Dr. John Beresford: LSD pioneer

Obituary: Died Sept. 2, 2007

Another champion of the right to freedom of consciousness has left
this earth. Dr. John Beresford made a point of visiting psychedelic prisoners behind bars to remind them he had not forgotten them. Many Drug War POWs will miss him. He died Sept. 2, 2007 in a hospital in Canada.

The British-born Beresford began his psychedelic research interests in 1961, when he resigned his post as an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the New York Medical College and founded the Agora Scientific Trust, the world’s first research organization devoted to investigating the effects of LSD.

He spoke at the international LSD Symposium in 2006, at the occasion of the 100th birthday of Albert Hofmann in Basel, Switzerland, Beresford presented the talk “Psychedelic Agents and the Structure of Consciousness: Stages in a Session Using LSD and DMT”. Beresford was known for his outspokenness and persistence on many topics, and is fondly remembered for his tireless devotion to the causes he championed. He laid in state for four days, untouched, a Buddhist tradition, and was cremated later. His ashes mixed with rose petals and rice will be given to the river that flows through the Tibetan monastery he was closely affiliated with, as he had asked.

Beresford, who  described the discovery of LSD as possibly the most critical event in human history, remarked: “Take it once and you know that all you’ve known about consciousness is wrong.” (From The Acid Queen, Robert Hunter, Chapter 7 of The Storming of the Mind, McClelland and Stewart Ltd., ©Robert Hunter, 1971)

OTHER WEB SITES OF INTEREST:

Michael_Hollingshead
LSD/holl4.htm

IMAGE AND VIDEO:
http://earthrites.org/turfing/index.php?/archives/707-Goodbye-John….html