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ELCOCK-DISSERTATION.Pdf HIGH NEW YORK THE BIRTH OF A PSYCHEDELIC SUBCULTURE IN THE AMERICAN CITY A Thesis Submitted to the College of Graduate Studies and Research in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of History University of Saskatchewan Saskatoon By CHRIS ELCOCK Copyright Chris Elcock, October, 2015. All rights reserved Permission to Use In presenting this thesis in partial fulfilment of the requirements for a Postgraduate degree from the University of Saskatchewan, I agree that the Libraries of this University may make it freely available for inspection. I further agree that permission for copying of this thesis in any manner, in whole or in part, for scholarly purposes may be granted by the professor or professors who supervised my thesis work or, in their absence, by the Head of the Department or the Dean of the College in which my thesis work was done. It is understood that any copying or publication or use of this thesis or parts thereof for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. It is also understood that due recognition shall be given to me and to the University of Saskatchewan in any scholarly use which may be made of any material in my thesis. Requests for permission to copy or to make other use of material in this thesis in whole or part should be addressed to: Head of the Department of History Room 522, Arts Building 9 Campus Drive University of Saskatchewan Saskatoon, Saskatchewan S7N 5A5 Canada i ABSTRACT The consumption of LSD and similar psychedelic drugs in New York City led to a great deal of cultural innovations that formed a unique psychedelic subculture from the early 1960s onwards. Historians and other commentators have offered conflicting views on this phenomenon by using either an epidemiological approach or by giving drug users more agency. The present study sides with the latter category to offer a new social history of LSD, but problematizes this topic in a sophisticated way by understanding psychedelic drug use as a social fact that in turn produces meaning for its consumers. It analyses the multiple cultural features of psychedelia through the lenses of politics, science, religion, and art, but also looks at the utopian and radical off-shoots of that subculture. To balance this thematic approach, it historicises the subculture by analysing its early days and discussing its origins, and then by pointing to the factors that led to its metamorphosis towards the end of the 1960s. In order to give LSD consumers a clearer voice, this dissertation is based on memoirs, correspondence and interviews that are used to balance press coverage gleaned from archival collections. With this wide array of primary sources supplemented by up-to-date secondary literature, it argues that the use of LSD and psychedelics led to a rich subculture that can be explained by the inherent complexity of the psychedelic experience. In turn, the plurality of opinions regarding the meaning and purposes of the experience led to tensions and polarisations within the large subculture, as well as with other drug subcultures and outsiders leery of illicit drug use. In doing so, this dissertation contributes to the social history of illicit substance consumption and adds to the fields of urban history and the history of subcultures, and makes a case for understanding LSD and psychedelics as a unique category of forbidden drugs that differ vastly in their cultural meaning from other drugs. ii Acknowledgments I wish to acknowledge my supervisor Erika Dyck for her constant support, enthusiasm, and input during the course of my research, as well as my advisory committee composed of Frank Klaassen, Martha Smith-Norris, Mark Myers, Lindsey Banco, and David Farber. I am also indebted to those with whom I enjoyed productive conversations about this topic: Jesse Jarnow, Jeremy Varon, Nick Meriwether, Pierre Morel, Luc Richert, Tehseen Noorani, Thomas Lannon, and possibly others. During the course of my research, I visited several archival collections located at UC Santa Cruz, Stanford, UC Berkeley, Purdue, Wellcome Library, CUNY, Columbia, NYPL, and NYU, and my research was facilitated by friendly and helpful staff. I thank all my interviewees for accepting to share their psychedelic recollections for this study, though some in particular – Gerd Stern, Ed Rosenfeld, Isaac Abrams, Stanley Krippner, and Amelie Edwards - did more than just answer questions and helped me gather additional information or track down other prospective interviewees. I also wish to thank my family and friends for never asking too many questions about my work and thus implicitly reminding me that I have a life beyond the realm of academia. This study was chiefly supported by Dr. Dyck‘s Canada Research Chair funds, for which I am so eternally grateful that I have decided (tongue NOT in cheek) to dedicate this work to the Canadian tax-payers, who, I bet, are seldom acknowledged in academic undertakings, but nonetheless make them possible. iii List of Abbreviations BDAC: Bureau of Drug Abuse Control DMT: Dimethyltryptamine FDA: Food and Drug Administration IF-IF: International Foundation for Internal Freedom LSD: Lysergic Acid Diethylamide-25 MDMA: 3,4-methylenedioxy-methamphetamine NIDA: National Institute for Drug Abuse NYU: New York University STP: 2,5-Dimethoxy-4-methylamphetamine iv TABLE OF CONTENTS PERMISSION TO USE i ABSTRACT ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS iv INTRODUCTION: HISTORICIZING LSD AND PSYCHEDELICS 1 CHAPTER 1: THE GENESIS OF THE PSYCHEDELIC SUBCULTURE 47 CHAPTER 2: THE PSYCHEDELIC SUBCULTURE 74 CHAPTER 3: THE PSYCHEDELIC COUNTER-CULTURE 98 CHAPTER 4: PSYCHEDELIC POLITICS 126 CHAPTER 5: PSYCHEDELIC SCIENCE 156 CHAPTER 6: PSYCHEDELIC RELIGION 179 CHAPTER 7: PSYCHEDELIC ART 207 CHAPTER 8: THE METAMORPHOSIS OF THE PSYCHEDELIC SUBCULTURE 239 CONCLUSION: WHITHER PSYCHEDELIA? 