Rating: 
Summary: Fantastic, Mind Blowing, Very Funny for Those in the Know
Review: This book unfolds the LSD culture in a very clear fashion. For those who were not part of the summer of love, this book will take you there. It will transport you to the be-ins, Haight- Ashbury and the colorful world of psychedelia. Most importantly it clearly describes the role of the CIA, not only with LSD but also with other dangerous drugs. Every one should read this. It will give you an insight in a bygone era, and will keep you wondering "what if"?
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting journalism
Review: This is a fairly well written history of the drug sub-culture and the government, full of name dropping of users (Cary Grant, Thelonious Monk, etc.) and anectdotes of the era. Fun reading. Not quite at the level of Terrence McKenna, but still worth the three hours it will take you to read the entire book.
Rating:
Summary: Story of the psychedelic shower - and all it's characters!
Review: This is a terrific book for those who are interested in a well written and entertaining semi-chronological survey of the story of LSD and the culture/counterculture that it inspired. Here you will read brief and interesting snippets about every kooky character involved in this extended comedy, which is still being played out in the present day (if you disagree take a hard look at the current American political climate). The evolution of LSD is an epic of weird spies, cult figures, radical politicos, high falutin' intellectuals, right-wing paranoids, fanatical scientists, artists, terrorists, radicals, hippies, yippies, sex-obsessed freaks, and ordinary folk who are interested in sampling a slice of infinity for a few bucks a hit. I would invite you to partake of this experience (of course I only refer to READING THE BOOK) if you are brave, self-assured, and happy. All others need not apply, but if you feel interest then as the MAN says...Turn off your mind, relax, and float downstream...best wishes and enjoy.
Rating:
Summary: Story of the psychedelic shower - and all it's characters!
Review: This is a terrific book for those who are interested in a well written and entertaining semi-chronological survey of the story of LSD and the culture/counterculture that it inspired. Here you will read brief and interesting snippets about every kooky character involved in this extended comedy, which is still being played out in the present day (if you disagree take a hard look at the current American political climate). The evolution of LSD is an epic of weird spies, cult figures, radical politicos, high falutin' intellectuals, right-wing paranoids, fanatical scientists, artists, terrorists, radicals, hippies, yippies, sex-obsessed freaks, and ordinary folk who are interested in sampling a slice of infinity for a few bucks a hit. I would invite you to partake of this experience (of course I only refer to READING THE BOOK) if you are brave, self-assured, and happy. All others need not apply, but if you feel interest then as the MAN says...Turn off your mind, relax, and float downstream...best wishes and enjoy.
Rating:
Summary: LSD: What a Long Strange Trip.......and it ain't over yet...
Review: This is surprisingly one of the best books I have read. The authors give a colorfully accurate account of the events that occured decades ago, all of which still echo into our current era. It covers the origin of LSD, as a drug the CIA funded research on for use as a tool for mind control applications using civilians and military personnel as test subjects. At the very outset, it was obvious that the CIA was well aware of the potential power of this substance in its ability to wreak havoc on the collective psyche, to shatter current assumptions and threaten cherished ego boundaries. Yet, eventually it became available to the masses who would come to extol it's use religiously and otherwise.....giving rise to the groundswell of counterculture in the 60's. This book, more than any other source I have encountered, explores the underlying causes of the demise of the cultural/political/self re-evolution of that time and gives us pause to reflect on the politics of consciousness - to see who really won The War Of The Mind. Proof again that truth is stranger than fiction. Be informed.........read this book.
Rating:
Summary: Great Flashback.
Review: This one caught me by surprise. It's not the stuffy this-is-all-the-bad-stuff-that-happened textbook I expected, but rather a fascinating and thoroughly enjoyable study of LSD and the CIA's role in the cultural and political maelstrom of the 1960s. Over the past thirty years, from Watergate to Zippergate, Americans have learned that their government is capable of some pretty amazing shenanigans. That helps what we read in this book seem more plausible. What Lee and Shlain document in Acid Dreams, with an impressive volume of research, is the CIA's enormous effort to develop mind-control methods. These included various psychedelic drugs--with LSD topping the list--hypnosis, and more. The potential uses of such control range from military to civilian--and to downright bizarre. For example, they discuss the unresolved question--in some minds--of whether Sirhan Sirhan was actually a CIA-created murdering automaton, a drug-and-hypnosis-induced killer, programmed to kill Robert Kennedy.Some the things they reveal are far-fetched and may be impossible to ever prove one way or another, but there's plenty more that is incontrovertible. And everything in the book is interesting. Acid Dreams adds a fresh and wonderful perspective on this aspect of our recent history. A more recent book called "Hepcats, Narcs, and Pipe Dreams," provides a complimentary education on this topic, covering a broader history of illegal drugs throughout America's past. Readers who enjoy Acid Dreams may want to follow up with this one.--Christopher Bonn Jonnes, author of Wake Up Dead.
Rating:
Summary: The story of acid use by the US government and others
Review: Very detailed and well researched, with the whole lowdown on Albert Hoffman, Timothy Leary, The Brotherhood of Eternal Love, and all the rest. The stories about CIA & US Army experiments using psychedelics are astonishing!
Rating:
Summary: Mother Should I Trust the Government?
Review: Well, Well, Well, so Uncle Sam has some blood on his hands after all. For any good conspiracy buff this is the book: mass testing of LSD on unwitting civilians, cover-up and lies,and atrocities enough to make your teeth chatter that break just about every law the boys in power ever made. Big no-nos on the parts of of our benign government and their secret henchmen the CIA.
Rating:
Summary: We Are Experienced
Review: You will count yourself experienced after reading this completely fascinating book. Lee and Shlain deliver the social history of LSD, along with the historical forces that shaped it and were shaped by it, with both investigative integrity and a refreshing amount of hip slang. You can't go wrong with a book that combines chemistry, political analysis, and sociology with witticisms like "listen to a digger rap it down" and "that great Dionysian rap dance." This book has it all: top secret government shenanigans, bizarre medical experiments, spooks and infiltrators, beats and hippies, radicals and revolutionaries, international drug cartels, outlandish conspiracy theories (with clarity and a grain of salt), rock n' roll and pop culture. It's all wrapped up in a stirring social history of the United States during the 1950's through 1970's, as the influence of LSD spread far beyond it's origins among chemists and CIA agents. In addition to Lee and Shlain's completely insightful social history, they also deliver some keen revelations about the US government's shifting attitudes toward drug control, which are rarely based on sound science or medical studies. You'll learn that LSD was once heavily supported by the CIA as a mind control drug, but they disowned it when it hit the black market and inspired a generation of activists and free thinkers. LSD was then outlawed supposedly for public health reasons, but Lee and Shlain give plenty of evidence that these new drug laws were merely a tool of social control to hose down restless young people and nonconformists. The same could probably be said about most other drug laws. This is just one of the many intriguing revelations in this outstanding book. Not unlike its root subject, this book can blow your mind, simply by the power and fascination of the writing and investigation by Lee and Shlain. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: A stunningly complete account of LSD's place in history
Review: _Acid Dreams_ stands out above other writings about LSD, simply because it contains such an abundence of well
organized information.
This book begins by explaining the US goverentment's somewhat nonsensical policy on LSD. From plans to use it
for mind control to hopes of using it as prevention of
mind control to using it as a truth serum.
The book covers Milbrook, the Beats, the Hippies, and every
other group that used LSD.
In addition to dropping various names of acid users, such
as Anais Nin, _Acid Dreams_ offers complete descriptions of
Leary's Harvard days and the drug use of The Beatles.
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