Medical Applications of LSD-25

Reported Dosages

"At very low doses, 20 mcg or less, very little happens. At 50
mcg, there is an increase in alertness. At 75 mcg some subjects react
with a strong experience and others remain very tense and uncomfortable.
At 100 mcg about 75 percent of normal subjects become very
relaxed and remarkably free of tension. The remainder may require
200 mcg to get the same degree of relaxation. There must be a maximum
degree of relaxation before the psychedelic experience is achieved;
most subjects have very tense, unpleasant experiences when given too
little LSD," Abram Hoffer, M.D. (1967)
"The drug conceived to facilitate recall, reliving, catharsis and
abreaction, with the production of associational, dreamlike material for
subsequent analysis," Albert Kurland (1967).
"Therapists working with small doses-such as 25-50 pg. of LSDdo
so only to facilitate conventional therapy..." Masters; Houston.
"LSD does not act as a true medicament; rather it plays the role
of a drug aid in the context of psychoanalytic and psychotherapeutic
treatment and serves to channel the treatment more effectively and to
shorten its duration." Hofmann 1980
"Very small doses (on the order of 30 lag. of LSD) are sufficient to
establish empathic bond.." from: Toward an Individual Psychedelic
Psychotherapy, by Masters, R.E.L.; Houston, J.; in Psychedelics; The Uses
and Implications of Hallucinogenic Drugs.
"Medium doses (100-200 ug.) usually suffice to produce regressive
phenomena and deeper emotional responses, while larger doses still
may take the patient into primal archetypal experiences," R.A. Sandison
(1956).
Adjuvant to psychotherapy - 20-40 ug. Harold Abramson (1956)
"The use of LSD to enable the patient to shorten this process has
been termed psycholytic therapy in Europe. Low doses of LSD are used
in psycholytic therapy...." Harold Abramson, M.D. (1967)
"At present, I start treatment with 20 to 100 mcg. of LSD given
intravenously. The hysterical personality needs very small doses, while
obsessionals need very high ones. The average dose for my patients is
between 75 and 150 mcg. and I have never given more than 500 mcg,"
Dr. John Buckman (1967).

Psycholytic therapy - 30 - 200 ug. for treatment of neuroses ref.
Van Rhijn 1967
Psychedelic therapy - 400-1500 ug for alcoholism.
Alcoholics 200-400 ug. 50% improved, (stopped drinking or improved).
Alcoholics 400-1500 ug. 60% improved (50% remained "totally
dry" at follow-up.) 50% remained alcohol free with 200 ug. being given
every 2 months. 90% of neurotics report "improved" or "much improved".
(Unger 1964) Alcoholism - 400 - 1000 ug. causes transcendental experience.
One year later 50% remain alcohol free. (Caldwell 1968) (MacLean
1961)
"The problem of apathetic, resisting patient is not common in
psychedelic therapy, yet I have seen patients in Europe under a dosage
of one thousand micrograms... who were completely sober," Dr. W.V.
Caldwell (1968)
"Psychedelic therapy, the method usually applied in this country
[USA], commonly makes use of doses of at least 300 mcg of LSD and
doses may go as high as 2000 ug," Harold Abramson, M.D. (1967)
Treatment of Alcoholics
I was seventeen hanging out with a chick in her twenties. Lotus
was gorgeous. Long brown hair with a nice figure, deep brown eyes.
Knock-out kisses. Lotus told me about Jasmine. She was in her sixties
and been in an LSD program for the treatment of alcoholism.
"Cool. Lotus introduce me. Come on Lotus."
"Tomorrow, we'll go over."
We go to Jasmine's apartment. It was on the second story of a
building at the top of the hill A nice quiet location. Inner city rural
America. An American flag waved over our heads as we entered the
front door.
A little old lady with white hair opens the door. She peered at us
through wire rim glasses.
"I am pleased to meet you, Otto." Jasmine held out her hand.
"Lotus has told me so much about you, come in."
