"Young men and women were persuaded "to turn on, tune in, and drop out." [1]
Turning the first few pages of this groovy story The Harvard Psychedelic Club, I was not expecting it to be this controversial for a book published during this time period. The book opens with an introduction introducing the main characters Timothy Leary, Richard Alpert, Andrew Weil and Huston Smith. These men were four charistmatic pioneer visionaries that changed American culture forever. "They came together at a time of upheavel and expirmentation, and they set the stage for the social, spiritual, sexual, and psychological revolution of 1960 ."[2] Timothy Leary was a research psychologist who found enlightment through LSD; Richard Alpert, also known as Ram Dass, was a Harvard psychology professor who was queer in his private life; Dr. Andrew Weil, a Harvard Medical School graduate who became "the nation's best-known proponent of holistic health and natural foods." [3] Lastly, Huston Smith a MIT philosophy professor who was very well read in the world's religions and was born to follow in his fathers steps but decided teaching was his calling.
There are many political, social and economical themes throughout the reading that changed "the way we look at the mind, body, and spirit." [4] Many of these changed the counterculture in America during the 1950s and 19060s. "It was the end of the 1950s- a decade defined by conformity, consumerism, political paranoia, and the just-discovered nightmare of global nuclear annihilation. It was the beginning of the 1960s, which would see its own horrors of divisive polticis but was somehow redeemed by a new spirit of optimism, innovation, and hope." [5] We question as we were reading what was the reason that these four men came together? There was a vision behind the Harvard Psycedelic Club that wanted to change different stages of the unconscious state of mind through psychology. Leary discovered the magical world of mushrooms at the young age of a seventeen-year-old while on summer break in Mexico. He was convinced that through psychedelic drug use it would revolutionize the practice of psychology.However, leary believed "multiple realities that lead to a polytheistic view of the universe and a new time for humanist religion based on intelligent good natured pluralism and scientific paganism had arrived." [6] The enviorment of the club quickly became more than a "research project" and became a social movement in the 1960s.
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| A picture depicting what the mind may experience during a "psyedelic trip" |
The memebers of the Harvard Psyedelic Club positions included the seeker, the teacher, the trickster, and the healer- also known as:
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| Huston Smith |
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| Tim Leary & Richard Alpert |
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| Andrew Weil |
After reading this book, it made me open my eyes to the culture during the 1950s,1960s, and 1970s. I've read in history books about the "hippie" and "free-spirited" culture but I never realized how many people did drugs recreationally to open their mind and to think outside of the box. So many people used drugs like mushrooms and LSD to experience out of body and out of mind experience to connect to oneself. I never realized how many pro's and con's there were to the use of drugs. I believe Don Lattin did a great job describing the popularity of drug use and the types of people who used drugs during this time period. I also believe the reading in this book is important because it gives us an understanding of of the drug culture during this time period when he describes the memebers of the The Harvard Psychedelic Club. It's crazy to think the drug culture still effects us today after decades of when this book took place in the 1960s.
Latin, Don. The Harvad Psychedelic Club: How Timothy Learly, Ram Dass, Huston Smith, and Andrew Weil Killed the Fifties and Ushered in a New Age for America (New York: HarperOne,2011).
1. Latin, The Harvard Psychedelic Club pg. 41
2. Latin, The Harvard Psychedelic Club, Kindle pg.83
3.Latin, The Harvard Psychedelic Club, Kindle pg.83
4.Latin, The Harvard Psychedelic Club, Kindle pg. 87
5.Latin, The Harvard Psychedelic Club, Kindle pg.68
6. Latin, The Harvard Psychedelic Club pg.82
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