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'''Timothy Francis Leary''', (born October 22, [[1920]] in Springfield, Massachusetts – died May 31, [[1996]] in Beverly Hills, California) was a writer and psychologist and a long-time advocate for research into and use of psychoactive drugs. As a 1960s counterculture icon, he is most famous as a proponent of the supposed therapeutic and spiritual benefits of LSD. He coined and popularized the catch phrase "Turn on, tune in, drop out."
'''Timothy Francis Leary''', (born October 22, [[1920]] in Springfield, Massachusetts – died May 31, [[1996]] in Beverly Hills, California) was a writer and psychologist and a long-time advocate for research into and use of psychoactive drugs. As a 1960s counterculture icon, he is most famous as a proponent of the supposed therapeutic and spiritual benefits of LSD. He coined and popularized the catch phrase "Turn on, tune in, drop out."


== Biography ==
== Early life ==
=== Early life ===
Leary was born an only child in Springfield, Massachusetts. His father, a dentist, left when he was 13. He graduated from Springfield's Classical High School. He studied for two years at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts. He then transferred to West Point, but was forced to resign after an incident where he got drunk on smuggled liquor after the 1940 Army-Navy game.
Leary was born an only child in Springfield, Massachusetts. His father, a dentist, left when he was 13. He graduated from Springfield's Classical High School. He studied for two years at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts. He then transferred to West Point, but was forced to resign after an incident where he got drunk on smuggled liquor after the 1940 Army-Navy game.


Leary resigned the corps and moved to [[Tuscaloosa]], where he attended the [[University of Alabama]] in pursuit of a bachelor's degree in psychology. He was expelled for spending the night in a women's dorm, but, after a brief service in the Army Medical Corps in Pennsylvania he was allowed to re-enroll and complete his degree requirements by correspondence. He was awarded his first degree in psychology from Alabama in [[1943]]. He later earned a master's degree at Washington State University in [[1946]], and a Ph.D. in psychology at the University of California, Berkeley in [[1950]]. He went on to become an assistant professor at Berkeley (1950-1955), director of psychiatric research at the Kaiser Family Foundation (1955-1958) and a lecturer in psychology at Harvard University at the invitation of David McClelland (1959-1963).  
Leary resigned the corps and moved to [[Tuscaloosa]], where he attended the [[University of Alabama]] in pursuit of a bachelor's degree in psychology. He was expelled for spending the night in a women's dorm, but, after a brief service in the Army Medical Corps in Pennsylvania he was allowed to re-enroll and complete his degree requirements by correspondence. He was awarded his first degree in psychology from Alabama in [[1943]]. He later earned a master's degree at Washington State University in [[1946]], and a Ph.D. in psychology at the University of California, Berkeley in [[1950]]. He went on to become an assistant professor at Berkeley (1950-1955), director of psychiatric research at the Kaiser Family Foundation (1955-1958) and a lecturer in psychology at Harvard University at the invitation of David McClelland (1959-1963).  


==Psychedlic research==
Leary was introduced to psychedelic substances by a colleague, Anthony Russo. In the summer of 1960, Leary traveled to Cuernavaca, Mexico with Russo and after drinking several shots of tequila, tried psilocybin mushrooms for the first time. He later commented that he "learned more [...] about psychology in the five hours after taking these mushrooms than [...] in the preceding fifteen years of studying doing research in psychology." Upon his return to Harvard that fall, Leary and his associates began a research program known as the Harvard Psilocybin Project. The goal was to analyze the effects of psilocybin on human subjects using a synthesized version of the drug--one of two active compounds in the so-called Mexican mushroom--that was produced according to a recipe concocted by Albert Hoffman, a research chemist at Sandoz Laboratories in Switzerland. The experiment later involved giving LSD to graduate students.
Leary was introduced to psychedelic substances by a colleague, Anthony Russo. In the summer of 1960, Leary traveled to Cuernavaca, Mexico with Russo and after drinking several shots of tequila, tried psilocybin mushrooms for the first time. He later commented that he "learned more [...] about psychology in the five hours after taking these mushrooms than [...] in the preceding fifteen years of studying doing research in psychology." Upon his return to Harvard that fall, Leary and his associates began a research program known as the Harvard Psilocybin Project. The goal was to analyze the effects of psilocybin on human subjects using a synthesized version of the drug--one of two active compounds in the so-called Mexican mushroom--that was produced according to a recipe concocted by Albert Hoffman, a research chemist at Sandoz Laboratories in Switzerland. The experiment later involved giving LSD to graduate students.


Leary argued that LSD, used under professional guidance, could alter behavior in unprecedented and beneficial ways. The goals of Leary's research included finding better ways to treat alcoholism and to reform convicted criminals. The project was controversial from the start, with suspicions about its scientific credibility and a growing number of scandalous rumors about researchers' behavior and the participation of undergraduates without medical supervision. In May of 1963, Leary and Alpert were dismissed from Harvard. They turned to their own International Foundation for Internal Freedom, founded a year earlier. Attention given to their experiments, however, fueled a black market for psychedelic drugs in Cambridge and prompted the FDA to begin regulating psychedelic compounds. With help from Mellon heirs Peggy, Billy and Tommy Hitchcock, who helped to set up the Millbrook Estate where the research could be continued. The activities at the estate garnered the notice of a local assistant district attorney, G. Gordon Liddy and led to frequent police and FBI raids.
Leary argued that LSD, used under professional guidance, could alter behavior in unprecedented and beneficial ways. The goals of Leary's research included finding better ways to treat alcoholism and to reform convicted criminals. The project was controversial from the start, with suspicions about its scientific credibility and a growing number of scandalous rumors about researchers' behavior and the participation of undergraduates without medical supervision. In May of 1963, Leary and Alpert were dismissed from Harvard. They turned to their own International Foundation for Internal Freedom, founded a year earlier. Attention given to their experiments, however, fueled a black market for psychedelic drugs in Cambridge and prompted the FDA to begin regulating psychedelic compounds. With help from Mellon heirs Peggy, Billy and Tommy Hitchcock, who helped to set up the Millbrook Estate where the research could be continued. The activities at the estate garnered the notice of a local assistant district attorney, G. Gordon Liddy and led to frequent police and FBI raids.


In [[1966]] the unauthorized manufacture of LSD was made a misdemeanor. Leary founded the "League for Spiritual Discovery" that year in hopes of having the drug legalized as a religious sacrament. He toured college campuses with a multi-media performance called "the Death of the Mind" which attempted to artistically replicate the LSD experience. He encouraged listeners to form their own psychedelic sects, publishing a pamphlet in [[1967]] called ''Start Your Own Religion''.
Leary was arrested for possession of marijuana under the Marijuana Tax Act in 1965. He successfully argued that the act was unconstitutional on the grounds that its enforcement required self-incrimination, which was protected by the 5th amendment. (Leary v. United States 1969) The government responded with the passage of the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970.


On January 14, 1967, Leary spoke at the Human Be-In, a gathering of 30,000 hippies in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, where he first proclaimed and uttered his famous motto, "Turn on, tune in, drop out."
In [[1969]], Leary staged a campaign for Governor of California, running against Ronald Reagan. His campaign slogan was "Come together, join the party." John Lennon wrote "Come Together" while candidate Leary was attending his and Yoko Ono's Montreal Bed-In.


