Psychedelia, p.68
Psychedelia, page 68
The limitations of the communal movement had become clear. It wasn't just a question of what most people wanted, but what was possible within this economic system. Money and resources were key. Even with pooling resources, starting a rural community was out of most people's reach. Poor folk could join a group but not start one. Americans were not radicalized to the point of land seizures. Organizing a group project like this requires a lot of skill, dedication, and luck. Most people found that even when a community gets going, group living isn't easy. Just getting along with one other person is difficult, so group living in an equal and democratic situation requires a lot of energy. City people often don't have a clue about what country living is really like or how to survive out there.
(John Curl, Memories Of Drop City, 2008)
Lessons learned from previous failures were applied as the true scope of the undertaking became clear. The historical roots and the accompanying literature were studied, along with contemporary input from the Diggers/Free Family and other counterculture think-tanks. As the focus shifted from starry-eyed explorations of nature to the practical realities of housing, plumbing and agriculture, questions arose around the psychedelic chemicals that had provided much of the original impulse for the rural exodus and its sense of community.
The LSD trip would render you ineffective for upwards 24 hours, while dozens of chores waited to be managed. This was not a trivial matter, but an issue that every counterculture commune was forced to deal with. Commune researcher Jens Unosson describes it as a process that developed over several years. Initially there was the classic acid party hedonist collective of the '60s, which was untenable beyond a couple of years (unless a liberal millionaire took you in). Among the serious communes that formed or had managed to survive in the early 1970s, the manual day-to-day work of house holding lead to a restriction of psychedelic drug use to designated communal celebrations, or even to the complete cessation of drug use (marijuana was typically always accepted). Even the occasional ritual festivity might prove problematic, as in the case of the agrarian New Buffalo commune in New Mexico, who were forced to abandon their yearly Solstice celebration after the many acidhead visitors unwittingly managed to lay damage to their crops and fields. A similar wariness of visitors caused Beat poet and counterculture Avatar Gary Snyder to keep his Sierra Nevada collective outside the Diggers' network of open, communal waystations. As described in McNally's Long Strange Trip, some saw in this the final blow to the original Haight-Ashbury community, the old vision of a coherent culture now replaced by shifting adaptations to local lifestyles.
The reconsidered view of psychedelics often emerged as a natural consequence of the new style of living, while at some places it was hotly debated and voted upon. Stephen Gaskin's large Tennessee Farm commune (with 1.500 members at its peak) which worked as a model for many similar enterprises during the '70s, found another reason to give up their use of acid at an early stage:
One of the greatest changes Stephen made in the interest of the 'big picture' was to give up LSD. By the time the Caravan arrived at Yellowstone, Stephen had made up his mind. As he explained to the gathered, and somewhat disbelieving Caravaners, they were now role models, examples, teachers in spite of themselves' Acid is a very powerful substance, not everyone can handle taking it, and Stephen didn't want to have people taking it just because they knew he and his community were' This was quite a change for the man who had been known as the 'acid guru' and who swore that acid had changed his life for the better, as did many of his students.
(A Short History Of The Farm, Michael Traugot, 1994)
The ban on LSD held through the entire time of Gaskin's leadership, although in all likelihood psychedelic experiences were still had inside and outside the Farm by some members. While LSD fell out of favor for several other reasons (it was not considered 'organic', and for the more remote communes such as the seasonally isolated Black Bear Ranch, simply not within reach to acquire), the entheogenic highs of mescaline and Psilocybin saw an upswing in popularity, both in the counterculture at large, and in the rural communes. As Jens Unosson points out, hippie collectives in the Western US like Free Family, New Buffalo and Red Rockers had established contacts with local Native American tribes, which led to a growing interest in peyote and its historical connections to the tribal land and culture.
Much like how some hippies chose to follow an Eastern yogi path, there were those who truly attached themselves to the Peyote Road, and gave up LSD entirely. The typical view would be to take acid as a more straightforward party drug with no special rituals or mystique, while peyote was seen as a sacrament taken once or twice a year, under designated spiritual forms.
(Jens Unosson, private communication)
The psilocybian mushrooms which grow abundantly across most of the USA were adopted for similar 'organic' reasons, even if there was no local tradition of usage to attach oneself to.
Unlike the '60s where several early communes were based entirely on the common use of LSD (such as Millbrook, the Brotherhood Of Eternal Love and the Mel Lyman Family), the entheogen practice among some '70s communes was more of a sidetrack to the main project of sustaining and developing the shared household. The common artistic element could in some cases, such as the popular authors living at Packer Corner, contribute profits to the egalitarian economy in a way that the agriculture and animal husbandry could not. The mix of intellectual and manual work would also help stimulate the self-perception and reality checks of the projects, in addition to producing a large number of well-written biographical reminiscences. Other communes like Gaskin's Farm drew almost its entire intellectual founding from its leader, and for that reason the daily living dealt primarily with classic manual labor.
