CIA's Influence on the Hippie Movement

CIA created the hippie movement, and your mom's favorite band probably helped them.

In the 1950s, the CIA bought up the world's supply of LSD.

They brought it to the pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly, who reverse-engineered it, giving

them an unlimited supply and a complete monopoly.

Then the testing started.

One early volunteer for these tests was Ken Kesey.

Kesey wrote a book inspired by this experience, which became a bestseller.

Then Kesey went on to host events, which he called acid tests, and he wasn't charging

anyone, he just wanted people to show up and do acid.

For these events, he hired an unknown house band called The Grateful Dead.

These events became wildly popular, and with them rose the popularity of the band, so The

Grateful Dead begins touring, and Kesey follows them around in a bus from show to show.

And everywhere he went, he brought a vat full of Kool-Aid laced with LSD.

This guy had a seemingly endless supply, exporting the hippie culture all around the US.

Meanwhile, the CIA is flooding college campuses with LSD under the guise of research, and

The Grateful Dead was just one of many bands in this movement.

At the same time in Laurel Canyon came a wave of musicians with something in common.

They were all children of high-ranking military officials.

The biggest names in music, Jim Morrison of the Doors was the son of an admiral.

Frank Zappa's father was a chemical warfare specialist.

Even Crosby, Stills, and Nash, yeah all three of them, and all of these bands as well.

The theory is the CIA orchestrated the hippie movement to steer a very real anti-war movement

into something a little easier to combat, dissent without teeth.

The hippie slogan was literally,

Turn on, tune in, and drop out.

In other words, do acid and remove yourself from society.

And a lot of them did drop out of society to go live in communes in the woods.

This intersection between hippie culture and the CIA could all be a great big coincidence.

Maybe military brats naturally want to rebel.

And maybe the CIA was giving away acid because they're chill like that.

Or maybe...