LSD & The Afterlife: Ken Kesey Speaks from Beyond

An author has made contact and channeled the views of the deceased counterculture icon and “Acid Christ” of the 1960s Hippy Era.

Ken Kesey in the Afterlife? An author has made contact with the deceased counterculture literary giant. Now hear what Kesey has to say from his new mode of nonphysical existence. (AI art. Prompts by KEN KORCZAK )

In 1972, William Bedivere was a young man browsing the shelves of Banyen Books, an emblematic metaphysical bookstore beloved by seekers & hippies in Vancouver, British Columbia.

He didn’t buy any mind-expanding books that day. However, he did happen to score something even more consciousness-expanding — “a handful” of Orange Sunshine, said to be among the “purest batches” of LSD ever made.

Orange Sunshine is a “brand” of the powerful psychoactive drug that was cooked up in 1968 by Tim Skully in a rogue lab just outside of Windsor, California. Skully rendered an incredible three pounds of LSD which was enough to make 4.5 million hits!

Now fast-forward from the ‘70s to Dec. 8, 2011. Mr. Bevidere was back again in Banyen Books almost 40 years later. This time he purchased a title by Mark Christensen, Acid Christ: Ken Kesey, LSD and the Politics of Ecstasy.

Interestingly, visiting the venerable bookshop and triggered vivid memories of his first acid trip decades earlier.