Orange Sunshine (2016) - full transcript

(trippy music)

- [Voiceover] John
Griggs heard about this

movie producer up in LA
that had a stash of LSD.

- [Voiceover] It was,
like, $35 to $50 a hit

and that was just more
than anybody could afford.

John decided him and
his friends were gonna

rob the house where the
LSD was in Hollywood.

- [Voiceover] They took
guns and went up there

and held this guy
up and took his LSD.

And they go into Orange
County and they took it,

and they had deep,
spiritual revelations.



They took a lot.

- When John took LSD,

it totally turned him around.

Actually, his first time,

he just started
running and running.

And he said he just
had to get home

to tell me how much he loved me.

By the time he got home,

it was about three
in the morning.

He was completely out of breath

and just, his eyes
were wide and crazy.

He just had to tell me how
much love he was feeling.

It just pumped and
flowed through him

and he said he could feel
divinity flowin' through him



as he ran, you know, and
he had been going totally

in the wrong direction in life.

You hadn't heard any stories
like this before, you know?

It just, this was a
new one, you know?

This was a new one for
planet Earth, you know?

The wake-up call.

- LSD was the kind of
thing that changed people,

one at a time, individually.

I graduated from
high school in 1962.

I went to college,

thought I would be a
businessman of some kind

and then LSD came along
while I was in college

and that changed everything.

That changed everything.

I started taking
philosophy classes

and classes on religion.

- Michael was John's friend.

Psychedelics is what
brought them together.

They became tripping buddies.

- I knew there
was something else

in this whole acid
experience that I needed

to understand more
and more and more.

* When I die and
they let me to rest

* Gonna go to the
place that's the best *

- I started smuggling
pot in, actually in '64,

before I ever took psychedelics.

At that time I was
building surfboards

at a surfboard shop
in Laguna Canyon,

but I also
supplemented my income

by dealing a little weed.

If you knew us, we were
polimen, spiritual warriors.

If you didn't know us, we
were a bunch of drug dealers.

You know, we were both.

- [Voiceover] The
international business

and the risks that we took.

Not only risks of getting
locked up indefinitely

in some foreign
country where they just

throw the key away and
forget you're there,

but there was people
killed in those days

for possession of hash

and there we were, you know,

smuggling LSD and
hash and marijuana.

So, we could have
easily been executed

and we knew it, and
we did it anyway.

- We were rolling
through tons of karma,

taking that much acid,
smuggling and all that.

We were doing things
nobody else could do.

Other people try to
do that and they died

or ended up in jail.

We had the power to do stuff

and we did it and we
knew it and it worked.

* When you die

* He's gonna recommend you
to the spirit in the sky

* Going to recommend you
to the spirit in the sky

* That's where you
gonna go when you die

* When you die and
they lay you to rest

* You're gonna go to the
place that's the best *

- 1960, I was 15.

Johnny Grigg's group
from Anaheim was sitting

in their designated
area on the beach

and Garden Grove was
over here, you know?

Johnny turned around
and he just stared at me

for a real long time
and it penetrated me.

That was it, that
was just it for me.

You know they say it's
love at first sight

or it's a lightning
bolt or something.

That is what happened to me.

My girlfriend's all warned
me about him, you know?

That he was kind of a little
bit of a troublemaker.

Johnny asked me if I
would go out with him

and I had known for
months and months

and been already
in love with him.

When he kissed me
I was so shocked,

because he seemed so timid

and he was almost afraid.

He says, "I was so
nervous, you know,

"'cause I had everything
banking on that kiss, you know."

It was like, you know,
if it wasn't then,

it wasn't gonna
happen, you know.

And that was it.

From that kiss on.

* I need your love

* I need your love so badly

* Now since I've
learned you wanted

* No one else around me

* Me, your love, and
I'm counting on it all *

- Johnny went to Brigham
Young University.

He had a scholarship
in wrestling there.

When he came back in
May, I got pregnant.

I was my 17th birthday;
my first time out.

(chuckling) Happy birthday!

My parents and John's
parents took us to Las Vegas

because they had to sign
for me 'cause I was only 17

and we got married there.

We were totally in love
so it didn't matter.

Johnny and I bought a
house in Fountain Valley

with our little family.

It was a cul-de-sac.

My kids could go to school.

I thought it was everything
I wanted in life.

Well, I was just against
all drugs, you know?

I just never did a drug.

I never smoked pot
or did anything.

John was taking LSD and he
was doing it in my house

and I thought it was a little
crazy, but I was young.

Johnny would select a
few of his close friends

that he wanted to experience
that and who were open.

They were tripping inside

and then they went
out into nature

to the beaches, and surfing

and John was turning on 24/7

and for about nine months before

they decided I needed
to join the club.

Him and his friends took me out,

took me down, maybe, you
know, with breakfast;

scrambled eggs and it
was in the orange juice.

Man, the whole universe
came down on me.

I experienced deep within
and I didn't want this

two-story Fountain Valley house

that I thought was everything
I wanted in life, you know?

This little stray piece
of land here and fit in

and that night, I didn't
want any of it, you know?

I didn't want any of it.

I just wanted to
move to the country

and be my own special
self whatever that was.

- Well, the experiences
you have when you take LSD

is a, is a sense of
being in communion

with powers greater
than yourself

and intelligence which far
outstretch the human mind

and energies which
are very ancient.

- Johnny have read this article

in Life Magazine about
these Harvard professors

who were experimenting with LSD.

- Our aim, like the aims

of any religious
group just beginning,

is to transform
American society.

I'm sure many of
your viewers know

that American today
is an insane asylum.

The American people
are completely hung up

on material acquisition,
on power, on war-making,

it's an insane asylum over here.

And it's our goal to
lift the spiritual level

of the American people.

We're gonna try to bring
about a religious renaissance

and a spiritual revolution.

- Timothy Leary was very
much a spiritual being.

He had written a Tao Te Ching,

and Psychedelic Experience.

He was trippin'.

You know, I mean this is the
head honcho, the high priest.

Johnny went to
Millbrook and met him,

and then they talked,

and Johnny brought back
books and information,

and then we had more printed.

We had lived in Fountain Valley
'bout 10 months to a year

and you know we
had a down payment

and making our payments
on this thing, you know.

And I just walked up
to the main office,

and I gave him my
keys and I told him

we were giving the house back.

They said, "What,
we can't do that."

I said, "Yeah we can,
we don't want it.

"It's yours, sell it, resell
it, we don't want it."

(classical guitar)

- [Michael R.] We
realized that we were

a group of sort of bonded people

and we found this old
church in Modjeska Canyon;

beautiful, beautiful,
beautiful little canyon

- [Carol] We moved to
Modjeska Canyon as a group

from our individual
dwellings in Anaheim,

Long Beach, and Garden Grove.

- [Voiceover] The first time
I went to Modjeska Canyon

it felt spiritual.

It felt religious in a way.

- The goal of the
group at that time

was your personal enlightenment,
changing yourself.

You know, we all started
reading spiritual books

and philosophies.

Most of us didn't
know anything among,

I was raised pretty
much without religion.

I was pretty much an atheist,

'til I started
taking psychedelics.

(trippy music)

- [Carol] In the beginning
we relied a lot on holy men,

like Yogananda
Ramakrishna and Ram Dass.

We had a Zen master for a while.

You know, we searched
around to find

people that could explain
the mystery to us.

* The seed doesn't fall

(trippy music)

- [Carol] Each time we took LSD

we woke up a little bit
more, and a little bit more,

and we surrendered to that
process and to that light.

- John Griggs' dream
was to give LSD

to everybody, change the world.

Hopefully everybody can
see what we were seeing.

- [Michael R.] There was always
this tension in the world

that just seemed like
would probably go away

if everybody took a dose of
acid, is what we thought.

That's when we decided
to form a church.

(trippy rock music)

- [Travis] We had one of
our meetings, one of our,

I think it was a
Wednesday night meeting,

and John was trying to come up

with a name for the group.

