Season 8, Episode 7
April 16, 2023
Theme: LSD
Playlist
“One often asks oneself what roles planning and chance play in the realization of the most important events in our lives. […] [I]t was a problem of theoretical knowledge which induced me to study chemistry, which was a great surprise to all who knew me. Mystical experiences in childhood, in which Nature was altered in magical ways, had provoked questions concerning the essence of the external, material world, and chemistry was the scientific field which might afford insights into this.”
These words, spoken by chemist Albert Hofmann in a speech at the 1996 Worlds of Consciousness Conference in Heidelberg, Germany, are simultaneously formal and poetic. Unsurprising, perhaps. Chemistry is a field in which exact measurements and balanced equations are used to articulate the complexity of all living processes, from baking a cake to building a fire to powering your home with the rays of the sun.
That said, I don’t think of poetry when I think of chemists. I think of people in lab coats standing in sterile laboratories pouring compounds into beakers. But they are, like the rest of us, complicated beings, with hopes and dreams, fears and insecurities, engaged fully with the world which they are devoted to studying.
Back to Albert Hofmann, who was employed in the pharmaceutical industry. In early 1943, he was researching lysergic acid derivatives for use as an analeptic, historically used to treat barbiturate overdoses. On April 16th, he accidentally absorbed a small amount of a substance that he had been synthesizing. After his exposure, Hofmann was “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, he intentionally ingested the substance. But this time, it was unpleasant. He felt anxious, thought that his neighbor was a witch, and saw furniture contort into wicked creatures. However, after some reassurance from those around him, he felt better: “… Little by little I could begin to enjoy the unprecedented colors and plays of shapes that persisted behind my closed eyes. Kaleidoscopic, fantastic images surged in on me, alternating, variegated, opening and then closing themselves in circles and spirals, exploding in colored fountains, rearranging and hybridizing themselves in constant flux …”
By this point, you may have guessed what substance Hofmann had consumed: lysergic acid diethylamide, more commonly known as LSD. Hofmann had become the first person to intentionally trip on acid. But – as anyone familiar with the United States in the 1960s knows – he wasn’t the last. Musicians, writers and others members of the countercultural movement experimented with the drug. They created innovative works of art or overwrought pieces of crap, depending on your particular taste.
But LSD was also the subject of experimentation by scientists, psychologists and government agencies. There was great potential in this drug, with its ability to create such powerful sensations for its users. But research pretty much ended by 1980, after years of government regulation. LSD is currently classified as a Schedule 1 substance under the Controlled Substances Act, meaning that it has a high potential for abuse, no medical use and has a potential for addiction.
Is that true? I don’t know. I’m not a chemist or expert in the field. I do know that cannabis is also categorized as a Schedule I substance – so maybe the classification is influenced by politics and not strictly by the results of scientific research. Regardless, I think LSD is like so much in life: it’s about what you bring to the experience and who is there with you. If you come by yourself with malevolent intent, you will struggle. If you come with openness and guides to support you along the way, you may find something valuable.
Our theme for episode 7 of Community Radio, season 8 is LSD.
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