Dr. Albert Hofmann

January 19, 2006

Dear Friends,

Allyson and I just returned from an extraordinary celebration of Dr. Albert Hofmann's 100th birthday on January 11th. To honor this special day, a three-day LSD symposium was held in Basel, Switzerland [ www.lsd.info ]. The birthday celebration was an elegant gathering of family, friends and colleagues held in Basel's Museum of Cultures. Distinguished guests spoke in German, but even monolinguistic Americans could understand the reverence and enthusiasm shown in speeches praising Dr. Hofmann as a scientist and a sage. A reception followed where invited guests mingled and toasted. Allyson and I greeted many old friends and made some new ones. I was intrigued to learn that none of the members of Dr. Hofmann's large family or any of his relatives, except for his wife, had ever tried LSD. The good doctor has always steered away from advocacy, yet has come to feel that some kind of divine intervention or destiny did play a role in his discovery. I was especially glad to see Stan Grof and H.R. Giger because they could not be in attendance at the Symposium. The next day Allyson and I and some good friends visited the Giger Museum, which is an astonishing, in-depth immersion into the artist's unique visionary shadow realm.

Here are some photos from this very special time...

Painters Fred Weideman, H.R.Giger, A. Grey and Dr. Albert Hofmann

H.R. Giger Stanislav Grof and Alex Grey at Albert Hofmann's 100th Birthday celebration in
Basel, Switzerland, Jan. 11, 2006

Alex speaking to a group during LSD Symposium in Basel, January 2006

Allyson and Alex Grey at the Giger Museum

Allyson and I in front of Giger's Museum

Dr. Hofmann first synthesized the compound LSD in 1938, while researching ergot derivatives as a chemist for Sandoz Pharmaceuticals in Basel . The substance was tested on lab animals with no interesting results, so like hundreds of similar test compounds, investigation of this drug was abandoned.

Yet, in 1943, at the horrific height of WWII and shortly after Fermi makes his discovery that led to the atomic bomb, Hofmann had a "peculiar presentiment" to re-synthesize LSD.

He has said that never before or since had he any similar "presentiment." In my portrait of Dr. Hofmann an alchemical angel's tears drip down to anoint or "create" the LSD molecule.

The LSD Symposium could be a turning point in the story of this amazing molecule, as the subtitle of the conference, "from Problem Child to Wonder Drug" suggests. Thousands of people from all over the world came together to discuss the proven possibilities of LSD in psychotherapy, spirituality, the arts, for creative problem-solving in all fields, and how LSD was misused and abused by the CIA, and also by many people seeking a recreational high who catalyzed their own latent psychoses.

Yet, as has been proven in the Good Friday Experiment and in follow-up studies, psychedelics can evoke a mystical experience and bring a person closer to God. Even if only a glimpse of the infinite, a person never forgets that encounter. The hope is that such a vision of unity can help bring people to care more for themselves, each other and our world. I believe that given the right set and setting, LSD can be the right medicine for humanities ailing soul. God help that it find a more fair legal status around the world in the 21st century.

Dr. Hofmann generously signed the portrait, adding also the date of his birthday and the LSD formula.

Signed and unSigned posters of Saint Albert and the LSD Revolution are available online by clicking the image on the left.

-- WebMaster