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psychology psychedelics the uses and implications of hallucinogenic drugs by bernard aaronson and humphry osmond in 1957 dr humphry osmond first coined the word psychedelic to describe the mind-expanding drugs then familiar to only a small minority of researchers and acid-heads in these remarkably few years this term and the drugs it refers to have become household words ominous headlines have warned us of their dangers while madison avenue has revelled in the delights of the psychedelic sub-culture this book is a broad and serious inquiry into this much-discussed topic it will enlighten and surprise the uninitiated as well as the frequent user it includes first-hand reports of the nature of the experience recent scientific theories the use of psychedelics in primitive and non-western cultures and the sociology of drugs in our own society there are also sections on the potential creative uses of psychedelics from the enhancement of religious experience to the treatment of alcoholics and the design of mental hospitals the contributors include noted scientists psychologists sociologists and religious leaders all of them help to throw some light on a subject which in spite of the interest it generates has produced a great deal of misinformation government restrictions have in fact brought the progress of muchneeded research almost to a halt psychedelics is a plea for and an invitation to enlightenment painting by jose and miriam argüelles cover design by ted bernstein a doubleday anchor original[close]
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bernard aaronson is head of the section of experimental psychology bureau of research in neurology and psychiatry princeton new jersey he is a well-known investigator in the field of consciousness expansion his article on hypnosis depth perception and the psychedelic experience appears in charles tart s altered states of consciousness humphry osmond is the bureau s direc tor of research in neurology and psychiatry the man who first coined the term psychedelics he is the co-author with abram hoffer of how to live with schizophrenia chemical basis of clinical psychiatry and new hope for alcoholics.[close]
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psychedelics the uses and implications o f hallucinogenic drugs edited by bernard aaronson and humphry osmond anchor books doubleday company inc garden city new york 1970[close]
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grateful acknowledgment is made to the following for permission to reprint their copyrighted material the bobbs-merrill company inc and international journal of parapsychology for drugs and mysticism by walter n pahnke reprinted from international journal o f parapsychology vol 8 1966 no 2 also appeared in the use o f lsd in psychotherapy and alcoholism edited by harold a abramson copyright © 1967 by harold a abramson reprinted by permission of the publishers international journal of parapsychology for peyote night by humphry osmond from tomorrow vol 9 1961 no 2 lothar g knauth for the teonanacatl in pre-conquest accounts and today by lothar g knauth in estudios de cultura nahuatl 1962 vol 5 fred b rothman co and calilaw review fornia for psychedelics and religious experience by alan watts california law review vol 56 no 1 january 1968 copyright © 1968 california law review inc company wilkins the williams baltimore and arthur deikman for implications of experimentally induced contemplative meditation by arthur deikman in the journal o f nervous and mental disease 142 101-116 1966 library of congress catalog card number 70-103788 copyright © 1970 by bernard aaronson and humphry osmond all rights reserved printed in the united states of america first edition[close]
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contents part i introduction psychedelics technology psychedelics bernard s aaronson and humphry osmond part ii the nature of the experience 1 mescaline on being mad humphry osmond 2 mescaline experience and reflections e robert sinnett 3 psilocybin an adventure in psilocybin stanley krippner 4 psilocybin the use of psilocybin in a prison setting jonathan clark 5 lsd what i deserved bernard s aaronson 6 lsd who am i and so what if i am jerry richardson 7 yagé yagé in the valley of fire peter stafford part iii anthropological considerations 1 peyote night humphry osmond 2 report of the mescaline experience of crashing thunder paul radin 3 mushrooms and the mind ralph metzner 4 some anthropological aspects of yagé jeffrey linzer 5 marijuana in morocco tod mikuriya 3 21 29 35 40 44 50 58 67 86 90 108 115[close]
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part iv effects of psychedelics on religion and religious experience 1 psychedelics and religious experience alan watts 2 drugs and mysticism walter n pahnke 3 the church of the awakening john w aiken 4 the psychedelics and religion walter houston clark part v psychedelic effects on mental 131 145 165 182 functioning 1 central nervous effects of lsd-25 werner p koella 2 the effects of psychedelic experience on language functioning stanley krippner 3 selective enhancement of specific capacities through psychedelic training willis w harman and james fadiman 4 psychedelic states and schizophrenia robert e mogar part vi non-drug analogues to the 198 214 239 257 psychedelic state 1 some hypnotic analogues to the psychedelic state bernard s aaronson 2 implications of experimentally induced contemplative meditation arthur j deikman part vii therapeutic applications 279 296 1 toward an individual psychedelic psychotherapy robert e l masters and jean houston 2 the psychedelics and group therapy duncan blewett 323 342[close]
