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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As Jerry once said... (Score:5, Interesting)
Psychedelics showed me a whole other universe, hundreds and millions of universes. So that was an incredibly positive experience. But on the other hand, I can't take psychedelics and perform as a professional. I might go out onstage and say, 'Hey, fuck this, I want to go chase butterflies!'
Regarding conciousness (Score:5, Interesting)
As a reference point, I would suggest reading the book Surely you're joking, Mr. Feynman [amazon.com] by Physicist Richard Feynman. One chapter in particular discusses the authors experiences with halluncination in a sensory depravation chamber.
During one experience in the chamber, Feynman came to understand exactly how memories were organized in the brain. It made perfect sense, however, upon leaving the chamber, he realized that what had made perfect sense an hour ago, was absolutly rediculous. His understanding had been no more real than the things he was seeing in the chamber.
LSD advertisement? (Score:2, Interesting)
Slashdot and Drugs? (Score:2, Interesting)
-matthew
Re:Regarding conciousness (Score:2, Interesting)
For example, as the walls begin to weave back and forth like the room is breathing, you gain new appreciation for the detail of woodgrain, and see how it's not just a static pattern represented on a surface, but instead is the end result of a living process that brought those fibers together, only to be frozen in place at the moment that tree was cut down and turned into lumber.
It's a difficult concept to communicate, and while it's been a long time since I've had any such adventures, I can definitely say that they opened my mind up in a positive way. It's like Chef once said on South Park, "there's a time and a place for everything, and it's called College
fearful anti-drug culture (Score:1, Interesting)
I'm not condoning LSD or any drugs. For every politically-incorrect drug like pot or LSD, there are a hundred others like Vicodin or Oxycotin which are potentially even more dangerous and addictive, yet are doled out like they are candy by many in the industry.
IMO, all drugs are basically used to alter reality whether we want to admit it or not. Pot is ultimately used as a (psychological) "painkiller" not unlike how you might get a Demerol drip (as a physical painkiller) before a surgery, albeit the circumstances vary, the main objective is not dissimilar if you look at things figuratively. The value in using these substances is exclusively based on employing moderation and responsibility. I believe every drug has an equal potential for positive or negative consequences. LSD can make people more intelligent by unlocking areas of their brain that were previously inaccessible; alcohol can loosen peoples inhibitions and allow them to be more comfortable and relaxed; painkillers and muscle relaxers have beneficial uses -- it all depends upon how *responsible* one is in using these tools. But to completely condemn one group, while promoting another seems hypocritical to me. But at the same time, I also acknowledge that our society is becoming progressively more obsessive-compulsive and unable to moderate their consumption, so it's a real dilemma how to deal with the abuse potential.
Where things get scary IMO isn't over which drugs are good or bad. ANYTHING can be abused and destructive if not used responsibly and in moderation, whether we're talking about alcohol or oxygen. You could just as easily make yourself hallucinate by hyperventilating. But what seems scary to me is this fearful anti-drug culture which downplays the significance of responsibility in favor of making people intensely fearful of even the singular prospect of trying some politically-incorrect substance. This results in a sociological change in the last ten years where there is an almost total absence of healthy debate on the issues and the elimination of a substantive moderate/responsible-user/exerimenter demographic: people tend to be one extreme or the other: those who have never tried drugs and authoritatively claim they're evil and suicidal, or those that exercise virtually no responsibility in using them and are poster children for self destruction and lack of moderation.
In the mean time, as a result of this immoveable, hyper-puritanical polarization of drug use, we miss the opportunity to discover wisdom and insight that we could reap great benefit from.
LSD vs. Lucid Dreaming (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm 30 and I haven't tried LSD. It's not likely that I will, but I don't think it's wrong or particularly dangerous. It's possible I'd try it at some point if I got exceedingly bored with other means of exploring conciousness.
But for now when I get the inclination for some exploration of conciousness, I just crack out the dream journal and go from there. I guess I think of LSD as cheating a bit. Like steroids or something.
Of course, someone with experience with both might feel differently.
Cheers.
