Happy Bicycle Day

[fluidfocus]

April 16, 1943, while re-synthesizing LSD, Dr. Albert Hofman accidentally absorbed a small quantity through his fingertips and fortuitously discovered its powerful effects. He described what he felt as 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.

Three days later, on April 19, 1943, Hofmann intentionally ingested 250 micrograms of LSD. This day is now known as "Bicycle Day," because after starting to feel the effects of the drug he rode home on a bike, and that became the first intentional acid trip.

 

[BringsUsTogether]

A better celebratory day than 4/20 in my opinion...

 

[dreamer042]

Bump

 

[null24]

HAPPY TRAILS, EVERYBODY!:lol:

 

[InLaKesh]

I just wanted to make a bicycle day Thread....

Happy Bicycle Day everybody

I am not able to celebrate accordingly , but will have a smoke to celebrate Albi and the Acid .

 

[entheogenic-gnosis]

Accident?

It seems very unlikely that a meticulous Swiss chemist could accidentally get something like LSD into his system through synthesis. Nichols cites claims by nick sand of painting LSD onto his skin, even with DMSO to facilitate transdermal absorption the venture failed.

Below is Nichols theory:

As I've said, Swiss and German chemists have a reputation -- today and back then -- for being absolutely meticulous. If we had gone into Albert's lab at Sandoz in 1943, we would probably have found everything in its place, organized in an obsessively neat manner. No dirty glassware, no trash on the floor, meticulous. How in the world did a meticulous Swiss chemist get 50 to 75 micrograms or more of LSD into his body? We don't know.

Another fact: I've made LSD in my lab on many occasions for research purposes, possibly in not so meticulous a manner as Albert Hofmann. Nothing ever happened. I had several graduate students who made LSD as an intermediate for projects. No accidental ingestion of LSD ever occurred. A technician in my lab makes it routinely because we use it as a drug to train our rats. He's learned by experience that he never gets high, nothing ever happens. And yesterday I was talking to Nick Sand, and Nick said, "I made a solution of LSD in DMSO…" -- DMSO (dimethyl sulfoxide) is a chemical that greatly enhances absorption of other chemicals through the skin -- he says, "…I painted it on my skin. Nothing happened." A concentrated solution and nothing happened! How did this very meticulous Swiss chemist get the LSD into his body? I don't know.

The other fact we need to think about is when Albert was a child, he had a spontaneous mystical experience. Now depending on whether you're a psychologist or a psychiatrist or whatever, we could say that Albert had a predisposition to altered states of consciousness.

So what facts do we know? I'm going to formulate a hypothesis. He took a dose that by your consensus should have lasted certainly more than two hours, but it only lasted two hours. He was a meticulous chemist -- a Swiss chemist. Anyone I know who's worked with LSD -- and Nick Sand painted a solution of it on his arm -- didn't get high. This doesn't make sense. And what is this peculiar presentiment? Why the 25th in the series? Inexplicable! And, he was predisposed to altered states of consciousness.

The only hypothesis I can come up with that's consistent with all of these facts is that on April 16, 1943, Albert Hofmann did not get LSD in his body at all. He had a spontaneous mystical experience!

-David E. Nichols

Erowid Conference Vault : Mindstates IV (2003) : LSD Panel - David Nichols, Ph.D.

Either Hoffman knew sandoz was wrong when they first told him "it's uninteresting move on", and decided to re-synthesize and intentionally consume it, or the situation Nichols proposed, or something like it was the case...

It seems like a "cosmic conspiracy" to bring LSD to earth.

I'm reminded of an anecdote regarding spirituality, which I have found a way to.apply to this situation:

A Vietnam veteran was overheard rebuking the Vietnamese Buddhist monk, Thich Nhat Hanh, about his unswerving dedication to non-violence.
"You're a fool," said the veteran - "what if someone had wiped out all the Buddhists in the world and you were the last one left. Would you not try to kill the person who was trying to kill you, and in doing so save Buddhism?!"
Thich Nhat Hanh answered patiently "It would be better to let him kill me. If there is any truth to Buddhism and the Dharma it will not disappear from the face of the earth, but will reappear when seekers of truth are ready to rediscover it.

