Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Acid Bible




http://www.ep.tc/realist/75/14.html

The Realist, #75, June 1967, p. 14


By Paul Krassner

[...] During the Free Speech Movement's mass imprisonment, a Bible which had been soaked in an acid solution easily made its way into the cells, and the students just ate those goddam pages right up, here getting high on Deuteronomy, there taking a trip on Exodus. [...]

Richard Dorson, America in Legend (New York: Pantheon Books, 1973), 283.

The greatest Owsley story  tells of his visiting a group of Free Speech Movement activists in jail. Owsley astonished the Berkeley radicals by appearing dressed in a purple velvet suit and carrying a Bible. He opened it solemnly and with a grave countenance proceeded to read passages aloud. When the suspicions of any possible passersby had been allayed, he revealed that the Good Book had been dipped in acid so that the jailmates could "groove" on its pages. Owsley passed it around, each tore out a page from his favorite section -- one from Jeremiah, most from Job -- and sucked on the sheets until all were wiped out.