Lysergic acid diethylamide
Vermulen Fungi - Lysergic acid diethylamide. LSD-25.
Synthetic derivative of the ergot alkaloid lysergic acid.
KEYS
о Flashbacks and release [reliving] of repressed traumatic experiences.
о Transformation and disintegration of accustomed world view.
о Daily reality in a new light.
о Sense of mystical experience. Focus on the transcendental and divine.
о Visual illusions or visionary perceptions.
о Enhanced colour perception.
о Alteration of body image.
о Childlike feeling.
ORIGIN
о Based on the naturally occurring tetracyclic alkaloid lysergic acid, ergot alkaloids are a source of lysergic acid diethylamide, commonly known as LSD. Why the number’25" follows the name is answered by Albert Hofmann in his LSD, My Problem Child: "In 1938,1 produced the twenty fifth substance in a series of lysergic acid derivatives: lysergic acid diethylamide, abbreviated LSD-25 for laboratory usage."
Time and again I hear or read that LSD was discovered by accident. This is only partly true. LSD came into being within a systematic research program, and the "accident" did not occur until much later: when LSD was already five years old, I happened to experience its unforeseeable effects in my own body - or rather, in my own mind.
... I had planned the synthesis of this compound with the intention of obtaining a circulatory and respiratory stimulant [an analeptic]. Such stimulating properties could be expected for lysergic acid diethylamide, because it shows similarity in chemical structure to the analeptic already known at that time, namely nicotinic acid diethylamide [Coramine], During the testing of LSD-25 in the pharmacological department of Sandoz, whose director at the time was Professor Ernst Rothlin, a strong effect on the uterus was established. It amounted to some 70 percent of the activity of ergobasine.
The research report also noted, in passing, that the experimental animals became restless during the narcosis. The new substance, however, aroused no special interest in our pharmacologists and physicians; testing was therefore discontinued. For the next five years, nothing more was heard of the substance LSD-25.And yet I could not forget the relatively uninteresting LSD-25.
A peculiar presentiment - the feeling that this substance could possess properties other than those established in the first investigations - induced me, five years after the first synthesis, to produce LSD-25 once again so that a sample could be given to the pharmacological department for further tests. This was quite unusual; experimental substances, as a rule, were definitely stricken from the research program if once found to be lacking in pharmacological interest.
[After a remarkable experience]... If LSD-25 had indeed been the cause of this bizarre experience, then it must be a substance of extraordinary potency. There seemed to be only one way of getting to the bottom of this. I decided on a self-experiment.... Exercising extreme caution, I began the planned series of experiments with the smallest quantity that could be expected to produce some effect, considering the activity of the ergot alkaloids known at the time. [Forty minutes after 0.25 mg of lysergic acid diethylamide tartrate, taken diluted with about 10cc water]... Beginning dizziness, feeling of anxiety, visual distortions, symptoms of paralysis, desire to laugh. [Followed by:]The dizziness and sensation of fainting became so strong at times that I could no longer hold myself erect, and had to lie down on the sofa. My surroundings had now transformed themselves in more terrifying ways. Everything in the room spun around, and the familiar objects and pieces of furniture assumed grotesque, threatening forms.
They were in continuous motion, animated, as if driven by an inner restlessness. The lady next door, whom I scarcely recognized, brought me milk - in the course of the evening I drank more than two litres. She was no longer Mrs. R„ but rather a malevolent, insidious witch with a coloured mask.
Even worse than these demonic transformations of the outer world, were the alterations that I perceived in myself, in my inner being. Every exertion of my will, every attempt to put an end to the disintegration of the outer world and the dissolution of my ego, seemed to be wasted effort. A demon had invaded me, had taken possession of my body, mind, and soul.
I jumped up and screamed, trying to free myself from him, butthen sank down again and lay helpless on the sofa. The substance, with which I had wanted to experiment, had vanquished me. It was the demon that scornfully triumphed over my will. I was seized by the dreadful fear of going insane. I was taken to another world, another place, another time.
My body seemed to be without sensation, lifeless, strange. Was I dying? Was this the transition? At times I believed myself to be outside my body, and then perceived clearly, as an outside observer, the complete tragedy of my situation.
I had not even taken leave of my family [my wife, with our three children had travelled that day to visit her parents, in Lucerne], Would they ever understand that I had not experimented thoughtlessly, irresponsibly, but rather with the utmost caution, and that such a result was in no way foreseeable?
My fear and despair intensified, not only because a young family should lose its father, but also because I dreaded leaving my chemical research work, which meant so much to me, unfinished in the midst of fruitful, promising development. Another reflection took shape, an idea full of bitter irony: if I was now forced to leave this world prematurely, it was because of this lysergic acid diethylamide that I myself had brought forth into the world.
[Albert Hofmann, LSD: My Problem Child: 19801FIRST SELF-EXPERIMENT BY A PSYCHIATRIST
Soon after Hofmann's self-experiment, LSD was tried on animals. After this the first systematic investigation of the substance was carried out on human beings, at the psychiatric clinic of the University of Zurich.
Werner A. Stoll, M.D., who led this research, published his results in 1947 in the Schweizer Archiv fur Neurologie und Psychiatrie, under the title "Lysergsaure-diathylamid, ein Phantastikum aus der Mutterkorngruppe” [Lysergic acid diethylamide, a phantasticum from the ergot group], Stoll's experiments detail "many characteristic features of LSD inebriation,” according to Albert Hofmann, especially those that were carried out in a darkened room. After the initial euphoria had vanished, depression set in:
Whereas during the first dark experiment, the hallucinations had alternated with great rapidity in bright and luminous colours, now blue, violet, and dark green prevailed.
The movement of larger images was slower, milder, quieter, although even these were composed of finely raining "elemental dots," which streamed and whirled about quickly. During the first dark experiment, the commotion had frequently intruded upon me; now it often led distinctly away from me into the centre of the picture, where a sucking mouth appeared.
I saw grottoes with fantastic erosions and stalactites, reminding me of the child's booklm Wunderreiche des Bergkonigs [In the wondrous realm of the mountain king]. Serene systems of arches rose up. On the right-hand side, a row of shed roofs suddenly appeared; I thought of an evening ride homeward during military service.
Significantly it involved a homeward ride: there was no longer anything like departure or love of adventure. I felt protected, enveloped by motherliness, was in peace. The hallucinations were no longer exciting, but instead mild and attenuated.
Somewhat later I had the feeling of possessing the same motherly strength. I perceived an inclination, a desire to help, and behaved in an exaggeratedly sentimental and trashy manner, where medical ethics are concerned. I realized this and was able to stop.
But the depressed state of mind remained. I tried again and again to see bright and joyful images. But to no avail; only dark blue and green patterns emerged. I longed to imagine bright fire as in the first dark experiment. And I did see fires; however, they were sacrificial fires on the gloomy battlement of a citadel on a remote, autumnal heath.
Once I managed to behold a bright ascending multitude of sparks, but at half-altitude it transformed itself into a group of silently moving spots from a peacock's tail. During the experiment I was very impressed that my state of mind and the type of hallucinations harmonized so consistently and uninterruptedly.
During the second dark experiment I observed that random noises, and also noises intentionally produced by the supervisor of the experiment, provoked simultaneous changes in the optical impressions [synesthaesia]. In the same manner, pressure on the eyeball produced alterations of visual perceptions.
... After the second dark experiment I felt benumbed and physically unwell. I perspired, was exhausted.... I was depressed and thought with interest of the possibility of suicide. With some terror I apprehended that such thoughts were remarkably familiar to me. It seemed singularly self-evident that a depressed person commits suicide.
... The next day I was careless in mythinking and conduct, had great trouble concentrating, was apathetic.... The casual, slightly dream-like condition persisted into the afternoon. I had great trouble reporting in any organized way on a simple problem. I felt a growing general weariness, an increasing awareness that I had now returned to everyday reality.
The second day after the experiment brought an irresolute state.... Mild, but distinct depression was experienced during the following week, a feeling which of course could be related only indirectly to LSD.
[cited in: Albert Hofmann, LSD: My Problem ChildTHERAPY
о Over the decade following Hofmann's discovery of the extraordinary potency of LSD, the drug was used as an adjunct to psychotherapy in the treatment of character neuroses and sexual perversions, in the treatment of chronic alcoholism, autism in children, and in terminal illness. Because its value in these conditions could not be established and it furthermore showed a distinctive psychologically addictive potential, its therapeutic use was later largely abandoned.
Although convinced of LSD's therapeutic value, Gustav Schenk's early 1950s prediction proved to be accurate: "It will certainly not be long before there are a number of lysergic acid diethylamide addicts.'
The drug was used in the postwar years in the Netherlands in the treatment of concentration-camp survivors. The often extensive residual damage to these survivors commonly included anxiety, insomnia, headaches, irritability, depression, nightmares, impaired sexual potency, and functional diarrhoea. The LSD-therapy was based on the concept of flashbacks", in the hope that reliving the psychological horrors in a therapeutical setting might help solve the scars.
The drug was marketed experimentally by Sandoz under the trade name Delysid, accompanied by the following indications: "Analytical psychotherapy, to elicit release of repressed material and provide mental relaxation, particularly in anxiety states and obsessional neuroses.. ..
Experimental studies on the nature of psychoses: By taking Delysid himself, the psychiatrist is able to gain an insight into the world of ideas and sensations of mental patients. Delysid can also be used to induce model psychoses of short duration in normal subjects, thus facilitating studies on the pathogenesis of mental disease." Writing in the early 1950s, the German toxicologist Gustav Schenk found LSD "a narcotic of a very strange kind."
The person intoxicated with it sees the world as he has never seen it before. The objects he perceives acquire huge dimensions; for example, his hand holding a glass becomes enormous, and the glass itself assumes gigantic proportions. His self-confidence increases inordinately and all the spaces around him become immeasurably enlarged. Later, he loses all sense of his own personality; his contact with things disappears, and not a trace remains of his initial sensation of enhanced self-assurance.
Lysergic acid diethylamide has proved to be of immense therapeutic value in the field of psychiatry. It possesses the startling property of wiping out inhibitions and releasing the most profoundly buried memories.
Injected with minute quantities of LSD, patients remain conscious but undergo a type of "flashback" experience in which they relive and recount very early scenes from childhood. Some patients have even relived the details of their own births, visualizing and giving circumstantial accounts of how their limbs were shrinking to the size of a child's, as they went back though their lives under the influence of the drug. By recording the unconscious memories thus brought to light, psychiatrists are able to get rapidly and comparatively easily to the source of mental illness.
[Schenk 1955]MAIN THERAPEUTIC APPLICATIONS
oThe major psychic effects of the use of LSD in analytical psychotherapy are summarized by Albert Hofmann thus:
о Deep-seated transformation and disintegration of the accustomed world view, accompanied by'a loosening or even suspension of the l-you barrier. This is beneficial for "patients who are bogged down in an egocentric problem cycle' and helps them "to release themselves from their fixation and isolation."
о Long forgotten or suppressed experiences are brought up again in consciousness, so that "traumatic events may then become accessible to psycho-therapeutic treatment."
о Induction of a mystical-religious experience serving 'as a starting point for a restructuring and curing of the patients personality in the accompanying psychotherapeutic treatment.'
ADVERSE REACTIONS
о Sympathetic overactivity is typical for the side effects of LSD, including nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, dizziness, paraesthesias [esp. of the face], anxiety, sweating, dilated pupils, hypotension or hypertension, muscle tension and incoordination, and tremor.
These effects are accompanied by an alteration of visual, and less commonly, auditory and other senses, and a distortion of the sense of position in space. Distortion of the body image may lead to depersonalisation. Disorders of thought and time sense may be accompanied by extreme alterations of mood. Complicated visual experiences result from perceptual disturbance.
Panic reactions are most frequent nonpsychotic adverse reactions. Common features are dissociation, terror, fear of going insane or not being able to return to normal. The anxiety often amounts to panic and sometimes to suicide or homicide.