In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Leary (in collaboration with the writer Brian Barritt) formulated his circuit model of consciousness, in which he claimed that the human mind/nervous system consisted of seven circuits which when activated produce seven levels of consciousness (this model was first published as the short essay, 'The Seven Tongues of God'). The system soon expanded to include an eighth circuit; this version was first unveiled to the world in the rare 1973 pamphlet ''Neurologic'' (written with Joanna Leary while he was in prison) but was not exhaustively formulated until the publication of ''Exo-Psychology'' (by Leary) and [[Robert Anton Wilson]]'s ''[[Cosmic Trigger]]'' in 1977. Wilson contributed significantly to the model after befriending Leary in the early 70s and has used it as a framework for further exposition in his ''[[Prometheus Rising]]'', among other works.
==Spreading the LSD gospel==
 
In [[1966]] the unauthorized manufacture of LSD was made a misdemeanor. Leary founded the "League for Spiritual Discovery" that year in hopes of having the drug legalized as a religious sacrament. He toured college campuses with a multi-media performance called "the Death of the Mind" which attempted to artistically replicate the LSD experience. He encouraged listeners to form their own psychedelic sects, publishing a pamphlet in [[1967]] called ''Start Your Own Religion''.
Leary believed that most people only access the first four of these circuits ("the Larval Circuits") in their lifetimes. The second four circuits ("the Stellar Circuits"), Leary claimed, were evolutionary off-shoots of the first four and were equipped to encompass life in space, as well as expansion of consciousness that would be necessary to make further scientific and social progress. Leary suggested that some people may shift to the latter four gears by delving into [[meditation]] and other spiritual endeavors such as [[yoga]] as well as by taking [[psychedelic drugs]]. An example of the information Leary cited as evidence for the purpose of the "higher" four circuits was the feeling of floating and uninhibited motion experienced by users of [[marijuana]]. In the [[eight circuit model of consciousness]], a primary theoretical function of the fifth circuit (the first of the four developed for life in outer space) is to allow humans to become accustomed to life in a zero or low gravity environment.
 
=== Trouble with the law ===
Leary's first run in with the law came on [[December 20]] [[1965]]. During a border crossing from [[Mexico]] into the United States, his daughter was caught with marijuana. After taking responsibility for the controlled substance, Leary was convicted of possession under the [[Marijuana Tax Act]] and sentenced to 30 years in jail, given a $30,000 fine and ordered to undergo psychiatric treatment. Soon after, however, he appealed the case, claiming the Marijuana Tax Act was in fact unconstitutional, as it required a degree of [[self-incrimination]].  Leary claimed this was in stark violation of the [[Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Fifth Amendment]].
 
In 1969 The [[Supreme Court of the United States|Supreme Court]] concurred with Leary.  The Marijuana Tax Act was declared unconstitutional, and his 1965 conviction was quashed. The case was known as [[Leary v. United States]].
 
On [[December 26]] [[1968]] Leary was arrested again, this time for the possession of two [[roach (drug culture)|roaches]] of marijuana, which Leary claimed were planted by the arresting officer.
 
On the day his conviction was overturned Leary announced his candidacy for [[Governor of California]], running against [[Ronald Reagan]].  His campaign slogan was 'Come together, join the party'.  In May 1969 Leary joined [[John Lennon]] and [[Yoko Ono]] at their [[Montreal]] [[Bed-In]] and Lennon wrote Leary a campaign song called [[Come Together]].
 
In January 1970, Leary received a ten-year sentence for his 1968 conviction. When Leary arrived in prison, he was given psychological tests that were used to assign inmates to appropriate work details. Having designed many of the tests himself, Leary answered them in such a way that he seemed to be a very conforming, conventional person with a great interest in forestry and gardening.[http://web.archive.org/web/20050328092027/http://www.researchpubs.com/books/prankexc2.shtml]
 
As a result, Leary was assigned to work as a gardener in a lower security prison, which made escape possible. Leary claimed his non-violent escape was a humorous prank and left a challenging note for the authorities to find after he was gone. For a fee paid by [[The Brotherhood of Eternal Love]], the [[Weatherman (organization)|Weathermen]] smuggled Leary and his wife [[Rosemary Woodruff Leary]] out of the United States and into [[Algeria]]. The couple's plan to take refuge with the [[Black Panther Party|Black Panther]] [[Eldridge Cleaver]] failed after Cleaver attempted to hold Leary hostage. 
 
In 1971 the couple fled to [[Switzerland]], "where they were sheltered and effectively imprisoned by a large-living arms dealer, Michel Hauchard, who claimed he had an 'obligation as a gentleman to protect philosophers,' but mostly had a film deal in mind."[http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/25/books/review/25sante.html?pagewanted=print (Luc Sante, New York Times Book Review, June 24, 2006)]
 
In 1972, Nixon's attorney general, John Mitchell, convinced the Swiss government to imprison Leary, which they did for a month, but the Swiss refused to extradite him back to the US. 
 
In that same year, Leary and Rosemary separated. After a brief spell with heroin addiction, Leary became involved with French-born socialite Joanna Harcourt-Smith. Leary "married" Harcourt-Smith in a pseudo-occult ceremony at a hotel two weeks after they were first introduced; she would use his surname until their breakup in early 1977.  They traveled to Vienna, then Beirut and finally went to [[Kabul]], [[Afghanistan]] in 1973.  "Afghanistan had no extradition treaty with the United States, but this stricture did not apply to American airliners," Luc Sante wrote in a review of a biography of Leary. That interpretation of the law was used by U.S. authorities to capture the fugitive. "Before Leary could deplane, he was arrested by an agent of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs."<ref name="multiple2"/>
 
At a layover in the [[United Kingdom]], as Leary was being flown back to the United States, he requested [[political asylum]] from Her Majesty's Government, to no avail.  He was then held on five million dollars bail ($21 mil. in 2006), the highest in U. S. history to that point {{Fact|date=February 2007}};  President [[Richard Nixon]] had earlier labeled him "the most dangerous man in America."<ref name="multiple1"/>
 
The judge remarked, "If he is allowed to travel freely, he will speak publicly and spread his ideas."{{Fact|date=February 2007}}  Facing a total of 95 years in prison, Leary was put into solitary confinement in [[Folsom Prison]], California, where at one point he was in a cell immediately adjacent to [[Charles Manson]].  Manson had difficulty understanding why Leary didn't try to control people when he gave them LSD (like [[MK-ULTRA]] attempted to do). "They took you off the streets," Manson allegedly said, "so that I could continue with your work."{{Fact|date=February 2007}}
 
Leary cooperated with the FBI's investigation of the [[Weatherman (organization)|Weathermen]] and radical attorneys, and soon the underground became aware that he had become an informant, implicating friends and helpers in exchange for a reduced sentence. Leary would later claim no one was ever prosecuted based on any information he gave to the FBI (as noted in an [http://www.konformist.com/1999/leary.htm Open Letter from the Friends of Timothy Leary]:
 
{{cquote|The Weather Underground, the radical left organization responsible for his escape, was not impacted by his testimony. Histories written about the Weather Underground usually mention the Leary chapter in terms of the escape for which they proudly took credit. Leary sent information to the Weather Underground through a sympathetic prisoner that he was considering making a deal with the FBI and waited for their approval. The return message was "we understand."}}
 
While this claim evidently discounts the documented involvement of Leary in the set-up of Brotherhood of Eternal Love attorney George Chula and ignores his repeated attempts to set-up his fugitive ex-wife Rosemary, it should also be pointed out that Leary's affidavits and archives provided the government with a significant amount of intelligence on the American left and drug scenes and the lack of convictions directly based on Leary's testimony does not mean that his information did not strengthen the government's hand considerably.
 
