Funny Drug-Related Stories 2

After last week’s Funny Drug-Related Stories, here is more jollity. Being 4-20 today, it’s a highly convenient occasion to share the following sequel. So Happy 420, Lucky Souls! 

 


1- Brothers i̶n̶ ̶L̶a̶w̶ 


When I was 20, some friends and I went on a camping trip to the Western Desert Oases of Egypt. One was my age, plus his brother-in-law and a couple of other friends. The three guys were about five years older than us and were experienced campers, which means they were the ones driving and had all basic equipment.

 I only had my cameras and some other vital “enhancements”.

They were in two cars when they passed by me at around 4 a.m. As we were loading my stuff, my buddy came whispering in my ears: Look, we can smoke and drink all we want in front of his brother-in-law, but let’s keep the roofies between you and I. I agreed, before we shared a couple of pills. 



We began the trip and happened to stop somewhere else not far away from our starting point, maybe to put gas. This time, it was the older brother- in-law who came to me and discretely said: 

Listen, we can smoke and drink in front of [his own brother-in-law] but let’s keep the roofies between us. Sure, man.



This was getting amusing. 



The brother-in-law was driving the four-wheeler, my buddy next to him, and I’m enjoying the backseat to myself. Music on, beers open, and yeah. Adventure Mode: Beast.



And then, a while later — an hour or two through — I was woken up by the two guys. “Omar?”



I open my eyes to find them both looking back at me and there is a huge piece of tile right in between the seats with two kick-ass lines on it. Mid my daze, it took me a few seconds to register what’s going on. Looking around, I could see that we're off-road in the desert and the sun was about to shine. So I peacefully smiled, proceeded to take the roofies, and then told them about what just happened.

Apparently, i
t took them one hour on the road to open up to each other and come clean about what they had in mind for the trip. Only to discover that what they had in mind was the same. So the in-law part was dropped and they become true Brazars!

We had an amazing few days surrounded by Nature, bathing in hot springs and sleeping on the sand.

The featured photo on the tracks is from that trip, which was 18 years ago. Waow. 



 2- I Am You and What I See Is Me


A year before when I was 19, I was in L.A for the summer and I happened to go to a 24-hour illegal outdoor rave in San Diego. I had experimented with pretty much everything by then, except LSD. So I told a relative of mine who has done it before, and he told me that this rave would be it.

We got there and started by taking one tab for $5. A bit later we took MDMA, then another gel tab for $7. He said that the first one was not that strong, so this to make sure that we'll go there.

There was about 5000 people and I had a blast. We stayed for 12 hours then the next morning we got into our car and headed back to L.A, still tripping but somewhat in control. I went home and bumped into two Mexican girls who were my neighbours at the UCLA dorm. I told them about my trip so they suggested that we all go to Venice Beach. 

As we were walking on the boardwalk, each girl holding one of my hands, I see a guy coming towards me. We locked eyes for a moment and then something happened. After looking away for a second, I couldn't help but to look again; and at the same instant I did that, he was also looking at me.

After we had crossed each other, I felt an irresistible urge to turn around and look at that stranger one more time. So I did, and as I was turning my neck, I could see him do the exact same. Of course I had no explanation, but I was mesmerized by the eerie connection with that mere stranger.

This was Sunday noon and Venice is usually pretty busy by then. However, it didn't stop me from checking the mysterious man one last time as I turned around and jumped. To my pleasant surprise, he was jumping and turning around to look at me as well. And then we parted ways.

This experience has left me startled. Who is he? What happened? Could he be tripping too? The girls looked at me, trying to understand, but I knew it was beyond them. There was nothing for me to explain.

Being new to LSD, I felt so weird at the time. I thought I may be losing my head, so I left the girls in some store and went to the bathroom, only to find myself tearing up. I stared at myself in the mirror for a while, washed my face, then went back to them.

I already knew Echoes by then as I was/am a great Pink Floyd fan. Though I never made the connection between my experience and the lyrics until one day afterwards when I was listening to the song and BAM!

Strangers passing in the street
By chance two separate glances meet
And I am you and what I see is me
And do I take you by the hand
And lead you through the land
And help me understand the best I can

So this happens to other people too? Sweet.

After that whenever I’m tripping and happen to lock eyes with a stranger in such a sentimental way, I instantly know that he’s one of ‘Us’ — whatever ‘Us’ means. As for Echoes, it remains one of my favourite songs ever.




3- Madmen 


After drinking Hysacamus muticus (Sakarana) in Sinai one day then eating a couple of leaves the next one, my friends and I tripped for about 30-something hours. Yeah. It was a heck of a dangerous trip, yet we made it out alive. There are many things that happened then which we can now call funny.

One of them was when a friend fell and injured his head then was taken to the hospital. The guy was in another world and he happened to entertain the whole floor by insisting on rolling imaginary joints in the air. When the nurse came closer to see what he was doing, he gave her his back and said ‘sorry’ [that he's rolling in bed]. Then when the Head Physician came to check on him, he thought he was one of his dad's friends and called him ‘Uncle’. Hilarity ensued.

This is the full story in addition to the research I have done later: Surviving the Madness of Sakarana — Hyoscyamus muticus (aka Deadly Nightshade).

4- “ODing” on Weed...Again


15 full years after the first encounter when my cousin [once removed] “OD’d” on weed, it happened again with another buddy. This time we were in our mid-30s and I was in Canada when an old friend came to visit.

Obviously he is not a smoker, yet he occasionally has a few puffs here and there. The first time we met in Toronto, he took a few hits and things went fine. Then a week later we did it again — he probably smoked a little bit more than that first time. Also, Canada's greens is much stronger than the hash he experimented with in Egypt.

With that in mind, after about 10 minutes I could see his face becoming slightly pale. I might have seen it coming, though I didn’t say anything. He rushed to the kitchen and began drinking water, then juice, then proceeded to swallow several spoonfuls of ice cream. A couple of minutes later, he finally told me that he doesn't feel well.

As usual, I remained calm as I should be. I went to the kitchen to get him more juice and this is when I heard the door opening. I rushed out to find him standing in the corridor in front of the elevator and holding his heart.

“I need to go to the hospital,” he paranoidly said.

Thinking in my head “Oh Boi, Not Again,” I smiled and told him that he only took a few hits and that he'll be fine pretty soon.

“Don't worry, man, it’s me. I won't give you anything that would hurt you. Just wait here, I’ll close the door and we go down take a walk,” I comforted him, even gave him a hug.

I now know how breathing properly, fresh air, and changing location can usually do wonders in such cases. So we did just that. We took the dog and walked to a nearby supermarket where he can get distracted. A short walk around the building for 15 minutes then we went back to the house.

He was relatively fine by then, still a little pale though.

This was when my ex-partner was going to pass by. He was kind of reluctant that she sees him in such a state. But I convinced him that he's already fine and that she's totally cool.

Later on when he snapped out of it, he told me that it was paranoia. He had big family-related things in mind at the time and the ganja just made him feel helpless for this one hour, which freaked him out since he lost control of his mind. He's not used to losing his mind, and that's why he worried.

A couple of weeks later, we met again and he still had a few hits and was completely fine.



5- Almost Busted While Spray Painting on Acid


After that San Diego rave, my growing fascination with LSD resulted in wanting to share the experience with my close friends. One of them was the same cousin who had “OD’d” on weed in Part 1.

About a couple of years after that incident, him, a third friend and I happened to be on acid one night in Cairo. It was my cousin’s first trip and I was the one in charge. The dose was nothing too much, maybe a couple of hits for myself and one for each of them.

All went smooth then we decided to take a spin late at night. At the time, I had a can of orange spray that I was keeping in the car. We stopped somewhere by a tunnel and began spraying on the wall. I remember a smiley face and a Fido Dido who kind of looked like our third friend.

Mid the fun, a police vehicle passed by and stopped. I was holding the spray in my hand and as they came right next to us, I just threw it on the ground. You know, as if it’s not mine. As if I just happened to be standing next to a freshly painted wall and a spray can.

They took a look in the car and inspected the tapes I had. They tried to compare them with whatever we painted on the wall. I believe they thought we might have been satanists, which was once a hot potato of a topic in 1990s Egypt. What are you doing? asked the officer.

I decided to philosophize. “Well, you know it’s Thursday night (the weekend) and there is nothing to do. You know, all the outings are packed and everywhere is busy. So instead of getting bored we thought of playing a little bit.”

The man gave me a weird, unimpressed look. “You know this is vandalizing, right? He asked, “I can easily take you to the station.”

I was then interrupted by my cousin: “ حضرتك احنا ولاد ناس ”.

“Welad nas” in Arabic literally translates into “children of people” and it usually describes those who come from good families and background. So what my anxious cousin was politely telling the officer is that we are good, well-behaved kids. He also told him that the three of us live on that same Nile street — as a proof that we are “Welad nas”.

The officer and I spoke for another couple of minutes, during which we were interrupted again by my cousin...twice.

“ حضرتك احنا ولاد ناس ”

After the last time, the officer looked at the guy and almost shouted:
“ يعني احنا ولاد كلب؟ ”

“So we are the children of dogs?”
Ha.

Eventually they let us go. The orange drawing on the wall stayed for maybe seven or eight years afterwards and it was a fun reminder of that night.



Stay tuned for more Funny Drug-Related Stories. There are still many.


ALSO VIEW:

Funny Hotel-Related Stories

Surviving the Madness of Sakarana — Hyoscyamus muticus (aka Deadly Nightshade)

Opiated Then Hatin' It

Addiction Talk: My Correspondence With a 31-Year-Old Reader Before He Passed Away

Amphetamine, Methamphetamine, and Crystal Methamphetamine — A Psychonaut’s Review

The LSD Experiments of the 1950s and 60s [Videos & Documentaries]

Out-of-Body Experience and Ego Death on a “Heroic Dose” of Mushrooms

Placebo Effect & The LSD Prank

The Egyptian Man Who Kept a Piece of Hash in His Stomach for Four Years

Animals Getting High: Weird Nature ― Peculiar Potions [Documentary]

The Ashram Sweeper Who Blocked Me on Facebook Over the Topic of Psychedelics

A while ago, an old friend posted some article on his Facebook wall and commented that there is no need for psychedelics. He followed it by paraphrasing the Sufi poet and theoretician, Abū Ḥamīd bin Abū Bakr Ibrāhīm — Attar of Nishapur — who is better known by his pen names Farīd ud-Dīn and Aṭṭār:

“We are drunk on something created before alcohol was created.”

Having just finalized the LSD Experiments of the 1950s and ‘60s piece, as well as having a sub-chapter on psychedelics in the book, I thought I would share a few things with him and his readers. The following words were exchanged.

I first commented:

Using psychedelics is certainly not a ‘need’. However, psychedelics are merely a consciousness tool to get us to that mental place, which is already within us. In today’s world, this endeavour may only be achieved through years of meditation, since one will need a considerable amount of time. As Terence McKenna said it, You don’t have to go to India for 10 years.

It’s important to note that psychedelics are only instruments that allow us to get a glimpse of mystical insight. It is an enlightenment enhancer, if you will. Though that glimpse can later be deepened and developed by various esoteric ways such as mediation and yoga. After some time, drugs may no longer be necessary or useful. Or as Allan Watts simply puts it:

“If you get the message, hang up the phone. For psychedelic drugs are simply instruments, like microscopes, telescopes, and telephones. The biologist does not sit with eye permanently glued to the microscope, he goes away and works on what he has seen.”

Similarly, psychedelics can alter behaviour in beneficial ways which are not easily attainable through conventional therapy. Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) have been doing a great job treating a wide variety of mental illnesses since they began in 1986.

Let's leave the rest for my upcoming book, they have a full sub-chapter.


A friend of my friend then wrote that you cannot compare a ‘hallucination’ caused by a drug to the ‘real’ thing. Once he said that, I knew he had never tried psychedelics, just like our common friend. Simply because to reduce the full psychedelic experience to a mere ‘hallucination’ is to have never been there.


So I replied again:

People who haven't tried psychedelics happen to have their own views. Many of them are afraid of getting into their own psyche and of dealing with their own demons. So they demonize the tool. We can't blame them though, for how would they know. Cheers to you.


Another friend of my friend commented saying that he’s enjoying this debate, to which I replied:

It's not really a debate. For I don't want to convince anyone with anything. It's simply that it's a topic I know much about through research and through personal experimentation for over two decades. This is a recent exposé of mine about the topic, the early tests funded by the CIA, and the history of psychotropic substances in general that you may enjoy reading.

The LSD Experiments of the 1950s and 60s


Then finally my friend commented, addressing both the first commentator and myself:

What we can ‘experience,’ whether a drug released mind-production or a taste of a level far beyond mind-consciousnss, is limited. The drug released mind-production is so exotic and out of the ordinary it SEEMS like it must be ‘spiritual’. It's not, it's Rumi's counterfeit gold. The taste of a level far beyond mind-consciousness (and beyond words, hence all this confusion) is only a taste.

Rene Guenon in The Reign of Quantity and The Signs of The Times makes a clear distinction between, ‘psychic’ phenomena and spiritual experience. Psychic phenomena, however exotic, are local (sub-lunar) phenomena: i.e. They are part of creation.

The Spiritual experience is what our extraordinary but limited consciousness can taste of a reality beyond creation. This is essentially what some Indian Gurus told Terrence McKenna when he explained his Mushroom trips etc and asked them for their opinion; they said it was part of Saṃsāra. He did not accept their opinion. Hence his jokes about why spend 13 years sweeping the Ashram waiting for enlightenment? He did not understand the difference between psychic and spiritual.


My final response, which I had really enjoyed writing, came two days later:

Agreed, they are not the same. I feel telepathic sometimes with my mother; other times I dream of things that happen later — known as clairvoyance. These are psychic phenomena which some people with extrasensory perception (ESP) can experience. Even though they show us how much we, and our science, still don't know, keeping us humble in the process. But essentially this has little to do with spirituality.

The thing is, we cannot judge an experience in a balanced, wholesome way without having to go through it ourselves. When some of us talk about the spirituality that psychedelics catalyze, we talk from personal experience. Only myself have experienced the oneness and interconnectedness with the Universe and everything in it in such a way; only myself have realized that everything has beauty; only myself have found God and The Kingdom of Heaven to be within me. Countless others have had similar experiences with psychedelics, yet they will always be uniquely different than my own. And as you mentioned, it is only a taste, albeit a beautiful one.

Consider writing about addiction for example. I can research and believe and preach about addiction all I want after ‘studying’ it in academic books — after learning what others have to say about it. But I will never, ever, truly know what addiction means if I had never experienced being addicted myself.

That said, to tell someone that what they had subjectively experienced deep within their psyche over and over again throughout many years is not ‘spiritual,’ appears like a logical fallacy. We must have at least tried walking in their shoes to be able to relate to their experience. Other than that, whatever we say is a mere opinion.

Further, and in general, to reject something we don't know much about may not be the wisest of approaches when it comes to investigating the unknown.

As for what Terence McKenna had said, I cannot claim to know what he did or did not understand. However, for them resorting to conclude that those who think different do not understand is not much different from the ego-driven bigotry often depicted in today’s organized religions. “Only my book holds absolute truth.” “Only me is capable of understanding.”

I hold that Terence could have said the same about them being simpletons who believe they’ll become saints in the afterlife because they washed the feet of Sri Sri Baba in this one; that these are dogmatic superstitions. But he didn’t say they don’t understand. Instead, he said you don’t HAVE to do like them, since, unlike in religions, in spirituality the individual doesn’t need mediators between them and The Source. Some are able to reach self-realization and validate truth by direct, personal experience — otherwise known as Gnosis.

For a true freethinker fears not to understand things — or to entertain ideas — that clash with their own beliefs, traditions, and privileges.


To conclude, different people may take different paths to reach their mountain top. Some seeking the ultimate Truth, or beauty, or happiness and fulfilment, or God. In the bigger scheme of things, there is no right or wrong path. From OUR own level of consciousness there is only OUR path.

The rest shall be left for the book. Love and Light, Brethren.

“Beyond our ideas of right-doing and wrong-doing, there is a field. I’ll meet you there.”
― Rumi


As I read the thread a couple of times, I couldn’t help but notice that the first commentator was being defensive. I could sense it from his words and attitude. So I was curious to know why. I checked his profile and in the “works at” section I find “servant of a Sufi sheikh” — including the name of the sheikh whom I know. In other words, he is an ashram sweeper.

Aha. I wonder if it was McKenna’s “You don’t have to go to India for 10 years,” or “Wash the feet of Sri Sri Baba,” or both that made him twitch.

When I visited my friend’s profile some days later to collect my writings, I couldn’t see the commentator’s previous comments, even his ‘likes’ disappeared in front of me on the screen. Apparently it was too much for him to handle, so he blocked me.

This, however, only shows one thing: Down deep inside, this man is not confident in his faith. That is why he could not even tolerate having me around the virtual world of Facebook for having a different opinion, even though we were not ‘friends,’ and most probably we would have never crossed path again. Perhaps he did see some truth in what I said.

In summation, and as I wrote in my final comment, there is no right or wrong path. From OUR own level of consciousness there is only OUR path. Personally, I do not see any need for middlemen to communicate with God. Not because I have anything against the priests and clerics, but because in my philosophy this defies the whole essence of spirituality. True spirituality is a personal, inner voyage towards the ultimate Truth which one must embark on alone. It’s a self-initiation process. After all, it is one's own truth which needs to be discovered and not anyone else’s.

You see, if one still thinks they need a teacher, a guru, a middleman, or any person to make them feel whole, then they have not yet found the Tao. For our only way out is in.



ALSO VIEW:


The LSD Experiments of the 1950s and 60s [Videos & Documentaries]

Placebo Effect & The LSD Prank 

Why We Should Not Fear Death

The Millennium Eve I Spent Alone at the Mosque

My Journey Towards Self-Transcendence

 

Who Are We?

Unfollow The Crowd 

The Parable



 of the Nugget of Truth

Change Is The Only Constant

Things I Got Rid Of To Become Happier

The Intertwining of Genius and Insanity

Theory of Mind: Thinking About Thinking and the Benefits of Observing the Observer

A Dialectic With Myself: Practical Yin Yang Approach to Coincidentia Oppositorum

 

Connecting the Dots — a Storyteller Way of Seeing the Big Picture

The Parable Of The Cow: You Are Not Your Thoughts

Out-of-Body Experience and Ego Death on a “Heroic Dose” of Mushrooms 

The Archaic Origin of the Swastika Symbol [with Photos]

OLS Reflections — The Spiritual Edition

Dealing with High Awareness and Empathic Accuracy
 

Surviving the Madness of Sakarana — Hyoscyamus muticus

 

Opiated Then Hatin' It

The Egyptian Man Who Kept a Piece of Hash in His Stomach for Four Years

The LSD Experiments of the 1950s and 60s [Videos & Documentaries]

The 1950s and 60s were a time when a wide range of human experimentation took place. Perhaps the CIA-funded MK-Ultra is the first name that comes to mind when pondering such topic. The following tests, though, do not involve horrific torture or chemical sleep. The subjects in those experiments were given LSD — Lysergic Acid Diethylamide — among other psychedelics and were interviewed and monitored, first for the sake of research then for therapy.


