1967: The Summer of Love... San Francisco, Hippies, Flower Power, Peace, The Diggers, Haight Ashbury, LSD and the Grateful Dead. It certainly has been a Long Strange Trip. Congratulations to all those of us who have survived... One thing is for certain...

The culture of the United States was
radically different After the 1960's...

The conformism of the 1950's was blown away when LSD became widely available. Owsley made the chemical and made it available at Acid Tests with Ken Kesey and the Grateful Dead. He also gave it to the Beatles for their Magical Mystery Tour. The spirit lives on in a yearly camping trip called The Rainbow Gathering. It's like Woodstock but the performers are not paid and I'm in the Band.

---------- (~);-} ----------

The Diggers of San Francisco were a street theatre company famous for their slogan "Today is the first day of the rest of your Life." They provided free food in Golden Gate park to needy Hippies during the Summer of Love. They also created a "Free Store" where all the merchandise was free. I suppose that they were skilled in getting donations. They also walked around Haight Street with a giant picture frame that passers by could step through in order to change their "Frame of Reference." The Diggers were part of the SF mime troupe, Bill Graham worked for them also as a benefit dance promoter/arranger to raise funds by having local bands play and selling tickets. He later became the most successful rock music show promoter in the USA.

---------- (~);-} ----------

Currently, a peaceful village called Arcata, California thrives using the basic concepts of Flower Power. It's on Highway 101 near the Oregon Border... Home of Humboldt State University... If you want to experience the bliss yourself, take a loan from the Federal Department of Education and go to college at HSU. Arcata also is the center of Marijuana farming in the USA. The vast majority of the Grass is grown in Humboldt, Mendocino, Del Norte, Siskiyou and Trinity Counties... The extreme North Western corner of California. http://gvan42.blogspot.com/2017/06/did-you-ever-notice-arcata-california.html

----- (~);-} -----

"Beyond Counterculture" Book is the History of the Hippies who fled The Haight Ashbury District of San Francisco and Moved to MATEEL in Southern Humboldt County to Earn their living farming Cannabis. Originally a Doctoral thesis.

Between the Eel and Matole Rivers, Garberville and the Lost Coast.
Mateel is a Sunny and Warm.
Once PALCO logged the area, the land was really cheap. Perfect for growing Marijuana Outdoors. This location is Not on Google Streetview.

Beyond Counterculture: The Community of Mateel
Paperback – June, 1990 by Jentri Anders.
https://www.facebook.com/jentri.anders

https://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Counterculture-Community-Jentri-Anders/dp/0874220602

----- (~);-} -----





Cosmic Art Show - Absurdist Images created in Potatoshop by Greg Vanderlaan
http://gvan42.blogspot.com/2017/07/cosmic-art-show-absurdist-images.html

Free Psychedelic Art - Global Awakening is Real and Happening Now
http://gvan42.blogspot.com/2017/06/free-psychedelic-art-global-awakening.html

~~~~~~ (~);-} ~~~~~~

Shredded Rainbow Spiral Business Cards For Sale.

https://www.zazzle.com/shredded_rainbow_spiral_business_card-256163553649539936 <--- Click on the Link!



MORE Shredded Rainbow Spiral Art


Link to Spiral Art Painted on Bling:
https://www.zazzle.com/store/gregvan/products?qs=spiral&st=Popularity

Link to Rainbow Art Painted on Bling:
https://www.zazzle.com/store/gregvan/products?qs=rainbow&st=Popularity

~~~~~~ (~);-} ~~~~~~
Rainbow Gathering Idaho 2001: A Gathering
of the Tribes...
I went to the gathering with a specific goal in mind. I wanted to play my guitar and sing in public. Yes, mission accomplished. I was Living in Chico, California and working at the plastics factory. When there was a layoff, my wife suggested that I borrow the car and drive over to the gathering. My friend Mike Jensen wanted to go and so we checked the oil, brake fluid, transmission fluid and water and set out on a classic American road trip. We made it as far as Reno the first day and slept by the side of the road.... READ MORE:
http://gvan42.blogspot.com/2017/06/rainbow-gathering-idaho-2001.html

----- (~);-} -----

----- (~);-} -----

Grateful Deadhead ART and MyStory... American History...

