnic groups; the snuffs cohoba
(Anadenanthera peregrine) and epena (Virola theidora) of South America
and the Caribbean; and the three basic psychedelics of the Pre-Columbian cultures—the
peyote cactus (Lophophora williamsii), the sacred mushrooms teonanacatl
(Psilocybe mexicana) and ololiuqui or morning glory seeds (Ipomoea
violacea). Of special interest seems to be yagé, a brew prepared
from the jungle creeper Banisteriopsis caapi and other "vines of the
dead" used by South American Indians in the Amazon valley. Harmine, also
called yagéine or banisterine, one of the active alkaloids isolated from
the Banisteriopsis plant, has actually been referred to as telepathine.
The psychedelic states induced by the extracts of these plants seem to be especially
powerful enhancers of paranormal phenomena. The most famous example of the unusual
properties of yagé can be found in the reports of McGovern (69)
one of the anthropologists who described this plant. According to his description,
a local medicine man saw in remarkable detail the death of the chief of a faraway
tribe at the time when it was happening; the accuracy of his account was verified
many weeks later. A similar experience was reported by Manuel Cordova-Rios (53)
who accurately saw the death of his mother in his yagé session and
was later able to verify all the details. All psychedelic cultures seem to share
the belief that not only is extrasensory perception enhanced during the actual
intoxication by sacred plants, but the systematic use of these substances facilitates
development of paranormal abilities in everyday life.
Much anecdotal material collected over the years by psychedelic
researchers supports the above beliefs. Masters and Houston (65) have described
the case of a housewife who in her LSD session saw her daughter in the kitchen
of their home looking for the cookie jar. She further reported seeing the child
knock a sugar bowl from a shelf and spill sugar on the floor. This episode was
later confirmed by her husband. The same authors also reported an LSD subject
who saw "a ship caught in ice floes, somewhere in the northern seas."
According to the subject, the ship had on its bow the name "France."
It was later confirmed that the France had indeed been trapped in ice near
Greenland at the time of the subject's LSD session. The famous psychologist and
parapsychological researcher Stanley Krippner (49) visualized, during a psilocybin
session in 1962, the assassination of John F. Kennedy which took place a year
later. Similar observations were reported by Humphrey Osmond, Duncan Blewett,
Abram Hoffer, and other researchers. The literature on the subject has been critically
reviewed in a synoptic paper by Krippner and Davidson. (50)
In my own clinical experience, various phenomena suggesting extrasensory
perception are relatively frequent in LSD psychotherapy particularly in advanced
sessions. They range from a more-or-less vague anticipation of future events or
an awareness of remote happenings to complex and detailed scenes in the form of
vivid clairvoyant visions. This may be associated with appropriate sounds, such
as spoken words and sentences, noises produced by motor vehicles, sounds of fire
engines and ambulances, or the blowing of horns. Some of these experiences can
later be shown to correspond in varying degrees with actual events. Objective
verification in this area can be particularly difficult. Unless these instances
are reported and clearly documented during the actual psychedelic sessions there
is a great danger of contamination of the data. Loose interpretation of events,
distortions of memory, and the possibility of deja vu phenomena during the perception
of later occurrences are a few of the major pitfalls involved.
The most interesting paranormal phenomena occurring in psychedelic
sessions are out-of-the-body experiences and the instances of traveling clairvoyance
and clairaudience. The sensation of leaving one's body is quite common in drug-induced
states and can have various forms and degrees. Some persons experience themselves
as completely detached from their physical bodies, hovering above them or observing
them from another part of the room. Occasionally, the subjects can lose the awareness
of the actual physical setting altogether and their consciousness moves into experiential
realms and subjective realities that appear to be entirely independent of the
material world. They may then identify entirely with the body images of the protagonists
of these scenes, be they persons, animals, or archetypal entities. In exceptional
cases the individual may have a complex and vivid experience of moving to a specific
place in the physical world, and give a detailed description of a remote locale
or event. Attempts to verify such extrasensory perceptions can sometimes result
in amazing corroborations. In rare instances, the subject can actively control
such a process and "travel" at will to any location or point in time
he or she chooses. A detailed description of an experience of this kind illustrating
the nature and complexity of the problems involved has been published in my book
Realms of the Human Unconscious, p. 187. (32)
Objective testing by the standard laboratory techniques used in
parapsychological research has generally been quite disappointing and has failed
to demonstrate an increase of extrasensory perception as a predictable and constant
aspect of the LSD effect. Masters and Houston (65) tested LSD subjects with the
use of a special card deck developed in the parapsychology laboratory at Duke
University. The deck contains twenty-five cards, each of which has a geometrical
symbol: a star, circle, cross, square, or wavy lines. The results of the experiments
in which LSD subjects attempted to guess the identity of these cards were statistically
nonsignificant. A similar study conducted by Whittlesey (102) and a card-guessing
experiment with psilocybin subjects reported by van Asperen de Boer, Barkema and
Kappers (6) were equally disappointing, though an interesting finding in the first
of these studies was a striking decrease of variance; the subjects actually guessed
closer to mean chance expectation than predicted mathematically. Unpublished findings
of Walter Pahnke's parapsychological research at the Maryland Psychiatric Research
Center suggest that the statistical approach to this problem might be misleading.
