The following article is re-

printed from the Journal of
Psychedelic Drugs for Sep-
tember, 1970. The Revolving
Door has placed this mags?
zine and related materials on
reserve in Hurling.

Newspaper accounts of "Je-
sus Freaks” in the House of
Pergamos (a commune in
Berkeley), psychedelic reli-
gious cults, “mystical murd-
ers" in Los Angeles, "LSD
ritual murders" in Fort
Bragg, North Carolina, and
tabloid serialization of the
black arts have both alarmed
and acquainted the general
public with the rising trend
toward radical religion in con
temporary American society.

The drug induced psycheder
lie experience has been im-
plicated as a major factor in
the development of such radi-
cal religious beliefs and has
been described as causative
in much of the violence.

Blacker and Smith have desr
cribed LSD-related longterm
personality changes with the
emergence of a dramatic or~
ientation to mysticism, but
have suggested a trend to-
ward nonrviolence as one of
the dominant characteristics.

The purpose of this paper is
to brieﬂy describe the rela-
tionship between LSD and
radical religions with the hope
of shedding some light on the
apparent paradox between
psychedelic induced violence
and the avowed hippie ethic
of non-violence.

LSD is one ofthe mostpowerr
ful psychoactive drugs loiown
to man and its ingestion pro-
duces profound alterations in
an individual's subjective en-
vironment with marked chan-
ges in perception, cognitive
functioning, and
processes.

At the present time, we are
quite familiar with the acute
adverse reaction to LSD? "bad
trip." We are aware of the
subacute averse reaction: the
situation when an individual
hikes LSD one or more times,
and without further ingestion
of the substance has what is
called a “ﬂashback phenome-
non," or the recurrence ofthe
emOtional and psychological

' aspects ofthe LSDexperience.

We are aware of the long-
term psychotic reaction, whe
ere individuals with prepsy-
chotic personalities take the
substance whichprecipitatesa
long-term psychological dis-
order, usually a depressive
reaction or a schizophrenic
process. LSD has been desr
crlbed as a trigger in these
psychotic reactions, but it is
becoming quite apparent that
the chronic use of LSD, whee
ther the individual has a bad
trip or not, can produce pro-
found alterations in theuser's
psychologiml functioning and
life style, particularly if the
individual lives in a "psyche-
delic community" or “psyr
chedelic information environ-
ment." This profoundpersonr
ality change has been des-
cribed by Smith as the “Psy-
chedelic Syndrome."

The HaightrAshbury Medical
Cii c serves as the general
medical facility to the
“hippie” community of San
Francisco. In 3 years ofoper~
ation the clinic has had 50,000
doctor-patient visits. As de
termined by Shick (et 31.),
approximately 85%ofthis pop—
ulation had experience with
LSD while virtually 100% had
experience with marijuana. It
was also determined that a
certain segment of this popu*
lation defined sociologically
as the "committed hipie,"
used marijuana primarily as

idea tiona‘l‘

a social agent and LSD as
primarily a religious agent
shunning the regular use of
other psychoactive chemicals.

In-depth psychiatric studies
of 21 chronic LSD users were
done at the University ofCali-
fornia Medical Center‘s Lang-
ley-Porter Neuropsychiatric
institute under the direction
of Blacker (etal.) Blacker’s
subjects werepaidvolunteers,
not psychiatric patients at the
institute, andhadingested LSD
an average of 65 times. Each
subject had agreed to come to
the Institute for a day ofinterr
views and tests. Drug, social,
and psychological histories
were obtained in intensive in-
terview sessions and cog-
nitive, perceptual, and EEG
tests were administered. No
subject hadingested LSDwith-
in 48 hours ofthe testsession.

Elacker‘s group found no
EEG evidence of classimily
defined organic “brain dam*
age” in these chronic LSD
users. However, he did find
some interesting alterations.
First, there was an increase
in the number of Visual rest
ponses, although in a test
sensitive to intellectual dis-
organization in schizophrenr
ia, the “auditory two-tone ev-
olved potential" (a measure
of disorganization based on
auditory responses) the group
showed no abnormality. How-
ever, on visual ”evoked po-
tential procedures” they gave
evidence of being uniquely
sensitive to low intensity sti-
mulation and in contrast to
vnoanSD'using groups, there
was no relationship between
their evoked response to
visual stimuli and their suba
jective response to the inten-
sity of tactile stimuli.As des-
cribed» ”by ,. blacker; ”Whey
seem to modulate and organr
ize their sensory input in a
different fashion."

These alterations were not
consistent with the psychia-
tric disease “schizophrenia,”
primarily, because the indie
viduals had intact and intense
interpersonal relationships.
The clinical picture ofunusual
beliefs with intact cognitive
abilities is’ more suggestive
of individuals classically dea
fined as eccentric.

In working with a population
of chronic LSD users, parti-
cularly those involvedwith the
”psychedelic syndrome," one
is continually impressed by
their belief in magic and their
intense study of metaphysical
subjects. ,

For example, in HaightrAsh'
bury, astrology is a major
force in many people’s lives
and it is common for an in-
dividual to alter an entire
week's activities (including
work at the H-A Clinic) be-
cause his ”sign is bad” for
that week. Mental telepathy
and ESP are commonly prac—
ticed, and one individual at
the Haight-Ashbury Clinic,
for example, was convinced
that he could “put the evil
eye" on people who offended
him. All of these magicaicon-
cepts are characteristic of
primitive religion and yet, as
indicated by demographicstuc
dies, a majority oftheseyoung
people were Caucasian and
from middle class homeswith
little background in such mys~
tical concepts. Blacker's re
search confirmed this char-
acteristic of the chronic LSD
user and supported the fact
that prior to taking the drug
they were middle class youths
who apparently held conven*
tional beliefs.

