Hippy Counterculture In The 1960's

In the 1960s, an unprecedented social revolution began in which young men and women turned away from the current American society. White middle-class teens transformed their outlook to a hippy counterculture involving experimenting with new ______, peace, new religious beliefs, and political stances, as an act of pursuit towards the idea of liberty, self expression, and pleasure. As the pressures of society increased, so did teens desires to escape it all. This psychedelic age brought people with higher concerns for their community and planet, yet relaxed their social mores. By rejecting their parents views, they had the opportunity to develop into their own person, free of parental and social influence. Hippies believed drugs were their path to enlightenment in which they could unify their conscious and subconscious minds to reach their truest self expression. Tens of thousands of hippies followed an acid guru, Timothy Leary, when he said, “Turn on, tune in, and drop out.” (cite) Turning on with psychedelic drugs meant to come into contact with ancient energies, and wisdom, built into your nervous system. In a sense, you are connecting with your ‘highest self’. The next step, tuning in, was to take that wisdom and use it to communicate new perspectives in a harmonious dance with the

In the early 1960s, sex was seen as something indecent or secretive, and should never be taken out of the bedroom. Americans never discussed sex openly and had highly conservative views of it. Micah Issitt, and author of ____, writes, “Within the culture, sexuality was cast in a new light as the hippies aggressively rebelled against the “dirty” or “shameful” view of sex, while promoting sex as the ultimate expression of unity, compassion, and love. For the hippies, sex was something to be celebrated rather than hidden, encouraged rather than scorned.” (___)