LSD, Spirituality, and the Creative Process: Based on the Groundbreaking Research of Oscar Janiger, M.D

In 1954 a Los Angeles psychiatrist began experimenting with a still new chemical discovery known as LSD-25. For a period of eight years, Dr. Oscar Janiger gave LSD-25 to more than 90 men and women, ranging in age from 18-81 and coming from all walks in life. The data collected by the author during those trials and from follow-up studies done 40 years later is now available here for the first time, along with the authors' examination of its ramifications on creativity, imagination and spirituality. With the help of co-author Marlene Dobkin de Rios, a medical anthropologist who has studied the use of hallucinogens in tribal and third world societies, this book considers the spiritual implications of these finding in comparison with indigenous groups that employ psychoactive substances in their religious ceremonies. The authors, also, examine the nature of the creative process influenced by psychedelics and provide artwork and poetry from the original experiment sessions that allow the reader to personally witness LSD's impact on creativity. The studies recounted in LSD, SPIRITUALITY, AND THE CREATIVE PROCESS depict an important moment in the history of consciousness and a testament that reveals the psychic unity of humanity.