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Hofmann 3 |
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Expecting another "not unpleasant inebriation," Hofmann found the extremely small quantity he had ingested "to be a substantial overdose," causing a profound disruption of ordinary perception.
"The faces of those present appeared like grotesque colored masks; strong agitation alternating with paresis; the head, body and extremities sometimes cold and numb; a metallic taste on the tongue; throat dry and shriveled; a feeling of suffocation; confusion alternating with a clear appreciation of the situation.
"I lost all control of time: space and time became more and more disorganized and I was overcome with fears that I was going crazy. The worst part of it was that I was clearly aware of my condition though I was incapable of stopping it. Occasionally I felt as being outside my body. I thought I had died. My 'Ego' was suspended somewhere in space and I saw my body lying dead on the sofa. I observed and registered clearly that my 'alter ego' was moving around the room, moaning." |
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A doctor arrived after Hofmann reached "the height of the crisis" and found a somewhat weak pulse but normal circulation. Six hours after he began the test of d-lysergic acid diethylamide tartrate for mental effects, Hofmann's condition "improved definitely," though "the perceptual distortions were still present. Everything seemed to undulate and their proportions were distorted like the reflections on a choppy water surface. Everything was changing with unpleasant, predominantly poisonous green and blue color tones. With closed eyes multihued, metamorphosizing fantastic images overwhelmed me. Especially noteworthy was the fact that sounds were transposed into visual sensations so that from every tone or noise a comparable colored picture was evoked, changing in form and color kaleidoscopically." |
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Fearing he had poisoned himself with a substance he himself had made, Hofmann was particularly concerned that he hadn't made a proper "leave-taking" from his wife and family, who had traveled earlier that morning to nearby Lucerne. After a night of frightening visions he felt relieved the next morning and curiously rejuvenated. |
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"What I found further surprising about LSD was its ability to produce such a far-reaching, powerful, inebriated condition without leaving a hangover. Completely to the contrary, on the day after the LSD experiment I felt myself to be in excellent physical and mental condition . . .
"A sensation of well-being and renewed life flowed through me. Breakfast tasted delicious and was an extraordinary pleasure. When I later walked out into the garden, in which the sun shown now after a spring rain, everything glistened and sparkled in a fresh light. The world was as if newly created. All my senses vibrated in a condition of highest sensitivity that persisted for the entire day . . .
"It also appeared to me to be of great significance that I could remember the experience of LSD inebriation in every detail." |
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With this eye-opening, frightening experience, Hofmann entered a world largely unknown to Westerners but long familiar to tribal users of sacred, mind-altering plants. LSD was something genuinely new in two important ways. First was the extreme potency of this compound -- which figures out at 100,000-300,000 substantial doses to the ounce. Second, LSD was the first psychedelic that does not occur in nature. Mescaline had been synthesized after analysis of peyote, but it was the same drug as in the plant. LSD never existed before Hofmann synthesized it. |
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