Hofmann was born in Baden, Switzerland, the first of four children to factory toolmaker Adolf Hofmann and his wife Elisabeth. Owing to his father's low income, Albert's godfather paid for his education. When his father became ill, Hofmann obtained a position as a commercial apprentice in concurrence with his studies. At the age of twenty, Hofmann began his chemistry degree at the University of Zürich, finishing three years later, in 1929. His main interest was the chemistry of plants and animals, and he later conducted important research on the chemical structure of the common animal substance chitin, for which he received his doctorate with distinction in 1929. Regarding 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
Hofmann became an employee of the pharmaceutical/chemical department of Sandoz Laboratories, located in Basel as a coworker with professor Arthur Stoll, founder and director of the pharmaceutical department. He began studying the medicinal plantDrimia maritima 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 Scilla glycosides. While researching lysergic acid derivatives, Hofmann first synthesized LSD on 16 November 1938. The main intention of the synthesis was to obtain a respiratory and circulatory stimulant with no effects on the uterus in analogy to nikethamide by introducing this functional group to lysergic acid. It was set aside for five years, until 16 April 1943, when Hofmann decided to reexamine it. While re-synthesizing LSD, he accidentally absorbed a small amount of the drug through his fingertips and 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. This day is now known as "Bicycle Day", because he began to feel the effects of the drug as he rode home on a bike. This was the first intentional LSD trip. Hofmann continued to take small doses of LSD throughout much of 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-Acetoxy-DET a hallucinogenictryptamine. He first synthesized 4-AcO-DET in 1958 in the Sandoz lab. Hofmann became director of Sandoz' natural products department and continued studying hallucinogenic substances found in Mexican mushrooms and other plants used by aboriginal people there. This led to the synthesis of psilocybin, the active agent of many "magic mushrooms." Hofmann also became interested in the seeds of the Mexican morning glory species Turbina corymbosa, which are called ololiuqui by natives. He was surprised to find the active compound of ololiuhqui, ergine to be closely related to LSD. In 1962, Hofmann and his wife Anita Hofmann traveled to southern Mexico to search for the plant "Ska Maria Pastora", later known as Salvia divinorum. He was able to obtain samples of this plant, but never succeeded in identifying its active compound, which has since been identified as the diterpenoidsalvinorin A. In 1963, Hofmann attended the annual convention of the World Academy of Arts and Sciences in Stockholm.
Later years
Hofmann, interviewed shortly before his hundredth birthday, called LSD "medicine for the soul" and was frustrated by the worldwide prohibition of it. "It was used very successfully for ten years in psychoanalysis," he said, adding that the drug was misused by the counterculture of the 1960s, and then criticized unfairly by the political establishment of the day. He conceded that it could be dangerous if misused, because a relatively high dose of 500 micrograms will have an extremely powerful psychoactive effect, especially if administered to a first-time user without adequate supervision. In December 2007, Swiss medical authorities allowed psychotherapist Peter Gasser to perform psycho-therapeutic experiments on patients suffering from terminal-stage cancer and other deadly diseases. Completed in 2011, these represent the first study of the therapeutic effects of LSD on humans in 35 years – other studies had examined the drug's effects on consciousness and body. Hofmann acclaimed the study and reiterated his belief in LSD's therapeutic benefits. In 2008, Hofmann wrote to Steve Jobs, asking him to support this research; it is not known if Jobs responded. The Multidisciplinary Association of Psychedelic Studies has supported psychoanalytic research using LSD, carrying on Hofmann's legacy and setting the groundwork for future studies. Hofmann was to speak at the World Psychedelic Forum from 21 to 24 March 2008, but had to cancel because of ill health. Hofmann was a long-time friend and correspondent of German author and entomologist Ernst Jünger, whom he met in 1949. Jünger experimented with LSD with Hofmann; in 1970, Jünger published a book of his experiences taking several types of drugs, Annäherungen. Drogen und Rausch.
Hofmann's papers
After retiring from Sandoz in 1971, Hofmann was allowed to take his papers and research home. He gave his archives to the Albert Hofmann Foundation, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit, but the documents mostly sat in storage for years. The archives were sent to the San Francisco area in 2002 to be digitized, but that process was never completed. In 2013, the archives were sent to the Institute of Medical History in Bern, Switzerland, where they are currently being organized. Hofmann felt that everyone should try his "drug".
