1 00:00:00,160 --> 00:00:04,320 Speaker 1: Stuff to Blow Your Mind New York Comic Con Stranger Things. Yes, 2 00:00:04,519 --> 00:00:07,800 Speaker 1: it all comes together on October six from seven pm 3 00:00:07,840 --> 00:00:11,200 Speaker 1: to eight thirty pm at Hudson Mercantile in Manhattan. If 4 00:00:11,240 --> 00:00:13,160 Speaker 1: you're in the area, Join is for Stuff to Blow 5 00:00:13,200 --> 00:00:16,880 Speaker 1: Your Mind Live Stranger Science as we explore the exciting 6 00:00:16,920 --> 00:00:20,799 Speaker 1: science and tantalizing pseudo science underlying the hit Netflix show 7 00:00:20,880 --> 00:00:23,799 Speaker 1: Stranger Things. Stuff you missed in history class has a 8 00:00:23,800 --> 00:00:26,360 Speaker 1: show right after us in the same venue, so you 9 00:00:26,400 --> 00:00:29,440 Speaker 1: can really double down on your stuff. And Hey, the 10 00:00:29,520 --> 00:00:31,680 Speaker 1: three of us would love to meet you. This is 11 00:00:31,680 --> 00:00:34,120 Speaker 1: the opportunity to do it. Learn more and buy your 12 00:00:34,120 --> 00:00:38,720 Speaker 1: tickets at New York Comic Con dot com. Slash n 13 00:00:38,880 --> 00:00:46,000 Speaker 1: y c C hyphen presents Welcome to Stuff to Blow 14 00:00:46,040 --> 00:00:54,960 Speaker 1: Your Mind from how Stuffworks dot com. Hey he wasn't 15 00:00:54,960 --> 00:00:56,840 Speaker 1: the Stuff to Blow your Mind. My name is Robert 16 00:00:56,920 --> 00:00:59,920 Speaker 1: Lamb and I'm Christian Seger, and this is part two 17 00:01:00,040 --> 00:01:04,039 Speaker 1: of our Timothy Leary l s D series of episodes. 18 00:01:04,319 --> 00:01:06,880 Speaker 1: We've already done Part one, where we talk about the 19 00:01:06,920 --> 00:01:10,440 Speaker 1: basic science behind l s D and psilocybin and the 20 00:01:10,520 --> 00:01:13,840 Speaker 1: research that's been done using these psychedelic substances. And then 21 00:01:13,880 --> 00:01:16,760 Speaker 1: we talked about the first part of Timothy Leary's life 22 00:01:16,880 --> 00:01:20,240 Speaker 1: leading up to his research on this. Yes, that's right. 23 00:01:20,360 --> 00:01:23,000 Speaker 1: So if you if you missed part one, go back 24 00:01:23,040 --> 00:01:24,680 Speaker 1: and listen to it, because that's the one that's going 25 00:01:24,720 --> 00:01:27,440 Speaker 1: to be front loaded with all that LSD science and 26 00:01:27,520 --> 00:01:32,119 Speaker 1: just the initial period of Leary's life, which which ultimately 27 00:01:32,560 --> 00:01:35,680 Speaker 1: kind of sets the sets the pace for the rest 28 00:01:35,720 --> 00:01:39,400 Speaker 1: of his life, like the destruct self destructive behaviors, the patterns, 29 00:01:39,920 --> 00:01:43,720 Speaker 1: they're all pretty much present before he even you know, 30 00:01:43,760 --> 00:01:47,240 Speaker 1: gets that finishes his education. So I've been sitting around 31 00:01:47,280 --> 00:01:49,560 Speaker 1: the house reading about Timothy Leary for the last couple 32 00:01:49,560 --> 00:01:52,520 Speaker 1: of days and my wife says, out of nowhere, you know, 33 00:01:52,600 --> 00:01:56,240 Speaker 1: I met him, right, And I was like, no, really, 34 00:01:56,320 --> 00:01:59,240 Speaker 1: And we both went to college at the University of 35 00:01:59,280 --> 00:02:02,640 Speaker 1: New