I first noticed the Grateful Dead in 1968 in English class at junior high school. Our teacher had put up posters on the wall of the classroom and we wrote essays about them.

He was attempting to stimulate creative WRITING but more importantly, creative THINKING.

One was an American flag made out of swastikas and another was a solarized/negative photo of 5 hairy men standing in front of "LITTLE BOXES" type suburban tract homes.

Our English teacher
stopped working for the school system that year and has never been heard of since. That has happened often to people that go to see the Dead... They change their lifestyle and start associating
with a different set of people... READ MORE:
http://gvan42.blogspot.com/2017/06/grateful-deadhead-art-and-mystory.html


Grateful Deadhead Tribute Webpage. Pictures and Stories.
Many thanks to all that made the Grateful Dead an American Miracle... Just remember, if our lives together were written as a fiction story, everyone would dismiss it as being unbelieveable... Yet it all really happened!
http://gvan42.blogspot.com/2017/06/grateful-deadhead-tribute-webpage.html


----- (~);-} -----




----- (~);-} -----

Great Books: Project MKULTRA: CIA/LSD American History
"The Search for the Manchurian Candidate" by John Marks

MKULTRA: Was a CIA Mind Control Project in the USA during the 1950's and 1960's. They were looking for a way to use drugs as weapons of war. For example: LSD as a way to simply get the "enemy" to lay down their arms, voluntarily... like, too stoned to fight...

The project conducted tests on college students at Stanford University. Ken Kesey and Robert Hunter both were employed. Later, Ken started having "ACID TEST" parties where the participants took LSD and danced to the Music of the Grateful Dead. Robert Hunter wrote lyrics for the Dead.
http://gvan42.blogspot.com/2017/06/great-books-project-mkultra-cia-lsd.html






----- (~);-} -----

Rainbow Gathering in California 2004. Photographs and My Story...Om...

What IS the Rainbow Gathering? To me, it is Woodstock with amateur musicians and I’m in the band… Thousands of people go backpacking for a couple of weeks… Every year during the end of June and the beginning of July… The location is different every year but it is always in a National Forest… It’s an intentional temporary village…

This is a description about my trip to The Rainbow Gathering in California 2004… I wrote this to help me remember… READ MORE:
http://gvan42.blogspot.com/p/what-is-rainbow-gathering-to-me-it-is.html




----- (~);-} -----


----- (~);-} -----
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summer_of_Love

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diggers_(theater)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haight-Ashbury

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lysergic_acid_diethylamide

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Owsley_Stanley

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acid_Tests

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Kesey

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magical_
Mystery_Tour

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grateful_Dead

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flower_power

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arcata,_California

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humboldt_State_
University

It appears That The Hippies were right.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKEZoY-TMG4









http://www.zazzle.com/gregvan/
grateful+gifts

Click on a Word to See All Posts on That Subject. Search Box in the Upper Left Corner of Blog.
Peace - Love - Trippy - Hippy - Magic Mushroom - Question Authority - Arcata - Eureka - California - MKULTRA - CIA - NSA - FBI - DARPA - LSD - UFO - Ken Kesey - Grateful Dead - Jefferson Airplane - Beatles - Los Gatos - Travel - Bogus War - Vietnam - Summer of Love - Solar - Kinetic Sculpture

You may Read More Blog Posts by Clicking on the Handy LABELS Below!

NO USA Money for Israel or Ukraine. NO US Soldiers to Fight Other People's Wars. If Those People Over There Want To Kill Each Other, OK... I'm Comfortable With That. I Believe there are Bad People on Both Sides.

Is Genocide Good or Bad? With Eight Billion People on Earth, I'm Grateful Whenever Lunatics Die OFF. Darwin said It's Survival of the Fittest and SOME OF THOSE PEOPLE OVER THERE ARE NOT FIT.

For Example: Take this Current War Between Israel and Gaza. What If 100% of the People in Gaza Died?  WELL... What If they DO?

