Basel LSD Pioneer almost 100
Albert Hofmann who discovered the psychoactive properties LSD while working in the laboratories of Sandoz in Basel will reach 100 years of age on January 11th 2006.
According to his book - “LSD - My Problem Child“:
“Last Friday, April 16, 1943, I was forced to interrupt my work in the laboratory in the middle of the afternoon and proceed home, being affected by a remarkable restlessness, combined with a slight dizziness. At home I lay down and sank into a not unpleasant intoxicated-like condition, characterized by an extremely stimulated imagination. In a dreamlike state, with eyes closed (I found the daylight to be unpleasantly glaring), I perceived an uninterrupted stream of fantastic pictures, extraordinary shapes with intense, kaleidoscopic play of colors. After some two hours this condition faded away.”
In celebration, a symposium is to be held in Basel on January 13th - 15th 2006.
According to Hofmann’s writing, various colleagues got involved in self-experimentation on LSD as it was less easy to quantify results of experiments on animals; i.e. if you give a goldfish acid it is unlikely to tell you what it is experiencing. The idea of a bunch of scientists getting stoned in the name of research is frankly amusing.
Also amusing is Hofmann’s reference to LSD as being the “Atom Bomb of the Soul”; and his idea that his discovery is more likely to be of benefit to mankind than nuclear weapons.