LSD Flashback - Bullshit? Have you or do you know anyone who has had one?

[MyUncle]

In remembrance of the War on Drugs, I had a great discussion about my drug use, other people's use, what do we tell our kids etc.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=439&topic_id=1319700&mesg_id=1319700

One of the people said he never tried LSD because he was afraid of Flashbacks. I said and some others said that was a myth. I have never had and I know no one who has had an LSD Flashback. I know about 50-70 people who have tripped.

I define a flashback as the feeling like you are on acid (more than a few seconds) when you have not taken acid. If you've tripped, you probably know what I mean.

Please no friend of friend stories or legends. You or someone you know.

Thanks, this is obviously a highly scientific inquiry.

[Scuba]

1. Still waiting.

[Zorra]

140. Yeah, where are they, dammit! nt

[Howler]

2. Not I or anyone I know.

And we "Experimented" alot over the years. ;)LOL!

[Kaleko]

82. Ditto.

[Howler]

122. LOL!

All the anti drug propaganda comes to naught.:hug:

[KG]

3. i recall the major scare tactic on LSD was birth defects, because it damaged chromosomes

:eyes:

[leveymg]

81. The children of hippies that I met were absolutely perfect. Beautiful.

Their parents parents were way, way more messed up, and all they did was drink themselves to death.

No birth defects or chromosomal damage from LSD that I ever saw. Lots from booze.

[Warren DeMontague]

113. Yeah, that was bullshit, too.

Anything to keep people from looking behind the curtain and seeing the little bald man operating the wizard!

[spooked911]

161. I remember that well!

[hobbit709]

4. Real flashbacks-as in actually tripping- no.

sometimes getting that feeling where everything isn't quite normal like you get at the onset of trip-more than once. and I've done more acid than you shake a stick at, starting when it was still legal.

[MyUncle]

9. I think Deja Vu is like that, but it never lasts as longs as I would like it to.

I guess the scientific criteria would be what we were "warned" about actually happening. Like all of a sudden you were tripping when you had a job interview or doing CPR.

[RadiationTherapy]

5. I understand it as a permenant change in perspective. You can't 'un-trip'

But I have never, not once, felt under the influence of LSD without ingesting it.

[William769]

6. I have many flashbacks!

Always seems to happen between 2000 & 2008.

[Blue_In_AK]

7. Not totally tripping but

I took a LOT of acid back in the day and I can pretty easily summon up that feeling if I want to because I really liked it. I have absolutely no regrets about my psychedelic experiences -- even the rather harrowing ones. :hippie:

[Motown_Johnny]

8. as I understand it, LSD is fat soluble so it is possible to store LSD in fat cells

and when your body burns that fat the chemical can be released.


I find it unlikely that the amount stored or the amount released could ever produce a feeling similar to having ingested the drug.

[MyUncle]

13. I have not heard that, not to be disrespectful, but I find it hard

to believe that such literally microscopic amounts of the active ingredient could be effectively stored in our fat cells and the be re-released. Now for THC, I believe that is possible.

[Motown_Johnny]

22. Wiki has what I posted as a misconception (urban legend)

ya learn something new everyday (if you try hard enough)


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drug_urban_legends

^snip^

A legend which falsely instills a fear of a non-existent effect of LSD is that the body stores crystallized LSD in spinal fluid or in fat cells, which at some point dislodges and causes horrific flashbacks, perhaps years later.<25>

This legend may have its foundation in the fact that chronic use can result in persistent psychosis and hallucinogen persisting perception disorder (HPPD).<26> However, all of these conditions are now considered to be psychological phenomena and not due to drug residues.<1>

There remains no consensus regarding the nature and causes of HPPD or flashbacks. A study of 44 HPPD subjects who had previously ingested LSD showed EEG abnormalities.<27> Given that some symptoms have environmental triggers, it may represent a failure to adjust visual processing to changing environmental conditions. There are no explanations for why only some individuals develop HPPD. Explanations in terms of LSD physically remaining in the body for months or years after consumption have been discounted by experimental evidence.<27>

Although the body does store some toxins in fat tissue, and residues of some drugs and toxins can be found in spinal fluid, LSD is not among these. LSD is metabolized by the liver, and has an elimination half-life of around 3–5 hours, and is insoluble in fats, being an alkaloid.

[MyUncle]

24. Thanks, I get a warm glow when my instincts prove correct.

[mistertrickster]

98. Actually, the active dose for LSD is as low as 20 micrograms. Compare that to

the minimum daily requirements for Vitamin C of 60 micrograms.

[bengalherder]

73. LSD passes from the body in minutes.

You actually are basically tripping on the aftermath.


It cannot be picked up by drug tests any longer than about 12 hours after the fact, even then it is hard to tell exactly WHICH chemical it is.

POT, however IS stored in fat and thus is detected later by piss tests.

The 'drugs in fat' thing was invented by L. Ron Hubbard to sell his scientology purification regimen.

[MrMickeysMom]

179. Well, if any amount that might have been stored as fat is released...

I sure the hell wouldn't know it from that spacey way you feel from time to time just being a fucking human being on this crazy ass planet.