Since there is a full chapter about psychedelics in my upcoming book, I find this a neat opportunity to share a few things. 

The word ‘psychedelic’ is derived from Ancient Greek; literally meaning “mind-manifesting”. From ψυχή (psukhḗ, “mind, breath, life, soul”) + δῆλος (dêlos, “manifest, clear, visible”) + English -ic. It was first suggested by British-born Canadian psychiatrist Humphry Osmond (1917-2004) in a letter to Aldous Huxley. Osmond is in one of the interesting experiments featured in the below videos, where in 1955 he administered mescaline to Christopher Mayhew, a British member of parliament.


EDIT:

*This continuously updated exposé was quoted and cited in the 2017 academic book Drugs and Society — 13th Edition by Annette E. Fleckenstein, Glen R. Hanson, and Peter J. Venturelli.




The Birth of LSD


We know that Albert Hofmann synthesised LSD-25 for the first time in 1938 in Basel, Switzerland where he was working as a chemist for Sandoz Pharmaceuticals. LSD is a naturally occurring psychoactive hallucinogenic substance found in ergot; it can also be synthesised as a chemical produced by a specific type of fungus, which grows on grains like rye and wheat. However, the hallucinogenic effects of LSD remained unknown until April 19th 1943 — now dubbed Bicycle Day — when Hofmann accidentally ingested a tiny dose of the drug.

Soon after, a research project under W. A. Stoll, a psychiatrist and nephew of one of the Sandoz directors, was set up. Interestingly, the directors of Sandoz Pharmaceuticals tried LSD themselves. More than 40 subjects participated; the majority of which were busy, corporate people. Some of us would have loved to be an observing fly on the wall then.

Next, psychologists began experimenting with LSD as a ‘psychotomimetic’ drug — one that causes the user to temporarily mime the condition of psychosis. After some tests on animals, it had quickly become recognised for its potential therapeutic effects on humans, as a possible treatment for schizophrenia, as well as a research tool in studying mental illness.

Patented and marketed as Delysid in 1947, Sandoz gave out those brown-glass vials to research institutes and doctors to use in psychiatric experiments on both healthy and mentally ill subjects. Between the late 1950s and the early 1970s, LSD was legally distributed to practitioners of psychiatry mainly across the U.S, the UK, and Canada to experiment with. Psychiatrists, therapists and researchers administered ‘acid’ to thousands of people — the number publicised is about 40,000 subjects. Though I believe this figure must exclude the countless MK-Ultra victims.

Psychiatric students were also encouraged to use LSD as a teaching device to help understand schizophrenia.

Humanity’s first LSD trip on Bicycle Day (April 19th)
commemorated as blotter art

Most of the subjects were given the new medication as a treatment for alcoholism and drug addiction; as well as for mental illnesses like anxiety and depression. Schizophrenics, obsessive-compulsives, depressives and autistic people were all dozed with LSD in hope to cure them. It was also administered to people [then] considered mentally ill with sexual perversions, such as homosexuality.

One of the famous subjects of said experiments was Bill Wilson, the founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, who became an avid supporter of the use of LSD to treat alcoholism. Another famous first experimenter was Ken Kesey, who played a major role in getting the drug from the lab to the streets of America. 

Cary Grant devoted an entire chapter in his Autobiography to
talk about the benefits of LSD

Excerpted from chapter 14 of the Autobiography, Grants insightfully writes:

“I learned many things in the quiet of that small room. I learned to accept the responsibility for my own actions, and to blame myself and no one else for circumstances of my own creating. I learned that no one else was keeping me unhappy but me; that I could whip myself better than any other guy in the joint.

I learned that all clichés prove true; which is, of course, the reason for their repetition, even when the meaning has been forgotten by the constant usage.

I learned that everything is, or becomes, its own opposite. A theory I can sometimes apply, but would find difficult to convey.

I learned that my dear parents, products of their parents, could know no better than they knew, and began to remember them only for the most useful, the best, the wisest of their teachings. They gave me my life and body, the promising combination of the two, and my initial strength; they endowed me with an inquisitive mind. They taught me to feed myself, to walk, to bathe myself and to clothe myself; and I shall think of them always with love now, not only for what they did know but, even, for what they didn’t know.”

Reportedly, Cary Grant survived over 100 trips. It is always invigorating to find out about other soul-sailors who went through the 3-digit threshold. Winky Wink.


It is worth noting that LSD was not the only psychedelic that was tested in the 50s and 60s. Mescaline and psilocybin — the main psychoactive ingredient in magic mushrooms — were also administered to subjects.

From 1960 to 1962, experiments were conducted by psychologist Timothy Leary at Harvard University under the Harvard Psilocybin Project. Unlike MK-Ultra, his subjects willingly chose to partake in those tests, while the doses and frequency were carefully and humanly regulated.

According to Leary’s autobiography Flashbacks, the results were that out of the 300 professors, graduate students, writers and philosophers who had taken LSD, 75 percent reported the experience as one of the most educational and revealing ones of their lives.

Leary also directed the Concord Prison Experiment, which was conducted by a team of Harvard University researchers between 1961 and 1963. Along with psychotherapy, psilocybin was administered to young prisoners in attempt to inspire them to leave their antisocial lifestyles behind once they were released. Results were positive here as well.

You can find out about my wackiest experience with shrooms on Out-of-Body Experience and Ego Death on a “Heroic Dose” of Mushrooms. 

On a more sinister note, psychedelics tests were not always as peaceful. Because of their magnanimous potency, there were also used in attempt to behaviourally engineer individuals and control them. In a series of secret MK-Ultra experiments that lasted through two decades, LSD was given to CIA employees, military personnel, doctors, other government agents, and members of the general public in order to study their reactions, often without their knowledge. A wicked and horrible thing to do, I tell you.  

It was likewise given to mental patients, prisoners, drug addicts and prostitutes; “people who could not fight back” — as one officer put it. In one particular case, a mental patient in Kentucky was dosed with LSD continuously for 174 days. Aouch! Most of those vile experiments ended with considerable amount of damage.

A total of 44 American colleges and universities, 15 research foundations or chemical or pharmaceutical companies and the like including Sandoz (now Novartis) and Eli Lilly and Company, 12 hospitals or clinics (in addition to those associated with universities), and three prisons have participated in MK-Ultra.

