The following is excerpted from Robert Anton Wilson,  _Sex, Drugs,  and the
Occult_ (currently published by Falcon Press as _Sex and Drugs:  A  Journey
Beyond Limits_), chapter 1.  Copyright 1973, 1987 by Robert Anton Wilson.


          Typical European                   Typical American drug bust
       witch trial circa 1570                        circa 1970

The accused are  arested in a wood-     The accused are arrested in a rural
land meeting-place                      "commune"

The accused are alleged to have en-     The accused are alleged to have en-
gaged  in  "obscene"  or  "bestial"     gaged  in  "obscene"  or  "bestial"
orgies                                  orgies or, at least, to be sexually
                                        casual

The accused are said to seek  reli-     The  accused are said to seek reli-
gious visions with drugs, most com-     gious visions with drugs, most com-
monly  belladonna,  thorn apple  or     monly LSD, hashish, peyote or mari-
mandrake                                juana

The accused are typically  defiant,     The  accused are typically  defiant
in  the   manner of  heretics,  not     in  the   manner of  heretics,  not
guilty  in the manner  of  ordinary     guilty  in the manner  of  ordinary
criminals                               criminals

The  accused   usually  come   from     The  accused   usually  come   from
either  the lower class  (peasants,     either  the  lower  class  (Negros,
serfs) or from the young scholars       Mexican  Americans)   or  from  the
                                        young intelligentsia (students)

The  offense  is a  "crime  without     The  offense  is a  "crime  without
victims" or a "crime by definition"     victims" or a "crime by definition"
not a real crime against persons or     not a real crime against persons or
property                                property

But  society paradoxically  demands     But  society paradoxically  demands
harsher  penalties than  are  given     harsher  penalties than  are  given
for   crimes   against  persons  or     for   crimes   against  persons  or
property                                property

General charges of Satanism,  anar-     General charges of treason,  commu-
chism,  black magic, murder,  etc.,     nism,  black magic,   "un-American-
are  often  directed   against  the     ism,"  are  often levelled  against
class of offenders (the "witches")      the  class of offenders (the  "dope
                                        fiends")


According  to  a  popular school of rationalistic historians  of  the  last
century,  there never were any "witches"  and the Holy Inquisition was just
an  outbreak  of paranoia among the celibate priests of Roman  Catholicism.
According to Dr. Margaret Murray's revisionist theory, there were "witches"
--  worshippers of the pre-Christian horned god of fertility, best known as
Pan  or  Dionysus  --  and that compelled them believe that  any  prosexual
religion  must  be Satanic in inspiration.    According  to  Rev.  Montague
Sumners  and other pro-Catholic revisers of Dr.  Murray's revisionism,  the
witches were =so= Satanists after all and delighted in all manner of murder
and atrocity.

Perhaps, in the year 2573, some historians will claim that there never were
"hippies,"  while others will claim that hippies existed but  didn't really
smoke  marijuana,  and a third group will insist that the  hippies,  always
stoned out of their skulls on belladonna, ran through the streets attacking
innocent bystanders.