Side effects - My Friend is Permanently damaged from LSD?

[MissDystortion]

I was not sure exactly where to post this topic, so I figured it would be alright here. Correct me if Im wrong.

Alright so my concern is a friend of mine. To get the whole idea Ill explain from the beginning.

A little more than a year ago my group of friends tried LSD for the first time. Since then they have taken more than their fair share. Though its more having to do with how many times it was taken not the quantity. Anyway as of recently we discovered some Psytrance parties over this past summer and had some very amazing, very euphoric, and sometimes scary trips. Mainly the good ones. Out of our group of friends (being 6 people) 4 of them changed for the better. We became open minded, some religious, spiritual, and we all discovered our love for Psy Trance music (the group was a primarily Black Metal group [go figure]). Out of these 4 people one of them, Alex, has in recent months changed, but in a bad way. The originaly change made in him was not at all a bad thing. He went from being a satanist to a very spiritual religious person. He started meditating, yoga, left drinking, and was all in all changed for the good. Until something happened and it all went down hill from there.

Our friend being a normally outgoing social energetic person now suddenly was withdrawn, spaced out, non verbal for the most part, and very awkward when in social situations. He has become stranger and stranger within recent weeks even, and from my knowledge has not consumed LSD or any drugs for a while now.

We noticed the change back around August September of this year. During that time there were two incidents in which we think the change might have occurred. The first being a trip with our normal group of friends in their studio (normally we try to stray from tripping in enclosed spaces). It was an interesting trip, I wouldnt say it was a BAD acid trip but it wasnt pleasant at all times. There was a friend of our their who is mentally messed up from a car accident and from too many drugs. He seriously tripped all of us out. Alex was the driver during the time of the accident and takes responsibility for his friends brain damage.

The next event was at the Psy Trance party that we normally attend in a private outdoor location. During this trip my fiancee went off the deep end for a few hours. He was persiverating on the fact that he was "tripping", he had a very vivid dream like trip in which he confused the past with the present and came to the conclusion that he was "tripping" forever. This not being the case because he is very much normal today. However during the trip he affected most of the friends around him, including me. But the insanity subsided after a few hours and we then were able to enjoy the rest of the trip without problems. Our friend Alex also had a wierd experience, he thought he was god and could do whatever he pleased. He nearly stole someones car. After this he was quiet for the rest of the trip. He complained of cheast pains but for the most part did not say a word.

A few days later he was hospitalized for this pain which was determined to be muscle inflamation.

Since this event we noticed that he has not been the same since. When asked about this he says he is not tripping, he only states he has reached a higher level of spirituality and is in constant battle with the real world and the spirit world.
He has had episodes where he loses the ability to speak, or move. Not necisarily at the same time. He seems in a daze. When spoken to he replies in a monotone voice or at times does not respond at all. He is very awkward around people and tends to freak people out. He still attends these psy parties (indoor and outdoor ones) and rather than dancing how he normally used to do he will just stand in one spot for the entire party.

He also has some memory issues. Just 5 minutes ago while typing this he called me and asked if I was at the last party because he didnt see me. I was most definately there. He was referring to the after party and I was the one who drove him to it. He says he does not remember. The party was yesterday morning.

Also today he was working with his friend Mike, after work they stopped to get food. While Mike was feeding the meter Alex started to drive away. Mike stopped him and told him to wait. When Mike turned his back the second time Alex drove away and disappeared for a while. Mike found him at the library. Then they returned to the restaurant and Alex abandoned him yet again. Only just turning up a few minutes ago.

Our friends strange activity is concerning us. I need some opinions as to what this could be. I believe he has damaged himself from the LSD, but the others arent convinced. Any ideas?????

