Posted on 01/11/2006 4:16:29 AM PST by beyond the sea
http://wjz.com/watercooler/watercooler_story_010144726.html
Father Of LSD Celebrating 100th Birthday
(AP) GENEVA LSD is an unlikely subject for a 100th birthday party. Yet the Swiss chemist who discovered the mind-altering drug and was its first human guinea pig is celebrating his centenary Wednesday — in good health and with plans to attend an international seminar on the hallucinogenic.
"I had wonderful visions," Albert Hofmann said, recalling his first accidental consumption of the drug.
"I sat down at home on the divan and started to dream," he told the Swiss television network SF DRS. "What I was thinking appeared in colors and in pictures. It lasted for a couple of hours and then it disappeared."
Hofmann, who also had bad experiences with the drug, continues to insist it should be legalized for medical treatment, particularly in psychiatric research. But LSD's reputation has been as turbulent as some acid trips.
The drug earned a bad reputation amid fatalities associated with hallucinations and reports of "flashbacks" — the recurrence of hallucinations when not taking the drug.
LSD inspired the 1960s hippy generation and was immortalized in the Beatles' hit "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds," although the band denied any connection. But it was also known as Like Swift Dead.
For decades after LSD was banned in the late 1960s, Hofmann defended his invention.
"I produced the substance as a medicine," he said. "It's not my fault if people abused it."
The chemist — who still takes nearly daily walks in the picturesque village where he lives in the Jura mountains with his wife of 70 years, Anita — discovered lysergic acid diethylamide-25 in 1938 while studying the medicinal uses of a fungus found on wheat and other grains at the Sandoz pharmaceuticals firm, now part of Novartis.
(Excerpt) Read more at wjz.com ...
exactly ........
LOL
wow talk about flashbacks, i feel like I am in a thread from several months ago, but its SO REAL.
Anyway, it will be hard to check on the nail gun incident now, it having occurred nearly three decades ago, but I think the dictum, "No power tools while tripping," will still be one that I personally will stick with.
anyone familiar w/ real lsd-25 knows several things---A--you can't oversose---100micrograms is about all that will be required for a 'trip'---'B', however take the same dose the next day, less than 1/2 response occurrs--by day 3, you feel queasy, but 'no trip'---you have to wait a week or more for strong effect---anyone experienced knows this---it's also true of peyote---this known effect makes these drugs totally non-addictive, as action is 'self-limiting'---'C'---as for 'bad-trips', well i've been a panic-disorder client from youth---long before pot or lsd arrived---anyone taking lsd, infrequently will often smoke dope as well---weed alone may trigger massive panic attacts, and one of those on top of lsd? big trouble---there's a lot of 'hearsay'around---it does not equal 'empirical-evidence'. when my 1st 'disabling' panic hit, i was thrown in cardiac icu---the symptoms are similar to 'heart-attack'---i had to wait for the enzyme reports showing NO heart-muscle death---i spent $400 trying to explain to a top-rated dr. of the apparent link to panic and weed---he drew a graph, insisting 'no connection exists'.---now any boolet on 'panic' warns of weed's effect.
bad trips w/weed? no doubt---trust 'hearsay' or drs. not experienced---useless---and dangerous---
well, all past trippers recall how you could move your hand about, and see the 'famous' 'tracking event'---where your arm/hand seems to follow a trace--this could be trouble for an 'inexperienced' user---on the other hand, i could ski expert slopes, that otherwise would have killed me---but i was familiar w/effects. i will admit, on 1st usage, seeing a friend turn into 'the wolf-man' scared the hell outa me---but i quickly calmed when informed---never had the prob again.
but an inexperienced tripper? best be at home, a safe place, with another who knows what you may encounter---a 'guide'---
i don't like alcohol, but unless pcp has been taken as lsd---3 beers works fine---if it was pcp? look-out, alcohol becomes deadly---and that's a problem---
so who do you trust---makers of Ritalin, so many deaths, or Vioxx, more tombs? what of the tens-of-millions' forever hooked on benzos, neuroleptics---all legal scripts? and all future victims of tardive dykinesia, AADD, dementia?---truly fates worse than simple death? check out 'benzos.org.uk' and search 'neuroleptic damage'---there you Will find Hell---more than a nail in the hand---you're wasted, forever. Sweden allows 8---yeah eight month's paid hospiliztion for long-term benzo use (librium, valium, xanax, ativan, etc')---and all cause permanent damage---a heroin junkie? maybe 2 weeks, and No residual damage---'clean getaway'---you trust your guv? bad move, IMHO.
