Intellectual Dishonesty Regarding SMiLE

[Bill Tobelman]

Out of all the Beach Boys stuff I've ever read & collected and seen online there isn't a single shred of credible coverage of SMILE as far as that project is concerned dealing with the insight and illumination & religious philosophy possible via LSD. I've never seen this stuff mentioned ever! Yet this is clearly the mind-set and goal of Brian Wilson during the SMiLE era (see Bri's quotes to Tom Nolan for proof).

Seems to me that it's high time for folks who write about SMiLE to get a clue and realize that Brian Wilson had it going on in a big way during that era. There needs to be a sensitivity to the religious acid experience applied to this art.

If you write about SMiLE and are clueless psychedelically (as I am) you need to state so (as I have) and you need to become acquainted in some way to speak on such topics (I read a lot of stuff). And in the future any point of view regarding SMiLE that is devoid of the influence & philosophy of the psychedelic experience should not be regarded as an informed view on the subject of SMiLE.

[Pinder's Gone To Kokomo And Back Again]

Wow! You need to be commended on brass balls, at least,  for slathering yourself in honey and jumping into the bear cage ....

But here's the thing: LSD affects different people differently ..... When I used to do it in my early twenties, my acid-head friends would have all the classic experiences: strong visual hallucinations, seeing neon patterns/grids n such, while I experienced basically none of that. It was more mental with me. Like simple thoughts resonated differently and everything seemed deeper. Every stray sentence uttered took on gigantic meaning ..... I remember putting on Sgt. Pepper with headphones and feeling like FINALLY I get this album! It was like someone opened a doorway and I was able to experience the album from the inside and in candy coated technicolor .... However after putting on The Floyd's Umagumma and then SMILE (the triple colored vinyl boot) my nice trip when completely off the rails ....... Playing music (as in playing an instrument) is amazing on LSD. Repeated patterns, or "feels" as Brian calls them are pure magic, so I can see how the drug might have caused Brian's imagination to expand and how by simply playing the two "feel" chords of Heroes & Villains over and over and over and over could have set him on his course .... Lyrically, I don't so much pick up an acid influence. I mean, they certainly don't seem to be related to or about the LSD experience, though the imagery conjured up via the Surf's Up lyrics might likely be an exception .....But if Brian's compositions were LSD influenced, VDP's words certainly fit like a glove.... This is something that would probably take Brian or VDP expanding on in detail.

[Mike's Beard]

Out of all the Beach Boys stuff I've ever read & collected and seen online there isn't a single shred of credible coverage of SMILE as far as that project is concerned dealing with the insight and illumination & religious philosophy possible via LSD. I've never seen this stuff mentioned ever! Yet this is clearly the mind-set and goal of Brian Wilson during the SMiLE era (see Bri's quotes to Tom Nolan for proof).

Seems to me that it's high time for folks who write about SMiLE to get a clue and realize that Brian Wilson had it going on in a big way during that era. There needs to be a sensitivity to the religious acid experience applied to this art.

If you write about SMiLE and are clueless psychedelically (as I am) you need to state so (as I have) and you need to become acquainted in some way to speak on such topics (I read a lot of stuff). And in the future any point of view regarding SMiLE that is devoid of the influence & philosophy of the psychedelic experience should not be regarded as an informed view on the subject of SMiLE.

Sorry to be so blunt, but what a big, dangling pile of bollocks.

[TMinthePM]

Quote - "It was like someone opened a doorway..."

There it is in a nutshell.

I expect this'll be one hell of a ride, so I'm climbing aboard early.

If you are not "experienced" you should maybe stand aside and pay attention to what'll be said here.

 

[Lee Marshall]

Pinder...Maybe you should have played Smile first.    Trips always zigged and zagged.  It was never a straight line from start to finish.  Can't say too many I ventured out on...w/o my suitcase...were religious-like.  It sure as shootin' wasn't ever as it was religiously portrayed in the movie 'Easy Rider' for me at least.  Although other 'bits' did ring true to some degree.     And no two ventures into 'wonderland' were ever the same.

The religious 'thing' would have been at least as influenced by Brian's life growing up as it would have been by LSD.  'Cause if that happened to him in a meaningful way while tripping...I'd bet it only happened once or twice.  [Unless he was always fixated on 'it' anyway...and I don't think he was.   Was he?]

[Andrew G. Doe]

Out of all the Beach Boys stuff I've ever read & collected and seen online there isn't a single shred of credible coverage of SMILE as far as that project is concerned dealing with the insight and illumination & religious philosophy possible via LSD. I've never seen this stuff mentioned ever! Yet this is clearly...

Ah, Bill, you had me right up to there. The only thing that's "clear" is that it's your opinion it's "clearly the mindset and goal of Brian Wilson". You're presenting your pet theory as established fact. Won't fly, Orville.

[filledeplage]

Out of all the Beach Boys stuff I've ever read & collected and seen online there isn't a single shred of credible coverage of SMILE as far as that project is concerned dealing with the insight and illumination & religious philosophy possible via LSD. I've never seen this stuff mentioned ever! Yet this is clearly the mind-set and goal of Brian Wilson during the SMiLE era (see Bri's quotes to Tom Nolan for proof).

Seems to me that it's high time for folks who write about SMiLE to get a clue and realize that Brian Wilson had it going on in a big way during that era. There needs to be a sensitivity to the religious acid experience applied to this art.

If you write about SMiLE and are clueless psychedelically (as I am) you need to state so (as I have) and you need to become acquainted in some way to speak on such topics (I read a lot of stuff). And in the future any point of view regarding SMiLE that is devoid of the influence & philosophy of the psychedelic experience should not be regarded as an informed view on the subject of SMiLE.

Bill - the "Intellectual Dishonesty" is a joke. The whole "myth of LSD" is rooted in "intellectual dishonesty" beginning with self-proclaimed expert Tim Leary using his undergraduate students at Harvard as a "cohort" to experiment on. It got him fired. Imagine sending your kid to Harvard, and having a "person, in a position of trust" give your kid LSD...

However,  I won't call him a "doctor" because he wasn't an MD, and the term infers a certain confidence, which he most brazenly breached, but a PhD who exploited students, inmates, and theological students.  It is a repeated attempt to give "credentials to study." He was a predator.  It was b.s. fifty years ago, and it is b.s., now.

And, I'm with Andrew. 

[Pinder's Gone To Kokomo And Back Again]

Out of all the Beach Boys stuff I've ever read & collected and seen online there isn't a single shred of credible coverage of SMILE as far as that project is concerned dealing with the insight and illumination & religious philosophy possible via LSD. I've never seen this stuff mentioned ever! Yet this is clearly the mind-set and goal of Brian Wilson during the SMiLE era (see Bri's quotes to Tom Nolan for proof).

Seems to me that it's high time for folks who write about SMiLE to get a clue and realize that Brian Wilson had it going on in a big way during that era. There needs to be a sensitivity to the religious acid experience applied to this art.

If you write about SMiLE and are clueless psychedelically (as I am) you need to state so (as I have) and you need to become acquainted in some way to speak on such topics (I read a lot of stuff). And in the future any point of view regarding SMiLE that is devoid of the influence & philosophy of the psychedelic experience should not be regarded as an informed view on the subject of SMiLE.

Bill - the "Intellectual Dishonesty" is a joke. The whole "myth of LSD" is rooted in "intellectual dishonesty" beginning with self-proclaimed expert Tim Leary using his undergraduate students at Harvard as a "cohort" to experiment on. It got him fired. Imagine sending your kid to Harvard, and having a "person, in a position of trust" give your kid LSD...

However,  I won't call him a "doctor" because he wasn't an MD, and the term infers a certain confidence, which he most brazenly breached, but a PhD who exploited students, inmates, and theological students.  It is a repeated attempt to give "credentials to study." He was a predator.  It was b.s. fifty years ago, and it is b.s., now.

And, I'm with Andrew.  

Ray Thomas is coming for your ass, Filledeplage, and he's pissed!

[Mike's Beard]

Quote - "It was like someone opened a doorway..."

"It was like someone opened a doorway....... to my increasing mental illness, paranoia and delusional behaviour. Whooo-hoo, thank you LSD".

[filledeplage]

Out of all the Beach Boys stuff I've ever read & collected and seen online there isn't a single shred of credible coverage of SMILE as far as that project is concerned dealing with the insight and illumination & religious philosophy possible via LSD. I've never seen this stuff mentioned ever! Yet this is clearly the mind-set and goal of Brian Wilson during the SMiLE era (see Bri's quotes to Tom Nolan for proof).

Seems to me that it's high time for folks who write about SMiLE to get a clue and realize that Brian Wilson had it going on in a big way during that era. There needs to be a sensitivity to the religious acid experience applied to this art.

If you write about SMiLE and are clueless psychedelically (as I am) you need to state so (as I have) and you need to become acquainted in some way to speak on such topics (I read a lot of stuff). And in the future any point of view regarding SMiLE that is devoid of the influence & philosophy of the psychedelic experience should not be regarded as an informed view on the subject of SMiLE.

Bill - the "Intellectual Dishonesty" is a joke. The whole "myth of LSD" is rooted in "intellectual dishonesty" beginning with self-proclaimed expert Tim Leary using his undergraduate students at Harvard as a "cohort" to experiment on. It got him fired. Imagine sending your kid to Harvard, and having a "person, in a position of trust" give your kid LSD...

However,  I won't call him a "doctor" because he wasn't an MD, and the term infers a certain confidence, which he most brazenly breached, but a PhD who exploited students, inmates, and theological students.  It is a repeated attempt to give "credentials to study." He was a predator.  It was b.s. fifty years ago, and it is b.s., now.

And, I'm with Andrew.  

Ray Thomas is coming for your ass, Filledeplage, and he's pissed!

A very belated welcome back, Pinder!  

Oh well, I just call it as I see it!  

