April 29th, 2008; Professor Albert Hofmann, the man who discovered LSD, died, at the incredible age of 102. I for one am grateful that he lived a long life. Albert Hofmann changed the perception of life for so many people, including me amongst millions of others, through his experiments in his native Switzerland all the way back in the 1940's. Hofmann, without ever planning to, changed the course of western culture. There's loads I could say about him, his discovery of acid, but I'm sure many others have blogged similar thoughts already.
In discovering LSD, Hofmann allowed us all to discover LSD. I did, at 17 years old and it changed my life for the better. It's the old cliche, but it's a true one - LSD opened my doors of perception and roughly 90 trips on, I've never felt healthier in the head. I was listening to The Doors at the time (as I am right now funnily enough), and LSD was the ultimate nutaral complimentary substance to have by my side. I discovered an incredibly peaceful side of my nature that hadn't been aparant to me before I did LSD. That peace is something I carry with me now, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
LSD taught me what a Crystal Ship is, where the Octapus' Garden lies, why it was possible to have Too Much To Dream Last Night and why 7 & 7 Is.
I think as we move further away from the first golden psychadelic age, we'll be more able to look back objectively and judge just what a huge impact Albert Hofmann had on millions of people's way of life. I'm British, and therefore am pretty well exposed to Hofmann's influence, but it nonetheless pales into insignificance when I examine Hofmann's influence on American counter-culture. Albert's accidental discovery made planet Earth a more pleasant rock for a lot of us to live on, and to think on, and to create on. Leary 'turned up, tuned in and dropped out' rather infamously. I think LSD's true lesson is for people to 'turn up, try it, and tune in.' LSD taught me to be an influence in the world, not a passive observer.
Goodbye Albert Hofmann. I hope one day your discovery will be freely available to us all again. Because while it was, there was a brief optimistic moment before that great tragic wave of the illegisation of your 'medicine for the soul,' crashed onto the Pacific shoreline, when the truest revolution of all, the revolution of the human soul, seemed imminent. It was, and still is, your problem child, but LSD will grow up into a beautiful rebellious adult soon enough.
Albert Hofmann - January 11th 1906 - April 29th 2008
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