Many years later, 127 victims sued both the United States and Canadian governments for unwillingly taking part in the MK-Ultra experiments. Eventually the case was settled out of court for $100,000 each. But, is there really a price for messing with someone’s brain and life so barbarically?

You can learn more about this dark chapter in history from an earlier two-part research exposé of mine, MK-Ultra Then and Now — A Thorough Analysis of Mind Control. 

There is also a docudrama miniseries called Wormwood about an army bacteriologist and CIA employee, Frank Olson, who in 1953 mysteriously took a fatal plunge from a New York hotel window after being unwittingly dosed LSD by his superior few days prior. He was part of secret cold war programs and for some reason ended up losing his life by becoming one of the many MK-Ultra subjects and certainly victims. 
 

With that, psychedelics can indeed mess with the minds and lives of certain people, particularly those with mental health issues. One notable example is Syd Barrett the creative founder of Pink Floyd who apparently overdid it and who is often considered an Acid casualty. Another may be Charles Manson who seem to have used LSD as a tool to psychopathically brainwash his followers in the late 60s. 

As such, depending on how the substance is used/misused/abused, it is not all rainbows and unicorns as some may perceive it.      

                                                                  

The Outbreak

When in the early 60s LSD escaped the controlled settings of the labs and reached the population, it eventually lead to a large-scale revolution of consciousness. Everything changed then. The music, the lifestyles, and the whole culture were affected by this happening. The world was Turned On. And all Heaven and Hell broke loose. A kaleidoscopic expansion of consciousness took place, shifting paradigms and forever changing the lives of millions of souls.



Initially, LSD began to be popularised through the acid tests of Ken Kesey and his Merry Pranksters in the American West coast. And in a more academical fashion in the East coast, through Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert (Ram Dass) and their own experimentation.



Psychedelics had already been epitomised in art by pioneers such as Aldous Huxley, who wrote The Doors Of Perception after taking mescaline. A few years later, more famous figures hopped on the wagon of Love. The Grateful Dead, Hunter S. Thompson and Stephen Gaskin, along with Jack Kerouac, William S. Burroughs, and Allen Ginsberg — the leading figures of the Beat Generation — were a great influence behind the whole counter-culture phenomena of the ‘younger’ Hippies. 

Learn Why Hippies Are Sometimes Called Bohemians on this other article.

LSD also gave birth to psychedelic rock. From Jefferson Airplane, the Jimi Hendrix Experience, Cream, the Doors and Pink Floyd, to the Beatles, Bob Dylan and the Beach Boys. Huge musical festivals like the Fillmore East and West and Woodstock were a natural Furthur expansion to the whole psychedelic movement.

Another more recent advocate of LSD was Apple’s Guru, the late Steve Jobs, who once said:

“Taking LSD was a profound experience, one of the most important things in my life. LSD shows you that there’s another side to the coin, and you can’t remember it when it wears off, but you know it. It reinforced my sense of what was important—creating great things instead of making money, putting things back into the stream of history and of human consciousness as much as I could.”

Note that Jobs wasn’t another psychonaut like, say, Leary or Terence McKenna. Nevertheless, just like them, his visions did change the world.


Here are some of my colourfully inspired phoolosophical poems, what I simply call Language Play: The Mystic and the Tripper, The Womb, When The Sky Spoke Back, Moon Magnoon, Phree Phlow, and Intention Connection & Reflective Introspection. 


Also, here is a vibrant selection of LSD quotes by some brilliant minds on Goodreads.


Early Trippers


We know from history that pursuing the natural yearning for altering consciousness has been known to mankind for aeons. From kids spinning in circles, drinking coffee and tea to meditations, dancing, drugs and alcohol, the yearning appears to be instinctive — possibly out of curiosity or boredom, or a certain degree of both.

In fact, humans are not alone to yearn for altered states. A wide variety of species in the animal kingdom are known to willingly ingest natural psychoactive substances to change their consciousness — or less formerly, to get high. A compelling book discussing this topic in length is Giorgio Samorini’s 2002 Animals and Psychedelics: The Natural World and the Instinct to Alter Consciousness.

There is also my article here on One Lucky Soul Animals Getting High: Weird Nature ― Peculiar Potions [Documentary].

That said, before the discovery of LSD, hallucinogens or drugs in general have existed since the beginning of time. Most ancient cultures had some plant they used for ceremonial purposes to connect with the spirit world. Shamanic cultures specifically have always used psychoactive plants to see, to know, to grow.


Some millennia ago, the Blue Lotus (Nymphaea caerulea) was used medicinally and spiritually by the priesthoods of Ancient Egypt; and later by Hindus and Buddhists alike.

For the Greeks, the substance of higher consciousness was a beverage called Kykeon, which was ingested during the annual Eleusinian Mysteries festival that took place for 2000 long years. The mysteries share rituals and beliefs with Egypt, Crete, Anatolia, and Thrace; their origin roots back to the Neolithic age and the agrarian revolution. From approximately 1450 BCE to 392 CE, the celebration attracted thousands of people from all over the Greek world. It took place twice a year, with the Greater Mystery of the two taking place at Athens and Eleusis in the early fall, near the time of the autumnal equinox. 

Anyone could be initiated, including women and slaves, though they could only do it once in their lifetime. 
The initiates purified themselves by bathing in the sea while getting prepared for the preceding ceremonies.

The central mystery of the festival pertains to the nature of the ingested substance, the Kykeon. It is believed to be a mixture of water, barley, and herbs [possibly mint or thyme] that the initiates ingest after being sensitised by fasting. Beyond the basic ingredients, the beverage could have included wine, honey, and even grated goat cheese. As for the psychoactive hallucinogenic properties, it is widely believed that it was due to the ergot fungus found on barley. And if you remember from our introduction above, that is where LSD comes from. 

The idea behind the Eleusinian Mysteries is to get a glimpse of the divine — by mimicking the enigmatic experience of death and rebirth in the ritual, which came to be known as The Eleusinian Mysteries. It is the origin of the Sacramental “communion” wine. The substance ingested then and there, however, was more than mere wine and, according to various interpretations, hallucinogenic as well.  



According to ancient texts, the authentic ingredients of that magical entheogenic potion were kept a secret guarded by the two hierophantic families who were in charge of making it and dispensing at Eleusis. 

