2 papers in the library · publishing 2026
September 17, 2026 Casey Rae
Abstract Chapter Four follows the “turning wheel” of psychedelic awakening as it moved from private epiphany to collective ritual, tracing the converging paths of Ken Kesey’s Pranksters, Timothy Leary’s Millbrook circle, and the embryonic Grateful Dead. It begins with Furthur, the Day-Glo-painted Prankster bus that carried a crew of LSD-fueled experimenters across America in 1964—part road...
September 17, 2026 Casey Rae
Abstract Chapter Five charts how psychedelic culture and the early Grateful Dead catalyzed a new American vocabulary for transformation—spiritual, aesthetic, and political—while revealing the tensions embedded in that promise. It opens with Richard Alpert’s 1966 encounter with the Dead at the Fillmore, where Primal Dead’s volatile improvisation, light shows, and collective ecstasy suggested a...