Birth of a Psychedelic Culture: Conversations About Leary, the Harvard Experiments, Millbrook and the Sixties

by Ram Dass, Ralph Metzner, Gary Bravo

Overview

No understanding of the history of the sixties could be complete without a grasp of the work of Leary, Alpert, and Metzner, the cultural resistance to their experiments, and the way in which psychoactive drug use became a part of contemporary society. Next Generation Independent Book Awards Finalist, Birth of a Psychedelic Culture explores these experiments and their cultural milieu through never before seen photographs, personal accounts of authors Ralph Metzner and Ram Dass, and conversations with luminaries such as Aldous Huxley, Charles Mingus, Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs and others that appeared on the scene.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780907791386
Publisher:	Synergetic Press
Publication date:	02/28/2010
Pages:	264
Sales rank:	926,237
Product dimensions:	8.00(w) x 10.00(h) x (d)
Age Range:	16 - 18 Years

About the Author

Ram Dass first went to India in 1967. He was still Dr. Richard Alpert, an already eminent Harvard psychologist and psychedelic pioneer with Dr.Timothy Leary. He had continued his psychedelic research until that fateful Eastern trip in 1967, when he traveled to India. In India, he met his guru, Neem Karoli Baba, affectionately known as Maharajji, who gave Ram Dass his name, which means "servant of God.” Everything changed then - his intense dharmic life started, and he became a pivotal influence on a culture that has reverberated with the words "Be Here Now” ever since. Ram Dass's spirit has be

Ralph Metzner, Ph.D. who has a B.A. in philosophy and psychology from Oxford University and a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Harvard University, has been involved in the study of transformations of consciousness ever since, as a graduate student, he worked with Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert (later Ram Dass) on the Harvard Psilocybin Projects. He co-wrote The Psychedelic Experience, and was editor of The Psychedelic Review. During the 1970s, Ralph spent 10 years in the intensive study and practice of Agni Yoga, a meditative system of working with light-fire life-energies. He wrote Maps of

Editorial Reviews

"...Their recorded conversation has the flavor of a lively reunion as the two recall an

astonishing young adulthood, generously illustrated with snapshots and brief statements

from colleagues...”

Craig K Comstock, Huffington Post, March 2010



"...Presented as a conversation between figures

of the movement, the authors provide an enticing read into the era...a piece of history well worth looking into, with its unique stories of a truly unique time.”

James A. Cox, Editor-in-Chief, The Midwest Book Review

From the Publisher