Was out drinking with guys from work tonight. Although to the best of my knowledge, none of the guys use any drugs other than booze, the majority felt that many drugs should be legalized (I would probably try pot if it were legal and believe that it should be.) During the discussion one of the guys said that acid got a bum rap and that flashbacks were really a myth based on propaganda. Is this true?
Well, IMHO: sorta. Pretty much nothing about LSD’s subjective effects can be understood without having experienced them. You can try describing something, but it’s always not quite right.
That said, LSD itself (IIRC) actually metabolizes very quickly. I describe what it does as triggering a certain mental state which, on reflection, I’d felt before. There’s a certain sensation of pressure inside the head and the world seems to be in sharper focus. “Sober”, I’d felt the same way when cracking particularly difficult proofs. That “lightbulb”, “a-ha”, or “eureka” experience where suddenly everything seems clear and it all fits right in. Of course, normally it passes pretty quickly. Now, whenever I feel that it reminds me of my experimentation.
Now, the caveat: I didn’t try much or often, and I don’t intend to again. Maybe with higher dosages true “flashbacks” occur. I thank many people have little to fear from a little dabbling, but I also know many people would be extremely ill-advised to try it so much as once. It’s a “psychomimetic”, which means it mimics the effects of psychosis. For people who are borderline and don’t know it… well you get the picture.
In short, flashbacks may or may not exist, and I’ll bet they’re not really very well described in the standard statements if they do. There are many other better reasons to keep LSD under heavy wraps, though, and I will not recommend it to anyone. In fact, I recommend anyone reading this not to try it ever.
I was a very heavy user of LSD and haven’t had a single flash-back nor do I know any other heavy users who’ve had one. That’s hardly a controlled study, though.
I was also a pretty regular user of LSD for about 2 years. I have never had a flashback, as far as I know, but I did begin having panic attacks 7 years ago. I also had what you’d call a ‘bad trip’ on LSD which is why I stopped using it. The panic attack closely mimicked the feelings I had while sort of ‘freaking out’ on LSD. Strange, irrational paranoia.
I wouldn’t say they’re necessarily related, thought they could be. Like I said before, from all I’ve seen and heard, LSD only puts the brain into states it gets into sometimes naturally. Of course it forces the issue and does it a lot more strongly…
I used LSD about 120 during the late 80s and have never had a flashback. Nor have I ever met anyone who has had one. I’m fairly certain it’s a leftover from the propaganda days.
Well, the plural of anecdote ain’t data, but I’ll agree with the above. I’ve used acid quite a few times and never had a flashback.
This document might be helpful.
Based upon these statements, I’d say that Mathochist has never actually experienced an acid trip. Whatever he took, it was far too weak to produce the LSD “experience” as I knew it, an experience that one couldn’t label “subjective” by any stretch of the imagination. How often, in your experience, have tall buildings appeared to become rubbery, and started swaying? How often has the sky turned into a semi-solid substance, into which flying birds appeared to burrow?
I went to college in the early 1970s, which should tell you something. I know lots of folks who did a lot of tripping, myself included. Out of dozens of people, not one has ever reported a flashback in the past 30 years (oh god, has it been that long?). Yeah, I know, more anecdotes, but at some point, the anecdotes begin to mount up.
Almost 70 hits under my belt over here, and I only once had a strange, acid-like experience when I was completely sober.
I pulled up to a stop light one evening and was looking at the light, waiting for it to change. The light seemed to take up my entire field of vision.
As the red switched to green, everything went into extreme slow motion. I saw the red light “close up” slowly, then a loud “ka-chunk” sound as it went out. Then, just as slowly, the green light “opened up”, finishing with another “ka-chunk” sound.
While this was happening, all background noise dropped out. It was completely silent, save for the “ka-chunk” sound of the lights. Once the green light came on, everything went back to normal. The amount of time that I felt had passed was probably close to 15-20 seconds, not the normal 2-3 that the procedure usually takes.
Afterwards, I felt fine, and I’ve never had an experience similar to that again. I blame it on a flashback only because I’ve never heard of a 20-second bout of psychosis.
What you describe certainly sounds like what I would describe as an acid flashback - the type of hallucination you had fits right in with the tripping experience (as if I needed to tell you that!). I may well have to revise my opinion about whether flashbacks occur or not.
I didn’t say at all that that was the only sensation. That was the only thing that I’ve ever felt before or since. I’m sorry if I wasn’t clear.
If revision is necessary, change it to “in extremely rare cases”. I’ve never known anyone else that has had a flashback, and in most cases my social group faaaaaaar outdid me in overall quantity taken.