Hampshire for undergraduate and before I got there, but 36 00:02:02,680 --> 00:02:05,920 Speaker 1: while she was there, either as a freshman or sophomore. Uh, 37 00:02:05,960 --> 00:02:09,639 Speaker 1: Timothy Learry came on one of his infamous campus speaking tours, 38 00:02:10,040 --> 00:02:12,799 Speaker 1: gave one of his you know, enlightenment talks, and then 39 00:02:12,840 --> 00:02:16,200 Speaker 1: afterwards my wife was outside the venue just like smoking 40 00:02:16,200 --> 00:02:19,200 Speaker 1: a cigarette, and Timothy Leary came out and sat down 41 00:02:19,240 --> 00:02:21,079 Speaker 1: next to her and just smoked a cigarette with her 42 00:02:21,080 --> 00:02:23,480 Speaker 1: and they chatted for like five or ten minutes, and 43 00:02:23,480 --> 00:02:25,400 Speaker 1: then he got up and went on his way. They 44 00:02:25,400 --> 00:02:27,480 Speaker 1: talked about She didn't really say she just said that 45 00:02:27,520 --> 00:02:31,079 Speaker 1: like he was this kind of kind cool older guy. 46 00:02:31,480 --> 00:02:35,760 Speaker 1: But when I read about his life and all of 47 00:02:35,800 --> 00:02:39,960 Speaker 1: the uh sort of women he went through, I can't 48 00:02:40,040 --> 00:02:42,400 Speaker 1: help but imagine that he's the kind of like old 49 00:02:42,520 --> 00:02:45,480 Speaker 1: He was the kind of older man who leeringly went 50 00:02:45,560 --> 00:02:48,760 Speaker 1: up to eighteen year old girls after talks and was like, 51 00:02:48,880 --> 00:02:51,880 Speaker 1: let's talk about LSD. You know. Yeah. One of the 52 00:02:51,919 --> 00:02:54,720 Speaker 1: interesting things that Robert Greenfield points out in his biography though, 53 00:02:54,760 --> 00:02:59,240 Speaker 1: is that apparently, like there's the Leary that we all imagine, 54 00:02:59,280 --> 00:03:02,840 Speaker 1: which is off and that that cool older guy, you know, 55 00:03:03,000 --> 00:03:05,400 Speaker 1: with that with all this charisma and certainly seems to 56 00:03:05,440 --> 00:03:08,160 Speaker 1: have had a certain amount of chrismas entire life. But 57 00:03:08,480 --> 00:03:10,760 Speaker 1: there's there was this period where he was kind of 58 00:03:10,800 --> 00:03:15,079 Speaker 1: like a um, kind of just like a greasy guy 59 00:03:15,080 --> 00:03:18,280 Speaker 1: with a mustache in ill fitting clothing. Like that was 60 00:03:18,320 --> 00:03:22,519 Speaker 1: the version of him before his first wife died. Uh, 61 00:03:22,600 --> 00:03:25,480 Speaker 1: And it's it was after that that things began to 62 00:03:25,600 --> 00:03:28,320 Speaker 1: change and he kind of morphed into this, uh this 63 00:03:28,480 --> 00:03:32,160 Speaker 1: more you know, the older, hip cool Leary that we 64 00:03:32,240 --> 00:03:36,360 Speaker 1: instantly imagine. And this really all began at Harvard University, 65 00:03:36,560 --> 00:03:39,840 Speaker 1: the place you would least expect it. So Leary joined 66 00:03:39,880 --> 00:03:43,480 Speaker 1: Harvard University in nineteen fifty nine. But contrary to myth, 67 00:03:43,560 --> 00:03:46,000 Speaker 1: I want to establish this because so many of the 68 00:03:46,040 --> 00:03:50,200 Speaker 1: research got pieces of research got this wrong. He taught there, 69 00:03:50,240 --> 00:03:52,640 Speaker 1: but he was not a professor there. He was