Mystic Chemist

When the discoverer of LSD molecule Dr. Albert Hofmann died in 2008 at 102 (!), for several days his name was the most 'googled' on the web and his death was amply covered by newspapers, TVs and other media all around the world. In 2007 he had been nominated (by about 4000 Britons) nr. 1 in a list of 100 greatest living geniuses. All that tells us something: despite the absolute taboo that still surrounds the sacred molecule (with all the correlated 'horror stories'), LSD is considered by many as one of the most remarkable discoveries of modern times.
To celebrate its 70th anniversary, Dieter Hagenbach (Founder and President of the Gaia Media Foundation) and Lucius Werthmuller (Member of the Board of the Gaia Media Foundation*) pay a written tribute to the life (and discovery) of the great Swiss chemist with Mystic Chemist: The Life of Albert Hofmann and His Discovery of LSD, edited by SynergeticPress.

From the SynergeticPress website:
Only a few discoveries of the 20^th century have had such a crucial and meaningful influence on science, society and culture as LSD; this mysterious and extremely potent substance which causes profound changes of consciousness in doses of just a few hundred micrograms. Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann first experienced its remarkable effects during a self-experiment with Lysergic Acid Diethylamide in 1943 at Sandoz Laboratory in Basel. It changed his life deeply, as it also has the lives of millions of people all around the world. His bicycle ride during this first LSD trip became legendary.
Authors Hagenbach and Werthmüller, close friends of Hofmann, take us on a journey through the 20^th century from his mystical childhood experiences with nature; to his chemistry studies with Nobel Prize winner Paul Karrer in Zurich through his discoveries of both LSD and psilocybin at Sandoz; to his adventurous expeditions; to his many years of retirement devoted to philosophy of nature and a rich social life. The authors reveal the eventful history of LSD, which became the subject of numerous clinical studies opening the way for innovative forms of therapy. It fueled the youth movement of the sixties, influenced developments in computer technology and science and helped spawn a new science of consciousness. Albert Hofmann was voted “greatest living genius” in 2007 by the British newspaper, The Telegraph. He lived an active life to the age of 102.

“Future generations will see Albert Hofmann as one the most important figures of the twentieth century; a Promethean visionary who helped chart a new trajectory for the evolution of the human species.”

-Stanislav Grof, Psychiatrist

(* Gaia Media Foundation organized the LSD International Symposium in 2006 and the World Psychedelic Forum in 2008, both events held in Basel, Switzerland.)

The Mystic Chemist's vision

Dr. Albert Hofmann (1906 - 2008) - the Swiss chemist who discovered LSD in 1943 - speaks about our perception of reality, consciousness and love:
"(...) All knowledge, and hence our entire humanity, is based on observing. Observing enhances our awareness of the wonder of creation and of our own creaturehood. Since the evolution of humankind parallels the expansion of consciousness , the perfection of seeing in order to observe is of greatest significance.
There are different levels of development in the progression from seeing to observing. Mere perception of an object without its arousing our interest it the first level. In the second the object stimulates our interest.
At the third level, the object is considered in more detail and examined, which is the beginning of thought and scientific exploration. The highest level of seeing and  relating to an object is reached when the boundaries between subject and object, between observer and observed, between my consciousness and the outside world have been removed. When I am one with the world and its spiritual foundation. That is the state of love."
( from "Mystic Chemist - the Life of Albert Hofmann and His Discovery of LSD" by Dieter Hagenbach and Lucius Werthmuller - published by Synergetic Press (2011) - highly recommended!)

Farewell Lucius !

Lucius Werthmüller (b. 1958) was a Swiss consciousness researcher, parapsycholigist and editor.

He was project manager of the International LSD Symposium in 2006 on occasion of the 100th birthday of Albert Hofmann in Basel and of the World Psychedelic Forum held in 2098 and was a founding board member of the Gaia Media Foundation

In 2013 he co-authored Mystic Chemist, a wonderful, exhaustive biography of Albert Hofmann (strongly recommended- see here)

Lucius suddendly passed away on April 9. He will be sorely missed by many. RIP

The Search for a Truth Serum

The following is excerpted from Mystic Chemist: The Life of Albert Hoffman and His Discovery of LSD by Dieter Hagenbach and Lucius Werthmüller, the authoritative biography of Albert Hofmann released through Synergetic Press.

