Note: this comment was synthesized from the excellent article here, which takes a perspective that books like the OP were part of a larger psychological operation.

The official history has it that the CIA personnel involved in MKULTRA were just kind of stupid dupes, and by their egregious errors, the psychedelic revolution 'happened' – thwarting their efforts. The claim is that these substances just 'got out of the CIA’s control'. Words like 'blowback' and 'incompetence' are often tossed around in such theories regarding the CIA and military intelligence, but without much, if any, supporting evidence.

Who does it benefit to believe that it was all an accident and that the CIA and military intelligence were just dupes? Does it benefit you, or them? It might be uncomfortable for a moment for some of us to admit that maybe they (the agents) weren’t so stupid, and maybe we were the ones duped. Sometimes the best medicine is to just admit “hey, you got me” and laugh it off.

Suggestibility plays a large part in the way psychedelic drugs work.

"To drive someone crazy with LSD was no great accomplishment, particularly if you told the person he was taking a psychotomimetic and you gave it to him in one of those pastel hospital cells with a grim nurse standing by scribbling notes." - Jay Stevens

“Psychotomimetic” (psychosis mimicking) is a word loaded with implications, suggestibility being the most important.

"What's in a name? ... Answer, practically everything." - Aldous Huxley

However, for marketing and PR purposes, the word psychotomimetic was abandoned not long after it was created in 1957. The understanding of suggestibility, or 'set and setting', including the name given these substances, is everything in how psychedelics work and were studied (and used) by the CIA for social control. It was time for a rebranding. Over a couple decades this project would be undertaken by two different teams: Aldous Huxley, Humphry Osmond and Abram Hoffer; and the second, headed by Professor Carl A. P. Ruck of Boston University, included R. Gordon Wasson, and also Jonathan Ott, Jeremy Bigwood and Daniel Staples.

"Some of us formed a committee under the Chairmanship of Carl Ruck to devise a new word for the potions that held Antiquity in awe. After trying out a number of words he came up with entheogen, ‘god generated within’, which his committee unanimously adopted." - Gordon Wasson

And though they defend them, Martin Lee and Bruce Shlain reveal some of these remarketing tactics in Acid Dreams:

"The scientist who directly oversaw this research project was Dr. Paul Hoch, an early advocate of the theory that LSD and other hallucinogens were essentially psychosis-producing drugs. In succeeding years Hoch performed a number of bizarre experiments for the army while also serving as a CIA consultant. Intraspinal injections of mescaline and LSD were administered to psychiatric patients, causing an 'immediate, massive, and almost shocklike picture with higher doses'." - Martin Lee and Bruce Schlain, Acid Dreams

"Aftereffects ("generalized discomfort," "withdrawal," "oddness," and "unreality feelings") lingered for two to three days following the injections. Hoch, who later became New York State Commissioner for Mental Hygiene, also gave LSD to psychiatric patients and then lobotomized them in order to compare the effects of acid before and after psychosurgery. ("It is possible that a certain amount of brain damage is of therapeutic value," Hoch once stated.) In one experiment a hallucinogen was administered along with a local anesthetic and the subject was told to describe his visual experiences as surgeons removed chunks of his cerebral cortex." - Martin Lee and Bruce Shlain, Acid Dreams

In the following quote the authors reveal their bias in the situation, arguing for the spiritual aspects, while – in the same book – denying the psychosis aspects and that the psychedelic revolution was intentionally created by the CIA:

"Many other researchers, however, dismissed transcendental insight as either "happy psychosis" or a lot of nonsense. The knee-jerk reaction on the part of the psychotomimetic stalwarts was indicative of a deeply ingrained prejudice against certain varieties of experience. In advanced industrial societies “paranormal" states of consciousness are readily disparaged as "abnormal" or pathological. Such attitudes, cultural as much as professional, played a crucial role in circumscribing the horizon of scientific investigation into hallucinogenic agents." - Martin Lee and Bruce Shlain, Acid Dreams

Here Lee and Shlain resort to name calling and ridicule, for example referring to 'psychotomimetic stalwarts' and 'deeply ingrained prejudice', as the foundation of their argument rather than looking at the evidence itself – which sounds ironic in a book about the CIA using these same substances for mind control. And who were these 'psychotomimetic stalwarts'? Was it only Dr. Hoch? As we’ll see, Lee and Shlain seem to also be referring to Aldous Huxley, Humphry Osmond, Albert Hofmann and Sasha Shulgin.

Lee and Shlain, while partially exposing MKULTRA, then promote the idea that the psychotomimetic theory was invalid. They continue:

"Despite widespread acknowledgment that the model psychosis concept had outlived its usefulness, the psychiatric orientation articulated by those of Dr. Hoch's persuasion prevailed in the end. When it came time to lay down their hand, the medical establishment and the media both "mimicked" the line that for years had been secretly promoted by the CIA and the military—that hallucinogenic drugs were extremely dangerous because they drove people insane, and all this talk about creativity and personal growth was just a lot of hocus pocus. This perception of LSD governed the major policy decisions enacted by the FDA and the drug control apparatus in the years ahead." - Martin Lee and Bruce Shlain, Acid Dreams

Here we see the idea that the 'psychosis concept had outlived its usefulness'. What does that mean exactly? It’s an ambiguous statement. Most assume it to mean that the substances didn’t actually create psychosis. But is that true? What if, instead, due to the above-mentioned suggestibility factor and 'set and setting', they decided to remarket these drugs as spiritual rather than psychotic? If we entertain this idea, we realize it could take just a new name to change not only everything about the outcome of the experience, but how quickly the youth and counterculture would adopt them.

Thank you!

I can cross this off of my Amazon "wish list" now...considering that I've probably bought at least 8-10 copies of this book and loaned them out, never to get them back. At least I know, karmically, that I've contributed over and over to Marty and Bruce's well-deserved stack of money that they acquired from printing this book.

in the same boat. Bought 3 copies for myself to read then loaned them out only for them to never be returned.

I have this book. It's great.