Dr. Albert Hofmann, inventor of LSD, is dead at 102.
There’s been some uncertainty on the web whether Hoffman’s passing is just a rumor. However, a call to the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies confirms he died last night in his home in Basel, Switzerland.
For more information on his life and work see the Erowid Albert Hofmann Vault
Telegraph obituary
Hofmann's 'problem child'
10 comments:
Albert Hoffman RIP. Using all that LSD obviously took years off his life!
He should've stuck to something safe like alcohol.
he was giving talks at conferences about his 'problem child' even last year. The phrase 'good innings' springs to mind.
Albert Hoffmann probably gave us one of the most misunderstood gifts to humanity.
A powerful psychotherapeutical tool that can break the social and cultural condtioning of we humans and place us in a state of pure awareness where our shared humaness is profoundly felt.
It never should have been used as a recreational drug by the millions and that was it's down fall.
But I feel that the tide is once again turning in its favour. I hope that slowly it is introduced into the hands of expert qualified psychologsists and psychotherapists.
We have need for it in our alienating and materilistic culture more than ever.
Thank you Mr Hoffmann for some of the most profound moments of my life
John Boi - I don't want to quarrel, but I sense a certain hypocrisy in your comment. Have you used LSD as a psychotherapeutic drug? Sorry, as long as it's illegal, it's all precisely "recreational use", regardless of purpose.
My point is simply not to divide, not to exclude. I perfectly understand the dangers of uncontrolled LSD use - that's why I'm waiting myself for my first psychedelic experience, not daring take such substances without a guide. But I can't agree with a standpoint that says "legalize LSD, but only for therapeutic use", "only for this and that class of patients". Someone will take it to deal with personal problems and someone else because it can be aesthetically beautiful - it's OK, as long as they know what they're doing and how to avoid trouble. It's all a matter of personal responsibility. I don't think "hard drugs" are worth using, but I will defend people's right to use them, simply because the State doesn't have a moral right to control our consciousness. The same with LSD: educate, not restrict.
You are right nowhere girl, to some extent but I disagree that purely because a drug is illegal it cannot be used therapeutically. There are still enlightened psychotherpists who do use it in a necessarily clandestine way.
In fact I would say that the vast majority of my experiences of LSD have been therapeutic (it is the nature of the drug) but the majority not in a clinical setting. But I do agree with you wholeheartedly that it needs to be taken by those that so choose with personal responsibility education and understanding.
I suppose what I really meant to say is that LSD is a powerful tool for change and awareness and it is debased if used recreationally and in fact that is where any dangers of the drug are liable to found.
Thanks for you critique nowhere girl and getting me to think about my comments.
If you look through erowid.com you will see that there were thousands of peer reviewed papers published pre the mid 60's showing the usefulness of LSD in a clinical setting. There is no doubt that LSD is an extremely powerful durg but its dangers are exaggerated. The recent Lancet review put it in the bottom 3 most harmless of the 18 drugs it looked at.
There is huge public misinformation surrounding LSD.
If anyone would like to educate themselves you couldn't go wrong by listening to some of the podcasts over at the psychedelic salon particuarly by some of the original clinical users of LSD in the 60's
go here
http://www.matrixmasters.net/blogs/?cat=21
Last week Albert was helping with fundraising to end the war on some people whom use some drugs and he autographed some blotter art for casey hardison to sell for this purpose to put a stop to the discrimination now.
Recreational use should never be apologised for. Even recreational misuse is significantly caused by the criminalisation of drugs.
Or I should say more correctly the problem is the discrimination in drug property rights, these being curtailed for some drugs but not for others without just cause
Jamie here.
http://fictionfactandfantasy.blogspot.com/
thought maybe you'd have an interest in this topic...and might contribute to a collection on the positve impacts of psychedelics.
Albert Hofmanns discovery has changed my life. He was one of those people you didn't really pay much interest, but now that he's gone it feels like the world got a little heavier and a little worse.
He was the perfect example of a responsible LSD-user... Still... 102 years old is OLD.
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