Mystic Chemist: The Life of Albert Hofmann and His Discovery of LSD

408 Pages·2013·36.28 MB·English

by  Dieter Hagenbach

M Y S T I C
C H E M I S T
The Life of
Albert Hofmann
and His Discovery of LSD
Dieter Hagenbach and Lucius Werthmü(cid:0)ller
Foreword by Stanislav Grof
Synergetic Press
Santa Fe, New Mexico
Copyright © 2011 by AT Verlag Aarau und München
Text Copyright © 2011 Dieter Hagenbach and Lucius Werthmüller
English translation copyright © 2013 by Synergetic Press
Foreword copyright © 2011 by Stanislav Grof
All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in any retrieval system, or transmitted, in
any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without
the prior permission of the publisher.
Published by Synergetic Press
1 Bluebird Court, Santa Fe, NM 87508
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Hagenbach, Dieter A.
[Albert Hofmann und sein LSD. English]
Mystic chemist : the life of Albert Hofman and his discovery of LSD /
Dieter Hagenbach and Lucius Werthmüller; foreword by Stanislav Grof.
pages cm
Translation of: Albert Hofmann und sein LSD.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-907791-46-1 (hardcover)
ISBN-13: 978-0-907791-44-7 (pbk.)
ISBN-10: 0-907791-44-1
1. Hofmann, Albert, 1906-2008. 2. LSD (Drug)--History. 3.
Chemists--Biography. I. Werthmüller, Lucius, 1958- II. Title.
BF209.L9H34 2013
615.7'883092--dc23
[B]
2013003308
Editor: Linda Sperling
Translation: William Geuss and Linda Sperling
Interior book design: John Cole Graphic Design
Cover design: Lakshmi Narayan, Awake Media
Cover photo: François Lagarde
Cover artwork: Richard Toelanie
Typeface: Optima and Formata
Contents
x Introduction 5 LSD Finds Its Discoverer 8 The Search
36 In the Beginning was the Ergot for a Truth Serum
39 The Synthesis 73 Dividing the World
xii Foreword by 41 Potency 74 Experiments without Limits
Stanislav Grof 42 The First Trip 80 Understatement
46 The Assistant 80 Iron Silence
81 Serious Sweden
1 Industry and Idyll
82 In the Name of the Fatherland
in the Provinces
6 The Dose Makes 84 The Mystery of the Cursed
1 The Beginnings of the Modern
the Poison Bread
Era
48 Successful Drugs
3 From Health Resort to
48 From Phantasticum to
Industrial Town
Entheogen 9 Flesh of the Gods
4 Founding a Family
52 The Effect of LSD 88 The Mushrooms Reach Basel
6 The Mystical Wonders of Nature
56 Classification of Psychoactive 88 The Kingdom of Sacred Plants
Substances According to Their and Mushrooms
Effect 90 Teonanácatl
2 With a Clear Goal
57 Drugs 91 Exploration
8 Illness and Social Poverty
92 Banker and Mycologist
11 A Model Student
94 The Active Substance
12 Brighter Horizons
7 Researchers Discover LSD 94 Psilocybin and Psilocin
13 From Clerk to Chemist
58 Mescaline 99 The Magic Vine
61 Experiments on Animals 101 Distrust
64 The First Experiment on 103 The Magic Circle
3 Call of the Plants
Humans
19 The Chemistry is Right in Basel
64 The Psychotomimetic Paradigm
20 In the Footsteps of Paracelsus
66 A Helpful Tool for 10 The Mexico Expedition
23 Squill and Foxglove
Psychotherapy 105 In the Land of the Mazatecs
67 Realms of Consciousness 108 Ceremony with a Magical Plant
68 Trauma Therapy 109 The Spirit in the Pill
4 Marriage and Family Bliss
69 LSD Comes to England 112 The Consequences
27 Turning Point
69 Studies in Saskatchewan
28 Beginning of an Eternal Love
70 Behind the Iron Curtain
30 War and Peace
70 LSD Conquers America
Albert Hofmann
11 Friendships and 13 Fuel of the Sixties 15 Humane Therapies,
Encounters 158 A Molecule Changed the World Transpersonal Visions
114 Family Life 160 The Bohemians of Manhattan 197 Divine Lightning
117 Circles 160 From the Laboratory into the 198 Thirty Years of Research
118 Interweavings Cuckoo’s Nest 200 Encounter With Death
119 Hermit in the Crystalline World 161 Can You Pass the Acid Test? 202 The Cartographer
124 Radiance and Convergence 163 The Hog Farm 203 Expanding of the Image of
126 Almost a Friendship 163 Chemistry in the Underground Humanity
129 The Networker 164 The Trips Festival 204 The Spectrum of Consciousness
132 The Coronation 165 Dionysian Festivals 206 Human Potential
166 Hippies? Hippies! 207 An Alternative
167 A Peaceful Cultural Revolution 209 Interaction at Esalen
12 Metamorphoses
168 Chemists for a Better World
at Harvard
169 Flowers in Their Hair, Love in
135 Vision of a New Psychology 16 Spiritual Dimensions
Their Hearts, LSD in Their
137 Psychedelic Revelation 211 Mushrooms Instead of Fish
Heads
138 Academic Mushroom Circles 214 The Missing Taboo
170 The Diggers
140 Liberation Behind Bars 215 Vast Emptiness, Nothing Holy
171 Sex and Drugs and Rock and
141 The Man with the 216 Journeys to the East
Roll
Mayonnaise Jar 217 In the Here and Now
172 Sounds of the Sixties
144 The End of Peace, Joy and 220 Buddhists and Psychedelics
175 Acid House, Psytrance, Goa
Magic Mushrooms 220 Ecologist and Buddhist
Trance
146 Millbrook 221 Zen Priest and Animal Welfare
175 The Desert Lives
147 Bureaucratic Hurdles Advocate
178 Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds
151 The Woman from Washington 221 Instant Nirvana
179 Woodstock
152 Founding Years 223 Cosmologist of Joy
181 Hair
153 Multimedia Spectacle 224 Psychosis and Enlightenment
181 Swinging London
154 Changes of All Kinds 225 Tool of the Mind
182 Trips Around the World
155 Turn on, Tune in, Drop out
17 Creativity and Art
14 The Great Repression
226 Intoxicated Literati
185 Brotherhood of Eternal Love
228 Bee God and Sacred Mirrors
187 Demonization
232 A New Dimension of Art
188 Verdict and Prohibition
233 The Creativity Pill
190 Underground Therapy
235 Psychedelia
191 The Empire Strikes Back
238 A New Perspective
192 Crime Scene Missile Silo
239 Encounters with Artists
193 Dedication to Freedom
242 Comic Strips
194 Outrage
243 Art Instead of LSD
244 High in Hollywood
vi
CONTE NTS
18 Source of Inspiration 22 Stimulus and Impetus Appendix
248 From Uranium to LSD 306 A Belgian in Burg 356 Retrospective on a
251 Open Minds, Open Systems 309 Visitors From Around the World Researcher’s Life
254 All is One 312 Border Crosser 357 Acknowledgements
255 Legal, Illegal, Digital 313 The Tank and the Deep Self 358 Notes
257 Gaia 316 The Indian from Hamburg 363 Bibliography
259 Symbiosis 318 The Trip Advisor 372 Publications by
261 Nobel Prizes 322 The Third Member Albert Hofmann
262 Peak Experiences 377 Photo Credits
379 Index of Names
23 Wisdom of Years 383 About the Authors
19 Ways of Life 324 Reflections on Nature
264 Another Discovery 327 Secrets of a Long Life
267 Paradise Found Again 329 Frontier Areas
269 The Company 330 Art and Ability
273 Farewell to Sandoz 332 A Grandson Remembers
274 Father and Apostle 334 Albert Hofmann Turns
One Hundred
339 The Old Man and His Child
20 Legacies 343 Yet Another Tribute
280 The Problem Child
284 The Translator
285 The Media 24 Between Earth
287 Plants of the Gods and Heaven
289 Wisdom of the Greeks 344 Connections with the
292 Scholarly Dialogue Whole World
295 At Eleusis 344 The Albert Hofmann Medal
346 From Problem Child to
Wonder Drug
21 Insights and Outlooks 347 Back to the Future
296 A Good Question 348 Behind Every Strong Man
298 A Model of Reality 349 Farewell and Mourning
301 Philosophy and Ecology 350 Echo of a Life’s Work
304 Honors and Awards 353 The Ultimate Journey
vii

