Studies in the Effect of Lysergic Acid Diethylamide (LSD-25)

Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD-25) alters size perception of one's own body and objects in space in both schizophrenic and normal adults. The study, grounded in sensory-tonic field theory, shows that changes in organismic state from LSD produce corresponding changes in perception, consistent with the theory that perception reflects the relation between organismic state and external stimuli.

Study at a glance

Abstract

This study is one of a series of experiments designed to inquire into some of the perceptual effects of administration of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD-25)* to schizophrenics and normal adults. Specifically, the study deals with the effect of LSD on size perception of one's own body and objects in space. This problem is approached within the framework of organismic behavior theory, viz., the sensory-tonic field theory of perception and the developmental theory. According to the sensory-tonic theory, perception is an experience that corresponds to a particular relation between the organismic state and the impinging stimulus. From this general formulation it follows that a change in either the external stimuli or the organismic state will produce a change in perception. That alterations in organismic state produced by LSD are reflected by changes in perception has been demonstrated by us in another experiment, concerned with perception of verticality (with the same groups