Prometheus Unbound

So what is this bus, and what is its purpose? The bus in the banner is Furthur, a 1939 International Harvester that became the notorious acid test on wheels that Kesey and the Merry Pranksters sent careening across the country in the hopes of bringing the cultural revolution to the backwaters of America; “bringin’ on the party where they need it the most.” The original mission back in 1964 was to travel cross-country with large amounts of LSD kool-aid (can you imagine what this election would have been like if Pamperbots had been drinking that instead of the crap handed out by Camp Pamp?), the East Coast destination being New York, for the publishing party for "Sometimes a Great Notion."

The unbaptised hear the words “electric kool-aid acid test” and think of stoned hippies leaping from windows thinking they’re birds, or acid casualties roaming the streets, permanently zoned from one too many trips. But the Acid Tests were not about escaping, they were about burning things down, specifically the conformity of the 50’s, most notably represented by McCarthyism, a time of American fascism and fear (sound familiar?). Kesey was a government LSD test subject, perhaps the biggest mistake they ever made. Whoops! Who let this guy in? Robert Hunter, lyricist for the Grateful Dead, was also part of the study.  They told their associates they had to try this stuff. Well, the secret got out during a period when LSD was legal. Kesey understood the potential LSD held for unlocking the mind, and unlike the East Coast School, led by Timothy Leary, that sought to use the drug in controlled settings to help ease the mind into certain scenarios for the purpose of healing,and expanding consciousness, Kesey and the Pranksters espoused the notion that this was a vehicle for the releasing the unbridled mind; essentially the difference between looking in the mirror and smashing it.

The real aim for Kesey was not getting high, or getting other people high. It was the unshackling of the human soul and spirit. Only when one was able to step out of the culturally induced illusions of success, career, home life, and nationalism could one really be able to explore the full potential of the self, and learn to see the world from a place of pure freedom.  In many ways he was a modern Prometheus, and LSD was his fire.

The butterfly effect of that revolution is still rippling through our fabric. It even got to me as a suburban elementary school student in the 70's.  It was because of Kesey and the Pranksters that I discovered that my teachers were liars.  They tried to scare us away from drugs with ginormous lies like; one drop of pure LSD in the water system of a football stadium could kill everyone who drank from it. Unfortunately for them I knew that wasn’t true because I had heard of the Pranksters already (when rock ‘n’ roll is your hobby you hear stuff). I knew they ate the acid, and I knew they weren’t dead. Naturally the next logical step was to figure out what else the teachers were lying about.  Turned out it was a lot. I never trusted a word that came out of a teacher again; worst and best thing that ever happened…a lot like taking the red pill. That knowledge set me free, but it was not without its burdens. 

Can you imagine what it’s like to go to school day after day knowing that you cannot confirm or deny the things coming out of your teachers’ mouths? I would spend hours after school in the library cruising through microfilmed articles on anything from South American politics to astronomy, just to take in information that I felt I at least had some control over. I finally came to the conclusion that the only thing you can even begin to consider to be true is what you experience first hand. Any information you glean from an outside source could potentially be completely false. This blog that you’re reading right now might not even exist…or maybe I’ve put a widget in your brain…BOO!  It was difficult at times, but in the final analysis I wouldn’t change a thing. I learned to see the world in ways I otherwise would not have. I learned to trust my instincts and my intuition. In many respects those things are your most powerful weapons. Learn to trust yourself. We live among a great many liars.

Now don’t confuse me and think I’m saying you have to eat LSD in order to open your mind. Kesey and the Pranksters put on an Acid Test Graduation to mark the transition beyond consuming LSD. They used it to open the doors they needed to walk through and were ready to go back to the world no longer needing to consume it. If you allow yourself to understand that the world is not black and white, not what you think it is, and that you have to stab through the mask, as Melville might say, then you’re well on your way.  

I got to spend a little time with Carolyn Adams Garcia, Mountain Girl on the bus, back in the mid 90’s. It was a finishing of a circle for me. We talked about this and that. I got to thank her for all she and the rest of the Pranksters did for me; paving the way and breaking the ground that allowed me to liberate myself.  It was a revolution, and it’s not over yet.  In 2007 Garcia did an interview as part of the San Francisco Chronicle’s retrospective on the “Summer of Love.” She said something that pretty much sums it up for me, “I think that a lot of it is about having given ourselves permission to be weird. We gave ourselves permission. We also gave other people permission to be weird. Try to think outside of the box of convention. I think that's been terribly useful.”

If there was ever a time to give yourself permission to be weird, it’s now!

So what is the purpose of the Oh...My Valve Bus?  It's essentially the same; to encourage you to look at the world a little differently, expand the view, get your weird on, and share your gifts with the zombies because they're the reason we keep having to go through this crap again and again.

What's your acid test? What are you going to do to alter your perception of the world, expand your horizons, and set yourself free from the market forces selling America Hope and Change (ironically, the remaining members of the Grateful Dead, the house band for the acid tests, were completely bamboozled by Pampers)? What are you going to do to bring a little circus to the American scene?  What are you going to do to repair the world?

For those of you just starting to wake up here are some tips for the American journey that lies ahead:

1. Nothing is what it seems.
2. Everything has at least two meanings.
3. Only believe what you experience, and then question it.
4. Be as human as possible.  In other words, when faced with any situation, ask yourself, "What would Prometheus do?"
5. Get in shape.  If you're going to do this journey right you're going to have to be in decent condition.
6. Work to break the pattern of Kesey's Postulate: "In any given situation there are always going to be more dumb people than smart people."  You have to be one of the smart people.  Swell the ranks so that we can have more smart people in any given situation than dumb people.  How's that for a tipping point?
7. Have fun and get your weird on!