The World's First LSD Hallucination Experienced By Its Creator Albert Hoffman In History Today, April 16, 1937

LSD creator, Albert Hoffman (Source: Commons Wikimedia)

JAKARTA - Albert Hofmann suddenly experienced extraordinary hallucinations. He was working in the pharmaceutical laboratory, Sandoz at that time, when he accidentally took LSD-25, a synthetic drug that he made in 1937. This is the hallucination or LSD 'trip' first in the world.

In 1938, Hoffman created LSD-25 as part of research into the medicinal value of lysergic acid compounds. LSD later became officially recognized as the origin of diethylamide lysergate.

Quoting History, Hofmann then shared his experience. He explained in detail how he felt an extraordinary sensation such as imagination and dreams which at that time made him uncomfortable.

Johnny Depp's LSD trip illustration as Raoul Duke in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (Source: IMDB)

“Last Friday, April 16, 1943, I was forced to stop my work in the laboratory at noon and go home because of the overwhelming anxiety, coupled with a little dizziness. At home I lay down and drowned in unpleasant conditions, "he said.

"Like a hangover that is characterized by a very stimulated imagination. In a dreamlike state, with my eyes closed (because I feel dazzling daylight is unpleasant), I feel an unbroken fantastic image, an extraordinary form with an intense play of kaleidoscopic color. two hours, this condition fades. "

Hoffman had synthesized LSD for the previous five years, with the hope of treating respiratory ailments. However, these drugs do not produce results in curing respiratory diseases.

LSD creator Albert Hoffman (Source: Commons Wikimedia)

So Hoffman then stopped researching it. To test the theory that LSD might have something to do with the strange reaction he had in the laboratory, Hoffman deliberately took more of the drug a few days later.

This time Hoffman's experience was even more unsettling. But Hoffman had anticipated it by asking his laboratory assistant to escort him as he cycled home. Wise choice because Hoffman's anxiety really became.

When he returned home, Hoffman saw that his neighbor looked like an evil witch. Hoffman thought he was going crazy. A doctor was called. But the doctor found nothing physically wrong with Hoffman. Hoffman then gradually improved. The overwhelming psychedelic sensation faded away.

"Kaleidoscopic, fantastic images surged within me, alternating, motley, opening and then closing themselves in circles and spirals, exploding in colored fountains, rearranging and hybridizing oneself in constant flux," quoted from the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies .

LSD as a mental medicine

LSD (Source: McGill.ca)

Hoffman quickly came to the conclusion that LSD could be a powerful tool for treating people with psychiatric conditions, even though he couldn't imagine anyone using it for recreational purposes. Sandoz's party agreed and patented LSD in 1947, marketing it to psychiatrists to administer to psychiatric patients.

Pharmaceutical companies also recommend that therapists take the drug so they can better understand their patients. During a 15-year period beginning in 1950, research on LSD and other hallucinogens resulted in more than a thousand scientific papers and several dozen books.

LSD has been prescribed as a treatment for more than 40,000 patients, including the likes of film star Cary Grant. Many psychiatrists have also started using the drug for recreation and sharing it with friends.

At the same time, intelligence agencies, such as the CIA, were starting to study LSD as a potential chemical weapon. The reason is, as one researcher put it:

LSD is able to make entire groups of people, including military forces, indifferent to the environment and situations, interfere with planning and judgment, and even create uncontrollable fear, confusion and terror.

Political pressures on the use of LSD

Pressured by public officials who were concerned about the spread of LSD in the general public, Sandoz stopped producing it in 1965. But it was too late.

Supported by the likes of Harvard psychologist Timothy Leary, LSD became a core component of counterculture in the '60s. In response, the US government banned the drug in 1966.

The considerable research on LSD ended in 1980. Grant money has dried up because no one wants to be linked to the drug that is being targeted by public officials and law enforcement agencies.

LSD (Source: Commons Wikimedia)

However, in March 2014, nearly 40 years since the last clinical trial on LSD, the Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease published the results of a study in which 12 people in Switzerland - most of them end-stage cancer patients - were given LSD as part of their therapy. .

The researchers wanted to see if the drug could help them deal with the awaiting death. One of the patients, a 67-year-old man, reported that he met his long-dead and estranged father somewhere in the universe.

He nodded. He also gave testimonials. LSD can't save him from death. But LSD was able to help her soul face death.

* Read other information about KNOWLEDGE or read other interesting writings from Putri Ainur Islam.

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