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To understand the experience of LSD, I recommend "The New Alchemy" by Alan Watts. http://www.psychedelic-library.org/alchemy.htm http://www.psychedelic-library

To understand the experience of LSD, I recommend "The New Alchemy" by Alan Watts. http://www.psychedelic-library.org/alchemy.htm http://www.psychedelic-library.org/alchemy.htm

rfrank 11y ago
I've done it several times (as well as basically all popular hallucinogens). I know all about the drug, its impacts on the brain, what it's actually like being on it, etc. I've also lived around many drippy hippie types in Santa Cruz, and the new wave of "microdosing is the key to creative coding" types, and their insights are equally bullshit to me.
- bjshepard 11y ago
  Ok, but I don't know if anything you just said entails the claim that "Anyone who says LSD makes you smarter is stupid" -- I may be stupid, but I don't think the argument that (a) LSD offers a temporary alternate form of consciousness that (b) can lead to valuable insights and discoveries which (c) improve your overall cognition is a bad one.
  - rfrank 11y ago
    Cocaine leads to a temporary alternate form of consciousness that may or may not lead to valuable insights too. So does ecstacy, or ketamine, or modafinil, or coffee, or weed, or the 2c-X family, or whatever RC you want to take, or yoga, or meditation. A temporary change in perception is not an increase in intelligence.
- ksk 11y ago
  If you know all about the drug as you say, then you should also know that it has different effects for different people. Why do you automatically assume that people claiming to have benefited from LSD are stupid?
  - rfrank 11y ago
    Define "benefited". Saying, "I dropped acid and learned about myself," is very different from saying, "I dropped acid and became smarter." If you're in the latter camp, yes, I'm going to assume you're stupid.
    - ksk 11y ago
      First of all, I think you're expecting way too much rigor from non-scientific, colloquial use of words. You already know what people mean when they talk about things in the general sense. In any case, its not for me to define. If someone tells me they dropped acid and it helped them in solving a problem, or opened their eyes to new ways of solving them, I'd take them at their word. In the context of altered mental states being beneficial, its not completely absurd to suggest so. This is justified in a day-to-day practical sense, much like if someone told me a restaurant was good, I would not conduct a scientific inquiry around the topic.
      - rfrank 11y ago
        I think you're ignoring the context in which I originally replied in this thread. "Dual n-back, coffee, LSD. All things people swear make you smarter." It's not up for debate that people find a benefit from LSD. Or any drug. It's literally the reason that people do drugs in the first place. The question is whether or not they make you more intelligent. Able to process information more quickly and accurately. And to that my answer is a resounding no. And call me crazy, but yes, I do think you should approach an extremely powerful hallucinogen whose dose is measured in micrograms with some rigor and discipline. The potential harm to someone's mental state is a serious risk of LSD that people tend to under appreciate until they've seen it happen to someone.
        ksk 11y ago
        Okay, fair enough. However, I'd like to point out that there is no objective metric for intelligence. Do you consider musical ability as intelligence? Several musicians have claimed to become 'more intelligent' with drugs. Also, my use of the word rigor was about the discussion, not the consumption of LSD. I don't want to comment one way or the other on whether one should consume drugs.
- cmrdporcupine 11y ago
  I agree. "Coding" requires concentration, attention to consistency and detail, organization, and sitting in one place for many hours. None of those things are anything like what I'd describe experience of LSD, even at very low doses, is like. Rather, I'd say the opposite. When I was a kid I'd open my VIC-20 and deliberately "circuit bend" it; make connections across the data or address bus that would cause garble to show on the screen, etc. I think of many hallucinogens of acting in the same category; they have an effect, a very interesting effect, and alter the experience of the world. But not in any kind of systematic organized fashion. The chief insight from taking something like LSD is that perception is plastic. Which most of us know already. After you learn that lesson there's not much more to learn and it becomes a purely aesthetic, and quite uncomfortable, experience.

To understand the experience of LSD, I recommend "The New Alchemy" by Alan Watts. http://www.psychedelic-library.org/alchemy.htm http://www.psychedelic-library.org/alchemy.htm

rfrank 11y ago

I've done it several times (as well as basically all popular hallucinogens). I know all about the drug, its impacts on the brain, what it's actually like being on it, etc. I've also lived around many drippy hippie types in Santa Cruz, and the new wave of "microdosing is the key to creative coding" types, and their insights are equally bullshit to me.

bjshepard 11y ago
Ok, but I don't know if anything you just said entails the claim that "Anyone who says LSD makes you smarter is stupid" -- I may be stupid, but I don't think the argument that (a) LSD offers a temporary alternate form of consciousness that (b) can lead to valuable insights and discoveries which (c) improve your overall cognition is a bad one.
- rfrank 11y ago
  Cocaine leads to a temporary alternate form of consciousness that may or may not lead to valuable insights too. So does ecstacy, or ketamine, or modafinil, or coffee, or weed, or the 2c-X family, or whatever RC you want to take, or yoga, or meditation. A temporary change in perception is not an increase in intelligence.
ksk 11y ago
If you know all about the drug as you say, then you should also know that it has different effects for different people. Why do you automatically assume that people claiming to have benefited from LSD are stupid?
- rfrank 11y ago
  Define "benefited". Saying, "I dropped acid and learned about myself," is very different from saying, "I dropped acid and became smarter." If you're in the latter camp, yes, I'm going to assume you're stupid.
  - ksk 11y ago
    First of all, I think you're expecting way too much rigor from non-scientific, colloquial use of words. You already know what people mean when they talk about things in the general sense. In any case, its not for me to define. If someone tells me they dropped acid and it helped them in solving a problem, or opened their eyes to new ways of solving them, I'd take them at their word. In the context of altered mental states being beneficial, its not completely absurd to suggest so. This is justified in a day-to-day practical sense, much like if someone told me a restaurant was good, I would not conduct a scientific inquiry around the topic.
    - rfrank 11y ago
      I think you're ignoring the context in which I originally replied in this thread. "Dual n-back, coffee, LSD. All things people swear make you smarter." It's not up for debate that people find a benefit from LSD. Or any drug. It's literally the reason that people do drugs in the first place. The question is whether or not they make you more intelligent. Able to process information more quickly and accurately. And to that my answer is a resounding no. And call me crazy, but yes, I do think you should approach an extremely powerful hallucinogen whose dose is measured in micrograms with some rigor and discipline. The potential harm to someone's mental state is a serious risk of LSD that people tend to under appreciate until they've seen it happen to someone.
      - ksk 11y ago
        Okay, fair enough. However, I'd like to point out that there is no objective metric for intelligence. Do you consider musical ability as intelligence? Several musicians have claimed to become 'more intelligent' with drugs. Also, my use of the word rigor was about the discussion, not the consumption of LSD. I don't want to comment one way or the other on whether one should consume drugs.
cmrdporcupine 11y ago
I agree. "Coding" requires concentration, attention to consistency and detail, organization, and sitting in one place for many hours. None of those things are anything like what I'd describe experience of LSD, even at very low doses, is like. Rather, I'd say the opposite. When I was a kid I'd open my VIC-20 and deliberately "circuit bend" it; make connections across the data or address bus that would cause garble to show on the screen, etc. I think of many hallucinogens of acting in the same category; they have an effect, a very interesting effect, and alter the experience of the world. But not in any kind of systematic organized fashion. The chief insight from taking something like LSD is that perception is plastic. Which most of us know already. After you learn that lesson there's not much more to learn and it becomes a purely aesthetic, and quite uncomfortable, experience.