At the pinnacle of the American hippie movement, at the Woodstock Festival in 1969, a young man named Elliot lay down in a Volkswagen T1 campervan at the invitation of a hippie couple.
They placed a small piece of paper on Elliot's tongue. After a while, Elliot felt that the figure paintings on the tapestry were shining brightly, and the other patterns were turning with them.
Stepping out of the camper van, Love's "The Red Telephone" sounded, the stage glowed like a lighthouse, and the surrounding crowds and grass swelled like the sea.
This is the finale of Ang Lee's "Making Woodstock" in 2009, and Eliot is the protagonist of the film. Why does a small piece of paper allow him to see all kinds of illusions?
1
Because Elliot is taking the famous hallucinogen - LSD, the full name of lysergic acid diethylamine, is a colorless, odorless, slightly bitter substance. The smoker usually removes the paper soaked in LSD solution to dry, and only needs to remove a small piece and place it on the tip of the tongue when smoking, and when the drug is dissolved and absorbed by saliva, the user can enter a hallucinogenic state. The drug, a hippie favorite, was once "flooded" throughout the United States.
The Woodstock Music Festival is a great microcosm. This music festival, which claims to implement "love and peace", is a utopia of hippies and a "drug event". Hippies not only sell drugs, but also mix drugs into food and drink, and then "share them for free" with other unsuspecting fans. Michael Lang, the festival's organizer, recalls that he drank only bottled water at the festival and was careful when eating everything, because the "material" was added everywhere.
Although LSD is not addictive, multiple studies have proved that long-term use of this drug can cause strong side effects such as chromosomal rupture, infant malformation miscarriage, and leukemia. At the same time, the hallucinations produced by drugs may not only cause people to commit violent or self-harming behaviors, but also more likely to cause them to suffer from mental illness such as schizophrenia.
(LSD, commonly known as "stamps" in China)
And this LSD almost accompanies the collective memory of a generation of young people in the United States.
By the 1960s, the United States had entered a period of steady development. At the same time, the inherent problems of society are gradually exposed. The middle class lives affluently, and the younger generation with parents as a backer no longer needs to worry about their future, while the lifestyle of the parent generation is "boring".
For them at that time, the adult world represented fetishism, busyness, human indifference and psychological generation gap, devouring individual freedom and happiness. Material abundance makes the younger generation put forward higher requirements for the quality of life, and in terms of spiritual hunger, and under the American-style "traditional values" and "social order", they believe that their psychological needs have been suppressed.
It was in this context that the hippie movement, with the slogan "Examine the Heart, Pay Attention to Society, and Withdraw from the World", was born. These fancy hippies, with the appeal of liberating the individual and society and opposing "mainstream values" and capitalism; Take the philosophical ideas of Zen buddhism and Taoism as the creed.
(Who did you learn this with...) ）
Underneath the beautiful façade of confronting reality and pursuing freedom and happiness is actually the "spiritual emptiness" of the young generation in the United States at that time.
Why? Because in retrospect, the "denial and opposition to everything" they preached was completely confused in practice, and the fanaticism for rock, drugs, and religion became an outlet for escapism. As LSD and the hippie movement receded, they discovered that they were "nude" clowns who used these "trendy" gadgets as "spiritual food".
Thus, after the hippies, there was never a social movement similar to this in the United States. But the "spiritual emptiness" of the new generation of young people seems to remain so today. To some extent, one LSD fell, more "LSDs" surfaced, and never "ebbed".
(A couple at the Woodstock Festival)
2
In October 1977, the University of California, Santa Curos hosted an academic conference reviewing the hippie movement on the theme "LSD: A Generation Later."
Thousands of attendees crowded the hall, and even the window was crowded with listeners. The conference concluded with a doctor who had arrived from Switzerland, Albert Hoffmann.
Looking at the audience, the 71-year-old slowly said: "You are afraid that you will be disappointed when you see me, right?" You may want to meet a spiritual teacher, but I'm just a chemist. ”
Why did he say that? Because the LSD, the "holy relic" of a generation of hippies, was discovered by Hoffman; But his discovery was not meant to serve the hippie movement, but a purely scientific discovery.
