LSD: My Problem Child—Reflections on Sacred Drugs, Mysticism, and Science

In 1943, Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann accidentally absorbed LSD-25, a lysergic acid derivative, while working at Sandoz, experiencing vivid, kaleidoscopic visions and an intoxicated-like state—the first documented LSD trip. Hofmann had previously synthesized several profitable ergot-based drugs, but LSD did not become a commercial success for Sandoz.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Along with watches and cuckoo clocks, the Swiss produce drugs. They have been doing it for a long time— since Paracelsus of Basel, a contemporary of Columbus. On April 16, 1943, another Basel chemist, Albert Hofmann, was working in his laboratory at Sandoz. His specialty was ergot, a fungus that grows on grains. Starting with lysergic acid, the ergot nucleus, Hofmann had synthesized several medically useful drugs that made Sandoz a great deal of money. On this fateful day, while working with the 25th substance in his series of lysergic acid derivatives (LSD-25), Hofmann began to feel odd. "I sank into a not unpleasant intoxicated-like condition," he writes, and perceived an "uninterrupted stream of fantastic pictures, extraordinary shapes with intense, kaleidoscopic play of colors." Unwittingly, not knowing how he had absorbed the stuff, Hofmann had just taken the first LSD trip. Sandoz, alas, would not make a franc. Later Hofmann