660 lines
40 KiB
Plaintext
660 lines
40 KiB
Plaintext
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*=-- --=*
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{ the }
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-=/*> Buzzz Bros <*\=-
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present..
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Sex,
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Ecstasy
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and the
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Psychedelic Drugs
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By R.E.L. Masters
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Text entry by Major Havoc
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{ }
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*=-- --=*
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*=-- ---=*
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{ This file is a copy of an article that was first published in Playboy }
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November 1967. Although over 20 years old, it is a perfect
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{ example of the budding use, evaluation and enjoyment }
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*=-- of psychedelic drugs in the late '60s. --=*
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History records few human quests as unremitting or as widespread as the
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search for a harmless, effective sex stimulant. Recent claims - such as
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those made by Timothy Leary - that LSD is the greatest aphrodisiac known to
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man, have excited much interest in the sexual potential of psychedelic drugs.
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Sober discussion of psychedelic substances was difficult enough before sex
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entered the picture; now it is close to impossible. But bearing in mind that
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there is a great deal more to psychedelics than sex, it might clear the air
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to examine the effects of lysergic acid diethylamide - and several other
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psychedelic drugs - on human sexual behavior.
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Along with the comparatively new synthetic psychedelics, including LSD
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and psilocybin, there are similar mind-altering substances present in many
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forms of plant life. Some of these have been used for hundreds and even
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thousands of years. Examples are the peyote cactus, the Cannibis hemp plant,
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the opium poppy and several varieties of mushrooms and morning-glory plants.
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Most have been linked in one way or another with sex.
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Whether opium - probably Homer's nepenthe - should be considered a
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psychedelic drug is largely a matter of semantics. Some would-be authorities
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exclude all addictive drugs, including opium, from the class of psychedelics.
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However opium does produce effects similar to those produced by nonaddictive
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psychedelics, and among these are sexual effects that merit consideration.
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Prolonged use of opium results in mental and physical and mental
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deterioration, including impotence. However, before is takes its toll, the
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drug can powerfully and pleasurably enhance sexual experience. No one has
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described the specific sexual effects of opium as well as the 19th century
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French Army surgeon and anthropologist Jacobus Sutor, who authored numerous
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sexological studies under the pseudonym Jacobus X. "According to my person
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experience," wrote Jacobus, "and from avowals made to me by women, both
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Europeans and Asiatics, the effects produced by opium in moderate doses, say
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from 10 to 20 pipes, are as follows: Under the influence of erotic
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excitement, either direct or merely mental, an erection is quickly produced,
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if you want to copulate. But - and this has never been remarked by any other
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author - although the penis is in a stiff erection, its nerves, and more
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particularly, those of the glans, are anesthetized by the effets of the
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opium, and though the erection is strong, the emission, on the contrary, is
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much retarded and takes place only after prolonged copulation. This
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anesthetic effect is also produced in the nerves of the vulva, the vagina and
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the rectum of the woman, and the 'psychological moment' arives slowly. The
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constrictor muscles of the vagina, and especially those of the rectum,
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undergo a kind of relaxation." He goes on to say that, with larger doses,
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more than 15 or 20 pipes, erection becomes incomplete; and with 30 or 40
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pipes, it is absent altogether.
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Jacobus' remarks also apply to peyote, to the LSD-type synthetics and, to
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a lesser degree marijuana. Those under the influence of these drugs describe
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the mild surface anesthesia, if that is what it is, as a feeling of
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'rubberiness' that effects the penis, the female genitals and also sometimes
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the mouth, the breasts, the fingers and other body areas. It is by no means
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an unpleasent sensation; often it is descibed as heightened feelings of
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voluptuousness. Along with the rubbery sensation, the genitals, if excited,
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are felt to be engorged to an unusual degree.
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At least as ancient as opium is the hemp plant (Cannibis sativa, or
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Cannibis indica). When used as a drug, it is called marijuana, hashish and a
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great deal of other names. Scientific reports on the sexual effects of
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marijuana are conflicting. For example, the French toxicologist Erich Hesse
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(Narcotics and Drug Addiction) tells us that marijuana and hashish provide no
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sexual stimulation whatever; but another physician-author Bernard Finch
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(Passport to Paradise), declares that "After several inhalations, a feeling
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of sexual excitement develops and the smoker is able to improve his sexual
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performance, in that erection is stronger and more persistant, but orgasm is
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depressed and usually does not take place."