The autonomic effects are the first to appear. They include dilation of the pupils, piloerection [hair standing on end] and some rise in body temperature. The tendon reflexes are often increased, and muscular tremors and twitching develop in severe reactions. Weakness, somnolence and giddiness may be marked.
The earliest mood changes are of euphoria or anxiety.
Euphoria is usually the predominant change and may extend to feelings of ecstasy, but this can be followed later by sudden swings to depression, panic or a profound sense of desolation. Some subjects become active and excited, while others become quiet, passive and withdrawn. Some are overwhelmed with a sense of mystical experience.
Others become paranoid and hostile to their surroundings. Much probably depends on the pre-morbid personality of the subject, his expectations, and the setting in which the drug is taken.
Perceptual distortions, illusions and hallucinations are mainly in the visual sphere but can effect all modalities. Vision may be blurred or astonishingly enhanced and vivid. The perception of depth and distance is changed, size and shape distorted, and colour greatly intensified. Hearing may be dulled or hyperacute, the clothing may feel like sand paper, or the body feel extremely light or heavy.
Synaesthesia is often marked and is fascinating to the subject - sensory data are transformed from one modality to another so that sounds or tactile stimuli appear as bursts of light or scintillating moving spectra.
Hallucinations are again mainly visual and occur in both unformed and formed varieties -kaleidoscopic patterns of light in intense and changeable colour, or complex visions of animals and people. Tactile paraesthesia, metallic tastes and strange smells are notuncommon, but auditory hallucinations are rare.
Distortions of the body image usually figure prominently and take bizarre forms. Customary boundaries become fluid, so that the patient feels he is one with the chair upon which he is sitting or merged with the body of another. His own hands andfeet may appear to be transformed into claws or the extremities of a dead person. Sometimes intense somatic discomfort is experienced with feelings of being twisted, crushed or stretched.
Depersonalisation and feelings of unreality may also be marked. These may extend to the impression of being outside of one’s own body, difficulty in recognizing the self in a mirror, or difficulty in deciding whether a thought refers to a real event or is merely a spontaneous thought.
Despite these experiences the subject is able to respond to questions, and conceptual and abstract thinking can usually be shown to be substantially intact. Except in the most severe reactions a large measure of critical self judgement is preserved.
... After the vivid effects of the drug experience, however, the real world often appears to be drab and dull, and natural events lack the urgent and compelling quality of what has gone before. Some degree of depression and disillusionment may thus be an understandable aftermath.
Acute emotional disturbances are the most common , especially an acute panic reaction in which the subject feels overwhelmed by experiences beyond his control. Sometimes he feels he is going insane or he may react in terror to homicidal impulses.
Other acute emotional disturbances include depression, paranoia and outbursts of explosive anger. Acute paranoia may cause the subject to flee about the streets in terror, or upsurges of paranoid jealousy may lead to episodes of explosive anger.
The acting out of impulses is facilitated as self-control becomes diminished. The subject may become unmanageable, run amok, attempt to disrobe or make overt homosexual advances. Sociopathic individuals are more prone to commit acts of violence, and attempted homicide has been reported. Feelings of invulnerability may lead the patient to take unwarranted risks with danger of bodily harm.
[Lishman 1987]о Its range of effects include, in humans, striking subjective changes in the body image, such as feelings of distortion or free-floating of the body, and fear of mice [or being on friendly terms with them] in cats, changes in web-building capacity in spiders, maintenance of a vertical nose-up position and swimming backward in fish, and catatonia in pigeons.
LSD turns the known world topsy-turvy, inside out. The question is whether it is the wrong way up or the right way down.
BLISS
о LSD is viewed as inducing a state of "bliss," as well as bringing other benefits, such as 'augmented aesthetic sensitivity, enhanced creativity, occurrence of transcendental experiences, acquisition of new insights, and aphrodisiac effects."
Butthe very suggestibility and claimed in-depth confrontation with Self and Other intrinsic to the action of the drug probably makes the exclusion of all painful encounters an impossibility; the same can be said of psychoanalysis and religious mysticism: in Christian tradition, the Dark Night of the Soul is an essential step in the progress of the mystic, and in St. Ignatius Loyola's program of spiritual guidance, periods of "desolation" are expected to alternate with periods "consolation.”
[Daniel M. Perrine, The Chemistry of Mind-Altering Drugs: Washington, 1996]Despite its potential and power, LSD's importance for creative activity and bliss is controversial, or as Peter Matthiessen put it: "Whether joyful or dark, the drug vision can be astonishing, but eventually... the magic grows boring....
Drugs can clear away the past, enhance the present; toward the inner garden, they can only point the way. Lacking the temper of ascetic discipline, the drug vision remains a sort of dream that cannot be brought over into daily life. Old mists may be banished ... butthe alien chemical agent forms another mist, maintaining the separation of the T from the true experience of the One.”
According to anthropologist Peter Furst it is very simple: "The 'Otherworld' from which you seek illumination is only your own psyche.”
FLASHBACKS
о Although not unique for LSD, flashbacks' are a striking feature of this drug since it reportedly occurs in as many as 25% of users. Most often the visual system is involved, in the form of three main varieties.
"The commonest consists of the repeated intrusion into awareness of some image derived from the LSD experience. This arrives unbidden and is outside voluntary control. It may be accompanied by distortion of time sense or reality sense. It is usually the same image which returns, often of a frightening nature, and considerably psychiatric disturbance can occasionally be provoked. T
he second variety consists of the spontaneous return of perceptual distortions - halo effects, blurring, shimmering, distortion of planes, changes of colour, micropsia or macropsia. Thirdly, there may be an increased sensitivity to spontaneous imagery for some time after taking LSD. Such imagery is more vivid than usual, less readily suppressed, and occupies a greater proportion of the subject's thought and time than formerly. [Lishman]
VISUAL OR VISIONARY PERCEPTION
о The most prominent psychedelic effect of LSD is associated with optical sensory input. Experiments on human volunteers conducted by Werner A. Stoll in the late 1940s evoked pronounced changes in the visual perception, in particular when the experiments were carried out in a dark room or with the eyes closed. [When sensory deprivation, however, is pushed so far as taking LSD in a dark, soundproofed float tank its psychedelic potential is greatly reduced.] Among the recorded effects were:
о Flickering; twinkling; sparkling; glistening; flowing of colours and sparks.
