LSD in Academia

[ThisIsMyUserName]

Hey guys;

I'm new as you can tell.

I was wondering if anyone here has any any information of the use of LSD in academia and in specific with research. I don't mean the study of LSD per say, but usage for opening ones mind to ideas to further research.

For example, Dr. Kary Mullis used LSD quite frequently, and has admitted that he discovered PCR on a trip. He also admitted that around that time Berkeley professors used LSD to 'liberate' their minds.

It's also known it was used at Cambridge University during the 50's and 60's and it's been rumoured that Watson and Crick quite often used it, specifically Watson who's usage lead him to become obsessed with neuro-genetics/molecular neuro-biology.

And of course everyone knows about Harvards past with LSD.

These are 3 HIGHLY prestigious universities and usually only contain the best of the best when it comes to scientific research, which must definitely say something about the use of LSD.

Was this common use? Is it still common use?
Is LSD actually useful in situations like this?

 

[PsychedelicPeptide]

Uhhh..... looks at self....... looks at setting....... thinks there may be relevance to your topic but isn't willing to say much more, although my status isn't near where they are, perhaps one day, but the similarities are certainly connective.

 

[ThisIsMyUserName]

Thanks for your response. I assume you're a biochemist of some sort. I assume as such, but i apologize if I'm wrong.

Always seemed interesting to me how PCR came from a trip. At first assumed that his bike ride was confused with Hoffmans bike ride but turns out the trip was true. From what I've gathered from the... setting... up north, nothing of the such is very apparent and is non existent in my specific setting.

If their are any other illicit uses used by researchers for the purpose of research, please do share.

 

[ThisIsMyUserName]

Ha, just checked your profile for a quick peek, and found out that yes you are a biochemist. As am SWIM.

 

[who_can_say]

Im in academia and from my experience, academics use substances in general for a variety of reasons, usually to overcome some kind of anxiety.

 

[shibireru]

As am SWIM.

Errr... 'am' is the first-person singular present indicative active form of "be". Its use here really defeats the purpose of saying "SWIM" - and there's already little point to saying "SWIM" since it confers almost no legal protections, if any.

Was that just a joke that flew right over my head or was that unintentional?

.
.
.
No, I don't have anything relevant or useful to say.

 

[Ceres]

Im in academia and from my experience, academics use substances in general for a variety of reasons, usually to overcome some kind of anxiety.

this made me smile

I've always thought that drugs like MDMA, LSD, Psilocybin, DMT etc can have a useful role to play in producing novel, divergent conceptualisations in people who may be stuck in a particular way of approaching their discipline. These substances certainly have an undeniable role in the evolution of human thought IMO.

The problem is, for every Kary Mullis there's a Timothy Leary or a Terence McKenna, and then there all the academics who learned nothing from using psychedelics, those who dropped out, and those who became psychotic. I think it's a mistake to link LSD with learning. IMO psychoactive substances open up a new space to think in, but the chances of stumbling across a valuable new idea in that space are the same as in sober reality.

 

[ThisIsMyUserName]

Errr... 'am' is the first-person singular present indicative active form of "be". Its use here really defeats the purpose of saying "SWIM" - and there's already little point to saying "SWIM" since it confers almost no legal protections, if any.

Was that just a joke that flew right over my head or was that unintentional?

.
.
.
No, I don't have anything relevant or useful to say.

Haha, was a bit of a joke, guess it wasn't funny eh?

Well put Ceres. But are the discovery of DNA and PCR just coincidences and they would have come up with the ideas anyways, or did it in fact play a role? If there's is an equal chance of discovering in each, why would the useage (used to) be relatively wide-spread at two of the top research universities in the world? Three if you include the rumours that Leary wasn't the only one at Harvard who truly belived in LSD.

 

[Ceres]

If there's is an equal chance of discovering in each, why would the useage (used to) be relatively wide-spread at two of the top research universities in the world?

I think it's just down to circumstance, the people who were researching there, their access to the drugs, the fact these substances were novel and worth exploring, cultural context etc, rather than any Terence McKenna-esque belief that experiences on drugs like LSD and DMT amount to a delivery of intellectual information from another dimension.

Psychedelics opened up a new realm of human experience, and I guess there was just a (entirely legitemate) desire in some academics at that time to explore that new realm. People like Timothy Leary, the association between psychedelics and counter-culture movements, hedonism and so on, did a hell of a lot of damage to a promising area of science that we still can't fully explore to this day as a result. Can you weigh this against the developments in science that can be directly attributed to use of psychedelics?

 

[PsychedelicPeptide]

Well for one substance is most definitely very important. You cannot compare the experiences brought on by the most popular introspective drugs, especially the top ones such as LSD, MDMA and cannabis. Additionally it is important to consider the immediate effect of the substances (ie, the trip or high) versus the user's ability to have expanded creative capabilities in the days afterwards as a result of the experience.

Many times LSD and MDMA are too intense in their immediate trip and leave the user in a pure state of awe, unable to do something like formulate a new theory or experiment in their favorite scientific area of study. With MDMA, it is a little easier I think, due to its stimulant/amphetamine-like properties that can make it a little easier for you to focus on things.

Cannabis however is nothing short of an idea- and creativity-stimulating masterpiece. I wouldn't be surprised to see that many academics have gone through nearly their entire career continually using cannabis as a tool to help them come up with new ways of thinking about the scientific problem they are attacking. Also, cannabis is much easier to function on and most capable persons have no trouble doing work under its influence.

But I also have to side with Ceres in that most academics who use substances like these are just as likely to come up with a good idea sober as under the influence of a drug. When you get to the point of holding a professorship, most people (ie all) haven't done so because they used LSD to get all their best ideas. It comes with the work they have put in for years and years, in sober times and non-sober as well.

