Lysergically Yours 486
| Lysergically Yours | |
| author | Frank Duff |
| pages | 120 |
| publisher | Insurgent Productions/No Media Kings |
| rating | Excellent (10) |
| reviewer | Ben Konrath |
| ISBN | 097348070X |
| summary | Clandestine chemists accidentally open the doorway into new modes of human consciousness. |
April 16th, 1945: Dr. Albert Hoffman's work on obstetrics pharmacology at Sandoz Laboratories is unexpectedly interrupted by a "stream of fantastic pictures and extraordinary shapes with intense, kaleidoscopic play of colors."[1]
The following weeks saw Dr. Hoffman and his colleagues perform a series of self-experimentations which led to the discovery of the psychotropic effects of D-lysergic acid diethylamide 25, the most potent hallucinogen yet discovered -- and better known as LSD. The doors were suddenly flung open for a new age of exploration into the human mind. Government sanctions however quickly put an end to this line of research. Lysergically Yours, the first novel from Toronto-based author Duff supposes that this research program is still going strong, but not in the places one may traditionally think to look for it.
The reader is first introduced to Johnny, a computer science student at the University of Toronto and one-time high school acid dealer. It is through the lens of Johnny that the reader meets the book's delightfully diverse cast of supporting characters. From Lyle the punk-rock chemist to Tinka the manic witch and surprisingly affable career criminal Ivan, Duff continuously delivers with characters that you almost expect to run into the next time you're on campus despite the fact that they are so eccentric as to verge on unbelievable. As a former University of Toronto student myself, I must admit that the setting of the book was also wonderfully realized. From Convocation Hall to Lash Miller Chemical Laboratories to the basement of Hart House, Lysergically Yours romps across the university and the city bringing to life each locale that it touches.
The story itself is somewhat hard to classify. The opening throws Johnny and the reader into a very tense scene in which Johnny is the prisoner of Korean and Vietnamese mobsters and the building in which he is being held is being assaulted from outside by unknown forces. From this action-movie introduction, the story flashes back and begins to relate a decidedly non-action-movie drug culture caper story wherein Lyle and Johnny attempt to fund illegal research and a hedonistic lifestyle through the synthesis and sale of LSD. By the end however, as Johnny and Lyle find themselves deeper and deeper in trouble, the plot of Lysergically Yours verges strongly on the science fictional, yet Duff manages to wrap it all up into a bundle which leaves the reader feeling both entertained and satisfied.
At times the discussion of the technical details of drug synthesis and of various less than legal money-making schemes seem unnecessarily verbose, but perhaps they will be appreciated by those who are more familiar with the fields or even looking for a few pointers. In general however, Duff's prose is poetic in its spareness and simplicity. His dialogue also is unflowery and believable, conveying a real sense of character and situation. Even the far-sweeping conclusion of the novel, suggesting a world forever and fundamentally changed by the actions of a couple of punk rockers, is presented in a crisp and unapologetic style. As a reader, I could not help but be reminded of Neal Stephenson and, to a certain extent, Philip K. Dick.
My largest complaint with Lysergically Yours is that it is too short. Weighing in at 120 pages, the book is an easy read but leaves you feeling that it could have easily been expanded to fill twice as many. Still, in a time when most books seem to be guilty of the opposite sin, I am willing to forgive Frank Duff this indiscretion.
Another thing which makes this novel worth noticing is that it is released in affiliation with No Media Kings, an organization started by Toronto-based author Jim Munroe to promote a return to grass-roots media. In accordance with this "media of the people, by the people and for the people" ethos, Frank Duff has released the novel as a free e-text under the Creative Commons Attribution/Non-Commercial/Share-Alike license. This license not only allows the text of the novel to be freely distributed in any medium, but also explicitly allows for anyone to create derivative works from the novel for any non-commercial purpose. The use of this contract follows in the footsteps of successful science fiction author Cory Doctorow. The book is available as a physical artifact at a variety of small bookstores or directly from the author via his website where the e-book and several of his other shorter works are also available for free download.
[1] Hoffman, A. (1980) "LSD: My Problem Child," New York: McGraw-Hill.
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What are we reviewing here? Book or license? (Score:3, Insightful)
So if it was crap, it would still be "much better" crap because it's Creative Commons? Or, if it was brilliant, it might not be quite as brilliant, not quite as good if it where not under Creative Commons? What does the quality of the read have to do with the licensing?
Re:Ah, LSD (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't know if that is a good or a bad thing but I certainly know that no matter what it was that I was saw, thought about, or did, LSD opened doors in my life that I would never have explored otherwise.
