The epic tale of an exotic dancer, an LSD chemist and DEA informant, a missle silo, and one of the largest LSD busts in history

Lysergic is the tale of Krystle Cole, a small-town Kansas girl looking for a way out of her stultifying midwestern misery. While working as an exotic dancer to pay the tuition bills, she meets Gordon Todd Wilson -- a mysterious older man with a suitcase full of psychedelic drugs -- who picks her up, doses her with MDMA, and invites her to live with him in an abandonded missle silo. Little did Krystle know that the mysterious Todd was actually an LSD chemist and DEA informant, and that she was sitting on top of what has come to be known as one of the the largest LSD busts in history.

Krystle is quickly swept up in a runaway adventure of money, travel, and lots and lots of drugs, as Todd introduces her to a wide variety of rare designer psychedelic compounds. With each trip Krystle learns more about herself and the people leading her on this adventure, and soon finds that everything is not as it seems. When Todd delivers William Leonard Pickard and the dismantled LSD labratory to the DEA, a global network of underground smuggling and money-laundering is exposed, and Pickard becomes caught in the crossfire, nothing more than a sacrificial lamb slaughtered in service to the larger cause.

And times both funny and sad, Lysergic charts Krystle's spiritual journey through these chaotic times, offering a peek into the hidden lives and motivations of big-time LSD chemists, untouchable DEA informants, and the blurry lines between the good guys and the bad guys the closer you get to the top. Managing to skate through it all with her freedom and sanity was quite a trick, but Krystle somehow lives to tell the tale, and what a tale it is. A true page turner with new psychedelic accounts and spiritual insights in almost every chapter, including DMT enimas, naked mescaline freakouts, candyflip telepathy, Ergot wine thought loops, and many more. You'll wonder how so few people found so much time to do so many drugs.

You can find more of Krystle's thoughts on the book in this exclusive tripzine.com interview:

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James Kent: How old were you when Todd picked you up at the exotic dance club. How old was he? Is this really how you two met?

K.C. Cole: I was eighteen and Todd was thirty-five. Yes, this really is how we met.

JK: I know you were just a naive girl from Kansas, but didn't you think it was a little strange that Todd was living in a decomissioned missile silo when you met him?

KC: Not really, it was one month after the millennium. Todd seemed to me exactly like he said, an eccentric business man that was prepared for the worst to happen when it hit the year 2000. He had flats of canned food, water, batteries, and other supplies inside to support his story.

Also, there are around 90 of these decommissioned missile sites in a circle throughout the Midwest. It is not uncommon to see them on the News getting auctioned off to different people.

JK: Considering that you two just met -- and what Todd was up to -- don't you think he was taking quite a risk leaving you alone at the missile base while he took off for weeks at a time to take care of business? Or did he even think twice about it?

KC: Well, it actually wasn't a risk at all for him. The Lab was not in operation at his site. As I said in the book, it was in operation at another missile site. It had been moved to Todd's for storage after it was broken down.

I was never taken to where it was operational. The first time I even saw any of it at all, was after he had already made a deal with the DEA for complete immunity.

JK: When Todd finally came back, it sounds like you got totally swept up in the underground lifestyle of fast times and fast money: parties, drug deals, suitcases full of cash, car crashes, having to flee for your lives... Did you ever stop to think the party would actually spin out of control and get ugly, or did Todd really have you convinced that everything was under control and you were all somehow above the law?

KC: In a way, we were above the law. The DEA covered up local busts for us. They also warned us when our networks were under investigation.

I remember one time that I was caught up in the middle of a sticky situation. A man in a ski mask walked in and released me with no questions asked.

JK: When Todd turned William Leonard Pickard -- a new friend of yours -- over to the DEA as part of an immunity deal, you began to discover the larger picture of who these guys were and the kinds of complicated alliances they had forged with the DEA, the CIA, opium warlords in Afghanistan, federal prosecutors, not to mention the Brotherhood of Eternal Love. Did you begin to feel like you were suddenly in over your head? What was going on in your mind as you figured out what kind of figure Todd actually was? How did you come to grips with all of this?

KC: First of all, I was the only one around Todd who always believed he was wrong for what he did to Len (William L. Pickard).

