Bicycle Day

Bicycle Day History

Bicycle Day seeks to commemorate the day Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann purposefully ingested LSD-25, or Lysergic Acid Diethylamide. In his research to create an anti-hemorrhaging drug using ergot fungus, Hofmann had accidentally been exposed to the synthetic chemical LSD. Noticing some adverse effects such as dizziness and restlessness, Hofmann decided to ingest what he believed to be a safe dose, .25 milligrams, a few days later.

Bicycle day recognizes Hofmann’s experience with LSD in 1943 and acknowledges it as the first acid trip. After ingestion, Hofmann became anxious and paranoid and asked his assistant to accompany him home. Together they biked to Hofmann’s home, hence the name of the day. After seeing a doctor and finding nothing wrong physically, Hofmann calmed down. He would later describe his experience, kaleidoscopic, fantastic images surged in on me, alternating, variegated, opening and then closing themselves in circles and spirals, exploding in color fountains… It was particularly remarkable how every acoustic perception became transformed into optical perceptions. Bicycle Day was created in 1985 by Northern Illinois University professor Thomas B. Roberts. He started the day as a celebration of the first intentional exposure to LSD. It is observed annually on April 19th.

Facts & quotes about Bicycle Day

• Along with synthesizing LSD, Albert Hofmann was also the first one to create psilocybin, the main ingredient in magic mushrooms.
• Kaleidoscopic, fantastic images surged in on me, alternating, variegated, opening and then closing themselves in circles and spirals, exploding in colored fountains, rearranging and hybridizing themselves in constant flux. It was particularly remarkable how every acoustic perception, such as the sound of a door handle or a passing automobile, became transformed into optical perceptions. Every sound generated a vividly changing image, with its own consistent form and color - Albert Hofmann, first use of LSD, 1943
• You, my dear friends, and millions all over the world who now commemorate the 50th birthday of ergot's child, we all testify gratefully that we got valuable help on the way to what Aldous Huxley said is the end and the ultimate purpose of human life--enlightenment, beatific vision, love. I think all these joyful testimonies of invaluable help by LSD should be enough to convince the health authorities, finally, of the nonsense of the prohibition of LSD and of similar psychedelics - Albert Hofmann, 50th anniversary of Bicycle Day

In the News and Trending in the US for Bicycle Day

Top things to do in the US for Bicycle Day

• Explore the virtual Albert Hofmann museum.
• Learn more about psychedelics using an academic psychedelic bibliography.
• Watch a movie that poses a question, asks why, or challenges normal frameworks. Here are our suggestions:
  Cloud Atlas (2012)
  Enter the Void (2009)
  Waking Life (2001)