All 32-year-old Albert Hoffmann wanted in 1938 was to synthesize a chemical compound that would stimulate the respiratory and circulatory systems. He went to work for Sandoz, a Swiss chemical company, in 1929 after graduating from the University of Zurich. Sandoz, founded in 1886, started out by producing dyes and later saccharin.
There wasn't even a formal pharmaceutical department until 1917, when Professor Arthur Stoll isolated an active ingredient called aotamine from ergot, a fungus found in infected rye that had been used as a folk medicine for generations.
Some interesting history
The following photo is not a real Kodak film, but rather a clever and slightly satirical package for underground LSD made by New Yorker Eric Ghost — aka Eric Brown — in 1968.
Ghost first took LSD on the Lower East Side around 1965, after an itinerant life of military service, armed robbery and prison. He ingested about 4,000 micrograms, or mics, of pure Sandoz smeared on a sugar cube, and the thermonuclear revelation induced by this massive dose convinced him to co-found Psychedelicatessen, a legendary, though short-lived drug store that opened at 164 Avenue A in 1966.
Like many acid addicts of the time, Ghost was messianic about the molecule and its potential to improve people and the world. After LSD was banned, he decided to start making and distributing the stuff himself.
In contrast to contemporary perceptions, where psychedelics are seen as drugs, party souvenirs, or local rituals, in the 1960s many LSD users perceived their favorite substance more as media. Like all the more technologically advanced forms of postwar media, LSD filtered, transformed, and amplified non-narcotic phenomena.
The ghost image played with this association, disguising acid as film, promising «vivid colors». Each sheet was wrapped in Mylar, a protective material that not only prevented the acid crystals from being destroyed by ultraviolet light, but also served as a barrier to suspicious individuals, potentially destroying the unexposed film when the package was opened.
The idea of «media is the message» permeated both the discourse and marketing of acid. Other examples include Windowpane, Clearlist, and some of the first printed LSD blotters with images of electric light bulbs.
Ghost's concealed packaging was a significant advance in the distribution of LSD: for the first time, mechanical examples of blotting paper dosed with drops of LSD were created. Previously, liquid LSD had been placed on blotting paper and other materials, applied one drop at a time with a pipette.
Ghost and his team developed the Mark I device, which allows 100 pins to be dipped into the LSD solution at a time, then moved whole and imprinted on a sheet of paper at the same time. The pins and the resulting dosage followed a tight grid of five rows of 20 pins each, forming the «5-20» pattern mentioned earlier. Each drop of Ghost contained about 1,000 microns of LSD, allowing the distributor or purchaser to manually cut it into four pieces of 250 microns each while maintaining dosage accuracy. This «four-way» principle was used throughout the history of the blotter.
Inside Ghost's packaging was an information sheet that today helps us understand how underground suppliers conceptualized and promoted their wares. Rather than mysticism and revolutionary sanctimony, Ghost's text presented LSD as a scientific product of a modern laboratory run by pharmaceutical corporations.
Although LSD was linked to a natural source, ergot on rye, part of its appeal arose from its origins in a technological European culture. Some of the information in Ghost was incorrect (LSD is not chemically similar to mescaline), but it displayed the same nerdy appeal that has always been present in modern psychedelic culture.
One of the key ideas of postwar psychedelic culture and research is the role of «attitude and environment» in shaping experience. This concept, first enunciated by Timothy Leary and his co-authors in the 1964 book The Psychedelic Experience, implies that LSD reflects and reinforces internal attitudes and environmental cues.
As early as the 1950s, researchers and users realized that the effects of psychedelics are diverse and highly context-dependent. This recursive mechanism helps explain the wide range of effects and their plasticity, as well as the importance of cultural narratives, from the idea of expanded consciousness in the 1960s to current cases of cluster headaches or PTSD. At the same time, even in the age of experimentation, the guide played an important role in the experience.
Contemporary researchers and promoters of the «psychedelic renaissance»often position themselves as innovators. Ghost's text shows that in the 1960s there were already numerous clinical studies of LSD — for the treatment of alcoholism, pain, anxiety in cancer patients, psychological pressure, and even autism problems.
At the same time, references to LSD as a possible «treatment» for homosexuality — which was indeed researched in the 1960s by Timothy Leary and Richard Alpertem (who later embraced homosexuality) — are a reminder of the distortions inherent in these experiments, as well as the darker aspects of LSD's legacy as an agent of behavioral modification.
How'd he open it?
In its original form and in large quantities, ergot was a deadly poison and scourge that caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people over the centuries. Thus, in 857 in the territory of modern Germany recorded a description that says: «A great plague of swollen blisters engulfed people with a disgusting rot, so that their limbs were weak and fell off before they died».
Modern historians attribute these events and similar epidemics of early history to prolonged exposure to contaminated grains known as St. Anthony's fire, a name given to the condition caused by the toxic effects of ergot, after the French monastic order that cared for victims of the disease. Until the end of the seventeenth century, the origin of these symptoms remained unknown, and it was only later recognized that ergotism was divided into two forms: gangrenous and convulsive. The description of symptoms on the University of Hawaii website clearly shows how dangerous rye bread containing ergot can be:
Convulsive ergotism is manifested by nervous disorders: the person breaks down, distorts the body, experiences pain, tremors, shaking, concussions, and torticollis — a fixed twisting of the neck that resembles a seizure. In some cases, muscle spasms, confusion, delirium, and hallucinations are noted.
