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A little bit of “Hallucinocology”

Most of the effects of the different narcotic means are described with the help of conceptions, which are obvious and familiar – laxity, drowsiness, euphoria, excitement, sociability and so on. Only hallucinations remain outside of our every-day experience; they evoke in the ordinary man fear and horror, because he associates them with insanity. This behavior, to a great extent is due to the fear of everything that is unknown, but let us be honest – life always “serves” us different psychic trials, which are much stronger than any hallucination and which may destroy soul – envy, hatred, unshared love and so on. Almost each one of us, if he racks his or her memory, will remember having hallucinations. Lonely hunters and research-workers, drivers, tired from the long staring at the road ahead, prisoners, who have spent a lot of time in the dark single cell, hermits, devoted to meditation and at the end – seriously ill people, insane people, alcoholics – all of them sometimes see, hear and feel things, people and animals, which actually do not exist.

Mescaline, psilocybine and LSD form the holy trinity of the classical hallucinogens, but pseudo-hallucinations and pseudo-illusions are typical for their effects, and the psychosis greatly differs from the real psychic diseases. Similar is the effect of many substances with phenylalkylamine or indole structure. The cannabis, in a smaller degree, also possesses some of these properties.

The first researches of the complex phantasm, caused by LSD and some other hallucinogens, are well-deserved to the scientific enthusiasm of one personality – Dr. Timothy Liery. He and his colleague Ogdan Lindsly initiated the method of the “psychedelic typist” – they used something like a keyboard of a type-machine, which keys corresponded to different conditions of the subject and to some most simple hallucinogens’ characteristics. The people, who took part in the researches, pressed buttons an in this way they gave information about what they were seeing at the moment, of course, only in general outline. This method was soon disused, because most typical hallucinogens, such as LSD and DMT, lead to impossibility of muscular coordination. It turned out, much to the researchers’ surprise, that in these conditions people almost completely preserve their ability to speak. Some professor took advantage of this fact. He taught his “patients” to use a specially created for this purpose verbal code. After long practices they were able to give up to 20 times in a minute information about the colors, forms and movement of the hallucinated images.

Usually the complex visions include scenes from childhood or they are connected with strong emotional experiences in the past; very often these phantasms are not just a repeat of what was experienced originally, but they are a “paint of bright colors”. Some people experience the past episodes of their life in very unusual way – for example they watch all that has happened from a higher place or as if they are under water. The content of the hallucinations is strongly affected by the set and settings.

Often, in the vortex of the psychosis, people get completely into their hallucinations and perceive them if they are real. In this phase the pictures change extremely fast – up to 10 times per second and people feel completely alienated from their own body. This experience is similar to the state of delirium, in which the abstinent alcoholics and schizophrenics fall down on the ground; the hallucinations, for which exactly this type of psychosis is typical, are called deliriants.


"Drugs- One-way Ticket to Paradise". Created by team ID: C0115926 participating inThinkquest Internet Challenge 2001. All rights reserved.