Albert Hofmann, the Father of LSD (1906–2008)

Albert Hofmann, a Swiss chemist, first synthesized LSD in 1938 but set it aside. In 1943, he accidentally ingested a small amount and experienced an extremely stimulated imagination. Three days later, on April 19, 1943, he intentionally took 250 micrograms of LSD to verify the effects, then rode his bicycle home—a ride now known as Bicycle Day. LSD was initially hailed as a tool for psychoanalysis and understanding schizophrenia, but in the 1960s figures like Timothy Leary promoted it as a path to spiritual enlightenment.

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Abstract

to experience 'an extremely stimulated imagination' caused by an accidental ingestion of LSD.Three days later, on April 19, 1943, he decided to verify his results by intentionally ingesting LSD.This day has become known as 'Bicycle Day' as Hofmann experienced an incredible bicycle ride on his way home from the lab.LSD was initially hailed as a wonder drug for use in psychoanalysis, particularly for gaining insights into schizophrenia; but in the 1960s, it came to be seen by Harvard's Timothy Leary and others as a pathway to spiritual enlightenment, Dr. Albert Hofmann, the brilliant Swiss synthetic chemist, was best known for fathering the compound lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), one of the most powerful psychotropic substances known, on April 16, 1943.Hofmann's discovery of the effect of LSD in Basel came 5 years after his original synthesis of the molecule in 1938, LSD-25, which was set aside as he continued with other derivatives.Four years later, he resynthesized LSD-25 because he felt he might have missed something the first time around.That day, he became the first human