We walked up the stairs and Jasmine was fully able to make the
stairs and prepared some tea. In the living room are pictures of her
family. Jasmine smiles and gives us cups of tea.
"So you take LSD for your headaches. I take it for alcoholism,"
says Jasmine, and smiles with the eyes of child.
"Interesting."
"I told you that she was cool," says Lotus.
"Half my body was partially paralyzed from the migraines.

The LSD keeps it at bay. I can tell when they are coming."
"For me, I have to take it or I won't stop drinking "
"Drinking anything and everything, Otto. I mean it. I saw her
drinking cooking wine and not eating," testifies Lotus.
"During the sixties, I was given LSD to stop drinking. I was
given a large dose and experienced satori. And like you I have to take
LSD to keep condition in check."
"How often do you take it?"
"I take 50 micrograms twice a week or one hundred once week.
It has kept me from free from alcohol for ten years," as long as I have
good LSD."
Jasmine took out a small pill bottle and opened it, reveling 4
purple tablets. She placed them on a white paper. I looked at them
more closely. They were molded and not very good.
"And these do it for you?"
"They are very weak."
Over the next year, we would trip together. She was a mentor to
me.
One day, I walked over to visit my friend. There was no answer
to the doorbell. Strange. I had been over the day before. Was wondering
if she was toes up, I should have asked her for the phone number of
her daughter.
Then all of sudden I can see something or someone bouncing down
the staircase like beach ball, Blam!, slamming against the door. The
door cracks open. This odor of someone who hasn't washed in many
days cuts into the air, bad, real bad.
"Otto, I am not well. I have been drinking."
Her stomach is distended and she burps.
"Oh my God, does your daughter know?"
"Yes she does, she took my drugs away from me. She is going to
send me to a hospital for rehab."
I gave my friend a hug and walked home. I went back a few
times and she was gone.
I was coming back from a vacation north. Sixty miles from home.
A friend was driving her truck by a head shop.
"Bonnie pull over, I have to check out this head shop."
"I don't know where I'll park."
The truck stalled and I jumped out. Opening the door of the
head shop, I smelled patchouli, working behind the counter is my dear
friend, Jasmine
"Otto," her arms outstretched to me.

"Jasmine, you're all right."
Innocence in her eyes, she smiled like a child, we hugged.
"I hooked up with some people in rehab. They are like me and
have to LSD for alcoholism. We found some really good LSD. Do you
want some Otto?"
"We use doses varying from 400 to 1,500 mcg. given by mouth.
The initial dose depends on the psychiatric appraisal of the subject's
defense mechanisms. We think that the closer a person is to self-acceptance
the less the dosage required, and we use this as a working guide.
We usually start with a dose of 400 mcg; experience as the session
progresses is used to decide if and when more is required. If after one or
two hours the patient shows signs of anxiety because he is holding on
desperately to his reality ties, more LSD 25 is needed to induce the
psychedelic experience...
Toward the end of the period of hospitalization (mean: two months)
the patients were given the LSD treatment. they received 200 mcg.
During the session the therapist worked with the patient to bring out
repressed memories, abreactions, new insights, and new understanding,"
Abram Hoffer, M.D.(1967)
"In answer to the question of the need for transcendental experiences
in alcoholics, we have found in our experience with around 130
alcoholics that it seems that these people have divorced themselves from
the rest of humanity. They must have an experience like this to be able
to again come into, and react with, the rest of us humans," Dr. Kenneth
E. Godfrey (1967)
Most volunteers (subjects who are not patients) will have an
unequivocal reaction when given 100 mcg of LSD by my estimate, based
upon several hundred subjects, is that ten percent will have minimal or
no LSD reaction with this dose.
In a series of experiments over the past ten years, no subjects
have failed to react in the expected manner to 200 mcg. however,
perhaps 25 percent of alcoholic subjects will react minimally to 200 mcg
and about 90 percent will react to 300 mcg.," Abram Hoffer, MD (1967)
"These studies have shown and indicate that LSD plus brief
psychotherapy is of considerable benefit in the treatment of chronic
alcoholics. It should be pointed out that it is not the drugs that are
therapeutic but the experience the patient has that is of benefit," Oliver
O'Reilly, M.D.(1967)
In the Treatment of Neuroses
In the treatment of PTSD?