I've never, ever known anyone from circa 1970 to 1975 who actually had one, and I've certainly never suffered from those mushrooms! I'd be more worried about the cow shit they grew in.... :P :hippie:

[Hotler]

10. I'm still waiting. n/t

[vi5]

11. I do/did.....

Friend/roommate of mine in college. We were hanging out and he started seeing some very minor trip-like things (wave motion, trails, etc.). We had been together for a good 8-10 hours that day and had not done anything, nor the previous day or so. So unless he snuck off and did something without me seeing(which he said he didn't do and there would have been zero reason for him to lie), it would have had to have been some kind of flashback.

That being said this was someone who at the time was using hallucinogenics pretty regularly (twice a week or so) so while technically it would have been what I would categorized as a flashback (ie, not an active trip at that moment or from something ingested within the previous 24 hours), it's not like it was some 20 years later and he was in the middle of taking care of his kids or something which is what was what the war on drugs type usually like to scare you about.

[MyUncle]

I think that is one trip with rest stops.

When I took acid, I thought that I experiencing the afterglow for about a week. The joy, much longer.

[Schema Thing]

12. I had a "flashback"

I've only done acid once. For a week afterwards I would get a nice "electric" feeling running up the core of my body. Mostly it was just a few seconds, but one week after I had that feeling almost all day.



But in any case, why would it be seen as a bad thing? I mean, if you want the effect once - when you do the drug, why would the idea that the effects might happen again later deter you from doing it?

[MyUncle]

17. I think that is more of an altered perception based on your trip.

The way I perceive things changed permanently when I did LSD. It opened the doors of perception (borrowing). I'd say the afterglow from tripping lasted for me about a week.

[Schema Thing]

23. I don't feel like it did that for me

at least not radically. but I understand how the experience could make someone feel that way.

[Swede]

14. I've never had one,nor have I heard of anyone I know having one.

I don't really believe this flashback stuff,but who knows?

[mysuzuki2]

15. nope

[scarletwoman]

16. Nope, not me nor anyone else I know. I also think the flashback thing is bullshit.

I happily did plenty of LSD back in the late 60s, early 70s, and so did all my friends in those days. Never a single story among us of anyone experiencing a "flashback". I think it's nonsense.

sw

[mrcheerful]

30. It might be an individual event, every time I'm exposed to strobe lights

and black lights I get the spinning, surreal distortions of objects as well as time speeding up and slowing down as if I'm standing outside of time watching events unfold around me. Getting pulled over by police and looking at the strobe lights on top of the police car triggers this experience and I have since learned to avoid looking at strobe lights, the flashing from the strobe lights reflecting off the back ground doesn't trigger whatever it is that I experience, I always assumed it was a flash back because it started after the 25th LSD trip, never experienced it before the 25th trip.

[scarletwoman]

42. That sounds more like a brain wiring thing than a drug thing. Like the way epilectic seizures

can be triggered by flashing lights. Dunno...

[MyUncle]

49. You are the first "maybe".

There are many people who are documented to have physical and psychotic reactions to strobe lights. It could be because of LSD, it might have been triggered by LSD or it might be something that you were predisposed to have.

Thanks for sharing.

[Bennyboy]

18. WHERE ARE ALL THE FLASHBACKS THEY PROMISED ME?

No way Jose.

[DainBramaged]

19. I did pounds of acid in my youth, no flashbacks here.......

[PJPhreak]

26. Same,

I was/am a Grateful Dead "Tourhead"

17 years,about 150-180 nights a year.Yup Total Bullshit.

[DainBramaged]

66. And my beautiful Daughter has TWO degrees, cum laude

I thought our kids were supposed to have three heads?

[cliffordu]

154. Yep, me too....

My genes are fine, too...Remember how they were warning about genetic mutation??

[Throd]

20. Did did quite a bit between 1984 and 1993. Never ever had a flashback.

[kas125]

21. I am a deadhead and I have never had or known anyone else

who had a flashback.

[MyUncle]

27. THAT is an expert opinion that matches my own.

[kas125]

153. So, now I can say that me and MyUncle agree!

[Lochloosa]

144. Same here. I'm still waiting for my "Free Trip"

[yahoo yahoo]

25. Electric Prunes album? Check! Case of Dorito's? Check! Black light poster? Check!

Now what were we talking about here...?:rofl:

[nomb]

28. READ THIS: Adverse consequences of lysergic acid diethylamide

"The continued endemic use of hallucinogenic drugs, and of LSD in particular, raises concern regarding their short and long term adverse consequences....Evidence supports the association of LSD use with panic reactions, prolonged schizoaffective psychoses and post–hallucinogen perceptual disorder, the latter being present continually for as long as 5 years. Evidence does not support claims of genetic disorders arising from hallucinogens. In light of the foregoing, current data confirm earlier findings of long lasting psychopathology arising in vulnerable individuals from the use of LSD."




http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1360-0443.1993.tb02018.x/abstract;jsessionid=828D1C2FA8CC262ADE8E731568830D4E.d02t01

[MyUncle]

35. I did not say LSD will NOT make you crazy, it could and it has.

I'm strictly inquiring about one of the myths - Flashbacks. I will NOT be doing a post discusssing whether or not LSD is good or bad for you or if it might contribute to or tip one over in to psychosis. I recognize and respect that danger and that is why I stopped using acid in 1981. I no longer thought I could handle it.

[nomb]

36. Its Roulette with your life. Like going to War, most come back alive and no psych issues, just like

Just like LSD.


If you can live with the slim possibility your life will be profoundly changed for the worse - then by all means take acid, or heroin or go to war in Afganistan.

[MyUncle]

40. I agree. All we can do is quantify the risk as much

as we can and try and separate the myths from the reality of danger. It is like that with many alcoholics and other addicts. People just loved it the very first time they tried it and it controlled their lives from that point on.

There is danger EVERYWHERE, some places & things more than others.

[Bandit]

151. I do not believe there is a single person that ever went to war that did not have

psych issues. On the other hand I don't know many people that took acid that did.

[Warren DeMontague]

115. Shit, look what it did to Doc Ellis.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vUhSYLRw14

[Karenina]

174. Thanx! That was HILARIOUS!!!

:rofl:

[pipoman]

142. I know 2 people who

will never be the same again after taking acid in 1985. One has been in and out of psych hospitals, the other has been living in his mother's basement and never had a job or been productive in any way. They may have gotten a bad batch, or they were the wrong personality type in the first place, I don't know. I'm just glad I had to work that weekend so I didn't eat any that time. Back then I liked mushrooms much better, haven't done either in over 20 years and haven't missed it at all.

BTW...never had a flashback of any kind.

[Dennis Donovan]

29. Nope... unfortuately...

I've been waiting, to no avail. :(

[zeemike]

31. I have done all kinds of psychedelics and not one did I see.

In fact i can't remember anyone that had a bad trip.
For me LSD was Wonderland and I was Alice in it.

[givemebackmycountry]

32. I did a lot of acid in my day and I have never had a issue.

When I was in my teens in upstate New York, I used to do a lot of Orange Sunshine.
Shit, I did it several times at work when I was working at a boot rental spot at a local ski area.
One day a guy asked me for a "size 11" and I turned around and got his boots and when I turned back, he had disappeared.
I could hear him talking to me but I couldn't see him.
I was looking through him at the person standing behind him, but he was GONE.

For a while when I was living in Denver, I knew a guy who would go home to San Francisco every few months.
One time he returned with a bottle of Visine that was filled with "liquid acid" as he called it.
Two drops on your tongue and about a hour later, you were tripping your face off.
I had never heard of "liquid acid" before, but I assumed that all acid had to be in a liquid state at one point or another.
Every time I did it, I felt like I had traveled where I would never go again.
And every trip was a thoroughly enjoyable experience.

Again in Denver, we went to a WHO concert in Boulder at Folsom Field.
Did a couple of hits of blotter acid, and by the time the WHO took the stage I was tripping at full throttle.
Halfway through the set I turned around and there was this BIG hippie standing behind me.
He was six-six at least, and he grabbed me by the shirt with both hands and pulled me close to him until we were chest to chest.
He looked me dead in the eye and said to me... "YOU KNOW what it's all about, don't you?"
And then he kissed me on the forehead and walked away.

Fuck yes, I knew what it was all about.
To this day, I believe I have better perception and a more finely tuned bullshit detector, due to my many acid trips.

I once sat through 40 minutes of Traffic playing "Low Spark of High Heeled Boys" at a concert after doing a tab of acid.
It seemed like it went on forever.
The sax solo in the middle of the song still is burned into my memory.
Every time I hear that song I think back and smile.

Better living through chemistry was always my motto.

Never had a flashback and never had a bad trip and never had a problem.
I'd trip tomorrow if I could.
And shit, I'm 56 now.

[Mojorabbit]

33. No

and I was a regular tripper int he 70's.

[Lucinda]

34. Nope.

[originalpckelly]

37. If the drug does not remain in your body, it simply doesn't make sense.

It's absolute horse-hockey. LSD is almost certainly dangerous to individuals like myself who have had psychotic symptoms from a mental illness, but that's only because we're already fucked up.

A normal healthy person is probably OK. The problem is determining who is a normal healthy person.

[rampart]

38. no on the flashback - how about "chromosome damage"

i know a gaggle of (now grown) children of acid taking parents.

all are not only completely normal, but very bright.

then we get to the "freak out anf think you can fly" stories. i think those may be people who were going to jump anyway and were enhancing the experience.

[MyUncle]

43. Another thread for chromosome damage LSD Bullshit.

It makes no sense and does not connect scientifically. The active ingredients do not interact with the reproductive system or alter genetics in your reproductive system.

[MyUncle]

46. We had a "no climbing" rule in our group when we tripped.

It was tough to "enforce" because for some reason everyone wanted to hike up canyon walls, climb trees, monuments, etc. Two of my friends climbed all through the Verenzano Bridge on acid. I would have broken our rules for that one.

We avoided going in to tall buildings, but who would want to go in a skyscrapper when they were tripping anyway.

[musette_sf]

171. I think I might know about those guys

are we talking mid-70s or so?

[DBoon]

51. "freak out and fly" might have to do with poor depth perception during a trip

not realizing how far you actually are above ground might lead you to do things you would not do otherwise.

[leveymg]

85. It is possible to land a plane on acid. You just have to know which runway is solid .

[mrmpa]

39. Another myth about LSD...................

You might remember hearing that women who took LSD had a high(er) chance of having a child with deformities/abnormalities, etc. We were told this to scare women from taking LSD. What you were not told was the chance of a woman who never used LSD of having a child with deformities/abnormalities was equal to or slightly less than the population of those who had used LSD.

I don't remember the percentages, but I recall learning this in a criminal justice class (college) in 1976 in a course "Legal and Illegal Drugs". We mostly studied the history of the criminalization of drugs in the US in the 20th century.

[socialist_n_TN]

41. I tripped about 50+ times during one Summer

and never did again. And I've never had any flashbacks.

I DO think there's something to the theory that acid/mescaline/pysilosybin (sp?) changes your perception permanently. I also think that reefer does the same, i.e., permanent change in perception/viewpoint.

[BiggJawn]

44. Not me.

Only did it once, but I have a lot of fond memories of the experience.

[yellerpup]

45. Been hoping for one for decades.

Hope that's scientific enough for your inquiry! :rofl:

[Botany]

47. I kept looking forward to having one in a dull class ...

.... or when I was working but no such luck.

BTW the amount of drugs that DUers have done :wow:

BTW part 2 to the cute girl I danced with @ the Grateful Dead / Santana concert in Eugene, Oregon I hope the
years have treated you well and that you have never lost that "frisky smile."

[DiverDave]

149. I was there!

Oregon Jam it was called, and eddie money played too.

And, yes I was tripping then too.
Some folks were having sex in the bathroom, and I just laughed and walked on by.

That was a fun day.

Oh, and never a problem, always had fun with L

[Botany]

166. I wound up with some Hell's Angels

for a little bit .... when a really big hell's angel asks you to do something you do it :rofl:

long story having to do w/ acid, a barbed wire fence, and me getting hurt a little ....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbfjnUlhVc4

[madmom]

48. Not yet

[Logical]

50. Can some that really knows answer this question.....Can you still get REAL LSD??? I thought....

the supply had dried up almost 100%. And some stuff sold as LSD is not real LSD.

[OffWithTheirHeads]

52. Sometimes, when I listen to Sarah Palin I think I'm tripping.

[MyUncle]

53. Nope, tripping was usually a PLEASURABLE sensation.

[enough]

54. Having done a lot of acid and other psychedelics in the 60's 70's and 80's,

I can say I have never had anything I would call a flashback. But it is true that those experiences made me much more aware of the vast variety of mental experiences that are available, and made me seek out ways of nurturing the more "open" forms of awareness in life at all times. In that sense I know that my consciousness has been altered permanently by taking those drugs. And I am thankful for it.

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

55. Here!

Twice- both instances lasted only a few minutes and I knew what was happening. Good thing I was not driving. But yes, it happened to me............... :shrug:

[MyUncle]

57. You are the first to claim so. Perhaps there is some validity

Thanks for sharing.

[mistertrickster]

99. Thank heavens . . . I was starting to think that I was the only weirdo to have one.

Maybe my brain chemistry is more messed up than I thought, heh.

[Rex]

56. I know people that have had Flashbacks.

They describe it as a kaleidoscope of colors that lasts a few minutes then goes away.

[hootinholler]

58. That happens to me when my BP goes way up n/t

[Rex]

87. Yikes that is not good.

When my BP is too high I get a headache, but no visuals. The people that I know had flashbacks all described it the same way - all the colors in their environment changed to basic colors (been told almost like watercolors) and then back after about 5 minutes. A few have had multiple Flashbacks over the years, but most have had only one in their entire life.

[mistertrickster]

101. Yup, in my case it was like looking through . . . and I kid you not . . . purple haze.

Then people's faces were bright green like in a Toulouse Latrech (spelling) painting.

Only lasted a few minutes--it seemed like 20 minutes but it was probably a lot briefer.

[Rex]

111. The longest one that I know of was a friend working for a catering business.

He had to go outside and lean up against the wall for about 5 minutes while the planet moved. Made me never want to try LSD.

[Harry J Asslinger]

59. I do wonder

If the "flashback" is an effect of having had opened that door of perception, so that the alteration in consciousness experienced with the material becomes a part of one's potential states of consciousness, even if only temporarily. In the weeks after my first experience with cannabis, I listened to some music and suddenly felt stoned (even the eyes) for a few minutes. It is possible that LSD flashbacks are "common" (I say this because they've managed to become a part of our vernacular) in part due to how pronounced its effects on perception are.

[Bluenorthwest]

60. Like beer and travel money, flashbacks promised never seem

to arrive. I mean, such a flashback would be a gratuitous bounus most would greatly welcome.

[MyUncle]

61. Welcome if it was at an opportune time. Not during a job interview for example.

[Ilsa]

62. I don't know about flashbacks, but it fucked up this young teenage girl

I knew. Someone slipped it to her. She was hospitalized for awhile, and had memory/logical-thinking problems for years afterwards. I guess she finished high school.

[MyUncle]

64. My post #35 I did not say LSD will NOT make you crazy, it could and it has.

I'm strictly inquiring about one of the myths - Flashbacks. I will NOT be doing a post discusssing whether or not LSD is good or bad for you or if it might contribute to or tip one over in to psychosis. I recognize and respect that danger and that is why I stopped using acid in 1981. I no longer thought I could handle it.

[bengalherder]

77. It is a huge difference, being slipped LSD

and taking it of one's volition.

Wiki Frank Olsen.

[mistertrickster]

103. If you didn't know it was a trip, it could really mess you up I think.

Plus, it unbalances brain transmitters like serotonin.

