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Throughout history people have used mind expanding substances to explore consciousness and enhance their lives. Our purpose at the Albert Hofmann Foundation is to gather the records of these endeavors and to further the understanding and responsible application of psychedelic substances in the investigation of both individual and collective consciousness. Changes at the Foundation.
There has been considerable activity since the first issue of the Hofmann Report. Several new associates have been appointed to the Board of Directors, and a new slate of officers elected for the coming year. A fresh band of friends and volunteers have appeared to help revitalize the organization. Here is a statement from our new President, Ron Brettin: I have been asked by our Board of Directors to become President of the Albert Hofmann Foundation. I am greatly honored by this appointment, and wish to thank the Board for their confidence in my abilities. Voted in as new officers are Kathy Delaney, Vice President, and Myron Stolaroff, Secretary. New Board members include Kathy, Robit Hairman and Don Wylie. All other board members were reelected for another term.
Kathy has been an able volunteer for several years, unselfishly helping with a variety of tasks required of a non-profit organization. She has also contributed valuable thought and analysis to the Foundation's organizational and administrative structure, all of which have been of great benefit. We look forward to her continued contributions and support. Robit Hairman is an interactive multimedia designer/producer and has advanced skills in computer technology. We are confident in his abilities and have asked him to establish the Albert Hofmann Foundation Web Site for the Internet. He will also be responsible for on-going maintenance, posting of newsworthy information, and providing networking links on the 'Net.'
Don Wylie is an attorney with excellent credentials and experience, thoroughly committed to the objectives of the Foundation. His legal expertise will be most valuable.
I want to pay special thanks to Michael Gilbert, retiring Albert Hofmann Foundation President. Through his strong leadership, business sense and professional style, we emerged from a troubled financial position and created new confidence in our mission and direction. Michael's insight united the Foundation in establishing important and achievable goals. On behalf of our Foundation, thank you Michael.
With the energy we now have in motion and the never-tiring interest from the psychedelic community, we shall continue with our mission as originally envisioned by Oscar Janiger and supported whole-heartedly by Dr. Albert Hofmann. Thank you all for your continued faith and support. - Ron Brettin, President
In forthcoming issues of The Hofmann Report, we plan to introduce you to members of our Advisory Board, an outstanding group that has greatly contributed to the advancement of understanding psychedelics and their application. In this issue, we feature a key Advisor and the person for whom our foundation is named, Dr. Albert Hofmann.
Dr. Albert Hofmann, Ph.D., Dr. Pharm.(Hon.), Dr. Sc.Nat.(Hon.), Head of the Pharmaceutical-Chemical Research Laboratories, Division of Natural Products (Retired), Sandoz, Ltd., Basel, Switzerland, Member of the Nobel Prize Committee, Fellow of the World Academy of Sciences, Member of the International Society of Plant Research and the American Society of Pharmacognosy, is probably best known throughout the world as the creator of LSD. It is because of this discovery and the important impact it has made upon the world that our Foundation is proud to bear his name.
In the history of science, it is possible to pick out single, key events that have enormously influenced the progress of civilization. Certainly Dr. Hofmann's discovery of LSD is one of these. This discovery has made an impact upon many thousands of lives, making possible realizations and comprehensive understanding of the true nature of reality that had previously been the privilege of only a few, dedicated souls. This discovery has permitted the honest, earnest seeker to stand on the very pinnacle of human spiritual experience. If the most important task for a human being is to achieve his/her ultimate fulfillment, then LSD and similar psychoactive substances are a true blessing to help the individual achieve such realization.
It is interesting to speculate on the emergence of such a discovery within the framework of human evolution. Alexander Shulgin, another of our eminent advisors, in an address to a conference on Entheogens at Santa Barbara, California in 1983, commented that our psyches and the universe have a tendency to stay in balance, and speculated on the fact that the discovery of the effects of LSD in 1943 coincided with the most massive war in history. This view is repeated by Dr. Hofmann himself: "The existence of LSD was even regarded by the drug enthusiasts as a predestined coincidence - it had to be discovered precisely at this time in order to bring help to people suffering under the modern conditions (page 58, LSD - My Problem Child)." Carl Jung, the eminent Swiss psychiatrist, might have noted the synchronicity of the early childhood mystical experiences of Dr. Hofmann with his inspiration to become a chemist and pursue the investigations of ergot compounds that led to the discovery of LSD.
