Psychedelic Salon 237-238
A Tribute to Albert Hofmann (2 parts)
Terence McKenna, Stanley Krippner, and Andrew Weil (Hofmann Foundation)

PROGRAM NOTES:
The Albert Hofmann Papers
at Erowid.org

The Albert Hofmann Foundation (online)

[NOTE: The following quotations are by Terence McKenna.]

âWhat is the psychedelic experience? What promise does it hold for a sane future for our planet and our children? And what is it about it that kindles the kind of loyalty that I feel coming from the people in this room this evening? And I submit to you that it is nothing less than the rebirth of a voice that has been silent for at least a thousand years, the still small voice of the Logos of the planet.â


âSo I submit to you that what we represent is a Fifth Column, a Fifth Column that represents the best aspirations that human community is capable of, a Fifth Column that is willing to look at the structure of the psyche in contrast to the mess of society, and willing to dream.â

âWe have the tools, the intellect, the will to create a caring global culture. It isnât going to come without a recognition of the power of the psychedelic experience. The psychedelic experience is the birth right of every human being on the planet. It is as much a basic part of each and every one of us as our sexuality, our national identity, our consciousness of self. And any society which attempts to hold back or impede this dimension of self-expression, when the history of that society is written, it will be called barbarous.â

âIn the future it will be unimaginable that governments once regulated the substances that people use to explore personal growth. It is the mark of a barbarous culture.â

âOne doesnât âjust say noâ to truth.â

[NOTE: The following quotations are by Andrew Weil.]

âI have to tell you that the majority of human beings that I encounter operate mostly out of fear, guilt, and that when people operate from those emotions they are dangerous to themselves and to others.â

âWe [the psychedelic community] are a very small minority, a very small minority, and have no illusions about that. And whether our minority will grow fast enough, and be able to influence humanity fast enough to avoid the catastrophe that is certain to come if we persist in the ways that we now persist, I donât know?â

âIf it may be as it appears that our ability to manipulate the environment, our technological ability, is so disparate with our ability to control our own emotions, that may be a fatal flaw of our species. It may be.â

âDeep down everything is all right, and thatâs the way itâs supposed to be. And there may be a lot of drama in between [now and the extinction of our species], but itâs all all right. ⦠Itâs OK with me if something else gets a chance, if the life-force experiments with another form, thatâs fine, thatâs OK too.â

âAnd here it seems to me is the fundamental absurdity of the way our science has developed: The most obvious fact of our existence is that we are conscious. That is the most obvious, most important aspect of our existence. How can you construct a world view, how can you construct a system that tries to explain the universe and leave that out? And yet that is what our science tries to do.â

âOften I find, in my experience, that changes in the realm of consciousness must accompany physical treatments if the physical treatments are to work.â

PART 2:

[NOTE: The following quotations are by Dr. John C. Lilly.]
âThere is no such thing as drugs. Thereâs no such thing as illegal drugs. Theyâre only chemicals. They can change the molecular configurations within the brain itself and hence change who you are and where youâre going and where you come from. This is a profound experience.â

âThe drug problem ought to be turned over to the Surgeon General and taken away from the Attorney General.â

âI learned long ago that one is a psychotherapist until one is cured of oneâs own diseases.â


[NOTE: The following quotations are by Terence McKenna.]
âPsychology without psychedelics is pissing into the wind.â

âWeâre not going to save the monkey unless we can shed the monkey. And the greatest impetus, the greatest inspiration to the expression of our higher selves comes in the confrontation with psyche that occurs in the psychedelic experience.â

[NOTE: The following quotations are by Dr. Albert Hofmann.]
âOf greatest significance to me has been the insight that I obtained as a fundamental understanding from all my LSD experiences that what one commonly takes as the reality by no means it defines anything fixed but represents a thing thatâs ambiguous, that there is not only one but there are many realities, each compromising a different consciousness also of the ego.â

âConsciousness defies scientific definition. . . . All attempts to define consciousness are pathological. Consciousness can only be described as the [unintelligible] and creative spiritual dance of the ego at the very core of what we call âIâ â.

âConsciousness remains a mystery, the very central mystery of our existence.â

âThe perception of color is a purely psychological and subjective event taking place in the inner space of [unintelligible]. The brightly colored world as we see it does not exist on the outside.â

âThe seemingly objective picture of the world surrounding us, that which we call reality, is actually a subjective picture. ⦠We all carry in life our own personal image of reality created by our own private receiver.â
âJust like sound and colors, touch, smell and taste donât exist objectively. They too represent purely subjective phenomena, occurring only in the inner space of individual humans.â

âOur understanding [born of intense direct experience of alternate realities] makes us aware of the fact that each individual is the creator of his or her own world, for it is in each individual mind and ONLY there, that the world and the abundance of life it contains . . . that the stars and the sky become real, become human reality. Our real true freedom and responsibility is founded in our ability to create our own individual world.â

âOnce I have recognized what part of reality is objectively on the outside and what is subjectively taken place within myself, then I am more aware of what I can change in my life, where I have a choice, and thus what I am responsible for. Conversely, I become aware of what is beyond my will power and has to be accepted as an unalterable fact. This clarification of my potential and my responsibilities can be of invaluable help. I have the ability to choose what I want to receive from the endless, infinite program of âthe great transmitterâ, from creation.â

âThat means I can let those aspects of creation, or the cosmos, that make me happy enter into my consciousness and thus imbue them with reality . . . or I can let in other aspects, those that depress me. It is I who creates the bright and the dark picture of the world. It is I who invests the objects that are only shaped matter in the outer world not only with their color, but with my affection and my love â and also their meaning. This applies not only to my inanimate surroundings, but also to living beings, to the plants and animals and to my fellow humans. With this insight, the full creative power of love becomes evident.â

âThe transmitter-receiver metaphor for reality reveals another basic fact, the fact that reality is not a fixed state. Rather it is the result of a continuous input of material and energetic signals from the outer world and their continuous decoding and transformation into inner conscious experience. This demonstrates reality is a DYNAMIC process, being created anew at each moment.â

âSince the sensation of time is only possible through the perception of change, the dynamic character of reality creates time.â

âWhat is needed today is a fundamental, existential experience of the oneness of all living things, of an all-encompassing reality.â
[Thank you to TurtleCreek.net for parts of the Hofmann transcription.]

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