Albert Hofmann on January 6, 1996. Photo: Sahli, Solothurn (Switzerland)


IVAN VALENCIC

90 YEARS OF ALBERT HOFMANN


Albert Hofmann, the chemist of the world renown, which he earned primarily by his discovery of LSD, was born on January 11, 1906, in the town of Baden in the Swiss canton of Aargau. His great admiration of nature, which he, when a boy, experienced as a mystical reality, was only strengthened by his study of chemistry at the University of Zurich where he received his Ph.D. in 1929 under the supervision of the Nobel laureate Paul Karrer. From this year until his retirement in 1971, Albert Hofmann was one of the principal researchers at the pharmaceutical company Sandoz in Basle. His more than 120 published original scientific papers testify to important discoveries, especially in the chemistry of ergoline and triptamine alkaloids. In addition to that, he is the author and co-author of many books and articles in which he has not dealt only with chemical and pharmacological issues, but has in a scientifically irreproachable way written also about biological, psychological and anthropological matters.

His discoveries have brought him the fame of which many Nobel laureates do not partake, the fame which is not a bit undeserved as is evident from wide recognition of his merits, among them honourable doctorates from the three famous European Universities of Zurich, Berlin and Stockholm. He is a member of the board of many institutions and foundations, and there is even one named after him: The Albert Hofmann Foundation in Los Angeles aiming at collecting and disseminating knowledge about psychedelics.

An incredibly fit Albert Hofmann is still an active participant at scientific symposia and congresses. He was in particular engaged as a lecturer and speaker in 1993 when the 50th anniversary of the discovery of LSD psychoactivity was celebrated. Albert Hofmann has been more than half a century firmly convinced about the positive and at the same time responsible use of LSD in psychotherapy. Albeit LSD has grown to be his ‘problem child’ as he says in the title of his famous book, he has never renounced his fatherhood. On the contrary, he believes there is great possibility that his problematic child becomes a child prodigy in the future.

Albert Hofmann lives with his wife Anita at the small place Burg im Leimental near Basle. Their house is surrounded by numerous plants which are his special love. Some of them are used by shamans for magical purposes, but for Albert Hofmann all plants are magical. For every of them is downright miraculously being born from inorganic matter: water, carbon dioxide, nitrogen and minerals using only sun-rays for the production of substances that chemists with the most sophisticated equipment hardly synthesise. Plants in this way make the survival of all animals and man possible, literally and metaphorically, as they comprise the better part of our food and enable the cultural endeavours of mankind. Specially today they are also the source of discovered or discovery still waiting substances with therapeutic value.

The knowledge of the therapeutic effects of plants is often found in the castes of priests and medicinemen of non-European peoples. When governments of the most powerful countries declared war on plants, especially those which do not have a useful application in the western civilisation, and above all if they contain psychoactive substances, when they inexorably destroy vast forests and at the same time put impediments to the research of healing substances, when they annihilate primitive cultures, wherein their medical value is fully recognised, these governments have, in a sense, declared war upon humanity as they lessen the possibility for the discovery of plants and substances which can have curative potential for many illnesses that still plague human beings. With the reduction of the number of plant and animal species of Earth, the irreplaceable genetic potential of life is being narrowed, and the chance of monocultures succumbing to either natural or manmade calamities is increasing. The humankind must therefore make peace with and not wage war upon plants in order to survive.

Albert Hofmann has in his research and expeditions always come to ascertainment of the powerful value plants garnered in so called primitive cultures, sometimes so much that they were exalted to the status of gods. This is no wonder, since the health as well as life of primitive people were in numerous instances dependent on the availability of certain plants. In addition to that, some plants have enabled them to glimpse hidden dimensions of reality and enter altered states of consciousness, which is in Hofmann’s opinion a most human propensity and an inevitable aspiration of us all. He finds the indication of inseparability between material and spiritual existence also in the European history: the Eleusinian mysteries, which he immensely helped to elucidate, and which were put to an end exactly 1600 years ago, stand as a salient example of the reconciliation between nature and human exigencies. It seems that we, the people of Earth, are the only heirs apparent of this wondrous planet where gods are believed to have walked and fallen in love. But its future can be killed indeed at any time. Upon us may lie a responsibility past generations might have never met, and it is on the balance between our wisdom and conceit how many of them are to come after ours.

The experience and erudition of Albert Hofmann make an assurance that conversation with him is very informative and spirited. He is pleased when he can talk about many problems of the present and past times either with fellow scientists or the inquisitive young. He only does not like giving interviews very much any more. There were several publications where he found his statements ‘corrected’ or simply falsified. He is weary of sensationalistic media spinning tall tales about LSD; he would like to let his work speak for itself. From it we can come to know Albert Hofmann not only as an eminent scientist and thinker but also as an excellent writer who can introduce a wide audience of professionals as well as laypeople to the complex results of his and others’ research.


This article was originally published in AURA, No. 76, January 1996.


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