In his autobiography, LSD - My Problem Child, Dr. Hofmann reports an early childhood experience:
As I strolled through the freshly greened woods filled with bird song and lit up by the morning sun, all at once everything appeared in an uncommonly clear light. Was this something I had simply failed to notice before? Was I suddenly discovering the spring forest as it actually looked? It shone with the most beautiful radiance, speaking to the heart, as though it wanted to encompass me in its majesty. I was filled with an indescribable sensation of joy, oneness, and blissful security. While still a child, I experienced several more of these deeply euphoric moments on my rambles through forest and meadow. It was these experiences that shaped the main outlines of my world view and convinced me of the existence of a miraculous, powerful, unfathomable reality that was hidden from everyday sight.
Because I wanted to gain insight into the structure and essence of matter, I became a research chemist. Intrigued by the plant world since early childhood, I chose to specialize in research on the constituents of medicinal plants. In the course of this career I was led to the psychoactive, hallucinogen-causing substances, which under certain conditions can evoke visionary states similar to the spontaneous experiences just described.
After completing his chemical studies, Dr. Hofmann chose a position in the pharmaceutical-chemical research laboratory of Sandoz Company in Basel, Switzerland, where he could pursue his interest in studying the medicinal potential of plants. This eventually led to the study of the alkaloids of ergot. A systematic study of the latter led to many interesting new discoveries, some with valuable medical applications, such as Hydergine, a medicament for improvement of peripheral circulation and cerebral function, applied in the control of geriatric disorders and as a "smart pill." Another product was Dihydergot, a circulation and blood pressure stabilizing medicament. Eventually the studies led to the compounding of LSD, and the famous bicycle ride in April 1943. The potential of LSD rapidly became apparent.
Sandoz, as well as Dr. Hofmann personally, hoped to see the new discovery become a valuable tool in neurological research and in psychiatric applications. Much to the chagrin of all, some of the more dramatic properties of LSD became widely known and an enormous lay interest developed. In Dr. Hofmann's words, "the joy at having fathered LSD was tarnished after more than ten years of uninterrupted scientific research and medicinal use when LSD was swept up in the huge wave of an inebriant mania that began to spread over the Western world, above all the United States, at the end of the 1950s."
By 1965, Dr. Hofmann was well aware of the potential of LSD to be of considerable aid in psychotherapy, and particularly under appropriate conditions to reveal the mystical aspects of human nature. Such a tool was sorely needed to counter what he felt were the deep-seated sociological causes of public interest: "materialism, alienation from nature through industrialization and increasing urbanization, lack of satisfaction in professional employment in a mechanized, lifeless working world, ennui and purposelessness in wealthy, saturated society, and lack of a religious, nurturing, and meaningful philosophical foundation of life." Dr. Hofmann's "tarnished joy" is no doubt an extremely mild statement of the deep disappointment and chagrin he felt at having a most valuable discovery reach the point where his company deemed it necessary to remove it from distribution.
But despite the promulgation of laws throughout the world making possession of practically all psychedelics illegal, many thousands were able to discover the remarkable benefits that could be obtained through informed use. Such benefits included furthering human understanding and revealing avenues for correcting many of the woes of the world.
It is not always possible in the throes of a movement to understand its true evaluation. The so-called abuse may have been the inevitable demand on the part of human psyches everywhere to break the bonds of restricted habits and thinking, to free powerful, repressed internal feelings, to demand inner expression, and rebel against the dishonesty and self- centeredness predominant in the world. It may turn out, as I personally believe, that exposures of the inner psyche, even under adverse and unintelligent conditions, might have some ultimately useful impact - that in time such exposures will be assimilated and yield a more balanced and intelligent approach to life. But in any event, Dr. Hofmann himself directs us to procedures for maximizing human realization.
