ALBERT HOFMANN

Swiss Chemist Who Discovered the Psychedelic Compound LSD and Remained
Convinced of Its Great Therapeutic Potential

On April 16, 1943, while conducting research at the laboratories of
the pharmaceutical company Sandoz in Basle, the Swiss scientist Albert
Hofmann accidentally ingested some of the substance on which he was
working and became the first person to experience an LSD trip.

The discovery would earn Hofmann the sobriquet of "father of LSD", and
he was a lifelong advocate of the beneficial possibilities of what he
called his "problem child".

Albert Hofmann was born in Baden, near Zurich, in 1906. He studied
chemistry at the University of Zurich, specialising in plant and
animal chemistry -- a subject that had fascinated him from early
childhood. He received a distinction for his doctorate in 1929 on the
chemical structure of chitin, a substance contained in the shells and
skeletal parts of insects and crustaceans, which he found had a
similar function to that of cellulose in plants.

Hofmann joined Sandoz's pharmaceutical-chemical research laboratory
that year, attracted by a research programme undertaken by the
laboratory director, Professor Arthur Stoll, involving the isolation
and purification of the active constituents of medicinal plants.

He soon became interested in ergot alkaloids, substances derived from
the fungus Claviceps purpurea, a parasite of rye and wheat; in human
beings poisoning by such alkaloids causes ergotism, or St Anthony's
fire.

Important drugs were derived from this research, including Methergine,
a preparation for staunching of post-partum haemorrhages; Dihydergot,
a circulatory stabiliser; and Hydergine, a geriatric medicine that
earned Sandoz millions.

Hofmann's discovery of LSD was based on work he had conducted in 1938,
isolating compounds of lysergic acid, a component of ergot. Hoping to
find a respiratory and circulatory stimulant, he produced a series of
compounds and in November of that year synthesised the 25th, lysergic
acid diethylamide, which was given the code LSD-25. Animal testing
proved inconclusive, and the substance was forgotten for five years,
until the spring of 1943, when Hofmann was struck by a "peculiar
presentiment" that the compound could possess useful properties and
decided to synthesize it once more.

During this process he was forced to abandon his work when he was
overcome by a feeling of light-headedness. He returned home, where he
entered a dreamlike state in which he perceived an "uninterrupted
stream of fantastic pictures, extraordinary shapes with intense
kaleidoscopic play of colours", lasting two hours.

Intrigued by this strange effect, which he became convinced could only
be attributed to the compound he was working on, Hofmann decided to
self-administer a larger dose and note the effects.

At 4.20pm on April 19, 1943, he cautiously diluted 0.25 milligrams of
LSD-25 in water and drank the solution. Forty minutes later he noted
the following symptoms in his laboratory journal: "Beginning
dizziness, feeling of anxiety, unrest, difficulty in concentration,
visual disturbances, desire to laugh."

Then he scrawled "most severe crisis", and unable to continue writing,
requested that his laboratory technician accompany him home. They set
off on the four-mile journey on their bicycles. He wrote later: "I had
the feeling of not getting ahead, whereas my escort stated that we
were rolling along at a good speed. I lost all count of time. I
noticed with dismay that my environment was undergoing progressive
changes. Space and time became more and more disorganised and I was
overcome by a fear that I was going out of my mind."

Eventually they arrived at Hofmann's home, where the chemist was "just
barely capable of asking my companion to summon our family doctor and
request milk from the neighbours", which he believed might act as an
antidote for his poisoning.

Inside his home the familiar surroundings were transformed in
terrifying ways. Everything was spinning and pieces of furniture
assumed grotesque forms. When the concerned neighbour arrived with the
milk he had requested she was "no longer Mrs R., but rather a
malevolent, insidious witch with a coloured mask".

"A demon had invaded me, had taken possession of my body, mind, and
soul," he wrote later. "I jumped up and screamed, trying to free
myself from him, but then sank down again and lay helpless on the
sofa. The substance, with which I had wanted to experiment, had
vanquished me. It was the demon that scornfully triumphed over my
will. I was seized by the dreadful fear of going insane. I was taken
to another world, another place, another time. My body seemed to be
without sensation, lifeless, strange."

