[Prev][Next][Index][Thread]

Re: Timothy Leary is a hero!!!



In article <4piahs$omj@gap.cco.caltech.edu>,
bwoods@nntp-server.caltech.edu (Bradley B. Woods) wrote:

> Jasper O'Malley (jooji@eden.rutgers.edu) wrote:
> : bwoods@nntp-server.caltech.edu (Bradley B. Woods) writes:
> 
> : >Leary preached nothing besides taking LSD and taking it all the time.  What
> : >is so great about this philosphy?
> 
> : Pure, unadulterated horseshit. Leary believed that LSD was a drug with great
> : theraputic potential and advocated its use as both a psychiatric tool and a
> : vehicle for personal introspection; this is far from telling every
member of 
> : the free world they should be tripping their face off 24/7.
> 
> Why don't you tell me exactly what he did say, then, in stead of making
> general statements.
> 
I happened to meet Timothy Leary in 1981, and we spent time together on
several occasions ove the next few years. A few things come to mind:

* First encounter was when I was technical director on a video shoot at
the Bottom Line in 9/81, when Tim was doing his "stand-up story-teller"
routine. His tales covered a wide spectrum, including but far from
restricted to drug use.
* In Oct. 1981, I went with a few friends up to Tim's white house in the
Hollywood hills to watch the World Series (Dodgers vs. Yankees?). Tim and
the others spent the afternoon drinking (gin or vodka, I believe), while I
lolled about having ingested a healthy dose of "magic" mushrooms. While
Tim continued to espouse mental exploration throughout his life, he had
left "tripping 24/7" far behind by then. It was most fascinating to
observe the roomful of folks enjoying a typical American activity from the
space in which I revelled. Much reflection upon the reversal of roles from
what I would have expected.
* A couple of years later I met Tim again, in New York. This time, he was
totally enamoured of the Personal Computer, having discovered a program
which could "analyze" personalities based on a questionnaire, and tell
couples whether or not they were matched(!) Having been a computer expert
for a couple of decades, I was singularly unimpressed by what I considered
his naivete. I had been eager to see him again, having "discovered" LSD
myself the year before - 1983 happened to be my "year of tripping". When I
related to Tim that I had spent much of the prior year taking LSD, he
replied, almost dismissively "Oh, LSD is all in the mind". I was pretty
shocked. As the discussion of the computer program continued, we found
ourselves arguing over just about every point that arose - mainly centered
about my insistence on the limitations of computers when it comes to
analyzing human behavior and personality, while Tim seemed to have found a
new love, a new way of life, full of talk of revolutionizing human
relationships by distributing floppy disks.  I found myself missing the
old "turn on, tune in, drop out" Timothy.
* The last time I saw Tim was at his debate with G. Gordon Liddy at the
Beacon Theater, around the same time. There, I saw a man who was sincere,
exhibiting human values and trying to explain some of the ways in which he
had been misunderstood in past decades; Liddy was coarse, bordering on
cruel, his sharp mind dancing about like a switchblade, tripping Tim up at
every turn, preventing him from getting any real points across. I wound up
feeling sorry for Tim, and despising GGL

Just a few "snapshots" of a Leary not often shown in the media.

Follow-Ups: