Laguna Beach Patch Revisits Town's Acid-Laced Past

Rosemary and Timothy Leary with the Brotherhood's John Griggs circa 1968

​On Dec. 6, my book Orange Sunshine: The Brotherhood of Eternal Love and Its Quest to Spread Peace, Love and Acid to the World, came out in paperback. To celebrate that event, my friend and former OC Weekly colleague Rich Kane, editor of the Laguna Beach Patch, has put together a fun video of yours truly dropping by all the local spots that were critical to the town's former reign as Orange County's LSD central.

We visited the former Pacific Coast Highway location of the Brotherhood's famous metaphysical boutique Mystic Arts World, which mysteriously burned to the ground in June 1969. 

(It's vacant now, but based on the signage, the latest tenant was some kind of kinky clothing store). Then we dropped by Laguna Canyon Rd. and Woodland Ave., to check out  "Dodge City," where Timothy Leary was arrested in 1968, and which police probably raided at least once a week during the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Next was a spot in South Laguna where Peter Amaranthas, an unarmed, 20-year-old Brotherhood member, was killed by an Orange County sheriff's deputy. Our final destination: Sycamore Flats, a grassy bowl at the top of Laguna Canyon near the 73 toll-road where some 30,000 hippies gathered a three day rock festival that started on Dec. 25, 1970.

For whatever groovy reason, both LAObserved and Huffington Post picked up the item, but to watch the actual video, click here.

Great work, Rich! And who was that on the sitar, by the way?