Psychedelic Drug Culture 1960-1973
“To make this mundane world sublime, take half a gram of phanerothyme.” “To fathom Hell or soar angelic, just take a pinch of psychedelic.”
During and after a long line of wartime in America, it seemed almost inevitable that people would turn to substance abuse to cope with the atrocities being performed to control and protect our abstract concept of freedom. In a way, the drug and alcohol counterculture had its own war cry against a society that was not constitutional in its actions. By the 1960s, America was experiencing a surge in psychedelic drug use.
Psychedelics are known for their ability to alter conscious perception, and sometimes produce what seems like transcendent experiences. Throughout the history of psychedelics, these effects have been used in religious ceremonies as well as for medicinal purposes by consuming naturally occurring substances such as plants, cacti and mushrooms. It wasn’t until the 20th century that western scientists began to take an interest in psychedelic drug effects.
In the 1930s, Swiss scientist Albert Hoffman created LSD in a laboratory in an attempt to duplicate the effects of natural psychedelic substances. On November 6th 1943, commonly known as “Bicycle Day,” the first recorded LSD trip took place in an experiment by Hoffman when he ingested a small dose of the drug. By the 1950s, LSD became a commonly used psychiatric treatment for a variety of conditions, some of which include alcoholism, schizophrenia and other personality disorders. Shortly after, LSD became largely consumed recreationally.
The term “psychedelic” came about around 1957 by psychiatrists Humphry Osmond and Aldous Huxley, both advocates for the therapeutic use of LSD. Huxley coined the term “phanerothyme”, from the Greek words for manifest and spirit. Eventually, Tim Leary made “psychedelic” the favored term in pop culture. Leary also popularized catchphrases such as "turn on, tune in, drop out" and "think for yourself and question authority". He wrote and spoke about transhumanist concepts involving space migration, intelligence increase, and developed the eight-circuit model of consciousness. LSD use soon became a symbol of youthful rebellion, mind exploration and political dissent across the United States. Writers such as Leary and Huxley highly influenced the thinking of the new generation. There had long been a culture of drug use among jazz and blues musicians, and use of drugs including cannabis, peyote, mescaline and LSD had begun to grow among folk and rock musicians. This caught the attention of federal and state governments, so much so that it was made an illegal substance in 1967, also the year of the Summer of Love.
By the mid-1960s, the psychedelic lifestyle had already developed in California, especially in San Francisco, due in part to the first major underground LSD factory, established by Owsley Stanley. The Haight-Ashbury Movement is named for the intersection of Haight and Ashbury streets in San Francisco and is known for being the origin of the hippie counterculture. During that time, the neighborhood hadn’t recovered from the particularly bad depression stemming from the second world war, resulting in the availability of cheap and vacant properties for sale. This caused thousands to migrate to the city. Hunter S. Thompson labeled the district "Hashbury" in The New York Times Magazine. The Haight-Ashbury district was sought out by hippies to constitute a community based upon counterculture ideals, drugs, and music, creating a social experiment that would soon spread throughout the nation. The Merry Pranksters likewise popularized psychedelia by sponsoring the Acid Tests, which were a series of light shows, film projections and improvised music, taking road trips across America in a school bus, distributing the LSD and meeting with major figures of the Beat Generation.
However, the backlash against the use of LSD and its perceived destructive effects on the values of the Western culture resulted in governmental action by making it illegal. LSD was declared a "Schedule I" substance, legally stating that the drug has a "high potential for abuse." The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration claimed “Although the study of LSD and other hallucinogens increased the awareness of how chemicals could affect the mind, its use in psychotherapy largely has been debunked. It produces no aphrodisiac effects, does not increase creativity, has no lasting positive effect in treating alcoholics or criminals, does not produce a 'model psychosis', and does not generate immediate personality change.” The first two states to outlaw LSD were Nevada and California in 1966, followed by other U.S. states and the rest of the world.
“To think for yourself you must question authority and learn how to put yourself in a state of vulnerable, open-mindedness; chaotic, confused, vulnerability to inform yourself.” -Tim Leary
Psychedelic drug use encouraged unity, the breaking down of boundaries, the heightening of political awareness, empathy with others, and the questioning of authority. The social changes that were semi-rooted in the drug culture of the 1960s were given the shove that they needed by the “enlightenment” that drugs such as LSD offered.
Works Cited
http://psychedelics.com/psychedelic-facts/a-brief-history-of-psychedelics/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_lysergic_acid_diethylamide
https://psychology.fas.harvard.edu/people/timothy-leary
https://www.britannica.com/art/Beat-movement
https://www.extranomical.com/HTML_PAGES/HAIGHT_ASHBURY.htm
“To make this mundane world sublime, take half a gram of phanerothyme.” “To fathom Hell or soar angelic, just take a pinch of psychedelic.”
