a holy mountain
no more mountain anymore
a mountain, again
☉
April 19 - Bicycle Day Turns 75
AO +2018, April 19 ☉ The 75th Anniversary Of Bicycle Day
AO +1943, April 16 - Sunrise Over Serendipity Day
Whilst quite a large part of the World tore its Self into smaller pieces to draw new lines on the map -once again, for the sake of power, by the rule of greed- a fungus of certain infamy, felt the shunning of her offspring had lasted long enough after its birth in 1938. Therefore, she sent her child back to Sandoz Laboratories in Basel, Switzerland, to communicate with the doctor responsible for its delivery, five years earlier, when and where her baby first saw light on Earth.
Their initial contact, then and there in the lab, left the doctor feeling confused to such a degree, that he could not focus on or continue with his work. He returned to his home and, after regaining a relaxed state of mind, became moderately hypnotized by the visual aspects of the lingering transmission, which mesmerized him for a couple of hours.
When his ego resumed consciousness control behind the dashboard of his mental processing unit, the doctor, who actually had a professional foreground in chemical sciences, thought he had actually enjoyed quite a pleasant experience, due to an unsolicited intoxication. In fact, at that time he gathered he had maintained a less-than-perfect level of sterility procedures at the lab; that he must have unwittingly ingested a minute amount of the substance he had felt to reinvestigate that day. It would take quite a while before both sides of the nondual nature of their first contact would dawn on him. Until that time, it would appear to him a serendipitous event had occurred.
From the human perspective of a materialistic individual, this particular substance, the offspring of said infamous fungus, would soon become a renowned tool -the most powerful of its kind to date- to explore the inner realms of the Terran psyche. Some of us consider it a spiritual antiseptic, whereas others may even refer to it as an evolutionary counterweight to maintain the dynamic balance of Nature during the creation of a device of destruction, conceived in the same era, on the warfaring side of the globe. ... Such peculiar ways the Universe finds to equilibrate its Self.
In this historical play, Albert Hofmann performs the role of the doctor; Claviceps Purpurea, also known as Mother of Rye or Mutterkorn, plays the part of the zealous fungus. Their "Sorgenkind" bears the name LSD.
AO +1943, April 19 - A Cautious Pinch Of Psychedelic
Not quite content with the result of their first encounter, as her child had obviously not spoken loud and clear enough to become fully and unequivocally understood by the doctor and therefore did not receive the essential attention it deserved, Mother of Rye arranged for a second meeting, three days later.
The whispering echo of her voice presented Dr Hofmann with the deliberated decision to self-prescribe the first dose of LSD, in order to enable the two to make closer acquaintance. Easily convinced by the vivid memory of his recent pleasance, the scientist reasoned that by consciously repeating the experiment, it should become establissed with certainty whether or not the serendipitous encounter between his research chemical and his self had indeed happened accidental.
The self-administered "cautious dose" -250 micrograms, in retrofact- proved not as small as Hofmann had expected. Not quite, not by far. Little did he foresee about the friendly onslaught of chaos at his very fingertips, screaming in eager silence. Yet as soon as he felt inebriated by the initial effects, he laid down his work and asked his assistant to accompany him on his bike ride home, as it seemed unsafe to him to head out on the road by himself.
Moments later, looking over his shoulder whilst biking, he could see Mother of Rye, fading into the distance, waving with a wide smile and a satisfied sigh, as she knew she had accomplished her Great Work. Finally her child made its way into the wide, wild World.
The trip that followed wrote history and its effects resonate throughout spacetime, far beyond here and now. This date, April 19, has become known around the globe as Bicycle Day - the annual cerebralation* of Dr Hofmann's serendipitous discovery and the quintessential bike ride.
* cerebralation (n), from cerebralate (v):
a personal:eye:zed portmanteau
of cerebral and celebrate
all text ⓦ Satyr Barbarossa
(cc) 2014 - 2018 / CCBYNCND4.0
As always and (un)usual, between Now, Never and Forever:
click any highlighted text for additional, linked content.
- a short essay on the Psychedelic Renaissance:
How About A Positive LSD Story?
- essential reading:
LSD - My Problem Child (Hofmann)
available online at MAPS (english)
Erowid (english / german / russian)
and the Psychedelic Library
- more relsdated literature:
Erowid / Psychedelic Library
- essential viewing, see below:
Hofmann's Potion (Littlefield)
The Substance (Witz)
∞
.: from sorgenkind to wunderkind :.
all text ⓦ Satyr Barbarossa
(cc) 2014 - 2018 / CCBYNCND4.0
April 16 - Serendipity Day's 75th Anniversary
April 16 - Serendipity Day's 75th Anniversary
- Bicycle Week 2018 - April 16 through 19 -
on the one hemisphere, helping psychiatrists and psychologists alike to gain understanding of the state of mind of patients in particular and of humanity in general, catalyzing underground movements during the Fifties, exploding into the cultural revolution during the Sixties, aiding countless artists, designers, musicians, philosophers, scientists and writers to find new, creative ways of expressing their craft of choice;
on the other hemisphere, giving intelligence agencies hope of a new truth serum or an incapacitating agent, involving extensive testing on privates and other fellow primates, distressing conservative captains of industry and the establishment's echelons around the globe for enhancing chaos and breaking the shackles that bind us to the hallucinatory old world hierarchical structure of society;
eventually becoming banned in the USA in 1966 and the rest of the world soon after, returning underground during the Seventies and making a glorious recurrence by the end of the Eighties, meandering its way through the Nineties and returning smack-dab center stage during the second half of the second decade of the 21st Century AO ...
Yes.
In 1943 Albert Hofmann discovered
LSD
judged by some (mostly those who have never tried it) as one of the most dangerous substances known to man, whereas some saw and some others still see it as “a spiritual antidote to the atom bomb”, a device developed nearly simultaneously, deep down in that trough, during the 1940s.
Considering all ups and downs, Hofmann initially gave his discovery the nickname Sorgenkind, or "Problem Child", but eventually came full circle to recognize the Wunderkind he fathered.
- image sampled from lsd75.ch -
Now, as we cerebralate the 75th anniversary of its discovery, whilst fear-mongering headlines seem to prefer to relapse to instilling fear - fear for one another, fear for another world war - yet humanity clearly surfs the rising crest of the Psychedelic Renaissance, the antidote continues to gain momentum and potential. Observing the latter development and this year's Bicycle Day festivities, two main events top the charts of this week's agenda:
lsd75.ch - in Basel, the birthplace of LSD
maps.org/lsd75 - in California, home of MAPS
Other than that: check your local event schedule,
saddle up, hop on & bike along around the globe!
For a lack of proper footnotes with a list of sources and resources, click any highlighted text for more details, and follow the following links to previously posted lysergically charged verballistics, titled:
- April 16 - Ludic Serendipity Day (part 1 of a short essay)
- April 19 - Bicycle Day (part 2 of a short essay on the birth of LSD)
- How About A Positive LSD Story? (a less-short essay covering certain scientific topics concerning the so-called Psychedelic Renaissance)
∞
.: tring tring :.
apart from the quoted:
all text ⓦ Satyr Barbarossa
(cc) 2018 CC BY-NC-ND 4.0