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Socio-Cultural essay
LSD Culture
In the 1960’s, headshops were as popular in New York as Starbucks are now. LSD was part of the air breathed at the time. The hallucinogenic drug was a big part of the world for musicians, advertisers, philosophers, “hippies”, and activists. Albert Hoffman was working for the pharmaceutical company, Sandoz Laboratories, when he discovered LSD. In 1943, Hoffman was synthesizing chemicals in the lab from the ergot fungus, which is found in rye. He felt some altered and heightened sensations which led to him hallucinating. The defining experience played a part when Hoffman intentionally consumed a small quantity of the newly created chemical, lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), and had the very first bad trip. A trip is the psychedelic experience that occurs when one consumes LSD. According to Hoffman, “a demon had invaded me, had taken possession of my body mind and soul.” In 1965, when the patent ran out and the increased reports of bad trips coupled with no medical purpose, Sandoz Laboratories stopped production. The stoppage of manufacturing did not end the use and eventually led to illegality.
In spite of the discontinuation of production in 1965, LSD had already begun to emerge as a cultural phenomenon. The general public’s knowledge of LSD was in large part due to media frenzy. In many instances, media reports stressed the negative effects caused by LSD. According to the New Jersey Narcotic Drug Study Commission, LSD was called “the greatest threat facing the country today…more dangerous than the Vietnam war.” Unlike many other drugs in the 1960’s, LSD attracted a unique and diverse population of individuals. It appealed to highly intelligent people, many of whom attended or even taught at prestigious universities, as well as the “activist-hippy” subculture.
In the early 60’s, America was going through a time of prosperity but was inactive in spiritual growth. Peter Coyote, an American actor, explained how America’s culture was very materialistic. The culture alone did not value the spirit within or any sort of creativity. As the 60’s started to progress, there starts to be a slow eruption in this cultural revolution. The younger generation started to question America’s beliefs, authority, and were simply looking for answers. Bob Dylan, an American singer and songwriter, created folk music which was mainly directed at the younger generation. Dylan wrote his own music and sang it with such intensity. He would often sing about our world and the nature of experiencing human life.
Ken Kesey, an American novelist who wrote One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, volunteered to partake in LSD experiments at Stanford University. These tests were regulated by the government. Once he discovered LSD, many people believed that Kesey established the counterculture in California. Kesey wanted to exhilarate and inspire other people’s minds. He believed he could do this by incorporating LSD. He felt that no other thing like experiencing
LSD was happening at the time. He had the belief that taking acid would let you discover a greater truth, and he wanted as much people do it as possible. Kesey and the Merry Pranksters, followers of Kesey, would hide out in his house in La Honda, California. There, everybody at his house would par take in a collective LSD trip. These were known as Acid Tests.
The 1964 New York World’s Fair was a perfect opportunity for Ken Kesey to be a promoter of LSD and this upcoming psychedelic generation. Kesey did not have enough space in his car to fit everybody from California to New York. So, he bought a school bus and transformed it from a boring yellow color to a bright and vibrant bus. According to Douglas Brinkley an editor for Jack Kerouac: Road Novels, Kesey wanted to make America flustered and blow the publics minds. There was no other experience like this going on anywhere else in the country. “The counterculture in California is born because more and more people want to experience what Kesey experienced” (Brinkley, Douglas The Sixties).
In 1967, San Francisco was considered to be the hippy capital of the world. Haight-Ashbury, a neighborhood in San Francisco, was a place for the counterculture to find hope. Everybody there had their long hair, blasted their music and was free. It later became a big gathering place for many artists and musicians. However, nothing could be understood. The clothes, the music, and the posters were only made clear if one was tripping on LSD. “Diggers”, were a group people who would provide free food and serve it to people who came to Panhandle park with an empty bowl. Not only did Diggers provide food, but they also shared clothes, tools, and televisions all for free. This goes to show that more and more people in this countercultural society wanted to spread only love and happiness. Like Jerry Garcia once said. “We’re just thinking of a peaceful planet…nobody wants to get hurt, nobody wants to hurt anybody. We would all like to live an uncluttered life, a simple life, a good life.”