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3 treatment of alcoholism with psychedelic therapy abram hoffer 4 a concept of death eric c kast 5 lsd and architectural design kiyo izumi part viii sociology of psychedelics in the current scene 1 lsd and the press william braden 2 the illicit lsd group some preliminary observations frances e cheek stephens newell and mary sarett 3 from data collection to pattern recognition the sociology of the now ira einhorn part ix conclusion psychedelics and the future humphry osmond and bernard s aaronson part x special sections 1 contributors 2 bibliography 3 index 357 366 381 400 418 439 461 479 482 503[close]
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introduction psychedelics technology psychedelics bernard s aaronson and humphry osmond any culture may be regarded as a ramification of a particular technology applied to the particular set of local conditions within which that culture is situated the term technology as used here refers to the entire set of devices whether mechanical chemical or linguistic by which adaptations of to their environments are enhanced plows individuals clubs radios airplanes fertilizers drugs breakfast cereals grammars and concepts are each implements and instances of technology which influence and are influenced by one another some implements operate by directly altering the environment in response to the demands of the individual as when we turn on an air conditioner on a hot day others operate by altering the individual to meet the demands of the environment as when we make the last one for the road coffee still others may attempt to integrate the two as when we read a book to gain knowledge that will help us in particular situations all systems of technology have certain common characteristics in terms of how they affect those who use them they set up ways of looking at the world in terms of which new experiences can be encoded one of the best illustrations of this is given in an old jewish folk song in which the singing of a new cantor on the sabbath is heard by a tailor in terms of how one sews a suit of clothes by a cobbler in terms of making shoes and by a carpenter in terms of cutting wood systems of technology focus attention on certain kinds of relationships and particular ways of conceptualizing those relationships it is probably no accident that the great chinese book on time the i ching with its emphasis on seasons and changes and on ways of adapting to these and on the right time for initiating and carrying through action should have arisen as a vegetable oracle the product of a farming people.[close]
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4 psychedelics conceptualizations once arrived at interact to produce new conceptualizations new technology from which once more new concepts and new needs may emerge television for instance derives as a concept from motion pictures and radio and even though it was introduced only a comparatively short time ago has rapidly become a central part of homes at all levels of society in our culture watching television has tended to produce a more uniform culture through greater exposure to common stimuli has reduced the amount of time available for free interaction by members of any particular household and has resulted in the creation of such implements as tv trays and tv dinners to accommodate the need for more time around the television set automobiles have made possible the movement to the suburbs the virtual end of public transportation in many parts of our country and a resultant increased dependency on private means of transportation in its turn this has produced a more mobile population a proliferation of roads a tendency to think of distance in terms of units of time the destruction of the countryside and an increased need to deal with air pollution any technological innovation in any area expands to fill all the analogous gaps to which it can be applied the technology of clubs developed into the technology of axes and hoes and in modern america into the technology of baseball any technological system has a degree of play that makes possible the development of new technologies which may not be immediately useful but can become functional or can be combined to be functional when the need arises the technique for producing light shows has long been available but remained essentially unused until the advent of psychedelic drugs produced its impact on a generation accustomed to tv diffraction patterns the technology of drugs is one of the oldest technologies and probably began when our ancestors browsed their way through the forests and found that among the foods they sampled some produced interesting changes in how they felt how they perceived and how they could accommodate themselves to the world substances that alter consciousness are found in use among probably all the peoples of the world[close]
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5 psychedelics taylor 1963 in particular substances containing alcohol and caffeine seem to be used nearly everywhere and hemp and its derivatives also seem widely used substances whose main effect is to stop hunger are classed as foods even though it is now customary to present an analysis of the chemical composition of many of the foods we eat on the sides of the containers in which they are packaged their action tends to be studied in laboratories of nutrition rather than in those of pharmacology the kinds of detailed study of effects on particular structures and organ systems that have historically characterized pharmacological study are rarely undertaken with foods substances that increase conviviality or stimulate the individual are often treated as foods if they can be eaten or as more like drugs without usually naming them such if they must be smoked alcohol coffee tea and chocolate represent the edible class of these substances as does cannabis and its derivatives in many moslem and eastern countries probably represent the principal cannabis