The Bike Ride Home
At last, it was ready. After months of time-consuming chemical tests, dozens of delays to get the raw materials, theJuly 16, 1938
Basel, Switzerland
At last, it was ready. After months of time-consuming chemical tests, dozens of delays to get the raw materials, the mixture was finally ready for use. And even though Albert the silver fox did not know exactly what it would do or how it would operate, it was under his watch that the ergot, a component of mold was synthesized into this mixture that he and his lab assistants had called "lysergic-acid diethylamide-25". What would this mysterious creation, derived from mold do to the bodily functions of those who used it? Would this new creation be lethal? Before any of the lab assistants or the general public could get their paws on such a mixture, Albert would have to bravely sample the elixir's effects on himself. He arrived confidently on his bike at the Sandoz Laboratory, eager to try the mixture.
"Hello, this is Dr. Albert Hoffman and I'll need the key to the laboratory," he said, waiting impatiently as the lion at the front desk validated his ID card. It was a mere formality but it was so unnecessary at a time like this. Soon, he was negotiating the labyrinthine corridors of the laboratory he had spent the last few months perfecting his craft at before finding the door where his experiments took place. And it was there the silver fox saw it, standing on the table, the Erlemyer flask which stored his clear creation. From a distance, it looked like water. But woe to anyone who would drink it without preparation. Carefully, the scientist measured out 250 micrograms (that would be the minimum, he thought for the ergot to have any noticeable effect) of the lysergic acid and poured it into a graduated cylinder filled with pure distilled water. There was no going back now, the fox thought- even if he died, it would be for the betterment of science and there was no cause more noble in the world than that. He drank the mixture of water and lysergic acid, halfway expecting to die on the spot. But nothing happened... at least not for the first few minutes anyway.
The grayness of the lab within five minutes gave way to a new and threatening fear that someone, somewhere was threatening to hunt the fox down and kill him. The lab, though practically deserted in these early morning hours now had a dark and ominous, almost demonic presence and no God-fearing creature would stay there unless absolutely necessary. The silver fox Albert realized this and began his ride home in haste, taking his bicycle hurriedly out of the rack to head home. No sooner had he done this than he experienced the first visual effect of lysergic acid diethylamide. The sunrise over the Swiss city of Basel would have been stunning to sober individuals but to a fox under the influence of this new drug, it was absolutely intoxicating- the sun's ascent was no longer the typical orange and purple but a spectrum of new and glorious colors that enveloped the Swiss sky. The mountains in the background now displayed a geometric perfection and no longer stayed within their traditional well-defined borders.
Albert no longer felt that he was a fox on a bike but an extension of the bicycle itself, pedaling through the rapidly-expanding and contracting buildings of Basel to his home, which was moving and pulsating like a heart, willing to accept him. He was no longer a civilized being but more like someone running from an unseen predator, willing to kill him at a moment's notice.
But the moment he removed himself from the bike and opened the door, the fox was greeted by a cold and dark entity and entering his home, once a reassuring place now was as cold and empty as Juliet's tomb. Paintings on the walls now oozed out demonic transformations from the outer world, who were speaking with the fox and telling him most assuredly that he was indeed mortal and that by drinking the acid mixture, he had sealed his own fate. The fox found his way to the bed and put himself under the comforters which now felt more and more like a burial shroud and closed his eyes, thinking that the demons, throwing furniture across the room, would not follow him into his dreams. Nothing could have been further from the truth.
"Sssso you think that sssleeping will cure you of ussss", a giant serpentine demon said, his forked tongue dangerously close to the fox's heart. "You think we're just a bad waking dream. Well, ssssleep through thissss." And soon, he was grabbed by the mouth of this powerful hallucination and thrown across the room- it was a frightening experience, handling these beings from the lower circles of Hell but then an idea crept through the beleaguered fox's mind. "Milk", he said aloud. "That's the cure for all poisoning," his voice careened and echoed off the walls until the decibel level was deafening. He went to the refrigerator downstairs, now overgrown with leaves and black flowers and took a drink of what he recognized as milk, now a glowing liquid in the middle of his living nightmare. Albert hurriedly drank the milk as if his life depended on it and then, the sounds and harsh lights of the chaos surrounding him slowly disappeared into something beautiful. The demonic forms were gone as was the discordant music but the effect upon the good doctor's sanity was obvious- for a moment the fox thought he had died and been sent to heaven.
The frightening apparitions were soon replaced by a new feeling of clarity and tranquility that no creature before had ever realized. On the gray floors of his house, flowers of various kinds were in full bloom, roses daffodils and daisies, a full garden of flowers, except they glowed in seven colors unlike the flowers of the real world. The flowers were growing in a geometrical fashion and at the center of each of them was a beautiful sunburst, near the center of the room. Though there was no musical instrument in his house, music from an unseen organ, more glorious than anything the local church organ could produce, wafted through the house like a vapor. Each chord and note had its own distinct smell and taste and color, as the imaginary flowers bloomed. The pattern moved across the floor until this rainbow flower was now directly beneath his feet and Albert walking in a circle, stared at each of the flowers, all living beings who had abstract emotions. And as he stood at the center of these flowers, he could see a star-shaped halo form which framed his head and the light from that star was giving life to each of the flowers.
"I have become the Maitreya, I have become ha-Moshiach, I am the Thirteenth Imam, the White Buffalo, and the herald of Kali-Yuga," he announced to the flowers whose tacit approval of his statements filled him with a sense of victory over the demons. "The secrets of the Garden of Eden, of the pillar of smoke, of Ezekiel's Merkava will become known to me and to all the species, if they would only share in this blessing from God." But just as he was at the height of enlightenment, of apotheosis, of becoming divine, the trip wore off. Soon the flowers died and the geometry of the room returned to normal as the effects of that acid were gone. And then the fox found himself again a mortal, living in his own house and other than the hallucinations of floating furniture which he could obviously tell was false, everything had returned to normal. Lysergic acid diethylamide-25 was something to investigate further.
"Through my experience and my new picture of reality, I became aware of the wonder of
creation, the magnificence of nature and of the animal and plant kingdom" Albert Hoffman, interview with Stainslav Grof, 1985.