Albert Hoffmann, the Swiss scientist who invented LSD, turned 100 this week. The fact that Dr. Hoffmann is still alive to celebrate his 100th birthday (and looks damn good) gives credence to the early adherents' claim that LSD can help users achieve profound insights and spiritual renewal. Hoffmann described his invention as "medicine for the soul" and became very frustrated when the drug was demonized in the late 1960s after being used quite successfully in psychoanalysis.
When I first read about Hoffmann, I thought surely he must be related to Abbie Hoffman, political activist and founder of the Yippies. During the Chicago Seven trial, it was Abbie Hoffman who famously suggested that the judge try LSD and offered to set him up with a dealer he knew in Florida. But there is no familial connection between the late Abbie Hoffman and the still-ticking Father of LSD. In truth, the elder Hoffmann had little patience for the likes of Abbie or his pal Timothy Leary, despite Leary's attempts to educate people about the psychological benefits of LSD.
When I was in high school, LSD use was rampant and President Nixon was calling Leary "the most dangerous man in America." I longed to "turn on, tune in, and drop out" with the rest of the counterculture but I never quite fit in with the stoner clique at my school. Every time I tried smoking pot I'd lapse into a severe (and very uncool) coughing jag. If I did get high, I'd become paranoid and withdraw into a corner of the room, examining the palm of my hand like some clichéd scene out of "Go Ask Alice." The one time I tried "magic mushrooms" (psylocibin), I saw colors emanating from the top of my girlfriend's head and freaked out thinking she was about to spontaneously combust. I never tried cocaine but I'm sure if I had I would've recreated the scene from "Annie Hall" in which Woody Allen sneezes on his friend's stash, blowing the expensive powder all over the room.
I admired the long-haired druggies at my school. They were cool and hip and nothing seemed to faze them. I longed to join their ranks but there was one big problem--to be a druggie you actually had to do drugs. I fantasized about that portal into the world of psychedelia and expanded consciousness but it was not to be. On top of everything else, I was too much of a goody-goody to actually risk getting in trouble. The real stoners at our school didn't care if they were caught getting high in the school bathroom or congregating in glassy-eyed stupor on the playground. They were frequently sent to the principal's office or the school counselor. They barely got by in their classes and were often suspended or expelled. The only time I had ever been in the principal's office was when I fell face down on the cement in elementary school and Dr. Stanek stuck her hand in my mouth to check for loose teeth.
Truth be told, there was a fair amount of addiction in my family and I became convinced that I was genetically predisposed to the dark side of drug use. I worried that the slightest dabbling would automatically lead to a sordid life in a flophouse with a dirty hypodermic needle sticking out of my arm. But I secretly envied the kids who were tripping out daily, thus escaping the tedium of life in the Chicago public schools.
Dr. Hoffmann was aware of the potential dangers of his discovery but felt it had far too many positive applications to be criminalized. Prior to its prohibition, many prominent people promoted the use of LSD. One famous advocate was movie star Cary Grant who dropped acid more than 100 times under the supervision of his shrink. Grant had this to say about his experience:
"All my life, I've been searching for peace of mind. I'd explored yoga and hypnotism and made several attempts at mysticism. Nothing really seemed to give me what I wanted until this treatment...I had to face things about myself which I never admitted, which I didn't know were there."
Other celebrities who enjoyed the benefits of d-lysergic acid diethylamide back then included Anais Nin, Allen Ginsberg, Aldous Huxley, Jack Nicholson, Peter Fonda, and, of course, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones.
Albert Hoffmann is celebrating his 100th birthday by attending a three-day symposium on LSD this weekend in Basel, Switzerland. I can only hope to be half that vibrant and "with it" if I ever reach that age. Hoffmann still takes daily walks in the countryside and says that we are all too reliant on technology and not observant enough of nature's own beauty. Right on, Al!
I no longer secretly wish to be a druggie but I do think it would be great to have a way to be less uptight, remove my inhibitions, express myself more creatively, and experience enlightened insights into human consciousness.
Oh wait--isn't that what blogging is supposed to do?