From: honig@siam.ics.uci.edu (David A. Honig)
Subject: Re: Bicycle Day
Summary: Here's the scoop..
Newsgroups: alt.drugs
Reply-To: honig@ics.uci.edu (David A. Honig)
Organization: UC Disneyland, Dept. of Info. & Comp. Sci.
Keywords: Hoffman Bicycle LSD
Date: 14 Apr 92 04:09:02 GMT
Distribution: w

 jimb@orion.oac.uci.edu (Jim Barrera) writes:
>
>Hey!  There's an important religious holiday to be celebrated
>this Sunday, April 19th.  (And i'm not talking about Easter.)
>
>It's Bicycle Day, the day on which we remember & give thanks
>to Dr. Albert Hoffman on the anniversary of his historic ride.
>
>Last year, several articles were posted about this.  If anyone
>out there still has a copy of Hoffman's account of the day,
>please post it so that everyone else gets the idea.

Actually it appears to be the 16th of April...

Remember to make a toast with a glass of milk...see below.
And always: Don't Panic.


From :

LSD - My Problem Child
Albert Hofmann



Discovery of the Psyhic Effects of LSD

The solution of the ergotoxine problem had led to fruitful results, described
here only briefly, and had opened up further avenues of research. And yet I
could not forget the relatively uninteresting LSD-25. A peculiar presentiment
- the feeling that this substance could possess properties other than those
established in the first investigations - induced me, five years after the
first synthesis, to produce LSD-25 once again so that a sample could be given
to the pharmacological department for further tests. This was quite unusual;
experimental substances, as a rule, were definitely stricken from the research
program if once found to be lacking in pharmacological interest.

Nevertheless, in the spring of 1943, I repeated the synthesis of LSD-25. As in
the first synthesis, this involved the production of only a few centigrams of
the compound.

In the final step of the synthesis, during the purification and
crystallization of lysergic acid diethylamide in the form of a tartrate
(tartaric acid salt), I was interrupted in my work by unusual sensations. The
following description of this incident comes from the report that I sent at
the time to Professor Stoll:

    Last Friday, April 16,1943, I was forced to interrupt my work in
    the laboratory in the middle of the afternoon and proceed home,
    being affected by 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 found the
    daylight to be unpleasantly glaring), I perceived an uninterrupted
    stream of fantastic pictures, extraordinary shapes with intense,
    kaleidoscopic play of colors. After some two hours this condition
    faded away.

This was, altogether, a remarkable experience -  both in its sudden onset and
its extraordinary course. It seemed to have resulted from some external toxic
influence; I surmised a connection with the substance I had been working with
at the time, lysergic acid diethylamide tartrate. But this led to another
question: how had I managed to absorb this material? Because of the known
toxicity of ergot substances, I always maintained meticulously neat work
habits. Possibly a bit of the LSD solution had contacted my fingertips during
crystallization, and a trace of the substance was absorbed through the skin.
If LSD-25 had indeed been the cause of this bizarre experience, then it must
be a substance of extraordinary potency. There seemed to be only one way of
getting to the bottom of this. I decided on a self-experiment.

Exercising extreme caution, I began the planned series of experiments with the
smallest quantity that could be expected to produce some effect, considering
the activity of the ergot alkaloids known at the time: namely, 0.25 mg (mg =
milligram = one thousandth of a gram) of lysergic acid diethylamide tartrate.
Quoted below is the entry for this experiment in my laboratory journal of
April 19, 1943.


Self-Experiments

    4/19/43 16:20: 0.5 cc of 1/2 promil aqueous solution of diethylamide
    tartrate orally = 0.25 mg tartrate. Taken diluted with about 10 cc
    water. Tasteless.

    17:00: Beginning dizziness, feeling of anxiety, visual distortions,
    symptoms of paralysis, desire to laugh.

    Supplement of 4/21: Home by bicycle. From 18:00- ca.20:00 most severe
    crisis. (See special report.)

Here the notes in my laboratory journal cease. I was able to write the last
words only with great effort. By now it was already clear to me that LSD had
been the cause of the remarkable experience of the previous Friday, for the
altered perceptions were of the same type as before, only much more intense. I
had to struggle to speak intelligibly. I asked my laboratory assistant, who
was informed of the self-experiment, to escort me home. We went by bicycle, no
automobile being available because of wartime restrictions on their use. 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 traveled very rapidly. Finally, we arrived
at home safe and sound, and I was just barely capable of asking my companion
to summon our family doctor and request milk from the neighbors.

In spite of my delirious, bewildered condition, I had brief periods of clear
and effective thinking - and chose milk as a nonspecific antidote for
poisoning.

The dizziness and sensation of fainting became so strong at times that I could
no longer hold myself erect, and had to lie down on a sofa. My surroundings
had now transformed themselves in more terrifying ways. Everything in the room
spun around, and the familiar objects and pieces of furniture assumed
grotesque, threatening forrns. They were in continuous motion, animated, as if
driven by an inner restlessness. The lady next door, whom I scarcely
recognized, brought me milk - in the course of the evening I drank more than
two liters. She was no longer Mrs. R., but rather a malevolent, insidious
witch with a colored mask.