Re:Fear of mind altering drugs. TRY MUSHROOMS (Score:1, Interesting)
I have a friend who has done them weekly for last 25 years w/no known side effects. in fact he credits the 'enlightnment' the shrooms gave him in becoming an internet multi-millionaire.
Easy to grow [shroomery.com]
Re:Fear of mind altering drugs. (Score:3, Interesting)
Short of watching them cook it in the lab, you don't know until you've eaten it. many times you just get strychnine. I believe LSD decays into strychnine too. If you get cramps, that's why.
- What enviroment, music, people etc etc should I be in/with/etc.
Something low-stress, relaxing, or whatever makes you happy. Whatever makes you happy now though won't necessarily make you happy on your trip.
- If things go bad, what can others do to help me through it?
Distract you, take your mind off of whatever's bugging you. The worst trips have nothing to do with scary visions, but more about warped thought-loops.
- Any other pointers?
Get a bottle of red wine, start drinking it right after you take the acid. It'll take the edge off and help you relax. Also, you can drink a lot while on acid. It's like it burns off the alcohol.
Watch something funny. Silly stuff is insanely funny on acid. Weekend At Bernies, which I would normally never watch, totally had me crying when I watched it on acid. Letterman is hilarious on acid.
You can take it alone if you're strong and don't rely on social interaction a lot in your life. Being an anti-social person to begin with, when I used to take it, I would do so alone most of the time. But if you're a little bunny-foo-foo who requires constant social reinforcement/validation, you may need to be with people so you don't freak out.
Re:Fear of mind altering drugs. (Score:2, Interesting)
The most important piece of advice is to do it the first time with someone who's done it before, and someone you trust. This will make a _huge_ difference.
The next most important thing is set things up beforehand so you will be as comfortable as possible:
- have plenty of food and water
- have a comfortable temperature
- go to a private place where you can control who you're interacting with, and the police won't bother you.
- don't be around people you don't like
- avoid anything that's going to make you angry, scared, or just uneasy.
You don't always notice when you're physically uncomfortable until you're _very_ uncomfortable, so a little planning (and maybe a sober person watching over you) is helpful. For example I've been cold and not noticed it, and wondered why I was shaking. You'll also be very ineffective at changing anything once you're tripping, so you want to have things ready beforehand.
Later on you might enjoy situations that aren't easy and comfortable, but don't risk that the first time you try it.
As for what music, what to do, etc., everyone likes different things. I like to wander around, but I also know people who will sit in the same spot for hours looking at things. Have a variety of things you think might be nice available, so when you're tripping you can try them.
One thing I've noticed is that things that seem "trippy" when you're sober aren't at all when you're tripping. Pretty ordinary things are much more interesting when you're tripping. For visuals, things with a pattern, but not a perfect one, tend to be the best. Wood grain is always good.
If things go bad, the best thing people can do to help is to make you feel as safe and comfortable as possible. That's why having someone you trust around is important, they will be the best at accomplishing this.
One last tip:
While you are tripping, do not talk to anyone that you don't want to know you're tripping. Unplugging the phone is a good idea.
When you've done it before maybe you can bend this rule, but not the first time.
There were some other posts that mentioned FAQs, so it would probably be good to check those out too.
And have fun, it's really an incredible experience.
My first trip... (Score:4, Interesting)
When I got there I was overwhelmed with sensory overload and I had not taken anything yet. My previous experience up to that point had been some high school binge drinking (think Mad Dog 20/20) and smoking pot a few times.
One of my new friends scored some paper and he offered to me what looked like a corner of some construction paper, no bigger than what a hole punch would spit out. I didn't think anything like that could do much so I ate it.
An hour later I'm running around like a mad man, still decked out in a polo shirt and kahkis. It was an awesome experience and from that moment on I felt everyone should do acid at least once in their lives.
I haven't done it in a few years, but I hope to change that. A lot of stuff builds up in your brain, locked away that needs to be cleansed every once in a while. You may have to fight some deamons along teh way, but once its over, the next day the world is a beautiful new place.
Happy travels!