[dionysus]

63. i've had minor residual visuals for a few days after, nothing major.

i'd be walking along, looking at the ground, stop, and for a few seconds, the ground still appeared to be moving as if i was still walking. after a few seconds it'd stop. i thought it was cool.

[ladywnch]

65. I only did it twice and have never had any problems/flashbacks/whatever

from it.......haven't even thought about it for YEARS till this question.

[Xithras]

67. I've only known one guy who claimed to.

He did loads of LSD when he was a college freshman, and was packing on the pounds. When he started working off those pounds two years later (after he'd quit LSD), he claimed to have had some low level hallucinations. Not really full trips, but milder experiences where he definitely wasn't wasted, but where he was seeing things that no sober person should. He described things like seeing shockwaves across the sky behind airplanes and things like that.

He could have been full of it too. No way to know.

I did plenty of LSD when I was younger. Never had a single flashback.

[MyUncle]

70. We talked about this in post #22 and after.

Was he smoking a lot of pot as well? THC is fat soluble and could have been in his system. LSD would not.

[RainDog]

173. THC is metabolized by the body shortly after use

it then becomes "HO-THC" (also psychoactive) which breaks down, somewhat quickly, to COOH-THC - which is a non-psychoactive metabolite. The COOH-THC is what is stored in the body and excreted over time - of the known cannabinoids.

depending upon the level of use, the first two may remain in the body longer for some than for others, but after a long time - it's the non-psychoactive metabolite that would be in someone's system.

The half-life of THC and HO-THC is 30 hours in studies of intravenous subjects and 23 hours for oral use - these figures have been studied a lot and it seems this is considered standard.

Research has also indicated that the estimate of the amt. of COOH-THC - the non-psychoactive metabolite done in tests for the presence of cannabinoids, tend to result in an overestimate the actual amt. of COOH-THC in test subjects - as much as 8 times higher than is actually present when subjects were also tested by more sensitive measures (gas chromatography) rather than the one (a urine test) used to determine the presence of COOH-THC in standard drug tests.

just wanted to pass that along.

[Morning Dew]

68. Flashbacks? Nope -

But LSD changed my life immeasurably. Opening that door is an experience I wouldn't want to trade.

Time one is epiphany.

After that it can be recreation but doesn't have to be.

I think I dosed about 200 times between '74 and '96.

[philly_bob]

69. No. (nt)

[bengalherder]

71. I always wondered where that shit came from.

Never had a flashback. then, Ive pretty much always had good experiences

However, Garden variety panic attacks can be pretty trippy and once you aquire a trigger, they can be mean.

Letsee, most of the early governmental experiments with acid took place on unwitting, possibly unwilling subjects. Seems to me that PTSD or Panic Attacks would explain much of the phenomenon attributed to 'flashbacks'

[Downtown Hound]

72. Nope. I've done acid 7-8 times

And I've never had one single flashback.

[MD Commie]

74. I have had 3 or 4 flashbacks

I have had 3 or 4 LSD flashbacks. It has been a long time since I had one.
For me it would happen like this:
I would be asleep at night, dreaming that I was at a party where I took acid. I'd feel like I was tripping (while dreaming).
When I woke up I would be tripping for about 5 to 10 minutes, thats all there was to it, no big deal.

[uppityperson]

164. wow, welcome to Du. Your first post in 6 yrs? Or is it a glitch?

simply remarking on the oddity of signing up in 2005 and this shows as post #1. Maybe it's a flashback?

[MyUncle]

169. I have never seen anything like this either. Skinner, what's up with it?

[RebelOne]

75. Have only done LSD twice in my lifetime and never had a flashback. n/t

[pink-o]

76. Just like all the others, nope. No flashbacks. And I was PROMISED!

But seriesly, People: I am a 56 yr old Boomer chick who did drugs with the best of them, only to grow into late middle-age without sucking down anything stronger than Cafe Lattes or Pinot Grigio. And I would rather have my drug use behind me than in my future! "Recreational" drugs have far less side effects than the Big Pharma product--who market their poison to us like we're children watching Captain Kangaroo. (Kids!/Old People! Tell your parents/doctor to buy/prescribe Fruit Loops/Xanax)

Drugs from the Counter Culture will ultimately prove less harmful than those from the Corporatocracy.

[NashVegas]

78. I've Never Had a Flashback I Didn't Enjoy

2-5 seconds, a smile, and then it's gone.

[leveymg]

79. Those with latent psychiatric problems come out, those who don't get saner.

Flashbacks? Never. Does it change perception permanently? Absolutely. But, so would years of practicing Mahayana Buddhism. One may lead to the other, so hard to say where one starts and the other leaves off.

You know what I'm talking about, or you don't.

Vincent knows. He didn't need LSD to experience the visuals:

[MyUncle]

86. Yes. but Vincent did have some of the psychosis that some

people would associate with an LSD trip. His genius was the ability to graphically recreate his "trip", and the world has gotten a chance to see and enjoy his view.

[leveymg]

88. Vincent? Absolutely. But, I'm not sure I would describe it as psychosis. More intoxicatication -

LSD doesn't necessarily produce delusional thinking or hallucinations in the psychiatric sense. More a profound sense of exaltation, bliss, happiness, a feeling of oneness with the creation that Jung called the "oceanic" for some people. The experience is more religious than psychiatric.

