LSD: Fruit from the Tree of Knowledge, or Dumbo's feather?

[MidGe]

My question is how do you know you took LSD. I have old memories of Sandoz making it, of a pharmaceutical quality, but that was many decades ago.

[tame_deuces]

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Nice idea! It would probably work better if we didn't know the effects are caused by changes in the brain similar to mental illnesses.

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Yep, altered states of consciousness as they call it. My favorite is sleep.

Beyond that I love the chemically induced state of transcendence you get from beer and tequila. I get in complete touch with my inner emotions of happiness and no longer feel the need to keep a lid on any negativity within me. It also brings people together and you see them in new beautiful ways that will all but be gone when you wake up in the morning, and you will long for your lost naiveness of the night before and feel almost guilty for giving in to it. You lose the social shyness of making mistakes, making noise and you can revel in the sensation of seeing your arm move the glass and wondering if it is your own arm. And then you can solve world problems on napkins and when the night closes to an end you will appreciate food like you haven't in days simply because of the raw sensations coarsing through your body.


Funky!

[Jamougha]

The dissociative effect can relieve you of your ego and make it easier to see things clearly. However the sense that you understand everything perfectly is actually an illusion created by the drug. Sometimes it happens to be true, but that's not what produces the feeling that it is.

[Alex-db]

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Back when I did LSD, I remember saying that everyone should take acid at least once in their lives, because there is a reality, an existence, that isn't perceptible or even commprehensible to those who have never done so.

So yes, it is definitely enlightening. But now that I'm older (and wiser?), I'm not so sure about what I was experiencing back then. I thought my brain was litereally opening up to other dimensions. Now, I'm not so sure that's the case. More likely, you're just experiencing a drug induced hallucination. Hence, the term mind alterating drugs.
That was a long time ago and the intensity/memory has faded some.

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I still think everyone should try shrooms once. There were a variety of positives, but one notable one was experiencing various synethesia and clarity in listening to music and imagining/creating images.

It lets me remeber that although I don't care greatly for (or possible "get") art and music, other people may experience it normally more like I did that night, so I have a bit more understanding of why music and art are big deals, and a pointer in the direction of appreciating them.

[soon2bepro]

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You'll like this:

The Myth of Myself

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Well, I already knew this, but this guy claims there is some sort of purpose to it, or some sort of relief in knowing that... I think he's wrong. Purposes, emotions, desires... They all make no sense when thinking of the universe as a whole and no individualities.

We feel like individuals because that's how we survive. If we didn't, we would die, probably starving. No action makes any sense without purpose, without individuality, without ego.

[soon2bepro]

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The dissociative effect can relieve you of your ego and make it easier to see things clearly. However the sense that you understand everything perfectly is actually an illusion created by the drug.

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I didn't feel I understood everything perfectly, but it was much easier to understand some things, mainly because I had almost no bias/inhibitions towards thinking or saying anything.

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Sometimes it happens to be true, but that's not what produces the feeling that it is.

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Actually, I think it is. When I felt I had just discovered or thought out something great or deep, I'd feel excited by it at first, but then felt it must have been the drug that made me feel that way; only to later find out that it was really something true and amazing about myself, others, society, etc. Everyone I talked to during the trip agreed on most of my thoughts, and most of them didn't take any drugs.

This happened with about 95%+ of my thoughts, and I was thinking/feeling something different every couple minutes or so. Maybe it's just me though. I'm not claiming the same will happen to anyone who takes LSD.

[madnak]

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The dissociative effect can relieve you of your ego and make it easier to see things clearly. However the sense that you understand everything perfectly is actually an illusion created by the drug. Sometimes it happens to be true, but that's not what produces the feeling that it is.

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Good point. The question of whether LSD can help you see some things more clearly and the question of whether your feeling of clarity on LSD is valid are two very different questions.

[CORed]

I've done LSD several times and mushrooms a few, and while I found both to be an intensely enjoyable experience, I don't really think I gained any really profound insights. In most trips, there was a time when it seemed like I had all the answers, but I could never seem to remember them after the drugs wore off.

[CORed]

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My question is how do you know you took LSD. I have old memories of Sandoz making it, of a pharmaceutical quality, but that was many decades ago.

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That's a good question. On several occasions, I took something that I was told was LSD, and experienced a very intense high. The drug had similar effects each time, and the effects seemed to be consistent with what I have read about other people's experience with LSD, but, since I did not have a chemical analysis done on the stuff, I can't say with absolute certainty that I took LSD.

[soon2bepro]

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My question is how do you know you took LSD.

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You don't know. you can but guess.

If it was legal on the other hand...