ZIHUATANEJO

After their expulsion from Harvard, Leary and Alpert were determined to carry out additional studies in the religious use of psychedelic drugs. They set up a grassroots nonprofit group called the International Federation for Internal Freedom (IFIF), whose ranks quickly swelled to three thousand dues-paying members. Local offices sprang up in Boston, New York, and Los Angeles. IFIF believed that everyone should be allowed to use mind-expanding chemicals because the "internal freedom" they provided was a personal and not a governmental matter. They envisioned a society in which large numbers of people would seek higher consciousness, ecstasy, and enlightenment through hallucinogens. "It's only a matter of time," Leary stated confidently "until the psychedelic experience will be accepted. We see ourselves as modest heroes, an educational tool to facilitate the development of new social forms....We're simply trying to get back to man's sense of nearness to himself and others, the sense of social reality which civilized man has lost. We're in step with the basic needs of the human race, and those who oppose us are far out."

In the summer of 1963 IFIF moved its headquarters to a hotel in Zihuatanejo, Mexico, a lush tropical paradise two hundred miles north of Acapulco. There they sponsored an experiment in transcendental living based on the utopian writings and visionary insights of Aldous Huxley. Leary invited Dr. Albert Hofmann to participate in a seminar on drug research at the hotel, emphasizing that broadcast and print journalists from the most important mass media would be present. Hofmann demurred; he was disturbed by Leary's publicity-conscious approach. Huxley declined an offer to join the fledgling movement on similar grounds. He was seriously ill at the time. On November 22, the same day President Kennedy was assassinated, Huxley passed away after receiving his last request: an intravenous injection of LSD-25 given by his wife. As she administered the psychedelic, Laura Huxley saw "this immense expression of complete bliss and love." She whispered, "Light and free you let go, darling, forward and up ... you are going toward the light."

During its short but spectacular career the chemical utopia at Zihuatanejo was deluged with over five thousand applicants -- far more than IFIF could handle. The group's activities revolved around a tower on the beach in which at least one person at all times maintained a solemn vigil while high on LSD. The ritual changing of the guard took place at sunrise and sunset, and to be chosen for a stretch in the tower was considered a privilege. Beatnik and bohemian types were not allowed to participate in the program, but that did not stop them from pitching tents nearby. Smoking marijuana and lounging in the sun, these scruffy uninvited guests did little to enhance IFIF's reputation; nor did rumors of the all-night orgies that were supposedly commonplace in the hotel. Scarcely six weeks after they had arrived, lurid reports in the Mexican press led to the expulsion of the LSD colonists.

http://www.american-buddha.com/aciddreams.4surreal.htm

ALDOUS HUXLEY,LSD,AND, ZIHUATANEJO, AT, FIRST, SEEM, AN, UNLIKELY,COMBINATION....

I'VE, BEEN, TO ,ZIHUATANEJO,MEXICO, ON, THE CRUISE-SHIP,'CARNIVAL SPIRIT'....

THE SHIP, WAS, FULL, OF, HUNDREDS, OF, AMERICAN,'CHEVROLET CORVETTE' OWNERS CLUB, GUYS...AND, I, REMEMBER, A MUSICIAN, GUITAR PLAYER ,GUY,WHO,

KNEW, EVERY COUNTRY-SONG, YOU, COULD, THINK, OF...

WE, HAD, A GREAT TIME...I,TALKED, TO, A LOCAL SHAMAN, IN, MAYAN, BUT, HE, WAS, AGAINST, THIS, DIALECT, SO, WE, NATTERED, ON, IN, SPANISH...HE, WAS PAINTED, FROM, HEAD, TO FOOT, HALF, BLACK, HALF, WHITE,...WE HAD A FEW BEERS, BOUGHT, A FEW, CIGARS, AND, HAD, A SMOKE, ON, THE BEACH..

THE WHITE SHIP, SAT, LIKE, A WHALE, IN, THE ENCLOSED, LITTLE HARBOUR, AND, THE SUN, SHINED, BRIGHT!...I, BOUGHT, A SOUVENIR, PLATE, -IT, STILL, HANGS, IN, MY, HOUSE...

MEXICO, IS, ONE, OF, MY, FAVOURITE, PLACES...BUT, THIS, YEAR, IT'S, BACK, TO, THE CARIBBEAN.....

SHIP, 'ROYAL PRINCESS', LEAVES, FT LAUDERDALE, 7 JAN.....

I, WONDER, WHAT, WE'LL, FIND, THIS, TRIP?.HAHAH...

BRAVE NEW WORLD!....

“...reality, however utopian, is something from which people feel the need of taking pretty frequent holidays....” 
― Aldous Huxley, Brave New World