Thanks so much, Heather

Reputation Comments on this post:

i have heard these type of stories before and they will add to the discussion

[libertalism]

Whatever you do , keep him off (psychedelic) drugs for a while.
Further , try to be as normal to him as you can , time can do wonders.
If he really has issiues for a long time and he is experiencing troubles with it himself then you should take him to a psychiatrist.
Psychedelic drugs are known to change people but as a friend of mine allways says : change doesn't allways have to be bad even if it seems like that to the rest of the world , if he ( your friend ) is fine with his current state , and i mean really fine not just the usual leave me alone fine , then it's ok.
Perhaps he should just recover from the guilt he is feeling from the brain damage caused to that other friend of yours , try to explain to him that it is not his fault.
WHATEVER YOU DO DON'T START TELLING HIM THAT HE IS BEING WIERD , VAGUE OR WHATEVER SWIM HAD FRIENDS AND HIS BROTHER SAYING THIS TO HIM AND IT FUCKED HIM UP QUITE ALOT BECOUSE HE ACTUALLY STARTED BELIEVING THERE WAS SOMETHING WRONG WITH HIM. ( he even had to take a fucking break from mj to solvet hese issiues )
What does swim mean with this : He was having a really hard time expressing his opinions to people around him and every time he tried to explain something people just glared really weird and said things like "what the fuck are you talking about , i can't make sence of that , you are so vague lately " and more of that blah this just pushed him further down the confussedness.
note : this is based on swims experience and it might not be the same as swiy's friend is having.

[Coconut]

Nobody can know exactly what Alex experienced on his trip except for Alex himself. No matter how hard he tries to explain what he saw, I am sceptical that anyone will fully understand why he has changed so much. Psychedelics can completely alter a person's subjective reality.

Does he actually lose the ability to speak and move or is he just staring off into the distance, deep in thought? I do this all the time and become completely ignorant to what is going on around me, even when addressed directly.

He may return to "normal" soon, but he may not. Seeing a psychiatrist may help if he feels that it is necessary.

[Lehendakari]

Drug induced depersonalization or derealization. Look up on it

[MissDystortion]

He doesnt just stare into space, he actually physically cant speak or move.
If he cant speak he will write it on a piece of paper and say that he cannot speak, or if he cannot move he generally has the ability to say so.

He also sometimes will refuse to leave places, even when he is unwanted. Such as a party the other day. He remained at this party even well after all his friends had left. All that was left was the people whos place it was and Alex being in this state that he is didnt socialize with these people and they eventually had to call someone to come get him out of the place.

He has gradually made some improvement. He used to be worse. I found out last night that one time during a car ride back from some place Alex took a piece of toilet paper, stuffed it into both nostrils and shook his head psychotically back a forth for hours during the car ride. But luckily he doesnt do this anymore.

I had a long conversation with him last night personally for the first time about this issue. I have only been hearing what our friend Mike (who lives/works with him) says.

Alex told me he has reached a higher spiritual level. He battles between being in that world and being in this world. He also told me that the reason he blanks out so much (I.E. : the blank stare, the rigid body language) is because he is meditating. He needs to meditate so he can absorb other peoples good energy. He says that he can feel everyones energy around him. He can feel what their heart gives off. And in order to grow more spiritually he needs to meditate to absorb the energy. If he doesnt he will lose his spirituality. He told me that he used to be able to meditate for 20 minutes and the energy would come to him. Now he must search for it. He will at times actually ask Mike to stop driving (while they are working or going from job to job) and pull over so he can meditate and find the energy. He follows these energies too.

I tried to be completely normal to him, and listen to everything he said while maintaining a normal response. Because in honesty I dont think thats all whats going on in his head. He doesnt say that he is tripping and he denys that its from the drugs, but I feel that it is. He speaks about how he needs to grow spiritually but he doesnt do anything, he doesnt read books to learn more about it, he just stares into space for hours.

[discodave]

swim has had trips where they forgot who they were, how to read, how to speak, that they had taken anything even and it was terrifying but swim always came down. swim cannot imagine how terrifying it must be to live with such a trip forever. a trip where you never realise it was just the trip. swim says your friend is lucky to have such a compassionate friend. swim is touched you care enough to bother.

swim has known people similar to what you describe. swim suspects these people are predisposed to go down the routes they do.

please be careful with him. swim knows more than a few swims who kill themselves after starting saying this sort of thing.

[nuffsaid420]

You guys have no context for your trips. This can be where people loose it. I will make a simple relation. Your friend has become ungrounded. He is no longer is wanting to live in this reality or he cant fully come back. This is called being un-"Grounded". Shamans do it as well as anyone else who travels back and forth between upperworld/lowerworld and other dimensions. You have to, or you don't fully come back. For shamans they will ground themselves through manual labor. The problem is here in the Western world of thinking people aren't educated about this so we have people that can not reconnect to this reality and become grounded.

The best way to ground yourself? That is the question right. Like I said here in the West we are not taught these things.

Vincent Van Gogh got stuck here, ungrounded, drove him mad.

I wish your friend the best, but me thinks he has a lot of work in front of him, he might not even see.

Reputation Comments on this post:

i disagree strongly with the content of this post because it is religious in nature and will harm the OPs subject, but o...

[fiveleggedrat]

And, as usual, I say:

Find out what drug the person is/was taking! IMO it's important to confirm whether or not it's LSD that is the drug in question.

Knowing what substance caused the problem can help one find a solution.

[MissDystortion]

You guys have no context for your trips

what do you mean by that?

Thanks everyone for your input. I really appreciate all the different perspectives. Ill keep you informed of his progress/decline if any would be interested in knowing.

And to answer what drug he was taking, it was acid/LSD and shrooms along with the occasional smoke. As far as we know it was LSD. We all always took from the same person. Though in the last few months we have been getting liquid LSD. It was only then that we started having more strange trips. Though it was after a few times using the liquid. We found that it never lost its potency, in fact each time we took it (dosage being max of two drops, which was only once.), it got more intense. He no longer takes any substances. He claims he no longer needs to. He will, however, very rarely smoke weed. But in a month it would be maybe once, if that.

We shall see. Thanks for all the insight. Peace, Love, Psy!

[nuffsaid420]

Originally Posted by MissDystortion

what do you mean by that?

Sorry that came off a little hard headed.

But I stand by what I said. When people take drugs for fun with no context, intentions, directions, or someone EXPERIENCED in the field they are experimenting in things can go wrong. This is one cause of bad trips, no one knows how to take control of the situation, which sometimes involves changing the enviornment settings, people around, ect.

Does SWIy know any experienced psychonauts ?

This brings me back to the shamanism thing, shamans are experienced travelers and they are healers, when the community or people in the community are "tripping" the shaman is their guide so they dont get stuck somewhere or go into a bad trip.


So there you have it, hopefully this clears up what I said. If not feel free, I will continue to expand my understanding to you.

[Songcycle67]

Overly self-conscious, social anxiety, strange ideas, and tied tongue. All signs of post re-entry or possibly psychosis. This individual has most probably, if LSD is the drug, come into contact with some things about himself that he previously did not recognize or accept.

It's important to first make sure that he is no longer taking any recreational drugs whatsoever, especially LSD. Secondly it is extremely extremely important not to make this individual feel strange or outcast; treat him delicately, but always with reassurance that you don't think him weird. Wouldn't personally recommend pinching this individual or *trying* to make him talk or return to "normal" in any way: this will only worsen his social withdrawal and anxiety. Don't draw any attention to his condition. If his condition is psychosis, drawing attention to it would be like making fun of someone in special ed and if it's not psychosis it will only make the individual feel as if it's "him against the world." Either way it's not beneficial. The most that SWIM would recommend that you do is maybe try to very casually bring up LSD and try to subtly talk about SWIY's own good experiences and work your way up to bad or difficult experiences in an effort to get him to talk about his: but always lightheartedly, don't make them feel as if SWIY is probing.


Lots of people who take LSD for an extended period of time don't realize what they've uncovered and actually been through until a few months after their last LSD experience. That is when the mind begins to level out into normal conscious and a clear distinction between "the spirit world" (as he calls it) and "the normal world" is made. This can be very unsettling and take a long time to get used to (after extensive use social withdrawal and an inability to function in normal ways for a few months is part of the package for many people). Anyone who has taken LSD extensively will tell you that there is a period of "putting the self back together." The individual may just be going through that phase.

Whatever you do: be there for him.

