Timothy Francis Leary Oct 22 1920 May 31

Timothy Francis Leary Oct 22, 1920 - May 31, 1996

Early life • Born in Springfield, MA • Conceived the day prohibition began • With the help of bathtub gin • Mother: Abigail Ferris • Housewife • Born on a farm in Indian Orchard, MA • Strict family • Practiced no drinking or dancing, • Believed men were not to be trusted, and sex was too horrific to contemplate • Father: Timothy "Tote" Leary • Son of a rich man • West Point Graduate & U. S. Army office • Dentist From left: With football, circa 1928 -1930. At 6 years old, 1926. At 12 to 13 months old, with his mother, Abigail

Classical High School in Springfield, MA • Editor of the school newspaper, which won him the award which helped him win the interstate award for excellence. • Popular • Athlete • Liked by girls • Poor attendance and incendiary articles resulted in a meeting with the principal. • Principal shouts “I never want to talk to you again. Just stay away from me and this office” • Graduates in 1938 at age 18. • Parents pull strings for Tim to be admitted to Holy Cross Jesuit College

West Point • After 2 years at the Jesuit College, Tim is accepted into West Point (age 19) • Interested in battlefield strategies and military history • He physically excelled, but found difficulty unthinkingly obeying superiors.

ØFacts: Deconstructing West Point • Leary was Court Martialed for an incident involving alcohol • Declared not guilty • Subsequently, cited for defiance • Silenced/sent to Coventry • Never Graduated ØTheories: 1. He was actually drinking with superiors, came to reveille hung over and admitted to drinking. • Honor committee conspires to demerit him 2. After receiving many “demerits” for various infractions, then he was accused of being part of a drinking party with other plebes and then lying to a superior about it. Which do you believe?

Enrolled in the University of Alabama College Years (For real, this time) • Began studying psychology • Interested in consciousness • Caught in the girls dorm and expelled • Rebellious

Army. Again. • In 1945, he rejoined the Army ROTC as an infantryman during WWII • Avoided active combat • Lost his hearing and wore a hearing aid • Enrolled in correspondence courses • Left the army shortly after the war, • honorably discharged • Awarded a certificate signed by President Truman • While having his hearing checked Tim meets Marianne Busch • Love at first sight

• Intelligent, musical, sophisticated, and attractive Marianne Busch • Described by friends as “a wild girl…unable to control her sexual impulses and her rebellious impulses. ” • She and Tim marry April 12, 1944 • Grew up in suburban Portland, OR • She will inspire their moves westward • Washington State University, Tim got his M. S. , 1946 • UC Berkeley, Tim begins Doctoral studies thereafter.

• In September, 1946 became a doctoral student in psychology at UC-Berkeley • Published first paper ”Progress towards Solving the Problem of Race Relations” • Worked as a consultant and instructor at the University of California’s Medical Center, • Burgeoning private practice University of California, Berkeley • In 1947, Tim and Marianne have Susan followed by John (Jack) in 1949. Life is perfect • Until 1953, Tim falls in love with his project manager Mary della-Cioppa (Delsey) • Common knowledge, Marianne knew and suffered silently • By 1954 Tim became Director of Psychology Research at the Kaiser Foundation and published nearly 50 papers • Marianne commits suicide in 1955. Tim copes by taking Mary as his 2 nd wife. • They have a miserable vacation in Spain with the kids • Divorce shortly after their arrival

• Named the “Best Book on Psychotherapy of the Year, ” 1957 Interpersonal Diagnosis of Personality: A Functional Theory and Methodology for Personal Evaluation • Revolutionary because it challenged the assumption of normality therapy, arguing that “normal” was nothing more than a reflection of white middle-class psychologists • Aim: • Create a method of categorizing patients based on personality types • Influenced the Myers-Briggs assessment

• Builds upon Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principal - The act of observing an event changes the event. The Existential Transactions • Argues that since Psychologists have an effect any way, they should be an active participant, and not be a neutral observer. • Therapy shouldn’t stay inside clinics • Hence, “Transaction” • Psychologist should intervene often • Something passes between doctor and patient if there was to be any change in the patient’s condition

• Separated from Delsey, he stays in Spain. • He lost faith in his profession. • Wrote Existential Transaction in response. • In 1959, Tim became gravely ill. Spanish doctors couldn’t figure out what was wrong • In great pain, Leary gave up Self Imposed Exile • “I died. I let go. I surrendered. I slowly let every tie to my old life slip away. My career, my ambitions, my home, My identity. The guilts. The wants. With a sudden snap, all the ropes of my social life were gone. ” • He began to recover the next day. • Tim heard that Professor David Mc. Clelland was in Spain (director, Harvard Center for Personality Research) • David is impressed by both Interpersonal Diagnosis & Transactions • Offers Tim a position at Harvard

