when kesey held these acid tests, as they were known, they'd have two vats.ere like a party. the scene is a lot of light shows and music and people dancing. when the dead were playing, it was a way to feel that acid in waves. and i looked down and i saw kids in front of me moving to the music. they looked up at me and i said, "yeah." ♪ >> the drug culture really took hold. and that's where artists, whether it was the grateful dead or jefferson airplane, were able to embrace it and put it in their music. >> the counterculture in california is born because more and more people want to try to experience what kesey experienced, and he kind of became the grand poobah of the carnival in san francisco in the 1960s. >> there's nothing a grown-up or sophisticated in taking an lsd trip at all. they're just being complete fools. testinhuh?sting! is this thing on? come on! your turn! where do pencils go on vacation? pennsylvania! (laughter) crunchy wheat frosted sweet! kellogg's frosted mini-wheats. feed your inner kid ray's always been different. last year, he said he w

and then i go on and talk about timothy leary, ken kesey and a whole array of characters of course through the decade of the 1960s. when we think of the counterculture of the 1960s, when we think of the hippies we think of literally millions of participants in one capacity or another. and they were individuals who were disenchanted with matters as they were in some fashion. they were concerned about the greatest thing on the american body republic. and its continuance. they were deeply concerned about the war in vietnam. so those are kind of the two twin pillars in a manner of speaking. >> but they were also concerned about elemental issues. they were concerned about family relations. and personal dealings and sexuality. and consciousness. and rationality. >> and there was this coalescing of the forces, some demographic, some economic, some literary, some cultural, political in nature that melted together and provided this kind of backdrop that allowed for counterculture of the 1960s to be as large and so full-scale as it proved to be. there were several smart triggers for the countercultu