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I could provide a great many more conflicting 'authoratative' statements
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on this matter, although Finch is the only writer I know who suggests that
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marijuana by itself produces a condition of sexual excitation. He also is
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the only one to say that orgasm "usually" does not take place.
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From many other times and places, we also have claims that hemp is an
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aphrodisiac - and other claims that it is an anaphrodisiac, an inhibitor of
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sexual desire or of potency. But whichever way they lean, the authors of
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these claims are relying on personal predeliction, on very limited interview
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data or on the verdict of some favorite 'authority' who has already made
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similar errors. We find the same conflicting evidence from "experts" writing
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about the sexual effect of peyote or LSD.
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Anyone who has carefully studied psychoactive drugs should know that many
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different effects are possible, depending on personal, cultural or immediate
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situational factors - which are often crucial in determining drug-state
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behavior. With marijuana and other psychedelics, people who are sexually
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stimulated may find that their stimulation is greater than usual and that
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their capacity to respond has been heightened. Others may find themselves
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totally indifferent such as the writer Theophile Gautier, who took some
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hashish and generalized that "a hashish user would not lift a finger for the
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most beautiful woman in Verona." The same individual may find that he is
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greatly aroused on one occasion and unexcited on the next. Or his mind may
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experience desire while is body is unable to act in concert with it.
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Some cultures place great faith in the aphrodisiacal effects of hemp; and
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in those cultures the drug often does function as an aphrodisiac - producing
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sexual excitation, enhancing potency and pleasure, and prolonging sexual
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intercourse. Amoung Arabs, there is a vast lore of the effectiveness of hemp
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in maintaining an erection - the prolongation of the sex act being almost an
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obsession with some Moslems. A famous poem on this subject begins:
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The member of Abu'l-Haylukh remained
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In erection for 30 days, sustained
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By smoking hashish
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Abu'l-Haylukh deflowered in one night
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Eighty virgins in a rigid rite
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After smoking hashish
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The poem goes on to describe still more feats of sexual athleticism; but
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underlying its characteristic Arab hyperbole is some solid fact - hemp can,
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indeed, prolong an erection. Besides the mild anesthesia described by
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Jacobus, the male, with marijuana, may feel that his erect organ is bigger
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and more rigid than ordinarily. Sometimes, as happens with LSD and peyote,
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too, orgasm does not occur at all, which causes him no great distress, since
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he feels that this is a small price to pay for for the pleasure he has
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enjoyed, and the impression he has made on his partner. When copulation does
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not lead to orgasm, both partners still may achieve it by vigorous
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masturbation.
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My own data regarding the contemporary use of marijuana use in this
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country - in terms of its sexual effects - reflect the conflict in this
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literature. Individual testimonials describe both sexual successes and
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sexual failures. Overall, it appears that up to now, marijuana has been
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about as likely to impair as to improve sexual performance. However, growing
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acceptance of the drug may be making the latter effect the more common. Much
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can depend on the users intention. Some prostitues smoke marijuana to
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eliminate genital sensation - while at the same time they give the weed to
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their customer to help him become more stimulated. In this case, it probably
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works for the male because it makes him more responsive to the suggestion
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that he will be more potent - and simultaniously it may reduce his
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inhabitions and anxieties.
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It should be noted, however, taht sexual effects may relate to the
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potency of the drug. The strength of hemp products can depend on many things
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- where the hemp is grown, how it is harvested and prepared and how it is
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consumed. From one country to the next, or amoung regions of a country,
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there are great diferences in the potency of the plants. As to consumption,
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it is believed that smoking gives the strongest effect, by altering the
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chemical composition of the drug. Research in these areas are now under way,
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but results are still inconclusive. The eventual findings may explain to
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some extent the different responses amoung marijuana smokers. But individual
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psychology will still be a major factor.
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At its best, most marijuana consumed in the U.S. is a maild psychedelic
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drug, affording what is rarely more than a pallid approximation of the
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experiences possible with LSD and peyote. The effects of these two on sexual
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intercourse are virtually identical, and a statement about LSD may well be
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understood to apply just as well to peyote - and probably to ther LSD-type
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psychochemicals, such as mescaline and psilocybin.
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I compiled my data on the sexual effects of psychedelic drugs in a series
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of interviews, mostly "in depth" beginning in 1954 and continuing today. My
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information is based on more than 300 drug-state sexual experiences on the
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part of 94 persons, about two thirds of them males. Nineteen homosexual
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experiences are included. The interview subjects were almost college
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graduates from middle-class white Protestant backgrounds. Most of them took
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the psychedelic drugs outside any formal research or therapeutic context and
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then reported their experiences to me.