'impure analogs', strictnine, pcp---many unknown 'cheap' desighner drugs---all sold as lsd-25---wise to be careful.
the 'hooror-stories' one hears arise from such---real lsd-25?
pure-fun/enlightenment---if the guv had not made the Real Thing highly illegal---you would not see the problems---this place has become 'totallitarian'---you trust elections? wake up---'the electoral college' may stomp your vote, as it did Teddy Roosevelt's so long ago---you are not free. 'Democracy' means 'Pluralism'---one vote vs. another---not here. think about it. read 'The Irony of Democracy'---a grad text for political science majors---you will see 'ugly'---Big Time. lsd controll is one small bit---you no longer belong to yourself---The Fed---path to Hell as Nazi Germany---and we're going right down the same path. ask yourself this---'has there ever been a nation that thought it could conquer the world---and not try?"
my place as a part of a very beautiful and sentient natural universe seemed uniquely compelling, a feeling I have never really lost,
Yes that is some of the essense of the experience.
The mystery of Eleusus lives today because of Dr. Hoffman.
The goddess Demeter lost her beloved daughter, Persephone, when the king of the underworld abducted her. Demeter was so grief-stricken that she neglected the plants of the Earth, which began to wither.
In one version, the leaves on the trees saw her despair and turned red, orange and gold to try to lift her sadness. When it deepened, they, too, despaired and the leaves dropped to the ground.
Of course Demeter appealed to the other gods and got her daughter back but because she had eaten a pomagranette seed
she had to spend half the year underground, hence the seasons.
Ah fair Demeter, whose golden hair falls in rich tresses as only a goddesses does............
"........and where else was there ever a greater disparity between seeing an hearing........"Aristidies the Rhetor.
I'm pining for the kykeon, myself. It's been a long time, over two thousand years! But then I'm Epoptes and can understand the wait.
14 posted on 09/21/2003 7:48:32 PM EDT by tet68
My bumper sticker says, "If it weren't for flashbacks...
I'd have no memory at all!"
Eleusis is the place, where the cult of the goddess Demeter existed many centuries and where the most famous religious festival, called the Eleusinian mysteries were performed in the honour of this deity. According to the "Homeric Hymn to Demeter" (7th century BCE), when the goddess Demeter was desparetely looking for her daughter (=Kore) Persephone -kidnapped by Aidoneus (Hades)- during her wandering she came to the city Eleusis. Here she was welcomed by the Queen Metaneria. To thank her, Demeter took care about prince Demophon. Each night she brought the boy near the fire to make him immortal and she fed him with the nectar and ambrosia of the Gods. When the child´s mother saw once at night what was happening, she was astonished. Demeter revealed, who she was and she asked to build a sanctuary in her honour to teach them secret rituals. She closed herself in the temple, troubled for her daughter and she did not allow any seed to grow from the fields until she saw her daughter again. So, Zeus decided, that Persephone will spend one third of a year with Aidoneus in the underworld and the other two thirds with her mother, Demeter. When Persephone is leaving to the underworld Demeter mourns for her and all nature is ready to die, to be reborn again in the spring, when she is coming back to her mother. The myth is a base for the explanation of the changing of nature and the different seasons during a year. Also there was a tradition spread out by the Athenians about the first civilization in Eleusis who were cultivating grain, the gift of Demeter to Triptolemos, the son of the Eleusinian king.
The sanctuary and its cult have roots in the Mycenaean period (1500 - 1425 BCE). The ritual was originally local and it could have had probably from the beginning an agrarian aspect. The Athenians established this cult as Panhellenic during the period of Peisistratus. It was florishing under the Roman supremacy until the proscription of the cult by Theodosius and the destruction of the sanctuary by the Goths about 400 AD.
The name "Eleusinian mysteries" is connected with two Greek words eleusis,- eos - arrival, tó mystírion - secrecy. The people were arriving to this place to performed secret rites. The mysteries were kept in absolute secrecy, so it was strictly forbidden to talk about them under penalty of death. Nevertheless we have some informations from the different sources - many reflections in the literature, the epigraphical evidence, the archaeological findings (architectonical, sculptural, paintings on the vases, votive objects, cult vessels) related to the Eleusinian religious rites. All of these materials are used for the reconstruction of events. But well known is mainly this part of the celebration, which was performed in public.
The ancient literature (Homeric Hymn to Demeter, Pindar, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristoteles, Pausanias) contains only allusions to this theme. But the authors are writing without any doubt, that the mortals who participated in the initiations, were blessed. They knew the beginning and the end of life, they had the happinies, while the others - uninitiated, had only misery and after death murky dark. Christian writers tried to break a secrecy about the ritual. They were describing some details from the initiation act, like drinking from the kykeon ( a special mixture of barley, water and aromatic mint) and moving with sacred tools, kiste and kalathos (kiste - the sacred chest, kalathos - the basket closed with a lid), which only initiate (mystes) members knew what it concealed. Unfortunately they could not give more references about it. Some authors of modern literature are supposing, that the secret of the Eleusinian mysteries was based on the hallucinogenic ingredients in the kykeon.
