Albert Hofmann Zitate

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Lob des Schauens. Nachtschatten Verlag, 2002, ISBN 3-907080-84-X

"LSD - mein Sorgenkind -- Die Entdeckung einer »Wunderdroge«", Vorwort, S. 7; (c) 1979 J. G. Cotta'sche Buchhandlung, Stuttgart; ungekürzte Ausgabe, dtv München 1994; ISBN 3-423-30357-3

Interview mit Arthur Godel, 25. 4. 1993; track 9 auf der audio-CD "Erinnerungen eines Psychonauten: Von der Entdeckung entheogener Drogen" supposé Köln, 2003, ISBN 3-932513-38-X

The Geek's Wonder Drug?" http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2006/01/70015?currentPage=all|"LSD: WIRED magazine, 16. 1. 2006
Original engl.: "I think that in human evolution it has never been as necessary to have this substance LSD ... It is just a tool to turn us into what we are supposed to be."

The Geek's Wonder Drug?" http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2006/01/70015?currentPage=all|"LSD: WIRED magazine, 16. 1. 2006
Original engl.: "When you study natural science and the miracles of creation, if you don't turn into a mystic you are not a natural scientist."

"Lob des Schauens", Nachtschatten Verlag, 2002, ISBN 3-907080-84-X

"LSD - mein Sorgenkind -- Die Entdeckung einer »Wunderdroge«", Vorwort, S. 7; (c) 1979 J. G. Cotta'sche Buchhandlung, Stuttgart; ungekürzte Ausgabe, dtv München 1994; ISBN 3-423-30357-3

"LSD - mein Sorgenkind -- Die Entdeckung einer »Wunderdroge«", Kap. 15 "LSD-Erfahrung und Wirklichkeit", S. 198; (c) 1979 J. G. Cotta'sche Buchhandlung, Stuttgart; ungekürzte Ausgabe, dtv München 1994; ISBN 3-423-30357-3

Brief an Ernst Jünger, Bottmingen, 16. Dezember 1961 in "LSD - mein Sorgenkind -- Die Entdeckung einer »Wunderdroge«", Kap. 11, S. 163; (c) 1979 J. G. Cotta'sche Buchhandlung, Stuttgart; ungekürzte Ausgabe, dtv München 1994; ISBN 3-423-30357-3

Foreword http://www.psychedelic-library.org/childf.htm
LSD : My Problem Child (1980)
Kontext: There are experiences that most of us are hesitant to speak about, because they do not conform to everyday reality and defy rational explanation. These are not particular external occurrences, but rather events of our inner lives, which are generally dismissed as figments of the imagination and barred from our memory. Suddenly, the familiar view of our surroundings is transformed in a strange, delightful, or alarming way: it appears to us in a new light, takes on a special meaning. Such an experience can be as light and fleeting as a breath of air, or it can imprint itself deeply upon our minds.
One enchantment of that kind, which I experienced in childhood, has remained remarkably vivid in my memory ever since. It happened on a May morning — I have forgotten the year — but I can still point to the exact spot where it occurred, on a forest path on Martinsberg above Baden, Switzerland. As I strolled through the freshly greened woods filled with bird song and lit up by the morning sun, all at once everything appeared in an uncommonly clear light. Was this something I had simply failed to notice before? Was I suddenly discovering the spring forest as it actually looked? It shone with the most beautiful radiance, speaking to the heart, as though it wanted to encompass me in its majesty. I was filled with an indescribable sensation of joy, oneness, and blissful security.
I have no idea how long I stood there spellbound. But I recall the anxious concern I felt as the radiance slowly dissolved and I hiked on: how could a vision that was so real and convincing, so directly and deeply felt — how could it end so soon? And how could I tell anyone about it, as my overflowing joy compelled me to do, since I knew there were no words to describe what I had seen? It seemed strange that I, as a child, had seen something so marvelous, something that adults obviously did not perceive — for I had never heard them mention it.
While still a child, I experienced several more of these deeply euphoric moments on my rambles through forest and meadow. It was these experiences that shaped the main outlines of my world view and convinced me of the existence of a miraculous, powerful, unfathomable reality that was hidden from everyday sight.

