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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 28, 1966)
Experiments Test Effects of LSD I By HARRY ENGEL Collegiate Press Service MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. — LSD. an hallucinogenic drug responsi ble for the dismissal of two Harvard psychologists, is current ly being used by a University of Minnesota medical doctor to re store normal and abnormal per formance in the nervous system. Although small doses of the drug can do severe brain damage if improperly used, it is being ad ministered here in medically su pervised conditions with screened subjects and can cause no harm, according to Amedeo S. Marrazzi, pharmacology professor in charge of the experiment. Marrazzi said the danger is in the misuse of LSD as in the case of two Harvard professors, Tim othey Leary and Richard Alpert. The pair’s unapproved experi ments with the drug sent two students to mental hospitals. Mentally unbalanced persons can sometimes go completely insane under the drug. Safety Factors Marrazzi’s experiment, approv ed by the UM College of Medi cal Science’s advisory commit tee on the use of human volun teers, will not harm a person’s mental equilibrium because of several safety factors, he said. All volunteers are subject to a variety of medical checks, in order to find those with “poten tially alarming disturbances oi mental performance.” Volunteers are given a person ality inventory test and are screened by the Clinical Psychol ogy as well as by Marrazzi's test team The volunteers also may be checked out with the psychi atry department when there is I any doubt about using them as subjects. Then, when the volunteer has been cleared, he is ready to re ceive a very small dose of LSD. LSD, short for d-lysergic acid diethylamide, is derived from a fungus which grows on the grain of wheat and rye. Weird Effects If taken in excessive doses, it j produces weird effects: vision and perception are altered drastically. One sees the world, as Time mag azine described it, in "wide - screen three-dimensional vision.” sometimes in T e c h n i color. Thought processes are released from their usual restraints so greater insights may develop, in cluding deep spiritual feelings. One Harvard student, after a session with the expelled profes sor, was almost killed as he walk ed in front of Boston rush-hour traffic. He said he thought he was God and that nothing could touch him. Barrazzi said the aim of his experiment is to find out how the nervous system handles the impulses of mentally ill persons. By impending the flow of im pulses with LSD, he can imitate the situation in a mentally ill per son’s brain, he said. Interferes with Perception Marrazzi said LSD first inter feres with normal perception, which operates through the memory part of the brain. Here, stored information is compared to new information received through the five senses and the brain interprets this. When a per Artist to Deliver Festival Lecture “Art and Knowledge” will be discussed by New York painter and writer Fairfield Porter dur ing a Festival of Arts lecture at 8 p.m. today in 150 Science. An exhibition of Porter’s works, including landscapes and por traits is on display in the lobby of Lawrence Hall. He studied at Harvard and the Art Students league, and later became associ ate editor of Art News maga zine. Porter is now teaching at the South Hampton Museum on Long Island. His exhibit, which was arranged through the Art Asso ciation of Reed College and the Tibor de Nagy Gallery in New York, will be displayed through March 7. son first sees a pencil, he records it; he will use his memory to re call what a pencil looks like and is used for the next time he con fronts one, Marrazzi said. LSD “closes the door” of trans mission between memory and new information, he said. The re sults are a misinterpretation of the new information, commonly called an hallucination. Thus, a pencil will no longer be seen as a pencil; it may be “misinterpreted as a dangerous weapon,” Marrazzi said. This re flects the abnormal performance in an ill person’s mi id. Marrazzi conducts his experi ments in an 8-foot high, square, windowless "room” with three walls. Upon entering the room the volunteer for the experiment no tices this “room” first; it has sec tions that completely cover the walls, ceiling, and floor. A yard long wooden bar attached to the far wall can be rotated clockwise or counter-clockwise by a dial and it is connected to an electri cal recorder. Wears Goggles The volunteer sits in front of the “room” and puts on a pair of goggles. He is instructed to use the dial to rotate the bar in order to keep it parallel to the floor. He does. But after a moment, the floor is no longer parallel to the bar; it is now inclined downward to the right and the volunteer must adjust the bar