Observations placeholder
The man who had "a bad, bad, BAD trip – An LSD experience with Dr Oscar Janiger
Identifier
025951
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A description of the experience
Internet article – Dr Oscar Janiger and the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) project
According to Kate Chapman, the MAPS researcher who conducted the interviews, most of the subjects "had a positive experience, with no long-term harm."
One exception was a man who had "a bad, bad, bad trip, and would even say that it was psychologically damaging."
In his essay written shortly after his LSD session, says Chapman, this man described "an awful account of how some intensely repressed psychosexual problems surfaced to the conscious front under the influence."
"In a way," says Rick Doblin of MAPS, "you hope to find nobody like that, but the fact that we did find something negative and are willing to report it will hopefully add credibility to the study. We’re trying to develop guidelines for future research, so what this tells us is that LSD shouldn’t be given in research unless there is someone with therapeutic skill present."
The volunteers I spoke to all had good things, or at least neutral things, to say about their LSD experiences