In his book, Insight Outlook, he shares his personal philosophical views that stem from his childhood natural mystical experiences and their subsequent confirmation through scientific exploration and analysis. In order to understand the true nature of reality, it is necessary to examine the earliest beginnings, the source of life itself. This boils down to the origin of the single, primeval cell. "This is where we must face the question whether the creation of the primeval cell is based on a coincidence, with a great number of molecules drifting together and combining into a highly organized cell structure, or whether the cell was created according to a plan. It seems unimaginable that such a complicated, highly structured and organized entity as a cell could have been created by random chance. It appears obvious that the primeval cell was following a plan at its conception. And the primeval cell, for its part, also contains a plan, the plan to reproduce itself, the actual characteristics of life. A plan embodies an idea, an idea in spirit (page 18)."
To bolster his argument, Dr. Hofmann gives the example of a cathedral:
"Let us suppose that all the construction material for the building of a cathedral, including the technical appliances and the necessary energy, were readily available at some location. Without the idea of an architect, without his plans and instructions, the cathedral would never be erected. This kind of consideration must be just as valid for the creation of atoms for living cells as they are far more complicated and ingenious structures than a cathedral (pages 19-20)."
"It is essential to recognize that the one-sided belief in the natural scientific view of life is based on a momentous error. Certainly, everything it contains is true, but this only represents half of reality; only its material, quantifiable part. All of the spiritual dimensions that cannot be described in physical or chemical terms, which include the most important characteristics of that which is living, are absent (page 40)." "The goal is not to deny the validity of the natural scientific view of life and to downplay the value of the measuring sciences. We are only talking about recognizing their titanic myopia (page 41)."
Dr. Hofmann explains how he employed chemistry to arrive at important understandings. "In the above I have tried to show that, form the standpoint of a chemist, the insights of natural scientific research need not lead to a materialistic view of life. Quite the opposite is true: if they are contemplated and understood correctly, they invariably point to an altogether inexplicable, spiritual primordial basis of creation, to the miracle, the mystery - in the microcosms of the atom, the macrocosms of a spiral nebula, in the seed of a plant, in the body and spirit of a human - to the divine (page 53)."
By observing natural scientific discoveries through a perception deepened by meditation, we can develop a new awareness of reality. This awareness could become the bedrock of a spirituality that is not based on the dogmas of a given religion, but on insights into a higher and deeper meaning. I am referring to the ability to recognize, to read, and to understand the firsthand revelations "in the book written by the finger of God, as Paracelsus designated creation. Such observations make possible "revelations of the metaphysical blueprint of creation. They reveal the unity of all things living in a common spiritual primordial basis (pages 53-54). If such insights were to enter into our collective consciousness, the result would be that natural scientific research and the hitherto destroyers of nature, technology and industry, would be applied to transform our world back into what it once was - into an earthly Garden of Eden (page 56).
Dr. Hofmann on January 11, 1996, celebrated his 90th birthday. He appeared as a speaker at the recent European Conference for the Study of Consciousness in Heidelberg. Several of our American advisors attended the conference, and report that he is in great spirits, looks remarkably well and content, exudes good health and an excellent sense of presence. They even brought home the photographs to prove it! At this point in time, we live in a world in ignorance and confusion where Dr. Hofmann's remarkable discovery is not comprehended. Even prominent American psychiatrists label psychedelics as only harmful and toxic. We at the Albert Hofmann Foundation are committed to educational programs that will correct these erroneous views. We hope that all of you who have benefited from such substances and understand their potential, will join us in bringing appropriate understanding into the world. Only in this way will the doors to research and developing effective applications come open. If our efforts are successful, it may even be possible one day to engage in high forms of religious worship without breaking the law.
- Myron Stolaroff, Editor
Inquiries and communications regarding our organization and activities may be sent to:
The Albert Hofmann Foundation
432 South New Hampshire, Suite 304
Los Angeles, CA 90020-1904
Tel: (213) 281-8110
Fax: (213) 380-2453
AHF Founders
Board of Directors
Board Advisors
Board of Advisors
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MAPS is a non-profit research and educational organization. Your support makes a difference. |
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