Foreword http://www.psychedelic-library.org/childf.htm
LSD : My Problem Child (1980)
Kontext: There are experiences that most of us are hesitant to speak about, because they do not conform to everyday reality and defy rational explanation. These are not particular external occurrences, but rather events of our inner lives, which are generally dismissed as figments of the imagination and barred from our memory. Suddenly, the familiar view of our surroundings is transformed in a strange, delightful, or alarming way: it appears to us in a new light, takes on a special meaning. Such an experience can be as light and fleeting as a breath of air, or it can imprint itself deeply upon our minds.
One enchantment of that kind, which I experienced in childhood, has remained remarkably vivid in my memory ever since. It happened on a May morning — I have forgotten the year — but I can still point to the exact spot where it occurred, on a forest path on Martinsberg above Baden, Switzerland. As I strolled through the freshly greened woods filled with bird song and lit up by the morning sun, all at once everything appeared in an uncommonly clear light. Was this something I had simply failed to notice before? Was I suddenly discovering the spring forest as it actually looked? It shone with the most beautiful radiance, speaking to the heart, as though it wanted to encompass me in its majesty. I was filled with an indescribable sensation of joy, oneness, and blissful security.
I have no idea how long I stood there spellbound. But I recall the anxious concern I felt as the radiance slowly dissolved and I hiked on: how could a vision that was so real and convincing, so directly and deeply felt — how could it end so soon? And how could I tell anyone about it, as my overflowing joy compelled me to do, since I knew there were no words to describe what I had seen? It seemed strange that I, as a child, had seen something so marvelous, something that adults obviously did not perceive — for I had never heard them mention it.
While still a child, I experienced several more of these deeply euphoric moments on my rambles through forest and meadow. It was these experiences that shaped the main outlines of my world view and convinced me of the existence of a miraculous, powerful, unfathomable reality that was hidden from everyday sight.

Ch. 11 : LSD Experience and Reality http://www.psychedelic-library.org/child11.htm
LSD : My Problem Child (1980)
Kontext: Of greatest significance to me has been the insight that I attained as a fundamental understanding from all of my LSD experiments: what one commonly takes as "the reality," including the reality of one's own individual person, by no means signifies something fixed, but rather something that is ambiguous — that there is not only one, but that there are many realities, each comprising also a different consciousness of the ego.
One can also arrive at this insight through scientific reflections. The problem of reality is and has been from time immemorial a central concern of philosophy. It is, however, a fundamental distinction, whether one approaches the problem of reality rationally, with the logical methods of philosophy, or if one obtrudes upon this problem emotionally, through an existential experience. The first planned LSD experiment was therefore so deeply moving and alarming, because everyday reality and the ego experiencing it, which I had until then considered to be the only reality, dissolved, and an unfamiliar ego experienced another, unfamiliar reality. The problem concerning the innermost self also appeared, which, itself unmoved, was able to record these external and internal transformations.
Reality is inconceivable without an experiencing subject, without an ego. It is the product of the exterior world, of the sender and of a receiver, an ego in whose deepest self the emanations of the exterior world, registered by the antennae of the sense organs, become conscious. If one of the two is lacking, no reality happens, no radio music plays, the picture screen remains blank.

Quelle: LSD : My Problem Child (1980), Ch. 11 : LSD Experience and Reality
Kontext: It could become of fundamental importance, and be not merely a transient fashion of the present, if more and more people today would make a daily habit of devoting an hour, or at least a few minutes, to meditation. As a result of the meditative penetration and broadening of the natural-scientific world view, a new, deepened reality consciousness would have to evolve, which would increasingly become the property of all humankind. This could become the basis of a new religiosity, which would not be based on belief in the dogmas of various religions, but rather on perception through the "spirit of truth." What is meant here is a perception, a reading and understanding of the text at first hand, "out of the book that God's finger has written" (Paracelsus), out of the creation.
The transformation of the objective world view into a deepened and thereby religious reality consciousness can be accomplished gradually, by continuing practice of meditation. It can also come about, however, as a sudden enlightenment; a visionary experience. It is then particularly profound, blessed, and meaningful. Such a mystical experience may nevertheless "not be induced even by decade-long meditation," as Balthasar Staehelin writes. Also, it does not happen to everyone, although the capacity for mystical experience belongs to the essence of human spirituality.

As quoted in "Nearly 100, LSD's Father Ponders his 'Problem Child." (7 January 2006)
Kontext: It's very, very dangerous to lose contact with living nature. … In the big cities, there are people who have never seen living nature, all things are products of humans … The bigger the town, the less they see and understand nature.

LSD: The Geek's Wonder Drug? (2006)

LSD: The Geek's Wonder Drug? (2006)

MAPS interview (1998)

MAPS interview (1998)

Address on the first day of LSD: Problem Child and Wonder Drug, an International Symposium on the Occasion of the 100th Birthday of Albert Hofmann (13 January 2006)
LSD: The Geek's Wonder Drug? (2006)