As is well documented, LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide) was discovered by Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann on November 16, 1938. Hoffman synthesized LSD while working at Sandoz Laboratories in Basel, Switzerland, as part of a program searching for medically useful ergot derivatives (ergot is the fungus from which LSD was synthesized). However, the psychoactive properties of LSD were not immediately recognized. It wasn’t until five years later, on April 19, 1943, that Hofmann accidentally absorbed a small amount of the substance and discovered its powerful effects. That day, April 19, is now celebrated among LSD enthusiasts as “Bicycle Day,” commemorating Hofmann’s hallucinogenic bike ride home after his exposure.
Hofmann would go on to describe one of his experiences in his tell-all book, LSD: My Problem Child:
“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,” Hoffman said. “It shone with the most beautiful radiance, speaking to the heart, as though it wanted to encompass me in its majesty.”
“The cultural impact of LSD is one of the most profound change agents our culture has ever experienced, particularly because of how quickly it influenced society.”
―Zach Leary
Although LSD was introduced to the United States in the 1940s, it wouldn’t gain widespread notoriety until the 1950s and 1960s, when researchers began exploring its use to treat certain psychiatric conditions. Those conditions included alcoholism, depression, and postpartum depression. However, things began to rapidly change in the 1960s, when LSD escaped the laboratory setting and became the centerpiece of the rapidly growing counterculture movement of that era.(1)
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We spoke with psychedelic historian and medicine practitioner Zach Leary (son of the late psychedelic researcher Timothy Leary) and esteemed LSD researcher and psychiatrist Dr. Charles Grob about the weird history of LSD, and how this powerful psychedelic substance helped change America.
The History of LSD and How A Single Psychedelic Changed U.S. Culture
As mentioned above, LSD’s entrance into the recreational drug scene had a significant impact on American culture. Everything from music, clothing to cinema was impacted, at least somewhat, by the potent psychedelic. Bands like The Beatles, The Grateful Dead, Jimi Hendrix, and Pink Floyd used LSD and reflected its influence in their music, which often featured extended improvisations and lyrics that sought to replicate or describe psychedelic experiences. The visual arts also saw the emergence of psychedelic art, characterized by vivid colors and swirling patterns that attempted to visually represent the LSD experience.
“This adoption of Eastern spirituality marked a departure from the traditional Judeo-Christian, apple pie, flag-waving American lifestyle.”
―Zach Leary
According to Leary, “The cultural impact of LSD is one of the most profound change agents our culture has ever experienced, particularly because of how quickly it influenced society.” Leary points out that while there have been other significant cultural shifts—like the Roaring Twenties, which transformed music and spurred the beginnings of women’s rights and sexual liberation— LSD’s rapid proliferation in the 1960s and 1970s reshaped American life. Leary says, “One area where you can see the change was the anti-war movement. While there were absolutely other factors, it’s undeniable that LSD made young Americans rethink fighting a seemingly endless war against a faceless, and in their eyes, unthreatening enemy.”
Leary offers that part of this rapid change was due to a generational shift, saying, “The parents of the kids in the ‘60s were shaped by the conservative, buttoned-up post-World War II era of the ‘40s and ‘50s. To them, this LSD-powered cultural change and self-expression revolution of the ‘60s youth was radical. Today, the counterculture has evolved, parents now were once those youths, and the generation gap isn’t as pronounced—it’s much more blurred. The impact and shock of that era on the collective American consciousness was extraordinary.”
However, there may have been more to it than drugs and a changing of the guard. LSD, along with other psychedelics, helped spur interest in Eastern and indigenous cultures and their practices.
According to Leary, “The formal identity of the 1960s certainly ended, but the expanded consciousness and worldview it introduced—incorporating Eastern mysticism and religions—gradually trickled into mainstream America. Steve Jobs famously said that LSD was one of the two or three most important things he had ever done. This sentiment was echoed in the tech movement of Silicon Valley, where the Whole Earth Catalog (a psychedelic publication that ran studies and stories from the 1970s and onward) influenced many early pioneers. Published in the Bay Area by Stewart Brand, this publication was one of the first to discuss the intersection of technology, counterculture, psychedelics, and music.”
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Leary continues, “It [the Whole Earth Catalog] was an incredibly important publication. Influential figures like Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, Bill Gates, and the founders of HP were all readers, which greatly informed their perspectives. Conversely, even the most commodified forms of Eastern practices like yoga, which in America often resemble mere exercise classes, originate from this significant cultural shift. This adoption of Eastern spirituality marked a departure from the traditional Judeo-Christian, apple pie, flag-waving American lifestyle.”
If we assume what Leary says is true, then (some) modern trends may be attributed to this shift. Things like the mindfulness movement, self-care, and of course, the modern infatuation with psychedelics may have stemmed from the same drug that inspired a generation to believe in free love, the end of senseless wars, and more. Of…
The Weird History of LSD: How Acid Changed America
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