Ep. 584 – A Secret History of LSD in the Third Reich with Norman Ohler
Mindrolling with Raghu Markus
Be Here Now Network
4.7 • 543 Ratings
🗓️ 7 March 2025
⏱️ 57 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Raghu Markus and Norman Ohler explore the history of drugs in the Third Reich and how this ultimately lead to the psychedelic age in America.
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In this riveting and historical episode, Raghu and Norman talk about:
- Norman’s research into the history of psychedelics in Germany
- ‘Truth drugs’ and using psychedelics for interrogation tactics
- Albert Hoffman, a Swiss chemist known for his work with LSD
- America’s early interest in psychedelics for military use
- MK-Ultra, mind control, and how the CIA took over the quest for truth drugs.
- Norman Ohler’s meeting with Leonard Pickard, a major player in the LSD underground
- How the CIA saw psychedelics as a potential weapon to manipulate people
- Truth that can be discovered on psychedelic journeys
- How psychedelics can help heal relationships with ourselves and others
Get a copy of Norman’s 2024 book, Tripped: Nazi Germany, the CIA, and the Dawn of the Psychedelic Age
About Norman Ohler:
Norman Ohler is a German journalist and New York Times bestselling author, novelist and screenwriter, best known for his book Blitzed: Drugs in Nazi Germany, which has been published in over 30 languages. Most recently, Norman furthered his research into drug use in the Third Reich and it’s connection to the CIA and the age of psychedelics in the United States. This produced his 2024 book, Tripped.
Learn more about Tripped and Norman’s other works on his website, HERE.
“Basically what happened in the US was a continuation of the unethical human experiments that the Nazi’s did, obviously not in a concentration camp, but at American universities, at American and Canadian clinics.” – Norman Ohler
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey, everyone, it's Ragu back with Mind Rolling, and I have a wonderful new guest today. |
| 0:20.8 | His name is Norman Oler and way do you hear |
| 0:24.1 | about what he has in store. Norman, welcome. Hi, thank you for having me, talking to me, looking forward to it. |
| 0:36.6 | Yeah, Norman lives in Berlin actually and talking to me, looking forward to it. Yeah. |
| 0:41.1 | Norman lives in Berlin, actually, |
| 0:45.0 | and the magic of the digital age, we're able to connect from California to Berlin, Germany. |
| 0:50.8 | And actually, you just had a huge thing go on right politically a big election right |
| 0:57.1 | yeah we had national elections yesterday yeah and we have a probably a new chancellor |
| 1:04.3 | uh-huh and oh he's a scumbagued from the party everyone needs it but still he won i don't know |
| 1:14.7 | no one knows why no one knows why oh my god well but he's anyhow politics isn't our thing here |
| 1:24.9 | but i just you, it just happened. |
| 1:27.7 | So it's like in a right. |
| 1:30.0 | Well, also the left was quite strong, so that was good. |
| 1:35.1 | I mean, we don't have a two-party system like America. |
| 1:38.2 | We have a multi-party system, so it's a bit more fragmented, right? |
| 1:45.3 | Fragmented and diverse. |
| 1:48.3 | So we have always coalition governments. |
| 1:51.5 | Yeah, right, right. |
| 1:55.4 | Anyhow, Norman wrote an amazing book called Tripped, Nazi Germany, the CIA, and the dawn of the psychedelic age. |
| 2:09.6 | And I'm just going to read, this will give you an idea, the core idea, the fact that the U.S. government was introduced to LSD |
| 2:21.3 | through Nazi research shaped much of the federal government's early attitudes around it and other psychedelics. |
| 2:30.3 | Once the Nazis elicited a potential weaponized use for LSD, the drug was never able to shake that taint. |
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