until it is para llel to the floor again. Marrazzi explained that the goggles produce the weird ef fects with the floor. But shouldn't (he volunteer have seen the weird shape ns soon as he donned the goggles? No, Mazzarri. explained. This is a point of the experiment: hu man perception tells us that rooms are square, with floors and ceil ing parallel to one another Not until the brain "tired" did it al low the volunteer to see exactly what was transmitted to the eyes by the lenses in the goggles. Distortion Recorded During this time, the recorder has recorded the degree the bar rotated. This is known as the degree of distortion. The volunteer is now given a small dose of LSD and subject ed to the same experiment. Again, the degree of rotation is recorded. In comparing the two experi ments, it is discovered that dur ing the LSD test, the intensity of distortion (how well a person can integrate his memory with the new information) is low, he said. Marrazzi said his experiments with LSD could provide a break through in diagnosing of sup posedly mentally ill people, as sessing the efficiency of present psychiatric treatments, and deter mining who is mentally unbal anced. Cautious experiments on Mix controversial drug are also he ing carried on elsewhere. Some feel, as does Marra/./.i, that elin ical experimentation with I.SD and other hallucinogen* may open a whole new field in psyehi atry and psychology and in the treatment of mental disturbances But opinions arc sharply dtvid ed. Dr. Sterling Bunnell. Jr., a res ident in psychiatry at the Mount Zion Medical Center in Sun Fran ! cisco, lists four criticisms of the drug: • Usage of the drugs causes psychosis The experimenter who takes the drug himself allows it to subtly influence his judgment and objectivity. • It causes passiveness, intro spection, and a dreamy state • Various religious practltion ers regard it as sinful to explore feelings and emotion outside Un church Many subjects relate the psychedelic experience to a reli gious conversation. • The long term effect is un known. Many Arguments Mar razz i claims that the drug can be used safely, however, and claims his experiment proves his assertion He also points to the successful use of LSD in a con trolled experiment with 5.1*10 per sons at the l.os Angeles Veteran's Hospital. Psychotic reaction lasting over 48 hours was reported in less than two-tenths of one per cent of the cases A student who lias used LSI) wrote of his experiences in the Daily Californian, at the Univer sity of California at Merkcley. He said that adults had lost the abil ity to think about the world in the terms of a child. lie added, "Fortunately, for us adults there is an avenue, how ever temporary, which bypasses social structure in its journey to heightened awareness and im proved consciousness . . , with this artificial aid. I could once attain open my eyes to the beau ty in details and nuances of color." Hut psychiatrists Jerome and Arnold l,udwi|t, writing in Com prehensive Psychology, caution ed against any use of LSD "just for fun." They wrote. "The fun j maker who takes it for a kick' most seriously Jeopardizes his career a* a human being." So the controversy continues over LSD medical blessing or ' curse Most likely it can be both, (Engle Is a staff writer for the Minnesota Daily, where the story originally appeared ) Oregon Daily Emerald THr Orrg»ti l>wly Kmmld i* (rtiMuKri) five limn ft Sr|.tr«»Uf ftmi ft*e 44 ya * arrii luring the waiintltc yr *r, rkirpt dutu-g rktutfiiuiutl jsrtiidli, bf ibf SlW'lfht I'ut it* i aiton* ilv-atii < I th# Uitivvfvlly of Ortgtm. >m t.iirUn )-'«/•«jag* |m -I * >fr gun vr40), .Su> *tii|»ip»n min $5 i*n )*#r, t/ per trttt• “Lets unplug the computer, boys! Start thinking!’’ A lot of people believe that someday computers will do all their thinking for them. Well, a funny thing is going to happen on the way to the futures You’re going to have to think harder and longer than ever. Computers can’t dream up things like Picturephone service, Telstar® satellite, and some of the other advances in communications we have made. Of course, we depended on computers to solve some of the problems connected with their development. But computers need absolutely clear and thorough instructions, which means a new and tougher discipline on the human intelligence. And it will take more than a computer to create a pocket phone the size of a matchbook, let’s say ... or find a practical way to lock a door or turn off an oven by remote telephone control, or to make possible some of the other things we’ll have someday. It takes individuals... perhaps you could be one ...launching new ideas, proposing innovations and dreaming dreams. And someday, we’re going to have to find a way to dial locations in space; Makes you think. Bell System American Telephone & Telegrapfl and Associated Companies