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In other words, I did not study the effects of psychedelics on sex in the
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laboratory, as sexual intersourse has been so fruitfully studieds by Wiliam
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Masters and Virginia Johnson in St. Louis. My firsthand research with
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psychedelic drugs - which was largely concerned with matters other than sex -
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has now been abruptly ended by laws prohibiting almost all research in this
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area. Buit I did obtain, in the sessions I guided personally, some material
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significant in understanding psychosexual disorders. It was surprising how
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often these disorders seemed grounded in problem of values or, specifically,
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in low self-esteem. Nowhere can values be so quickly and so drastically
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changed as in LSD sessions. In several instances, discussed below, persons
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with sexual problems showed noticeable improvemnet after their LSD sessions -
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quite a remarkable occurance, inasmuch as the sessions were intended as
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research and therapeutic results were not expected.
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To determine whether psychedelics drugs are, indeed, aphrodisiacs, we
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must first determine what we mean by an aphrodisiac. If we mean that the
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drugs specifically excite the sexual organs, then psychedelics are not
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aphrodisiacs. If we mean that they produce or encourage sexual desire, again
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they are not aphrodisiacs. But if we mean that the drugs can profoundly
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enhance the quality of sexual acts that occur between people who would, in
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any case, have had intercourse, then the drugs are aphrodisiacs, and my only
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objection to the term in this context is that it will continue to be misused
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by psychedelic or sexual extremists.
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Drug-state phenomenea that occur during a sex act occur in other
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drug-state contexts, too. The most common are changes in sensory perception,
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in awareness of time, in the state of the ego, in one's relations to others
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and in the emotions generally. In fact, these changes effect whatever one
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does, whether it be listening to music, walking through a forest - or making
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love.
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The positive effects of LSD in lovemaking can best be appreciated by
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describing a hypothetical sexual act between husband-and-wife lovers - or
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between single lovers, should that seem more adventurous. I will not,
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however, hypothesize a casual erotic encounter between two near strangers,
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because such an encounter would be less likely to produce so favorable an
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experience. A strong emotional bond, or at least very positive feelings for
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the partner, is much more likely to yield the richest, most intense and most
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ecstatic experience.
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People rarely have sexual intercourse at the very start of a psychedelic
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trip. First, as the perceptual changes occur and as consciousness is altered
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in other ways, they need to orient themselves in this new world. In my
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sample, this was true no matter how many previous LSD experiences they might
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have shared. Typically, when there is sexual intercourse, it occurs at least
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one hour and usually several hours after the onset of the psychedelic
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effects.
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When the two people are longtime lovers, they may feel, in the drug
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state, an emotional closeness as intense as they felt in the early, most
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emotion-charged stages of being in love. Since visual perception is highly
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responsive to the emotions, each partner may take on an appearance of
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extraordinary radiance and beauty. Communication may seem multileveled, with
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a greatly hightened sensitivity to nuances of meaning - in gestures, caresses
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and words as well. If this couple decides to make love, they will bring this
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heightened sensitivity to their union, and their desire and the act itself
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may be suffocated with the same positive emotion - and with the same beauty -
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that has been present in their perceptions.
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As foreplay and intercourse increaase their excitement, the couple will
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become aware of the genital sensations described by Jacobus. The man may
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feel that his erection is larger and more firm and his potency greater than
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it has ever been before, heightening his confidence, producing a greater
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sense of total genital arousal and increasing his capacity to respond.
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Anxiety about the duration of the act will very quickly dissappear. The
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couple will feel that their lovemaking will last just as long as they want it
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to last, so that time no longer matters. In the more profound experiences,
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there may be a sense of timelessness - of the eternal.
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Several elements combine to produce these novel and extrememly
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pleasurable awarenesses of time. For one thing, intercourse always does last
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much longer in terms of the clock. This is probably because of the mildly
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anesthetized state of the sexual organs - although the term 'anesthesia'
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seems strikingly inappropriate in describing these very intense sensations.
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Moreover, diminished inhabitions soon produce self-confidence and spontaneity
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that help reduce concern about the duration of the act. Finally, there is
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the distortion - or 'slowing down' - of time that is a usual and important
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aspect of the psychedelic state. This distortion (a term that is technically
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correct but fails to convey its positive qualities) of subjective time is
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experienced because the mental processes have been enormously accelerated.