As the 1970s rolled on, the public lost interest in the communal experiment, and the surviving counterculture collectives had by now learned the advantages of staying local and low- key, and went about their business undisturbed. The rural-communal trend, which had originated on the US coasts in the mid-'60s, slowly spread across the Western world to a point where there were both classic agrarian collectives and variants on urban 'free cities' in almost every nation. These '70s projects usually post-dated the radical psychedelic and political upheavals that marked the late '60s, and for that reason could operate with less turmoil than their American predecessors. Towards the end of the 1970s, there was a huge number of collectives on both sides of the Atlantic, ranging from isolationist religious sects to well-functioning agrarian cooperatives. The psychedelic drugs, whose hedonistic-pantheistic bonding provided an impetus for the original rural migration, had lost much of their importance.
The later part of the '70s is poorly documented but the main impression is that the era of drugs was by and large past (marijuana excepted). Those involved had grown older and often adjusted themselves and become accepted in the area, at times even as pillars of local society. Their outward expression had mellowed somewhat, while some of the key ideas of the 'green' counterculture had been picked up by the public at large, such as ecological awareness. There are those who still today engage in psychedelic experiments in order to keep the spiritual channel open, through shamanic drumming rituals or with peyote or mushrooms. LSD on the other hand seems to be a drug where the use has moved on to entirely different cultures and people.
(Jens Unosson, ibid.)
In all these communes people come and go, as they do in any form of social organization. These are private decisions of no small importance, in view of the impact it has on every aspect of one's life. Those who have lived in a genuine, independent commune over a longer period of time usually have a desire to share their experiences, and there is a number of testimonials to read. Surveying the literature, the most common reason for leaving a commune is the same as what derailed Brook Farm in the mid-19th century; the consolidated household economy simply isn't enough. The question of initial financing is of utmost importance in forming the commune, yet some will feel that a 'rich man ticket' goes against the ideological drive behind the self-subsidizing collective. As children are born at the commune, the household balance is shifted towards new and often unique needs, without any corresponding increase in productivity.
The other main reason is the social one already mentioned; living closely together in a situation of mutual dependence requires very strong bonds between the members. In the formative days this will frequently be in place, especially so among fellow acidheads, but as some leave and new people arrive, there will always be mismatched characters and conflicts, often made stronger by the external hardships. The Drop City book cited above devotes a large portion of its pages in detailing the hopeless clashes between certain commune members. The disenchanted author goes so far as to suggest that '…communes were more a place of temporary retreat from society for [middle class] people, than a method to reform society'. Another aspect of the social problems can be found in a round-table interview with dropouts from Gaskin's Farm.15 While poor living standards are given as the main reason, internal battles over social positions in the hierarchy under Gaskin and the inability to speak in open-hearted terms to the leader are frequently mentioned. Of course, these are problems that will arise in any large, permanent group or organization, yet it proves that some of mankind's less attractive qualities do not disappear just because one lives together and close to nature.
Discounting the weekend hippies and middle class trend-jumpers who came and went briefly in the late '60s, it is tempting to view the rejection of the urban lifestyle that came to signify the hippie counterculture as a logical next step in zeitgeist demographics, from the suburban '50s over the urban '60s and into the rural '70s, each shift a reaction upon the one before it. But the comfort of familiar Hegelian dialectics should not obscure the unique factors at play during the rural commune phase, such as a rejection of modern technology, a distrust of modern science and healthcare, and a significant attention on diet with often mandatory vegetarianism. These attitudes are hardly obvious in the building of an intentional commune, and some of them look increasingly peculiar in retrospect. Technology is, more than anything else, a facilitator for living in retreat, not a hindrance. Qualified healthcare should be more important than ever when a large group of men, women and children settle in a completely unfamiliar environment. While few would question their rejection of TV dinners and backyard barbecues, many hippie communes went so far into primitivism as to become illogical. The curious mix of rational and irrational tenets may indicate that they were still revolting against the suburban 1950s world of hi-tech gadgets and impersonal medical progress which their parents represented. Beyond the spiritual Utopia that the pastoral hippies envisioned on acid, the gathering into communes represented a new chapter in an ongoing protest, and this new phase ran so deep that it rejected not only traditional family life, but the concept of the nuclear family itself. The members of the commune were all sisters and brothers, and their leader may even be called 'Father'.
The migration to rural communes as a trend is strongly associated with the 1970s, but as shown above it is also an undertaking with deep historical roots and a profound attraction to a certain proportion of citizens in any time or place. Many of the communes that were founded back in the hippie era are still around, both in the USA and rural Europe, often with new gen erations taking over the main responsibilities. The counterculture exodus was an act of low-key rebellion to some extent, but underneath the zeitgeist gestures something more vital and profound made itself heard. A picture that has emerged in the 2000s is the diffusion of the collective lifestyle to a larger area surrounding the original homestead, which partly operates as a joint cultural nexus for non-resident people pursuing similar, alternate lifestyles. Long-running communes such as Black Bear, Packer Corner and Alpha Farm have become natural focal points for independent families and former commune members who have taken residence in the surrounding area.
