While reading the book of Revelation under the influence of L.S.D., my best friend Stan decided to get baptized. It was the spring of 1970 in Burlingame, California and Stan was searching for…I don’t know, something spiritual. We all were, I guess. Previously, he had let drop in conversation that he wanted to visit the “Jesus House”, a Bible study group of some sort located a block from his home, our hangout. I warned him to avoid that place because of what I had heard. Why? While hitchhiking one day, a guy who gave me a ride in a VW beetle was one of “them”.
Now, you have to understand this was the height of the “Jesus movement”, a supernatural happening that swept the nation in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. Jesus made the front page of Time magazine. “Jesus freaks” were carrying wooden crosses, stopping strangers and telling them about Christ. (I had friends that hitchhiked from Northern California to L.A. When I asked them about their trip they said it was OK, except that there were Jesus Freaks everywhere.) I also noticed that drugs were getting hard to find in my home town because, according to some, the pushers were “getting saved”, whatever that meant.
Anyway, this middle aged guy (maybe 35) in the VW beetle who gave me a ride was kind of hyper and he repeatedly told me about this “Jesus House”, So, of course, I was an expert on the place. I told Stan,’”Don’t go to the Jesus house, man. I’ve heard about these people. Do you know what they do? They ask Jesus to come into their bodies!”
But Stan, against my wishes, investigated these people (who knows, maybe he drove by their house and waved )and as a result (and his L.S.D trips) decided he needed to be baptized. He told me that they were conducting an outdoor water baptism in Santa Cruz, so, after staying up all night doing drugs, we drove from Burlingame to Santa Cruz.
