The Substance: Albert Hofmann's LSD (2011) Movie Script
I had this wondrous experience.
But I didn't know how it had happened.
All my thoughts turned into pictures.
Beautiful!
I lay down at home in the afternoon.
And then it slowly faded away.
Watching these strange pictures
and feeling exhilarated.
And it was... a terrible experience.
Terrible because it felt as if...
I was in another world,
and I knew that I had a young family
and now I had to go away,
had to leave that beautiful world.
This was an awful,
a tormenting experience.
Fear! It was the feeling...
yes, of my being in another world,
I'm not...
This has to be the end.
I'm on the other side.
My wife came home at midnight.
And the positive phase returned.
I came back and...
then, the next day,
when I woke up, I had the feeling
of entering into a new life.
Of being reborn.
I'd already been
to the beyond, you might say.
In my consciousness,
it was almost like I'd died.
Immediately, I realized,
as others did,
that this was a tremendously
interesting substance for psychiatry.
Your psyche and your consciousness
were altered.
This was a new tool
for psychiatric research.
The substance
gradually becomes effective.
Meanwhile
we will record brain activity.
Ready.
- Ready to start.
Close your eyes.
For the first ten years,
it certainly was a wonder drug.
It was a very important resource
in psychiatry for patients.
And I was always convinced
that the real use for LSD
would still be found.
It couldn't just disappear,
that was impossible.
How is our consciousness created?
It's created by what reaches us
through our senses.
Every time we perceive something,
it makes up our consciousness.
It works via our senses.
And what LSD does,
how the whole mechanism works,
is that our senses are intensified,
tremendously intensified.
Then we see the world
in a different way.
Would you like
to break off the experiment?
LSD and psilocybin
are related in chemical structure
to natural neurotransmitters
in our brains.
They affect a part of the brain
that monitors other brain areas
by means of combination.
This is how LSD can be highly potent
even in the smallest doses.
We can establish which brain regions
these substances affect.
We can localize these
psychological alterations
and see which networks are active.
The emotional areas
responsible for fear
are, in part, muted.
Others, which are responsible
for feelings of happiness,
are heightened,
the visual level is filled internally.
So internal life
is greatly intensified.
A good trip dissolves your ego
slowly and progressively.
You become one with your environment,
you give up control
but it can be enjoyable.
You feel integrated, as one.
And this gives you
a feeling of happiness.
Time and space are abandoned,
that's my personal view,
and you flow into the experience.
You are the experience.
We call it
oceanic boundlessness.
These mushrooms were analysed,
first in America
then in Europe, Paris
to no avail: The active ingredients
couldn't be isolated.
Then they thought,
there's that substance in Basel, LSD,
and it has the same effects.
So they asked us if we were interested
in analysing the mushrooms.
That's how LSD brought this
mushroom to my laboratory.
Natural science shows what exists,
objectively speaking.
But you still have to see it,
you have to reflect on it.
And a scientist sees secrets,
objective secrets.
And I think that a chemist
who's not a mystic
is not a real chemist.
He doesn't comprehend it.
Mr Wasson was delighted.
He told us
he'd love to take us with him
to Mexico, and show us
this world of wonders.
So we went on that expedition
to Mazatec country in the south.
My friend Gordon
explained to Maria Sabina
that we'd isolated
the spirit of the mushroom.
So she could carry out
her ceremony with these pills.
She then organized a meeting.
And when the pills
had been handed out,
there was a wonderful ceremony
that lasted until the next morning.
In these sacred drugs,
I basically discovered LSD.
That's what makes LSD so significant.
Not only due to its effect but also
because of its chemical structure,
LSD belongs to these drugs that were
discovered thousands of years ago.
From the infinite number of plants
something had been selected
and deemed sacred.
And then, and this is decisive,
they were always used
in a sacred context.
The Indians still use them,
they prepare, fast and pray,
then come into contact with
the higher powers of another world.
And then he placed an order
with the company.
I don't know, maybe 200 grams...
of LSD and half a kilo
of psilocybin!
And then he invited me
to come and visit him.
He said he was doing big events,
big congresses and so on.
So I wrote to him that
this I would not do
as everything
was still being investigated.
Why all this propaganda
when everything...
is still developing!
And then I accused him of forcing LSD
onto young people. Very young people.
LSD needs preparation,
it needs a certain maturity.
And it's irresponsible to
tinker with, or enter the psyches of,
people who are still developing
with such an instrument as this.
This I reproached him with.
After my personal experiences,
I never thought a substance
with such an effect
would ever reach the streets.
Yes, drug abuse.
When a substance
is out there and exists,
you don't
have control over it any more.
Essentially,
the whole world is enchanted.
The deeper you look into
living nature,
the more wonderful
you realize it is.
And I also believe you feel
that you are in good keeping there.
You belong to it and you're blessed,
you can see and experience it.
Yes, consciousness is the
greatest gift to mankind in creation.
Having consciousness.
That man becomes aware
of having been created.
That we're aware of creation.