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So much may be experienced in a few minutes of clock-measured time that the
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person typically declares that 'hours' or sometimes 'eons' seem to have
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passed. A sexual union that in fact lasts 30 minutes or an hour may seem
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'endless' or to have 'the flavor of eternity.' Lovemaking that lasts for
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several hours is not too infrequent.
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The sexual union gathers ever more meaning and beauty as it progresses.
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It may even take on symbolic and archetypal overtones. The couple may feel
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that they are mythic, legendary, or more-than-human figures as they act out
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in a timeless and beneficient space of eternally recurring drama of love and
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creation. The feeling of being more than human does not indicate grandiosity
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but, rather, that one has transcended the ordinary boundaries of self, the
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limits of time and space, so that something more, some infusion of the divine
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or supernatural, must have occured. This awareness is accompanied by
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profound feelings of security, tenderness, humility and gratitude. Sometimes
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only one partner will enjoy this transcendental experience, but with
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surprising frequency the feelings are shared.
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When sexual union includes altered states of consciousness such as these,
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it is properly described as ecstatic. It may progress to include one or even
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several instances of apparent physical and psychic melting into and becoming
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one with the partner. Whether this occurs in a sexual union or in a mystical
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context, or in a combination of the two, it is almost always regarded as one
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of the most profound and fulfilling experiences human life has to offer. The
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one that the two become is a unity much greater than its components.
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Religiously devout or mystically inclined people may have the sense of a
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unity that is also a trinity, with God present in the oneness. In any case,
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an experience of this order can hardly be dismissed as 'sexual mysticism' - a
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term sneeringly used by some of the more rabid opponents of psychedelic
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experimentation. Nor can it be tossed away with some labels from
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psychopathology, such as 'ego dissolusion' and 'depersonalization.' It can
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be one of the most beautiful and important experiences in life.
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In view of all that has gone before, the orgasm - when it arrives - may
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seem something of an anticlimactic climax. Some people, in this orgasm-happy
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society, learn for the first time how much more than can be to sex than the
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brief intensity of the climax - and how much their past sexual experience has
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been impoverished by the urgent and infantile drive toward orgasm that is so
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prevalent in Western societies.
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However, the orgasm, too, is 'psychedelic' - that is, magnafied or
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intensified. Time distortion can greatly prolong it, and there is an
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awareness of the whole process from beginning to end, in far greater detail.
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Men very often report sensations of gathering tension, concentration of
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energy and then an extremely acute awareness of the spasmodic propulsion of
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the ejaculate, which is plainly and pleasurably felt as it travels along the
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urethra and is ejected into the vagina of the partner. At the same time,
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there is a greatly intensified awareness of the genital organs of the
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partner: Their texture, temperature and movement. Some women for the first
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time become keenly aware of the pulsations of the male organ as climax begins
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- and of the ejaculate as they receive it.
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Orgasm is often experienced upon two levels. It is the most intensely
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erotic aspect of the act, as consciousness seems totally absorbed in the
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orgasmic sensations. And yet there seems also to be another consciousness,
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which does not dilute but rather reinforces the genital consciousness. This
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is the sense of attaining the beautiful climax of a beautiful experience.
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Remarkably, in view of the richness of the experience, throughout these
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unions there is an undiminished and sometimes greatly intensified awareness
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of the partner. One does not lapse into a selfish and exclusive
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preoccupation with the components of ecstasy.
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In almost 25 percent of the sexual acts I recorded, one or both partners
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did not reach orgasm. This was nothing new for most of the women; but for
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some of the men, it was a novel experience. Typically, however, the absence
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of orgasm was not a disappointment. The act itself was so fulfilling that
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the attitude was: Who cares whether there was an orgasm? This, too, can be a
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valuable experience for those women who sledom climax in their ordinary
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lovemaking. It teaches them that even without orgasm, sex can provide
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remarkable fulfillment.
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Under the influence of psychedelics, the anorgasmic woman can experience
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great joy in intercourse and derive gratification from conferring just as
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much joy on her partner. If this lesson were learned and applied to all
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intercourse, many people - both male and female - would be better off for it.
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It is worth noting that at least some have learned it through psychedelic
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experimentation.
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The foregoing description was of a maximal drug-state sexual experience.
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Slightly more than half of my heterosexual subjects reported extraordinary
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unions resembling or approaching this at least once. The frequency probably
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would have been lower with younger or with less intelligent individuals,
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because richness of personality is a key factor in determining the richness
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of the psychedelic experience. An earned capacity for appreciating the
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complex and profound must already exist.
