Short answers, pulled from the story.
Alan Wilson Watts (the 6th of January 1915 - the 16th of November 1973) was a British and American writer, speaker, and self-styled "philosophical entertainer" who interpreted Buddhist, Taoist, and Hindu philosophy for Western audiences. He wrote more than 25 books on religion and philosophy, including The Way of Zen (1957), which became a modern classic and introduced the Beat Generation to Zen Buddhism.
Alan Watts was born in Chislehurst, Kent, on the 6th of January 1915, at Rowan Tree Cottage, 3 Holbrook Lane. He was an only child who grew up in the English countryside before moving to the United States in 1938.
Yes. Watts was ordained as an Episcopalian priest on Ascension Day 1945, after studying at Seabury-Western Theological Seminary in Evanston, Illinois. He resigned the priesthood in August 1950 after his wife sought an annulment, citing that he had contracted a monogamous marriage under false pretenses.
Watts experimented with mescaline, LSD, and cannabis, beginning with mescaline given to him by Oscar Janiger, and tried LSD several times in 1958. He later said: "If you get the message, hang up the phone. For psychedelic drugs are simply instruments, like microscopes, telescopes, and telephones."
Watts died on the 16th of November 1973 at age 58 in the Mandala House at Druid Heights, California, returning from a European lecture tour. He had been under treatment for a heart condition and had also struggled with alcoholism for years. His body was cremated on a wood pyre on Muir Beach at 8:30 a.m. by Buddhist monks.
Watts's voice and writings have been sampled by numerous musicians and filmmakers. Northern Irish singer Van Morrison wrote "Alan Watts Blues" for his 1987 album Poetic Champions Compose. The 2013 Spike Jonze film Her includes an AI modelled on Watts. His lectures appear in the Netflix series Love, Death and Robots and the video game Everything (2017), among many other works.