A Head Ahead (Even When Dead)
Timothy Leary's Dead... where do I begin? Figuring out how to explain the fighting Irish Legend of a Mind is as challenging, actually more challenging, than anyone in my personal pantheon of persecuted prophets (talk about your P2P!): Lennon, Garcia, Kesey, Dass, King, X, Gandhi, Hoffman, Rubin, Steinem, Barry, Ginsburg, Huxley, Orwell, McLuhan, Watts, Toffler... (OK the last few writers weren't persecuted, but, they instigated the others).
These people never had one new idea between them. There are no new ideas. There are new experiences, new events, new people, new technologies and these visionaries were able to interpret their importance and meaning to the masses in their time. They are the observers and thinkers, they are intrepid and curious. They were strong. They held to their inner truths, they spoke out, they used what power and visibility they had to move us forward toward peace, enlightenment and creativity. They did not recant or buckle to the powerful forces that tried to silence, discredit, imprison and punish them.
Last week (5/3/05) I discussed bottled lightning, artists aware of oppression, expressing the sadness of it. The quiescent approach, while it may entertain and even uplift or enlighten, is a non-threat to the establishment. But what happens when the bottled power seeks to transcend its containment and becomes a lightning rod? Now, they're on the field with establishment, they're in the game and they must play, and they must play well.
This is how Leary sees it. Over the course of his lifetime, he was in over 60 jails. He was called "the most dangerous man in America" by Nixon. Like Socrates, he was jailed for "corrupting the youth". He was told by a judge he was being jailed for his ideas. Yet, Leary never saw himself as a victim, if anything, a victor. As he sees it, it's like a football game, teams, forces... the establishment does its job of compelling order and keeping power while the intelligentsia, artists, philosophers and visionaries question it. We all have our roles in the yin/yang of things.
Paul Davids, who directed and produced the film, and whose previous subjects included Nijinski and Van Gogh, considered Leary as much of a martyr as the other two, saw things a bit differently, as I do. The forces of darkness stir a certain amount of animus for me, even though I've not been attacked personally. I admire Leary's ability and willingness to stir the pot, speak out and engage the youth, without getting mired in the emotional negatives of the battle. It shows that he walked the walk of ego-lessness. He certainly practiced what he preached. There was no disconnect... he was the real deal.
So, the heads ahead in the early 60's were indeed exploiting very heady times. Acid was not illegal until 10/6/66 (666) and during the preceding six years, some very interesting things happened that set the stage for the complete upheaval of our society. Within the next ten years, everyone was revolting: blacks, women, the youth. Music, film and culture changed radically.
So, what happened? The secret got out. On the west coast Kesey found out about acid as a guinea pig for government conducted tests, which were exploring whether the drug could be used as a weapon. He went into the redwoods in La Honda and conducted many, more pacifistic, experiments of his own, turning on hundreds of kids, many of whom went on tour in Fuurther, the psychedelic bus that rolled across the country.
Leary, at that time, was a psychology professor at Harvard. Every parent in the world wants their kid in Harvard, current home of Larry Summers, bastion of everything we hold dear - education, success. Leary discovered mushrooms in Mexico and realized that he learned more about human psychology from those five hours than from the previous fifteen years in which he studied the subject academically. He hooked up with Albert Hoffman, who invented LSD in Basel, and started tuning in, turning on and dropping out with the best and brightest at Millbrook.
Let's turn first to "dropping out". Dass disagreed, felt it was incendiary. Metzner felt it was unrealistic in any long term way... we all live in some society. Leary did admonish all of us to tune in, turn on and drop out. What did he mean? Well, let's look at his life. He was a prolific writer and speaker, I imagine he was pretty successful at it since he lived in a huge home in Beverly Hills. He was, and is, famous around the world. There were journalists at his house constantly for the last year of his life, to chronicle his death, which was recorded and streamed over a burgeoning internet "live" in May, 1996. So, just about the opposite of a recluse.
Was he a college drop-out? Hardly. He went about as high as you can go in academia. He never walked away from it. He was fired for speaking out about the benefits of LSD (and taking it with students... and others). He obviously knew doing so meant giving up everything he had worked so hard for all his life. Whatever he found on acid must have been pretty compelling.
