Comment by aspenmayer

There’s also this guy who you might have heard of, who created a little thing called Alcoholics Anonymous:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_W.#Psychedelic_therapy

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1468-5922.13027

Apparently he was so serious about the potential for LSD to help alcoholics, that he almost got thrown out of Alcoholics Anonymous, the recovery group he helped create. He had written to a Catholic friend about this.

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2012/aug/23/lsd-help-alc...

> LSD, by mimicking insanity, could help alcoholics achieve a central tenet of the Twelve Step programme proposed by AA, he believed. It was a matter of finding "a power greater than ourselves" that "could restore us to sanity". He warned: "I don't believe [LSD] has any miraculous property of transforming spiritually and emotionally sick people into healthy ones overnight. It can set up a shining goal on the positive side, after all it is only a temporary ego-reducer."

> But Wilson added: "The vision and insights given by LSD could create a large incentive – at least in a considerable number of people."

> His words were found in a late 50s letter to Father Ed Dowling, a Catholic priest and member of an experimental group he had formed in New York to explore the spiritual potential of LSD.