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I was also "lucky" to try extremely pure LSD and although not quite as pleasant it was very vivid until the ego-death kicked in.
Between early 70's to early 80;s I tripped at least 15 times. Only once was it very strong and pure it came in the form a sugar cube. It was ~ 2 days before I was really right again. I really enjoyed it, but we all stayed at a friends place so it was controlled - safe environment. The experience is not unlike the effects shown in the previous videos on post #215.
Another time I did some blotter and went out with a rough crew who drank heavily. It was only a matter of time before fights started, glasses and pitchers along w chairs were flying. The police arrived just as I was ran out the back door to a nearby woods.
 
SPIDERS ON ACID

Rarely do we come across something so awesome, in a world of awesomeness, it's
really awesomely amazing!

I have discovered a reference to early LSD experiments on animals.

Mentioned therein, is a separate test, carried out on spiders.

The results were that initially, they had difficulty constructing a web.

However... when the dose was reduced, they created webs made from geometric patterns...

Sorry, they did what!!

Are we talking about webs made in hexagons, octagons, or even...

 
SPIDERS ON ACID
Courtesy of the Guardian newspaper, I have literally, moments ago, found a related article. Other than coming across a mention of these experiments, this is the first detailed report I have discovered.

Posted with only briefly having browsed same, we can, dare I suggest, 'all be duly enlightened together'. :crazy:

From the archive, 4 October 1971: Spiders on LSD take a tangled trip

Spike Milligan, protector of catfish against American artists, may care to know that for the past 22 years an American psychologist, Dr Peter Witt, has been systematically deranging spiders.

In a laboratory where temperature and light were regulated day and night, he dosed them with mescalin, caffeine, carbon monoxide, amphetamines, and apparently most of the other drugs or substances which have been found to have an ill effect on humans.

The results of this indefatigable work have been at once predictably horrifying and scientifically inconclusive.

His stoned spiders, normally among the most delicate and admired artificers of the natural world, have spun webs which are both ugly and inefficient at catching flies.

[...]

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/oct/04/spiders-lsd-drugs-experiment-1971
 
The following article contains some resultant images from similar tests, including effects of other familiar drugs.

BUGGIN' OUT Nasa gave spiders DRUGS – how their webs changed when high on weed, LSD and caffeine

The Sun
17 January, 2020

Some of the stoned spiders gave up halfway while others spun their webs frantically – check out their wacky designs for yourself

https://www.thesun.co.uk/tech/6818187/nasa-spider-webs-drugs-lsd-marijuana/
 
IMG_20200921_122832_compress81.jpg


 
Local decriminalization of entheogenic plants continues to spread slowly. Ann Arbor (home of the University of Michigan) is hte latest city to follow suit ...
Ann Arbor decriminalizes magic mushrooms, psychedelic plants

The city of Ann Arbor has decriminalized psychedelic plants and fungi, including magic mushrooms, and police officers will no longer make them an enforcement focus.

City Council voted unanimously Sept. 21 in favor of a resolution declaring it the city’s lowest law enforcement priority, MLive.com reported. It means that authorities won’t investigate and arrest anyone for planting, cultivating, buying, transporting, distributing, engaging in practices with or possessing “entheogenic plants” or plant compounds. ...

The resolution defines entheogenic plants as plants and fungi that contain indole amines, tryptamines and phenethylamines “that can benefit psychological and physical wellness, support and enhance religious and spiritual practices, and can reestablish human’s inalienable and direct relationship to nature.”

The move applies to ayahuasca, ibogaine, mescaline, peyote, psilocybin mushrooms and other substances with hallucinogenic properties considered illegal under state and federal law. ...

Last year, Denver became the first U.S. city to decriminalize psychedelic mushrooms. The city was then followed by Oakland and Santa Cruz in California, which decriminalized all entheogenic plants.

