AGENT OF CHANGE - THE LSD CHRONICLES

AGENT OF CHANGE - THE LSD CHRONICLES


compiled by Boris Hießerer (Pyromania Arts Foundation & Doors Of Perception Ethic Committee)

I’ve often been called “the father of LSD” and that raises the question: Who is the mother? The mother is “Ergot”, a mushroom called “Mutterkorn” (mother-corn) in German. She gave birth to some of my pharmaceutical children. The first was “Metagin” with birth-supporting effects. The second was the “LSD”. While “Metagin” helps to give birth to a physical child, LSD has proved itself to be very helpful to bear the spiritual child, which lies latent in all Human beings. LSD is acting upon the spiritual world, this constellation is no coincidence but the intention of a higher authority.“

Dr. Albert Hofmann, Santa Cruz, California (USA



‘ERGOT’ or ‘MOTHERCORN’- the mother of LSD


11.000 BC The nomadic hunters and collectors of the early ice age start a settled existence in the area of the Taurus- and Zagros mountains of upper Mesopotamia and begin to collect wild wheats. First stone buildings are erected in the mids of this ‘Eden’ like cereal cradle of ‘Gobekli Tepe’ between Iran and Irak.

7000-6000 BCThe first farmers move from the mountains down to the Persian Gulf and found the first highly sophisticated civilisation: ‘Sumer’. The Sumerian sage contains references to the “paradise mountain Do-ku”, to “the flood” and to the “first earth-born human couple”.

3500 BC In old Egyptian religion ‘Osiris’, the god of vegetation, death and resurrection is an embodiment of the wheat crops.

2900 BC In China, Mesopotamia and central Europa the vegetation- and grain-goddesses are honoured as transmitters of knowlegde, responsible for technological quantum leaps as dyke building, writing and agriculture. Sumerian frescos appear, showing how mycelial fruits are growing from the shoulders of the grain goddess ‘Nisaba’ or ‘Ninhursag’.

1750-1200 BC Das ökumenische ‘KonzilThe ‘Rig Veda’ (indish book of wisdom) mentiones the hallucinogen qualities of the drink of the god’s, called ‘soma’. *** In Greece ‘Ambrosia’ or ‘Amrita’ (sanskrit for immortality) is the life’s elixier and food of the gods.

1500 BC Europe’s most famous initiation rites are the “Mysteries of Eleusis”. Honoring the grain goddess “Demeter” and her daughter “Persephone”, pilgrims walk from Athens to Eleusis. Here they receive a drink known as ‘Kykeon’, a psychoactive beverage containing Ergot (Mutter- or motherkorn) a mushroom parasite on rye. Homer praises the utterly purifying experience in a hymn as well as the initiants Cicero & Pinar.

650-600 BC The heroe of the Gilgamesh Epos finds a ‘plant of immortality’ wich transforms into a snake. *** The Assyrians mention a “harmful pustule in the corns ear”.

450 BC Hippocrates mentions abortion in certain women after a wet winter and dry spring (supporting the ergot parasites growth), and elsewhere he attributes an oxytocic action to barley (assumed to be ergotized).

350 BC The Parner hold evidence that corn seeds have a harmful effect to pregnant woman: resulting in uterine prolapses and the sudden death’s of unborn children.

200 BC The creation story of the bible’s in the old testament is drawn up by a jewish rabby. In his version of ‘Eden’s first drug bust’ the ‘tree of knowledge’ and the ‘tree of immortality’ play an important role. He uses the apple as the tree’s magical fruit, as “malus” (bad) was earlier translated with ‘apple’ into latin.

300-325 AD The god ‘Attis’ symbolizes the harvested corn and cutten crop in the area between Turkey and Iran. *** The ‘Concilum of Nicaeum’ results in the official condemnation of all cults, opposing the catholic doctrine. The gnostic knowledge with it’s “Great Mystery” cults and ancient goddess-whorshipping rites, is driven underground.

395 AD The Eleusian temples are destroyed by the gothic king Alarich. *** With the christianisation the ancient “mystery cults”, having existed in ‘Eleusis’ and elsewhere, for more than 2000 years, disappear.

875 The first historical data of people intoxicated by ergot-parasitized flour. “Ergotism”, the first historical known mass-hysteria spreads in Xanten, northern Germany during the middle ages. *** In Spain the plague is called “Magdalena lichen”. In Europe’s south, tarantula spiders are held responsible for the poisoning, although it is clear that most cases are unrelated to spiders.

994 About 40.000 citizens of Aquitaine and Limousin (France) die from hunger, holy fire and pestilence. The ergotism and the ergot alkaloids receive their name after the french “argot” - it is related to the parasite on wheat and barley crops.