Now I see lots of people dropping out. Walking around downtown Palo Alto, I see lots of ex-execs who have cashed out and would rather hang out with pretty girls, or their kids. Not all of them are wealthy. Some just want more quality of life. Leary was just ahead of his time, giving up the strictures of Harvard for...what? Back then only Toffler was talking about weird things like being an independent consultant, working for oneself. Now, lots of people I know are in that category. All the things Leary espoused in the early 60's that seemed so outlandish are now an accepted part of our culture, from open discussion of all our societal & psychological subterranean ills on Oprah to empowerment of communications.
Before his notorious turnaround though, he flew under the radar and conducted his experiments with high security prisoners, guiding them through trips, taking acid with them... in jail. What happened? The recidivism rate among the subjects fell from 70% to 10%. Let's understand this. With one pill and a few hours, Leary did what no one has ever done before or since. He took hardcore criminals, entrenched in whatever pain and fear that led them there, and turned them into law-abiding citizens, perhaps even into good and loving people.
One would think this would be one of the biggest news stories ever. I mean, really, turning clearly bad people into good ones... easily and quickly. Even I had never known this... it's a secret. At first the prison officials were thrilled, but then they discontinued the program. Why? The populations, and therefor their domains, their importance... dwindled. Those in charge of the prisons want bigger prisons. Just as those in charge of our armies want bigger wars.
And, of course, there are no good news stories about acid, even though it is an amazing drug, which, if taken under the types of conditions Leary talks about, can do incredible things for people. The reason it changes people so much is because it allows you to see the intervision. Yes, It's the intervision in the intervision.
It allows you to see all the things you didn't notice before, the connections between the things in your life that you never think about but which control you. It allows you to see the big picture as well as your true heart. You feel only love for others. In the many trips I've taken, I've never felt any negativity toward anyone. I wish I could say that about my regular life. I miss acid. I wonder if it would have saved my marriage... or allowed me to end it more lovingly. It's sad that, despite all the sages and prophets have told us, we live in an unenlightened society in which most people look to authority, not within, for answers.
That's why Leary gave it all up, that's why the prisoners changed their lives. They saw the light. Almost everyone on my list above has seen the light... and said so. Yet, all you'll ever see in the mainstream media is that acid will make you jump out windows or rot your brain. The drug is one of the least addictive, least harmful drugs there is. It's also one of the most difficult drugs to obtain, largely because of the penalties for it.
I totally respect anyone who seeks, and finds, enlightenment, if only for a short time. But, the ones I really respect are the ones who try to help others find that for themselves. Leary dedicated his life, once he found a route to God, to helping others travel that path for themselves. It's not as easy as just taking acid, you have to understand how to integrate the experience into your life if you are to make use of it. There are trips and there are trips. Just because you visit China, doesn't mean you're Chinese, and just because you take acid, doesn't make you a mind like Leary. Though he, and Dass, refuted psychology, their training prepared them to interpret their experience.
I guess I shouldn't end without at least mentioning Timothy Leary's dead head. Paul Davids spent most of his commentary track discussing the reviews; almost all of which focused on it and completely missed the point, not only of the movie, but of Leary himself. He saw immortality in cryogenics, one of many waves he surfed. In the end, the guy did end up in a bottle... physically. But the legend is the legend of a mind, an incredible mind who loomed large in the salon of his day, he took acid with almost everyone on the list at the top. They shared their minds, their visions. Some of the visions are here: I'm uploading these thoughts onto the hive brain right now.
Other things will take many generations, maybe millions of years. Maybe there will never be a universal utopia where we all live fearlessly in harmony and love. Maybe there will always be two sides playing that game, some who want to move us forward into truth and others who want to hold onto their external power. God created the game for his amusement, as Alan Watts would say, so I guess all we can really count on its the continuation of interesting times.
Most of the contemporaries I list above are dead, really dead, now, and I'm sure they are living it up. But, who are the new leaders, the guides? Can that only be seen in hindsight? Is it Lessig and the movement to free the internet and free up our wealth of IP? Is the Grokster gang the new salon? Maybe. I always wanted to be in the salon, far more than I've ever wanted money or external power. Maybe I am in the salon of my time and don't see it. It's like the water around me, taking lunches every day and hearing about exciting new advances, sharing ideas. Maybe I just need to expand my scope of what the salon is.
