LSD

LSD is long duration, high power Connection Supplement.

List of Connection Supplements

Connection Supplement > Ayahuasca, Cannabis, Chloroform, DMT, Haoma, Kaneh Bosm, Kava, Ketamine, Kykeon, LSD, MDMA, Maikua, Manna, Nitrous Oxide, Peyote, Psilocybin Mushroom, Santa Rosa, Soma, Tobacco, Yaqona

Notes

LSD is a "chemical able to produce profound changes of consciousness...and...far reaching insights into one's own self and...one's relationship to others. Some takers of it have even felt that they had won an insight into the 'nature of the Universe and the purpose of Life.'...These insights can be remembered and, if the person wishes, can be incorporated into his or her everyday life to bring it a "better order."

LSD increases awareness and intensifies perception, enhances creativity, reduces fear (of death for e.g.), distorts time, and is "eudaemonic," but not always. "As I’d discovered to my regret, if you take mushrooms or acid when you feel low, they do not enhance your mood, but instead exacerbate your anxiety and distress."

When LSD was first discovered, it was quickly recognized as having both healing and spiritual import. Morgar notes, "the major application of LSD today is to treat mental illness...", something which it proved particularly adept at doing. Pahnke echoes this sentiment noting that "in the 1940's ... interest in psychedelic drugs as an experimental psychiatric tool became widespread."

Treatment of mental illness is facilitated by increased neuritogenesis, spinogenesis, and synaptogenesis.

Morgar notes, LSD can be used in two modalities. "One emphasizes the use of LSD periodically and in small doses as an adjunct to traditional techniques of psychotherapy (Crockett, et al., 1963). The other major approach employs LSD in a single, large dose, producing an intense and prolonged psychedelic experience. Applied in this manner, LSD serves as a catalyst for inducing rapid and profound changes in the subject's value-belief system and in his self-image...." The latter technique "places greater emphasis on its more unique potentialities and value, namely, as a means of facilitating personal growth and self-actualization. Rather than freedom from emotional symptoms, the primary objective of the psychedelic experience becomes a major reorganization of one's beliefs and life outlook. In short, the first method is essentially illness-oriented, the second, health or growth oriented." He continues "When employed as an adjunct to psychotherapy, most investigators have associated the beneficial effects of LSD with reduced defensiveness, the reliving of early childhood experiences, increased access to unconscious material, and greater emotional expression. In contrast, when used as a primary vehicle for rapid personality change, emphasis is usually placed on the transcendental quality of the experience, the resynthesis of basic values and beliefs, and major changes in the relationship between self and environment." In other words, as a Connection Supplement, LSD can be used to Heal and Connection

Klee

Klee notes that LSD operates by breaking down ego barriers (by suppressing the Bodily Ego). This operates at two levels. One is to to reduce the individual's ability to filter stimuli, and the other is to reduce the ability of the Bodily Ego to mobilize defence mechanisms.

On inability to filter stimulu: "There is some reason to suspect that integrative mechanisms within the central nervous system (CNS) which handle inflowing stimuli are no longer able to limit the spread of excitation in the usual ways." Note in this context the phenomenon of Flooding, which is a Connection Outcome. Klee actually uses the term flooding to describe the stimulus overload that can occur. Klee notes several dimension of cognitive impairment, particularly at high doses.

On the impact of LSD on the Bodily Ego and bodily ego defense mechanism "It is generally remarked that LSD dissolves the repressive barriers, or that defense mechanisms are generally impaired. These statements, in my opinion, are not entirely accurate. It is true that the subject's ability to repress is likely to be impaired. But as these barriers are lowered, and charged material threatens to enter awareness, an increased mobilization of repressive efforts often occurs in waves, operating massively and crudely to block out not only the threatening material but much associated material as well. As repression fails further, various other more regressive mechanisms are brought into play, such as denial and projection. Only occasionally will defense mechanisms fail almost entirely in certain subjects and a panic state ensue. More often, new defenses are brought into play, and the subject reaches relative equilibrium at a more regressed level. Certain mechanisms, especially repression and reaction formation, appear to be most vulnerable to LSD. Other, presumably more primitive defenses, such as regression denial, introjection, and projection, may function very effectively. For example, some predisposed subjects are capable of developing highly systematized paranoid delusions under the effects of marked LSD intoxication. In each case, subjects tend to fall back on those defenses which are most available to them, based upon their personality structures."

The loss of "stimulus barries" and the negation of defense mechanisms may lead to Zenith Experiences, but they may also cause difficulty, particularily in cases where the Bodily Ego is damaged by Toxic Socialization. "The consequences to the subject of the apparent loss of stimulus barriers is in some respects analogous to the situation in a traumatic neurosis. Only in this case it needs a much milder stimulus to produce traumatic effects. Thus, a slightly threatening situation, such as mild reprobation, scorn, or unfriendliness from another person, may loom large and ominous to the subject. Strong affective reactions may occur with what appears to be only the slightest provocation." When interacting with an individual with severe damage, caution should be exercised. "On some occasions during our studies we have seen subjects who found it difficult or impossible to control their behavior. These were usu¬ ally persons who were rather aggressive and impulsive to begin with, but it sometimes occurs in other types. In the experimental setting, of course, these subjects were usually friendly and cooperative initially, but after taking LSD they found themselves overwhelmed with impulses, often of an assaultive nature. These feelings sometimes appeared to arise spontaneously or were provoked by a relatively slight incident, such as a painful venipuncture or a witticism directed at them by another subject. A subject at such times could barely resist putting his impulses into action. He would pace about, clench his fists, and grind his teeth to maintain control. Sometimes full-blown panic would ensue in the face of homicidal impulses which the subject felt he might be unable to control. One subject developed what appeared to be an hysterical paralysis of his limbs, apparently as a last-ditch control against assaultive behavior."

Additional Reading

• Wikipedia entry LSD
• LSD Trip Length / Duration and Intensity - Guidance
• Understanding the Acid Trip Experience

Footnotes

Spiritwiki References