"Charles Haynes" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > On Thu, Dec 4, 2008 at 8:18 AM, Perry E. Metzger <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >> "Charles Haynes" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > >>> Um, "a friend" informs me that despite popular misconceptions about >>> the effects of LSD, it's actually quite possible to perform complex >>> spatio-temporal operations while tripping. > >> Your "friend" is wrong, regardless of your "friend's" personal >> experience. > > "You didn't experience what you think you experienced?"
Perhaps your "friend" hasn't had as much "experience" as other people's "friends", or perhaps your "friend" didn't get a significant dose. LSD is notable for the fact that, under the influence, third parties generally can't tell that much is afoot (though the careful observer will see mydriasis, or might notice that the tripping individual spends far too much time staring, and especially staring at phenomena invisible to other people like "trailers"), but from the inside, the experience is extraordinarily disabling. Most highly disabling drugs produce more visible external effects, but that should not deceive people into believing that the internal effects are not significant. > Could be, but I'm surprised at the intransigence people seem to be > exhibiting in the face of obviously contradictory evidence. I'm not > saying that driving while tripping is a good idea, My "friends" could not imagine attempting to drive under circumstances where the steering wheel feels like it is made of soft, yielding rubber, where you can't tell how much pressure you're putting on the pedals, where you can't tell how close or how far other vehicles are, and where randomly patterned surfaces such as asphalt or grass develop vivid and spontaneously motile geometric patterns. > or that acid enhances your ability to drive, but saying something > like "it's impossible to drive while tripping" is demonstrably > false. Oh, it is certainly false, in that people can drive blind drunk as well. I wouldn't recommend trying it though. The question is not whether it is possible for heroic individuals to drive under such circumstances, and not whether some people have done so. People do all sorts of astonishingly stupid things. >> By the way, there have been actual studies done on using LSD to >> disorient troops -- it is claimed works pretty well. > > I can certainly believe that. Especially on people who are not > experienced with psychedelics. My "friends" "inform me" that long experience with LSD will reduce the propensity to experience vivid visual hallucinations (at least spontaneously -- one can still summon them by looking at objects properly), but will not reduce feelings of confusion substantially. >>> Now the claim is ridiculous for other reasons (LSD would hardly be the >>> best performance enhancer for this situation) but it's not a priori >>> impossible. > >> I don't think it is "impossible", but it seems like a substantial >> performance eliminator under the circumstances. > > Agreed, and the claim is implausible for other reasons as well. What > seems more likely to me is that this is an attempt to discredit and > deflate the terrorists in the minds of people who might otherwise want > to emulate them. "These aren't admirable muhahiddin, these are > degenerate thrill seeking druggies." In any case, I find the news reports on the subject bizarre. It is not credible in the least. If one wants to give people pep pills so that they can fight longer, provigil or even simple amphetamines are quite effective. Giving people LSD -- and indeed injecting it (who would bother injecting it?) is about the most ridiculous possible alternative imaginable. Perry -- Perry E. Metzger [EMAIL PROTECTED]
