"I share the belief of many of my contemporaries that the spiritual crisis pervading all spheres of Western industrial society can be remedied only by a change in our world view. We shall have to shift from the materialistic, dualistic belief that people and their environment are separate, toward a new consciousness of an all-encompassing reality, which embraces the experiencing ego, a reality in which people feel their oneness with animate nature and all of creation." -- Albert Hofmann (1906-2008)
Mr. Hofmann discovered LSD-25 (lysergic acid diethylamide) through an intuitive act of serendipity on a fateful day in April, 1943. He had been contracted by the Swiss pharmaceutical company Sandoz as a chemist and had been studying the isomers of the natural lysergic acid found in the ergot fungus which grows on various grain crops. Having synthesized the chemical to test the possible medicinal uses of its derivatives in 1938, Mr. Hofmann had found little pharmaceutical properties of note in his studies. In mid-April 1943, however, being motivated by a dream he had had, he re-tested the 25th lysergic acid diethylamide he had synthesized. Intentionally ingesting 25000 micrograms on April 19, 1943 he discovered that the chemical had profound visionary qualities and postulated that the substance would have therapeutic uses in the field of psychiatry. Much research was conducted for the next twenty years, much of it clandestine and politically motivated, until the substance was criminalized in 1966/67. Since then, LSD-25 has been embraced by the psychedelic subculture and distributed around the globe as a contemporary shamanistic utility, facilitating the experience of ecstasy and temporary higher consciousness.
Of note in the above quote is Mr. Hofmann's allusion to the necessity of changing global consciousness in order to alleviate the illusion of individuality which is referred to as a spiritual crisis pervading contemporary culture. Industrialism, materialism and empiricism are symptoms of the parasitism inherent in our perceptual pathology. Viewing our environment as separate and adversarial to our preservation we have, in fact, created a djinn of cosmic proportions. According to quantum theory, the observer is just as active and responsible in the creation of the observation as the objective data present being observed. In other words, we have created an adversary out of Nature by viewing and treating Her as such. Only we are responsible for the tragedy currently befalling our planet. Having falsely presumed separation from the environment, we have succeeded in phenomenologically creating a subterfuge of annihilation in which the planet has no choice but to destroy us in order to preserve itself. The boundaries and definitions have blurred between essentialism and existentialism, and modernism has confused sufficiency with necessity, much to our own demise. Indeed, the only possible way to separate from the One is through self-destruction. Humanity may have been created through novel sufficiency but now, having considered ourselves necessary, we have attempted to regard and phenomenologically recreate ourselves as separate entities from the environment from which we became. The knowledge of the intimate interdependency of human culture with the surrounding environment has been lost in modern industrialized culture, it has been administratively exised and concealed in the interests of industrial progress and mechanical separation. We have, in effect, chosen to ignore necessary truths in order to progress down the path of technological facilitation. We have blatantly cursed the future to facilitate the present. To Hell with the next generation, the remaining resources are ours for the plundering.
When one does Acid (LSD-25), it becomes evident that there are very few assumptions that we normally take for granted which are indisputable truths. Static reality, which normally appears as solid matter, becomes quite dynamic and fluid under the influence of Acid. Of course, to a learned physicist, it is understood that 99.999% of solid matter is, in fact, space. The only reason it appears as such to our limited perception is due to the fact that the electrons and neutrons are spinning and vibrating at such a high velocities and frequencies that the space enclosed by these rotating particles (and waves) takes the illusory appearance of solid matter. Basic theoretical molecular truths become distinctly apparent while using Acid and one becomes keenly aware of the limitations and arbitrariness associated with normal or unenlightened perception. Considering the fact that the visible portion of the electromagnetic spectrum is but a fraction of the potential and possible wavelengths of energy known to modern science our normal perception is, by definition, extremely limited. When one opens ones eyes to longer and shorter frequencies of the electromagnetic spectrum through the use of psychedelics, one becomes aware of entities and energies which exist beyond the boundaries of the visible under normal perceptual circumstances. Creatures and distinct beings which exist and travel within the ultraviolet and infrared portions of the electromagnetic spectrum are able to be clearly perceived while the mind and the sense organs are affected by Acid. It also becomes clear that the discrete impression of individuality is most obviously an illusion apparently normally adhered to for utilitarian and pragmatic purposes alone. The abstract definition of ones corporeal dimensions loses all meaning while under the influence of Acid and one is acutely aware of the illusory nature of both time and space. Ancient symbols and scripture often line the walls which can often be seen as mere constructs lacking in real substance. The environment is perceived as an extension of ones own existence and vice versa, so that the idea of separation of self from the surroundings becomes a meaningless proposition. One often gets the impression of homogeneity with the immediate environment, whether natural or artificially constructed. The illusion of individuality can be clearly perceived as such. LSD clarifies the perjury inherent in status quo consciousness and liberates ones perception from the conditioned constructs of the modernized industrial death machine.
