Was Timothy Leary Right?

[Jakobien]

Are psychedelics good for you? It's such a hippie relic of a question that it's almost embarrassing to ask. But a quiet psychedelic renaissance is beginning at the highest levels of American science, including the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and Harvard, which is conducting what is thought to be its first research into therapeutic uses of psychedelics (in this case, Ecstasy) since the university fired Timothy Leary in 1963. But should we be prying open the doors of perception again? Wasn't the whole thing a disaster the first time?


TIME magazine informs its world audience about psychedelic therapy in the year 2007.

Full article
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1612717,00.html?xid=rss-health

 

[Pinealjerker]

Wasn't the whole thing a disaster the first time?

At that time they thought it was something new. Now we know it's actually very archaic. Yes, it will work this time. They told me. :wink:

Thanks, that was a very positive article, good news! MAPS is doing great work.

 

[HeartCore]

Are psychedelics good for you?

I haven't read more but the answer is: That depends on the person who takes them.

 

[Soulcatcher]

hmm perhaps we just want something because we know its there..
who would miss it if noone even thought of it.

But now we know it exists, it can(!) be a nice addition to ones way of thinking

 

[Lion]

Psychedelics are bad for ya!!!
The state forbids it because it's spiritwidening!!!

:roll:

 

[Guest]

we can never consider ourselves free if there's restrictions. like the late Bill Hicks used to say...."you are free to do what we tell you".
i think there's no point in hoping this will be a better place toward drugs. perhaps people COULD be more open. but what should we want more ? with time, you can have access to all types of drugs. wanting more is just selfish! drugs are meant to be used by a minority, like reading. if you put everyone on drugs, this will be just like the hippies. you can't make everyone like drugs.
and if we choose to use drugs in restrict circles, this will no longer be a democracy, but an aristocracy or, worse, and oligocracy. we may fight for our dreams, but if we forget them, they're is very easy to shatter. psychonauting is a lonely walk, imho. like masturbation, it can be fun with 2, 3, 4, 5 persons. but in the end, you are the one who has the orgasm.

 

[Soulcatcher]

psychonauting is a lonely walk, imho. like masturbation, it can be fun with 2, 3, 4, 5 persons. but in the end, you are the one who has the orgasm.

brilliant! i will remember it.. 8)

 

[HeartCore]

psychonauting is a lonely walk, imho. like masturbation, it can be fun with 2, 3, 4, 5 persons. but in the end, you are the one who has the orgasm.

brilliant! i will remember it.. 8)

Have you ever tried masturbating with your partner together? You will still have the orgasm, but the input of your partner, will very often improve the quality of it above the one you would have if you would be alone ;)

 

[Dantediv86]

with time, you can have access to all types of drugs. wanting more is just selfish! drugs are meant to be used by a minority, like reading. if you put everyone on drugs, this will be just like the hippies. you can't make everyone like drugs.
and if we choose to use drugs in restrict circles, this will no longer be a democracy, but an aristocracy or, worse, and oligocracy. we may fight for our dreams, but if we forget them, they're is very easy to shatter. psychonauting is a lonely walk, imho. like masturbation, it can be fun with 2, 3, 4, 5 persons. but in the end, you are the one who has the orgasm.

I mainly like what youre saying but bu drugs you mean the psychedelic ones right?
because you do realize that we allready are all on drugs? be it caffeine, nicotine, antidepressants, sleeping aid, depressants, alcohol, aspirine....

 

[patilan420]

Its the natural stae of the planet- all plant eating animals on "drugs" (psycho-active plants)
that's how the symbiotick relation between plant-eaters and plants in the biosphere is functioning in order for the plants to influence and inter-act with the plant-eater's behaviour.

So it's natural everybody to be "on drugs", it's just the choice of drug" that is so often wrong, not the aproach.

 

[Ender_mBind]

In my experience, not every drug is good for every person or species - that which is required for some can be lethal to others. It all depends on your own chemical (in)balance and that which one can take without risc puts the other in a hospital. And that even goes for commonly accepted things like suggar, peanuts or milk for example.