FULL STORY: https://apnews.com/article/plants-archive-fungi-ann-arbor-b0ce69ca0961c150e0f900e8ea4cf432
 
Newly published research suggests ayahuasca promotes neuron generation / regeneration and may be useful in treating neurodegenerative disorders and diseases.
An Amazonian Tea Containing DMT Stimulates the Formation of New Brain Neurons

One of the main natural components of ayahuasca tea is dimethyltryptamine (DMT), which promotes neurogenesis — the formation of new neurons — according to research led by the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM).

In addition to neurons, the infusion used for shamanic purposes also induces the formation of other neural cells such as astrocytes and oligodendrocytes.

“This capacity to modulate brain plasticity suggests that it has great therapeutic potential for a wide range of psychiatric and neurological disorders, including neurodegenerative diseases,” explained José Ángel Morales, a researcher in the UCM and CIBERNED Department of Cellular Biology.

The study, published in Translational Psychiatry, a Nature Research journal, reports the results of four years of in vitro and in vivo experimentation on mice, demonstrating that these exhibit “a greater cognitive capacity when treated with this substance,” according to José Antonio López, a researcher in the Faculty of Psychology at the UCM and co-author of the study. ...

FULL STORY:
https://scitechdaily.com/an-amazoni...timulates-the-formation-of-new-brain-neurons/

PUBLISHED REPORT:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41398-020-01011-0
 
Psilocybin coud be used as an antidepressant.

Hallucinogenic mushrooms’ key ingredient, psilocybin, can swiftly and dramatically ease depression in the right therapeutic setting, a small study suggests.

A month after receiving two doses of the psychedelic drug, 13 people had big drops in depressive symptoms, researchers report November 4 in JAMA Psychiatry.

Because the study was small and lacked participant diversity, it’s unclear whether the positive results would extend to wider populations. Still, “the current results are clear,” says Jay Olson, a psychology researcher at Harvard University who wasn’t involved in the study. “At least for some people, psilocybin can reduce depression better than several common treatment options.”

Existing antidepressant drugs don’t work well for an estimated 30 to 50 percent of the people who try them; when they do work, the effects can take weeks to kick in. Psilocybin, a compound that can profoundly alter consciousness and perceptions of reality, might be a powerful alternative, says coauthor Roland Griffiths, a neuropsychopharmacologist at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. ...

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/psilocybin-treat-depression-mushrooms-psychedelic
 
I so want to be allowed to test the effect of hallucinogenics on my long term serious depression. To the extent I have tried to find local "dealers" in such things, which got me no where. As a Sertraline popper for wow, 10 years?, and before that many other conventional SSRIs to little to no real effect other than a consistent meh to the world around me, I would just once like to have a head that can actually enjoy EVERYTHING like I remember being able to 25 years ago. Even music is no longer a way for me to break down the fog for a little while.

This country (UK) is so backwards looking when it comes to treatments that cant be taxed.

PM me your shrooms.
 
There's a free, easy but long course on how psychedelics work in the brain here...
Thanks for that and how Fortean... because earlier today I was revisiting this question, as I posed back in September:

"Why do LSD hallucinations feature Paisley patterns?".

I still could not find anything definitive - mathematical based hallucinations, yes, why though Paisley patterns?

My early morning research led to this, from Wikipedia:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pai...e cone or,where paisley designs were produced.

The content is fascinating - thoughts on same and our LSD connection most welcome!
 
Thanks for that and how Fortean... because earlier today I was revisiting this question, as I posed back in September:

"Why do LSD hallucinations feature Paisley patterns?".

I still could not find anything definitive - mathematical based hallucinations, yes, why though Paisley patterns?

My early morning research led to this, from Wikipedia:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paisley_(design)#:~:text=Although the pine cone or,where paisley designs were produced.

