Description
Book SynopsisUnveils the spiritual meaning that fueled the artistic, political, and social revolutions of the 1960s
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.
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.
Trade Review“
The Spiritual Meaning of the Sixties is Tobias Churton’s most personal book. . . . A wonderfully capacious interpretation of the tumultuous decade.” * James Penner, Ph.D., author of Timothy Leary: The Harvard Years *
"All in all, Churton has written a fascinating and important book, and it is a must-read for any reader with an interest in the 60's or contemporary culture generally." * Ray Grasse, Quest Spring 2019 *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments
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-NINE1969 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
