Updated: Celebrating Bicycle Day --Auction Continues

Updated: The aution which which started April 13th had no bids so the item was relisted here with the starting bid lowed to $1200.00! The new auction will end Apr 23-05 12:52:14 PDT.

Last month I began our Bicycle Day celebration with a poster auction, offering No. 43 (of 120 Bicycle Day posters signed by Hofmann. We placed the starting bid at $1500 but $2000 was the minimum bid to win. Several people got close to the minimum bid but nobody guessed it. So the poster is now up for auction again at eBay.

This time, we will start out with the same opening bid but $1500 is also the minimum bid this time. Here is your chance to get one of the last two posters not already in the hands of collectors. Once these are gone, then the price is sure to rise much higher. The bidding deadline is April 20th, 12:47:00 PDT.

Most people associate April with April 15th, Income Tax Day (for Non.U.S. readers convert that into your big tax day). However, my associations of April is April 19th -- which I call Bicycle Day. Those of us who have benefited by those compounds alternatively called entheogens or psychedelics celebrate April 19th. as Bicycle Day --The day that Albert Hofmann took his famous ride

Hofmann had accidentally discovered LSD three days earlier, when some of the powerful compound had leaked through his lab gloves and caused him to have a very mild "trip." He suspected that a compound he had been synthesizing, LSD had been the cause of the experience. So he planned and carried out an experiment in which he took what he though was the smallest dose possible for a drug to be effective -- 250 microgram (micrograms refers to millionths of a gram). An account of the experience in his own words:

"By now it was already clear to me that LSD had been the cause of the remarkable experience of the previous Friday, for the altered perceptions were of the same type as before, only much more intense. I had to struggle to speak intelligibly. I asked my laboratory assistant, who was informed of the self-experiment, to escort me home. We went by bicycle, no automobile being available because of wartime restrictions on their use. On the way home, my condition began to assume threatening forms. Everything in my field of vision wavered and was distorted as if seen in a curved mirror. I also had the sensation of being unable to move from the spot. Nevertheless, my assistant later told me that we had traveled very rapidly. Finally, we arrived at home safe and sound."

Hofmann's ride had a happy ending but the Psychedelic Movement spawned by his discovery has not yet arrived home. I first met Hofmann in Basel Switzerland in July of 1976 when I was 28 years old and Hofmann 69 years of age. We have remained friends since that time and he has provided me with the inspiration to continue my difficult work with Island Foundation. MAPS did a special live Internet audio round table with Hofmann and you can listen to a recorded version of broadcast here. Some pictures of Hofmann on the Internet include visits with a couple of other friends of mine.

Hofmann with Goa Gil                       Hofmann with Dr. Stanley Krippner

Remember to bid on the Bicycle Day Poster and help Island Foundation keep our projects going!