In this project, Walter Pahnke used a modified version of the Duke University
cards in the form of electronic keyboard panels. The LSD subject had to guess
the key that had been lit on a panel in an adjacent room either manually or by
a computer. Although the results for the entire group of LSD subjects were not
statistically significant, certain individuals achieved strikingly high scores
in some of the measurements.
Some researchers voiced objections to the uninteresting and unimaginative
approach to the study of parapsychological phenomena represented by repetitive
card guessing. In general, such a procedure does not have much chance in the competition
for the subject's attention as compared to some of the exciting subjective experiences
that characterize the psychedelic state. In an attempt to make the task more appealing,
Cavanna and Servadio (19) used emotionally-loaded materials rather than cards;
photographic color prints of incongruous paintings were prepared for the experient.
Although one subject did remarkably well, the overall results were nonsignificant.
Karlis Osis (73) administered LSD to a number of "mediums" who were
given objects and asked to describe the owners. One medium was unusually successful,
but most of the others became so interested in the aesthetic and philosophical
aspects of the experience, or so caught up in their personal problems, that they
found it difficult to maintain concentration on the task.
By far the most interesting data emerged from a pilot study designed
by Masters and Houston (65) who used emotionally charged images with sixty-two
LSD subjects. The experiments were conducted in the termination periods of the
sessions, when it is relatively easy to focus on specific tasks. Forty-eight of
the individuals tested approximated the target image at least two times out of
ten, while five subjects made successful guesses at least seven times out of ten.
For example one subject visualized "tossed seas' when the correct image was
a Viking ship in a storm. The same subject guessed "lush vegetation"
when the image was rain forests in the Amazon, "a camel" when the image
was an Arab on a camel, "the Alps" when the picture was the Himalayas,
and "a Negro picking cotton in a field" when the target was a plantation
in the South.
The study of paranormal phenomena in psychedelic sessions presents
many technical problems. In addition to the problems of getting the subject interested
and keeping his or her attention on the task, Blewett (12) also emphasized the
rapid flow of eidetic imagery that interferes with the ability of the subject
to stabilize and choose the response that might have been triggered by the target.
The methodological difficulties in studying the effect of psychedelic drugs on
extrasensory perception or other paranormal abilities and the lack of evidence
in the existing studies cannot, however, invalidate some quite extraordinary observations
in this area. Every LSD therapist with sufficient clinical experience has collected
enough challenging observations to take this problem seriously. I myself have
no doubt that psychedelics can occasionally induce elements of genuine extrasensory
perception at the time of their pharmacological effect. On occasion, the occurrence
of certain paranormal abilities and phenomena can extend beyond the day of the
session. A fascinating observation that is closely related and deserves attention
in this context is the frequent accumulation of extraordinary coincidences in
the lives of persons who had experienced transpersonal phenomena in their psychedelic
sessions. Such coincidences are objective facts, not just subjective interpretations
of perceptual data; they are similar to the observations that Carl Gustav Jung
described in his essay on synchronicity. (44)
The discrepancy between the occurrence of parapsychological phenomena
in LSD sessions and the negative results of specific laboratory studies seems
to reflect the fact that an increase in ESP is not a standard and constant aspect
of the LSD effect. Psychological states conducive to various paranormal phenomena
and characterized by an unusually high incidence of ESP are among the many alternative
mental conditions that can be facilitated by this drug; in other types of LSD
experiences the ESP abilities seem to be on the same level as they are in the
everyday state of consciousness, or even further reduced. Future research will
have to assess if the otherwise unpredictable and elemental incidence of paranormal
abilities in psychedelic states can be harnessed and systematically cultivated,
as it is indicated in shamanic literature.
NOTES
1. The interested reader will find comprehensive
discussion of this subject in Robert Masters' and Jean Houston's excellent book
Psychedelic Art (66). The influence of LSD and psilocybin on the creativity
of professional painters has also been uniquely documented in the book Experimental
Psychoses (90) by the Czech psychiatrist, J. Roubicek. Oscar Janiger's unpublished
collection of professional paintings done under the influence of LSD also deserves
to be mentioned in this context. (back)
2. Some concrete examples of relevant insights
of this kind are described in my book Realms of the Human Unconscious.
(32) (back)
3. Many additional examples of this phenomenon
can be found in Arthur Koestler's book The Act of Creation. (48) (back)
4. The interested reader will find more information
on the subject in Stanley Krippner's synoptic paper Research in Creativity
and Psychedelic Drugs. (51) (back)
5. The most interesting study of this kind was
Walter Pahnke's (75) Good Friday experiment conducted in 1964 in the Harvard Chapel
in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In this study, ten Christian theological students
were given 30 milligrams of psilocybin, and ten others who functioned as a control
group received 200 milligrams of nicotinic acid as placebo. The assignment to
the two groups was done on a double-blind basis. They all listened to a two-and-a-half-hour
religious service that consisted of organ music, vocal solos, readings, prayers,
and personal meditation. The subjects who were given psilocybin rated very high
on the mystical experience questionnaire developed by Pahnke, whereas the response
of the control group was minimal. (back)