279 BIBLIOGRAPHY 300 v Introduction Historicizing LSD and Psychedelics The psychedelic drug Lysergic Acid Diethylamide-25, better-known as LSD, was invented in 1938 by the Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann1 and soon after used by American intelligence agents hoping to find the ultimate Cold War truth-serum.2 Psychiatrists saw potential in LSD for treating mental illness and substance abuse.3 In the 1960s, and particularly in the second part of the decade, a small but increasingly visible segment of Americans experimented with the drug and created a distinctive psychedelic subculture (psychedelia). At its heart were certain influential individuals, such as the one-time Harvard professors Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert (later known as Baba Ram Dass after his pilgrimage to India), whose associations with LSD formed part of what has become known as the ―psychedelic movement.‖4 This movement sought to radically revamp American culture by touting LSD as 1 Albert Hofmann, LSD, My Problem Child: Reflections on Sacred Drugs, Mysticism and Science (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1980). 2 John Marks, ―Intelligence or ‗Witches‘ Potion,‘‖ in The Search for the “Manchurian Candidate”: The CIA and Mind Control: The Secret Story of Behavioural Sciences (New York: W. W. Norton, 1988), 54-130. 3 Erika Dyck, Psychedelic Psychiatry: LSD: From Clinic to Campus (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008). For a substantial list of publications on psychedelic therapies, see Torsten Passie, Psycholytic and Psychedelic Therapy Research 1931-1995: A Complete International Bibliography (Hannover, NJ: Laurentius Publishers, 1997). For further elements of discussion on the history of psychedelic psychiatry, see Steven J. Novak, ―LSD before Leary: Sidney Cohen‘s Critique of 1950s Psychedelic Drug Research,‖ Isis 88, no. 1 (1997): 87–110; Matthew Oram, ―Efficacy and Enlightenment: LSD Psychotherapy and the Drug Amendments of 1962,‖ Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences 69, no. 2 (2012): 221–50. 4 Peter Conners, White Hand Society: The Psychedelic Partnership of Timothy Leary and Allen Ginsberg (San Francisco: City Lights Books, 2010); Don Lattin, 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 (New York: HarperOne, 2011); Chris Elcock, ―From Acid Revolution to Entheogenic Evolution: Psychedelic Philosophy in the Sixties and Beyond,‖ Journal of American Culture 36, no. 4 (2013): 296–311. 3 a magic bullet: given the right environment and psychological circumstances, the drug, they argued, could trigger a blissful and life-changing experience through which users could gain new ontological insights. The alleged revelatory power of the experience had the potential to create tight bonds between users and formed a broad psychedelic subculture that sometimes openly criticized the American dream and sought alternative ways of life in which LSD use played an important part. For some groups, psychedelic drugs became part of their lifestyle and were understood as having a significant hedonistic, therapeutic, or even spiritual value.5 Figures, such as the writer Aldous Huxley, left long-lasting and influential cultural traces of their practises and produced literature for the psychedelic culture seeking philosophical and spiritual guidelines for their use of LSD.6 Authorities successfully banned LSD in the United States in 1968 and later discredited its main advocates in an effort to quash the burgeoning movement. LSD continued to be used recreationally7 but the new legislation ended psychedelic research or, in some instances, drove 5 Timothy Miller, ―The Ethics of Dope,‖ in The Hippies and American Values (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1991), 23-51. For other elements of discussion on the religious dimension of LSD and psychedelics, see Robert C. Fuller, ―Psychedelics and the Metaphysical Illumination,‖ in Stairways to Heaven: Drugs in American Religious History (Boulder, CO: Westview, 2000), 51-89; Jeffrey J. Kripal, ―Mind Manifest: Psychedelia at Esalen and Beyond,‖ in Esalen: America and the Religion of No Religion (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2007), 115-134. 6 Aldous Huxley‘s writings remain arguably the most articulate reports on the psychedelic experience.
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