This is an IHeart podcast.

Welcome to Aaron Menke's Cabinet of Curiosity's, A production of IHeart Radio and grim and mild.

Our world is full of the unexplainable.

And if history is an open book, all of these

amazing tales are right there on display, just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the

Cabinet of Curiosity's. Michael Bowen was a painter, but he saw himself as a peaceful warrior.

He was born to wealthy parents in Beverly Hills.

He grew up in the 1940s and 50s, resenting the conformity of his hometown.

His maternal grandmother introduced him to mysticism at a

young age, through which he could rebel against his upbringing. It was all about trying to get

more in touch with God to find the unconscious source that connected all people, and how this was

done depended on the person or the group, but for Michael, it was accomplished through

his art. As such, his paintings are full of color, swirling lines, and evocative uses of the

human eye. He saw these paintings as magic, as something beyond himself, something he couldn't help

but create. He believed viewers of his work had a magical connection to it, seeing things that

even he couldn't have anticipated. But as the 50s turned into the 60s, Michael felt dismay at the

state of the country. The Vietnam War was brutal and pointless, and the government just kept

perpetuating the conflict. He started to feel like his paintings weren't

enough to combat this evil. Michael was introduced to the hallucinogenic drug LSD through some

friends, and it had what he believed was a mystical effect on him, helping him to move closer to

God and to the consciousness that unites all human beings. He began to work with a guru in Mexico who encouraged him to experiment further with drugs,

and at one point Michael consumed so much of the hallucinogenic flower that he was in a coma for a

...