Mystic Chemist: The Life of Albert Hofmann and His Discovery of LSD PDF
Preview Mystic Chemist: The Life of Albert Hofmann and His Discovery of LSD
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
The list of books you might like