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My intention here is not to promote the haphazard and now illegal use of
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psychedelic drugs - with or without sexual intercourse. But it is only
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realistic to admit that many thousands of people are taking psychochemicals
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without screening or adequate guidance. Of these, a good many are also
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experimenting with sex. It seems best that they be informed about
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possibilites beyond 'kicks' and trivia, so that they can explore the many
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valuable aspects of an experience that might otherwise be wasted.
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My research indicates that homosexuals in psychedelic states enjoy
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profound, ecstatic sexual experiences with less frequency - and less
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intensity - than their heterosexual counterparts. Female homosexuals seem
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more likely to have profound sexual experiences than male homosexuals. The
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very practical matter of the positioning of the bodies apprears to provide a
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partial explanation. The ecstatic experience seems more likely to occur when
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one faces the partner while the act is being performed. Social attitude
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toward homosexuality, as well as the homosexual's typical guilt and low
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self-esteem, may also be deterrents. In the drug state, homosexual acts are
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usually specifically erotic and less invested with other positive meaning.
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However, the physical pleasure of genital, oral and anal sensations is
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enhanced, just as with heterosexuals.
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Claims that LSD-state sexual intercourse can 'cure' homosexuality and
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frigidity may lead to enormous disappointment - and possibly serious harm -
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to psychosexually disturbed people, who have enough problems already. Under
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the influence of psychedelics, a failure to funtion as promised might cause a
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powerful reinforcement of existing disorders, making any cure more difficult.
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Nor is it invariably, or even frequently, true that, in the words of
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Timothy Leary, a "neurological and cellular fidelity" delvelops between two
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person who have had sexual relations during an LSD experience. The notion is
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poetic but inaccurate. Even the most beautiful drug-state sexual unions do
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not always guarantee change in a previous relationship. Leary's devotees
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sometimes tell me, with what sometimes seems more hope than conviction, that
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Leary speaks a 'private language,' the better to convey the ineffable truths.
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However, the fact is that he is taken literally by a great many people. He
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has said, for instance, that "in a carefully prepared, loving LSD session, a
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woman will inevitably have several hundred orgasms." I have yet to hear from
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anyone else a single instance remotely approximating this; and I feel rather
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confident that if it had been happening with any frequency, the world would
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not have had to wait for Leary to announce it.
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While LSD can hardly be considered a panacea for sexual disorders, it
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does hold promise for becoming an extremely valuable tool in treating those
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and many other promises. And it will become even more valuable when
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therapists stop regarding it as adjunt to their old procedures and develop
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psychedelic therapies permitting them to make full use of the great weath of
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phenomenea available.
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Scientific literature on psychedelics includes hundreds of reports of
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successful treatment, even with the old procedures, for such disorders as
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homosexuality, figidity, impotence, fetishism and even transvestism, one of
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the most difficult to treat of all sexual deviations. Good progress in these
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areas has been made in England, and it is certainly unfortunate that
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psychotherapists in this country are legally unable to work extensively with
|
||
psychedelics.
|
||
|
||
Some homosexuals, for instance, as part of their low self-esteem, have a
|
||
distorted body image. They think they are ugly or deformed when they are
|
||
not, and may believe that they have an abnormally small penis - when they
|
||
actually have a normal one. In LSD sessions I recorded, the body image of
|
||
homosexualsd sometimes became normalized, heightening self-esteem and
|
||
producing definate trends toward heterosexualization. Here, homosexuality
|
||
seemed based mainly on values - not on some long past traumatic experience.
|
||
In any case, heterosexualization could occur without any trauma being dealt
|
||
with. However, when there was no subsequent therapy, the subjects'
|
||
homosexuality returned within a few months after their LSD sessions were over.
|
||
|
||
Some men with potency problems decided in their LSD sessions that their
|
||
sexual organs were not too small and afterward their potency improved,
|
||
sometimes permanently. A frigid woman discovered that an 'inner voice' had
|
||
been calling her a 'fake' and an 'unworthy person.' The voiced ordinarily
|
||
talked to her 'on some below level consciousness'; but in her LSD session,
|
||
she heard it clearly and she was able to refute it just as clearly. After
|
||
freeing herself from this voice, she felt she no longer had to punish herself
|
||
by denying herself sexual pleasure. Her frigidity soon was overcome - and
|
||
had not reappeard almost four years later.