о Green and red mists; coloured stripes; spots; rays and strings; multi-coloured circles, oval shapes, whirlpools, spirals, bars and rods; nets; coloured wells; shining bubbles, ornaments and arabesques.
о Letters; spider webs; twigs; snowflakes; wood fibres; stone grindings; carvings.
о Benzene rings; butterflies; peacock feathers; dune landscapes; seas; roof-gardens; hideous faces and masks; Buddhas; calyxes and floral structures.
о Visions of brilliant, pulsating, coloured images in firework-like bursts, encompassing every shade and every colour of the rainbow.
The visual illusions were mood-dependent: euphoria was accompanied by the colours red, yellow, and bright green, whereas in depression the colours blue and dark green stood out.
[W. Schmidbauer & J. vom Scheldt, Handbuch der Rauschdroqen: Frankfurt am Main, 1999]о The changed visual perception might run parallel with an increased vision in the sense of revelations, imaginative perception, foresight, or mystical awareness of the supernatural. This would include the ability to see daily reality in a new light and objects as disclosing their "inherent, deep, timeless existence, which remains hidden from everyday sight."
As a consequence, we may expect that patients needing LSD as a homeopathic remedy emphasize the importance of the faculty of sight, colours, shapes, forms, patterns, vivid concepts, mental pictures, imaginative perception, visionary inspiration, foresight, etc.
This allows also a further homeopathic differentiation of remedies derived from psychoactive plants, for which we can take as a starting point the division made by the Chilean psychiatrist Claudio Naranjo. Based on his experience with the use of psychoactive substances as therapeutics, Naranjo suggested the following division:
о LSD [and psilocybin] focus on the transcendental and divine.
о Mescaline [from the cactus Lophophora williamsii; Anhalonium in homeopathy] - focus on beauty.
о Harmaline [from Peganum harmale, fam. Zygophyllaceae] - focus on power and freedom.
о MMDA [synthetic compound derived from myristicine, an active principle of Nux moschata] - focus on loving communication.
о MDA [amphetamin-like compound derived from safrole] - focus on "increased awareness of the I [Self]."
Safrole is a major constituent of sassafras oil [Sassafras officinale, fam. Lauraceae], star anise [Illicit!m anisatum, fam. Illiciaceae], and camphor oil [Cinnamomum camphora, fam. Lauraceae], and a minor constituent of nutmeg [Myristica fragrans, fam. Myristicaceae] and cinnamon leaf [Cinnamomum zeylanicum, fam. Lauraceae]
о Aldous Huxley, opening The Doors of Perception, saw the value of hallucinogenic drugs in that they give people who lack the gift of spontaneous visionary perception belonging to mystics, saints, and great artists, the potential to experience this extraordinary state of consciousness.
Yet, opening such doors entails dangers that must not be underestimated. It might be so that one thinks too highly of one's visionary abilities [delusion being a great person], which, in the case of both LSD and Psilocybin, may lead to a sense of omnipotence and invulnerability, resulting in impaired performance of everyday tasks requiring concentration and coordination or the acting out of fantasies such as a feeling of being able to fly or to stare into the sun.
LIKE A CHILD
о Instead of finding reality irrelevant and not worth the trouble of focusing upon, one can also feel like a child in either an overwhelming world, unable to screen out irrelevant stimuli, or in a new world, as if experiencing it for the first time.
I could not remember ever feeling quite so unqualified to deal with the physical world. The presence of H. was reassuring to the point of being a necessity; I should have been utterly terrified if he had left me.
Taking a potent hallucinogen by oneself, I imagine, would be likely to induce a state of panic, and to throw the entire tenor of the experience into the realm of horror. Did my dependence on H. cause me to feel like a small child, or did my feeling like a small child force me to rely on H's protection? When I ask myself this, I think immediately of the chicken and the egg.
A curious thing is that at the same time, I felt remarkably old and wise. But my wisdom seemed useless when applied to the problem of going outside. It seemed vaguely as though death awaited me there, in some innocuous disguise.
[Paul Moser, self-experiment; cited in: Ebin, The Drug Experience: New York, 1961]о The childlike feeling also came up in Misha Norland's proving of LSD.
The LSD intoxication is often of such intensity, the experience so real, that the trip becomes the only reality. This imaginary realm fills the field of consciousness and establishes itself as the' reality. Other realities are often wiped out. [Although 'observing' consciousness, in those who have this faculty well developed, may maintain a view of both realities simultaneously]. Likewise, that which had been formerly thought of as T or ego loses its hold.
- The person is as a small child again. [Many provers felt this way.] However, most individuals are well enough established in their core being to hold their ego structure together, and they may enjoy [or be but temporarily horrified] by the play of imagination as it flits like a will-o-the-wisp upon the outer fabric of sensory perceptions and memories.
Or to put it another way, according to the analogy of levels of consciousness, the trip sets the tripper on the journey from peripheral to core states of being. The peripheral level [of structured memory complexes, states of knowing] gives way to uncensored memory and sensory impressions, these in turn may give way to states which resemble childhood in that they are open, rather than conditioned. Ultimately perceptions of primordial space may come - unconditioned and spacious. This state can lead to bliss or terror - the good trip or the bad trip.
[Misha Norland, Introduction to The Homeopathic Proving of LSD-25; February 1999]о Albert Hofmann nevertheless believed that his problem child LSD could become a wonder child "if people would learn to use LSD's vision-inducing capability more wisely, under suitable conditions, in medical practice and in conjunction with meditation."
MATERIA MEDICA
Proving
[1] Misha Norland [School of Homeopathy], 1998; 30c; 10 provers [6 females, 4 males].Themes
Arranged in headings of the mind proving symptoms:
о Sacred [in the sense of inspiring awe and reverence for nature; this state is coupled with supreme well-being].
Peace & Love. Connection. Truth.
