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Internet article – Dr Oscar Janiger and the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) project

Zale Parry is a still-fetching 65-year-old woman who played a major role in L.A.’s early acid days. She now lives in the San Fernando Valley, and jokes that her neighbors would probably be shocked to learn that she was once something of an acid queen. No doubt they would also be shocked to learn that the vibrant impressionistic painting of a wild artichoke in bloom that hangs on the wall above her sofa was rendered by one of Janiger’s acid-tripping artists.

Parry’s late husband, Parry Bivens, a pioneer scuba diver, inventor, medical doctor, chemist and drug ex perimenter, is the man who introduced Janiger to LSD, after obtaining a mail-order supply from Sandoz Laboratories. According to his widow, he also had the distinction of being the first person on the West Coast to synthesize mescaline in a garage lab — "It was pure satin," she says knowingly.

An accomplished pioneer diver in her own right, Parry graced the cover of Sports Illustrated in 1955 and worked as an actress and underwater stunt double in Hollywood, standing in for Sophia Loren and co-starring with Lloyd Bridges in TV’s Sea Hunt

She describes her two dozen acid sessions of the mid-1950s as "happy trips — joyful." She credits LSD with helping her to appreciate the intricacies and interconnectedness and beauty of life in the "underwater world."

After her first several sessions, she became a volunteer babysitter for Janiger’s subjects. She hasn’t taken any drugs since then, and feels no need to try LSD again.