"Psychedelic drugs may not only suspend old imprinted patterns,
they may also provide the possibility of reimprinting," Dr. Timothy Leary
(1964).
"The liquidation of the traumatic material, by reliving and rational
integration with subsequent ecstatic experiences, is accompanied by
a heightening of the patient's security and self-esteem and the disappearance
of maladaptive patterns and clinical symptoms. Avery typical
occurrence is the resolution of ambivalent attitudes with a successive
narrowing of the oscillation spectrum of contradictory tendencies and a
sort of mutual neutralization. Toward the end of the procedure the
patients relate that they feel personally free and exempt from various
pathological dependencies they suffered from previously," Stanislav Grof,
M.D.(1967)
"Love, kindness, patience and security all help to heal trauma.
Too bad there is so little of this in the world," Otto.
See also: Shiv itti by Ka-tzetnik (should be mandatory reading in
all high schools).
In the Treatment of Neuroses
LSD has been found to be effective (50 - 66% recovery) in the
treatment of obsessional compulsive disorder (Solursh 1966; Sandison
1954; 1956)
LSD has been used on schizophrenic with a recovery rate of 80%
(Perrilo 1963)
Neuroses - 55% recovery rate. "We have reason to be satisfied
with lysergic acid diethylamide as an aid to treatment, and in many
cases the results are so dramatic as to leave one in no doubt as to the
value of this remarkable drug," R.A. Sandison (1956).
In the Treatment of Migraines
In clinical studies LSD (the drug) has been found to have a
remarkable ability to treat disease from a psychological point of view. It
has been extremely successful at aborting migraine headaches (Ling
1963) (Yensen 1989). It's most valued attribute is the prophylactic
nature of the substance against migraines. There has been no description
on the specific types of migraines that were treated.
In the Treatment of Schizophrenia?
"Morgens Hertz, a Danish physician, described a patient whose
long-standing stuttering condition disappeared following LSD treatment
(Stafford & Golightly 1967). An American team of researchers found
that schizophrenic children became more communicative following LSD
treatment (Bender, Goldschmidt, and Siva Sankar 1956)." pg. 227 In
Psychedelics; The Uses and Implications of Hallucinogenic Drugs
"It should be noted that when a therapist takes LSD, he enters a
state in which he can communicate with schizophrenic patients in a
direct, close, empathic fashion. This communication opens the door to
effective psychological treatment for schizophrenia. The schizophrenic
is lost in time, and a therapist who will enter the paths of his disordered
thinking, once he can establish trust, can lead the patient out of the
disorder. It is not always sufficient to call out from the forest's edge to
rescue someone lost. One must sometimes go in himself."
from: Toward an Individual Psychedelic Psychotherapy, by Masters,
R.E.L.; Houston, J.; in Psychedelics; The Uses and Implications of
Hallucinogenic Drugs
Therapist (Guide) Must Take Drug
"We are engaged in what is called a transactional research
design. The researcher sees himself as part of the transaction, and is an
active learner in the experiment. Most American psychology today is
only a description of what the researcher sees-it is only the report of the
researchers experience in observing the subject, rather than what the
subject is really experiencing. The subject-object method of research is
inadequate for studies of human consciousness," Dr. Timothy Leary
(Wakefield 1964).
"We believe that the LSD experience is unique, thus making it
necessary for the therapist to take the drug himself, so that he may be,
if only in a small measure, able to understand what the patient is talking
about," Dr. John Buckman (1967)
The Environments (Settings)
"The session is conducted in a large, beautifully decorated room
specifically designed to enhance the drug experience. Music is played
during most of the session. The sitter is supportive when required, but
the otherwise does not initiate interaction with the subjects." William
H. McGlothlin, Ph.D. (1967)
I would be feeling the migraines coming and had to get these
down pat, always planning ahead.... Set and setting are paramount. The
body can over heat on LSD if the air temperature is too hot. In the
winter, I would wear warm clothes outside. During the summer, I would
only have a session outside if the temperature was not hot. Usually, in
the summer, sessions were conducted outside on a cool sunny day.
