April 19 could have been Unicycle Day [LSD thread]

[BillyTheMountain]

Albert Hoffman, pharmaceutical scientist and inventor of LSD, will turn 100 on Wednesday.

A symposium in Switzerland will mark his milestone.

He rode his bicycle home after taking a small dose of LSD on April 19, 1943, which later became memorialized as "Bicycle Day."

Imagine if he rode a unicycle home that day.....

As an aside, this led Harvard psychologist Timothy Leary to found the League for Spiritual Discovery (LSD) 25 + years later.

And no, I'm not trying to incite the Atheists with this tidbit.

Billy

[ntappin]

Is he still alive? or is that the day he would turn 100 were he alive.

[dudewithasock]

If he had ridden a unicycle home while on the LSD, he'd be dead already.

[BillyTheMountain]

Originally Posted by ntappin

Is he still alive? or is that the day he would turn 100 were he alive.

Believe it or not, he's still alive. This story was in yesterday's NYTimes, as a featured profile.

Originally Posted by dudewithasock

If he had ridden a unicycle home while on the LSD, he'd be dead already.

So then you think fans might not have called it Unicycle Day?

[Skippii]

So the secret to a long life is.....hallucinogenic drugs?

[BillyTheMountain]

Originally Posted by Skippii

So the secret to a long life is.....hallucinogenic drugs?

I don't think so.

You can google the article. he took many LSD trips, but stopped MANY years ago. He's a scientist, remember. It was research. The article said his mind is still sharp.

[picado]

Originally Posted by Skippii

So the secret to a long life is.....hallucinogenic drugs?

yes... lsd gives you the eternity

[underdog]

Originally Posted by BillyTheMountain

he took many LSD trips, but stopped MANY years ago. He's a scientist, remember. It was research. The article said his mind is still sharp.

I have a similar background (yes, it was the 70s) and I'm still...uh...what was I talking about?

[harper]

"I see colors!! I see brown. I see Jerry Brown!! I must be having a bum voyage."

[Catboy]

Originally Posted by BillyTheMountain

The article said his mind is still sharp.

Why wouldn't it be? LSD is much safer than most people think, and is far less harmful than ciggarette smoking or radiation recieved from the sun and earth.

Myths About LSD
There are many myths about LSD. Some myths are started by parents and police who do not understand the drug. Other myths are used by various groups who oppose drugs and are used to scare potential users.

One of the biggest myths about LSD is that it is addictive. LSD creates absolutely no physical addiction and you cannot kill yourself by taking an overdose. LSD can, however, cause you to act in irrational ways.

One rumor about LSD is that seven people who took the chemical stared into the sun and lost 90% of their vision. This rumor was later revealed to be a hoax.

Another rumor that has recently come into play is that companies are manufacturing press-on tatoos laced with LSD. This tale was probably started when a parent, wondering why the children were feeling odd, saw some blotter acid with a cartoon on it and then mistook it for a tatoo. The parents and the police thought this was a ploy to get children "hooked" on drugs. Since LSD is not addictive the ploy would not have worked anyway.

Another LSD myth is that everyone who takes it wants to jump out of a window because the think they can fly. Some people have jumped out of windows while under the influence of LSD. Maybe they thought while under the influence of LSD they were birds or that they had wings.

The rumor that taking LSD will automatically cause a bad trip or flashbacks is also untrue. There are LSD users who have not experienced either a bad trip or a flashback.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s the rumor that LSD caused chromosome damage was spread by the government and the media. A 1972 study of LSD concluded that LSD does not create "detectable genetic damage, and is not a teratogen or carcinogen in man." (Science April 30, 1972).

I've read some other funny stuff saying that LSD puts holes in your brain or will cause you to go insane. The main reason that LSD is looked down upon is that the government associated all drugs with anti-war in the 1960's and therefore deemed them as harmful and illegal.

[carsonpalooza]

Originally Posted by BillyTheMountain

It was research.

I can see it now "it's not my fault officers, I did it for research! I swear!"

[DK]

LSD is crazy shit... not my style. Mushrooms are better

Catboy, youre right, but the only danger is if you don't know what you are doing, you can have a really bad trip. I know of some people who had such a bad time it still "haunts" them.

[burjzyntski]

Heh, DK
I should be getting two sugar cubes this weekend...

I've read a number of trip reports on websites like erowid.org and shroomery.org, and I feel that everyone should experience something like this at least once in their life. Bad trips do not happen often, it's all about the mindset and the persons' ability to rationalize what they're experiencing. Don't fight it; let it take you.

as a sidenote: I think it's really suiting that Timothy Leary's ashes would be sent into space.

"Turn on, tune in, drop out."

[BillyTheMountain]

Originally Posted by picado

yes... lsd gives you the eternity

picado: what made you revive this thread after it was DEAD so long??

PS A biography of Timothy Leary just came out.

[TheObieOne3226]

LSD day is April 19th? Good week.