Aa history Lovers 2004 moderators Nancy Olson and Glenn F. Chesnut page

Phonothon, spreading his enthusiasm to the other participants. In 1987, he

received the Medical Alumni Association Service Award for having contributed

the most time making Phonothon calls. In November 1988, he was disappointed

that his health prevented him from taking part. He was loved and admired by

all those whose lives he touched. The Alumni office staff remembers him as

soft spoken, warm and caring.

Nancy Olson

Moderator

__________

From: [e-mail] [31]

Date: Tue Apr 20, 2004 8:44am

Subject: Re: [AAHistoryLovers] Dr. Isadore Tuerk

I came across some information that may be useful in the

research of my book "SILKWORTH- The Little Doctor Who Loved

Drunks" that is listed in the back section. Note particularly

the collection of articles from that period of time.

Dale Mitchel

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++++Message 1763. . . . . . . . . . . . LSD use by AA members in AA History.

- Compiled

From: [e-mail] . . . . . . . . . . . . 4/21/2004 4:07:00 AM

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From: [e-mail] [32]

Date: Tue Apr 20, 2004 7:52 am

Subject: LSD use by AA members in AA History.

Dear AA History Lovers:

In "Pass It On," Bill Wilson's historical documentation of the

actual history of the AA movement, from it's inception, Bill

Wilson records an entire chapter, Chapter 23; Anything that

helps Alcoholics...Bill experiments with LSD but eventually

ceases when controversy stirs within AA. (This chapter describes

how the pioneers of AA, used LSD, to wean or taper, chronic

alcoholics to sobriety.) This is a phenomena similar to the

modern day recovery of heroin addicts, using methadone. (Pages

368 - 378.)

Can anyone provide further information related to the history of

the use of LSD by Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith, with

Alcoholic's, in AA?

Larry W.

Atlanta, GA

From: "Alex H." [33]

Date: Tue Apr 20, 2004 9:13am

Subject: Re: [AAHistoryLovers] LSD use by AA members in AA

History.

I suggest studying the context of the time in which these events

occurred .... LSD initially was looked upon as a beneficial

drug. I am not sure how much was known at the time of its

potential for abuse. That is what I mean by finding out about

the context of the

time. How did normal folks look at LSD at the time?

Alex

From Arthur S:

Hi Larry

First off the book Pass It On is a biography not an

autobiography â€" it’s about Bill W not by Bill W.

The primary author of Pass It On is Mel B who is also a

member of AAHistoryLovers.

The functional comparison to methadone and heroin is a

bit of a stretch. The intent of the LSD experiments was

to induce DTs. If anything, it would likely fall into

the class of "aversion therapy." Also, there is no

linkage of Dr Bob to LSD in Pass It On. There were

postings in February on the topic under the subject of

"Humphrey Osmond." The response I sent in follows:

------ Feb response ------

There are a few other books that go in to the LSD

experiments in more detail than Not God. Mel, by the

way, is the modest and primary author of Pass It On

which covers the matter in some detail. Francis

Hartigan's book Bill W and Nell Wing’s book Glad to

Have Been There offer information as well. The info

below is a composite extract:

British radio commentator Gerald Heard introduced Bill

W to Aldous Huxley and to the British psychiatrists

Humphry Osmond and Abraham Hoffer (the founders of

orthomolecular psychiatry). Humphrey and Osmond were

working with schizophrenic and alcoholic patients at a

Canadian hospital.

Bill W joined with Heard and Huxley and first took LSD

in California on Aug 29, 1956. It was medically

supervised by psychiatrist Sidney Cohen of the Los

Angeles VA hospital. The LSD experiments occurred well

prior to the "hippie era." At the time, LSD was thought

to have psychotherapeutic potential (research was also

being funded by the National Institutes of Health and

National Academy of Sciences).

The intent of Osmond and Hoffer was to induce an

experience akin to delirium tremens (DTs) in hopes that

it might shock alcoholics from alcohol.

Among those invited to experiment with LSD (and who

accepted) were Nell Wing, Father Ed Dowling, (possibly)

Sam Shoemaker and Lois Wilson. Marty M and Helen W

(Bill's mistress) and other AA members participated in

NY (under medical supervision by a psychiatrist from

Roosevelt Hospital).

Bill had several experiments with LSD up to 1959

(perhaps into the 1960's). Pass It On reports that

there were repercussions within AA over these

activities. Lois was a reluctant participant and

claimed to have had no response to the chemical.

Hoffer and Osmond did research that later influenced

Bill, in Dec 1966, to enthusiastically embrace a

campaign to promote vitamin B3 (niacin - nicotinic

acid) therapy. It created Traditions issues within the

Fellowship and caused a bit of an uproar.