BBC - Religions - Buddhism: War

This page looks at the ethical issues of war from the point of view of Buddhism.

www.bbc.co.uk

Psychedelics had been absent from western culture since the eleusis rites, possibly before that, and then randomly a Swiss chemist performing mundane research synthesizes LSD, discovers its power under mysterious circumstances, and reintroduced the west and the modern world to the psychedelic experience...it's as if it had almost disappeared from the face of the earth, and then miraculously it returns and spreads.

You could just as easily say "If there is any truth to psychedelics and the psychedelic experience it will not disappear from the face of the earth, but will reappear when seekers of truth are ready to rediscover it."

...and that's pretty much what happened.

Any way, I will stop, but I would like to remind others how bizarre the discovery of the compound truly was...

Happy bicycle day! (3 days ago)

-eg

 

[dreamer042]

Well, while we are on the subject of the anomalies of the discovery of LSD. Here is some tin foil hat conspiracy theory.

In a curious connection, Willis Harman, a senior social scientist at the Stanford Research Institute known as SRI International, and the initiator of the institute’s futures research program (and later the president of the Institute of Noetic Sciences), suggested, in an interview on ABC radio in 1977, that the origins of LSD began with an esoteric or mystical movement specifically following the twentieth century mystic Rudolf Steiner.
As Harman explains, the story of LSD “really starts” in “1935 with a group of followers of [this] German mystic [and] members of this group set out very deliberately to synthesize chemicals which were like the natural vegetable substances which they were well aware had been used in all the world’s major religious traditions down through the centuries.” As Harman continues, “By 1938 they had synthesized psilocybin, LSD and about thirty other drugs.” Harman thus suggests that LSD had been deliberately synthesized for its connection to religiosity, and at least five years before our history records say that the substance was first administered to a human (by Hofffman to himself).
More extraordinarily, Harmann’s remarks directly make the claim that psilocybin had been identified and isolated at least twenty years before the time on record in all of the histories of psilocybin about the first identification, isolation and chemical synthesis of this alkaloid, by Albert Hoffman and his colleagues in 1958, and at least seventeen years before the first western study of the use of magic mushrooms by R. Gordon Wasson in 1955.
Harmann’s claims are not supported by any written evidence, so it would be irresponsible to speculate too long on the possibility that either LSD or psilocybin were developed chemically before the historically confirmed dates or to credit this proposition with having a basis in fact.
It would perhaps be better to take Harmann’s claim as an embellished version of the more likely and better supported claim that there did exist some specific knowledge before the 1930s of the potential uses of, and of the methods by which certain ergot-based compounds were capable of generating hallucinatory or ecstatic altered mind-states, and that of this experimental imaginary in Europe, Perutz’s novel provides some evidence. However, that Harmann designates 1938, the year on which Hoffman had first synthesized LSD, as the date by which this “group of followers” had synthesized these so-called vegetable substances, seems to suggest that Harmann means to include Hoffman—and possibly the initiative begun by Arthur Stoll, the director of the pharmaceutical department at Sandoz, to isolate psychoactive constituents from a range of medicinal plants—as part of this project of the “group of followers of Rudolf Stein.”

Piper, Alan. "Leo Perutz and the Mystery of St Peter's Snow." Time and Mind 6.2 (2013): 175-198.

 

[TheOuterRealm]

A better celebratory day than 4/20 in my opinion...

Was just talking about this, so many regular smokers make a big deal about, its like seeing the same movie day after day, but then they have a special showing of your movie on the big screen, and you HAVE to watch it there all day long. Pop culture is all it is

 

[Aum_Shanti]

I think it is not that far off thinking he got something on his hands and later on put his fingers in his mouth or something like that.
Nick Sands said this happened to them all the time when they were synthing LSD, and so getting accidentally LSD into their bodies.
So I don't think it was absorbed transdermal.

