According to Osho, the rise of hippies in America stems from unprecedented affluence producing existential boredom and spiritual restlessness. Youth, seeing their parents’ wealth bring no inner peace, rebel against a stagnant, materialist order. Hippies symbolize an early, chaotic stage of a deeper search—akin in spirit to Buddha and Mahavira—often experimenting wildly before turning toward meditation, yoga, and religious inquiry for genuine fulfillment.
When people already have everything, they feel empty and start searching inside; hippies are kids doing that search, sometimes messy, before finding meditation.