Reputation Comments on this post:

	good post
	Great advice man

[MindNRA]

From personal experience I don't think LSD changed anything in his brain. What it did change is his perspective, a revelation of his subconscious. Unlike the rest who took LSD for the purpose of just having some fun, he took it for the purpose of discovery and he was not afraid to look where others do, including myself.

What he saw, displeased him a lot about the "normal" (if there is such a thing) reality substantially and he preferred to stay outside of the bubble of consciousness.

Leave him alone, he doesn't need your help. In fact he feels much better then the rest of us. Its his choice if he wants to come back into his bubble or stay in the subconscious forever. All you need to know is that he is quite happy and is doing it to himself by choice.

[thealmassi1]

Originally Posted by MindNRA

From personal experience I don't think LSD changed anything in his brain. What it did change is his perspective, a revelation of his subconscious. Unlike the rest who took LSD for the purpose of just having some fun, he took it for the purpose of discovery and he was not afraid to look where others do, including myself.

What he saw, displeased him a lot about the "normal" (if there is such a thing) reality substantially and he preferred to stay outside of the bubble of consciousness.

Leave him alone, he doesn't need your help. In fact he feels much better then the rest of us. Its his choice if he wants to come back into his bubble or stay in the subconscious forever. All you need to know is that he is quite happy and is doing it to himself by choice.

I disagree. He may be choosing to stay in his subconcious, but the fact is that when (if) he "snaps out" of it, he will realize he has driven away all his friends and family. He will be alone and who knows if he will ever acquire that outgoing nature he used to have to attract other friends. He will become depressed with the outcome of his life and I'm guessing it would lead to suicidal thoughts.

True friends are meant to stay together through good and bad times. I know it's corny/cliche, but it's true. A real friend will stick with him and try to bring him to reality and support him through this strange stage in his life whether he remains in his subconcious or not.

I have not encountered many people who are happy being alone and maybe this individual is content without any human contact, but I really doubt it. He is delusional and he needs someone to bring him back. I'm not saying to expect to change him into the person he was before the acid trip, but a change to someone fairly normal and willing to be social to his best ability.

[daggors]

"The originaly change made in him was not at all a bad thing. He went from being a satanist to a very spiritual religious person. He started meditating, yoga, left drinking, and was all in all changed for the good. Until something happened and it all went down hill from there."

tell him to get a job?

Reputation Comments on this post:

	That was just rude and uncalled for
	Damn good advice, the kid needs the Real World to set him in line.

[Songcycle67]

Originally Posted by MindNRA

From personal experience I don't think LSD changed anything in his brain. What it did change is his perspective, a revelation of his subconscious. Unlike the rest who took LSD for the purpose of just having some fun, he took it for the purpose of discovery and he was not afraid to look where others do, including myself.

What he saw, displeased him a lot about the "normal" (if there is such a thing) reality substantially and he preferred to stay outside of the bubble of consciousness.

Leave him alone, he doesn't need your help. In fact he feels much better then the rest of us. Its his choice if he wants to come back into his bubble or stay in the subconscious forever. All you need to know is that he is quite happy and is doing it to himself by choice.

I dunno if I quite agree with this statement fully, but generally I do with the exception of the last part. Something shocked the individual, and the catalyst was obviously LSD. It is also fairly clear that this individual was, as stated above, seeking change and perhaps got something he did not expect. Anything beyond that is speculation. This individual is probably best left with his "games" intact (not talking, being strange, isolation, etc.) but efforts should be made to reassure the individual that he is wanted and loved by his friends.

The games may end with peer help, they may end by themselves once the individual comes to terms with what we call "waking consciousness" (reality) as opposed to the altered state in which he is obviously living now, or they may never end. In any case, attempts should be made to encourage re-integration with friends and a more socially acceptable way of behaving, but they should not be forced on the individual in any way. It is better that he stay strange and anti-social than have others corner him and try to make him feel silly for being different as it could be chronic and out of his control.

[Potter]

Daggors makes a real good point. The kid needs to get back to the Real World, away from the fantasy he's living in.

