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mayamaiaSo I have a secondary roleplaying group - sort of - in Berkeley that meets on Thursdays. I've mentioned them before, I think... the guys who I started talking to on the way home and they turned out to be RPGers? Yeah, well, one of them is running a World of Darkness campaign (he's more of an amteur than me, but it's better than nothing.)
Well.... through today's game, I learned a bit about LSD.
First of all, one of the players got the bright idea to turn all the water vapor in a building into ergotine fungus. When I asked what that was, he explained that it's the base halluciongen from which LSD is derived. So, here's where it get's interesting.
* The major, bad witch trials in France were the result of an overgrowth of ergotine fungus in the grain stores. People who ate bread made from infected flour believed they were turned into animals (I got better!), got the bright idea to rip their own arms off, one guy sincerely believed if he turned his skin inside out he became a wolf ("How many of you ever thought of your local bakery as a possible cause of werewolves?" They cut off his hand to see if there was fur inside his skin - there of course was not, but he died anyway due to blood loss)... Etc. There were some awesomely frightening stories, which explains a LOT.
* We started chatting about how LSD is an awesomely effective weapon. In the trials of it during the Vietnam War, a sergeant just climbed a tree and ceaselessly stared into the distance... Two soldiers just sat down and started talking about life, one started drawing detailed maps on trees with his fingernails.
* The creator of LSD originally said that it was an accident, but in a later interview described it as follows: he was walking in the woods near the edge of town when a thick mist arose around him. A strange man in a long coat and hat walked up and handed him the entire instructions for how to make it - precise measures of ingredients, the exact temperature to heat the mixture and how long. This may easily be attributed to a hallucination, as the hallucinating mind is much like the dreaming mind, and it is known that dreams can reveal patterns that the waking mind finds it difficult to put together.
Anyways, the upshot of it was that the big bad guy blew up a section of the building and escaped while very high. He immediately flew to a bagel shop, where a bagel that had been sent to find him (no, that wasn't a hallucination) bumped against his leg. He promptly burned the shop and ate the bagel, then started screaming that it was freezing cold and he had a tail.
Score one very funny victory for the good guys.
Well.... through today's game, I learned a bit about LSD.
First of all, one of the players got the bright idea to turn all the water vapor in a building into ergotine fungus. When I asked what that was, he explained that it's the base halluciongen from which LSD is derived. So, here's where it get's interesting.
* The major, bad witch trials in France were the result of an overgrowth of ergotine fungus in the grain stores. People who ate bread made from infected flour believed they were turned into animals (I got better!), got the bright idea to rip their own arms off, one guy sincerely believed if he turned his skin inside out he became a wolf ("How many of you ever thought of your local bakery as a possible cause of werewolves?" They cut off his hand to see if there was fur inside his skin - there of course was not, but he died anyway due to blood loss)... Etc. There were some awesomely frightening stories, which explains a LOT.
* We started chatting about how LSD is an awesomely effective weapon. In the trials of it during the Vietnam War, a sergeant just climbed a tree and ceaselessly stared into the distance... Two soldiers just sat down and started talking about life, one started drawing detailed maps on trees with his fingernails.
* The creator of LSD originally said that it was an accident, but in a later interview described it as follows: he was walking in the woods near the edge of town when a thick mist arose around him. A strange man in a long coat and hat walked up and handed him the entire instructions for how to make it - precise measures of ingredients, the exact temperature to heat the mixture and how long. This may easily be attributed to a hallucination, as the hallucinating mind is much like the dreaming mind, and it is known that dreams can reveal patterns that the waking mind finds it difficult to put together.
Anyways, the upshot of it was that the big bad guy blew up a section of the building and escaped while very high. He immediately flew to a bagel shop, where a bagel that had been sent to find him (no, that wasn't a hallucination) bumped against his leg. He promptly burned the shop and ate the bagel, then started screaming that it was freezing cold and he had a tail.
Score one very funny victory for the good guys.
