Mystic Chemist: The Life of Albert Hofmann and His Discovery of LSD

by Dieter Hagenback, Lucius Werthmüller, Stanislav Grof M.D. (Introduction)

Overview

Mystic Chemist tells the story of Albert Hofmann’s life and the parallel story of LSD. 

Authors Dieter A. Hagenbach and Lucius Werthmüller, close friends of Albert Hofmann, take readers on a journey through Hofmann’s mystical childhood experiences with nature to his chemistry studies with Nobel Prize winner Paul Karrer in Zurich through his discoveries of both LSD and psilocybin at Sandoz; to his adventurous expeditions; to his many years of retirement devoted to philosophy of nature. Hagenbach and Werthmüller document Hofmann’s rich social life including interactions with illustrious writers, artists and thinkers including luminaries like Aldous Huxley, Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert (Ram Dass). 

Throughout Mystic Chemist, the authors reveal the eventful history of LSD, and they chronicle Hofmann’s groundbreaking work with the drug that was later featured in the 2022 Netflix documentary series, “How to Change Your Mind.” From the start of his experimentations, Hofmann took a positive view towards LSD-assisted psychotherapy in the treatment of illness, and he maintained that mystical experiences and trips to other worlds of consciousness are the best preparation for the very last journey we all must eventually make. 

Mystic Chemist: The Life of Albert Hofmann and His Discovery of LSD contains more than 500 photos, illustrations and drawings as well as a foreword by renowned Czech psychiatrist Stanislav Grof.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780907791447
Publisher:	SYNERGETIC PR
Publication date:	06/01/2013
Pages:	408
Product dimensions:	7.90(w) x 9.90(h) x 1.10(d)
Age Range:	16 - 18 Years

About the Author

Dieter Hagenbach was born 1943 in Basel, Switzerland and studied in architecture and the arts at the Academy of Fine Arts, Düsseldorf, Germany. In 1975 he founded Sphinx publishing house, with works by Joseph Campbell, H.R. Giger, George Gurdjieff, Jean Houston, Timothy Leary, John Lilly, Terence McKenna, Alan Watts, Robert Anton Wilson, among others. From 1977—1986 he was editor of Sphinx magazine and the German language edition of the Brain/Mind Bulletin.

Dieter Hagenbach met Albert Hofmann in the mid-1970s and remained his friend until his death.

Lucius Werthmüller was born 1958 in Basel, Switzerland. He is a consciousness researcher and parapsychologist. Since 1991 he has been president of the Basel Psi Association with over 1,200 members, the largest organization in the field of the paranormal and the spiritual in Switzerland, and is editor of the Psi-Info, a magazine. In 2000 he was awarded the "Swiss Foundation for Parapsychology" prize. For eight years Lucius was project manager of the "Basel Psi-Days," a congress with the reputation as the most important public congress on "border areas" of science worldwide.

Read an Excerpt

The Mystical Wonders of Nature

The distant battlefields had little effect on eight-year old Albert. Despite the horrors of war, those years spent with his parents and siblings on Martinsberg were happy ones for him.His love of nature was reinforced by the plants and animals surrounding him. Nothing pleased him more than to wander through the fields and forests, alone or with his pals, and look out over the valley below through which the Limmat River wound its way to Zurich. He was a keen observer of the changing seasons, the greening of spring, the long summer days, the withering foliage in fall, and the winter snow that magically blanketed the fields and meadows in white. "I promised myself then that one day I would again live in country like the Jura."



Each spring, Albert returned to walk through the forest on Martinsberg. There, he felt free yet secure and forgot all worries. One sunny morning he would remember the rest of his days, his perceptions sharpened acutely; he had a spontaneous mystical vision of the unity of all being that would shape his life ever after. He can vividly recall it in great detail: "The beauty of nature was revealed to me in the miracle of creation and defined the basics of my world view." He could not recall the year but knew it was on a May morning and the particular place it happened. As he walked through the forest, he began to hear birdsong more clearly, the fresh green of the trees and the sparkle of leaves seemed more intense. Everything shone incredibly clearly. He wondered if he hadn't looked or listened carefully until then or whether, on that particular morning, the springtime forest first revealed itself in actuality. He felt his heart surge and was filled with bliss more profound than at any time before in his life, a sense of affinity with his surroundings, absolute emotional security as part of creation.

