LSD 229
people push past weariness. Five years passed before he accidentally discov-
ered the drug’s ability to alter physical and mental perceptions. One element
of his discovery was the drug’s potency. A later estimate calculated that one
ounce is enough for 300,000 doses. Authorities list the substance as 3,000 to
4,000 times stronger thanmescaline. One authority lists LSD as 30 times
stronger thanDOM.
LSD strikes down barriers. Barriers between physical senses can disappear,
allowing colors to be smelled and sounds to be seen. Psychological barriers
can disappear, allowing insights that help people to cope with long-standing
problems. Barriers between shared realities and personal fantasies can disap-
pear, with people perceiving sights and sounds that no one around them is
experiencing. Those perceptions can be so compelling that some people be-
lieve the drug strikes down barriers separating us from realities that are oth-
erwise inaccessible. Some users report a mystical experience; some simply gain
pleasure. Other possibilities include terrifying hallucinations and psychoses
impelling persons to do things that may harm themselves or other individuals
(a 1968 report from a government official about LSD users staring at the sun
until they were blinded turned out to be a hoax, but similar reports have
appeared since then). An LSD user’s personality, expectations, and surround-
ings all influence outcome of a dose. The drug’s effects are not invariable.
Investigators have found that LSD is more rewarding for people who are
spontaneous and inspired by impulses from within themselves than for people
who are conforming and controlling.
Some results perceived by users turn out to be illusory. Artists who took
the drug felt more creative for months afterward, but scientists who gave tests
to detect elements of creativity found no change from predrug performance.
On a test of sketching the human form the artists did worse than before,
indicating that technical proficiency declined. An experiment involving word
and image tests found LSD did not enhance creativity of normal persons.
Despite LSD’s power, volunteers have typically been able to push through
their intoxication and produce almost normal results in psychological tests
given during the drug experience. One investigator noted that the experimen-
tal setting of such tests seemed to weaken the drug’s effects. Ability to perform
“almost” normally in a laboratory does not necessarily transfer to tasks of
everyday life, however. For example, a person intoxicated by LSD should not
attempt to engage in dangerous activity such as driving a car. During 1943 in
one of the first recorded LSD experiences the drug’s inventor was barely able
to ride a bicycle, let alone drive a car, while under the influence. He had the
illusion of being almost motionless, although he was actually traveling at nor-
mal speed, an indication that so many events were happening to him at once
that his perception of time contracted—and an indication that he was in no
condition to judge the speed of vehicles on the road. His feeling of time con-
traction in turn expanded his perception of space, a linkage that drug re-
searchers can demonstrate, which probably made him feel he had a vaster
distance to travel and was making little progress.
Before American government authorities certified LSD as having no medical
value in 1970, the substance was used for a variety of therapeutic purposes.
LSD has stimulant effects allowing it to be used as an antidote for barbiturate