I could well think that this happens not so easily anymore when synthesizing today, as people doing it are aware of the potency of it. This automatically lets you handle matter differently. If you, like Hoffman did, think these small amounts are of no hazard, you certainly are not as cautious in handling, even in a clean lab.

One could also argue, that he subconsciously ingested a bit, because he felt there is something behind this substance, which was why he got at it again.

 

[Bancopuma]

I'm wondering if it was more likely that he could of inhaled some, rather than absorbed it through his skin? I heard there were some subsequent experiments were LSD was applied to the skin, along with DMSO to increase potential transdermal absorption, and no effects were noted. Hofmann was a cautious and meticulous chemist, so I'm not sure it is likely he would have put his fingers in his mouth prior to washing his hands when working with chemicals in his lab. There is one case of DEA officers raiding an LSD lab somewhere in the US, and despite wearing full protective garb, one of the officers gets very intoxicated on LSD (while the others don't)...seemingly because he had a shave that morning, which allowed LSD access to his system (see the National Geographic documentary 'Inside LSD' online for details of this case). This also adds a little more weight to the LSD vapour absorption hypothesis.

Regarding the subconscious ingestion, he was obviously acting on his subconscious intuition when he decided to resynthesize some after it had been tested and shelved five year previously.

One very curious thing regarding Hofmann's first experience was its very brief, three hour duration. This is simply unheard of in ALL subsequent LSD trips known, even when microdosing. So what was going on here? It is well known that Hofmann had mystical experiences out in nature, and when he was on the LSD, the state of consciousness it produced was reminiscent of these mystical experiences. Well LSD world expert Dr David Nichols thinks it possible that Hofmann may have had one of these mystical experiences while synthesising the LSD, which could explain how incredibly brief his experience was.

...oh yeah, and happy belated bicycle day y'all!!

 

[entheogenic-gnosis]

I'm wondering if it was more likely that he could of inhaled some, rather than absorbed it through his skin? I heard there were some subsequent experiments were LSD was applied to the skin, along with DMSO to increase potential transdermal absorption, and no effects were noted. Hofmann was a cautious and meticulous chemist, so I'm not sure it is likely he would have put his fingers in his mouth prior to washing his hands when working with chemicals in his lab. There is one case of DEA officers raiding an LSD lab somewhere in the US, and despite wearing full protective garb, one of the officers gets very intoxicated on LSD (while the others don't)...seemingly because he had a shave that morning, which allowed LSD access to his system (see the National Geographic documentary 'Inside LSD' online for details of this case). This also adds a little more weight to the LSD vapour absorption hypothesis.

Regarding the subconscious ingestion, he was obviously acting on his subconscious intuition when he decided to resynthesize some after it had been tested and shelved five year previously.

One very curious thing regarding Hofmann's first experience was its very brief, three hour duration. This is simply unheard of in ALL subsequent LSD trips known, even when microdosing. So what was going on here? It is well known that Hofmann had mystical experiences out in nature, and when he was on the LSD, the state of consciousness it produced was reminiscent of these mystical experiences. Well LSD world expert Dr David Nichols thinks it possible that Hofmann may have had one of these mystical experiences while synthesising the LSD, which could explain how incredibly brief his experience was.

...oh yeah, and happy belated bicycle day y'all!!

I doubt it was inhalation, I'm having trouble trying to visualize a situation where this would even be feasible...further more I'm curious as to why Nichols never proposed such a hypothesis, if it's possible that would be great, however at this point I'm fairly skeptikal.

If you ask those who work with and synthesize LSD on a regular basis they will tell you that accidental ingestion of the compound during the process almost never occurs, if it all...

Another fact: I've made LSD in my lab on many occasions for research purposes, possibly in not so meticulous a manner as Albert Hofmann. Nothing ever happened. I had several graduate students who made LSD as an intermediate for projects. No accidental ingestion of LSD ever occurred. A technician in my lab makes it routinely because we use it as a drug to train our rats. He's learned by experience that he never gets high, nothing ever happens. And yesterday I was talking to Nick Sand, and Nick said, "I made a solution of LSD in DMSO…" -- DMSO (dimethyl sulfoxide) is a chemical that greatly enhances absorption of other chemicals through the skin -- he says, "…I painted it on my skin. Nothing happened." A concentrated solution and nothing happened! How did this very meticulous Swiss chemist get the LSD into his body? I don't know.
-David E. Nichols

Erowid Conference Vault : Mindstates IV (2003) : LSD Panel - David Nichols, Ph.D.

