Well finarfin, obviously you can't put all the blame on LSD as the girls did, but it was played a major roll in the process no doubt about that. In the documentary's I watched they said for each day Manson would make them dress differently and act out a different roll like one they were gypsies...

Wether you've tried it or not by now man I don't know, but if you're a steady headed person with no underlying psychosis or mental health problems then you will be fine and there isn't a chance you're going to go insane. It's when people already have these problems and they haven't reached there...

I know this is an old post but the reason being these youths were lead to commit those murders due to powerful mind manipulation which involved persuasion from Manson himself whilst they were under the influence of lsd, as you probably know lsd can dissolve your ego which is your sense of self...