thepsychedelic-encyclopedia:

The Exorcism of the Pentagon, October 21, 1967

On October 21, 1967, over 75,000 people gathered around the Pentagon to protest the Vietnam War. In a press release before the protest, Abbie Hoffman announced that they were going to exorcise the Pentagon. “We’re going to assemble a mass of holy men to surround the Pentagon,” Hoffman asserted, “…and the Pentagon is going to rise into the air and when it gets about 300ft in the air, it’s going to start to vibrate. Slowly at first and then a little quicker and all the evil spirits are going to pour out.” Of course Hoffman was just egging the media on, but mainly he was just trying to gain support and momentum for the rally. The evil spirits were no more than the Establishment and the idea was to shake them out and end the war. On the day of the protest, tens of thousands of people showed up wearing colorful clothes, tripping on LSD and waving banners, ready to rock the pentagon. Ed Sanders, the lead singer of the psychedelic band the Fugs, cried into the microphone, “Out , demons, out!” Soon, all the protestors chimed in and began chanting, “Out! Out! Out!” and the stage was set.

The situation was more than heated. Hundreds of troops had also shown up with bayonets and the police were heavily armed with tear gas. The protestors, however were armed with daisies. Michael Bowen,a visionary artist and psychedelic enthusiast, had planned to sky bomb the Pentagon with two hundred pounds of daisies, but the plan fell through when the FBI caught on. With more flowers than he could handle, Bowen passed the daisies throughout the crowd and protestors placed the flowers into the troop’s bayonets as shown in the iconic “Flower Power” photo above. The media covering the rally had departed leaving the troops to their own devices. The police moved in, tear gassed the crowd, and arrested over 800 protestors- many brutally beaten.