LSD Redux

"This is the dawning of the Age of Aquarius"

The words were sung by the cast of HAIR in 1969. The year was marked by Altamont, bad LSD, and the inauguration of Richard M Nixon. Aquarius was an unattainable dream state for the hippies, unless you were high of LSD and millions of us dropped acid to touch the sky.

My friends John Gilmour, Tommy Jordan, and Mark McLaughin celebrated 1971's psychedelic 4th of July in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. We were 18 and the Rolling Stones' BROWN SUGAR was #1. The Orange Sunshine peaked on the banks of the Saco River. The mountain stream rushing over glacial rocks spoke a primordial language. Our teenage ears listened to the teachings and we obeyed the command to submerge our bodies in the conversation of the rushing water. Tuckerman's Ravine was covered with the winter's snow. We were immune to the river's frigid flow. A young boy emerged from the forest. He asked us why we were sitting in the water.

"To hear it speak." Tommie answered without hesitation. He was the most spiritual of us. Tommie was a high school hockey star. On ice his skating was almost holy.

"I don't near nothing but the water."

We cocked our ears to the current. He was right. It was only water. We stood up with goose-bumped skin.

"It's Jesus." John whispered with his retina opened to 11. The South Shore native was devoted the Zeppelin.

"Jesus." I might have been a non-believer, but I thought about the 12 year-old Messiah in the Temple. The boy was about his age. Before we could pose the right questions, a teenage girl in a tube top hurried from the underbrush. She was skinny in her hot pants. Our prophet attempted to escape from her clutches. Her fingers seized his ear. 'Jesus' squealed in defeat.

"Don't be talking to weirdos." She was about 17. Her eyes saw us for what we were, although weirdos was a little rough. We continued our trip on the rocks. The sun was hot. The river possessed its own music. Nothing played on the radio. We sang along with its lyrics until our throats were dry. Drinking the river seemed like a sacrament and we crashed out under the pine trees. The moon was our star. It was a good trip.

LSD fell out of favor in the 70s. The drug was too heavy for the times. The police hunted down the dealers. The quality guaranteed bad trips. Exactly what the Law wanted for such a powerful medicine. LSD basically went into extinction with Quaaludes, although most recently the psychedelic and 'shrooms' has been reborn to combat depression and addiction as well as opening the doors of perception.

Experimenters are intrigued by the hallucinogen's effects on the human brain to experience revelations, especially with the long-term influence on the taker's sense of well-being. Federal officials have approved further research into psychedelics, but are very careful to skirt the outrage of the Right, who feel the only real epiphanies come from contact with god.

“Under the influences of hallucinogens,” the leading expert says without reservation. “individuals transcend their primary identification with their bodies and experience ego-free states before the time of their actual physical demise, and return with a new perspective and profound acceptance of the life constant: change.”

His words only echo those of Timothy Leary.

“You're only as young as the last time you changed your mind.”

It's time for a new Age of Aquarius and this time we're serious.

Especially while listening to the Jefferson Airplane's AFTER BATHING AT BAXTER'S.