Table of Contents

Introduction x

Foreword Stanislav Grof xii

1 Industry and Idyll in the Provinces

The Beginnings of the Modern Era 1

From Health Resort to Industrial Town 3

Founding a Family 4

The Mystical Wonders of Nature 6

2 With a Clear Goal

Illness and Social Poverty 8

A Model Student 11

Brighter Horizons 12

From Clerk to Chemist 13

3 Call of the Plants

The Chemistry is Right in Basel 19

In the Footsteps of Paracelsus 20

Squill and Foxglove 23

4 Marriage and Family Bliss

Turning Point 27

Beginning of an Eternal Love 28

War and Peace 30

5 LSD Finds Its Discoverer

In the Beginning was the Ergot 36

The Synthesis 39

Potency 41

The First Trip 42

The Assistant 46

6 The Dose Makes the Poison

Successful Drugs 48

From Phantasticum to Enthaogen 48

The Effect of LSD 52

Classification of Psychoactive Substances According to Their Effect 56

Drugs 57

7 Researchers Discover LSD

Mescaline 58

Experiments on Animals 61

The First Experiment on Humans 64

The Psychotomimetic Paradigm 64

A Helpful Tool for Psychotherapy 66

Realms of Consciousness 67

Trauma Therapy 68

LSD Comes to England 69

Studies in Saskatchewan 69

Behind the Iron Curtain 70

LSD Conquers America 70

8 The Search for a Truth Serum

Dividing the World 73

Experiments without Limits 74

Understatement 80

Iron Silence 80

Serious Sweden 81

In the Name of the Fatherland 82

The Mystery of the Cursed Bread 84

9 Flesh of the Gods

The Mushrooms Reach Basel 88

The Kingdom of Sacred Plants and Mushrooms 88

Teonanácatl 90

Exploration 91

Banker and Mycologist 92

The Active Substance 94

Psilocybin and Psilocin 94

The Magic Vine 99

Distrust 101

The Magic Circle 103

10 The Mexico Expedition

In the Land of the Mazatecs 105

Ceremony with a Magical Plant 108

The Spirit in the Pill 109

The Consequences 112

11 Friendships and Encounters

Family Life 114

Circles 117

Interweavings 118

Hermit in the Crystalline World 119

Radiance and Convergent 124

Almost a Friendship 126

The Networker 129

The Coronation 132

12 Metamorphoses at Harvard

Vision of a New Psychology 135

Psychedelic Revelation 137

Academic Mushroom Circles 138

Liberation Behind Bars 140

The Man with the Mayonnaise Jar 141

The End of Peace, Joy and Magic Mushrooms 144

Millbrook 146

Bureaucratic Hurdles 147

The Woman from Washington 151

Founding Years 152

Multimedia Spectacle 153

Changes of All Kinds 154

Turn on, Tune In, Drop out 155

13 Fuel of the Sixties

A Molecule Changed the World 158

The Bohemians of Manhattan 160

From the Laboratory into the Cuckoo's Nest 160

Can You Pass the Acid Test? 161

The Hog Farm 163

Chemistry in the Underground 163

The Trips Festival 164

Dionysian Festivals 165

Hippies? Hippies! 166

A Peaceful Cultural Revolution 167

Chemists for a Better World 168

Flowers in Their Hair, Love in Their Hearts, LSD in Their Heads 169

The Diggers 170

Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll 171

Sounds of the Sixties 172

Acid House, Psytrance, Goa Trance 175

The Desert Lives 175

Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds 178

Woodstock 179

Hair 181

Swinging London 181

Trips Around the World 182

14 The Great Repression

Brotherhood of Eternal Love 185

Demonization 187

Verdict and Prohibition 188

Underground Therapy 190

The Empire Strikes Back 191

Crime Scene Missile Silo 192

Dedication to Freedom 193

Outrage 194

15 Humane Therapies, Transpersonal Visions

Divine Lightning 197

Thirty Years of Research 198

Encounter With Death 200

The Cartographer 202

Expanding of the Image of Humanity 203

The Spectrum of Consciousness 204

Human Potential 206

An Alternative 207

Interaction at Esalen 209

16 Spiritual Dimensions

Mushrooms Instead of Fish 211

The Missing Taboo 214

Vast Emptiness, Nothing Holy 215

Journeys to the East 216

In the Here and Now 217

Buddhists and Psychedelics 220

Ecologist and Buddhist 220

Zen Priest and Animal Welfare Advocate 221

Instant Nirvana 221

Cosmologist of Joy 223

Psychosis and Enlightenment 224

Tool of the Mind 225

17 Creativity and Art

Intoxicated Literati 226

Bee God and Sacred Mirrors 228

A New Dimension of Art 232

The Creativity Pill 233

Psychedelia 235

A New Perspective 238

Encounters with Artists 239

Comic Strips 242

An Instead of LSD 243

High in Hollywood 244

18 Source of Inspiration

From Uranium to LSD 248

Open Minds, Open Systems 251

All is One 254

Legal, Illegal, Digital 255

Gaia 257

Symbiosis 259

Nobel Prizes 261

Peak Experiences 262

19 Ways of Life

Another Discovery 264

Paradise Found Again 267

The Company 269

Farewell to Sandoz 273

Father and Apostle 274

20 Legacies

The Problem Child 280

The Translator 284

The Media 285

Plants of the Gods 287

Wisdom of the Greeks 289

Scholarly Dialogue 292

At Eleusis 295

21 Insights and Outlooks

A Good Question 296

A Model of Reality 298

Philosophy and Ecology 301

Honors and Awards 304

22 Stimulus and Impetus

A Belgian in Burg 306

Visitors From Around the World 309

Border Crosser 312

The Tank and the Deep Self 313

The Indian from Hamburg 316

The Trip Advisor 318

The Third Member 322

23 Wisdom of Years

Reflections on Nature 324

Secrets of a Long Life 327

Frontier Areas 329

Art and Ability 330

A Grandson Remembers 332

Albert Hofmann Turns One Hundred 334

The Old Man and His Child 339

Yet Another tribute 343

24 Between Earth and Heaven

Connections with the Whole World 344

The Albert Hofmann Medal 344

From Problem Child to Wonder Drug 346

Back to the Future 347

Behind Every Strong Man 348

Farewell and Mourning 349

Echo of a Life's Work 350

The Ultimate Journey 353

Appendix

Retrospective on a Researcher's Life 356

Acknowledgements 357

Notes 358

Bibliography 363

Publications Albert Hofmann 372

Photo Credits 377

Index of Names 379

About the Authors 383

Editorial Reviews

"Albert Hofmann's discovery of LSD, the most potent mind-expanding substance ever found, was an event of multiple synchronicities..." — Ralph Metzner, Ph. D., The Unfolding Self, Green Psychology



"...more than a superb biography, it's the story of LSD, covering everything in the scientific, social, spiritual and artistic realms that resulted from his epochal discovery." — Michael Horowitz, Psychoactive Drug Historian



"Much more interesting than a conventional biography, this book is a grand sweep of how his discovery affected civilization. That they chose to highlight how his work affected vast areas of world culture makes this a reference book as well as a history of one very long and valued life. Hofmann's inf

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