Oracle 7, our longest issue, 52 pages, was the HouseBoat Summit Meeting with Allen Ginsberg, Alan Watts, Gary Snyder and Tim Leary, held, I must admit, in Top Secrecy aboard Alan Watts' houseboat in Sausalito. The sole photographer there was Paul Kagan, and Oracle staff artists observed the meeting.
Most of the discussion circled around the problem of whether we were going to drop out or take over?
Leary and Watts criticize moral violence and anger of the Anti-war movement while Ginsberg and Snyder defend the movement. Snyder says that political utopianism and mysticism have common historical roots.
Leary, questioned by Snyder and Ginsberg about what "drop out" really means, prophesies groups, like10 MIT scientists, dropping out and forming small tribal groups...
Watts talks about our educational system not giving us any material competence: How to cook, make clothes, build houses, make love, be a father or mother...
Leary says there may be two or more species evolving -- one an ant hill with technological king and queen and the other tribal and basic. Snyder says that that is a negative view of human nature -- all people want to be in touch with what is real in themselves and nature... He declares, "People will consume less, if what is exciting to them is not things but states of mind,"
Snyder and Watts speak of organic original intelligence in so called "primitive society" -- an intelligence based in experience and vision, not abstract thinking.
Snyder relates what he tells people who ask him how to drop out: "Get in touch with the Indian culture here... Find out what the mythologies were...Then go and look at your local archeological sites. Pay a reverend visit to the local American Indian tombs, and also the tombs of the early American settlers. Find out what your original ecology was. Is it short grass prairie or long grass prairie? Go and live on the land for a while; and watch the clouds, and watch the water, and watch the land, and get a sense of what the climate here is... Then decide how you want to make your living here."
They talk about practical steps - people living together, working, sharing money and becoming extended families. Snyder says, "the extended family leads to matrilineal descent, we'll have group marriage...with group marriage, capitalism is doomed and civilization goes out."
The discussion ends with Tim Leary saying, "The seed carrying soft body should not be embedded in steel... I have no intention of going to jail and I won't go to jail. No one should go to jail." Of course Tim went to jail but not until he announced he was running for Governor.
UNDERGROUND PRESS CONFERENCE
The Oracle sponsored the first conference of the burgeoning Underground Press. Editors from papers in New York, Detroit, Los Angeles, Chicago, Texas and elsewhere attended and formed the underground press syndicate to share articles nationwide. We agreed upon a statement that would dedicate the papers to chronicle the collapse of civilization as we know it and to prepare communities to survive the collapse and rebuild a new civilization in its place.
BOM BOM MAHADEV - HARRY MONROE
Bom Bom Mahadev - A Mantra for Marijuana by Harry Monroe is an extended review of David Solomon's book "The Marijuana Papers." The drawing is by Mark Devries. Monroe writes, "Mr. Solomon has collated a massive volume of absolutely convincing evidence that marijuana is good for you, good for your health, good for your mind and good for your world."
CENTERFOLD - THE PRAJNA PARAMITA SUTRA
The centerfold of the Houseboat Summit is the Prajna Parimita Sutra, the Buddhist prayer considered to embody the most profound insight of Buddhist thought. The artwork is by Ami Magill. Some of the conservative elements of the Buddhist community weren't too pleased with the naked butterfly lady standing in the middle of the highest perfect wisdom.
THE STRAIGHT THEATER
A group of hippies bought and renovated the old Haight Movie Theater and with tongue in cheek renamed it "Straight Theater." They built a 4,000 sq. ft. dance floor, and installed a state of the art sound system, and theatrical and light show equipment. They intended to create a cultural center funded with the proceeds from rock dances, but the city denied them a dance permit, dragging them through a long series of delays and hearings. They finally opened for dances in September 1967 as a dance school with thousands of hippies signed up as students. Drs. P. Pen and J. Garcia were instructors. Dance schools didn't need permits.
ADVERTISING PAGE
Here is an advertising page. Just to show that we occasionally bowed to the gods of materialism.
BACK COVER - PEYOTE INDIAN - RICK GRIFFIN
The back cover was Rick Griffin's portrait of Mescalito, who was, as described on the poster version of this image, "the patron saint and protector of all souls who dig and indulge in the enjoyment created by God through his herbs to enlighten and expand the mind..."
