theWorldWithin said:
Anyone who has done LSD can plainly see it is a real possibility. Some of our community denies this out of blind hedonism but most of us know at least a few casualties (hint: many of those denying this phenomenon and blaming it on underlyin psychological problems are the ones who got fried and want others to share in their delusion/misery).
I've often been in situations where I've definitely understood how someone with a predisposition to schizophrenia or OCD could find themselves in trouble, often weird dilemmas that feel that they're pulling my mind apart or some other psychedelic oddities. I think anyone that's done acid can also see its potential to seriously fuck up the weak minded.
In discussions like this I always think back to a Stephen King short-story about worm-hole technology I read awhile ago. When testing the experience on humans they first use a convicted criminal as a guinea pig to travel light-years in seconds and back again. Once he arrives back he's become a hideously old man and all he can say before dying of a heart attack is "It's eternity in there".
Which probably makes no sense to someone who hasn't experienced it.
Anyway, they tweak the system and discover that if those they're teleporting are put to sleep they survive the trip without any ill effects. While one family travel, the young son holds his breath while being administered an anasthetic in order to see what it'd be like staying awake, he ends up in the same state as the first traveler saying the same words, because only once you'd actually spent an eternity in the same place would you realise what such words meant and how you're pretty much in hell.
Take that in a psychedelic context and you can see how what a seemingly crazy acid casualty is babbling about is to him, a very real and logical problem and you never know, if you have a similar experience, might end up in the same place as him where everything he was going on about makes perfect sense.
That whole thing kind of bugs me, coming across something so absolutely profound or disturbing that it drives you insane.
Back on topic though, how legible was Syd? I heard he'd go around muttering about refridgerators and such, also heard a story once about where he was having a bad trip and was locked in a linen cupboard for awhile to calm down. Schizophrenic or not, something like that is sure to fuck you up a bit.
Oh yeah, not exactly psychosis but I'd say a possible linger. My second acid trip was a horrendous "I've done it once, it was cool so now I can do 240ug and have the time of my life" one. I remember that the only logical thought I could muster was "what time is it?" waiting to either die or for the trip to end. Now whenever I'm under pressure or in a stressful situation the first thought that pops to my mind, quite involuntarily, is "what time is it?"