Originally published in 2010 ‘The Harvard Psychedelic Club’ by Don Lattin is a work of narrative non-fiction. It biographically examines the lives of four men, involved in various ways with what was originally called the Harvard Psilocybin Project. Based on interviews with the surviving members and written accounts, Lattin’s book is a highly readable text of the impact these men had on both one another and wider society.
The four men in question are Timothy Leary, Richard Alpert (now Ram Dass,) Andrew Weil and Huston Smith; who are respectively given the monikers the Trickster, the Seeker, the Healer and the Teacher. The structure of the book, a narrative non-fiction, follows the lives of these four people; from their younger days, to when their paths intersected with one another at Harvard University during the late 50s and early 60s, to the subsequent impact their lives and careers have had on society.
In understanding the picture that Lattin paints of these people it is important to bear in mind the monikers he has labelled them with; for not only do they give indication of the circumstances of their lives but they irrevocably determine their characterization in the text...