Hypothesis on Albert Hofmann's Famous 1943

erowid.org

If you could find actual evidence of these claims regarding this DEA officer absorbing LSD through his shaved face or other cases of actual transdermal absorption or accidental LSD intoxication through means other than internal ingedtion it would be great, because like I said, I'm fairly skeptikal, however, if provided concrete evidence I will gladly accept said evidence and change my opinion on the matter.

National geographic makes informational mistakes in their psychoactive reporting, so I take most of what they say with a grain of salt unless it's well known fact or they can provide a reliable source.

Erowid Conference Vault : Mindstates IV (2003) : LSD Panel - David Nichols, Ph.D.

Hypothesis on Albert Hofmann's Famous 1943

erowid.org

Nichols full theory can be located in the link above, I outlined sections of it a few posts back.

the event was curious for LSD intoxication, only lasting a mere two hours:

"I perceived an uninterrupted stream of fantastic pictures, extraordinary shapes with intense, kaleidoscopic play of colors. After some two hours (emphasis added) this condition faded away." Albert Hofmann, 1983

I honestly can't say what happened, and neither can Albert Hoffman for that matter, but he did say Nichols hypothesis was quite possible:

when I saw Albert in Basel a couple years ago, I presented that particular hypothesis to him and said, "What do you think?" He said, "It's entirely possible." -David E.Nichols

Erowid Conference Vault : Mindstates IV (2003) : LSD Panel - David Nichols, Ph.D.

Hypothesis on Albert Hofmann's Famous 1943

erowid.org

Why did Albert re-synthesize the molecule years later?

How did it get into his system? Did the molecule even get into his system?

What are the odds that the molecule Albert chose to resynthesize would be an incredibly potent psychedelic? Specially when the majority of the series that he pulled it from were not active as psychedelics at all?

Regardless, it's very difficult for me to label the discovery an accident.

-eg

 

[jma182]

I was on cloud 9 yesterday it was a goood bicycle day fujisan ftw!!

Regardless of how Dr Hofmann got it in his system good googly moogly thank the universe he did!!

I like to think that psychedelics are miracles of the mind, im glad he took another look at the lysergic groups.

 

[Bancopuma]

If you ask those who work with and synthesize LSD on a regular basis they will tell you that accidental ingestion of the compound during the process almost never occurs, if it all...

Hmmm I'm not so sure about this eg. I'm pretty sure LSD chemists Nick Sands and Tim Scully reported getting high off their own supply when synthesising LSD. I'm good friends with the ex-wife of convicted LSD and psychedelic chemist Casey Hardison and he too reported getting high off it when making it. I've heard other such reports too. I'm not sure David Nichols is a fair comparison, as I imagine his lab setup is going to be much more meticulously ordered and controlled than any street lab type set ups. I've also heard accounts of people dosing blotter tabs with LSD becoming intoxicated, so it does seem feasible that people can absorb LSD in some way when handling it.

Regarding the DEA officer case, it is just a one off, but very curious in that all officers had taken full precautions and were wearing full protective suits before raiding the lab, the only difference between the guy that was [heavily] affected and the other guys who weren't was that the former guy had shaved not long before the raid. So it is a curious case, something was clearly up in this case. Watch the documentary and check out his testimony.

Certainly the two hour LSD experience is very mysterious indeed, and completely and utterly unique to his case if LSD was indeed responsible. And I agree that the discovery of LSD is certainly mysterious, and I don't think many scientists would have acted on their subconscious intuition in the way Hofmann did. I recall reading something where Hofmann stated that LSD appeared to him in a dream and told him he hadn't discovered all there was to know about the substance.

