“
el espacio interior del alma es igual de infinito y enigmático que el espacio cósmico exterior, y (...) tanto los cosmonautas del espacio exterior cuanto los del interior no pueden permanecer allí, sino que tienen que regresar a la tierra, a la conciencia cotidiana. además, ambos viajes exigen una buena preparación, para que puedan desarrollarse con un mínimo de peligro y convertirse en una empresa realmente enriquecedora.
”
”
Albert Hofmann (LSD: My Problem Child – Reflections on Sacred Drugs, Mysticism and Science)
“
The danger of LSD lies not in its toxicity, but rather in the unpredictability of its psychic effects.
”
”
Albert Hofmann (LSD: My Problem Child – Reflections on Sacred Drugs, Mysticism and Science)
“
Objective reality, the world view produced by the spirit of scientific inquiry, is the myth of our time.
”
”
Albert Hofmann (LSD: My Problem Child – Reflections on Sacred Drugs, Mysticism and Science)
“
Above all, for Western people with their hypertrophied rationality, the development and expansion of a direct, emotional experience of reality, unobstructed by words and concepts, would be of evolutionary significance. (Aldous Huxley's "Human Resources")
”
”
Albert Hofmann (LSD: My Problem Child – Reflections on Sacred Drugs, Mysticism and Science)
“
Lo más importante fue para mí el reconocimiento, confirmado por todos mis experimentos con LSD, que lo que de común se denomina «realidad», incluida la realidad de la propia persona, de ningún modo es algo fijo, sino algo de múltiple significación, y que no existe una realidad, sino varias; cada una de ellas encierra una distinta conciencia del yo.
”
”
Albert Hofmann (LSD: My Problem Child – Reflections on Sacred Drugs, Mysticism and Science)
“
How should we judge the conduct of María Sabina, the fact that she allowed strangers, white people, access to the secret ceremony, and let them try the sacred mushroom?
”
”
Albert Hofmann (LSD: My Problem Child – Reflections on Sacred Drugs, Mysticism and Science)
“
The rapid rise of drug use, which had its beginning in this country about twenty years ago, was not, however, a consequence of the discovery of LSD, as superficial observers often declared. Rather it had deep-seated sociological causes: materialism, alienation from nature through industrialization and increasing urbanization, lack of satisfaction in professional employment in a mechanized, lifeless working world, ennui and purposelessness in a wealthy, saturated society, and lack of a religious, nurturing, and meaningful philosophical foundation of life.
”
”
Albert Hofmann (LSD: My Problem Child – Reflections on Sacred Drugs, Mysticism and Science)
“
It was obvious that a substance with such fantastic effects on mental perception and on the experience of the outer and inner world would also arouse interest outside medical science, but I had not expected that LSD, with its unfathomably uncanny, profound effects, so unlike the character of a recreational drug, would ever find worldwide use as an inebriant. I had expected curiosity and interest on the part of artists outside of medicine—performers, painters, and writers—but not among people in general. After the scientific publications around the turn of the century on mescaline—which, as already mentioned, evokes psychic effects quite like those of LSD—the use of this compound remained confined to medicine and to experiments within artistic and literary circles. I had expected the same fate for LSD. And indeed, the first non-medicinal self-experiments with LSD were carried out by writers, painters, musicians, and other intellectuals.
”
”
Albert Hofmann (LSD: My Problem Child – Reflections on Sacred Drugs, Mysticism and Science)
“
The high sentences—ten years' imprisonment each for convictions in Texas and California concerning possession of LSD and marijuana, and conviction (later overturned) with a sentence of thirty years' imprisonment for marijuana smuggling—show that the punishment of these offenses was only a pretext: the real aim was to put under lock and key the seducer and instigator of youth, who could not otherwise be prosecuted.
”
”
Albert Hofmann (LSD: My Problem Child – Reflections on Sacred Drugs, Mysticism and Science)
“
LSD trips and the space flights of the astronauts are comparable in many respects. Both enterprises require very careful preparations, as far as measures for safety as well as objectives are concerned, in order to minimize dangers and to derive the most valuable results possible. The astronauts cannot remain in space nor the LSD experimenters in transcendental spheres, they have to return to earth and everyday reality, where the newly acquired experiences must be evaluated.
”
”
Albert Hofmann (LSD: My Problem Child – Reflections on Sacred Drugs, Mysticism and Science)
“
Experience of the world as matter, as object, to which man stands opposed, has produced modern natural science and technology—creations of the Western mind that have changed the world. With their help human beings have subdued the world. Its wealth has been exploited in a manner that may be characterized as plundering, and the sublime accomplishment of technological civilization, the comfort of Western industrial society, stands face-to-face with a catastrophic destruction of the environment. Even to the heart of matter, to the nucleus of the atom and its splitting, this objective intellect has progressed and has unleashed energies that threaten all life on our planet.
”
”
Albert Hofmann (LSD: My Problem Child – Reflections on Sacred Drugs, Mysticism and Science)
“
[Hallucinogenic drugs] now formed a circle, one could almost say a magic circle: the starting point had been the synthesis of lysergic acid amides, among them the naturally occurring ergot alkaloid ergobasin. This led to the synthesis of lysergic acid diethylamide, LSD. The hallucinogenic properties of LSD were the reason why the hallucinogenic magic mushroom teonanacatl found its way into my laboratory. THe work with teonanacatl, from which psilocybin and psilocin were isolated, proceeded to the investigation of another Mexican magic drug, ololiuhqui, in which hallucinogenic principles in the form of lysergic acid amides were again encountered, including ergobasin—with which the magic circle closed.
”
”
Albert Hofmann (LSD: My Problem Child – Reflections on Sacred Drugs, Mysticism and Science)
“
The fundamental importance, for the recovery of people in Western industrial societies who are sickened by a one-sided, rational, materialistic world view, is today given primary emphasis, not only by adherents to Eastern religious movements like Zen Buddhism, but also by leading representatives of acedemic psychiatry
”
”
Albert Hofmann (LSD My Problem Child: Reflections on Sacred Drugs, Mysticism and Science by Albert Hofmann (2009-03-01))
“
The fundamental importance, for the recovery of people in Western industrial societies who are sickened by a one-sided, rational, materialistic world view, is today given primary emphasis, not only by adherent to Eastern religious movements like Zen Buddhism, but also by leading representatives of acedemic psychiatry
”
”
Albert Hofmann (LSD My Problem Child: Reflections on Sacred Drugs, Mysticism and Science by Albert Hofmann (2009-03-01))