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Matthew A. Walker

Pop Culture and Shamanism: Did the 60’s Kill Huxley’s Spirit?

       In the mid to late sixties, the emergence of hallucinogens began as a positive, almost religious psychedelic revolution, pioneered by the writings and influence of Aldous Huxley and even to an extent, Jim Morrison of the Doors.  This revolution mimicked some of the religious beliefs that many Native American tribes had discovered through the use of psychedelics. Through my research it became apparent to me that other influences, such as Timothy Leary, who wanted psychedelics for the masses, and the pop culture of the day, trivialized this revolution and the religious background from which it began, turning the entire psychedelic age into a fad.
        There is documented evidence of several Native American tribes using peyote in their religious practices including the groups like the Apaches of the Mescalero Indian reservation.  In the religions practiced by many of these tribes, the Shaman is a central figure.  Most tribes believed in a mysterious, magical force in nature called the Great Spirit.  It is the goal of everyone in the tribe to be at one with the Great Spirit.  In order to reach the Great Spirit, an individual must see a vision of the spirit, and to do so, one would fast, inflict wounds upon themselves, or take drugs.  During the 1800’s many of these visions were seen with the use of hallucinogenic drugs, such as Peyote from the cactus Anhalonium lewinii, and psilocybin or “magic” mushrooms.  The Shaman in the tribe was a religious helper, who was believed to have a close connection with the spirit world by being inhabited by the spirit of an ancestor.  It was the Shaman that would provide others with holy visions that would appear during the hallucinatory state.  When the Shaman was in a trance, it was believed that he was able to transcend out of his body and become one with the spirit.
        “[The Shaman] goes on talking and talking, non-stop; there are lulls when her
voice slows down, […] then comes rushes of inspiration, moments of intense speech; […] but after the  setting out, the heights of ecstasy are reached, the intoxication begins to ebb away, and she sounds the theme of going back to normal, everyday conscious existence again after this excursion into the beyond, of rejoining the ego she has transcended (Munn, 8).”

        Very little was known about peyote and hallucinogens throughout the world until the Plains Indian peyote religion made it familiar on the southwest frontier.  After the discovery of these religions scientific study of mescaline, the active principle in peyote, began. In 1888, Ludwig Lewin published the first scientific report on the new drug mescaline.  Several other experiments followed concerning this topic, and interest in the subject of psychedelics rose.  So begins the first chapter in the experimentation of hallucinogens in modern American society.
        In 1953, Aldous Huxley had his first taste of the hallucinogen mescaline. In 1954, Huxley would write an essay called The Doors of Perception describing the effects that the mescaline had on him and his personal philosophy on the hallucinogen.  It is this essay that would become one of the defining literary works in the psychedelic revolution of the 1960’s.  Huxley recorded his experience, describing it as, “self-transcendent.”  He was firmly convinced that this drug would “produce a revival in religion,” should it be accepted into any of the current popular religions. Ideally, everyone should be able to find self-transcendence in some form of religion.  What Huxley realized and reflected upon in his writing is that millions of people were practicing their religion through prayer, meditation, and piety, but they did not feel that they were accomplishing anything.  Many people did not feel closer to their god or more enlightened with the current practices. With this drug Huxley was able to chemically “open a door,” and have a transcendental experience. This drug was the Shaman that would guide you to see a vision of enlightenment. “What the mescaline does,” Huxley says, “is provide you with a religious experience that is more direct and illuminating, more spontaneous, less the home made product of [the conscious, human mind] (Huxley, 24).”
        It is not until six years later that another pedestal of the psychedelic movement, Timothy Leary, a professor at Harvard University, has his first experience with a hallucinogen.  In the summer of 1960, Leary sampled “magic” psilocybin mushrooms at the urgings of a friend.  Leary was overwhelmed by the “visionary” experience that he encountered.  He felt transformed and began telling anyone that would listen about his experience, and how he was “reborn.”
        With similar interests and experiences, Leary sought out Huxley at the neighboring college of MIT and the two became friendly. Huxley and Leary would often lounge about Leary’s home, experiment with psilocybin, and discuss the overwhelming sense of enlightenment that the drug conferred upon them (Jonnes, 219).  Huxley thought very much of Leary and was charmed by his personality and prestigious background. Huxley decided that Leary was the perfect individual to prepare the world for “psychedelics.”
        Huxley believed that the use of LSD and other Hallucinogens should be offered only to the elite.  In fact in one meeting he strongly cautioned Leary to focus only on the elite.  “The artistic elite, the intellectual elite, the economic elite.  ‘That’s how everything of culture and beauty and philosophic freedom has been passed on,’” Huxley advised.
        The gist of [Huxley’s] plan was: “Use Harvard’s prestige to artfully spread the word about these mind-changers…[Leary was exhilarated] to think that one might be playing a crucial role in the evolution of the species (Jonnes, 219).”  Huxley, as previously mentioned, also felt that the new hallucinogenic discoveries had great bearing on the future of religion.  Leary agreed with Huxley and his position until he encountered Allen Ginsberg.  Ginsberg, who had recently become incredibly popular with his publication Howl, was extremely interested in Leary.  After only one afternoon of getting to know Leary, Ginsberg took some psilocybin pills and was captured by the same transcendence that Leary and Huxley had experienced.  Ginsberg played an important part in helping Leary spread the message of psychedelics.  Because of fame Ginsberg acquired with his poetry book Howl, Leary gained access to the elite crowd in New York.  Unfortunately he was not to have as much success as he envisioned. Many of the high-powered men and women did not want anything to do with Leary’s grand plan.  Ginsberg was also crucial in convincing Leary to alter the strategy that he had agreed to follow at Huxley’s bequest.  Leary would recall years later, “Allen, the quintessential egalitarian, wanted everyone to have the option of taking mind-expanding drug.  It was at this moment that we rejected Huxley’s elitist approach and adopted the American open to the public approach (Jonnes, 221).”  Leary now believed that there was to be a “new Great Awakening,” and that he had to spread the message of mind-expansion.
        That autumn, Timothy Leary formed the League for Spiritual Discovery.  LSD would be a weekly sacrament.  “These ancient goals we define I the metaphor of the present – turn on, tune in, drop out.”  As [one critic] recounts it, however, the spiritual message did not reach the masses: “LSD wasn’t a trip to the Other World for these kids: it was mind-blowing fun, better than a fast car or a quick orgasm…LSD was promoting a love of sensation, the more intense the better (Jonnes, 234).””
        It was about this time that Leary was playing the prophet, planning and attending venues such as Keseys Trips Festival in 1966, the Human Be-In in San Francisco in 1967, and the Woodstock rock festival in the summer of 1969.  “Rock music and other products with a hippie flavor entered the larger culture, often commercialized and trivialized in the form of imitation “psychedelic” T-shirts, pens, and so on (Grinspoon,14).”  This “culture” that had been created in religious piety was quickly becoming a joke.   Unfortunately, in this day and age, when we think of the psychedelic age and hippies, we see only this trivial and hollow group of people that followed Leary.  Very few hippies were actually organized into communes and living by the original plans of the culture, that would allow them to experience enlightenment and practice a stronger religion.  Many of the people that we call “hippies” today were out to find drugs, sex, and excitement, while hiding behind religious beliefs such as Shamanism to try to justify their actions while not truly practicing them.  Places such as the Fillmore Auditorium and the Avalon Ballroom in San Francisco became havens for the rock and roll sound assimilated by the drug culture. The summer of 1967 in San Francisco was proclaimed the “Summer of Love,” and it was accompanied with a particular way of life.  LSD, now dubbed “acid,” had spawned its own music called acid rock, identifiable fashions (tie-dye, anything from India or the East, sandals, long hair for men and women), and a loose philosophy that could be summed up as “sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll.”  “Acid rock” was invented and popularized by the Grateful Dead who were a large part of the hippie movement and the “spirit of 67”.  During this period and after its first inception, all of the popular music of the day began to turn to acid rock. Many albums were done while high or designed to be listened to while high.  Thereby catering to those hippies who were looking for fun.  This strengthened the idea that hallucinogens were just tools that would heighten the amount of excitement and fun that the user could experience.  There were some individuals, such as Jim Morrison of the Doors (a band created in this time period), that tried to maintain Huxley’s principles as best they could.
         The trivialization of the drug use by the hippies made a majority of Americans fears increase.  The government outlawed its use and in doing so, people became closed minded to its intended use and possible uses.  No research is put into any of the positive aspects of the drug that Huxley witnessed and wished to spread to the people, such as religious enlightenment and even psychological healing.  Its misuse in the hands of hippies caused it to become a fad of the past and a taboo in the present.

