Leary and LSD research

As I understand, voluntarily. He worked for a stint at night in a mental ward. Menlo Park was it?
It's in the movie Magic Trip.

 

Man a friend and I took some acid and were all excited to watch the Magic Trip movie. About half way through I was literally like, "Wat the fuck are we watching?" It was like the most unpsychedelic view of Ken Kasey possible.

Ps. If that Hunter S. Thompson quote is true, you could probably run a 18 wheeler across country on some Dubstep.

 

I'm not sure how you mean "It was like the most unpsychedelic view of Ken Kasey possible."
What made you feel that way about it? I'm thinking we have two different definitions of psychedelic. Too documentary-ish?
If you'd ever read Electric Kool Aid, he talks about always wanting to put all the footage and audio together into a movie but he wasn't cut out to make a traditional movie, the one's he did were rambling incoherent hours long things that played during parties. His family was involved in making Magic Trip and so probably their best guess as to how to balance that without leaving out the nostalgic documentary angle, adding some historical context.

And, of course that H.S Thompson quote is true. I doubt it works on dubstep though.

 

^ Something about the way the movie was structured, it just felt like I was watching a Civil War documentary or something. There seemed to be nothing trippy about it. It was talking about Ken and what he did, but it didn't go into any detail.

I thought there would be more scenes of them riding on the bus, tripping out, being merry pranksters. But it was like, here is Ken, Ken wrote this book, Ken did acid, Ken started this movement, Ken was cool, the end. Where was the action?! It was literally a snooze fest whilst on acid. Maybe sober I would have been able to appreciate it more, but man when I was high I thought it was terrible. It was like Mitt Romney trying to make a movie about hippies!

And as for the Hunter quote, I meant that dubstep is such high energy music that it could run an 18 wheeler. They call it "dance fuel" and "rocket fuel" in the clubs!

 

It's probably because you don't get it and you obviously expected they movie to reflect your pre-concieved image of kesey and the scene.


Ken went way out there for sure, and he brought back rare and beautiful artifacts that occasionally adorn his writings, mysterious tableau's only recoverable through the impeccable perception of an artist as Ken Kesey. He rejected the trippy-hippy-dippy BS though, kept his feet firmly on earth.

Of all the actors in those kool-aid test days, I respect ken kesey the most.

 

One other VERY important thing to keep in mind about that movie is when it was made. The footage was shot long before '67 and the "summer of love" and all the stereotypical hippie shit.
So maybe inthydreams911's problem is he is expecting hippy shit circa 1968 instead of the proto-hippy shit circa 1964-65 that we see in the movie.

 

Whoa, harsh! But no, I kinda see where you're coming from. I think its an over simplification of the movie but yes they didn't make it very flashy. I also wondered while watching it if they didn't have problems with the quality of the films preservation.
Also, and probably why Keysey never came up with a final result, and it's mentioned at one point, but the rough footage was pretty much a mess, a hodge podge of mis matched audio, poorly shot video, etc. And as for action I'm sure they tried to minimize the incriminating evidence and maybe try not to glorify some of the more extreme. Dunno.
I also don't think it would be good to watch on a trip. Any more than a Ken Burns documentary.

And this too. Proto-hippy is a descriptive term. That bus trip was prior to the wider hippy movement going mainstream and so there is a contrast to alot of the kind of footage we've all become familiar with, Woodstock, Golden Gate Park love-in type imagery.

 

Yeah it does kinda help to realize that the whole "paint your car with psychedelic designs" fad was started by that bus.
Remember in the movie most people didn't know what to make of them and just laughed at the crazy artist kids.
Hippies hadn't made the six o'clock news yet.

Four years later and they would have gotten shot at in some of the same places they were in the movie.

 

The movie is called "Magic Trip", I just thought it was going to be more psychedelic oriented.

 

I don’t know? I saw him talk at a Uof Louisville Literay conf. around 91' He had a water bottle on the pedestal with a Steal Your Face on it. Some dippy asked him what was in it. lol He was an interesting listen. Talked about writing. Saving the North woods. I got a signed copy of 'Tricker the Bear' a children’s book about conservation for my girlfriends son. Always been a fan and glad to have seen him.

 

^^^Great anecdote!

 

You are fortunate indeed.
I came across this some time ago I found it an interesting peek into Keysey's mind. Musings on the bible whilst smoking hash.
http://www.ep.tc/realist/89/03.html
(you have to click the page numbers at the top to continue reading)

 

Wow!~ Thanks! Theres a LOT to read here. I started at the beginning... about the end of the 60's. a litle dark. The last book I bought of his was the one where he went to Egypt with a Visene bottle full of LSD. Great Expectations maybe? Good stories!

 

Glad you liked it.
I'd be interested in that but maybe you have the title confused? That's a Dickens classic, certainly not about eqypt and lsd
Link ?

 

Found it. Demon Boxhttp://www.amazon.com/Demon-Box-Ken-Kesey/dp/0140085300/ref=pd_sim_b_5/178-6719456-1639562"]Demon Box: Ken Kesey: 9780140085303: Amazon.com: Books
I bet i was thinking it was Sometimes a Great Notion. His second novel.
I'm going to reread Demon Box, its got a story about John Lennon that I dont remember.

So many of my favorite books have vanished over the years. At least my thieving friends are literatures lovers. LOL

 

Thanks! :2thumbsup:

 

Searching and found some info on early Harvard studies of psilocybin. I didn't realize Allen Ginsberg was much involved in the early studies at Harvard. Below is from Purdue Library.

The prisoners were finding religion after the studies! Maybe this is how early man developed different religions. I've heard that hypothesis before. That early religions were rooted in primitive mans psychedelic use. What is in the psychedelic experience or 'trip' that religious ideas develop?

Again the studies show the 'trip' maximizes the religious predisposition.

 

Yeah, funny thing is that is the only legit research Leary did with psychedelics.
But still the findings of that early study are still often referred back too be modern researchers. It really was a groundbreaking study.

 

I think Harvard pushed him out. Probably politics involved. He went from researcher to cultural figure.
A documentary / movie needs to be made about the history and pioneers of psychedelics. Hoffman, Kesey, Leary, Alpert, Ginsberg, etc. Have a director like Ken Burns or Oliver Stone make it with a really big production, cool actors, a blockbuster budget.

 

Leary was a VERY interesting guy, who led a VERY interesting life, as something of a global psychedelic prankster.

But, he wasen't the most serious scientist. He did neat stuff and had neat (if, later on, delusional) ideas, but he mostly just liked tripping balls and helping other people trip balls, I think. He did show some neat stuff about the religious aspect of psychedelics, though.