not 70 00:03:53,200 --> 00:03:58,160 Speaker 1: like a tenured faculty. Okay, he was teaching there for sure, 71 00:03:58,240 --> 00:04:01,080 Speaker 1: and he was part of the psychology department. Originally his 72 00:04:01,160 --> 00:04:04,840 Speaker 1: research they're focused on the interaction of dimensions of personality 73 00:04:04,920 --> 00:04:08,560 Speaker 1: and social relationships. He also did some work there as 74 00:04:08,600 --> 00:04:14,480 Speaker 1: a psychotherapist. Leary was really anti behaviorism, and he disagreed 75 00:04:14,520 --> 00:04:19,960 Speaker 1: that psychologists should only concern themselves with observable behavior. This 76 00:04:20,040 --> 00:04:22,720 Speaker 1: was the exact opposite of what was in trend at 77 00:04:22,720 --> 00:04:26,520 Speaker 1: the time. He more wanted to explore thoughts and beliefs 78 00:04:26,520 --> 00:04:30,839 Speaker 1: and other internal mental states. He actually later on would 79 00:04:30,839 --> 00:04:34,919 Speaker 1: compare himself in this role to William James, who is 80 00:04:35,120 --> 00:04:38,760 Speaker 1: understood as the father of American psychology, uh and who 81 00:04:38,839 --> 00:04:43,040 Speaker 1: was also known to use nitrous oxide to stimulate mystical consciousness. 82 00:04:43,160 --> 00:04:47,760 Speaker 1: Well yeah, uh so at Harvard along with a guy 83 00:04:47,839 --> 00:04:50,680 Speaker 1: named Richard Alpert who would later go on to become 84 00:04:50,920 --> 00:04:54,480 Speaker 1: Rom Doss. Uh This you might know Ram Doss from 85 00:04:54,520 --> 00:04:58,200 Speaker 1: the sort of infamous meditation book I guess called be 86 00:04:58,360 --> 00:05:01,680 Speaker 1: Here Now. Uh. So they worked together there in the 87 00:05:01,720 --> 00:05:07,040 Speaker 1: psychology department. Leary introduced others on the Harvard faculty to psilocybin. 88 00:05:07,560 --> 00:05:09,919 Speaker 1: And this, as we talked about last episode, is the 89 00:05:09,960 --> 00:05:13,520 Speaker 1: active ingredient in certain species of mushrooms, and at the 90 00:05:13,560 --> 00:05:17,760 Speaker 1: time it was legally available for research. But what about 91 00:05:17,800 --> 00:05:21,520 Speaker 1: his first experience with this stuff? Well, he takes psilocybin 92 00:05:21,560 --> 00:05:25,159 Speaker 1: while he's on vacation in Quernavaca, Mexico. This is he 93 00:05:25,240 --> 00:05:28,480 Speaker 1: and some friends were on vacation in between semesters. They 94 00:05:28,520 --> 00:05:32,039 Speaker 1: took some samples of mushrooms. Uh. And their argument for 95 00:05:32,160 --> 00:05:34,240 Speaker 1: the research that they were doing. This is back at 96 00:05:34,279 --> 00:05:38,240 Speaker 1: Harvard was that if psychology is the study of the mind, 97 00:05:38,480 --> 00:05:42,320 Speaker 1: then it should have a legitimate interest in how cognition, perception, 98 00:05:42,400 --> 00:05:46,520 Speaker 1: and emotion are affected by mind altering substances. So some 99 00:05:46,800 --> 00:05:49,320 Speaker 1: argued at the time that they were also unaware of 100 00:05:49,320 --> 00:05:53,720 Speaker 1: the potential dangers of such research. Right, so, because psilocybin 101 00:05:53,800 --> 00:05:57,279 Speaker 1: and LSD were so new on the scene, especially in America, 102 00:05:57,760 --> 00:06:00,480 Speaker 1: uh that this team of psychologists, no matter or how 103 00:06:00,560 --> 00:06:03,320 Speaker 1: good intentioned they were, they weren't aware of what the 104 00:06:03,400 --> 00:06:08,600 Speaker 1: drawbacks could be, and Leary and Albert agreed to policies 105 00:06:08,640 --> 00:06:13,200 Speaker 1: to protect their subjects. So this included no participation from 106 00:06:13,279 --> 00:06:16,960 Speaker 1: undergraduate students. They were not supposed to be giving any 107 00:06:17,000 --> 00:06:20,080 Speaker 1: kind of psychedelics to the undergraduate students at Harvard, but 108 00:06:20,640 --> 00:06:24,920 Speaker 1: in nineteen sixty three, Albert was dismissed after he administered 109 00:06:24,960 --> 00:06:29,400 Speaker 1: psilocybin to an undergraduate off campus, reportedly for sexual favors, 110 00:06:29,400 --> 00:06:33,000 Speaker 1: although that is it's unclear whether or not that's true. 111 00:06:33,560 --> 00:06:37,640 Speaker 1: So Leary begins administering these drugs to other researchers. He 112 00:06:37,680 --> 00:06:40,440 Speaker 1: also administers it to a group of prison inmates and 113 00:06:40,480 --> 00:06:44,440 Speaker 1: a group of Divinity students for his research. This was 114 00:06:44,520 --> 00:06:48,960 Speaker 1: called the Harvard Psilocybin Project, and the goal basically of 115 00:06:49,000 --> 00:06:53,080 Speaker 1: this project was to document the effects of psychedelics on 116 00:06:53,200 --> 00:06:56,920 Speaker 1: human consciousness. The notes from these studies were very carefully 117 00:06:57,000 --> 00:06:59,599 Speaker 1: documented in scripted, and we know this because Timothy Leary's 118 00:06:59,680 --> 00:07:02,640 Speaker 1: archives are pretty well maintained and there at the New 119 00:07:02,720 --> 00:07:06,240 Speaker 1: York Public Library. Yeah, in the various products he was involved, 120 00:07:06,240 --> 00:07:08,880 Speaker 1: and he was he was apparently very big on everyone 121 00:07:08,880 --> 00:07:11,960 Speaker 1: providing him with lots of data, and it was kind 122 00:07:12,000 --> 00:07:15,040 Speaker 1: of a meticulous record keeper in that regard. So let's 123 00:07:15,080 --> 00:07:17,960 Speaker 1: take a little bit closer look at these these studies 124 00:07:18,000 --> 00:07:19,960 Speaker 1: that he did. Okay, let's look first at the one 125 00:07:20,000 --> 00:07:22,400 Speaker 1: that he did with a group of Divinity students. So 126 00:07:22,440 --> 00:07:25,560 Speaker 1: this was called the Good Friday Experiment, and it went 127 00:07:25,640 --> 00:07:29,560 Speaker 1: like this. They gave psilocybin to ten students and ten 128 00:07:30,080 --> 00:07:33,400 Speaker 1: to a placebo group. All of them then went to 129 00:07:33,440 --> 00:07:36,720 Speaker 1: a Good Friday service. They wanted to see if this 130 00:07:36,760 --> 00:07:40,360 Speaker 1: would facilitate any kind of mystical or spiritual experience, and 131 00:07:40,400 --> 00:07:43,320 Speaker 1: in fact, eight of the ten reported a mystical experience. 132 00:07:43,520 --> 00:07:47,480 Speaker 1: One reported a feeling of sacredness and a sense of peace. 133 00:07:48,040 --> 00:07:51,840 Speaker 1: The placebo group, however, sat quietly through the service. The 134 00:07:52,040 --> 00:07:55,760 Speaker 1: others would quote laid down or wander around the chapel 135 00:07:55,840 --> 00:08:00,120 Speaker 1: muttering things like God is everywhere or oh the glory. 