re L.S.D.

[pynchonoid]

from the MAPS list today:

Humphry Osmond, M.D., the man who invented the word
"psychedelic," has passed away. He died at home,
peacefully, on Friday February 6th, 2004 at the age of
86.

Along with his colleague, John Smythies, Osmond
shocked the medical community in 1952 by drawing
attention to the structural similarity between the
mescaline and adrenaline molecules. They theorized
that schizophrenia might result when the brain
releases an endogamous hallucinogen, possibly derived
from adrenaline. 

Osmond observed that using mescaline seemed to allow a
healthy person to see the world through the eyes of a
schizophrenic person. He suggested that the drug be
used as a tool to help doctors and nurses understand
their patients better. Working with Abram Hoffer and
their team in Weyburn, Saskatchewan, from 1952 until
1961, Humphry Osmond became one of the world's leading
experts on  the therapeutic use of psychedelic drugs.

His research attracted widespread attention within
scientific circles.  When Aldous Huxley-- the eminent
British novelist who wrote Brave New World--learned of
Osmond's work with mescaline and LSD, he wrote to
Osmond to offer himself up as a test subject.  

Osmond was apprehensive about the experiment. "I did
not really want to be known as the man who had driven
Aldous mad," he said later. His worries proved to be
unfounded, and their experience gave Huxley the
inspiration for his famous essay, The Doors of
Perception. Their friendship lasted until Huxley's
death in 1963.

In correspondence with Huxley in 1956, Osmond coined
the word "psychedelic." The two men were looking for a
word to describe this new class of drugs, and they
were doing so in rhyme. Huxley wrote:

"To make this trivial world sublime, 
Take half a Gramme of phanerothyme." 

To which Osmond responded: 

"To fathom hell or soar angelic 
Just take a pinch of psychedelic." 

In addition to his clinical practice, Dr. Osmond also
taught psychiatry for several years at Princeton
University. Later, he and his wife moved to
Tuscaloosa, Alabama, where he worked at the Bryce
Hospital until his retirement in 1990.

He contributed articles to many journals and authored
several books; among them: How to Cope With Illness
(1979); How to Live With Schizophrenia (1974; Models
of madness, models of medicine (1974); Understanding
Understanding (1973); Psychedelics: The Uses and
Implications of Hallucinogenic Drugs (editor, 1971);
and The Hallucinogens (1967).

Dr. Osmond is survived by his wife Jane, his children
Helen, Fee and Julian and his sister Dorothy
h

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