Unveils the spiritual meaning that fueled the artistic, political, and social revolutions of the 1960s

• Investigates the spiritual principles that informed everything from the civil rights and anti-war movements, to the hippies’ rejection of materialist culture, to the rise of feminism, gay rights, and environmentalism

• Reveals how medieval troubadours, Gnosticism, Renaissance hermetic magic, and the occult doctrines of Aleister Crowley helped shape the psychedelic Sixties

• Offers in-depth analysis of many of the era’s most famous books, films, and music

No decade in modern history has generated more controversy and divisiveness than the tumultuous 1960s. For some, the ‘60s were an era of free love, drugs, and social revolution. For others, the Sixties were an ungodly rejection of all that was good and holy. Embarking on a profound search for the spiritual meaning behind the massive social upheavals of the 1960s, Tobias Churton turns a kaleidoscopic lens on religious and esoteric history, industry, science, philosophy, art, and social revolution to identify the meaning behind all these diverse movements.

Engaging with views of mainstream historians, some of whom write off this pivotal decade as heralding an overall decline in moral values and respect for tradition, Churton examines the intricate network of spiritual forces at play in the era. He reveals spiritual principles that united the free love movement, the civil rights and anti-war movements, the hippies’ rejection of materialist culture, and the eventual rise of feminism, gay rights, and environmentalism. He traces influences from medieval troubadours, Gnosticism, Hindu philosophy, Renaissance hermetic magic, and the occult doctrines of Aleister Crowley. He also examines the psychedelic revolution, the genesis of popular interest in UFOs, and the psychological consequences of the Bomb and the assassinations of the Kennedys and Martin Luther King. In addition, Churton investigates the huge shifts in consciousness reflected in the movies, music, art, and literature of the era--from Frank Sinatra to the Beatles, from I Love Lucy to Star Trek, from John Wayne to Midnight Cowboy--much of which still resonates with the youth of today.

Taking the reader on a long strange trip from crew-cuts and Bermuda shorts to Hair and Woodstock, from liquor to psychedelics, from uncool to cool, and from matter to Soul, Churton shows how the spiritual values of the Sixties are now reemerging, with an astonishing influx of spiritual light, to once again awaken us.

Tobias Churton is a world authority on Gnosticism, Hermeticism, Freemasonry, and Rosicrucianism. Appointed Honorary Fellow of Exeter University in 2005, he holds a master’s degree in Theology from Brasenose College, Oxford, and is the author of many books, including Aleister Crowley in America and Occult Paris. He lives in the heart of England.

Acknowledgments

PART ONE

ONE
The Sixties--PHEW!--and Me

TWO
Pro and Anti: The Myth of Progress
Change and Progress
Seeds of ’60s Change

PART TWO

THREE
Defining Terms: What Does “Spiritual Meaning” Mean?
Spirit--What Does It Mean?
How to Discern Spiritual Things

FOUR
As Above, So Below: Models of Spiritual Meaning in History
Louis Claude de Saint-Martin (1743-1803)
Antoine Fabre d’Olivet (1767-1825)

PART THREE

FIVE
Watertown

SIX
1960: Dawn of the Era

SEVEN
Plastic Fantastic
The Great Plastic, Push-Button, Robotic Space Race
“We’re all going on a summer holiday . . .”

EIGHT
Psychology

NINE
Apocalypse Then
Ban the Bomb
Postscript . . . Far Out and Outta Sight

TEN
Education: Loosening the Bonds
Dr. Spock
Game-Change at School
Education in the Movies

ELEVEN
Discomfiting Changes in Theology
We’re More Popular than Jesus Now
John “Hoppy” Hopkins and the London Free School
Dame Frances Yates and the Hermetic Tradition

TWELVE
The Persistence of the Bible
The Bible in Popular Culture
Repression in Russia
From Pilgrimages to Jesus Christ Superstar

THIRTEEN
Civil Rights
James Baldwin
A Few Generally Accepted Facts in Chronological Sequence

PART FOUR

FOURTEEN
The Party’s Over

FIFTEEN
The Spiritual in Art in the Sixties: The Age of Space
The Artists
The Real Icon
Yves Klein (1928-1962)--Prophet

SIXTEEN
The Spiritual in Orchestral, Film, and Jazz Music

SEVENTEEN
What the World Needs Now Is Love: The Spirit in Pop Music

EIGHTEEN
Cinema
Cinema as It Was--in Just One Day
Spiritual Values in Sixties Cinema

NINETEEN
Television
Spiritual Television?
A Day of TV in 1968

PART FIVE

TWENTY
Woman Freeing Helen “Birds”

TWENTY-ONE
Sexual Revolution
Flower Power
Pornography
Homosexuality

TWENTY-TWO
Psychedelics
Hashish
LSD-25
Hip Gnosis

TWENTY-THREE
India
Vedanta and Advaita
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (ca.1918-2008)
Ravi Shankar (1920-2012)
Swami Bhaktivedanta (1896-1977)

TWENTY-FOUR
Shiva: The Destroyer, the Uniter, the Transformer

PART SIX

TWENTY-FIVE
The Turning Point--1965: The Aeon of the Child Made Manifest

TWENTY-SIX
Feeling Groovy: The West Coast
The Human Be-In and Gathering of the Tribes
The Levitation of the Pentagon

TWENTY-SEVEN
The Beast and the Six Six Sixties
The Beast in Sixties America
Wasserman’s Quest

PART SEVEN

TWENTY-EIGHT
New York
New York’s Art and Literature Scene
Axis Bold as Love

TWENTY-NINE
1969 I: No Peace for the Wicked
The Amsterdam Bed-In

THIRTY
1969 II: So Near and Yet So Far, or . . . What the Hell Went Wrong? Not So Easy Rider
And Suddenly, It Was the Seventies

THIRTY-ONE
The Spiritual Meaning of the 1960s
We Blew It
Easy Rider

Notes

Bibliography

Index