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1950s experiment asked artist to take LSD & draw the same portrait 9 times…

...and each portrait got crazier!

Newsroom December 27 12:59

In the 1950s the US government did a lot of experiments with psychotomimetic drugs (in fact, as anybody who’s seen or read ‘The Men Who Stare At Goats’ will know, the US government used to do all sorts of weird and wonderful experiments). One of these experiments included feeding human test subjects measured quantities of LSD and then monitoring their ensuing behavior.

In one particular experiment, Oscar Janiger, a University of California-Irvine psychiatrist known for his work on acid, gave an artist an activity box full of crayons and asked him to drawing his experiences on LSD. And as you can see from these 9 illuminating images, the results are just as trippy as you’d expect. Things start out normally enough, but it doesn’t take long before the artist’s perception of reality starts to warp, and his drawings (which were recently uploaded by somebody called juraganyeri) capture in fascinating detail the various stages of his hallucinogenic journey, from the beginning of his trip right through to his comedown. See for yourself below, and please, don’t try this at home.

#1 Time: 20 Minutes After The First Dose (50ug)

An attending doctor observes – Patient chooses to start drawing with charcoal. The subject of the experiment reports – ‘Condition normal… no effect from the drug yet’.

#2 Time: 85 Minutes After First Dose And 20 Minutes After A Second Dose Has Been Administered (50ug + 50ug)

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The patient seems euphoric. ‘I can see you clearly, so clearly. This… you… it’s all… I’m having a little trouble controlling this pencil. It seems to want to keep going.’

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