mother and father having intercourse.” Clearly this was what the angel
had foretold—“something tremendously important to the future of
mankind.” Hubbard realized it was up to him to bring the new gospel of
LSD, and the chemical itself, to as many people as he possibly could. He
had been given what he called a “special chosen role.”
Thus began Al Hubbard’s career as the Johnny Appleseed of LSD.
Through his extensive connections in both government and business, he
persuaded Sandoz Laboratories to give him a mind-boggling quantity of
LSD—a liter bottle of it, in one account, forty-three cases in another, six
thousand vials in a third. (He reportedly told Albert Hofmann he planned
to use it “to liberate human consciousness.”) Depending on whom you
believe, he kept his supply hidden in a safe-deposit box in Zurich or
buried somewhere in Death Valley, but a substantial part of it he carried
with him in a leather satchel. Eventually, Hubbard became the exclusive
distributor of Sandoz LSD in Canada and, later, somehow secured an
Investigational New Drug permit from the FDA allowing him to conduct
clinical research on LSD in the United States—this even though he had a
third-grade education, a criminal record, and a single, arguably
fraudulent scientific credential. (His PhD had been purchased from a
diploma mill.) Seeing himself as “a catalytic agent,” Hubbard would
introduce an estimated six thousand people to LSD between 1951 and
1966, in an avowed effort to shift the course of human history.
Curiously, the barefoot boy from Kentucky was something of a
mandarin, choosing as his subjects leading figures in business,
government, the arts, religion, and technology. He believed in working
from the top down and disdained other psychedelic evangelists, like
Timothy Leary, who took a more democratic approach. Members of
Parliament, officials of the Roman Catholic Church,* Hollywood actors,
government officials, prominent writers and philosophers, university
officials, computer engineers, and prominent businessmen were all
introduced to LSD as part of Hubbard’s mission to shift the course of
history from above. (Not everyone Hubbard approached would play: J.
Edgar Hoover, whom Hubbard claimed as a close friend, declined.)
Hubbard believed that “if he could give the psychedelic experience to the
major executives of the Fortune 500 companies,” Abram Hoffer recalled,
“he would change the whole of society.” One of the executives Hubbard
turned on in the late 1950s—Myron Stolaroff, assistant to the president
frankie
(Frankie)
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