Harvard Beginnings • Tim arrives in 1959, purging the past, he adopts stereotypical look of an East Coast academic • Began work at Harvard Center for Personality Development • Rebuilt relationship with mother Abigail • Extremely proud of her son • Horrified to find that Susan and Jack had never been to mass

• R. Gordon Wasson and his wife go to Mexico for mushrooms, 1957 • Supposedly, picked by virgins at midnight of the new moon, Early Psychedelics • Word spread quickly among academics and Tim was in Mexico • Tim has a suspicion that drugs were the key “transactional element” • Thus, Tim and friends, appoint an observer, then trip on mushrooms • Tim wanted to study the drug, objectively

• Leary wanted to determine the factors that reduce negative reactions to psychedelic drugs • There is current research aimed at reducing negative effects of commonly ingested drugs Lifesaving Drug Tips • Taking drugs by mouth is safer than other methods Public Health? • the stomach can be pumped in case of OD • Some of the drug is broken down before it reaches the brain • Interactions like Cocaine-Alcohol & Oxy-diazepam increase the likelihood of overdose • The sleep deprivation involved with uppers can be as responsible for mental deterioration than the drug itself Why does the public seem to embrace drug abstinence over education?

• The Doors of Perception describes Aldous’ ingesting a dose of mescaline on a spring day in 1953 • Naturally occurring hallucinogenic from the peyote cactus • Aldous believed to be blind, yet recalled seeing things under the influence Aldous Huxley & the Doors of Perception • Met Tim in Boston the night Kennedy was elected, 1960 • Aldous was a Harvard man • Election signified change and renewed confidence in the nation • Huxley made a written request to his wife Laura for intramuscular LSD after death • she obliged with an injection at 11: 20 a. m. and a second dose an hour later

Richard Alpert • Shorter, rounder, and 10 years younger than Tim • Hid his homosexuality from an early age • Word spread that Dickie was queer • Class ignored him • Later attracted to undergraduate men • Came from a rich family who wanted Richard to be a Medical Doctor • Flunked out of college at the first attempt, but tried again to become a social psychologist • President of Tuft, called and asked a personal favor, admit Richard to medical school • Richard refused. • “…I wouldn’t go to medical school if you paid me” • Worked very hard to get Psych degree from Wesleyan, and Doctorate from Stanford.

Huston Smith, & Andrew Weil • Aldous suggested that Tim & Richard continue his foray into psychedelics • They would take the drug with the participants to guide them • One of the first participants was Allen Ginsberg, original beatnik • Eventually trained students as guides • Tim, Richard, Huston, and Andrew form the Harvard Psychedelics Research Club

• Research Question: Can psilocybin lower the 70% recidivism rate at the Concord Prison in MA? • Methodology: Case Study that expanded into the Prisoner Rehabilitation Program Concord Prisoner Rehabilitation Program • Tim and a robber take mushrooms • Tim admits that he was scared of the prisoner • The prisoner responded that he was afraid of Tim and then asked Tim “why? ” • Leary responded “because you're a criminal. Why are you afraid of me? ” • The robber responded “. . You're a f’ing mad scientist • Findings: Rate lowered from 70% to 10% • Conclusions: • Psilocybin was not a cure, rather a part of the Transactional therapy. • Critics would say that the additional support was responsible for the change and not the drugs • Implications: Could revolutionize prison • Drugs or not, therapy is important

Drugs and Mysticism: An Analysis of the Relationship between Psychedelic Drugs and the Mystical Consciousness, by Walter Pahnke, 1962 • Research Question: Can psychedelics help facilitate a genuine religious experience? • Methodology: Double Blind Experiment • Procedure: • Ten students given 30 mg psilocybin, ten an active placebo (niacin - vitamin B 3) in a religious setting (a Good Friday service) Good Friday Experiment • Findings: • Nine out of ten of the students with psilocybin reported religious or mystical experiences while only one of ten in the placebo group reported the same • No difference between the responses of 90% of the drugged students and that of saints and Christian visionaries • Conclusion: Primary religious experiences could be occasioned by using psychedelic drugs in a religious setting. • Implications: • Psychedelic experiences are not new. They have been practiced by an elite class of priests, shamans, scholars and the rich. • Maybe historic visionaries were aided by drugs Do you think Pahnke’s findings challenge religious visions?

