A group of patients who tripped acid in the first controlled LSD trial in 40 years uniformly reported a reduction in anxiety, proving once and for all that the little green men you see when you trip are your friends.

A group of patients who tripped acid in the first controlled LSD trial in 40 years uniformly reported a reduction in anxiety, proving once and for all that the little green men you see when you trip are your friends. 

The trial was conducted in Switzerland and involved a group of 12 terminally-ill cancer patients. Eight were given a full dose of LSD, and while the other four were given a placebo. They would then sleep on a couch in an office and trip balls while lead researcher Dr. Peter Gasser recorded their reactions.

The effects of the acid lasted up to 10 hours, and while some of the patients reported distressful trips, others had "mystical experiences." One even reported meeting his-long dead father in the cosmos of another dimension. His father nodded at him approvingly, like some sort of dreamy sequence out of Contact.

But no matter the reaction, all of the participants who received a full dose of LSD improved by about 20 percent on standard measures of anxiety. The mental adventures they went on appeared to ease the existential gloom of their last days. The improvements in anxiety levels held up for about a year while the patients survived.

But what's really surprising, is that the patients who received the placebo dose actually got worse, and became more anxious. Thankfully, after the trial, those patients were allowed to “cross over” and try the full dose, after which the sparkly portals their mind traveled through appeared to ease their anxiety.

“Their anxiety went down and stayed down,” said Dr. Gasser, who conducted the therapy. But following the trial, a reduction in anxiety wasn't the only thing people were feeling.

“I will say I have been more emotional since the study ended, and I don’t mean always cheerful,” said one of the participants after the trial. “But I think it’s better to feel things strongly — better to be alive than to merely function.”

The study marks the latest in a recent effort by researchers to bring hallucinogens back into use in mainstream psychology. Before the drug was made illegal in 1966 in the United States, doctors tested LSD’s effect on a variety of conditions, including end-of-life anxiety.

So is anyone else thinking what we're thinking? LSD dispensaries that sell medical acid to people with 'back pain'? We're drafting up a business plan as you read this.