Todd's reasons to stop the production and sale of LSD were: 1) That violence occurred when Len supposedly had a narc (on the Ergot Tartrate supplier) killed or badly injured and sent to Guatemala. And

The second was that LSD is a sacrament and should not be sold, especially not for profits such as hookers and dancers from the Opheral theater.

I was so in love with Todd that I stuck with him even when I disagreed with what he did.

I never really felt in over my head because I was tripping most of the time and having fun with all the action.

JK: From reading the book, it sounds like Todd was always ready to stick more drugs in you whichever way he could, and you always went along with him. Did you ever get the feeling he was trying to manipulate you with an ever wider range of psychedelic drugs, or did you really have absolute faith in him to take whatever pill or powder he offered?

KC: I had absolute faith in him until I tried to leave him at the end of our relationship. It resulted in him dosing me with all sorts of psychedelics against my will. He tried desperately to change my mind about him. After three years of being with Todd, I finally realized he was manipulating me with psychedelics all along. He tried to appear to me as a spiritual person when he really wasn't that spiritual at all. Despite his reasons for giving them to me, they still taught me more than I could ever have hoped for or conceptualized.

I didn't write too extensively about his abuse toward me in the book because of two reasons: a current kidnapping case that is still pending and I wanted to show the good parts about psychedelics, the spirituality.

JK: After the silo bust there was a lot of running from potential payback and lengthy legal proceedings to deal with. I assume these were not the greatest times, but you wound up staying with Todd, even at his mother's house, until Todd got arrested after Burning Man, 2003. Although you report Todd was giving away large quantities of psychedelics for free at Burning Man, I heard that a bunch of people in the community were angry that he would dare show his face there, and that the whole scene was very weird. You were right in the middle of it and decided to leave, you even said you were afraid Todd was going to far, that something bad was going to happen. What was going on with you then? Did you realize this was the end? How heavy was that for you?

Todd was out of control. So much so that it was dangerous for everyone around him.

At burning man he knowingly gave away a really bad batch of LSD; you know the muddy black stuff. It caused several people to go into convulsions.

He even brought a girl to our RV that was having one of these bad reactions. He asked me to help her saying that he was to high to do anything. She was completely naked and had been running around like that for I don't know how long in the cold night air. She was shaking constantly. I think she could have been close to hypothermia. He thought the nudity was entertaining. Two hours after she went to sleep and I knew she was alright, I hitchhiked out of there. I was not going to be responsible for someone dying.

Also, he was running around dosed and telling everyone he was a chemist. In my mind, that is just a bust waiting to happen. We weren't that protected.

JK: Along your journey you were exposed to many different drugs that inspired some profound mystical states, including states of cosmic unity and telepathy. How was it to be in the midst of a spiritual awakening as the lives of the people who had brought you into the fold were crashing down?

KC: I learned that almost every dealer gets busted, its only a matter of time. This caused me to keep to myself. I didn't want to get hurt by seeing any more family members go to prison.

It was very hard not to think about all the stressful times. In result, I had to learn to tune it all out and concentrate on the good parts in life, the spirituality.

JK: You stated many times that you felt embarrassed by the people around you, that they were making fun of you or thought you chanting was silly. Did you ever feel a disconnect between what you were feeling in that spiritual place and how the people who were supposed to be the "experts" were treating you?

KC: Sometimes I felt that way, and now upon reflection I realize it to be true. At times, I felt like I was leading the trip with my chants. This has always seemed kind of strange to me, seeing that I was the youngest one there.

JK: Are you still in contact with Todd? How does he feel about this book?

KC: Todd sends letters to me, even though I rarely give him a response. He feels I bashed him too hard. When in reality, it was really hard for me to be as easy on him as I was and still tell the truth.

JK: You learned a lot about psychedelics in a very short amount of time under very extreme circumstances. Do you have any advice for someone who may find themselves swept up in a similar situation?

KC: This is a difficult one because I barely made it through it all alive and not in prison.

I always followed the path that my heart lead me down. However, I didn't realize it would take me across a very thin tight rope. My only advice is to not look down, and try, with everything in you, to keep your balance. The end goal is more worth the journey than just about anything I can think of, yet a fall could mean life in prison.

JK: Thanks for answering these questions. The book was a very fascinating read. Any partig thoughts?

KC: Please be sure to take a look at this page of my site: http://www.lysergicbook.com/hope.html

Love and light,

Krystle