IVIV: chapter seven—Lords of Acid

[Robin Landseadel]

On Sep 25, 2009, at 8:06 AM, Doug Millison wrote:

> Your mileage may vary, of course.

We've got a Prius.

But seriously . . .

The passages starting on 104 underscore the Gaian illumination allied  
with L.S.D. and the role Acid had in awakening global consciousness.  
Note as well that the first "Earth Day" was April 22 1970, so it falls  
between Inherent Vice's dates.

Spike became obsessed with the local El Segundo Oil Refinery—El  
Segundo is just north of Manhattan Beach.

	Gordita was still like living on a houseboat anchored in a tar pit.
	Everything smelled like crude.

Spike has to shave off all the tar the refinery spills leave on his  
feet. Some folks leave the tar on instead of buying sandals. All this  
talk of oil spills is reminiscent of Ross Macdonald's "Sleeping  
Beauty" where we start with a oil spill in Santa Barbara. But Inherent  
Vice has Pynchon's Gaian take on things:

	 "The good news is that like any living creature, Earth has an immune
	system too, and sooner or later she's going to start rejecting agents  
of
	disease like the oil industry. And hopefully before we end up like
	Atlantis and Lemuria."

Joseph mentioned toxicity in the context of the Belaying Pin's scary  
menu:

http://www.cagrocers.com/images/Warning_12LR.jpg

So we have crazy religion and toxicity mentioned in the context of  
Acid in this passage. Sortilège''s guru is named Vehi Fairfield [vehi  
seems to pop up mostly as an abbreviation of vehicle] who is in deep  
cahoots with the Brotherhood of Eternal Love:

	Vehi wasn't just "into" LSD—acid was the medium he swam and
	occasionally surfed in. He got it delivered, possibly by special  
pipeline,
	from Laguna Canyon, direct from the labs of the post-Owsley
	psychedelic mafia believed in those days to be operating back in there.

Probably CIA acid to boot:

	LORDS OF ACID
	How the Brotherhood of Eternal Love Became OCs Hippie Mafia
	BY NICK SCHOU
	Published on July 07, 2005

	ORANGE ACID

	In the midst of that throbbing mass of passionately entwined bodies,
	Thumper set foot on a path that would take him into the arms of the
	Brotherhood of Eternal Love, a legally registered nonprofit religious
	institution centered on Mystic Arts World, a head shop in downtown
	Laguna Beach. The church's figurehead and high priest was Timothy
	Leary, a world-famous former Harvard psychology professor turned
	proselytizer of psychedelic drugs. Leary and the Brotherhood preached
	spiritual awakening through Buddhist meditation and drug
	experimentation.

	Leary's mantra—Tune in, turn on, drop out—had already led countless
	disaffected middle-class kids to quit their jobs or classes, head to
	California and drop acid. The Brotherhood's bible was
	Leary's Psychedelic Prayers,his idiosyncratic translation of the
	Tibetan Book ofthe Dead. Mystic Arts sold copies of Leary's book, along
	with incense, candles and imported countercultural paraphernalia.
	Behind a bamboo-covered wall, church members gathered in a secret
	meditation room decorated with a massive Taxonomic Mandala, a
	technicolor spiral depicting the evolution of life, from primal ooze to
	Homo sapiens.

	But Mystic Arts was more than a head shop or meditation center. And
	although it didn't start out that way, the Brotherhood of Eternal Love
	wasn't just a church. It was also Orange County's first major
	international drug smuggling network. . .

	. . .And then Stubby drops a bombshell of his own: "Unbeknownst to 	
	me, 	Timothy Leary worked for the CIA. He came to infiltrate our gang."

http://www.ocweekly.com/2005-07-07/features/lords-of-acid/1

What comes 'round. . .

Turns out this Guru Vehi has broken the doper's code of not dosing  
someone without their express consent and participation—Vehi slipped  
Doc a "Burgomeister Special Edition" which turned out to be code for  
about 600 micrograms of orange sunshine [not recommended on an empty  
stomach, by the way] and a gateway to one of Doc's least favorite acid  
trips, one of those ones that are far more educational than  
entertaining.