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My group was pretty intense with experimenting with LSD. Early trips were always fairly controlled environments in that it was away from people. Countless trips

My group was pretty intense with experimenting with LSD. Early trips were always fairly controlled environments in that it was away from people. Countless trips in nature (the forest of nisene marks if you are in the bay area). We always fasted eight hours before taking the drug. We found that anytime we tried to prime the trip with stuff, music, movies, specific places, what have you, we would almost always forget/ignore/not care about the priming once the peak kicked in. On the other hand we were never "turned on" to it by anyone. A friend and I were reading High Times and there was an article about it. After reading it we knew we had to try it out. We did read quite a bit more about the drug before taking it. I knew Peter Stafford and as a teenager did graphic work on his book: Psychedelics Encyclopedia. I guess we came to LSD from a scientific rather than spiritual perspective. We already understood how the drug worked and why. That likely lessened the mystical impact that we might have had otherwise. Humorously enough I did take it once in church. My friends dragged me off to a seventh day Adventist camp to hit on the christian girls, as only one of my friends had family in that church. Walked in to a giant packed hall right before the opening sermon and just as I was starting to peak. Got a giant Nope, this is not the place for me and walked right out...

pmoriarty 5y ago
"I knew Peter Stafford and as a teenager did graphic work on his book: Psychedelics Encyclopedia." That's really cool. I loved that book. Cheers to you and Peter Stafford from a fan! And thank you both for the good work you did. Regarding priming, perhaps the priming material needs to be seen or heard near the peak in order for it to influence the peak, and of course if you're getting a message from the sermon that seems to be the opposite of sacred to you (such as self-righteous fire and brimstone admonitions which you don't believe in or consider ridiculous) then you're likely to have a negative reaction. But you could choose to be in a sacred space you actually like.. like a peaceful, beautiful cathedral or mosque with gorgeous stained glass, mosaics, or other artworks you really appreciated, and go there in a quiet time when you can meditate on the material rather than be yelled at from the pulpit by someone you don't respect. That's when I'd expect mystical experiences to be most likely.
- BashiBazouk 5y ago
  Peter passed years ago, brought down by alcohol. Lesson in there somewhere. I think it's the 2nd edition that has a thank you to my father in the forward. My father ran a graphics arts photography house that I worked in all through my youth. I did most the halftones for the 2nd edition. "A Friend With Weed is A Friend Indeed" was definitely in the book it's also in one of the compendiums of clip art, I think that is where Peter found it. My favorite was the spider webs where they fed various drugs to orb weavers and see what effect it had on the webs and the near perfection of the LSD web. One year Peter gave drug talks. Each week would have it's subject be a single drug. I went to the MDMA talk. A bunch of us took the drug then answered questions and shared our experiences as the talk went on. To this day I am shocked the authorities let him get away with it. Peter Stafford was a trip. Brilliant guy but goofy as hell. He was tall and lanky and talked like goofy the Disney cartoon character. Picture goofy explaining graduate level organic chemistry, strange and wonderful at the same time. I first did LSD on a warm rock in a babbling brook in Aspen. The next few were in the fore mentioned Nisene Marks. A state park and redwood forest. It had been clear cut in the late 1800s and has mostly grown back with fairy circles of redwood trees surrounding the huge stumps of cut old growth redwoods. If ever there were places for me to get mystical, those two would be at the top of my list. I also read Carlos Castaneda's The Teachings of Don Juan during that period, so I am familiar with the idea of mysticism with Psychedelics. In my and my friends case it just never took for whatever reason...
  - pmoriarty 5y ago
    I'm sorry to hear about Peter Stafford's passing. What a loss. I also loved those spiderweb photos. It's fascinating that even tiny little critters like that could be profoundly affected by these substances, and that such striking visual evidence of this could be found. It reminds me of an article I read about octopi who were given MDMA. Usually, according to the article, octopi are very solitary creatures who avoid contact with others of their kind and if two are placed in the same tank they'd move as far away from each other as possible, but when MDMA was put in the water they tentatively extended their tentacles towards one another and touched.

pmoriarty 5y ago

"I knew Peter Stafford and as a teenager did graphic work on his book: Psychedelics Encyclopedia." That's really cool. I loved that book. Cheers to you and Peter Stafford from a fan! And thank you both for the good work you did. Regarding priming, perhaps the priming material needs to be seen or heard near the peak in order for it to influence the peak, and of course if you're getting a message from the sermon that seems to be the opposite of sacred to you (such as self-righteous fire and brimstone admonitions which you don't believe in or consider ridiculous) then you're likely to have a negative reaction. But you could choose to be in a sacred space you actually like.. like a peaceful, beautiful cathedral or mosque with gorgeous stained glass, mosaics, or other artworks you really appreciated, and go there in a quiet time when you can meditate on the material rather than be yelled at from the pulpit by someone you don't respect. That's when I'd expect mystical experiences to be most likely.

BashiBazouk 5y ago
Peter passed years ago, brought down by alcohol. Lesson in there somewhere. I think it's the 2nd edition that has a thank you to my father in the forward. My father ran a graphics arts photography house that I worked in all through my youth. I did most the halftones for the 2nd edition. "A Friend With Weed is A Friend Indeed" was definitely in the book it's also in one of the compendiums of clip art, I think that is where Peter found it. My favorite was the spider webs where they fed various drugs to orb weavers and see what effect it had on the webs and the near perfection of the LSD web. One year Peter gave drug talks. Each week would have it's subject be a single drug. I went to the MDMA talk. A bunch of us took the drug then answered questions and shared our experiences as the talk went on. To this day I am shocked the authorities let him get away with it. Peter Stafford was a trip. Brilliant guy but goofy as hell. He was tall and lanky and talked like goofy the Disney cartoon character. Picture goofy explaining graduate level organic chemistry, strange and wonderful at the same time. I first did LSD on a warm rock in a babbling brook in Aspen. The next few were in the fore mentioned Nisene Marks. A state park and redwood forest. It had been clear cut in the late 1800s and has mostly grown back with fairy circles of redwood trees surrounding the huge stumps of cut old growth redwoods. If ever there were places for me to get mystical, those two would be at the top of my list. I also read Carlos Castaneda's The Teachings of Don Juan during that period, so I am familiar with the idea of mysticism with Psychedelics. In my and my friends case it just never took for whatever reason...
- pmoriarty 5y ago
  I'm sorry to hear about Peter Stafford's passing. What a loss. I also loved those spiderweb photos. It's fascinating that even tiny little critters like that could be profoundly affected by these substances, and that such striking visual evidence of this could be found. It reminds me of an article I read about octopi who were given MDMA. Usually, according to the article, octopi are very solitary creatures who avoid contact with others of their kind and if two are placed in the same tank they'd move as far away from each other as possible, but when MDMA was put in the water they tentatively extended their tentacles towards one another and touched.