1021 Starving people eat rye-flower from infected crops. Ergot epidemic appears all across Europe. *** The treatment of ergotism-victims begins (1100). Religious ceremonies exorcise the ergotism as if it is the work of demons. The plague and the people”s wounds are termed “Antonius Fire” as St. Antonius becomes the patroned saint of the poisoned.

1207 Rumi Masnavi the founder of the Turkish dervish order writes In his Ma’navi poetry about the gnosis revealing, transformative character of the wheat seed.

1278 The name “Choros-“, “St. Vitus-”or “Maniac Dancing” was adopted after a group of 200 people danced so spiritedly on a bridge, above the Maas river in Germany, that it collapsed, killing many. Survivors were treated in the nearby chapel St. Vitus. *** A group of people in Aix-la-Chapelle uncontrollably dancing in the streets until exhaustion, foaming from the mouth, convulsing and hallucinating (1374). The “Dancing sickness” in Germany: in Cologne 500, in Metz 1100 people dance in the streets. Music and dance seem to be the only effective remedy against the ergot-gangrene. The mania reaches Strasbourg in the year 1418 when thousands of dancers fill the streets to “rock around the clock”.

1500 Jheronimus Bosch paints the “Temptation of St. Antonius” as well as “Holy Antonius fire” victims with leg- and arm amputations. *** In his “Herbal Book”, botanic doctor Adam Lonitzer publishes the first exact description of “mutterkorn” (Claviceps purpurea) growing on grain and responsible for the epidemic “Ergotism” (1582) *** In central Europe healers & witches are wisdom-keepers of advanced herbal knowledge *** Johann VI. kindles up the witch hunt in Germany. Around Berlin 306 people in 20 villages are burnt to death.

1600 While ergotism slowly disappears, the “manic dancing” becomes a subject of medical research. “St. Vitus dance” is stripped of its unhallowed character as a work of demons by Dr. Paracelsus. *** Ergotism returns in the french district Sologne (1630, 1676, 1709, 1747, 1770, 1777) as well as in Germany, Russia and Scandinavia. *** The Frenchman Tuillier feeds chickens with ergot-infected grain, to detect the reason for the spreading of the so called “Antonius fire”, also named “holy Sanctus” (1630) *** The effects of ergotism leads to a witch hunt hysteria in Salem, Massachusetts (1692), described in detail in Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible” (1953).*** Angelus Silesius experiences singularity using the ‘philosophers Stone.

1700 Dungeon, torture and death as punishment for participation in the mushroom-cult are strong motives for the alchemists to keep their practice of self-intoxication disquised. *** Knowing that midwifes have used Ergot “Secale cornutum” since ages to trigger labour contractions, Rudolf Jakob Camerarius turns “Pulvis ad partum” into one of the most important birth supporting medicines used until 1907. ***

1770 “Ergotism” spreads like the plague in central Europe: Celle, Hamburg, Duisburg *** 20.000 deaths alone in the army of “Peter the Great” (1772) *** 8.000 die during a mass-intoxication in Sologne (France).*** Finally in Germany a doctor Johann Taube recognizes “Mutterkorn” as the cause for “Ergotism”. He terms it “Kriebel sickness”. *** The farmers revolt (begin of the French Revolution) and rich and commercial cities become the scene of ruinous disorder (1789). Messengers are sent out to inform farmers and people about the facts leading to ergot-plagues & the so called Antonius disease.

1808 The “Roggenmuhme” (grain or rye-mother) appears in german folklore. Through the work and study of the US-American doctor John Stearns, the uterus-contracting ‘Ergot’ enters officially into medicine (Gynecology).

1824 Because of its toxicity the critic Dr. Hosack terms Camerarius’s“Pulvis ad partum” “Pulvis ad mortum”.

1918 At the swisse Sandoz laboratories Dr. Werner Arthur Stoll succeeds in isolating the most important functional ingredients of alkaloid derivates in “Ergot” or “mothercorn”.

1927 11000 people in the Ukraine (USSR) are infected with the horrible ergot-disease.

1931 Dr. Barger edits and publishes the history of “mutterkorn” and ergot related sicknesses in his Monograph “Ergot and Ergotism”.

1933 Publication of Leo Peruz’s novel “St. Petri Schnee” (St. Peters snow) describes the extraction of a medicine from “Mutterkorn”, to experience psychic reactions similar to religious ecstasy and deep happiness.

