The Harvard Psychedelic Club
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children of, 206, 207
Danforth fellowship, round-the-world trip, 206
death and salvation, ideas on, 207–9
departure from Leary’s group and
positions, 3, 137–40, 218
direct personal encounter with God, 75–77, 81, 82
Father Lazarus and, 208–9
Gerald Heard and, 30–32, 33, 66, 67
Good Friday Experiment, 73–81
Himalayas (1964), 208–9
Hinduism and, 160, 207–8
historical importance of, 215–22
impact of psychedelics on, 3
impact on society, 83–84, 204–5, 219
India (1957), 35
Kyoto, Japan (1957), 159–63
LSD/drug culture cautions, 119–20
LSD/religious conference (1966), 137–40
marriage, 30, 51, 205–6
at Millbrook, 113
at MIT, 1, 35, 51, 137, 160
mystical experience and, 34, 44–45, 47, 209
old age of, 204–5, 207, 219
on psychedelics and mystical experience, 141–43
psychedelic experience, New Year’s Day 1961, 48–51
psychedelic trip in chamber, Kenwood house, 104
as reformer, 50
Religions of Man, The (now The World’s Religions), 33, 204–5
religious pluralism and, 33, 83–84
as The Teacher, 2, 215
Timothy Leary and, 2, 36, 46–50, 142–43
at Washington University, 33, 159
world events, famous people, and, 206–7
Zen Buddhism and, 159–63
Smith, Kendra Wieman, 30, 51, 205–6 psilocybin trip, 48, 50
psychic experience, 104
Smith, Robert E., 87–92
Smothers, Tommy, 174
Snyder, Gary, 119, 121, 123, 160
Sopwith Camel, 128
“Speed Kills,” 143
spirituality/religious experience. See also mysticism Andrew Weil on mescaline and, 58–59
comparative studies, 83–84, 219
Concord Prison Project and, 78
Good Friday Experiment, 73–81
Huston Smith and, 31, 33–34, 75–77, 81, 82, 137, 138–40
psychedelics and, 73, 75–81, 133, 137
shift in attitude toward faith and, 228
Timothy Leary’s first encounter with magic mushrooms and, 41
Spock, Benjamin, 215
Spontaneous Healing (Weil), 182
Stanford University, 7–8
Stanley, Augustus Owsley, III, 128, 135, 137–38
Stellwagon, Graham, 87
“Strange Case of the Harvard Drug Scandal, The” (Look), 95
Summer of Love, 136
Suzuki, D. T., 159
Swedenborg, Emanuel, 42
Swedenborgianism, 42
Tales of Wonder: Adventures Chasing the Divine (H. Smith), 207
“Teddy” (Salinger), 23–24
“Ten Classical Metaphors of Self-Transformation” (Metzner), 227
Thompson, Hunter, 216
Thoreau, Henry David, 105
Thurman, Nena von Schlebrügge, 114, 116, 170
Thurman, Robert, 114
Thurman, Uma, 114
Thurmond, Howard, 74
Tibetan Book of the Dead, 128
Tillich, Paul, 77, 78, 139
Time magazine, 79–80, 96, 140–41, 217
transcendentalism, 42, 105
Travis, John, 154
“Triad” (song), 101
Trips Festival, San Francisco, 135
Tufts University, 5–6, 7
“Turn on, tune in, drop out,” 2, 105, 119, 121, 142–43, 218
University of California, Berkeley Don Lattin at, 223
Free Speech Movement, 86
LSD and, 141
LSD/religious conference (1966), 137–40
Richard Alpert (Ram Dass) at, 2, 53
Timothy Leary at, 14, 17–18, 110
University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), 67, 141
University of California, Santa Cruz, 201, 213
U.S. Military Academy at West Point, 16–17
Vail, Arizona, 181–86
Varieties of Religious Experience, The (James), 43, 84
Vedanta Society, 31, 34, 45, 160
Vietnam War, 154, 190, 220, 221
Waiting for Godot (Beckett), 11
Washington University, 33, 159
Wasson, R. Gordon, 38–39, 213
“Was Timothy Leary Right?” (Time), 217
Watts, Alan, 54, 72, 121, 159, 160, 176
Weather Underground, 170–71, 199
Weil, Andrew, 1, 21–26, 25, 56–60, 85–97, 143–47, 163–69, 181–87, 186, 215–22 apology to Leary and Alpert, 95–96, 144–45, 187, 195
appearance, 86, 147, 181, 183–84
campaign against Alpert and Leary, 3, 85–97, 186–87
childhood and early years, 21–24
Colombia–Ecuador journey (1973), 163–69, 168
Cortes Island home, 186
criticism of, 184–85
Federal Bureau of Narcotics and, 146–47
at Harvard Medical School, 96, 143
as Harvard undergraduate, 2, 25–26, 56–60, 220
as The Healer, 2, 215
Healthy Aging, 185
historical importance of, 215–22
holistic reformation of medicine and, 218, 219
interest in altering consciousness, 22–26, 56
interest in plants and indigenous healers, 164–69
job with federal mental-health institute, 147, 163
labyrinth built by, 185–86
magic mushrooms and, 165–67
marijuana research, 145–48
marijuana use, 144
marriage, 182–83
mescaline and, 24–25, 58–59, 85, 93, 144