So no, I don't think Leary was right; even if the substances he was promoting were relatively safe - the same goes for nuclear powerplants. It's just not for everyone is my opinion and I think Leary actually did those particular substances quite a lot of damage by his behavior towards them.

 

[Psychostain]

i did a bit of googling and found the articles mentioned in the article:
the full pdf of ketamine research was free and available right here: http://tinyurl.com/2xg4rw
but unfortunately acces to the full article about the psilocybin research is behind some password, but there's a short story about that too here:http://tinyurl.com/3afusr
if anyone has access to that, i'd much appriciate to see the full article, the search results are here with he full text right on top:http://tinyurl.com/3cmt2d
edit: made the urls tinier :wink:

 

[GOD]

Albert Hofmann calls acid a brain vitamin . And other Ergot alkaloids have been proved to be good for people with dementia , helping them to clear up their mind and think straight . Books on Smart Drugs say that they are good for your thinking and say that lots of Sandoz studies say it as well . They are suposed to help blood get to the periferary blood vesels in your brain thereby transporting more oxygen to the parts that are responsible for intelligence and memory .

Time magazine is very conservative = right wing . And in the first paragraph they ask 3 questions and then say "The answer to both questions is yes. " .......... Both of the three of them ???? And no it wasnt a disaster , it was and is FUN . The thing that made it and still makes it difficult sometimes is ignorance and the illegality .

"There's a jaw-dropping passage in last year's authoritative Leary biography by Robert Greenfield in which Leary and two friends ingest an astonishing 31 psilocybin pills in Leary's kitchen while his 13-year-old daughter has a pajama party upstairs. Stupefied, one of the friends climbs into the girl's bed and has to be pulled from the room."

That sounds like the time that John Lilly grabed a visitors tits when he was on a trip !!!


" MAPS is doing great work." Some of it is good . They employ a police agent and informer , remember the Len Pickard thread .

"That depends on the person who takes them." I understand what you mean , but i think its more a case of how its done . With trained therapeuts and curanderos its mostly G-O-O-D .

"drugs are meant to be used by a minority, like reading." !!!!!!! Yes and freedom , money , food , education , happyness are only for rich elites . Sieg Heil ?

"you can't make everyone like drugs." Who wants to FORCE people to expand their mind ????

Most of the problems with drugs come because of their illegality , their impurity , the lack of training in how to use them properly , the lack of trained psychedelic baby sitters , no specialy designed places to do them and the guilt complex that most people have been trained to have .

 

[Rymmen]

I agree with GOD (why the name, yo?), except when it comes to training and sitting. If there's too much external imput, the trip becomes geared and the possibility for original discovery is lessened. Well, not really... I mean, the small things that you think that can be applied and may return true (social criticism, literary criticism, social understanding, art comprehention...) will occur just about all the time, but what if there is something beyond classical enlightenment, ethical growing...?

 

[Rymmen]

I guess what I'm trying to say is that these things should be new to people, and they should be open... though, I can see how that would be possible with a trip sitter and theortical training -- but I can also see it limiting discovery tremendously.

 

[Rymmen]

Oh, and sorry for posting so much -- nootropics (smart drugs), in moderation, can enhance learning and memory, but too much is gonna damage those parts of the brain, so none is better than too much, and moderate amounts, at the right time, is excellent.

 

[GOD]

"why the name" , To provoke to think . To see who would project their thoughts onto me .

"training and sitting" means no more and mostly less than what a curandero does . Like a fire brigade , a rescue swimmer on the beach or a doctor . For some people to be a guide , an animator , a therapist , a trainer or an entertainer . Not neceserily there to mould a trip , not to be intrusive , but to help if needed .

"moderate amounts, at the right time, is excellent." Less is more . But then the real thing , in the right dose , in the right set and setting at the right time . Sacred stops being sacred if it is abused .