Why did God make drugs?

[martincisneros]

So, why did God create these enchanted substances if he doesn't want us to practice sorcery with them?

That question teeters on "why did God create so many beautiful women if He didn't want 'em raped?"  God can create stuff that mankind still doesn't know the appropriate usage and their right relation to.  Incidentally, though there are brain receptors that specifically respond to weed, it's not a good reaction.  It's been linked to premature aging, some types of skin and other forms of cancer, memory loss, having children with Downs Syndrome (sp?), impotence, hair loss, premature ejaculation, loss of eye sight, glacoma (sp?), blood sugar problems, sudden infant death, impaired judgment, eye focusing problems, thinning of the skin, hemophilia, lowering of the immune system, premature exhaustion of the adrenals, nerve damage (ever heard it's good for backpain and cancer patients?), and various other issues according to various journals that I used to peak in when I worked at the library of a graduate medical school by where I live. 

If I cared to prove that that's the medical research on it, I could probably still get my hands on those old articles and a photo copier, but I don't care to prove the point.  I'm thinking Jama's one of the periodicals (Journal of the American Medical Association), but I could be wrong about that.  I'd recognize the particular issues if I saw them again.  I smoked weed a few times in my early 20s before I had that job.  And then during the time that I worked there, I read soooo many horrible articles out of Mayo Clinic and various other leading research institutes and hospitals that I completely swore off of it.  I won't touch it again 'cause it's one of those things that's deceptively nice, like a big ol' bowl of Fruit Loops where between the food colorings and the sugar it winds up being more mental problems and other types of physical problems than it's worth.  I'm not going to say that weed, and particularly hydro weed, aren't "nice."  But God evidently didn't make it for human consumption, whether we're talking injesting or smoking it.  Higher percentage of free radical damage than cigarette smoke, and various other issues that make it just too dangerous to fool with.  But it's like homosexuality -- a political agenda, to where it's going to continue to have more than it's fair share of noise.

Hemp, which is a cloth derived from weed when it's not being smoked and eaten, is a very useful kind of cloth.  God evidently gave us hemp for building houses and more durable clothes than for lighting up and altering our consciousness with it.  Everything has it's usage, but none of it is supposed to be for harming the body.  All of these drugs are worse on the body than dairy products and all of the blood sugar and artery problems that those cause.  Yet someone could ask why dairy was created if God didn't intend for us to use it.  How about letting cows, goats, and sheep give their milk to their young?  Not everything that God's made has to go into the mouth of a human being!  It's the logic of a toddler that because God made it, I must stick it in my mouth.  Even medical doctors that don't even believe in any type of animal rights -- many of them will say, if you're going to eat meat, then eat it, but trash the fat; get away from the dairy, etc.

Some drugs do have medical usage.  No drugs have a valid street usage.  Some things have been chemically altered since the flood.  If you have issues with the flood account, things have still been changed through entropy.  Some things existed as the food of animals that no longer exist on this planet, or that exist in very small numbers in more hidden parts of the world.  Marijuana, allowed to grow, is one of those plants that goes absolutely nuts to where I can't help but think of things that grew in previous millenia to the same size or bigger in the animal kingdom.  And without getting into a longwinded physiological description of various things that are no longer in most parts of the world, Marijuana wouldn't have had the same narcotic effect on these animals.  Sometimes I talk way too much, but... The human brain has the receptors that it has in relation to that chemical in order to be able to avoid the really huge predators that would eat Marijuana AND PEOPLE.

All things have their purpose and are beautiful in their time.  God didn't create a chemical factory.  Man through the hardness of his heart and his insatiable desire for economic gain and control of others has synthesized a trillion different chemicals in order to aid his quest for world domination.  Some of these things would make far more efficient bio-fuels than the corn that's currently eating our lunch economically and with the global food supply.  Some of these plants when they're cross-bred with other plants make awesome alternative fuels and things that make fiber optic technology look like stuff from the stone age.  Some of these plants are only going to be discovered in the future to have been the key to this or that problem with farming, with pest control, with getting rid of fungus and mold, etc.  God created a complete world.  These plants properly handled would give us far more fossil fuels than the ground ever will.  Various creationist scientists have already perdy near proven that our oil has come to us from plants and processes related to their decay in the earth, rather than from dinosaur bones.  I've been present when crude oil has been "created" right in front of me.

The question shouldn't be why God created this or that, but rather why are people so stupid?  Poverty could be eliminated within 40 years without harming one person that's currently already rich.  Wealth doesn't need to be redistributed.  People just need brain surgery so that they'll come to realize that God made obsene amounts of everything for everyone.

[Reverend G]

Actually, regarding pot being good for the body, science has found a partial answer to that part of your statement.  The speculation is that marijuana uses THC to protect itself from pathogens, and humans produce our own cannabinoids, possibly to protect our skin and as protection against pathogens.  At the very least, it can be said that our having receptors for cannabinoids DOES NOT mean we are meant to smoke pot, but rather that we have something in common with marijuana in that our own body produces cannabinoid substances.

I'm not telling you not to do it, just that having cannabinoid receptors does not mean God meant us to do it.

[Paul]

Martin,  about that barrage of health effects you posted about marijuana .
Those journals lie. Marijuana worse than dairy? What a laugh. You think a hippie on a health-concious diet is more unhealthy than some Joe Schmoe who doesn't smoke pot and is on the Standard American diet?

[Reverend G]

One thing I can say for certain.....after marijuana, I would crave lots of things, including dairy (ice cream).  But after I have ice cream, I don't crave marijuana.

[Paul]

One thing I can say for certain.....after marijuana, I would crave lots of things, including dairy (ice cream).  But after I have ice cream, I don't crave marijuana.

Yeah, me too. It raises my my my appetite and my sweet tooth. So, Martin's right. It is worse that dairy; it makes you pig out on ice cream. 

[CHB]

So, can I assume that you guys are regular pot smokers? 

(2Tim. 1:7)  How can we have a sound mind if we are spaced out on marijuana?

What about having the mind of Christ?

Don't mean to criticise any one, just observing.  I have never smoked the stuff, thank the Lord and have no desire to. I pray that  whatsoever you do, you do it all to the glory of God.

CHB

[Reverend G]

Can't say I have had any illicit drugs in a very long time.  Actually, not even alcohol since October 2005.  But I still like ice cream, and chocolate!!

[Paul]

So, can I assume that you guys are regular pot smokers? 

On and off. When I start to get a little more order in my life/making some money, I plan to start doing it frequently.

I'm an agnostic member of this board, by the way (the title of this thread is meant to imply your god.)

[Reverend G]

I must say, my step-daughter had the same point of view that you do, Paul.  (Good name, by the way!)  Of course, I say HAD!  She finally realized something, which no amount of telling her got through, that she was not going to get that stability/income level as long as she was still smoking pot!  A couple of months after she stopped her "occasional use", no longer fearful of a drug test, she was able to apply for the jobs she was qualified for but previously unable to apply for due to drug testing requirements.  Lo and behold she got a decent job, albeit part time.  Only took a month on the job for her to get bumped up to full time. 

[Reverend G]

So, can I assume that you guys are regular pot smokers? 

On and off. When I start to get a little more order in my life/making some money, I plan to start doing it frequently.

I'm an agnostic member of this board, by the way (the title of this thread is meant to imply your god.)

Oh yeah, and just so there are no misunderstandings, He is "your" God too, whether you choose to recognize Him or not. 

[Paul Hazelwood]

Yeah, there are negative effects of drug use that don't have to cause permanent brain damage or health risks in order for it to be a much wiser path to not do them.

[willieH]

willieH: Hi brother M...

This post may sound as if I am a Marijuana activist, but I am absolutely NOT!

I just believe, as the myths of ET and other RELIGIONS are perpetuated by lack of knowledge and understanding, so is the Marijuana issue...

It is especially condemned by those which have never experienced it...  and have NOTHING to gain from its continued use by other human beings...

I have several UNRELIGIOUS friends that use marijuana on occasion, and they are NEVER violent, NEVER provoking, NEVER involved in CRIME, ...hard working, decent human beings... 

Hemp, which is a cloth derived from weed when it's not being smoked and eaten, is a very useful kind of cloth.  God evidently gave us hemp for building houses and more durable clothes than for lighting up and altering our consciousness with it.

No offense, ...but I am not so sure I agree with this bro... If this is so, why did GOD bother to put the chemical elements in Hemp which can "alter our conciousness" in the plant? 

The FACT remains that the chemical elements of Marijuana are NOT addictive... You can smoke for YEARS and QUIT... you shall NOT have WITHDRAWAL nor shall you need MEDICAL observation... 

As far as the "research" goes (WHO is doing the research ...and WHAT are the "motives"?)...

It is much like "UFO's"... you can either believe and support "research" of it as true or not...

"Research" often tends to benefit the MONEY MAKERS in the end... and the "money making DRUG industry", just does not profit from Marijuana's existence...

DRUG COMPANIES can put out a "DRUG" on the LEGAL MARKET, which can POSSIBLY help you with say, an asthsma problem, ...but use of it, also POSSIBLY runs the risk of heart attack, high blood pressure, shortness of breath, stomach irritation, sexual disfunction etc, etc... and via DOCTORS, ...peddle it to the public!  LEGALLY!

It is the DRUG industry that I question mostly... Marijuana is a plant which was created by GOD as IT IS and it grows, just like lettuce, from the earth AS IT IS...

I once smoked pot regularly years ago (no longer do)... and to be truthful... I found myself thinking about GOD just about every time I smoked it...

In "my research"... I believe it to be VERY unjustly condemned... that our society and laws, not only allow, ...but PROMPT public use and consumption of "legal" DRUGS which hold devastating potentials to be ADVERTISED and SOLD, ...and then makes smoking or eating marijuana ILLEGAL... is to me... just another example of MAN placing the cart placed before the horse!

Everything has it's usage, but none of it is supposed to be for harming the body.  All of these drugs are worse on the body than dairy products and all of the blood sugar and artery problems that those cause.  Yet someone could ask why dairy was created if God didn't intend for us to use it.  How about letting cows, goats, and sheep give their milk to their young?  Not everything that God's made has to go into the mouth of a human being!

It's the logic of a toddler that because God made it, I must stick it in my mouth.  Even medical doctors that don't even believe in any type of animal rights -- many of them will say, if you're going to eat meat, then eat it, but trash the fat; get away from the dairy, etc.

I agree with this Martin...  Our modern society is driven more and more toward the worship of MONEY... and it is via such industries as DRUGS (sorcery industry), INSURANCE, BANKING, OIL, ENTERTAINMENT and CREDIT (usury industries), that are driving HUMANITY to its common UNGODLY END...

Those who charge unfair and inflated MONETARY compensation for their "help" are those which PROMPT Humanity to the infatuation of GOD's true ADVERSARY:

(Matt 6:24 / Luke 16:13) NO MAN, can serve TWO MASTERS; for either he will hate the one and lvoe the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other, YE CANNOT SERVE, ...GOD... AND, ...MAMMON  Here GOD is noting that MAN either serves YHVH or he serves MONEY... one or the other shall be your MASTER...

(1 Tim 6:10) ...the LOVE of MONEY, is the root of ...ALL... EVIL...   Here, Paul notes that MONEY can be found as the perpertrator of ALL EVIL... GOD is GOOD, ...MONEY influences MAN to serve another MASTER...

Some drugs do have medical usage.  No drugs have a valid street usage.

 

What determines "street usage" bro?  The LAW? 

Hey, meth and heroin are both sold on the "street", and neither is any less addictive than CIGARETTES!  Yet, even though CIGARETTES can be traced to HEART DISEASE, various CANCERS, etc... the "LAW" notes them as LEGAL... and categorize this KILLER, as a non-"street drug"...  Recieving VAST amounts of MONEY in the taxation of Cigarette sales...

Please!  :omg:  I GURANTEE that CIGARETTE SMOKING has KILLED at LEAST as many of our brothers and sisters,  as STREET DRUGS have...

This is not to condone the use or sale of METH or HEROIN, or MARIJUANA... but are not the LAW and LAWMAKERS, the determining factor as to what DRUGS are "acceptable", ...and what DRUGS, ...are NOT? 

Of what are considered "STREET DRUGS", and what ...ARE NOT?

I conclude that MEN in general, are on an inescapable WIDE pathway to destruction, and MONEY is that which, as the "pied piper" leads them to that destruction...

Look at TV... In this day, ...it is pretty much DOMINATED by MONEY-ORIENTED "reality" Gameshows in which people are willing to sacrifice their own Physical and mental, and spiritual lives to gain it...

There is a show called "MOMENT of TRUTH"... in which they ask the contestants questions which inevitably shall put in jeopardy, the relationships of Marriage, Parent/child, brother/sister even JOB holdings... by DANGLING some large MONEY prize for the "TRUTH"...

"TRUTH", my A__!   Such opportunities as these are POISONOUS CANDY, dangled before the CHILDREN... and DECEITFULLY include the word "TRUTH" to do so... 

Sorry for getting off on a tangent Brother M... but the MONEY world we live in, just makes me sick anymore...

I was watching "Nightline" last night, and it was about SLAVERY of CHILDREN in Haiti... for as little as $150!   :omg: 

As JESUS said...  (Luke 8:18) "...when the Son of man cometh, shall He find FAITH on the earth"

IMO, ...We aren't far from completing this sorrowful prediction... 

Again, it bears repeating... I did not mean any offense in this post toward you, I just find that the ILLEGALITY of Marijuana, is blown WAY out of proportion, and lesser more HARMFUL "drugs" are not only allowed, but promoted by the "LAWS" of our "law--makers"...


peacE...
...willieH 

[Reverend G]

Hi Willie!!

Well I can't say I agree with you on all your points, fact is I really don't know regarding marijuana legalization.  You make some valid points, though there is more to the issue than just what you mention.  Like I said, I just don't know.

I must say I agree regarding the pharmaceutical industry.  It has been many years since I was a regular pot user, over 25 years anyways.  I am a recovering drunk, though I see no reason to outlaw alcohol just because I break out in handcuffs when I use it.   Actually though, it wasn't so much the lawmakers that outlawed pot, they wrote the laws, but someone else pushed them to do so.  For that, you need to look to a man named William Randolph Hearst and his friends in the logging, chemical, and paper industries.  The real reason marijuana was outlawed was to stop hemp paper from replacing wood based paper.  It was found that hemp paper was as good as wood based paper, and was able to be processed without all of the toxic chemicals that are used in paper mills.  This would have been a tragedy for those who cut trees for paper, those who supplied chemicals to make paper, and the paper mills themselves.  It really was more about money than potheads.

[Michele]

What a strange question -- Why did God make drugs?  What's interesting is that drugs are man made...

What about the Great Physician?

[Paul]

Nice post, willieH. I found your comment about how you did most of your thinking about God while high to be touching. 

I started this thread because I'm genuinely curious what people who believe in God think about the natural drugs like psilocybin mushrooms that produce such an amazing experience. If anyone's interested, read some online experience reports of mushrooms at the following link, and comment:

http://www.erowid.org/experiences/subs/exp_Mushrooms.shtml

[jabcat]

I think this is an interesting topic, and I don't have all the answers.  A few things I do believe...

1)We are to present our bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God.  If that means abstaining from or moderate use of certain foods, certain activities, etc., then I'm to be willing to be obedient in that regard.

2)We are to be enslaved to nothing.

3)We are not to be under the influence of anything to where our mind is unable to be rational and yielded to the Holy Spirit

4)When Jesus calls, chooses, and begins to regenerate (save) us, the Holy Spirit resides in us and convicts and leads us into what is acceptable to God's will individually in our lives.  "Be not drunk with wine in which is excess, but be filled with the Spirit"  Ephesians 5:18.

Basically, i.e., if I don't trust Jesus as my savior and have an intimate, personal relationship with Him, then I'll try to satisfy the desires of my flesh, fill the God-shaped holes in me with all types of things and substances, and search for any reason or logic to excuse and condone my wishes and behavior.  Conversely, when Jesus is the Lord of our life, the Holy Spirit will lead us into a walk, growth, and maturity that is pleasing to our Father.  James.