The initiates were also sworn to secrecy. As such, until today no one knows exactly what the Kykon was essentially made of but there are some suggestions. 



Some of the famous initiatives who took place in the Eleusinian Mysteries were Herodotus and Plato who poetically wrote about his participation in Phaedrus:



“With a blessed company — we following in the train of Zeus, and others in that of some other god —… saw the blessed sight and vision and were initiated into that which is rightly called the most blessed of mysteries, which we celebrated in a state of perfection … being permitted as initiates to the sight of perfect and simple and calm and happy apparitions, which we saw in the pure light, being ourselves pure and not entombed in this which we carry about with us and call the body, in which we are imprisoned like an oyster in its shell.” 

Even earlier, in Ancient Greek Literature Kykeon is equally mentioned in Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, where he depicted as both a healing potion as well as a drink used by sorceresses. 
Until today however, the exact ingredients of the beverage remain shrouded in mystery.   



With that in mind, let us remember that we psychonauts are descendants of the same species that ate the mushrooms, the cactus, the lotus, Ayahuasca, Haoma (Sauma), Pituri, the Mayan’s Balché, El Toloache Moonflower (Datura inoxia) of the Chumash People of California, the famous Vedic medicine soma, and its Iranian variety haoma.

Accordingly, I find it quite ironic that such experiences that were once considered natural, insightful, and mystical by many cultures are now considered illegal by most of today’s modern societies. At the same time, other more acceptable and much more lethal addictive drugs are marketed to the population while considered “safe”, like alcohol, tobacco, and sugar; as well as all the pharmaceuticals prescribed by doctors — who, you know, always, always have your best interest in mind.

If we mention World Affairs, whatever that means, it appears that for the powers that be, some drugs are more important than others. And it depends on who uses them and how much money can be made off them. How could cannabis and mushrooms be illegal? How could Nature be illegal? But now that they are legal in certain places around the world, the same powers that be are attempting to capitalise on it. Unregulated THC gummy bears for everyone. How about some spray and cream? 

 

The Experiments


Now, let us us review those educational flashbacks from history.

The first video here is of Dr. Sydney Cohen interviewing a ‘stable’ L.A house wife after dosing her with LSD at the Los Angeles Veterans Administration Hospital. The test is followed by a few words about the topic from the philosopher and historian, Gerald Heard.

“Everything is beautiful and lovely and alive. This is reality.”

“I can see all the molecules, I’m part of it. Can’t you see it? I wish you could see it.” 

Can you tell me about it, the doctor asked her. She paused and responded:
“I can’t tell you about it. If you can’t see it then you’ll just never know it. I feel sorry for you.”


Her reaction was exactly how I felt when at 19 and first experimented with MDMA then LSD. I wanted to share the beauty with all my loved ones, so they may get a taste of the “other side” and join me. And I did. But a few trips were enough for most of them.

I hold that it would be beneficial if all mentally healthy people had at least one psychedelic experience before they die — like the Eleusinian Mysteries. Once should be enough to tune in. Echoing with the following Terence McKenna quote:

“I think of going to the grave without having a psychedelic experience like going to the grave without ever having sex. It means that you never figured out what it is all about. The mystery is in the body and the way the body works itself into nature.”

The next experiment from 1955 involves Dr. Nicholas Bercel and a 34-year-old artist — at the Department of Physiology at the University of Southern California Medical School (USC). “Bill” here ingested 100 micrograms of LSD. That is the strength of the average “hit”. 

“The fact is I will never eat a hamburger again. It’s so vulgar” sums up lots of things about LSD. I love how he said it so genuinely. Remember this was way back then when burgers were the norm.

“As an observer....I wish you were enjoying it with me.”
Again, there is a compulsion to share the new found reality. It is truly a highly unselfish drug.

“This is purple, huh.” [typical with psychedelics]. 
No, this is black.

My take is that purple is prevalent during these experiences, especially my own, because it is a colour our brain creates by mixing red and blue light. Technically, purple does not exist; there is no purple light as it is not on the electromagnetic spectrum. True story, which was only revealed in recent years. Even though we do see purple, or rather perceive it, but it is a colour humans invented as a sort of mental construct to reconcile between the spectrum’s two extremes of red and blue — somewhat of an illusion regarding one rather psychedelic colour. The phenomenon is similar to the visualisation of kaleidoscopic geometric patterns while up there. How crazy and cool. 

That said, does it follow that purple is perceived, experienced, appreciated differently by each and everyone, perhaps depending on their sensitivity, imagination, or level of consciousness? 

Purple eventually came to be one of my few favourite colours, possibly out of repetition. 


Back to the interview...

“Very benevolent.”

Do you still have that pleasant feeling that you described before?
Yes, I still have it. I’ll never get over it. I’ll never be the same.”

Indeed, you’re never quite the same after the first trip. And the man already knew. Also notice how eloquent and descriptive he is while tripping.


Nevertheless, pioneer chemist Alexander “Sasha” Shulgin had this to say about the experimentation in his book Pihkal: A Chemical Love Story.

“I don’t know if you realize this, but there are some researchers — doctors — who are giving this kind of drug to volunteers, to see what the effects are, and they’re doing it the proper scientific way, in clean white hospital rooms, away from trees and flowers and the wind, and they’re surprised at how many of the experiments turn sour. They’ve never taken any sort of psychedelic themselves, needless to say. Their volunteers - they’re called ‘subjects’, of course — are given mescaline or LSD and they’re all opened up to their surroundings, very sensitive to color and light and other people’s emotions, and what are they given to react to? Metal bed-frames and plaster walls, and an occasional white coat carrying a clipboard. Sterility. Most of them say afterward that they’ll never do it again.”

Thinking about my own first MDMA and first LSD experience in 1996 and 1997 respectively, and how they positively and radically influenced my life and relationships, including one with psychedelics for the following decades, I absolutely agree with him. I have actually known few people who did not have what you may call a fun first experience, so they spent the rest of their lives fearing LSD among all other psychedelics. Then again, we are talking herein about tests taking place in the 1950s and early 60s when most still knew almost nothing about it.



Unlike the above two ‘stable’ subjects, the next two featured in the 2CBS documentary had been mental patients. One is an alcoholic man, the other is a housewife with some inner issues. Though based on today’s standards, this woman who felt that her life is ‘empty’ seems to be quite natural, even healthy. In many cases, suppressing our feelings and emotions for too long is what eventually leads to mental breakdowns.

