What was the free love movement of the 1960's?

I understand that it was part of the counterculture movement and that it embraced the beauty of sex, but I cannot seem to fully understand the true meaning of it. Can some please explain it to me in better detail? Thank you.

 

As I saw it the free love movement was an aspect of a greater unifying anti war and the civil rights movements. It was also the explosive reaction to the advent of widely available cheap and easy birth control.

 

I had a good buddy, kind of like a big brother. He was in the Height/Ashbury area in 1967. He told me stories of some of the stuff. he experienced. Make me wish I had been there. But he also talked about some of the bad things. He seen the Doors, Jefferson Airplane, and a bunch more. So yes him motto was; Sex, Drugs, and RockandRoll.

 

It was about breaking free of society in a way and breaking free of the man and people's parent's views on the world. It was a group of people collectively rejecting the culture at large as it was... yes, as Ranger stated, it had to do with the war.... rejecting the war and the way society was going and saying instead "no, we want to do this our way... be our own people....and do it all with love and having fun". And the birth control thing and the fact that HIV/AIDS was still in the future was a lot to do with it.

 

(Or you could just say a bunch of hippy kids were all messed up on various recreational substances and partying hard)