LSD: The Rise Of The Psychedelic Movement

The history of psychedelics had an important period of growth in the mid 20th centaury with the discovery of Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), which significantly increased the research on psychedelics for medical use. On April 16, 1943,

Albert Hoffman became the first person to try LSD, when he accidently dosed himself while working with ergotamine. (Smith) Hoffman’s discovery sparked a new wave of psychedelic study that largely increased the popularity and availability of psychedelic drugs. One such experiment, preformed by Willis Harman in 1966, looked at LSD’s ability to increase creativity. In the experiment, Harman took patients from careers that involved creative problem solving and who had been working on a problem they could not solve

The wide spread availability of LSD along with psychedelic activists like Harvard professor Dr. Timothy Leary led to growth of the hippie counter culture movement. Leary, after experimenting with LSD himself, became such an avid supporter in its ability to enlighten people that he would distribute the drug to his students, and became famous for teaching the phrase, “Turn on, tune in, drop out”. (Kansra) The psychedelic ability to incite revelations allowed a growing population of primarily college students to realize that society does not have to be the way it is, which fueled the development of the hippie movement. They sought to deviate from the mainstream society, which they perceived as money centric and unhappy. Because Richard Nixon perceived this movement as a threat to his traditional conservative values, he employed the drug war as a means of fighting back. Through this the government spread propaganda creating the perception that these drugs were nothing but dangerous and evil. This ended all of the promising research and tainted public opinion so strongly that most of the general population still believes this slander today. While this seriously stunted the development of therapeutic psychedelics, it further shows their ability to enable people to create new perspectives, which is a key part of healing emotional