LSD-assisted psychotherapy and the human encounter with death
Abstract
INTRODUCTION: My own experience with Maria convinced me that the living can do a great deal to make the passage easier for the dyingJ to raise the most purely physiological act of human existence to the level of consciousness and perhaps even of spirituality.
Aldous Huxley wrote these words after being with his first wife as she died of cancer in 1955. During her final hours, he employed a hypnotic technique to remind her of spontaneous peak experiences she had known during her life, thereby seeking to guide her toward similar states of consciousness as the death process occurred. In his novel/sland, he describes a similar scene during the death of his character Lakshmi. Also in this novel, he writes of the “mokshamedioine” that gives inhabitants of the island a mystical vision that frees them from the fear of death and enables them to live more fully during their everyday lives. To those who knew Aldous Huxley and have read his works (Huxley, 1963a,b), there is no doubt that, in Huxley’s mind, £cmokshamedieine” was a psychedelic oompound similar to mescaline, psilocybin, and LSD. The seriousness with which he envisaged this futuristic scene is well portrayed by his second wife, Laura) in her description of Huxley’s request for LSD a few hours before he himself died of cancer in 1963 (Huxley, 1968).
Richards, W., Grof, S., Goodman, L., & Kurland, A. (1972). LSD-assisted psychotherapy and the human encounter with death. Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, 4(2), 121-150.
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Dr. Sidney Cohen tells with precision and restraint the story of the most interesting among them, LSD, in this book. He has long worked with the drug under hospital conditions and is aware both of its possibilities and its drawbacks. He gives many detailed accounts of LSD feelings in different subjects, and they are fascinating and colorful. He indicates the uses and possible uses of LSD in tapping the unconscious or the abnormal mind, and the usefulness of this for therapists. He discusses LSD in terms of “model psychosis” or “instant Zen.” He treats mystical experiences and visions in terms of what we have learned from these drugs. In a fascinating chapter he discusses hallucinogens for possible war use—they have been considered as incapacitating agents that might limit lethal warfare—and he shows how they too would lead to death. “A pill does not construct character, educate the emotions, or improve intelligence,” writes Dr. Cohen. “It is not a spiritual labor-saving device, salvation, instant wisdom, or a shortcut to maturity. However, it can be an opportunity to experience oneself and the world in a new way—and to learn from it. “The book is free of medical jargon. It tells thestory of LSD—which is full of brilliant color andbright new deep perception—trying to keep the experience intact. We all live in a world of sensation, and it is sensation itself that is illuminated here. Dr. Cohen explores LSD as a possible gateway to the vastness within.