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of the 60's flash. The flower children sprouted everywhere . . . and so did the sudden upsurge of interest in Meher Baba, of course, along with other Eastern gurus: the little Maharshi and his TM mantras, Bubba Free John, Self-Realization, Zen, the Tibetans, the Hari Krishna's, the Moonies, the Children of God, and others I can't even recall got their fair share of attention. And in the orthodox religions, there were the Charismatics, the Jesus freaks, the speakers in tongues, etc. (see Larry Pesta's story, p.44). As Baba said, when the big Avatar-wave arises in the Ocean of Love, all the little creeks and rivers of the old-time religions get filled up, too.

 

I recall going with a friend in 1964 to hear Leary and Alpert at the Santa Monica Auditorium. They were apostles of a new "revolution" in consciousness — achievable [sic] the hallucinogenic drugs, peyote, LSD, etc. The hall was packed. I remember being shocked and angry that a drug high was being equated with illumination. The rest is history now. Alpert, actually, after hearing of Baba from Allan Cohen, went to India to try and meet Him, but the God-man was in seclusion. Alpert found another guru and became Baba Ramdas. There is an interesting correspondence between Alpert and Baba on drugs and it became the basis of the Baba pamphlet. "God in a Pill". Meher Baba took a strong slant against drugs and was much concerned with their use by young people in the West. He asked three young men, Robert Dreyfuss, Allan Cohen and Rick Chapman to be his "Three Musketeers" and crusade against drugs; He wanted them to use the electronic media as much as possible.

 

This led to an interesting development here in LA. In 1967 the boys called me up and said they had 10 days of free time and they wanted to fulfill Baba's order and get on TV and radio — would I help? I was stuck: whom did I know in Hollywood? No one! I had visited a few studios for Mattel, and Angela Lansbury's mother had come to our meetings once or twice. Then I remembered Nick Lamprinos, who had appeared on the Joe Pyne Show when Merle Gould had demonstrated the quackery of Philippine "psychic surgeons". Nick had been the patient! Backstage, Nick had become friendly with the producer. Nick volunteered to contact him, and sure enough, Joe Pyne liked the idea — a show based on pro and con advocates of hallucinogenic drugs. But he did not expect the pro-druggie to collapse right on camera! A touch of Baba's humor! Allan and Rick quoted Avatar Meher Baba’s message against drugs. Fortunately, "avatar" was a non-denominational word, or Joe might have been unfriendly. The upshot was that all the big L.A. TV and radio talk shows invited the boys to appear . . . Louie Lomax, Stan Bohrman, Peter Bergman, Elliott Mintz, etc. In ten days, they appeared on 18 different shows. Someone even asked us who our publicity agent was! Because of this first media breakthrough, Rick, Allan and Robert and others, including myself later on, gained access to many shows, thus fulfilling Baba’s wish. Rick writes to Mani: "Opportunities in Los Angeles have been extraordinary. On August 19th (1967) Allan (Cohen) and I appeared on a radio program for two hours which reaches a million persons in this area. On August 22 we taped a radio interview with Joe Pyne, whose show is nationally syndicated and reaches several million. The following day we participated in his television show, which reaches about fifty million across the nation ― and not a drop of cynical venom for which the show is famous appeared during our interview. He asked about Your Silence, why you keep it, what You predict for the future of humanity, whether You claim to be like Jesus and Buddha, whether You have disciples like Jesus did; and the rest of the show was occupied with LSD and drugs in general."

 

"Remarkably, a snake charmer was the guest on the show just preceding our appearance, and before we appeared Joe Pyne had both a boa constrictor and a dove in his hand. A hippie who had been called up to defend LSD before the camera, fainted with a strange shaking while he

 

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