"Meditation: In blackness of space. I feel the vastness of space, seethe stars. Look back and seethe earth. Feel expansion and limitless. I look at the earth, but space feels my home. Feel light. Try to put myself back to earth - cannot, I'm too light. My gravity is lighter, don't belong there. Moving through space, past planets and spheres. Seethe sun, fiery. I hear the roar of its energy, see the golden yellow.” [prover 2]
"Nothing bothers me. Feel very relaxed.... Feel a bit irritated by things people are doing like flicking a pen - with any noises that interrupt the peace." [prover 3]
"Iwas outspoken with my partner-thoughts I'd normally keep to myself were expressed. Feeling of fearlessness.... Heightened feeling of honesty in expression. Fearless in relationships.... I goto a group once fortnightly and I was really forthright tonight-very confident in my observations and comments." [prover 1]
"Feeling like my truth is readily available, speaking what is true saying it like it is, with no affectations.” [prover 5]
о Merging. Delight in merging with another [God, animal, plant or stone] or deep fear of it.
Loss of ego.
Merging of Senses; merging with Music.
Delusion of dissolution of personal boundaries - between self and child; between self and family and friends; she did not know who she was.
Delusion boundaries between dimensions are thinning; inner and outer realities are inverted.
Delusion of having the consciousness of others; of his consciousness being outside of his body.
Delusion that emotions have colours; that he can see emotions.
Delusion he is in several worlds simultaneously.
о Nature, Animals. Immersion of awareness in inanimate objects, animating them.
The increased nature awareness seemed to be particularly related to birds and trees.
Notice flocks of birds, their movements, patterns and numbers. Feel high, as if my cares have all receded. Nature feels very close to me - enhanced connection with it. Particularly noticed the birds - ravens, crows and pheasants.” [prover 2]
"Still really noticing clouds, and the colours and shapes of nature - fascinated by the shapes of trees." [prover 3]
"Feeling very attracted to the form of trees.... I pay a lot of attention to flocks of birds that fly in front of me on the lanes. There are far more than usual." [prover 5]
” Notice flocks of birds while driving along - their patterns - beautiful moving forms.... Noticing flocks of birds [starlings?]. Just want to sit and watch; their movement is like waves; very beautiful."[prover 7]
о Timelessness.
"Time feels like its slowed down -1 keep expecting it to be hours later in the day than it is." (prover 3]
"Things feel very slow. I feel impassive about things and my thoughts aren't much beyond the moment.... I have confusion about days ofthe week and where in the month we are." [prover 5]
"Life seems to have become Aterv.hi i.avl.Sp nap, nfJimp.mi iddlp d.-.asds, whatdav. it i s. I am a day ahead of myself.... No real sense of time.... Sense of time altered. Look at clock and it is 21.00 and then it is midnight....
Realized how spaced out I still feel, and how I really have lost all sense of time. It seems to be disappearing very quickly.... Not so spaced out - but sense of time feels very different. As if time doesn't matter." [prover 7]
о Clairaudience and clairvoyance.
I notice synchronistic events; I wonder whether to pull out and the car behind pulls out, the radio talks about a fly and the next car to pass me has fly as part of its number plate." [prover 5]
"Felt like I was on a wave of synchronicity or in slow motion when I was waiting for my bus and rang friend to see if she could give me a lift. The bus went past she said she'd just rung me to see if I wanted a lift." [prover 8]
о Confusion. Distortion.
Distortion of time and space - disorientation and forgetfulness.
Restlessness.
Disorganised. Disconnection.
’I'm writing numbers backwards, i.e. the 6 before the 1 when writing 16.... At a dance workshop, I do not always understand what is being said, I hear twix* instead of twigs' and it takes me ages to understand, I dont get any of the jokes, [prover 5]
"Typing still feels very strange. I can do it if I dont think about it, but when I think about what I am doing I get lost in looking at the keys rather than typing and make loads of mistakes." [prover 7]
"My handwriting is so bad at the moment and I keep getting my words round the wrong way - tongue twisted / tied." [prover 8]
"Restless. I cant keep still - I'm thinking about the next task before I've completed the current one.... Feeling restless already - lots to do, cant decide where to start." [prover 1]
"Unable to settle for mental work. Generally better outside and for physical activity." [prover 2]
"Enjoying doing physical activity e.g. decorating, exercise, etc. but total aversion to study-I cant persuade myself to study and I'm finding it hard to be bothered to try." [prover 3]
"Couldn't seem to focus on any one thing. Trying to do my assignments and work -1 kept skipping from one thing to another. Nothing held me and I kept thinking of the odd line to add to the next thing." [prover 7]
"Forgetfulness. I forgot my cash machine pin number-I haven't done this for years. I forgot to turn off the oven-thinking about too many other things. I forgot to drink the cup of tea I made for myself. I am thinking about too many things at once.” [prover 1]
"Memory for names and places is shot to pieces e.g. couldn't remember my neighbours (of 26 years!] name or street / pub names that I've known all my life. Finding it difficult to focus mentally on anything outside of the here and now. Mixing word syllables up in my speech e.g. Denim and Demin; car park = par cark, etc. - in retrospect I've been doing this for a couple of weeks." (prover 3]
’I feel as if I have no sense of home and cry. I have been looking and looking for where to live. Every where I go I ask myself is this home. My Osteopath says I don't feel at home in my body. I'd forgotten that my body was my home." [prover 5]
о Childlike (in the sense of experiencing things and events in a new manner, as iffor the first time]. Often finding things hilariously silly.
Innocence. Giggling. New.
Cosseted.
I felt everyone else was trapped [kids, pregnancy, careers], and I was being sucked into it. I felt a huge pang of desire to travel, for space. I felt so young, unconfident too, small, little, naive and inexperienced. It felt strange to be doing this course or having chosen to so young. I felt I couldn't really communicate and I wanted to be like S. always asking questions, I never know which ones to ask. I always clam up." [prover 8]
о Unrestricted. Space. Freewheeling.
Expansion.
Exploration, Journeys.
’I was woken by my daughter's cough. I had a strange bodily sensation of being a giant puffball - hollow, light, fragile, round. I felt like it. I was it, and it felt just right.” [prover 1]
’My mind feels like its freewheeling - spinning with thoughts which I cant stop - feels as if there's no resistance. Thoughts just pour through so - feels like my mind could just fly off into outer space and bruised sensation on forehead - point 2 inches above each eye worse thinking. Only thing which makes it better is cupping forehead in palms of hands which also makes mind stop freewheeling.” [prover 3]
о Youthful. Feeling youthful, exuberant and expectant [like a teenager].
Excitement. Music, Dance.
Courtship, Romance.
Desire for wine. Desire for conversation. I feel I have more energy, wanting to talk.” [prover 1]
Strong desire to listen to loud, fast music. [5 provers!]
I'm talking of'love' all the time, being in love, falling in and out of love, cosmic and human love....
- Strong desire to have family and babies.” [prover 6]
о Earthiness. Grossness. Materialism.
"Issues around food and exercise. I had to go for a 2nd walk, even though I've been to the gym and have increased my running from 1 to 1.5 miles. My stomach symptoms are aggravated by eating, bloats up more and thus feels more uncomfortable. I have neurosis around food. I feel fat and have a distorted body image of myself. I feel very anxious about it all, I must do more exercise. [When younger had anorexia and bulimia.] More liable to flare up at husband. 'I don't want to play the wife, nurturing role, I want to be nurtured.’ I feel taken for granted. Strong desire for apples again, [prover 2]
Predominant feeling today and yesterday is of feeling ugly. I tried on a couple of dresses and looked at my hair which is so fine, and I feel masculine, ugly I don't feel feminine. I do feel that I look like a man. But what is feminine? I know I should celebrate my curves [clichn], but I don't, I need to detox my liver and get healthy. I feel older and ugly.” [prover 8]
'Despondent. Feel gross side gaining and spiritual side receding.... Must not let this remedy dictate to me what I eat - am going to get very fat.... Fed up with proving. Am eating too much carbohydrate, drinking too much [alcohol]. Have lost spiritual base to life. Gross side is winning. No yoga. No meditation. Aching body." [prover 9]
о Isolation. Desire to be alone.
Numbness. Apathy.
'Feeling of complete detachment from my family. They seem like a million miles away and I could be in another world.... I woke up feeling totally disinterested at the prospect of a day at college studying homeopathy. I resolved to spend time with different people on the course today. As the day wore on I became increasingly lonely and isolated.
Feeling like I know nothing. Feeling like I’m a stranger. Feeling disconnected. Feeling adrift. One of the other students asked me if I was OK -1 said yes, I felt that if I said otherwise I would cry. I left college, not knowing where to go. I did not want to go to the B&B and I did not want to go to the pub. I did not want to go home. I felt like crying. I drove the car not really knowing where I was going, I got lost and began to panic a little.
After an hours driving in pouring rain, horrible conditions, horrible emotional state, I arrived back where I hadn't wanted to be an hour previously - in a warm pub. It felt like I'd just come through a crisis and now I was safe.” [prover 1]
Repertory rubrics:
Indifference to his personal appearance; to business affairs; to company, society; to duties; to everything; to external things; to family; to joy; to pain; to pleasure; looks for hours out of window.
о Sense of alienation and loss - depression.
"Went out for a drink with some other homeopaths, got very drunk. One lady said that we were lost in London, I turned around and she was gone [she went to look in a shop window] when I saw that she was gone, I cried out where are you. She said that I was like a lost insecure little boy who has lost his mother. Panic, God I'm lost. Other people on the course said that they had a strange weird feeling being next to me; guess this remedy is like an epidemic or virus. They also said I looked nervous, shaky and scruffy.' [prover 6] о Apprehension. Fear.
Fear of impending danger.
Fear associated with loss of self.
о Death. Decay.
"I still feel sick, trippy, aware of people’s expressions being bendy, ugly, deformed, like I'm observing them in slow motion, its very LSD like.' [prover 8]
'I thought for some reason that I was going to die. I would close my eyes for awhile, then open them to make sure I wasn't dead yet. My whole life started flashing before my eyes. An old ugly nurse kept coming over and asking me the same questions over and over and it was driving me insane. This is hell,' I thought. I've already died and I'm in hell." [toxicology]
Reflections on the proving
Prover 1
It started with a sense of youthfulness, feeling like I was 21 again, playing 70's music, but not out of nostalgia -1 had a real sense of being there, actually of that age. I felt very positive and enthusiastic, and knew I could be completely open and honest with people about my feelings -1 felt very confident. My wife said she welcomed this frankness, which completely surprised me! I've really learnt something there, which has had a knock-on effect for our relationship.
Then there was a gradual descent into a reflective, lonely state. I became restless and discontented. I could not concentrate on anything -1 felt useless, and I felt depressed about everything. And yet I always had a sense that this was teaching me something, that truth would prevail and that I would be the better for it. I felt very disconnected from people and found great solace in being alone with nature. There was a deeply spiritual aspect to it, and at times a real beauty in my isolation.
I would do a proving again - this has been a wonderful and challenging experience I would not have missed. However, my work and study almost collapsed completely - not such good timing considering I'd just started seeing patients under supervision. Its taken me quite a while to recover some of the ground I lost through those two months.
Prover 2
Lightness, being out in space. Alienated from the earth. Bubbles of joy. Lightness and energy could contain it. Seeing colours more brightly. See the colours of people speaking. I was in a different space from people. On cloud nine. It didn't really matter. Relaxed any boundaries. Physical energy, had to be physically active.
All this energy I had to use. Mental side couldn't focus. Not able to coordinate hands to type in words. Initial high mellowed. Craving fruit and apples especially. Desire ice cream. Issues around food; not knowing what I want. Issues body image. Bloated constantly, affected breathing. Eye problems, watery dry, scratchy. Connection with animals birds, especially sky. Earth not enough had to travel to sun. pmt.
