I am not a huge fan of hard science. It has its goods, but it also has its bads, and has become, within the last couple centuries, a religion of its own, where people swear by it. The scientific method has become a paradigm which discounts things which cannot be quantifiable, for example, thoughts, feelings and opinions. It has made people seek to present their opinions as if they were fact (just so they can appear to others to be considered “legitimate”), rather than allowing them to remain merely opinion, and allowing their readers to read them as such. And this is problematic, when people try to play a game for which they are not fit, or more likely, which is not fit for what they are trying to do. Empiricism defeats metaphysics, and this taken out to its extreme is problematic for a complex organism like a human, who can question, but more importantly, doubt.

But, that said, allow me to present a small obituary of a great scientist, one of the few that have existed in my lifetime. The man’s name was Albert Hoffman. An article about his death from the AP can be found by following this link. He was a Swiss scientist who died at 102. He worked for European pharmaceutical giant Sandoz. And by the way, he was also the inventor of LSD.

That substance, lysergic acid diethalamide, formula 25, LSD: I think, without romanticizing the drug too much, that this chemical can be said to be a bridge between science and metaphysics. Real LSD (not the stuff passed off as LSD these days, after the base chemicals used to make it have been outlawed for the most part by the US government) permits its users to tap into something in their minds that defies scientific explanation. Sure, there are quantifiable aspects of the experience: A minute amount of the chemical, usually anywhere between 200 and 400 micrograms (!) ingested and metabolized into the human body binds with receptors in the sensory section of the human brain, interrupting the normal synaptic connections, and causes them to switch strangely to produce sensations that do not otherwise normally occur. The experience usually lasts for approximately 8-12 hours, depending on a number of objective and subjective factors, and can be prolonged with an overdose of Vitamin C. A short term tolerance can be built by not taking a break between doses. The experience induces abnormal aural and visual sensory experiences, as well as feelings of euphoria, introspection and paranoia. Blah blah blah.

None of this tells what the drug actually does. Anyone who has ever taken it know precisely what it does: It changes your mind. If you have taken it, you know precisely what that sentence means. Even a small amount of LSD will alter the way you think and see the world, permanently. You will learn that it is indeed possible for humans to levitate. It’s not like you’ve ever seen it, not even in a state of LSD intoxication. But if you have been able to convince yourself in the state of high suggestibility under the influence of LSD, it become real for you when you are not on it. For example, you know that you have actually seen walls melt before your eyes, and you were sober enough to remember the experience. You know you saw it, even though it is not doing that right now. If you can trick your senses so easily with just a small amount of chemical, what is to say you aren’t tricking your senses right now, when you aren’t on it? You are never again satisfied with how things appear. And THIS is where the drug is dangerous, and why the establishment felt the need to outlaw it.

Back to Hoffman. He was a lifelong advocate for his invention. It had therapeutic uses which are seldom reported. For example, in the book “Acid Dreams: The complete Social History of LSD”, authors Lee and Shlain report that acid was useful in curing alcoholics of their problems, among other things (Lee and Shlain, 54). This is only the tip of the iceburg, and I am not about to say “Well, I know there’s the abuse and all, but look at all the great things it has done…” Its abuse leads to great things, and nobody I know has ever used it for therapeutic reasons. And I would imagine that Dr. Hoffman would have said that even what can be considered “abuse” by the government was useful and practical employment of the chemical he created.

Needless to say, this man’s contribution to the world was far more important, for good or ill, than the man himself was. This is usually the way things go. Very rarely is the man more important than anything he has done, regardless of what our modern liberal paradigm tells us. The man is not more important. Any person could have come up with LSD given the correct training and the correct material. Hoffman himself possessed no specific brilliance, in this regard. His brilliance was in the fact that he was curious enough to explore the relationship between the ergot and the strange behavior of the cows who ate it. His curiosity opened up MY world. His work personally affected MY life. And I am not the only one. There are maybe tens of millions like me, all heirs of Hoffman’s curiosity.

Hoffman himself died officially of a heart attack. But he was 102 years old, so it is possible that his heart just quit working. I thought he had died a long time ago, and was only aware that he was alive earlier this week when I read that he had died. But I suppose that is fitting: It only underscores what I had just written about his contribution.

Good Luck, Dr. Hoffman.

Serenely,
The Reverend,
William Doc Stodden

Tags: Acid, Albert Hoffman, Doc, LSD, Obituary, William Stodden