‘Any scientist who is not a mystic is not a scientist’
Word is circulating that Dr Albert Hofmann has died, aged 102. The good doctor didn’t make it to the conference held in his honour in Basel last month – quite understandably – though I went under the auspices of the Beckley Foundation, with whom SAP are publishing a book of essays by and about Dr Hofmann in a few weeks’ time.
You can read all about the Basel con at Gyrus’ Dreamflesh site.
Those who met Albert in recent years described him as being remarkably clear-headed, a blessing he attributed to time spent hanging upside down each day for many years. I don’t think there’s much I can say that won’t be said more eloquently elsewhere, other than that, without Dr Hofmann’s serendipitous discovery, you most likely wouldn’t be reading this now.
So long Dr Albert. And thanks…
From Doesenation
Albert died at home at 9 AM Basel time from a myocardial infarction, quick and relatively painless. Two caretakers were there with him at the time. The only people who were told were people from Burg, the village where he lived, and Peter and others were surprised the word of his death had gotten out so quickly. It’s the age of the internet…
Albert had been increasingly thinking of death these last few months. He had stopped leaving his home, where he said he could feel the spirit of Anita, his wife who died December 20, 2007. He didn’t come to the World Psychedelic Forum a month ago, but did entertain some visitors at his home. We spoke on the phone the day after the Basel conference and he was happy and fulfilled. He’d seen the renewal of LSD psychotherapy research with his own eyes, as had Anita. I said that I looked forward to discussing the results of the study with him in about a year and a half and he laughed and said he’d try to help the research however he could, either from this side or “the other side”.
Now it even more falls on younger generations to transform LSD into a legal medicine and beyond that into a tool for personal growth legally available to all.
