Nature, 16 September 2008

Drug-fuelled counterculture

Arran Frood

BOOK REVIEWED-Albion Dreaming: A Popular History of LSD in Britain

by Andy Roberts

Marshall Cavendish: 2008. 288 pp. £18.99

Since LSD was invented by Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann, who referred to it as his "problem child", it has been a drug in search of a use. LSD is now inching its way back onto research agendas in the United States and Europe.

Albion Dreaming is a timely book, especially given Hofmann's death this year. It examines how a compound viewed by some as having unmatched potential for positively transforming society through individual enlightenment, instead fuelled a decades-long counterculture, which was eventually suppressed. With investigative zeal, Andy Roberts charts the highs and lows of LSD's relationship with the anarchists and intellectuals of 1950s, 1960s and 1970s Britain, and takes the reader on a magical mystery tour through the cultural changes catalysed by the most potent chemical known to humankind.

The British government was at first intrigued by LSD's potential. When the compound reached its shores in 1952, the medical and military establishments were keen to investigate and exploit the drug in psychotherapy and as a battlefield weapon, respectively, as was the Central Intelligence Agency across the Atlantic.

The United States is rightly considered to be the cheerleader of LSD-fuelled counterculture, but the author convincingly demonstrates that Britain had a strong supporting role. The term 'psychedelic' was invented in a creative wordplay between two Englishmen, the writer Aldous Huxley and his doctor friend Humphrey Osmond, who first gave him mescaline. Huxley's "To make this trivial word sublime, take half a gramme of phanerothyme [soul-visible]", was topped by Osmond's "To fathom hell, or soar angelic, take a pinch of psychedelic [mind-manifesting]."

It was a Briton too, Michael Hollingshead, who turned Harvard psychologist Timothy Leary on to LSD, after which Leary morphed into a self-styled psychedelic guru and urged the US youth to "Turn on, tune in, drop out", which they did in their millions.

Much has been written about Leary and his compatriots, but Albion Dreaming retains a gritty UK perspective. From the still-secret experiments conducted at Britain's military research establishment at Porton Down, to Ronald Sandison, a doctor who opened the world's first specialized LSD psychotherapy unit at Powick Hospital in Worcestershire in 1952, the author packs the pages with a riotous selection of well-sourced anecdotes. Actor Sean Connery sampled LSD from the psychiatrist's couch and his therapist demanded a fine single-malt whisky as part payment. The BBC's laudable — or is that laughable? — attempts to filter out 'drug-inspired' lyrics on radio led to a ban on The Beatles' song A Day in the Life, but Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds slipped through the net. Corrupt Drug Squad officers paid informants with LSD that had been seized in earlier raids, until the well-organized Operation Julie smashed a major international manufacturing ring later in the 1970s, when up to half of the world's illicit LSD was made in Britain.

Although Roberts does not match the gripping narrative of Jay Stevens' Storming Heaven: LSD and the American Dream (Atlantic Monthly Press, 1987), he spins a good yarn, distancing rumours such as Francis Crick's links to LSD from established fact. He found no proof to back the claim that Crick took LSD and saw the double helix in his visions. Conspiracy theories, namely allegations of the media's complicity with the police or the secret intelligence services, are also maturely circumvented.

The book could have included more about the scientific applications of LSD. Thousands of papers in the 1950s and 1960s suggested that LSD could be used as a treatment for conditions ranging from depression to alcoholism — the founder of Alcoholics Anonymous was transformed by an LSD trip — but Roberts writes a popular history, not a scholarly one. Albion Dreaming provides the fullest account yet of recent legal battles in the United Kingdom that have been resurrected by those given LSD without consent. Soldiers who claimed they were used as guinea pigs were offered £10,000 (US$18,000) each, and nearly 50 patients claiming to have had hallucinations, flashbacks, paranoia or chronic anxiety from LSD-assisted psychotherapy gained 20 times as much compensation.

The street-level perspective of the book works, but an over-reliance on the exploits of individuals leads to a lack of deeper insights. The concluding pages are wasted on an intelligent but irrelevant argument for the legalization of drugs, yet I wanted to know from the author why research on LSD has yet to resume in the United Kingdom, or why the psychedelic-powered revolutions did not take off across the world. Consequently, Albion Dreaming is an enjoyable journey but leaves the reader with more questions than answers — much like the LSD trip itself.

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From the Amazon.co.uk website for Albion Dreaming

 ***** LSD UK history - Albion Dreaming, 7 Sep 2008

By Dave Henniker (Edinburgh, UK)

Albert Hofmann, Swiss scientist and discoverer of LSD, died in April this year (2008) aged 102. This very readable book is thus quite timely and sets the record straight on many topics, e.g. LSD came to Britain in 1952, long before anyone had heard of Timothy Leary. The British Secret Intelligence Service and Ministry of Defence involvement is covered in detail. The early hippy / beatnik scene in London is described and some famous names are mentioned. It was still legal then, but not for much longer.

Buy this book - it's a damn good read.

Dave Henniker

***** My friend Jack eats sugar lumps, oh what wonderful things he sees..., 17 Sep 2008

By Love Rat 69 (London, W10)

Roberts covers a lot of ground as he details Albionic acid culture from the early days until now... The sweep is impressive but he also provides lots of interesting details. There is material in here that doesn't seem to have been discussed outside very select circles in recent years - the Ladbroke Grove drugs and magic scene (first spliff, then acid) around THE original mod Terry Taylor (the model for the narrator of Absolute Beginners - and the first British writer to mention LSD in a novel, his 1961 cult classic Baron's Court, All Change); not to mention stuff on the Victor James Kapur acid manufacturing bust (north London 1967, the first such bust after criminalisation). There's also the inside dope on military research with LSD, medical uses and the free festival scene. So all in all essential reading for anyone wanting to know about the impact of LSD on Albion....

