Better Living Through Chemistry
Albert Hoffman describes
the use of LSD (a psychedelic class narcotic) in this way: “my visual field
wavered and everything appeared deformed as in a faulty mirror. Space and time became more and more
disorganized and I was overcome by a fear that I was going out of my mind, the
worst part of it being that I was clearly aware of my condition. (Uppers,
Downers, All Arounders, 2011).
It’s a wonder he
even continued to run experiments on this as well as new psychedelics after
such a negative trip.
For those of you
who do not know exactly what LSD is, it is a hallucinogenic drug found in the
ergot fungus or also synthesized (Uppers, Downers, All Arounders. P. 1.41).
Drugs that induce paranoia and hallucinations became popular in the 1960s with
the counter culture. Even the U.S Army and the C.I.A. experimented with them as
chemical weapons, mind-control drugs, and truth serums.
The use of
psychochemical for intelligence purposes gained speed during the cold war
(newyorker.com).
Dr.
Van Murray Sim was the founder of Edgewood Arsenal’s program of clinical
research on psychochemicals.
He was the fellow who began pursuing the use of psychedelics for intel purposes
at Edgewood and in my opinion he was quite mad.
I say that because
he allowed even himself to be experimented on. For example, In
1959, he was the first person to be given VX, a highly lethal nerve agent.
References:
Newyorker.com retrieved from:
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2012/12/us-army-experiments-with-lsd-in-the-cold-war.html
2011, Uppers, Downers, All Arounders
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