This talk by Philip Zimbardo is one of the most important docs I’ve ever posted here. Zimbardo is the psychologist who designed and implemented the Stanford Prison Experiment. Talk includes the Millgram experiment and The Lucifer Effect.
He is s firm proponent of a culture of heroism, of having an antidote to evil systems. Very good talk, needed in the world right now.
“If we adopted a more rational approach to drug regulation, it would empower researchers to make advances in the study of consciousness and brain mechanisms of psychosis, and could lead to major treatment innovations in areas such as depression and PTSD,” [the unfortunately named Dr.] Nutt said.
Nutt was sacked as a government adviser in 2009 after publicly criticizing the government for ignoring scientific advice on cannabis and ecstasy. He has conducted a small human trial using psilocybin, the psychedelic ingredient in magic mushrooms.
His study, using volunteers, suggested the drug had the potential to alleviate severe forms of depression in people who did not respond to other treatments”
“The documentary How To Go Out Of Your Mind – The LSD Crisis was made for Canadian TV in 1966 and features some great footage of Tim Leary, Richard Alpert and Ralph Meltzner on the grounds of the legendary Millbrook estate.”
CBC does a fair job investigating the new epidemic of acid spreading through the land in 1966. Timothy Leary, the high priest of acid, is given an open mic to explain the drug, his view of it, and many individuals are shown and asked to comment.
Leary’s warnings about the drug near the midpoint are particularly noteworthy. In other parts of the video, Leary drifts off to mysticism and religion, abandoning science in favor of a cultish spiritualism.
Be warned young grasshopper. LSD is not like other drugs. It has the capacity to alter your brain, the actual neurons, the actual connections inside. Leary sees the positives of this experience while dismissing a large number of negatives. This is indeed risky experimentation, and having a babysitter or minder cannot shield the brain cells themselves from the effects of the acid.
The other side of the coin is seen in one Syd Barrett, the founding member of Pink Floyd. Syd was the creative center and driving personality of the band up until the early 1970s. He suddenly fell in with an acid cult of sorts and must have taken too large a dose. He was forever brain damaged beyond repair and seemingly beyond recognition.
Syd Barrett (before)
A shocking moment is recounted by David Gilmore and Roger Waters, as they finished up a recording session on Dark Side of the Moon (1973), an homage to the casualty Barrett. A large, bald obese man stumbled into the sound booth as they mixed one of the tracks. Nobody knew who it was, and started asking around who let the stranger in. When Gilmore and Waters realized that this was Syd, they were shocked to their cores, devastated.
1954, a paranoid moment– US doctors have lobotomized 18,000 people with no end in sight, top CIA officials purchase ten kilos of LSD from Sandoz Labs, the House of Un-American Activities is ramping up the Red Scare, the Cold War is launching into a protracted period of crisis and escalation. Enter Teddy Daniels, a working class detective, ex WWII soldier who was present for the liberation of Dachau and the exposure of its horrors. He is now approaching yet another nightmare zone, Ashecliff Hospital, a mental institution/penal colony for the criminally insane where the benign gardens and open air treatment mask an insidious world of physical and psychological torture. We’re not certain, but all the signs point to Ashecliff as a gothic no man’s land where non-compliant patients are disappeared and converted into drugged or lobotomized zombies– soldier-fodder for history’s insatiable maw of militarism and violence. Fortunately, our detective exhibits an acute critical capacity and intuition, he will not be put off the scent by the Warden Dr. Cawley’s transparent front as humane doctor, he knows that the experiments at Shutter Island are anything but benign and compassionate. Crawley says of his experimental methods, “Valuable things have a way of being misunderstood,” and we, with Teddy, shudder at the sinister implications.