The testimony, which had been primarily instigated by Joanna, served as a controversial rallying point for the declining American  counterculture. Many of his oldest friends, including [[Ken Kesey]], [[Paul Krassner]], [[Allen Ginsberg]], [[Jerry Rubin]], and [[Ram Dass]], were openly contemptuous of Harcourt-Smith and felt that she had "led him by his dick" (in the words of Krassner) into serving as a traitorous pawn in a vast governmental conspiracy against the left wing. These sentiments were echoed at a rally against the "new" Leary organized by Kesey at [[Stanford University]]. 
 
While imprisoned Leary remained a productive writer, sowing the seeds for his incarnation as a futurist lecturer with the StarSeed Series. In  [http://www.lycaeum.org/books/books/starseed/starseed.shtml''Starseed''] (1973), [http://www.noveltynet.org/content/books/neurologic/39.html ''neurologic'' (1973)], & ''Terra II: A Way Out'' (1974), Leary transitioned from Eastern philosophy and [[Aleister Crowley]] to outer space being a medium for spiritual transcendence as his principal frame of reference. ''Neurologic'' also added the idea  of "time dilation/contraction" available to the activated brain through the cellular, DNA, or atomic level of reality. ''Terra II'' is his first detailed proposal for [[space colonization]].
 
==Hollywood==
Leary was released from prison on [[April 21]], [[1976]] by Governor [[Jerry Brown]]. The image of his ostensible betrayal still fresh in the eyes of most of his old base, he briefly contemplated a return to mainstream [[academia]], but his applications were ignored, ushering in a period of despondent [[alcoholism]] and bitter fighting with Joanna. After briefly relocating to [[San Diego]], he left Joanna after she became pregnant with what may or may not have been his child (she professed to sleeping with another man earlier on the day of conception; Leary refused to take a [[paternity test]]).
 
Loading his few possessions into a [[Ford Pinto]], Leary established residence in [[Laurel Canyon]] and commenced the final phase of his career as a lecturer and (by his own terminology) "stand up philosopher". In 1978, he married filmmaker Barbara Blum and raised her young son as his own; they would divorce in 1993.
 
Leary cultivated a friendship with former foe [[G. Gordon Liddy]]. At the time, both men were near financial insolvency, and in 1982 they toured the lecture circuit as ex-cons debating the soul of America. The tour generated massive publicity and considerable funds for both figures. Along with the personal appearances, a successful documentary that chronicled the tour and the concurrent release of the wildly inaccurate {{Fact|date=February 2007}} [[autobiography]], ''[[Flashbacks (book)|Flashbacks]]'' helped to return Leary to the spotlight.
 
While his stated ambition was to eventually cross over as a mainstream Hollywood personality, reticent studios and sponsors ensured that this never occurred. Nonetheless, constant touring ensured that he was able to maintain a very comfortable lifestyle by the mid-1980s, while his colorful past made him a desirable guest at A-list parties throughout the decade. He also attracted a more intellectual crowd which counted [[John Frusciante]] (Leary appeared in [[Johnny Depp]]'s and [[Gibby Haynes]]' 1994 film 'stuff' which showed the squalid conditions that Frusciante was living in at the time) [[Robert Anton Wilson]], [[David Byrne (musician)|David Byrne]], [[science fiction]] ''[[wunderkind]]'' [[William Gibson (novelist)|William Gibson]], and [[Norman Spinrad]] amongst its ranks.
 
Leary's lecture remained fairly static throughout the era. While he continued to frequently use drugs on a private basis, rather than evangelizing and proselytizing the use of psychedelics as he had in the 1960s, the latter day Leary emphasized the importance of space colonization and an ensuing extension of the human lifespan while also providing a detailed explanation of the eight-circuit model of consciousness. He adopted the acronym "'''SMI<sup>2</sup>LE'''" as a succinct summary of his pre-[[transhumanist]] agenda: '''SM''' (Space Migration) + '''I<sup>2</sup>''' (intelligence increase) + '''LE''' ([[Life extension]]).
 
Leary's colonization plan varied greatly throughout the years. According to his initial plan, 5,000 of Earth's most virile and intelligent individuals would be launched on a vessel (Starseed 1) equipped with luxurious amenities. This idea was entirely plagiarized from the plotline of [[Paul Kantner]]'s [[concept album]] ''[[Blows Against The Empire]]'', which in turn was derived from [[Robert A. Heinlein]]'s [[Lazarus Long]] series. In the 1980s, he came to embrace [[NASA]] scientist [[Gerard O'Neill]]'s more realistic and egalitarian plans to construct giant [[Garden of Eden|Eden]]-like orbiting mini-Earths using existing technology and raw materials from the [[Moon]].
 
By the early 1990s, Leary had begun to incorporate computers, the [[Internet]], and [[virtual reality]] into his aegis of thought. In spite of establishing one of the earliest sites on the World Wide Web and his oft-quoted insight that the Internet was "the LSD of the 1990s", Leary essentially remained computer illiterate {{Fact|date=February 2007}} and required assistance in checking his email. {{Fact|date=February 2007}}
 
In 1989 Leary's eldest daughter, Susan, committed suicide after years of mental instability. Relations between the two had been tenuous for years, with the younger woman often casting her father as a negligent alcoholic and drug fiend responsible for her mother's death. Leary had not spoken to son Jack on a regular basis since the early 1970s.
 
After splitting from Barbara Leary in 1992, Leary began to ensconce himself with a much younger, artistic and tech-savy crowd that included his granddaughters, Dieadra Martino and Sara Brown; grandson, Ashley Martino; stepson, Zach Chase; author [[Douglas Rushkoff]], publisher [[Bob Guccione, Jr.]], and goddaughter [[Winona Ryder]]. He was frequently spotted at [[raves]] and [[alternative rock]] concerts, including a memorable [[mosh pit]] experience at an early [[The Smashing Pumpkins|Smashing Pumpkins]] concert. Attempting to maintain the pace of the average twentysomething in his early seventies, Leary began to develop poor eating habits and steadily abused [[alcohol]] and prescription medication. This culminated in a likely overdose in late 1993 that was misdiagnosed at the time as [[bilateral pneumonia]].
 
Aging perceptibly after his hospitalization, he nonetheless managed to fulfill his unceasing schedule of public appearances in 1994 while continuing to frequent the LA club scene at a slightly decelerated pace. He drank heavily and seemed prone to bouts of [[senility]] for the first time in his life, but as one friend pointed out in Robert Greenfield's biography of Leary, "there were always three to four hours per day of the lucid Tim". Later that year, Leary was arrested for the final time with girlfriend Aileen Getty, charged with illegally smoking in the baggage claim area of an Austin airport. Leary hoped that this would result in endorsement deals from the tobacco industry, but nothing materialized.
 
=== Death ===
In early 1995, Leary discovered that he was terminally ill with inoperable [[prostate cancer]]. He did not reveal the condition to the press upon diagnosis, but did so after the death of [[Jerry Garcia]] in August.
 
