Huxley expanded his own LSD-mescaline project in California by recruiting several individuals who had been initially drawn into the cult circles he helped establish during his earlier stay.
The two most prominent individuals were Alan Watts and the late Dr. Gregory Bateson (the former husband of Dame Margaret Mead). Watts became a self-styled "guru" of a nationwide Zen Buddhist cult built around his well-publicized books. Bateson, an anthropologist with the OSS, became the director of a hallucinogenic drug experimental clinic at the Palo Alto Veterans Administration Hospital. Under Bateson's auspices, the initiating "cadre" of the LSD cult - the hippies - were programmed.13
Watts at the same time founded the Pacifica Foundation, which sponsored two radio station WKBW in San Francisco and WBM-FM in New York City. The Pacifica stations were among the first to push the "Liverpool Sound" - the British-imported hard rock twanging of the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, and the Animals. They would later pioneer "acid rock" and eventually the self-avowed psychotic "punk rock."
During the fall of 1960, Huxley was appointed visiting professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston. Around his stay in that city, Huxley created a circle at Harvard parallel to his West Coast LSD team.
Watts at the same time founded the Pacifica Foundation, which sponsored two radio station WKBW in San Francisco and WBM-FM in New York City. The Pacifica stations were among the first to push the "Liverpool Sound" - the British-imported hard rock twanging of the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, and the Animals. They would later pioneer "acid rock" and eventually the self-avowed psychotic "punk rock."
During the fall of 1960, Huxley was appointed visiting professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston. Around his stay in that city, Huxley created a circle at Harvard parallel to his West Coast LSD team.
The Harvard group included,
The ostensible topic of the Harvard seminar was "Religion and its Significance in the Modern Age."
The seminar was actually a planning session for the "acid rock" counterculture. Huxley established contact during this Harvard period with the president of Sandoz, which at the time was working on a CIA contract to produce large quantities of LSD and psilocybin (another synthetic hallucinogenic drug) for MK-Ultra, the CIA's official chemical warfare experiment.
According to recently released CIA documents, Allen Dulles purchased over 100 million doses of LSD - almost all of which flooded the streets of the United States during the late 1960s. During the same period, Leary began privately purchasing large quantities of LSD from Sandoz as well.14
From the discussions of the Harvard seminar, Leary put together the book The Psychedelic Experience, based on the ancient cultist Tibetan Book of the Dead.
From the discussions of the Harvard seminar, Leary put together the book The Psychedelic Experience, based on the ancient cultist Tibetan Book of the Dead.
