And you are absolutely sure that different sensations from LSD are purely down to what's on the blotter?
It's got nothing to do with your mood, whether the suns shining, your health, how you've been sleeping, whether you're tired, whether the place you're tripping is clean or dirty, the company you're in, how often you've been tripping?
Does a "dirty" trip stay "dirty" all the time? Say if you're in a messy house and you go outside into a beautiful nature spot do you think you'd still feel "dirty"? Could a "clean" trip feel "dirty" if you went and sat in a public shithouse that reeked of putrid shite?
To chime in, I am not 'sure' of this but yes basically the potential for
physical side-effects has for me been consistent with different blotter batches.
I also agree that these side effects seem to remind me of morning glories or HBWRs and also of a very weak version of the side-effects sometimes described by ergot intoxication.
Mainly what I am talking about is a feeling like an electric charge that causes cramps or pain from tightened tendons and what seems to me like a nasty feeling on the peripheral nerves. This, as opposed to the feeling from 'good' pure acid that is extremely transparent and virtually free of physical side-effects!
But it does not stay peripheral completely, it can ruin the crystallized clear headspace of a good trip but I would say it is definitely very different from negative psychological symptoms, it's not fear or confusion spiraling out of control.
I don't know where you guys get your claims about these extremely tiny chances of this being a chemical or pharmacological phenomenon... but they sound a bit arrogant to me to presume something like that just because it has not been discovered, and it is always easy to blame suggestibility and placebo.
I am not sure and I don't think I can make a good estimation about chances of the exact cause, also until we know more I think it's worth nothing to wager. It's better to accept that there are two sides to this and two possibilities and that it's just the way it is that we don't know (yet).
If LSD itself is as potent as it is, and some ergolines approach this - why would it be so hard to believe that there is a degradation product or synthesis byproduct that can have potent adverse neurological effects producing exactly what I described.
How would you explain the difference in appreciation between this dark amber acid and high quality acid?
There is a whole piece of this on erowid, I think it makes more sense for my story than that of psychological causes.
http://www.erowid.org/chemicals/lsd/lsd_writings1.shtml
The various ergot compounds, cycloalkamides of LSD and lumi-LSD plug into the same receptor sites as LSD does. But these compounds evidently don't turn the lock in the smooth, clean manner of LSD. Many of these compounds have effects similar to symptoms of ergot poisoning - the St. Anthony's Fire of the Middle Ages. These symptoms include inflamed joints, headaches, nausea, and hot and cold flashes.
Isomers of LSD are another possible contaminant and indeed are reported present by the drug analysis groups. There are four possible isomers of LSD, but only the d-lysergic acid diethyl amide form is active. The other rotation forms - l-lysergic acid diethyl amide, d and l iso-lysergic acid diethyl amide (contrary to recent reports!) - are inactive. they have no pharmacological role, except possibly as a catalyst for some latent effect of LSD, or to block the action of LSD at the receptor site.
If a contaminated batch of diethyl amine is used in the manufacturing process, or if the chemist purposely decides to make them, LSD homologues might be present in the final crystal. Molecules similar to LSD in structure but with some addition, subtraction or rearrangement of action, homologues plug into the same keyhole that LSD does.
Some of these homologues have profound effects that vary in course of action and potency. For example, the strongest of he homologues, ALD-52, has 91 percent the potency of LSD and is said to have a slightly different effect upon the mind (there is some dispute about this).
However, as Albert Hofmann puts it in "Drugs Affecting the Central Nervous System": LSD has the highest and most specific effect and may therefore be considered as the genuine prototype of psychotomimetic compounds."
Thus, all impurities found in LSD are like imperfect keys. Such substances as ergot alkaloids, cycloalkamides and other lysergic acid derivatives, and LSD homologues and lumi-LSD are drugs that might open the door part way. But only pure LSD opens the doors of perception all the way.
Here is an idea:
why doesn't everyone who can get 'good' or 'clean' acid as well as 'bad', 'dirty' acid construct their own blind tests? Especially those who trip a lot and want to sacrifice some experiences that could have been all had with good acid for the sake of science (or at least an attempt at an experiment)...
You let someone you know put hits in envelopes marked with numbers, and let that person write down which number is what kind. Then when you want to trip simply take an envelope and close your eyes and eat the trip without looking at the print. If the doses are not the same multiply one of the number of hits to normalize that but actually thats no good because you can feel that in your mouth (number of hits).
Anyway I hope you get the point: after each trip you evaluate the effects on body and mind, and make a prediction. Then see if it coincides with the actual type of acid.