Albert Hofmann's archives shed light on the dawn of the psychedelic era (2018) | Hacker News Reader

Albert Hofmann's archives shed light on the dawn of the psychedelic era (2018)

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70 pointsapollinaire13 comments

It's a pity that Hofmann never actually experienced a full-on psychedelic, "cosmic" trip, complete with a sense of unity, love, and perhaps ego dissolution, but only ever had a bad trip and some relatively minor effects from a few low dose trips.

I'm sure he was aware of the much more profound effects that were possible on LSD, given a high enough dose and the right set and setting, but for some reason he never chose to explore those. I wonder if he'd tried truly psychedelic doses of any other substances.

It gave me an inner joy, an open mindedness, a gratefulness, open eyes and an internal sensitivity for the miracles of creation.... I think that in human evolution it has never been as necessary to have this substance LSD. It is just a tool to turn us into what we are supposed to be.

https://www.wired.com/2006/01/lsd-the-geeks-wonder-drug/

When you study natural science and the miracles of creation, if you don't turn into a mystic you are not a natural scientist.

(Ibid)

Reminds me of:

The first gulp from the glass of natural sciences will turn you into an atheist, but at the bottom of the glass God is waiting for you.

(Supposedly) Werner Heisenberg

https://fauxtations.wordpress.com/2016/08/29/heisenberg-at-t...

He’s actually tried out a myriad of psychedelics and had a big role to play in synthesising psilocybin (I think he named that himself as well). He talks about all of this in his book which is pleasantly surprising and very well written. Would recommend.

The book is LSD my problem child.

He did experience the full trip, it’s just that the technique of set and setting did not exist yet. Bicycling requires coordination of both gross and fine motor skills, and with a dosage that high, I highly doubt the trip would be enjoyable for anyone.

They should fact check the article...

On the morning of April 19, he synthesized 0.5 milliliters of the compound, dissolved it in 10 cubic centimeters of water, and at 4:20 PM took 250 micrograms—0.000025 of a gram, the smallest dose he thought he might conceivably notice.

Synthesized 0.5mL? It’s not a liquid.

And 250 ug is 0.00025, they have an extra zero in there.

> Synthesized 0.5mL? It’s not a liquid.

Do you think it's synthesized directly into blotter form?

LSD is a solid (I think) so giving a volume probably means a solution which is a weird thing to talk about since it doesn’t really mean much.

Exactly. LSD is a solid.

It’s as if I said I had 0.5 mL of salt. It tells you nothing other than you have water with salt in it.

the state of matter is a function of temperature and pressure.

LSD is a solid, sure -- below 175 F. Then it's a liquid, but it decomposes into simpler molecules before it boils, so it doesn't really have a gaseous form at STP.

It probably decomposes before it melts, it’s a very fragile molecule.

A more reasonable assumption is that it’s a saturated solution at NTP but that’s still quite an assumption.

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