RIP Dr Albert Hofmann, 102

[Each Hit]

his invention helped spark a revolution in thought and perception. whether for better or worse, he indirectly influenced millions of minds.

RIP, mr. hofmann

[ticketmaster]

Dr. Hofmann, Thank you for making the world a brighter place, Looking forward to meeting you on the other side, your problem child has humbled so many souls, I think it's safe to say the universe thanks you for all that you have done..

Namaste'

Love & Light....

[Raw edge]

R.I.P What a great loss to mankind.

[nEone]

We should not mourn the loss of Dr. Hoffman. Rather, we should celebrate the knowledge he spread and the long life he had the fortune of living.

So many icons don't get to see the impact their work has on the world - Dr. Hoffman got to do that, and got to participate in the debates over his work well past the normal term of influence.

LSD changed the world. Dr. Hoffman presented a scientific, rational approach to a culture that often presents itself as deeply mired in mythology and spirituality. By providing a new "clinical" perspective - Dr. Hoffman opened the doors to greater global acceptance/interest in promoting safe and appropriate drug use.

That cultural "opening of minds" is a far more important legacy than any LSD experience.

[cra$h]

the opening of minds is what lsd is all about. those who want to just get fucked up aren't the ones who let their 3rd eye open. lsd is the opening of the mind, primerily to those who are willing to accept a second path, but can't drawl the line to where they are now, to where they want to be. and that's what lsd is for. its for thsoe who's mind arent open enough to reach nirvana, thus making lsd a catalyst to open up the doors of our minds, and see what we really see. our subconcious is quite a mystery, and there's no better of a way than through lsd to physically see what it's thinking.

and of course, I'm truely saddend by the death of a man I have never met. truely RIP Dr. Hoffman

[papel]

Damn he was my hero and always will be. at least he can produce some LSD in heaven and give the angels a good trip.

R.I.P

To see a world in a grain of sand,
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour.

Boommmmmmmmmm

[babyshambler]

Rest in peace the good Dr. You've changed many lives for the better, including my own.

[enquirewithin]

Obituary: Albert Hofmann London telegraph
Last updated: 9:57 PM BST 01/05/2008
Research chemist who synthesised LSD and had the world's first 'acid trip' on his bicycle

Albert Hofmann, who died on Tuesday aged 102, synthesised lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) in 1938 and became the first person in the world to experience a full-blown "acid trip" – that was on April 19 1943, which became known among aficionados as "Bicycle Day" as it was while cycling home from his laboratory that he experienced the most intense symptoms.
Hofmann was working as a research chemist at the laboratory of the Sandoz company in Basel, Switzerland, where he was involved in studying the medicinal properties of plants. This eventually led to the study of the alkaloid compounds of ergot, a fungus which forms on rye.
In the Middle Ages, ergot was implicated in periodic outbreaks of mass poisonings, producing symptoms in two characteristic forms: one gangrenous (ergotismus gangraenosus) and the other convulsive (ergotismus convulsivus). Popular names such as "mal des ardents", "ignis sacer", "heiliges feuer" and "St Anthony's fire" refer to the gangrenous form of the condition.
Hofmann's studies led to many new discoveries, such as Hydergine, a medicament for improving circulation and cerebral function, and Dihydergot, a circulation and blood pressure stabilising medicine. His interest in synthesising LSD initially derived from the hope that it might also be useful as a circulatory and respiratory stimulant.
But when his molecule, known as LSD-25, was tested on animals, no interesting effects were observed, though the research notes recorded that the beasts became "restless" during narcosis. The substance was dismissed as of no interest and dropped from Sandoz's research programme.
But five years later, acting on some intuition, Hofmann decided to resynthesise LSD. In his autobiography, LSD, My Problem Child (1979), he recalled that in the final stage of the synthesis he was interrupted by some unusual sensations.
In a note to the laboratory's director, he reported "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 perceived an uninterrupted stream of fantastic pictures, extraordinary shapes with intense, kaleidoscopic play of colours. After some two hours this condition faded away."
Hofmann concluded that he must have accidentally breathed in or ingested some laboratory material and assumed LSD was the cause. To test the theory he waited until the next working day, Monday April 19 1943, and tried again, swallowing 0.25 of a milligram. Forty minutes later, as his laboratory journal recorded, he experienced "dizziness, feeling of anxiety, visual distortions, symptoms of paralysis, desire to laugh". Unable to write any more, he asked his assistant to take him home by bicycle.
"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. I also had the sensation of being unable to move from the spot. Nevertheless, my assistant later told me that we had travelled very rapidly."
Back home, when a friendly neighbour brought round some milk, he perceived her as a "malevolent, insidious witch" wearing "a lurid mask". After six hours of highs and lows, the effects subsided.
Sandoz, keen to make a profit from Hofmann's discovery, gave the new substance the trade name Delysid and began sending samples to psychiatric researchers. By 1965 more than 2,000 papers had been published offering hope for a range of conditions from drug and alcohol addiction to mental illnesses of various kinds. But the fact that the chemical was cheap and easy to make left it open to abuse, and from the late 1950s onwards, promoted by Dr Timothy Leary and others, LSD became the recreational drug of choice for western youth.
An outbreak of moral panic, combined with a number of accidents involving people jumping to their deaths off high buildings in the belief that they could fly, led governments around the world to ban LSD. Research also showed that the drug, taken in high doses and in inappropriate settings, often caused panic reactions. For certain individuals, a bad trip could be the trigger for full-blown psychosis.
Hofmann was disappointed when his discovery was removed from commercial distribution. He remained convinced that the drug had the potential to counter the psychological problems induced by "materialism, alienation from nature through industrialisation and increasing urbanisation, lack of satisfaction in professional employment in a mechanised, lifeless working world, ennui and purposelessness in wealthy, saturated society, and lack of a religious, nurturing, and meaningful philosophical foundation of life".
Albert Hofmann was born at Baden, Switzerland, on January 11 1906, the eldest of four children of a factory toolmaker. Having graduated from Zürich University with a degree in Chemistry in 1929, he took a doctorate on the gastro-intestinal juice of the vineyard snail. After leaving university he went to work for Sandoz Pharmaceuticals, where he researched the medicinal properties of the Mediterranean squill (Scilla maritima) before moving on to the study of Claviceps purpurea (ergot).
As a result of the use of LSD as a recreational drug, Sandoz found itself bombarded with demands for information from regulatory bodies, along with demands for statements after accidents, poisonings, criminal acts and so forth from the press.
For scientists unaccustomed to the glare of publicity, it became a headache: "I would rather you hadn't discovered LSD," Hofmann's managing director told him. In the end the decision was taken to stop all further production.
Hofmann laid some of the blame at the door of Dr Timothy Leary. In his autobiography he described meeting Leary in 1971 in the snack bar at Lausanne railway station. Hofmann began by voicing his regret that Leary's experiments had effectively killed off academic research into LSD and took Leary to task for encouraging its recreational use among young people.
Leary was unabashed. "He maintained that I was unjustified in reproaching him for the seduction of immature persons to drug consumption," Hofmann recalled. Leary further insisted that American teenagers "with regard to information and life experience, were comparable to adult Europeans" and were able to make up their own minds.
Hofmann continued to work at Sandoz until 1971, when he retired as director of research for the Department of Natural Products. In addition to his discovery of LSD, he was also the first to synthesise psilocybin (the active constituent of "magic mushrooms") in 1958; and he discovered the hallucinogenic principles of Ololiuqui (Morning Glory), lysergic acid amide and lysergic acid hydroxyethylamide.
In retirement Hofmann served as a member of the Nobel Prize Committee. He was a Fellow of the World Academy of Sciences, and a member of the International Society of Plant Research and of the American Society of Pharmacognosy.
In 1988 the Albert Hofmann Foundation was established "to assemble and maintain an international library and archive devoted to the study of human consciousness and related fields".
Albert Hofmann's wife, Anita, died in December. He was also predeceased by one of his four children.

Story from Telegraph News:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obit...-inventor.html

NEW YORK (AP) -- Albert Hofmann, father of the mind-altering drug LSD whose medical discovery grew into a notorious "problem child," died Tuesday. He was 102. Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann, in 1998, long maintained that LSD had many medical uses.

