The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test

This book is around 400 pages and a very detailed history, many stories, and it's hard to remember all the facts, you'll have to read the book yourself for that. The story is of the "Intrepid Travelers," Ken Kesey and The Merry Pranksters, a communal group of acid ingesters who were the progenitors of the acid consciousness in the California, in the US, in the world's consciousness of awareness . . . "your either on the bus or off the bus." It was the influential chemists, Al Hubbard, Dr. Spaulding and the psychologists, Timothy Leary and Richard Albert, the Harvard psychology professors, who discovered for themselves psylobilin and with Michael Hollingshead and Albert Hoffman, LSD and subsequently held experiments using the right set and setting with experienced psychedelic guides. Yet to this the Merry Pranksters would say, "f**k that!" because they were from a different movie of living; in the now, the unserene and lurid art, your brain being your only guide, not some experienced taker and specific setting for a safe non-freak-out trip (and there were a lot of "freak-outs" from many young, emotionally inexperienced). And the acid influenced cultural movement they began in the early 1960's. It was Leary and Albert who endorsed the "set and setting," the intellectual approach or non-organizational religious approach, the religious experience of the mystics, in their dialogue with acid and mushrooms. With Kesey and the Pranksters it was spontaneous, wild party kind of living in Day-Glow colors, in the multimedia sound and movie. The Pranksters account starts in North Beach on Perry Lane, which becomes a major hang out for all sorts and eventually ends up in a cottage near La Honda, where the loud party of outlandish, Day-Glo painted woods - rigged with microphones and massive sound equipment, in the communal life takes on a new meaning. The Hell's Angels befriend the Pranksters and there are stories of personalities, telepathic and psychic connections and synchronicity in new fields of human life, the overmind, the collective unspoken mind of the psychedelic group. The religious realm of mystical awareness as in the game of I-Ching and dream wars. The Jungian "synchronicity" seemed to occur uncanningly many times, as their bus out of gas in the middle of nowhere only to have a tanker pull up and fuel them from nowhere. The sign on their door welcoming the Hell's Angels to end up having them and succeeding in their prankster madness. The sign on their door welcoming the Beatles, did not synchronize them to appear, but what did was having Oswley appear, the famous acid maker, who in the ways of synchronistic noncausal effect, was responsible for the finest acid which spread to England, the acid that brought the Beatles to experience the unspoken mind which ended them up traveling by bus across the English countryside with cameras and microphones. Imagine a Day-Glo painted bus, the magic bus, with Day-Glo painted people and clothes, tripping on acid traveling from California to the New York World's Faire with music blasting, a freak show on wheels, all in the year 1964! And Neil Cassidy (Jack Kerouac's buddy and drive from On The Road) driving the bus!! And their trip to the legendary Millbrook, thinking it would be some historic meeting with Leary and the Pranksters, but instead it was the mystical religious and intellectuals verses the wild party, American flag draped, painted, loud blaring music, party animals of psychedelic madness. I think it relates to the age and the introvert and/or extrovert type personalities that played the large part. It was actually Stewart Brand who thought up the great Trip Festival of January 1966. The series of acid test parties held by Kesey and the Pranksters helped spawn the movement of higher consciousness, all held at the last minute, the same day notification was put, and the Pranksters playing their instruments, then finding a local band, the warlocks - later known as the Grateful Dead - to play and Roy Seburn's light shows at the acid tests. It was the acid test held in a Unitarian church where the Kool-Aid was spiked, unknowingly to those attending. It was not teachings in the stiff, reverent language and texts of scholarly limnings found in various religions being taught but instead an aura, a religious experience, an awareness that flashed deeper than cerebration, the tradition of the great prophets. People like the beats Allen Ginsberg and his entourage and Neil Cassidy were there. As this spread, so the acid tests, later without Kesey and Haight Ashbury became the scene. Later on Kesey gets busted twice for weed and is on the run from the law, to Mexico and back until caught - he was in their movie that time, fortunately most charges dropped. A lot to read of the characters and generally a great book to get an idea of a unique and special time and place in history where a much larger degree of freedom existed for the white middle class with the ability to gain other realms of consciousness available for the taking. A great pictorial book on this is "On The Bus" by Paul Perry, Michael Schwartz, Neil Ortenberg & Ken Babbs.

I thought this was a great book. Getting the inside scoop on this historical piece of history and wild guys and gals that made up The Merry Pranksters was extremely valuable to me personally. After reading many books of both the Beat Generation as well as the Hippie Era including a lot of works focusing on the bands, the signature artists of those times, this book is so important regarding the gap between the Beats and the Hippies. This book isn’t sugar coated too much, so it’s raw, honest and exploratory. Learning in good detail about the Pranksters main/notable people, their ties to society and in contrast, their anti-establishment attitudes and spontaneous actions and unspoken rules, is to say the least entertainingly exciting. These folks were a large part in making the mid to late 60’s what they were. As a Grateful Dead lover/DeadHead, it was more than enthusiastic learning about their late entry in this story, along with some amazing figures of the times including Allen Ginsberg, Timothy Leary, Ramrod, Neil Cassidy and of course, Ken Kesey (among many other critical historical persons who all had their part in shaping the counterculture gapping generations). A very quick read, and interesting for me to read about the pioneering psychedelic warriors, how they were “Turned On” and how they spread the message to the masses in such unusual form. The rebels of their time, along with some truly EPIC pranks, parties and perseverance. What I really enjoyed about this book is that it doesn’t highlight a bunch of happy go luck good times. It shows the truly raw side of the bunch. It has some incredibly gloomy details that emerge as a result of being together as a wild “family”, with some eye opening realizations that are important for readers to know. That point being that even in best of times follows the worst of times. There is no light without darkness, “Art is not Eternal”, and a surreal vacation from the normal realm will at some point have you realize that sometimes a normal vacation from the never ending trip is important! So, I found this book to be a fun read, an important piece of literature linking the beats to the hippies, an incredible cast of real life people, and how far some rebels have to go to truly make their mark on society to push what they believe in without resorting to extreme violence.

Good book, one of the recommendations of Jordan Peterson, i felt that its longer than it should be

Perfetto

I never realized how much I disliked hippies until I read this book. I've had my fair share of interactions with hippies, but none of said interactions quite put them into perspective like this book did. Fair warning, one might find it a bit overwhelming without being aware of some of the things that happened around the timeline that this book was written. The book itself is extremely well written using a lot of slang from the sixties that you could find hard to follow. There were times where it felt like I was with the Merry Pranksters having my own bad trip. 8/10 would read again in a couple of years to rekindle my disdain for hippies. Footnote: The book ends with "We blew it". Surprising. Don't do drugs kids.

Probably one of the best books I have ever read.

Great