|
||
|
||
The therapeutic value of LSD is by no means limited to sexual disorders.
|
||
Alcoholics intractable to all previous therapies have quit drinking or become
|
||
much improved after treatment with psychedelics. Cure and improvement rates
|
||
range anywhere from 25 to 75 percent, and some of the studies have been very
|
||
well controlled. In other cases previously withdrawn, schizophrenic children
|
||
improved when psychedelics were administered. Given the questionable value
|
||
of some approved psychoterapies, it is a wonder that public outcry has not
|
||
demanded increased use of psychedelics in the areas where there promise seems
|
||
so great.
|
||
|
||
Possibly such a great demand is now discouraged by recent evidence
|
||
linking LSD to chromosomal abnormalties. This charge must be considered in
|
||
proper perspective. The fact is that no one, at the present time, can say
|
||
how important LSD-caused chromosomal damage may be. We do know that rather
|
||
similar chromosomal changes are produced by many products widely used -
|
||
caffeine (in coffee and cola drinks), alcohol, antibiotics and a wide range
|
||
of drugs about which no such furor has been raised. Live measles vaccine, in
|
||
particular, quickly produces chromosomal breaks. We know, too, that LSD has
|
||
been in use for a quarter of a century, apparently without causing cancer or
|
||
deformed infants - the two main specters with which chromosomal damage of
|
||
this kind seems to confront us. Moreover, the U.S. Government continues to
|
||
sponser a few LSD therapy projects, so Government scientists must not feel
|
||
the risks are too great. The sensible position must be to weigh LSD's value
|
||
against possible, but not demonstrated, dangers. The evidence is sufficent
|
||
to warrant withholding LSD from pregnant females.
|
||
|
||
This may also be the place to mention briefly a new psychedelic
|
||
substance, STP. STP is yet more potent than LSD, producing effects that may
|
||
continue for days. It also produces far more bad trips and frequent
|
||
aftereffects. The chemical analysis of STP indicates similarities to
|
||
mescaline and the amphetamines, but more refind analysis is needed.
|
||
|
||
Cases brought to my attention include aftereffects such as partial
|
||
amnesia, frightening perceptual changes and recurring states of panic. One
|
||
man, for example, weeks later, felt his head alternately growing to the size
|
||
of a watermelon and shrinking to the dimensions of a pea. It is too soon to
|
||
say whether these sensations will be permanent. No one I have talked to
|
||
appears to have had sexual intercourse under STP. For those persons, at
|
||
least, the experience was much too overwhelming. Neither does it seem likely
|
||
at this point that STP will have much value for research or therapy. Pending
|
||
further information, the best advice is to leave the drug alone.
|
||
|
||
With STP, we may be witnessing the unhappy result of too many
|
||
unscientific medical pronouncements combined with too many scare stories
|
||
about psychedelic drugs. A number of physicians have greatly exaggerated the
|
||
dangers of the old psychedelics - and even of marijuana. Now, with a drug
|
||
that seems to be much more dangerous, these 'scientists' have forged a
|
||
credibility gap that prevents many people - especially those in the
|
||
psychedelic underground - from taking their claims seriously. Warnings about
|
||
STP from physicians have been much less effective than those voiced by the
|
||
underground press. The medical profession should consider this lesson and
|
||
perhaps profit by it. More psychedelics will be created and some will almost
|
||
certainly be very dangerous. Disaster could ensue unless scientists manage
|
||
to regain the confidence in the public.
|
||
|
||
In the case of LSD and the 'milder' psychedelics, the chances of
|
||
unfortunate results can be reduced by following a few basic precautions.
|
||
Since psychedelic experience can magnify tendendies in onself, in others and
|
||
in the surroundings, psychedelics should not be taken in an environment that
|
||
will threaten or displease. When this precaution is ignored, there can be
|
||
bad trips - whether or not intercourse is a part of the experience.
|
||
|
||
Sexologists always urge a pleasent setting for intercourse - as well as a
|
||
partner one respects and relates to positively. This becomes even more
|
||
important when the couple has taken psychedelics. With LSD, a drab, dirty
|
||
room that might ordinarily be ignored can become a filthy, sordid pesthole,
|
||
and this perception of the room can saturate the total experience. Similarly,
|
||
sex with a person about whom one has negative feelings can become, with LSD,
|
||
an experience of extreme repulsion - with guilt, depression or anxiety as a
|
||
result. In two cases I know of, males took LSD, picked up prostitues and had
|
||
very bad trips. Both men, of course, had basically negative feeling about
|
||
prostitues and these emerged in a much heightened form during the sexual act.
