LSD occupies an unusual place in twentieth-century history. Although most famously associated with the counterculture of the 1960s, the history of the psychedelic appears in the biographies of influential scientists, musicians, writers, entrepreneurs and athletes.

1. Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, LSD and Technology 

Apple co-founder Steve Jobs was unusually open about experimenting with LSD in his youth, although there is no reliable public record establishing exactly how many times he took it. His experiences occurred mainly during the early 1970s, before Apple was founded in 1976, and Jobs later regarded them as important to his developing worldview. Speaking to biographer Walter Isaacson, he called taking LSD “a profound experience, one of the most important things in my life,” saying it reinforced his desire to create meaningful things rather than simply make money.

His rival, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates was much more guarded about LSD for decades, but his 2025 memoir Source Code provided a clearer account of his experimentation. Gates describes trying LSD as a teenager and another experience while attending Harvard with Paul Allen, meaning that at least two experiences are specifically described in his memoir. One early experience lasted longer than he expected, leaving him feeling its effects when he had a dental appointment the following day. Gates later concluded that experiences which had seemed profound at the time weren’t necessarily so in retrospect. When Playboy asked him about LSD in 1994, Gates initially joked that “My errant youth ended a long time ago,” before acknowledging the period more indirectly and adding, “However, I never missed a day of work.” 

While Steve Jobs and Bill Gates don’t have a strong Canadian connection, their influence on technology is undeniable. Psychedelics have had a huge part in shaping this history.

2. Jimi Hendrix and his Vancouver Connections

Jimi Hendrix used LSD during the height of the psychedelic era, particularly after his career took off in the late 1960s. His experiences with psychedelics coincided with increasingly experimental music on albums such as Are You Experienced? and Axis: Bold as Love, which featured innovative distortion, feedback, stereo effects and studio techniques. While LSD became part of the countercultural environment surrounding Hendrix and the Jimi Hendrix Experience, it would be misleading to attribute his extraordinary musicianship to the drug alone—Hendrix had spent years developing his distinctive guitar style. 

Hendrix was born in Seattle, but his family history extended directly across the border into Vancouver. His grandmother Nora Hendrix lived in the city and became associated with Vancouver’s historic Black community. Hendrix spent time in Vancouver and stayed with his grandmother. Later, after becoming an international rock star, he returned to the city and performed at the Pacific Coliseum in 1968.

3. Paul McCartney and The Beatles: Beatlemania Comes to Canada

The Beatles’ psychedelic period represents one of the most famous transformations in popular music. The group moved from the relatively straightforward pop of early Beatlemania toward increasingly experimental recordings incorporating unusual instruments, studio effects and psychedelic imagery.

Paul McCartney eventually acknowledged taking LSD during the 1960s, although his famous account of apparently encountering a gigantic divine presence involved DMT rather than LSD.

When Beatlemania swept North America, Canadian teenagers were among the band’s most enthusiastic audiences. The Beatles performed in Vancouver in 1964, playing at Empire Stadium during their first major North American tour. The Vancouver concert became one of the city’s legendary musical events. Thousands of screaming fans packed the stadium, demonstrating that Beatlemania had reached Canada with the same intensity seen in the United States and Britain.

4. Aldous Huxley: The Man Who Helped Give Psychedelics Their Name

British writer Aldous Huxley has one of the most important Canadian connections in the history of psychedelic thought. Already internationally famous for novels such as Brave New World (1932), Huxley spent much of his later career exploring questions about consciousness, perception, spirituality and the ways human beings interpret reality. These interests culminated in The Doors of Perception (1954), an influential essay describing and reflecting upon his experience with mescaline. Rather than simply recording what happened, Huxley connected altered perception with art, philosophy, religion and theories of consciousness. He followed it with Heaven and Hell (1956), which expanded his discussion to visionary experiences found in religion, art and human culture. His ideas subsequently influenced the emerging psychedelic counterculture; even the rock band The Doors took its name from the title of Huxley’s book. 

But his relationship with Canadian-based psychiatrist Humphry Osmond proved historically significant. Among the scientists who became deeply interested in LSD were researchers working in Saskatchewan. During the 1950s, Saskatchewan became one of the important international centres for early psychedelic research. Humphry Osmond, Abram Hoffer and their colleagues investigated whether LSD could help researchers understand psychiatric conditions and whether psychedelic experiences might have therapeutic applications.

Osmond was working in Saskatchewan when he corresponded with Huxley about psychedelic substances. The two exchanged ideas about what these unusual compounds should be called. Huxley proposed his own terminology, but Osmond ultimately coined the word “psychedelic.” The word subsequently escaped the laboratory and became globally famous.

Canada’s Forgotten Role in Psychedelic History

The Saskatchewan group’s work initially focused on schizophrenia, using LSD as an experimental model to investigate whether aspects of psychosis might have a biochemical basis. The Saskatchewan researchers later became particularly interested in alcoholism, studying whether a profound psychedelic experience in a controlled clinical setting could encourage lasting psychological and behavioural change in patients who had struggled with conventional treatments. Early results appeared promising, with Osmond and Hoffer reporting substantial rates of improvement, and their work helped establish what became known as the “psychedelic” approach to therapy. However, these experiments generally lacked the rigorous randomized controls expected of modern clinical trials, making their dramatic early results difficult to evaluate by today’s scientific standards. 

From psychiatric experiments in Saskatchewan to Jimi Hendrix’s Vancouver connections, from Aldous Huxley’s correspondence with a Canadian-based psychiatrist to the emergence of counterculture in Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal, Canada repeatedly appears in the history of the psychedelic era. The famous personalities may dominate the story, but look closely enough and a Canadian connection is rarely very far away.