Friday, June 15, 2012

The Brotherhood of Eternal Love

Patty has been spending some down time reading about the Brotherhood of Eternal Love which was made up of a group of friends who went to high school in Anaheim, CA and later settled in Laguna Beach (and beyond). They originally started out as a pseudo-religious organization and later morphed into a huge drug smuggling network responsible for the creation and distribution of a potent form of LSD called "Orange Sunshine," a strain of pot known as "Maui Wowie" and most of the Afghani hashish to be found in the US during the 1960's and 70's.

There are two excellent books on the topic which Patty has just finished: "Orange Sunshine" by Nicholas Schou and "The Brotherhood of Eternal Love (From Flower Power to Hippie Mafia: The Story of the LSD Counterculture) by Stewart Tendler and David May.

Patty finished the former first, and attempted to contact Mr. Schou at the OC Weekly where he is currently the managing editor. These are some of the questions that Patty posed to him:

1) BEL founder John Griggs died on August 3, 1969 in the only ever documented psilocybin overdose. The only one, EVER. Does that seem weird to you? Could someone have possibly been "cleaning house?"

2) In 1966, Griggs relieved a "famous producer" at gunpoint of his stash of LSD right in the middle of a dinner party. Who was that producer?

3) On pages 9 and 174, you mention the Charles Manson Family, and then back off again. Why? Do you think that Manson may have become involved with the BEL organization in San Francisco while eating at the Living Room soup kitchen?

Patty to date has received no reply from Schou.

But wait...there's more...

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Thanks Sunset for the link:






13 comments:

sunset77 said...

Part 1 of an interview of Nicholas Schou:

Orange Sunshine

revatron said...

I didn't read the book, but the internet says John Griggs died of a psilocybin overdose.
Here is a link with a quote from the author, http://www.erowid.org/library/review/review.php?p=316

The producer is always referred to as a Hollywood producer which makes me think he is a movie producer.

Patty is Dead said...

Thanks rev, U R right. It was synthetic psilocybin not mescaline. Patty will fix that right now.

Matt said...

Patty, get your drugs straight!

Shak El said...

I remember orange sunshine at school in 1975-76. It disappeared in 76 and was replaced by purple micro-dot and then my blotter acid by the time I graduated.

Matt said...

Shak El, that's EXACTLY the way I remember it, and I'm from NY. LOL!!!

Patty is Dead said...

Patty is too young to have tried O.S. but the way the story is told, sugar cubes evolved into capsules which evolved into tablets which evolved into microdots and blotter because they were smaller and easier to smuggle. Also if one were to get caught, the sentence might not be as severe since penalties were decided by weight.

sbuch113 said...

Hi Shak El,

That's how I remember it too.
I went to Esperanza High in East Anaheim.....starting in its opening year in '74.
Mary Sunshine was there too.
I took O.S. in those years between '74-'76.
Then like you say it disappeared.

I remember taking what they called "barrel".
And blotters called "dragon" purple,blue,red and green.
Lots of blotters....

rfoster1 said...

Hmm, yes, I remember orange sunshine and I remember the purple micro dots. Then, I remember someone giving me two pieces of a blotter acid called "window pane." I took them both. I found out later, to my regret, that each one was a 4 way hit! I still remember the experience to this very day, and not so fondly, I might add.

Matt said...

I'm happy to report that I never had a bad trip, and there were hundreds! Gave it up around '86.

Ajerseydevil said...

Purple micro.dot acid was still available in early 80"s when I began my drug use as a teen. Sorry for changing subject here. But just recently heard about Neil Young knowing Charlie think it would be interesting to hear what you guys can tell me on this thanx.

Ajerseydevil said...

Agree mat I was 16 in 86 alota good trips and Dead shows. Only bad thing I remember about micro.dot cut with stricnine gut pains from it

Chris Till said...

FWIW, from 1981-1983 in suburban Chicago, the two types of LSD available were called "Orange Sunshine," a small orange microdot flat pill and "Purple Haze," a slightly larger purple microdot flat pill. One wonders if these, or at least the so-called "Orange Sunshine," were produced by BEL chemist Nick Sand, who was apparently operating in British Columbia at that time. On the other hand, was Leonard Pickard making LSD then too? Who knows.