Hofmann died of a heart attack at his home in Basel, Switzerland, according to Rick Doblin, president of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, in a statement posted on the association's Web site.
Hofmann's hallucinogen inspired -- and arguably corrupted -- millions in the 1960's hippie generation. For decades after LSD was banned in the late 1960s, Hofmann defended his invention.
"I produced the substance as a medicine. ... It's not my fault if people abused it," he said.
The Swiss chemist 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 in Basel.
He became the first human guinea pig of the drug when a tiny amount of the substance seeped onto his finger during a repeat of the laboratory experiment April 16, 1943.
"I had to leave work for home because I was suddenly hit by a sudden feeling of unease and mild dizziness," he wrote in a memo to company bosses.
"Everything I saw was distorted as in a warped mirror," he said, describing his bicycle ride home. "I had the impression I was rooted to the spot. But my assistant told me we were actually going very fast."
Three days later, Hofmann experimented with a larger dose. The result was a horror trip.
"The substance which I wanted to experiment with took over me. I was filled with an overwhelming fear that I would go crazy. I was transported to a different world, a different time," Hofmann wrote.
There was no answer at Hofmann's home Tuesday, and a person who answered the phone at Novartis, a former employer, said the company had no knowledge of his death.
Hofmann and his scientific colleagues hoped that LSD would make an important contribution to psychiatric research. The drug exaggerated inner problems and conflicts, and thus it was hoped that it might be used to recognize and treat mental illness like schizophrenia.

For a time, Sandoz sold LSD 25 under the name Delysid, encouraging doctors to try it themselves. It was one of the strongest drugs in medicine, with just one gram enough to drug an estimated 10,000 to 20,000 people for 12 hours.
Hofmann discovered that the drug had a similar chemical structure to psychedelic mushrooms and herbs used in religious ceremonies by Mexican Indians.
LSD was elevated to international fame in the late 1950s and 1960s, thanks to Harvard professor Timothy Leary, who embraced the drug under the slogan "turn on, tune in, drop out." Actor 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, horror stories emerged about people going on murder sprees or jumping out of windows while hallucinating. Heavy users suffered permanent psychological damage.
The U.S. government banned LSD in 1966, and other countries followed suit.
Hofmann maintained that this was unfair, arguing that the drug was not addictive. He repeatedly said the ban should be lifted to allow LSD to be used in medical research.
He himself took the drug -- purportedly on an occasional basis and out of scientific interest -- for several decades.
"LSD can help open your eyes," he once said. "But there are other ways: meditation, dance, music, fasting."
Even so, the self-described "father" of LSD readily agreed that the drug was dangerous if in the wrong hands. This was reflected by the title of his 1979 book: "LSD: My Problem Child."
Hofmann retired from Sandoz in 1971. He devoted his time to travel, writing and lectures, which often reflected his growing interest with philosophy and religious questions.
He lived in a small village in the Swiss Jura mountains and remained active until his early 90's.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/04/29/hof....ap/index.html

[stoneinfocus]

*lol* doctor-grade, for gastrointestinal juices of snails -that´s why I spent reading medical and whatever scientific articles the last 4,5 years... have to love it.

Thank you, Dr. Hoffmann, your work and thoughts will always be alive. RIP

stone_in_focus (hard days)

[Triple7]

RIP our love.

Pity that many of us never managed to see him. Especially at WPF.

Swedish media (Dagens Nyheter) wrote that he took his last trip and died from heart attack. The authour might want to confuse the reader into belief of lsd made Albert have heart attack.

Can anyone tell when and where the will be burial? Hopefully tens of thousands of people will attend.

[Alfa]

Originally Posted by Triple7

Swedish media (Dagens Nyheter) wrote that he took his last trip and died from heart attack. The authour might want to confuse the reader into belief of lsd made Albert have heart attack.

This might be worth demanding a rectification about. Please contact www.hofmann.org or www.lsd.info with a link to the article.

Albert Hofmann's old age is as much proof as you can get for the harmlessness of LSD. It is typical that Swedish media wants to twist Albert Hofmann's death into proof that LSD is harmful.

Who is the author?

[silenius]

Originally Posted by Alfa

This might be worth demanding a rectification about. Please contact www.hofmann.org or www.lsd.info with a link to the article.

Albert Hofmann's old age is as much proof as you can get for the harmlessness of LSD. It is typical that Swedish media wants to twist Albert Hofmann's death into proof that LSD is harmful.

Who is the author?

I assume this article is meant: http://www.dn.se/DNet/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=148&a=765735

My Swedish is rusty to the point of non-existent but automatic translations & some guessing (Swedish and German ain't this different) the article reads ".. he went on his last voyage after a hearth attack at the age of 102".

Anyway, it would be great if some Swedish speaking person could verify this.

