Hippies, and The Psychedelic Vision

What made the hippie movement so unusual, and also so powerful and unique was its psychedelic vision, based on LSD use. Make no bones about this, without LSD there would have been no hippies. Not weed, not rock and roll, LSD. This is a historically based statement, and is not just because of what I saw or experienced.
Now I don't want to imply that anyone should go and do acid. Just doing acid does not make you a hippie. And there were alot of other factors that contributed to why the LSD did what it did. Where we were, the actual LSD, the times and the mind set of alot of the youth in those times. But the spiritual awareness that came about from the psychedelic vision that produced hippie caused us to hold great promise in what we thought we could do with the problems of the world. We need that vision now.
But there are a few problems with this today in 2007. Back then we tripped in mass, in the Haight, and later elsewhere all over the country and world. People frequently had divine insights that were experienced as a group, and then shared and discussed when we all came down. These insights were frequently used to come up with other unifying ideas. Today we trip in fear of arrest, without knowledge of how to direct the trip, usually with other dumb drugs such as alcohol or whatever on top of the acid, not to mention the acid is not strong enough or not LSD. Plus the whole thing is for kicks. This attitude is why the diggers had the "Death of Hippie" parade in Oct.67. It has, for the most part, prevailed to this day.
As a father I am appalled at the wanton rape and killing of children I see today. This very day a whole family was found dead, one baby lived, in Wisconsin. As crazy as the sixties were overall, there is social death and mayhem around us that is unparalleled since our country's inception.
We as counterculturists had a vision one time, a vision for the whole earth, and all mankind. Allen Cohen of the San Francisco Oracle, in the video he made called "Oracle Rising" said," one day some newspaper reporters came to the Oracle office in the Haight and asked me what hippie was all about. I said love, its all about love. Oh, you mean sex? No, I said, its all about love. By love I mean the togetherness, sisterhood and brotherhood, experienced as a mass field of loving consciousness, brought on by our LSD use."
We need this love today, brothers and sisters. But to get it we need to change our consciousness. Are you up to the task to love and change the world? We can do it!

 

that was a pretty cool thread. and we do need more love today cause everyone suports war. i think if there was no more war it would be possible but with war it would be pretty hard.and they need to boot bush from office. i wish we could get another someone like nixon. they also should leglize some drugs cause alcohol is justs as dangerous.

 

actually the should leglize all drugs and have a special place to freek like the acid test

 

Eldridge Cleaver had Timothy Leary under house arrest in Algeria. Cleaver claimed something to the affect that Leary couldn't focus on anything anymore because his whole agenda was centered on getting high... I mean expanding his consiousness with LSD. What do you think was wrong with Cleaver, African American militants, and the brother and sisters generally back then and now? Why can't they just let us poor, unassuming, white ass rejects from the American middle class/hippies do our thing? Always meddling, those darn African Americans! You're not African American are you? I refuse to apologize, even if you are!

 

Safety pin, ok , I'm a yogin now, and I have an altered consciousness due to awakening the kundalini, which is a little higher than the LSD level. Now, I can clearly see where alot of other levels of beings were coming from, or where they were not, I could say. Leary had tasted the bliss of God from his LSD travels, and because of this immanent realty he was enthralled with the potential for change at our little normal mankind level. Actually, the whole hippie psychedelic culture drank of this vision, and it was real. But us yogis are aware of other psychic parameters that act to monitor mankinds progression of consciousness, and subjective karma is one of these. Karma is not a "what goes around comes around thing". Karma means action, and the comes around thing is an auxillary adjunct to that. So, different cultures and evolutionary status's of men, have different levels of Karma, "mind karma", you could call it, to evolve through. This was the situation with Cleaver and the blacks. Not to be racial sounding at all, but most negroes did not do much acid. I was around thousands of them all over. Some did and had heavy trips, but for most of them it was too heavy. Heroin and weed were their big drugs, and liquor, even to this day. Look at the Haight Ashbury today, it is primarily a Bob Marley culture, all weed, no acid. Marley's picture has even replaced Garcia's on the walls of the storefronts there. So different drugs take precedent depending on a persons karmic level, which is controlled by their cakras. We don't want to wake up today like we hippies in the sixties did, and so we have long since veered away from the heavy acid.
All of my threads discuss these very things. Yes, we need the acid, but there is more than LSD. You can awaken your consciousness and experience God as a permanent state: Yoga Tantra is the way. Another thing, LSD should be used to awaken God within you. God and consciousness is what its all about, I don't mean Biblical God, I'm refering to God as the living consciousness of all realty, and our finite minds are but a refraction of that. So you want to live in Samadhi, God consciousness, as a daily living reality. We yogis do it, and the hippies for a long time were also headed that way. Bad drugs killed it. Peace, love and flowers. Y.B. P.S. Let the other races of men and life have their karma, you get rid of yours through awakening.

 

What is Y.B.P.S.?