Extremely tired. Desire chocolate carbohydrates, coffee. Depression around period. Woke up with immense desolation inside. Meditation meeting the masculine side of my life. Inner peace came back. Time stretching out. Two dreams about horses being mutilated. Looked after stray dog and finding hurt animals. More aggressive or assertive. Initially music very important but after a few days I couldn't listen to music. Couldn't tolerate it.
I started the proving in a very high, expansive and light way. All was joy, connection, and carefree. The senses were heightened and the veil between the physical and psyche was thinner.
Then came the increasing paranoia over food and exercise and the problems with the digestive system.
Things began to slip and were markedly affected by my PMS which was getting much worse.
Concentration was becoming increasingly difficult, with a feeling of not being bothered to keep the diary or keep in contact with the proving supervisor. It didn't matter. My homeopathy assignments suffered as it took me all my time just to keep my head above water, let alone focus on the work.
By the end of the first month I had experienced the majority of symptoms. By the end of the 2nd month I did notfeel thatl was proving anymore, but felt that it had left me in a waste land. I felt that a war had been waged and I was trying to deal with the repercussions of it all.
Prover 3
Disconnected from the whole process of proving. Disconnected from my emotional process. Disconnected from others around me. Cosseted velvety darkness. Impossible to do any mental work. Felt fine. Strange feeling of distantuneasiness. Nature really heightened. Huge black cloud kicked me in the solar plexus.
Dark night of the soul. Hit by a six hundred foot wall of anxiety. Completely disconnected to everything. Back to amazing peace. Lots of eye stuff. Burning, smarting, sensation as if something in left eye. Time distorted, non linear.
Prover 5
Eye pain, too much light. Head pain. Period late. Dizziness.
Big truth. Higher truth. Wider truth. Love.
Left a bit numb do not know what to do with this changed person. More dreams than ever before. Vivid. Darts. Vulnerable people and animals.
Prover 6
Now feel whole again. Half of me ripped away. Lots of lost emotion. In my heart disconnect. Wanting a partner. Wanted to mate. Scary, wild. Hadn't thought about families and children before. Wanted responsibility, commitment and love. Dreams of vampires losing energy, losing life form. Coming out of a cave diffuse through walls, crabs with large claws. Followed by fever, then felt out of proving. Senses heightened. Visual things. Symmetrical rashes. Painful emotional loss. Felt I had lost the female side of me. Music important, played it loud.
Prover 7
Physical symptoms, eye stuff. Feeling the sweetness of foods. No dreams which irritated me, unusual. Got back with ex, amorous, not a good thing. Concentration. If I did it fine, if I thought about it, couldn't do it. Time pushed. Period worst for ages, bright red blood. Restlessness, pacing. Had to do something but didn't know what. Had to eat didn't know what. Looking at flocks of birds. Music very important.
Prover 8
Really disconnected. Felt really high. Sociable, confident, golden, colours really bright. Vivid dreams, sexual dreams. Cold every week. Exhausted. Not sleeping well. Wake feeling exactly like when I go to bed. Very detached from my emotions. Haven't cried. Not heard. Relationship break up. Dreams expressing my emotions. Back to childhood stuff food, etc. music, clubbing wanted really loud music.
Generals
о Activity >; increased; physical. Walking; desire for; in open air >.
о Constant change of symptoms. Contradictory and alternating states.
о Cold air <; aversion to cold air; cold feeling in bones. Desire for warmth.
о Flushes of heat from least exertion; extending upwards; from anxiety; during sleep.
о Painlessness of complaints usually painful.
о Weakness from slight exertion; with restlessness; on standing; sudden.
Food & Drinks
о Aversion: Cheese. Coffee. Fat. Garlic. Margarine. Tuna fish [2].
о Desire: Alcoholic drinks. Apples. Beef [2]. Celeriac [2]. Chocolate. Coffee. Fried eggs. Fruit. Fruit, dried. Ice cream. Meat. Potatoes, mashed [2]. Puddings. Stimulants. Sweets. Tea. Wine.
о Worse: Alcoholic drinks [easily intoxicated]. Coffee. Dried fruit. Sugar. Tea. Warm food. Wine.
Locals
[small selection]о Vertigo & noises in ears. Vertigo during anxiety.
Vertigo on bending head forwards. Vertigo felt in forehead.
Must lie down, but lying down doesn't >.
о Headache from coffee; > cold air; > ice cream; > warm room; < any jar; < motion.
Numb sensation in forehead.
о Vision.
Accommodation defective or too slow.
Dimness of vision, increasing suddenly and decreasing suddenly.
о Throat.
Sensation of anxiety and apprehension in throat.
Bubbling sensation in oesophagus [also in chest].
Sensation of constriction; dryness [not > by drinking]; of a lump [< in morning], METHYSERGIDUM - Methys.
KEYS
о Synthetic ergot alkaloid.
о Medically used as a prophylactic in migraine and other vascular headaches.
о Alcohol, smoking, and coldness <
о Hungry feeling related to emotions.
о Weight gain.
о Water retention.
о Fibrosis.
о Akathisia.
FEATURES
о Synthetic ergot alkaloid, structurally related to the oxytocic agent methyl-ergonovine and to the potent hallucinogen LSD.
Serotonin antagonist.
Used as a prophylactic in migraine and other vascular headache, such as Horton’s syndrome [cluster headache]. Its effect is comparable to that of analgesics such as Cafergot and Migril.
о Passes into the breast milk, inhibits lactation and can cause symptoms of ergot poisoning in infants: vomiting, diarrhoea, weak pulse, unstable blood pressure, and seizures. Elderly people are especially sensitive to the effects of methysergide as well.
о Both alcohol and smoking increase the harmful effects. The drug increases the sensitivity to cold temperatures.
о Methysergide can cause fibrotic changes and can produce inflammatory fibrosis. Use of methysergide is contraindicated in patients with existing pulmonary disease, rheumatoid arthritis, or valvular heart disease. Use of methysergide in children is contraindicated because it can cause pulmonary fibrosis.