That we're not just walking blindly
through paradise.
But I didn't know how it had happened.
All my thoughts turned into pictures.
Beautiful!
I lay down at home in the afternoon.
And then it slowly faded away.
Watching these strange pictures
and feeling exhilarated.
And it was... a terrible experience.
Terrible because it felt as if...
I was in another world,
and I knew that I had a young family
and now I had to go away,
had to leave that beautiful world.
This was an awful,
a tormenting experience.
Fear! It was the feeling...
yes, of my being in another world,
I'm not...
This has to be the end.
I'm on the other side.
My wife came home at midnight.
And the positive phase returned.
I came back and...
then, the next day,
when I woke up, I had the feeling
of entering into a new life.
Of being reborn.
I'd already been
to the beyond, you might say.
In my consciousness,
it was almost like I'd died.
Immediately, I realized,
as others did,
that this was a tremendously
interesting substance for psychiatry.
Your psyche and your consciousness
were altered.
This was a new tool
for psychiatric research.
The substance
gradually becomes effective.
Meanwhile
we will record brain activity.
Ready.
- Ready to start.
Close your eyes.
For the first ten years,
it certainly was a wonder drug.
It was a very important resource
in psychiatry for patients.
And I was always convinced
that the real use for LSD
would still be found.
It couldn't just disappear,
that was impossible.
How is our consciousness created?
It's created by what reaches us
through our senses.
Every time we perceive something,
it makes up our consciousness.
It works via our senses.
And what LSD does,
how the whole mechanism works,
is that our senses are intensified,
tremendously intensified.
Then we see the world
in a different way.
Would you like
to break off the experiment?
LSD and psilocybin
are related in chemical structure
to natural neurotransmitters
in our brains.
They affect a part of the brain
that monitors other brain areas
by means of combination.
This is how LSD can be highly potent
even in the smallest doses.
We can establish which brain regions
these substances affect.
We can localize these
psychological alterations
and see which networks are active.
The emotional areas
responsible for fear
are, in part, muted.
Others, which are responsible
for feelings of happiness,
are heightened,
the visual level is filled internally.
So internal life
is greatly intensified.
A good trip dissolves your ego
slowly and progressively.
You become one with your environment,
you give up control
but it can be enjoyable.
You feel integrated, as one.
And this gives you
a feeling of happiness.
Time and space are abandoned,
that's my personal view,
and you flow into the experience.
You are the experience.
We call it
oceanic boundlessness.
These mushrooms were analysed,
first in America
then in Europe, Paris
to no avail: The active ingredients
couldn't be isolated.
Then they thought,
there's that substance in Basel, LSD,
and it has the same effects.
So they asked us if we were interested
in analysing the mushrooms.
That's how LSD brought this
mushroom to my laboratory.
Natural science shows what exists,
objectively speaking.
But you still have to see it,
you have to reflect on it.
And a scientist sees secrets,
objective secrets.
And I think that a chemist
who's not a mystic
is not a real chemist.
He doesn't comprehend it.
Mr Wasson was delighted.
He told us
he'd love to take us with him
to Mexico, and show us
this world of wonders.
So we went on that expedition
to Mazatec country in the south.
My friend Gordon
explained to Maria Sabina
that we'd isolated
the spirit of the mushroom.
So she could carry out
her ceremony with these pills.
She then organized a meeting.
And when the pills
had been handed out,
there was a wonderful ceremony
that lasted until the next morning.
In these sacred drugs,
I basically discovered LSD.
That's what makes LSD so significant.
Not only due to its effect but also
because of its chemical structure,
LSD belongs to these drugs that were
discovered thousands of years ago.
From the infinite number of plants
something had been selected
and deemed sacred.
And then, and this is decisive,
they were always used
in a sacred context.
The Indians still use them,
they prepare, fast and pray,
then come into contact with
the higher powers of another world.
And then he placed an order
with the company.
I don't know, maybe 200 grams...
of LSD and half a kilo
of psilocybin!
And then he invited me
to come and visit him.
He said he was doing big events,
big congresses and so on.
So I wrote to him that
this I would not do
as everything
was still being investigated.
Why all this propaganda
when everything...
is still developing!
And then I accused him of forcing LSD
onto young people. Very young people.
LSD needs preparation,
it needs a certain maturity.
And it's irresponsible to
tinker with, or enter the psyches of,
people who are still developing
with such an instrument as this.
This I reproached him with.
After my personal experiences,
I never thought a substance
with such an effect
would ever reach the streets.
Yes, drug abuse.
When a substance
is out there and exists,
you don't
have control over it any more.
Essentially,
the whole world is enchanted.
The deeper you look into
living nature,
the more wonderful
you realize it is.
And I also believe you feel
that you are in good keeping there.
You belong to it and you're blessed,
you can see and experience it.
Yes, consciousness is the
greatest gift to mankind in creation.
Having consciousness.
That man becomes aware
of having been created.
That we're aware of creation.
That we're not just walking blindly
through paradise.