While searching for more commercially viable compounds, the Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann discovered LSD after a drop touched his skin in 1943. His life – and the future – was forever changed. Hofmann came to regard the drug as “sacred”, declaring that it had been given to humanity to “turn us into what we are supposed to be”.

The newly discovered compound was successfully used in psychotherapy for over a decade before being outlawed in 1970. LSD and psilocybin aren’t addictive, nor do they don’t cause aggressive behavior.

However when these facilitators of spiritual experience became emblematic of the anti-war movement, Congress stepped in to put an end to higher levels of consciousness, labeling them as Schedule 1 substances, which are “highly addictive” and with “no medical use”. Clinical research into the therapeutic applications of LSD and psilocybin mushrooms was made next to impossible for almost 50 years.

A Silicon Valley subculture of experimentation in the name of self-improvement and productivity and a