Hofmann's Potion | Sandoz Laboratory Miracle | Full Documentary | My Favorite

Описание: It was 1943. The world was at war. Hofmann and early researchers felt D-lysergic acid diethylamide would revolutionize mental health and be an antidote to the atom bomb.

'Hofmann's Potion' offers a compassionate, open-minded look at LSD and how it fits into our world. Long before Timothy Leary urged a generation to "tune in, turn on and drop out," the drug was hailed as a way to treat forms of addiction and mental illness. At the same time, it was being touted as a powerful tool for mental exploration and self-understanding, and a spiritual antidote to the atom bomb. Featuring interviews with LSD pioneers, beautiful music and stunning cinematography, this is much more than a simple chronicle of LSD's early days. It's an alternative way of looking at the drug... and our world.

Aldous Huxley: "...whereas the ordinary, everyday experience is, of course, absolutely essential most of the time, it is not the only possible experience. There are also other types of consciousness. which have, empirically, an enormous value and may help people to live less self-centred and more charitable lives, and more understanding lives."

Myron Stolaroff: "I feel very indebted to Albert Hoffman for inventing LSD. After my first LSD-experience I claimed that this was the greatest discovery that man had ever made, because after all the human mind is the most important attribute we have, and this lets us understand our mind and the enormous potential of mind."

Albert Hofmann: "I think that the possibility to have psychedelic experience is inborn. These psychedelics - very similar compounds are in our brain; of all the compounds which you find in the plant kingdom only the psychedelics are so closely related chemically to these brain factors, which we already have. We speak about the paradise of childhood. When I had this vision and beautiful experience as a child, this is no wonder, because we have these compounds already in our brain."

http://www.ouramazingworld.org/
  / oawoww  
  / oawoww  

Great review by Julie Chychota:
http://www.umanitoba.ca/outreach/cm/v...
Yet precisely because so little was known about LSD at first, researchers with the Weyburn Psychiatric Hospital in 1959 opted to test the substance on themselves before prescribing it for patients. The trio of Humphry Osmond, Abram Hoffer, and Duncan Blewett, consequently, were better able to identify with patients. They were, therefore, highly successful in treating patients with alcoholism, drug addictions, and schizophrenia. Under their supervision, and with the Province's endorsement, the Saskatchewan facility progressed "miles ahead" of other research centres of the time.

Hofmann's Potion, then, provides a venue in which these pioneering individuals can, probably for the first time, present their version of the story. The film clearly shows that LSD research was not a continuous psychedelic party, as some might have imagined but involved serious study. In one respect, the film is a lament for the greater good that might have been had these men been allowed to continue their work. At the same time, it invites viewers to consider the possibilities that may yet exist. Therefore, the film hopes to reach an audience discriminating enough, open-minded enough, to put aside its preconceived notions and reevaluate the role of LSD. Littlefield concludes the film with Hofmann's unwavering conviction that "LSD will find the place it needs in human culture."

Film downloaded from https://www.nfb.ca/film/hofmanns_potion
http://umanitoba.ca/outreach/cm/vol11...

Albert Hofmann conversation with Jonathan Ott    • 96-yr old Albert Hofmann, Jonathan Ott on ...