GENEVA (AP) - Albert Hofmann, the father of the mind-altering drug LSD whose medical discovery inspired - and arguably corrupted - millions in the 1960s hippie generation, has died. He was 102. Hofmann died Tuesday at his home in Burg im Leimental, said Doris Stuker, a municipal clerk in the village near Basel where Hofmann moved following his retirement in 1971.
Here was a man who managed to avoid the spotlight while doing work that altered some consciousness.
The Swiss chemist 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 in Basel. He became the first human guinea pig of the drug when a tiny amount of the substance seeped onto his finger during a laboratory experiment on April 16, 1943.
I find it encouraging that Hofmann minded his own business, did not become a rock star, and yet saw potential for broad uses of his chance discovery.
Hofmann welcomed a decision by Swiss authorities last December to allow LSD to be used in a psychotherapy research project. "For me, this is a very big wish
come true. I always wanted to see LSD get its proper place in medicine," he told Swiss TV at the time. Hofmann took the drug - purportedly on an occasional basis and out of scientific interest - for several decades. "LSD can help open your eyes," he once said. "But there are other ways - meditation, dance, music, fasting."
The next day, coincidentally, a friend sent me a video in which a neuroscientist describes her first-person experience of a stroke that temporarily disabled her right arm and left brain. It's an amazing account from the inside of a common but dramatic medical event, especially given her knowledge and background.
Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor compares the two hemispheres of the brain to a computer with a parallel processor (right), which engages in connections in the here and now, and a serial processor (left), which engages in discrete details in a linear past-future orientation. These are well-known differences, but it comes across strikingly in her personal account of gradually losing half her brain function while retaining - and newly appreciating - the other half.
Taylor was doing research on schizophrenia in a lab at Harvard when one of the blood vessels in her brain decided to burst, so, like Hofmann, she had an understanding of what was happening to her. If you watch the video of her account years later, you'll see that the experience also suggested some possibilities beyond the strict medical-therapeutic applications. In certain moments, her account reminds me of Aldous Huxley's famous description in The Doors of Perception.
I'm not advocating that anyone do what any of these really intelligent people have done, but I can't help but notice some striking similarities in what they came across and what conclusions they have drawn.
Hofmann retired from Sandoz in 1971 and devoted his time to travel, writing and lectures. "This is really a high point in my advanced age," Hofmann said at a ceremony in Basel honoring him on his 100th birthday. "You could say it is a
consciousness-raising experience without LSD."
1 comment:
LSD worked for me. Sure, sometimes I used it as a super-fun party drug. But most of the time I was fairly scientific (for a non-scientist) during my trips, at times writing down what I was experiencing, but always taking mental notes, being very aware.
I could give many examples, but I'll summarize with this: LSD made a fairly angry and somewhat rigid young adult (me) much more open. I found beauty in unexpected places, even more beauty in the expected places (nature, the arts), and a sense of the enormous positive possibilities of the mind.
I don't advocate it, either, but I won't demonize it. I don't do it now, but I'm glad I did it then. I know it sounds odd or, to some, terrible to say this, but LSD changed my life for the better. Could I have gotten there without it? There are ways, but LSD got there first. Mr. Hofmann's accident opened my door.
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