Absolutely. Everyone should take LSD at least once in their life. It really opens your eyes to things and I still have many insights into life that I think I might never had without it. I took it about 10-15 times (last time was more than 10 years ago.) I have never had a flashback, and only one 'bad trip' (which was terrible, but is really a product of the environment you expose yourself too while on it.) LSD has really been demonized but I think it is pretty harmless. If you really can't bring yourself to take LSD, try shrooms. You get the same affect but for a much shorter time.
What a shame... (Score:5, Insightful)
Fact is, he created the first nootropic (cognitive enhancing) drug, hydergine, and deserves far more recognition for that than for LSD, or any of the other drugs of far more utility that he created.
The fact that he's not recognized for this only indicates that most people would rather be stoned than smart. That's a damn shame for him, and shame on them.
Oh, and shame on the US for not approving hydergine for use. It's one of the safest drugs there is, and useful to most anyone. Unfortunately, like many good drugs, the patents are owned by non-US companies, so no US company stands to profit, and so the FDA doesn't approve it. If it were the case that nootropics weren't useful, then Nobel laureate Eric Kandel wouldn't have announced devoting the remainder of his career to creating them.
Re:More information... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:More information... (Score:3, Insightful)
Unless you have a degree in psychology, or more on-topic, are a psychiatrist, I wouldn't waste your effort dismissing what we are "supposed to get from researchers tripping on LSD".
I'm neither a psychologist or a psychiatrist, but I can tell you from my experiences in the drug culture that there is certainly something about LSD that warrants more research into its effects on the mind. I've read that some researchers suggest it could benefit people who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, such as rape victims and war veterans. If improving the life of a trauma victim is not a worthy cause, I'm not sure what would be...
Re:Regarding conciousness (Score:5, Insightful)
It is difficult, as a person who has experienced hallucinogenic states, to explain to someone who hasn't, just what it's really like. There is definitely something to be learned by experiencing these altered states. It helps to remind us that what we experience in our minds as "reality" is anything but real, and that we really don't have direct access to "reality" as it truly exists. It even might cause you to doubt that there is anything such as the "true nature" of things.
Feynman had an idea, which when he moved to a profoundly different mental environment, appeared ridiculous. The important lesson to be learned here is that what seems very reasonable and sane about reality could be equally ridiculous, and we're just in the wrong frame of mind to "see" it.
His understanding had been no more real than the things he was seeing in the chamber.
That's really the entire point. Who knows what "real" is, when your conscious perceptions of reality can be so profoundly altered by taking a few milligrams (or in this case, micrograms) of some chemical compound?
In a psychedelic state, it is common to look at normal waking life that used to seem so normal, and feel that it is completely ridiculous.
In fact, there is no logical basis to claim that either state is "real," or "ridiculous." Drugs whack you upside the head with the philosophical truth that "reality," as we commonly define it, doesn't really exist in any relevant way. It is only psychological reality which matters.
(BTW, I haven't taken any psychedelic compounds in a long time, and don't plan to again.)
Reality is absolute (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:What are we reviewing here? Book or license? (Score:3, Insightful)
or i could just say "...and what's better" is a common phrase also meaning "hey, there's more value here that you might not have noticed".
Re:What are we reviewing here? Book or license? (Score:1, Insightful)
he thinks the book is very good. and also as an added bonus, its under the Creative Commons license.
how you managed to screw that up i dont know.
Re:What are we reviewing here? Book or license? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Regarding conciousness (Score:4, Insightful)
Or, to put it another way, countless books, pamphelets, plays, movies, and rambling diaries have been produced attempting to explain or prove the profound revelations produced by the use of hallucinogens, and in every case, it seems to me that the "revelations" can be very simply illustrated with the following statement:
Can't we all just admit it and move on?Re:Regarding conciousness (Score:4, Insightful)
In many ways, we are the sum of our experiences, whether based in "normal reality" or some altered state of it. LSD causes the reality you experience to be very profound, emotionally and psychologically, and this can lead to very important changes after the fact.
While I think there is a great deal of potential for therapeutic LSD use (in the 60s, they had fairly good success in combatting alcoholism with it), it can be equally dangerous.
In my own case, I managed to overcome a good deal of shyness through a single LSD experience, that has lasted to this day (some 18 or 19 years later). I chalk this up to the power of the emotions I felt regarding my shyness at the time. On the other hand, I know people who have been emotionally scarred for many years from "bad trips" for precisely the same reason.
As for other "uses" that are productive, there is sometimes an ability to handle abstract problem solving that can be associated with LSD experiences. In many cases, people have solved real-life problems through LSD, in fields of Architecture, Physics, and I'm sure others as well. I don't know that I would ever use it for that purpose, but I've seen a good deal of anecdotal evidence that it exists, and from my own experiences, I would tend to believe it. After all, you're simply much more open to different ways of looking at or approaching problems and sometimes that's all it takes to solve it.
High on life (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Reality is absolute (Score:3, Insightful)
Naw, that's only true in our shared experiences.
Reality is by definition subjective. You know it through the sum of your experiences.
Re:Regarding conciousness (Score:5, Insightful)
It's been a long time since I've used any psychoactives other than alcohol (I even gave up caffeine last year), but I tried LSD, mushrooms, dextromethorphan, and even PCP once (that was an accident, we thought it was something else) when I was younger. My memory of all of them was kind of like the cave in Empire Strikes Back - what you experience is "only what you take with you."
Seeing the entire world visibly altered by your perception of yourself can be a really powerful experience, and tell you a lot about who you are. I worry about the people who take LSD, then see a monster when they look in the mirror. Maybe it's just self-doubt, but maybe there is a valid reason why they see themselves that way.
It's really too bad that the majority point of view seems to be that psychedelics are something that should be banned. There are certainly some dangerous drugs out there, but other than nightmare-incuding substances like PCP I would say that they're all in the same general safety range as alcohol, especially when used in the proper setting.
Re:Regarding conciousness (Score:5, Insightful)
I had a rather peculiar home life and developed into an extremely self concious, introverted, self loathing kid. My mother was chronically depressed, my dad worked enough so that I only saw him on weekends, I found out later that my siblings and I were intentionally kept seperated from our extended family because of emotional rifts between my (Ma & Pa) and their siblings. I had an incredibly difficult time interacting with my peers, was gifted (enough to eventually score 2200 on the GREs without studying) but on the fast road to flunking out of high school.
And then after some experimental tries, I dosed on 7.5 hits of gel tab and sat around a playground at 1am. I climbed up the slide, sat on the top, and intended to slide down it. As I sat at the top, I looked up at the stars and was immediately struck by the oddness of my situation. I was legally insane, sitting on a slide on a cloudless moonlit night, and staring straight up at the stars.
And then I was hit with the question: "What am I like?" It just kept going through my head over and over until the syllables didn't even sound like English. The phrase was just some gibberish that inquired about the most fundamental core of my whole identity. "What am I like?"
Then I felt like the star above me was perfectly in line with my spine, that the universe was locked onto me and turning around me. (This has always been my way of relating to Achilleus - the one Man in history with the audacity, confidence, blackened heart, and glory to defy the gods. This is mostly tangential, hence the parenthesis, but at the time Achilleus was my most idolized literay figure and therefore this had great coincidential significance.)
I sat like this for probably 15 minutes. "What am I like?" Fuck it, at my core, I am everybody else.
I did not slide down that slide. While I was up there, the act of sliding down really took on a monumental significance to me, but I can't really define it. I climbed back down the ladder.
Ever since that night, I've felt like I'm just as valuable a person as anyone else. I assert myself, I speak up, I feel like I'm worthy of being liked.
As another poster described, it is incredibly difficult to relate your LSD experiences to someone who hasn't taken them, but that was my two cents. LSD can be some dangerous shit, but rightly or wrongly, I feel like I got 15 years of therapy in 15 minutes.
Re:Fear of mind altering drugs. (Score:1, Insightful)
It is not a source of enlightment: just another metabolic poison that produces entertaining side effects.
That being said, if you persist in trying, anyway, then try to find a serious Grateful Dead fan. They'll hook you up.
Don't plan to drive, work or sleep for twelve hours. Listen to happy music (like the Grateful Dead). Eat beforehand.
Parks are very nice places for tripping. So is the safety of your own home. (I once tripped in the home of a taxidermist, which is NOT recommended, but very interesting).
Trip with a friend.
Happy trails
Re:What a shame... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Regarding conciousness (Score:3, Insightful)
So our senses are already an abstraction of reality. Taking drugs does NOT alter your reality anymore than putting on color-tinted glasses does. While wearing the glasses the color of objects changes in your vision, but the reality of them hasn't been affected in the slightest.
To say that taking drugs puts you in a different reality is to argue in favor of solipsism.
Re:It's entirely possible to change without drugs (Score:3, Insightful)
Drugs have nothing to do with it. They're just crutches for people who don't have powerful enough imaginations.
Since you posted as an AC, I probably shouldn't even respond, but others may feel the same, so maybe it deserves a response.
