About Robert Priddy’s LSD-induced hallucinations, Kevin Shepherd said that Joe Moreno attempted:
“to depict Priddy unfavourably on the basis of his taking LSD in 1963 as a university student volunteer in an official investigation project...Priddy produced documents describing his LSD experiences, and which he deleted from his website at the end of his devotee phase, needing space for more pressing issues. Moreno has reproduced two of those documents without permission and has added inappropriate comments.”
Kevin Shepherd essentially repeated Robert Priddy’s comments as narrated on Alan Kazlev’s website:
“One typical example is his attempt to slur Priddy as a ‘drug user’ through his having taken LDS-25 back in 1963 when he was a student - LSD provided to a group of psychology students including Priddy by a neurologist/psychiatrist, following a request from the Norwegian Minister of Health, Karl Evang, who supplied the LSD for the purpose of volunteer testing its effects and reporting back! This was done for investigating psychotic states and other unusual mental conditions which the authorities then believed LSD-25 could induce temporarily [and well before LSD became controversial in the media]. Moreno makes much of this ancient news and other out-dated incidents...”
Needless to say, Robert Priddy never said that his LSD experimentation was part of an “official investigation project through his University”. Robert Priddy specifically stated he first experimented with cannabis then later experimented with LSD when he was 26 years old in 1963 with his friend Eric Steadman (with whom he shared a “perfect unspoken telepathic awareness”) and the entire episode was preserved on a tape-recorder that he turned on. Although Robert Priddy wrote about his experiences in depth, he never mentioned anything about any University officials, volunteer testing, Karl Evang or that he was a “university student volunteer in an official investigation project”. Furthermore, Robert Priddy admitted he experimented with “strong bio-chemicals” and LSD-25 years after his initial experimentation and even wrote about another LSD-induced hallucination in 1965. Therefore, Robert Priddy fully acknowledged he experimented with drugs prior to and after his initial LSD trip in 1963. Although Robert Priddy whined that his druggy years are “outdated” and “ancient”, it is amusing to note the he eulogized his “outdated” and “ancient” druggy years in 1994 (31 years later) in his book “Source Of The Dream”.
As a matter of fact, Robert Priddy said:
Robert Priddy (1988): “I try here to give as truthful an account as I can of what befell me in 1963. In the intervening 25 years I have continually been returning to that experience as as source of inspiration and in the hope that the fullest possible light may be shed on it for me.” (Reference)
Robert Priddy (1994): “A totally mind-shattering and subsequently most wonderful and intensely ecstatic experience befell me one day, as if from out of the blue. Much could be said on the subject, as it is an almost entirely misunderstood one and thus very controversial, but I do not believe doing so would appreciably enlighten anyone who has not actually had the very same experience. I am certain that no words can capture the vital nature and truth of such an experience of transcendental consciousness. I mention it because, without its having befallen me, I cannot guess how I might otherwise have been able to realize the value of pursuing spiritual development and exerting any measure of the determination, and one-pointedness that such a course eventually requires. The experience probably did not improve me much outwardly, if at all, but inwardly it altered my life in various quite crucial ways. I could simply no longer manage to regard normal worldly experience as the be-all and end-all of life. Having been forced to see my usual self and the mind literally from outside, with merciless clarity, through knowing and temporarily becoming the sheer all-pervasiveness of a sanctified joy, peace, and unrestricted awareness that underlies everything, I later came to know how that experience both consoled me and yet set me apart. Like a two-edged sword, it strengthened my insight, yet isolated me for many years in lonliness, for I had the burden of both incommunicable experience and a certain spiritual pride.” (“Source Of The Dream”; pg: 16-7, Chapter 2: ‘When the Soil is Ready’)
Do these positive descriptions sound like Robert Priddy considered his LSD-hallucinations to be “plastic grapes”?
Kevin Shepherd selectively cited a few lukewarm anti-drug comments made by Robert Priddy (which were added to the original LSD articles after a Pro-Sai Activist found them) and failed to cite or link to the articles in question. Kevin Shepherd wholly dismissed Priddy’s numerous three-decades-long comments praising his drug-induced hallucinations. Read Robert Priddy’s three (not two) articles for yourself (which were published for years on the internet as public domain) and my alleged “caricatured” and “inappropriate comments” about them:
- Robert Priddy’s “The Psychedelic Experience” (or View Archive)
- Robert Priddy’s “Truth, Being And Bliss” (or View Archive)
- Robert Priddy’s “A Vision Of Cosmic Energy” (or View Archive)
Regarding Kevin Shepherd’s comment about Priddy deleting his drug articles from his website “at the end of his devotee phase, needing space for more pressing issues”, it is to be noted that Robert Priddy’s primary website contains over 400 webpages (many webpages from his “devotee phase”, including numerous articles from Sanathana Sarathi) and it is extremely difficult to believe Shepherd’s asinine comment that Priddy deleted three webpages because he needed more space on his website. Robert Priddy posts his Anti-Sai material on five different domains (plus one blog) and has plenty of webspace to include the articles in question. It is clear that Robert Priddy attempted to cover-up the fact that he praised drugs and his LSD-Induced hallucinations and foresaw that these articles would compromise the pristine persona he attempts to deceive others with. Kevin Shepherd is poorly attempting to defend Robert Priddy’s views about drug policies although his opinions about drugs severely clash with Priddy’s.
Amusingly, Kevin Shepherd said:
“A recent official report has stressed that regular cannabis use can more than double the risk of mental illness, and that a single joint of cannabis raises the risk of schizophrenia by more than forty per cent.”
Needless to say, Robert Priddy experimented with cannabis, raising his risk of schizophrenia by more than forty percent (thank you, Mr. Shepherd). Robert Priddy likened his LSD-induced experience as what “may well be what schizoprenics experience with intesity” and said “my mind was speeded, torn, ‘deranged’ and seemed to be left behind me and lost”. Although Kevin Shepherd holds a very strong anti-drug position, he is willing to compromise his anti-drug views by defending Robert Priddy’s Pro-Drug articles and three-decades-long eulogies of his LSD-induced hallucinations. Kevin Shepherd wholly ignored the bulk of Priddy’s articles and focused instead on a few equivocal and tongue-in-cheek anti-drug comments.
MAJOR UPDATE: Robert Priddy Cites Pro-Drug Forum For Drug Users!