LSD: The Spring Grove Experiment — Part 1

LSD: The Spring Grove Experiment — Part 2

The property of psychedelics that makes them a useful healing tool is that they teach the mind how to cope with the original deep-held, often repressed traumas, which are usually the cause of the illnesses. The lucidity and openness which come while ‘tripping’ end up by setting things straight in the psyche — for it truly is mind-manifesting.

Also, one ought to fully suck out all the marrow of the experience. Yet at the same surrendering to it without fighting or resisting. Once you got it together, you’ll realise that psychedelics do not actually change things; they just give you the opportunity to look at them differently; they add you with a novel Big Picture perspective. And that, Dear Ones, is how change comes about.


Despite the early success, almost all psychedelic therapy ended when the U.S government officially criminalised the drug and made it illegal on October 16, 1966. Until today in the U.S and UK, LSD remains scheduled as Class I, which is the most restrictive class of drugs that includes heroin. The same goes for mushrooms [psilocybin and psilocin]. Imagine? Thank you, World Police for declaring an unwinnable War on Drugs in 1971, which turned out to be an utter failure and still is decades later.  

Ironically, LSD ranks as 14th out of 20 in the league table of drug harmfulness. Given the footage featured herein, it makes one really think if that was or still is a wise choice.

Fortunately, organisations like MAPS (Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies) had resumed the work that was left off decades prior. They are already achieving considerable results in the domain of psychedelic therapy, one of which is the MDMA-assisted program for treatment of PTSD that started operating legally in 2004.

Another program is the Psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy, known to help reduce anxiety associated with terminal cancer diagnoses among other illnesses. One of the videos below is about one of those cases. 

On a parallel note, you can view the interesting timeline of the history of MDMA and how eventually scientists seem to have won the war waged against it by the DEA on this updated link Here — including a variety of scientific sources like the 218 pages Investigator’s Brochure by MAPS. 

In other similar experiments conducted by psychiatrist Oscar Janiger starting in 1954
and continuing for seven years, LSD was given to over 100 professional artists to measure
its effects on their artistic output and creative ability

Decades after these early experiments, we now know much more about psychedelics as well as about the human mind. Today, psychedelics practically treat anxiety associated with life-threatening illnesses, advanced-stage cancer and PTSD, end of life, even OCD and managing cluster headaches. And that’s precisely what MAPS have been doing with their clinical psychedelic therapy.

After watching the tests, you may agree with me that it is somewhat absurd how much they knew of the great potential of psychedelics at the time, yet the U.S government still made it illegal. It seems they never wanted smooth, cheaper remedies. So, they demonised all psychedelics while pumping billions into Big Pharma, who do not seem to be in the business to create cures, but rather to create customers.

Psychedelic research was also restricted due to how LSD became so widespread between the general public in just a matter of several years. This was likely of significant concern, knowing that it was the CIA and the government who first got it out to the light. Now the genie was out of the vial and roaming free. It was actually dangerous for them to have all these people turned on — with liberated minds capable of thinking critically and abstractly. 


In today’s world, recent Neuroscientists monitored the brain activity of people on psychedelics through fMRI machines. What was noticed is a decrease in connectivity within the Default Mode Network (DMN). This is the brain control centre responsible for introspection, self-reflection, and mind-wandering. It generates the part of you that identifies with the "I", the egoic voice in your head. 

While this area of the brain seems to quiet down on psychedelics, the connectivity between the DMN and other brain networks are conversely enhanced, promoting a more interconnected global network. 

Neuroscience can likewise tell us that such substances promote Neuroplasticity, as in stimulate the growth of new neurons and form new neural connections. They also modulate brain activity, leading to reduced anxiety and stress responses. 



On a lighter note, the next videos are of two other LSD experiments involving US and British soldiers. Even though they are funny to watch today many decades later, but as Sasha Shulgin pointed out in PIHKAL, ingesting LSD in such set and setting may have not been the best of experiences for the soldiers; even compared to, say, the housewife and the artist. One thing for sure, these tests were not as intellectually stimulating. Besides, there sure must be some kind of pressure being young soldiers tripping for the first time in front of their superiors.

As mentioned, however, this wasn’t even the 60s yet and, again, no one really knew much about these mind-manifesting substances. So it was all about experimenting. Enjoy the hilarity.

And the same with British soldiers

“After one hour and ten minutes, one man climbed a tree to feed the birds,” also sums up LSD.

The following two experiments involve different kind of psychedelics. The First is from 1965 when Dr. Humphry Osmond administered mescaline to Christopher Mayhew. 

The second is from a much later time in 2012. It involves a 65-year-old grandmother, Estalyn Walcoff, who, under the guidance of two New York University psychotherapists, took mushrooms after being diagnosed with a type of untreatable lymphoma — part of a Psilocybin Cancer Anxiety Study. Titled “A Patient Speaks by Patrick H. Murphy”, in the video she is sharing how a single trip positively and truthfully affected her as well as her condition. It certainly is a fascinating account, which may bring tears to your eyes upon watching.

A Patient Speaks from Patrick H. Murphy on Vimeo.

The below is a much more recent [2024] compelling video by the Infographics Show titled What Happens to Your Body When You Take ACID. It includes some of the latest scientific discoveries regarding this wondrous substance. Also more than 2,000 YouTube comments about personal accounts, mostly all positive.

Then lastly, here is an eye-opening National Geographic documentary Tracking the Supply of LSD, also appearing in 2024, in which the notion that LSD is undergoing a Renaissance and is once again booming is inferred. Psychedelics seem to have finally reached the mainstream. Let us see if the revolution will be televised this time.   

In summation, psychedelics, and drugs in general, are certainly not for everyone. In the right hands, however, these consciousness enhancing tools can cause enlightening journeys of self-discovery that are extremely educational and highly revealing. They allow us to explore this sacred space — a certain stillness amid the chaos, a method to the madness, which is already within us.

Psychedelics have the ability to catalyse a sense meaning and purpose into one’s life; as they catalyse awareness, imagination, creative expression, and a sort of ethereal otherworldly appreciation of Mother Nature. They offer you a chance to know and even befriend your true self by peeling off layers of the ego — the sense of self, the persona, the mask(s) we all tend to wear — teaching us how to transcend it. In the psychedelic milieu this is often referred to as [temporary] Ego Death. 

With that, these journeys expose our inner psyche along with its demons, allowing us to understand ourselves on a deeper and more wholesome level. This tends to illuminate our relationship with ourselves and therefore with the rest of the world and everyone in it. And that is growth, evolution, illumination if you will.

