I haven't read this entire thread, just your post. But who's to say you don't really know how to take LSD? There's no manual with psychedelics - or any drug.
I guess it's just that, in having taken LSD many times and discovering the manual long after my first few trips, I felt that it was extremely helpful for me in that it provided me with a way to view the experience in a very logical and western-friendly way. Now some people may not question anything about their trip, and that point i have honestly overlooked. The way i word things is quite arrogant, I do see that after rereading my posts, and am reconsidering my approach and attitude quite seriously.
I do really feel that in reading the manual completely, the theories and methods outlined are very hard to deny. It wasn't just written by Leary, but by a team of Ph.D's, and is basically a translation of Bardo Thodol, or The Tibetan Book of the Dead, which is book about what to do in the period between death and rebirth. (This intermediary period was likened to the LSD experience by Leary and his colleagues.)
Hear me out - This may sound like a load of shit at face value, but I believe the process of death and rebirth is a metaphor for archetypical human experiences that happen to our egos perpetually on many scales at once. As we mature and make discoveries about ourselves, we often struggle through the periods of change. This struggle can be observed during the discomfort one may experience during the 'come up' phase. I find LSD to put my mind in a state that leaves me particularly vulnerable to psychological 'rebirth'.
For example, consider a child swearing for the first time. His mother disciplines him for doing so, and thus the process of death and rebirth can be observed. A part of the child's innocent psyche dies, and is reborn through the process of punishment, as a more 'mature' child, since he now knows the cause and effect of swearing in front of his parents and therefore (hopefully) would not do it again. In the process of learning from experience, part of the ego is transformed and becomes
seemingly more aware, and ancient authors of Bardo Thodol as well as Leary saw this process as a 'rebirth.'
Leary and his colleagues evidently saw this process occurring to people under the influence of LSD to a much greater extent/higher rate than under normal everyday circumstances, and therefore felt it important to translate this manual for people like us to better understand how to comfortably accept the intense changes and lessons that are induced by a strong psychedelic experience while they are happening. His goal was to prevent negative or frightening experiences for everyone that took the drug, and that I quite admire about him.
Please don't fall victim to believing this, before it ends up happening to you.
Though, I may be more aware than you might think. I did use opiates and moved into shooting heroin and smoking crack, along with a heavy side use of phenazepam, mdpv, and ketamine on the regular, for about a quarter of my life. I was able to detox cold turkey after eventually losing everything. I read the manual for the first time and took LSD during my acute withdrawal, as a form of self therapy. I used negative imagery associated with (mainly) heroin, and feel that I was able to reform the way I viewed heroin. I feel the experiment was a success, as I now view opiates in a negative light, which for me has been healthy.
It's been about a year and half and so far haven't shown any sings of addictive behavior, but I do however still use various drugs roughly once a week. Never opiates or crack, though.. my interest in taking these substances has completely diminished, astonishingly. To me, the twelve step method made no sense at all. I studied Learys '8 circuit model of consciousness' and the 'Psychedelic Experience' manual, and that alone helped me to understand my addictive behaviors
far more than any counselor or therapist ever could.
It was this that lead me to have such a fondness for Tim Leary as a person in general, and I didn't really realize he was a controversial topic. I vaguely know of his legacy and basically formed my opinion of him based solely on those two pieces of literature.
In my opinion, the 'incorrect use' of psychedelics as i had defined earlier lead me to a very confused and depressed state of mind, and ultimately lead me to escapist drugs. I like to believe that, had i read the manual prior to experimenting with psychedelics, I may never have underestimated the power of LSD and/or took the experience for granted (which so many people
seem to do). It is my hope that people can understand that I am only trying to help, and although coming off like a total prick (which i agree with and am sorry about), my intentions are from the heart, to provide another way to look at LSD and other entheogens that may possibly benefit and possibly save somebody from the trauma that psychedelics can very well induce.
I hope this sort of puts me on better terms, this is all just my experience and my opinion and I happened to find that my ideas about LSD are similar to Leary's ideas. I don't really know what type of person he really was, but the readings make a lot of sense to me and I thought that they would to others.
![:\](https://bluelight.org/xf/BL_Images/Orig_Emoji/wrygrin.gif "wry grin :\")
) of all kinds. You can elicit the very same frustration from a wine enthusiast by getting pissed on his favourite vintage and then vomiting it up, for example. I do get frustrated when people use psychedelics irresponsibly, like your friends disregarding set and setting, but as to using them properly I disagree. The life-changing and spiritual aspects of these drugs are deeply personal. There's no proper way to use LSD and as far as educating people in the use psychedelic I think it should be limited to HR.