[SenorPotatoHead]

I don't think it's too far of a stretch to say BW had some religious/spiritual connection and/or longing within him prior to acid, and for him (IMO) it was all in and about the music he loved and the music he made - always.   It could be said he was attempting to work this into his music since (nearly) the beginning of the groups career.   Acid could maybe only be said to have widened that canvas, shown him new possibilities (as well as raising new questions).   So, acid wasn't the seed, it was only an aid (out of many) which assisted in the direction/means of how the seed grew (meaning "religious/spiritual" informed music).   I think people get bogged down on the "acid" part of all this, as if the acid itself was the point BW was getting at by making this new church music.   I honestly don't think the core spiritual message/theme (whatever) was the acid, yet there's no denying it's influence in the music created.   I don't know if I am expressing my thoughts clearly, and probably doesn't matter if i am or not, I guess.

Wilson was correct when he said that the future of rock/pop music would be spiritual, or at least he was correct for a time, as the late sixties/early seventies is rife with songs/albums that are certainly exactly that.   

[Mikie]

Like Potatoehead alluded to, the acid may have opened up new horizens, but if any drug had great influence on Brian, Van Dyke, and SMiLE music, far and away it was the hash. The pot.

[18thofMay]

Oh no.. Bill is back.

[TMinthePM]

There is more happening at any one moment than our senses can handle, or even register - think of radio waves. Think, for a moment, of the acute sense of smell possessed by a dog, or the eyesight of an eagle - smelling and seeing way beyond our capacity. These are evolutionary adaptations that ensure survival and reproduction, the necessary drives of life.

There are some excellent studies on the properties and effects of LSD on Youtube. One is called Dr. Hoffman's Elixir, or some such.
One point discussed is that the drug turns off "inhibitors" in the brain that normally block the flood of stimuli that would otherwise overwhelm its functioning - one cannot successfully hunt wabbits while contemplating the depths of eternity. So, it is not the drug, but the universe itself that is manifest.

I don't know what kind of rat poison may have been mixed with whatever "acid" you once tried, but I will stand witness anyday to the fact that there is more in heaven and earth than are dreamed of in your philosophy my dear Harvard - a decayed institution given over to ratifying the status and privileges of a worthless, incompetent, hereditary ruling class.

I've lately begun to reflect on the fact that I have been reading this board and it's precursors for going on 20years now! And wondering why? I think Mr. T may have provided me the key to the answer to that question with this posting. Because in our youth we were granted visions of a new dispensation, and our poets sang a new kind of song. And tho we've had to live and work thru our lives in the day-to-day world, we've never forgotten the fires that illuminated our youth. Our leaders have been gunned down, ridiculed and marginalized, but many of us are still here. And wondering why...MacArthur's Park is melting in the dark... 

[soniclovenoize]

If you write about SMiLE and are clueless psychedelically (as I am) you need to state so (as I have) and you need to become acquainted in some way to speak on such topics (I read a lot of stuff). And in the future any point of view regarding SMiLE that is devoid of the influence & philosophy of the psychedelic experience should not be regarded as an informed view on the subject of SMiLE.

I guess Brian Wilson & VDP should not have been writing/singing about the Sandwich Isles if they'd never actually been there... 

[TMinthePM]

Nothing sensationalized in these:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgUFqAdGN24

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpSLjdPiSH8

[Mr. Wilson]

Funny how people talk about religious experiences on LSD.. I grew up catholic and was an altar boy and never had that experience.. Neither did any of my friends that I know.. And I droped acid mescaline and peyote many times.. Im not saying it doesn't happen because obviously it did to many people.. Sometimes ive felt short changed on that end.. The weirdest experience I ever had was I was sitting in a chair with a fan behind me and the sunshine started coming on and I got paranoid because the fan suddenly was inside my head.. Terrible nite and never took acid again..LOL. Funny now but not back then..!!

[TMinthePM]

curiouser and curiouser....

[bgas]

Funny how people talk about religious experiences on LSD.. I grew up catholic and was an altar boy and never had that experience.. Neither did any of my friends that I know.. And I droped acid mescaline and peyote many times.. Im not saying it doesn't happen because obviously it did to many people.. Sometimes ive felt short changed on that end.. The weirdest experience I ever had was I was sitting in a chair with a fan behind me and the sunshine started coming on and I got paranoid because the fan suddenly was inside my head.. Terrible nite and never took acid again..LOL. Funny now but not back then..!!

Perhaps you've just blocked those experiences out with the altar boy stuff? 

[SinisterSmile]

So has anyone here NOT done acid?

[joshferrell]

So has anyone here NOT done acid?

me.

[Jim V.]

So has anyone here NOT done acid?

me.

I've never done acid either. I did do some shrooms though! 

[Micha]

I'm just not really interested in altering my mind's perception with drugs. However I don't condemn people who enjoy that any more than I would condemn, say, motorcyclists.

[bluesno1fann]

So has anyone here NOT done acid?

me.

Same here...

[halblaineisgood]

Not your cup of tea.