- [Carol] Dwight
Buckley said something

like "The Brotherhood".

And somebody said "Well,
the Brotherhood of what?"

And then Chuck Mendell said--

- The Brotherhood
of Eternal Love--

- The Brotherhood
of Eternal Love.

- The Brotherhood of
Eternal Love and it stuck.

* We are the brothers here

* And they can't
take that away *

- The idea was that each
one of those, say 12 people

would go out and
have 10 or 12 people,

and show them how
this, how this works.

- Everybody you know, go
out and tell everybody,

your workplace, your school,
your family, anybody.

Get 'em to take LSD with you.

- The obvious thing was,

we need to know how
to make as much acid

and get it to as many
people as we possibly can.

* I love it

- We felt it was our duty
to turn the world on.

We really, really, truly
believe that it is our mission

- We were called
upon to do this.

it felt like that to all of us.

we said, "this is something,
this is what I have to do."

- [Carol] LSD was much
more expensive then.

Say, that's hence where
all the hash scams

and the weed scams came through.

- Almost everyone

was doing a scam.

By a scam, we mean an operation,

some sort of
smuggling operation.

When it came down
to the real business

of making this into
a big business,

I was the guy to do that.

- Michael started working
very closely with Johnny,

was his kind of right-hand man

- John and I were best friends.

That's how I became his partner.

I think like he does.

I was one of the
ground-floor investors

in a scam where we
were a movie company.

In those days, everything
was big, you know.

And only had film
canisters and the idea was

to fill the film
canisters with LSD,

and you can't open them
or you expose the film.

* I feel this rust
I'm in so bad *

- I was the hash guy.

Hash was my thing.

- Travis inspired me because
he was always a go-getter,

and he still is to this day.

Perales used to buy
weed in Tijuana,

walk it up to the
border, leave it,

and go through Tijuana, go and
pick it up and drive it home.

And he did that when
he was 17 years old.

* I can't get your love,
I can't get affection *

- [Voiceover] Ron, my older
brother is a pretty smart guy,

engineer kind of mind, you know.

He can build things,
design things.

He's very handy.

- You know they always
called me Poindexter,

because I am really smart,

but book smart.

I'm street-stupid.

You can ask Travis,
(laughs) he'll tell you.

I took on the building of the
vehicles kind of as a job,

but, it was real interesting

to figure out where
to put the hash.

- Carol was the queen mother,

and all the other
wives looked to Carol.

She was just like all
of us looked to John.

- It was always 50-50.

The women, we all did our share.

We worked hard.

Women made everything
legitimate.

You wanted a woman in the
car with you, you know,

not a couple of
shady looking guys.

* I need you girl by my side

- [Carol] John was the magician.

He made it happen.

We would get a huge
load of something,

and he would be instrumental

in making sure it got to York,

and who it went out to,

and who it hooked up to,

and he was a business
man, kind of.

- [Voiceover] Johnny
was sort of the hub,

and this group was
growing around him.

- [Michael R.] I
found in most cases

people that you're going
to dangerous things with

and break the law,

you better be close friends.

You better be sure that
you got each other's back.

- You know, a goal was
not the drug business,

it just morphed
into this, you know,

it went from a group,

a handful of guys seeking
spiritual enlightenment,

to next thing you know,
we were smuggling.

- First it started
off small things,

but then the loads kept
getting bigger, bigger,

which was more revenue.

The money for the
LSD all went back in

to make more to make it cheaper,

give it away for almost nothing.

(funky music)

- People on the east coast
pay like five times more money

than we do on the west
coast for marijuana,

so however you
get it back there,

you can make quite
a bit of money.

Used to be able to
go to the airport

and say, "Hi my name is"
whatever name you want.

Go on a one way ticket,
take a large suitcase,

fill it with weed.

Check it into baggage on the
airplane, fly it to New York.

You could do that.

- [Ron] At this time, you
could get on a plane anywhere,

and whatever you had
on your body was fine.

- All the Afghani hash was
known as Primo, Afghani Primo.

One of my reasons for
exploring the hash business

was I loved it so much,

but it was so expensive.

I mean you pretty much
had to be a dealer

to be able to afford to use it,

so I wanted to make it cheaper.

(dramatic music)

I just started doing
a little research

on where they had hash,

figured it out and
decided to go do a ...

I got Ricky Bevells
to go with me

and we flew to Europe,

clean cut, corduroy sport
jackets, and short hair.

- [Voiceover] We decided
we'd go to Germany

and buy a car, and
drive to Nepal.

Since we both had hid
cars with door panels

from Mexico and everything,

we thought okay,
well we'll get a car,

score and fill it
up, and ship it home.

We had no idea
where we were going,

or what we were
going to encounter.

- We picked up a couple
hippies that were hitchhiking.

It was a guy and a girl.

So, we started smoking
with these hippies,

and one thing came to another,

and they figured out
we were coming there

to get some hash.

So the guys says,
"You know what, man?"

He says, "You wanna
go to Afghanistan."

And I said, "Where the
heck, where's that?"

I had never heard of that.

He says, "They got the best
hash in the world there,

"and it's only four
dollars a kilo."

I said, "When do we leave, man?"

And the next morning, man,
we headed for Afghanistan.

- [Voiceover] We
were very young,

and not very fearful of
hardly anything, actually.

We weren't two kids,

like you think of a 19
year old and a 20 year old.

It was different than that,

because we had been weekly

tapping into this
self that is eternal.

And we knew that.

So, we were like, old
souls in young bodies

going over to do this deed.

- When we first got there,

we were standing in
line at this fruit stand

to buy some fruit,

when this guy comes
walking across the square,

looking right at us.

And I see kind of a guy
in a turban, you know,

and he comes right
up to us and goes,

"Would you guys like to
buy some fine Afghan shit?"

I said, "What kind of
shit you got, man?"

He said, "Well, I
got cocaine, hashish,

"morphine, opium."

I go, "Well, that
hash sounds good."

We'd gone on this
trip originally

planning on trying
to get 10 kilos.

22 pounds, that was our goal.

We ended up buying 50
kilos from these guys.

This is Ayatoolah and
Nazareem, two po-ki brothers.

So, we had all this hash,

We were gonna figure out, how
are we gonna get this home?

So, we started
going to the bazaar,

looking at antiques and stuff.

And things were so
ridiculously cheap.

We found all these beautiful
antique musical instruments,

drums, and like tablas,

and stringed instruments
like tambouras.

We just bought a bunch of it
and we packed it with hash.

You could pack the neck.

You could line the body of it.

- [Voiceover] We saw
it in the news paper,

that they had executed
a Canadian guy

for possession of a very
small amount of hash.

So, we didn't realize we
were risking our lives.

- So, I'm sitting out in Pomona.

Travis and Rick, he
called me from Europe.

And they proceed to tell me
that they sent me a shipment,

and the hash is in
it and it's coming,

and I have to go pick it
up from the LA Customs.

Why'd they send it to me?

I didn't tell them they
could send that to me.

Why the fuck did
they send that to me?

Why didn't they
send it to themself.

So, I go to the
airport, pick this up.

Well, they had sent animal skins

with all the instruments that
they packed the hash into.

They hassled me about the skins.

They said, "You can't
import these skins.

"What are you guys doin'?"

And I'm standing there with
these two customs agents

for hours when they've got
this stuff all over the floor.

- [Voiceover] It wasn't
over till it was over.

So, until Ron had cleared
it, we were all ahead.

I was worried about my
brother getting busted.

Ron was worried
about getting busted.

Trav was probably worried
that we'd lose everything.

- And the one guy picks
up the one wooden tabla,

the drum, and he says,
"This thing's heavy.

"He says, it must
be solid wood."

And other customs agents
picks up another one,

and said, "Yeah, and I
suppose this is solid metal."

And they're looking
at each other.

And I'm just standing there.

They said, okay, you can go.

- So, we showed up
with 88 pounds of hash

that nobody even knew
that hash was like that.

It was so good,
so different

than anything we'd
ever seen before.

