Dr. Albert Hofmann Has Died At Age 102

[tregar]

The very first book on psychedelics I ever read was "LSD my problem child". I have since read it over 8 times...I never get tired of it. I decided to pick up that book at a local headshop a long time ago after tripping many many times as a young college student.

From that moment on, I had a better understanding of psychedelics and an immense respect for Dr. Hofmann and his work. God Bless Dr. Hofmann, and his love of nature I finally understand being older and wiser now...I didn't understand long ago, but now I do. Dr. Hofmann was not only a great man and inventor/discover/chemist but also a great writer.

Dr. Hofmann:

....When I later walked out into the garden, in which the sun shone now after a spring rain, everything glistened and sparkled in a fresh light. The world was as if newly created. All my senses vibrated in a condition of highest sensitivity, which persisted for the entire day...

....There is less danger of a cleft reality experience arising in a natural environment. In field and forest, and in the animal world sheltered therein, indeed in every garden, a reality is perceptible that is infinitely more real, older, deeper, and more wonderous than everything made by people, and that will endure, when the inanimate, mechanical, and concrete world again vanishes, becomes rusted and fallen into ruin.

In the sprouting growth, blooming, fruiting, death, and regermination of plants, in their relationship with the sun, whose light they are able to convert into chemically bound energy in the form of organic compounds, out of which all that lives on our earth is built, in the being of plants the same mysterious, inexhaustible, eternal life energy is evident that has also brought us forth and takes us back again into its womb, and in which we are sheltered and united with all living things...

When Dr. Hofmann took LSD he felt even closer to nature and it reminded him of when he was a child and took frequent walks in the gardens and meadows and countryside...it brought him back to that same unspoiled feeling.

I get the same feelings as he did....it brought me back to the time when I was a child and remember playing with my playmates in the local parks and nature....the most enjoyable times of my life...

More important to him than the pleasures of the psychedelic experience was the drug’s value as a revelatory aid for contemplating and understanding what he saw as humanity’s oneness with nature. That perception, of union, which came to Dr. Hofmann as almost a religious epiphany while still a child, directed much of his personal and professional life.

The Entheogen Review page 92 2005 autumnal equinox interview:

RICK: ALBERT, I'm wondering if you have any suggestions for us about things that we might want to look into regarding LSD and psilocybin? I remember, a while ago, you said one of the most unexplored areas of research with LSD was low doses?

ALBERT: Yes, that would be interesting, Just as a kind of pleasure drug. Heh heh.

RICK: Ah.

ALBERT: Very, very low doses; this could be a worthwhile study. I have used it, sometimes, just very small doses, for walking and thinking. This could be a worthwhile study.

RICK: What kind of doses are you talking about, when you would go out walking?

ALBERT: 25 micrograms. Twenty-five, instead of 125. Or even lower: ten.

RICK: Wow. Can you actually notice when you take ten micrograms? Can you notice that you've taken it?

ALBERT: Oh, yes! Yes. An improved response to nature. Improved experience of nature, yes. And of thinking, a big improvement of thinking. But, may I just add to this discussion, quite another thing: the work of KAST, WALTER PAHNKE, and GROF--that it may be used for dying people.

[Fun-Guy]

R.I.P. You Great Man

[cap]

its easy and natural response to such an event to feel regret and sorrow.
however, when an individual lives to such an old age,
those closest to the person tend to find it easier to celebrate the life of the person,
rather then dwell upon the loss of said individual. especially in doctor hofmanns case.
a man that accomplished so much in his time here on this plane, and left a permanent mark in history.
couldnt ask for much more smile, it's a good day, he is home and can feel no pain

[straightog]

the true father of soul.... Lsd is king..
he will be greatly missed

r.i.p

[ShroomGuerilla]

[alounacara]

Originally Posted by cap

a man that accomplished so much in his time here on this plane, and left a permanent mark in history.
couldnt ask for much more smile, it's a good day, he is home and can feel no pain