[Paul]

"LSD and related substances are not drugs in the usual sense, but are part of the sacred substances, which have been used for thousand of years in ritual settings. The classic psychedelics like LSD, Psilocybin and Mescaline are characterized by the fact that they are neither toxic nor addictive. It is my great concern to separate psychedelics from the ongoing debates about drugs, and to highlight the tremendous potential inherent to these substances for self-awareness, as an adjunct in therapy, and for fundamental research into the human mind." –Albert Hofmann, Ph.D.

[B_T]

Drugs are medicines... they are useful in some cases.

[Paul]

Doing shrooms is seriously helping with my insane OCD (which isn't surprising considering it's been proven with a study that psilocybin mushrooms help with OCD: http://www.maps.org/research/psilo/azproto.html)

[Reverend G]

How you can call LSD a sacred ritual drug is beyond me, seeing as Abby Hoffman synthesized it in 1938.  It is derived from ergot fungus, but is NOT naturally occuring.

While it is true that these (lsd and others you mentioned) are not considered addictive drugs, they do bring on other problems, such as flashbacks, schizophrenia, and other psychoses, besides often inducing severe depression. 

[Paul]

How you can call LSD a sacred ritual drug is beyond me, seeing as Abby Hoffman synthesized it in 1938.  It is derived from ergot fungus, but is NOT naturally occuring.

Abbie Hoffman was a hippie activist. It's Albert Hofmann, who died about two months ago at 102.

NOT naturally occuring

What's your point? It's a misconception that in order for something to be good it has to be natural. It could still be a sacrament. The Bible isn't naturally occuring, but it's God-given, isn't it? The same way God inspired man to write the Bible, he also could've inspired Albert Hofmann to synthesize LSD.

While it is true that these (lsd and others you mentioned) are not considered addictive drugs, they do bring on other problems, such as flashbacks, schizophrenia, and other psychoses, besides often inducing severe depression.

All things that have been grossly exaggerated by the media. "Often inducing sever depression?" C'mon. Most people who trip disocover a spiritual aspect of their personality, as with that mushroom study that made headlines recently (http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5h0j1xyts9Th2HhPZGqel--WwEJLg)

The majority of people who trip never get any of those symptoms. Being in the right mind state and location can ensure a good trip. Psychedelics amplify our brains; if the wrong things are amplified, a person can freak out. There's more cases of people benefitting from these drugs than freaking out. That was evident in the 60s when LSD was still legal and crowds famous Electric Kool-aid Acid Test. Tons of people on high doses; everything went well.

A minority of soldiers who go to war develop Post Traumatic Stress Disorder form the intense experience (seeing people getting killed; killing; etc.) I remember seeing clips of soldiers with this disorder in school; it's insane.

http://pages.citebite.com/p5n9l8q6alfl

Excerpts from LSD: My Problem Child by Albert Hofmann (http://www.erowid.org/library/books_online/lsd_my_problem_child/chapter1.shtml):

A peculiar presentiment - the feeling that this substance could possess properties other than those established in the first investigations - induced me, five years after the first synthesis, to produce LSD-25 once again so that a sample could be given to the pharmacological department for further tests. This was quite unusual; experimental substances, as a rule, were definitely stricken from the research program if once found to be lacking in pharmacological interest.

Nevertheless, in the spring of 1943, I repeated the synthesis of LSD-25. As in the first synthesis, this involved the production of only a few centigrams of the compound.

In the final step of the synthesis, during the purification and crystallization of lysergic acid diethylamide in the form of a tartrate (tartaric acid salt), I was interrupted in my work by unusual sensations. The following description of this incident comes from the report that I sent at the time to Professor Stoll:

Last Friday, April 16,1943, I was forced to interrupt my work in the laboratory in the middle of the afternoon and proceed home, being affected by a remarkable restlessness, combined with a slight dizziness. At home I lay down and sank into a not unpleasant intoxicated-like condition, characterized by an extremely stimulated imagination. In a dreamlike state, with eyes closed (I found the daylight to be unpleasantly glaring), I perceived an uninterrupted stream of fantastic pictures, extraordinary shapes with intense, kaleidoscopic play of colors. After some two hours this condition faded away.