There's, it's the best
hash in the world.

(serene music)

- I'm in Ann Arbor
at a college commune,

and I walk in,

and this wonderful
aroma wharfs past me,

and it was almost like
a moment, you know,

that I really, to this day,

I mean how many
years ago was that?

45 or something, 50 years ago,

and I'm still thinking
of when I think of it.

It really is a moment of wow.

And I said, "This
stuff's really good.

"Where'd you get it?"

And he said,

"These people called The
Brotherhood bring it in."

And I said, "There's people
called The Brotherhood?"

(laughs) And I said,
"Well, that sounds cool."

- [Voiceover] People were
associating this hash

from Afghanistan
with the Brotherhood,

because we were the
ones that had it.

And the name Brotherhood
probably went along with it.

It was dealt in pounds.

Then it was dealt in ounces.

Then it was dealt
in grams, you know.

- Everybody had to have some,

and then of course that just
set everyone to thinking,

we can do this, you know?

John and I had started to
pursue the idea of providing

massive amounts of LSD,
as much acid as we could.

- [Voiceover] We went
through a number phases

where we got different
types of LSD.

There was 7th Chakra
Lavendar, Blue Levis.

There was Red Tab.

- Ram Dass, who was
Richard Alpert's said,

"You guys need a center.

"You need a place to
explain how you're

"surviving."

Because now we're selling acid.

* Pack too much baby

* Say you'll be my girl

- [Michael R.] So, we
went to Laguna Beach.

It was an artist colony.

It was the most liberal of
places in Orange County.

Who doesn't like the beach?

* Back again let me in

* The war is over
where you been *

- Johnny and I started
immediately talking

that a bookstore,

a metaphysical bookstore,

that's what we were gonna do.

And we then found the place
on Pacific Coast Highway

that was just way bigger
than a bookstore place,

but it looked perfect

and the whole thing
just expanded out like,

"Well, hell let's

"put a bookstore here
and other stores there."

It became a bigger vision.

- And that way we
could be creative and

more hide what we were doing.

* Walk right by
the old news baby *

- A clothing store,
handmade clothing,

there was a bead
store, art gallery,

a health food juice bar,

and we called it
Mystic Arts World.

And it was a hit,

and the place started
making money from day one.

* Hey hey hey hey

* No no no no

- [Michael R.] The
Los Angeles Times said

that, "Mystic Arts World
was the finest gallery

"in southern California."

There was nothing
like it around.

There has never been
anything like it around.

It was a psychedelic emporium.

- [Travis] Mystic
Arts became the center

for southern California

for the hippie movement,

and the psychedelic movement,

the spiritual movement,

and Laguna became the
town everyone flocked to.

It was like Haight
Ashbury south.

And we ended calling
the place Dodge City,

because of everybody
was dealing pot,

and psychedelics, and just,

I mean, it became the place.

- [Carol] There was no
law there, you know.

It was the wild west,

and a new frontier.

You know, it was
our own community.

- [Michael R.] It
was like the Shire,

this beautiful idyllic
little weird community.

- [Voiceover] You could
just go out on the street,

and you'd run into
somebody you knew,

and have a conversation,

or go over to their house
and smoke a joint with them,

or get some waves, go surfing.

It was all so relaxed
and sort of utopia.

- [Carol] Johnny used to
love to take acid and surf.

That was their whole thing.

That's what got 'em all goin'.

A lot of the surfers, they
called it Christ in the curl.

- You had surfers meeting
with all the hippies

and everybody smoked weed.

Everybody took acid.

Everybody did.

- [Carol] Chuch Wendell
had brought Mike Hynson

out to the canyon to meet us.

- Mike Hynson was
the best surfer

in the world,
practically in the day,

and a movie star, kind of.

His story on black
speech in San Diego once,

we're passing a
joint back and forth,

both high on acid,

and Mike picked up his board,

and he jumps in the water
with the joint still lit,

jumps into this wave,

catches it just perfect,

and he disappeared
inside the curl,

and sitting on the
beach, can't see him.

And all of a sudden
he comes flying out

the back end of the wave
kind of sitting cross-legged

on the back of the surfboard,

and hops off, grabs
the surfboard,

and the joint is still lit.

He said, "That's how you're
supposed to do it, brother."

You know, it was like, my God.

- Selling psychedelics
was a dharmic way to be.

It was a good way
to make a living.

It was honest.

It was a good product.

It was wanted, you know.

The only problem
is it was illegal.

- Because they made it illegal,

it produced commerce.

All the hippies can't
be just smoking weed

and taking LSD.

Someone has to make the money.

Now there was bands.

There was health food stores.

There was record shops,

but the main commerce
came from the LSD,

the marijuana, and the hashish.

From the smugglers
to the ground dealer,

this started a commerce

that allowed the hippie
movement to happen.

- [Carol] The movement

and the name of The Brotherhood

kept getting bigger and bigger.

- And I think a lot of
people realized that

we were gonna be
a major influence

in the psychedelic world.

- I was an attorney.

I had been practicing
for a number of years.

We were representing a lot of
draft resisters at the time

and a lot of drug
dealers at the time.

My basic view of the law was

anybody our
government didn't like

couldn't be all bad.

So, we represented criminals.

We were very
political ourselves,

very proud student activists.

- [Michael R.] I mean,
I think the 60s was

the perfect storm
in so many ways.

With all the
background of people

just getting sick
and tired of racism,

women wanting to be
treated more equally

in society and they weren't.

- [Carol] It was
during the Vietnam War.

You know, nobody wanted
to go fight the war.

Nobody wanted to do that.

It was all about peace and love.

- You had the marches going on.

They know it was,

a lot of turmoil.

- Great steps forward often come

from a surprising stimulus.

Psychedelics was just the
catalyst you drop into it,

and it all started to
gel and come together.

People just said,

"We're not gonna put
up with this anymore.

"This isn't right,
and so we rebuild."

(upbeat music)

We were there for
the Berkeley riots.

- [Voiceover] 400 police
officers moved skirmish lines

through the area.

- My beautiful girls
would run around topless,

and give the soldiers flowers,

and sometimes refreshments

that were laced with
acid, of course.

There were times
when we'd go out,

and this roadblock
isn't there anymore.

All the guards are layin'
on the lawns of the houses,

in their uniform,

with their stupid looking
old bolt action rifles,

flowers in the stock,

and they're as loaded
as they could be.

There was a time, particularly
in southern California,

where word spread.

It was mostly mythology,

The Brotherhood of Eternal
Love could take a tab of acid,

and with a little
pair of gloves,

they'd put it on your doorknob.

They could put it in
your drinking water.

They could put it everywhere,

and you didn't even
know it had hit you

until you were stoned
outta your mind,

and wondering, "Whoa!

"Why am I looking into the
face of God all of a sudden?"

- [Voiceover] We were on a
mission to change the world,

and we were doing it by
supplying psychedelics

to help change
people's thinking.

So, it was worth the risk.

- It began a year ago,

when to so-called
free speech advocates,

who in truth have no
appreciation for freedom,

were allowed to
assault and humiliate

the symbol of law and
order of policemen

on the campus.

- What we were doing
became political

because it influenced
so many people.

- This year, I will
propose a drug control act,

to provide stricter penalties

for those who traffic in LSD,

and other dangerous
drugs with our people.

The time has come
to stop the sale

of slavery to the young.

- The war on drugs
was a war on us.

The war on drugs is a
war on psychedelics,

things that they cannot control.

- [Voiceover] 20,000 young
people filled the canyon

outside the resort
town of Laguna Beach.

They came by the thousands
to sleep on the ground,

or in their cars and campers.

- [Voiceover] We were
starting to realize

that more and more
people shared the vision

that we'd had, which was great.

Think, "Oh, yeah,
this is really good.

"You know, it's spreading.

"It's spreading like we
were hoping it would."

- Drugs are just an
everyday part of life here.

It's a special day
that it's really happy

and a lot of people and
a lot of brotherhood.

- I had come to Laguna,

and I wanted to get more hash.

While I was there,
I had met everyone,

and everyone was really nice,

but I was wondering, you know,

where's the Brotherhood?

Who's the Brotherhood?

You know, they were
supposedly the people who,

who get this and I actually,

had kind of paid
for that connection.

So, I wanted to, I wanted,

I didn't want to go
through other people.

- [Voiceover] The rock
lovers keep coming.

They leave their cars and walk.

- The last of '66,
'67, and into '68,

Laguna was like an anthill,

and just, just these hippy-types

just buzzin' around.

I'll never forget my first time

I actually parked there,

and I walked down at sunset.

It was about 7:00 at night,

and I looked out there,

and as far as you
could see both ways,

there was more potheads
down there smokin'

watchin' the sun goin'
down cross-legged,

"Om ...

"Om ..."

And I'm just thinkin',
"You know, nothing.

"I guess this is just
a free wide open place,

"but this is bull.

"Marijuana's a felony.

"All these other
drugs are felonies."

And I'm gonna,

I'm going to make
it my business.

The orders of the police
department at that time was,

we're gonna write as many
tickets as we can write,

and we're gonna make as
many arrests as you can.

That's all there is to it.

- [Voiceover] Well,
we opened up the shop,

and people started
coming from all around,

and hanging out on the
sidewalk in front there,

and smoking pot
and getting busted.

It just slowly sort of built up,

that notoriety,

which brought
people like Purcell

to start trying to
observe us more closely.

You know, from behind
the bushes and stuff,

watching.

- By now, we had a reputation,

that The Brotherhood
can move it,

you know, whatever it is.

If it's good, it's
pure, we can move it.

- [Travis] The cops
used to come in there,

trying to rouse people
and bust people,

and it was just a big
game of cops and robbers.

- Neil Purcell pulls into
Dodge City, you know,

and were smokin' the hooka
at one of the hotels.

He came running in
there all by himself,

"You're all under arrest!"

Somebody pushed him
into the swimming pool

in his uniform,

and we grabbed the hooka
and everybody left.

By the time he got
out of the pool,

nobody was there.

He fucking hated us.

In those days, you know,

most people would really
bow to authority's rule,

but we didn't.

We refused to behave,

or even to pretend to
behave, we refused to.

You know, it was just
like in your face,

"No, we're gonna
be the way we are."

We were gettin' stoned,
we were smokin' dope,

takin' acid, pursuing
a spiritual life.

(dramatic trippy music)

Everything grows organically.

You start selling acid to
10 people, then 100 people,

then thousands of people,

and pretty soon
you have a demand.

These guys Nick, Sam, and Tim
Scully made a bunch of acid.

It was the largest
amount of acid

that was available for sale

that was real, real good,
that we knew of, and so--

- They wanted The Brotherhood
to be the distributors

of the LSD.

Up until that point,
the main distributors

were the Hells Angels.

- [Michael R.] We
wanted the exclusive.

You don't want five
people to have this.

You want one group to have it.

We saw something in each other,

Nick, and I, and Johnny.

And that was it,
we were the guys.

- [Voiceover] So many
miraculous things happened,

that made it possible
to do the things we did.

It feels like there was
divine intervention involved.

- They came up with these bags,

these old bags of yellow tabs,

and orange tabs,

and blue tabs.

For some reason, everyone
liked the orange ones.

- We had it all in
the trunk of this car,

and turned on the radio,

and there was Back
on the Street Again,

by the Sunshine Company.

- And they named
'em Orange Sunshine.

- It became, like
overnight famous.

I remember flying back east
with a small duffle bag

that had baggies
of Orange Sunshine.

And you know, it'd
just take five hours

to get it from the west coast
and it'd be on the east coast

as fast as the plane lands,

and pretty soon the acid
hits the street that night.

Chuck Scott, he
was kind of the one

that got the New York
Market established for us.

And we had people
in Laguna Beach

that sold a lot of
acid on the west coast.

* What'd you take

* Orange Sunshine

* Do you want more

* Yeah yeah

- Orange Sunshine

became synonymous
with The Brotherhood.

- It became a household
name damn quick.

Sunshine was far more popular

than say, Windowpane,
Purple Haze,

or other things
that were around.

- [Michael K.] The Grateful
Dead was always in love

with The Brotherhood,

because although
their music was great,

it was even greater
with Orange Sunshine.

- [Michael R.] People in
Hollywood were interested.

People came from all over.

- Acid, Sunshine?

- It was happening
in San Francisco.

It was happening in Amsterdam,

in England, and Germany.

The kids, all over the world,

got this LSD at the same time.

- [Voiceover] Paul, how
often have you taken LSD?

- About four times.

- [Voiceover] Where
did you get it from?

- Oh, you know, I mean,

if I was to say
where I got it from,

you know it's illegal
and everything,

it's silly to say then.

- It was in every
city there was,

and it had a name,

and you know, the
Orange Sunshine.

- [Voiceover] I took some acid,

and they were these
little orange pills.

- Were they barrel-shaped?

- [Voiceover] Uh, yes.

- Okay, right, you did some
Orange Sunshine, Peter.

(laughing)

(funky music)

- [Michael R.] We
eclipsed everything.

You know, we were
the Coca-Cola of LSD.

- I never sold LSD or
smuggled it to make money.

Ever, I can honestly say that.

- Most of us said, "Hey,
the LSD should be free."

That was John's dream.

John's dream was everybody
did LSD for free.

He said it should be in
gum machines on the corner.

- When more money came in,
it didn't matter to us.

The money just afforded us
to try and make more acid.

Nobody was living
high on the hog,

and had Cadillacs or fancy cars.

I mean, I drove my old pickup.

- People maintained the
same spiritual values.

We just got bigger and we just,

it made the machine
grow in a organic way.

We made a lot of LSD,
a whole lot of it.

(crowd cheering)

- [Carol] At that point, you
could feel the police presence,

snooping around and
asking questions,

and watching people.

- When you add the element
of what we're doing

is very, very risky.

Don't forget the fear part,

and the prayers of "I hope we
don't get caught doin' this,

"'cause this isn't ...

"This isn't a platinum
record we're doing here.

"This is something that could
send you to jail forever."

- Cops, or narcs,

or whoever they who were
would sit out in their cars

and just watch people
coming in and going out.

Trying to figure who's who,

and hook who up to what and ...

Oh good luck.

- The Brotherhood was known more

as a mystical organization.

There were a lot of
people that said,

"It doesn't really
exist, It's not real."

- I never allowed
my picture taken,

so people might know my name,

but they wouldn't know
what I looked like.

- After my first couple,

my first trip or
two to Afghanistan,

I decided we should probably
start getting fake ID.

And, it was really
easy in those days.

- [Michael R.] We had blank
Social Security cards,

so you could fill in a number

on the Social Security
card if you want.

And what you do with
the birth certificate,

is you could erase everything
on the birth certificate

and put in other numbers
and make a copy of it,

and then kind of
make it official.

Put a stamp in there
and then emboss it,

and it worked.

- [Voiceover] The
idea was to travel

under a fictitious name

in case something happened
in a foreign country,

and you could pay your
way out over there,

so it wouldn't
reverberate back here

and get us in trouble here.

- We were using the
names of dead people

and going and getting passports.

I had four passports of
my own and three fakes.

- I can remember going up to LA

to the Passport Bureau one time,

and I changed my appearance.

I got some glasses that were
just plain glass though,

stage glasses, and
changed my hair.

I went in there and said, "I
need an expedited passport,

"I'm leaving tomorrow."

For an extra 20 bucks, man.

"Okay", (mumbles) walked
out with a passport,

right then, same day.

Went out, went to a hotel room,

changed my appearance,
completely.

Went back the same day,

went in a different cube,

got in a different line,

and got another passport,

in the same office
in the same day,

under two different IDs.

No computers,

there was not cross-referencing.

- So, we were able to function

right under their
nose, basically.

- [Ron] We went on to
smuggle more Afghani hash,

than anybody.