On the other hand, the same LSD dosage can trigger psychotic episodes in other people in the same group complete with extreme paranoia, confusion, terrifying hallucinations, deep dispair, self-mutilation or even suicidal behavior. It's all a matter of what's lurking inside the individual's psyche.

Light or dark. Bliss or terror. Cosmos or ego.

Some people get a taste of both, sometimes in the same trip. For others it's just another drunken rampage.

Essence.

[personna au gratin]

80. I think I'm having an acid flashback right this moment...

I have a Democratic prez that I voted for who involved himself in two more wars when we are already broke, he's being sued by Congress for not getting permission...Calgon, take me away!:rofl: :eyes:

[Edweird]

83. I've had flashbacks as explained here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=439&topic_id=1319700&mesg_id=1321674

[taught_me_patience]

84. I've had flashbacks

mostly of good trips. I had one trip where I freaked out a bit and had to be calmed down. No flashbacks of that one.

[MyUncle]

90. What was your flashback like? Was it like tripping or really remembering?

[taught_me_patience]

95. It was nothing like a full on trip

I had the slight "speedy" feel of the acid trip, small visual effects like trails, crawling objects (stars or leaves on the ground). I've had two trips where I felt very emotional, one good and one bad. The good, was feeling a deep connection to polynesian voyagers, and the bad, I felt like the entire world had turned gay and I was the only hetero left. I've never felt those types of "deeper" feelings again.

[Odin2005]

89. Damn, you Boomers got to have all the fun!

:cry:

[leveymg]

92. Hey, have your own cultural revolution!

What's stopping you! Forward!

[Odin2005]

125. I have Section 8 rent assistance. If I were to get caught using illegal drugs...

...I would become ineligible for it.

[B Calm]

139. LSD does not show up on employer drug tests, so what is stopping you?

[pipoman]

143. What should stop him/her

is that it is usually made in some stoner's or biker's kitchen.

[B Calm]

159. There's also the same effects with magic mushrooms made by Mother Nature.

[pipoman]

163. yep

back in my trippin' days I liked mushrooms better...no achy joints.

[Karenina]

91. Has "flashback" been redefined?

In my day it referred to a quickly passing experience, nothing that would interfere with everyday functioning. I had 3 of those, 10 years after consuming my last hallucinogen, all triggered by deep conversations and playing duets with one of my musical gods. The 3rd time it happened I identified him as the source of the "contact high" and once I did so it stopped. Nee-noo-nee-noo...

[leveymg]

93. It's like pornography. You'll know it when you see it. ;-)

I've also had passing moments of blissful purity. But, it's not the same.

[MyUncle]

94. I meant it reference to the "War on Drugs" anniversary

and the scare tactics and propaganda that were going around to make us not do those things.

[Karenina]

104. In 7th grade Ms. Rudd told us all

"If you try heroin ONCE you'll be hooked for LIFE!!!" So by the time I was in my twenties, having realized how much I'd been lied to about marijuana, I was curious when the heroin option presented itself. Tried it once, H-A-T-E-D I-T. I would not trade my personal experience for all of those pontificators who never took the risk. I lost many dear ones to the ravages of drug use in those years and so wish there could be an open discussion based in REALITY.

[mistertrickster]

96. I definitely had one. Didn't last long, but I knew that's what it was . . . 10 mins or so.

Also, a good friend (frat bro) said the same thing happened to him.

On edit . . . when it happened, I had been repeatedly shoveling a car out of snow and I might have built up C0 in my bloodstream from standing next to a tailpipe and pushing/shoveling.

Hard to say . . .

[Sequoia]

97. Ha, ha....no.

I even played Backgammon.

[Raffi Ella]

100. nope!

I've done a lotta LSD and while I would love to have a flashback? I haven't. Like others have said, I can vividly recall how it feels and what it's like but I have never physically felt the effects of acid without actually taking some.

[BOG PERSON]

102. X

[Raster]

105. Over the course of a 15-year period, I probably did acid at *least* 50 times,...

...at least. I have NEVER experienced a "flashback."

[Obamanaut]

106. It is possible to have a 'drunk dream' even after years of non-drinking, where the

'you' in the dream is completely wasted, and the real 'you' is confused upon waking, not exactly sure for a few moments which is the dream 'you' and which is the real one.

So why not a flashback from other substances.

[Dj13Francis]

107. Nope.

I've tripped dozens if not hundreds of times. Hell, I've got a Pink Floyd tattoo on my shoulderblade. I've not done it in years though, and in those many years, no flashbacks. I think they're a myth too.

[madokie]

108. Not one time have I

A few times I'm not even sure I made it all the way back home but never have I had a flashback. The whole drug bullshit fed to us by our government was just that Bullshit.

When I graduated from high school I'd never heard of DRUGS, hell people around here drank beer or there were the occasional asshole whiskey drinker but no drugs then I get in Navy boot camp and they started feeding me all this bullshit that by the time they were finished it was so obvious to me that all they had force fed me was bogus. I immediately had to try pot to see and smoked it up too just recently and thats been 44 damn years ago. I had to quit because of my lungs but I don't think the pot had anything to do with my problem but I decided that anything in my lungs couldn't be good so I just quit. No problem with that quitting either. Just threw the pipe away and quit buying any weed, pretty simple and easy to do. No cravings or any of that like there were when I quit cigs or alcohol.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

109. a free trip? that would be great!

