It wasn't a secret that Steve Jobs dabbled in recreational drugs, but new Pentagon files reveal just how much he valued the mind-altering substances, crediting his LSD use with having a 'life-changing' effect on him.
Read the letter from the first man to ever synthesize LSD, Albert Hofmann, to the famed inventor, Steve Jobs.
In a government security clearance questionnaire, filled out in 1988 and released this week, the late Apple founder divulged he took LSD up to 15 times between 1972 and 1974.
While he said he had 'no words' to explain how he reacted to the hallucinogenic drug, he told Department of Defense officials: 'It was a positive life changing experience for me and I am glad I went through that experience'.
Drugs: Mr Jobs, pictured, said his experience with LSD was 'positive and 'life-changing'
Mr Jobs, who died in October after a year-long battle with pancreatic cancer, opened up about his drug use in the background check he completed to gain Top Secret security clearance with the DoD while he was working at Pixar.
'I would ingest the LSD on a sugar cube or in a hard form of gelatin,' he said. 'I would usually take the LSD when I was by myself.'
The documents, handed to Wired under Freedom of Information laws, also reveal Mr Jobs smoked marijuana or hashish, or ate it cooked into chocolate brownies, once or twice a week between 1973 and 1977.
Clearance: Steve Jobs, pictured in 1987, was gaining Top Secret clearance with the government
LSD: Steve Jobs, pictured in 1981, told the Pentagon he ingested LSD on a sugar cube or in a hard form of gelatin
Mr Jobs credited getting high with fueling his creativity.
'The best way I would describe the effect of the marijuana and the hashish is that it would make me relaxed and creative,' he said.
Unlike LSD, the tech titan said he used the drugs with friends but insisted the last time he had got high was more than a decade earlier - in 1977.
He told Pentagon interviewers that he had never used any other illegal drug or misused prescription drugs and added that he only purchased the substances rather than distributing them.
Documents: The Pentagon files, pictured, were released through Freedom of Information laws
Habit: Mr Jobs opened up in the files, pictured, about his LSD and marijuana habits in his early years
Pentagon: The questionnaire, pictured, was filled out in 1988
LSD: In the documents, pictured, Mr Jobs was open about how ingested LSD on a sugar cube
According to Walter Isaacson’s biography of Mr Jobs, the security clearance was required because intelligence agencies were using Pixar's Image Computer for rendering information from reconnaissance flights and satellites.
The files also unearthed Mr Jobs' fears that someone may try to kidnap his daughter, Lisa Brennan-Jobs, in order to blackmail him for cash.
While being quizzed as to how blackmailers could target him and he told investigators that he could be susceptible through his daughter.
'The type of blackmail or threat that could be made against me would be if someone kidnapped (her),' he said.
Daughter: Mr Jobs feared his daughter Lisa Brennan-Jobs, pictured, would be kidnapped
But Mr Jobs added that any blackmail attempt would 'primarily be for the purpose of money, not because I have access to classified Top Secret material or documents'.
The documents beef up revelations in Mr Jobs' FBI file that was made public last February.
Mr Jobs was known for having a temper but in the statements he gave the DoD in 1988, he said he had put this bad behavior behind him.
He attributed his angry outbursts to perfectionism and said he now had his emotions under control.
Mr Jobs admitted to suffering bouts of depression in the past but told investigators he considered himself an emotionally and mentally stable person.
Sick: Steve Jobs, pictured, died of pancreatic cancer in October
Experimental: Mr Jobs, pictured here in 2004, admitted that he experimented with LSD and marijuana to the pentagon
He divulged that he had never received medical treatment or counseling for a mental disorder but had once attended a two-month course at the Oregon Feeling Center.
'This course primarily delt [sic] with getting in touch with your feelings and understanding your feelings,' he said.
The documents also reveal information about Mr Jobs’ overseas travel, including a visit he made to the Soviet Union in the summer of 1985 to market Apple products.
The trip was facilitated by an international lawyer who was based in Paris and later met Mr Jobs and one of his Apple colleagues in the Soviet Union, according to Wired.
Mr Jobs told investigators that he had a 'feeling' the attorney who accompanied them on the two-day trip 'worked for the CIA or the KGB,' though he offered no explanation for this.
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Not so surprising about the LSD use. A very interesting and enlightening post. Thanks for sharing ^^
ReplyDeleteI knew it :)
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