We did big things.

2400 pounds at a time.

We weren't fuckin' around.

We did one and
another and another.

- A couple brothers
would fly to Germany.

Get a car into Afghanistan,

meet up with the
Tilkai brothers,

all this kind of stuff.

Work out a deal,
200, 300, 500 pounds.

After the dope was loaded,

seal, weld 'em all back up,

and maybe have it
shipped to Seattle.

The drive it from Seattle,
Portland down to Laguna.

They were not dummies.

They had some smart
people in there,

but they're all crooks.

(mellow music)

- [Ron] Winter of '67,
Timothy moved to Laguna.

He came out and joined us.

- Tim saw in the brotherhood,

an actualization
of his own dreams,

of his own imagination,

and he loved it,

and they loved him.

- Timothy was a focal point,

a spiritual focal point
that was necessary.

And he was brilliant.

And his spiritual
insight was profound.

You know, John Griggs was
a holy, holy, holy man,

and Timothy had a big
influence on John Griggs,

but John Griggs had a bigger
influence on Timothy Leary.

- [Carol] Timothy Leary
looked up to Johnny

as a spiritual being.

They both had the same
vision and the same dream,

to turn the world on.

The energy was moving so
fast at that particular time.

- It got to a point where it ...

If somebody had some LSD,
or some pot, or some hash,

and they said this was
from The Brotherhood,

that's all they needed to say.

It would be sold quick.

- [Michael R.] It
was starting to slip

into a different gear.

- Dodge City had been
taken over by more hippies,

and rock 'n rollin',

probably crazier than ever.

- [Voiceover] More
and more people

were peripherally
involved with us,

and then you started
hearing people say,

"You know so and so?"

And I'd say, "No, I
don't know that person."

"Well, they're
Brotherhood members."

- It wasn't for
the whole anymore.

It was a group of a
bunch of smugglers

that worked together.

That was a whole 'nother thing.

That's kind of a
business, in a way.

Police were starting to go,

"Oh my God this is getting
out of control, you know?"

They're having big
public meetings

with a few thousand
people showing up.

- [Voiceover] The
game we played before

was just cat and mouse,

and we were always winning.

Things got a little
more serious after that.

- They just wanted
us outta there.

Laguna was tired of
the hippie scene.

- Mystic Arts World was torched

by the elders of Laguna Beach.

They arsoned our store.

They threw a fire bomb
through the fucking sky light,

and it smoke damaged everything.

And it was way too
hard to reopen.

The writing on the wall
was very clear to everyone.

It was probably that
those days were over.

(mellow music)

- [Travis] The spring '68
is when we bought a ranch

in Idyllwild, California
called Fobes Ranch.

It was an experiment
in communal living.

We were trying to find
this ideal lifestyle,

and it was like
everybody contributing,

everybody pitching in,
whatever you can give.

We did everything together.

You know, we cooked
together, ate together,

you know, had our
ceremonies together.

- The whole group, the
whole thing, it was family.

We were all a family.

Family values, that's what
we tried to cultivate,

and that was a lot
of Johnny's goal.

Everyone of my children,
from day one up,

they knew exactly
what was going on.

You know, they were
part of the movement.

If my children were
playing with the

outside of these realms,

they knew not to talk
about what went on,

and they were all very,
I would say, savvy.

They were miniature hippies.

- [Michael R.] The vision
was always to produce LSD,

but once we got to a
certain stage with that,

and Johnny saw I was
able to take care of it,

he moved back.

He wanted to live a
more domestic life,

and I took over for him with
the traveling and all of that.

- I was always trying to
find Michael a girlfriend,

'cause he was a
sincere, neat guy.

- I would have probably
been a lot more peaceful,

if I was just pursuing my
spiritual life at the ranch,

but I was obeying
a higher calling.

We were successful.

We sold everything
and we got to where

we were ready to
take the next step,

which was make more.

So, we bought a house
close to Palm Springs,

and we set up a lab in there.

- Everybody took off to
Afghanistan to do these scams.

Well, we were tired of
doing these Volkswagens

and getting 400, 500
pounds in them, right?

So, we find the finest
motorhome we can,

and I go out to Pomona
and we buy a Lazy Days,

and we get this guy
Al that was in prison,

a Mexican welder,

and he does the car
just like we want.

I put stash places everywhere.

There was probably ten
different places to stash.

We did 1300 pounds in that one.

It was the first big one.

(upbeat hippy music)

- Summer of '68, I went
back to Afghanistan

to get another load.

Mike Henson and David Hall,

they hollowed out a spot
in these two surfboards.

And they could just
pack 'em with hash.

So, I took 'em along.

Strapped 'em to
the top of the VW.

Two surfboards in the
dead of winter in Europe,

drove through the Alps,

and down and across all
the way to Afghanistan.

They were really out of place,

and I had a wife and
a little kid with me,

a little girl with me.

* I'm waiting for a man

* From Afghanistan to come

* He got a kilo in the
bottom of a suitcase

* In a cabin son

* If the captain comes
you don't give him no lip

* But you pick it up later
and you know the trip *

- When we came back,

we shipped the surfboards
as unaccompanied baggage.

We got home and
everything was cool.

United Airlines had
had some kind of strike

in their cargo thing,

and the two surfboards sat
out in the yard in the sun.

And they were in canvas bags,

that were made out
of denim, blue denim.

And the hash started goin' off,

started decaying in
there and swelled up.

So, when the strike was over

they went to ship
the boards to LA,

someone picked 'em up

and stuff was rattling
around in there.

They cut 'em open,
they found the hash.

They shipped it on over,
had me come pick it up.

Customs agents even
helped me load it

and tie it on the car,

rather than bust me
right on the spot,

and then they followed me.

- The rule at the ranch was,
not to endanger the ranch.

You know, don't
bring the load there.

Travis, God bless his soul,

has brought more
heat down people

than anyone I've ever known.

The feds followed
them all the way,

all the way to
the fucking ranch,

and it was a disaster.

- They had a plane spotting me.

And when I went through
the locked gate,

and got part way up the road,

I remember turning back

and looking back
down in the valley,

and seeing this train of cars,

just coming up the dirt
road, just hauling ass.

And they swooped on us,

guns drawn and
everything and got us.

And then they wanted to
see what was up this road,

where I was going.

- The next thing I
know, Travis pulls up,

and down comes the helicopter

that had followed
him all the way in.

We looked out the windows
and went, "Holy God!"

You know, they are so here.

- The cops pull right up in
the front of the ranch there.

There's all these
hippies everywhere.

You know, they don't
even know what to think.

What the heck's this?

And then they took me away.

- Everything was blown.

Now passports were checked.

What was shipped back?

Those surfboards,
what was in 'em?

I mean everything,
now they know.

Now, legal things are
starting to happen.

A lot of money that was
earned went into legal defense

for whoever it was
that was in trouble.

We were a family, you know.

Nobody, nobody suffered.

- [Michael R.] Timothy Leary
and a small contingency

of people from Millbrook

came to live at the ranch.

- Timothy's
philosophy is Taoism.

Taoism wants you to stay down.

Stay in the background,
behind the scenes.

And when Timothy decided
to run for governor,

it was almost against everything
he'd been teaching us.

- I'm going to run
for the governorship

of the state of California.

I think that we
need a new party,

and by party I mean party.

- We were like, what?

This guy's sitting in the
teepee, next to the pear tree,

in the meadow at our ranch,

should not be
running for governor.

* When you make love

* Play it to me

- [Carol] Johnny and I, when
we got back to the teepee,

we both cried,

because it was
something had changed.

It wasn't going in the
direction that we wanted.

- We had this engagement
in the real world out here,

because we were
trying to change it,

but we didn't want to
be governor, you know.

I might have to put suits on

and dress up like I'm straight,

but that don't mean I
have to be straight.

- [Travis] John Lennon
wrote Come Together

as Timothy Leary's
campaign song.

People hear that on the
radio all the time now.

That song plays well,
every theme song

for Timothy Leary's
governor race.