136 00:08:00,960 --> 00:08:03,880 Speaker 1: What Leary failed to report in the study was that 137 00:08:04,000 --> 00:08:07,080 Speaker 1: one of the subjects actually had a disturbing reaction and 138 00:08:07,160 --> 00:08:10,040 Speaker 1: had to be given a dose of thorazine to calm down. 139 00:08:10,400 --> 00:08:14,440 Speaker 1: Now you look back on this, that's a huge lapse 140 00:08:14,520 --> 00:08:19,559 Speaker 1: of research ethics. That's that's not good. So, so that's unfortunate. Now, 141 00:08:19,840 --> 00:08:24,480 Speaker 1: Rick Doblin, who is the founder of MAPS, the Multidisciplinary 142 00:08:24,600 --> 00:08:27,560 Speaker 1: Association for Psychedelic Studies, he's come up on the show before, 143 00:08:27,640 --> 00:08:29,840 Speaker 1: we talked especially about MAPS during our M d M 144 00:08:29,920 --> 00:08:33,200 Speaker 1: A two parter. He went back and he replicated this study, 145 00:08:33,600 --> 00:08:36,840 Speaker 1: and he interviewed seven of the ten students involved, and 146 00:08:36,880 --> 00:08:40,320 Speaker 1: they all said the experience reshaped their lives in profound ways. 147 00:08:40,679 --> 00:08:44,040 Speaker 1: The student who reacted poorly actually said that he became 148 00:08:44,120 --> 00:08:47,560 Speaker 1: convinced that he had been chosen to announce the arrival 149 00:08:47,640 --> 00:08:51,559 Speaker 1: of the Messiah and ran from the chapel. So this 150 00:08:51,600 --> 00:08:54,280 Speaker 1: is apparently what actually happened, and he freaked out, he 151 00:08:54,280 --> 00:08:58,280 Speaker 1: started running away from the chapel. Responsibility. Yeah, if he's 152 00:08:58,280 --> 00:09:01,360 Speaker 1: gonna announced the Messiah on good Day, Yeah, of course. Yeah, 153 00:09:01,559 --> 00:09:06,080 Speaker 1: give me some advanced prep on that, some more prep time. 154 00:09:06,240 --> 00:09:09,520 Speaker 1: All right, let's talk about the Conquered Prison experiment next. Okay, 155 00:09:09,600 --> 00:09:12,680 Speaker 1: this is even wilder. So the aim here was to 156 00:09:12,800 --> 00:09:17,360 Speaker 1: use psychedelics to reduce the recidivism rate in inmates. Now 157 00:09:17,480 --> 00:09:20,000 Speaker 1: Learry was was not interested in working with prisoners for 158 00:09:20,000 --> 00:09:23,320 Speaker 1: a few different reasons, but he realized that he needed 159 00:09:23,520 --> 00:09:26,719 Speaker 1: a way to measure the the transformative nature of the 160 00:09:26,800 --> 00:09:29,680 Speaker 1: drugs that he so believed in, and this offered the chance. 161 00:09:29,960 --> 00:09:33,880 Speaker 1: So it seems like a decent argument, right. Could these 162 00:09:33,920 --> 00:09:38,000 Speaker 1: substances open inmates up in a way that allowed them 163 00:09:38,080 --> 00:09:40,480 Speaker 1: to discuss their conditions and their feelings, you know, someone 164 00:09:40,520 --> 00:09:44,720 Speaker 1: who's just been hardened and calloused by you know, by crime, 165 00:09:44,760 --> 00:09:48,880 Speaker 1: by life, and by incarceration. Could this be the substance 166 00:09:48,920 --> 00:09:51,720 Speaker 1: to just loosen them up enough to actually get some 167 