A special initiative group of scientists is establishing the Russian
Psychedelic Society. The new organization has a goal to legalize the
use of psychoactive drugs in official medicine, the mysterious
lysergic acid diethylamide, or LSD-25, first and foremost. A prominent
US scientist, Stanislav Grof, is expected to participate in the first
congress of the new organization, which is slated to take place in
November 2005. Like Sigmund Freud or Carl Yung, Grof is said to be one
of the greatest revolutionaries in psychology.

�LSD-25 was studied very well 40 years ago. Remarkable qualities of
the substance were used in the field of psychotherapy back then. � A
spokesman for the initiative group, Anton Chuppin said. �
Unfortunately, certain legal processes put an end to the research when
psychedelic drugs were excluded from the list of legal medications. We
believe that it was a wrong decision to make. A group of American
scientists and cultural figures addressed to the US Surgeon General
last year with a request to legalize LSD-25 to use it in medicine,�
Mr. Chuppin said.

Actress Barbara Streisand was one of those, who signed the
above-mentioned petition. The actress confessed that it was LSD, which
helped her survive the nervous breakdown, when the star discovered
that her only son was a homosexual.

LSD-25 was discovered in 1943 by the leading specialists of Sandoz,
Switzerland\'s largest pharmaceutical enterprise, Albert Hofmann, by
accident. The chemist took a microscopic dose of the substance and was
surprised to find out later that his consciousness separated from his
body. The scientist saw the world in an unusual light. Sandoz started
sending LSD to all leading clinics of Europe and the USA in 1948. The
results of scientific experiments were simply astonishing. The drug
gave an opportunity to people to explore the world differently:
patients could travel to other worlds and epochs, experience mystical
feelings, which positively affected their characters and psychological
problems.

It is noteworthy that scientists of socialist countries were studying
the LSD phenomenon too, especially in Poland and Czechoslovakia.
Soviet specialist Maria Teleshevskaya conducted an extensive research
of the psychedelic drug and published a positive report about her work
in 1964.

The attitude to LSD started changing in the beginning of the 1960s,
when the drug went out of medical control and became the common
property for everyone. LSD went into everyday use for hippies and
artists. The broad use of the substance revealed its negative,
sometimes bizarre qualities. Hollywood diva Ava Gardner, who took over
200 doses of LSD, could see a skinned skull in the mirror instead her
own reflection for several months. Specialists registered several
incidents of strange suicides, when LSD-drugged people jumped off
high-rise buildings hoping to enter the setting sun. Senator Robert
Kennedy stated in 1964 that LSD posed the central danger to the
American youth. The production and distribution of LSD-25 was
prohibited on the territory of the USA already in 1966. Other
countries followed the USA\'s example soon after that.

The medical research of LSD continued in America up to 1974, albeit
only in the Maryland-based scientific center under the direction of
Stanislav Grof, an emigrant from Czechoslovakia. The work, however,
was subsequently shut down without any explanations. Maria
Teleshevskaya, a Soviet scientist, published her analysis of the LSD
analysis in the 1960s. The study was published in a tiny print-run in
the republic of Armenia.

Nevertheless, Stanislav Grof managed to expose the results of his
LSD-25 research in such books as �Realms of the Human Unconscious,�
�Beyond the Brain,� LSD Psychotherapy,� and several others. The
scientist\'s work exemplifies the effect of the mysterious medication
as it penetrates into the human mind and takes a person on an
incredible journey through time, space and dimensions. In Grof\'s
opinion, LSD acts as an accelerating agent of religious strikening and
helps a human being realize the objectivity of divine principles. The
LSD-produced effect helped Stanislav Grof establish a study about four
basic perinatal matrixes of the human mind. The study became one of
the most sensational and talked-about events in the history of
psychology.

Stanislav Grof\'s first visit to Russia took place in 1991. The
scientist was very surprised to find out that his basic works had been
published in Russia illegally. Grof\'s most important works were
subsequently published in Russia again, this time officially. The
Federal Print Agency refused to republish �Realms of the Human
Unconscious,� supposedly on account of a special letter from the
Russian Ministry for Healthcare. It brings up the idea that the
creation of the Russian Psychedelic Society will become a scandalous
event, which will definitely raise numerous discussions both in the
society and in the political administration of Russia.