When was the Last Time YOU Said: "I Sure Wish There Were More Palestinians... You Can Never Find a Palestinian When You Really Need One." 

I Bet You have NEVER Said That!

Of the Eight Billion People on Earth, 7.6 Billion of them are Foreigners... DO THEY SERVE ANY PURPOSE? DO THEY HAVE ANY VALUE AT ALL?

OK... Some are Valuable... Germans Build Great Cars. The English Write Great Books and Songs. The Canadians are Mostly Harmless. Mexico is a Great Supplier of Farm Laborers and Gardeners... China is Great at Building Apple Cellular Telephones... BUT... INDIA? Nothing... Africa and South America? Totally Useless... Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and East Ooga-Booga? Actually, I Have Not Heard Much About Them in 50 Years... What are They Doing? I DON'T CARE!

 

On a Social Media Platform Called Mastodon I See that George Takei Posts and I'm able to Respond to His Messages... Excellent!
He Said: "Infrastructure Week" ( I guess he was referring to tRUMP'S Failure to Get anything Done... about Infrastructure and How the Republican't Party is Failing Badly Again!)
@georgetakei I'm Glad the Republican't are FAILING to Elect a Speaker... IT SHOUTS LOUDLY That they are Incompetent and a Total Disaster as a Political Party... The #RUNAWAY from the GOP Movement is Gaining Momentum as American Citizens are Becoming AWARE of Just What a Pile of SH*T the Republican't Party Has Become.

and then on FaceBorg SE Said:

I understand that when a person dies, their loved ones are under no obligation to say how they died. But I often find myself obsessing over people's deaths if the person died at a young age and there is no logical explanation for how they died, like no long-term illness or anything like that. There is something unsettling about seeing a death announcement for a young, healthy person with no explanation about how they died. Even if the person is a total stranger to me, if I see their death announcement and see that the person was young, it will weigh on my mind trying to figure out how the person could have died. I kinda wish people would put "died in a car accident" or "died of a heart attack" in the announcement, just so people don't sit around obsessing over it and speculating about what may have happened. I'm currently obsessing over the death of a 10-year-old girl that I didn't know and who has no connection to me whatsoever, but I saw the announcement on Facebook that she died, and it's been on my mind constantly since then because I can't wrap my brain around how a 10-year-old could have just died. If it was a car accident, why didn't they say so in the announcement? Again, I realize it's ultimately none of my business, but I can't be the only one who obsesses over this type of thing.

and I Replied:

I often wonder... Classmates of Mine Died from AIDS but it was supposed to be a secret that they were Gay...

and a Lady at work that I really Liked died at age 40... I remember that she was a FAIR Supervisor... and to this day her death is a Mystery... My Guess is Fentanyl...

Infinite Rainbow Clipart by gvan42 - Psychedelic Art - and a Listing of What We are Thankful For!

 

For Thanksgiving:

I'm thankful that I quit Smoking and Drinking... That allows my mind to think clearly and my Writing is better because of that... Strangely, Smoking Tobacco gave me Paranoid Schizophrenia... After I Quit I Realized That I'm too insignificant for BIG BROTHER to Bother with Spying on me... Those White Unmarked Vans parked in front of my House is Really just Government Employees Taking a Lunch Break in a Location that Has a Nice View... They are Looking at Humboldt Bay and the Pacific Ocean... not me... 

Arlo Guthrie Said: The Missing 18 1/2 Minutes of Nixon's Oval Office Tapes is Richard Listening to Alice's Restaurant... and Laughing! He Didn't Want Any Evidence of Him Enjoying the Song...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m57gzA2JCcM

I'm thankful for being Born on a Great Year! 1954 I Missed Getting Drafted and being forced to go to Vietnam by ONE YEAR! Excellent! My Friends are Still Angry About Their Time There. I got to Spend "The Sixties" Living 50 Miles from San Francisco... We Went there Often to Visit My Father's Friends and Their Sons... We Went to The Exploratorium and The Fillmore West! Protest Marches... Fisherman's Wharf and Swimming at the Beach... Riding the Roller Coaster at Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk after Smoking Marijuana! FUN! 