Although, a bit unexpected.
Subsequently, Hoffman described the discovery of LSD in detail at the meeting, and the audience listened with relish.
("Father of LSD" – Albert Hoffman)
In 1938, Hoffman worked on a new drug to treat migraines in the lab of the Sandos Company. In the experiment he accidentally obtained a by-product, a synthetic molecule he named LSD-25.
Five years later, Hoffman decided to try the new substance, which had not been found to have any effect at the time. While preparing the reagent, he accidentally dipped some powder on his fingers, and after a few minutes he found himself entering a pleasant state of anesthesia: the sensation became imaginative, his eyes were filled with strange shapes and bright colors, and everything around him seemed to come to life.
Hoffman returned to normal after a few hours. For research, he took 250 micrograms of LSD orally a few days later (it was later shown that a dose of 10 micrograms was enough to have an effect on people), after which he and his assistant rode home, and on the way the drug had a seizure, he was not clear in speech, and he felt that the sky was spinning; The surrounding scenery is distorted and distorted, and the car is riding fast but feels trapped in the same place.
Back home, Hoffman felt that everything around him had turned into a monster. He felt his soul leave his body, and a sense of fear arose, and he feared that he would go mad forever. Luckily, when I woke up the next day, everything was back to normal.
(Pharmacodynamic Sensation Be Like)
The discovery spread throughout Europe, and some medical and psychological experts began to study mental illness with the help of LSD's effects. Hoffman's intention was to facilitate the doctor's research with the help of the transient mental disorder caused by the drug. But he did not expect that this drug would be used as a "weapon" by the CIA, and he did not expect that it would become a flood in American society later.
3
After entering American academia in 1949, LSD became a key concern of the CIA and became a top priority of the famous "MK-ULTRA" program.
The plan was proposed by then-C.I.A. Director Alan Dulles, who wanted to use it not only as a "truth-telling agent" against prisoners and spies, but also on foreign leaders, including but not limited to Cuban leader Castro and Egyptian leader Nasser.
(MK-ULTRA program, which includes truth-telling agents and mind control experiments)
But the CIA soon discovered that taking it on different occasions had a completely different effect on efficacy, and large-scale human trials in a non-experimental state were necessary to find the pattern. Therefore, the CIA also openly recruits volunteers from the community, and it is said that volunteers can receive a daily remuneration of $75.
A writer named Ken Kersey, who also participated in the experiment, felt like he had entered a "new world" after taking LSD. Under the illusion, he entered the inner world of the mentally ill, substituted himself into the role of the patient, and thus created the famous "Flying Over the Madhouse". The film adaptation of the novel won five awards at the 48th Academy Awards in 1976, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Queen of Film. The protagonist in the work, who pursues freedom and rebels against the authority of the head nurse and the madhouse, is actually based on Ken Kexi himself.
(Ken Kersey and the movie version of The Insane Asylum poster)
In 1963, the Swiss pharmaceutical company Sandos, which produced LSD, expired. Theoretically, any business or individual could produce the drug. Ken Kexi's friend, a chemist named Augusta Osley Stanley III, improved production techniques to stabilize LSD production for Ken Kexi while also making the drug more pure.
The duo often host LSD parties in their villas in San Francisco in order to introduce the new drug, which can give people strong hallucinations, to others.
At that time, these two were not for profit, but selflessly "shared". Because they hope that more artists and creators can create unique works with the "help" of LSD.
(Augusta Osley Stanley III)
Ken Kersey argues that LSD is different from regular drugs, and that hallucinations so intense that no drug can give them. The earliest use of hallucinogenic drugs was religious sacrifices, where sacrifices or shamans usually entered a "hallucinogenic state" after taking some herbs in order to talk to the "gods". Hence his belief that LSD is sacred and that those who want to try it must go through the so-called "acid test."