Re:Ah, LSD (Score:5, Interesting)
When I was in high school, LSD was the drug of choice. I'm not kidding -- more people were around, dropping acid, than doing cocaine or pills or speed or anything else. Certainly all that stuff was there, too, but you could barely go to class on your average Thursday and be assured that nobody in that class was tripping on LSD. And I mean everybody did it. The jocks did it. And you know what? As far as I can tell, it "opened their eyes" to pretty much exactly ... nothing. Those clowns acted like jocks act pretty much the world over. If you met them at a party and they were tripping pretty hard, they would babble at you with some sheepish grin on their faces, but the rest of the time they were getting into fights, date-raping girls, tricking out cars, getting drunk, and refusing to pay for abortions just like the rest of 'em. If anything, their experiences with LSD only opened them up to start taking E when that came on the market, and subsequently some of those guys fried their brains out pretty good getting into that whole culture. (On the plus side, it seemed to make them a lot less aggressive/violent.)
So yeah, maybe if you're curious about certain kinds of brain experiments you can conduct on yourself, and you're a contemplative enough person to get something out of it, then maybe you should add LSD to your checklist of "things to do before I croak." But otherwise, you're just taking drugs. I can't really tell who'se worse, though ... the people who just take LSD to get high, or those hippies who still walk around yammering about how great it is to take drugs, not realizing that while they were stoned and not paying attention, pretty much the whole world started taking drugs, and nonetheless, the utopian society of like-thinking individuals enlightened by LSD never happened. Pity.
No Tin Foil Hat (Score:1, Interesting)
A friend (also dosed) and I stood at either side of a door watching the party within the room and we both glanced up at each other and a conversation ensued between us, both of us, immediately realizing we weren't speaking, (our hands gesturing wildly to each other that same premise) refused to blink for fear of breaking this spell.
This went on for well over 50 seconds, our eyes ever widening, when finally, it just dissipated. We both simultaneously gushed each others aforementioned conversation to each other.
It was almost broadcast like, a twin thing, I suppose.
He later was best man at my wedding.
True story.
Re:What a shame... (Score:2, Interesting)
Second, I think LSD has been much more influential to the world than hydergine has, or problably ever will.
Utility or not is mostly in the eye of the beholder. LSD certainly has a good way of showing you that. It has quite little to do with being "stoned".
Other than that, I sort of agree with you.
Psychedelics (Score:2, Interesting)
LSD was huge in the 60's and 70's but has greatly diminished in recent years. This decline is due primarily to incredibly reduced availability on the black market. LSD is not easily produced, and the punishment for possession of even small amounts resulted in ridiculous amounts of jail time. Because of these factors youth these days hardly have the opportunity to influence their mind with LSD. This doesn't mean that kids these days don't trip, they've just found other ways. Some of the modern popular psychedelics are:
5-MeO-DiPT (Foxy) [erowid.org] - Similar to LSD with some of the "rolling" effects of MDMA (ecstacy)
2C-I [erowid.org] - A trippy phenethylamine
5-MeO-AMT [erowid.org] - Very potent tryptamine
2C-T-2 [erowid.org] - Very powerful hallucinogen
What makes these "new" drugs so interesting is that many have not yet been scheduled by the DEA. Although a few on the list above were recently added to Schedule 1 by an emergency scheduling process. Unscheduled drugs are simply chemicals that can be legally possessed and sold and therefore are done so over the internet. A lot of modern "drug dealers" buy these chemicals cheap on the internet and sell them in their locality. A couple popular distributors are:
Rac:Research [racresearch.com]
LTK Research Products [ltkresearchproducts.com]
Omega Fine Chemicals [omegafinechemicals.com]
Just to give you guys an idea of what kids are up to these days
- Cary
FAIRFAX UNDERGROUND [fairfaxunderground.com] where fairfax county comes out to play
Re:Ah, LSD (Score:3, Interesting)
It packs all the punch of acid trip into 15 minutes. And leaves you all warm and fuzzy afterwards.
See Ken Russell's 1981 film with William Hurt called 'Altered States' where he injects DMT into a withdrawn patient just see what will happen. When he asks her what she feels, she replies, "I feel like God is touching my heart."
