Albert Hofmann, discoverer of LSD and former head of the research department of Swiss chemical company Sandoz in this Nov. 1998 file photo in Solothurn, Switzerland. Hofmann who created the mind-altering drug LSD celebrates his 100th birthday on Wednesday Jan. 11, 2006.

LSD Discover Turns 100

GENEVA - LSD is an unlikely subject for a 100th birthday party. Yet the Swiss chemist who discovered the mind-altering drug and was its first human guinea pig is celebrating his centenary Wednesday — in good health and with plans to attend an international seminar on the hallucinogenic.

"I had wonderful visions," Albert Hofmann said, recalling his first accidental consumption of the drug.

"I sat down at home on the divan and started to dream," he told the Swiss television network SF DRS. "What I was thinking appeared in colors and in pictures. It lasted for a couple of hours and then it disappeared."

Hofmann, who also had bad experiences with the drug, continues to insist it should be legalized for medical treatment, particularly in psychiatric research. But LSD's reputation has been as turbulent as some acid trips.

The drug earned a bad reputation amid fatalities associated with hallucinations and reports of "flashbacks" — the recurrence of hallucinations when not taking the drug.

LSD inspired the 1960s hippy generation and was immortalized in the Beatles' hit "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds," although the band denied any connection. But it was also known as Like Swift Dead.

For decades after LSD was banned in the late 1960s, Hofmann defended his invention.

"I produced the substance as a medicine," he said. "It's not my fault if people abused it."

The chemist — who still takes nearly daily walks in the picturesque village where he lives in the Jura mountains with his wife of 70 years, Anita — discovered lysergic acid diethylamide-25 in 1938 while studying the medicinal uses of a fungus found on wheat and other grains at the Sandoz pharmaceuticals firm, now part of Novartis.

The company declined to comment for this story.

Hofmann was the first person to test the drug when a tiny amount of the substance seeped on to his finger during a repeat of the laboratory experiment in April 1943.

"Everything I saw was distorted, as in a warped mirror," he wrote of the experience, noting his surprise that LSD was able to produce "such a far-reaching, powerful, inebriated condition without leaving a hangover."

The chemist experimented with a larger dose three days later, but the result this time was a "horror" trip, he wrote. His surroundings turned into threatening images. A neighbor was transformed into a wicked witch.

"I was filled with an overwhelming fear that I would go crazy. I was transported to a different world, a different time," he wrote.

Hofmann and his scientific colleagues hoped LSD would make an important contribution to psychiatric research. The drug exaggerated inner problems and conflicts, and they hoped it might be used to recognize and treat mental illnesses like schizophrenia.

The drug was popularized by Timothy Leary, the one-time Harvard lecturer known as the "high priest of LSD," whose "turn on, tune in, drop out" advice to students in the 1960s glamorized the hallucinogen. The film star Cary Grant and numerous rock musicians extolled its virtues in achieving true self-discovery and enlightenment.

But away from the psychedelic trips and flower children, stories emerged of people going on murder sprees or jumping out of windows while hallucinating. Heavy users suffered permanent psychological damage.

The United States banned LSD in 1966 and other countries followed suit.

Hofmann maintains that was unfair, arguing the drug was not addictive. He has repeatedly said the ban should be lifted so LSD can be used in medical research, and he took the drug himself — purportedly on an occasional basis and out of scientific interest — for several decades.

But he added a note of caution.

"The history of LSD to date amply demonstrates the catastrophic consequences that can ensue when its profound effect is misjudged and the substance is mistaken for a pleasure drug," he wrote.

Gotta love the Swiss. Neat little knives, cuckoo clocks, great cheese and chocolate, four official languages, excellent banking services and advocating the sensible, controlled use of mind altering drugs for scientific purposes...

Best not to sample the birthday cake......

There's always the fruit punch....

Too bad Timothy Leary isn't around to help him celebrate...

One wonders what it's like "tripping" with a 100 year old man...

It must be hardcore to trip out at that age.

I loved acid when I younger, but think be frightening to do now, it was ###### powerful stuff, even the tabs/dots we used to get which I bet weren't as strong as this dude has been doing.

Still, 100 yrs old, goes to show that not everyone that took illegal drugs ended up dying or becoming a junkie like so many people like to think on this site whilst they down there whiskey in the pub.

Happy Birthday!

Thanks for providing the fuel for some of the best experiences of my life

happy birthday Don Drugs

LSD is on the TODO list when I go back the UK next week.

Happy Birthday Revolutionary

The drug earned a bad reputation amid fatalities associated with hallucinations and reports of "flashbacks" — the recurrence of hallucinations when not taking the drug.