 

***** Albion Gleaming, 6 Oct 2008

By	K. White -

Until now there have been no books which deal specifically with the history of LSD use in Britain. The American scene is well served by tomes such as Storming Heaven and Acid Dreams and the uninitiated would be forgiven for thinking that LSD story is exclusively American in nature. Albion Dreaming puts the record straight on this matter and in the process opens up a window into a world few are aware of - a hidden history of a vital part of Britain's underground culture. But LSD wasn't always underground. In Albion Dreaming, Roberts charts the early days of the drug in Britain, a naïve world in which MI6 and later the MOD, believed they could make LSD work for them as a weapon or interrogation tool. Roberts' accounts of the rather pathetic attempts of MI6 to test LSD as an interrogation tool on unsuspecting servicemen make for amusing - if disturbing - reading. Clearly the intelligence services hadn't got a clue about what they were dealing with and they soon abandoned the drug. At the same time the military were flexing their lysergic muscles there was a revolution taking place in psychotherapy as LSD became widely used, most notably in hospitals such as Powick in Gloucestershire. There, Dr Ronnie Sandison embarked on a major programme of LSD psychotherapy in a specially built `LSD Block'. What Sandison didn't know at the time was that the funding had been arranged by a close friend of Sandison's who, unbeknownst to Sandison, was actually attending Secret Intelligence Services meetings!

Eventually and inevitably LSD made the leap from the clinic to public use. Roberts has traced the recreational use of LSD to the late Fifties, years before it was made illegal. From 1965 onwards growing media hysteria about LSD in the US and Britain made governments jittery about allowing its continued use. Pressure was brought to bear and LSD was made illegal in October 1966. But the consciousness revolution had started and LSD was appearing on the streets in huge quantities and high doses, shaping the music and fashion worlds of the Sixties and Seventies.. The bulk of Albion Dreaming traces the counterculture's fascination with the drug as well as the media's condemnation. The book's content is too vast and detailed to relate here, but everything you could wish for, and more besides is present.

Besides a detailed study of LSD culture throughout the Sixties and Seventies, there are separate chapters which deal with how LSD was a driving force behind the free festival movement and one which analyses the infamous Operation Julie busts from a counterculture perspective.

It's clear that Roberts is an apologist for LSD and an advocate for its legalisation or at least regulated use. This might be seen as contentious until you reach the final chapter which takes a look at why LSD has been so severely legislated against - war on drugs? - war on lifestyles more like! For instance Roberts relates the tale of Casey Hardison who, in 2005, received 20 years in prison for manufacturing large quantities of LSD in a Brighton suburb. Yet murderers and paedophiles routinely get sentences of less than 10 years. This and other anomalies suggest to Roberts an underlying desire by the `establishment' to prevent individuals experimenting with their consciousness, for fear of the significant changes LSD can bring about. After all, you're hardly likely to take the corporate world seriously after you've seen through humankind's social, political and religious games. But there is some light at the end of the tunnel. Several senior policemen are campaigning for the drug laws to be changed and numerous medical professionals are revisiting psychedelics for use in psychotherapy.

Of course there are some minor cavils; a few typos, one or two factual errors and the author's interpretation of a culture which few are prepared to talk openly about for fear of legal repercussions. Some people may think the history of LSD Britain wasn't like this at all, but every fact Roberts states is fully referenced and if any of the so-called counter culture movers and shakers doesn't like his interpretation they should write their own history!

All in all, Albion Dreaming does for the British LSD scene what Jay Stevens' Storming Heaven did for US DSL history. It's a fascinating, roller coaster of a ride, with probably 90% of the information being new to even the most ardent student of psychedelic culture.

Albion Dreaming is Class "A" !!!, 11 Sep 2008

By	Hengeworld (Cornwall UK) - See all my reviews

Albion Dreaming is a serious attempt to re-evaluate and document the use of LSD in popular British culture since its discovery 70 years ago, around the same time as the atomic bomb. Although well written, it is a book aimed for a popular, rather than a medical or academic readership. Whatever your views on LSD, its impact on culture in the UK has been phenomenal. From secret MI5 and psychiatric experiments, to beatnik magic experiments, the psychedelic 60s through free festivals, new age travellers and the rave scene.
In our culture LSD, as well as being a folk devil, has also been associated with very positive life-changing experiences and self- initiation. For many people acid has led to an increased awareness of ecological concerns, spirituality, communality and a better understanding of how the mind works. Roberts points out that its legal position has often been out of proportion to its documented dangers, and that illicit LSD manufacturers tend to be ideologically rather than commercially motivated. Proper medical research on what is certainly an unusual and is possibly a very valuable drug has never really happened. This has been thanks to tabloid hysteria and political timidity and public fears. Tabloid hysteria and moral panic has also led to disproportionate judicial repression of LSD manufacturers, suppliers and users, some of which is documented here.
Being concerned with mythology, magic, urban legend and new religions, it is ideal material for a seasoned Fortean researcher like Andy Roberts. The book is very well-researched, much of the material here has never been published before, rumours and hearsay have been followed up, and facts have been checked. Roberts also emphasises how mindset and environmental setting are vital to how LSD is experienced and how the effects of LSD, especially within in a society such as our own, are not always positive.
A big fat book which provides a fascinating read about what remains a very controversial subject.