[a la izquierda]

110. Nope...

but I do have significant problems with trails on taillights at night (whether I'm driving or not). Never had that before.

[MyUncle]

116. I have that problem to, but I think is because my eyes are getting old.

yeah, my body is as well.

[Warren DeMontague]

112. Bullshit.

The consensus among folks I've known who dabbled in psychedelics is that the experience was growth-inducing and "I" opening, even if it wasn't always enjoyable.

There is also solid scientific evidence that the psychedelic experience can help with addictions like alcoholism, and that drugs with some psychedelic properties- like MDMA- can help with PTSD, Fortunately, we are now (finally!) moving back to a place where we can get a bit of rational research into the topic, after decades of flappy-handed drug war panic and moralizing.

[Cronus Protagonist]

128. I personally don't classify MDMA as psychedelic

Watching people who are on it getting naked, licking each other and moaning indicates to me that it's physical. I think psychedelic only applies to cerebral medicine like acid, cannabis, DMT, AMT, mushrooms and perhaps ayajuasca or mescaline, but I think these last two are possibly also more like MDMA than acid.

[Warren DeMontague]

137. that's why I said 'some psychedelic properties'

but given what I witnessed in years following the Dead around and seen/heard anecdotally, I tend to agree with you.

[graywarrior]

114. I've never had any....except when I come here

[War Horse]

117. Absolutely not.

No need to INVENT stuff about LSD... "Flashbacks" is WOD propaganda, IMO.

[retread]

118. Only flashback I ever had was after smoking some strong weed. That probably doesn't count.

[MyUncle]

121. The closest I ever came to tripping without taking acid

was when I ate a bunch of pot in a meal I prepared for my friends. Pot spaghetti sauce with pot sprinkled on top of garlic bread with pot brownies for desert. YIKES.

[lib2DaBone]

119. The only flash backs I have....

is when I see Tricky Dick Nixon on TV declaing the War On Drugs.

Then I see cops beating on helpless people who just happend to have an independant poltical thought...

(Can't have independant thinkers... too dangerous.. need war on drugs...must kill independant thinkers...)

Just like Bush and his "invitation only" town meetings. Voters kicked out for wearing the wrong T-Shirt...?

America still doesn't "get it". 41 Friggin Years later.. and the Repukes still control all media and the dialog. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRX4R9cYeDQ

[FLPanhandle]

120. If flashbacks are false, then I'm pissed.

I never did acid in college because of the fear of flashbacks.

If that's not a risk, then I missed my chance. Damn.

[MyUncle]

123. The answers here will tell you. Almost all are first hand accounts.

[FLPanhandle]

126. Oh well, too late now.

Maybe once I'm retired I can think about it again.

[Withywindle]

124. Nope.

I tripped a lot in the late 80s and early 90s. Never had anything resembling a "flashback" of the scare stories kind.

I *have* on occasion had tastes of that magnificent soaring feeling in the spine when being happy. And sometimes when I'm really really tired or kind of ill, I've closed my eyes and seen a little ghost of the dancing-Oriental-carpet-pattern thing. Neither of these are in any way debilitating or even unpleasant.

[Cronus Protagonist]

127. I've tripped about 200 times, still no flashbacks

I wish I had some!

:toast:

[Bonobo]

135. Have you really???

Are you serious?

I really want to know.

[Lochloosa]

145. Bonobo, I have tripped for over 30 years. 200 times? I stopped counting at 200.

:evilgrin: What do you want to know?

[Bonobo]

147. Oh, I don'y have any questions myself.

I was just surprised to hear THAT poster say he had tripped.

Have you ever smoked DMT?

:smoke:

[Lochloosa]

156. No on the DMT. What is it like?

[Bonobo]

165. It's like...

First you hear something like the sound that old phone modems made when they connect to the internet, Poo-weee-pooo.

An explosion like the sun.

You are in an alien environment as the depth of the air changes and you realize that there are far more than 3 dimensions.

Every facet and angle around you is covered in sphere-like glistening, throbbing jewelled eggs.

You are aware of a presence of something (perhaps giggling machine elves?)

Line of electric energy stream through the fabric of the room, like neon.

This is about 5 minutes.

For the next 45 or so, you have come back to your own world, earth, but you feel like you have returned to a deeper part of humanity.

[saras]

129. Like others, I had flashbacks before I ever took psychedelics - the drugs showed me what they were

[McCamy Taylor]

130. It's not true. Neither was the "chromosome damage.". Scientist later admitted to making up that last

one to scare people.

What could be bad about a substance that the US military gave to its own soldiers without their permission? I mean, would the army give their own men something dangerous?

[MyUncle]

133. Yes.No sarcasm.

[McCamy Taylor]

131. Remember, LSD does not make you experience anything that is not there. Your senses are heightened.

For instance, that means you notice the usually imperceptible way that your irises widen and constrict as you breathe (since your breath affects your autonomic nervous system which controls things like pupil size.) On LSD, you notice that the room becomes very slightly more bright or more dim in a rhythmic way. This is not a hallucination. It is a fact that our brains usually filter out.