LSD-25 (LYSERGIC ACID DI-ETHYLAMIDE) - the child

1938 LSD-25 (the 25th compound in a series of semi-synthetic lysergic acid amides produced by a laboratory syntheses of ergot alkaloids, is formulated by Dr. Albert Hofmann at Sandoz Pharmaceutical Laboratories in Basel. Tested on laboratory animals it is making them “restless”. LSD-25 is not deemed sufficiently interesting to test further. (Other lysergic acid derivatives are proven useful obstetrics, geriatrics and the treatment of migraine headaches.)

1942 Ergot poisoning: in “Mighty Mouse vs. The Ergot”, the cartoon character - “Here I come to save the day” - experiences hallucinatoric states of consciousness.

1943 (April 16th) Dr. Hofmann experiences “a peculiar presentiment” that LSD-25 might well be valuable as a circulatory or respiratory stimulant and decides intuitively to re-synthesize this compound. (April 16) Performing with LSD-25 at his Sandoz laboratory, Hofmann accidentally absorbs a miniscule amount of the substance through the skin of his finger. The amount is probably equal to a dose of 50 micrograms. He experiences “a strange inebriation … a kaleidoscopic play of colors” that lasted 3-4 hours.

1943 (April 19th) Dr. Hofmann deliberately ingests what he considers to be the smallest, most conservative amount of the compound LSD-25. 250 microgram, (a full trip). He commences to write laboratory notes after he notices the effect within an hour. But soon he can no longer write anything and decides to ride home on his bicycle. The effects then get much stronger and his trip becomes fully blown. Suffering great anxiety, he calls for the doctor. The next morning he feels unusually good, no hangover despite the profound effects - in fact, he writes “excellent physical & mental condition”. Within the next weeks the drug is tested by Dr. Hofmann”s colleagues, whom confirm his reactions. No substance yet known to mankind acts psychoactively in such infinitely small amounts.

1943 Announcement of the synthesis of lysergic acid diethyl-amide-25(LSD) appears in a Swiss chemical journal, without mentioning its mental effects.

1947 Appearance (by Werner A. Stoll in a Swiss medical journal) of the first report of the mental effects of LSD & the results of 19 administrations to 16 normal subjects and twenty occasions to six schizophrenics at Zürich University. The results convince Sandoz to send out LSD samples to psychiatric hospitals worldwide. LSD-25’s brand name becomes “Delysid”.

1949 CIA-leader Allan Dulles initiates a secret program code named “Operation Bluebird” to discover the potential use of LSD. *** Three further papers on the mental effects of LSD by W. Stoll”s Swiss team are published *** Dr. Max Rinkel, research psychiatrist at the Boston Psychopathic Hospital is the first doctor working with LSD-25. He brings it into the USA. The first trip is taken by Dr. Hyde, Rinkel”s associate who resists the drug and experiences paranoia. Another one of Rinkel”s early experimental subjects is a Boston cab driver; the LSD experience helps him to move out of his mother”s home. *** Dr. Nicholas Bercel, a Los Angeles psychiatrist is given LSD by Stoll; he takes it to L.A., to begin testing on subjects in his private practice.

1950 Drs. Rinkel & Hyde report to the American Psychology Association (APA) on the results of testing LSD on 100 subjects. *** At the same meeting Dr. Paul Hoch introduces the “psychotromimetic” (psychosis-mimicking theory of LSD), raising hopes that schizophrenia may have a biochemical basis that could be duplicated in a laboratory and someday used in finding a cure. *** Drs. A. Busch & W. C. Johnson are the first to use LSD in a psychotherapy and to publish a report on their believe that it can shorten treatments. *** Reports of LSD”s “madness-provoking” qualities reach the CIA, which immediately sees the possibility of using the drug as a weapon for chemical warfare. Also against the drug being used against Americans by their enemies in Russia, whom (as it is erroneously) reported, had “just purchased 50 Million doses LSD from Sandoz”.

1951 Dr. Albert Hofmann isolates the psychoactive ‘Psylocibin’ from the “magic mushrooms” brought to him by the english banker Gordon Wasson, as well as LSA from the ‘Ololiqui’ seeds, two ceremonial drugs from Mexico. The new discovery is that LSD belongs to the family of sacred native mexican witchcraft plants. *** Albert Hofmann tripped on LSD with writer Ernst Jünger *** Operation Bluebird is renamed “Operation Artichoke”, as the CIA”s drug program becomes more ambitious and wide ranging. *** The citizens of the french village Pont-Saint-Espirit are suddenly and mysteriously struck down with mass insanity and hallucinations. At least five people die, dozens are interned in asylums and hundreds afflicted.