This test can highlight the sanctity of LSD, and those who pass the test are like joining a church, taking LSD is no longer a personal act, and most users no longer enjoy it alone, but are more inclined to experience it with friends, which makes it easier to enter the "benign fantasy tour" under the hint of the group. The loose group of creators of "Have Medicine Together Hi", this is the predecessor of hippies.
In a way, in the eyes of hippies, the act of "sharing" drugs in drinks and food to passers-by at music festivals is not malicious, but a "good deed" based on the principle of sharing (pure bullshit).
("Acid Test" poster)
4
The "believers" of the "LSD religion" soon gathered.
One of its earliest "believers" included the famous rock band The Grateful Dead. The chemist Stanley III, who was not only proficient in LSD production, but also knew circuits, sponsored various effects to the Undead Band to make their electric guitars produce strange sounds to simulate "psychedelic" effects. This even gave birth to an important genre in rock and roll – Psychedelic Rock. With this new style, LSD quickly became popular in the music scene. The famous Beatles also turned to psychedelic after experimenting with LSD.
Rock and roll, drugs, religion, these "three artifacts" that hippies regard as holy relics are interconnected. In the eyes of hippies who love religion and mysticism, LSDs create illusions that allow them to come into contact with the gods. There is even a saying that human consciousness is a filter on the real world, that the world seen by normal people is false, and that only the "spiritual new world" seen after taking LSD is real.
(The iconic hippie aesthetic, the brilliant colors come from the illusion of LSD)
By the end of 1965, the number of LSD users in the United States had reached 4 million. In the 2011 documentary The Truth About Drugs, multiple interviewees said they were introduced to LSD for the first time by a friend. In 1960, 4 percent of Americans aged 15-18 had been exposed to drugs, and 12 years later, in 1972, that number climbed to a terrible 50 percent. In 1969, an average of one in three people at 57 universities in the United States was an "addict."
During this period, San Francisco, California, became the home base of hippies, and the city was full of freaks in fancy costumes and drug addictions. The hippies' loose organizational structure also provides shelter for a small number of criminals, who can rape women in the name of "sexual liberation"; Under the name of "acid testing", drugs are sold openly.
(LSD list price $1.00 Tong Sou No Fraud)
In 1966, then-California Governor Ronald Reagan declared LSD an illegal drug in order to combat the proliferation of hippies and LSD, which was tantamount to cutting off the hippies' "spiritual food."
But the "authority" of the state government was soon torn apart by another "authority."
On January 14, 1967, a peculiar gathering was held on the lawn of San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. More than 25,000 people came here, sitting on the grass reading, chatting, playing the piano, singing, and the atmosphere was peaceful. The event, dubbed the "Great Gathering of Mankind," was organized by the Oracle, a well-known local hippie newspaper, which invited Timothy Leary to give a speech.
Who is this Timothy Leary? He was originally a psychology professor at Harvard University, believing that psychedelic drugs might help with psychological development and growth, so he publicly supported the use of LSD hallucinogens, called "brain vitamins", and was fired by Harvard in 1963 for using students to do LSD experiments. Later U.S. President Richard Nixon called him "the most dangerous man in the world."
(Timothy Leary (first from right) in "The Great Gathering of Humanity")
At the end of that speech, Lilly uttered three phrases word for word: "Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out." This later became an important slogan of the hippie movement.
He later explained in an autobiography that Turn On meant liberating one's sensory organs, examining the inner world, and experiencing different levels of perceptual consciousness. Tune In means paying attention to everything around you, allowing your consciousness to harmonize with your surroundings. Drop Out means no longer relying on external forces, believing in the power in your head, and relying on this force to reach the peak of happiness.
But the former Harvard professor apparently overestimated the audience.
When all he said reached the hippies' ears, there were only two words left—drug use and avoidance. Although hippies have long practiced these two points, now that they have a Harvard professor to endorse them, they are undoubtedly more convinced of the rationality of their actions.
