Observations placeholder
Clinging to her bed
Identifier
005268
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A description of the experience
Extract from Marihuana and Scopolamine "High" - Harold Graff, MD 1259 - American Journal of Psychiatry
Vol 125, Mar 9, 1969, 1258-1259
The patient was a 19-year-old college student who had had previous experience with smoking marihuana and was a frequent, though not daily user. She had learned from a friend, who worked in a laboratory that he could achieve a "better high" from "pot" soaked in scopolamine. She received three such treated cigarettes from him and smoked them in the presence of some friends.
Within 30 minutes after smoking she developed reactions unlike any she had previously experienced. She began to become agitated, combative, and delusional.
She reported that her girl friend appeared to be a Negro man and that other men were coming in her window. She was aware that these were hallucinations but was unable to control them. Finally she felt that she had become crazy and that these figures were coming to take her to a hospital. Voices sounded like the ringing of a telephone.
Her heart felt cold, as if it was filled with ice water.
Equally frightening to her was the loss of the ability to use proper grammar. She heard monkeys and owls in her room but was unable to state whether "It is owls here," or "It are owls here." Time and space perceptions were altered as she lay clinging to her bed to keep from falling off.
This state gradually cleared over the next 12 hours. Whenever she closed her eyes, however, the hallucinations returned. This lasted until 24 hours after inhalation. After clearing, there was no persistence of psychosis.