He was gonna run against
Ronald Reagan as governor.

- Let the kids get high.

As a matter of fact,
President Nixon,

why don't we all
turn on together.

- [Michael K.] At the time,

the government probably
feared Tim Leary

more than they feared anybody.

Nixon thought that dope dealers

were among the worst
criminals on Earth.

- We must wage what I
would call total war

against public enemy number one

in the United States,

the problem of dangerous drugs.

- [Travis] That was the
beginning of the end.

That was when they
decided to target Tim.

They're gonna get him
one way or the other.

- This one night,

and it was December 26th of '68,

at about 11:00 P.M.,

I by myself, black and white
police unit, full uniform,

and here's this car stopped

facing me in the
middle of the road.

So, I walk over and
I tap on the window,

and all of a sudden
the window comes down.

And this grey-haired guy says,

"What's the problem
officer?", real nice.

And I looked at him

and I'm thinkin', "Holy moly,

"this looks like Leary."

I said, "May I see
your driver's license?"

"Oh sure", real nice.

Come, take out, and
all of a sudden, bingo.

Timothy Leary,
1230 Queens Street,

Berkeley, California.

I said, "Well, Mr. Leary,

"I smell the odor of burned
marijuana", which I did.

I tell Leary, "Step
out of the car.

"This is a narcotic
investigation."

He is just coming unglued.

You don't have probable cause.

This is an illegal stop.

This is an illegal
this and that.

I go in his car,

obvious place to look
first, the ashtray.

There's two little
roaches there.

Pull 'em out, and I said,

"You're under
arrest, Mr. Leary."

- [Voiceover] Dr. Leary's
political ambitions

were cut short,

when Governor Reagan
had Leary arrested,

and sentenced to
30 years in jail,

for possession of $10
worth of marijuana.

- Tim was in prison and
we were taking his appeal.

He had been arrested in
Texas, bullshit charges.

He was arrested in
California twice,

again no real charges,

but he was a political
person who they feared.

And they would do anything
to get him off the street,

get him into prison,

and try and shut him down.

- Timothy was a
spiritual leader,

and to keep the path
going of Orange Sunshine,

we did the outrageous
other option

that no one thinks of:

prison break.

The first thing that we did is

looked at the prison
that Timothy was in

and started working with
this guy on the inside,

"What is the best way
to get out of here?"

That was over the fence,

just a straight
up over the fence.

There was a place that
was perfect to go over,

the way the trees were situated,

the road was virtually
right fucking there.

And Timothy needed to start
doing pullups and things

so he had better
upper body strength,

and could get his
ass over that fence.

- [Carol] I remember talks

around the table
of the main house.

"Who was gonna fly him
from here to there?"

- This went on for six months,
nine months or something.

(eery music)

You know, when you
take LSD with people,

you feel every thought,
every emotion all together.

And so, when you take LSD with a

advanced spiritual being,

you're gonna know
about it right away.

You will have a
different kind of trip.

And that's what Johnny was.

- See, the higher
doses you take,

the more far out it gets.

And it can get pretty scary too.

John was always there for
when it got really heavy.

John would be the guy
that could reassure you,

grab your hand and just
touch you to make it feel,

make you go ma, the
bad stuff go away,

just with his presence.

- God always chooses
unlikely things, you know.

Holy men are not

always what you
really might think of.

They're ...

A good holy man
has got some flaws,

and something wrong,

or maybe they're not a
perfect person now to T,

but they have a gift that is

something you can't explain.

Johnny Griggs was that way.

He was the most powerful man.

- You know, I could
never take LSD

with anyone that
was higher than him.

It was unbelievable.

He really was something.

(eery music)

- We were in our teepee,

up in Idyllwild at the ranch,

and Johnny wanted to give thanks

to the universe.

And we got things
ready in the teepee,

and food prepared,

and our firewood
stacked and stuff,

and we were gonna
have a session.

My mother, and father, and
grandmother had all come up,

and they took the
children with them,

so it was just Johnny and I.

I took the mescaline,
and I thought Johnny did.

I had no idea.

It hadn't been very long,

maybe an hour.

Johnny says, "Something
feels not right to me."

And I said, "What do
you mean, not right?"

And I said, "I feel just fine."

He said, "Well, I didn't
take what you took."

He says, "I was testing
this new stuff",

that had just been given to him.

Johnny decided that
whatever was happening

to his body wasn't right.

He said, "Call out", because
other people in their teepees

were going to trip
that night also.

It was gonna be a group thing,

but we had started early.

So, we stayed together
most of the night,

but he was physically
struggling,

which I had never
ever seen before.

At one point, I was walking
out the teepee door,

and he said, "Stand
there for a minute."

And I stood there, and he said,

"I do believe you are
the most beautiful thing

"I have ever seen in my life."

And just then,
like, I don't know,

it was like electricity
went through me.

You know, it was ...

I felt like he was
saying goodbye,

and I just panicked.

I said, "Johnny please,
please don't leave me.

"I mean if that's what's
going on, I can't.

"I don't wanna be
here without you."

You know, he was my teacher,

my lover, my best friend.

You know, he was my
boyfriend, you know.

And, he said, "Mama",

he said, "we got it made."

The sun just came up
and he fell forward.

(dramatic music)

I ran out of the teepee and
there were some other people.

Mark got his dad to
pull up the pickup.

We went down to
the Hemet hospital.

Mark and I, we got
ahold of Michael.

- I was talking to
Carol on the phone.

And the doctor came to her.

I could hear him,
said, "He's gone."

When they told her that Johnny

had died, she started
crying and screaming.

- And I handed
the phone to Mark,

and Mark said, "You
know, it's true."

Michael couldn't even accept it.

None of us could.

It just, we were not prepared.

Boom,

the teacher was gone.

- He took the psilocybin,

and we don't know what happened.

I had taken it many times.

We had all taken it before.

So, I took some,

'cause I figured fuck
it, I'll go with him.

I don't know, I wasn't
sure what to do.

It didn't kill me.

It didn't kill me.

He was only 26.

(somber music)

- [Carol] After Johnny
died, I think that's what

shattered a lot of the
southern California movement.

I think it shook a
lot of people's faith.

- It left some people adrift.

Some people didn't have
enough of their own,

their own, know who
they were themselves,

so many people relied
so much on John

that it left them adrift.

A lot of people
split at that point,

after John died,
everybody just scattered.

- The Brothers sent
me over to Hawaii.

They've got a big house there.

I just remember in my mind,

it was hell being in paradise.

To feel so broken,

and then to be in such
a beautiful place,

But I, you know, held up.

You know, because
I had children.

I just knew I had to be strong.

No matter what, I had children,

and I had to be strong, I
had a baby at my breast.

Yeah.

That's a hard thing to do.

- Travis and other
people went to Hawaii,

leaving more of a skeleton
crew at the ranch.

I made sure there was
money for things to work.

I took care of
Carol and the kids.

I had to keep in motion.

Big things were going on.

Big, big things were going on.

I cannot let go of
this, I have to.

The only way to accomplish
what was started

is to continue to
follow the path,

kind of like that
little trail of crumbs

wherever God is taking me.

I got very high at the
ranch once, by myself.

I think I took five doses
of Sunshine or something,

you know, maybe 10,

and John came to me.

And we didn't talk, but
there was energy exchanged,

and information and things.

And it was positively
him, positively him.

We spent the day together,
and we made a few plans.

We focused things, or
we clarified things,

and I knew, I knew that
we were gonna go forward

and really kick some ass now.

We were gonna do it and we did.

We made 10 kilos
of LSD after that,

10 kilos of pure white LSD.

No one's ever done that before,

or since.

It's a lot lot.

- 100 million doses.

- [Carol] Most of
the meetings about

planning Timothy's escape

were all done at the ranch.

Michael finally came up.

He had a date and times,

and they're, everybody's
gonna be waiting,

and it's gonna happen.

- There were people from
New York at the ranch,

and other people,

and they gathered everyone
together and said,

"Everybody, except the
people live at the ranch

"need to leave now.

