Most people don’t have a clue about the origin of Bicycle Day, which was just last week, and mistakenly think it has to do with celebrating a favorite mode of transportation and exercise. They couldn’t be more wrong. In reality, it commemorates Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann’s groundbreaking accidental discovery of the psychedelic drug lysergic acid diethylamide, popularly known as LSD, which he synthesized in 1938.
It happened when he was studying a fungus affecting rye called ergot while searching for a compound used in migraine medicine that stimulates the nervous system. His initial tests didn’t really yield results and the research funding stopped. But he resumed the work a few years later and started experimenting, reportedly licking trace amounts of the substance off his fingers and feeling the effects.
Hofmann then intentionally took a massive dose and went for a bike ride on April 19, 1943 not knowing what to expect. It was the first time anyone had ever tripped on LSD and his was a serious acid trip. At first, Hofmann thought he poisoned himself. But just the opposite occurred. The chemist was flush with feelings of unity and gratitude, and noticed colors more vividly than ever before.
He started to understand how the shape of things he was seeing was interrelated. In short, Hofmann started to see the inner intelligence of the universe and felt like there was a whole lot more to life than meets the eye. Years later, other wise men like Hofmann discovered the health benefits of ingesting small amounts of natural substances with psychedelic properties – a practice known as microdosing – and the rest is history.
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