Revolution or Revelation? How LSD Changed History

Hey there!

You know... I really don't think you can beat the Beatles, Stones or Hendrix right? I feel like we kinda peaked in the 60s for a bit there.

We had an explosion of culture, music, art and philosophy, spearheaded by people like Alan Watts, Ram Dass and all the classic Shaman "Professors" who were teaching students in colleges about civil rights, self-expression and free love.

The 50s were pretty much defined by the Cold War between the US and Russia, so the amount of fear, suspicion and control had reached an all time high and finally hit a breaking point... but then something pretty groovy happened.

Albert Hoffman synthesised ergot fungus and created the substance we know today as LSD... one of the most powerful hallucinogens on the planet, and it changed everything.

There was nothing counter about the counterculture…

It was everywhere. Plant Medicines and Psychedelics were part of the air you breathed and the music your listened to. 

*cue Sunshine of Your Love*

It all gave rise to one of the most transformative times in human history!

But you wanna know the best part…. 

The ideas that came from it all are STILL affecting us today... 

Maybe we’re due a second Psychedelic Renaissance some time soon…

Today, we're gonna take you on a magic mystery tour of the 60s and look at how LSD, meditation and Neo-Tantra shaped the decade and gave birth to the New Age movement.

Love & Light
Patchman & Team Spirit <3

Sources

Lee, A, M. 1985: Acid Dreams The CIA, LSD, and the Sixties Rebellion. Grove Press

Leary, T. 1998: The Politics of Ecstasy. Ronin

Lattin, D. 2010:  The Harvard Psychedelic Club: How Timothy Leary, Ram Dass, Huston Smith, and Andrew Weil Killed the Fifties and Ushered in a New Age for America. New York: HarperOne. Print

Leary, T. 1983: Flashbacks: An Autobiography. Los Angeles: J.P. Tarcher. Print

Goldberg, D. 2017: All the Human Be-In Was Saying 50 Years Ago, Was Give Peace a Chance. The Nation. [Online] Available at: https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/all-the-human-be-in-was-saying-50-years-ago-was-give-peace-a-chance/ [Accessed 04/21]

Powis, N. 2003: The Human Be-In and the Hippy Revolution. Radio Netherlands Worldwide. [Online] Available at: https://web.archive.org/web/20060421102203/http://www.radionetherlands.nl/features/cultureandhistory/031221be-in.html[Accessed 04/21]

Kessler, G. 2014: Presidential deceptions – and their consequences. [Video] The Washington Post. [Online] Available at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2014/03/27/presidential-lies-and-consequences-video/ [Accessed 04/21]

Port Huron Statement of the Students for a Democratic Society, 1962. https://web.archive.org/web/20090123114146/http://coursesa.matrix.msu.edu/~hst306/documents/huron.html 

Rothstein, E. 2008: A Mind Altering Drug that Changed Culture as Well. New York Times. [Online] Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/05/arts/05conn.html [Accessed 04/21]

Tweedy, R. 2014: William Blake and the Doors of Perception. Young Poet’s Network. [Online] Available at: https://ypn.poetrysociety.org.uk/features/william-blake-and-the-doors-of-perception/ [Accesed 04/21]

Hoffman, A. 1979: LSD My Problem Child. OUP Oxford