The ‘whole mix-up of sex and spiritual exercise’ reached an apex during the late 1960s. Various sinister cults attached themselves to the West Coast scene. Some had direct links to the counterculture, twisting the ideals of ‘free love’ to ever more exploitative extremes. The Manson Family were, of course, the most infamous example here – the lyrics of the Beatles’ ‘Helter Skelter’ notoriously appropriated as codified justification for an apocalyptic race war in which the Family would, supposedly, rise from Death Valley, the rightful rulers of Earth.
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