The Hippie Doctor Who Helped Eradicate Smallpox

"It really wasn’t fair to a young boy from Detroit, Michigan," he chuckled, speaking to "To the Best of Our Knowledge" about his memoir, "Simply Brilliant" in 2016. "It was like opening up a candy box to a kid. And it wasn’t just sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll. This was the beginning of the Age of Aquarius."

Brilliant became friends with many 1960s icons, including Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters; Timothy Leary, the apostle of LSD; and Richard Alpert, who later became the spiritual teacher Ram Dass.

Brilliant and his wife, Elaine, joined the clown prince of the counterculture, Wavy Gravy, on the Hog Farm bus that traveled across Europe to Bangladesh, India and Kathmandu to give away food and medical supplies to people in need.

Eventually, following Wavy Gravy and her intense interest in Eastern spirituality, Elaine moved to an ashram in India while Brilliant returned to the United States to practice medicine. After some cajoling, she persuaded Larry to visit the ashram, presided over by Neem Karoli Baba, the guru known to his followers as Maharaj-Ji.

It was a rough landing once Brilliant arrived. He was seeking enlightenment but instead felt lonely and miserable.

"These young Americans were touching this old man's feet," he said. "I thought my wife had been captured by a cult."

At that point, their marriage was on the verge of collapse.