Good post Cap

[aumbrellaforainydays]

cheers Dr. Hoffman, the gatekeeper to the doors of perception

We should honor this guy for his contribution to the world. there is already an unofficial LSD "day" the 4/19, where everyone should dose and ride around on bicycles. But noone ever celebrates the days that psilocybin or ololiuqui were synthesized (perhaps because it wasnt on a bike)

His D-day: April 29
Bicycle day: April 19, 1943
Psilocybin and Psilocin day: 1958, anyone know which month/day/place?
Ololiuqui (Rivea corymbosa) day:

btw, the deriviatives extracted from ololiuqui --related to LSD-- by hoffman were:
d-Lysergic acid amide (ergine)
d-Isolysergic acid amide (isoergine)fficeffice" />>>

So in 1938 he made LSD-25, but didnt 'discover' its effects 'til 4 years later?
April 16, 1943 is the date of 'discovery' right?
who synthesized mescaline first?

Originally Posted by A Conversation with Albert Hoffman

What would you say to young people?
AH: What I would say would most certainly be: Open your eyes! The doors of perception must be opened. That means these young people must learn by their own experience, to see the world as it was before human beings were on this planet. That is the real problem today, that people live in towns and cities, where everything is dead. This material world, made by humans, is a dead world, and will disappear and die. I would tell the young people to go out into the countryside, go to the meadow, go to the garden, go to the woods. This is a world of nature to which we belong, absolutely. It is the circle of life, of which we are an integral part. Open your eyes, and see the browns and greens of the earth, and the light which is the essence of nature. The young need to become aware of this circle of life, and realize that it is possible to experience the beauty and deep meaning which is at the core of our relation to nature.
http://www.maps.org/news-letters/v08n3/08330hof.html

Originally Posted by From Problem Child to Wonder Child

And finally, I thank LSD, which made itself so discretely and mysteriously noticeable. I think that if I had worked totally cleanly that LSD could never have expressed itself. Somehow, it entered my body and made itself noticeable. It requested from me—since I was a seeker and a researcher—to investigate its origins. The experience I had, that first LSD trip, was unintentional. It was a wonderful experience and I had to find the cause of it. And on this search for its origin, I heard a mysterious voice that I could identify as the LSD.
http://www.erowid.org/general/confer...article1.shtml

[hyphaenation]

Thanks for posting that pic umbrella, it made my day.

Dr. Albert

If life were the game of CLUE , the final correct answer would be ...

It was Dr. Hofmann , in the lab , with the dropper !

[TVCasualty]

Originally Posted by hyphaenation

If life were the game of CLUE , the final correct answer would be ...

It was Dr. Hofmann , in the lab , with the dropper !

I'm proud to be among his countless "victims!" If only I'd gotten some from those original Sandoz droppers... Sigh...

I always wondered about Dr. Hofmann's first impressions of LSD during that famous bike ride. We know it's incredibly uncool to dose someone without their knowledge, but I can't imagine what that first impression must have been like so long before psychedelics entered the public's consciousness. It must've been a genuine Moses moment!

[hyphaenation]

I'm thinking he might have felt something like this ...

[TVCasualty]

That looks like maybe his second impression; now we take feeling like that for granted! Thanks again, Dr. Hofmann!

I can't help but think the very first impression he had, at the very first 'alert' that something was up, was like a massive WTF?!? kind of intrigued electric bewilderment, possibly similar to what I felt the first time I left Earth and saw it receding away from me... And, yes, I have Dr. Hofmann to thank for that, too (not to mention the University of [redacted]'s Pink Floyd laser show).


That pic of him at his 100th birthday was amazing; he looked as sharp as he ever was and clearly was still enjoying his life. I hope I look and feel that great when I turn 50!

[Freaky]

RIP

[real_psily]

One Love, Many Thanks,
He found the missing link......I will forever be grateful.

Thank you sir where ever you are. We all should be so lucky as to lead such an amazing existence.