I just had a flashback after reading that - it was great!

but think be frightening to do now, it was ###### powerful stuff, even the tabs/dots we used to get which I bet weren't as strong as this dude has been doing.

This is true based upon some reading that I did at uni. The doses he experimented with were written to be 10-100 times the typical street dosages during the heyday of the drug in the US and Europe. Hard to believe that he still has all his marbles in the jar.

One wonders what it's like "tripping" with a 100 year old man...

Probably like walking on the dark side of the moon, looking for the lost tunes by Syd (Pink Floyd)

The drug earned a bad reputation amid fatalities associated with hallucinations and reports of "flashbacks" — the recurrence of hallucinations when not taking the drug.

I just had a flashback after reading that - it was great!

I keep waiting...nada

I couldn't read the whole article as I was disturbed by something stomping around in the garden.

Dude, they must have pushed some bad shit on you penzman. the LSD ISO9002 standard states pink elephants in hallucinations induced by lysergic acid should have at least 55 trunks, sing the blues in 8 different keys at the same time, calculate advanced logarhithms in Serbo-Croat, and encompass the entire galaxy.

Hmmm, you could not have just made that up Meat...

Dude, they must have pushed some bad shit on you penzman. the LSD ISO9002 standard states pink elephants in hallucinations induced by lysergic acid should have at least 55 trunks, sing the blues in 8 different keys at the same time, calculate advanced logarhithms in Serbo-Croat, and encompass the entire galaxy.

Not to mention re-inventing hybrid rose petals in the deepest red possible with the most pyshedelic dew drops ever invented on the planet......

And those soldier crabs in the tree? Well, that's another story.....

i'll never forget being overtaken by a mars bar and packet of refreshers on the M1

Happy Bday

UPDATE.... Rest in Peace at 102...

Swiss discoverer of LSD dies

ZURICH (Reuters/today) - Albert Hofmann, the Swiss chemist who discovered the hallucinogenic drug LSD, has died aged 102, the organisation that republished his book on the mind-altering substance said.

Hofmann, who advocated the medicinal properties of the drug he termed his "problem child", died from a heart attack at his home in Basel, Switzerland on Tuesday, the California-based Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) said on its website.

Born January 11, 1906, Hofmann discovered LSD -- lysergic acid diethylamide, which later became the favoured drug of the 1960s counter-culture -- when a tiny quantity leaked on to his hand during a laboratory experiment in 1943.

He noted a "remarkable restlessness, combined with slight dizziness" that made him stop his work.

"At home I lay down and sank into a not unpleasant intoxication-like condition, characterised by an extremely stimulated imagination," Hofmann said of the experience.

"In a dreamlike state, with eyes closed (I found the daylight too unpleasantly glaring), I perceived an uninterrupted stream of fantastic pictures, extraordinary shapes with intense, kaleidoscopic play of colours," Hofmann wrote in his book "LSD -- My Problem Child."

"After some two hours this condition faded away."

A few days later Hofmann intentionally took a dose of LSD and experienced the world's first "bad trip" -- slang for when the user suffers a disturbed reaction.

"On the way home, my condition began to assume threatening forms. Everything in my field of vision wavered and was distorted as if seen in a curved mirror," he said.

Once home, the LSD continued to warp Hofmann's mind: "My surroundings had now transformed themselves in more terrifying ways," he wrote.

"A demon had invaded me, had taken possession of my body, mind, and soul. 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."

Former Harvard lecturer Timothy Leary popularised LSD with his "turn on, tune in, drop out" advice in the 1960s, but Hofmann believed the substance was hijacked and abused by the hippy movement and maintained he produced it as a medicine.

Hofmann believed it could still serve a valid purpose in medicine, as it did for Aldous Huxley, author of "Brave New World" who used the drug to ease his final suffering.

Hofmann -- who believed LSD was useful in analysis of how the mind works, hoping it could be used to recognise and treat illnesses like schizophrenia -- defended his "wonder drug" for decades after it was banned in the 1960s.

MAPS President Rick Doblin said he had spoken to Hofmann on the phone recently "and he was happy and fulfilled. He'd seen the renewal of LSD psychotherapy research with his own eyes."

I loved acid when I younger, but think be frightening to do now

I had a few very enjoyable experiences on LSD and a lot that were not.

I would much prefer to have had more access to more natural drugs like opium, mescaline and cocaine, instead of the acid and crystal meth that was so prevelent where I grew up.

In retrospect, I don't regret the few years that I devoted to drugs and the drug culture, but I wish it would have been something more positive like martial arts, yoga or meditation. I touched on all of that stuff, but didn't devote much time to any of them.

