There are no rules other than be true to yourself and cause no harm to others or the planet.  Many hippies have given up taking drugs, others have discovered drugs again. 

Hippies can and do wear just about anything.  Clothes do not make the hippie! But back in the 60's the most popular types of clothes were tie-dyes, bellbottom pants, blue jeans (often patched), love beads, colorful bandanas, long dresses, mini-skirts.  Don't forget Nehru jackets, paisley fabrics, velvet, afros, wire frame granny glasses and turtlenecks. 

The dictionary defines a hippie as one who doesn’t conform to society’s standards and advocates a liberal attitude and lifestyle. It seems to me that all these definitions miss the point. By focusing on the most visible behavioral traits most definitions fail to truly define the essence of the way of the hippie. My view is that being a hippie is a matter of accepting a belief system which transcends the social, political, and moral norms of any established structure, be it a class, church, or government. Every hierarchy must set down its rules, which always differ from those of any other hierarchy. This has been the cause of wars, endless strife and misery for the masses. The way of the hippie is antithetical to the structure of hierarchies. This is why the establishment feared and suppressed the hippie movement of the 60’s as it was a revolution at the time.

So what are the beliefs that define a hippie? Anti-establishment in most forms is a requisite, since they are adverse to the hippie goals of peace, love and freedom. To be a hippie you must believe in Peace as the way to resolve differences among peoples, ideologies and religions. The way to peace is through love and tolerance. Loving means accepting others as they are, giving them freedom to express themselves and not judging their behaviors according to a narrow definition. This is the core of the hippie philosophy. Freedom is the paramount virtue in this system. Freedom to do as one pleases, go where the flow takes you, and being open to new experiences. This engenders an attitude that allows for maximum personal growth. Sure this lifestyle is risky, but that’s life and avoiding risk leaves one unprepared for the unexpected.

Other beliefs that spring from this core are a certain earthy spirituality such a belief in Gaia (the earth as an organism), the greens movement (political activism), even shamanism and vegetarianism. These philosophical and political views reflect a respect for nature and the planet as a whole, something lacking in our capitalistic and materialistic societies. The world needs hippies to point out alternatives to the entrenched system and warn of the impending disasters that await if we don’t change our lifestyles. The goal is not to make everyone a hippie (what would we have to protest?). Rather we can try to influence others by example, through tolerance and love and teaching the virtues of the hippie way.

The way of the hippie never died, or went underground or was rediscovered. There have always been hippies from the first time society laid down rules, to Henry David Thoreau, to John Lennon, to you and me.

So being a hippie is not a matter of dress, behavior, economic status, or social milieu. It is a philosophical approach to life that emphasizes freedom, peace, love and a respect for others and the earth. As hippies age they come to terms with the same situations all humans must face. Wiser than before, let’s help the younger hippies find a way to save the earth and achieve more freedom than we could ever dream of. 

thanks to steve at hippieland.com

Important Dates In Hippie History - The 60's

1960
January - Bob Dylan, age 19 plays at the Wha in Greenwich Village and visits Woody Guthrie in the Hospital
Jan - Civil rights demonstrations in Atlanta
Feb 13 - France becomes the fourth nuclear power
Mar 15 - Lunch-counter sit-ins spread to 15 cities in 5 southern states
May 6 - Civil Rights Act of 1960 signed by Eisenhower
July - Sidney Cohen's survey of 5,000 individuals who had taken LSD 25,000 times concludes it is safe
Aug 9 - Timothy Leary, 39, tries psilocybin mushrooms in Cuernavaca
Aug 10 - Antarctic Treaty creates peaceful scientific preserve
Nov  - JFK elected president.
Nov  - Eisenhower warns the nation about the "Military-Industrial Complex" and its power.
Nov 9 - Brian Epstein first sees the Beatles.
Dec  - Birth Control Pills go on sale in the US.

1961
Jan 17 - Eisenhower warns of increasing power of "military-industrial complex"
Feb 1 - Four black students arrested at whites only lunch counter in Greensboro S. Carolina
Feb 18 - Bertrand Russell, 89, leads march of 20,000 & sit-down of 5,000 anti-nuke outside U.K. Defense Ministry and is jailed for 7 days
Mar - Richard Alpert (Ram Dass) takes psilocybin as part of the Harvard Project
Mar 1 - John Kennedy initiates 17 billion dollar nuclear missile program, increases military aid to Indochina & announces creation of the Peace Corps
Apr 11 - Bob Dylan's first billed performance at Gerde's Folk City
Apr 12 - Yuri Gagarin of the USSR is the first man in space
Apr 25 - Bay of Pigs, Cuba U.S. planned invasion is defeated by Castro
May 4 - Freedom Riders leave DC for a southern tour to test integration in bus stations
May 28 - Amnesty International Founded
July - Ban The Bomb Demonstrations start worldwide
July 19 - First Telstar Satellite Live TV Transmission across the Atlantic
Aug 13 - East German border guards begin construction of Berlin Wall
Sept 15 - U.S. starts underground nuclear testing
Oct 6 - President Kennedy advises Americans to build fallout shelters

1962
Feb 16 - Boston SANE & fledgling SDS hold first anti-nuclear march on Washington with 4000-8000 protesters
Apr 25 - U.S. resumes atmospheric nuclear testing after 3 year moratorium
Sept - Timothy Leary founds International Foundation for Internal Freedom (IFIF) to promote LSD research & publish The Psychedelic Review.
Oct 22 - Cuban Missile Crisis - Soviet missile bases in Cuba, Kennedy orders naval blockade.

1963
Jan - Alabama Gov. Wallace's "Segregation Forever" speech at inauguration
Apr 3 - SCLC & volunteers stage sit-in in Birmingham, Alabama
Apr 12 - Martin Luther King & Ralph Abernathy go to jail in Birmingham
Jun 11 - JFK Proposes the Civil Rights Bill
Jun 12 - Civil rights leader Medgar Evers assassinated.
July  - Timothy Leary hosts Freedom House groups in Zihuatanejo, Mexico, Dominica & then Antigua
July - Newport Folk Festival July 26-28, includes Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Phil Ochs and Pete Seeger
Aug 5 - First Nuclear Test Ban Treaty signed
Aug 28 - Martin Luther King's I Have a Dream speech, Wash DC Civil Rights March 1963, 200,000 attend
Aug 30 - U.S. -Soviet Hotline installed
Sept - Timothy Leary, Richard Alpert, and other Harvard alumni LSD researchers move to the Hitchcock's estate in Millbrook, New York.
Sept 24 - Nuclear Test Ban Treaty ratified by Senate
Oct 10 - Nuclear Test Ban Treaty takes effect
Oct 13 - Beatles on TV at London Palladium.  15 million get to see them perform "She Loves You" and "Twist and Shout".
Nov 22 - JFK Assassinated in Dallas, Texas, LBJ sworn in
Nov 22 - Aldous Huxley dies while tripping on LSD (intentionally!)
Nov 24 -  LBJ escalates the Vietnam War
Nov 29 - Beatles "I Want to Hold Your Hand" Released

1964
Jan 8 - LBJ declares "War on Poverty" in State of the Union address
Jan 11 - U.S. Surgeon General declares cigarettes cause lung disease
Jan 30 - New military junta takes over in South Vietnam
Feb 7 - Beatles arrive in New York to 10,000 screaming fans
Feb 9 - Beatles first appear on Ed Sullivan Show, 74 million people watch, the largest audience in the history of television.
Apr 23 - Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl
May - Bob Dylan's first visit to England, meets The Beatles & Rolling Stones; turns The Beatles on to marijuana.
July - Millbrook LSD sessions with Timothy Leary
July - Ken Kesey's First Magic Bus Trip to NY
July 2 - LBJ signs US Civil Rights Act: public facilities opened to all
July 18 - Race riot in Harlem, NY
July 23 - Senate passes $947 million antipoverty bill
Aug - Ken Kesey & his Merry Pranksters visit Timothy Leary & Richard Alpert at Millbrook.
Aug - Beatles first U.S. tour: 25 North American cities.
Aug 4 - Three missing civil rights workers found dead in Mississippi
Aug 11 - Beatles' A Hard Day's Night movie released
Aug 20 - LBJ signs anti-poverty program
Aug 23 - Beatles Hollywood Bowl concert
Aug 28 - Race riots in Philadelphia
Aug 31 - LBJ signs food stamp bill
Oct 14 - Martin Luther King Jr. wins Nobel Peace Prize
Dec 10 - Martin Luther King awarded Nobel Peace Prize 

1965
Time Mag calls young people "generation of conformists"
Jan 4 - President Johnson outlines "Great Society"
Feb - Martin Luther King Jr. and 770 other protesters arrested in Selma, Alabama for picketing county courthouse to end discrim voting rights
Feb 8 - U.S. starts bombing North Vietnam
Feb 18 - Sect. of  Defense Robert McNamara calls for nationwide network of  bomb shelters
Feb 21 - Malcolm X shot and killed
Mar 3 - Owsley starts LSD factory, making large quantities of acid available for the first time
Mar 6 - First American soldier officially sets foot on Vietnam battlefields
Mar 7 - Alabama state troopers attack 525 civil rights workers as they prepare to march
Mar 8 - 3,500 Marines land to protect Da Nang air base
Mar 16 - Quaker Alice Herz, 82, immolates self in Detroit in protest of the Vietnam war
Mar 16 - Police break-up demonstration of 600 in Montgomery, Alabama
Mar 17 - 1,600 people demonstrate at Montgomery, Alabama courthouse
Mar 21 - Martin Luther King Jr. leads march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama joined by 25,000 marchers
Mar 24 - SDS organizes first Vietnam War teach-in at Univ. of Michigan
3000 show up
Mar 25 - Civil rights worker shot and killed by KKK in Alabama
Mar 28 - Martin Luther King calls for boycott of Alabama on TV
Apr - 25,000 U.S. troops stationed in Vietnam
Apr 2 - Ken Kesey busted for marijuana first time
Apr 17 - SDS leads first anti-Vietwar march in Washington. 25,000 attend including Phil Ochs, Joan Baez and Judy Collins
Jun 11 - Beatles awarded the MBE by the Queen
July 8 - Chicago school integration protests
July 10 - Rolling Stones' I Can't Get No Satisfaction #1
July 24 - Bob Dylan's Like A Rolling Stone enters charts
July 25 - Dylan goes Rock at Newport Folk Festival
July 30 - LBJ signs Medicare bill
Aug - Ken Kesey meets Hunter Thompson who introduces the Hells Angels to the Merry Pranksters; Alan Ginsberg & Richard Alpert are at the party.
Aug 11 - Major race riot (6 days) in Watts, leaves 35 dead
Aug 13 - Nat'l Guard enters Watts riots in L.A.
Aug 14 - Sonny and Cher release "I Got You Babe"
Aug 23 - Premiere of Beatles' Help!
Aug 31 - Burning draft cards becomes illegal
Sept 5 - San Francisco writer Michael Fallon applies the term "hippie" to the SF counterculture in an article about the Blue Unicorn coffeehouse where LEMAR (Legalize Marijuana) & the Sexual Freedom League meet, & hippie houses.
Sept 25 - “Eve of Destruction”, sang by Barry McGuire top of the charts
Oct 1 - Anti-pollution bill sets emission standards for cars
Oct 16 - 100,000 anti-war protesters nationwide in 80 cities
Nov - "Unsafe at Any Speed" about the automobile industry's disregard for safety, published by Ralph Nader.
Nov 22 - Bob Dylan marries Sarah Lowndes & moves to Woodstock, N.Y.
Dec 25 - Timothy Leary busted for pot at the Mexican border

Next Page - 1966-1969

the above info was emailed to me, the original author is unknown

Hippie Baby Names