Review: 'Hofmann's Elixir' edit. Amanda Feilding

Originally published in 2008 "Hofmann’s Elixir" is a collection of talks and essays by Albert Hofmann and various other psychedelic notables including Ralph Metzner, Myron J. Stolaroff and Stanislav Grof. The text is edited by Amanda Feilding of the Beckley Foundation. Published the same year that Albert Hofmann passed away (aged 102) the book is a fitting reflection of the man’s life and legacy.

The text is divided into two parts. The first contains a selection of eight talks and essays by Albert Hofmann himself. It contains a diverse cross-section of information that succinctly portrays the thought and history of a man who, on April 19th 1943, became the first person to intentionally consume the hallucinogen Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD). Having first synthesized the substance in 1938; intuition returned him to it some years later and the actions of this moment have had huge repercussions on society ever since.