happy birthday albert hoffman

GENEVA - LSD is an unlikely subject for a 100th birthday party. Yet the Swiss chemist who discovered the mind-altering drug and was its first human guinea pig is celebrating his centenary Wednesday — in good health and with plans to attend an international seminar on the hallucinogenic.

"I had wonderful visions," Albert Hofmann said, recalling his first accidental consumption of the drug.

"I sat down at home on the divan and started to dream," he told the Swiss television network SF DRS. "What I was thinking appeared in colors and in pictures. It lasted for a couple of hours and then it disappeared."

Hofmann, who also had bad experiences with the drug, continues to insist it should be legalized for medical treatment, particularly in psychiatric research. But LSD's reputation has been as turbulent as some acid trips.

The drug earned a bad reputation amid fatalities associated with hallucinations and reports of "flashbacks" — the recurrence of hallucinations when not taking the drug.

LSD inspired the 1960s hippy generation and was immortalized in the Beatles' hit "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds," although the band denied any connection. But it was also known as Like Swift Dead. Laughing

For decades after LSD was banned in the late 1960s, Hofmann defended his invention.

"I produced the substance as a medicine," he said. "It's not my fault if people abused it."

The chemist — who still takes nearly daily walks in the picturesque village where he lives in the Jura mountains with his wife of 70 years, Anita — discovered lysergic acid diethylamide-25 in 1938 while studying the medicinal uses of a fungus found on wheat and other grains at the Sandoz pharmaceuticals firm, now part of Novartis.

The company declined to comment for this story.

Hofmann was the first person to test the drug when a tiny amount of the substance seeped on to his finger during a repeat of the laboratory experiment in April 1943.

"Everything I saw was distorted, as in a warped mirror," he wrote of the experience, noting his surprise that LSD was able to produce "such a far-reaching, powerful, inebriated condition without leaving a hangover."

The chemist experimented with a larger dose three days later, but the result this time was a "horror" trip, he wrote. His surroundings turned into threatening images. A neighbor was transformed into a wicked witch.

"I was filled with an overwhelming fear that I would go crazy. I was transported to a different world, a different time," he wrote.

Hofmann and his scientific colleagues hoped LSD would make an important contribution to psychiatric research. The drug exaggerated inner problems and conflicts, and they hoped it might be used to recognize and treat mental illnesses like schizophrenia.

The drug was popularized by Timothy Leary, the one-time Harvard lecturer known as the "high priest of LSD," whose "turn on, tune in, drop out" advice to students in the 1960s glamorized the hallucinogen. The film star Cary Grant and numerous rock musicians extolled its virtues in achieving true self-discovery and enlightenment.

But away from the psychedelic trips and flower children, stories emerged of people going on murder sprees or jumping out of windows while hallucinating. Heavy users suffered permanent psychological damage.

The United States banned LSD in 1966 and other countries followed suit.

Hofmann maintains that was unfair, arguing the drug was not addictive. He has repeatedly said the ban should be lifted so LSD can be used in medical research, and he took the drug himself — purportedly on an occasional basis and out of scientific interest — for several decades.

But he added a note of caution.

"The history of LSD to date amply demonstrates the catastrophic consequences that can ensue when its profound effect is misjudged and the substance is mistaken for a pleasure drug," he wrote.

recommended!

I've heard a lot about it but never tried it. Isnt it like a strip of paper or micro pill? Sounds trippy :dazed:

Figures beardo would make this thread.

BANNED

CAN WE PLEASE CELEBRATE BY MAKING FAUX-LSD INSPIRED POEMS??

I'll go first.

A school bus full of hoolahoops

Teeth everywhere

Smiles are the generation of a lifetime

And no more is said than none

whoa.... you just blew my mind!

happy birthday acid man..

I had to avoid using winged horses or pink elephants.

And I bet if I went enough long without smoking, I would be mind blown, too.

i got my invite for the symposium going on this weekend

yesterday. too late to make the trip arrangements. fuck

Pass the chronchitler Blingo, this ones going to be a doosey. Compare the reference targets and then preach about how Shaniqua's pussy looks like a burnt pancake. Asta La Quaffico.

Fucking hippies...

Simple fact remains: Alcohol is cooler because it kills people.

flashbacks!!!

Originally posted by beardo@Jan 12 2006, 12:33 AM

The chemist experimented with a larger dose three days later, but the result this time was a "horror" trip, he wrote. His surroundings turned into threatening images. A neighbor was transformed into a wicked witch.

 

"I was filled with an overwhelming fear that I would go crazy. I was transported to a different world, a different time," he wrote.

Quoted post

oh yeah, i've definately been there before. absolutely terrifying

i read this book called acid dreams:a social history of the cia and lsd. its pretty crazy stuff.

kinda makes me want to take acid again. but i wont. i still get purple tracers sometimes. if thats a flashback. i can live with it.

thought you was talking about abby hoffman..

never was a big acid guy but happy birthday guy.

fuck you all for not joining me in my cool faux-lsd inspired poems game. Except GucciCondom.

haha, Flashbacks. I had that issue. Is it still around?

^^ I thought those were all poems...too much orange sunshine back in the day...

but yeah I have like permanent trails. I usta only get them for a few days after a trip, but at some point they became permanent. I've had flashbacks. not really scary..more of a feeling of de ja vu for a split second kinda, esp if your tired, stressed out & over stimulated etc etc

When's the birthday of the guy who invented heroin?

Originally posted by WhiteOx@Jan 12 2006, 07:05 PM

When's the birthday of the guy who invented heroin?

Quoted post

:haha:

this is funny.

Good thread beardo. :)

Im not witty: I read acid dreams awhile back also, very interesting book.

I had a dream I got a hold of some tabs last night ...

strange ...

I want to venture down this road one more time ...but I would need to know the chemist ... and I don’t see that going down.

As psychologists say your first altered state tends to be your favorite ... alcohol for most ... this was my diving off the high board into the deep end not even knowing if I knew how to swim!!!

Originally posted by El Mamerro@Jan 11 2006, 11:35 AM

Figures beardo would make this thread.

Quoted post

:clown2:

though i havent touched the stuff in probably over 5 years.