I agree a drug for the purpose of overcoming shyness is certainly a crutch. That doesn't invalidate it. Taking Paxil to treat anxiety disorder is a crutch as well, but doctors prescribe it every day for precisely that purpose. In fact, taking almost any sort of drug for almost any sort of condition, is a crutch. Taking an aspirin for a headache is a crutch. Taking a multivitamin instead of eating a balanced diet with all the nutrients you need, is a crutch. So what?
But let's get away from the analogy and go right to the source. People with broken legs use crutches. They don't have to. They could walk on their broken legs, endure the pain and live with the consequence which might be lifelong problems with their legs. Or they could stay laid up in bed until the leg heals.
The point is, a crutch serves the primary purpose of expediting recovery/cure. So your point that it is a crutch is kind of meaningless.
You had your particular experience and that's great that it worked for you, but can you tell me exactly how to reproduce that experience FOR ME! If you can, you should write a book, because shyness is a problem that affects millions of people and I'm sure it will make you rich.
But I doubt you can, which is why your argument doesn't hold much water. Now, that said, I'm not advocating that shy people should go out and do LSD. In fact, in most cases, I'd counsel against it, but I think it's a personal choice each person should make based on their own needs, desires, and beliefs. Just as it should be their choice to take any other drug, prescribed or otherwise.
Re:Ah, LSD (Score:2, Insightful)
There is no substitute for calm and experience.
done both. (Score:1, Insightful)
LSD is like a waking dream where you have very little control. The control isn't just what you see or hear... but often what you fell and most importantly the walls you have with your normal interactions are completely invalidated. While on LSD I have seen the depths of my soul, the limits of my rationalizing and typically after a session where I tried to think have come out of it with a different understanding and vantage on issues about my own personal ego. I've also experienced a bad trip that had me believing for about 24 hours after the initial dose that I had damaged myself to the point of being unable to operate within society any more. LSD is like stepping back into 3rd person mode and looking at your life, your world, your interactions as though someone from Disney was pulling the reigns except occasionally they go pee and Tim Burton takes over for a bit.
Mushrooms tend to be a much more mellow and social experience. Doing shrooms with a group of good friends can be a really amazing experience and help you build trust and understanding with those friends that most people would be envious of.
Personally I believe everyone should do Shrooms or LSD at least once in their life... however I believe this should be with someone who is trained to help you have a good time, help you understand or someone who simply understands your goals going in. While the occasional diversion from everyone else's reality can be great, doing these drugs too often is stupid. Remember it only takes a few weeks to train new neuropathways in your brain... if you are habitually tripping you risk making some of these off-kilter synapse paths long lasting. Also, if you are already taking an SSRI or such... just don't.
Re:Slashdot and Drugs? (Score:3, Insightful)
Just because you don't like a particular culture does not mean it is bad or dumb. Funny how geeks get so defensive when people criticize their culture but are so quick to assault others.
Now, I personally don't enjoy "hippy music" or white boy rasta posers either. And having been a raver for some time, I get equally frustrated with the "e-puddles" that form on the middle of the dancefloor.
However, that in no way gives me the right to pass judgement on them.
They made their decisions, they are enjoying them, and that is what is important.
Don't put others down just because you don't believe in the same things they do or don't like something they do. Different strokes for different folks.
P.S.
You insensitive clod.
Re:More information... (Score:2, Insightful)
Pretty clear, huh? Well, I can speak from first hand experience that no permanenet effects occurred, other than the registration of memories. Who you gonna believe? To paraphrase something I read somewhere, you cannot trust ANYONE'S assessment of drugs or the effects thereof:
If the "authority" has done drugs, they are an unreliable source of information as their brains have been fried.
If the "authority" has not done drugs, they are unreliable because they don't know first hand what they are talking about.
Re:Regarding conciousness (Score:3, Insightful)
With almost any psychoactive drugs, thoughts will occur to you that "seemed like a good idea at the time". Alcohol might have you convinced that you want to take your pants off and dance on the bar. Pot might tell you that you really need some nachos. Cocaine will tell you that thing that will make your life better is some more cocaine. LSD might tell you that the floor is made of lava and you really need to go to connect with the universe by playing all of your records backwards. Amphetmines will tell you that everything you do is perfect and that food and sleep aren't really necessary. And they all tell you that you're being perfectly rational.
Any of these things might be perfectly good ideas, but far too many people forget that the drug is imposing it's own sort rationality on you, in the same way that dreams, as real as they seem, are never actually realistic.
As with dreams, however, there are real benefits to reflecting upon one's experiences with drugs. The very fact that these drugs are able to modify your senses in such profound ways tells you something about how unreliable and malleable your senses really are. The fact that they can effect your ability to reason can make you question how 'pure' your reasoning is without drugs.