Re:More information... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Regarding conciousness (Score:1, Interesting)
For example instead of seeing a wooden table, you see a brown square. The layer of your filtering that normally translates it to "table" isn't working very well, so your high level conscious mind does the translating, and not very well.
This is where a lot of the fun comes in; it's why you see funny things and they move around. It's also where you have a lot of enlightening experiences, because it turns out that what you had hard-wired was wrong.
Re:Ob. video link (Score:3, Interesting)
Rumor spread around the ship that we were going to be hit with a locker inspection. I rumaged and found an old tab of acid under some socks. Didn't think it would be any good after six months, so I ate it, put on my dress blues and headed topside for my quarterdeck watch. Took about half an hour to add three lines to the log. The Officer of the Deck looked at me kinda funny, but I didn't get too paranoid and it never crossed my mind to use my loaded
Re:Ah, LSD (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:life on high (Score:3, Interesting)
Read Stanislaw Grof's related works (Score:3, Interesting)
Interesting fella, this Dr. Grof. He has a fine mind and doesn't mind sharing his thinking, whether purely speculative or simply scientific and so his other works are often worth reading as well.
Re:More information... (Score:4, Interesting)
How about this one: A particularly common motif experienced by "acid heads" is to hallucinate patterns reminiscent of ancient Mayan artwork. So, where is the insight? Apparently, some people -- who had never before been exposed to this imagery -- have seen these patterns after dosing on LSD! What does this say about the human mind? It says to me that there are latent images and symbols present in our neural matrix that are common to people from different regions and cultures. Now, where do these patterns come from?
Here is another: Why do these compounds have reality distorting effects -- like video, audio, and tactile hallucinations? Because our brains rely upon native chemical analogs in order to form our perception of reality. To put it succinctly, everyone is tripping on drugs all the time. If you could extract all the psychoactives that your body naturally makes and put them in a bottle, you would be subject to arrest for possesion of an illegal substance.
How's that for insight?
Re:Regarding conciousness (Score:2, Interesting)
I had a lot of family problems in my developmental years as well. The end result was that by my early teen years I'd developed into a pretty emotionally unstable person. Eventually I couldn't live with either myself or the world around me and decided to kill myself. I'd also heard of ayahuasca, and the reports by people who claimed it was medicine for the soul. That sounded exactly like what I needed, so I figured it was worth a try - if it didn't work than I could always go back to the original plan of suicide.
That experiment changed everything for me. In those few hours my ego was stripped away, and I was able to examine my life from another viewpoint. Not only that, but I was forced to see just how much beauty there was in the world. I realised that I'd been avoiding doing both of these for most of my life. I was given an amazing chance to see that I'd been avoiding anything good in life, in order to make sure that it wouldn't be taken away from me as my family had been.
I'm not going to claim the ayahuasca healed me, like psychotherapy it just alowed me another viewpoint to allow me to heal myself. But without it I'm certain I never would have reached a point in my life where I'd have been able to do so. Especially given that I'd tried therapy before, and had never had much luck with it. I have little doubt that if it wasn't for ayahuasca, I'd be long dead at this point.
Re:More information... (Score:3, Interesting)
* an elevated view of themselves and their opinion (not necessarily bad, if it weren't for the rest of the list)
* the belief that their profession was more important than any other
* the belief that their role should be authoritative instead of advisory (actually, psychologists don't do this, but the rest do)
* the belief that those they serve have no ability to think for themselves
* the belief that most traditions in life are bad because they weren't the ones who came up with them
Weed is hardly a brain enhancer (Score:3, Interesting)
Sorry to crash your party, dude, but smoking marijuana is not going to improve your brain in any way. Just because people have been consuming it for a millenia doesn't mean it gets the "safe as water" stamp.
Also, a rave is not where you will find unbiased information on the safety of the popular drugs. I for one would be curious for you to describe how the drugs you take improve your life and mind.
Re:More information... (Score:4, Interesting)
And I HAVE tried pot and lsd. Not in great quantities, but more than once.
It was quite a while ago. My take is that I did learn from them, and value the experience. But also I can see bad roads leading from those places and would caution AGAINST experimentation. If there were leagle and safe methods of use with trained professionals it would be different. But currently it can be a crap shoot.