During and after a long line of wartime in America, it seemed almost inevitable that people would turn to substance abuse to cope with the atrocities being performed to control and protect our abstract concept of freedom. In a way, the drug and alcohol counterculture had its own war cry against a society that was not constitutional in its actions. By the 1960s, America was experiencing a surge in psychedelic drug use.
Psychedelics are known for their ability to alter conscious perception, and sometimes produce what seems like transcendent experiences. Throughout the history of psychedelics, these effects have been used in religious ceremonies as well as for medicinal purposes by consuming naturally occurring substances such as plants, cacti and mushrooms. It wasn’t until the 20th century that western scientists began to take an interest in psychedelic drug effects.
In the 1930s, Swiss scientist Albert Hoffman created LSD in a laboratory in an attempt to duplicate the effects of natural psychedelic substances. On November 6th 1943, commonly known as “Bicycle Day,” the first recorded LSD trip took place in an experiment by Hoffman when he ingested a small dose of the drug. By the 1950s, LSD became a commonly used psychiatric treatment for a variety of conditions, some of which include alcoholism, schizophrenia and other personality disorders. Shortly after, LSD became largely consumed recreationally.
The term “psychedelic” came about around 1957 by psychiatrists Humphry Osmond and Aldous Huxley, both advocates for the therapeutic use of LSD. Huxley coined the term “phanerothyme”, from the Greek words for manifest and spirit. Eventually, Tim Leary made “psychedelic” the favored term in pop culture. Leary also popularized catchphrases such as "turn on, tune in, drop out" and "think for yourself and question authority". He wrote and spoke about transhumanist concepts involving space migration, intelligence increase, and developed the eight-circuit model of consciousness. LSD use soon became a symbol of youthful rebellion, mind exploration and political dissent across the United States. Writers such as Leary and Huxley highly influenced the thinking of the new generation. There had long been a culture of drug use among jazz and blues musicians, and use of drugs including cannabis, peyote, mescaline and LSD had begun to grow among folk and rock musicians. This caught the attention of federal and state governments, so much so that it was made an illegal substance in 1967, also the year of the Summer of Love.
By the mid-1960s, the psychedelic lifestyle had already developed in California, especially in San Francisco, due in part to the first major underground LSD factory, established by Owsley Stanley. The Haight-Ashbury Movement is named for the intersection of Haight and Ashbury streets in San Francisco and is known for being the origin of the hippie counterculture. During that time, the neighborhood hadn’t recovered from the particularly bad depression stemming from the second world war, resulting in the availability of cheap and vacant properties for sale. This caused thousands to migrate to the city. Hunter S. Thompson labeled the district "Hashbury" in The New York Times Magazine. The Haight-Ashbury district was sought out by hippies to constitute a community based upon counterculture ideals, drugs, and music, creating a social experiment that would soon spread throughout the nation. The Merry Pranksters likewise popularized psychedelia by sponsoring the Acid Tests, which were a series of light shows, film projections and improvised music, taking road trips across America in a school bus, distributing the LSD and meeting with major figures of the Beat Generation.
However, the backlash against the use of LSD and its perceived destructive effects on the values of the Western culture resulted in governmental action by making it illegal. LSD was declared a "Schedule I" substance, legally stating that the drug has a "high potential for abuse." The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration claimed “Although the study of LSD and other hallucinogens increased the awareness of how chemicals could affect the mind, its use in psychotherapy largely has been debunked. It produces no aphrodisiac effects, does not increase creativity, has no lasting positive effect in treating alcoholics or criminals, does not produce a 'model psychosis', and does not generate immediate personality change.” The first two states to outlaw LSD were Nevada and California in 1966, followed by other U.S. states and the rest of the world.
“To think for yourself you must question authority and learn how to put yourself in a state of vulnerable, open-mindedness; chaotic, confused, vulnerability to inform yourself.” -Tim Leary
Psychedelic drug use encouraged unity, the breaking down of boundaries, the heightening of political awareness, empathy with others, and the questioning of authority. The social changes that were semi-rooted in the drug culture of the 1960s were given the shove that they needed by the “enlightenment” that drugs such as LSD offered.
Works Cited
http://psychedelics.com/psychedelic-facts/a-brief-history-of-psychedelics/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_lysergic_acid_diethylamide
https://psychology.fas.harvard.edu/people/timothy-leary
https://www.britannica.com/art/Beat-movement
https://www.extranomical.com/HTML_PAGES/HAIGHT_ASHBURY.htm