The General Service Board report accepted by the 1967

Conference recommended that "to insure separation of AA

from non-AA matters by establishing a procedure whereby

all inquiries pertaining to B-3 and niacin are referred

directly to an office in Pleasantville, NY in order

that Bill's personal interest in these items not

involve the Fellowship."

Please reference the following for more details:

Pass It On - pgs 368-376, 388-391

Not God - pgs 136-138

Bill W by Francis Hartigan - pgs 9, 177-179

Glad To Have Been There - pgs 81-82

Cheers

Arthur S

From Jared Lobdell:

The idea that Chapter 23 of PIO shows the use of LSD to "taper

off" alcoholics from alcohol in a mode of operations "simular"

to methadone for heroin users does not tally with the chapter or

with anything I know about Bill's use of LSD (or, indeed, with

the present uses of methadone). The fact that methadone is a

maintenance rather than a tapering-off program is not relevant

here, but the apparent inaccuracy on LSD is. It is true that LSD

was considered by some as a possible amethystine in the earlier

days of its development, but it is clear from Chapter 23 (and

the account in the not-now-Conference-approved book by Thomsen)

that what intrigued Bill was the possibility of tapping the

chemical component of classical mystical experiences otherwise

occurring through prayer, fasting, meditation, etc (see esp. p.

375) -- in order to aid in spiritual sobriety (through

ego-deflation etc.). Bill's general rule seems to have been that

spiritual aids (including LSD) might be used, but anything that

would turn AAs away from the spiritual path (valium = alcohol in

a pill, for example) should not. (Of course, improved physical

condition could also be sought, through Niacin etc.) -- Jared

Lobdell

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++++Message 1764. . . . . . . . . . . . Jack Alexander Article Picture

From: Arthur . . . . . . . . . . . . 4/22/2004 8:55:00 AM

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11.0pt;">

*Saturday Evening Post Inside Spread - March 1, 1941*

Bill's

and others' pictures appeared full-face in the Saturday Evening Post

article.

(See Pass It On page 247) from left to right are:

Horace C

(partial view), Helen P, Tom M, Tom B, Ruth Hock, Bill W, Dick S, Ray W,

Lois

W, Gordon M and Bob F.

The

photo caption was 'A typical club house discussion group.''

Arthur

----- Original Message

-----

*From:* Jaime Maliachi

*To:* [e-mail]

*Sent:* Monday, April 19, 2004 4:12 PM

*Subject:* [AAHistoryLovers] Jack Alexander Article pictures.

Bill

W. Told us in A.A. comes of Age, that in the Jack Alexander's _Saturday

Evening Post_ article, some

pictures were required by editors.

*Somebody

knows who were the A. A. members that gave the face in that event?*

*Some

body has any image about?*

* *

*Jaime

F. Maliachi Pedrote.*

*servidory

amigo.*

*57 85

68 00 57 85 68 26*

*fax

57 85 68 44*

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++++Message 1766. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: LSD use by AA members in AA

History. - Compiled

From: Cloydg . . . . . . . . . . . . 4/22/2004 12:33:00 PM

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I found this short article in relation to questions being asked about Bill

W.'s LSD experience. It is short, concise and I believe it states his

over-all-thoughts. I found it on the Jeeves Answer Brouser by asking: Bill

Wilson, LSD Therapy. I too believe we AA's should remember, that at that

time LSD(d-lysergic acid diethylamide) was invented; circa 1938. Many

clinical uses were being experimented with to discover cures for many

aliments, depression being one of them. I am hopeful we all keep this in

perspective!

NOTE:

The following text is a transcription of Grinspoon & Bakalar's

introduction to the history and use of psychedelics in the field

of psychotherapy, originally published in Current Psychiatric

Therapies in 1981 (20:275-283). Lester Grinspoon is an Associate

Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard University, and James Bakalar

is a Lecturer in Law in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard

Medical School. One error in reference numbering and one in

spelling (a typo) were corrected.

Ron Koster

October, 1996

Lester Grinspoon, M.D.

James B. Bakalar

The Psychedelic Drug Therapies

Between 1950 and the mid-1960s there were more than a thousand clinical

papers (discussing 40,000 patients), several dozen books, and six

international conferences on psychedelic drug therapy. Almost all

publication and most therapeutic practice in this field have now come to an

end, however, as much because of legal and financial obstacles as because of

loss of interest.

There were two main sources of therapeutic involvement. One of these was the

belief of some experimental subjects that, after taking a psychedelic drug,

they were less depressed, anxious, guilty, and angry and more

self-accepting, tolerant, deeply religious, and sensually alert.1 [34] The

other main interest arose from the possibility that therapeutic use could be

made of the powerful psychedelic experiences of regression, abreaction,

intense transference, and symbolic drama in psychodynamic psychotherapy.

As a result, two polar forms of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) therapy

emerged: one emphasized the mystical or conversion experience and its

aftereffects; the other concentrated on exploring the labyrinth of the

unconscious in the manner of psychoanalysis. Psychedelic therapy, as the

first of these was called, involved the use of a large dose of LSD (200 µg

or more) in a single session and was thought to be helpful in reforming

alcoholics and criminals, as well as in improving the lives of normal

people. The second type, psycholytic (literally, mind-loosening) therapy,

required relatively small doses (usually not more than 150 µg) and several

or even many sessions; it was used mainly for neurotic and psychosomatic

disorders.2 [35] ,3 [36]

In the psycholytic procedure, patients may be hospitalized or not; they may

be asked to concentrate on interpretation of the drug-induced visions, on

symbolic psychodrama, on regression with the psychotherapist as a parent

surrogate, or on discharge of tension in physical activity. Props such as

eyeshades, photographs, and objects with symbolic significance are often

used. Music often plays an important part. The theoretical basis of this

kind of psychotherapy is usually some form of psychoanalysis. If birth

experiences are seen as true relivings of the traumatic event, Rank's ideas

may be introduced; if archetypal visions are regarded as genuine

manifestations of the collective unconscious, the interpretations will be

Jungian.

An advantage of psychedelic drugs in exploring the unconscious is that a

fragment of the adult ego usually keeps watch through all the fantasy

adventures. Patients remain intellectually alert and remember their

experiences vividly. They also become acutely aware of ego defenses such as

projection, denial, and displacement as they catch themselves in the act of

creating them. Transference can also be greatly intensified.

Psycholytic therapy has been recommended to speed up psychoanalysis and

psychoanalytically oriented psychotherapy, especially for people with

excessively strict superegos and a lack of self-esteem. It has also been

used to overcome the resistance of severe chronic neurotics with defenses so

rigid that they would otherwise be inaccessible to treatment.

In practice, many combinations, variations, a special applications with some

of the features of both psycholytic and psychedelic therapy have evolved.

Stanislav Grof regards the form of treatment he developed in Czechoslovakia

as a bridge between psycholytic and psychedelic therapy. The unconscious

material brought into consciousness by LSD is said to incorporate the most

significant events in the patient's emotional life and permit a systematic

exploration of personality along Freudian lines. This is followed by

reliving the birth trauma and then passage into the realm of archetypes and

mystical or transpersonal experience.4 [37]

The Chilean psychiatrist Claudio Naranjo has pioneered the use of

psychedelic drugs that do not produce the same degree of perceptual and

emotional disturbance as LSD. Harmaline and ibogaine, which he calls fantasy

enhancers, permit the use of guided fantasy techniques borrowed from Gestalt

therapy to explore unconscious conflicts. The "feeling enhancers," 3,4

methylenedioxyamphetamine (MDA) and the 3-methoxy-4,5 compound (MDMA), give

a heightened capacity for introspection and intimacy along with a temporary

freedom from anxiety and depression.5 [38]

NEUROTIC DISORDERS

One woman described her experience with psycholytic therapy this way:6 [39]

I found that in addition to being, consciously, a loving mother and a

respectable citizen, I was also, unconsciously, a murderess, a pervert, a

cannibal, a sadist, and a masochist. In the wake of these dreadful

discoveries, I lost my fear of dentists, the clicking in my neck and

throat, the arm tensions, and my dislike of clocks ticking in the bedroom.

I also achieved transcendent sexual fulfillment. . . .

At the end of nine sessions, over a period of nine weeks, I was cured of

my hitherto incurable frigidity. And at the end of 5 months, I felt that I

had been completely reconstituted as a human being. I have continued to

feel that way ever since.

These passages were written 3 years after a 5-month period during which she

took LSD 23 times. Before that, she had had 4 years of psychoanalysis, but

it was only after taking LSD that she became fully convinced of the value of

Freud's theories.

Psycholytic therapy has also been reported to be successful in treating

chronic migraine headaches:7 [40]

A 22-year-old woman who had suffered from migraine for 11 years went

through nine LSD sessions. She relived trips to the dentist, her fear when

she was given anesthesia for a tonsillectomy, and her desolation at being

abandoned in a hospital when she was 11 years old. The migraine

disappeared; 3 years later she and her husband wrote that she has felt

less tense, more at peace with herself, and more mature; the migraine

never returned.

Psychedelic drugs can also be used as a treatment for more ordinary forms of

neurotic depression and anxiety and to resolve sexual problems.8 [41] , 9

[42]

Individual case histories, however impressive, can always be questioned;

placebo effects, spontaneous recovery, and the therapist's and the patient's

biases in judging improvement must be considered. Not many studies satisfy

stringent methodological conditions; the most serious deficiencies are

absence of controls and inadequate follow-up. In the case of LSD there is

the special difficulty that a double blind study is impossible, since the

effects of the drug are unmistakable. No form of psychotherapy for neurotics

has ever been able to justify itself under stringent controls, and LSD

therapy is no exception.10 [43] , 11 [44] Most psychiatrists who have done

LSD therapy with neurotics would, however, probably regard all the recorded

controlled experiments as far too brief and superficial to provide a genuine

test, especially where so much may depend on the quality of the therapeutic

relationship.