, In addition, he found that they
tended to be above average in
intelligence, but were non-

THE SCARLET AND BLACK .,

[50, Violence And Radical Religion

athletic individuals who fared
poorly in competition. They
tended: to be passive, frustrar
ted, angry at their own par-
ents and personal life situa-
tions, and used LSD and the
"psychedelic community" to
handle. their own aggression.
“Love" became the answer
for their own "hate,”

Such ' conflicts are usually
precipitated by his attempt to
re~enter straight society, and
this re—entry attempt is most
often prompted by parental,
marital, or monetary pres
sure. .

As a ‘result, a hippie with the
“psychedelic syndrome" in a
psychedelic community does
not feel himself tobe mentally
ill, and what is more import
ant, he is not considered tobe
sick by fellow members ofhis
community. Therefore, "the
psychedelic syndrome" can
be considered a mental aber-
ration only in terms of the
standards established by the
dominant culture. As long as
the individual remains in the
“hippie subculture," and am
both survive and adequately
handlejhis internal conﬂicts.
treatment of any kind is vir-
tually impossible.

Whatrare the social conse*
quences of several thousand
young people regularly taking
LSD, ‘involving themselves
with the psychedelic subcul—
ture, and potentially develop-
ing the "psychedelic syn»
drome?" Cerminly, We are
only in‘ a position to speculate
at the present time. However,
it is quite important for the
adult community in the dom-
inant culture to be aware of
the "psychedelic syndrome,”
primarily to alter their Ste!"
eotypes of "hippiness" as a
fad, a passing phase similar
to their adolescent rebellion
of “swallowing goldfish."
“Going straight" will bemost
difficult for these young peo-
ple once their magical belief
system‘ is well established.

Blacker, in his speculations,
referred to Lorenz who in his
analysis of intraspecies ag-
gression feels that derivatives
of man's aggressive instinct
play a_ crucial role in the or
ganization of man‘s socialbe-

everything associated with
ambition, ranking order, and
countless other equally indis-
pensible behavior patterns. As
stated by Blacker, "if LSD
can alter aggressive deriva
tives, it would follow that the
drug could, depending on dos-
age, frequency, and type of
individual, be usedasapowera
ful therapeutic agent or as a
solvent dissolving biological
bonds necessary for human
social orgnization.”

There is no question then,
that LSD can facilitate the
development of radical relic
gious beliefs.. In general it
produces an inhibition of ag-
gression and an orientation
toward nonrviolence. How
then, can one explain the ritual
murders seen on occasion in
the psychedelic subculture,
the most widely publicized of
which involved the ”Charlie
Manson Commune."

Research by Smith and Rose
indicated that Charlie, the
communal cult leader had a
long history of psychological
and social problems with a
wellcdefined delusional sysr
tem prior to his involvement
with LSD and could be classi-
fied as “an ambulatory schiz-
phrenic." The girls in the
commune, however, more'cl-

May 14, 1971

osely resembled those 1m“
mersed in the "Psychedelic
Syndrome” who came to be-
lieve that "Charlie was God"
and whatever he said was to
be accepted by faith and not
to be questioned.

When the victims involved
in the crime nowpopularly re—
ferred to as the "Sharon Tate
Murders" accidentally be»
crime involved in Charlie's
paranoid delusional system,
he ordered their death. His
disciples carried out this
order without question for
"God is always right."

Blind obedience to an abso-
lute ruler then, can lead to
destructive, inhuman violence
whether at Sharon Tate’s home
in Los Angeles or Song My in
Vietnam (where drugs may
have also been involved). Re-
ligious faith breeds suchblind
obedience and much violence
has been accepted and rations
alized because ”God was on
my side."

In those caseswhere LSDhas
facilitated religious faith and
blind obedience, the drugmust
be implicated in any subse-
quent violence. Although by
far, most individuals who be-
come involved with psyche-
delic chemicals tend toward
nonaviolenee.

lobby Tactics Succeed

(continued from page 1) i

fare, etc.

The People's Lobby succeed-
ed at H.E.W. when the People
tore dovm the wall which had
been erected just the night
before in order to keep them
from talking to employees.
Later, H.E.W. employees gene
erously donated money to the
bail fund of the more than 300
persons arrested for tryingto

oarrynhe-pieceeof. the ,wall [0‘ ,

the White House.

And the People‘s Lobby suc-
ceeded at the Justice Depart
ment when hundreds of people
danced and sang under John
Mitchell's balcony, while they
were being arrested.

May Day failed, not simply
because the participants were
swept off the streets during
massive, illegal arrests, but
rather because the protesters
and their actions had little
symbolic meaning. May Day

havior.‘ Aggression provides °

such a powerful motivating
force that it often interferes
with social function. However,
the elimination of individual
aggression would undermine

Recycle Your Cycle

Grinnell Police Chief Eill
Peters told the 5&8 he is
holding about fifteen lost bicy~
cles. He asks any student who
is missing a bicycle to go to
the police station at 609 4th
Avenue (just west of West St.)
any time of the day, and claim
his bike if it is there.

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was intended to effectively,
not symbolically, shut down
the city. All the government
had to do was to keep the city
open, and they had countered
May Day’s aims. They dldjust
that. They could use illegal

~ procedures, because the citi-

zens felt threatened andmnt-
ed order, not necessarily law.
The People‘s Lobby and May
Day were experiments. The
peace movement learned' a
great deal and startedinanew '
directioncrthe direction of
non-violent civil disobed-
ience. Perhaps the power of
non»violence will continue to
grow, nurtured by the truth of
its symbols, until that power
finally ,does become effective
in stopping the war machine.
There will be more mistakes
in strategy, but a non‘vlolent
can afford such mismkes.
They don’t require the loss of
human lives.

Road Service

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