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Consciousness Expansion and Counterculture in the 1960s and Beyond

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of our collective worldview occurred in A dramatic expansion the early sixties, when astronauts and cosmonauts were launched into space on Earth-orbiting satellites, and brought back the first dramatic photographs of the whole Earth from space. Emblematic of the aspirations for space exploration, the television series Star By Ralph Metzner, Ph.D. Trek, with an alien as one of the main characters, began airing www.greenearthfound.org on NBC, and became a cult classic in American science fiction. In [email protected] 1969 Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the Moon. As explained by astrologer-scholar Rick Tarnas in his book Cos- mos and Psyche, close conjunctions and alignments of the planetary archetypes Uranus, Pluto and Saturn characterized the revolution- ary, liberating and creative energies of this decade. The boost in The boost in the exploration of outer space was accompanied by a parallel surge the exploration of in the exploration of psychic or inner space. As far as I know, the concept of consciousness expansion was outer space first used by Tim Leary and his associates at Harvard, to describe the effects of drugs like psilocybin and LSD, which were also later was accompanied by termed psychedelic (“mind-manifesting”). In a 1961 letter to Leary a parallel surge in from Albert Hofmann, the discoverer of LSD expressed his appre- ciation to Leary for the concept of consciousness expansion, stat- the exploration of ing that he had been urging Aldous Huxley and others, that while psychic or the applications of LSD in psychiatry and pharmacotherapy were important, there were wider implications of these experiences for inner space. the enhancement of creativity and deeper understanding of the further reaches of the human mind. In this regard, Hofmann was far more open-minded than Huxley, R. Gordon Wasson and most psychiatrists, who tended to believe strongly that these drugs could only be used safely by psychiatric patients under medical supervision, or at best by elite intellectuals. Tim Leary’s approach was radically different, though it was not, as some believed, opposed to psychiatric research being done with psychedelics. maps bulletin • volume xix number 1 maps bulletin • volume xix number 1 17

Leary and his associates began their something or doing something. The treat- research with psilocybin at Harvard Uni- ment of addictions and compulsions with versity in the early 1960s, carrying out psychedelic, consciousness-expanding studies with “normal” people in support- drugs was (and is again now) one of the ive, naturalistic settings that were neither most promising applications of these sub- clinics nor laboratories. Participants in stances in health care. these studies could clearly confirm that One of the studies carried out as part these substances, although called halluci- of the Harvard research, involved the nogenic by some, did not induce halluci- “experimental mysticism” study of Walter nations in the sense of seeing illusions of Pahnke, in which theology students …we emerge from things objects that weren’t “really there.” took psilocybin in a religious setting, Rather, they seemed to affect the actual and reported a high proportion of clas- the closed cocoon-like psychophysiology of perception in such a sic mystical experiences. This study of way that one would see everything that religious-mystical experience induced by was there, as ordinarily, and in addition psilocybin has recently been replicated state of dream and sleep much more: vibrating fields of subtle in research by Roland Griffiths at Johns energies, or associated thought-forms and Hopkins University. Mystical experiences to become aware of patterns that related to one’s personal involve a complete transcendence of the history, or our relationships with other usual boundaries of time, space and the our body, the bed we’re in, beings, human and non-human in the physical body and a sense of oneness with world around us. the divine and the cosmos – representing The process of consciousness expan- the ultimate expansion of consciousness. our sleep companion, sion induced (with the appropriately In my view, a second major application of favorable set and setting) by these drugs, psychedelics in the future is likely to be the room, perhaps was in some ways analogous to the in the psychological preparation of people process of awakening: when we awaken for dying, enlarging their awareness and the garden outside the from sleep, our perceptual world opens sense of identity beyond the confines of up and we emerge from the closed the body and personal ego-mind. [Pub- window, the greater world cocoon-like state of dream and sleep lisher’s Note: To learn more about current to become aware of our body, the bed research of this type visit: www.maps.org] we’re in, our sleep companion, the room, Through the discoveries of R. Gor- beyond – potentially perhaps the garden outside the window, don Wasson and others in Mexico, and the greater world beyond – potentially Michael Harner and others in South all the way to all the way to the infinite cosmos. As we America, by the late 1950s and early do, our sense of identity changes, we may 1960s, the psychological and medical remember the more limited dream world researchers who first applied LSD and the infinite cosmos. we had been in, and find that we have other consciousness expanding drugs a greatly enhanced freedom of choice – in Western laboratories and psychiatric freedom to think and see differently, to clinics, found themselves unexpectedly move and do things hitherto impossible. connected to ancient lineages of mysti- Later studies with LSD or peyote in cal, spiritual and shamanic teachings and the treatment of alcoholism, or ibogaine practices. Both the shamanistic and the or ayahuasca in the treatment of cocaine Asian yogic traditions are based on world- addiction, were based on the finding that views vastly expanded in comparison experiences of expanded consciousness to the standard materialistic paradigm could be, depending on set and setting, accepted in the West. In these worldviews associated with insight into one’s own there is a recognition of many levels of character and deeper needs, and there- reality, many dimensions of being, equal fore lead to more healthy and positive in reality to the time-space-matter dimen- choices. Addictions and compulsions, sion, which is the only one recognized whether consumptive (drugs, alcohol, as real in Western science. Furthermore, food) or behavioral (sex, gambling, shop- these Asian and indigenous traditions ping) can be understood as involving also recognize the reality of beings, called contracted states of consciousness, where “spirits” or “deities,” existing in these attention and awareness is fixated on multiple dimensions, that have their own repetitively and ritualistically taking in independent, autonomous existence, and 18 maps bulletin • volume xix number 1 maps bulletin • volume xix number 1

are not merely symbols or archetypes in important to recognize that being against human consciousness. something was not the primary intention Thus, the discovery of consciousness- behind these movements. expanding drugs in the West and the In an infant’s struggle to be born, ulti- re-discovery of the role of consciousness- mately into a larger world and way of be- expanding plants and fungi in shamanis- ing, there may be a phase of intense and tic societies, along with other modalities sometimes violent opposition to the limi- of exploring consciousness such as the tations of the existing order (represented shamanic drumming journey and yogic by the mother’s body). This kind of The process meditation practices, led to significant opposition, which may even threaten the expansions of the Western material- mother’s life, is not however the ultimate of consciousness ist scientific worldview – at least in the aim of the neonate’s struggle – which is thinking and writing of many individu- rather to emerge from a condition that als, if not the academic establishment and has become intolerable, too limiting, into expansion induced… mainstream media. an expanded world of greater freedom It is possible to apply the conscious- and possibilities for growth. Let us look by these drugs, ness expansion of concept to the forms at these movements, which continue in and patterns of collective consciousness: various ways to this day, through the was in some ways to mass-mind images and memes, to dual lens of counterculture and expand- scientific paradigms and worldviews, to ing consciousness. analogous to the ideologies of spiritual practice and religious devotion. In my book The Expan- Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring, sion of Consciousness (2008), I pointed out published in 1962, raised awareness of the process that the decade of the 1960s was a time environmental despoliation and is gener- of several interconnected movements ally considered the beginning impetus of awakening… of socio-cultural transformation that for the American environmental move- profoundly changed Western society, and ment, and for major conservation and more indirectly other countries in the preservation organizations and policies world as well: the environmental move- that persist to this day. The very title ment, the women’s liberation movement, Silent Spring refers to an experience of the anti-war movement, the civil rights expanded consciousness: if we do not movement, the revolution in sexual and hear the singing birds we are accustomed family relations and an explosion of new to hear, we naturally ask – why not? This forms of expression in music and the question in turn leads us to investigate visual arts. Even though there is no evi- environmentally destructive processes dence of a direct causative connection be- caused by human technology – which we tween ingestion of psychedelics and these then engage as activists to ameliorate, for socio-cultural transformation movements, the health and wellbeing of humans and each of them represents an expansion of the integrity of the ecosystems which collective consciousness, a transcending we inhabit along with other animal and