1952 Charles Savage publishes the first study on the use of LSD to treat depression. *** At Weyburn Hospital in Saskatchewan, a team of psychiatrists lead by Abram Hoffer, Humphrey Osmond, J. R. Smythies and Duncan Blewett begin clinical research with mescaline and later LSD, developing biochemical models. They successfully treat alcoholics and mentally sick patients.

1953 The first LSD-clinic opens in England under Dr. Ronald Sandison; leading to the conduction of clinical research in other European countries, with the ‘psycholytic’ model (giving repeated low doses) prevailing. *** “Operation MK-ULTRA” headed by Richard Helms & Dr. Sidney Gottlieb are in charge use POW from Korea as Artichoke-test subject; the agency tries to purchase 10 kilograms of LSD (100,000,000 doses) from Sandoz for $240,000. The CIA receives 100 grams a week. It secretly funds the work of American researchers and finances the ‘Josiah Macy conferences’ where the LSD and mescaline research is presented. Over the next 12 years MK-ULTRA runs 149 separate LSD projects at 154 institutions, frequently they use ‘dirty tricks’ - none of them made public attention; some deaths and many mental breakdowns were the result. *** Army Bacteriologist and CIA member Frank Olson dies in Front of New Yorks Pennsylvania Hotel after a covered CIA assassination. *** Aldous Huxley takes mescaline, provided by Humphry Osmond in Los Angeles and finds it not unlike a state of gratuitous grace. *** With the “magic mushrooms” Robert Gordon Wasson re-discovers remains of the ancient mexican plant-therapeutic science and mushroom cults.

1954 Medical student Stanislav Grof begins experimenting with LSD in the Psychiatric Research Institute in Prague. *** Huxley publishes “The Doors of Perception.” *** CIA service staff take LSD. OSS (former CIA) operative Captain Al Hubbard, reformed by LSD, purchases 4,000 vials from Sandoz and begins distributing it by airplane from Vancouver to California. He’s championing LSD as a mystical drug with great psychotherapeutic potential and introduces the concept of high-dose (psychedelic) therapy. *** Publication of classified CIA memorandum about LSD as a potential new agent for unconventional warfare. *** Encouraged by the CIA, the Eli Lilly Pharmaceutical Company breaks the secret formula held by Sandoz and begins producing LSD for (legal and illegal) U.S. government research programs.

1955 Dr. Oscar Janinger, Los Angeles psychotherapist receives LSD from Sandoz and initiates large-scale experiments with 875 artists, actors, and other members of the creative community (ex. Cary Grant, James Coburn, Anais Nin, Jack Nicholson, Rita Monero, Anre Pervin) *** Huxley begins self-experimenting with LSD; he and his wife Laura guide each other’s trips. *** First conferences devoted exclusively to LSD & mescaline take place in Atlantic City and Princeton, NJ. *** Wassons participates in a “Velada”, a mexican psilocybin mushroom ritual with shaman (Curandera) Maria Sabina. *** Lord Christopher Mayhew takes mescaline at a BBC-recording studio, the film disappears in the archives for more than 20 years.

1956 R. R. Gordon Wasson has the idea that indo-alkaloids might have been the base for the “Kykeon” drink in the great mystery cult of Eleusis. *** Huxley publishes ‘Heaven and Hell’, the sequel to ‘The Doors of Perception’. *** R. H. Ward’s “A Drug Taker’s Note”, the first personal account of the LSD therapy is published in England.

1957 Life Magazine’s publication of Gordon Wasson’s adventure with “magic” mushrooms introduces the notion of psychedelic experience to a mainstream audience. Mrs. Wasson publishes her account in “This Week”. *** Hofmann synthesizes Psylocibin, the active agent of the mexican mushrooms and the CIA immediately purchases these pills for experiments. *** Humphrey Osmond introduces the term “Psychedelic” at the New York Academy of Sciences conference. His research team in Saskatchewan begins using single high doses of LSD in therapy with alcoholics; an approach adopted also by Ron Hubbard (Church of Scientology founder) at the Hollywood Hospital in Vancouver.

1958 Drs. Sidney Cohen and Keith Ditman begin large-scale experiments with LSD at the VA Hospital at UCLA. *** Duncan Blewett & Nick Chwelos published the first handbook for using LSD in individual and group psychotherapy in Sasketchewan.*** Actor Cary Grant discusses the positive effects of his LSD sessions in a magazine interview.

1959 Cary Grant after his LSD Trip: “I was reborn”.*** Writers Alan Ginsberg and Ken Kesey take LSD at the VA Hospital in Palo Alto and Menlo Park in a research study secretly founded and sponsored by the CIA; subjects were paid 150 US-Dollar for a LSD session. *** Hofmann extracts lysergic acid amides from the seeds of the morning glory flower (used by ancient mesomexicans under the name “”Ololiqui”), proving that LSD can exist in higher plants.