[YOUTUBE]

 

[Mindlusion]

I think it is likely you would be exposed to a continuous low dose of LSD, working with the stuff by inhalation or transdermal, easily in the the 0.1-1ug range. Possibly in the micro-dose range. Especially in a lab environment without a real fumehood (clandestine) Which would lead to a tolerance effect after a few days of exposure.

 

[entheogenic-gnosis]

If you ask those who work with and synthesize LSD on a regular basis they will tell you that accidental ingestion of the compound during the process almost never occurs, if it all...

Hmmm I'm not so sure about this eg. I'm pretty sure LSD chemists Nick Sands and Tim Scully reported getting high off their own supply when synthesising LSD. I'm good friends with the ex-wife of convicted LSD and psychedelic chemist Casey Hardison and he too reported getting high off it when making it. I've heard other such reports too. I'm not sure David Nichols is a fair comparison, as I imagine his lab setup is going to be much more meticulously ordered and controlled than any street lab type set ups. I've also heard accounts of people dosing blotter tabs with LSD becoming intoxicated, so it does seem feasible that people can absorb LSD in some way when handling it.

Regarding the DEA officer case, it is just a one off, but very curious in that all officers had taken full precautions and were wearing full protective suits before raiding the lab, the only difference between the guy that was [heavily] affected and the other guys who weren't was that the former guy had shaved not long before the raid. So it is a curious case, something was clearly up in this case. Watch the documentary and check out his testimony.

Certainly the two hour LSD experience is very mysterious indeed, and completely and utterly unique to his case if LSD was indeed responsible. And I agree that the discovery of LSD is certainly mysterious, and I don't think many scientists would have acted on their subconscious intuition in the way Hofmann did. I recall reading something where Hofmann stated that LSD appeared to him in a dream and told him he hadn't discovered all there was to know about the substance.

[YOUTUBE]

I respect what Casey hardison has to say, and believe him.

...Though before London was he not manufacturing through pybop condensation in the back of a bus? In this situation I suppose the possibility for accidental exposure would drastically increase.

... I think in "the sunshine-makers" documentary nick sand did say something about "inadvertently "licking a finger" or somehow unintentionally ingesting the molecule...I remember I quote like "and I would think oh, man, I just accidentally took so and so many mikes of acid" or something to that effect...

...though, Nick sand also told Nichols that even with DMSO, transdermal absorption of LSD failed, and acknowledged, as far as I know, that his accidental ingestion of LSD always occured through the mouth.

...so I suppose in less meticulous settings exposure becomes more likely.

however in my experience accidental exposure is incredibly rare, or non-existent...

The CIA allegedly attempted aerosol LSD experiments during their MKULTRA research:

Olson was a research scientist assigned to the CIA’s Special Operations Division, at Ft. Detrick, Md., who was performing top secret research relating to LSD-25, a powerful new drug whose properties were barely understood. Could psychedelic drugs be used to get enemy combatants to lay down their arms, or work as a truth serum on reluctant prisoners?

Albarelli spent more than a decade sifting through more than 100,000 pages of government documents and his most startling chestnut might be his claim that the intelligence community conducted aerosol tests of LSD inside the New York City subway system.

Did the CIA test LSD in the New York City subway system?

On Nov. 28, 1953, Frank Olson, a bland, seemingly innocuous 42-year-old government scientist, plunged to his death from room 1018A in New York’s Statler Hotel, landing on a Seventh Avenue sidewalk …

nypost.com

Other than this aerosol LSD incident involving the CIA, I can't find other recorded events where inhaled or transdermal LSD was effective...or even really tested or researched.

In The 1951 Pont-Saint-Esprit mass poisoning, the CIA allegedly dosed bread from a local source which most of the town consumed...

It would be interesting if Hofmann did come up with the concept for synthesis of LSD in a dream, however I think it had more to do with coramine...

I had planned the synthesis of this compound with the intention of obtaining a circulatory and respiratory stimulant (an analeptic). Such stimulating properties could be expected for lysergic acid diethylamide, because it shows similarity in chemical structure to the analeptic already known at that time, namely nicotinic acid diethylamide (Coramine).