Anyway, this DVD should be watched by every adult, if only to see Dass talk about his transformation from career wonk to yogi, and each one should grapple with the messages in there because it is essentially the same message given by Jesus and every other great prophet. Leary sums it up best: think for yourself, question authority and keep changing. Leary was kicked out of every organization he ever joined, but he never really dropped out. He built up the legions and he led the charge. The man was fully engaged.... lighting unbottled.
These people never had one new idea between them. There are no new ideas. There are new experiences, new events, new people, new technologies and these visionaries were able to interpret their importance and meaning to the masses in their time. They are the observers and thinkers, they are intrepid and curious. They were strong. They held to their inner truths, they spoke out, they used what power and visibility they had to move us forward toward peace, enlightenment and creativity. They did not recant or buckle to the powerful forces that tried to silence, discredit, imprison and punish them.
Last week (5/3/05) I discussed bottled lightning, artists aware of oppression, expressing the sadness of it. The quiescent approach, while it may entertain and even uplift or enlighten, is a non-threat to the establishment. But what happens when the bottled power seeks to transcend its containment and becomes a lightning rod? Now, they're on the field with establishment, they're in the game and they must play, and they must play well.
This is how Leary sees it. Over the course of his lifetime, he was in over 60 jails. He was called "the most dangerous man in America" by Nixon. Like Socrates, he was jailed for "corrupting the youth". He was told by a judge he was being jailed for his ideas. Yet, Leary never saw himself as a victim, if anything, a victor. As he sees it, it's like a football game, teams, forces... the establishment does its job of compelling order and keeping power while the intelligentsia, artists, philosophers and visionaries question it. We all have our roles in the yin/yang of things.
Paul Davids, who directed and produced the film, and whose previous subjects included Nijinski and Van Gogh, considered Leary as much of a martyr as the other two, saw things a bit differently, as I do. The forces of darkness stir a certain amount of animus for me, even though I've not been attacked personally. I admire Leary's ability and willingness to stir the pot, speak out and engage the youth, without getting mired in the emotional negatives of the battle. It shows that he walked the walk of ego-lessness. He certainly practiced what he preached. There was no disconnect... he was the real deal.
So, the heads ahead in the early 60's were indeed exploiting very heady times. Acid was not illegal until 10/6/66 (666) and during the preceding six years, some very interesting things happened that set the stage for the complete upheaval of our society. Within the next ten years, everyone was revolting: blacks, women, the youth. Music, film and culture changed radically.
So, what happened? The secret got out. On the west coast Kesey found out about acid as a guinea pig for government conducted tests, which were exploring whether the drug could be used as a weapon. He went into the redwoods in La Honda and conducted many, more pacifistic, experiments of his own, turning on hundreds of kids, many of whom went on tour in Fuurther, the psychedelic bus that rolled across the country.
Leary, at that time, was a psychology professor at Harvard. Every parent in the world wants their kid in Harvard, current home of Larry Summers, bastion of everything we hold dear - education, success. Leary discovered mushrooms in Mexico and realized that he learned more about human psychology from those five hours than from the previous fifteen years in which he studied the subject academically. He hooked up with Albert Hoffman, who invented LSD in Basel, and started tuning in, turning on and dropping out with the best and brightest at Millbrook.
Let's turn first to "dropping out". Dass disagreed, felt it was incendiary. Metzner felt it was unrealistic in any long term way... we all live in some society. Leary did admonish all of us to tune in, turn on and drop out. What did he mean? Well, let's look at his life. He was a prolific writer and speaker, I imagine he was pretty successful at it since he lived in a huge home in Beverly Hills. He was, and is, famous around the world. There were journalists at his house constantly for the last year of his life, to chronicle his death, which was recorded and streamed over a burgeoning internet "live" in May, 1996. So, just about the opposite of a recluse.
Was he a college drop-out? Hardly. He went about as high as you can go in academia. He never walked away from it. He was fired for speaking out about the benefits of LSD (and taking it with students... and others). He obviously knew doing so meant giving up everything he had worked so hard for all his life. Whatever he found on acid must have been pretty compelling.
Now I see lots of people dropping out. Walking around downtown Palo Alto, I see lots of ex-execs who have cashed out and would rather hang out with pretty girls, or their kids. Not all of them are wealthy. Some just want more quality of life. Leary was just ahead of his time, giving up the strictures of Harvard for...what? Back then only Toffler was talking about weird things like being an independent consultant, working for oneself. Now, lots of people I know are in that category. All the things Leary espoused in the early 60's that seemed so outlandish are now an accepted part of our culture, from open discussion of all our societal & psychological subterranean ills on Oprah to empowerment of communications.
