by Chienn Tai How many times have you overdosed on caffeine or smoked half a pack of cigarettes by lunchtime just to make yourself focused in class or on your work? And somehow you still failed? Is there no alternative to these stimuli?
How about microdosing on Lysergic Acid Diethylamide (a.k.a. LSD or “acid”)? Wait a minute, you might say, is this article really encouraging people to take drugs in class or at work? Strictly speaking, yes, but it also has more to convey. Psychedelic drugs used in very small amounts might actually contribute a lot to your academic performance, helping you to concentrate more on your daily work. Let’s take a look at the history of this renowned hallucinogen. You may have heard of Bicycle Day on 19 April, but its origin was not exactly a celebration of the bicycle. In fact, it was more about the very first “acid trip” experienced by the Swiss chemist,Albert Hofmann (1906-2008), the one who discovered the psychic effects of LSD while riding home one day from his lab. Ever since then, LSD has been on the street and widely used and experienced by different groups of people—from young people who party, artists who compose, and psychologists who ponder the development of the human brain. Later in Hofmann’s life, he got a chance to speak with Steve Jobs, who boldly stated that “taking LSD was a profound experience, one of the most important things in my life.” In fact, a lot of successful people including Bill Gates and the Beatleshave openly discussed their relationship with this particular substance. Further, a number of recent movies, such as Limitless(2011),Lucy(2014), and even the Marvel production of Doctor Strange (2016) have explored related ideas of brain development. Even though none of them directly mentions LSD, each film includes representations of similar substances. But how does LSD work on the human brain? Take a look at the fMRI scan shown below. LSD lightens up the dormant areas of the brain and awakens even the parts of it that are usually dark (which means that they are not used or not functioning). It has been compared to “a symphony of neurons firing.” It helps boost the connections between different parts of the brain, further allowing them to be utilized to their utmost. Different from other substances such as heroine, morphine, meth, and ketamine, all of which are highly addictive, LSD is a relatively harmless substance to the human brain. Have you ever heard of someone overdosing on LSD? Probably not. But it’s true that LSD trips can go wild and totally out of control, as it provides an alternative state of consciousness; once it is oriented into a bad direction, a so-called “bad trip,” it can indeed lead to traumatic consequences. Sometimes it can even permanently change an individual’s personality. However, microdosing does not create this problem. The dosage is so small that it doesn’t create any disorientation or chemical-induced hallucinations. A growing number of young professionals in Silicon Valley take psychedelic drugs to help improve their performance at work, but a small dosage only, which is approximately one-tenth of the recreational dosage (50-100 micrograms).Silicon Valleyhas a long history of psychedelic drug use to boost creativity, but now many companies are actively encouraging people to experiment with microdosing. However, there is still a long way to go before the general public are educated enough to accept it. No doubt LSD remains controversial, because people fear that it will lead to another example of substance abuse, which has caused many problems in the last century. Nevertheless, if human beings learn how to use it in moderation we can explore the idea of making our minds even more active and more inter-connected, and, hopefully, of changing the world for the better a
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May 2024
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