[hyphaenation]

From a great site...

http://www.matrixmasters.com/blog/drugwar01.html

Albert Hofmann, 102; Chemist Discovered LSD

Albert Hofmann's formulation of LSD had wide-ranging social effects, and the drug was eventually made illegal. (Family Photo - Family Photo)



Albert Hofmann, 102, a Swiss chemist and accidental father of LSD who came to view the much-vilified and abused hallucinogen he discovered in 1938 as his "problem child," died April 29 at his home in Burg, a village near Basel, Switzerland, after a heart attack.

His death was confirmed by Rick Doblin, the Boston-based founder of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, a nonprofit pharmaceutical company developing LSD and other psychedelics for prescription medicines.

Lysergic acid diethylamide, thousands of times stronger than mescaline, can give its user an experience often described as psychedelic -- a kaleidoscopic twirling of the mind pulsating with color and movement.

After its discovery, LSD was viewed as a wonder drug with the potential to treat problems including schizophrenia and alcoholism. For the latter, some held the theory that chronic drinkers quit only after experiencing the hallucinations of delirium tremens.

LSD attracted many prominent advocates. They included Aldous Huxley, author of "Brave New World," and psychologist Timothy Leary, who saw the drug as a potent way for people to live up to his 1960s counterculture motto: "Turn on, tune in, drop out."

The CIA was also widely reported to have used LSD in experiments on unwitting subjects. This, and greater recreational use that caused some fatal overdoses, led to the widespread condemnation of the drug and, by the early 1970s, its criminalization. As a result, research permission and funding from state and federal agencies was terminated.

In Dr. Hofmann's opinion, outlawing LSD made its use even more attractive to young people and diminished any safeguards. He spoke of many hippies stopping by his home on the way to their spiritual quest, hoping to score from his "secret stash."

Dr. Hofmann came across LSD while working on medicinal uses of a fungus to act as a circulatory heart-lung stimulant. His first LSD "trip" occurred in 1943, a troubling experience that led him to write in his journal, "A demon had invaded me, had taken possession of my body, mind and soul."

Dr. Hofmann remained wary of LSD's recreational uses as well as its portrayal in the media.

"I was not surprised that it became a ritual drug in the youth anti-establishment movement, but I was shocked by irresponsible use that resulted in mental catastrophes," he told Playboy magazine in 2006. "That's what gave the health authorities a pretext for totally prohibiting its production, possession and use."

Albert Hofmann was born Jan. 11, 1906, in Baden, Switzerland. He was the oldest of four children, and after his father, a toolmaker, fell seriously ill, he was forced as a teenager to seek a commercial apprenticeship to support the family.

While learning a trade, he continued his private schooling with financial help from his godfather. In 1930, he received a doctorate from the University of Zurich, where he studied the chemistry of plants and animals, and he joined the pharmaceutical-chemical firm Sandoz (now Novartis) in Basel.

[cap]

matrix masters/psychedelic salon is definitely a great site...and a lovely obituary slash fortelling

[waylitjim]

He looked so good for his age.
What an amazing man!

[Shadowlord]

More important to him than the pleasures of the Psychedelic Experience was the drug’s value as a revelatory aid for contemplating and understanding what he saw as humanity’s oneness with nature. That perception, of union, which came to Dr. Hofmann as almost a religious epiphany while still a child, directed much of his personal and professional life.

This was taken from the passage tregar quoted from Dr. Hoffman and it explains the biggest reason why I love LSD as much as I do. I have heard people speak of the coldness or alieness of LSD buthave never had that experience myself. I have always loved Nature and our Planet and LSD has always made me feel close to everything, in a very spiritual way, and has always left me with the feeling of understanding better even if I couldn't explain in any quantitative way.

Clear White Light. Total and complete oneness and understanding and the ability to perceive root causes as to why we do the things we do.

I truly believe that Dr. Hoffman was the vehicle through which LSD was given to us by the Universe ( Multiverse ). Much as the Ancients discovered the other sacred plants and substances that we spend so much time here discussing!