Leary authored an outline for a book called ''Design for Dying,'' which attempted to show people a new perspective of [[death]] and [[dying]]. "The most important thing you do in your life is to die" he claimed happily, welcoming death with the same energetic excitement he had welcomed most other challenges in his life. Unwilling to flesh out his outline, the book was delegated to another author. Leary's de facto "family"--his staff of technophilic [[Generation X|Gen X]]ers--updated his website on a daily basis as a sort of proto-[[blog]], noting his daily intake of various illicit and legal chemical substances, with a predilection for [[nitrous oxide]], cigarettes, his trademark "Leary biscuits" (see below), and eventually [[heroin]] and [[morphine]]. His sterile house was completely redecorated by the staff, who had more or less moved in, with an array of surreal ornamentation.
 
In his final months thousands of visitors, well wishers and old friends visited him in his California home. An attempt at reconciliation with Jack proved to be a failure when Leary spent their allotted time conferring with Ram Dass and two of the ex-convicts from the Harvard psilocybin experiment. Until the final weeks of his illness, Leary gave many interviews discussing his new philosophy of embracing death.
 
For a number of years, Leary was reported to have been excited by the possibility of freezing his body in [[cryonics|cryonic suspension]]. He didn't believe that he would be resurrected in the future, but he recognized the importance of cryonic possibilities. He called it his "duty as a [[futurist]]," and helped publicize the process. Privately he dismissed cryonics as "a joke" and did not seem to regard the process with much seriousness. Leary had relationships with two cryonic organizations, the original [[Alcor Life Extension Foundation|ALCOR]] and then the offshoot [[CRYOCARE]]. A cryonic tank was delivered to Leary's house in the months before his death, but when these relationships soured due to a great lack of trust Leary requested that his body be cremated, which it was, and distributed among his friends and family. He briefly considered [[suicide]], ultimately relenting at his granddaughter's request and also contemplated ingesting LSD in his final hours (á la [[Aldous Huxley]]).
 
Leary's death was videotaped for posterity at his request, capturing his final words. This video has never been publicly seen but will be included in a documentary currently in production. At one point in his final delirium, he said, "Why not?" to his son Zachary. He uttered the phrase repeatedly, in different intonations and died soon after. His last word, according to Zach Leary, was "beautiful". With the movie ''Timothy Leary's Dead,'' filmmakers capitalized on his initial desire for cryogenic preservation by secretly creating a fake [[decapitation]] sequence.
 
Seven grams of Leary's ashes were arranged by his friend at [[Celestis]] to be [[Space burial|buried in space]] aboard a rocket carrying the remains of 24 other people including [[Gene Roddenberry]] (creator of ''[[Star Trek]]''), [[Gerard O'Neill]] (space physicist), [[Krafft Ehricke]] (rocket scientist), and others.  A [[Pegasus rocket]] containing their remains was launched on [[February 9]] [[1997]], and remained in orbit for six years until it burnt up in the atmosphere.
 
=== Influence on others ===
''[[The Psychedelic Experience]]'' was the influence for [[John Lennon]]'s song "[[Tomorrow Never Knows]]" on [[The Beatles]]' album ''[[Revolver (album)|Revolver]]''. Leary once recruited [[John Lennon]] to write a theme song for his [[Governor of California|California gubernatorial]] campaign (which was interrupted by his prison sentence), inspiring Lennon to come up with "Come Together", based on Leary's theme and catchphrase for the campaign. Leary was also present when Lennon and his wife [[Yoko Ono]] recorded ''[[Give Peace A Chance]]'' during one of their [[bed-in]]s in Montreal and is mentioned in the lyrics of the song. (Lennon later denounced Leary {{Fact|date=February 2007}}, calling ''The Psychedelic Experience'' "that stupid book," {{Fact|date=February 2007}} but credited Leary's role in his life.)
 
Leary was the explicit subject of the [[Moody Blues]] song "Legend of a Mind", which memorialized him with the words, "Timothy Leary's dead. No, no, no, no he's outside looking in" (a lyric later incorporated into the [[Bongwater]]'s [[cover version]] of the Moody Blues song "Ride My Seesaw"). At first, Leary detested the line, but later found the sense of humor to adopt "Legend of a Mind" as his theme song when he hit the lecture circuit.
[[Image:Jlbedin3.JPG|left|350px|thumbnail|John Lennon,Timothy Leary and Friends Recording [[Give Peace A Chance]] <br>[http://www.johnlennonbedin.com Photo By Roy Kerwood] ]]
A number of other musical groups have admired and been influenced by Leary, including the progressive metal band [[Tool (band)|Tool]], the metal band [[Nevermore]], [[Marcy Playground]] and new wave band [[Devo]] (Leary even appearing in one of their films).  Nevermore mentions Leary in their lyrics, and titled one of their albums "The Politics of Ecstasy" (after Leary's book by the same name). Also, on Nevermore's self entitled album there is a song named "Timothy Leary". The Psychedelic Trance band [[Infected Mushroom]] uses a soundclip of Leary saying "Tune in, turn on, and drop out" in a song. Leary made a [[cameo appearance]] in "STUFF," a short film directed by [[Johnny Depp]] and Gibson Haynes about the [[Red Hot Chili Peppers]] guitar player [[John Frusciante]]. He also appears on 'Gila Copter' off the 'Linger Fickin Good' album by the [[Revolting Cocks]] and also appears in the video for 'Cracking Up'. Leary also appears as the father in the [[Suicidal Tendencies]] video "Possessed to Skate". He is also mentioned in the song "The Seeker" by [[The Who]]: "I asked Timothy Leary/ But he couldn't help me either". He appears in [[Blind Melon]]'s video "[[Galaxie]]" as a magician.
 
In the movie, ''[[The Ruling Class]]'', the character, Jack Gurney (played by [[Peter O'Toole]]), who thinks he is [[Jesus]], claims that the voice of "Timothy O'Leary" told him he was God (see film clip [http://www.yoism.org/?q=node/19 here]).
 
Timothy Leary's ideas also heavily influenced the work of [[Robert Anton Wilson]]. This influence went both ways and Leary admittedly took just as much from Wilson. Wilson's book ''Prometheus Rising'' was an in depth, highly detailed and inclusive work documenting Leary’s [[8-Circuit Model of Consciousness|eight circuit model of consciousness]]. Although the theory originated in discussions between Leary and a Hindu holy man at Millbrook, Wilson was one of the most ardent proponents of it and introduced the theory to a mainstream audience in 1977's bestselling ''Cosmic Trigger''. In 1989, they appeared together on stage in a dialog entitled ''The Inner Frontier'' in [[Cleveland, Ohio]] hosted by the [[Association for Consciousness Exploration]]. Wilson and Leary conversed a great deal on philosophical, political and futurist matters and became close friends who remained in contact through Leary's time in prison and up until his death. Wilson regarded Leary as a brilliant man and often is quoted as saying (paraphrase) "Leary had a great deal of 'hilaritose', the type of cheer and good humour by which it was said you could recognise a deity". 
 
