How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence (2018)

Albert Hoffman was born in 1906 in Switzerland. During his time as a chemist at Sandoz, a pharmaceutical company, he was tasked with purifying and isolating alkaloids from the fungus ergot. In 1938 he isolated and synthesized the 25th alkaloid and named it lysergic acid diethylamide, or LSD-25 (23). The initial testing did not show promise and so was put on the shelf. Five years later Hoffmann had a hunch that LSD-25 had some property worth looking at again, based on its structure. When working with the compound this time, he accidentally absorbed some of the molecule through his skin and was interrupted by abnormal feelings and sights. This would be the first ever LSD trip (23). He continued to test different doses and also experienced the first bad LSD trip. That day—April 19, 1943—is called Bicycle Day by many LSD fans. After his experiences Hoffman believed that LSD “would someday be of great value to medicine” (25).

Al Hubbard was born in Kentucky in either 1901 or 1902. He was born poor and “liked to tell people he was twelve before he owned a pair of shoes” (165). He didn’t have much schooling, but he had a penchant for electronics.