|
||
|
||
Both men were initially aroused, but soon began to feel degraded and then
|
||
powerfully repelled by the situation. One felt that the woman's body was
|
||
coated with "a dirty, poisonous substance" that rubbed off on his own body
|
||
and infected him. He managed to get her out of the room, was near panic for
|
||
a long while and, after the effects of the LSD had worn off, he went into a
|
||
depression that lasted for some days. In fact, his perception might not have
|
||
been completely imaginative, since he contracted gonorrhea as a result of
|
||
this contact. In the other case, the male found the girl becoming more and
|
||
more ugly as he looked at her. Then the room became similarly ugly. He
|
||
became nauseous, then was overwhelmed by feelings of guilt about his
|
||
'prejudice.' That man was white and Jewish and the woman Negro made the
|
||
situation especially complicated and charged with emotion.
|
||
|
||
With LSD, some peope may besome aware of what they feel are opposite-sex
|
||
components of their personality. This they interpret as evidence that they
|
||
are homosexual. Some males with effeminate tendensies, who strongly suppress
|
||
their effeminacy, have felt they were undergoing a physical sex change.
|
||
Their bodies seemed to have female breasts and genetalia. Understandably,
|
||
this kind of experience, too, can lead to anxiety and depression. And
|
||
afterward, the person may believe that his 'true personality' was revealed.
|
||
|
||
One should never regard drug-state as necessarily more revealing than
|
||
other types of experience. With LSD-type drugs, what might be a passing and
|
||
easily dismissed idea can become a prolonged a vivid mental event. But this
|
||
doesn't mean that it necessarily has greater validity than the passing idea
|
||
would have ordinarily. Such phenomenea are best regarded as drug-state
|
||
curiousities that will not effect the normal personality and behavior.
|
||
|
||
When negative perceptions or emotions occur, and if they last long enough
|
||
to be distressing, it is best not to analyze them. Try to get interested in
|
||
something else. Psychedelic veterans have learned to do this. Similarly,
|
||
it's often easy to divert the partner, should his or her distress become
|
||
obvious. This might be done with an especially interesting or amusing remark
|
||
or by telling the other person how much pleasure he or she is giving. If, as
|
||
ought to be the case, the two people are lovers or good friends, then it is
|
||
likely that they will know how to help each other, should the need arise.
|
||
For this reason, too, psychedelic experience is not a desirable arena for
|
||
casual sex between two strangers.
|
||
|
||
Spontaneous changes in visual perseption may also provide very pleasant
|
||
experiences. One man, for example, related that his girlfiend changed as he
|
||
held her in his arms, first to Helen of Troy, then to Cleopatra, then in
|
||
successive metamorphoses to yet other women, so that he quickly "made love to
|
||
all the famous beauties in history." After a while, the girl resumed he own
|
||
appearance, although her beauty was greatly heightened, and he "thought he no
|
||
less lovely than any of the others and appreciated very much her part in
|
||
providing such a great experience."
|
||
|
||
There are a host of similar erotic phenomena that sometimes occur in the
|
||
psychedelic state. These might seem trivial and self-indulgent compared with
|
||
the transcendence of the ecstatic union, but they are intereting,
|
||
nonetheless. For many people, for instance, it is possible to 'genitalize'
|
||
almost any part of the body, by consciously transferring the response
|
||
capacity from the sexual organs to some otehr part, such as a finer. Rubbing
|
||
one's finger against a fabric can provide sensations akin to those
|
||
experienced in masturbation. A couple might even genitalize the lips and the
|
||
mouth, so taht kissing affords sensations very much like those usually
|
||
experienced in mouth-genital contacts or in sexual intercourse.
|
||
|
||
One man, who had taken a large dose of LSD (about 500 micrograms), found
|
||
himself unable to obtain an erection, despite much assistance from his
|
||
partner. Abandoning the effort, they lay side by side. Suddenly, he became
|
||
aware of his entire body as "one great, erect penis. The World," he said,
|
||
"was my vagina and I had a sense of moving in and out of it, with intense
|
||
sexual sensations."
