PSYCHEDELICS - Sciencemadness.org

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____________________________________________________ Psychedelics
tectural counterparts still eluded me. Through a grant from
the Commonwealth Fund in New York, Dr. Humphry Osmond,
psychiatrist, Dr. Robert Sommer, psychologist, Francis
Huxley, social anthropologist, and myself as the architect,
formed a research team to determine what architectural elements
might have psychiatric significance.
At the same time, Dr. Osmond and Dr. Abram Hoffer,
Director of Psychiatric Research at the University of Saskatchewan,
had been experimenting with a number of what
are now known as the "psychedelic" drugs, including LSD.
These drugs were then called "psychotomimetics" or "hallucinogens"
because of the similarity of some of the perceptual
experiences they induced to naturally occurring experiences
of the mentally ill. As I was still having difficulty comprehending
"secondhand" the perceptions of my psychological, sociological,
anthropological, and psychiatric colleagues, who explained
in their own terms the problems of their patients, it
was suggested that I might benefit from an LSD experience.
Although the psychiatric and architectural programs had developed
to a point where I was able to appreciate the nature
and scope of what the psychiatric services were attempting to
do, I still was unable to grasp the real and significant problems
of a mentally ill individual as related to a building
environment.
LSD Experiences
My first LSD experience was conducted at my home under
the guidance of Francis Huxley and Dr. Duncan Blewett, a
psychologist who had had considerable experience with LSD.
As the intention was just to introduce me to the experience,
no attempt was made to structure the situation to relate to
the problem of designing facilities for the mentally ill. It was
thought that I should "enjoy" the experience. My wife was
also to participate, but she had some difficulty because she
became nauseated quite quickly and vomited. As a result, her
LSD experience was brief and slightly unpleasant, although
she did experience some of the perceptual phenomena dis-
cussed below.