This was, altogether, a remarkable experience - both in its sudden onset and its extraordinary course. It seemed to have resulted from some external toxic influence; I surmised a connection with the substance I had been working with at the time, lysergic acid diethylamide tartrate. But this led to another question: how had I managed to absorb this material? Because of the known toxicity of ergot substances, I always maintained meticulously neat work habits. Possibly a bit of the LSD solution had contacted my fingertips during crystallization, and a trace of the substance was absorbed through the skin. If LSD-25 had indeed been the cause of this bizarre experience, then it must be a substance of extraordinary potency. There seemed to be only one way of getting to the bottom of this. I decided on a self-experiment.

–

Here the notes in my laboratory journal cease. I was able to write the last words only with great effort. By now it was already clear to me that LSD had been the cause of the remarkable experience of the previous Friday, for the altered perceptions were of the same type as before, only much more intense. I had to struggle to speak intelligibly. I asked my laboratory assistant, who was informed of the self-experiment, to escort me home. We went by bicycle, no automobile being available because of wartime restrictions on their use. On the way home, my condition began to assume threatening forms. Everything in my field of vision wavered and was distorted as if seen in a curved mirror. I also had the sensation of being unable to move from the spot. Nevertheless, my assistant later told me that we had traveled very rapidly. Finally, we arrived at home safe and sound, and I was just barely capable of asking my companion to summon our family doctor and request milk from the neighbors.

In spite of my delirious, bewildered condition, I had brief periods of clear and effective thinking - and chose milk as a nonspecific antidote for poisoning.

The dizziness and sensation of fainting became so strong at times that I could no longer hold myself erect, and had to lie down on a sofa. My surroundings had now transformed themselves in more terrifying ways. Everything in the room spun around, and the familiar objects and pieces of furniture assumed grotesque, threatening forrns. They were in continuous motion, animated, as if driven by an inner restlessness. The lady next door, whom I scarcely recognized, brought me milk - in the course of the evening I drank more than two liters. She was no longer Mrs. R., but rather a malevolent, insidious witch with a colored mask.

Even worse than these demonic transformations of the outer world, were the alterations that I perceived in myself, in my inner being. Every exertion of my will, every attempt to put an end to the disintegration of the outer world and the dissolution of my ego, seemed to be wasted effort. A demon had invaded me, had taken possession of my body, mind, and soul. I jumped up and screamed, trying to free myself from him, but then sank down again and lay helpless on the sofa. The substance, with which I had wanted to experiment, had vanquished me. It was the demon that scornfully triumphed over my will. I was seized by the dreadful fear of going insane. I was taken to another world, another place, another time. My body seemed to be without sensation, lifeless, strange. Was I dying? Was this the transition? At times I believed myself to be outside my body, and then perceived clearly, as an outside observer, the complete tragedy of my situation. I had not even taken leave of my family (my wife, with our three children had traveled that day to visit her parents, in Lucerne). Would they ever understand that I had not experimented thoughtlessly, irresponsibly, but rather with the utmost caution, an-d that such a result was in no way foreseeable? My fear and despair intensified, not only because a young family should lose its father, but also because I dreaded leaving my chemical research work, which meant so much to me, unfinished in the midst of fruitful, promising development. Another reflection took shape, an idea full of bitter irony: if I was now forced to leave this world prematurely, it was because of this Iysergic acid diethylamide that I myself had brought forth into the world.

By the time the doctor arrived, the climax of my despondent condition had already passed. My laboratory assistant informed him about my selfexperiment, as I myself was not yet able to formulate a coherent sentence. He shook his head in perplexity, after my attempts to describe the mortal danger that threatened my body. He could detect no abnormal symptoms other than extremely dilated pupils. Pulse, blood pressure, breathing were all normal. He saw no reason to prescribe any medication. Instead he conveyed me to my bed and stood watch over me. Slowly I came back from a weird, unfamiliar world to reassuring everyday reality. The horror softened and gave way to a feeling of good fortune and gratitude, the more normal perceptions and thoughts returned, and I became more confident that the danger of insanity was conclusively past.