ix
Light Painting by Dean Chamberlain, 1997
Introduction
This book is dedicated to all whose lives were changed
by Albert Hofmann’s discoveries.
“Not I, LSD was chosen” succinctly said ditions and journeys and the many years
Albert Hofmann in 2007 when, at the age of retirement devoted to natural philosophy
of 101, he was selected as the most impor- and an extremely rich social life.
tant living genius by a jury from the His research into ergot alkaloids led
renowned British newspaper the Daily to several drugs that he developed virtually
Telegraph. Hardly any other discovery by himself and these earned and continue
in the twentieth century has exercised to earn his former employer billions in
greater influence on science, society, and sales. Even though Albert Hofmann never
culture than the mysterious, incomparably earned the Nobel Prize due to the con-
potent substance that in doses of a mere troversy surrounding LSD, he is the best
millionth of a gram profoundly alters con- known twentieth-century chemist and the
sciousness. The chemist discovered its only one with pop star status—as the
psychedelic effect on April 19, 1943, storm of flashbulbs at his frenetically cel-
during a self-experiment on his legendary ebrated appearances on his 100th birthday
bicycle ride. This first LSD trip fundamen- at the LSD Symposium in Basel clearly
tally changed his life as it later would demonstrated.
lead millions of people throughout the After its fateful discovery, LSD became
world into new directions. the subject of thousands of clinical studies
Albert Hofmann’s biography takes us for decades as well as obscure experiments
on a journey through the twentieth century: by Secret Services and the Military. In
From his mystical experiences of nature the 1960s it left the laboratory and fueled
as a child in Baden, to his study of chemistry the emerging youth and Hippie movements
with Nobel Prize winner Paul Karrer in in the USA that ultimately changed the
Zurich, his discovery of LSD and of psilocybin world—a mass phenomenon that unleashed
at Sandoz in Basel, his adventurous expe- downright hysteria about LSD, which was
x