MovieChat Forums > George Harrison: Living in the Material World (2011) Discussion > Never heard the first acid experience wa...

Never heard the first acid experience was positive before

posted 11 years ago by starmarker
5 replies | jump to latest

Thought I would start a second thread about George and John (and Pattie and Cynthia) taking acid for the first time. As the movie says, they were given acid without their knowledge at a dinner party (by their host). What I felt was interesting is that I've read (probably too many) books about The Beatles and watched the Anthology TV series and I've never heard that evening described in the glowing terms Harrison uses in the "living in the material world" documentary.
Every other account I've read or heard (including interviews with John Lennon)made it sound like everyone was scared out of their wits, especially the women. They left the house where the dinner party was and were pursued by their host (who they thought looked like the devil). Pattie tried to break a shop window. They arrived at a night club and thought the elevator was on fire. Etc. Maybe things eventually improved, but not a great start to the evening. I think this documentary tries to be honest, but also tries to avoid or soft pedal the negatives. Drug addiction is downplayed. Marital infidelity is spoken of in the vaguest possible terms. The fact that he was sued over My Sweet Lord (and lost) is erased. Overall I guess what you'd expect from a family sanctioned documentary.

[–] sodaevent 11 years ago

In those days it was very common for simultaneous acid trippers to report totally different experiences. The setting is very important and it is really bad to spring acid on someone without their knowledge, especially for the first trip! Their dinner host was acting irresponsibly in a major way.

But possibly more important is the expectation of the subject - it seems George may have been the only one who did not panic or let fear enter in when he started to experience a change in consciousness as the acid came on. He may have been prepared in some way that the others weren't, by reading or hearing about what to expect ahead of time. And/or he may just have been in a better mood than the others to start with - this would have a big impact on the experience.

It is also very easy to project your own feelings on others, and LSD magnifies this, so even if all the others saw George to be as freaked out as they were, this does not mean their perception of his state was valid.

I would say that it is quite likely that George did have a very positive experience while the others of the party did not, and so this is not necessarily an example of the documentary soft pedaling the negatives (not to say that it didn't do so in other ways).

[–] starmarker 11 years ago

I think you are probably right. Come to think of it, I may have heard these negative accounts from John and Cynthia in books I've read or documentaries I've watched. Not sure I've ever heard a first person account from Cynthia, who seems to have had the worst time.

[–] ilahilda 11 years ago

Cynthia always hated drug use, it hurt her seeing John messed up on it, but what could she do? They were fool to not sue that guy or punch he and his wife/gf's lights out. They could have been killed! I dare someone dope my coffee with LSD or any other drug!

[–] manofsteel4455 11 years ago

So is LSD the reason why the Beatles seemed so different from 1965 and afterwards?

You want to play the game, you'd better know the rules, love.
-Harry Callahan

[–] ilahilda 10 years ago

They did look freaky with the beards and long hair, but that's just my opinion.