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From: arnold@ucsfcgl.UUCP (Ken Arnold%CGL)
Newsgroups: net.misc
Subject: Re: Urinalysis...Lie Detectors...(alchohol is hallucinogenic?)
Message-ID: <9865@ucsfcgl.ucsfcgl.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 29-May-86 16:20:15 EDT
Article-I.D.: ucsfcgl.9865
Posted: Thu May 29 16:20:15 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 31-May-86 05:23:42 EDT
References: <402@bu-cs.UUCP> <108@gumby.UUCP> <1239@dual.UUCP>
Reply-To: arnold@ucsfcgl.UUCP (Ken Arnold%CGL)
Organization: Computer Graphics Laboratory, UCSF
Lines: 39

>> = Me
> = Jeff Sonntag

>> Alchohol is hallucinagenic.  In other words, when under the influence
>> of alchohol, one sees, feels, or hears things that would not be seen,
>> heard, or felt if not under its influence.
>> 
>> LSD is also hallucinagenic in this way.  
>
>    I've been under the influence of alchohol many times, and failed to
>notice this effect.  Does it only happen when you get many times as sloshed as 
>any reasonable person would, or what?  Does it happen to you when you drink
>alchohol?

Perhaps I could state it more clearly to you by saying that both
alchohol and LSD alter your perception of reality, i.e., when under the
influence of either, your interpretations of sensory inputs and other
events are altered.

As an example, many people's perceptions of the humor of a situation
changes when they are drunk.  They will laugh at things which seem
pretty stupid to any sober person.  People run into things which they
didn't notice because they pay less attention to the outer edges of
their visual range.  They miscalculate where objects are.  Their
hearing becomes less sensitive (which is one reason people who are
drunk tend to talk loudly).  The drunken person is also more prone to
violence, i.e., finds it more statisfying or values it as a solution
more.  (All of these have variants.  I have a friend who becomes more
sensitive to sound when really drunk.)

This does, indeed, happen to me when I drink alchohol, the degree
varying with the amount consumed (and other environmental conditions).
It happens to everyone I know.  I usually don't drink enough to make
these effects a problem for me.  Most people drink because they enjoy
being in the altered state that alchohol puts them, or at least they
enjoy it more than being sober.  If it *didn't* affect peoples sense
and moods, it wouldn't be used.

		Ken Arnold