3 ms·

A friend of mine had very good results in work with micro-dosing - he took 1/10 of trip dose and was more focused and creative. He suffered no hallucinations or

by zebra 13y ago

A friend of mine had very good results in work with micro-dosing - he took 1/10 of trip dose and was more focused and creative. He suffered no hallucinations or giggles. EDIT: Just trying to give second good use of this substance. Easing the suffering of a terminally ill person is good. Enhancing creativity and focus in young person is also good.

ambler0 13y ago
Was this friend working in the laboratory then?
Pxtl 13y ago
To be fair, the article is about the polar opposite approach: Giving a full-bore hallucinogenic dose to people who are dying anyways so it really can't make their situation worse, and seeing if it helps them cope with the inevitable. Which is very interesting. I always feel like the war on drugs is horribly unfair to people in end-of-life situations who really should have access to all the most destructive mind-altering chemicals to ease that.
- kmtrowbr 13y ago
  Just to be fair, 'destructive' seems like a bad adjective to apply to LSD. It's way, way less toxic than alcohol, for example. http://www.economist.com/blogs/dailychart/2010/11/drugs_cause_most_harm http://www.economist.com/blogs/dailychart/2010/11/drugs_caus... http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Drug_danger_and_dependence.png http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Drug_danger_and_depen... 'Mind altering' yes, I will grant you that. But most things you ingest are mind altering. For example, this chocolate chip cookie I am eating now will shortly make me feel a burst of energy, but then shortly afterwards, sleepy and fat.
- rasur 13y ago
  I believe it was Aldous Huxley who, on his death-bed, requested a mixture of LSD and Opiates to leave this world by. Frankly, I applaud that kind of thinking. EDIT: My apologies, I did not see dns's comment below, saying the same thing, but with actual links :)
berberous 13y ago
I've never tried micro-dosing but those interested in the idea should check out Gwern's lengthy piece on the subject: http://www.gwern.net/LSD%20microdosing http://www.gwern.net/LSD%20microdosing
- natdempk 13y ago
  When this got posted before on HN the consensus was likely that the LSD got destroyed before he actually took any. I would really like to see that study done with more controlled dosing/storage.
  - gwern 13y ago
    The comments to that effect were balderdash.
    - natdempk 13y ago
      Right, didn't realize that the article was updated to address some of the concerns that were initially left. Have you considered repeating the experiment with a slightly larger dosage?
      - gwern 13y ago
        No, not really. It's a relatively expensive and illegal habit, LSD has gotten much harder to get due to the black-market turmoil, and I think my experiment massively knocked down the already-low odds microdoses would do anything useful for me. It is unlikely I will ever revisit the topic unless some other high-quality blinded experiments are released.
- melloclello 13y ago
  I have tried microdosing. Took a sixth of a tab and disappeared for eight hours. When I emerged from this fugue state there was all this code there that wasn't there before~ In retrospect, that probably wasn't microdosing so much as it was just coding on acid.

by zebra 13y ago

ambler0 13y ago

Was this friend working in the laboratory then?

Pxtl 13y ago

To be fair, the article is about the polar opposite approach: Giving a full-bore hallucinogenic dose to people who are dying anyways so it really can't make their situation worse, and seeing if it helps them cope with the inevitable. Which is very interesting. I always feel like the war on drugs is horribly unfair to people in end-of-life situations who really should have access to all the most destructive mind-altering chemicals to ease that.

kmtrowbr 13y ago
Just to be fair, 'destructive' seems like a bad adjective to apply to LSD. It's way, way less toxic than alcohol, for example. http://www.economist.com/blogs/dailychart/2010/11/drugs_cause_most_harm http://www.economist.com/blogs/dailychart/2010/11/drugs_caus... http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Drug_danger_and_dependence.png http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Drug_danger_and_depen... 'Mind altering' yes, I will grant you that. But most things you ingest are mind altering. For example, this chocolate chip cookie I am eating now will shortly make me feel a burst of energy, but then shortly afterwards, sleepy and fat.
rasur 13y ago
I believe it was Aldous Huxley who, on his death-bed, requested a mixture of LSD and Opiates to leave this world by. Frankly, I applaud that kind of thinking. EDIT: My apologies, I did not see dns's comment below, saying the same thing, but with actual links :)

berberous 13y ago

I've never tried micro-dosing but those interested in the idea should check out Gwern's lengthy piece on the subject: http://www.gwern.net/LSD%20microdosing http://www.gwern.net/LSD%20microdosing

natdempk 13y ago
When this got posted before on HN the consensus was likely that the LSD got destroyed before he actually took any. I would really like to see that study done with more controlled dosing/storage.
- gwern 13y ago
  The comments to that effect were balderdash.
  - natdempk 13y ago
    Right, didn't realize that the article was updated to address some of the concerns that were initially left. Have you considered repeating the experiment with a slightly larger dosage?
    - gwern 13y ago
      No, not really. It's a relatively expensive and illegal habit, LSD has gotten much harder to get due to the black-market turmoil, and I think my experiment massively knocked down the already-low odds microdoses would do anything useful for me. It is unlikely I will ever revisit the topic unless some other high-quality blinded experiments are released.
melloclello 13y ago
I have tried microdosing. Took a sixth of a tab and disappeared for eight hours. When I emerged from this fugue state there was all this code there that wasn't there before~ In retrospect, that probably wasn't microdosing so much as it was just coding on acid.