Am I correct about what you are saying, that different cultures respond better to different drugs? If that is what you are saying I can make an analogy to it that you may or may not appreciate. It is widely known that the cops used to bust hippies, then take their pot and smoke it themselves. I think that is largely a myth. I think cops have their own culture and whereas there are always exceptions to the rule (just as there were many African Americans that did do LSD) generally cops, or anyone with a cop mentality/part of the police culture have a strong aversion to pot. They don't like it at all; it makes them feel terrible; probably part of the reason why it is outlawed. A lot of cops have probably tried it and found the experience so unpleasant that they were scared shitless while they were high that they would never again be able to fulfill their cop duties.

Of course, to do the whole hippy thing right, we have to learn how to love the cops too. That will take some doing! I suggest just trying to establish any sort of communication what so ever before jumping into loving them. As far as briging peace and love to the cops goes, I'm trying, believe me. I went as far as to ask a female African American cop for a date the other day. In case you are interested, she turned me down, thankfully. She said she already had someone. I hope she doesn't find out who I am and read this, LOL.

Now as far as God and consciousness go, I'm not part of that culture, not even God as the living consciousness of all reality although that kind of thing is a lot more acceptable to me then the notions of a God formed around monotheistic religions. However, as great as my aversion to anything having to do with God is, I find your ideas interesting and comforting. I think the reason for that though is because I love the concept of self expression, doesn't matter if it has to do with God or not. In my heart and soul I always rejoice in life when someone expresses themselves. To me, self expression is an affirmation of what is good in humanity and it promotes understanding between people.

There is a story about Timothy Leary and the man who was his partner, somebody with a name like Alpert or Albert. It goes like this: Albert was in India with a stash of hallucinogens that was virtually impossible to take all at one time. Alpert had planned to take them a little at the time. Well, he met an Indian holly man and tried to convince him that he couldn't possibly achieve as high a level of consciousness thru meditation and such that Alpert could with his drugs. The holly man said, let me try. Alpert gave him one or two pills. The holly man having no idea what kind of pills they were or how strong they were said, No, I want all of them. Alpert handed them over, the holly man swallowed them all and to Alperts surprise there was no change at all in the holly man's demeanor. Alpert assumed this was because the holly man's consciousness had already reached a higher level then all of the drugs together could produce. In other words the holly man just absorbed or incorporated all the drugs into his own consciousness without it having any measurable affect on him. Because of this Alpert never did LSD again and took up yogi or meditation or whatever the holly man's way of practicing religion was. Alpert thought it was "better" then taking drugs.



Peter

 

I never did the drugs, but I'll readily concede that without the psychedelics whatever that was that happened circa 1967 simply wouldn't have happened.

I may not qualify as an "old hippie", since I was 10 years old in '67, but a lot of my friends certainly consider me an old hippie today. For me, it's all about the ethos, not the trappings. Except for tie-dye shirts that I wear on my off-time (I really am in fact a "reverend"--a clergyperson), I don't really look like someone from the late '60s counterculture. But how I feel about the world, and what I'm doing to try to help the world is all about that ethos. I so very much believe in love for all, in true justice for all, in coexistance, in tolerance, in the celebration of diversity. And I try to live in such a way that my life promotes those values.

Since I was a child when I was first impacted by all this (raised in a conservative Christian environment--middle Tennessee, what else???), my "drug" was pretty much the music. But you know, music, if you really contemplate it, can be quite drug enough. Of course, some of the music I listened to was drug-influenced. As an adult, I've chosen the route of silence and contemplation as the way to experience life "through psychedelic eyes". I'm a mystical Christian, and I guess you could say that Jesus is truly my "guru" and my "spiritual guide". I'm very open to gleaning beauty and truth from all the great religions. I'm especially attracted to Zen.

But spirituality that doesn't cause one to care for others and for the good earth that nurtures us is so much hot air. We are given this life to make something of beauty and to be a conduit of love. I really believe that.

 

LOL.. I was just looking through the threads and noticed yogi's name.. tell me it doesn't say yogi bear =yogi bhair-ava.. hahahahaaaa hard to take someone serious named yogi bear.. grins and chuckles..
sh

 

Dear Shameless Heifer,
Namaste Dear. The word is pronounced"Birava". The "ai" in Sanskrit is said like a long "i" in english just like the word "sky". Bhairava is a name for lord Shiva that is very ancient and means "the one that screams the truth of absolute realty."
I recently got intitiated into the Sarasvati guru lineage this past July so now the name is Bhairava Atmabhoda Sarasvati.
I don't know about seriousness but I am a self taught practicing yogin who has been following a Tantric Sadhana now for 11 years.
My yogic exploits came as result of my LSD use which began in the Haight back in 1966, and if my friend Allen Cohen of the San Francisco Oracle had not passed on so soon He would have been doing the same yoga system as He was amazed at my results.
I have a book published that is dedicated to Allen, that can be viewed partially on the internet at www.kundalinidream.org.
Anyway chick, it was good to rap with you. Peace, Love , and Flowers, rick hortman p.s. While in california I also got to check out the fortieth anniversary of Monterey. The Jefferson Airplane put on a two and a half hour show as the grand finale that was really cool. Grace wasn't there though, but they played almost nothing but Airplane stuff. love

 

I was just playing with you a little.. I wasn't really poking fun.. I think it's cool.. it just struck me funny at the time. no harm intended..

bright blessings
sh

 

Dear Hippy Chick Shameless, It's cool baby, no big deal. People taking that name as yogi bear is common on this forum, so I thought I'd clarify that since it was the initiation of the conversation. Where in Texs are you woman? That state is a wild place, as I drive through it every year on the way from Louisiana to California.Be cool and thanks for the conversation. Peace, Love, and Flowers, rick h.