The content is fascinating - thoughts on same and our LSD connection most welcome!
I've always thought the whole Tibetan style mandala wheel, paisley patterns, tesselations, mandelbrots, fractal like structures in the natural world (fern leaves etc), they all become more easily perceived or overlaid when a psychedelic substance is able to shift perception just a tiny amount into what you might call true reality - so you are able to "understand" on a far deeper basis the world that surrounds us all.
So by extension pattern makers,religions, and even mathematicians reveal some of this inner truth in their work and spiritualism - phew I need a lie down now. But this is also one reason "they" dont want such perceptions to become commonplace, cant have the oiks getting ideas above their tier now can we.
 
This video succeeds rather well I think in showing the expansion of sensory experience in a non overwhelming way. See also Midsommar!

 
I've always thought the whole Tibetan style mandala wheel, paisley patterns, tesselations, mandelbrots, fractal like structures in the natural world (fern leaves etc), they all become more easily perceived or overlaid when a psychedelic substance is able to shift perception just a tiny amount into what you might call true reality - so you are able to "understand" on a far deeper basis the world that surrounds us all. ...

There's a complementary interpretation that I believe is more illuminating ... We know "the world that surrounds us all" only in the manner and to the extent each of us individually perceives and parses it. The various features emergent from or highlighted by psychedelic experiences are evidence of how we perceive and parse rather than how the world "out there" is. The blurring of objects that creates tracers results from latency in our neural / optical processing. The recursively-formatted patterns (fractals; paisleys, etc.) result from recursive feedback in the process path from optical perception to object recognition.

This interpretation does nothing to diminish the wonder and importance of engaging an alternative 'reality'. It only shifts the ascribed locus of the 'reality' we actually engage from out there to here within. Here within is where we all actually live.
 
This video succeeds rather well I think in showing the expansion of sensory experience in a non overwhelming way. See also Midsommar!
On acid, I don't see paisley but see a geometric pattern a bit like the parthenon ceiling. I also get a wavy effect similar to that created by the video in post #125 and also like the audience at time 33:40 of the New Years Day concert.
 
At the time, I had a theory about this.

As I understood, the brain would seemingly filter our daily thoughts, subsequently 'cleared out' at the end of each day and we experienced same emission within dreaming.

An acid trip was as if that filter had been forced open too early and whatever the resultant spillage, there was your trip, good or bad.

However, can indeed the chemical composition of one drug batch differ from another, even in minute detail, to an extent it determines your outcome.

Surely so, as in the phrase, 'bad acid'.

I was fortunate, in terms of experience looking back, to have one tablet of the legendary, 'Orange Sunshine', which had the reputation of a guaranteed good trip.

Whilst so long ago it's remarkable I can remember anything related, I definitely recall a day of endless euphoria, laughter and a natural world of such vivid colours.

That was the time we spent all day in Glasgow's vast Botanic Gardens, which undoubtedly played a part!

I once read a fascinating article on the history of, 'Orange Sunshine' and if of interest, it's still online:

In heyday of LSD, secret Windsor lab produced millions of Orange Sunshine pills

https://www.pressdemocrat.com/artic...ced-millions-of-orange-sunshine-p/?artslide=6
The doors of perception and experience are pried open, and all of one's mental complexes are laid bare and parade in technicolor; I've seen a few folks have bad trips on LSD before.. :cool: Growing up in Eugene, Oregon..
 
New research indicates LSD's effects result from disrupting the brain's normal functional connectivity and operational processes of segregating and integrating patterns of activation.
LSD Lets The Brain 'Free Itself' From Divisions Dictated by Anatomy, Scientists Find

Where does the mind 'meet' the brain? While there's no shortage of research into the effects of psychedelics, drugs like LSD still have much to teach us about the way the brain operates – and can shine a light on the mysterious interface between consciousness and neural physiology, research suggests.

In a new study investigating the effects of LSD on volunteers, scientists found that the psychedelic enables the brain to function in a way beyond what anatomy usually dictates, by altering states of dynamic integration and segregation in the human brain.

"The psychedelic compound LSD induces a profoundly altered state of consciousness," explains first author and neuroscience researcher Andrea Luppi from the University of Cambridge.

