Customer Reviews

Storming Heaven: LSD and the American Dream

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I was born in 1960, so I was a little to young to appreciate the "Summer Of Love", Haight-Ashbury and the entire late 60's counter-culture movement. My fascination with that era began with Jimi Hendrix and other musicians associate with it. Most of the social aspects I was aware of were written by the "slanted" view of the media, teachers, politicians and parents; not the most objective of viewpoints
When I heard about this book I picked it up ... ASAP and was not disappointed. I will not go into lengthy discussions of this book like other reviewers (or even spell all the words correctly). While reading, Jay Stevens was placing me "there", "right there" where is was all happening from Aldous Huxley, to Timothy Leary and Ken Kesey.
The story unfolds "expertly" and the characters involved are so well described, it feels like I've met them personally.
While much of the information is public knowledge, there are many fascinating, generally unknown tidbits: from the CIA's LSD involvement to insights on Leary & Kesey.
Anyone who holds any interest in this subject will not be disappointed with this book. From someone who grew up on The Brady Bunch, The Monkees & Happy Days....this book is a definite eye opener into a cultural wave I wish I had been riding.... so "Turn On, Tune In & Get This Book".

What if you could take a pill or otherwise ingest some substance that would make you see your whole world totally differently than you have seen it before? How do you think your life would change, or would you be any different at all?

As we all know, even if we weren't there...this is a large part of what the 1960's were about. And this book provides a window into the web of events and players that emerged during that turbulent time in our evolution. In my view, it presents an unbiased social history of consciousness expanding chemistry and it's consequences on the human mind and by extension, upon the greater society as a whole. The author uses scenes that are vivid and intimate into the players that had major roles in this upheaval of the status qou - Tim Leary, Allen Ginsberg, Richard Alpert(aka. Ram Dass), Jack Kerouac, Ken Kesey, Aldous Huxley, to name just a few. And of course, they all had their own opinions on how the revolution was to proceed, with frequent disagreements. There is also considerable light shed on the fact that LSD, mescaline, psilocybin, and other compounds were being used with considerable effectiveness within parts of the psychoanalytic community for several years before the powers that be came in and put them back in the box. But even if they hadn't passed laws against these tools, it would have eventually come crashing down of it's own weight. In the end, it was too radical a departure from the societal norms and the movement itself had no real leaders. Leadership was anathema to the revolution, the paradox being that authority was what was being disempowered. The result is that the dream spiraled out of control and we eventually ended up with Ronald Raygun as President and we haven't quite been the same since.

The central question posed by this book seems to be: Who is the ultimate arbiter of what you do with your consciousness? I would suggest that if your answer involves anyone or anything outside your self, then you are not truely free.

It seems to me, as others have said, that the discovery of LSD ranks up there with the top scientific discoveries of the century. The mere fact alone that there exists a substance, 50 micrograms of which, would be sufficient to perhaps reorient your entire life and understanding of the universe, whether or not one ever actually tries it, is well worth remembering on those occasions when we get a little too self-preoccupied. This book documents the history of the reactions of various individuals as they encountered this substance through an amazingly varied set of contexts, and through an intricately woven web of connections. I have a mild annoyance with the book in that the author is relentless in his effort to remain 'above it all' and regards everything with an amused and detached air. It is a puzzling attitude in a way. But the stories he tells are all well-crafted and make compelling reading. His lack of reflection on the ultimate meaning of LSD for our view of what it is to be 'normal' may be quite intentional, but it seems to give the book an unnecessarily superficial orientation which I found a bit strange.

This investigative tour de force covers in great detail the years from 1943 (and a little before) up through the LSD hysteria circa 1965-7. I'm marking it down a star because of its inexplicable lack of an index, which greatly reduces its value as a research reference -- which it surely deserves to be. There are so many biographies trying to be told simultaneously here that it sometimes got a bit confusing. It also tends to go off on occasional tangents, digressing at what to me seemed like too great a length regarding some of the characters of the story which (again) to me seemed more like minor ones not worth the many background pages devoted to them. But those are rather small quibbles really.

Stevens is pretty good at keeping central issues front and center as events unfold: eg, how the psychological models evolved over time, and the socio-political question of whether the power of this amazing molecule was for the masses or just for the few -- both of which became more or less moot as events over-ran things.

I liked "Acid Dreams" a microgram or two more than this book, probably because it emphasizes cultural rather than personal history more, but still had a difficult time putting "Storming Heaven" down for very long. It's extremely information-rich and well-written -- it's rather dispassionately objective while still being interesting. It would probably only disappoint those looking for simple answers.

The author takes the reader on a fascinating journey to visit the people, places, and cultures of the psychedelic movement. This book contains interesting inside information about Albert Hoffman, Aldous Huxley, Timothy Leary, Richard Alpert, Jack Kerouac, Alan Ginsberg, Neal Cassady, Ken Kesey, Owsley, and a myriad of minor players whose names are fading into history. The story is chronicled from the Swiss Labs where LSD was first discovered to its legitimate use in the psychiatric profession to the artistic salons of the 50's to Harvard to the native villages of Mexico to Leary's temporary home at the Millbrook mansion to Kesey's Prankster hang-out in La Honda to the Haight-Ashbury to the streets of America. An enjoyable peek into diverse cultures from the psychiatric clinicians to world renowned authors and artisans to the faculty of Harvard and Berkley to pre-Columbian mushroom cults to the Beat poets to the Hell's Angels to the Hippies. It is The Doors of Perception, The Psychedelic Experience, On the Road, Howl, Holy Goof, Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, and Living with the Dead all rolled into one. Exhaustively researched, a very entertaining read from front to back. Like the era that it chronicles, I hated for the book to end.

