For those of us lucky, or unlucky, enough to be around during the 1960’s, the name LSD, or lysergic acid diethylamide, was well-known. The name of the drug’s inventor, Albert Hofmann, was not as well known nor was his vision for this extremely powerful psychotropic substance.
Albert Hofmann was born in Baden, Switzerland, on January 11, 1906, the eldest of four children. The family was not rich, Albert’s father was a toolmaker in a local factory, and Albert spent much of his day rambling through the woods that were above Baden. He developed a very close relationship with nature and, when he attended Zurich University, he studied chemistry because he wanted to investigate the natural world at the stage where energy and elements come together to form life. After he earned his PHD in 1929, Hofmann went to work at Sandoz Laboratories in Basel working to synthesize pharmacological compounds derived from medically important plants.
Hofmann’s work, both at Sandoz Laboratories and as a graduate student, opened up new fields in the study of pharmacology. When studying for his PHD, Hofmann discovered the structure of insect chitin and later, at Sandoz, that he did groundbreaking work on the ergot fungus. This fungus is found in rye kernels and has many effects on the human central nervous system. He developed many drugs still used medically today such as methergine, which prevents obstetrical bleeding, the vasodilator hydergine, used in the treatment of dementia, and dihydergot, used to reduce migraines.
His most famous and notorious discovery, however, was LSD-25, or lysergic acid diethylamide. Hofmann first synthesized the compound in 1938, in a series of ergot-derived composites, and hoped that it would be useful as a “circulatory and respiratory stimulant.” When the substance was tested in animals, some clinical effects were noted, mostly restlessness, but with the approach of World War II, Sandoz discontinued testing on the grounds that it was too expensive.
Hofmann felt that there was something to LSD, and on April 16, 1943 he synthesized a few more centigrams of the substance. During the time that he was cleaning up, Hofmann accidently ingested a very small amount and became dizzy. He went home to lie down and, according to his diary, had visions of “an uninterrupted stream of fantastic pictures, extraordinary shapes with intense, kaleidoscopic play of colors.” After he recovered from his “trip”, Hofmann realized what had happened and recognized that the hallucinatory power of LSD was greater than any other known substance.
In order to prove his hypothesis, Hofmann took a quarter-milligram of LSD on April 19th. Attended by a nurse and a country doctor, he was able to record only garbled notes in his diary, but said that afterwards he felt well and somewhat refreshed. He could also remember his experience in great detail.
In the 1950’s, the psychiatrists welcomed the “advancement” of LSD and during the 1950’s used it to treat psychosis as it gave patients the ability to gain a cosmic perspective and was useful in dealing with ego problems. During the 1960's the drug was banned in the U.S. as well as other countries.
Hofmann felt that he had gained a new view of reality. He continued his LSD experiments, and became chief consultant to the psychiatric research program. In 1984, in an interview with the psychiatrist Stanislav Grof, he stated: “Through my LSD experience and my new picture of reality, I became aware of the wonder of creation, the magnificence of nature and of the animal and plant kingdom. I became very sensitive to what will happen to all this and all of us.”
Over the years Hofmann became friends with many non-academic experimenters such as Aldous Huxley, who, when he was dying of very painful throat cancer, requested an injection of LSD to ease his pain. The Harvard lecturer, Timothy Leary began experimenting with LSD in 1960 and soon took the substance out of the lab and into the streets. Soon amateur chemists were fabricating LSD outside the laboratory setting, which disturbed Hofmann as he felt that it should be treated as a sacred substance and ingested only with care and spiritual intent.
He said, “I believe that if people would learn to use LSD’s vision-inducing capability more wisely, under suitable conditions, in medical practice and in conjunction with meditation, then in the future this problem child could become a wonderchild.
Albert Hofmann died on April 30, 2008. He is survived by two of his four children, and was predeceased by his wife, Anita.
