RESEARCH REPORT NO. 1

INTERNATIONAL FOUNDATION FOR ADVANCED STUDY

QUESTIONNAIRE STUDY OF THE PSYCHEDELIC EXPERIENCE

The following is a brief summary report on the results of a questionnaire sent out to the first 113 clients of the International Foundation for Advanced Study after the offices were opened in March, 1961, and also to 40 non-paying, experimental subjects who had LSD sessions prior to this date. Of these, 93 patients (82%) and 26 non-patients (65%) returned completed questionnaires.

The treatment of the patients was as described in Sherwood, Stolaroff, and Harman (1962). Preparation lasting approximately a month preceded the LSD session. Dosages were moderately high (200-400 micrograms of LSD with an additional 200-400 mg. of mescaline). The group of volunteer subjects is not strictly comparable since in addition to the selective factors operating for the two groups, the non-patient group in general received less preparation and lower dosage.

The questionnaire was patterned after one used by Ditman et al., (1962) in a similar study. It consisted of 75 statements which the subject was asked to rate as regards his agreement with it, from 0 (not at all), 1 (a little), 2 (quite a bit), to S (very much). Additional questions requested subjective reports on particular aspects of the experience (such as impression of preparation and atmosphere, most meaningful insight, etc.). In section III, responses obtained in the Ditman study are compared to the responses to the same items in the present study. In interpreting this comparison one should note that the volunteer subjects queried by Ditman were not led to expect benefits, the announced purpose of the experimentation being "to compare the LSD experience with that of delirium tremens". The patient group, in contrast, not only anticipated benefits but were willing to pay the medical costs of treatment.

Summary of results

In overall summary the most significant single figure is perhaps the percentage who claimed "quite a bit" or "very much" of lasting benefits, 83%. (Even allowing for the unlikely possibility that all non-respondents were negative, the percentage would still be over 70%.) The claimed improvement rate rises from 76% after 1 to 3 months to 85% after 12 months or more have elapsed since the LSD session. Most commonly reported benefits include: increase in ability to love, 78%; to handle hostility, 69%; to.communicate, 69%; and to understand self and others, 88%; improved interpersonal relations, 72%; decreased anxiety, 66%; increased self esteem, 71%; a new way of looking at the world, 83%. Of particular interest is a correlation (tetrachoric r) of 0.9l between "greater awareness of a higher power, or ultimate reality" and claimed permanent benefit.

As regards negative responses, none of the experimental volunteers and only one patient felt he had been. harmed mentally. (By the time a year had elapsed since his session he had revised that opinion.) Immediately after LSD 24% find that daydreaming and introspection "interfere with getting things done"; this has fallen to 11% after one year. Problems within the marital relationship not previously present were reported by 27% for non-patients and 16% for patients.

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I   Sex Differences

One of the points of interest was whether there were significant differences in response to the LSD according to sex. The figures given below are percentages of the total group of clients whose first LSD session had been at least 3 months prior to the filling out of the questionnaire who marked these statements either "I agree with the statement very much" or "I agree quite a bit" (3 or 2 according to the questionnaire instructions). Three percentages are given, in columns marked M (male, N=38), F (female, N=34), and T (total, N=72).

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