Leary's endorsement of carefree LSD usage is also reflected upon in a more negative light in the concluding chapter of [[Hunter S. Thompson]]'s ''[[Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas]]''.  In addition, [[Owsley Stanley]], one of the pioneers of the era, would later write of him,
 
<blockquote>"Leary was a fool. Drunk with 'celebrity-hood' and his own ego, he became a media clown- and was arguably the single most damaging actor involved in the destruction of the evanescent social movement of the '60's. Tim, with his very public exhortations to the kids to 'tune in, turn on and drop out', is the inspiration for all the current draconian US drug laws against psychedelics. He would not listen to any of us when we asked him to please cool it, he loved the lime-light and relished his notoriety... I was not a fan of his." <sup>[http://forum.lowcarber.org/showpost.php?p=6064486&postcount=1637]</sup></blockquote>
 
World religion scholar [[Huston Smith]] was turned on by Leary after the two were introduced to one another by [[Aldous Huxley]] in the early 1960s. The experience was interpreted as deeply religious by Smith, and is captured in detailed religious terms in Smith's later work ''Cleansing of the Doors of Perception''. This was Smith's one and only entheogenic experience, at the end of which he asked Leary, to paraphase, if Leary knew the power and danger of that with which he was conducting research. In ''Mother Jones Magazine,'' 1997, Smith commented:
 
<blockquote>"First, I have to say that during the three years I was involved with that [[Harvard Psilocybin Project|Harvard study]],
LSD was not only legal but respectable. Before Tim went on his unfortunate careening course, it was a legitimate research project. Though I did find evidence that, when recounted, the experiences of the
Harvard group and those of mystics were impossible to tell apart --
descriptively indistinguishable -- that's not the last word. There is still a
question about the truth of the disclosure." <sup>[http://www.motherjones.com/news/qa/1997/11/snell.html]</sup></blockquote>
 
=== Trivia ===
 
* The term "Timothy Leary tickets" is an affectionate nickname given to the small squares of blotter paper to which liquid LSD has been applied.  


* Leary on several occasions flirted with the [[occultism|occult]] and was a member of the magical order of the [[Illuminates of Thanateros]].{{Fact|date=February 2007}}
On January 14, 1967, Leary spoke at the Human Be-In, a gathering of 30,000 hippies in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, where he first proclaimed and uttered his famous motto, "Turn on, tune in, drop out." Over the next few years, he developed a complicated theory of consciousness, eventually termed the "8 circuit model", which was taken up by Robert Anton Wilson. According to the theory, the human brain had the capacity (circuits) for higher levels of consciousness than were normally accessed. These consciousnesses could be triggered by various means, including psychedelic drugs, and would be needed as mankind expanded beyond the planet Earth.


* Leary was at one time a member of the Advisory Board to the [[Libertarian International Organization]] (LIO).
==Imprisonment==
In January 1970, Leary received a ten-year sentence for his 1968 conviction. Because of his familiarity with the psychological tests used to assign prisoners, he was able to secure a transfer to a low-security work farm, from which he escaped. Supporters smuggled him with his third wife to Algeria and he made his way to Switzerland, where he was sheltered by arms dealer Michel Hauchard. U. S. Attorney General John Mitchell convinced Switzerland to arrest the fugitive, but was unable to secure his extradition. Leary, called "the most dangerous man in America" by President Nixon, was arrested by US agents aboard an airliner bound for Kabul, Afghanistan in [[1973]]. He was placed in solitary confinement in California's Folsom Prison. He cooperated with Federal investigations against the Weathermen and other radical groups in order to reduce his 95-year sentence.


* Leary appeared at the [[Starwood Festival]] in 1991 and 1992[http://www.freetimes.com/story/3493]. In front of hundreds of [[Neo-Pagans]] in 1991, he declared, "I have always considered myself, when I learned what the word meant, I've always considered myself a [[Pagan]]." (Quote from CD: ''Timothy Leary Live at Starwood'')
==Later life==
He continued to develop his theories through a number of writings completed in prison. Notably he first proposed colonization of outer space in his [[1974]] book ''Terra II: A Way Out''. He was released by Governor Jerry Brown on April 21, [[1976]]. Unable to secure a return to academia, he partnered with former adversary G. Gordon Liddy on the lecture circuit. The use of psychedelic drugs continued as a lifestyle choice, but his public pronouncements turned toward a trans-humanist call for space colonization and extension of lifespan. He supported NASA scientist Gerard O'Neill's plans for orbiting colonies.


* [[Leary biscuit]]s are crackers topped by a piece of cheese, butter, or other fatty topping, covered in turn with a bud of marijuana and microwaved briefly.<ref>[http://www.erowid.org/plants/cannabis/cannabis_recipe7.shtml Recipe] from [[erowid]].org</ref>
In the mid to late 1980s Leary began incorporating video games and computers, and later virtual reality and the internet into his theories. The Electronic Arts game "Timothy Leary's Mind Mirror" was released in [[1985]]. His website at [http://www.leary.com www.leary.com] was one of the earliest public sites on the World Wide Web. In [[1995]] he was diagnosed with prostate cancer. He wrote an outline for a new book, "Design for Dying" while his associates published a daily online record of his last months at home -- an early instance of weblogging. His death was, at his request, recorded on videotape.


* Film rights for a [http://www.thebookstandard.com/bookstandard/search/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002235828 biography of Leary] were bought by [[Miramax]] in April 2006. [http://www.thebookstandard.com/bookstandard/search/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002385895 A feature film] is now in development.
Leary's body was cremated, and the ashes divided among surviving family and friends. Seven grams of his ashes were sent into space on a Pegasus rocket on February 9, [[1997]]. The craft orbited earth for six years before burning up in the atmosphere.
 
* Leary was the [[Godparent|godfather]] of [[Winona Ryder]], [[Uma Thurman]] (daughter of his ex-wife Nena), [[Joi Ito]], [[Genesis P-Orridge]]'s daughters Caresse and Genesse P-Orridge, and [[Miranda July]].
 
* Timothy Leary is mentioned in [[The Magnetic Fields]] song "Technical (You're So)" off the album "[[The House of Tomorrow]]."
 
* Timothy Leary is the subject of the Moody Blues song "Legend of a Mind."
 
* Timothy Leary is mentioned -- dismissively -- in [[The Who]] song "The Seeker" which was released as a single in 1970.
 
* Timothy Leary is mentioned in the songs "Manchester England" and "The Flesh Failures/Let The Sunshine In" for the musical [[Hair (musical)|Hair]] and subsequent film [[Hair (movie)|Hair]]
 
* Leary appeared in the music video for the song Galaxie by [[Blind Melon]] in 1995.
* The rock band [[Tiamat (band)|Tiamat]] named a song "[[Four Leary Biscuits]]" on their album "[[A Deeper Kind of Slumber]]".
 
* [[Heavy Metal]] band [[Nevermore]] released a song about Leary in 1995 that bears his name.
 
* In [[World War I]] Leary's father, "Tote" Leary, was drafted as a dental surgeon into the U.S. Army (commissioned a first lieutenant,<ref name="multiple3">[http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/25/books/chapters/0625-1st-gree.html?pagewanted=2 Greenfield, Robert, "Timothy Leary" a biography, as excerpted on the web site for The New York Times]</ref> then promoted to captain just before the war ended in 1918) and assigned to [[West Point]], where he
 
{{cquote|consorted with fellow officers and gentlemen such as General [[Douglas MacArthur]], then the superintendent of West Point; Captain [[Omar Bradley]]; and Lieutenant [[George Patton]]. It was at West Point on January 17, 1920, on the day after [[Prohibition]] became the law of the land, that Tim Leary was conceived. Abigail would later recall that during her pregnancy, the smell of distilling moonshine and bathtub gin hung over officers' row like a "rowdy smog." Tote once told his son that while Prohibition itself was bad, it was not nearly as bad as no booze at all. At 10:45 A.M. on October 22, 1920, seven days before his father's thirty-second birthday, Timothy Francis Leary was born in Springfield, Massachusetts. Once Abigail gave birth to a son, General MacArthur, who had also been raised on an army post, took a special interest in the family.}}
 
* He appears as himself in the [[Cheech and Chong]] movie ''Nice Dreams''.
 
