Tripping on Utopia: Margaret Mead, the Cold War, and the Troubled Birth of Psychedelic Science

This book offers a perspective on the history of psychedelics in the 20th century, revealing how drug experimentation shaped the Cold War and Silicon Valley.

Contrary to popular perception, the Baby Boomers’ parents were the pioneers of widespread drug experimentation. Emerging from World War II, they embraced social experimentation in the ‘40s and ‘50s, where drugs were legal and celebrated.

Pioneering anthropologists Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson, driven by a belief in global disaster, dedicated their lives to reshaping humanity through consciousness expansion. However, they clashed with government bodies funding their work, whose intentions were less than pure. Mead and Bateson’s partnership unveiled a hidden chapter in the 20th century, connecting drug researchers with CIA agents, outsider sexologists, and Silicon Valley’s founders.

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