Has the ceiling ever been painted? Most of the time, the texture is done with sheetrock joint compound, and it is water soluble until painted. So if you roll on a heavy coat of water based paint or primer, it is possible to soften the texture and it will peel off. It will come off in sheets, wrapped around the roller.

 

I actually am not sure if it has or has not been painted...so I guess it would be safer to use oil-based then. It is circa 1980's so I would like to avoid rustling up any possible asbestos that might be in the mixture

 

Assuming it's a popcorn texture and it's never been painted - oil base primer is best. Personally I'd remove the popcorn and then either use a different texture or skim coat and have a slick finish ceiling. While asbestos dust is harmful, keeping it wet pretty much negates any health hazard.

 

Im not buying it. There had to have been something majorly wrong with that texture job, or contaminated walls or something. Literally millions and millions of houses have rolled waterbased primer on raw texture.

Either way , you can damn near guarantee it isnt raw anyway. if in doubt, scratch it with a fingernail. If its raw, you'll know it. Other than that, there really isnt a reason to prime, unless theres water stains, in which case, you need to use oil anyway.