The journeys equally add us with a rather cosmic perspective, giving us a chance to re-evaluate our entire life philosophy. They show us a side of existence that we may have never considered or even thought about — the other side of the coin. Psychedelic experiences can indeed be life-changing. 

Through these journeys, we learn to let go of the self along with its ego-driven desires and expectations. Simply by letting things happen while aligning oneself with the natural flow of life, the Tao; flowing with the current rather than trying to swim against it. This unforced intuitive action through non-action is what Wu Wei is. Literally translating into “non-doing” or “non-action”, Wu Wei is a central concept in Taoism/Daoism describing a seemingly paradoxical state of spontaneity called “effortless action”: A state of being in harmony with the universe, which can be applied and naturally reflects on various aspects of life. 

Another property of psychedelics is that they have the ability to catalyse profound spiritual experiences while facilitating feelings of oneness and renewed interconnectedness with everyone and everything. They allow you to get a glimpse of mystical, transcendental insight; to delve further into your inner core only to come to the realisation that you are the Consciousness of Mankind; that I am you as you are me. 

When used properly, these experiences could lead to Metanoia. For the Kingdom of Heaven is truly within us.

The substances themselves work like an enlightenment enhancer, if you will. The glimpse they offer may be later deepened and developed with the help of various esoteric or mindfulness practices like mediation, yoga, breathwork, also drumming. For many living in today’s busy changing world, such occasional nourishing time-out for the soul may not be enough to actually and radically cause palpable changes into their lives; since one would need a considerable amount of uninterrupted time to reach the higher states of consciousness.

Similarly, as we have seen, those same tools can alter behaviour in beneficial ways that are not easily attainable through conventional therapy. In fact, in many cases, psychedelics have shown to be more effective than the addictive pharmaceuticals. Unlike the conventional pills that numb your senses like a zombie, with psychedelics the experimenter reaches the root of the problem, as in addiction for instance. So they are able to work on it, especially after seeing it and likely also themselves under a different light. Letting go and moving on usually follow. One does not have to live on medications unless they absolutely need it.

On the other hand, psychedelics are evidently no magic pill when it comes to healing. How we integrate what we learn on these journeys with our daily reality is what eventually matters. Otherwise, the experiences can be just another chemical escape. Nothing’s wrong with that of course, but it remains another story. And just like any other substance, they can be misused and abused, which goes against their true nature or purpose of waking us up.     

Even though each trip is different than the other, after some time psychedelics may no longer be necessary or useful. Or as Alan Watts puts it: “If you get the message, hang up the phone. For psychedelic drugs are simply instruments, like microscopes, telescopes, and telephones. The biologist does not sit with eye permanently glued to the microscope, he goes away and works on what he has seen.” Because psychedelics are mere tools — magnificent colourful tools. Then it is time to work on the findings and apply them to one’s life.


The topic is so vast and gripping, I shall stop here to leave the rest for the book. Enjoy the videos and documentaries.

 

“‘Turn on’ meant go within to activate your neural and genetic equipment. Become sensitive to the many and various levels of consciousness and the specific triggers that engage them. Drugs were one way to accomplish this end. ‘Tune in’ meant interact harmoniously with the world around you—externalize, materialize, express your new internal perspectives. ‘Drop Out’ suggested an elective, selective, graceful process of detachment from involuntary or unconscious commitments. ‘Drop Out’ meant self-reliance, a discovery of one’s singularity, a commitment to mobility, choice, and change. Unhappily my explanations of this sequence of personal development were often misinterpreted to mean ‘Get stoned and abandon all constructive activity.’”
— Timothy Leary

One Lucky Soul in the bibliography of Drugs and Society — 13th Edition
by Annette E. Fleckenstein, Glen R. Hanson, and Peter J. Venturelli. Woot Woot!

Sources:

 
Cary Grant’s Autobiography 

Timothy Leary’s Autobiography Flashbacks

The Doors of Perception / Heaven and Hell by Aldous Huxley

Pihkal: A Chemical Love Story by Alexander Shulgin
 

Animals and Psychedelics: The Natural World and the Instinct to Alter Consciousness by Giorgio Samorini 

MDMA-assisted program for treatment of PTSD and Psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy by MAPS (Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies) 

MDMA Investigative’s Brochure by MAPS [11th Edition, 2019]

MDMA: history and lessons learned (part 1), TRANSFORM Drug Policy Foundation [2021]

LSD Experiments on videos by Dr. Sydney Cohen, Dr. Nicholas Bercel, YouTube

LSD: The Spring Grove Experiment, YouTube

Footage of LSD experiments on American and British soldiers, YouTube

Dr. Humphry Osmond mescaline experiment involving Christopher Mayhew, YouTube 

A Patient Speaks — part of the NYU Psilocybin Cancer Anxiety Study, Vimeo

Tracking the Supply of LSD | Trafficked with Mariana Van Zeller by National Geographic, YouTube

LSD quotes on Goodreads




ALSO VIEW:

Out-of-Body Experience and Ego Death on a “Heroic Dose” of Mushrooms

Placebo Effect & The LSD Prank

Surviving the Madness of Sakarana — Hyoscyamus muticus (aka Deadly Nightshade)

Amphetamine, Methamphetamine, and Crystal Methamphetamine — A Psychonaut’s Review

 
Opiated Then Hatin’ It

Addiction Talk: My Correspondence With a 31-Year-Old Reader Before He Passed Away

Animals Getting High: Weird Nature ― Peculiar Potions [Documentary]

Banged Up Abroad — My Few Days @ The Don Jail

Banged Up Abroad — A Night @ The London Police Station

The Millennium Eve Spent Alone at the Mosque

The Egyptian Man Who Kept a Piece of Hash in His Stomach for Four Years

Funny Drug-Related Stories

Funny Drug-Related Stories 2

Why Hippies Are Sometimes Called Bohemians 

 

20 Things Learned From a 48-Minute Terence McKenna Talk on Hermeticism and Alchemy

The Ashram Sweeper Who Blocked Me on Facebook

The Great Pyramid’s Blessed Curse: Climbing To The Top And Beyond

The Intertwining of Genius and Insanity

 

The Intertwining of Pain and Pleasure

 احذروا التقليد عند الشراء — ظاهرة الحشيش المخلوط في مصر 

The Mystic and the Tripper

The Womb

When The Sky Spoke Back

Phree Phlow

Moon Magnoon

Intention Connection & Reflective Introspection