Bruce McConnell PhD
Hallucinogens II: The Adult LSD Experience of Fetal Activation and Movement.
Bruce McConnell PhD
Abstract
Background: From the early beginnings of hallucinogen fascination, rare and exceptional somatic effects of these drugs have observed occasionally, taking the form of intense and largely involuntary muscular contraction, leading to specific body positions as the inebriation progresses. These have been described in early books and in more recent reviews on hallucinogen psychology, but have not been interpreted in terms of the subject's history or hallucinogen mechanism.
Materials and Methods: The (retrospective) human experimental model having no access to the cerebral domain during birth was produced by scopolamine and morphine from the mother’s placental blood during the Twilight Sleep (TS) protocol, as described in the previous paper.
LSD was taken from the same lot of street blotter drug used in the first report of this series. Other hallucinogens were acquired and authenticated according to their source, chemistry and commercial suppliers. Physiological measurements were made with common generic instruments.
Results: All of the hallucinogenic drugs elicited a sequence of three biologically coupled phases in time: 1) Autonomic activation 2) Intensely energized muscular contractions and body contortions and 3) A two to three day period of a remarkably good physical and mental quality, presenting as physical coordination and movement, free of neurotic tensions, a condition unique to the subject's history. Deliberate intervention of the second phase removed the impressive quality, but not the duration of the third.
Conclusions: The normal experience of a TS-born adult is transformed into that of the fetal form with a variety of hallucinogens, revealing a pharmacological target thus far unknown to obstetrics, accounting for the true meaning of routine physiological measurements in the delivery room. Why this pharmacology, expected to be destroyed during normal birth, remains in the TS-born can be accounted for by scopolamne's interruption of hormone secretion through its inhibition of the hypothalamus. The pleasurable cues for skeletal muscle contraction are the same as those of the mother's pleasurable urge to push under the same influence of endogenous hallucinogens.
