Of his decision to pursue a career as a chemist, Hofmann provided insight during a speech he delivered to the 1996 Worlds of Consciousness Conference in Heidelberg, Germany:
Discovery of LSD In 1929, Hofmann became an employee of the pharmaceutical and chemical department of
Sandoz Laboratories as a coworker of
Arthur Stoll, founder and director of the pharmaceutical department. He began studying the
medicinal plant (squill) and the fungus
ergot as part of a program to purify and synthesize active constituents for use as
pharmaceuticals. His main contribution was to elucidate the chemical structure of the common nucleus of the
glycosides (an active principle of Mediterranean squill). The main intention of the synthesis was to obtain a respiratory and circulatory stimulant (
analeptic) with no effects on the
uterus in analogy to
nikethamide (which is also a diethylamide) by introducing this
functional group to lysergic acid. It was set aside for five years, until 16 April 1943, when Hofmann reexamined it and accidentally discovered its powerful effects. He described what he felt as being: Three days later, on 19 April 1943, Hofmann intentionally ingested 250 micrograms of LSD, which he thought would represent a prudently safe, small amount, but was in fact a strong dose. At first, his trip was not pleasant, as people appeared to morph into fantastic creatures, office furniture moved and shifted like living entities, and he felt possessed by otherworldly forces. 19 April is now widely known as
Bicycle Day, because as Hofmann began to feel LSD's effects, he tried to ride to the safety of his home on his bike. This was the first intentional LSD trip in history. Hofmann's research with LSD influenced several psychiatrists, including
Ronald A. Sandison, who developed its use in psychotherapy. Sandison's treatment at
Powick Hospital in England received international acclaim. Hofmann continued to take small doses of LSD throughout his life, and always hoped to find a use for it. In his memoir, he emphasized it as a "sacred drug": "I see the true importance of LSD in the possibility of providing material aid to meditation aimed at the mystical experience of a deeper, comprehensive reality."
Further research Hofmann later discovered
4-AcO-DET, a
hallucinogenic tryptamine. He first synthesized 4-AcO-DET in 1958 in the Sandoz lab. Hofmann became director of Sandoz's natural products department and continued studying hallucinogenic substances found in Mexican
mushrooms and other plants used by aboriginal people there. This led to the isolation and synthesis of
psilocybin, the active agent of many "
magic mushrooms". Hofmann also became interested in the seeds of the Mexican
morning glory species , called by natives. He was surprised to find the active compound of ,
ergine (LSA, lysergic acid amide), to be closely related to LSD. This discovery is said to have initially been met with "a state of disbelief bordering on accusations of scientific fraud", but was soon confirmed by other researchers. In 1962, Hofmann and his wife Anita Hofmann traveled to Mexico at the invitation of the ethnomycologist
R. Gordon Wasson to search for the psychoactive plant "Ska Maria Pastora" (Leaves of Mary the Shepherdess), later known as . He was able to obtain samples of it, but never succeeded in identifying its active compound, which has since been identified as
salvinorin A. In 1963, Hofmann attended the annual convention of the
World Academy of Arts and Sciences (WAAS) in
Stockholm. ==Later years==