Betty Grover Eisner, Ph.D. Remembrances of LSD Therapy Past (2002)

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Anyway, it came into being the weekend after the meetings when we
all went up to visit Ron in Powick. Anderson of Copenhagen was
there, too, and also Arendsen-Hein of Holland. We had a wonderful
time seeing LSD at the hospital; also we are very fond of the
Sandisons and enjoyed so much seeing the boys and Evelyn as well
as any moment that we can see Ron. I almost didn't make it as one
of the founding fathers of the APT (I'm not sure who they all
are: just know in the US they are Hy Denber, Joel Elkes, Sid, and
me). For a long time there was quite a fight about me because I
am a PhD. I wasn't in on this, but Will was, said a few pertinent
things, and then left the meeting. The next day three of them
tried to get me to go back to medical school and get an M.D. (to
which I replied I was too old and would be more valuable spending
the time in research then in repeating schooling). When Dr.
Anderson of Copenhagen found it would take me at least six years,
he immediately saw the senselessness of it. The others, I'm not
sure, ever did. It does get discouraging to run into the
prejudice which judges more from the initials after one's name (or
one's sex, because I'm afraid this had some bearing, too) then by
what the individual is and can do. At times I get tired of
carrying the torch and fighting the battle&
"The meetings were really wonderful. Best of all was to be
with a group of people who were doing what I was, were intensely
interested, and to whom I wasn't a nut. There are a group of
young people -- those who are getting together in the APT -- who
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are very active and enthusiastic about LSD. I think I mentioned
most of their names in the earlier part of the letter I had
started& Incidentally, I met Dr. Spencer, the head of the hospital
at Powick, and he is one of the sweetest and finest men I have
ever met. Do you know him? He offered me a job at Powick, and if
it weren't for the family, by golly, I would take it in a minute.
What a wonderful thing it would be to be able to work in an
atmosphere where it was considered normal to give LSD rather than
abnormal&
(Report on group; discussion about Al and DMT, and schizophrenic
gene)
"As for me, I can't figure myself out. I seem to be a sport;
I don't have the schizophrenic gene, although LSD changed my life
and enabled me to do these things which the gene usually allows.
I think I'm just a queer duck who immediately brings up any latent
problem in people merely by being (and when I start operating
therapeutically, even more so). So that when patients come to me,
those who have a necessity to go all the way are constellated
around me. Maybe just as I said, Cosmic Crud Cleaner -- just
another name for therapist. The Cosmic doesn't mean that I clean
up cosmic crud, just that I have to do it on a cosmic scale&
My slight depression about my difficulties of degree and sex
with respect to my work had elements of premonition about the
difficulties I would encounter when I arrived home. But let's
deal with the next Conference first.
On April 19, 1962, I was part of a symposium at the Western
Psychological Association in San Francisco. I don't remember
whether the whole symposium was on Ritalin, but I know that my
paper was. It seems to me that later on, there was another
symposium, this time in Los Angeles, on Ritalin. Virginia
Johnson, who had researched Ritalin in a most fascinating way, was
chairman. I can't remember the other participants. But it was
all very interesting.
"The Mind and Its Capabilities was the title of an
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Interdepartmental Seminar held on October 7 (1963) at the RAND
Corp. in Santa Monica. "Talks were delivered by four researchers
into matters of the mind," reported the Random News.
All speakers seemed to agree on a few basic points: that
work on the mind is indeed exciting -- if frustrating. It may
rival, perhaps even surpass, Space as the next frontier for a
breakthrough in knowledge... And the study of the mind is in the
process of changing from an art to a science&
(The seminar itself seemed to present bits of each.)
"In line with a not unfamiliar pattern, one speaker noted
that the Soviets have more than three hundred people engaged in
research in parapsychology, and about the same number in research
on mind-affecting drugs, whereas the U.S. has very few researchers
in these two 'way-out' fields&
"The suggestion of a developing dichotomy seemed to hover
over the discussion in approaches to mind research... Thus,
biochemical-model-oriented Dr. Denber and experimental
psychologist Dr. Gengerelli appeared to be pressing mind research
along one pattern; Dr. Osmond, with his interest in exploring the
ionosphere, appears to set a course in a different direction; Dr.
Cohen and his interest in mind-controlling drugs falls somewhere
in between&
From my letter to Humphry of August 12, 1963:
& official notice. That should be to you in this mail or
even earlier. It has gone out from RAND from W.M., a member of my
group. It is going to be a very impressive seminar: Hy Denber
will talk on the mind (you know besides being a psychiatrist,
psychoanalyst and head of clinical research at Ward's Island, he
has just gotten his MS in molecular biology in order better to
understand what goes on in schizophrenia at the cellular level.)
Sid has been invited to speak on the mind in unusual states such
as psychosis, especially toxic, LSD, etc; and Gengerelli, one of
the most brilliant experimental minds (who is at UCLA) will handle
the experimental end. He is a rare combination of a magnificent
computer, experimentally, a clinician at heart (which he won't
admit) and an open mind which enables him to talk to sensitives I
bring over to him and also to have done research on comparative
palm prints). He found a statistically significant difference
between those of schizophrenics and Kiwanis Club members. Not
astounding, I know, but the Kiwanis Club followed the trend of the
normals, and the schizies were specific to mental illness, as I
remember. He has never published this, and you can guess why. If
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all goes well, and he is willing, Aldous Huxley will introduce you
or say some sort of initial words, I hope&
And from September 15, 1963 letter to Hy Denber from me:
& Humphry can't come, alas. So it will be you leading off,
then Sid Cohen on Unusual States of the Mind, then Bob Lynch
(Menninger-trained psychiatrist who has worked with LSD, whose
specialty is creativity, and who practices in La Jolla) will read
whatever remarks Humphry puts together on Potentialities of the
Mind (creativity, ESP, whatever) and then Gengerelli, an
experimental psychologist at UCLA& and a very funny and sometimes
lewd man, will talk about Difficulties in Research with the Mind&
And from a letter to Hy of October 28, 1963, after the Seminar:
& The back-wash of the seminar seems very favorable, and
there will be an article about it in the next Random news. We are
on the trail of several possibilities and will let you know as
soon as we sock one in&
November 2l, 1963
Dearest Humphry:
At last! At long last!! I-
December 15: & I was just getting ready to write when the
double blow of President Kennedy and Aldous hit. I don't think
that I have yet recovered from Aldous' death; I was able finally
to write to Laura last night. However, I had talked to her just
the week before, and we had made a tentative date for the week
following, providing he felt stronger. I knew that he was
seriously ill from other sources, but was lulled into a false
security by talking to her. What I mean is that it came as a
double shock. Not only have we lost an extraordinary human being,
one totally clear in one aspect of humanity, but also one of the
most kindly men I have ever known. Plus the fact that he was the
champion of anyone on the forefront of research and particularly
those of us working with LSD. With all of the bad publicity about
LSD I feel that we are sorely pressed (I was kicked out of my
hospital for the fourth time on Friday, but I did manage to give [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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