What a long strange trip its been

April 16, 2003 10:52 AM

LSD turns 60! 60 years ago today, Albert Hofmann accidently mixed up a batch of lysergic acid diethylamide-25 and took a "beautiful and pleasant" bike trip home from his Sandoz AG lab. His book "LSD: My Problem Child, Reflections on Sacred Drugs, Mysticism, and Science" can be found on Amazon or for free at http://www.flashback.se/archive/my_problem_child/Even though Hofmann isn't really for the use of LSD outside of the medical community, some zealots started a foundation in his honor. (Hofmann thinks people might hurt themselves while under the influence.) Regardless, the 97 year old Hofmann is still alive and is one of the major influences in modern popular culture history. Who were the Grateful Dead without LSD?
posted by meanie (32 comments total)

Sorry, I already used up my daily dose of LSD cheerleading over on the Salvia thread.

Happy Freakin' Birthday, though.
posted by soyjoy at 11:19 AM on April 16, 2003

Did... did we hit a wrinkle in time? I'm cold and scared!

Dude, that blue is... trippy.
posted by y2karl at 11:19 AM on April 16, 2003

And who good forget this timely video mixing LSD and the military discussed previous MeFI thread. Coalition of the tripping, anyone?
posted by donovan at 11:23 AM on April 16, 2003

Thank you, Albert Hoffman, for 37 years of great music.
posted by drinkcoffee at 11:36 AM on April 16, 2003

Who were the Grateful Dead without LSD?

Ooh! Ooh! I know this one!
posted by yhbc at 11:51 AM on April 16, 2003

Picture yourself in a boat on a river,
With tangerine trees and marmalade skies
Somebody calls you, you answer quite slowly,
A girl with kaleidoscope eyes.
Cellophane flowers of yellow and green,
Towering over your head.
Look for the girl with the sun in her eyes,
And she's gone.

-- The Beatles

'Scuse me, while I kiss the sky.

-- Jimi Hendrix

We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold.

-- Hunter S. Thompson

Ecstasy might be good for inducing hugs, but I haven't seen a lot of evidence that it provokes art.
posted by sacre_bleu at 11:55 AM on April 16, 2003

MethFilter
posted by KnitWit at 12:18 PM on April 16, 2003

hilarious, yhbc. and timely considering the release of the new "spinal tap" folk parody.

as for the sacrament...it sure altered my consciousness...
posted by aiq at 12:24 PM on April 16, 2003

What a long strange trip it's been.
posted by caddis at 12:39 PM on April 16, 2003

You ever look at your hand, man. I mean, really look at it?
posted by elwoodwiles at 12:42 PM on April 16, 2003

and then, like, i saw god, man.
posted by quonsar at 12:42 PM on April 16, 2003

accidently mixed up a batch of lysergic acid

Except one link in from the one provided says that it was no accident. Hoffman didn't even "accidentally" trip on the way home -- that was the result of a planned experiment:

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.)

The "accidental" bit came from a bit of labaratory carelessness on his part, absorbing some crystalizing substance presumably through skin contact.
posted by Ogre Lawless at 12:44 PM on April 16, 2003

You crack me up, yhbc. And I know the Kingstons started in San Francisco. But I think Jerry et al would have fit better into The Chad Mitchell Trio.
posted by LeLiLo at 12:54 PM on April 16, 2003

>4/19/43 16:20: 0.5 cc of 1/2 promil aqueous solution...

4:20!
posted by zpousman at 1:38 PM on April 16, 2003

"Today a young man on acid realized that all matter is merely energy condensed to a slow vibration, that we are all one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively, there is no such thing as death, life is only a dream, and we are the imagination of ourselves. Here's Tom with the weather."
posted by jbrjake at 1:44 PM on April 16, 2003

Monitor problems here -- weird colors... but beautiful.. MeFi's blue is shifting... I'm hearing music, too... my desk seems to be, trembling, floatngg ________
posted by matteo at 2:15 PM on April 16, 2003

Is Taking Psychedelics an Act of Sedition?
posted by homunculus at 2:33 PM on April 16, 2003

this record is awesome.
posted by Ty Webb at 2:44 PM on April 16, 2003

Ecstasy might be good for inducing hugs, but I haven't seen a lot of evidence that it provokes art.

Look harder.
posted by brittney at 2:45 PM on April 16, 2003

Happy Birthday to the special friend that has helped me see the true meaning of hands, lighters, mirrors, piles of leaves, parquetry, tickle-me-elmo, The Matrix, and blank pieces of paper. No other substance has made the mundane so beautiful.
posted by elphTeq at 6:14 PM on April 16, 2003

Personally when it comes to art that I can listen to, I prefer this, this or even this.

Ecstacy inspired music has never stirred me to dance continuously, from dusk til dawn. LSD inspired music on the other hand, very much so.
posted by mosch at 6:15 PM on April 16, 2003

"There I am! I'm over there now! My hair is green, I'm a tree!"


- Benjie Carver aka "Blue Boy"
posted by Oriole Adams at 6:31 PM on April 16, 2003

First time, in 1967, I was reading Timothy Leary's "translation" of the Tibetan Book of the Dead when I got off. I laughed and laughed. At the texture of the page and the weird black markings.

LSD changed my life.
posted by kozad at 7:11 PM on April 16, 2003

"visual distortions, symptoms of paralysis, desire to laugh"...all that sure, but it's always been the ability to see those other layers; A friend of mine had a poster that said "Everything was different after it changed" and I made the mistake of asking him what in the hell that meant. Later, as I was being driven around Santa Barbara I saw these folks on the sidewalk: they had gigantic animal heads, and I wondered how in the the hell I had missed that before?
posted by Mack Twain at 7:16 PM on April 16, 2003

Ahh those hippies are throwing a party for LSD.

Seriously though, along with kozad, hallucinogenic have changed the way I view reality. I'm not sure if it's for the better or worse, but it's changed somehow.

I have to wonder how much of today's art and music are inspired from LSD use? Maybe Britney should drop acid and then her music wouldn't suck as bad. I know much art has a psychedelic influence. Check out Alex Grey and Andrew Gonzalez for examples.
posted by qaam at 7:24 PM on April 16, 2003

I always suspected that these might have been the inspiration for these.
posted by madamjujujive at 7:35 PM on April 16, 2003

If anybody's near Baltimore, the American Visionary Art Museum has an interesting drug-realted exhibit right now.
posted by muckster at 7:51 PM on April 16, 2003

I know you can walk on water, but can you walk on this much acid?
posted by shadow45 at 4:19 AM on April 17, 2003

HHHaaaaaaaaaappppppppppyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy
BBBBBBBiiiiiiiiiiirrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrtttttttttttttthhhhhhh
DDDDDDaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
posted by reality at 7:59 AM on April 17, 2003

and then, like, i saw god, man

The problem with taking LSD in order to see god is that when you finally do, god tells you to stop taking so much LSD.
posted by walrus at 8:34 AM on April 17, 2003

That's not what she told me.
posted by homunculus at 10:39 AM on April 17, 2003

kozad: right on. I agree. Changed me forever.
posted by Dantien at 10:52 AM on April 17, 2003