Some scholars believe that the appearance of these terrifying symptoms for no apparent reason, especially convulsions accompanied by hallucinations, delusions, or psychosis, was the cause of accusations of witchcraft. These accusations fueled mass hysteria and witch hunts like the Salem trials of 1692-1693. It is also believed that years of rye shortages, a period when tainted rye could be used, coincided with an increase in accusations of witchcraft, suggesting a link between toxic effects and public panic.
However, in small doses, ergot's properties, such as muscle and vasoconstriction, may have been beneficial. For example, it was used to hasten labor and stop bleeding, abilities predicted by alchemists and midwives that have been used for generations.
For several years, scientists had been identifying the chemical structure of various biologically active compounds in ergot, all of which shared a common base — lysergic acid, or Lysergsaure in German. Hofmann developed synthetic methods to produce these compounds from their chemical components. He reconstituted the active ingredients of ergot and created new ones with similar structures, potentially suitable for medical use.
In a sense, Hofmann played the role of an alchemist of sorts, combining lysergic acid with different organic molecules to see what would work. He ended up creating 24 variants of the compound, and then by reacting it with diethylamine, an ammonia derivative, he obtained a 25th variant, abbreviated LSD-25 for laboratory testing.
He hoped that the substance could stimulate circulation and respiration, but expectations were not met. Reports noted only some agitation in the animals, but no effects of medical interest were found — and the research was suspended.
Despite this, Hofmann continued his experiments with ergot. However, his thoughts kept returning to LSD-25, despite the lack of success. Perhaps he felt that he had a special premonition inside that the substance was something more. He rarely talked about it, calling his feelings «a strange premonition — a feeling that this substance might have properties different from those revealed in the first studies».
Five years later, after LSD-25 had been abandoned to the dust of history, Hofmann still decided to synthesize it again, guided by his inner premonition. He would later confess to loved ones, «I didn't choose LSD; LSD found me and called me».
It happened on Friday, April 16, 1943, in the midst of a world war. On that day, Hofmann was in the final stage of synthesis — he was crystallizing LSD into salts — and suddenly felt very strange. He had to leave work and go home. The next day he wrote a memorandum to his supervisor, Stoll: «I was forced to interrupt work in the middle of the day, feeling very uneasy, dizzy. At home I lay down and felt an intoxication-like state with vivid excitement, fantastic images and kaleidoscopic colors with my eyes closed».
When he regained consciousness, Hofmann began to analyze what could have affected him so. At first, he suspected the solvent he was using. Inhaling its vapors had no effect. Then he thought he might have swallowed traces of LSD, although he initially ruled out this possibility, because he was very careful not to contaminate it. The only possible source, the skin of his fingers, seemed too small in quantity to cause a strong reaction.
Nevertheless, an inner voice told him that LSD could be the cause. So he decided to test it on himself. At 4:20 p.m. on April 19, he dissolved 250 micrograms of LSD diethylamide tartrate and drank it. He expected that there would be no effects. He started with a very small dose — a thousand times smaller than the active dose for other substances. He planned to gradually increase the dose to see the first signs of reaction.
However, after only 40 minutes he recorded: «17:00 — dizziness, anxiety, distortion of vision, paralysis, desire to laugh». In his memoirs, he wrote, «I had to make a great effort to speak. I could hardly write my last words». He asked an aide to escort him home on his bicycles — because of military transportation restrictions. During the ride, he felt his condition worsening: everything around him was warped, it seemed he couldn't move, although the aide claimed we were traveling fast. When he reached home, he was barely able to ask to call a doctor and get some milk, a remedy traditionally used for poisoning.
The effects were frightening and unexpected. Hofmann didn't realize how it would end. He feared that the drug could permanently damage his psyche or even cause physical harm. His fears were so intense that he asked for milk to neutralize the possible toxicity. He described his feelings as a «transmitted demon taking over his body and mind», and the fear of going insane was peaking. He felt as if he had entered another world, his body was emotionless and the surrounding reality was grotesque, moving and dangerous. When the doctor arrived, he found only dilated pupils, normal pulse and blood pressure. No medication was needed; the doctor simply put Hofmann to bed and waited for him to return to normal.
When the effects wore off, Hofmann felt relieved and grateful, his perception became clearer. He began to see bright colors, fantastic shapes behind his closed eyes. The next morning he wrote: «Everything in the world shone with a new light. The senses have been sharpened to the utmost. It was as if the world had been re-created».
Animal experiments confirmed that LSD in low doses caused erratic behavior and hallucinations: mice and cats showed signs of altered perception, and chimpanzees showed impaired social behavior. Overall, the toxic dose was one hundred times higher than the psychoactive dose, indicating that the substance was highly safe when properly dosed.
Encouraged by the results, Hofmann decided to continue researching and testing LSD informally with friends. He wrote that he realized: context and environment greatly influence the nature of the experience. In one of his interviews he noted, «I experienced ecstatic love and oneness with all beings. This is the source of happiness».