Pubdate: Wed, 10 May 2006
Source: Monday Magazine (CN BC)
Copyright: 2006 Monday Publications
Contact:  http://www.mondaymag.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1150
Author: Phyllis Kahn

PSYCHEDELIC PAST ON HOLD

Re: Back to the Future, LastWord, April 6 - 12

"All that 1960s stuff" was really about the peaceful psychedelic 
revolution in consciousness and lots of great things came out of it, 
such as awareness that war-mongering and materialism are destructive, 
wasteful and futile. Renewed reverence for life manifested in the 
health food and holistic medicine movements and the environmental 
movement was also influenced by the peaceful psychedelic revolution 
in consciousness. However, mainstream society failed to give credit 
were credit is due - to psychedelics.

Basically, it was spiritual decadence that gave rise to the most 
significant discovery of the 20th century by a prominent Swiss 
scientist, Albert Hofmann, when he accidently discovered LSD while he 
was trying to find a cure for the migraine headache. His discovery 
was in sync with the sentiments of the '60s, as numerous people were 
desperate for an alternative to violence and materialism and opted to 
use LSD and marijuana to explore their conscious awareness, search 
for meaning and purpose in life and make the world a better place. 
Psychedelic churches mushroomed all over the world and efforts to 
obtain religious liberty (granted to the Native American Peyote Church) ensued.

Unfortunately, the new age of enlightenment was brutally quashed by a 
tidal wave backlash decades long that has inflicted the misery of 
repression and persecution on masses of people i.e. the "war on 
drugs." Profits before people became the order of the day and worship 
at the altar of the almighty dollar bill (now aptly called "loony") 
is the driving force behind our increasingly decadent society. 
However, we can't deny that we have all the tools we need to live 
peacefully in paradise if we'd dare to be courageous enough to 
venture "back to the future," a future we put on hold far too long.

Phyllis Kahn

Victoria
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman