Leary and LSD research

I know Leary was a Harvard Psychology professer. Did he ever do peer review type research with LSD? Has LSD and its effects on people ever been seriously studied? I know the CIA did some research.

 

It's difficult for scientists to get funding for that sort of research. The scientific world is all about getting grants, and coming out pro psychedelic is a good way to be ostracized by your peers. So most don't even bother even if they were interested in the topic. In the last few years some studies have been done though mostly in Europe.

 

I dont know how much of his work was research , and just getting high . Hear is the wiki on him . I am sure there is a bunch more on the net if you do a web search . http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_Leary desert rat

 

in a word, yes.

Don't think Leary ever did "real" clinical research with LSD, but he did do a famous study with psylicybin mushrooms. Google it.

LSD was completely legal from it's discovery in 1938 up until 1966 (?).

during the period of ~1950 thru the late 1960's there was lot's of research on just about every aspect of LSD you can think of.

LSD is without a doubt the most extensively tested and studied psychedelic substance known.

Google and you shall find the answer's you seek. :sultan:

 

There are volumes and volumes on legal, clinical LSD research from the 50s and 60s.

And it's happening now as well.

http://www.maps.org/research/psilo-...er_gasser_m.d._with_co-therapist_barbara_spe/

September 7, 2012
LSD-Assisted Psychotherapy for Anxiety Associated with Advanced Illness: Closeout Visit Conducted
From September 3-7, 2012, MAPS Lead Clinical Research Associate Berra Yazar-Klosinski, Ph.D., visited the study site for our completed Swiss study of LSD-assisted psychotherapy for anxiety associated with advanced-stage illness for the final closeout meeting with Principal Investigator Peter Gasser, M.D. During the visit, the researchers collected study case report forms, ensured that data accountability procedures were in place, and the data files were complete and ready to be stored. The team also made progress preparing the results for publication.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2-Bromo-LSD
2-Bromo-LSD
http://cep.sagepub.com/content/30/9/1140
The non-hallucinogen 2-bromo-lysergic acid diethylamide as preventative treatment for cluster headache: An open, non-randomized case series.

 

In terms of application of what is known... I don't anticipate excess anxiety at the end of my life, but I do hope to take LSD (if I'm dying from cancer or other chronic disease vs. sudden death). I see it as a mental health action. That was one of my motivations in getting back into this scene.

 

I believe one of Aldous Huxley's last notes to his wife on his deathbed was something like "100ugs LSD, I.M.". Shortly after receiving it he passed on.

 

He researched in the sense that he did it all the time at extreme doses and probably knew more about that world than he did the sober world.

I am sure there are some legitimate procedures that were documented. Leary even designed the 8 circuit model of consciousness which explained the different cognitive circuits we use as move through the different levels of consciousness.

Make sure to take Leary with a grain of salt though. Some of what he said and did was genius, some of what he said and did just seems like the acts of a crockpot too high on lsd.

 

Yeah, but it's the same 7 or 8 layer model of consciousness that almost every religion or spiritual school of thought or practice teaches or ascribes to, so nothing new there.

As far as I know the only approved, peer reviewed and published official work with psychedelics done by Leary was the study with magic mushrooms I mentioned earlier.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvard_Psilocybin_Project

http://www.timothylearyarchives.org/time-magazine-magic-mushrooms-can-improve-psychological-health/

http://www.businessweek.com/news/20...eturn-to-psych-labs-40-years-after-leary.html

:sunny:

seriously people, the answers really are a few simple keystrokes away......

 

Good info! Thanks for the leads guys. I know Google and Wiki is available but i want to hear people's opinions too. I did a research paper on Leary and LSD in high school. In the 80's. No computers but we had inter-library share. I found one book. A small book, sent from Ball State library, size of a post card, that Leary authored. It was mostly symbols. Circles. It might have been this:

 

Look up some Leary books... hes got a couple.

 

lol, can you even imagine tripping in a clinical environment? Being prodded and poked by scientists? No thank you.

Leary ended up being kind of a flake if you ask me.

 

Their is one video of an artist being evaluated while on an lsd trip by a doctor, and pretty much the whole time the doctor is like ruining this guys trip.

Like the doctor asks if he wants food and hes like "No, I am feeding of this feeling of joy I have I don't want any food" and the doctor just keeps insisting he eats.

Then hes like in this estastic epiphany state, and his whole body is like being overcome in esctacy and the doctor claps his hands really loud and says, "how did that make you feel?". His reply was, "Its actually really annoying and distracting, I was trying to get somewhere and I was almost there."

 

In a lot of early research, doctors and scientists didn't really know what a psychedelic experience was all about and much of the research was in "clinical" settings. And there were many many bad trips. That is partly what contributed to the scientific model of lsd imitating psychosis.

The CIA experiments were very cruel.
But some of the government research was conducted by less evil people. A very good example of the clinical environment is described in great detail by Ken Keysey in Electric Koolaid Acid Test. Keysey was turned on by a research program that was part of MK Ultra.

 

Leary's rise to prominence was due to his ability to dissect the psychedelic experience and provide context for exploring LSD and Psychedelics that could appeal to the average seeker. His best works which encorporated his background education in psychology, affinity for Eastern spirituality and self explorations sought to restructure concepts of the psychedelic experience like Voyage posted below and to retain an academic slant to legitamize LSD and Psychedelics as tools not strictly reserved for the lab or frivolous highs reserved for fringe types like the Beatniks for example.

Leary's influence echoes largely for me today when discussing Psychedelics and approaches to tripping such as set and setting and being in the proper mindset for a trip, etc. rather than strict clinical psychedelic studies.

 

One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest was inspired by Ken Kesy's experiences with LSD in a clinical setting when he took it as a "research volunteer" in the early 60's.

Ultimately it was those LSD tests in stark psych wards that led to a complete re-thinking of the decor and architecture of modern psych wards.

Doctors who tested the drug on themselves in hospital settings realized how oppressive and depressing the majority of hospitals, especially psychiatric ones, were. I believe Humphry Osmond was one of those who helped bring about those changes as well. Osmond did a lot to change clinical mental health practices all stemming from his own psychedelic experiences, as well as many others in his field at the time.

 

Leary's interpetation of the Book of the Dead seems like an interesting read. Talks about the different "Bardo's" of the psychedelic experience and how to achieve them.

 

Little known trivia about that book... Kesey actually had electroshock treatment before writing the part of the book about McMurphy being forced to endure it.

Spot on.

 

Voluntarily to see what it was like, or forced upon him?

My mother suffered from depression, at times requiring hospitalization and she got zapped once or twice.
But on the flip side, it does zap a person out of a severe depressive episode.