Nightmares by Day. Day-glo by Night.

LCD. Acid. Feeling. Flowing. Seeing color. The experience that is the acid test. Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters portray the image of freedom of thought and expression. The pranksters take on a new consciousness through the use of LCD with the goal of remaking America as a nation on acid. Tom Wolfe's The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test tells this trippy tale.

Riding around on a paint-covered bus, blaring music, rapping noises, tripping on acid, covered in day-glo and welcoming anyone who will listen, the pranksters are on the ultimate 'trip.' Ken Kesey leads the gang with the goal of gathering the nation into an LCD-enduced existance. Tom Wolfe, the author and narrator, depicts Kesey and the pranksters' short-lived endeavor. With LCD being legal due to the fact it was such a new phenomenon, the pranksters hold many 'acid tests,' inviting anyone who will come and discover the drug's effects.

This movement, though a failure, was one of the most unique attempts to alter our nation's entire metality, spirituality, and concept altogether. What would have come of America if this campaign had caught on? Would it have changed history altogether? Its strange thing to think about. The entire mind-set on drug culture and psychadelics could be flip-flopped. Government ideals would be different, school criteria would change, social gatherings would be completely offbeat. Life in the United States would be turned upside down.

Thankfully, every man, woman, and child is not chronically trippy on acid. Hallucinations aren't seen on a daily basis and our buildings aren't covered in neon paintings and day-glo splatters. Random gargled vocals aren't blared out through loudspeakers on every street corners and there aren't a million new flavors of kool-aid to spike. The time of the Merry Pranksters has come and gone, but with their movement came the hippies. The hippies shone a new light on the perception and knowledge we now have for the drug culture. Drugs will probably never be a thing of the past but as for now, sobriety seems to be the most popular trend.