How foolish of me. I did not try cocaine and all the others. I feared them a lot. Only tried marijuana and I laughed a lot.
Now I'm on an antidepressant, a benzo and another drug.
Got no kicks from any of these.
And even champaign I avoid for I'm afraid of what might happen mixing alcohol with all of these.
Just want to remind you that I was never diagnosed any of the diseases.
I searched a psychiatrist to help me withdraw clonazepam and ended up experiencing all the psychotropics on the market.
I guess LSD might be better. Hofmann died at the age of 102. :o)

Just thought I'd check in. I have never used this drug, and the people around me who have used it were not trying to do the things that Hofmann described. I've always been afraid that if I did use it I would possibly "never come back." I'm alread kind of out there, at times.

Kind of a paradox about this drug: Bill Wilson, the founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, used this drug while it was still legal, with the author Aldous Huxley. Wilson finally acquieced to the admonishments of his fellow AA members, and stopped. I think he was probably doing a much different thing than the drug addicts that I grew up with in my dysfunctional, abusive and drug-filled household, and SO, I've held this ambiguity in my mind for a while.

Aldous Huxley wrote some beautiful things that helped me when I was in mental distress, about the inner child, buddhism, and training the mind to stay in the present, in his book "Island." I might be stretching it, but it seems like I felt Huxley's influence on 12-step groups back when I liked them more in the late 80s.

Sadly, Mr. Huxley died of liver cancer, if I'm correct, which is a common ailment for those of us who over do it on strong hallucinogens.

One thing I'm pretty convinced of is that if anyone does want to take this for any sort of benefit, like the legal drugs, it shouldn't be taken for too long of a period of time. And some of us, myself especially, probably can't handle it at all.

Well, Hofmann pegged it in that last paragraph. I've been saying similar things about the psychological problems induced by modern life, but not quite as eloquent.

I have found that working on one's garden and taking long walks tends to counter off some of the effects. Less dangerous too.

Using substances such as LSD in psychiatric settings won't work. Hallucinogenic substances are traditionally used to expand consciousness, i.e. to make unconscious contents conscious. Psychosis is (according to my very own experience) the mind's own trial to do the same (my view is quite a Laingian one, yes).

Psychiatry has tried to use, among lots of other substances, LSD to cure psychosis. People were given the substance, then they were left on their own, often in seclusion, only in the company of unempathetic staff, that had no qualities, neither professional nor human, that would have made it possible for them to deal constructively, supportingly with the situation.

Example: A woman, dx'ed with psychosis, was given LSD (against her will; she'd underwent the procedure several times before, and it had caused her nothing but great distress). Under the influence of it she said, she wanted to kill her husband. The psychiatrist present laughed at her, mocking her by saying: "Well then, go ahead, do it!" Later the same day, the woman managed to escape from the ward, went home and killed her husband. (This actually happened in Denmark.)

In traditional settings hallucinogenic substances are used to trigger personal development ("spiritual awakening") psychosis per se can lead to, if supported, not suppressed. But in order to make a constructive, positive development possible, it needs competent, present guidance. Being left alone in a seclusion room and maybe even mocked while you're having a psychotic experience, can only be destructive. With or without LSD (LSD making it worse, actually). The only way to make such a situation halfway endurable is to sedate the individual, using substances that work contrary to hallucinogetics, suppressing consciousness, not expanding it: neuroleptics.

Most psychiatrists think, they can escape the confrontation with the profoundly human but also challenging (both the concerned individuals and their surroundings) experience of being by using chemical substances, designed to suppress this very experience. Hallucinogetics such as LSD just do not work that way.

I think the guy was ahead of his time and probably had a fantastic life journey, he would be someone I would have loved have been able to have a conversation with-- and to live to be 102, incredible.

RIP Albert Hofmann

I've never been a big fan of LSD, it always put me a bit too much on edge. But magic mushrooms I have found are a great way to get rid of depression for a few weeks after using them to "trip out".
I found out a while back that the DEA gave authorization to some researchers to start doing research on using pslocybin/shrooms on patients with OCD because it had shown some promise in helping people with OCD overcome come thier compulsions.

Another hallucinogen that I have found to be helpful for my mental state for periods beyond just the trip itself has been Ibogaine. That one got rid opf my depression for a full two months, and helped me kick an opiate habbit the first time around.

