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... e allowed to be done. Freedom of press is what won the case, and Hair was able to go on. (Butler p. 2) Visual art in the hippie culture was also influenced by the Eastern culture. Album covers of many acid rock bands had images and icons of Eastern art called mandala.
Icons and images such as the Yin Yang and circular, geometric patterns originated from mandala art. The Beatles, The Mamas and Papas, Bob Dylan, and other sixties musical artist had album covers with mandala art on it. It was also purported to be a form of art that produced soothing powers that could help one meditate. The hippie culture took to the form quickly, and soon the psychedelic colors of mandala were seen on everything from cloths to Volkswagen Vans. This became almost a trademark for the Aquarian movement (Dale p. 29). The art also worked hand in hand with the images some people would see while on LSD, making the art even more popular.
Images of mandala had been rare in the United States, and soon became very representative of the hippie movement. Both the movement and mandala were new to the majority of the Western world, taking the world by surprise (Arguelles p. 55). By making people uncomfortable with all these new experiences, the hippie movement forced people to listen to what they had to say. Its very hard to ignore something that makes a person uncomfortable.
Without all this uneasiness, the messages of the hippies wouldnt have been heard as clearly as they were. One of the biggest influences the East had on the United States was its role in the introduction of hallucinogens. Drugs were widespread in the hippie culture, and became a part of the hippie way of life. Many of the drugs used originated in the east, such as opium and psilocybin (Lee p. 4). Hallucinogens that werent from the east, such as LSD, were sometimes used as devices for meditation (Lee 22).
The east played a large role in making drugs more popular in the sixties. There were two people in the sixties that seemed to stand out from the rest as the founders of the drug revolution. These people were Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert. Their drugs experiences were greatly influenced by Eastern Religion and philosophy.
In order to fully understand these two professors, a little bit of background information is needed. Leary and Alpert worked together at Harvard University. They were early users of LSD, and started distributing it to their graduate students. Harvard University was fine with this until they started giving LSD to under-graduate students. They were fired for this, and both went on to write books that became instruction manuals for many hippies on multiple subjects. Richard Alpert and Timothy Leary worked together in writing an interpretation of The Tibetan Book Of The Dead called The Psychedelic Experience, and claimed that this book of Eastern philosophy was meant to be an instruction manual on the use of hallucinogens.
Both Alpert and Leary were very much into Hinduism and Buddhism at the time (they both were followers of gurus from India), and were both looking for a way to link religion and drugs. They felt that both drugs and Eastern religion were spiritual paths one should follow. The Psychedelic Experience taught different ways one should use LSD. It also gave instructions on how much LSD should be used, reasons for using it, and when it should be taken (Leary p. 42). Millions of hippies read their book, and followed its teachings. The book didnt only have instructions on getting high.
It also talk about meditation while on LSD, and the power that meditation had. The book even preached about free love, and why people should all love one another (Leary: Book Of Dead p. 77). This book was an introduction to the Eastern way of life, and influenced huge masses of hippies to get involved in Eastern religions. After The Psychedelic Experience was written, Leary and Alpert went in different directions.
Leary got heavier into drugs, wrote 3 more books, and passed away while on hallucinogens (Grill). Alpert was the one that truly helped bring Eastern religion to the flower children. Alpert, after his book with Leary, was already viewed as a leader in the acid culture movement. In 1966, Alpert went to India to visit his guru, Neem Karl Baba, and changed his name to Baba Ram Dass (Jones p. 2). Because of his extreme popularity with the hippies, his transformation into Baba Ram Dass fascinated people, causing many to go to India to seek spiritual guidance (Jones p. 3). After his transformation, Richard Alpert (now known as Baba Ram Dass) wrote a book called Be Here Now in 1971 (Alpert).
The book was more spiritual than The Psychedelic Experience, but it still linked drugs and Hinduism. Just as his last book, people viewed it as a manual for how one should meditate and use drugs at the same time. The book became popular quickly, and over a million copies have been sold to date (Jones p. 3). Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert impacted people with their sermons on drug use. Their beliefs on drug use were directly influenced by Eastern philosophy. Therefore, Eastern philosophy played a big part in guiding the hippie / drug culture and contributed to the drug revolution of the sixties.
The East influenced every aspect of the hippie movement, not just music and drugs. People began to use different medical procedures, such as holistic medicine. Many hippies became vegetarians because of the influence Buddhism and Hinduism played. The hippies were looking for something that the West had not been able to provide them. Eastern religion seemed fulfill the needs of the hippies who previously felt like something was missing (Grill). Eastern culture took the hippie movement and gave it guidance; it took drugs and gave it meaning; took religion and made it fulfilling.
Suppose for a moment that the East was not part of the hippie movement: One might speculate that the hippies would have been using drugs for the sole purpose of getting high, without giving it any spiritual value. Music might have sounded the same as the music of the 40 s and 50 s, causing the 60 s music era to blend in with the rest of the century. Without the power of the 60 s music revolution, a lot of the messages that the hippies were trying to get across might not have been heard as clearly by the rest of the world. One might speculate that without Eastern influence art wouldnt have broken all the barriers the Western world had previously set up for it. If the hippie movement didnt have Eastern influence, it very well could have become a big party rather than a revolution. Eastern Philosophy took the hippie culture and transformed it, bringing a group of radical liberal extremist together and turning them into revolutionaries.
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