Observations placeholder
Dr James Terrill - The nature of the LSD experience
Identifier
015525
Type of Spiritual Experience
Synaesthesia
Vision
Hallucination
Background
Although the last sentence is key, it is too vague to be able to classify
"feelings of oneness, of understanding life and existence, religious experiences, transcendental experiences, a tendency to think along philosophical lines"
A description of the experience
The nature of the LSD experience – Dr James Terrill
In describing the effects that we have observed under these conditions .. it is important to distinguish between two classes of effects. One class is the immediate effects, ie those which occur within 8 to 12 hours after ingestion of the drug. The other class consists of more lasting effects – those which persist for an indeterminate period after the immediate effects have dissipated
The immediate effects which have been observed can roughly be classified into 5 categories
- mood and affect – emotional lability ranging from tearfulness to euphoria, occasional anxiety, occasionally decreased anxiety
- interpersonal behaviour – increased sensitivity to interactions with others, increased sensitivity, more easily hurt
- sensory and perceptual effects – synaesthesia, transformation of the time sense, increased sensitivity to sounds and visual stimuli, distortions of body image
- intellectual functioning – flights of ideas, inability to organise thoughts and concepts, greater creativity
- intuitive intellectual – feelings of oneness, of understanding life and existence, religious experiences, transcendental experiences, a tendency to think along philosophical lines