I think the thing with LSD that makes it less useful for me is that it is easier to forget that the reason you're seeing and hearing and feeling all these strange things is because you are tripping, you get overtaken by the trip and lost in it more completely than some other hallucinogens.
With shrooms I can remember 98% of the time I am tripping that I am tripping, and that somehow makes the experience more useful. And Ibogaine, well that is a hallucinogen that is much much different than most others. It's more like being in a dream state, but in that dream state instead of the usual random and mostly meaningless dreams a person would have naturaly, your dreams are focused on processing the most important issues you have in life that you have not yet been able to come to terms with.

If there is any one hallucinogen I would say could be helpful for mental illnesses it's Ibogaine because unlike XTC it doesn't leave you depressed in the days and weeks after (rebound depression), if anything it gets rid of depression more often than causing it, and unlike XTC you don't really need a therapist or a guide to have a meaningful experience because it induces the type of trip that is commonly focused on processing old and disturbing memories and life experiences in a way where you can come to see them in a new and more healthy and helpful light. And since Ibogaine induces a dream like hallucinogenic state (you literaly have to lay down and keep your eyes closed to keep tripping) it isn't actually a very threatening feeling experience, the worst you could say a bad trip on Ibogaine is like is like having a bad very vivid nightmare.

Honestly if I had known how extreemly difficult it would be to get off the Seroquel when it was offered up as the solution to my problems, I would have chosen to just go buy some shrooms or gone out of the country to have another experience with Ibogaine (it's impossible to get the stuff shipped to the USA) and used a hallucinogenic experience to hit my "reset button" again like I have had success with so many times befor. Now instead of having some beautiful and MEANINGFUL experiences to look back on and credit with my feelings somewhat better I have a shitty ass pill to take every evening that I have to finaly admit I am addicted to and am having a harder time quitting than I ever did any other illegal drug in my life. And the worst thing is that because of the way that Seroquel works I can't even take shrooms, lsd Ibogaine or any hallucinogen other than Salvia because they wont have an effect. Instead I am stuck taking this drug day in and day out that makes me fat (over 70pounds of wieght gain in two years), apathetic, uninspired, unmotivated, unable to feel real happyness, unable to apreciate anything in life. Antipsychotics are the ultimate numbing agents.

Even as I am finding it impossible to quit the Seroquel I am continually able to keep lowering and lowering my dose of opiates, despite having had over a year of addiction like use (self medication for depression) and having my tolerance shoot up to over 120mg of oxycodone, I am having an easier time quitting the opiates than the acceptable and freely prescribed psych med Seroquel.

It just makes me think about how STUPID the lines we draw between what substances are legal and acceptable for use in mental disorders and what substances are illegal and unacceptable to use. I've had plenty of experience with both legal and illegal drugs and I have to say in all honesty I do not see a big difference in the negative effects they can have upon a persons life and wellbeing other than that the illegal drugs carry the extra burden of thier being illegal in the first place. In fact I have found it much easier to quit illegal drugs when the time comes that I realize they're not really helping me have a better life than it has been to quit 90% of the psych meds I have tried over the years.
I've known for over a year now that Seroquel is having an overall bad effect upon my quality of life and my ability to function but it is so difficult to taper down the dosage and still feel somewhat decent that I have always ended up raising my dose back up to 300 or 450mg just to feel better. It's exactly like being addicted to any addictive drug, except with the Seroquel it's easy to get from any doctor and covered by my insurance...oh and suppossedly not addictive. But when it comes to trying to quit, even though I KNOW it's having an overall bad effect on my life, I still end up jonesing for the drug at the end of the day, end up relapsing up to my original dose when life and all the added withdrawal effects becomes too much to deal with... it is worse than trying to quit an opiate habbit and everyone knows that it's no cakewalk to quit opiates. At least with opiates my WILLPOWER to quit can overcome my jonesing to relapse, but with Seroquel my willpower doesn't mean shit.
Oh well, maybe 10 or 15 years from now the system will have changed and there will be detox facilities for people needing to come off thier psych meds and not just for people trying to come off street drugs. Until then I guess I am just going to have to keep enduring psychiatrist visits where I am told that I'm not addicted to Seroquel, that it's not possible and that all my problems stem from those evil opiates... even though I can (and am) taper down on the dose of and quit those without being reduced to a suicidal anxiety ridden self loathing shell of a human being.

Yay for psych meds and boo to street drugs. Yeah, that totaly makes sense based on my experience. NOT

On death, Hofmann said, “I go back to where I came from, to where I was before I was born, that’s all.”
On April 19th, 1943, Hofmann created the most powerful psychotropic substance: LSD, and experienced the first LSD “trip”. He was a chemist who valued a drug as a way to understand people’s oneness with nature. For the complete story on “Bicycle Day”, be sure to watch this amazing documentary Hofmann’s Potion