Looking for Toxin X

Looking for Toxin X (Czech: Hledá se Toxin X) is a short Czechoslovakian popular science documentary about LSD.

Looking for Toxin X
Czech	Hledá se Toxin X
Directed by	Vladimír Kabelík[1]
Screenplay by	Vladimír Kabelík
Produced by	Zdenek Novák (Krátký Film Praha)
Starring	Stanislav Grof[2] Petr Oliva
Narrated by	Vaclav Voska
Cinematography	Svatopluk Malý
Music by	Jan Klusák
Production company	Krátký Film Praha
Distributed by	Ustredni Pujcovna Filmu
Release date	1962 (1962)
Running time	15 minutes
Country	Czechoslovakia
Language	Czech

Plot

A dose of LSD is given to a DAMU theatre student, Petr Oliva, by the Czech psychiatrist Stanislav Grof. Special effects convey the subjective experience of the experimental subject. The film's central premise is the search for ‘toxin x’, which is supposed to be at the root of all mental disorders. The medics believe that LSD will help them locate it.^[3]

Cast

• Stanislav Grof
• Petr Oliva
• Vaclav Voska (Narrator)

Production

The whole film crew were also given LSD during filming. The experimental subject Oliva (who went on to become a prominent Czech actor) later recalled that the reason everyone was given the drug was because, “we had to see for ourselves what happens to a person [when they are given the drug].”^[3]

Excerpts from the film appear in the documentary LSD made in ČSSR (2015) directed by Pavel Křemen.”^[3]