(Part 3) Top products from r/LSD

> I know you said you have a book or something - PM me about that, I'm interested!

I've sent you a PM about the book. Glad to hear you're interested!

> What about this theory that floats around on the internet and that celebrities like Joe Rogan talk about that the pineal gland produces DMT, especially during sleep.

There is some evidence of DMT production in the pineal gland, but it's very scant at this stage. One study, last year (2013), showed trace amounts of DMT in the pineal glands of rats. This could mean that DMT is produced there, or somewhere else in the body and then stored/used there; however the amounts were far too limited to have any kind of psychedelic effect.

It's not extremely surprising, as DMT is chemically quite similar to the likes of serotonin and melatonin, so for it to form naturally in the brain isn't a huge jump biochemically speaking... it's also however not terribly interesting or useful until we know more about how much, when, why, and so on.

It could also however simply have been a freak occurrence. I'd like to see more studies being done to confirm it - especially with multiple species and animals of different ages (which may make a very large difference as well given the possible relationship between the pineal gland and the parietal eye that I mentioned).

> How did you learn as much as you know specifically about LSD?

It helps being old ;)

More seriously - I've simply read a lot and studied a lot with a critical mind. I'm a software developer professionally, but I've spent around 15 years of my free time learning and researching psychedelics and associated fields. I have no formal training, but I read university level textbooks on neuroscience, biochemistry, pharmacology and so on for fun.

Mostly, I'm just the kind of person that's both passionately curious about the world as well as being the kind of person that likes to critically analyse things. This helps to steer away from the mystical side of things (all very interesting, but lacking in anything even remotely similar to evidence) and keep me searching in more productive lines of enquiry.

> Any other books or references you'd be willing to share?

Hmmm... quite a lot.

"LSD" by Otto Snow is a good general purpose LSD book, with pretty detailed synthesis information that helps you understand the chemistry even if you're not actually planning on synthesising it yourself.

I'm not sure of your current level of skill, but if you need an intro, or refresher in to the basics of the right kind of chemistry, then Organic Chemistry I for Dummies is a great book according to my wife (who went from "no knowledge" to "able to at least understand what I'm talking about" just from this book).

For a "step-up" from there and getting to looking at the brain specifically, I'd start with (and continually go back to) Molecular Neuropharmacology: A Foundation for Clinical Neuroscience.

Aside from that, every research paper you can find dealing with related material. There's some good review papers as well for "summing up" a lot of others. One I really liked was "The Pharmacology of Lysergic Acid Diethylamide: A Review" by Passie et al.

I also found some online courses to be really good. I recently did "Drugs and the Brain" on Coursera; it was definitely a good refresher for me, and would be excellent for anyone with a basic grounding but wanting to learn more in general. There's another on Coursera called "Medical Neuroscience", which I unfortunately missed, but will catch the next time around; and one coming up really soon titled "Understanding the Brain: The Neurobiology of Everyday Life" which I'll be doing but expect to be a somewhat simpler course than the others (I'll take it anyway - re-covering basics is always good because you do find things you've managed to miss no matter how long you've been learning).

Edit: One additional thing I should have mentioned... here on reddit, check out /r/drugnerds and maybe also /r/rationalpsychonaut

Terminology varies over time and in different areas.

My friends and I tripped well over 100 times in years spanning 1972-1984. We got it in several different forms:

• tiny pills, which we referred to as "barrels" (the pills were vaguely barrel-shaped), or "tabs". Occasionally referred to as microdots, but not by anyone I knew. This was the most common form available to us in the early 70s. Quality and dosage varied a lot. Some were a smacking-strong dose, others gave a weak trip. Some felt very "dirty" - the common "everybody-knows" explanation back then was that they were "laced with strychnine", which was utter BS - more likely is that the chemist did a poor synthesis. If the chemist didn't do all the tricky final purification steps, residual ergot compounds would explain the muscle tension and ugly come-down effects.
  
