Finished reading 'LSD: My Problem Child' & 'Insight/Outlook', by Albert Hofmann Sir, the inventor of the famed psychedelic drug.
I often joke amongst my friends saying, "LSD is the best invention after the wheel". People laugh. But sometimes I think it's it's not too far off, actually. LSD, short for Lysergic Acid Diethylamide, popularly called "Acid", is a psychedelic drug which has opened people's minds, changed their lives, and in some cases given them experiences so profound that they went on to 'changed the world' in extraordinary ways.
And that's not an exaggeration, by the way. Steve Jobs said, "Taking LSD was a profound experience, one of the most important things in my life". And he's not alone. The hallucinogen that is 'Acid' has inspired so many terrific people in doing such pioneering work, that name dropping all of them will be a cringe exercise. But the question is, how does it do that? What's the play?
That's where complex Biochemistry, Physiology, Psychology, and Philosophy come in. And that's also why I wanted to read Dr. Albert Hofmann's biographies. I've always been fascinated by the science behind LSD and why despite having such "magical" qualities, it was systemically banished from the society. Why did that happen?
To think of it, despite its extraordinarily high psychic activity, LSD is non-toxic and completely non-addictive. A guy takes one puff of a cigarette sometime at school or college, and is smoking like a steam engine for the rest of his life. The same goes for alcohol; people start with a can of beer and are then finding themselves drinking like fishes from thereon till eternity.
But no one who's ever been on an LSD trip becomes an LSD addict. It just doesn't happen. Also, there are so many good uses of LSD, not just spiritually, but also medically. Before being banned, it was finding great use in Clinical Psychology and Psychiatry, and also as a pain reliever for the terminally ill in their last days. Then why was it banned, not just for public use, but also for Laboratory research?
These are the questions that were uncovered in Dr. Hofmann's autobiographies.
"LSD: My Problem Child" was an absolutely wonderful book tracing his entire life (of 102 years) and how a simple and sweet farm boy from Switzerland, forever in love with plants and nature, went to become such a great Chemist who developed critical medicines still helping the humankind. And then also LSD. What a beautiful, interesting life!
"Insight/Outlook" was also quite a nice book focused on the philosophy of reality and the perception of it. Dr. Hofmann was a hard scientist, but also realised that a lot of things can't be explained by science, and one of them is how "subjective" reality is or can be. In this book he shared "Insights" as a deep scientist, and his "outlook" as a philosopher.
I'm so happy I could afford to read both of these books. LSD is a magical drug, and the world has greatly benefited from it. Thank god for Dr. Hofmann. :)
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