"Combining pharmacological interventions with non-invasive brain imaging techniques such as functional MRI (fMRI) can provide insight into normal and abnormal brain function."

The new research falls within the study of dynamic functional connectivity – the theory that brain phenomena demonstrate states of functional connectivity that change over time, much in the same way that our stream of consciousness is dynamic and always flowing.

As this happens, and the human brain processes information, it has to integrate that information into an amalgamated form of understanding – but at the same time segregate information as well, keeping distinct sensory streams separate from one another, so that they can be handled by particular neural systems. ...

FULL STORY: https://www.sciencealert.com/lsd-en...divisions-dictated-by-anatomy-scientists-find
 
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The low highs of placebos.

People who take tiny amounts of LSD, “magic mushrooms,” and related drugs report a range of benefits, from more creativity to improved psychological well-being.

But do these microdoses—typically less than 10% of the amount that causes a true psychedelic experience—actually benefit the mind?

That’s been a hard question to answer. Placebo-controlled trials are tricky to pull off, because psychedelics are so tightly regulated. Now, researchers have come up with a creative workaround: They’ve enlisted microdosing enthusiasts to hide their drugs in gel capsules and mix them up with empty capsules.

The upshot of this “self-blinding” study: Microdosing did lead to improvements in psychological well-being—but so did the placebo capsules. “The benefits are real,” says lead author Balázs Szigeti, a neuroscientist at Imperial College London. “But they are not caused by the pharmacological effects of microdosing.”

The findings, however, are “the least interesting thing about this study,” says Noah Haber, a study design specialist at Stanford University. The “very, very clever” method of self-blinding pushes the boundaries of what can be investigated using randomized placebo controls, he says. ...

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/202...d-so-does-placebo-finds-unusual-self-blinding
 
Well he had to test them if he was to write the Met's drug strategy.

A Met Police commander has been accused of taking cannabis, LSD and magic mushrooms while on holiday in France.

Cdr Julian Bennett previously wrote the force's current drug strategy.

A misconduct hearing on Monday was told he took three drugs while on holiday between February 2019 and July 2020. He is also accused of refusing to provide a drug sample in July 2020 after being informed there was reasonable cause to suspect that he had used cannabis. The tribunal was told he allegedly claimed he had taken CBD (cannabidiol) for a medical condition with his face as a reason for refusing - an excuse the charge says he "knew to be untrue".

A photo sent on WhatsApp showing cannabis on a table had been submitted as evidence, the tribunal heard.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-60381468
 
Well he had to test them if he was to write the Met's drug strategy.

A Met Police commander has been accused of taking cannabis, LSD and magic mushrooms while on holiday in France.

Cdr Julian Bennett previously wrote the force's current drug strategy.

A misconduct hearing on Monday was told he took three drugs while on holiday between February 2019 and July 2020. He is also accused of refusing to provide a drug sample in July 2020 after being informed there was reasonable cause to suspect that he had used cannabis. The tribunal was told he allegedly claimed he had taken CBD (cannabidiol) for a medical condition with his face as a reason for refusing - an excuse the charge says he "knew to be untrue".

A photo sent on WhatsApp showing cannabis on a table had been submitted as evidence, the tribunal heard.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-60381468
I am just wondering whether any app messages are private? The barrier between public/private lives seems to have been blown apart.

I know this person was responsible for writing drug strategy for the police, and presumably in certain workplaces drug testing is routine....

But using messages/apps as evidence is relatively new I think.

I wonder if any messages sent via phones/online are private.....?

Will we all start creating new codes to write in to keep our private thoughts private?

Where will people store images, or will people all start buying old fashioned cameras/film?

Or will people just stop using apps for anything other than necessary functions?
 
I am just wondering whether any app messages are private? The barrier between public/private lives seems to have been blown apart.

I know this person was responsible for writing drug strategy for the police, and presumably in certain workplaces drug testing is routine....

But using messages/apps as evidence is relatively new I think.