It is no fluke that this book has an average rating of five stars from amazon.com readers. This is simply one of the most informative, enjoyable and engaging presentations ever written on the subject of hallucinogenic drugs in modern history, and how they made their way from the obscurity of laboratories and clinical research to become a fixture in the counterculture of the 1960's and beyond. The complexities of the story make it a formidable challenge for any narrator, but Stevens proves easily equal to the task. In the pages of this book, the reader is introduced to the dramatis personae with an immediacy as though meeting them in person. Many of the facts discussed herein have been recounted before by many capable others. But never have they been put into such a vivid and vibrant perspective as this, so thorough and rich with nuance. That's important because the depths of this story, stranger as it is than any fiction, are where its meaning emerges most clearly. Ever since the impact of LSD and its profound, pervasive influences on our life and times, modern society will never be the same. And it is impossible to imagine what popular culture would now be like without the psychedelic revolution of the 20th century. "Storming Heaven" offers the best single account of how and why this is so. This is a real page-turner, very difficult to put down, and is highly recommended for the interested reader.

Stevens transports us to times and places that *should* be alien, and *should* be unusual, but instead takes us into parlors, labs, music halls, and jungles to give us what sounds and tastes like the real poop on how, and more importantly, why a drug culture was so ferociously and speedily born in postwar America. So real are his profiles, and so uncharacteristically down to earth compared to the other well known and more academic studies of the genre, that we, as readers, can easily see and identify with why Hoffman, the Wassons, Alpert, Leary, Huxley, et al took to these unique alkaloids in an ongoing attempt to seek new truths, often to to validate inner yearnings. Stevens feels like he was there, and so will you. If nothing else, "Storming Heaven" is a great read simply because Stevens is so very, very *on*. A must read if you are even remotely interested in the modern drug phenomenon, with a few bonuses of drugs in history (and theory) thrown in for good measure. I lent my copy out four years ago, never got it back, and have since regretted it!

_Storming Heaven_ is a non-ficticious account of the history of the spread of LSD in America and England during the 50's and 60's. It gives detailed accounts of all of the major players in the early days of the synthesization and distribution of this drug. It is not as thoughtful or philosophical as I hoped, and has little to say about the implications and nuances of the actual effects of the drug. However, I came to accept this book for what it is, which is a matter-of-fact description of how this drug progressed from the university offices and laboratories to the streets of San Francisco. This book has much to say about both the east-coast and west-coast acid scenes of the 50's and 60's. In the east, you have Timothy Leary, Richard Alpert, and Alan Watts, and their whole gang of weirdos hanging out in an acid-soaked mansion in Millbrook NY. It is very interesting to read about the(mis)adventures of these three men, all of whom (especially Alan Watts) are gifted and accomplished writers. For those who are fans of their work, _Storming Heaven_ is a must-read if for no other reason than to get some idea of the formative influences of these writers.

The west coast scene, in contrast, was less intellectual and more of a free-for-all. Jay Stevens describes the exploits of Ken Kesey, and the riders of his magic bus. Of course any discussion of Ken Kesey will inevitably lead to a discussion of the Grateful Dead, and the handiwork of their "chemist" mr. Owlsley. Stevens also covers the involvement of the Hell's Angels in this west coast movement. All of this makes for very entertaining, albeit light, reading.

Segue to the end: money wins. Personal greed (or some variant of Maslow's hierarchy) triumphs over freedom of the mind. How pure these early pioneers of mind expansion were in their intentions. And how naive.

What kind of society could sustain a populace of blissed-out fun-seeking consumer bees more bent on self-discovery than on collecting and distributing green pollen? The answer to this question posed such a threat to the established system that what resulted was no less than a civil war, with one side winning a smashing victory.

Life in the trenches is so boring, we need our legal opiates to blot out the meaninglessness. How dare a group of outsiders suggest an alternative marketing channel! What would hapen to G.M., Seagram's, the Papal seat, and the organized crime syndicates working in the underground economy? Better to have a bloodless revolution (well, almost...see Chicago in 1968 and Kent State University in 1970) than to tolerate such an open threat to income production and distribution.

This book is a fine social study that is a "must" reading for anyone who would attempt to explain the America we live in today. Going beneath the headlines without sounding too much like Oliver Stone opens up other interpretations of what happened and suggests what could have been.

If you were born between 1945 and 1965 and want to know why you and your friends are doing this instead of that, read this book. If you are a student of modern American history, read this book. I have read it three time since it was first published (just finished it again), and as a baby-boomer born in 1952, I can appreciate just how close to the mark the author makes his shot.

Storming Heaven chronicles the advent of LSD (as well as many other halucinagens) from its early days as a pharmaceutical curio to indispensable ingredient of sixties social upheaval. In rich detail it explains how, from the Sandoz pharmaceutical labs in Switzerland it made its timely way to American shores where it found, in the form of Timothy Leary, (and before him Aldous Huxley) its high priest.