Even worse than these demonic transformations of the outer world, were the
alterations that I perceived in myself, in my inner being. Every exertion of
my will, every attempt to put an end to the disintegration of the outer world
and the dissolution of my ego, seemed to be wasted effort. 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. It was the demon that scornfully triumphed over my will. I was seized by
the dreadful fear of going insane. I was taken to another world, another
place, another time. My body seemed to be without sensation, lifeless,
strange. Was I dying? Was this the transition? At times I believed myself to
be outside my body, and then perceived clearly, as an outside observer, the
complete tragedy of my situation. I had not even taken leave of my family (my
wife, with our three children had traveled that day to visit her parents, in
Lucerne). Would they ever understand that I had not experimented
thoughtlessly, irresponsibly, but rather with the utmost caution, an-d that
such a result was in no way foreseeable? My fear and despair intensified, not
only because a young family should lose its father, but also because I dreaded
leaving my chemical research work, which meant so much to me, unfinished in
the midst of fruitful, promising development. Another reflection took shape,
an idea full of bitter irony: if I was now forced to leave this world
prematurely, it was because of this Iysergic acid diethylamide that I myself
had brought forth into the world.

By the time the doctor arrived, the climax of my despondent condition had
already passed. My laboratory assistant informed him about my selfexperiment,
as I myself was not yet able to formulate a coherent sentence. He shook his
head in perplexity, after my attempts to describe the mortal danger that
threatened my body. He could detect no abnormal symptoms other than extremely
dilated pupils. Pulse, blood pressure, breathing were all normal. He saw no
reason to prescribe any medication. Instead he conveyed me to my bed and stood
watch over me. Slowly I came back from a weird, unfamiliar world to reassuring
everyday reality. The horror softened and gave way to a feeling of good
fortune and gratitude, the more normal perceptions and thoughts returned, and
I became more confident that the danger of insanity was conclusively past.

Now, little by little I could begin to enjoy the unprecedented colors and
plays of shapes that persisted behind my closed eyes. Kaleidoscopic, fantastic
images surged in on me, alternating, variegated, opening and then closing
themselves in circles and spirals, exploding in colored fountains, rearranging
and hybridizing themselves in constant flux. It was particularly remarkable
how every acoustic perception, such as the sound of a door handle or a passing
automobile, became transformed into optical perceptions. Every sound generated
a vividly changing image, with its own consistent form and color.

Late in the evening my wife returned from Lucerne. Someone had informed her by
telephone that I was suffering a mysterious breakdown. She had returned home
at once, leaving the children behind with her parents. By now, I had recovered
myself sufficiently to tell her what had happened.

Exhausted, I then slept, to awake next morning refreshed, with a clear head,
though still somewhat tired physically. A sensation of well-being and renewed
life flowed through me. Breakfast tasted delicious and gave me extraordinary
pleasure. When I later walked out into the garden, in which the sun shone now
after a spring rain, everything glistened and sparkled in a fresh light. The
world was as if newly created. All my senses vibrated in a condition of
highest sensitivity, which persisted for the entire day.

This self-experiment showed that LSD-25 behaved as a psychoactive substance
with extraordinary properties and potency. There was to my knowledge no other
known substance that evoked such profound psychic effects in such extremely
low doses, that caused such dramatic changes in human consciousness and our
experience of the inner and outer world.

What seemed even more significant was that I could remember the experience of
LSD inebriation in every detail. This could only mean that the conscious
recording function was not interrupted, even in the climax of the LSD
experience, despite the profound breakdown of the normal world view. For the
entire duration of the experiment, I had even been aware of participating in
an experiment, but despite this recognition of my condition, I could not, with
every exertion of my will, shake off the LSD world. Everything was experienced
as completely real, as alarming reality; alarming, because the picture of the
other, familiar everyday reality was still fully preserved in the memory for
comparison.

Another surprising aspect of LSD was its ability to produce such a
far-reaching, powerful state of inebriation without leaving a hangover. Quite
the contrary, on the day after the LSD experiment I felt myself to be, as
already described, in excellent physical and mental condition.

I was aware that LSD, a new active compound with such properties, would have
to be of use in pharmacology, in neurology, and especially in psychiatry, and
that it would attract the interest of concerned specialists. But at that time
I had no inkling that the new substance would also come to be used beyond
medical science, as an inebriant in the drug scene. Since my self-experiment
had revealed LSD in its terrifying, demonic aspect, the last thing I could
have expected was that this substance could ever find application as anything
approaching a pleasure drug. I failed, moreover, to recognize the meaningful
connection between LSD inebriation and spontaneous visionary experience until
much later, after further experiments, which were carried out with far lower
doses and under different conditions.

The next day I wrote to Professor Stoll the abovementioned report about my
extraordinary experience with LSD-25 and sent a copy to the director of the
pharmacological department, Professor Rothlin.

As expected, the first reaction was incredulous astonishment. Instantly a
telephone call came from the management; Professor Stoll asked: "Are you
certain you made no mistake in the weighing? Is the stated dose really
correct?" Professor Rothlin also called, asking the same question. I was
certain of this point, for I had executed the weighing and dosage with my own
hands. Yet their doubts were justified to some extent, for until then no known
substance had displayed even the slightest psychic effect in
fractionof-a-milligram doses. An active compound of such potency seemed almost
unbelievable.

Professor Rothlin himself and two of his colleagues were the first to repeat
my experiment, with only onethird of the dose I had utilized. But even at that
level, the effects were still extremely impressive, and quite fantastic. All
doubts about the statements in my report were eliminated.


--
David A. Honig

"Oh, a vegetarian, eh?  Well, at my house, even the plants eat meat."

Newsgroups: alt.drugs