Apple Pioneer Bill Atkinson Was a Secret Evangelist of the ‘God Molecule’
upstart writes:
Bill Atkinson was a computing pioneer who, in the 1980s, effectively made Apple computers usable for everyday people by transforming code into windows, menus, and graphics.
But few people know that later in life he was a secret advocate of what's widely considered the world's most potent psychedelic: 5-MeO-DMT.
The hallucinogen, also called "the God molecule," is a compound found in the venomous secretions of the Sonoran Desert toad named Incilius alvarius (it's commonly called Bufo alvarius) and is known to bring about ego death, a total dissolution of the senses, and a euphoric feeling of existential connectedness, all in a roughly 20-minute trip. Atkinson, who died from pancreatic cancer on June 5 at the age of 74, was a member of a close-knit, private online community of 5-MeO-DMT enthusiasts called OneLight, where he went by the alias "Grace Within."
Several of Atkinson's friends and fellow psychonauts tell WIRED their "beloved" Atkinson played a key role in helping people access smaller doses of 5-MeO-DMT, which can be made synthetically, as he believed it would maximize the benefits of the potentially dangerous drug while minimizing harm. "The same creative mind who affected personal computers so profoundly continued to influence human evolution through his efforts to make the miracle of 'bufo' safer and more manageable," says friend Charles Lindsay, an artist who has worked with the SETI Institute, which works to find signs of extraterrestrial intelligence. "He truly pushed boundaries. That requires a willingness to consider what might easily be deemed ridiculous." Or, he adds, "risky."
[...] Wishing to spread the gospel about how to use the drug more responsibly, six sources confirmed to WIRED that Atkinson was behind a pseudonymously published manual that contains step-by-step production photos detailing how to produce lower-dose 5-MeO-DMT vape pens known as "LightWands." The guide was published online, on the psychedelic educational nonprofit Erowid. It was first posted in 2021, before it was updated in the month before Atkinson's death. Atkinson collaborated with the makers of the pens-also members of OneLight-to help refine the manufacturing process and make the vaporization process safer, friends say.
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