• Parent complaints led a colleague to organize secret meeting to oust Tim and Richard • US government declared LSD dangerous and recommended physician use only • Tim and Richard fought back with If-If, a NPO dedicated to lobbying for psychedelics • Tim and Richard fired, 1963 Repercussions

Millbrook House • Once dismissed, he was free to embrace drugs strictly for sensation; and he did. • • • Millbrook House 1963 -1968 Donated by a rich psychedelic sympathizer Exquisitely horrible house To be the headquarters of a foundation for drug research Susan and Jack, now teenagers were left to their own devices Tim attempted to provide normalcy and entered 3 rd marriage to Nena von Schlebrugge, 1964 • Uma Thurman's mother • Raided in April, but residents were tipped off. • No Charges filed. • Owner pressured by LEA and pays off and evicts Leary

Embracing Eastern Philosophy • Tim travels to India with Richard in 1964 • He realized that eastern religious philosophy offered a better system to understand psychedelics than western science • Doubled as a honeymoon with Rosemary Woodruff whom he was friends with at Millbrook • Richard came back a changed man; Ram Dass

Rosemary • Born in St. Louis, 1935 • Daughter of a carnival magician • Marriages: • 1 st at 17, she divorced to begin modeling career • 2 nd marriage to a beat jazz musician • 3 rd to Tim in 1967 • All of the guests were on acid • Her style was a major influence in the “flower child” movement • Saved Tim in the Millbrook raid by hiding the pipe under her nightgown

Incarceration • December 20, 1965 Susan bought weed home from Mexico, Tim covered for her • Sentenced to 30 years • Tim took the case before the Supreme Court on the basis that the Marihuana Tax Act was unconstitutional • May 19, 1969, The Supreme Court concurred in Leary v. United States, and overturned his 1965 conviction

Incarceration and Jail break December 26, 1968, Tim was arrested in Laguna Beach, CA • Possession of two marijuana "roaches". • Tim claims they were planted by the arresting officer, but was convicted of the crime. • January, 1970, Tim received a 10 -year sentence • Given psychological tests used to assign inmates to appropriate work details. • Including the "Leary Interpersonal Behavior Test“ • Tim answered them so he appeared to be a conforming, conventional person with a great interest in forestry and gardening • Escaped from California Men's Colony; San Luis Obispo, CA • The Brotherhood of Eternal Love paid $25, 000 to the Weathermen • Tim escaped over the prison wall by climbing along a telephone wire • Smuggled Tim away in a pickup truck • The Weathermen then helped both Leary and Rosemary out of the US (and eventually into Algeria).

Drugs & Politics • On the same day his Supreme Court Case decision, Tim announces that he is running for governor of California against Reagan, 1969 • Slogan: Come together, join the party • Beatles song originally written as a campaign song • Didn’t put a lot of thought into his platform By now Tim was an icon for psychedelic counterculture • Strayed from science in to politics. • Began a crusade to make LSD legal again • He believed in the right to change their consciousness as they saw fit.

• In 1971, Tim and Rosemary flee to Switzerland, • In 1972, Nixon's attorney general persuaded the Swiss government to imprison Leary • They did for a month • Refused to extradite him Back to the States • Tim and Rosemary separate, 1972 • Before Tim could deplane from a trip to Afghanistan, he was arrested by a government agent • Facing a total of 95 years in prison, • Held on five million dollars bail ($21, 547, 619. 05 today) since Nixon had earlier labeled him as "the most dangerous man in America” • Tim was sent to Folsom Prison, CA and put in solitary confinement

• Tim faked cooperation with the FBI's investigation of the Weathermen Released from Folsom • Gave them information that they already had and deemed of little consequence • Leary and members of the Weathermen would later claim, that no one was ever prosecuted based on any information he gave to the FBI. • Leary was released from prison on April 21, 1976 by Governor Jerry Brown.

Socialite • Tim settles in Laurel Canyon and continued to write books and appear as a lecturer and stand-up philosopher • In 1978 he married filmmaker Barbara Blum • Tours on the lecture circuit amassed a comfortable lifestyle by the mid-1980 s • His colorful past guaranteed his invitation to A-list parties throughout the 80 s • Would continue to take drugs privately • Focused on space colonization to ensure the continuation of the human race.

Last Years • In 1990, 42 year old Susan was arrested in LA for firing a bullet into her boyfriend's head as he slept. • Twice she was ruled mentally unfit to stand trial. • While in jail, after years of mental instability, she committed suicide by tying a shoelace around her neck and hanging herself • Tim and Barbara divorce in 1992 • Public appearances until 1994 • Also honored by APA in 1994 • Leary was diagnosed with inoperable prostate cancer in 1995 • He died at 75 on May 31, 1996 • Seven grams of Leary's ashes were arranged by his friend at Celestis to be buried in space aboard a rocket • Launched on Pegasus, 1997 • Sent post mortem email: “Hey Robert, How are you doing? I; m fine over here, but its not what I expected. Too crowded. Love, Tim

• Psychological effects • Antiaddiction and anti depression • End of life care • https: //scholar. google. com/schola r? q=lysergic+acid+diethylamide+d rug&btn. G=&hl=en&as_sdt=0%2 C 2 4&as_ylo=2013&oq=Lysergic+acid +diethylamide Current LSD Study