Giant UFO Flying over the Earth by gvan42

I'm thankful for being born in San Jose in 1954... When I Graduated from High School and Needed to Get a Job... Silicon Valley Was Hiring! I went to West Valley Junior College for one year, learned Electronics Drafting and Was Hired Instantly at System Industries... Kids These Days Don't Have the Career Opportunities We Had...

I'm thankful that I Live in the Internet Age... The FREE Art Programs Give me something to do during my retirement... and I enjoyed writing my autobiography... I had Help from the people in the "Things I Remember Growing UP in Los Gatos" FaceBorg Group! They Helped me remember!

I'm Thankful for Eating Every Day... Since I was Born in the USA, finding food is not a Problem... In Fact, I've heard That for People Living in Foreign Countries, Starvation is a Big Problem...

and Mary Said:

I am grateful for this Thanksgiving. Today’s one I’ve been waiting for. It’s the official beginning of the holiday season. I have no extended plans just peace and quiet. This may sound odd to some. After all when we think of the end of the year festivities often it involves a stream of events linked together in succession which often leaves us overwhelmed and in debt. I’ve chosen to take a different route. My celebration is to be present in the moment with myself and those around me. I don’t need more stuff nor do I wish to fill my body with more than I require. Once these final days of 2022 are done, I will walk into the new one refreshed, whole and well, ready for whatever life brings. Happy Holidays!

and on FaceBorg people are Saying:

I'm Making the Devil's Eggs while the Popeye's Turkey heats up . Home Made Cole Slaw is finished. And starting the Broccoli and Mac and Cheese starting as well. Everything going smoothly.

MW Said:

I Love Arcata Marsh & Wildlife Sanctuary

Good Peaceful VibesPrayers for a

Peaceful Thanksgiving for our World

Not what we say about our Blessings

But how’s we use them! Is the True

Measure of our Thanksgiving

Happy Hiking TODAY Humboldt

#HumboldtTogetger — feeling grateful at Arcata Marsh & Wildlife Sanctuary.

How I feel when I play piano.

Not ghostly, but filled with light.

And perhaps, being watched by someone I have yet to meet, or, see.

Greetings From Standing Rock!

https://vimeo.com/438354276?fbclid=IwAR1pmb-HA-te-EeJs9tr0rbmRjFXsN8EFjxTJilRQr0Nw6vVP53PdwF7DkQ

Mark Sims Says:

I’m so Grateful for so many things! Today, I would like to share this wonderful memory with my mentor and dear friend, Daniel Sheehan! It took place exactly 6 years ago today, on November 24th, 2016 at Standing Rock. BTW, the last time Thanksgiving was on the 24th was in 2016!

Happy “ThanksTaking” Everyone!

Jorma Kaukonen (Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna) met a singer named Janis Joplin at a hootenanny in San Jose, California, in the fall of 1962. During a rehearsal for a show in North Beach in 1964, Jorma started his reel-to-reel tape machine to capture what they were working on. For decades, this recording was the stuff of legend, with inferior, multi-generational transfers making their way through collector’s circles. Now, for the very first time, it is available officially!

The complete album is being released on vinyl exclusively for #RSDBlackFriday tomorrow. To find a store near you, go to RecordStoreDay.com

Paul McCartney & Nancy

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving and cherish all the love you get from your family, friends, and your fans! because as you once said, all you need is love 

I have never thanked you, Paul… 

Always thinking, how could this contact possibly be recognized in the mass of millions who love you, but then if not now, then when?!

For I could never LOVE  any (unmet), human more than I LOVE YOU!!!