If you meditate, you will achieve the exact same type of heightened sensation and experience the exact same things. It is easier to reach a state of heightened awareness with meditation if you have done it first with a hallucinogen, because you know when you are on the right track.

[mitchtv]

132. I started in the mid 60's when it was legal

no flashbacks to date. It sure opened my eyes. many many micrograms

[ljm2002]

134. I did have one lingering effect from psychedelics...

...for 20 years after the few trips I took, if I wore blue jeans or a jeans jacket or anything made of denim, whenever I stared right at the denim fabric, I would see faint paisleys on it.

That's it, the sum total of my "flashbacks" from psychedelic drugs.

For the record: that would be about 4 lsd trips, maybe 6 mescaline, total over 2 years.

[MilesColtrane]

136. Only once, and it was very brief and specific

Saw "tracers", little shooting light trails, while I was completely sober after having tripped a few times.

It was unnerving, but not enough to make me stop experimenting with hallucinogens.

[Kablooie]

138. The LDS is just one big flashback.

But that's not the topic of discussion so ... Never mind.

[Zorra]

141. Dude! LDS is deadly dangerous, it causes

really serious brain damage!

It can also cause someone's heart to turn to stone.

People strung out on LDS often deny non-abusers their Constitutional rights, and these people have even gone so far as to prevent many people that were in love with each other from being able to get married!

What a horrible, dangerous substance - something that blocks the effects of love.

Can there be anything worse than this?

[DiverDave]

146. Just a ripoff, I expected a 2fer

seriously??

Just bullshit, I dropped L lots of times (ah, youth) and I NEVER had what could remotely be called a 'flashback'

Drug war propaganda.

[Warren Stupidity]

148. I would enjoy one - never happened.

And I spent quite a few years of my misspent youth as a dharma bum. Bring it!

[LiberalEsto]

150. Loved them!

Acid put me in a different dimension of the Universe. It's been decades - almost 40 years - since I took it.
The few times I've experienced the shift back into this dimension were wonderful.
My hope is that when my time approaches, someone will give me a dose to prepare for whatever comes next.

[NOLALady]

152. Nope. Nada. Nothing.

[moondust]

155. How about "chromosome damage?"

Apparently not: http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/486/does-lsd-cause-birth-defects

[dana_b]

157. yes - artichokes

an ex boyfriend would experience them sometimes. He was sitting at the dinner table with the family and his artichoke started to "breathe". Freaked him out but he said that he sometimes enjoyed them.

[kestrel91316]

158. What I like best about this thread is seeing who all on DU used to do acid, lol.

:wow:

[MyUncle]

162. No surprise. LSD is considered an enlightening drug.

[MrSlayer]

160. Yes. I've had flashbacks.

One minute you're going about your business and the next you're tripping your face off out of nowhere. They don't last long but they do happen, it's kind of cool. LSD stays in your spinal fluid for a long time, up to seven years from what I've read. Once you've gone a long enough time without dosing you won't get flashbacks anymore. Just about everyone that I've ever tripped with has had them.

[dorkulon]

167. Nope, never had one.

Neither has anyone I know. Sounds like BS to me.

[Lucky Luciano]

168. Never heard of a legitimate flashback. Knew a lit of trippers. nt

[FarLeftFist]

170. I've taken many psychedelics and...

Have NEVER experienced a flashback ever.

[Spider Jerusalem]

172. I had one, once. Within about a week of doing acid and while sleep-deprived.

A brief transient hallucinatory moment of the entire world bursting into flame. Nothing like that has recurred. I don't think that flashbacks are a myth. I also don't think based on subjective personal experience that they're especially severe or especially likely to occur years after use.

[The Midway Rebel]

175. No.

Thought I was having a flashback once. Turned out to be heat stroke and I fainted when my blood pressure dropped too low.

[Bragi]

176. I think my life may be one big flashback

As well as spending my time committed to fomenting revolution, I took a fair bit of LSD as a youth in the 60s, and I think my whole life has been one awful flashback since then.

Instead of continuing the revolution, I eventually got a degree, had a career, raised a family, did all the normal stuff a person does in life, and now I'm settling into retirement.

Fortunately, my flashback is now ending, and I'm hoping now to back to the business of fomenting revolution, at least to the degree that my investment portfolio allows it.

I don't know if there is any poignant meaning whatsoever to my existence as an oxygen-breathing organism. I doubt it, actually.

However, I do know that I'm not the only one in my generation who is now escaping from their LSD-induced flashback.

We're now buying up depressed real estate in warm retirement areas, and waiting for instructions from revolution central. And still smoking pot.

(I'd include a smilie below, but there doesn't seem to be one for stories about life-long, pointless comedic tragedies with so-far reasonably happy endings.)

[rucky]

177. I've tripped a dozen times about 20 years ago & no flasbacks.

:shrug:

[madrchsod]

178. never had one.....but i wish i`d have one now.

well at least the Nepalese hash i used to smoke.

being retired means i don`t have to take a drug test!

[Yo_Mama]

180. Yeah, the son of my father's best friend

After he did LSD, he never worked again. He was a trainwreck a decade after ceasing all drug use and two decades after ceasing all drug use. He had a lot of flashbacks and his brain just didn't work normally.

Eventually, he killed himself.

[MyUncle]

181. Thanks all, fun and informative. Can't ask for more.