00:09:51,720 --> 00:09:53,960 Speaker 1: some work done with them. So over the course of 168 00:09:54,160 --> 00:09:58,360 Speaker 1: nine months, they used over a dozen convicts there as 169 00:09:58,400 --> 00:10:03,720 Speaker 1: test subjects with psychedelics. Again, Rick Doblin replicated this study 170 00:10:04,000 --> 00:10:09,000 Speaker 1: and re analyzed it in UH. He found that Leary's 171 00:10:09,080 --> 00:10:14,040 Speaker 1: conclusion wasn't warranted. Learry's conclusion was the recidivism rate has 172 00:10:14,120 --> 00:10:19,079 Speaker 1: been significantly reduced, but Rick actually found maybe not so much. 173 00:10:19,120 --> 00:10:22,440 Speaker 1: Timothy Learry, UH. The flaw was in the reporting results. 174 00:10:22,480 --> 00:10:26,600 Speaker 1: He looked at recidivism rates ten months after release for 175 00:10:26,640 --> 00:10:29,760 Speaker 1: the psilocybin takers, but he didn't look at the same 176 00:10:29,840 --> 00:10:32,120 Speaker 1: amount of time for the control group. He only looked 177 00:10:32,120 --> 00:10:34,920 Speaker 1: at them thirty months later. And this is important because 178 00:10:34,960 --> 00:10:38,800 Speaker 1: recidivism depends a lot on time, with rates rising the 179 00:10:38,880 --> 00:10:42,320 Speaker 1: more time one is out because of the increased opportunities. 180 00:10:42,559 --> 00:10:45,520 Speaker 1: You know, when are you gonna end up getting busted 181 00:10:45,559 --> 00:10:47,040 Speaker 1: and end up going to back to jail? Is going 182 00:10:47,080 --> 00:10:48,520 Speaker 1: to be the first day y're out, now, It's going 183 00:10:48,600 --> 00:10:50,680 Speaker 1: to be in the weeks that follow as more and 184 00:10:50,720 --> 00:10:53,320 Speaker 1: more temptations come. Yeah, We've talked about this on the 185 00:10:53,360 --> 00:10:57,880 Speaker 1: show Gee's many many times, but this goes It speaks 186 00:10:57,920 --> 00:11:00,320 Speaker 1: to something called the halo effect, right where reese archers 187 00:11:00,360 --> 00:11:03,560 Speaker 1: starts seeing their data in a positive light as much 188 00:11:03,559 --> 00:11:07,000 Speaker 1: as possible. This becomes misleading. This actually seems to go 189 00:11:07,080 --> 00:11:09,400 Speaker 1: beyond the halo effect. Right, He's not just seeing his 190 00:11:09,520 --> 00:11:12,760 Speaker 1: data in a positive light, He's manipulating the data so 191 00:11:12,800 --> 00:11:16,680 Speaker 1: that it looks better than actually is. So already here 192 00:11:16,720 --> 00:11:20,840 Speaker 1: you see, like these are basically his two big studies 193 00:11:21,440 --> 00:11:25,959 Speaker 1: on on using psychedelics medically in any kind of way, 194 00:11:26,040 --> 00:11:30,720 Speaker 1: and he's either falsified as research or or made huge 195 00:11:30,760 --> 00:11:35,439 Speaker 1: gaps in in ethical claims. Now. Albert would later explain 196 00:11:35,559 --> 00:11:37,560 Speaker 1: that the aim of the project he thought was was 197 00:11:37,600 --> 00:11:41,880 Speaker 1: pretty solid and with a very reasonable therapeutic model, but 198 00:11:42,280 --> 00:11:46,120 Speaker 1: he says it would have required long term application and study, 199 00:11:46,200 --> 00:11:51,679 Speaker 1: and Leary simply didn't have the patients for long term studies. Um, 200 00:11:51,720 --> 00:11:55,120 Speaker 1: which it's you can easily make the argument, well, then 201 00:11:55,160 --> 00:11:58,360 Speaker 1: you're kind of in the wrong line of business here, right. 