Constructive Anarchy: The Blog

Okay…Now the 1960s are officially over

From Time Obit
4/30/08 (GENEVA)
Albert Hofmann, the father of the mind-altering drug LSD whose medical discovery inspired — and arguably corrupted — millions in the 1960s hippie generation, has died at the tender age of 102.

The First Trip

The Swiss chemist discovered lysergic acid diethylamide-25 in 1938 while studying the medicinal uses of a fungus found on wheat and other grains at the Sandoz pharmaceuticals firm in Basel.
He became the first human guinea pig of the drug when a tiny amount of the substance seeped onto his finger during a repeat of the laboratory experiment on April 16, 1943.
“I had to leave work for home. because I was suddenly hit by a sudden feeling of unease and mild dizziness… Everything I saw was distorted as in a warped mirror,” he said, describing his bicycle ride home. “I had the impression I was rooted to the spot. But my assistant told me we were actually going very fast.”
“What I was thinking appeared in colors and in pictures,” he told Swiss television network SF DRS for a program marking his 100th birthday two years ago. “It lasted for a couple of hours and then it disappeared.”

The First Bad Trip

Three days later, Hofmann experimented with a larger dose. The result was the world’s first scientifically documented bad trip.
“The substance which I wanted to experiment with took over me. I was filled with an overwhelming fear that I would go crazy. I was transported to a different world, a different time,” Hofmann wrote.

A Conversation with Albert Hofmann By Hans Plomp

- Nov 2005 Read entire interview here

Q: What are your feelings on the current developments in science?

Scientists used to be pious people, dedicating their work to the Creation. Today the evil side of this double face dominates so strongly that it scares me.
I foresee a huge catastrophe, a terrible time is coming, I feel it deep inside of me. We have strayed so far from the right path, from nature, from what we are.
Politics are created by sick people. And what politics! Bush is a sick person, a madman. He tells the world lies and makes war based on those lies, and still he is elected. Of course there have been tyrants before, but at least they had some stature.
I am actually very pessimistic. Things are going very fast now. We urgently need a new awareness. But awareness can only come from what is put in. What is the input nowadays?

.
Puzzling Evidence:
A Boomer Pop History of Boob Tube, Flicks, Rock & Roll and Politics (1946 to 1976)
Click here to view and buy my new book at Amazon.com

Before AM radio station managers and parents deciphered the hidden, trippy lyrics on several new records, the damage had been done. Dr. Timothy Leary spread the word for years, but Boomers heard the message for the first time: “Tune in, turn on, drop out.”
As might be expected, the US government supplied the largest single contribution in the development of the counterculture. They selected Ken Kesey as one of their $75-a-day human guinea pigs for a “mind control” experiment with LSD at Menlo Park Clinic in late 1959 and early 1960 (before Leary’s research at Harvard). Ken helped himself to some free samples, and soon he and friends back at Perry Lane conducted their own experiments. They deduced that LSD was a mind-expanding, rather than a mind-controlling drug, and thus, felt compelled to spread the good news to the freak community. By 1965, Kesey, Augustus Owsley Stanley III (“The Henry Ford of acid”), a little-known band called the Warlocks (who soon renamed themselves the Grateful Dead) and a group of Ken’s friends presented The Merry Pranksters’ Acid Tests. Kesey explained his mission: “As navigator of this venture, I try, as much as possible to set out in a direction that, in the first place, is practically impossible to achieve, and then along the way mess up the minds of the crew with as many chemicals as we can lay our hands on.” With everyone in the proper frame of mind, the Pranksters proceeded with their mixed media experience: strobe lights, movie projections, taped sound effects, live cosmic raps, black lights, and some stoned-out Rock & Roll from Jerry Garcia and company, in an effort to provide a thought-provoking, mind-expanding experience and a lot of fun. The performers encouraged the audience to join in the fun, as Garcia explained: “We all preferred the constructive anarchy of the Tests in a lot of ways. Every person was a participant and everywhere was the stage. We didn’t have to entertain anybody. We were no more famous than anybody else.”

Published by Greg at 05:54 AM on April 24, 2008