What influences did the "hippie" founder have on the public to have them follow his movement?

This question assumes that there was some leader of the hippie
movement and that he influenced people to follow him.  I do not believe that this is
true.

The hippie movement did not have any acknowledged leader or
anyone who is credited with starting it.  Instead, it is seen as a result of societal forces that
were present in the United States at the time.  These forces influenced many (but by no means
all) young people to become hippies to some degree.

The most usual
story is that the conformity and materialism of the the 1950s generation turned the next
generation off.  They (it is said) wanted to live in ways that were more spiritually meaningful
to them.  They wanted to do their own thing rather than to obey what authority said.  In this
way, they were rebelling against what they saw as the empty lives their parents were
leading.

So it was a general social trend that influenced people to
be hippies -- not one person who was leader of the movement.