The Nature of Adrenochrome
In the early 1950s Osmond and Smythies realized that pink (that is deteriorated) adrenaline sprays were making some asthmatics psychotic causing them to hallucinate. Hoffer knew that similar side effects accompanied the use of mescaline and made a list of all identified compounds that caused hallucinations in those who were awake. The list is short. It included harmline, mescaline, ibogaine, d-lysergic acid diethylamide (d-LSD-25), and deteriorated adrenaline. Hoffer was delighted to realize that all were indoles (LSD, harmline, ibogaine) or could become indoles (mescaline). It was not known what pink adrenaline was however until 1952 when Hutcheon described how the oxidation of adrenaline created the indole adrenochrome. Hoffer then experimented by taking this substance himself finding it made him paranoid. In another trial Osmond was administered 300mg of spray containing adrenochrome. Within 11 minutes his ears felt plugged and his vision became abnormal. Rapidly swinging one arm back and forward caused him to see it as a series of stationary arms. Within an hour he decided to cycle home from the hospital and noticed that the roadside trees were expanding as if being pumped up with air. Clearly he was hallucinating. Arriving home earlier than usual he found his wife was out and became very depressed deciding that she must have left him and returned to her mother in a distant city. He counted all the suitcases. One was missing, increasing his certainty that she had gone. Finding a
pile of clothes he concluded his wife had been packing to leave and had decided to go out to purchase her airline ticket. His depression increased. Remembering the experiment he became very angry with the person who had forced him to take adrenochrome. (He had in fact been a very willing participant in the experiment). Clearly he was becoming paranoid. This experimental evidence suggests that intelligent, highly educated individuals can
be made to display many of the symptoms of acute schizophrenia very quickly simply by exposing them to excess adrenochrome. Put very simply, some people appear to become schizophrenic because their bodies manufacture an indole, adrenochrome, that has effects rather like a well-known psychedelic drug, LSD.