Daniel Kottke was one of the first Apple employees ever, and that position came about due to his close friendship at college during the early 1970’s with none other than the late Steve Jobs.
During his time at Reed College, Kottke revealed to CNNMoney that he and Jobs took some serious amounts of LSD, which apparently opened new worlds for the students, at least in their minds.
“We would take psychedelics and whole new vistas opened up. We were monk-wannabes,” Kottke said, adding that the friends were on a quest to better understand consciousness using an LSD varietal known as Orange Sunshine.
According to Kottke, he and Steve Jobs were “… in a meditative space. But that’s partly because we were reading books about chakras and psychic energy and the chi and the Kundalini serpent that was going to rise up our spine.”
Apparently, Kottke had easy access to the mind-altering drug, and Jobs was always happy to go along “for the ride.” The men would drop the acid, go on hikes together and wander the rose gardens at Reed College.
In the past, Jobs has been quoted as saying that taking LSD was one of the most profound experiences of his life, and even the world-famous brand name, Apple, came from Steve Jobs’ experience working on the apple farm of another fellow tripper from Reed.
As Kottke told reporters, “Once Apple started, Steve was really focused with all of his energy on making Apple successful and he didn’t need psychedelics for that.”
At the same time, Steve Wozniak, another Apple founder, was totally uninterested in taking LSD and far more interested in making things work for the company.
“Woz was in very close touch with the extent to which his mind is a miracle of nature. He’s just fantastically interested in things… His mind was always working perfectly well and [he] didn’t want to mess it up,” Kottke said.
As things panned out, Kottke and Jobs drifted as Apple grew into the corporate success it is today, but Kottke said he always kept a solid respect for Jobs and was saddened when he passed away.
