A social history of LSD and the counterculture it helped to define in the Sixties. This 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 how the drug then spread into the popular culture.
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In the spring of 1942 General William "Wild Bill" Donovan, chief of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the CIA's wartime predecessor, assembled a half-dozen prestigious American scientists and asked them to undertake a top-secret research program. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
In the spring of 1942 General William "Wild Bill" Donovan, chief of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the CIA's wartime predecessor, assembled a half-dozen prestigious American scientists and asked them to undertake a top-secret research program. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful
By pandorauk
Format:Paperback
I ordered this book from Amazon after reading a chapter from it posted on a website about the mysterious death of Frank Olson, a US army physician who was slipped a dose of LSD at a CIA research meeting and soon after supposedly "jumped" from an 8th floor window of a hotel while in the company of two CIA agents. This book is a revelation, particularly to those who still believe that the CIA are the "good guys" and the guardians of US security, and that LSD was not introduced into public use until the advent of Timothy Leary and Oswald Owsley in the 1960's. It outlines in detail the development of the CIA's interest in LSD as a potential weapon against spies in the Cold War in the 1950's, following it's invention in the Sandoz laboratories, its use in the MK-Ultra project, and the CIA's completely unregulated "surprise" testing of the drug on their own staff, unknowing patients in mental institutions and unsuspecting members of the public. It also gives a very thorough overview of social change, potitics, music and drugs in America in the 1960's, and the part played by LSD in this once it was taken up as a "mind-expanding" drug by Leary, Huxley, the Beatles, Haight-Ashbury and the New Left in America. This is an extremely well-researched and written book which is in turn shocking, funny, disgusting and interesting. For anyone who already has a vague mistrust of the CIA's covert operations, the information here will more confirm their doubts. I had no idea before reading this book of the CIA's role in introducing LSD into America, and I think it should be essential reading for anyone who is interested in recent American history and social change. A great read from beginning to end - never boring, always intelligent, and full of amazing information.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Its a sad indictment of our world that there are only two books written about this amazing period. Acid Dreams and Storming Heaven. Both are quality books, but Storming Heaven is twice as thick as Acid Dreams and, I found anyway, gives a more mystical treatment of LSD. Acid Dreams is very political, but both books cover similar territory and so they can be read side by side. Prepare to have your jaw dropped by reading Acid Dreams, I know mine did!
So why should we take LSD seriously then? Well imagine this parallel history. Peasants break into Galileo's study, steal his telescope and party hard! After some hard telescopic mischief, the Pope goons smash all the telescopes and forbid the peasants from going anywhere near a telescope. Priests will from now-on scream from the pulpit that all telescopes are evil. This hysteria would have the effect of shutting down the promise of the revolution the telescope hailed and modern science. This is what happened to LSD!
Acid Dreams shows that, in the 1940's, psychedelics were not controversial and were in fact seen as the cutting edge in consciousness science. The psychedelic revolution took place at around the same time as the discovery of nuclear power. There was as much excitement about the promise of LSD as there was about the splitting of the atom. It's all in here.
I didn't know about LSD treating alcoholism, or the thousands of prestigious scientific journals raving about psychedelics and thousands of scientific research papers published on the therapeutic promise of LSD.
Acid Dreams mentions stuff about the psychedelic civil war between those following Timothy 'give it to the peasants' Leary, versus Aldous 'give it to the brightest and the best' Huxley.... Read more ›
So why should we take LSD seriously then? Well imagine this parallel history. Peasants break into Galileo's study, steal his telescope and party hard! After some hard telescopic mischief, the Pope goons smash all the telescopes and forbid the peasants from going anywhere near a telescope. Priests will from now-on scream from the pulpit that all telescopes are evil. This hysteria would have the effect of shutting down the promise of the revolution the telescope hailed and modern science. This is what happened to LSD!
Acid Dreams shows that, in the 1940's, psychedelics were not controversial and were in fact seen as the cutting edge in consciousness science. The psychedelic revolution took place at around the same time as the discovery of nuclear power. There was as much excitement about the promise of LSD as there was about the splitting of the atom. It's all in here.
I didn't know about LSD treating alcoholism, or the thousands of prestigious scientific journals raving about psychedelics and thousands of scientific research papers published on the therapeutic promise of LSD.
Acid Dreams mentions stuff about the psychedelic civil war between those following Timothy 'give it to the peasants' Leary, versus Aldous 'give it to the brightest and the best' Huxley.... Read more ›
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
The Complete Social History of LSD, the CIA, the '60s, and Beyond
by Martin A. Lee, Bruce Shlain This is 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 its use religiously and otherwise.....giving rise to the groundswell of counterculture in the 60's. This book, more than any other source 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 is stranger than fiction. Be informed.........read this book. Very detailed and well researched, with the whole lowdown on Albert Hoffman, Timothy Leary, The Brotherhood of Eternal Love, Ken Kesey and all the rest. The stories about CIA & US Army experiments using psychedelics are astonishing.
by Martin A. Lee, Bruce Shlain This is 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 its use religiously and otherwise.....giving rise to the groundswell of counterculture in the 60's. This book, more than any other source 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 is stranger than fiction. Be informed.........read this book. Very detailed and well researched, with the whole lowdown on Albert Hoffman, Timothy Leary, The Brotherhood of Eternal Love, Ken Kesey and all the rest. The stories about CIA & US Army experiments using psychedelics are astonishing.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
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.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good start but gets a bit less useful as it progresses
The early parts which detail the CIA's interest in and development of LSD as a possible weapon were revealing and some of the data given illustrates the grisly practice of the... Read more
Published 9 months ago by A. C. Phipps
5.0 out of 5 stars
A great read
Even though I haven't yet completed this book, I'm compelled to give it a five. Having been acquainted with the substance in question, it's fascinating to look back at its amazing... Read more
Published on 11 Aug 2009 by M. Swale
4.0 out of 5 stars
A wild ride indeed
We have here a comprehensive overview of the impact of LSD on American society in the 50s and 60s. One cannot help but be appalled at the callousness and trickery of the CIA people... Read more
Published on 2 Jun 2009 by David M. Hart
5.0 out of 5 stars
so interesting
A super book, just the sort of thing to read when you are pondering about the world and what other have though on the subject of LSD and other types of psychedelics, and its always... Read more
Published on 7 Nov 2001
5.0 out of 5 stars
Comprehensive. Great reporting and refreshingly even-handed!
Thankfully there are more level-headed souls around to chronicle these heady, swirling mythopoeic days than the curmudgeonly old troll of Aciddom, Art Kleps: The Chief Boo-hoo... Read more
Published on 6 Sep 1998
5.0 out of 5 stars
GROOVEN
THIS BOOK HELPED ME TO BETTER UNDERSTAND MY OWN EXPIERIENCES WITH LSD. NOW I AM ENLIGHTENED!!!
Published on 13 Jun 1998
4.0 out of 5 stars
Whatever happened to Owsley?
I read this book six or so years ago, and still remember it well. I was most amazed by the fact that once LSD got into the hands of the counterculture, it changed from a possible... Read more
Published on 20 Aug 1997
5.0 out of 5 stars
A jnightmare the US can never live down.
This book is the definitive source for the stupidity of the CIA and the US government for every using this horible stuff on any US service man or woman. Read more
Published on 7 Feb 1997
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