The Acid Tests

[paisley]

looking for a picture earlier I bumped into this page and thought it was a cool read

[boogieknight]

Ecstasy is a dumb downed drug and has nowhere near the efficacy of LSD

neat lttle read.

[elemeno]

if i had the choice of e or lsd, i'd do both!!

i just think the two go soooo good together.

[CyberHippie]

Maybe I missed it, but which prankster is it that is answering those questions?

[hamilton]

Maybe I missed it, but which prankster is it that is answering those questions?

I'm not 100% sure, but I think that's a picture of Ken Babbs at the top of the page... assuming that the picture of the person at the top of the page is a picture of the person answering the questions...

Anyone?

[tatterdemalion]

yup hamilton, that's Babbs.

[Jared]

anyone need any?

[Silky Juice]

lots of people j-roc. lots.

[noeticbuzz]

I just finished that book, what a great book. I didn't want to get off the bus at the end.

[Dr_Evil_Mouse]

Ecstasy is a dumb downed drug and has nowhere near the efficacy of LSD

neat lttle read.

Agreed. I'm inclined to think, whatever the substance, that so much has to do with the quality of the people around, which has, in those gatherings I've been lucky enough to participate in recently, been wonderful. Maybe it's a question of scale, too. I think of how the Dead scene coming out of the 80s was getting increasingly tainted by yahoo-ism, which for me hit a peak at that Deer Creek run in '95 when the show was stormed by drunken frat boys looking for all intents and purposes like invading marines (America, I decided then and there, is the drunken frat boy of the world). And people were seriously complaining about that kind of thing already by '68.

Says a lot for simple principles like basic human decency, respect, and curiosity. That alone makes dosing - while enjoyable, and maybe even enlightening (I'd like to think so) - redundant, in the broader scheme of things. This Bush-era seems marked above all else by a spiking of self-indulgence and the complete indifference to the experience of strangers (I blame right-wing evangelicalism in part for this, but I'm sure that's for another thread). I think awareness of that is what has continually to be pulled out of the ashes of the '60s.

[GWB]

America, I decided then and there, is the drunken frat boy of the world

guess that's why they made me president

[Calamity Jane]

this was a fun read -- I've been meaning to re-read "The Electric KoolAid Acid Test" maybe now's the time.

some very simple but interesting ideas put forth:

for example, here is the answer to why I love e and do it in moderation:

The acid tests were a natural outcome of our desires to get together with others and get high and dig the music and the scene and stay up all night and go home the next day a better person, ready to tackle the world with a big smile and hie-dee-doo.

truly, I feel the answer to the following question is what life is all about (but also add in "raising funky, healthy, enviro-conscious kids"):

QUESTION: What did you feel you learned individually from your

life with the Pranksters?

How to grow old with a good bunch of good friends doing a lot of great things together: how to get along and how to co-operate in putting on shows and putting together very complicated journeys, also known as trips.

and finally I really liked this line -- as it's advice I need to take myself, queen of the tangents:

so the moral of the story is finish what you start or as Kesey's lawyer once told him: "finish your sentence, Kesey."