At the same time, many media also "black to powder" after seeing the peaceful atmosphere of the "great gathering of mankind" and began to publicize the "love and peace" advocated by hippies, saying that the summer of 1967 would be a "summer of love".
However, no one will think that after the middle of summer, it will be a cold winter.
5
At the end of the 1960s, the development of drugs, religion, and music suffered setbacks after its peak.
(Destroy the hippies' "three-plate axe")
The mental problems, crimes and acts of violence caused by drugs have overwhelmed society and governments. In the late 1960s, faced with the proliferation of drugs, the U.S. government established the Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs Bureau and controlled the abuse of LSD through laws such as the Rehabilitation Act for Narcotic Addicts and the Various Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act.
On December 6, 1969, the Rolling Stones performed a show at the Attamont Motor Speedway in Northern California. The concert became a violent disaster: one spectator was stabbed to death by gangsters, one died of a hit-and-run, and the other drowned in the water after taking an overdose of LSD; At the same time, several injuries and car thefts occurred, resulting in significant property damage. The slogan "Love and Peace" became a joke in the face of violence.
Charles Manson, the leader of the Hippie Commune organization The Manson Family, claimed to be the reincarnation of Jesus to lead the believers in apocalyptic war. In August 1969, the "Manson family" planned a series of murders, the most famous of which was the "Sharon Tate's Door Killing Case". The killer brutally murdered and disfigured Sharon Tate, who was eight months pregnant, and friends who came to her house to party were not spared. The killer also wrote insulting language such as "pig monkey" on the wall with the blood of the victim.
Under the frenzy of the hippies, a terrible cult has been derived.
(Victim Sharon Tate)
All of this became the wake-up call to the hippie of the 60s – idealism ended here.
Most importantly, the capitalist world of the 70s fell into a trough, accompanied by the oil crisis, inflation, economic stagnation, high unemployment... Ensued.
Once, material abundance made people put forward higher requirements for the quality of life, and the difficult reality made the "hippie generation" have to return to reality, because the American society in the 70s could not bear any idealism such as "love and peace" and "the power of flowers", let alone the "traitors" who raised the banner of "enemies" in their own countries and the addicts on the streets.
(Demonstrators holding the Flag of the Southern National Liberation Front (Viet Cong))
After the hippie movement, the United States has never had a movement of such a great impact. Even in the 1990s, when the economy was back at a high rate, the younger generation did not recognize the values of the "previous generation" and did not create a second hippie movement. As we said earlier, the fanaticism of drugs, religion and rebellion is the embodiment of a "spiritual emptiness."
So, does the ebb and flow of hippies and LSD represent the "spiritual abundance" of American youth after that? I'm afraid not.
As the hippie and LSD craze receded, consumption and entertainment followed. New consumerism began to pay attention to the psychological needs of the younger generation, no longer suppressing the personality of young people, and even doing the opposite, with the so-called "individuality" and "limited quantity" as the selling point, which is still the case today. After all, today, the bricks printed with the logo can be fried for 380 US dollars, and jeans with holes are always more expensive than those without holes.
(Forgive me for not being able to understand this kind of earth dog)
The so-called "individuality" and "rebellion" are nothing more than a more diverse choice of consumption, but one of the countless paths arranged by capital for the masses.
These original "anti-consumption" and "anti-capital" characteristics have been priced by capital and become commodities waiting for the consumption of the young generation. Those who question traditional values, who are confused about themselves, and who are under pressure from society, are all covered up by consumption and entertainment.
I am afraid that the "hippies" have not disappeared, but have finally been disciplined by capitalism.
Resources:
Fifty Years of Hippie, Greenwich Hippie Research Commune
Chronicles - 68-70 - Psychedelic Rock, Voice of San Francisco, Guo Jia
Popular Science Issue 1: CIA, LSD, The Beat Generation, Xalluci Gen
"LSD Abuse and the Spiritual Confusion of Affluent Societies" Takaharu Chang
Drug Abuse, Promiscuity, Cultural Reflection? What kind of social movement is the hippie [Historical Story Society]" President Liu