60+ years of brotherly love… 

I am forever grateful… 

"A Spiral of Deadheads" Science Fiction Story by gvan42 - and - "Ceremony and Ritual" - Psychedelic Poetry

DO YOU SEE SOUNDS? HEAR
COLORS? WELL...YOU DO NOW!

~~~~~~ (~);-} ~~~~~~

Imagine that you are floating in a tub of warm water...

every muscle in your body is completely relaxed...

your mind drifts and contentment blooms 

like a time lapse film of a Rose... Awakening...

you leave your body and rise up to the ceiling...

you look back and see your body...

it is resting with a cup of tea in it's hand...

ahh...mint...

as you watch your body, your mind seeps 

thru the ceiling and you see the
world. there is a forest...

it is for...rest...

on the shore of a lake a spiral of deadheads dance around a fire.

the flickering light seems to be perfectly synchronized to the rhythm of the drums... alas...

the reversal of entropy is merely an illusion.

one of the deadheads reaches into the shadows and lifts a
five gallon can of gasoline...

it is tightly sealed. he places it on the fire...

they all move back...

it will take time for the gas to expand enough to burst the can...

a slender woman with strawberry blond hair
raises a conch shell to her lips and draws a deep breath.

she blows a long note signaling the
beginning of a new era of mankind.

everything is dripping with meaning.

significance saturates every
leaf of every tree ...

then a tiny hole appears in the gas can and 

a cone of fire reaches for the sky...
you contemplate metallurgy, welding and 

strength of materials...

then the gas can resigns itself to fate
and a ball of fire searches for oxygen 

and of course finds it.

the spiral of deadheads emit a massive
yeah! and you drift on...

~~~~~~ (~);-} ~~~~~~

This tale is not a verified experience... it was just a story someone told me about at a Grateful Dead concert... None of my friends EVER put a 5 gallon can of gas on a fire just to have fun... 

Psychedelic Poetry - "CEREMONY AND RITUAL" - a story - Fiction - written by gvan42 about Trips to Philadelphia - Grateful Dead at JFK Stadium and The Spectrum Arena 

OUR MINDS HAVE BEEN FUSED INTO ONE SHIMMERING

COLONIAL ANIMAL…

FLOWING IN THE

CURRENTS OF THE MUSIC…

adrenaline, serotonin, synapses on fire !

IN THE SHADOWS,TORCHES FLICKER IN THE 

BREEZE. THE ORACLE BEGINS TO SPEAK,

FEEL THE HEAT…

adrenaline, serotonin, synapses on fire!

WE DANCE OUTSIDE OF THE TRADITIONAL

REALM OF TIME AND SPACE.

THE CROWD ERUPTS IN OUTBURSTS OF FREE

-FORM MOTION

AS THE INTENSITY OF THE JAM PEAKS

adrenaline, serotonin, synapses on fire!

MY BODY IS TRANSFORMED INTO A PINBALL AND

I RICOCHET AROUND THE SPECTRUM

ARENA BOUNCING OFF THE FLASHING LIGHTS.

A CROWD OF DEADHEADS

SURROUND ME INTENT ON TELLING ME STUPID JOKES…

THEY JUST…know… THAT I WILL LAUGH…

adrenaline, serotonin, synapses on fire!

THANK YOU DR. ALBERT HOFFMAN

***************************************

This was written after attending a Grateful 

Dead concert in JFK Stadium in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. I was sitting up above the crowd 

in the bleachers and could see the dancers 

move more enthusiastically during peaks of 

the music… less motion during gentle passages… as the dynamics of the improvisation ebbed and flowed, the dancers moved accordingly… like 

sea anemones moving in the currents of the ocean… I also mention the Spectrum in Philadelphia… It has many blinking 

advertisements for Atlantic city casinos in 

the area where refreshments were being 

served…

http://www.zazzle.com/gregvan/grateful+gifts

http://www.zazzle.com/gregvan/protest+gifts

MKULTRA:

http://www.zazzle.com/gregvan/reality+gifts

Kinetic Sculpture Race:

Fun with TWISTER

http://www.zazzle.com/gregvan/patriot+gifts

http://www.zazzle.com/gregvan/profit+gifts

Earth Art with HEART.

MKULTRA: a CIA Mind Control Project in the USA during the 1950's and 1960's. They were looking for a way to use drugs as weapons of war. For example: LSD as a truth serum to aid in interrogation or as a way to simply get the "enemy" to lay down their arms, voluntarily... like, too stoned to fight... 

The project conducted tests on college students at Stanford University. Ken Kesey and Robert Hunter both volunteered to eat LSD and other mind control drugs and report on the effects. Later, Ken started having "ACID TEST" parties where the participants took LSD and danced to the Music of the Grateful Dead. Robert Hunter wrote lyrics for the Dead.

