Reflections from a Psychedelic Grandmother...
Submitted by Sir Real on Sat, 06/23/2007 - 6:39pm.
"The first great recognition of how many of us there really were sharing this mystical,
wordless and magnificent experience of the Rainbow Heart,
the infinitely manifest,
the wonder and magic of being-ness
beyond the individual ego,
was the
First Human Be-In,
January 14, 1967.
It was not the speeches of Ginsburg,
Suzuki Roshi,
Leary and the other speakers on the platform
or even the music that touched us with mystic wonder.
The wires were cut, and for a long while there were no speeches, no music.
Only the murmur of 25,000 people,
most of them on LSD,
grooving with each other,
with the sunshine which had come in the midst of a rainy month,
and with the manifest presence of Spirit.
It was so quiet.
Women in lace table cloths, long dresses of oriental fabric,
fantasies from every age and place moved gracefully through the silent crowd.
Men in pied patterns smiled at the sky.
The Diggers gave out turkey sandwiches.
Everybody shared marijuana, apples, LSD and love.
We knew that we were witnessing a massive blossoming of a new religion
in the literal sense of being tied together again.
This religion would never have churches or temples;
this was a religion based on individual freedom and respect;
we "dug each others vibes"
and felt the coming together of an ancient family.
fantasies from every age and place moved gracefully through the silent crowd.
Men in pied patterns smiled at the sky.
The Diggers gave out turkey sandwiches.
Everybody shared marijuana, apples, LSD and love.
We knew that we were witnessing a massive blossoming of a new religion
in the literal sense of being tied together again.
This religion would never have churches or temples;
this was a religion based on individual freedom and respect;
we "dug each others vibes"
and felt the coming together of an ancient family.
Time dwindled to a no-point.
Heart reached to heart in an almost
soundless outpouring of love.
So when the music and the speeches started,
when the mantra and the rock resounded,
it was an ecstatic exclamation point on a massive experience.
Heart reached to heart in an almost
soundless outpouring of love.
So when the music and the speeches started,
when the mantra and the rock resounded,
it was an ecstatic exclamation point on a massive experience.
Call it heaven or samadhi;
it set the parameters for a whole movement during the Summer of Love.
Through the catalyst of LSD we had scratched through the surface
of our separateness and recognized ourselves,
our surroundings, all things as One.
That afternoon, we
truly became
The Love Generation."
it set the parameters for a whole movement during the Summer of Love.
Through the catalyst of LSD we had scratched through the surface
of our separateness and recognized ourselves,
our surroundings, all things as One.
That afternoon, we
truly became
The Love Generation."
This is an excerpt from an essay that Elizabeth wrote, published in Psychedelic Illuminations Magazine.
It is included in Scrapbook of a Haight-Ashbury Pilgrim by Elizabeth Gips.
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Man !
I just had a Flash Back! :)
Sorry,just kidding.
I'm the youngest of five,so I'm a wise ass.
One of my older sisters ran away to Haight-Ashbury twice.
The second time she ran away with the daughter of a retired FBI
agent.Not too smart.But,she was just a kid.The other girl
went back home before they ended up in jail.
I made it to Haight-Ashbury a couple years after it's hayday.
Place looked like a dump.Probably because Alot of living went on there!
:)
By the time the media got wind of it all,...
it was over.
I just read an excellent book by a friend of Ken Kesey's, called "Prime Green: Remembering the Sixties." It was very insightful.
The author said that those in the know could sense everything was turning to shit by fall of 1966.
(LSD became illegal on Oct. 6, 1966, too.)
So, even as special of a moment as the Human Be-in was in January '67,...there was a sense among many within the Prankster circles, that the end had begun. It's really trippy reading accounts from insiders, rather than accounts from the media at the time, about when and why the dark clouds were rolling in.
I'm sure it was a dump if you got there after 1966, MMR.
I just wonder how long it took to sink in for everybody to realize that it was over.
Not everyone knew at the time.
It was obviously over by the time Manson showed up, & by the time of Altamont.
Shit, Nixon was scared to death of the hippies & the liberals. That's why he enacted a bunch of social policies;...to placate the angry hordes of liberals.
Nixon probably thought there were tens of millions of them.
It wasn't because he cared about the masses.
To this day, people like my in-laws are scared to death of hippies & liberals. (As if we're still the communist threat at their door.) My mother-in-law just recovered from a fairly serious surgery, and had FOX News blaring in her hospital room 24/7 for the couple days she was recuperating there. Crazy.
Just one more reason to fly my freak flag, I guess.
It's almost too easy, sometimes.
Lots of changes
When did Sam go to Sunday only?
When did the blog change?
Is everyone happy with the changes?
Wow, it's really different.
Are War Dog and Nobody still around?
the main chat room is ....
at this link presently
http://www.samsedershow.com/node/631#comments
I'm gonna repost your comment there, Anonymous.
The other regulars can answer your questions better.
Thanks.
tks
Thank you. I haven'f figgered this thing out yet, as you can see.
(No subject)