-Albert hofmann; LSD My problem child

If you look at nicotinic acid, you will see from its side there is a carbon atom double bonded to an oxygen atom and an OH grouping also bonded to this carbon atom, (this is also what's found on the top of a lysergic acid molecule) when reacted with diethylamine a diethylcarboxyamido grouping is formed at the top of the molecule giving nicotinic acid diethylamide (coramine)

...so knowing that lysergic acid had properties involving circulation, and that it had the same grouping as nicotinic acid at its top, he reacted lysergic acid with diethylamine, giving that same diethylcarboxyamido grouping on top of lysergic acid as was found on nicotinic acid diethylamide, producing lysergic acid diethylamide.

Though there are "dream discoveries" in chemistry...August Kekulé wasstruggling with the structure of benzene, he then fell asleep and dreamed of the ouroboros, which inspired him to discover the structure of benzene.

Attached is a picture of coramine and LSD, you can even see a coramine moiety burried within the LSD molecule.

-eg

 

[entheogenic-gnosis]

Speaking of accidental LSD ingestion, I was reminded of this anecdote which was published in PIHKAL:

PiHKAL Chapter 3 Burt
One morning, a couple of weeks later, I took a small, double-ended vial to Burt in his analytical lab down the hall, and asked him to please weigh out for me a small quantity of material into a separate container. The actual amount was not important, a few milligrams; what was important was that I wanted the weight accurate to four places. He disappeared for a few minutes, then reappeared with the vial I had given him and also a weighing container holding a small amount of an almost white powder.
"Here is 3.032 milligrams, exactly," he said, adding, "And it's slightly bitter."
"How do you know?" asked I.
"After I weighed out the psilocybin, there was a trace of dust on the spatula, so I licked it off. Slightly bitter."
I asked him, "Did you read the label carefully?"
"It's the vial of psilocybin you just received, isn't it?" he asked, looking at the funny-shaped tube still in his hand. He read the label.
It said Lysergide.
He said, "Oh."
We spent the next several minutes trying to reconstruct just how much LSD might have been on the end of the spatula, and decided that it was probably not more than a few score micrograms. But a few score micrograms can be pretty effective, especially in a curious but conservative analytical chemist who is totally drug naive.
"Well," I said to him, "This should damned well be a fascinating day."
And indeed it was. The first effects were clearly noted in about twenty minutes, and during the transition stage that took place over the following minutes, we wandered outside and walked around the pilot plant behind the main laboratory building. It was a completely joyful day for Burt. Every trivial thing had a magical quality. The stainless steel Pfaudler reactors were giant ripe melons about to be harvested; the brightly colored steam and chemical pipes were avant-garde spaghetti with appropriate smells, and the engineers wandering about were chefs preparing a royal banquet. No threats anywhere, simply hilarious entertainment. We wandered everywhere else on the grounds, but the theme of food and its sensory rewards continued to be the leitmotif of the day. In the late afternoon, Burt said he was substantially back to the real world, but when I asked him if he thought he could drive, he admitted that it would probably be wise to wait a bit longer. By 5:00 PM, he seemed to be happily back together again, and after a trial run -- a sort of figure-eight in the almost empty parking lot -- he embarked on his short drive home. Burt never again, to my knowledge, participated in any form of personal drug investigation, but he maintained a close and intimate interest in my research and was always appreciative of the slowly evolving picture of the delicate balance between chemical structure and pharmacological action, which I continued to share with him while I remained at Dole. One periodically hears some lecturer holding forth on the subject of psychedelic drugs, and you may hear him give voice to that old rubric that LSD is an odorless, colorless and tasteless drug. Don't believe it. Odorless yes, and colorless when completely pure, yes, but tasteless, no. It is slightly bitter.

-Shulgin;PIHKAL;chapter3

-eg

 

[AlchemicalGnostic]

One periodically hears some lecturer holding forth on the subject of psychedelic drugs, and you may hear him give voice to that old rubric that LSD is an odorless, colorless and tasteless drug. Don't believe it. Odorless yes, and colorless when completely pure, yes, but tasteless, no. It is slightly bitter.

