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Actually, LSD came from Basel.

First of all Albert Hoffman is - as far as I know - alive and well. He's almost 100 years old now. Really.

Second, I think LSD has been much more influential to the world than hydergine has, or problably ever will.

Utility or not is mostly in the eye of the beholder. LSD certainly has a good way of showing you that. It has quite little to do with being "stoned".

Other than that, I sort of agree with you.

And LSD was developped in Switzerland, I think.

Yes, LSD was synthesized by Dr Albert Hofmann in 1943, and he discovered its mind-altering properties while riding his bicycle on the way home. This is a quote from his laboratory notes:

I suddenly became strangely inebriated. The external world became changed as in a dream. Objects appeared to gain inrelief; they assumed unusual dimensions; and colors became more glowing. Even self-perception and the sense of time were changed. When the eyes were closed, colored pictures flashed past in a quickly changing kaleidoscope. After a few hours, the not unpleasant inebriation, which had been experienced whilst I was fully conscious, disappeared. what had caused this condition?

More information can be found here and here.

Films are not good because they're artsy, however they're not bad because they're art house flicks either.

I can see where somebody who doesn't enjoy absorbing images and sounds, wouldn't enjoy the qatsi series. It doesn't tell you what conclusions you should be drawing. It doesn't tell you why you should care what you're going to see next. Nothing blows up, and there are no witty retorts.

It simply presents the collaborative work of a visual and a musical artist, and as with any art, some people might enjoy it, others might not. The fact that you did not enjoy it does not mean that it's without value.

As for the best way to experience the music, I have some suggestions.

It's true, though. I've met aliens.

> LSD was discovered in the 1930's in Switzerland. Unless the Berkeley you are referring to is NOT the University of California.

YM 1941, by Albert Hofmann, a chemist in the employ of Sandoz Pharmaceuticals. Fun fact #1: He was actually looking for obstetric medicines based on the ergot fungus, and accidentally ingested a quarter milligram or so on one of them. When the acid kicked in on his bike ride home, he thought he'd poisoned himself and was going to die soon.

Fun fact #2: Unix as near as I can tell was spawned at Bell Labs in New Jersey, and not Berkeley at all. Blame this guy.

And was Steve Vai actually from Berkeley, California? I didn't know that, and his official site didn't illuminate much on that. Seems to me he might have gone to the Berklee School of Music, which is actually in Massachusetts somewhere iirc.

Oh yeah, fun fact #3: I nicked my sig from some guy's post on alt.folklore.computers 'cause I thought it was funnier than it was accurate.

After he started on his way home by bicycle the stuff started to kick in. Must have been one helluva bike ride through Basel.

The Albert Hofmann Foundation has more interesting stuff about the inventor of LSD (who to the best of my knowledge is still very much alive).