|
||
|
||
A few research subjects have reported similar erotic sensations from
|
||
listening to music. One man reported "the sexualization of my entire body as
|
||
I listened to Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony. The music washed over every
|
||
inch of my body, giving sexual sensations like those of a very intense
|
||
orgasm. The pleasure became so intense as to be unendurable. I had to shut
|
||
off the phonograph. I wondered at every instant if I would not have a real
|
||
ejaculation." In a subsequent LSD experience, he responded to the same
|
||
recording in the same way. No other music produced the phenomenon, and he
|
||
never learned why the Pastoral should have such an effect. With another
|
||
subject, any symphonic music produced strong sexual sensations.
|
||
|
||
When males see vivid images or visions, they almost always include
|
||
beautiful nudes, with Balinese dancing girls and other Orientals appearing
|
||
frequently. Drug-state visions in America are shot through with this
|
||
predilection for the East - in archetectural and religious imagery as well as
|
||
in nudes. But just as women are less interested in erotic art, so do they
|
||
have less erotic imagery.
|
||
|
||
The aftereffects of drug-state sex can be of very great value, though
|
||
often the results don't last. As an immediate aftermath of a good sexual
|
||
experience under LSD, some couples report an over-all improvement in their
|
||
relationship - and a specific improvement in their sex life. Frequently, a
|
||
portion of the drug-state perception of the womans greatly heightened beauty
|
||
carries over, so that she continues to appear more attractive. Sometimes,
|
||
with psychedelics, inhabitions fall away, allowing people to engage in sexual
|
||
practices that are normal and that had been desired, but which inhabition
|
||
prevented. Extensive caressing of the genitals and mouth-genital stimulation
|
||
are frequent examples. Breaking through such blocks can be permanent.
|
||
Especially amoung married couples, who had largely ceased to attract each
|
||
other sexually, there can be a reactivation of old desires and emotions.
|
||
Most of these beneficial aftereffects are lost in days, weeks or months, but
|
||
they can be retained - or possibly reactivated by another LSD session - if
|
||
they are regarded as important enough to be worth preserving.
|
||
|
||
Because ecstatic union is so rich an experience and may have very
|
||
positive effects on a relationship, it is obviously desirable that it occur
|
||
and be repeated. This is possible without psychedelics, but the necessary
|
||
changes in consciousness occur more readily when they have first been
|
||
experienced in LSD-type states. After LSD, memories and pathways in the
|
||
nervous system have been strongly established and can be explored again more
|
||
easily.
|
||
|
||
To take some terminology from the theologians, we have been busy for a
|
||
long while 'demythologizing' sexual intercourse - divesting it of a sense of
|
||
sin and a necessary connection with procreation. But a totally
|
||
demythologized sex can be mechanical, vapid and banal if it remains without
|
||
larger significance. Ecstatic sexual experience may be the new and valuable
|
||
'remythologizing' agent. With and without psychedelic drugs, we may be able
|
||
to invest the sexual union with new beauty and meaning.
|
||
|
||
|
||
*=-- --=*
|
||
{ -=*/> Buzzz Bros. <\*=- }
|
||
{ MCMXC }
|
||
*=-- --=*
|
||
|
||
You have the right to free speech -
|
||
As long as you're not dumb enough to actually try it.
|
||
|
||
|
||
__________________
|
||
|
||
Special Thanks to:
|
||
__________________
|
||
|
||
The old man at Maxwell St. that sold me the magazine for $1
|
||
93.1 FM WXRT (Chicago)
|
||
The return of RIPCO (312) 528-5020 - after the Operation SunDevil bust
|
||
Anyone who actually took the time to read the whole file
|
||
3rd BASS
|
||
The Hyatt Regency Chicago
|
||
|
||
|
||
(c) MCMXC -=*/> Buzzz Bros. <\*=-
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X
|
||
|
||
Another file downloaded from: NIRVANAnet(tm)
|
||
|
||
& the Temple of the Screaming Electron Jeff Hunter 510-935-5845
|
||
Rat Head Ratsnatcher 510-524-3649
|
||
Burn This Flag Zardoz 408-363-9766
|
||
realitycheck Poindexter Fortran 415-567-7043
|
||
Lies Unlimited Mick Freen 415-583-4102
|
||
|
||
Specializing in conversations, obscure information, high explosives,
|
||
arcane knowledge, political extremism, diversive sexuality,
|
||
insane speculation, and wild rumours. ALL-TEXT BBS SYSTEMS.
|
||
|
||
Full access for first-time callers. We don't want to know who you are,
|
||
where you live, or what your phone number is. We are not Big Brother.
|
||
|
||
"Raw Data for Raw Nerves"
|
||
|
||
X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X
|