The substance use links generally come with the fact that scientists like to do experiments which in turn stimulates their brain (The Cycle of Science: experiment --> data/result --> conclusion --> follow-up). Drug use can often be summed up as an experiment the user is subjecting themselves to by virtue of dosing their brain with a powerful chemical that results in them having a new, stimulating experience. Hence it is kind of like doing a lab experiment on your brain and your experience serving as the actual data or result.

Yea you could argue some of us take drugs to deal with anxiety, but that applies to virtually every group of drug users. I think when considering the serious academic drug-using scientist, you need to divulge a little further into discovering why these people in particular may be a little more susceptible to taking mind-altering drugs.

 

[Ceres]

Cannabis however is nothing short of an idea- and creativity-stimulating masterpiece. I wouldn't be surprised to see that many academics have gone through nearly their entire career continually using cannabis as a tool to help them come up with new ways of thinking about the scientific problem they are attacking.

Ahh my pet hate My own personal feeling on cannabis and linking it with creativity, is that yeah it can cause a mild intellectual disinhibition that's conducive towards experimentation, tangetial thought, new approaches to a problem etc, it's great if you're bouncing ideas back and forth with another person in the same discipline - but surely the ability to think in that manner is innate, just often subdued over time due to spending a long time working/learning in the confines of accepted thinking in your field and just needs to be nurtured, and ought to be if you plan to go far!

If you regularly use cannabis as a kind of performance-enhancing drug in that respect, it doesnt take long to start feeling like you can't be creative without it. I just don't think you can use any drug as a tool in that manner. I personally don't know anyone in "academia" that regularly uses cannabis letalone other substances, and very very few who occasionally indulge in the wider range of drugs.

Sorry for rambling and sounding so preachy, without wishing to cause offense to anyone, I should have just said the idea that smoking weed all the time or taking lots of acid in search of creativity and inspiration is a tired cliche rooted in the 60's/70's and usually espoused by adolescents.

 

[PsychedelicPeptide]

I think it is important to consider that cannabis effects people differentially.

Some may even argue that its ability to ease mental stress is enough of a help on its own simply by virtue of allowing the user to have a more relaxed state of mind to think about their work with at night, rather than stressing about the bills, work, life, etc.

 

[Ceres]

Some may even argue that its ability to ease mental stress is enough of a help on its own simply by virtue of allowing the user to have a more relaxed state of mind to think about their work with at night, rather than stressing about the bills, work, life, etc.

You could say the same thing about alcohol, heroin, golf or keeping tropical fish - cannabis isn't unique in it's ability to be used for escapism.

 

[PsychedelicPeptide]

Ehh not for me. Booze makes me sad a lot. Heroin never tried, but I doubt I would get any work done on it no matter how "little stress I was feeling." Golf... LOL... for some people golf is not stress relieving and in fact can be the exact opposite. Working out though I will side with as stress relieving.

Many people find pot very helpful at overcoming anxiety. Its mental stimulative capacity is an added bonus.

In 40 years we can look back on this and I'll probably have more to say. =)

 

[lineartransform]

I personally don't know anyone in "academia" that regularly uses cannabis letalone other substances, and very very few who occasionally indulge in the wider range of drugs

Go to the physics department!

I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.

 

[permastoned]

Many scientists use cannabis to develop hypotheses. It depends on the person though, as said above. Cannabis or LSD will help an intelligent scientist to open their mind, but it will not cause a run of the mill scientist to suddenly come up with a miraculous hypothesis. It is an 'enabler' as such, but the potential has to be there already for it to work.

PCR is a massively used scientific technique these days!

 

[FrostyMcFailure]

It's also known it was used at Cambridge University during the 50's and 60's and it's been rumoured that Watson and Crick quite often used it, specifically Watson who's usage lead him to become obsessed with neuro-genetics/molecular neuro-biology.

lol this line is soo typical. I can almost understand why the powers that be suppressed the real juicy data. Dig and dig, something should be left in paper documents somewhere. the libraries/achieves of the universities you've mentioned should still have something on paper.

 

[lineartransform]

lol this line is soo typical. I can almost understand why the powers that be suppressed the real juicy data. Dig and dig, something should be left in paper documents somewhere. the libraries/achieves of the universities you've mentioned should still have something on paper.

You can't just post things like this - it's either active disinformation or totally useless.

If you have something to share, share it - but these hand waving allusions too often seem like someone trying to persuade others of their amazing secret knowledge. I have a feeling you are not being tracked by men in black, so let's hear it.

 

[PsychedelicPeptide]

I doubt any of these guys would document much of anything about their substance use on paper. And if there is, it's probably not located in a school's library. It's probably in their personal notebooks. Even then I doubt it. Maybe you could find a few pages with seriously distorted drawings and confusing grammar- the type of things you would expect a person on acid to draw/write.

About the only stuff you could legitimately find regarding psychedelic use and actual documentation would probably be related to the work going on at Harvard with Tim Leary and the other psychologists he worked with in the 60s. Or some of the work that came out of Europe around the same time. Even then the people at Harvard probably keep anything they have locked up, inaccessible to pretty much everyone. Maybe if you were a Professor there you could get access to something, but a regular guy or student-- highly doubtful.

 

[kuxan suum]

I had a friend recently point out to me that, to him, I was a 'stoner' because I 'thought there was something special' about mj. So this has got me thinking again about my perspective towards psychoactive plants and synthetics.

I would like to hear from one of these nobel prize winners, see how they considered it. Do these people look like it as a tool like a hammer or maybe a microscope, and then do they assign any meaning or spirituality to it? I imagine the opinions would vary still.

Perhaps its just another shame of prohibition, the stiffling of the traditions of successful drug use.