of existing limited conventions, attitudes plant species of life. and norms, similar to what is classically This process is analogous to the kind associated with psychedelic experiences of therapeutic “course-correction vision” in the individual. that drug addicts and alcoholics often re- port when relating their experience with The historian Theodore Roszak, in his plant-based entheogens such as peyote very infuential 1968 book The Making of or ayahuasca: under the infuence of a Counterculture, identified and described these botanical sacraments, a person may these transformation movements as report becoming clearly aware of hitherto constituting a kind of quasi-revolutionary hidden patterns of thought and behavior culture in opposition to the mainstream. that are leading them in a self-destructive Although these social movements were direction – and therefore feel empowered countercultural or even, at times, revolu- to make health preserving new choices. tionary, in that they challenged unjust, I have published several accounts of limiting or outmoded attitudes and prac- this kind of healing vision in my edited tices of the dominant social order, it is volumes on the sacred mushroom and maps bulletin • volume xix number 1 maps bulletin • volume xix number 1 19

on ayahuasca. Also in these books are potentials in all their diversity. accounts by individuals who in the early Similarly, the civil rights movement 1960s were powerfully affected by their countered racist discrimination practices, psychedelic experiences and became com- the legacies of slavery, principally in …under the influence of mitted environmental activists for the rest schools and housing. But its ultimate in- of their lives (including myself). tention vision, as in Martin Luther King’s these botanical Many individuals and groups integrat- “I Have a Dream” speech (1963), was to ed their expanded conscious visions for see a society in which black children and a food supply free of chemical additives white children, and those of other races, sacraments, and pesticides into the development of could go to school together in freedom the organic food movement, which in the and peace. In the 19th century, waging a person may report be- ensuing decades emerged as a wide-spread war against the slave-holding South was and viable alternative to industrial factory not the ultimate intention of the abo- coming clearly aware farming. Similarly, the recognition of the litionist movement-- rather it was the industrial pollution of the atmosphere and emancipation of slaves. water supply was channeled into political of hitherto advocacy for clean air and water preserva- “Injustice anywhere is a threat to jus- tion. Thus, we see that the environmental tice everywhere” was one of the Reverend hidden patterns of thought movement counters and critiques the King’s memorable inspired sayings. And destructive and polluting effects of indus- it is probably because of King’s unshake- and behavior trial corporations and seeks to preserve able commitment to the practice and ad- and enhance the integrity of both wilder- vocacy of non-violence that the counter- ness and built environments. cultural impulse in the civil rights and that are leading them anti-war movements did not lead to more The women’s liberation movement violence than it did. Even so, the repres- in a self-destructive critiques and counters the sexist discrimi- sive forces of the established power-elites, nation of deeply entrenched patriarchal who saw their positions and wealth direction–-and therefore attitudes and institutions and seeks to threatened by the counterculture, exacted establish equality in work and pay and a heavy toll: the assassination of four dy- to protect the rights of women to make namic and popular leaders--the Kennedy feel empowered their own choices in the areas of sexuality brothers, and M.L. King and Malcolm X. and child-bearing. The 1963 publication Interestingly, at the present time of 2009 to make health of Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique and beyond, American society again will launched the women’s liberation move- examine the atavistic residues of slav- preserving ment, with its “consciousness-raising” ery and racial discrimination under the groups, in which women-only groups met presidential leadership of a younger, and in council to discuss issues of identity and multi-cultural African-American. new choices. relationship. Questioning themselves and The movement for increased freedom each other–who am I, besides being some- of sexual expression, supported also by one’s wife, daughter, sister, lover, secre- the women’s movement, by the inven- tary? And such consciousness expanding tion of the contraceptive pill, and by questions would naturally lead to making the books of zoologist Alfred Kinsey on new and healthier choices in life-style, human sexual behavior (1943, 1953), work and creative expression. countered and critiqued many unex- amined and prejudicial religion-bound The anti-war movement countered conventions of marriage and family; but the American war-machine, with all the ultimately aimed for wholesome, non- formidable power and resources that it patriarchal alternatives to the so-called disposes–and this opposition could and “nuclear household.” There was a wave of did result in fare-ups of public violence communitarian experimentation, as has between state authorities and counter- happened periodically in American his- cultural rebels and dissidents. But the tory. Intentional communities sprang up, underlying intention and vision of the such as the one Leary, Alpert and myself anti-war movement is to be oppositional participated in for a few years at Mill- only temporarily, and then to further the brook, New York, experimenting with peaceful unfolding of the civilization’s new forms of extended family relations, 20 maps bulletin • volume xix number 1 maps bulletin • volume xix number 1