Re:LSD for programmers (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Slashdot and Drugs? (Score:1, Insightful)
Well i'm sorry you don't like hippies, but I fail to see the impact of this on me.
No, I'm putting them down due to lack of personal hygiene, obnoxious noisy habits, inability to logically process information, and general annnoyannce factor. What they like or believe has no bearing on my reasoning.
I go to jam festivals, dead shows, etc, have long hair, and smoke lots of pot. That makes me part of this "drug culture" you so despise, right? So I must be a loud mangy and stupid hippy right?
Well, no. I showered this morning, my hair is straight, I'm rather quiet and am persuing a Ph.D. in pharmacology. What was your point again?
Woah!!!!!! (Score:1, Insightful)
I'm all in favor of giving the kids options to explore their horizons, but any suggestion that guzzling cough syrup will result in transcendental awareness . . .
I did an awful lot of hallucinogens in my day and I'd like to think I came out of it all with a greater awareness of myself and the world around me.
But at the same time, I know more than a few people who were seeking transcendence in high school, and who may or may not have been able to understand your average
In short, I developed the feeling that naturally occuring substances are OK, particularly when they have a deep tradition of meditative and/or recreational use. Examples would be the rightous herb cannabis sativa/indica, the psilocybin mushroom, a truly amazing amazonian concoction called hiauaska, and good ol' C2H6O.
If you really want a transcendental experience, brew your own beer, or better yet, grow your own dope.
I will admit LSD opened some doors for me. I did it maybe a dozen times, but not for the last 10 years. Especially on the last few trips, it left me feeling dirty.
Chemical drugs are bad, man, and that's it. Find a guy around 28-30 years old who did 'loads of E' back in the day, and you will have found an individual with greatly reduced cognitave abilites.
We're all geeks here, right? I mean every second person here is boasting about how they got their digital toaster to run Gentoo.
Then I don't see why you should be comparing different cough drop brands for their hallucinatory effects.
You can compile (or write) your own damn OS, so brew your own, grow your own, or, if that's what you really get off on, synthesize your own. I'll be happy to drink and/or smoke with you, but I'll leave the pill-popping to those who really don't care what tomorrow brings.
Besides, I'm pretty sure that DXM is proprietary. Alcohol and marijuana are most definitely GPL.
Jah Love
Re:Ah, LSD (Score:2, Insightful)
I know many such hopeless cases and I've seen them "trip balls" and fail to pick up anything from the experience. I also know interesting folks that ate magic mushrooms, profoundly improved their attitudes and finally faced issues that had dogged them for years.
Obdurate individuals tend to remain so, but the handful of psychedelic chemicals can and has helped thoughtful, sensitive people through chronic psychological impasses.
Re:LSD vs. Lucid Dreaming (Score:2, Insightful)
I suspect that LSD does put your mind basically in a waking dream state. I suspect that, on a chemical level, it flips whatever switch that normally keeps your dream hallucinations off while you're awake. I haven't tried LSD, though, so I can't compare the actual experience to lucid dreaming.
Like you, I feel like taking drugs for that kind of experience is cheating. (No offense to anyone who feels differently--that's a decision I make for myself and I don't judge others who decide differently.) Of course, I also very rarely drink caffeine (I figure something is seriously wrong with me if I have to _depend_ on a stimulant to function normally), likewise I don't drink alcohol and certainly wouldn't do it just to make socializing easier (if I'm being overly shy, then maybe that's something I need to work on instead of covering it up with chemicals), and when I need to drop a few pounds, I do it through eating healthy and exercising rather than popping stimulant-laced diet pills. Achieving goals through intelligent, persistant effort gives me a sense of accomplishment that would be seriously lacking if I had the goal handed to me by a drug.
So, while I can't compare the actual experience of tripping on LSD with lucid dreaming (I suspect the primary difference is the "you're trapped in the altered state for a while" quality another responder mentioned), I _can_ compare the lasting effects on my personality and happiness that I've gained from my non-drug-induced altered states of consciousness, with what others have said here about what they've gained from having used LSD.
And I find those lasting effects to be quite similar. People are talking about having gained new insights into themselves and the world, and overcoming significant personality flaws as a result of LSD experiences. I feel like I have had the same benefit from meditation (and other spiritual experiences) and a strong desire to improve myself and overcome my flaws. I went from very shy, anxious, unmotivated, and depressive to being very confident, motivated, and happy, in a relatively short period of time. My outlook on life and my place in it changed rather drastically. Most of that change happened in a relatively short period of time (a few months, perhaps).