Melbourne celebrates Bicycle Day 2017
On April 19th 2017, around 50 Melbournians braved a chilly Autumn evening in Brunswick to celebrate Bicycle Day, the anniversary of Albert Hofmann’s first ever trip of LSD before cycling home in 1943. On his cycle home he began to feel the intense psychedelic effects of the drug. Decades later we celebrate this fateful day and pay homage to the effect LSD has had on society.
We setup our psychedelic book store, with a wide variety of psychedelic literature and the community mingled, discussing a wide variety of psychoactive issues.
Greg Kasarik was our first speaker, talking about his journey with LSD and other psychedelics. Over the past five years, Greg has gone on hunger strikes to draw attention to the prohibition of psychedelics for sacramental/religious purposes. In 2016, Greg was arrested on Bicycle Day on the steps of Victorian parliament for the possession of LSD, which he planned to take as part of his on-going protests.
Adam Karlovsky took us down the quantum rabbit hole with a talk on the use of psychedelics for the scientific exploration of the nature of consciousness. The blog Qualia Computing delves into a wide variety of questions, ranging from the philosophical to practical experiments conducted with online volunteers and focusing on different states of consciousness.
Cam Duffy rounded out our talks for Bicycle Day with a look into the scientific history of LSD. You can read Cam’s write up of his talk and see a number of videos and other references in his blog below.
Following our speakers was the screening of The Sunshine Makers, a revealing look into the fascinating, untold story of Nicholas Sand and Tim Scully, the unlikely duo at the heart of 1960s American drug counter-culture.
Less than one week after Bicycle Day, Nick Sand passed away. Former underground psychedelic chemist Casey Hardison wrote for Psymposia, “The undaunted spirit and psychedelic warrior of love and light, Nick Sand, the outlaw chemist, died in his sleep on Monday April 24th at the age of 75.”
Here are some pictures from our 2017 Bicycle Day event.