* He appears as "Dr. Byrthfood" in the [[Devo]] video project ''We're All Devo''.
 
-- "Timothy Leary" a biography by Robert Greenfield, Chapter 1."<ref name="multiple3"/>


==Creative works==
==Creative works==
Line 202: Line 83:
* ''The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on Tibetan Book of the Dead'' (with Richard Alpert & Ralph Metzner) (2003)
* ''The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on Tibetan Book of the Dead'' (with Richard Alpert & Ralph Metzner) (2003)


Also Appears On:
* ''Seven Up'' - [[Ash Ra Tempel]] (1972)
* ''[[Tune In (Turn On The Acid House)]]'' - (1988) Psychic TV, 12" EP, Temple Records (UK)- Samples Timothy Leary
* ''Trance-Techno Express: From Detroit to Berlin & Back'' - Various (1993)
* ''Ancient Lights and the Blackcore'' -  with Scorn, Seefeel, Yanomami Shamans from the Amazon, and DJ Cheb I. Sabbah (1995)
* ''Krautrock'' - Various [Polygram] (1997)
* ''Sub Rosa Underwood, Vol. 3: A Sampler'' - Various (1998)
* ''Intermenstral'' - Various (2001)


===Multimedia performances===
===Multimedia performances===
*In 1966 he recorded an album "Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out" (Original release: Mercury 21131 (mono) /61131 (stereo), US 1967) which was ostensibly a "user manual" for a self-guided LSD "trip".  While the album did poorly in general release, it has become one of the rarest "memorabilia" and prized of possessions of many Leary collections. One track, "All The Girls Are Yours" has been performed repeatedly by others, and was even [http://216.239.59.104/search?q=cache:d32cRmzBkxAJ:scotlandyard.blogspot.com/+%22turn+on+tune+in+drop+out%22+%22all+the+girls+are+yours%22&hl=en  re-recorded] in 2004.
*In 1966 he recorded an album "Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out" (Original release: Mercury 21131 (mono) /61131 (stereo), US 1967) which was ostensibly a "user manual" for a self-guided LSD "trip".  While the album did poorly in general release, it has become one of the rarest "memorabilia" and prized of possessions of many Leary collections. One track, "All The Girls Are Yours" has been performed repeatedly by others, and was even [http://216.239.59.104/search?q=cache:d32cRmzBkxAJ:scotlandyard.blogspot.com/+%22turn+on+tune+in+drop+out%22+%22all+the+girls+are+yours%22&hl=en  re-recorded] in 2004.
*In 1973 he recorded the album "Seven Up" with the German band Ash Ra Tempel.
*He was also mentioned in the musical ''Hair'' in the two songs ''Manchester, England'' and ''The Flesh Failures''.
*In 1981, he had a cameo in [[Cheech and Chong]]'s film ''[[Nice Dreams]]'', wherein he played a doctor who had "the key" to [[Cheech Marin|Cheech]]'s escape from a mental hospital.  Rather than giving him the key to his straightjacket, however, he gives him a dose of LSD.
*In 1984, [[The Wooster Group]] created a controversy when it juxtaposed Leary and his work with excerpts from [[Arthur Miller]]'s play ''The Crucible'' in their ensemble performance piece ''L.S.D. (... Just the High Points...)''
*On three occasions a multi-media maze based on Timothy Leary's [[8-Circuit Model of Consciousness|eight circuit model of consciousness]] designed by [[Association for Consciousness Exploration]] co-director Joseph Rothenberg was presented at the [[WinterStar Symposium]], and it was presented for 30 days at the Starwood Center in Cleveland, OH. [[Robert Anton Wilson]], [[Halim El-Dabh]], and [[Muruga Booker]] have all been participants in presentations of the 8-Circuit Maze. http://www.rosencomet.com/starwoodcenter/mm-pics.html
*In 1990 he recorded the album "The Origins of Dance" with The Grid.
*He is sampled several times on the 1993 Porcupine Tree album "Voyage 34", which is an instrumental interpretation of an LSD trip.
*In 1993 he was credited with the opening track "The Incredible Lightness Of Being Molecular" on the "Fifty Years of Sunshine," a CD that celebrated the invention of LSD. Recorded in Los Angeles by Genesis P-Orridge and Doug Rushkoff on March 14, 1993. Written by Dr. Timothy Leary for the special publication Lysergic Times, edited by Michael Horowitz to commemorate 50 years of LSD, and launched on April 16th 1993 in San Francisco, USA.
*He appeared as guest vocalist on the opening track ''Gila Copter'' of the [[Revolting Cocks]] 1993 album ''Linger Ficken' Good... and Other Barnyard Oddities''.
*In Joel Hershman's 1993 cult classic ''Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me'', Leary played white-suited Mr. Jones, who sells fake passports to fugitives out of an office that consists of a big white coupe parked in a deserted drive-in movie lot. He reassures the protagonist that none of his clients have ever been caught, except for the one who disobeyed his orders, got high on LSD, and went to Switzerland.
*He is also mentioned in [[The Magnetic Fields]] song "Technical (You're So)" ; "You dance like a Hindu deity/Best friends with Timothy Leary"
*He sings in the chorus of the [[John Lennon]] song [[Give Peace a Chance]].
*He is also mentioned in [[The Who]] song "The Seeker" ; "I asked Bobby Dylan, I asked The Beatles/I asked Timothy Leary, but he couldn't help me either."
*He is the subject of [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=33:3jo7gjlr369v]"Legend of a Mind" by the [[Moody Blues]]
*His speech appears on a song called "Left Handshake" by [[Skinny Puppy]]. cEvin Key tried to obtain the permission to put his speech on that track, but he didn't because of copyright terms. Also, the same speech was used for a [[Nine Inch Nails]] track called "Fixed".
*The phrase "turn on, tune in, drop out" appears on the [[Gil Scott Heron]] song "[[The Revolution Will Not Be Televised]]".
*A song called "Timothy Leary" appears on the 1995 album "Nevermore" by the band [[Nevermore]], lamenting his persecution by authorities. The following album was also entitled "[[The Politics of Ecstasy]]" the title of a book written by Timothy Leary in 1968.
*A South African hardcore/punk band is named "timothylearyisinnocent" after him. However the name is more of a joke than an actual testament to Timothy Leary. The band can be found at www.myspace.com/wefuckingrockdotcom
*He is mentioned in the fact track on the DVD of Blow
*Cameo appearance in 1992's "Roadside Prophets" where he educates Adam Horwitz's (Beastie Boys) character on [[existentialism]].
*He is mentioned on a track of [[Daniel Tosh]]'s CD, "True Stories I Made Up", where he states "I believe the act of non-doing is the most important act of all. Thanks Uma's Dad!" - Referring to Leary as Uma Thurman's father
*The progressive rock band [[Tool (band)|Tool]] used a sample of Leary's speech for the intro to their song ''[[Third Eye (song)|Third Eye]]'' as heard live on the [[Salival|Salival EP]]. The short excerpt started and ended with the repeating phrase "Think for yourself; question authority."  and follows:
'' "Think for yourself. Question authority.    Throughout human history, as our species has faced the frightening, terrorizing fact that we do not know who we are, or where we're going in this ocean of chaos, it has been the authorities: the political, the religious, the educational authorities, who have attempted to comfort us by giving us order, rules, regulations.    Informing, forming in our minds their view of reality. To think for yourself you must question authority and learn how to put yourself in a state of vulnerable open-mindedness-- chaotic, confused vulnerability to inform yourself.  Think for yourself. Question authority." ''
===Games===
* Equal parts party game, roleplaying game and social simulation, ''Timothy Leary's Mind Mirror'' was released for [[Commodore 64]], [[Apple II family|Apple II]], and [[MS-DOS]] computers by [[Electronic Arts]] in 1985. The game was a digital reinterpreting of Leary's doctoral thesis.
He later stated that he had plans to release an updated version of the program with advanced graphics (including [[Apple Macintosh]] and [[Amiga]] versions), but that never occurred.


