David Lucifer/Paglia

p58-59 The neuro-logical risks of long-term drug use were denied or underesti-mated: the most daring sixties questers lost the ability to articulate and transmit their spiritual legacy to posterity.

p59 Consisting of small groups of the disaffected or rootless, cults are sects that may or may not evolve into full religions.

p60 chryselephantine: Made of gold and ivory, as certain pieces of sculpture or artwork in ancient Greece.

p60 The American sixties, I sub-mit, had a climate of spiritual crisis and political unrest sim-ilar to that of ancient Palestine, then under Roman occupation. But this time the nascent religions faltered under the pitiless scrutiny of modern media. Few prophets or mes-siahs could survive the deglamourizing eye of the invasive tv camera.

p63 In the ruins of Pompeii, the hedonistic resort destroyed by a volcanic eruption in 79 ad, there is evidence that the Bacchanalia had evolved into pri-vate sex clubs.

Just down the street, a modern incarnation... http://www.orageclub.com/

p63 This episode first brought lsd to public attention. An Irish Catholic turned self-described prophet, Leary envi-sioned a world network of “psychedelic churches” whose Vatican would be his League for Spiritual Discovery (acro-nym: lsd) http://www.leary.com/archives/text/books/religion/18.html