[silenius]

Originally Posted by silenius

I assume this article is meant: http://www.dn.se/DNet/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=148&a=765735

My Swedish is rusty to the point of non-existent but automatic translations & some guessing (Swedish and German ain't this different) the article reads ".. he went on his last voyage after a hearth attack at the age of 102".

Anyway, it would be great if some Swedish speaking person could verify this.

Which just happened: My interpretation above is correct. The article in general is in a neutral tone, detailing the discovery of LSD and some aspects of the history (eg MK-ULTRA).

Albert Hofmann is said to have defended LSD for it's potential use in treating schizophrenia, which is not 100% true, but not really bad media coverage, IMHO.

Thanks D. for translating the title for me and providing the summary

[Abrad]

Is this article available online?

[Rehab Quitter]

wow what a man like the quote you have to stop and take time to be the flowers once in a while

rest in peace mate

[podge]

R.I.P Dr Hoffman. What a legend.

[fugazi32]

R.I.P Dr. Hofmann, cycling across the universe now I bet!

[Triple7]

On the fly translation:

The last trip for the father of LSD. (comment: trip what??)

Geneva. In 1943 the swiss born chemist Albert Hofmann bicycled into a non-planned LSD-trip. (comment: Yes.. it says he bicycled into the trip) Now he has entered the last travel (comment: sometimes swedes say travel meaning trip) after an heart attack at age of 102 years. (comment: this is where I reacted.. thinking that one may think he LSD-tripped into heaven.. one might not understand that it is the soul that took its journey to the heaven as with Disney cartoons.. his statement isn't clear enough.)

Between 1929 and 1971 Hofmann worked for the chemical company named Sandoz. He discovered LSD by accident/randomly when he worked with medical plants in attempt to synthesise medicine that eases breathing.

He experimented 1938 with mushrooms that (comment: damn.. my vocubaly sucks) "attacks" oats (ergot or "mjöldryga", which is an alkaloid) when he managed to isolate LSD. Five years later, while working in his lab, Hofmann spilled some LSD on his hand.

The effect was immediate, he told later: He was caused by a strange restlessness combined with dizziness.

He quit his job, took the bike home, and into the hallucinations.

At last at home, Hofmann sank into "a not horrible intoxicated state". With closed eyes he experienced the daylight uncomfortably strong and Hofmann saw "an non-disrupted stream of fantastic pictures, extraordinary forms with intensive calidoskopic shifts in colour".

A few days later, he took by purpose, which later showed, to be a strong dose of LSD and had a consideratebly strong uncomfortable travel (comment: here used the word travel as trip.. which means the same..).

The world looked like through bent mirrors as a tivoli, and the surrounding changed in a horrifying way. Furniture and other known (comment: haha.. known?? :P) objects took "grotesque(sp?) threatening shapes". The wife of the neighbor, who brought him milk to drink while intoxicated, Hofmann drank two liters, she transformed into an "evil, cunning witch with coloured mask".

LSD became the favorite drug in the hippie generation, as with some authors, artists och musicians and already in 1966 it got forbidden and sentencable (comment: with my swenglish word "sentenceable" (comment: I mean that there is sentence on LSD.. article doesn't say how there is a sentence, reader unerstands anyway how.) by the authorities in USA and thereafter in the rest of the world. A ban that did not stop the american military to conduct LSD-experiments on soldiers and civilians.

Albert Hofmann continued to defend his "wonderdrug" for decades, but completely from a therapetic point of view. He hoped that it could have been used against schizophrenia.

(comment: OK.. this was on-the-fly.. would take me some work to fix all the gramar.. nobody as I know claimed that Hofmann overdosed....... and one last thing.. his name is Hofmann.. not hoffman or hoffmann. )

Reputation Comments on this post:

thanks for taking the time to translate!! much appreciated :)

[ILoveYou]

Just wanted to pay my respects publicly the only way I can. Rest in peace friend, you will be missed.

[dr_haldol]

Rest in peace, Albert. Think he was (and still is!) the archetype for every scientist...

[Nostradamus]

I learned recently Dr. Albert Hofmann, the discoverer of LSD, passed away from a heart attack on April 29, 2008. He was 102 years old. You contributed a lot to humanity Dr. Hofmann. Rest in peace.

[Raoul duke420]

RIP to the good Dr. Hoffman! He changed millions of lives with his research including my own, You will always be immortalized by your fans! Peace!
Swim had to pick these up as a tribute to the man.