"Go now.

"Don't be here."

And a couple of people had
been growing some pot plants.

I said, "You know what?

"Pull those fucking pot
plants up and get everything.

"We gotta get ready.

"The onslaught, they're
gonna come here."

Timothy needed to use a blanket

to keep the barbed wire
and razor wire away,

and then drop down and
wait at a certain place.

And this all had to be timed.

It all turns out
that it was perfect.

- $17,000, that what
we gave the weathermen,

what they charged for picking
him up outside the prison.

- They drove off a little ways.

He changed clothes immediately.

Then they met another car,

and they gave the clothes,

his prison clothes
to the other car,

who turned around
and went south.

They north with Timothy
where there was a motorhome

that took him to Canada
and they split from there.

- Dr. Timothy Leary,
formerly of Harvard,

now known as the high
priest of the drug cult

escaped during the night

from the California Men's
Colony of San Luis Obispo.

Apparently he simply walked out

of the minimum security prison.

- [Voiceover]
September 15th, 1970.

This is the fourth communication

from the Weathermen Underground.

The Weathermen
Underground has had

the honor and pleasure of
helping Dr. Timothy Leary

escaped from the POW camp

of San Luis Obispo, California.

Dr. Leary was being
held against his will,

and against the will of millions
of kids in this country.

He was a political prisoner,

captured for the work he
did in helping all of us

begin the task of
creating a new culture

on the barren wasteland
that has been imposed

on this country by
Democrats, Republicans,

Capitalists, and creeps.

LSD and grass, like
the herbs, and cactus,

and mushrooms, of
the American Indians,

and countless civilizations

that have existed on this planet

will help us make a future world

where it will be possible
to live in peace.

Now, we are at war.

- I had this little short

fling thing in life.

This man from New York,

he wanted to wine and dine me,

take me

to Jamaica, me and the kids.

And I considered
taking off and just

go to some foreign country and
drop out for a little while.

And Michael'd come up with some

really beautiful,
gorgeous woman.

She was French or Moroccan.

She had the accent, the looks.

She was just so
fabulous, you know?

I felt jealous.

I'd never ever, I didn't
know what the feeling was,

'cause I'd never
felt that before.

I never had to, not like that.

And, they went off, went
under the waterfall tripping,

and I tell my girlfriends,

"God, what is, why
do I feel this way?

"Why do I feel so
anxious and torn

"that he's all gone off
with this woman, you know."

I says, "I don't know."

I says, "I think
I love Michael."

- I was with someone on

the top of the mountain,

that was my lover for a while.

And I loved this woman.

I loved her a lot,

but I realized, just like

a bell went off,

that I loved Carol,

and that she was the
only woman I wanted.

I just wanted Carol.

I mean, I just knew it.

Boom!

I said, "I'm gonna
do everything I can,

"and come, and come back here,

"and I'm gonna try and
get her to marry me."

- [Carol] When he
showed up at the ranch,

with his little
suitcase, you know,

I was in the kitchen,

and I was hand-squeezing
orange juice,

and making oatmeal for the kids,

and all of a sudden he appeared.

Said, "I just came up to
tell you that I loved you."

- I told Carol, "I
gotta have you, baby."

- And I said, "My God!"

You know?

I mean, I had no idea he had

those kind of feelings
for me, you know.

I said, "Well, I was thinking
about running off to Jamaica"

And he said, "My
God, what about me?"

And I just looked
at him and said,

"Yeah, what about you?

"You know, I'm totally
in love with you.

"I was just trying to
escape somewhere, you know?"

He threw a kiss on me and
we've never been apart.

- Shortly after
that, we got married.

(mellow music)

In the early 70s, we had become

an international

situation.

We made a really huge
amount of acid in Europe.

And we set up hash oil
factories in Lebanon.

- At that particular point,

The Brotherhood was the largest

supplier of psychedelics,

in the world.

- We tried to get
the feds involved.

We tried FBI.

Not anything doin'.

We tried the B and DD.

They said, "Oh, we've
heard about this group.

"It's nothing."

And we said, "Look,
this is what we have."

We brought in a couple
boxes of records,

showing this whole tie-in.

There is an organization called

The Brotherhood of Eternal Love.

Yes, it's incorporated as
a religious organization,

but within that organization
is this core group

of big time buyers
and distributors,

and it's just not Laguna Beach.

It is nationwide,

and now we're finding
out it's international.

And the feds were
just spellbound.

- We really became a target.

The crosshairs were on us,

and on me a lot.

We knew our phone was tapped,

we knew that we were under
surveillance a lot of time.

- It took 'em another year

of watching and
tapping and foll--

they followed me
to Saint Martin,

followed me ski trips,

followed me to Europe,
followed me everywhere.

They didn't catch me.

They didn't catch me smuggling.

They caught me with
a whole lot of money,

but they didn't catch
me with any dope.

- They never got any hash.

So, how can you be
convicted of smuggling

3000 pounds of hash,

when they don't
even have one pound?

They don't have an ounce.

They don't have anything.

- There was never a case
that the government had made

that really had any substantial
criminality underlying it.

They just didn't have it.

So, what the
government had to do

was bring the Hell's
Angels into the case,

and say to the world,

"These guys are working
with the Hell's Angels.

"They're making acid.

"Hell's Angels are
distributing the acid.

"Killing everybody.

"They're the nastiest
people on Earth,

"so these guys can't be
any god damn good either."

That was their whole
theory of the conspiracy.

Put the bad together
with the good

and bring the good down.

- The Brotherhood indictment
was a conspiracy charge

for everything, you name it.

It was conspiracy engulfed
it all, from hash smuggling,

weed smuggling,

manufacturing of LSD.

They were charged with it all.

Michael and Eleanora,
our lawyers called me,

and said, "I do believe

"it's time to leave."

- [Voiceover] Over the weekend,

in a concerted multi-state raid,

federal authorities
captured members

of the international
drug-smuggling ring

The Brotherhood of Eternal Love.

- When the indictment came out,

it was like (mimics explosion).

They hit everywhere, they
got everybody at once.

It was like, bam!

You know, everybody was busted.

- [Travis] They were
busting my ranch.

They were busting
Chuck Scott's house.

They were busting Jack
Harrington's house,

looking for Gordon.

They were going
after everybody, man.

- [Voiceover] Federal, state,
and local narcotics officers

arrested 15 of 29
persons indicted

by the Orange County grand jury.

- [Voiceover] Authorities seized

7.9 million dollars in drugs,

and two LSD laboratories.

- At the time, it
was a unprecedented

coordinated effort
among the feds,

and all the local people;

California, Oregon, Hawaii.

The news people
were all over it.

They were gonna put us
down once and for all.

Mark Stanton, and Russell
and his wife and kids,

everybody had kids,

me and Carol and all,
didn't know what to do,

so we went to the Barnum
and Bailey Circus.

And we just sort of
stayed there all day.

We could be anonymous in it.

And we saw the first show,

and then it got finished.

Saw the next show,

and we would sometimes
go out to the car

and listen to the
radio a little bit,

and see if we could
hear anything else.

- [Voiceover] Three more member

of the Brotherhood
of Eternal Love

have been caught in
an overnight raid

by authorities in Orange
County, California.

- [Voiceover] 14 members
of The Brotherhood,

including Dr. Timothy
Leary, remain fugitives.

Authorities now--

- That was it.

That was the day that was over.

You know, everything that
we had known before that

was pretty much finished.

- We just ran.

We all just ran,

and hid, with our kids.

- [Carol] We were all separating

and going different
places to hide out.

- [Voiceover] The pre-dawn sweep

of southern and
northern California,

Hawaii, and Oregon,

netted 1.5 million LSD tablets,

30 gallons of hashish oil.

- Somebody warned me that
they knew where I was

and they were coming to get me.

- So, Travis and I left.

We left that afternoon.

And we flew from
there to Belize,

and then from Belize
we took a bus,

and then we switched our IDs
as we crossed the border.