Notes
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1 Excerpted from a poem by Richard Brautigan printed in The Realist's special Diggers issue, 1968.
2 The complete Source Family story is in The Source published by Process, while the recordings of the various family bands can be found on a comprehensive CD box-set titled God & Hair (Captain Trips, 1999). It should be pointed out that the records, usually credited to 'Yahowa 13', are considered the main attraction in the Family universe by many psychedelicists. The most highly rated among the dozen LPs are Contraction, Expansion and Penetration (1973-74), all of which contain guitar-driven underground acidrock of a world-class quality. The Source Recipe Book mixes Yod's original vegetarian recipes with recollections of the Family days and some photos. Father Yod's teachings (a heterogenous but stringent blend of hatha yoga, tantra, Kabbalah, and other esoteric schools) can be found in the compact Liberation volume. Both books are privately printed by the revived Source Family.
3 The noted French writer-philosopher Michel Houellebecq repeatedly invokes Huxley's late writings in his works, with The Possibility Of An Island (2005) drawing directly upon Huxley's final novel. Houellebecq's concerns are more sociological-ethical than spiritual, yet he recognizes the necessary presence of psychedelic drugs in society, and goes to far as to pronounce Huxley one of the most important thinkers of the 20th century.
4 The IFIF center in Mexico is described in the paper 'The Rationale of The Mexican Psychedelic Training Center', which appears in Richard Blum's anthology Utopiates (1964) and has never been reprinted. Written mainly in Leary's declamatory style, it lists several program points covered by the Zihuatanejo center, including the mapping of trip experiences, the development of an experiential language and the programming of sessions. The outcome of these projects, to whatever extent they were performed, has not been presented in any detail. The main purpose of the center was to train people with some experience to be able to lead psychedelic sessions. An outside perspective on Zihuatanejo is offered via 'An Experiment In Transpersonative Living' by Joseph Downing, also in Utopiates. Downing's account is largely favorable, but points to the lack of scientific rigour and the flexible, semi-improvised nature of the educational program, both of which strengthen the impression of a lifestyle experiment rather than a 'training center'. Interestingly, the intervention of two Mexican curanderas is said to have contributed to the IFIF group's expulsion from Mexico, in addition to a few freak-out episodes and physical injuries.
5 According to Art Kleps, the Church Of The Awakening existed until 1970-71 when it closed its doors after losing a court case over fiscal matters. Kleps mentions Walter Houston Clark as one of the Church's directors, suggesting that the Aikens' organization may have been more widestretched than its modest legacy suggests. An early article by Aiken titled 'Can Drugs Lead You To God?' can be found in Fate magazine, May 1963. Aiken devotes much space to peyote, an indication that he too may have chosen the 'church' designation for his spiritual center to take advantage of the special Native American legislation.
6 With the original Harvard trio having partly abandoned ship, the Millbrook commune at the time housed three different spiritual organizations; Leary's League, Kleps' Neo-American Church, and Bill Gaines' more traditional hindu ashram. In the Millbrook book, everyone including Kleps himself comes out looking like an egomaniac fool, though the sharpest poison is spared for Timothy Leary who seems to have been a spectre haunting Kleps solipsist dreams, judging by the amount of textual space spent on the mentor -turned-traitor. His attacks upon Leary continued in a High Times interview in 1976. Ironically, Leary does not mention Kleps a single time in his Flashbacks memoir. Kleps passed away in 1999, 71 years old.
7 DPT appears to be best taken by smoking the freebase (like DMT), but can also be insufflated or administered intravenously. The effect and duration vary substantially depending on the method. Unlike DMT it works orally without an MAOI, yet the effects are reportedly better and more predictable with an MAOI to cr eate a 'propyl- huasca'. The drug was briefly available in wider circles in the 1990s, and is discussed at length in the Entheogen Review journal. For the precise difference between DPT and DiPT, see TiHKAL p430.
8 The only formal post-event documentation from the Berkeley 1966 LSD conference appears to be an obscure book by Roger E Lamb, Impressions of the LSD Conference (1967). Ralph Metzner wrote a summary of the proceedings in the East Village Other. A few months shy of the illegalization of LSD, the subject had become controversial enough for a late-date transfer of venue to San Francisco State, along with the dropping of Allen Ginsberg from the participant list. These changes may have contributed to the poor attention the gathering was given, despite a list of panel members that included Richard Alpert and Timothy Leary, future Zen master and event organizer Richard Baker, LSD researchers Frank Barron, Sidney Cohen and Abram Hoffer, anthropologist Michael Harner, Claudio Naranjo, and Huston Smith. The mandatory 'trippy' multi-media experience was provided by USCO. Huston Smith restated his basic arguments from the conference in a 1967 essay titled 'Psychedelic Theophanies And The Religious Life'.
9 Huston Smith's mescaline trip and its context is described by Smith himself in Ralph Metzner's anthology The Ecstatic Adventure (1968); the essay appeared more recently in Smith's own 'Cleansing The Doors Of Perception', which also includes his vital 1964 and 1967 essays.
