Is the LSd state a model of madness, a touch of schizophrenia, or is it a short cut to satori, nirvana for the millions?

In the heated debate over the uses and abuses of lysergic acid diethylamide, Dr Sidney Cohen adopts a welcome objective stance. He aligns himself neither with the enthusists who would like everyone to have the chance to 'turn on to acid' nor with those members of the psychiatric establishment who maintain that this most powerful of the psychedelic drugs has little psychotherapeutic value. With over twelve years of research into LSD and other hallucinogens behind him, he is concerned o present the facts of the matter in an authoritative way that is at the same time immediately comprehensible to the general reader.

Dr Cohen gives a lucid account of the discovery and first synthesis of LSD, its early use as an inducer of 'model psychoses' in experimental psychiatry and its present use in psychotherapy. He examines the effects of LSD on subjects under controlled conditions, and includes many first-hand accounts of LSD-induced transcendental experiences. His most disturbing warnings come not just in his writing on the dangers of the casual use of LSD, but also in his searching examination of the likely effects of psychedelic chemicals used in warfare.