Albert Hofmann, the Father of LSD (1906–2008)

to experience ‘an extremely stimulated imagination’ caused by an accidental ingestion of LSD. Three days later, on April 19, 1943, he decided to verify his results by intentionally ingesting LSD. This day has become known as ‘Bicycle Day’ as Hofmann experienced an incredible bicycle ride on his way home from the lab. LSD was initially hailed as a wonder drug for use in psychoanalysis, particularly for gaining insights into schizophrenia; but in the 1960s, it came to be seen by Harvard’s Timothy Leary and others as a pathway to spiritual enlightenment, Dr. Albert Hofmann, the brilliant Swiss synthetic chemist, was best known for fathering the compound lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), one of the most powerful psychotropic substances known, on April 16, 1943. Hofmann’s discovery of the effect of LSD in Basel came 5 years after his original synthesis of the molecule in 1938, LSD-25, which was set aside as he continued with other derivatives. Four years later, he resynthesized LSD25 because he felt he might have missed something the first time around. That day, he became the first human Published online: September 18, 2008