о Congener of LSD. Due to its structural similarity to LSD, methysergide may cause mild CNS stimulation, mild CNS depression, or even LSD-like reactions. ADVERSE REACTIONS
Cardiovascular:
Postural hypotension: peripheral ischaemia [pale or cold hands or feet; itching; numbness of fingers, toes, or face] : peripheral oedema [hands, ankles, feet, or lower leqsl: tachycardia; bradycardia; hypotension [orthostatic]; chest pain; flushing; cardiomyopathy; angina; congesti
CNS:
Insomnia: dizziness: overstimulation; drowsiness; mild euphoria; lethargy; confusion; hyperaesthesia; ataxia; hallucinations; psychosis; agitation; fever or chills; akathisia.
Dermatologic:
Skin rash; alopecia; telangiectasia.
Gastrointestinal:
Nausea: vomiting: abdominal pain: diarrhoea: heartburn: colonic ischemia.
Genitourinary:
Retroperitoneal fibrosis; difficult or painful urination; large increase or decrease of urine output.
Haemotologic:
Neutropenia; eosinophilia; haemolytic anaemia.
Neuromuscular & skeletal:
Unsteadiness; loss of coordination; weakness of legs.
Ocular:
Visual disturbances.
Miscellaneous:
Lupus erythematosus; constrictive pericarditis; loss of appetite or weight; weight gain.
[Leikin & Paloucek 1998; Goodman & Gilman 1970]о Martindale gives a review of the literature on the side effects and benefits of Methysergide.
In 57 patients treated with methysergide maleate, treatment was discontinued in 4 because of hallucinations, in three because of nightmares, and in two because of psychosis possibly precipitated by methysergide.
In 850 patients with migraine, methysergide 1 to 8 mg daily, benefited 45% without side-effects and 12% were not benefited at all. Side-effects in the remaining 43% included weight gain [30%], severe oedema [4%], severe depression [2%], pain in the calves [26%], disturbed vision [1 %], and loss of hair [1%]; 3% were completely intolerant of the drug.
A syndrome resembling systemic lupus erythematosus might occur during therapy with methysergide maleate.
Methysergide, from 2 mg daily, taken for headaches for periods of nine to 54 months, was considered to be responsible for the development of retroperitoneal fibrosis in 27 patients; cardiac murmurs developed in six of them. Fibrotic changes, affecting the aorta, heart valves, and pulmonary tissues, also occurred in a few of the patients and it was suggested that methysergide should be contra-indicated in patients with valvular heart disease, rheumatic arthritis, chronic pulmonary disease, and collagen diseases.
During long-term treatment with methysergide for migraine, three middle-aged patients suffered cardiac infarction [one died], and one patient had acute coronary insufficiency.
In a controlled study, eight of 10 patients who had suffered from typical mania attacks for three to 12 weeks benefited from treatment with methysergide.... Methysergide inhibited excessive psychomotor activity and drive, and sleeping habits became normal. Seven patients assumed transient depression but no serious side-effects were noticed.
In a double-blind controlled trial there was no evidence that methysergide 6 mg daily was better than placebo in the treatment often patients with mania. For talk and behavioural disturbance, methysergide was significantly less effective than placebo.
In a double-blind crossover study in five patients with mania or hypomania, three gave a slight therapeutic response to methysergide, 5 mg daily for 14 days, and two became significantly worse.
Patients with migraine in whom oedema and subsequent diuresis were a feature appeared to benefit most from methysergide 4 mg daily for three months.
Methysergide, given prophylactically in a dosage of 3 mg daily for three months to 67 patients with migraine, was effective in preventing or diminishing attacks in 26.9% compared with a response of 9% when a placebo was given. Patients with premenstrual migraine seemed much less likely to respond. Side-effects were gastrointestinal disturbances, ankle oedema, and mental disturbances, but these were not severe.
Methysergide gave as good a control of sleep attacks as dexamphetamine in five patients with narcolepsy, but the cataplexy, present in four, was less well controlled. Two patients developed severe calf claudication during treatment.
[The Extra Pharmacopoeia 1977]MATERIA MEDICA
Proving
[1] Julian, 1978-79, 27 provers [21 men, 6 women]; 30c, 7c, 3x.SYMPTOMS
Mind
о Depression & tendency to weep.
о Forgetfulness.
о Hurry during physical and mental activity.
Energy - activity
о Low energy state or increase of general activity.
о Sensation of fatigue in the evening.
о Akathisia: inability to remain in a sitting posture, with motor restlessness, sensation of anxiety, and a feeling of muscular quivering. Patients often need to pace. [Observed as an adverse reaction to methysergide.]
Temperature
о Great heat and restlessness at night [2 - 3 a.m.].
о Congestion of face, painful and intense.
Appetite
о Hunqrvfeelinq. related to emotions [contradiction or vexation],
о Hunger & increased physical and mental power.
о Coated tongue and nausea in morning; cannot take breakfast.
Sleep
о Waking after midnight; 2 - 3 a.m.
Caused by stomach pain, heat or restlessness.
о Sleepiness after eating.
Sensations
о Emptiness [head; stomach].
Modalities
о < Cold [general; esp. in evening], o<4p.m. -5 p.m.
о < Motion [pain in left shoulder, wrist, hip, knee],
о > Eating [nausea],
о > Lying down [nausea; pain in left shoulder, wrist, hip, knee].
Locals
о Headache in occiput; extending to right eye. "As after having drunk wine."
< Exertion; during menses [headache],
& Heaviness in nape of neck.
& Twitching of right side of face.
о Twitching of the eyelids on moving the head, or when bending forward or sideways, followed by short-lasting contractions of the eyelids, о Dryness of mouth and throat on waking.
о Pharyngitis, left side, & copious transparent nasal discharge.
о Cough from irritation in larynx; dry, persistent, at daytime.
о Oedema of lower limbs.
о Hypoglycaemia.
[Adapted from: O.A. Julian, Eine Arzneimittelprbfung mit Methysergid; Allgemeine Hom. Zeitung, 1981, 226:3.]Присоединяйтесь к нам и помогите переводить статьи с иностранных языков для распространения полезной информации в русскоязычном гомеопатическом сообществе! Ваш вклад будет ценен для всех, кто ищет доступную информацию на родном языке. Давайте вместе продвигать гомеопатию!