Albert Hofmann dies at age of 102. Despite of his age and fulfilled life, this is some sad news indeed. I wasn’t there on his 100th birthday in switzerland, although I had an invitation to come there with some friends from Berlin. I have been too far from the world of psychedelics in the last few years to even realise the news from lsd.info, although that theme used to be a leading concept for most of my life. I met Albert only 2 times in my life, and although he is a famous man, I have some very personal impressions, and I think this is the time to share them to the public.
The first time I saw my personal hero (I studied chemistry for over 6 years, so it’s probably safe to say that) was in Heidelberg, at the ECBS meeting. I was impressed to see a person enter the stage whose books I had read from when I was 14, and he started his speech with the famous sentence: “Mein Name ist Albert Hofmann, und ich bin Chemiker, kein Guru.” That was the beginning of a wonderful meeting of scientists, artists and literates, all shared together around a man whose chemical call they had received.
Then, a few years later, I saw him at the Psychoactivity meeting in Amsterdam. On the obvious saturday night rave event, while most of us younger folks were tripping on one of Alexander Shulgin’s latest invenions, 2-CT-2 in one of the Amsterdam Clubs, Dr. Christian Rätsch lead Albert to the party area, and before I could even say “lysergsaeurediethylamid”, Mr. Hofmann was there, dancing away with my sweetheart, Melina from California (sweet kisses from Torrid^^)… And what should I say, I have never been so happy to see my gal dancing with some guy before or after. 
(These gatherings of afficionados haven’t seized of course, there are yearly meetings in berlin nowadays, please check the entheovision website on that.)
Albert Hofmanns “Sorgenkind“, the tartaric acid salt of lysergic acid diethylamide, better known as LSD, has catalyzed a vast amount of the inventions we call normal in our current life. Before, after and despite of it’s classification as a “narcotic” (*harhar*) substance in 1966, countless thinkers, intellectuals and literates have met that girl named Sandoz, and had mind-moving experiences while under the impression of one of the most interesting substances ever been invented.
We will miss one of the most holistic persons of the scientific scene, and one of the few persons who actually grokked the stuff he invented.
Have a good trip, Mr. Hofmann. *sniff*
