The Psychedelic Renaissance: Horizons, the Fifth Annual Conference on Psychedelic Research

In the spring of 1943, a 37-year-old Swiss chemist named Albert Hofmann had “a peculiar presentiment.” He believed that he had missed something in 1938, the year when he first synthesized the twenty-fifth compound of the lysergic acid diethylamide series, LSD-25. For eight years at Sandoz Pharmaceuticals, Hofmann was in charge of the ergot project, which involved synthesizing ergotamine molecules for the treatment of migraines. On April 16, 1943, guided by a premonition, Hofmann synthesized and ingested a crystalline water-soluble batch of LSD25. Shortly thereafter, Hofmann experienced “an uninterrupted stream of fantastic images of extraordinary plasticity and vividness . . . accompanied by an intense kaleidoscopic play of colors” (Stevens, 1987).