Before his notorious turnaround though, he flew under the radar and conducted his experiments with high security prisoners, guiding them through trips, taking acid with them... in jail. What happened? The recidivism rate among the subjects fell from 70% to 10%. Let's understand this. With one pill and a few hours, Leary did what no one has ever done before or since. He took hardcore criminals, entrenched in whatever pain and fear that led them there, and turned them into law-abiding citizens, perhaps even into good and loving people.
One would think this would be one of the biggest news stories ever. I mean, really, turning clearly bad people into good ones... easily and quickly. Even I had never known this... it's a secret. At first the prison officials were thrilled, but then they discontinued the program. Why? The populations, and therefor their domains, their importance... dwindled. Those in charge of the prisons want bigger prisons. Just as those in charge of our armies want bigger wars.
And, of course, there are no good news stories about acid, even though it is an amazing drug, which, if taken under the types of conditions Leary talks about, can do incredible things for people. The reason it changes people so much is because it allows you to see the intervision. Yes, It's the intervision in the intervision.
It allows you to see all the things you didn't notice before, the connections between the things in your life that you never think about but which control you. It allows you to see the big picture as well as your true heart. You feel only love for others. In the many trips I've taken, I've never felt any negativity toward anyone. I wish I could say that about my regular life. I miss acid. I wonder if it would have saved my marriage... or allowed me to end it more lovingly. It's sad that, despite all the sages and prophets have told us, we live in an unenlightened society in which most people look to authority, not within, for answers.
That's why Leary gave it all up, that's why the prisoners changed their lives. They saw the light. Almost everyone on my list above has seen the light... and said so. Yet, all you'll ever see in the mainstream media is that acid will make you jump out windows or rot your brain. The drug is one of the least addictive, least harmful drugs there is. It's also one of the most difficult drugs to obtain, largely because of the penalties for it.
I totally respect anyone who seeks, and finds, enlightenment, if only for a short time. But, the ones I really respect are the ones who try to help others find that for themselves. Leary dedicated his life, once he found a route to God, to helping others travel that path for themselves. It's not as easy as just taking acid, you have to understand how to integrate the experience into your life if you are to make use of it. There are trips and there are trips. Just because you visit China, doesn't mean you're Chinese, and just because you take acid, doesn't make you a mind like Leary. Though he, and Dass, refuted psychology, their training prepared them to interpret their experience.
I guess I shouldn't end without at least mentioning Timothy Leary's dead head. Paul Davids spent most of his commentary track discussing the reviews; almost all of which focused on it and completely missed the point, not only of the movie, but of Leary himself. He saw immortality in cryogenics, one of many waves he surfed. In the end, the guy did end up in a bottle... physically. But the legend is the legend of a mind, an incredible mind who loomed large in the salon of his day, he took acid with almost everyone on the list at the top. They shared their minds, their visions. Some of the visions are here: I'm uploading these thoughts onto the hive brain right now.
Other things will take many generations, maybe millions of years. Maybe there will never be a universal utopia where we all live fearlessly in harmony and love. Maybe there will always be two sides playing that game, some who want to move us forward into truth and others who want to hold onto their external power. God created the game for his amusement, as Alan Watts would say, so I guess all we can really count on its the continuation of interesting times.
Most of the contemporaries I list above are dead, really dead, now, and I'm sure they are living it up. But, who are the new leaders, the guides? Can that only be seen in hindsight? Is it Lessig and the movement to free the internet and free up our wealth of IP? Is the Grokster gang the new salon? Maybe. I always wanted to be in the salon, far more than I've ever wanted money or external power. Maybe I am in the salon of my time and don't see it. It's like the water around me, taking lunches every day and hearing about exciting new advances, sharing ideas. Maybe I just need to expand my scope of what the salon is.
Anyway, this DVD should be watched by every adult, if only to see Dass talk about his transformation from career wonk to yogi, and each one should grapple with the messages in there because it is essentially the same message given by Jesus and every other great prophet. Leary sums it up best: think for yourself, question authority and keep changing. Leary was kicked out of every organization he ever joined, but he never really dropped out. He built up the legions and he led the charge. The man was fully engaged.... lighting unbottled.
posted by Intervision at 1:11 AM
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