The reliefs and vase paintings related to the Eleusinian mysteries are concentrated mainly around two themes. They are depicting the mythological story about blessing of agriculture for the earth and in the second case they illustrate the great proccesion from Athens to Eleusis. Triptolemos, receiving the seeds from the hands of Demeter, has to teach mankind how to cultivate the fields, while Kore keeps her hand over his head to protect him.This main story is depicted on the great Eleusinian relief ( from the half of the 5th century BCE.), exhibited in the Archaeological National Museum in Athens. The mission of Triptolemos, seated on the winged throne or chariot with the ears of corn in his hand, surrounded by Demeter and Kore with pine-torches, is an occasional representation on some black and red figured vases and the votive reliefs between the 6th and the 4th centuries BCE, when the myth about beginning of agriculture, connected with the Eleusinians, was very popular.
The procession of initiates with Kore and Iakchos in front of Demeter on the Ninnion Tablet (from the lst half of the 4th century BCE) in the National Archaeological Museum of Athens is showing many interesting details from the Eleusinian celebration. We are supposing that poeple arrived inside the sanctuary. Demeter with a sceptre is sitting on the sacred kiste and Kore with torches is introducing her initiates. Each of them is keeping branches, called bakchoi, which were swung rythmically along the thirty kilometers of the Sacred Way from Athens to Eleusis. The procession was moving with dancing attendants, some of them almost in ecstasy.
The second row of procession was led by torch-bearer Iakchos in the function of priest at the mysteries, who leads the way and holds torches for performance of the rites. He is standing near omphalos, while a further unknown figure sitting on the closed kiste, keeps in her hands a sceptre and a vessel. Probably she is a priestress of Demeter, carrying kiste with the sacred symbols during the procession and keeping a vessel with kykeon. On the pediment of this Tablet is represented Pannychis, the whole-night feast. The festal activities were accompanied by dances, -perhaps across the Rharian field-,(where as the myth is saying the first corn ever grew) and later on by a bull-sacrifice also in the court of the sanctuary.
The Eleusinian Mysteries had their fixed place in the calendar. The first stage of the initiation (Lesser Mysteries) were held usually in the spring in the month of Anthesterion (March). But it could take place also at various times in Eleusis or at the Eleusinion in Athens. The priests of the Mysteries prepared the candidates for receiving initiation (myesis). The first act was the sacrifice of a young pig, after which a purification ceremony followed.
The Great Mysteries were celebrated for nine dayes in the month of Boedromion (September). On the first day - the 14th of Boedromion the sacred symbols were brought from Eleusis to Athens. After the hierophant opened the festal time with an official proclamation (prorrhesis). On the 16th of the month the initiates went together to the sea at Phaleron to purify themselves by bathing. On the 17th the sacrifices were made at the Eleusinion and the next day the initiates stayed at home. On the 19th of the month the procession moved to Eleusis, carrying the sacred symbols of Demeter.
The gates of the sanctuary in Eleusis were open only for the initiates - men, women, foreigners who were admitted, but not murderers or barbarians. The initiation rites took place in the Telesterion building (which was made for several thousand people)on the 20th and 21st of the month.. On each of its sides there were the seats, from which initiates watched the mysteries. Almost in the center of the hall was built the Anaktoron(Palace), a rectangular stone construction for the sacred objects of Demeter. Only the hierophantes could enter it, to perform the rites and display their sacred things. Two classes of initiates participiated in the mysteries - the initiates, who took part for the first time and the others, who were present for at least a second time. The second group could attain epopteia, the highest stage of initiation, when the hierophant showed the greatest mystery. Next day the initiates honoured the dead with libations from special vases. On the 23rd of the month the celebrations took an end and everybody was returning home.
Try: "I Brake For Hallucinations!"
His demise was the best thing to ever happen to him.He was way beyond the point of no return.He made Iggy Pop look like a choirboy.
Nope but I do know of some heavy users who are pretty good avertisements against heavy use.
The documentary is a classic.
Excellent point. There is no quality control at the street market
I have seen something on him,I'd have to say I'd pass on one of his shows.He was definately a biological nightmare waiting to happen,cutting himself and flinging shit everywhere out in the crowd.As I understand it,his shows were always packed,believe it or not,with lots of hot babes doing you know what with him.He'd be beaten to a pulp either by himself or the crowd and there was never really much music played because of his bizzare antics.
I had very much similar experiences in my younger days ........ and I am thankful that I did. I see much more in the world and in people than I would have without the experiences.
LOL .............
LSD is not dangerous because of its physical effects but because of its psychotropic effects on habitual users.
Syd Barrett died yesterday at the age of 60, a brilliant musician and writer reduced to a shell of a man who died younger than the age at which most people retire.
He's a 101 today.
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