The emergence and flowering of psychedelic art coincided with one of the most revolutionary tumultuous periods of the twentieth century. During a time of intense social and political upheaval, defined by the counterculture and the civil rights movement, the Cold War, and the Vietnam War, artists, filmmakers, musicians, poets, and architects were creating visionary worlds that illustrated a desire for alternative lifestyles. Seeking to eschew rampant consumerism, middle-class complacency, and conservative social and sexual mores, the liberating potential of psychedelia partly stemmed from its ability to convey altered forms of perception and sensory experiences induced by music, light, meditation, and hallucinogenic drugs.