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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsHappy Birthday, Acid. 75 yrs ago today, Albert Hofmann discovers LSD.
Discovery of LSD
Hofmann became an employee of the pharmaceutical-chemical department of Sandoz Laboratories (now a subsidiary of Novartis), located in Basel as a co-worker with professor Arthur Stoll, founder and director of the pharmaceutical department. He began studying the medicinal plant squill and the fungus ergot as part of a program to purify and synthesize active constituents for use as pharmaceuticals. His main contribution was to elucidate the chemical structure of the common nucleus of the Scilla glycosides (an active principal of Mediterranean Squill). While researching lysergic acid derivatives, Hofmann first synthesized LSD on 16 November 1938. The main intention of the synthesis was to obtain a respiratory and circulatory stimulant (an analeptic) with no effects on the uterus in analogy to nikethamide (which is also a diethylamide) by introducing this functional group to lysergic acid. It was set aside for five years, until 16 April 1943, when Hofmann decided to reexamine it. While re-synthesizing LSD, he accidentally touched his hand to his mouth, nose or possibly eye, ingesting a small amount and 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 19 April 1943, Hofmann intentionally ingested 250 micrograms of LSD. This day is now known as "Bicycle Day", because he began to feel the effects of the drug as he rode home on a bike. This was the first intentional LSD trip.
Hofmann continued to take small doses of LSD throughout much of his life, and always hoped to find a use for it. In his memoir, he emphasized it as a "sacred drug": "I see the true importance of LSD in the possibility of providing material aid to meditation aimed at the mystical experience of a deeper, comprehensive reality."
Pretty trippy!
lastlib
(23,242 posts)Purple Haze (Jimi Hendrix):
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Hendrix+Purple+Haze
Thanks, dude! -- --
Martin Eden
(12,870 posts)Junior year in high school, 1973. It was the first time for 3 of us, and we each did a quarter of 4-way windowpane. Our 4th buddy who was already experienced (but new to windowpane) did a half, then we drove to the Berwyn Theater in his car.
Started taking effect during the first flick. We laughed our asses off the whole time, and when we walked out our 4th buddy realized he was flying too high to drive. I volunteered and we made it home safely, listening to some great new music on the 8-track (Dark Side of the Moon).
Various forms of LSD became the drug of choice for several years, and I always had a good time. Haven't done it in 30 years.
padfun
(1,786 posts)That was the best I ever did. Most of it after that was blotter, Snoopy or Pluto. Some purple barrels. but the windowpane was the best.
marble falls
(57,099 posts)enough - driving on acid, not dropping it.
Blotter, tab, barrels, micro-dot, window panes, and mescaline, psylocybin ('shrooms and pharmaceutical), DMT, MDMA ... live was fun and interesting and I still finished school and got a job.
Nitram
(22,811 posts)When the movie started I was seeing mostly complex geometric patterns on the screen, but it soon settled down and we laughed our asses off.
I remember reading that Hoffman tried to ride his bicycle home during that first, accidental, trip.
marble falls
(57,099 posts)Acid was a wonderful experience that helped my social anxieties disappear. And it was fun.
KG
(28,751 posts)panader0
(25,816 posts)Brother Buzz
(36,440 posts)DownriverDem
(6,228 posts)We use to say don't do it if you have "cobwebs on the brain". This meant if you had anything bothering you a lot, don't do it.
moriah
(8,311 posts)Don't trip if you're in a bad headspace unless you want to address whatever's causing it --because you will usually and better to do it with intention -- and choose a place and people you feel comfortable with and trust. Especially if you're worried you might have "cobwebs".
I also am a drag, I insist someone stay sober to take care of people/emergencies. Even if it means I can't trip to keep that safety.
Never had a bad trip, even looking in a mirror didn't bother me (on shrooms my puke having patterns was interesting but not disturbing), and the closest thing to a "bad trip" I've witnessed were some people who ignored the very old bearded hippie distributing his homemade blotter's dosage instructions (told to take half, each took two). Fortunately someone got them to the kitchen area of the gathering, where they could watch flashy lights and we had lots of people just smoking pot and good at entertaining people tripping more than they were prepared for.
lunasun
(21,646 posts)would kill ya !
(yes of course if you over ingest anything can happen or if given with out knowledge it could result in injury or death)
From the OP Wiki link
James Fadiman confirmed that Hofmann was microdosing LSD for at least the last two decades of his life. [21]
Albert Hofmann in 2006
Hofmann, interviewed shortly before his hundredth birthday, called LSD "medicine for the soul" and was frustrated by the worldwide prohibition of it. "It was used very successfully for ten years in psychoanalysis," he said, adding that the drug was misused by the Counterculture of the 1960s, and then criticized unfairly by the political establishment of the day. He conceded that it could be dangerous if misused, because a relatively high dose of 500 micrograms will have an extremely powerful psychoactive effect, especially if administered to a first-time user without adequate supervision.[15]