We went into
Yucatan with new ID.

- Michael and I went
to the Caribbean.

We just bought
tickets, paid cash.

Gone, no record, nobody.

We went to the Bahamas
and Cayman Islands,

and we ended up in Jamaica.

We were underground for sure.

We had to change our identity,

but we were good at that.

We were like chameleons,

whatever the situation
called for, you know.

Be straight, be not straight.

You know, be groovy,

whatever we needed to be.

Our children, you know, they
all kept their first names.

You know, they knew if
somebody asked them questions,

they just don't answer
certain questions.

They don't know,
they're just kids.

I had to change their
original transcripts

into a different name,

so we had records to
get 'em into school.

The future was uncertain.

- [Michael R.] I did not know
when we went to New Mexico

what was gonna happen.

I bought some jewelry equipment
and stone cutting equipment,

and I started making
a living with that.

- We were just at the crest
of the wave of the big boom

of Indian turquoise jewelry,

when it went off in the 70s.

- Well, I spent 11
years as a fugitive.

Raised my family as a fugitive,

living all over world.

And I actually hooked
up with Michael Randall,

and Chuck Scott who I
hadn't seen in years.

Kind of rejoined the crew.

I bought a ton of hash,

so I gave them the whole
Moroccan load to sell.

I just let them do it,
and they moved it all.

- We were in the studio one day,

and the phone rang and
it was from Travis,

and I could hear
the conversation,

Michael talking to 'em,

Something inside me just
knew something was wrong.

- They tapped every phone
in the town of Long Pine.

Me and a guy named Bill

were taking a Cayman Airways
flight over the Grand Canyon.

We got on the plane,
and the door closes.

The plane pulls
away from the gate.

It was about three feet.

It pulls back up.

The door opens, these
guys come on board,

two or three of 'em, memory ...

They come up, stop
right at my row,

look at me and go,
"Mr. Ashbrook?"

I hadn't used the name in years,

years, and years.

I just didn't even look up.

"Mr. Ashbrook?

"Come with us, please."

- [Voiceover] I had met this
guy through Chuck Scott,

from the east coast

who had been bringing in
Pakistani hash on airplanes.

And he had somebody at
the airport in New York

that would clear it.

I met Kitting,

he seemed like a straight
shooter, good guy.

So I fly to Afghanistan,
and I land I Kabul.

And when I'm walking
up to immigration,

they see my name on my passport,

and I'm red-listed.

So, all of a sudden,
everything's different

than anything I'd experienced
flying in there before.

A guy says, "I need
you to come with me."

- I was on the run
for about 10 years.

After I got back to America,

when I was back in
California permanently,

I didn't have any ID
for about eight years.

One day I'm moving Wendy
up to northern California,

and I've got big pickup truck,

and it's filled with her stuff,

where I can't see behind me.

And I pull into
this liquor store,

but I kinda miss
the entrance to it,

and I had to back up,

but I couldn't tell if
anyone was behind me,

and I couldn't see him.

So, I backed the truck up,

and I pulled around,

pulled into the little
convenience store,

whatever market was there,

and I jumped out of my
truck and I looked back,

and my car's like this,

and a cop car's
parked right there,

and he's got his window down,

and he's goin' like this.

And he tells me, "Well, you
almost hit me back there.

"You know that?"

I said, "I know,
I couldn't see,

"but I didn't hit you, right?"

He said, "No, but you
really came close though.

He says, "Well, let
me see your license."

And I told him ...

I kind of hemmed and hawed,

and he said, "You don't
have a license, do you?"

I told him, "No."

- [Michael R.] Chuck
Scott was killed

by US Marshals in Mill Valley.

- Shot him in the head
as he was running,

in front of his
wife and his baby,

and she was pregnant.

Police were going to
my parents' house,

telling 'em, "You know, we
just shot Chuck in the back.

"You better tell us where
your son and daughter are.

"You know, because
when we find 'em,

"we're not going
to ask questions.

"We're going to be shooting."

- We were living
outside of Boulder.

It was a little
town called Lions,

out where it's really
in the country.

It was a hot summer day,

and I had, I was studying for my

GIA Diamond Certificate class.

I'm studying for it,

and my son, Daniel,
is takin' a nap.

He's sleepin' in my lap,

and the front door was open.

I didn't even hear
their cars come.

(ominous music)

- We were down in the
lower part of our house.

It was like a sunken room.

I stood up, and I looked out,

and I could see all these men

surrounding our
house with rifles.

And I went over, and I said,

"Honey, they're here."

And he said, "Who?

"The kids are back from
the beach already?"

I said, "No, they're here."

I made Michael promise me

that he would not panic and run.

- [Michael R.] They came
charging in pointing 45s at me,

and I'm trying to tell them,

"I have a child in my lap."

You know, be careful.

- They allowed us
to hug and kiss.

They handcuffed him,

and that's when they drove away.

(somber music)

The 60s had its casualties.

It wasn't just a clean
ride for everybody.

And I know that
more than anybody.

But, through all trials,
tribulation, and suffering,

we never ever lost faith.

There was so much at stake.

We were a unit,

and whatever we went through,

we went through together,

as a group,

as a couple,

as a family.

- Well, I made it.

- [Carol] You must
have been overhead.

- Good, good, good
to see you again.

You good?

If you go like that, you
got one missing lens.

We were very idealistic.

We were young kids and

it seemed like a
beautiful utopia dream.

We were trying to make it real.

- [Voiceover] One, two three.

And again.

- The Brotherhood
will never end.

It's in the people that
had that experience,

that were there, that
experienced that special time.

It'll be with 'em forever.

They'll carry it
past their graves.

- [Wendy] No, your favorite.

- Oh, okay.

We don't have Social Security.

We have nothing.

If I don't pay my rent next
month, we're on the street.

There probably isn't one of us

that couldn't say that
the other guy owes 'em

a half a million,

but I imagine if he
paid a half million,

he'd pay the half
million, that all,

that there would
be even in the end,

'cause everybody's got a story,

but we don't care.

It isn't like somebody else
burned us, or took anything.

Loaded balls, we don't care.

It all's a wash.

We're here, we love each other.

Awesome, dude.

I'm happy to spend
the day with you.

Those things don't change,
those things don't change.

Once you really are
the same, and one,

and brothers, and real
friends, it doesn't matter.

Time can't space friends.

You just are.

- [Voiceover] I often thought

that if I ever told a
story about my life,

I would call it
The American Story,

because I think all of
it is very American,

even the drugs,
the psychedelics.

We have a lot of freedoms
here in this country,

and we exercised those
freedoms to the utmost,

to experiment the
way that we did,

and to travel worldwide
and to take big risks.

I think that's an American
story, I really do.

- It's hard for
people to believe

that Eleonora and
could have lived

through the times we lived,

and never been afraid.

Loved his work.

Crazy, yeah maybe.

No, it's because we believed.

We believed in
what we were doing,

and if we took us out,
'cause we were doing it,

we'd have been taken out.

It just didn't happen to us.

It happened to a
lot of other people.

- We were outlaws, yes.

We broke the law, you betcha.

Laws were wrong.

We have to break 'em
if they're wrong,

because we had a goal of
wanting to turn on the world.

Then in only 50 years,

we have organic foods
in all kinds of places.

The changes that have bloomed

all around the world as a result

of taking people psychedelics.

I know for sure that
Steve Jobs took Sunshine.

I know positively that
the guy that discovered

the double helix DNA
was high on acid,

and I'm pretty sure
it was Sunshine.

What we were involved in
is human enlightenment.

That's no small thing.

I mean, 120 million
doses of acid.

That's called turning
on the world, man.

(upbeat music)

* We are the nomadic kids

* And they can't take that away

* We come with a message now

* It's fighting down away

* Some day old Sister Jude

* Will be in a holy place

* Our brothers

* These kinda brothers

* Our brothers

(funky rock)

* What's your name

* Orange Sunshine

* Do you want more

* Yeah yeah

(scatting)