I wonder if any messages sent via phones/online are private.....?

Will we all start creating new codes to write in to keep our private thoughts private?

Where will people store images, or will people all start buying old fashioned cameras/film?

Or will people just stop using apps for anything other than necessary functions?
.
Police routinely use all sorts of e-communications and social media posts as evidence. They may also be used by the defence. Never presume that any e-communication is private.
 
.
Police routinely use all sorts of e-communications and social media posts as evidence. They may also be used by the defence. Never presume that any e-communication is private.

I do wonder though whether there is a difference between spying on public posts on a website and spying on 1 to 1 conversations with a friend on an app or email though? And the implications for spying on us during live phone calls on our mobiles too? What is the purpose of the spying? Does the purpose matter?

I understand the need for security and anti terrorism spying.....but I just wonder where the spying ends.....Is it a slippery slope?

Where every single thing we might do is monitored, it is a bit creepy.....Will "they" ever be able to monitor our thoughts/sleeping moments/dreams?

I know I sound like a conspiracy theorist.... :hahazebs:
 
I do wonder though whether there is a difference between spying on public posts on a website and spying on 1 to 1 conversations with a friend on an app or email though? And the implications for spying on us during live phone calls on our mobiles too? What is the purpose of the spying? Does the purpose matter?

I understand the need for security and anti terrorism spying.....but I just wonder where the spying ends.....Is it a slippery slope?

Where every single thing we might do is monitored, it is a bit creepy.....Will "they" ever be able to monitor our thoughts/sleeping moments/dreams?

I know I sound like a conspiracy theorist.... :hahazebs:

There needs to be warrants for these things. Warrants should not be issued where a person is suspected of minor crimes.
 
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People who take tiny amounts of LSD, “magic mushrooms,” and related drugs report a range of benefits, from more creativity to improved psychological well-being.
But do these microdoses—typically less than 10% of the amount that causes a true psychedelic experience—actually benefit the mind? ...

Here's another controlled study that didn't demonstrate any robust positive effect from microdosing with LSD.
Microdosing LSD May Not Have The Amazing Brain Effects We Think, New Study Hints

Small doses of the psychotropic LSD has shown promise in recent years for its potential in rewiring the brain to be faster, happier, and more resilient.

A recent study led by researchers from the University of Chicago in the US suggests we've got good reason to remain cautious in how we interpret the growing pile of evidence that seems to support 'microdosing' of this popular recreational drug.

Their study of 56 adult volunteers backs up similar studies that conclude although safe, repeated low doses of LSD aren't likely to improve our mood or our thinking as many claim. ...

All that said, relatively few studies have critically examined the effects of repeated low doses of the hallucinogen under controlled laboratory conditions. Those that have are often underwhelming in their support of LSD as any kind of brain booster, leaving the door open for the possibility it's all a manifestation of the mind.

To weigh in on the debate over the role of the placebo effect accounting for perceived improvements, de Wit and her team randomly assigned volunteers to receive a solution containing either no LSD, or small doses of 13 or 26 micrograms.

For comparison, most people experience some kind of effect from LSD once the dose exceeds around 100 micrograms. So at less than a quarter of that concentration, doses are less likely to produce obvious sensations of pleasure or changes to perception. ...

Once an hour following their prescribed test treatment, subjects filled out a mood questionnaire and had their pulse measured. They also participated in a cognitive performance task to check their working memory.

When asked what drug they thought they'd received, fewer than half of the participants correctly reported LSD. Results varied widely on measures commonly used to study the hallucinogen's mind-altering effects, with impressions declining across the four sessions.

Most importantly, there was no evidence of changes to mood, emotion, or cognition.

"We can't say necessarily that microdosing doesn't work," says de Wit.

"All we can say is that, under these controlled circumstances, with this kind of participant, these doses, and these intervals, we didn't see a robust effect." ...
FULL STORY: https://www.sciencealert.com/new-st...her-microdosing-lsd-really-does-improve-moods
 
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