Now, little by little I could begin to enjoy the unprecedented colors and plays of shapes that persisted behind my closed eyes. Kaleidoscopic, fantastic images surged in on me, alternating, variegated, opening and then closing themselves in circles and spirals, exploding in colored fountains, rearranging and hybridizing themselves in constant flux. It was particularly remarkable how every acoustic perception, such as the sound of a door handle or a passing automobile, became transformed into optical perceptions. Every sound generated a vividly changing image, with its own consistent form and color.

Late in the evening my wife returned from Lucerne. Someone had informed her by telephone that I was suffering a mysterious breakdown. She had returned home at once, leaving the children behind with her parents. By now, I had recovered myself sufficiently to tell her what had happened.

Exhausted, I then slept, to awake next morning refreshed, with a clear head, though still somewhat tired physically. A sensation of well-being and renewed life flowed through me. Breakfast tasted delicious and gave me extraordinary pleasure. When I later walked out into the garden, in which the sun shone now after a spring rain, everything glistened and sparkled in a fresh light. The world was as if newly created. All my senses vibrated in a condition of highest sensitivity, which persisted for the entire day.

This self-experiment showed that LSD-25 behaved as a psychoactive substance with extraordinary properties and potency. There was to my knowledge no other known substance that evoked such profound psychic effects in such extremely low doses, that caused such dramatic changes in human consciousness and our experience of the inner and outer world.

[Molly]

Even worse than these demonic transformations of the outer world, were the alterations that I perceived in myself, in my inner being. Every exertion of my will, every attempt to put an end to the disintegration of the outer world and the dissolution of my ego, seemed to be wasted effort. A demon had invaded me, had taken possession of my body, mind, and soul. I jumped up and screamed, trying to free myself from him, but then sank down again and lay helpless on the sofa. The substance, with which I had wanted to experiment, had vanquished me. It was the demon that scornfully triumphed over my will. I was seized by the dreadful fear of going insane. I was taken to another world, another place, another time. My body seemed to be without sensation, lifeless, strange. Was I dying? Was this the transition? At times I believed myself to be outside my body, and then perceived clearly, as an outside observer, the complete tragedy of my situation. I had not even taken leave of my family (my wife, with our three children had traveled that day to visit her parents, in Lucerne).

Oh, great.  I always take every chance available to cavort with demons......NOT.

[Reverend G]

I wasn't aware that Albert and Abbot were different people, after all Albert tripped too!!  Learning something new is good!!

My point about LSD not being naturally occurring, is that you claim this is a sacramental drug.  So what new religion was established since 1938, actually about 1946 when it's properties became more commonly known?  Obviously for it to be a sacramental drug there must be some religious order using it for its rituals?  So which religion?  Or did you just decide to start a religion and use LSD as your sacramental drug?

As for the effects being "over-stated" by the media, have you really spent time researching this?  Do you know any people who 20 years after they stopped using these drugs, still are plagued with flashbacks?  Have you ever been involved in treatment of people with mental illness related to these substances, or even had time to have meaningful discussions with those who have treated such people?  If you have, then I will consider your statement.  If not, I will rely on the statements of the people I know who DO have flashbacks, and of people I know who have treated or still are treating these people.

[Paul]

I guess my point is just that there's also people who literally never experience any of these symptoms. Statistics show the individuals who experience flashbacks are in the minority. Bad acid could be the main reason for flashbacks and the like.

How do these impurities change the optimum course of action of LSD and the experience it creates? One of the theories is that, because d-LSD-25 is like a key (its outer electron shell has a specific shape), it fits into a number of tiny locks called "receptor sites." These are located somewhere in the brain - nobody is sure where, but one theory suggests that they might be in the brain stem. It is known, however, that these receptor sites interact only with extremely specific molecular configurations.

The various ergot compounds, cycloalkamides of LSD and lumi-LSD plug into the same receptor sites as LSD does. But these compounds evidently don't turn the lock in the smooth, clean manner of LSD. Many of these compounds have effects similar to symptoms of ergot poisoning - the St. Anthony's Fire of the Middle Ages. These symptoms include inflamed joints, headaches, nausea, and hot and cold flashes.

http://www.erowid.org/chemicals/lsd/lsd_writings1.shtml

[Reverend G]

Not to mention witch hunts and burnings.