As for keeping him as a friend, that's up to you. Nobody had a good friend burn himself out on drugs, he was always a bit flaky, but when nobody met up with him two years after last talking, he was incapable of holding a real conversation. He would ask the right questions, give the right answers, small talk stuff, but it was just motions, he wasn't processing or retaining anything. There wasn't anything left to him, just the robot on autopilot. Never spoke to him again after that, nobody misses their friend, but the monkey with his face was no friend of nobody.

Last room mate, he went off the deep end. Took hallucinogens every weekend, went nuts, freaked out, did crazy shit like calling him mom at 3am to say "someone tried to shoot me, but I'm ok, love you" click. Would swear off drugs in the morning but next weekend... wash, rinse, repeat. Started reading Castaneda, took it as gospel, then on to the next charlatan, and the next. Couldn't reason with him, he'd get pissed if you didn't believe everything he was told was gospel truth, no concepts of paradigm or supporting evidence. Met up with him for the first time in two years and when talking about plants and gardens he was fine, but towards the end of a party he came to, he started getting obnoxious again. Got no reason to have a person like that in nobody's life.

If the person is a waste of space, can't be taken into public, just unbearable to be around, don't feel you have some sort of obligation to keep them around. Friendship goes both ways, he had a responsibility to not fuck himself up, he failed that. People like that can drag others down with them, wreck havoc on the world around them. They have to live with the dumb choices they made, but you don't.

Then again, nobody is heartless bastard.

Of course any time nobody made someone leave nobody's life, nobody's never regretted it. Mutual friends may have been upset at the moment, but a few weeks later they all came back saying I made the right decision as said person usually ended up attempting to kill them.

[libertalism]

Dumb choices or just not informed?
Swim knows tons of people who are pretty clueless about the real effects and dangers of psychedelic substances. Once these people get over the myth of everyone gets lost in a trip they think that nothing like this can ever happen.
They just trip with the goal of seeing things and thats dangerous, but they can't really be called dumb for that it's the fault of this society wich is not giving enough info.
You can't expect every drugfiend to be scoping the internet for right info after they hear that most is just bullshit ; they go from " drugs are bad mmkay " to "nothing can hurt me!"

Reputation Comments on this post:

Excellent point.

[Potter]

Bah! Ignorance is no excuse. Not in the age of the internet. It takes seconds to find erowid, it takes a few more to find out about any drug. People choose not to educate themselves. They choose to put any thing that's handed to them in their mouth. They choose not to ask questions. They choose to fuck them selves.

How many people do you know that read? Nobody doesn't mean magazines, but books? Of those, how many read more then one book a month? a week? Do you know anyone who reads non-fiction? Maybe two, three people? At most?

We live in a sad state where there is more knowledge availible to the average person, yet the people are increasingly choosing not to pursue it. Worse yet, when they do, they fail to understand how to go about doing so, how to sort out the good from the bad. Need proof, go to Yahoo Answers. That site drives nobody to a murderous rage. Check out other drug sites, like totse, where you have 15 year olds giving each other advice (given to them by other 15 yearolds) on mixing pharmaceuticals, bragging about their overdoses, spreading "home brew chemistry" lies. Look over at This post A kid thinks he's been poisoned, and instead of calling poison control and talking to a medical professional, he goes online and sits around waiting for who really knows to give him advice. He's bloody lucky he didn't just pass out and die after hitting 'submit'. 20 years ago, if you lived in a flyover state, small town, Texas, this sort of information was nearly impossible to gain access to, even bigger citeies didn't always have it availible in public libraries, but now there is no excuse.

Sure society is partly to blame for not going the harm-reduction route, but it's also to blame for making people so dull as to be capable of educating themselves. Still nobody feels that personal responsibility is over riding in a situation like this and people choose not to be bothered educating themselves.

Also willing to place blame on the educated for not being more vocal. It's a dangerous line to walk, talk to much, and you may encourage people to do things they aught not, don't do it at all and...

Reputation Comments on this post:

A cohesive and well thought out post... it also happens to be true.

