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by timonv 3782 days ago
From a culture where drugs aren't very much taboo (Dutch), I'm very interested in the (scientific) positive effects of hallucinogens. There seems to be more and more research going on in this, for many taboo, field with very interesting observations. Here's a great article (of a series) from 2014 which hovers over several researches in the years prior and covers some essential history: http://www.scpr.org/news/2014/05/19/44178/psychedelic-scienc...

What sets me off hard on this article is that the writer hallucinated from hash. I suppose anyone can have an off-the-charts response, but I've never seen anyone hallucinate from it. It's also rather striking how much of a 'hero' story this is. Started as a 'typical busy guy', 'struck by lightning', 'fear of death', 'start of epic quest', 'triumphed by wonder potion'. It's all so perfect.

Maybe I'm just paranoid, and I applaud any (including this) discussion of taboos, but I can't help but feeling skeptic about the genuinity of this article.

2 comments

> What sets me off hard on this article is that the writer hallucinated from hash. I suppose anyone can have an off-the-charts response, but I've never seen anyone hallucinate from it.

I guess it depends on your definition of "hallucinate". I don't know anyone who's had the sort of obvious visual hallucinations associated with many psychedelics but plenty of people (myself included) have experienced mild auditory hallucinations and strong distortions in the perception of time and physical movement under the influence of a strong dose of cannabis.

Walter Benjamin's On Hashish might be a good place to start: http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674022218

This subject is extensive. Hashish can be extraordinarily psychedelic.