Basel Symposium report (part 1): General Info

The tribe celebrates its elder

... this is how many people described the Symposium "LSD - Problem child and Wonder Drug", that took place last weekend in Basel (Switzerland) to celebrate the 100th birthday of Albert Hofmann, "inventor" of LSD.
Almost 2,000 people from 46 countries came together in the Basel Congress Center. Researchers, hippies, freaks and drug users from all 5 continents created an atmosphere, that simply cannot be described (you should have been there - sorry!). 88 speakers - psychologists, physicians, chemists, artists, sociologists, anthropologists, shamans and many more - shared their thoughts, research results and drug experiences with the world.
For me, it was somehow like my personal Woodstock: "3 days of love, peace and happiness" and of course lots of wisdom and new ideas. I guess it´ll take a couple of weeks for me to work it all up.

It began on Jan 13th with a tune-in with "Akasha Project", music based on the frequency of the earth and the LSD-molecule. Then we all gathered for the first panorama session. The head of the organization commitee started with "Dear Albert Hofmann" and immediately had to stop again, because of more than 5 minutes of standing ovations for this great old man.
After that, Albert told the story of his first LSD trip, which took place on April 19th 1943. 3 days before, he had been working with lysergic acid, solved in ether, and somehow, some of the material must have had entered his body. He had had some strange but very subtile feelings. He decided to ingest the lowest amount which he thought could be active in humans - 250ug. He´d never have guessed, how high this dose was. After that, he went home on his bicycle. During this ride, his world changed completely and when he arrived home, he thought that he would have to die. He called a doctor, but nothing unusual could be found during the examination. After 3 hours, the trip changed completely, and he had some deep and beautiful insights in the world and himself. This was the first LSD trip ever experienced by men. Dr.Hofmann had found a wonderful drug (or as he uses to say: "I didn´t find LSD, LSD found me!")

Interesting marginal note: The road, that Dr.Hofmann traveled on with his bicycle was renamed "Albert-Hofmann-Weg" on the day of his 100th birthday. This is the first time in Swiss history, that a road was named after a living person.

I´ll now refrain from telling you the contents of all speeches, forums and seminars, because this will be subject of some more postings. Note, that some of them might not be posted in this general forum, but in the forums "LSD", "MDMA", "Cannabis", "Synthetic drugs", "The psychedelic experience" and so on, depending on the contents of the posting. But there´s one very special experience, I want to share with you:

When the morning lecture was over, Albert was guided out of the auditorium, surrounded by bodyguards and dozens of media people. It seemed, that there was no chance getting near him (it has been said in advance, that he wouldn´t sign anything or pose for photos with guests during the whole symposium). But I said to myself: boldness wins! So I took a place in between the press people, and when Albert passed me, I adressed him (in German language, but I´ll try to translate as accurate as possible): "Happy Birthday Dr. Hofmann. I wish you health and all luck in the world. Your child (i.e. LSD) has enriched my life and your work has changed my perception of the world forever. Thank you so much!" Dr. Hofmann has already passed me, but after my last two sentences he suddenly stopped and turned around. The bodyguards wanted to push me away, but he said "Wait!" He changed his crutch from the right to the left hand, gave me his hand and said:
"Young friend, you should always remember, that I only started the whole thing, but it is the responsibility of your generation, to make my problem child become a wonder child. I set you the task to look behind the materialistic world and develope to a higher consciousness. Never forget that!"
Then the old man walked away. The situation was so touching, I almost cried! It was so wonderful, to receive these words from this great and wise man. And of course he didn´t adress me alone. All you, who are reading this: feel adressed too and try to fulfill the task, Dr.Hofmann set me, set us all! (By the way: afaik, I was the only person (spare the organization comittee and the speakers), who managed to talk to Dr.Hofmann during the whole symposium! I feel very honored, and when I think about it, I still get the urge to cry.)

During the day (and also the next 2 days), several discussion rounds took place in the foyer, and I had lots of interesting talks to researchers and other guests. I swapped adresses with lots of people (including the Shulgins!) in order to stay in contact with them. I guess, I´ll have some very interesting experiences with and without drugs during the next months/years(/decades?). "The spirit of Basel" really took me away.

Enough for now, more reports will follow (incl. sex, drugs and rock´n´roll)!


Btw: all events of the symposium have been recorded and are available on DVD, CD and VHS through www.auditorium-netzwerk.de (payment with credit card only, €21 for a DVD or VHS, €15 for an Audio-CD; lenght: 2 hours each). Please note, that some of the speeches were held in German language and that the DVD/CD/VHS might not contain a translation!

Photo: Dr.Albert Hofmann interviewed by Lucius Werthmüller, President of the organization committee

 

^ wut he said...

 

Yes. Great one. I kinda envy your encounter with Hoffman but as you say - our fault - we should have been there. Anyway you prolly deserve it Im looking forward to reading another posts of your from the symposium :>

 

Yes great post. There is a lot of talking about Mr Hoffman in Switzerland at the moment. And thank you very much for passing his message... Unfortunately I couldn't attend the whole program...

Here you can find some texts on it:

http://www.lsd.info/

 

There´ll also be a forum on erowid, where visitors can post their comments and photos.

 

this is all to true when i tell because about my drugs use alot of people call me conservitive and the dumber call me a "pussy" or a "bitch" i refuse to take large amounts of drugs in most situations because i belive take larger amounts isnt always better, i refuse to do drugs when i have things to do or i can not fully give all my attention to myslef at the time, or do them when i am not emotional and physicaly 100%. Drugs are used as toys by foolish people in foolish states with littile to no knowledge of what there doing or taking. The great part is he is so right, the sad part is so many people are so wronge and not looking at drugs this way. Insted looking at them as an escape or a way to pass time becuase they have nothing better to do. It is great to hear of so many people who feel and think similar to the way i do and i think there should be a general push towards knowledge and higher thinking in the drug using community

 

wow...just, wow...