Acid
Dreams: The Complete Social History of LSD:
The
CIA, the Sixties, and Beyond
by Martin A. Lee, Bruce
Shlain
From Back Book Cover
Acid Dreams is the complete social
history of LSD and the counterculture it helped to define in the sixties.
Martin Lee and Bruce Shlain's exhaustively researched and astonishing account
- part of it gleaned from secret government files - tells how the CIA became
obsessed with LSD as an espionage weapon during the early 1950s and launched
a massive covert research program, in which countless unwitting citizens
were used as guinea pigs. Though the CIA was intent on keeping the drug
to itself, it ultimately couldn't prevent it from spreading into the popular
culture, here LSD had a profound impact and helped spawn a political and
social upheaval that changed the face of America. From the clandestine
operations of the government to the escapades of Timothy Leary, Abbie Hoffman,
Ken Kesey and his Merry Pranksters, Allen
Ginsberg and many others, Acid Dreams provides an important and entertaining
account that goes to the heart of a turbulent period in our history.
Martin A. Lee is the co-founder of FAIR (Fairness
& Accuracy in Reporting) and co-author of Unreliable
Sources: A Guide to Detecting Bias in News Media. His writing has
appeared in Newsday the San Francisco Chronicle, Spin,
and the Village Voice.
Bruce Shlain is the author of Oddballs
and Baseball Inside Out. He has written for the New York Times,
Rolling Stone, and other publications.
Customer Comments
emersona@jps.net from Sierra
Foothills CA, September 5, 1999
LSD: What a Long Strange Trip.......
and it ain't over yet...
This is surprisingly one of the best books
I have read. The authors give a colorfully accurate account of the events
that occurred decades ago, all of which still echo into our current era.
It covers the origin of LSD, as a drug the CIA funded research on for use
as a tool for mind control applications using civilians and military personnel
as test subjects. At the very outset, it was obvious that the CIA was well
aware of the potential power of this substance in its ability to wreak
havoc on the collective psyche, to shatter current assumptions and threaten
cherished ego boundaries. Yet, eventually it became available to the masses
who would come to extol it's use religiously and otherwise... giving rise
to the groundswell of counterculture in the 60's. This book, more than
any other source I have encountered, explores the underlying causes of
the demise of the cultural/political/self re-evolution of that time and
gives us pause to reflect on the politics of consciousness - to see who
really won The War Of The Mind. Proof again that truth "however relative"
is stranger than fiction. Be informed.... read this book.
A reader from Dallas, Texas,
January 20, 1999
When I bought this book I expected it to
be just another book about LSD, but after I finished I knew more than I
ever thought I would ever know. I could not put it down and neither could
my friends.
Joey D. (Magiktryps@aol.com)
from Tenn., December 10, 1998
Mother Should I Trust the Government?
Well, Well, Well, so Uncle Sam has some
blood on his hands after all. For any good conspiracy buff this is the
book: mass testing of LSD on unwitting civilians, cover-up and lies, and
atrocities enough to make your teeth chatter that break just about every
law the boys in power ever made. Big no-nos on the parts of of our benign
government and their secret henchmen the CIA.
A reader, April 4, 1997
A compelling exposé of government
misconduct.
It's impossible to read the first part of
this book without wondering whether there are any real differences between
the National Socialist government in Germany during World War II and our
own government. The real question is why there is so little outrage over
all of this. The authors do a wonderful job of tracking the CIA's dangerous
drug experiments conducted on unwitting civilians (and military officers).
Couple this with the recent revelations about radiation experiments and
it seems to be time for a revolution.
* * *
Of course, the CIA's interest was in the
development of "perfect spies" who could not be "broken", and interrogation
techniques which could break through any psychiatric pre-conditioning.
This was all done in the name of "national security" - the catch words
which until today are still used to justify all manner of secrecy,
abuse and harm to innocent human being.
Willing psychiatrists seem eager and willing
to conduct these brutal experiments on their fellow man. This book analyzes
what sort of "logic" and people could and would do such things. As a "profession"
psychiatristy seem immune to questions of morality and decency which would
usually concern the rest of us. They are always ready to accept the money
from the government and do whatever is asked - no matter how uncivilized
and inhumane.
|