and tobacco common substances smoked the continuing agitation against the use of alcohol and cannabis by various groups in our culture suggests the anomalous position of these kinds of substances on the food-drug continuum the fear and anxiety over the moral and physical degradation that might result from enslavement to coffee tea and chocolate when these were introduced into europe are another case in point it should also be noted that many tobacco smokers often have trouble conceptualizing tobacco as a drug for the term drug has developed very specialized meanings among the foods sampled by our ancestors some sustained life others destroyed it still others seemed to remove illness sometimes those foods that destroyed life could also sustain it and remove illness if administered in proper ways and in proper amounts it is hard to say when the division of edibles into foods and poisons and into foods and drugs arose for the divisions already existed at the beginning of recorded history legends of the witch woman and the wizard for information on all references cited in this book see the bibliography following the last article 1 1[close]
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6 psychedelics and their herbs or of the apple whose scent drives away disease are very old a technology of drug use is found in all cultures along with a technology of poisons and the control of that technology is vested in individuals with priestly or semipriestly functions or in others with claims to special relationships with the supernatural as the amount of knowledge around the use of the healing arts grew the priesthood which dealt in healing gradually gave way to a more secularized group with specialized training called physicians another group claimed jurisdiction over the preparation of these substances and were called apothecaries or more recently pharmacists these experts knew which drugs to prescribe and when it was also apparent that these substances could sometimes be dangerous when improperly compounded or improperly used so it was important to listen when they told you how to use the possibly dangerous substances in which they dealt in addition since they dealt in alleviating suffering a good guy image was easy to come by as a result a drug in this context became something that was used on the advice of a physician and that it was foolhardy to use otherwise while a tradition of using minor remedies for things like colds or warts existed reasonable people left the control of drugs in the hands of the experts even patent medicines derived their fundamental cultural status from the implied approval of these groups or had to go back to their precursors the medicine men and shamans of primitive days to this day television advertisements for patent medicines that will cure headaches sinus congestion or tired blood are delivered by friendly fatherly looking men in white coats on the other hand the development of modern research technology made possible an expansion of the number of substances recognized as specifics against particular ailments and increased the range of illnesses and conditions for which drugs could be used in particular the realization that fooddeficiency diseases exist and the development of vitamin pills to be used as a food supplement created a dynamic tension between the restricted use of drugs and the use of pills as development of moodfood subsequently the modern changing drugs such as tranquilizers and their promiscuous[close]
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7 psychedelics prescription by physicians to such a point that some minor tranquilizers can now be purchased without a prescription completed the breach we became a pill-using culture although the earlier caution about the use of drugs remained as a nagging sense of guilt alongside the medically controlled and related concept of drugs a second conception exists of drugs as substances that produce depressing but exotic sleep states to which the user becomes easily addicted to the exclusion of the claims and pleasures of ordinary life in homer s odyssey ulysses and his crew visit the land of the lotus eaters whose inhabitants are addicted to a fruit that when tasted puts the user into a sleep in whose dreams all thoughts of home and country are forgotten in our country in our time when somebody says he feels drugged he is generally referring to a state of depressed apathy in contrast to this we may often refer to a situation in which we have been gratified as one in which we have been fed a product that does not sell is referred to in business as a drug on the market but a new concept or a new perception may be food for thought it is a commonplace to hear how opium the prototype for this conception destroyed the initiative and capacity for constructive activity of the people in many eastern countries and kept them from the progress and well-being of the protestant ethic it is a fact moreover that china did fight a losing war to keep british enterprise from bringing in opium because the rulers of china felt that the effects of opium addiction would enervate their population for us drugs are often seen as substances used in strange and alien cultures whose customs are the material from which travelogues are made and to which the intrepid traveler may venture only at the risk of being debauched the early writings on opium by thomas de quincy and the accounts of hashish experiences by théophile gautier and fitzhugh ludlow stress the exotic nature of the experience even coleridge s famous poem kubla khan written from an opium dream in which the legendary ruler builds a pleasure dome in xanadu over a hidden sacred river where women mourn for demon lovers and abyssinian maids play dulcimers bears out this aura of the strange drugs are substances that not[close]
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