The Psychedelic Experience

Tibetan Buddhist scholars have noted the adaptation departs substantially from its source text's meaning. Its cultural reach was nonetheless enormous: John Lennon adapted lines from it for the Beatles' 1966 song 'Tomorrow Never Knows', which opens almost verbatim with its instruction to turn off your mind, relax and float downstream.

Timothy Leary, Ralph Metzner & Richard Alpert, The Psychedelic Experience (1964); The Beatles, 'Tomorrow Never Knows', Revolver (1966)