My personal rules for tripping roughly equated to control of your environment before indulging, and making every effort to clearly and rationally accept that what was happening to you was a result of the drugs you injested. With that mindset, I often tried to get mental snapshots of acid-induced visuals and then, when sober, tried to replicate them. I can still get the wallpaper pattern on the wall to dance if I stare at it long enough. As others have said, LSD can take you directly to a mental state that can exist without injesting the drug - I wanted to see if by using acid I could cut down on the time it took to naturally reach that state. Maybe its meditation, maybe its just my ol’ brain playing tricks on me, but it makes waiting at the DMV a little more entertaining. I don’t call those experiences “flashbacks” because they only happen when I intentionally try for them.
The stoplight thing was completely beyond my control, however. I was remarkably clearheaded while it was happening (and awfully glad I wasn’t in a moving vehicle), and specifically thought “Whoah, this must be one of those flashbacks they talk about. Damn. I’d better pay attention.”
Anyway, my point was that since each acid experience for me was intentionally undertaken to shorten the distance between Normal and Other when sober, it might not be suprising that my brain “hiccuped” that one time. I personally believe that the flashback warning was by and large propaganda.
The thing is that the acid experience as such is taboo and hasn’t been integrated into the common vocabulary. The states of qualia experienced are alien with respect to everyday existence. So when someone has to compile data on how frequent and widespead ‘flashbacks’ are, one has to rely on the respondents being able to accurately demarcate a novel experience during sober reality as representative of what a flashback ought to be, thus linking it to the LSD consumption. Now, given that the propaganda already exists and that there are no objective means to dissect and categorize an experience as a flashback, one has to wonder whether the propaganda simply sustains itself (“I took a lot of hits of acid three weeks back, and this morning I had a weird moment. Must be one of those flashback thingys I read about.”). You could experience the same thing sober without a history of drug consumption, but not necessarily categorize it as instances of some specific phenomena.
I only used LSD once. I don’t know if the dose was low or whatever, but it wasn’t that big a deal. However, for at least ten years after that whenever I looked at the ceiling it would appear to “wave” or undulate.
I don’t know is that is a flashback, but I can’t think of any reason that the one time use didn’t cause that visual disturbance. (BTW, the ceiling thing wasn’t scary, just kind of weird / interesting.)
I’ve had flashbacks but they were all within five years of the last time I dropped(which is now over 16 years ago). They weren’t like a full-on trip; it was more like when you’ve just taken one hit and your perceptions are just beginning to change. That kinda freaky “altered reality” feeling. And they were very brief, maybe only a couple of minutes max. I used to do acid a far amount in high school and just after (like almost very weekend). I think flashbacks happen but they’re really over-hyped and transitory.
I used it in the early 90’s on and off for about a year. Stopped after a bad trip as well.
As for flashbacks, during this time of LSD and Mushroom use, a five minute “flashback” could be triggered by standing and swinging one leg across my body, effectively “cracking” my back.
What occured was not a full fledged “trip” but more of an awareness change, sometimes accompanied by tingling…
Then again, it could have been the drugs. 
I dropped quite a bit of acid in the '60s (so much so my friends like to claim they are amazed that I remember that decade), and I have never had a noticable flashback.
But all things being equal, I could be lying on a bathroom floor in Taos in 1969 and all of the things I think have happened in the last 35 years were really constructs of the LSD (If that is true - God those tabs were worth whatever we paid for them!).
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It has been a long long time but I did used to have short lived flashbacks.
Wallpaper patterns would become lizards, or burst into flame and start spinning, waves would run through the floors, rooms would contract to shoebox size, trees burst into multicoloured flames, sounds become distorted - ultra clarity, slowdown, speedup, bottom of a well effects. A bit like Dali paintings.
Hasn’t happened for quite a while now.
Ever since I first ate mushrooms, I’ve had the ability to remember how to make myself see vague notions of the faces (sort of like “The Scream”) in wood-grain doors and swirly constantly-moving patterns in textured walls and ceilings. It’s as if LSD taught me how to look at something a different way, or perhaps just how to loosen some corneal muscles, I don’t know, but I suspect that this is the effect the Zen Guru type of acid heads are looking for in excercising their minds and transcending to another state.
I’ve tried acid and shrooms a few times each. Never had a flashback, never a bad trip, though some bad moments, which I’ve learned to deal with when they arise with no problems.
Don’t know if you count this as flashbacks, but 60 Minutes interviewed several former acid users who claimed to have suffered possibly permanent undesirable changes in their sensory perception. One person said that normal sounds are now painful to him - a person speaking in a normal tone of voice sounds like shouting to him.