MESCALINE REACTION

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

An article in Tuesday's CRIMSON reviewed Huxley's theories on mescaline and related them to psilocybin studies being executed by some staff members at the Center for Research in Personality. The CRIMSON essay was a gallant attempt to summarize a most difficult subject matter, but some clarification seems needed.

1. Escape vs. Insight.

In the Doors to Perception, Aldous Huxley is concerned with the social applications of the so-called Budda drugs (mescaline, psilocybin, LSD). He refers to society's need for escapes. The escape motif should not be emphasized. For most subjects the opposite seems true. Confrontation, intense (and often painful) contact with reality more accurately characterize the experience.

2. The Center for Research in Personality is a component of the Social Relations Department. Its central function is the training of graduate students in Clinical Psychology and Personality. Research by staff members is a second important goal of the Center. Several staff members and graduate students at the Center for Research in Personality are engaged in the development of methods for behavior change. The efficacy of psilocybin in behavior change is one of several techniques being studied.

3. The "investigators of psilocybin" are not "unbounded in their enthusiasm." Unbounded concern would be a more accurate diagnosis--concern for the many problems created by the consciousness-expanding drugs. Problems of conceptualization. Problems of measurement. Problems of application and follow-up. Problems of interpretation. Problems of control.

Our first research study addressed itself to the range of reactions of subjects taking psilocybin in a naturalistic setting. A wide range of subjects were part of this study--professors, poets, priests, prisoners, "problem-cases." Our conclusions--set and setting, expectation and emotional atmosphere (in particular the fears and intentions of the experimenter) account for almost all of the specificity of reaction.

For the past six months we have centered on systematic and controlled studies of the effects of psilocybin in prisoner rehabilitation, in individual counseling, and in experimental situations.

Like all research studies executed by University personnel we have followed the codes governing use of subjects. No secrecy. Careful preparatory orientation. Medical screening. On call medical coverage. All subjects are informed volunteers. No undergraduates or minors.

Consciousness expanding drugs may some day contribute to human welfare by increasing understanding of the mind, by suggesting new methods of educational research, and behavior change. This work is just beginning. Systematic scientific studies in this field, as in any other, will produce the facts. Richard Alpert,   Timothy Leary,   Center for Research in Personality.