A lot of these young adults felt that the older generation’s way of life was pointless, especially with the Vietnam war just ending. They wanted change from war and separation, the main idea was to live a life of love and equality. Many of the young people were using LSD to rebel and reject the bourgeois values of settling in, buying a house and becoming “successful” by acquiring things. As people became more and more unhappy with society they began to rebel against the authorities and became active civil rights protestors. Noted author and educator Linda Bayer summed up the 1960’s counter-culture movement this way: “Protest music, antiwar sentiments, long hair, permissive sexual behavior, a rejection of U.S. materialism, and the use of mind-altering drugs all combined to set young people apart from the society of their elders.” Many of the young people did not see the joy in going to war, getting a job, and living a dull and frustrated life.
Timothy Leary, a Ph.D., is most known for raising the public’s awareness of LSD in the 1960’s. He was a big advocate of the therapeutic and spiritual benefits caused by LSD. Leary was from Springfield, Massachusetts. He received his doctorate degree from University of California Berkeley, after his wife took her own life he accepted a professorship at Harvard University. His first experience with psychedelics was with magic mushrooms in 1960. He was so affected that he partnered with another professor named Richard Alpert and they together studied the effects of mind-altering psychedelic drugs. Dr. Leary and his partners were of the belief that LSD could potentially have a positive impact on the treatment of mental illness. Many of the parents from Harvard were upset with Leary’s philosophy and teaching. As such, in 1963 Harvard fired Leary. Soon after in 1964, he founded the League of Spiritual Discovery. (LSD) was an organization that advocated for the use of LSD to enable one to mediate and gain spiritual insight for a greater understanding of one’s spirituality. League for Spiritual Discovery’s mission as defined in its handbook is “free pursuit of spiritual enlightenment and religious practice by all persons, including those who use entheogenic substances as a sacrament.” This contrasts with recreational use because the League of Spiritual Discovery glorified LSD as part of their faith.
Timothy Leary soon was labeled the most dangerous man in America. By the mid-sixties after falling from grace from Ivy League Academia to a counterculture shaman, he continued to preach the gospel of spiritual enlightenment through LSD and politicize psychedelic experiences. Eventually, Leary ended up in prison in the mid-seventies and began doing the lecture circuit as a philosopher. He is well known for his expression “Turn on, Tune In, Drop Out.” From his League of Spiritual Discovery writings, Leary explained that “Like every great religion of the past we seek to find the divinity within and to express this revelation in a life of glorification and the worship of God. These ancient goals we define in the metaphor of the present…turn on, tune in, drop out.” Leary died in his California Home at age 75 from prostate cancer. While his legend may still live on, many of his beliefs are still questioned. As stated by Scott Stanton, The New Yorker, “Leary’s escapade was seriocomic—a midlife crisis that took on the dimension of a cultural revolution.” LSD was eventually banned by the FDA in 1967, but by that time it had already embedded itself in the culture of the country. Even though the reports about LSD’s frightening psychological effects were scary. LSD had attracted the attention of the nation’s youth. Many of them had begun to follow Leary’s motto to turn on to LSD and drop out of society.
Lester Greenspoon, a noted psychiatrist, and Harvard Mental Health associate editor James Bakalar attempted to explain the demographic of the counterculture movement. They said it was largely made up of children of affluence and leisure who did not feel they were part of mainstream society. “For some college-educated whites, the largely conservative institutions of religion and government were meaningless in a society undergoing such turmoil.” Greenspoon and Bakalar go on to state that, “these youths needed new symbols and rituals to shape beliefs and guide action.”
An example of LSD’s counterculture’s influence on American core beliefs was in regard to the views of god and religion. There was an emergence of Eastern Religions such as Taoism and Buddhism which focus om looking for God within. These religions emphasized the need for meditation, and LSD users stated that taking LSD provided similar mystical experiences. Eastern religions became very popular.