natural-foods and alternative-health-care empire, 21–22, 96, 181–85, 218
The Natural Mind, 22, 95, 147–48, 163
PBS series, 181
Pedro (indigenous healer) and, 167–69
personality and character, 21, 23, 59, 86, 95–96
psychedelic experiments, Claverly Hall, 58–59, 93
psychedelics use, San Francisco, 144
Richard Alpert and, 57–58
as ringmaster of the drug culture, 3
Ronnie Winston and, 56–60, 92–95, 96
in San Francisco, 143–47
Spontaneous Healing, 182
as spy for Harvard administration, 93
Timothy Leary and, 26, 56–57
in Vail, Arizona, 181–86
Weil, Diana, 182
Weil, Gunther, 71, 104, 197
Wesleyan University, 7, 9
Weyburn Mental Hospital, 64
What the Dormouse Said: How the Sixties Counterculture Shaped the Personal Computer Industry (Markoff), 11n
Whitehead, Alfred North, 30
Whole Earth Catalog (Brand), 11n
Wieman, Henry Nelson, 29–30, 205
Williston Academy, 6–8, 16
Wilson, Bill, 66–68
Winston, Harry, 56, 94–95, 195
Winston, Ronnie, 56–60, 93–95, 96, 101, 188, 195
Winter, Caroline, 126–31, 136, 194
Wolf, Van, 113–15
Woodruff, Rosemary, 132, 133, 171, 172, 173, 175, 176, 178, 199
Woodstock, 175
Wordsworth, William, 105
World Congress of Faiths (1936), 159
yoga, 31, 35, 45, 183
raja yoga, 151–52
samadhi, 152
Zihuatanejo, Mexico, 99, 102, 107–10 Hotel Catalina, 99, 107, 108, 109, 110
Timothy Leary, Richard Alpert, and followers kicked out of, 111
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
It was not my idea alone to write this book. The project began one night in San Francisco over drinks with Mark Tauber, the publisher at HarperOne. We started talking about what I might do to help Huston Smith finish up
his long-awaited autobiography. Then Mark had another idea. We continued talking, and you hold the result of that conversation in your hands.
In the introduction, I wrote about the synchronistic coming together of Leary, Alpert, Weil, and Smith. I have the same mysterious feeling about this book. I just told you that my publisher and I met over drinks. That’s true, but I was not drinking alcohol. Mark was very surprised at that development. You see, I was not known as someone who’d turn down a free drink—from an editor, publisher, or anyone else. At the time, I’d recently retired from an illustrious, four-decade-long career as a connoisseur of alcohol and other drugs. Use had turned into abuse. I’ve had a long love/hate affair with drugs, and I hope I have not glorified them too much in this book. That’s why I decided to end this book with an acknowledgment of my misadventures with alcohol and other dangerous drugs. So, there you go, dear reader: bottoms up and/or beware.
When I met that night with Mark Tauber, I had just begun a course at the Graduate Theological Union on the psychology of religious conversion, courtesy of a little grant from the Religion Newswriters Association and the Lilly Scholarships in Religion for Journalists. Professor Lewis Rambo had asked his students to begin by writing a “personal conversion narrative.” I choose to write about my early experiences with LSD, and I had just started working on that piece of writing when Tauber suggested this book.
Many other people helped me put this work together. They include all those sources who agreed to interviews, but especially Ram Dass, Huston Smith, and Andrew Weil. I would also like to thank Eric Brandt, my editor at HarperOne; Mickey Maudlin, the editorial director at the publishing house; copy editor Carl Walesa and production editor Carolyn Holland. They, along with Amy Rennert, my literary agent, looked over early drafts of the manuscript and made helpful suggestions. The Nieman Foundation for Journalism graciously invited me to a conference that provided a chance to spend some time in Cambridge and conduct a series of interviews at Harvard University and in its environs.
This book would not have been possible without the help of many other people in my supportive circle of family and friends, all of whom have accompanied me on various legs of the long, strange trip. They include my wife, Laura Thomas, along with Janis Crum, Steve Fields, Kevin Griffin, David and Cindy Hoffman, Terry Kupers, Patrick O’Neil, Steve Proctor, Paul and Cheryl Daniels-Shohan, Michael Taylor, Burt Weaver, and the late Maitland “Sandy” Zane.