1960 Harvard invites psychology professor Timothy Leary “to study the change of human behaviour”. Leary ingests psylocibin mushrooms in Cuernavaca, Mexico, returns to Harvard to set up a psychedelic research project with Frank Barron. He invites Huxley, Alan Watts, Arthur Koestler, Beat writers Ginsberg, Peter Orlovsky, William Burroughs, Jack Kerouac, Neil Cassady, Charles Olson, jazz musician Maynard Ferguson, etc. *** John Beresford buys one gramm of LSD-25 from Sandoz for 269 US-Dollar thinking that it would be four portions instead of four-thousand. This magic gramm went into a couple of thousand people, among them Tim Leary, Jean Houston, Keith Richards, Paul McCartney a.m.o..

1961 Aldous Huxley and Tim Leary give lectures on LSD and behaviour change at an international psychology conference in Copenhagen. *** Prof. Richard Alpert and graduate student Ralph Metzner join Leary’s group, which develops the concept of “set and setting” as trip determinants. *** Concord Prison Project commences, in which psilocybin is taken together by Harvard researchers and prisoners, reversing rates of recidivism for the latter group. *** Publication of Exploring Inner Space is the first personal account of LSD therapy in the U.S. by nutritionist Adelle Davis.

1962 The first LSD song appears on a record by The Gamblers. *** “Good Friday” psilocybin experiment conducted by Walter Houston Clark, Walter Pahnke, and Huston Smith in Boston University chapel proves LSD’s value as a sacred drug inducing religious experience. *** The LSD foundation “Agora Scientific Trust” is started by John Beresford, Jean Houston and Robert Masters in New York City. *** The LSD research Center “International Federation for Advanced Study”, is started by Myron Stolaroff and associates in Menlo Park, CA. *** Bernard Roseman and Bernard Copley manufacture the first black market LSD (62.000 tablets); they are later arrested and imprisoned on the false charges of smuggling it from Israel, since manufacturing was illegal there at that time. *** Michael Hollingshead brings his mayonnaise jar containing 5.000 doses of LSD (half on Beresford”s gram obtained from Sandoz) to Harvard and” turns on” Leary, other members of the Harvard research group and later many key british rock “n Roll musicians. *** Harvard Research Group establishes a summer colony in Zihuatanejo in Mexico to explore LSD. *** Alan Watts publishes the “Joyous Cosmology”, Aldous Huxley published “Island”. *** William McGlothlin publishes the first study ever done on the long-lasting effects of LSD. *** President John Kennedy is introduced to LSD by his lover Mary Pinchot Meyer, who received guidelines on tripping sessions from Leary; allegedly they “tripped” in the White House. *** Oklahoma: The scientists West, Pierce and Thomas send the first elephant on an acid trip. Tusko dies during an LSD-Experiment after the fatal injections of LSD, followed by a neuroleptica and a sedative.

1963 Aldous Huxley visiting Dr. Hofmann in Basel, calles LSD the true moksha-medicine of his new novel “Island”. *** The first journal devoted to psychedelic drugs “Psychedelic Review” is launched in Cambridge, MA. *** The first liquid underground LSD appears in the Cambridge area as impregnated sugar cubes. *** More & more articles about LSD appear in the mainstream media (Life; Look; Saturday Evening Post). *** Fired from Harvard, Professor Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert, immediately launche a LSD research program called I.F.I.F. (International Federation for Internal Freedom) in Newton Center, MA. He trains guides to conduct psychedelic sessions; the group is later forced to leave Mexico and Dominica. ***The first modern psychedelic church “Church of the Awakening” incorporated by the Aikens in New Mexico. *** Spring Grove State Hospital, Maryland, becomes a major research center for testing the potential of LSD in psychotherapy. *** Dr. Eric Kast administers LSD in psychotherapy and to terminally ill patients and successfully reduces their pain and anxiety. *** Six hours before his own death in Los Angeles Aldous Huxley requests and is given 100 mg LSD intramuscularly by his wife Laura Hours after he received the news of John F. Kennedy assassination *** Lysergic acid amides extracted from the Baby Hawaiian Wood rose.

1964 Publication of the ‘Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead’ by Leary, Metzner & Alpert, which has never been out of print. *** Leary”s group establishes an LSD cultural research center called Castalia Foundation on the Hichcock estate in Milbrook, New York, and develops the “experimental typewriter” for a meta-communication during the LSD plateau. *** John C. Lilly experiments in the Virgin Islands giving LSD to dolphins and taking it in the samahdi- or isolation tank, which he developed. *** Alexander (Sasha) Shulgin synthesizes DOM, a strong, long-lasting psychedelic. *** Psychedelic Information Centers spring up in Cambridge, Washington DC and elsewhere.

