Re: Help needed on AMT

[Murple <murple@xxxxxxxxxx>]

> Double blind (where neither the doser or dosed know which is which)
> studies of mescaline, psilocybin and LSD show people can't tell them
> apart in the lab.

I haven't seen these studies myself (though I have seen people refer to them
before)... but I suspect these involved giving one or the other to people who
have had neither, then having them fill out questionnaires. Of course, in such
experiments, the described responses will sound similar. "Did you have visual
alterations? Yes. Did you have altered thought patterns? Yes." etc... I suspect
that this study either has some very serious design flaws or that it was
conducted by people who didn't know what they were talking about. I guarantee
you that if you took a group of people who had previously used mescaline and
LSD enough to be familiar with them, and conducted a double blind experiment,
that the people would be able to correctly identify which of the 2 drugs they
had been given in almost every case.

> If you had access to a clock (since time perception is usually
> affected) and the movitation and prior knowledge you could probably
> tell on the basis of the duration of effect (although again this is
> dose dependent) but that's probably the only clear distinguishing
> feature.

If you have have taken mescaline and LSD, and can't tell them apart... there
is something very very wrong with you. That would be like not being able to
distinguish between, say, kava and alcohol. Sure, there's some superficial
similarities, but the differences are large enough for any person of
reasonable intelligence to tell what they've taken, even if its difficult to
express verbally what these differences are due to the restrictions of the
language. LSD and mescaline have completely different feels. Not only are the
duration and effect curves drastically different, but they produce very
different physical sensations, different visual effects, and alter mental
processes in different ways. Sure, every trip will be unique, but there are
very distinct properties of each drug. It is ludicrous to say LSD and
mescaline are indistinguishable. The only explanation for such a statement is
that the person making it has not taken both drugs themselves, because these
drugs are not really that similar.

I'd love to see the study you mentioned, because I have a very hard time
accepting its findings. It flies against all of my personal experience. I'd
like to see how the experiment was designed and conducted, and more details on
its results.

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