For LSD therapy, as in psychoanalysis, psychiatrists tend to favor neurotics

with hight intelligence, a genuine wish to recover, a strong ego, and

stable, even if crippling, symptoms. Beyond that, little is clear. Should

the emphasis be on expression of repressed feelings, or working through a

transference attachment to the psychiatrist, or elsewhere? What should the

psychiatrist do during the drug session? How much therapy is necessary in

the intervals between LSD treatments? The fact that there are no general

answers to these questions reflects the complexity of psychedelic drug

effects; for the same reason a dose and diagnosis cannot be specified in the

manner of chemotherapy.

ALCOHOLISM

Assuming that a single overwhelming experience can sometimes change the

self-destructive drinking habits of a lifetime, can psychedelic drugs

consistently produce such an experience?

There is no doubt that LSD often produces powerful immediate effects on

alcoholics; the question is whether these can be reliably translated into

enduring change. Early studies reported dazzling success: about 50% of sever

chronic alcoholics treated with a single high dose of LSD recovered and were

sober a year or two later.12 [45] , 13 [46]

Unfortunately, as the results of more careful research began to come in, the

picture changed. All the early studies had insufficient controls, and most

lacked objective measures of change, adequate follow-up, and other

safeguards.14 [47] When patients were randomly assigned to drug and control

groups, it proved impossible to demonstrate any advantage for LSD. Even the

most enthusiastic advocates of LSD have not been able to produce

consistently promising results.15 [48]

Ludwig et al. at the Mendota State Hospital in Madison, Wisconsin undertook

an elaborate and methodologically adequate study of psychedelic therapy for

alcoholics. The 195 patients were randomly divided into four treatment

groups. All had 30 days of milieu therapy; three groups had in addition, LSD

alone, LSD with psychotherapy, or LSD with psychotherapy and hypnosis. The

results in all four groups were the same after 3, 6, 9 and 12 months; about

75% improved on measures of employment, legal adjustment, and drinking

habits.16 [49]

It would be wrong to conclude that a psychedelic experience can never be a

turning point in the life of an alcoholic. Bill Wilson, the founder of

Alcoholics Anonymous, said that his LSD trip resembled the sudden religious

illumination that changed his life. Unfortunately, psychedelic experiences

have the same weaknesses as religious conversions. Their authenticity and

emotional power are not guarantees against backsliding when the same

frustrations, limitations, and emotional distress have to be faced in

everyday life. When the revelation does seem to have lasting effects, it

might always have been merely a symptom of readiness to change rather than a

cause.

Analogous are the religious ceremonies of the Native American Church, in

which regular use of high doses of mescaline in the form of peyote is

regarded as, among other things, part of a treatment for alcoholism.

Obviously peyote is no panacea; otherwise, alcoholism would not be the major

health problem of Native Americans. Nevertheless, Native Americans

themselves and outside researchers believe that those who participate in the

peyote ritual are more likely to be abstinent.17 [50] Peyote sustains the

ritual and religious principles of the community of believers, and these

sometimes confirm and support an individual's commitment to give up alcohol.

DYING

In a letter to Humphry Osmond, Aldous Huxley recounted a mescaline trip

during which he came to the conclusion that, "I didn't think I should mind

dying; for dying must be like this passage from the known [constituted by

lifelong habits of subject object existence] to the unknown cosmic fact

[p.306]"18 [51] When Huxley was dying, he asked his wife to give him 100 µg

LSD, the drug he had portrayed in his last novel as the liberating moksha

medicine. After that he looked at her with an expression of love and joy but

spoke little except to say, when she gave him a second injection of LSD, and

shortly before he died, "Light and free, forward and up." Laura Huxley, in

the memoirs of her husband writes: "Now is his way of dying to remain for

use, and only for us, a relief and a consolation, or should others also

benefit from it? Aren't we all nobly born and entitled to nobly dying? [p.

308]."18 [51]

There is a new concern today about dying, in full consciousness of its

significance as a part of life. As we look for ways to change the pattern,

so common in chronic illness, of constantly increasing pain, anxiety, and

depression, the emphasis shifts away from impersonal prolongation of

physiological life toward a concept of dying as a psychiatric crisis, or

even, in older language, a religious crisis. The purpose of giving

psychedelic drugs to the dying might be stated as reconciliation: with one's

past, family, and human limitations. Granted a new vision of the universe

and their place in it, the dying learn that there is no need to cling

desperately to the self.

Beginning in 1965, the experiment of providing a psychedelic experience for