Late last year mushroom educator Willy Myco released one of the strangest and most provocative chemistry videos I've ever seen, an apparent LSD synthesis tutorial filmed in Pakistan. Despite the video's ambitions—it reportedly cost $100,000 to produce—I strongly suspect that no LSD was synthesized, due to what appear to be fatal procedural and stoichiometric errors. I do not think this attempt was fraudulent, I strongly suspect it is real, which is what makes the video so interesting. I go through the chemistry in Willy Myco's video step by step and provide my reaction to what I think will and won't work. I hope this is educational and prevents anyone from harming vulnerable lysergamide molecules.
EDIT: I found a couple of preps that do use activated carbon during lysergic acid purification, I would still advise caution using it.
EDIT2: An extremely obvious issue that I didn't point out is that beyond LSD freebase not being blue, it's not a liquid. LSD base is a crystalline solid with a melting point around 80-85ºC, but a narrower range of 82-83ºC has also been reported. Hofmann's exact description was, "Recrystallization from benzene yielded pointed prisms with a melting point of 80-85°"
Original LSD synthesis tutorial video from Willy Myco
Willy Myco Just Released the First-Ever Video Demonstrating How to Synthesize LSD