[benzoylmethyl ecognine]

SWIM had a very similar experience with LSD, SWIM also thought he was god and could do whatever he pleased including smoking weed in very public places, driving his truck however he wanted, not obeying any rules of the road, running every red light there was, paratking in police chases (the cops never actually caught him because he is an absolutely amazing fucking driver). He aslo never came out of the frame of mind LSD put him in, he was constantly tripping solid for 2 weeks, after about a week he was admitted to the hospital and was put in solitary confinment for 9 days. LSD really fucked this kids life up and I warn people of the dangers of this drug.

[Desertfox]

Originally Posted by benzoylmethyl ecognine

SWIM had a very similar experience with LSD, SWIM also thought he was god and could do whatever he pleased including smoking weed in very public places, driving his truck however he wanted, not obeying any rules of the road, running every red light there was, paratking in police chases (the cops never actually caught him because he is an absolutely amazing fucking driver). He aslo never came out of the frame of mind LSD put him in, he was constantly tripping solid for 2 weeks, after about a week he was admitted to the hospital and was put in solitary confinment for 9 days. LSD really fucked this kids life up and I warn people of the dangers of this drug.

Were you mixing other substances with the lucy?

[JDreaming]

SWIM has known a number of people who, through repeated use of LSD, reached a state where nothing seemed real anymore and functioning in social situations became extremely difficult. It is sometimes referred to, colloquially, as 'frying your brain'. Ceasing usage of all psychedelics will generally lead to a gradual recovery of the person's normal capabilities, but this process can take a year or longer for some people.

[shwinehund]

SWIM finds this topic very interesting, as he finds himself in a similar situation as the subject.
He does such things as repeating sentences/phrases 1-20 time IN A ROW. He disappears when he is supposed to be eating lunch with someone, only to return 45 mins later, thinking hes only been gone a short while. He is quite socially introverted, mostly because he considers social talk trivial, and often finds himself in a pseudo-mindful fantasy. He has lost aquaintances and friends from this, but oddly this doesn't bother him. What does bother him is the fact that his friends try to use psychology/social manipulation in order to "cure" him (which is trying to hook him up with an "appropriate" girl, get him drunk, ect.) SWIMs reaction is straight-up avoidance, simply "peacing it" when he feels like it.

What SWIM would recommend is NOT trying to "cure" him, or thinking that YOU KNOW WHATS BEST, but understanding that your friend has quite obviously changed (not suddenly, as the symptoms could be delayed). Understanding that this is what is, not low-point or high-point just changed.

SWIM would recommend talking about his spiritually, as his antennae are quite likely highly tuned, and SWIY could learn some things. But do realize that with his antennae being so highly tuned he will quite likely be able to read your intentions, and any attempts to manipulate him could make him resentful. Trust SWIM, his abilities border on psychic.

[Spinner]

Originally Posted by fiveleggedrat

And, as usual, I say:

Find out what drug the person is/was taking! IMO it's important to confirm whether or not it's LSD that is the drug in question.

Knowing what substance caused the problem can help one find a solution.

This is very important. Mixing hallucinogens is a bad idea. Look what it did to Charles Manson! The worst fight I've ever been in was with a best friend while we were on LSD25 and Ecstacy.
Echoing the above advise, time away from hallucinogens can do wonders. I had a friend or two "go away" for a few weeks. It was rather scary, but they returned to their normal selves after enough time away from the drugs. Some people just do not come back as quickly. Normally, good LSD will not cause any permanent changes in behavior like that, besides of course, the opening of the mind, that really can't be closed, once you've experienced it. However, I'm not sure there is any good LSD left anymore. What we used to do was so clean, you could sleep on it. These days, it all seems to kill your head.

[WillySkilly]

I know of a similar experience that SWIM solved, so maybe I could possibly shed light on the subject. SWIM could be in a different situation though.