 

I'm in north east texas.. the land of two suns..I was in The Haight Droppin' acid in 66, what a trip that was.. we may have passed in the night there on the street that love built.. I studied many religions, and found some truth in all of them.. Creation is my Truth, there are no misconceptions in Creation.

We can get get as wild as we need to here on the corner..our farm.. our peice of paradise.. it's all family so no one complains when we kick up our heals and have a barn party, cuz everyone is there.

Some have wanted to call me sellout/yuppie bc we own our land, have a big house and I drive an SUV.. truth is, hubby got hurt on the job.. got a big workers comp settlement and we bought our farm with it.. he paid for it with his back.... we needed a durable/reliable vehical to travel 150 mils to hospitals with all my daughters equiptment and her things for the long stays she indured..

our backroads are oil tops and you need a truck to stand up under the road conditions.. them little plastic cars shake apart in a few months on the oiltops... we live on hubbys SSD and suppliment by living off the land as much as possible.. we raise goats(12), chickens (several doz, hard to count chickens, they wont be still.), turkeys(19), guinie hens(20 or so), rabbits(3 female 1 male), Mini Schnouzers(5), Chauhauas(3), and verious other wild beasts.. like my cute little ass, I got fer me aniverisery.. his name is Crackerjack, cracker bc he will do anything for a cracker and jack bc he is a jackass.. thus his name.. he answers to Baby, as that is what I call him to make him brey and pleasure the children with his big ole lips flutterin' in the air, his googgly eyes rollin' back in his hard ole head and his long pink tongue stickin' out his mouth.. makes the kids roll on the thick carpet of St Augustine that covers the grounds laughin' wide-eye in wonderment..

looking past the pasture that houses my cute lil ass, you'll see Breeze, she is with foal and will bless us with her first born this coming november.. we sold our 17 head of cattle last fall due to the drought and the high price of hay. This yr we have had an abundance of life giving rain. Blessed Be..

The 'idealiztic dream' that we, the hippy, had dreamed is all we are doing.. no yup in it.. necessity dictates lifestyle.. we live like, look like,talk the talk as well as walk the walk of the hip.. little do the judgemental know that our farmhoues is over 100 yrs old, my SUV is 10 yrs old..we scrimp and save to make ends meet, the settlement money 17 yrs long gone. We are blessed with good friends close family, we live and let live..except for the cottonmouths and the turtles..

well there I go.. someone grab my foot before I float away...weeeee

Bright Blessings
sh

 

Dear Shameless Baby,
Namaste dear, I really appreciate your response. Northeast Texas, well that would be around or above the Dallas area I reckon. Sounds like you have a really cool farm and ranch, a really groovy place to connect and stay connected to the purity of the out doors.
Yeah we could have met in the Haight. I was never there for more than a few weeks at a time, being a juvenile and duckin and dodgin the law between trips and come downs. I had some kin from here in Louisiana that lived in Sacramento, and they were a bit older than I and took me to the Haight to show me the sights. After a while it was like my second home. I got caught up in my juvenile travels by my Dad, as my parents were divorced and I was in my Moms custody. He snatched me up and by early 67' my California odyssey was curtailed. By the time I got old enough to be on my own in 69', well in California at least, it was almost all gone.
The Yoga Tantra I'm involved with is not religion based really beacuse it requires no belief or faith system. It is based simply on practice and using the ancient practices to efect prna and the cakras in order to awaken the Kundalini. Once that occurs, well....
I have my own web site at www.kundalinidream.org that illustrates a book I've done documenting this stuff. Check it out if interested. My Kundalini quest began as a result of my acid trips, I think I told you that. One of the glorious hallmarks of the Kundalini thing is the experience of nature as God. Sounds like you could be in on some of that.
Anyway, again I appreciate the comeback and pleae be cool and safe. Peace, Love and Flowers, rick h.

 

I was also but a child when I hit Love Street..a mear 16, runnin' from an abusive husband, none hippie, I was traped into it by my mother.. she wanted shed of me and my ways. She was clinicaly depressed..whole nother story.. but I managed to get away from being beaten and locked away in a dingy appartment with no windows, to let the Light in.. Trippin' on acid and being beaten is no fun.. I ran for my Spirit life.. right too the land of forever..

I dig the Creation thing.. the land, the ways of old.. returning to the source for life and happiness..I am happy.. I am Loved..I belong.. me and hubby Lynn are celebratin' our 25 today..we are taking a little trip.. cya when we get back

Namste'
sh

 

CONGRATULATIONS! Shameless Heifer and your 25th anniversary,,, Have a beautiful trip,,,and always Peace and Love