As the evening passed the nightmarish effects subsided, and Hofmann
began to enjoy the synaesthesia of sounds, colours and shapes that
burst forth behind his closed eyes: "Kaleidoscopic, fantastic images .
. . alternating, variegated, opening and then closing themselves in
circles and spirals, exploding in coloured fountains, rearranging and
hybridising themselves in constant flux."

It was particularly remarkable, he noted, "how every acoustic
perception, such as the sound of a door handle or a passing
automobile, became transformed into optical perceptions. Every sound
generated a vividly changing image, with its own consistent form and
colour."

After six hours of similar effects, and an examination by the doctor,
who could find nothing whatsoever wrong with him, the visions subsided
and Hofmann finally fell asleep.

He awoke the next day aware that he had discovered a new and extremely
powerful substance; one that he hoped would be of use in pharmacology,
neurology and especially psychiatry. Ten years of scientific research
followed. Marketing it under the trade name Delysid, Sandoz provided
LSD to scientists free of charge, keen to promote its new wonder drug,
and psychiatrists began to use it on themselves to try to understand
schizophrenic experiences. Through such selfadministration LSD became
popular as a recreational drug among a small group of mental health
professionals.

Several, notably Timothy Leary, then a Harvard psychology professor,
became convinced of LSD's potential as a tool for spiritual growth and
spread use of the substance to the emerging counter-cultural youth
movements of the 1960s. It was taken up with epidemic-like speed.

The last of the Sandoz patents for the production of LSD expired in
1963. As no drug-control laws covered the new substance its
manufacture quickly became widespread. Publicity about the drug
reached its zenith as the drug became increasingly associated with
1960s counter-culture. The wonder child had become a problem child for
Sandoz, and on August 23, 1965, it announced that it would no longer
produce and distribute LSD. It was banned in Britain the following
year, and the US followed suit in 1967, ending all research on its
potential in medicinal and psychological treatment.

"They tossed out the baby with the bathwater," said Hofmann, who had
been disappointed by the course of events -- "Since my self-experiment
had revealed LSD in its terrifying, demonic aspect, the last thing I
could have expected was that this substance could ever find
application as anything approaching a pleasure drug."

He later wrote: "Of course there were tragedies through misuse, but I
have had many letters and contacts with people who say it benefited
them. People who are businessmen, artists, sportsmen, who testify
gratefully that they got valuable help on the way to what I think my
friend Aldous Huxley said is the end and the ultimate purpose of human
life -- enlightenment, beatific vision, love.

"I think all these joyful testimonies of invaluable help by LSD should
be enough to convince the health authorities, finally, of the nonsense
of the prohibition of LSD."

Hofmann became director of the natural products department at Sandoz
and went on studying hallucinogenic substances found in Mexican
mushrooms and other plants, leading to the synthesis of psilocybin,
the active ingredient in magic mushrooms. In 1962 he and his wife
Anita travelled to Mexico in search of other useful plants and
discovered that the mushrooms used by the Mazatec Indians during their
religious ceremonies contained an active compound chemically very
similar to LSD.

He retired from Sandoz in 1971 as director of research for the
department of natural products but remained a believer in the benefits
of LSD, which, he maintained, "should be legalised. It should be
distributed to people who can make good use of it. It should be made
available to the medical profession, like heroin or morphine. LSD
should have the same status."

Hofmann published an account of his discovery, in 1981, LSD: My
Problem Child. In 1988 he toured California to raise money for the
Albert Hofmann Foundation, which defines its aim as to gather
information about the use of "mind-expanding substances to explore
consciousness" and "to further the understanding and responsible
application of psychedelic substances in the investigation of both
individual and collective consciousness".

Hofmann's own use of LSD did not seem to have affected his health
adversely. In 1998 he attended an international conference in
Amsterdam to mark the 50th anniversary of his discovery, after which
the nonagenarian chemist impressed younger clubbers at a party by
dancing energetically to the psychedelic music.

Hofmann remained convinced of LSD's therapeutic potential and was
active in promoting its clinical use. He was sure of the value of his
problem child, despite its double-edged ability to stimulate a change
in consciousness: "It is a very deep experience," he wrote. "It can be
beautiful, it can be terrifying."

Hofmann's wife and two of his sons predeceased him, and he is survived
by a son and a daughter.

Albert Hofmann, chemist, was born on January 11, 1906. He died on
April 29, 2008, aged 102