title: How the Hippies Saved Physics: Science, Counterculture, and the Quantum Revival
author:  David Kaiser 
description: Starred Review. An enthusiastic account of a coterie of physicists who, during the 1970s, embraced New Age fads and sometimes went on to make dramatic discoveriesReaders will enjoy this entertaining chronicle of colorful young scientists whose sweeping curiosity turned up no hard evidence for psychic phenomena but led to new ways of looking into the equally bizarre quantum world.<br /> - <strong><em>Kirkus Reviews</em></strong><br /><br />Starred Review. Science has never been more unpredictableor more entertaining!<br /> - <strong><em>Booklist</em></strong><br /><br />It is hard to write a book about quantum mechanics that is at once intellectually serious and a page-turner. But David Kaiser succeeds in his account of a neglected but important group of physicists who brought together quantum mechanics, Eastern religion, parapsychology and the hallucinogen LSD.  Illuminating.<br /> - <strong>Hugh Gusterson, <em>Nature</em></strong><br /><br />Exhaustively and carefully researched. [Kaiser] has uncovered a wealth of revealing detail about the physicists involved, making for a very lively tale.  Fascinating.<br /> - <strong><em>American Scientist</em></strong><br /><br />This entertaining, worthwhile read is as much about the nature of society at the dawn of the New Age as it is about quantum physics.<br /> - <strong><em>Choice</em></strong><br /><br />Kaisers style is engaging, which makes this history of the time when physics left the short-sleeved white shirts, skinny ties and plastic pocket protectors behind one of the best science books of the year.<br /> - <strong><em>Sacramento News &amp; Review</em></strong><br /><br />Meticulously researched and unapologetically romantic, <em>How the Hippies Saved Physics</em> makes the history of science fun again.<br /> - <strong>Matthew Wisnioski, <em>Science</em></strong><br /><br /><em>How the Hippies Saved Physics</em> takes readers on a mind-bending trip to the far horizons of sciencea place where the countercultures search for a New Age of consciousness opened the door to a new era in physics. Who knew that the discipline that brought us the atom bomb had also glimpsed Utopia? Amazing.<br /> - <strong>Fred Turner, author of <i>From Counterculture to Cyberculture</i></strong>
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  ## HOW THE HIPPIES SAVED PHYSICS
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ## How the Hippies Saved Physics
  
  
  SCIENCE, COUNTERCULTURE, AND THE QUANTUM REVIVAL
  
  
  ## DAVID KAISER
  
  
  W. W. Norton & Company
  
  
  NEW YORK • LONDON
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Grateful acknowledgment is made to the following for permission to reprint
  material: to Zane Kesey and the estate of Dr. Timothy Leary for permission to
  reprint the epigraph on p. vii, which originally appeared in Timothy Leary,
  “Preface,” Spit in the Ocean 3 (Fall, 1977): 8–11; to Jack Sarfatti and Taylor
  & Francis, Ltd., for permission to reprint the epigraph to chapter 4, which
  originally appeared in Jack Sarfatti, “Implications of meta-physics for
  psychoenergetic systems,” Psychoenergetic Systems 1 (1974): 3–8; and to the
  Melanie Jackson Agency, LLC, for permission to reprint quotations from the
  Richard P. Feynman papers.
  
  
  Copyright © 2011 by David Kaiser
  
  
  All rights reserved
  
  
  Printed in the United States of America
  
  
  First published as a Norton pa