                                                                                                                                                                Matthew A. Walker


                                                                   Works Cited
Boyer, L. Bryce, Ruth M. Boyer, and Harry W. Basehart.  “Shamanism and Peyote Use among the Apaches of the Mescalero Indian Reservation.”  Hallucinogens and Shamanism.  Ed. Michael J. Harner.  New York: Oxford U Press, 1973.  20 Nov.  1999 <http://mir.drugtext.org/druglibrary/schaffer/lsd/MESCSHAM.html>.

Grinspoon, Lester, and James B. Bakalar.  “Psychedelic Drugs in the Twentieth Century.”  Psychedelic Drugs Reconsidered.  By Grinspoon and Bakalar.  New York: Basic Books, 1979.  20 Nov.  1999 <http://mir.drugtext.org/druglibrary/schaffer/lsd/grinspoo.html>.

Harner, Michael.  The Way of the Shaman.  New York: Harper and Row, 1990.

Hunter, Robert.  “The Acid Queen.”  The Storming of the Mind.  By Hunter.  New York: McClelland and Stewart Ltd., 1971. 20 Nov.  1999 <http://mir.drugtext.org/druglibrary/schaffer/lsd/queen.html>.

Huxley, Aldous.  “History of Tension.”  Scientific-Monthly, New York.  85 (1975): 3-9.

Huxley, Aldous. The Doors of Perception.  Great Britain: Chatto & Windus Ltd, 1954.

Jonnes, Jill.  Hep-Cats, Narcs, and Pipe Dreams: A History of America’s Romance with Illegal Drugs.  Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 1999.

Kalweit, Holger.  Dreamtime and Inner Space: The World of the Shaman.  Boston: Shambhala Publications Inc., 1988.

Lauer, Robert H.  “Social movements: An interactionist analysis.”  Sociological-Quarterly Vol. 13 (1972): 315-328.

Leary, Timothy.  “Prisoners to Prophets.”  Flashbacks.  By Leary.  Pub. Jeremy p. Tarcher, 1990.  20 Nov.  1999 http://mir.drugtext.org/druglibrary/schaffer/lsd/leary1.html>.

Munn, Henry.  “The Mushrooms of Language.”  Hallucinogens and Shamanism.  Ed. Michael J. Harner.  New York: Oxford U Press, 1973.  20 Nov.  1999 <http://mir.drugtext.org/druglibrary/schaffer/lsd/munn.html>.Reichel-Dolmatoff,
The Shaman and the Jaguar: A Study of Narcotic Drugs among the Indians of Colombia.  Philadelphia: Temple U Press, 1975.
Sugerman, Danny, comp.  The Doors: The Complete Lyrics.  New York: Dell Publishing, 1991.