The LSD subculture also had a significant impact on those not taking the drug. There was a sort of cultural contact high. Much of this reflected itself in music, art and recreation. Psychedelics became synonymous with bright swirling colors; flower power and elaborate light shows. Steve Jobs, co-founder and inventor of Apple, also experimented with LSD. Jobs once said, “Taking LSD was a profound experience, one of the most important things in my life.” He continued to explain how LSD showed him how his creations and imagination was more important than making money. Many rock bands and artists were also part of the LSD subculture and began taking LSD. The most famous group was called the Warlocks and eventually changed their name to The Grateful Dead. It is also thought that the Beatles famous song “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” stood for LSD and was created while they were under the influence of it. The Beatles especially, underwent a culture change throughout the music they made. John Lennon and his wife, Cynthia, were having dinner with George Harrison and his wife at their dentist’s house, John Riley. When Riley asked them to stay for coffee he slipped an LSD sugar cube in Lennon’s coffee. This is the first acid trip of Lennon’s career. At first when Lennon found out, he was angry like anybody else would be. Cynthia Lennon, described the trip like it was conducted through a scary movie. As the night progressed, Lennon seemed to be overwhelmed with his trip. According to Lennon, “It was like gaining hundreds of years of experience in 12 hours." These types experiences or trips are why so many people at the time wanted to experience with LSD. How does that not sound appealing? LSD brought such a massive culture shock not only to the basic public but to celebrities and rock stars you hear about every day, and this is one example how LSD use became big in the society. When John Lennon’s trip was finished he explained how it was so terrifying yet great at the same time. Before this in 1964, The Beatles were a massive hit all over the world. They were considered one of the most prominent celebrities on the planet. The Beatles were big pot smokers and their album “Rubber Soul” was considered to be developed through the consumption of marijuana. Once LSD came into the mix, The Beatles style of music changed completely.
Lennon and Harrison were the first ones to do it out of the band, and they wanted to try it again. This time however, they asked Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney to do it with them. Harrison and Lennon felt that they could no longer see eye to eye with them. The Beatles were already changing their style of music up, they decided not to go down the angry rock and roll genre. Instead, they wanted a more beautiful and glorious approach for the music being created. They got a lot of their inspiration through Bob Dylan’s music, Lennon praised it. A lot of people wondered if Dylan’s new music was formed through hallucinogenic experiences. Paul McCartney who was reluctant to use LSD, realized he had to maintain The Beatles creative side without being on the same “level” as Lennon and Harrison. Paul McCartney brought Lennon to Indica books and gallery, a place for counterculture appeal. While at Indica, John Lennon discovered the book The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead written by Timothy Leary, Ralph Metzner, and Richard Alpert. Lennon read the book cover to cover while standing in the store. He did this because he felt the book gave him all the answers he needed to describe his LSD trip. After this Lennon started creating new music and had a desire to incorporate new sounds for the band. Tomorrow Never Knows, a song Lennon later created was played on the C chord. “Turn off your mind, relax and float downstream/It is not dying, it is not dying/Lay down all thoughts, surrender to the void/It is shining, it is shining.” Lennon’s new music relates exactly to Timothy Leary’s message “Turn on, Tune In, Drop Out.”. Timothy Leary played a role into the subcultural transition of The Beatles music. If Lennon had not read that book, who knows what their music would be like today.
Unlike the Grateful Dead and Pink Floyd, The Beatles did not want to make the music while being stoned or tripping acid. Instead, they would experience the drug, let it happen, then make the music afterwards. Ringo Starr explained, "that if you play it stoned or derelict in any way, it was really shitty music, so we would have the experiences and then bring that into the music later." This is what made The Beatles music unique, they incorporated psychedelic experiences through music in their own way. LSD at the time was playing a vital role in many young people’s lives. The 1960’s especially, seemed like fun but also chaotic environment to live in. It’s unique how a counterculture movement, for a relatively short period of time, blew up so fast and then faded into existence. Today, we live in a society where psychedelics are not big at all.
Before the expansion of the counterculture movement, America was not seeing eye to eye on many things. Racism was still alive and well. Men were expected to do the work, while the wives would stay home to cook and clean. Gay people were often overlooked or viewed as not part of society. Everybody was distressed about the Vietnam War that had just ended. America was not united. During the evolution of the hippie movement, people felt good about themselves. They felt liberated because the mantra at the time was to spread peace, love, and happiness. Nothing else mattered because it was a time where world peace was the only thing being generated. A time when people were constantly under the influence of psychedelics may seem like it was a bad thing, when in reality it was what the people needed. People wanted answers that they could not find. The younger generation was confused, LSD use and the feeling of constant liberation guided them.
In our society today, LSD use is no longer as big as it used to be. The psychedelic movement slowly disappeared, but it still radiates over other generations. People still have visions and the motivation to discover. Things change over time, but it’s hard to explain how the development of new eras are created. New types of music and cinema are created, that no longer send peaceful messages. Hip hop and rap music is one of the most popular genres of music in the 21st century, not a lot of rappers promote the use of LSD like rockers did back in the day. Instead, the majority of this genre promotes making money, getting “hoes”, and violence. This is exactly the opposite of the music being created when artists were using LSD.