This past Friday there was an event in the Hyphen called the Psychedelic Coffeehouse. Posters advertising the event reveal that it was sponsored by the Programming Board, with "Thanks to Asgard." I was struck by the irony--Psychedelic Asgard?
Perhaps a little elaboration is necessary to make the irony apparent. Asgard is an organization dedicated to providing substance free social options open to the campus.
Psychedelic is, according to the American Heritage Dictionary, "Of, inducing, or marked by hallucinations and distortions of perception."
Rather than consult a dictionary, one might ask a survivor of the 1960s what "psychedelic" means. This would probably yield something like, "It's what the world is like when you're on acid."
Let's face it, the whole notion of psychedelia was introduced into our common usage by the drug culture of the '60s. It was about psycho-active drugs, rebellion and music.
Music typical of '60s psychedelia included "White Rabbit" by Jefferson Airplane. If we really want to know what psychedelic means, perhaps we should ask Alice when she's 10-feet tall.
Or we could look to my favorite example of '60s Psychedelia--The Strawberry Alarm Clock and their hit "Incense and Peppermints." Lyrics include, "Incense and Peppermints/The color of time." What does this mean? Here's a clue, "Turn on, tune in, turn your eyes around."
This is, of course a reference to a quote by Timothy Leary, the academic guru of LSD who advised the youth of America to "Turn on, tune in, and drop out."
Does The Strawberry Alarm Clock make sense to people on acid? I have no idea and finding out would require an expansive definition of investigative reporting. Plus, it hardly seems necessary as I have sufficiently established the connection between drugs and psychedelia.
So we come to the question: What in the heck is Asgard doing with a Psychedelic Coffeehouse? I didn't notice the poster until after the fact so I was not able to make the event. Did you get a cute little stamp with every bagel? I assume they were not passing out tabs of LSD with the French Roast.
So what are we to make of a Psychedelic Coffeehouse that sports nothing stronger than espresso? There are two possible interpretations.
The first is that pop-culture has a short memory. The '60s are now 30 years ago. How many one-hit wonders have slipped into oblivion?
Some would argue that we gain perspective on that era as we move away and look at it with a more balanced eye. But how much can we learn from the '60s if we have already forgotten that psychedelia was all about drugs?
Another possibility is that Asgard was quite aware of the implications of the coffeehouse. Like the people who used to follow the Grateful Dead around the country and yet did not use illegal drugs, Asgard might have been consciously flying in the face of the drug culture. In this light a Psychedelic Coffeehouse becomes a protest against a culture that demands one use drugs to experience the joys of psychedelia.
Ultimately the reality is probably much more simple. Psychedelia was cool; who wouldn't want their coffeehouse to be cool?