sexuality and child-rearing. A conversa- of the revolutionary movements was more tional memoir by Ram Dass and myself connected to amphetamine use. of the Harvard and Millbrook years is Going beyond the political and eco- Their messages forthcoming under the title Birth of a Psy- nomic changes brought by the countercul- chedelic Culture (Synergetic Press, 2009). tural movements of expanded conscious- and visions have to do… The vision motivating the countercul- ness, our global human civilization may ture of the 1960s was pioneering innova- be involved in change processes at the tion, reform and liberation, based on an level of planetary evolution. Processes of with practices expanded awareness of the needs of the desertification, deforestation and the de- whole society (as in the civil rights, wom- struction of habitats have plunged planet that reduce our adverse en’s liberation and sexual revolution), of Earth into what has been called a “sixth all of humanity (as in the peace move- extinction.” At the same time, industrial impact on ecosystems, ment) and the regional ecosystem and civilization’s addiction to carbon fuels as biosphere (as in the ecology movement). energy source has brought the biosphere The innovative and pioneering aspects to the brink of catastrophic collapse with the preservation of these socio-cultural transformations through global over-heating. are particularly obvious in the break- Many individuals who have worked in of wilderness and the throughs that occurred from new discov- a respectful and spiritual way with plant eries in the sciences, and new forms of and fungal teachers, as well as working essential diversity of life, celebratory expressions in the arts. Here shamanically with animal spirit guides, we don’t necessarily see opposition to an have reported increasing communication existing order, but simply a highly ener- from the spiritual realms of Nature in and with the gized, innovative and creative “moving response to their divinatory questioning. beyond” into an expanded worldview. Their messages and visions have to do, development of as one might expect, with practices that On the other hand, the countercul- reduce our adverse impact on ecosystems, sustainable, tural and revolutionary elements in these with the preservation of wilderness and movements, especially in the political the essential diversity of life, and with the and economic sphere tends to produce development of sustainable, bioregional bioregional violent backlash and repression by the economies and communities. dominant culture, as “the empire strikes There may be a profound and myste- economies and back.” This in turn leads to intensifica- rious shift occurring in the balance of tion of the rebellious oppositional forces, life on this planet. The dominant and communities. bringing about an escalation of violence dominating role of the human in relation and destruction – all tendencies that we to the natural world has brought about can see being played out in subsequent unparalleled ecological disaster, degrada- decades, to the present day. tion of habitats and loss of species. Could Undoubtedly, an energizing and am- it be that the profound consciousness- plifying infuence in the growth of the raising and compassion-deepening effects expanding consciousness culture during of the visionary plant brews and tinctures the 1960s was the widespread availabil- are signaling an evolutionary initiative ity of inexpensive psychedelic drugs, as coming from other, non-human, intel- well as cultivated mushrooms, for per- ligences on this planet? Instead of the sonal use by increasingly large numbers usual attitude of arrogant and exploitative of people. This certainly amplified the superiority, those who have experienced innovation and creativity in the arts and mushrooms, peyote, ayahuasca and other sciences and added much larger numbers entheogens are more likely to find them- of spiritually committed individuals to selves humbled and awed by the mysteri- what before were relatively small minor- ous powers of nature, and strive to live in ity movements. Whether psychedelics a simpler way that minimizes environ- also amplified the rebelliousness and con- mental harm and protects and celebrates frontational resistance movements of the the astonishing diversity and beauty 1960s, is impossible to say. Some would of life. • argue that the greater physical violence