Sixties counterculture guru; founder of the Shivalila religious sect and the Strawberry Fields commune. Born into a wealthy New York State family, he attended Yale University, where he was a conservative political activist. After graduation, he became a stockbroker, eventually moving to Malibu, California in the early 1960s. Tiring of that profession, he changed careers to become a County probation officer, and then, in the manner of many people during the time, "dropped out" completely and began to expand his consciousness with cannabis, LSD and other chemicals. In early 1967 he established "Strawberry Fields," a commune in the hills above Malibu which was open to all visitors, and allowed people to have psychedelic experiences in relative safety and privacy. Wright was arrested and in May 1967 for marijuana possession, and eventually convicted, serving over a year in various prisons and jails. When released he traveled to the Far East, and settled in Bali for awhile, becoming a sort of local guru for both natives and expatriate Westerners. Expelled from Bali by Indonesian authorities in 1971, he returned to California and formed Shivalila, a spiritual organization dedicated to reviving the Stone-Age/tribal lifestyle via LSD use, nonmonogamous group sexual relations, and the worship and idealization of children. The group roamed through the world, usually associating itself with "primitive" and communitarian cultures. In 1979 they spent a period at the Black Bear commune in northern California, but were forced out by other residents. In late 1979, Wright, who had taken Shivalila to India, was living in Goa when he was knifed by a psychotic Australian man. Complications set in from the injuries, and he died of double pneumonia on 12/22/1979, leaving behind his wife, Deborah, and a small community of followers. According to an Associated Press release about his death, Wright's corpse was cremated in Hindu fashion, and his ashes were scattered near the sea near Panjim. Wright was portrayed in Lewis Yablonsky's book THE HIPPIE TRIP, and appeared in the documentary COMMUNE.