==References==
==References==
* "Timothy Leary." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 18 Feb 2007, 00:37 UTC. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 18 Feb 2007 [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Timothy_Leary&oldid=108952416].
* "Timothy Leary." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 18 Feb 2007, 00:37 UTC. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 18 Feb 2007 [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Timothy_Leary&oldid=108952416].


==External links ==
==External links ==

Revision as of 15:51, 18 February 2007

Timothy Francis Leary, (born October 22, 1920 in Springfield, Massachusetts – died May 31, 1996 in Beverly Hills, California) was a writer and psychologist and a long-time advocate for research into and use of psychoactive drugs. As a 1960s counterculture icon, he is most famous as a proponent of the supposed therapeutic and spiritual benefits of LSD. He coined and popularized the catch phrase "Turn on, tune in, drop out."

Early life

Leary was born an only child in Springfield, Massachusetts. His father, a dentist, left when he was 13. He graduated from Springfield's Classical High School. He studied for two years at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts. He then transferred to West Point, but was forced to resign after an incident where he got drunk on smuggled liquor after the 1940 Army-Navy game.

Leary resigned the corps and moved to Tuscaloosa, where he attended the University of Alabama in pursuit of a bachelor's degree in psychology. He was expelled for spending the night in a women's dorm, but, after a brief service in the Army Medical Corps in Pennsylvania he was allowed to re-enroll and complete his degree requirements by correspondence. He was awarded his first degree in psychology from Alabama in 1943. He later earned a master's degree at Washington State University in 1946, and a Ph.D. in psychology at the University of California, Berkeley in 1950. He went on to become an assistant professor at Berkeley (1950-1955), director of psychiatric research at the Kaiser Family Foundation (1955-1958) and a lecturer in psychology at Harvard University at the invitation of David McClelland (1959-1963).

Psychedlic research

Leary was introduced to psychedelic substances by a colleague, Anthony Russo. In the summer of 1960, Leary traveled to Cuernavaca, Mexico with Russo and after drinking several shots of tequila, tried psilocybin mushrooms for the first time. He later commented that he "learned more [...] about psychology in the five hours after taking these mushrooms than [...] in the preceding fifteen years of studying doing research in psychology." Upon his return to Harvard that fall, Leary and his associates began a research program known as the Harvard Psilocybin Project. The goal was to analyze the effects of psilocybin on human subjects using a synthesized version of the drug--one of two active compounds in the so-called Mexican mushroom--that was produced according to a recipe concocted by Albert Hoffman, a research chemist at Sandoz Laboratories in Switzerland. The experiment later involved giving LSD to graduate students.

Leary argued that LSD, used under professional guidance, could alter behavior in unprecedented and beneficial ways. The goals of Leary's research included finding better ways to treat alcoholism and to reform convicted criminals. The project was controversial from the start, with suspicions about its scientific credibility and a growing number of scandalous rumors about researchers' behavior and the participation of undergraduates without medical supervision. In May of 1963, Leary and Alpert were dismissed from Harvard. They turned to their own International Foundation for Internal Freedom, founded a year earlier. Attention given to their experiments, however, fueled a black market for psychedelic drugs in Cambridge and prompted the FDA to begin regulating psychedelic compounds. With help from Mellon heirs Peggy, Billy and Tommy Hitchcock, who helped to set up the Millbrook Estate where the research could be continued. The activities at the estate garnered the notice of a local assistant district attorney, G. Gordon Liddy and led to frequent police and FBI raids.

Leary was arrested for possession of marijuana under the Marijuana Tax Act in 1965. He successfully argued that the act was unconstitutional on the grounds that its enforcement required self-incrimination, which was protected by the 5th amendment. (Leary v. United States 1969) The government responded with the passage of the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970.

In 1969, Leary staged a campaign for Governor of California, running against Ronald Reagan. His campaign slogan was "Come together, join the party." John Lennon wrote "Come Together" while candidate Leary was attending his and Yoko Ono's Montreal Bed-In.

Spreading the LSD gospel

In 1966 the unauthorized manufacture of LSD was made a misdemeanor. Leary founded the "League for Spiritual Discovery" that year in hopes of having the drug legalized as a religious sacrament. He toured college campuses with a multi-media performance called "the Death of the Mind" which attempted to artistically replicate the LSD experience. He encouraged listeners to form their own psychedelic sects, publishing a pamphlet in 1967 called Start Your Own Religion.

On January 14, 1967, Leary spoke at the Human Be-In, a gathering of 30,000 hippies in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, where he first proclaimed and uttered his famous motto, "Turn on, tune in, drop out." Over the next few years, he developed a complicated theory of consciousness, eventually termed the "8 circuit model", which was taken up by Robert Anton Wilson. According to the theory, the human brain had the capacity (circuits) for higher levels of consciousness than were normally accessed. These consciousnesses could be triggered by various means, including psychedelic drugs, and would be needed as mankind expanded beyond the planet Earth.

Imprisonment

In January 1970, Leary received a ten-year sentence for his 1968 conviction. Because of his familiarity with the psychological tests used to assign prisoners, he was able to secure a transfer to a low-security work farm, from which he escaped. Supporters smuggled him with his third wife to Algeria and he made his way to Switzerland, where he was sheltered by arms dealer Michel Hauchard. U. S. Attorney General John Mitchell convinced Switzerland to arrest the fugitive, but was unable to secure his extradition. Leary, called "the most dangerous man in America" by President Nixon, was arrested by US agents aboard an airliner bound for Kabul, Afghanistan in 1973. He was placed in solitary confinement in California's Folsom Prison. He cooperated with Federal investigations against the Weathermen and other radical groups in order to reduce his 95-year sentence.

Later life

He continued to develop his theories through a number of writings completed in prison. Notably he first proposed colonization of outer space in his 1974 book Terra II: A Way Out. He was released by Governor Jerry Brown on April 21, 1976. Unable to secure a return to academia, he partnered with former adversary G. Gordon Liddy on the lecture circuit. The use of psychedelic drugs continued as a lifestyle choice, but his public pronouncements turned toward a trans-humanist call for space colonization and extension of lifespan. He supported NASA scientist Gerard O'Neill's plans for orbiting colonies.

