Does counterculture exist any more?

15 years ago I came out to San Francisco in search of the counterculture it had been so famous for.  On one corner on Haight I found a Starbucks.  On the opposite corner, Ashbury a Ben and Jerry’s.  Burning Man had been kicked out of the city and was being  in the desert.

On my recent trip, I read that the city is attempting to make Burning Man a year-round commercial enterprise on Market street, to fill up the vacant store fronts where the homeless population now camps.

There’s a music an art festival this weekend called Outside Lands to celebrate art and music with top name bands, but it’s $185 a ticket.  Or a 3-day pass at $450.

I’m sure I’m not the only non-resident passing through to make the observation that the counterculture has been absorbed into the city and now can be tapped into at a price.  Sigh.

But, the good news is that in the alternative health community, Reiki is alive and flourishing, and there is interest here for the work I’ve been doing in Seattle, which is taking that counterculture aspect of Reiki and making it mainstream.

Maybe that’s why I’m so passionate about Reiki.  You can take it into mainstream settings, but really what you are still offering is the ability to ‘tune in and turn on’…..the ‘drop out’ piece is optional.

You can wear flowers in your hair, or a 3-piece suit.  You don’t have to pay outrageous prices for the experience of ‘free love’ in the form of Reiki.

I think if there was ever a city for a Reiki Festival, San Francisco would be a great venue, ah, but that’s not my role, at least not now.

In the meantime, I’ll return to Seattle with thoughts of folk music and patchouli of a time that once was and now exists for sale in a bottle you can take home as a souvenir.