Historical overview
OpenAlex – March 01, 2023
Source: OpenAlex
Summary
Human history with Psilocybin and Lysergic acid diethylamide is profound. Indigenous cultures used these hallucinogens for millennia, an ethnology now informing modern understanding. Albert Hofmann synthesized Lysergic acid diethylamide in the 1940s; Psilocybin gained notice in the 1950s, sparking cultural fascination, impacting art and art history. After 1970s drug laws, a 1990s scientific Renaissance began. Psychedelics and Drug Studies now explore their potential, much like a MAGIC telescope explores the cosmos, revealing new perspectives on this complex history.
Abstract
Abstract Humans have a long and complicated history with psychedelic compounds. Originally discovered as a component of certain plants and fungi, the psychedelics were widely used by ancient and indigenous peoples for millennia. Contemporary Western society had been largely disconnected from psychedelics but was reintroduced when Albert Hofmann first synthesized D-lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) in the 1940s, and when American banker Gordon Wasson was introduced to psilocybin by Maria Sabina in the 1950s and spread word of these ‘magic mushrooms’. LSD and psilocybin became objects of scientific and cultural fascination, but their early prominence shifted into abrupt decline in the 1970s because of sweeping international drug laws and regulation. In the 1990s, the psychedelics re-emerged, this time from an era of prohibition. From that point onward, there has been an ongoing renaissance of psychedelic science.