Pot is nearly harmless, and has some medical value. But to many make it such a big part of thier life it gets in the way, just like some people with drinking. I wouldn't hesistate to give it a leagle standing on par with drinking however.
LSD is more serious. Yes you can gain some interesting points of view from it, and I really enjoyed the talk your ass off philosophical part of it. But it can exagerate any mental state so much, if you have a bad state going in it can hurt you. Also some try large doses to get the 'halucinations' that thier mental state ruins any chance of getting anything but 'wierd' (if lucky) out of it.
I wouldn't go back in time and undo my experiences of years ago even if I could. I don't want to repeat them eigther.
My advice would be not to try lsd, and pot only in a safe environment, and around friends you trust, preferably in a country where it's leagal, because here in the US it is not. And don't lose perspective if you really must try pot, you don't want to make it a significant part of your life. If you must try it, do a small amount once or twice then move on.
I guarantee it lowers your IQ while stoned. I've known, and still know, lots of people who've used it and once past just a little they lose smarts till they sober up, and most of the time swear the opposite, kinda like the drunk who thinks he can drive just fine.
Mycroft
Re:More information... (Score:3, Interesting)
Yeah the guy who had issues as much as said he did A LOT of acid (8-10 hits every weekend day, for over three years) and that the cocain and occasional meth and electroshock where bad for him. He never quite re-connected, but he wasn't totaly gone eigther, most of the time he could do alright, just seemed a little odd. So I don't count his experiences towards much other than DONT DO WHAT HE DID!
Intense flashbacks are rare, and usually indicate a pattern of heavy usage over an extended period of time. Flashbacks, based on the dozen or two people I've talked to, occure in frequency and intesity in proportion to usage. It also varies with individual difference. I only did about 7 hits over 3 occasions and had very minor (mild tracers, slight shift of mental perspective) a dozen times or so over the next 18-24 months. Another friend of mine two hits once, he had two incedences of minor tracers during the next 3 months, nothing since. Another, the exception in my experience, did 5 hits on two occasions and only reported feeling alittle odd once a week after the second occasion, but not odd like lsd.
One guy I knew who used to sell LSD and had a lifetime total in the mid 30's had minor flashbacks on a weekly basis, and during the year I knew him had one full blown trip, he commented that since he'd stoped doing LSD the strength and frequency had droped off considerably. I saw him after his wedding 3 years later and asked how he was, and amoung other things mentions his flashbacks had become rare and were never more than tracers anymore. One close friend with a slightly higher life-total had somwhat weaker flashbacks that faded faster after he quit.
Now you can say thier rare, and perhaps they are and my experiences and those of about 15 people I've met are unusual, but I think the fact that it's been illeagal for close to 30 years thus reducing the possibility for scientific studies, I doubt it.
Mycroft
Re: Flashbacks (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:More information... (Score:3, Interesting)
Serotonin is responsible for regulating emotion and other reactions in the brain. It's a nice little enzyme that plugs into neuroreceptors and prevents absorption of other chemicals. LSD and it's friends fit into the same plug as serotonin does and therefore causes elevated serotonin levels. By proxy, other chemical levels rise and the result is chemical chaos.
The perceptual confusion that results, like typical reports of seeing sound and hearing light, is due to parts of the brain that handle channeling information from point A to point B getting crossed up. Nearly the whole brain is affected, which in turn affects the CNS (central nervous system). People have often reported being 'faster' or 'stronger' under the influence of LSD, and it's a direct result of the CNS stimulation. Sweating and delayed fatigue is common as well.
I know way too much about this subject so I'll bore you with any more details. Suffice it to say, the patterns people see are the direct result of chemical processes that are out of whack. Not enough sleep will cause you to hallucinate after a few days...serotonin is to blame for that as well. Without a regulator chemical, other chemicals cause trouble.
(as a sidenote, for those of you who want to experience LSD visual patterns without the drugs, go build a Dream Machine [interpc.fr]. Good times with your brain's alpha waves).
LSD, Community, and Philosophy... (Score:3, Interesting)
http://okneoac.com/table.html
- Steve