New Age meditation was first popularised in the so-called counter culture of the late 1960s and 1970s. It took off in the West Coast area of the United States but soon spread throughout the rest of the West. Although they took inspiration from Buddhist and Hindu meditative practices, New Age practitioners tended to work in a way that totally voided the mind of conscious thought with blank thinking. Sometimes, although certainly not in all cases, this would mean that meditating and recreational drug taking – especially marijuana – would be combined. In addition, many New Age exponents of the virtues of meditating would repeat mantras in order to help them remove any conscious thoughts about their daily lives. Another key feature of New Age meditative practices is that they were often conducted in group sessions alongside other activities, such as yoga.