As individuals they may be anything. In their institutional role they are monsters because the institution is monstrous. 
Noam Chomsky

Dividing the World

The capitulation of the German army on May 7, 1945, marked the end of the Second World War in Europe, but behind the scenes, the Cold War had already begun. As soon as it became clear that Germany would be liberated by the Allied Forces from the west and by Russia from the east, the division of Europe into East and West on an ideological and political level loomed ahead. No longer did armies face each other, but occupation forces that defended their political and economic systems. The partition ran through the middle of Europe and corresponded to the territories and countries the victorious powers had conquered and pacified. The Iron Curtain divided Western Europe from the Soviet Union’s satellite states of the Eastern Bloc. In 1949, the western part of Germany became the Federal Republic of Germany and the eastern part the German Democratic Republic.

Diplomatic relations were strained by escalating mistrust that triggered a massive arms race. The top priority of the two superpowers, the USA and the Soviet Union, became the stockpiling of atomic weapons. By the mid-1950s, the world faced the threat of atomic overkill. For the first time in its history, humankind was in a position to annihilate itself many times over with one blow. Generals and leaders justified this mutual nuclear threat with the concept of a balance of terror, and businesses profited from the meteoric growth of the arms industry. 

Planned economies and real socialism ruled in the communist East and modern consumerism in the West. The automobile, refrigerator, and television offered unlimited mobility, abundance, and entertainment. Advertising and marketing served the desires of a mass society geared to immediate satisfaction. A majority of citizens were influenced and intimidated by the bogeyman orchestrated by the media and politicians; gradually, some of the younger population began to show discontent with the increasingly shallow culture and political manipulation of the economy. They saw through the discrepancy between superficial gratification and the deadly seriousness of the situation...

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Alex Grey,the Mystic Artist

This is the fourth part of the series The Second Psychedelic Revolution, written by James Oroc on Reality Sandwich. 
( Read Part One here, Part Two here, Part Three here )

To summarize this series of articles (The Second Psychedelic Revolution) so far, I have attempted to provide both a rough outline and quick examination of contemporary (21stcentury) psychedelic culture by proposing that a ‘Second Psychedelic Revolution’ has arisen phoenix-like out of the ashes of the original 1960’s acid-and-rock n’ roll revolution following the deaths of its two most famous voices, Timothy Leary and Ken Kesey[1] at the end of the Twentieth Century. (Part One).

While undeniably influenced by the First Psychedelic Revolution, the current interest in readily available ‘research chemicals’, organic tryptamines, neo-tribal ‘techno-shamanism’, and Visionary Art—the defining parameters of this ‘Second Psychedelic Revolution’—have come not from the influence of Sixties psychedelic culture, but have evolved largely out of the publication in the early 1990’s of the collective works of the three seminal architects of this new psychedelic era—the chemist Alexander Shulgin (PIHKAL and TIHKAL)(Part Two), the author and mycologist Terence McKenna (The Archaic Revival and Food of the Gods)(Part Three) and the ‘Visionary’ artist Alex Grey (Sacred Mirrors: The Visionary Art of Alex Grey).

The influence of these 3 authors, along with the unprecedented world-wide rise in popularity of electronic music since the birth and exportation of Goa-Trance during the same early 90’s era, has resulted in an entirely new psychedelic culture best represented today by the blossoming Transformational Festival movement inspired by gatherings such as Burning Man (which moved to Black Rock Desert, NV, in 1992) and the BOOM! Festival in Portugal (first held 1996). Ironically, this latest psychedelic revolution was initially much hastened by the now infamous Kansas Missile Silo bust of 2000 that saw a (luckily temporary) halt to the world’s LSD production; proving once again that Prohibition only leads to diversification.

 “My art has always been in response to visions. Rather than confine myself to representations of the outer worlds, I include portrayals of multi-dimensional imaginal realms that pull us towards consciousness evolution.” --Alex Grey.

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