In the mid to late 1980s Leary began incorporating video games and computers, and later virtual reality and the internet into his theories. The Electronic Arts game "Timothy Leary's Mind Mirror" was released in 1985. His website at www.leary.com was one of the earliest public sites on the World Wide Web. In 1995 he was diagnosed with prostate cancer. He wrote an outline for a new book, "Design for Dying" while his associates published a daily online record of his last months at home -- an early instance of weblogging. His death was, at his request, recorded on videotape.

Leary's body was cremated, and the ashes divided among surviving family and friends. Seven grams of his ashes were sent into space on a Pegasus rocket on February 9, 1997. The craft orbited earth for six years before burning up in the atmosphere.

Creative works

Writings

  • The Interpersonal Diagnosis of Personality. Leary, Timothy. 1957.
  • The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead. Leary, Timothy and Metzner, Ralph, Alpert, Richard, Karma-Glin-Pa Bar Do Thos Grol. 1964. (ISBN 0-8065-1652-6)
  • Psychedelic Prayers & Other Meditations. Leary, Timothy. 1966. (ISBN 0-914171-84-4)
  • Start Your Own Religion. Leary, Timothy. 1967. (ISBN 1-57951-073-6)
  • The Politics of Ecstasy. Leary, Timothy. 1968. (ISBN 0-914171-33-X)
  • High Priest. Leary, Timothy. 1968. (ISBN 0-914171-80-1)
  • Confessions of a Hope Fiend. Leary, Timothy. 1973.
  • Mystery, magic & miracle: Religion in a post-Aquarian age, (A Spectrum book). Heenan, Edward F. and Jack Fritscher, Timothy Leary. 1973. Prentice-Hall. (ISBN 0-13-609032-X)
  • What Does WoMan Want?: Adventures Along the Schwartzchild Radius. Leary, Timothy. 1976. Describes techniques of "Hedonic Engineering" (Leary's name for tantric sex).
  • The Periodic Table of Evolution. Leary, Timothy. 1977
  • Exo-Psychology: A Manual on The Use of the Nervous System According to the Instructions of the Manufacturers. Leary, Timothy. 1977. Starseed/Peace Press.
  • Changing My Mind Among Others. Leary, Timothy. 1982. Prentice Hall Trade. (ISBN 0-13-127829-0)
  • Flashbacks. Leary, Timothy. 1983. Tarcher. (ISBN 0-87477-177-3)
  • Flashbacks. Leary, Timothy. 1983. (ISBN 0-87477-497-7)
  • What Does Woman Want. Leary, Timothy. 1987. New Falcon Publications. (ISBN 0-941404-62-5)
  • Info-Psychology. Leary, Timothy. 1987. (ISBN 1-56184-105-6)
  • Info-Psychology: A Revision of Exo-Psychology. Leary, Timothy. 1988. Falcon Pr. (ISBN 0-941404-60-9)
  • Change Your Brain. Leary, Timothy. 1988. (ISBN 1-57951-017-5)
  • Your Brain is God. Leary, Timothy. 1988. (ISBN 1-57951-052-3)
  • Game of Life. Leary, Timothy. 1989. New Falcon Publications. (ISBN 0-941404-64-1). (Original Edition Published in 1977)
  • Uncommon Quotes: Timothy Leary. Leary, Timothy. Audio tape. 1990. Pub Group West. (ISBN 0-929856-01-5)
  • Chaos and Cyber Culture. Leary, Timothy and Michael Horowitz, Vicki Marshall. 1994. Ronin Publishing. (ISBN 0-914171-77-1)
  • HR GIGER ARh+. Giger, H. R. (foreword). 1994. Benedikt Taschen Verlag. (ISBN 3-8228-9642-X)
  • Surfing the Conscious Nets: A Graphic Novel. Leary, Timothy and Robert Williams. 1995. Last Gasp. (ISBN 0-86719-410-3)
  • The Lost Beatles Interviews Leary, Timothy (Afterword) and Geoffrey Giuliano, Brenda Giuliano. 1996. Plume. (ISBN 0-452-27025-1)
  • Intelligence Agents. Leary, Timothy. 1996. Ronin Publishing. (ISBN 1-56184-038-6)
  • Concrete & Buckshot: William S. Burroughs Paintings. Leary, Timothy and Benjamin Weissman. 1996. Smart Art Press. (ISBN 1-889195-01-4)
  • Design for Dying. Leary, Timothy, with Sirius, R. U. 1997. HarperCollins Publishers Inc. ISBN 0-06-018700-X (cloth); ISBN 0-06-092866-2 (pbk.); ISBN 0-06-018250-4 (intl).
  • El Trip de La Muerte. Leary, Timothy. 1998. Editorial Kairos. SPANISH. (ISBN 84-7245-408-8)
  • The Delicious Grace of Moving One's Hand: The Collected Sex Writings Leary, Timothy. 1999. Thunder's Mouth Press. (ISBN 1-56025-181-6)
  • Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out. Leary, Timothy. 1999. Ronin Publishing. (ISBN 1-57951-009-4)
  • Politics of Self-Determination (Self-Mastery Series). Leary, Timothy. 2001. Ronin Publishing. (ISBN 1-57951-015-9)
  • The Politics of Psychopharmacology. Leary, Timothy. 2001. Ronin Publishing. (ISBN 1-57951-056-6)
  • Musings on Human Metamorphoses. Leary, Timothy. 2002. Ronin Publishing. (ISBN 1-57951-058-2)
  • Evolutionary Agents. Leary, Timothy and Beverly A. Potter. 2004. Ronin Publishing. (ISBN 1-57951-064-7)
  • Interpersonal Diagnosis of Personality: A Functional Theory and Methodology for Personality Evaluation. Leary, Timothy. 2004. Resource Publications. (ISBN 1-59244-776-7) (Original Edition Published in 1957)

Partial Discography

  • L.S.D. (1966)
  • Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out (The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) (1967)
  • You Can Be Anyone This Time Around (1970)
  • The Inner Frontier with Robert Anton Wilson (1989)
  • From Psychedelics to Cybernetics (1989)
  • Origins of Dance (1990)
  • How to Operate Your Brain (1992)
  • Right to Fly (1996)
  • Beyond Life With Timothy Leary (1996)
  • Timothy Leary Live at Starwood (2001) recorded in 1991 ISBN 1-59157-002-6
  • Timothy Leary: A Cheerleader for Change (2001) ACE/Llewellyn Collection - Recorded in 1985 ISBN 1-59157-004-2
  • The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on Tibetan Book of the Dead (with Richard Alpert & Ralph Metzner) (2003)


Multimedia performances

  • In 1966 he recorded an album "Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out" (Original release: Mercury 21131 (mono) /61131 (stereo), US 1967) which was ostensibly a "user manual" for a self-guided LSD "trip". While the album did poorly in general release, it has become one of the rarest "memorabilia" and prized of possessions of many Leary collections. One track, "All The Girls Are Yours" has been performed repeatedly by others, and was even re-recorded in 2004.

References

  • "Timothy Leary." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 18 Feb 2007, 00:37 UTC. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 18 Feb 2007 [1].

External links

Retrieved from "http://bhamwiki.com/w/index.php?title=Timothy_Leary&oldid=16354"