1965 Owsley Acid aka “White Lightening”, “Purple Haze”, “Blue Sheer” etc. (LSD manufactured by Augustus Owsley Stanley) begins to appear in North California in the first large-scale underground LSD manufacturing and distribution (contra-)operation. *** Founding of the Neo-American Church by Art Kleps. *** Hollingshead opens World Psychedelic Center in London and turns on british cultural elite. *** The Beatles inadvertently take their first LSD trip, when a dentist friend of Harrison puts 200 Microdots of LSD in their coffee. *** Lysergic acid amides extracted from Baby Hawaiian Wood rose.

1966 Millbrook raided by sheriff G. Gordon Liddy. *** Kyoki Izumi wins architecture prize for his LSD-inspired mental hospital design. *** First non-academic LSD Conference in San Francisco. *** The League for Spiritual Discovery, an LSD-based religion formed by Leary, produces Psychedelic Celebrations in major cities. *** Acid Tests organized by Kesey’s Merry Pranksters culminate in a “Hippie-Festival” in San Francisco. *** ‘Congressional Hearings on the LSD “epidemic”; Leary, Ginsberg and Kleps testify. *** LSD is made illegal with heavy penalties, October the 6th; the “Love Pageant Rally” is celebrated in Haights-Ashbury on the same day. *** Publishing of ‘The San Francisco Oracle’.

1967 The first “Human Be-In” held at San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. *** Owsley Stanley captured with 200 grams (one million doses) of LSD. *** Appearance of DOM (under the name STP) in San Francisco in high dose tablets causing overdoses. *** Summer of Love apex of LSD counterculture in San Francisco, LA, NYC, London & elsewhere; flourishing of psychedelic poster art, rock music, newspapers (SF Oracle), fashion & lifestyle; Toronto LSD conference; Jimi Hendrix’s “Are You Experienced?”; the Beatles “Sergeant Pepper” album; first LPs by Jefferson Airplane and Grateful Dead.

1968 The manufacturing, sale & distribution of LSD is made illegal by President Lyndon B. Johnson. LSD becomes classified as a category one drug *** Appearance of “Orange Sunshine” (tablet) LSD, manufactured by Tim Scully & Nick Sand. For the following four years it is distributed worldwide by the Brotherhood of Eternal Love (with the involvement of probab le government agent Ronald Stark) . *** Appearances of Leary’s “High Priest & Politics of Ecstasy”; Metzner’s “Ecstatic Adventure”, Laura Huxley’s “Memories of Aldous”. *** First book on psychedelic art. *** Allan Coult starts the International Society for Psychedelic Anthropology.

1969 Woodstock mega-rock-festival. *** The Beatles White Album is published *** Charles Manson triggers the LSD influenced minds of his hippie gang members into the “Tate & La Bianca murders” in Hollywood.

1970 Appearance of “Windowpane” aka “Clearlight” (jelly) underground LSD. *** Founding of Fitz Hugh Ludlow Memorial Library, a psychedelic archive/research center in San Francisco. *** Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Dock Ellis pitches no-hitter in San Diego while under the influence of LSD. *** Bad Acid vibes at Alamont Rock concert.

1972 Blotter Acid emerges as the primary type of underground LSD; dosages are generally lower than past forms. *** Before leaving office CIA head Richard Helmes secretly orders the destruction of most of the agency”s self-incrimating mind drug research files.

1973 Leary writes “Neurologic”, “Starseed” & “Terra 2′ while imprisoned in U.S. jails.

1974 Alan Ginsberg presents 44 questions about Timothy Leary during the P.I.L.L. (People Investigate Leary”s Lies) press conference in St. Francis Hotel, San Francisco.

1975 The last formal LSD research program is terminated at the Spring Grove Hospital, Maryland. *** Under the influence of LSD Steven Jobs & Steve Wozniak develop “Apple1″, the first suitcase-sized personal computer. *** Stan Grof publishes his theory on perinatal and trans-personal experiences in LSD sessions. *** Alexander Shulgin re-synthesizes MDMA aka. Ecstasy from a 1914 formula by Merck Pharmacies in Darmstadt, Germany.

1976 President Ford narrowly missed being dosed from LSD-laced coffee in Chicago. *** Leary is released from prison *** The Apple computer corporation is founded.

