The Bicycle Ride, A Tribute To Albert Hofmann by David Normal

In honor of Dr. Albert Hofmann’s 100th birthday, painter/animator David Normal produced “The Bicycle Ride”, a wonderful animated short commemorating Dr. Hofmann’s famous 1943 bicycle ride that he took after experimenting with his discovery of LSD-25 at Sandoz Laboratories in Basel, Switzerland. The animation is set to Pink Floyd’s epic 1970 song “Atom Heart Mother Suite”. You can watch it here.

On April 19th, 1943, Swiss research chemist, Dr. Albert Hofmann, conducted a self-experiment with a then unknown compound, “LSD-25”, a product of his chemical research. The extraordinary transformation of consciousness was utterly beyond his expectation. He experienced the first LSD “trip”. Uncertain what was happening to him he left the laboratory by bicycle . . . an epic journey of scientific investigation and social change began.