Be Here Now

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of substance use.

Be Here Now emerged at a pivotal moment in American history when the late 1960s and early 1970s counterculture was in full bloom. Against the backdrop of the Vietnam War, the Civil Rights Movement, and a widespread questioning of traditional values, many young people flocked toward experimentation, alternative lifestyles, and global spiritual exploration. Timothy Leary, Richard Alpert, and other figures at Harvard University were pushing the boundaries of academia, researching the effects of psychedelics on the human psyche. Leary and Alpert are best known for the Harvard Psilocybin Project, where they documented the hallucinogen’s effects on consciousness by administering it to volunteer subjects and documenting their real-time descriptions of the experience. Although LSD and psilocybin were not illegal in the United States at the time, Harvard faculty members and administrators soon became concerned about research subjects’ safety and Leary and Alpert’s “unorthodox methodology” (notably, they conducted these studies while they were also under the influence of psilocybin). While Leary and Alpert underscored the scientific importance of their research, colleagues challenged the merit of their studies and “the seemingly cavalier attitude with which it was carried out,” as they failed to adhere to established research guidelines.