Mystic Chemist
The Life of Albert Hofmann and His Discovery of LSD
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- S/ 64.90
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- S/ 64.90
Descripción editorial
Mystic Chemist tells the story of Albert Hofmann’s life and the parallel story of LSD.
Authors Dieter A. Hagenbach and Lucius Werthmüller, close friends of Albert Hofmann, take readers on a journey through Hofmann’s mystical childhood experiences with nature to his chemistry studies with Nobel Prize winner Paul Karrer in Zurich through his discoveries of both LSD and psilocybin at Sandoz; to his adventurous expeditions; to his many years of retirement devoted to philosophy of nature. Hagenbach and Werthmüller document Hofmann’s rich social life including and interactions with illustrious writers, artists and thinkers including luminaries like Aldous Huxley, Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert (Ram Dass).
Throughout Mystic Chemist, the authors reveal the eventful history of LSD, and they chronicle Hofmann’s work with the drug, groundbreaking work that was later featured in the 2022 Netflix documentary series, “How to Change Your Mind.” From the start of his experimentations, Hofmann he took a positive view towards LSD-assisted psychotherapy in the treatment of illness, and he maintained that mystical experiences and trips to other worlds of consciousness are the best preparation for the very last journey we all must eventually make.
Mystic Chemist: The Life of Albert Hofmann and His Discovery of LSD contains more than 500 photos, illustrations and drawings as well as a foreword by renowned Czech psychiatrist Stanislav Grof.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This detailed account of the career and influence of the Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann captures the character but not the brilliance of its subject. Born in 1906, Hofmann's life spans over a period of unprecedented technological change and industrial advancement but marred by the devastation of the world wars. Hagenbach and Wertmuller cover Hofmann's early discoveries up to the twenty-fifth attempt at a derivative, the one that would make him famous and infamous, LSD-25. They follow the thread of his discovery into 1960s, the Beats, the CIA, and further, including the eventual imprisonment of users, many of whom Hofmann contacted sympathetically. At times the book comes across as pre-emptively defensive, written like a strange leaflet handed out in the street. The authors fail to sound credible, for example, when describing a conference attended by "more than eighty well-known scientists, drug experts, artists and observers from around the world." Dozens of boxed quotes from random cultural figures of the time distract from the main text and undermine the authors' attempt at a comprehensive biographical or even cultural study.
