- ISBN13: 9780802135872
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Storming Heaven digs beneath the headlines to bring an amazing science story in which Harvard professors become holy men, and a generation drops out to seek cosmic bliss–only to find something much darker…. More >>
Storming Heaven: LSD and the American Dream
“Storming Heaven” has been selected for listing in “Religion and Psychoactive Sacraments: An Entheogen Chrestomathy”.
Rating: 5 / 5
This was a very good book. You get lots of interesting stuff about Aldous Huxley, the famous beat writers, Owsley, Timothy Leary, Ken Kesey and the evolution of the so called counterculture as a whole.
The problems that I have with Storming Heaven is not for what was in it but what was left out. For one Stevens was WAY too easy on Timothy Leary. The author seemed almost like a school girl with a crush when he recounts his visit to Learys home for an interview for the book. He comes off more as a fan than he does an objective writer at times when he deals with Leary. Why wasn’t it mentioned that it has come out that Leary was a government informant and information he gave led to the death of two members of the Weather Underground? Its also a known fact that Leary was surrounded by CIA assets and there is a lot of evidence that he was a government agent himself, and at the least he was feeding them information.
There is also a fleeting mention that wasn’t elaborated on about Ken Kesey that he had LSD experiments done on him at Stanford by the guy that ended up in charge of the CIAs Mkultra mind control program. This really makes me wonder about Kesey. Its more or less accepted history that the first LSD to get out on the street level was what Kesey stole from the medicine chest at his job as a night shift janitor at a mental hospital and distributed it among his elitist friends. Kesey went from writing what was probably the best novel written during the 1960’s to, while becoming a counterculture hero, never writing another thing worth reading again. Did doing too much LSD scramble his brains and ruin his creativity or was his creativity nullified by Mkultra programming? Its hard to say for sure but I have to wonder if Kesey was not under some sort of mind control or was being used by the CIA in one way or another. There are a lot of unanswered questions in my mind about Kesey.
They also fleetingly mention the Brotherhood of Eternal Love who were major LSD distributors and were known to be full of CIA people and had a close association with a Jewish man named Ron Starks who was a CIA spook that also happened to the biggest LSD dealer in the world. Starks was not even given the first mention in this book!
I mean with all these ivy league, Mkultra and CIA connections to the elites of the so called counterculture I have to seriously wonder how much of the hippy movement of the late 60’s was an organic rebellion against what was (and still is) a very repressive society both socially and politically and how much of it was intentional social engineering that came from the highest levels of the power structure. Many people believe that the anti-war movement was flooded with drugs, in particular LSD, by federal agents. Its well known that the government tried to subvert and destroy the anti-war movement with the cointelpro program so why wouldn’t they also use drugs to try to destroy it? While it can’t be denied that LSD has enhanced many an artist, writer and musicians work can you honestly say that sitting around frying on acid all the time is going to do anything but disable political activists who in many cases were in a life and death struggle? Besides that the fact remains that many people became permanently damaged as result of doing acid.
All that said I would definitely recomend reading or of you can get it cheap, buying Storming Heaven. I could hardly put it down once I started reading it. I realize that this book was more geared toward looking into what psychelic drugs can do with the mind and its exponents history and theories on the subject than any conspiratorial maneuverings by the US government involving LSD but it just didn’t go deep enough into the rabbit hole for my tastes.
Rating: 4 / 5
Obviously, the subject of LSD is a touchy one, yet Jay Stevens’ painstaking research gains the trust of the reader early and maintains it throughout. I am a chemist, and he describes the circumstances surrounding the discovery of LSD perfectly. My father is a psychologist, and he was surprised at Jay Stevens’ insights into the state of psychological research in the post-war era. This book is much more of a social history than it is a history of LSD- I only wish Jay Stevens would write more books.
Rating: 5 / 5
An amazing compilation of the scene! If you took the psychedelic drugs, you were blown away by what was happening. If you didn’t take the psychedelic drugs, I hope you were blown away by what was happening. If you weren’t taking the drugs and/or weren’t blown away, then read this book, it is your last chance. War, Karma, Instant Nirvana, the nature of consciousness and mental illness…It is your mind; examine it!
Rating: 5 / 5
When generation X looks back on the past, it’s easy to get the picture. Cheech and Chong and Woodstock right? Jay Stevens who obviously feels this stereotyping is getting out of hand, sends us 19 to 30 range on a magic carpet ride. Storming Heaven distributes the controversial substance LSD in a form uunlike most non fiction. Labratories and bordellos, parks and experiments come to life, while Stevens carefully rations narcotic expertise with historical fact. This books provides anyone wanting crystal clear perspective about LSD as well as history in the last half century. Right down to the bicycle ride home.(I’ll let you find out)
Rating: 4 / 5