Last Bicycle Ride

I had hoped to meet the great doctor while I was in Basel for the World Psychedelic Forum, but he never came to the event, though many friends visited him at home, and reported he was quite lucid and in good spirits.  

Albert Hofmann's death is being greeted in a neutral fashion in the mainstream, though this is nice, from the NY Times obit: "More important to him than the pleasures of the psychedelic experience was the drug’s value as a revelatory aid for contemplating and understanding what he saw as humanity’s oneness with nature. That perception, of union, which came to Dr. Hofmann as almost a religious epiphany while still a child, directed much of his personal and professional life."

In the psychedelic community, there was already an effort to turn him into a kind of living saint, which I found a bit peculiar. He was a member of that eite mandarin group which included the Wassons and other 1950s establishment figures, who reconciled the psychedelic experience with their basic conservatism and sense of propriety. Hofmann was also close friends with Ernst Junger, the German aristocrat and former Nazi officer, who wrote a magnum opus on psychedelics that has never been translated into English, as far as I know. 

His death comes at an interesting moment, as the work of MAPS and other organizations (including Gaia Media Foundation) has led to a revival of psychedelic research, including the first study with humans since the early 1970s, in Switzerland. (We recently put up a nice animated interview with Rick Doblin at www.iclips.net/2012, "The Tipping Point"). 

We intend to run more pieces on Hofmann, including personal remembrances and musings on the significance of his work, in the next few days and weeks.  

"Will the transformation."-Rilke

Albert Hofmann, the father of LSD, passed away at 9AM CEST on Tuesday April 29, 2008 at his home in Basel, Switzerland. Cause of death was a heart attack; two caretakers were there with him at the time. MAPS President Rick Doblin said, '[Albert and I] spoke on the phone the day after the Basel conference and he was happy and fulfilled. He'd seen the renewal of LSD psychotherapy research with his own eyes, as had [his wife] Anita. I said that I looked forward to discussing the results of the study with him in about a year and a half and he laughed and said he'd try to help the research however he could, either from this side or 'the other side'"

Just one month after the celebration of his life in Basel, Switzerland, then, the beloved chemist, researcher, philosopher and enlightened being has passed into the Bardo realm he did so much to introduce to the West.

What a remarkable life! He gave to the world marvelous chemical tools and a wonderful understanding of how to use those tools. And in doing so, he dealt scientific rationalism a death blow that will have far-reaching effects. His work can be likened to a great magma flow boiling up from deep underground, which when it bursts forth as a powerful volcano on the surface of the earth changes the landscape forever.

It was ironic for me personally in that on Tuesday, I had just read the interview with Dr. Hofmann in the book, "Higher Wisdom: eminent elders explore the continuing impact of psychedelics". Obviously, while reading it, I didn't dream that today would be his final day in our material realm.

So what did this chemist, this man of science, think about LSD, which he called his "problem child"? The following excerpts are from "Higher Wisdom".

"When I was a young boy, I had many opportunities to walk through the countryside. I had profound visionary encounters with nature, and this was long before I conducted my initial experiments with LSD. Indeed, my first experiences with LSD were reminiscent of these early mystical encounters I had had as a child in nature.

"It is important to have the [visionary] experience directly. Aldous Huxley taught us not to simply believe the words, but to have the experience ourselves. That is why the different forms of religion are no longer adequate. They are simply words, words, words without the direct experience of what it is the words represent. We are now at a phase of human development where we have accumulated an enormous amount of knowledge through scientific research in the material world. This is important knowledge, but it must be integrated. What science has brought to light is absolutely true. But this is only one part, only one side of our existence, that of the material world.

"The material world is the world of our body and it is where man has made all of these scientific and technological discoveries. But science and technology are based on natural laws, and the material world is only the manifestation of the spiritual world.

"The [visionary] experience occurs only by opening the mind and all of our senses. The doors of perception must be cleansed. And if the experience does not come spontaneously on its own, then we may make use of what Aldous Huxley called a 'gratuitous grace'. This may take the form of psychedelic drugs, or perhaps through disciplines like yoga or meditation. But what is of greater importance, is that we have personal spiritual experience. Not words, not beliefs, but experience."

I'm sure he's there on the "other side" already continuing his work for us.

Thank you, Albert. Thank you from me, from the many you personally influenced, and finally from humanity itself, which can only benefit from your long life and your dedicated and remarkable work.