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Miscellaneous Ken Kesey's trip and the genesis of the LSD movement

Jabberwocky

Jabberwocky

Frumious Bandersnatch
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I never knew Ken Kesey's first LSD trip was recorded, from the original 1960 CIA backed voluntary LSD study open to the public. I found this to be particularly interesting from a historical perspective.

Ken Kesey was ultimately responsible for the beginning of the LSD and counter culture movement in the US. After this experience in which he was dosed and a nurse recorded his reaction, he was so fascinated that he applied to be a nurse's aid at the hospital conducting the study, which gave him access to the LSD used in the study. The doctors left some of the LSD in a drawer, which he stole and took home with him. Soon after, he started hosting his "Acid Test" parties which gained the interest of Timothy Leary... and the rest is history!

This recording of him tripping is ultimately the beginning of the entire movement and popularization of LSD. Very cool.



(maybe this belongs in drug culture)

:pupil2:
 
Snafu in the Void said:
I never knew Ken Kesey's first LSD trip was recorded, from the original 1960 CIA backed voluntary LSD study open to the public. I found this to be particularly interesting from a historical perspective.

Ken Kesey was ultimately responsible for the beginning of the LSD and counter culture movement in the US. After this experience in which he was dosed and a nurse recorded his reaction, he was so fascinated that he applied to be a nurse's aid at the hospital conducting the study, which gave him access to the LSD used in the study. The doctors left some of the LSD in a drawer, which he stole and took home with him. Soon after, he started hosting his "Acid Test" parties which gained the interest of Timothy Leary... and the rest is history!

This recording of him tripping is ultimately the beginning of the entire movement and popularization of LSD. Very cool.



(maybe this belongs in drug culture)

:pupil2:
Click to expand...



Much of the actual bus trip was actually recorded on film, as well as a good portion of the Acid Tests; it was known as "The Movie". The real problem was that it was an absolutely monumental endeavor to edit the literal mountain of source material that was gathered. Ken finally licked the technical problem of syncing the sound to film about a year before his untimely death. His son Zane continued with Ken Babbs and a few others to work on it after Ken K died and much of it is actually available, spit up into "chapters" that are about an hour long each. The first versions were on VHS tapes but later on they released it in DVD.
 
I remember reading about Kesey's first trips. I thought it was sort of comical when he expressed the stuff was beautiful. That is not what they wanted to hear. Same with Robert Hunter I believe.
 
Allen Ginsberg also got his first LSD in these CIA studies. As did Robert Hunter.

"If I knew the way, I would take you home."
 
I read the electric kool aid acid test in skool (not the greatest book imo but I came to appreciate Wolfe in later works), the author went into great detail on Keseys influence in that one. Apparently he was into hanging out with 1% biker criminals & fucking underage groupies on his California estate, at least that’s what I remember. I thought it was funny in the book, the people with Kesey were abusing weed, LSD + amphetamines but the feds who were surveilling them were only concerned with the weed, as that was the only thing that was illegal at that time. Also some of the anecdotes were funny, like Kesey visiting Richard Alpert and Timothy Leary, the so-called respectable side of the drug subculture colliding with the pure unadulterated degenerate side of the drug subculture
 
Snafu in the Void said:
I never knew Ken Kesey's first LSD trip was recorded, from the original 1960 CIA backed voluntary LSD study open to the public. I found this to be particularly interesting from a historical perspective.

Ken Kesey was ultimately responsible for the beginning of the LSD and counter culture movement in the US. After this experience in which he was dosed and a nurse recorded his reaction, he was so fascinated that he applied to be a nurse's aid at the hospital conducting the study, which gave him access to the LSD used in the study. The doctors left some of the LSD in a drawer, which he stole and took home with him. Soon after, he started hosting his "Acid Test" parties which gained the interest of Timothy Leary... and the rest is history!
Click to expand...

Actually it was Michael Hollingshead that introduced Timothy Leary to LSD. Leary was not particularly interested in Ken Kesey, reportedly not even coming out to meet him when he drove up to the Milbrook estate with Further and the Merry Pranksters.
 
"Skippin' through the lily fields I came across an empty space,
It trembled and exploded, left a bus stop in it's place.
The bus came by and I got on, that's when it all began,
There was cowboy Neal at the wheel of the bus to never ever land."
 
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