Just co-incidence?

      or were "the sixties"

             a CIA experiment to see what happens?

~~~~~~ (~);-} ~~~~~~

Carlos Castaneda wrote many books about the Brujo Don Juan Mateus, a Yaqui Indian. He taught a different view of the world using medicinal plants and reality-stretching exercises.

The first book is called "The Teachings of Don 

Juan:  A yaqui Way of Knowledge". It's a Classic anthropological study of Mexican Indians. 

Required reading in freshman cultural-anthro at 

Chico State in 1973... The people in the book used 

the teachings to learn how to run thru the desert 

at full speed it total darkness using power from an "ally" that looked like a moth... Hence the images 

of men running... and Moths.  They were also able 

to travel instantly from one place to another... 

Often in these books, Carlos and Juan do things 

that are absolutely impossible... If you believe the traditional view of reality... However, the first set 

on the path of knowledge is to "question reality".

The book "Tales of Power" has many images in it 

that I used to make this animation... Like "finding 

your hands while dreaming": a way to take control 

of your dreams and use them to learn. 

https://www.amazon.com/Carlos-Castaneda/e/B000APXVFG

Carlos Castaneda wrote of "seeing" people as 

luminous eggs... with bolts of power connecting 

their midsections to the world around them.

I'm re-reading all those books again... a worthwhile 

use of my time... The Teachings of Don Juan starts 

the series... A Separate Reality, Journey to Ixtlan, 

The Eagle's Gift, Tales of Power and The Second 

Ring of Power... These books document a cultural anthropologist 's study of Mexican Indians, 

psychedelics and Toltec Warriors.  The first book is about psylocibin, datura and peyote experiences 

but the author quickly outgrows these and 

embarks on a magical journey learning the 

ancient arts of "stalking" and "dreaming".

A complementary author is Don Miguel Ruiz... 

The Four Agreements... They work well together.

and I remember doing a POWER WALK after a Grateful Dead Concert... I took ONE STEP and Grocked Everything there was to know about That Location... and then I took Another Step... and 

Grocked THAT Location... and Many Silly 

Deadheads Mocked Me For Walking SO FAST! 

"Watch Out Everybody! This Guy is Speeding 

TOO FAST! Danger Danger!" and I walked that 

way all the way to my car in the parking lot...

~~~~~~ (~);-} ~~~~~~

Great Book: "The Four Agreements" by Don 

Miguel Ruiz, a Toltec Brujo from Mexico. (Doctor/Priest/Teacher.)

1. Be impeccable with your word.
2. Don't take anything personally.
3. Don't make assumptions.
4. Always do your best.

Starting at birth we are told what to think by our parents, schools and church. These people give us free advice to help them live out their dreams. Their advice may not be in our best interests. By telling us what to think they mold what our reality looks and feels like. Even though we do not know it, we have made agreements with them to live our life according to their rules. Don Miguel Ruiz calls this "The Domestication of Humans". Like we have domesticated horses and bent them to serve our purposes, humans have been enslaved. The first step in breaking free of the bondage that our elders have placed us in is to realize that we are slaves. Then we may reject the agreements that were made without our knowledge and write our own. These new ways of viewing reality can be to our benefit.

Instead of living our lives helping someone else accomplish their goals, we can work to help ourselves realise our own goals. We can stop living the life of a slave and be free. The people that have been programming our minds are not neccesarily evil. They themselves have been programmed by their own parents, school and church and do not realize that they are carrying out the wishes of their elders. The Toltec Warrior's goal in life is to wake up and see the world as it is. We are all living in a dream world that is not of our own making. They are engaged in a battle for their own minds. READ MORE:

https://gvan42.blogspot.com/2017/06/great

-books-four-agreements-by-don.html

Tripping 

(1999 Ken Kesey / Merry Pranksters 

documentary)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=

Uh2kK5IfS-8

• Grateful Dead... My Story... American History... a...
• Grateful Deadhead Tribute Webpage. Pictures and Ta...

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