^^That woman was a friend of Picard, the infamous chemist who synthesized much of the world's LSD until 2000 (he is now serving a mandatory minimum life sentence without the possibility of parole or appeal--ironic that he would have done much less time for murder...fucking government shitbags). So, yeah, she was definitely an "experienced tripper." But, I don't know how much of her story I would actually believe (she wrote a book called 'Lysergic,' if I recall correctly).
And now back to our lysgeramide of the hour. I wonder what the stability of LAOH outside the context of biological organism is? I mean, in both plants and fungi, there are biosynthetic enzymes that catalyze its oxidation. Although, the degradation to unsubstituted lysergamide seems to be unfortunately spontaneous according to the article. The ephemeral nature of LAOH and/or ergometrine would certainly explain the unpredictable response of things such as HBWR seeds--some batches elicit responses amazingly close to LSD, others elicit a more torpid, side-effect laden trip.