Dr. LSD to Steve Jobs: How was your trip?

And if you think LSD can have damaging effects, look at Dr. LSD- he lived to be 102, and he took LSD in mammoth doses. The first time he took LSD(when he discovered it), he did not realize how small its active dose is, so he took something like 100x the standard dose(several milligrams). LSD is completely safe physically, it's impossible to overdose or cause brain damage of any sort.

If you've taken the right-sized dose, it's not unlike having the novelty factor of childhood combined with the intellectual development of adulthood. Much also depends on your mood, flexibility of mind and so forth. It doesn't combine well (for me, anyway) with directed activity like coding or trying to record (rather than play) music since you space out continually. If you try to push too hard in a specific mental direction, it'll push back and you may get frustrated or confused, which can lead to upset.

If you just go with the flow, on the other hand, all kinds of new perspectives and insights will pop up. These are not all equally good, qua the oft-repeated stories of people jumping off balconies in the belief they can fly and so forth. These do have some basis in reality, though generally the people involve tend to be massively loaded, sometimes on more than 1 drug. Unless you have one of those Jekyll & Hyde personalities where you turn into someone completely different when you get drunk this is probably not an issue, but you do need to be responsible to yourself and considerate of other people - there is nothing more irritating than an acid asshole that thinks the world should adjust to their trip rather than the other way around. The right way to handle is to store your insights (your memory will wok fine) without getting overly caught up in them - some will turn out to be purely frivolous others can have deep lasting value.

Having said all that, the scope of the experience is very hard to articulate. It's like the difference between experiencing a videogame as a player vs. firing up the level editor and/or reading the source code. On the other hand, you might go from wondering who moved your cheese to concluding that you are a lab rat in some bizarre cosmic experiment. Or indeed, both at the same time.

The nature of these compounds tends to be "deconstructionist", which can definitely be a harnessable energy when used in proper context. (Most users are not "psychonauts", and take such compounds just to see "fucked up shit". These people are the script kiddies of the psychonautical universes.) If nothing else, a long strange duration in these either-places will teach your more about your neurotransmitters than you ever wanted to know...

Ultimately BEWARE!! When you break the disclaimer, you do void your factory warranty; and you have taken your mind's life into it's own hands. (Though you really don't have to worry about the jumping through windows bullshit, it's called propaganda, unless maybe if you're chilling with indole rings.)

;)

I can't really tell you about concrete benefits and I think even LSD has its dangers. But it is a whole different experience from alcohol. _If_ you ever try it then make sure to read up on it first. Like Timothy Leary said: "The nature of the experience depends almost entirely on set and setting." So your expectations (the set) will influence the trip and being more informed will make you feel better so the trip will be better.

Of course, there's also the experience of seeing the world turned upside down and inside out that, in small doses, is probably good encouragement for creativity.