1977 Hofmann, Wasson and Ruck announce the discovery that the sacred hallucinogenic beverage used in the Eleusinian mystery rite in Ancient Greece was a preparation made from ergot from nearby grown barley. *** Senate hearings on the misuse of LSD and the complete disregard for the safety of their experimental subjects in the CIA and the Army Chemical Corps over a 25 year period. *** Peter Stafford publishes Psychedelics Encyclopedia; Aldous Huxley”s writings on psychedelics are collected and published in Moksha.

1978 LSD tabs were swallowed until the first designed blotter LSD , the “red dragon” appears.

1979 Hofmann publishes “My Problem Child” his first book LSD; Grinspoon & Bakalar publish the book “Psychedelic Drugs Revisited”.

1980 LSD overdose! A Californian woman accidentally ingests several thousand doses of crystal LSD, although she looses her consciousness for several hours she experiences no other ill after-effects. *** The last mass intoxication from ergot infected flour in Germany is called the “Frankenberger Epidemic”.

1981 The first major Psychedelic Conference in 15 Years is held at UC-Santa Cruz

1982 UCLA scientist Ronald Siegel feeds LSD to two elephants, a male and a female, and disproves the theory of West, Pierce und Thomas from 1962.

1984 A psychedelic conference is held at UC-Santa Barbara. *** Founding of the Pyromania Arts Foundation in Utrecht, Netherlands.

1985 Martin Lee’s & Shlain’s “Acid Dreams: The CIA, LSD & the Sixties Rebellion” is published.

1987 The Blotter Art Exhibition “Cure Of Souls”, documenting the art of designers tours in the U.S.A. *** Pickard’s LSD-lab in Mountain View, produces LSD and synthetic Mescaline. *** Tim Leary performs live at ‘The Stone’ in San Francisco.

1988 The neo-psychedelic movement flourishes in England. *** Marshall Jefferson’s & DJ Pierre’s “Acid Tracks” inspire the band “Psychic TV” to import the Acid House from Chicago via London to Europe. Castalia Records is PTV’s label before the release of the Vinyl “Pure Acid” Techno Acid Beat *** LSD and MDMA boost the House- and Rave-culture and influencing new rhythms, lifestyles, (illegal) locations and leading to open-air-festivals. *** Multiple Association of Psychedelic Studies (M.A.P.S.) psychedelics conference in Berkeley, CA.

1990 California-M.A.P.S. benefit “Psychedelics in the 1990’s” conference. *** On his Gig in Germany Timothy Leary calls Terence McKenna the most important scientist & poet, linking the psychedelic & shamanic experience. *** The ‘Burning Man’ festival - one of the “trippiest” gathering of the planet - moves to the “Black Rock” salt desert, Nevada (1990 -2007).

1991 Research reveals eight ex-nazi scientists (Kurt Blohme, who had experimented on humans in various concentration camps) brought to the U.S. in “Operation Paperclip”, were active in CIA- and Army- LSD-experiments at Edgewood Arsenal, MD during the 1950’s. *** Bridge conference on psychedelics in Palo Alto. *** Hakim Bey’s book “Temporary Autonomous Zone” (TAZ) is published.

1992 Oppressed by authorities, the british Rave scene becomes nomadic. Near Castlemorton the first “country-rave” can unfold it’s function as a collective rite of modern mass therapy. *** Thomas D & Michi Beck, german rappers of the Band ‘Die Fantastischen Vier’ get turned on to LSD and write the song ‘Ein Tag am Meer’. *** Hans Carl Leuner inaugurates the first convention of the ‘European Collegium of Conciousness Study’ (ECBS) in Göttingen, Germany. *** The ‘Pharmakon’ conference on psychedelics gathers in Brighton, England.

1993 The 50th anniversary of the discovery of LSD is celebrated worldwide *** Release of the vinyl “50th anniversary of LSD - a tribute to Albert Hofmann” (Germany) and the CD “50 Years of sunshine” (USA)*** “50 Years & beyond” *** M.A.P.S. & CAL NORML psychedelic conference held at UC-Santa Cruz *** Many of San Francisco’s acid-heads, DJ’s & new pagans of the Bay Area tribal rave scene have hyperspace experiences when Pyromania Arts introduce “NN-DMT”.

1995 In Time magazine Steward Brand reveals that the computer revolution is the real legacy of the 60’s generation *** Riccardo Villalobos gets turned on to LSD during a sun-eclipsed rave in Chile and starts his international DJ career.

