Review: 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

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 by Don Lattin
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The seminal figures in early popularization of acid are all here. Author Lattin describes the social network, as it existed, that connected all of these people together. Plenty of interesting stories, but on reflection not many heartwarming or even, strangely, enlightening ones. The players struck me, in the end, as mostly sad, which is not what I expected. I figured they would be represented as learning and growing, but they seem to be regressing throughout the book. The worst of the bunch seemed to be Andrew Weil, but most all were “conniving” in some way. Nice book to see the connections of trippers and their start in the ivy halls of Harvard.

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