About the Author
DON LATTIN is one of the nation’s leading journalists covering alternative and mainstream religious movements and figures in America. His work has appeared in dozens of U.S. magazines and newspapers, including the San Francisco Chronicle, where he covered the religion beat for nearly two decades. Lattin has also worked as a consultant and commentator for Dateline, Primetime, Good Morning America, Nightline, Anderson Cooper 360, and PBS’s Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly. He is the author of Jesus Freaks: A True Story of Murder and Madness on the Evangelical Edge, and Following Our Bliss: How the Spiritual Ideals of the Sixties Shape Our Lives Today, and is the coauthor of Shopping for Faith: American Religion in the New Millennium. Visit the author online at www.donlattin.com.
Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins author.
PRAISE FOR The Harvard Psychedelic Club
“In this beautifully constructed study, Lattin brings together four of the most memorable figures from that period [the sixties]. . . . This is a fast-moving, dispassionate recounting of a seminal period in our history, and all in all, a wonderful book.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“With care and considerable humor, Don Lattin shows us how the interwoven relationships of four charismatic visionaries contributed to the expansion of mind that changed American culture forever. The way we eat, pray, and love have all been conditioned by their lives and teachings.”
—Mirabai Bush, co-founder and senior fellow of the
Center for Contemplative Mind in Society, co-author
(with Ram Dass) of Compassion in Action
“I suspect I’m not the only person who thought the psychedelicsat-Harvard story had been pretty well settled, but Lattin’s work has widened my perspective considerably. By focusing on Huston Smith and Andrew Weil as well as Leary and Alpert, he’s created a stimulating and thoroughly engrossing read.”
—Dennis McNally, author of A Long Strange Trip: The
Inside History of the Grateful Dead, and Desolate Angel:
Jack Kerouac, the Beat Generation, and America
“The Harvard Psychedelic Club is not only a great read, it’s also an unforgettable head trip. Lattin weaves a masterful tale of 1960s-style spirituality, professional jealousy, and out-of-body experiences. Lattin has done his homework and it shows. Read this book and expand your mind. No hallucinogenics required.”
—Eric Weiner, author of The Geography of Bliss
“Will we ever really understand that state of mind and decade we call “the sixties”? It left permanent marks on our society including changes in psychology, politics, the food we eat, how we think about mental and physical health, and much more. Lattin has crafted a riveting account of four of the personalities who deeply influenced those cultural shifts. . . for good or for ill. A skillfully woven group biography, it is thoroughly researched, wonderfully readable, and sparkles with keen insights. Tim Leary, Richard Alpert (Ram Dass), Andrew Weil, and Huston Smith all come alive, both as fascinating personalities and in their intricate relationships with each other. This is not just a book about magic mushrooms or LSD. It is the story of a turning point we are still living with.”
—Harvey Cox, Hollis Research Professor of Divinity,
Harvard University, author of The Future of Faith
“A revealing account of four iconic personalities who helped define an era, sowed seeds of consciousness, and left indelible marks in the lives of spiritual explorers to this day. The conclusion alone is worth the price of the book.”
—Dan Millman, author of The Peaceful Warrior
“This book is a real trip, as we used to say, and it will probably give you flashbacks whether you were there or not. Lattin does a grand job of telling us the wildly improbable story of psychedelic drugs in America, and the jump start of the “new age” spiritual movement. A very far-out read!”
—Wes “Scoop” Nisker, author, Buddhist meditation
teacher, and performer
Also by Don Lattin:
JESUS FREAKS: A True Story of Murder and Madness on the Evangelical Edge
FOLLOWING OUR BLISS: How the Spiritual Ideals of the Sixties Shape Our Lives Today
SHOPPING FOR FAITH: American Religion in the New Millennium (with Richard Cimino)
Copyright
Grateful acknowledgement is made to reprint the interview with Timothy Leary on pages 120–121 that was originally published in Playboy magazine in September 1966.
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. Copyright © 2010 by Don Lattin. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
FIRST EDITION
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.
ISBN 978–0–06–165593–7
EPub Edition © 2009 ISBN:9780061966231
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* Fadiman would reappear in a later chapter of psychedelic history. In his book What the Dormouse Said: How the Sixties Counterculture Shaped the Personal Computer Industry, John Markoff shows how key Silicon Valley pioneers, including Apple cofounder Steve Jobs, and Douglas Engelbart, the man who invented the mouse, were inspired, in part, by their psychedelic experiences. Engelbart was turned on by Fadiman after Alpert’s former student went on to do LSD research in the early 1960s at the International Foundation for Advanced Study in Menlo Park, California, looking at how psychedelic drugs can foster creativity. Another psychedelic pioneer to emerge as a Silicon Valley trailblazer was Stewart Brand, one of Ken Kesey’s original Merry Pranksters. Brand, an early personal-computing enthusiast and Internet pioneer, went on to found the Whole Earth Catalog, a back-to-the-land, hippie-inspired version of the Sears Roebuck catalogue. “The counterculture’s scorn for centralized authority,” he argues, “provided the philosophical foundations of not only the leaderless Internet but also the entire personal-computer revolution.”