The Environments (Settings)
Sessions in The Yellow Room
The walls were yellow with a sky light, yellow couch, hardwood
floors and an oversized sliding door to a deck that overlooked the forest.
We had large basket of fruits and chips. Sardines and pizza.
Walnut pie. Lots of different fruit juices. Valium in case of emergency.
The doors were locked.
The sessions would start mid (9AM) morning after a full breakfast.
No B-vitamins for 24 hours prior to session. These were standard
sessions. A box load of tapes had been stacked for five - six hour session.
During the session, we would sit on the deck and look at the
forest. It was beautiful and alive. Usually it meant a walk through the
woods.
The forest is alive on LSD. I breath in the forest. It is the Mother
Goddess. She breaths oxygen into me. The trees are majestic. Giant
air cleaners (GACs) and water purifiers. Organic and safe. I am a dwarf
in the woods. The only thing bigger than the GACs are the clouds and
they are puffy and white against the deep blue sky.
Each moment is sacred. I can feel my consciousness climbing
ever more towards the peak of the session.
At Peak: Noon. It is nice to find a little clearing in the forest, lie
down, looking in between the trees up into the sky. I let go. I experience
becoming one with the forest totally. She is breathing life into me. I am
her child of a million years from day one. We are all biochemically
hardwired to Mother Nature.
Sessions in State Parks
Uncle Sam provides sacred areas for us and generations to come.
They are ideal for sessions. But remember, follow the rules. What ever
goes in comes out. No litter. We are like Star Trek, and we are not
supposed to leave garbage in the forest. Day trips in a park are fun.
Sessions in Amusement Parks
I speculate that this may be helpful to those with anhedonia. At
5Oug it was enjoyable. I went and picked up a friend and he dropped
200ug. By the time we got there he was experiencing the drug. I took
5Oug, and decided to go get something to eat down the road. On the way
back, two ladies were thumbing so I picked them up in the puke green
Nova.
"So ladies, going to the amusement park?"

One of the ladies is checking my out friend in the back seat, who
is curled up in a fetal position laughing.
"Don't worry about him. Just push him over little, he's friendly."
The girls hop in and we are moving to the park.
"What's the matter with him?" asks the girl in the back seat.
"Too much LSD."
"LSD! Is he a drug addict or something?"
"Oh no, he's perfectly safe. He is experiencing the eternal now."
"He looks like he is really out of it."
"Window, you're scaring the ladies, sit up."
"Hi, girls. I'm ok, just the giggles," says Window.
"Oh, we know what that's like."
We go into the amusement park and first ride is the Tilt-a-Whirl.
Window and I know can finely sense the weight balance between the
spin and speed. Moving from side to side with the girls between us. The
seats we are spinning so fast that we can't lift our heads. Window and I
are going, ohhhhh, and just letting go. The ladies are freaking and
screaming Window and me are laughing so hard we are ready to pass
out. The ride slows down and stops, the ladies loose us fast.
I am grocking the crowd. I am standing there crying. My friend
is laughing. I tell him to grock these people. Tears fill his eyes, I am
laughing.
We are getting cotton candy in our long hair and laughing
hysterically. The day was a blast...
I speculate that the amusement park setting for sessions would
be therapeutic for anhedonia. The guide should be a friend, someone
kind, playful, behaved in public.
***
Set and setting are of utmost importance (Unger 1963)
According to Drs. T. Leary and R. Alpert (referring to the
entheogenic substances, mescaline, psilocybin, LSD):
"(1) these substances do alter consciousness. There is no dispute
on this score.
(2) It is meaningless to talk more specifically about the "effect of
the drug." Set and setting, expectation, and atmosphere account for all
specificity of reaction. There is no "drug reaction" but always settingplus-
drug...
The drug is just an instrument."