LSD: My Problem Child—Reflections on Sacred Drugs, Mysticism, and Science
JAMA – December 09, 1983
Source: OpenAlex
Summary
On April 16, 1943, Albert Hofmann accidentally ingested LSD-25, leading to an unprecedented experience characterized by "fantastic pictures" and vivid colors. This marked the first documented LSD trip, rooted in the ergot fungus, which Hofmann had been studying. Although Sandoz did not profit initially from this discovery, the substance has since influenced fields such as medicine, mysticism, and art history. Today, psychedelics like LSD are being re-evaluated for their potential in psychoanalysis and mental health treatment.
Abstract
Along with watches and cuckoo clocks, the Swiss produce drugs. They have been doing it for a long time— since Paracelsus of Basel, a contemporary of Columbus. On April 16, 1943, another Basel chemist, Albert Hofmann, was working in his laboratory at Sandoz. His specialty was ergot, a fungus that grows on grains. Starting with lysergic acid, the ergot nucleus, Hofmann had synthesized several medically useful drugs that made Sandoz a great deal of money. On this fateful day, while working with the 25th substance in his series of lysergic acid derivatives (LSD-25), Hofmann began to feel odd. "I sank into a not unpleasant intoxicated-like condition," he writes, and perceived an "uninterrupted stream of fantastic pictures, extraordinary shapes with intense, kaleidoscopic play of colors." Unwittingly, not knowing how he had absorbed the stuff, Hofmann had just taken the first LSD trip. Sandoz, alas, would not make a franc. Later Hofmann