  
• paper squares, "sheet" acid, because it was applied to sheets of perforated paper. We just called them "hits", not having any other special terminology. Are these called "tabs" now? These were almost always clean and a good dose.
  
  
• tiny gelatin squares, probably about 2mm x 2mm. We called this "windowpane". These were our favorite, always delivered a clean and strong trip. In fact some could be divided in half and still deliver a good trip! I'm guessing they were 250-350 mcg.
  
  
• Then there was the time we scored a Visine bottle full of liquid acid. Woot! One drop = one fantastic and clean trip! But that only happened once. The bottle lasted for months, though, and much fun was had.
  
  I wasn't actually there for the Summer of Love, but I'm certain that while there was STP on the streets, there was also a lot of actual acid, including Owsley's best. In fact the street clinics were warning kids about the STP, because it can give you a really nasty trip. They wouldn't bother warning if all doses were STP, they were suggesting that you stick with LSD, and helping to identify the STP pills so you could avoid it.
  
  If you can get hold of a copy, the book Licit and Illicit Drugs is a goldmine of historical information. It also reveals the racist origins behind the various drug prohibitions.
  
  
  
  

From Chocolate to Morphine by Dr. Andrew Weil (yes crunchy-natural-healing-on-oprah that Dr. Weil) is the book on drugs I wish my parents had given me as a kid and I plan on giving to my children. I strongly recommend it to any and all.

Give it to your kids even if you never intend to tell them about your own past.

The old hippies I know who were brutally honest about their drug use in the past produced the kids with the safest and best attitudes towards drugs. Education and demystification are highly effective harm reduction techniques.

I plan answering all drug questions as honestly as being age appropriate allows. But I'm sure as shit going to teach them that the drug war is wrong.

There is nothing lamer to teenagers than the shit your parents like. We're seeing this already for pot in Colorado and Washington as we've seen it in the Netherlands for decades. Legalization drops teen use dramatically. I assume that my own enthusiasm will dampen theirs.

Hey :) I think what could possibly help you is if you got an inside to what is LSD doing to your mind. If you would see what went wrong maybe it would help solve the problem. There is a really good book about what is LSD and how it alters your mind. The book is: Stanislav Grof : LSD psychotherapy. (http://www.amazon.com/Psychotherapy-Healing-Potential-Psychedelic-Medicine/dp/0979862205)
I really advise you to read it, maybe to even contact Grof if he can help :D Love :)

https://www.amazon.ca/Seeing-Faces-Eric-Hagan/dp/1092170960

Right now! The cover might be blurry, but the inside images are solid. Gotta be honest with you I am a cave man and don't know how to format properly. But the inside of the book is crystal clear.

(Copy&pasting an old reply)

For the OP: Maybe you should look into microdosing as a first step.

Microdosing: People who take LSD with breakfast (A video from the BBC which is a couple of years old; cutting tabs is not recommended as it's not accurate; volumetric microdosing is a better method - see wiki/thirdwave links below for comprehensive info)

Ayelet Waldman who is featured on the video talks about her depression and how microdosing helped her and saved her from suicide and wrote this book about it:

A Really Good Day: How Microdosing Made a Mega Difference in My Mood, My Marriage, and My Life

If you do decide this path the maybe you should have a look at a look at r/microdosing and read through the wiki at https://www.reddit.com/r/microdosing/wiki/index

Also lots of comprehensive free info at: https://thethirdwave.co/microdosing/

I'm assuming you are not using any pharma meds because if you are you may want to check for drug interactions which you can do at https://reference.medscape.com/drug-interactionchecker by entering 'lsd' and any other meds you are taking.

Good Luck.

Other things I've read that could be linked to depression is magnesium deficiency (which does not show up on standard blood tests) and is becoming more prevalent due to modern intensive farming methods or due to taking PPIs (proton pump inhibitors) and any gut/microbiome issues as the majority of serotonin is produced in the gut (where kefir and fermented foods such as sauerkraut, kimchi seem to help).

EDIT: Why magnesium is so good for you: https://youtu.be/oZYXBYAHhN8 (and also helps with vasoconstriction which can occur when taking lsd)

Google is your friend, friend (wink)

https://www.amazon.com/Book-SubGenius-Sacred-Teachings-Dobbs/dp/0671638106/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=book+of+the+subgenius&qid=1565969991&s=gateway&sr=8-1

(and in all seriousness, this is a fascinating work, but it's one that I *do not* think is just completely a joke. I think that beneath the snark and humor there is something real being said, and from personal experience, I can say that there are aspects of that thing being said that do *not* seem to me to be, necessarily, healthy...caveat emptor, is all I'm saying - I had some weird LSD-like experiences around this book when I was NOT tripping, and I'll just leave it at that, PM me if you want to know more)

Not what you're looking for, but relevant.

http://www.rense.com/general69/holoff.htm

I know it's a rense.com link but the author of that commentary is Michael Talbot, the same who wrote The Holographic Universe, seen here: vhttp://www.amazon.com/The-Holographic-Universe-Michael-Talbot/dp/0060922583

Good stuff, very intricate and interresting.

Also wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holographic_principle

This is one of the best books if you find it in your language
https://www.amazon.com/Food-Gods-Original-Knowledge-Evolution/dp/0553371304/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1524567822&sr=8-1&keywords=terence+mckenna&dpID=61o1ARv0OSL&preST=_SY344_BO1,204,203,200_QL70_&dpSrc=srch

[Be Here Now] (https://www.amazon.com/Be-Here-Now-Ram-Dass/dp/0517543052), by the co-author of The Psychedelic Experience (before he changed his name) is a great illustrated book.

You do have two brains. You have a left hemisphere and a right hemisphere, and they perceive the world in very different ways. I came up with these theory (while not tripping, but in an extremely odd mental state brought on by a book) that the two brain hemispheres are basically separate people, but it is the combination of the two that forms "you." I'm going to take a wild guess that you are one of the rare people who have a cross dominance. Do you do some things left-handed but other things right-handed? This is a typical mark of a cross dominance person. I personally write and use utensils left-handed but when it comes to sports I'm right-handed. It's been theorized that psychedelics make people more right brained.

Here are a few good TED talks about this:

http://www.ted.com/talks/iain_mcgilchrist_the_divided_brain.html

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/jill_bolte_taylor_s_powerful_stroke_of_insight.html

Psychedelic Information Theory

It presents information on a scientific theory of how psychedelics work. Not exactly what you were looking for, but I hear it's interesting.

In case anyone wants to learn Haskell (highly recommended!!) or just get a better look at the image: https://www.amazon.com/Haskell-School-Expression-Functional-Programming/dp/0521644089

This is a good atlas if you can find it. https://www.amazon.com/Plants-Gods-Sacred-Healing-Hallucinogenic/dp/0892819790

For those who impulsively buy things they see on Reddit: https://www.amazon.com/Dal%C3%AD-Pop-Ups-Martin-Howard/dp/0500517509

Not a bad addition to the trip kit!

It's a book in fact, available at amazon. I think that if your google-fu is solid enough you can find a pdf elsewhere, but I haven't tried.

https://www.amazon.com/Mountain-Tapestry-Abstract-Bohemian-Paychedelic/dp/B07XBKLMYD/ref=asc_df_B07XBKLMYD/?tag=&linkCode=df0&hvadid=343974544932&hvpos=1o1&hvnetw=g&hvrand=4209903808808079133&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9026832&hvtargid=aud-801738734305%3Apla-762340676283&psc=1&ref=&adgrpid=72020978394&th=1 got u

Menagerie - animal portraits to color

also https://www.amazon.ca/Electric-Kool-Aid-Acid-Test/dp/031242759X

If you want to read about the experiences of one of the pioneers of sensory deprivation work, check out John C. Lilly’s The Center of the Cyclone