Odd things happen. Anecdotally, you’ll hear a lot of stories of perceived telepathy and prescience.
Of course, no studies have shown that LSD can cause ESP, because no studies have shown that ESP exists. Subjectively though, you get a lot of stuff like that.
A couple of instances which left me scratching my head:
Once, after taking some LSD with some friends in a suburb of Vancouver, I took the ALRT back home to the city proper. While I waiting for the train, I recognized a friend-of-a-friend on the platform. This was a fellow I’d only met once or twice, and he lived in another part of town. Naturally, I greet him: “Hi, Wayne!” “Excuse me?” Whoops, it’s not Wayne at all. I apologize for mistaking him for someone else. Then the train arrives, and I get on. A couple of stops later, who should get on but Wayne? “Hi, Wayne!” I say. Once again, mistaken identity. Very embarrassing. I resolve to keep my head down. I get off the train and transfer to the bus that will take me home. As I approach a seat, I notice Wayne sitting there, but play it cool and walk past him, taking a seat by the rear doors. I spend the remainder of the bus ride wondering why I keep thinking I’m seeing this Wayne guy. I’d hardly spoken to him before. While I’m still turning it over in my mind, the guy I’d passed by gets up to exit the bus. As he’s waiting for the bus to stop, he looks me in the eye and says, “Hi, Larry.”
The next day I get a call from our mutual friend who says Wayne called her, concerned that I’d snubbed him. There was no mistaking that I’d recognized him as I walked passed, and willfuly ignored him. I should clarify that Wayne was the newish boyfriend of an ex-girlfriend that is still a close friend – so she naturally thought there was some jealousy there, or something.
Anyway, that’s the only time I ever bumped into him in public — coincidentally within a very short time of thinking that I’d seen him, twice. I can see how some people might be inclined to take that sort of thing as evidence of precognition. (I don’t, as it happens.)
Another similar bit of wierdness happened around the same time. Three friends and I took some LSD and went walking in Central Park in Burnaby (paths through a nice wooded area.) We had meandering conversations typical of group tripping. During this walk, however, I was plagued by the feeling that we were being followed. I kept seeing motion just at the periphery of my vision. Common enough. I fell back a bit, and a couple of times “saw” an elf. Or a leprechaun, I suppose. Comically to type. Pointed, buckled shoes that shone, and a little coat that looked like very dry leather. Each time I stopped to look, it quickly “ran away,” and I’d give my head a shake and giggle inwardly at such a silly hallucination. After a couple of “sightings”, it appeared practically in my face. Long nose, rheumy eyes, the whole cartoon thing. “Where was Moses when the lights when out?” it asked before vanishing. No reaction from my friends, so I took it as “noise” and ignored it. (At no point did I mention the wee fella.) He appeared once more, asking the same question. Again, I ignored it.
A short time later we were back at my friends’ house, and preparing to watch a video. While my three friends talked about Philip Glass, I saw the elf again. In bright light, looking quite solid, though much smaller, which is not my usual experience of LSD hallucinations at all. He had a playful expression on his face, and he said, “Go on, ask them.” So I did. I interrupted, saying “Hey-- hey-- where was Moses when the lights went out?”
There was a pause as this total non sequitur dropped like a brick. And then-- the power went out. My friend David answered “In the dark,” and we laughed like fools for about ten minutes.
There are two things that I find really odd about that situation: One, I didn’t know (or recall) the answer to the riddle, and it’s an old riddle. I guess it was sitting around in a dusty corner of my brain. I have no idea what I’d have said if David didn’t know the answer. Two, the synchronicity of the power going out about three seconds after I said “when the lights went out.”
One way of explaining stuff like this is that, under the influence of LSD, more-or-less random stuff goes through your head at an astonishing rate. You look at an object and are simultaneously aware of a huge number of associations you have for it, for example. You forget most of those impressions quite quickly – but if something external to you comes up that seems connected, you bet your ass you’ll remember that.
Synchronicities happen all the time, but usually you’re not in a frame of mind to pay much attention to them.
