(Piano music) 

Hello and welcome to Your Greek Word On A Sunday, a weekly, bite-size podcast for anyone curious on language, etymology and connections. I am your host, Emmanuela Lia and wherever you are in the world, if you want to entertain your brain for a few minutes, this is the podcast for you. Let's Go! 

With the state of our world being what it is , I thought this word is a good fit. 

Humphrey Osmond was a British-Canadian researcher and psychiatrist interested in exploring the possibilities of LSD to treat mental illness and substance abuse. He befriended Albert Hoffman (the scientist who discovered LSD) and, Aldous Huxley the author of books like The Doors of perception and Brave new world. Together with Huxley they tried to find a name for the experience of taking LSD and they experimented (full pun intended) by combining several Greek words. In 1957, during a meeting at the New York Academy of Sciences, Osmond used for the first time his new found term to describe his research. Ψυχή (psyche) in both ancient and modern Greek means 'soul' and δήλος (delos) meant 'the visible'. Osmond accompanied the word with this rhyme 'to fathom Hell or soar Angelic/just take a pinch of..' ΨΥΧΕΔΕΛΙΚΟ/PSYCHEDELIC

Instagram @yourgreeksunday ,
Blue Sky @yourgreeksunday.bsky.social
email [email protected]