Happy 75th Birthday LSD! Amanda Feilding Reflects on Albert Hofmann in her Talk at Basel

On the 19th of April 1943,  Albert Hofmann became the first person to ingest LSD – and the first person to discover its psychedelic effects. 75 years later, we can reflect on the profound effect this discovery has had on the disciplines of neurobiology and psychotherapy, and its tremendous influence on art and culture.

Through the war on drugs, the tragedy of prohibition had virtually stopped all scientific research into psychoactive drugs for over four decades. The psychedelic renaissance has seen a recent resurgence of scientific investigation into this most important compound, but LSD is still shrouded in taboo, making research extremely difficult. Despite this, Amanda Feilding and the Beckley Foundation are planning many future studies, in the hope that they will lead to LSD and other psychedelics becoming clinically-licensed medications.

At the 75 Years of LSD – Where Does This Trip Lead? symposium in Basel, organised by Peter Gasser and Lucius Werthmüller, Amanda delivered a video message in which she reflected on her memories of Albert as a friend and colleague. She also outlined the key findings of her groundbreaking psychedelic research with the Beckley Foundation, and her plans for the future of LSD. You can watch her message, ‘From Problem Child to Wonder Child: An Evolving Story’, below.

Click here for a transcript of Amanda’s talk.