On September 8th I’ll be at the lush Festival No. 6 to speak about the history of LSD – one of my favourite topics in the history of drugs. CIA operatives agreeing to dose each other with surprise acid trips, hookers hired to spike unwitting San Franciscan civilians, how the founder of AA achieved sobriety through a lysergic experience – the history of LSD has it all.
My talk will also feature an anecdote about my grandfather’s second wife, a crazy actress named Virginia Leith, who took part in legal experiments on healthy volunteers with LSD in the 1950s. The psychologist wanted her to solve puzzles and equations, but in her mind she had turned into a four year old girl. She refused to be given any tasks – and demanded to go for ice cream.
So he took her for ice cream.
Virginia as it happens was the star of cult sci fi film The Brain That Wouldn’t Die.
True story!