A synthesiser repairman has experienced a blast from the past, reportedly getting high on leftover LSD found within an instrument he was working on.
We’ve all heard those stories about crazy drug trips spawning from experiences within the counterculture of the ’60s.
In fact, iconic rockers The Grateful Dead once made history back in 1969 by slipping copious amounts of LSD to unwitting audience members of the Playboy After Dark program. A practice known as dosing, the band’s actions have become famous, though the general consensus is that it was, to put it simply, an incredibly uncool thing to do.
However, a US repairman has gone through a similar experience, going through an LSD trip thanks to leftover materials in a synthesiser he was fixing.
Check out the Grateful Dead on Playboy After Dark:
As San Francisco’s KPIX 5 reports, Eliot Curtis, who serves as the Broadcast Operations Manager for KPIX Television, volunteered for the job of repairing a Buchla Model 100 analogue synthesiser from Cal State University East Bay late last year.
However, during his repair work, Curtis discovered a “crust or a crystalline residue” under a knob on the instrument, which he dutifully sprayed with a cleaning solvent, pushing the residue with his finger to move it from the area.
Within the hour, Curtis encountered a “weird, tingling sensation” that ended up being the start of a nine-hour psychedelic trip, caused by the substance which was later confirmed to be LSD.
“I think it’s super wild. I think this whole situation is a nice chapter in the history of the counter culture,” his wife Holly later explained.
An anonymous researcher confirmed to KPIX that not only can LSD remain potent for decades if kept under such conditions, but that it can also be ingested via the skin in certain circumstances.
In a strange tale of this story coming full circle, the synthesiser in question was created by Don Buchla, a pioneer of the instrument.
However, Buchla became known amongst members of the counterculture, in particular, for his work with the Grateful Dead, and their audio engineer Owsley Stanley, known as one of the first people to privately mass-produce LSD.
While this entire story sounds like the definition of a long, strange trip, maybe the lesson here is to be extra careful around any residue left on vintage instruments – especially if they might have had a connection with the Grateful Dead.
Check out ‘Truckin” by the Grateful Dead:
