“The frontiers we broke into in the ’60s are still largely unexplored.” Ken Kesey
The Hippie movement of the Sixties provided a generation with the curiosity about and the means to explore human consciousness and capability. Through the LSD experiments, transcendental meditation, and a return to nature, there was a growing sense of spirituality and connectedness by focusing on one’s own personal power and relationship with the universe. However, many of these advances came to a crashing halt when they came head to head with a society hell bent on destruction.
Photo by Troy Stoi
As their understanding of the universe grew, this movement saw the atrocities going on in the world around them and began to focus their energy on changing what was outside of themselves. Nevertheless, the more they fought against it, the stronger their opposition became. Though the war finally ended in the early seventies, it left a large part of this movement disillusioned, and ultimately the Hippies faded into the folds of history.
Yet a growing consciousness is swelling again, one of peace, love, harmony, and understanding, waking people to the power of personal spiritual growth and responsibility. And while we are again faced with many who are hell bent on wars against nations, we are now also faced with those, and are actually among those, who are at war with the planet itself. As this tide rises once again, it is up to us to take another look at the maps of the frontiers already explored and chart our course toward the discoveries we seek.
Steve McAllister
In addition to serving as Managing Editor and contributor to Modern Hippie Mag, Steve McAllister is an actor, musician, accomplished author and filmmaker. His most recent novel, The McAllister Code is available as an e-book at www.themcallistercode.com. Find Steve on Twitter, @InkenSoul. Read his reviews and articles here.
Steve McAllister, Modern Hippie Mag's resident Lifestyle Guru, describes himself as a Renaissance Man. An author, filmmaker, songwriter, and perpetual artistic experimenter, he has recently re-released his second book The Rucksack Letters into paperback to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the journey. His latest book, a comical foray into philosophical science fiction, is How to Survive an Estralarian Mind Meld. His latest artistic project is The Labyrinth of the Unbroken Path. .
