1963: “In a drug-filled chalice, total love”

Author: George Draper

Date: January 3, 1963

Source: News Call Bulletin [San Francisco], pg 1.

Complete title: “Menlo Wife’s Story: Drugs Open New Life: In a Drug-Filled Chalice, Total Love”

📕 For more on Myron Stolaroff, who is mentioned in this article, see his Biography page.

The above clipping of this article is preserved in the papers of the Honorable Clare Boothe Luce at the Library of Congress.

partial transcript

On Aug. 17, 1961, Maureen Thompson, a beautiful Menlo Park wife and mother, had a mystical experience so extraordinary, self-revelatory and marvelous that even today, 17 months later, she has difficulty describing it. Her experience was induced by two drugs, LSD-25 and mescaline, administered to her at the International Foundation for Advanced Study, 1140 Chestnut st., Menlo Park. A week later her husband, Bill Thompson, went through a similar experience.

Each paid the Foundation $500. They consider the money well spent. Miss Thompson believes her LSD experience was an event of profound significance in her life and development. Because she believes many follow humans long for a deeper understanding of themselves, she consented to be interviewed. Bill Thompson is a Palo Alto school teacher. He and Maureen have four children. Their home is at 260 Marmona Drive, a pleasant, tree-lined street in Menlo Park. Mrs. Thompson is aware that druginduced mysticism is a strange and possibly a frightening concept to many. She herself was anxious that her experience not be interpreted as religious in the orthodox sense.

The interview was, therefore, somewhat restrained at first. But as she warmed to her subject, the story unfolded. She sketched briefly the dissatisfactions she and Bill had felt with their lives, then traced the steps—discussions with friends, a college course on human potential, a group therapy seminar— which led to their looking into LSD and its effects.

"I gradually made some startling discoveries about myself," she said. "I realized I was not open, either to myself or to others. I was not functioning as a whole person. I was restricted to self-expression, closed to new experiences."

Early in July she and Bill went to the foundation, which is on the second floor of an office building in the business section of Menlo Park. They talked with Myron J. Stolaroff, an electrical engineer who gave up an executive job with Ampex Corp. to work with LSD and its related drugs.

He confirmed much of what they had heard from others, allayed some of their fears, asked them what they were seeking.

"I told Myron I was not the kind of person I wanted to be," said Mrs. Thompson. "I told him I felt a need for deeper relationships with other people--that I wanted to find more meaning in everything I do.

"I told him I felt inadequate, often depressed and confused; that I was worried about drinking."

“The hardest thing to admit was my hostility toward our daughter. . . ."

There were three more interviews with Stolaroff and with Dr. J. Norman Sherwood, then medical director of the foundation. They abandoned plans to seek a new life in Brazil, and elected to find a new life here at home.

The preparations for the LSD experience included breathing mixtures of carbon dioxide (50%) and oxygen (70%), a kind of mild trial run for the powerful LSD-mescaline state.

"This helps to lower the conscious and unconscious blocks," said Mrs. Thompson. "One's conscious mind somewhat expanded; one's awareness is heightened."

She also became acquainted with Dr.--- at the foundation. In doctor's treatment rooms of a contemporary laboratory, the windows draped. The couches are contemporary and comfortable. A mini-recorder on a coffee table leads to a large phonograph-recorder where a recording is made for later study by the subject.

…

"Sometimes my rational intruded," Mrs. Thompson continued. "It tried to sort out these experiences, to put them into categories. When it couldn’t, I began to doubt their reality. This created some fear.”

“If I took LSD again, I would try harder to let myself go to it. I would not resist it or block it by trying to analyze my experience. Analysis comes later…”

Mrs. Thompson paused and sized up her visitor with her clear eyes. She was wondering how much she dared to reveal to this near stranger. Then she said:

“I had a deeply moving experience with a rose that was shown to me.”

“It seemed to open up before me and call me to it. I moved outward toward the essence of the rose. It ceased to be an object. I ceased to be a subject. Object and subject were one."

“I was the rose.”