SWIM tripped a few times before he discovered how strong acid searches into you spiritually. At one point when he was with a few other friends tripping, he started moving things around him and that got him thinking about him being able to alter his reality. Eventually he got to the point where he believed himself God. This made him feel great until he noticed that although he was pouring water out of a bottle and moving around things-altering his universe-he started pondering who made these things I am altering? Who designed this universe? Looking at a grapefruit in all of beauty and efficiency in both feeding the world and spreading it's seed. He did many things of that sort and questioned everything. This eventually got him radically depressed, he started freaking out about being so tiny compared to the universe. Even after tripping that time, he felt the same way all the time. He was depressed previously, but this made it worse. For a while before that, unless SWIM was in a good mood he would lose the ability to speak well around people. He was constantly stumbling on his words and had to say things over and over to get his idea across. Writing was his strongpoint. Overall SWIM was extremely depressed, lacked high doses of self-confidence, and lost a feeling of his life having significance. After a doctors, psychologists, then a doctor's appointment again he was diagnosed with ADD. He had gone his entire life without knowing it, and once he became medicated he was back in a great mood and had self-confidence, a sense of importance, and social skills. His spirituality increased also, it could be that your friend is merely depressed.
He could have been depressed when others weren't around, it was just acid that brought it out to the public because he stopped caring. But I really am believing it could be a crazy depression (or he's high all the time), if I were you I would do two things:
1.) Try and get him help. Talk to his parents and maybe ask them if he has been seeming strange around them also. If they agree they could maybe send him to a psychologist. I would recommend to do it in a hurry because when SWIM was depressed he cared nothing about his life whatsoever. He believed it to be disgustingly insignificant. If your friend believed that he experienced being thrown between the real world and the spirit world he might try and get back to the spirit world eventually. Just saying suicide is a definite possibility, sorry to say (and trust me I'm not doing it merely because it's cliche).
2.) Complement him and talk nice to him as much as you can. Don't just come up with phony crap that sounds stupid, but actually tell him how much you appreciate him. Help him realize his talents and what he could do to benefit humanity.
Those are my suggestions.

[Songcycle67]

Originally Posted by Potter

Bah! Ignorance is no excuse. Not in the age of the internet. It takes seconds to find erowid, it takes a few more to find out about any drug. People choose not to educate themselves. They choose to put any thing that's handed to them in their mouth. They choose not to ask questions. They choose to fuck them selves.

How many people do you know that read? Nobody doesn't mean magazines, but books? Of those, how many read more then one book a month? a week? Do you know anyone who reads non-fiction? Maybe two, three people? At most?

We live in a sad state where there is more knowledge availible to the average person, yet the people are increasingly choosing not to pursue it. Worse yet, when they do, they fail to understand how to go about doing so, how to sort out the good from the bad. Need proof, go to Yahoo Answers. That site drives nobody to a murderous rage. Check out other drug sites, like totse, where you have 15 year olds giving each other advice (given to them by other 15 yearolds) on mixing pharmaceuticals, bragging about their overdoses, spreading "home brew chemistry" lies. Look over at This post A kid thinks he's been poisoned, and instead of calling poison control and talking to a medical professional, he goes online and sits around waiting for who really knows to give him advice. He's bloody lucky he didn't just pass out and die after hitting 'submit'. 20 years ago, if you lived in a flyover state, small town, Texas, this sort of information was nearly impossible to gain access to, even bigger citeies didn't always have it availible in public libraries, but now there is no excuse.

Sure society is partly to blame for not going the harm-reduction route, but it's also to blame for making people so dull as to be capable of educating themselves. Still nobody feels that personal responsibility is over riding in a situation like this and people choose not to be bothered educating themselves.

Also willing to place blame on the educated for not being more vocal. It's a dangerous line to walk, talk to much, and you may encourage people to do things they aught not, don't do it at all and...

I would argue with this point. Anyone well-versed in the literature concerning LSD knows that every experience differs and everyone reacts to it differently. There is no way of putting into words what someone is going to experience when they take the drug.

The information available on erowid and other such sites can guide a person, but there's still no way of fully preparing anyone for such an endeavor. Everyone who puts it on their tongue is taking a risk.

It's silly to think that someone could read a trip report or information about its effects and be able to control the trip with that information alone. And in SWIM's experience it is very true that people who take whopping doses of the stuff after that first pop and wow end up biting off more than they can chew.


There's plenty of things that can go wrong that aren't warned about in any literature. We're talking about metaphysical experience here, not cocaine.