Storming Heaven: LSD and the American Dream
by Jay Stevens
List Price:
Our Price: $6.98
You Save: $7.02 (50%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $6.46 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Jay StevensEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1998-09-02
ISBN: 0802135870
Number of pages: 416
Publisher: Grove Press
Book Reviews of Storming Heaven: LSD and the American Dream
Book Review: Very good but ignores many facets of certain indivuals
Summary: 4 Stars
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.
Summary of Storming Heaven: LSD and the American Dream
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.Self-Help Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Self-Help Books
Communion: The Female Search for Loveby bell hooks
William Morrow Paperbacks; Published: 2002-12-24; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.98
Price in other shops:
Your Erroneous Zones: Step-by-Step Advice for Escaping the Trap of Negative Thinking and Taking Control of Your Lifeby Wayne W. Dyer
William Morrow Paperbacks; Published: 1991-05-23; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.68
Price in other shops:
Positive Addiction (Harper Colophon Books)by William Glasser
Harper Perennial; Published: 1985-05-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.00
Price in other shops:
Woman Power: Transform Your Man, Your Marriage, Your Lifeby Laura Schlessinger
Harper; Published: 2004-08-03; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $0.75
Price in other shops:
The Zen Path Through Depressionby Philip Martin
HarperOne; Published: 2000-03-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.24
Price in other shops:
All You Need Is Love and Other Lies About Marriage: A Proven Strategy to Make Your Marriage Work, from a Leading Couples Therapistby John W. Jacobs
Harper; Published: 2004-03-02; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $3.90
Price in other shops:
If You Had Controlling Parents: How to Make Peace with Your Past and Take Your Place in the Worldby Dan Neuharth
Harper; Published: 1998-09-09; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $8.89
Price in other shops:
super Sexual Orgasmby Barbara, Ph. D. Keesling
Harper Collins; Published: 1997; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $2.57
Care of the Soul: A Guide for Cultivating Depth and Sacredness in Everyday Lifeby Thomas Moore
Harpercollins; Published: 1992-05; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $3.30
Price in other shops:
Verbal Judo: The Gentle Art of Persuasionby George Thompson
William Morrow Paperbacks; Published: 2004-03-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.51
Price in other shops:
Similar Books and other products
The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Testby Tom Wolfe
Picador; Published: 2008-08-19; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.99
Price in other shops:
Breaking Open the Head: A Psychedelic Journey into the Heart of Contemporary Shamanismby Daniel Pinchbeck
Broadway Books; Published: 2003-08-12; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.99
Price in other shops:
The Psychedelic Explorer's Guide: Safe, Therapeutic, and Sacred Journeysby James Fadiman
Park Street Press; Published: 2011-05-18; Paperback; Book
Best price: $11.07
Price in other shops:
The Harvard Psychedelic Club: How Timothy Leary, Ram Dass, Huston Smith, and Andrew Weil Killed the Fifties and Ushered in a New Age for Americaby Don Lattin
HarperOne; Published: 2011-01-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.00
Price in other shops:
The Doors of Perception and Heaven and Hell (P.S.)by Aldous Huxley
Harper Perennial Modern Classics; Published: 2009-07-28; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.21
Price in other shops:
Intoxication: The Universal Drive for Mind-Altering Substancesby Ronald K. Siegel Ph.D.
Park Street Press; Published: 2005-04-08; Paperback; Book
Best price: $11.47
Price in other shops:
Cleansing the Doors of Perception: The Religious Significance of Entheogenic Plants and Chemicalby Huston Smith
Sentient Publications; Published: 2003-09-12; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.63
Price in other shops:
LSD My Problem Child: Reflections on Sacred Drugs, Mysticism and Scienceby Albert Hofmann
MAPS.org; Published: 2009-03-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $13.35
Price in other shops:
The Psychedelic Experience (Citadel Underground)by LEARY, Timothy Leary, Richa Alpert
Citadel; Published: 1995-01-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.99
Price in other shops:
Acid Dreams: The Complete Social History of LSD: The CIA, the Sixties, and Beyondby Martin A. Lee, Bruce Shlain
Grove Press; Published: 1994-01-21; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.00
Price in other shops: