The Last Hippie

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Joshua Chmielewski AP Phycology The second paradoxical tale of the book was entitled, “The Last Hippie.” This story was about a man from Queens named Greg F. He seemed to have a bright future ahead of him but became rebellious and in 1968 “tuned in, turned on,” and literally “dropped out” of school. He left home and joined the drug culture where he began his search for inner freedom. However, this did not satisfy him and soon he found himself at the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. Under Swami Bhaktivedanta’s influence he began his journey to true enlightenment. In his second year with the Krishnas Greg began to complain about his vision dimming. The swami assured him that it was his inner light growing and that there was nothing to worry about. Left unattended Greg developed a massive tumor which caused him to become blind and to have a certain type of apathy towards the world. He lost all ability of short term memory and was permanently stuck in the 1960’s. Dr. Oliver Sacks first met Greg in April of 1977 at the Williamsbridge Hospital. Oliver would try to answer the question, “What happened to Greg?” He began observing Greg which was one of the research methods used along with questioning him, repetitive learning, and becoming a part of Greg’s life. What he found was that if any questions were asked that were past the year of 1969 Greg did not have the answer. Instead he would use one of his “current events.” Greg was marooned in the 60’s. Greg was totally blind and refused to believe it. When he was sent to a school to learn brail he threw a fit about how you shouldn’t make a seeing man learn a blind language. However, Greg, being the music lover that he was, had an acute ability to learn jingles or new songs on his guitar. He did this quite easily and did not forget them when he was done. Oliver and the staff at Williamsbridge would take

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