The effervescence of the 1960s had created
a stage for modern utopia: in the USA, having
experienced the aftermath of the World War II,
new perspectives arose as an extension of a certain
need to escape or deviate from each other.
Influenced by art and culture from Eastern
countries such as India, China, and Japan,
the Beats came into existence. Their experiences
with LSD and other psychedelic drugs enhanced
many of their spiritual potentials and, above all,
a notion of interbeing that is highly characteristic
of Eastern thought.
The Beats did not only import Buddhism
and other oriental philosophies, but through their
writings, especially poems, expressed a necessity
of caring for the environment.
The experience of this generation is something
we can still learn from today. There is much more
to tell about psychedelia than what is mostly
associated to the western countercultural 60s.
In this issue of Indra, readers will be able to
immerse in the influences of and by the Beat
Generation towards the idea of the Indra’s Net;
that one is not independent from the other,
but they also reflect themselves into one another,
in an endless pattern of mutual change.
In addition to the book, readers will find an
image booklet which completes the previous
by exploring and interpreting suggestive
visuals through photography and cinema.
CREDIT LIST
Ana Tavares
Filipe Dumas
Filipe Dumas
Vítor Cardoso
Printed at Digiset, Lda (Santos, Lisbon, Portugal)