1996 The 2′nd international ECBS-convention ‘Worlds Of Conciousness’ in Heidelberg. *** Albert Hofmann signs the ‘Heidelberger Deklaration’, a ‘no-jail-for-drug-users’-campaign by Werner Pieper’s publishing company ‘MedieneXperimente’. *** Alex Grey publishes his first book “The Sacred Mirrors” including many artworks (and “Transfigurations” in 2001) that are created under the influence of LSD (and other mind expanding molecules). *** Pyromania Arts Foundation publishes the CDROM/CD compilation entitled “Der Alchemistische Kongress - a Cybertribe Logfile” with works of 300 shaman, scientists, cutting-edge artists, philosophers and musicians. Many of them tour European clubs & open-air trance parties - propagating LSD as a necessary cultural enzyme, to prepare the human mind for the global village.

1997 The ECBS-Congress ‘Worlds of Conciousness’ takes place in Leibzig, Germany.

1998 The “Psychoactivity” conference on Plants, Shamanism & Conciousness’ takes place at the Royal Tropical Institut in Amsterdam, Netherland.

1999 The ‘3rd international ECBS Convention’ takes place in Basel, Swisse. *** Terence McKenna invites the psychedelic research community to the ‘AllChemical-Arts Conference’ on the big Island of Hawaii. *** “Can you pass the Acid Test?” at the Parallel YoUniverse rave “The Warp” (Millennium Dome, London UK)

2000 Again Leonard Pickard, chemical & Harvard docent is trying to save humanity with LSD, when government agents arrest him with a Ergotamin-Base worth 600.000 Dollars (15 Million hits) and send him to jail in Topeka, USA *** The amount of “busted” Acid is decreasing 73% worldwide. The largest amount of confiscated Acid is 26.000 hits in the UK.

2001 Alex Grey publishes his psychedelically inspired art in his second book “Transfigurations” with a foreword of LSD inventor Dr. Albert Hofmann.

2003 The “Ethnovisions” convention is held in Berlin For the first time. *** Peter Mettler’s Film “Gambling, Gods & LSD” is an attempt to experience the phenomena of transcendence.*** The ‘Pollem Plus Corporation’ of the ‘Lochow-Petkus GMBH’ launche the website www.Mutterkorn.de

2004 40.000 Acids (LSD hits) and more than two million doses of Exstasy pills confiscated in Germany. *** Founding of the ‘Doors Of Perception Ethic Committee’ by Boris Hiesserer in Heidelberg, Germany. *** Peter Webster publishes his thesis ‘The First Supper- Eden where & when?’.

2005 “Mind bending, health giving”: John Horgan’s article on psychedelic medicine is released in “New Scientist” health section *** Dr. Halpern (associate director of substance abuse research at Harvard) lays the groundwork, that Dr. R. Andrew Sewell (and other scientists of Harvard University’s McLean Hospital) can report about the positive effects of LSD (and psylocibin) on 53 cluster-headache patients in the “American Academy of “Neurology’s magazine”. *** The D.OP.E.C. releases “The MediaShaman” - a 5-CD mp3 Set with lectures, media samples and music; bridging 63 Years of LSD research in Science & Subculture.

2006 Dr. Albert Hofmanns 100th birthday is celebrated with the“LSD - the spirit of Basel” Symposium . researchers and friends of the worldwide psychedelic consciousness research movement, fFrom over 37 countries, gather in Swisse. *** The molecular tuning of LSD. Based on Hans Cousto’s ‘Cosmic Octave’, the data measured in the infrared-specter of the LSD molecule can be octaved to the range of the human ear. Based on this groundwork the “Akasha-Project” developed a compositional principle of direct transmodulation of molecular vibrations (MDMA, THC & LSD) in hearable Sounds.*** Globalizing “MediaShamanism” - Boris Hiesserer presents Drs. Hofmann, Leary, McKenna a.o. international researchers on a HearBook-DVD.

2007 Kevin Herbert, technology expert of the network assessment Corporation CISCO, reports that over the years, he regularly used LSD to solve the most important technological obstacles. During an event, honoring the 100-year-old inventor Dr. Albert Hofmann, Herbert demands to banish the drug tests from CISCO employees. *** Quantum music: Morphon, Brain Entertainment Laboratory, Orbital Dolphins, Star Sound Orchestra, Acid Test, Sci-Rom. *** A psychedelic afternoon at the ‘Horizons - contemporary perspectives on psychedelics’ conference in New York City’s Judson Memorial Church. *** LSD agent John Beresford dies september 2′nd. *** Anita Hofmann - who as Dr. Albert Hofmanns wife has shared & tried out everything with her husband for 75 years (for example participating in the mushroom ceremony of Maria Sabina in Mexico) - dies on the 20th of December peacefully at home in her bed.


“LSD helps against one of the most elemental problems of our times.
We’ve dis-connected from nature and lost the feeling of beeing a part of the living creation.”

Dr. Dr. h.c.mult. Albert Hofmann