A series about the boldest adventure of my youth—running away at sixteen to attend Woodstock

Woodstock: Still Standing: The Spirit of Woodstock – Series

 

Quick—what pops into your head when you hear Woodstock? Peace signs and flower crowns? Psychedelics and guitar solos? Or a sea of beautiful souls living in harmony?

That silver-haired pair behind you at the grocery store?

They once stood under rain-soaked skies, wrapped in music and revolution at Woodstock.

Woodstock changed me in ways I never expected—and though running away to get there was bold, it was worth every step.

After three days steeped in peace, love, and music, the shift back to reality was jarring. The warm chaos of Woodstock faded fast as I stepped through the door and was met with two disapproving faces—no flower crowns, just cold stares. My father told me he was disappointed. My stepmother […]

Woodstock: Music, Mud, Myth, and Memory – Series

Was Woodstock the spiritual spark of a generation’s awakening? Was it the dawning of the Age of Aquarius, or what?

Harmony and understanding? Trust and sympathy abounding?

Is the moon still in the seventh house?

Is Jupiter aligned with Mars?

Yet, in contrast, the world was anything but peaceful in 1968 when Hair: The American Tribal Love Rock Musical opened on Broadway. That same year saw American bombs and napalm falling on Vietnam, Richard Nixon’s rise to the presidency, and the tragic assassinations of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Senator Robert F. Kennedy.

Inner-city neighborhoods across the country erupted in riots, revealing a nation deeply fractured.

Periods of crisis tend to spark visions of paradise.

The 1960s were fertile ground for New Age ideologies—some born of […]

Woodstock: The Soundtrack of a Generation: From Monterey to Woodstock – Series

Charles Fleischer is the originator of the quote “If you remember the ’60s, you really weren’t there”, which has been widely misattributed to various other celebrities. It was the music!

Like meditation or prayer, music can lift us beyond ourselves. The sounds of the ’60s and ’70s moved both body and spirit.

The Monterey International Pop Festival, held in June 1967, signaled the dawn of the “Summer of Love” and became a defining moment in the counterculture movement. It launched the American careers of Jimi Hendrix and The Who, introduced Janis Joplin’s raw power to the world, and brought soul legend Otis Redding to a broader audience. Monterey set the stage for Woodstock and helped transform […]

Woodstock: Road to Woodstock: A Teen’s Psychedelic Journey and Coming of Age – Series

Flashback. It has been almost fifty-five years since Woodstock. Over 500,000 people came together on a 600-acre farm to celebrate peace and music in the shadow of the Vietnam War—an iconic event that redefined counterculture and reshaped rock history.

Music, Mud, and Freedom: My Cousin and I Hitchhiked Our Way Into the Wild Ride That Was Woodstock.

For many of us who came of age in the ’60s and ’70s, drugs weren’t just recreational—they were a doorway. In the right setting, with the right mindset, psychedelics like LSD or psilocybin could unlock profound experiences of awe, connection, empathy, and spiritual wonder.

As a baby boomer, I can say that some of the most formative insights of my […]

Woodstock: The Liberation Years: Spirituality, Intimacy, and the Revolution of the ’60s – Series

This is the first post in a series about the boldest adventure of my youth—running away at sixteen to attend Woodstock.

Some Sixties veterans compare Burning Man and iconic hippie gatherings like Woodstock, the Trips Festival of January 1966, the Summer of Love, and the Human Be-In in Golden Gate Park the following year.

The parallels are unmistakable: Burning Man and those early countercultural events embraced free love, wild costumes, audience participation, and the exuberant spirit of loud music and psychedelics.

I experienced Woodstock firsthand, though I’ve never attended Burning Man.

To me, Woodstock carried a deeper power. We were a community of mellow, free-spirited hippies, gentle in our energy. From what I’ve heard from those who’ve experienced it, Burning Man combines a different […]

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