-Shulgin;PIHKAL;chapter3

-eg

Interesting, I've Never had bitter tasting LSD, I've always beleived it to be tasteless. I've always heard that if your acid is bitter it's most likely 25I-NBOMe. Or is he referring to synthetic LSD?

 

[Bancopuma]

Ah yes I remember reading that account. I can't recall now where I heard about Hofmann having a dream which that acted as part of the trigger for him to re-synthesise LSD. But certainly there was some kind of subconscious trigger in the form of a presentiment or premonition as Hofmann himself states, as an aside to his scientific research interests. This is worth a read...John Beresford gave part of a gram of LSD to Michael Hollingshead, who in turn turned on Tim Leary and many other 60's movers and shakers. He also acted a secretary for the Albert Hofmann foundation.

Hofmann's discovery of the effect of LSD in Basel came 5 years after his original synthesis of the molecule in 1938. LSD-25, as it was called then, was synthesized and tried on animals. No interesting effects appeared, and the molecule was consigned to the "useless" heap. If it had stayed there, the state of today's world would be different.

By the end of November, 1942, scientists in an underground lab at the University of Chicago were ready to test the hypothesis that Enrico Fermi's method of slowing the emission of neutrons from a pile of uranium was safe. They could produce a chain reaction that would not gallop out of control and set the world on fire, they reckoned. On December 2 the instruments to measure the reaction were in place. The pile went active.

A cheer went up. Leo Szilard, one of the physicists present, had gone out that morning and bought a bottle of wine and some paper cups in case the experiment succeeded. When it did, and it was time to celebrate, Szilard offered a toast. "This will go down as a black day in the history of mankind," he said.

130 days later, or 131 or 132 - Hofmann is not sure - the chemist in the old Sandoz lab (since demolished - see photo) had what he called a "Vorgefühl." The usual English word for this is "presentiment," but the German word suggests something stronger than the laid-back "presentiment." Something was telling Hofmann to retrace his steps and perform a new synthesis of the discarded molecule, LSD-25. It had to be that molecule and not one of the others consigned to the "useless" pile.

(The first photo below shows the equipment Hofmann used.) The second synthesis was completed on April 16. Accidentally, Hofmann breathed in or swallowed some of the material, and had the merit to realize, when its effect came upon him, that something of momentous significance had happened. He assumed LSD was the cause, and waited until the next working day, a Monday, to try again. The assumption proved right, and a new chapter of history opened.

Soon, the directors of Sandoz Pharmaceuticals were trying LSD, and a research project under W.A. Stoll, psychiatrist and nephew of one of the Sandoz directors, took shape. Those must have been exciting days. More than 40 subjects, the majority busy, working people, participated.

ofmann does not remember what he was doing when the "presentiment" came over him. He won't say if it came in a dream, or if he was in a state of unusual lucidity. One is free to speculate that the "instruction" to re-synthesize LSD came from a spiritual power which intervenes in the affairs of man to restore order when the danger of disorder has become too great. The reckless act of science in Chicago in December, 1942 was remedied in Basel four months later, with Albert Hofmann chosen as the instrument to perform the cure.

The Albert Hofmann Foundation - Lysergic Acid Diethylamide (LSD-25)

 

[dragonrider]

Maybe the short duration of his first LSD-experience could be explained by the fact that he already was peaking when he first became aware of the substances effects. If he took a fairly small dose, it is entirely possible that, though for a few hours only, he was able to simply block out the effects of the substance, being so focussed on what he was working on. Then, when he finally did become aware of them, they quickly became overpowering, simply because they came so unexpectedly. If these effects suddenly start to happen to you, and you have no idea what's going on, how long it's gonna last, etc, then even very mild effects might seem very extreme and frightening.

 

[Aum_Shanti]

@dragonrider:
Yeah, I also always thought it was more in that direction. Especially on lower doses it is quite possible to suppress the trip (my own experience). But if you then let go it can suddenly overwhelm you. And IMHO especially a character like Hoffmann, which is open to mystical states can then quite strongly go deep into the trip.