Comments on: Book Review: The Harvard Psychedelic Club

By: Evita Ochel

Evita Ochel — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 02:41:29 +0000

Hi Wilma

Oh yes, this book and so many other things in life are always abundant in making sure, we literally “don’t judge a book by its cover”.

And yes, I so agree with you, what more is it going to take to really get us to live out of love. I guess the awakening that is taking place today is a great sign though even if it does not encompass everyone…perhaps yet…

Thank you for sharing your beautiful and wise thoughts here!

By: Evita Ochel

Evita Ochel — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 02:39:09 +0000

Hi Chris – you are so very welcome!

That is interesting to hear. I have heard a bit about the holotropic breathwork and heard some amazing stories of how much it changed people’s lives and outlook and all.

I have been reading more and more about breathwork and actually today am conscious almost on a daily basis to do some kind of a conscious breathing exercise. When I go to my yoga class, it is integrated the best :)

By: Wilma Ham

Wilma Ham — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 04:31:41 +0000

For me the book shows that we have to be careful with judgment and opinions until we hear the full story. That also counts for hippies and drugs and what they tried to achieve.
The world was ready for a move as it is now, a lot of people might have an opinion about the law of attraction without knowing the whole story behind that as well.
What I love is that their conclusion still stands; “Love is the ultimate substance for anything we seek and it all comes down in the end to how we live our lives on a daily basis.”
By how many more means do we need to hear this until we live it.
Drugs and hippies, spirituality and healers, in the end we are still seeking aren’t we, while the message will actually always end up the same.
Love is so powerful and we will finally have science prove it in a way we finally can accept it.
Love Wilma

By: Chris Edgar

Chris Edgar — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 05:12:37 +0000

Thanks for this Evita — I was actually thinking recently about how the non-drug-related methods of consciousness expansion that I’ve explored were probably inspired by the work of Leary, Alpert, Stan Grof, and other pioneers of that era. Someone once even told me that Grof developed his holotropic breathwork method, which I’ve done, to simulate the effects of LSD once it became illegal.

By: Evita Ochel

Evita Ochel — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 01:19:51 +0000

@ SUZEN – Hi Suzen, I am so fascinated now so much more to learn firsthand from people who lived it, and your account sounds great, and it also puts on a spin of reality how it was portrayed, etc…

Ooo I get so excited when I hear the word “change” – yes I salute a lot of the people’s efforts who went out of their way to not just fall in line with the status quo. It is not about rebelling, but about moving things forward for the betterment of people, for our collective evolution. And as we know, major corps and govt’s are rarely keen on stuff like that. I imagine, no scratch that I know that if I lived then, I too would have been a “hippie” like you describe yourself.

Thanks for the movie heads up too, will look forward to checking it out.

By: suzen

suzen — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 18:47:40 +0000

Hi Evita! I’m am positively THRILLED that this book is out and so many, like yourself, are talking about it! I haven’t read it – but I lived it. Not the drug part – I thought they messed up any clarity – but I was so a part of that era! There was a LOT more to the “hippie” movement than drugs and free love – the “establishment” bristled at us! Of course they would. The consciousness movement meant change and putting love on the FRONT burner. Unfortunately the open drug use and sex was all anyone wanted to call attention to and the bible bangers thrived on their condemnations of the entire movement based on that. Like – hello – not everyone who looked like a hippie (myself included) was the same! But these were the same people who hated blacks then, all blacks, didn’t matter if you were educated – you were black, period.

If you haven’t seen the movie “Easy Rider” try that too. It’s the best example of what those days were like across the country.
Hugs from an old Hippie
suZen

By: Evita Ochel

Evita Ochel — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 20:33:28 +0000

@ KARL – Yes, great points Karl. As I said I have nothing against people who take them, etc, but choose not to personally if not for the simple reason that I don’t want my mind distorted by some unnecessary in my opinion, chemicals. God knows, the media distorts our minds enough, if we let it…

By: Karl Staib - Work Happy Now

Karl Staib - Work Happy Now — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 20:32:50 +0000

I loved the honest review. I agree we don’t need drugs to reach a higher level of thinking. If anything they distort our perspective. We need to think as clearly as possible.

We do need to look past old habits and reconnect with each other in new ways. Everything we do affects each other. We have to be more aware of this connection and be more compassionate with each other. We need to expand our love to larger groups of people and treat everyone as if they are a friend.

By: Evita Ochel

Evita Ochel — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 19:17:12 +0000

@ TRISH – Hi Trish, you welcome and it was my pleasure! Thank you for the feedback.

As for this century, I think we will have something as profound, in fact I think we are already in it. There are massive changes going on in people’s ways of life today. More and more of us are seeing deeper into things than we ever did before, and we are speaking out about it, or changing our ways. Whether it be the spiritual movement or the environmental movement, there is a shift on the planet today.

By: trish

trish — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 19:16:18 +0000

I love what you said here, “But above all these things, this book really allowed me to go beneath the surface and explore some of the roots where the thirst to raise the human potential and global consciousness came from in the modern Western culture, as well as the shift to connect the Eastern and Western ways of life.” I think learning about how recents shifts came about is fascinating, because I wonder if we’ll have something just as profound in the 21st century.

Thanks for being on this tour! You wrote a very thoughtful and interesting review!