Gotta love the Swiss. Neat little knives, cuckoo clocks, great cheese and chocolate, four official languages, excellent banking services and advocating the sensible, controlled use of mind altering drugs for scientific purposes...

Cuckoo clocks are not Swiss...... H R Giger is, I wonder if he ever imbibed, I bet he did.

Visited his gallery in Gruyere once, once was enough.

Gotta love the Swiss. Neat little knives, cuckoo clocks, great cheese and chocolate, four official languages, excellent banking services and advocating the sensible, controlled use of mind altering drugs for scientific purposes...

Cuckoo clocks are not Swiss...... H R Giger is, I wonder if he ever imbibed, I bet he did.

Visited his gallery in Gruyere once, once was enough.

Correct about the cuckoo clocks Taddy. Pedant to the last!

Don't get started on the 'Swiss Roll'!

Gotta love the Swiss. Neat little knives, cuckoo clocks, great cheese and chocolate, four official languages, excellent banking services and advocating the sensible, controlled use of mind altering drugs for scientific purposes...

Cuckoo clocks are not Swiss...... H R Giger is, I wonder if he ever imbibed, I bet he did.

Giger was a registered heroin addict and reportedly said that a bad trip on LSD (for him) was just like his normal mindset.

Visited his gallery in Gruyere once, once was enough.

you have to love his post box - anyone who has seen it will know what I mean, anyone who hasn't will have no idea, and the rules of TV would have me banned for life for showing a picture of it.

Giger was the main designer for Alien and worked with Ron Cobb who came up with the initial designs for the film. Cobb said that working with Giger for a month was more terrifying than his entire experience in Vietnam as a combat Marine.

CB

Gotta love the Swiss. Neat little knives, cuckoo clocks, great cheese and chocolate, four official languages, excellent banking services and advocating the sensible, controlled use of mind altering drugs for scientific purposes...

Add to the list - heroin, gelignite and from BASF - magnetic audio tape. They were also the source for the original amphetamine used by luftwaffa pilots and now used as a party drug we (in Thailand) call Yaa Baa. The lithium activated pseudoephidrine base drug was standard issue to the German army at the time and was cheap and easy to make. It was also the basis forumula for many of the other similar drugs used around the world.

CB

Nice sunny day in Switzerland today. And no i have never tried LSD ever in my life. I'm too scary in real life - can't imagine what i would be like if i trippin'.

We also have that atom thingy at CERN. And a rather good looking man has moved in next door to me.

Gotta love the Swiss. Neat little knives, cuckoo clocks, great cheese and chocolate, four official languages, excellent banking services and advocating the sensible, controlled use of mind altering drugs for scientific purposes...

Cuckoo clocks are not Swiss...... H R Giger is, I wonder if he ever imbibed, I bet he did.

Giger was a registered heroin addict and reportedly said that a bad trip on LSD (for him) was just like his normal mindset.

Visited his gallery in Gruyere once, once was enough.

you have to love his post box - anyone who has seen it will know what I mean, anyone who hasn't will have no idea, and the rules of TV would have me banned for life for showing a picture of it.

I did an exhaustive search of Thaivisa rules and no where did I find a forum rule prohibiting the publication of photos of mailboxes so you need not fear any repercussions.

I look forward to viewing the posted photo of same.

Happy Birthday

^^ Good point sj!

Gotta love the Swiss. Neat little knives, cuckoo clocks, great cheese and chocolate, four official languages, excellent banking services and advocating the sensible, controlled use of mind altering drugs for scientific purposes...

Cuckoo clocks are not Swiss...... H R Giger is, I wonder if he ever imbibed, I bet he did.

Giger was a registered heroin addict and reportedly said that a bad trip on LSD (for him) was just like his normal mindset.

Visited his gallery in Gruyere once, once was enough.

you have to love his post box - anyone who has seen it will know what I mean, anyone who hasn't will have no idea, and the rules of TV would have me banned for life for showing a picture of it.

I did an exhaustive search of Thaivisa rules and no where did I find a forum rule prohibiting the publication of photos of mailboxes so you need not fear any repercussions.

I look forward to viewing the posted photo of same.

While Thai Visa rules do not specifically mention "Mail Boxes" it does take a very strict line on the female anatomy, specifically the genital region. Without posting the photograph the description of the mail box would be "biomechanical female in kneeling position on top of plinth facing towards the property. The mailman puts the letters in the "slot" facing out". The Swiss Post refused to allow delivery of mail until he provided an "approved" design. He took them to court and won using artistic expression as his defence.

Whole new meaning to the term "mail box"

CB