The Substance: Albert Hofmann's LSD

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I had this wondrous experience.

But I didn't know how it had happened.

All my thoughts turned into pictures.

Beautiful!

I lay down at home in the afternoon.

And then it slowly faded away.

Watching these strange pictures

and feeling exhilarated.

And it was... a terrible experience.

Terrible because it felt as if...

I was in another world,

and I knew that I had a young family

and now I had to go away,

had to leave that beautiful world.

This was an awful,

a tormenting experience.

Fear! It was the feeling...

yes, of my being in another world,

I'm not...

This has to be the end.

I'm on the other side.

My wife came home at midnight.

And the positive phase returned.

I came back and...

then, the next day,

when I woke up, I had the feeling

of entering into a new life.

Of being reborn.

I'd already been

to the beyond, you might say.

In my consciousness,

it was almost like I'd died.

Immediately, I realized,

as others did,

that this was a tremendously

interesting substance for psychiatry.

Your psyche and your consciousness

were altered.

This was a new tool

for psychiatric research.

The substance

gradually becomes effective.

Meanwhile

we will record brain activity.

Ready.

- Ready to start.

Close your eyes.

For the first ten years,

it certainly was a wonder drug.

It was a very important resource

in psychiatry for patients.

And I was always convinced

that the real use for LSD

would still be found.

It couldn't just disappear,

that was impossible.

How is our consciousness created?

It's created by what reaches us

through our senses.

Every time we perceive something,

it makes up our consciousness.

It works via our senses.

And what LSD does,

how the whole mechanism works,

is that our senses are intensified,

tremendously intensified.

Then we see the world

in a different way.

Would you like

to break off the experiment?

LSD and psilocybin

are related in chemical structure

to natural neurotransmitters

in our brains.

They affect a part of the brain

that monitors other brain areas

by means of combination.

This is how LSD can be highly potent

even in the smallest doses.

We can establish which brain regions

these substances affect.

We can localize these

psychological alterations

and see which networks are active.

The emotional areas

responsible for fear

are, in part, muted.

Others, which are responsible

for feelings of happiness,

are heightened,

the visual level is filled internally.

So internal life

is greatly intensified.

A good trip dissolves your ego

slowly and progressively.

You become one with your environment,

you give up control

but it can be enjoyable.

You feel integrated, as one.

And this gives you

a feeling of happiness.

Time and space are abandoned,

that's my personal view,

and you flow into the experience.

You are the experience.

We call it

oceanic boundlessness.

These mushrooms were analysed,

first in America

then in Europe, Paris

to no avail:
The active ingredients

couldn't be isolated.

Then they thought,

there's that substance in Basel, LSD,

and it has the same effects.

So they asked us if we were interested

in analysing the mushrooms.

That's how LSD brought this

mushroom to my laboratory.

Natural science shows what exists,

objectively speaking.

But you still have to see it,

you have to reflect on it.

And a scientist sees secrets,

objective secrets.

And I think that a chemist

who's not a mystic

is not a real chemist.

He doesn't comprehend it.

Mr Wasson was delighted.

He told us

he'd love to take us with him

to Mexico, and show us

this world of wonders.

So we went on that expedition

to Mazatec country in the south.

My friend Gordon

explained to Maria Sabina

that we'd isolated

the spirit of the mushroom.

So she could carry out

her ceremony with these pills.

She then organized a meeting.

And when the pills

had been handed out,

there was a wonderful ceremony

that lasted until the next morning.

In these sacred drugs,

I basically discovered LSD.

That's what makes LSD so significant.

Not only due to its effect but also

because of its chemical structure,

LSD belongs to these drugs that were

discovered thousands of years ago.

From the infinite number of plants

something had been selected

and deemed sacred.

And then, and this is decisive,

they were always used

in a sacred context.

The Indians still use them,

they prepare, fast and pray,

then come into contact with

the higher powers of another world.

And then he placed an order

with the company.

I don't know, maybe 200 grams...

of LSD and half a kilo

of psilocybin!

And then he invited me

to come and visit him.

He said he was doing big events,

big congresses and so on.

So I wrote to him that

this I would not do

as everything

was still being investigated.

Why all this propaganda

when everything...

is still developing!

And then I accused him of forcing LSD

onto young people. Very young people.

LSD needs preparation,

it needs a certain maturity.

And it's irresponsible to

tinker with, or enter the psyches of,

people who are still developing

with such an instrument as this.

This I reproached him with.

After my personal experiences,

I never thought a substance

with such an effect

would ever reach the streets.

Yes, drug abuse.

When a substance

is out there and exists,

you don't

have control over it any more.

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