Acid Dreams

[Oliver Xymoron]

On Wed, 27 Sep 1995 LOT64 at aol.com wrote:

> Anyone interested in the origins of LSD should check out  Albert Hoffman's
> book about his discovery of acid.  Its called LSD: MY PROBLEM CHILD.
>  Published by McGraw-Hill in 1980.  The German title is LSD-MEIN SORGENKIND.
>  Its a short memoir about his discovery and his first trip while bicycling
> home for lunch.  Its probably a difficult book to find since I don't think it
> sold very well.  1980 was probably the nadir of interest in LSD.  If only he
> could have published around 1965.  Oh well, timing is everything.

It's available on the net. I stumbled across it two or three years ago but a 
quick search with Lycos revealed:

gopher://wiretap.spies.com:70/00/Library/Fringe/Pharm/problem.ch

among others. 

> 
> Hoffman's book, however, does not touch on what I think is the most
> fascinating theory about LSD.  This is the one that the CIA deliberately
> introduced it into the youth culture to neutralize it politically.  I've
> never seen this theory well substantiated but the links through the research
> departments of Harvard and Stanford to government funding are interesting.
>  Leary touches on this briefly in his memoir and adds some weird speculation
> about Cord Meyer and his wife's mysterious death in Washington DC.  If I
> recall correctly he speculates about Meyer's wife turning JFK on to acid, but
> don't quote me on this, it may be a mismemory.  Of course if the
> popularization of acid through LIFE magazine and Tim Leary are a CIA plot
> then Leary's memoir must be taken with a 50 pound bag of salt.

There was a great article in Mondo 2000 about this theory - and the cover 
art for that issue is beautiful. Kennedy riding in the motorcade, having 
a mindblowing technicolor psychedelic experience. There were t-shirts but 
I never got around to ordering one.

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