The Harvard Psychedelic Club: How Timothy Leary, Ram Dass, Huston Smith & Andrew Weil Brought a New Age to America

Here's a new book that may interest you more esoteric types. I've studied, or at least read, most of the people mentioned not only in this article but in the book. Some good info here. Enjoy...


News Release: San Francisco, CA (PRWEB) December 28, 2009 -- In The Harvard Psychedelic Club (HarperOne; January 2010; Hardcover; $24.99; ISBN 9780061655937), author Don Lattin, one of the nation's leading journalists covering religion in America, takes readers into the heart of the 1960s and back into this era of "peace, love, and joy." With cameos by some of the best known and most beloved cultural figures of the era--including John Lennon, Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs, Jerry Garcia and the Grateful Dead, Ken Kesey, Joan Baez, Keith Richards, and Aldous Huxley--this book presents a comprehensive and compelling picture of a nation undergoing great and lasting change, and the four men who took us there.

Cover: The Harvard Psychedelic Club by Don Lattin

The 1950s--a decade defined by conformity, consumerism, and conservatism--were coming to a close, and a new era of social, spiritual, sexual, and psychological revolution was beginning. By the end of the century, Americans would have a new outlook on religion and new ways of practicing medicine, and the Mind/Body/Spirit movement would make things like yoga, organic produce, and alternative medicine commonplace.
This is the story of how it all began. Three brilliant scholars and one ambitious undergrad--widely known today as leaders in the fields of spirituality (Ram Dass), world religions (Huston Smith), hallucinogenics (Timothy Leary), and holistic medicine (Andrew Weil)--came together in the winter of 1960-61 around the Harvard Psilocybin Project, an infamous series of experiments with psychedelic drugs. Seeking spiritual enlightenment, their research brought them together before bitterness and betrayal tore them apart, and as they forged their own paths and changed their own lives, they would also transform the culture of America.


About the Author:
Don Lattin is the author of Jesus Freaks: A True Story of Murder and Madness on the Evangelical Edge. His work has appeared in dozens of magazines and newspapers, including the San Francisco Chronicle, where he covered the religion beat for nearly two decades. Lattin has also appeared on Dateline, Good Morning America, Nightline, Anderson Cooper 360, and PBS's Religion and Ethics Newsweekly.