202 00:11:58,360 --> 00:12:00,040 Speaker 1: I mean, if you're if you want to conduct a 203 00:12:00,080 --> 00:12:04,120 Speaker 1: scientific study, if you want to really uh do the work, 204 00:12:04,320 --> 00:12:06,600 Speaker 1: then you need to have the patients to see it through. 205 00:12:07,200 --> 00:12:08,920 Speaker 1: And if you if you don't have the patients, you're 206 00:12:08,920 --> 00:12:11,440 Speaker 1: gonna end up with what we have here, m a 207 00:12:11,440 --> 00:12:14,960 Speaker 1: a flawed study that ends up having to be thrown 208 00:12:14,960 --> 00:12:17,839 Speaker 1: out later on. Now, remember how I was saying that 209 00:12:17,880 --> 00:12:21,599 Speaker 1: the the notes that he took during this time were meticulous. 210 00:12:22,200 --> 00:12:25,240 Speaker 1: Wired magazine did a great article and Timothy Leary and 211 00:12:25,320 --> 00:12:27,720 Speaker 1: I pulled a quote directly from it. They said later 212 00:12:27,800 --> 00:12:32,000 Speaker 1: reports adhere less strictly to reality, meaning his reports. In 213 00:12:32,160 --> 00:12:35,160 Speaker 1: one filled out in March of nineteen sixty three, just 214 00:12:35,240 --> 00:12:38,040 Speaker 1: weeks before he got kicked out of Harvard Leary Prince 215 00:12:38,120 --> 00:12:40,920 Speaker 1: in big block letters, he puts down a question mark 216 00:12:40,960 --> 00:12:46,880 Speaker 1: for his age and lists his occupation as angel. Okay, yeah, 217 00:12:47,000 --> 00:12:50,439 Speaker 1: so you can start to see that he's already unraveling here, right, 218 00:12:51,000 --> 00:12:54,240 Speaker 1: So Learry eventually moves on from psilocybin and he tries 219 00:12:54,480 --> 00:12:57,920 Speaker 1: LSD in nineteen sixty two and then was dismissed from 220 00:12:57,920 --> 00:13:01,360 Speaker 1: Harvard in nineteen sixty three. Various faculty and administrators were 221 00:13:01,400 --> 00:13:04,800 Speaker 1: essentially worried about the safety of their subjects, especially because 222 00:13:04,880 --> 00:13:08,080 Speaker 1: Larry and Albert were conducting their research while they themselves 223 00:13:08,080 --> 00:13:12,520 Speaker 1: were under the influence of psilocybin. Psychologist Professor Herbert C. 224 00:13:12,920 --> 00:13:16,240 Speaker 1: Kellman circulated a letter around the faculty and called for 225 00:13:16,280 --> 00:13:19,839 Speaker 1: a meeting calling for the trials to be voluntary. One 226 00:13:19,880 --> 00:13:22,720 Speaker 1: of Larry's former students remembers that they had a choice 227 00:13:22,720 --> 00:13:24,640 Speaker 1: at the end of the semester. They could either take 228 00:13:24,679 --> 00:13:28,920 Speaker 1: their final or they could participate in psilocybin trials. So 229 00:13:29,440 --> 00:13:32,760 Speaker 1: it's interesting, that's an interesting choice to make. Yeah, yeah, 230 00:13:32,800 --> 00:13:35,560 Speaker 1: it is an odd choice to give a college student. 231 00:13:36,040 --> 00:13:38,520 Speaker 1: So okay, After all this stuff of the faculty, Larry 232 00:13:38,600 --> 00:13:42,040 Speaker 1: was officially fired for failing to fulfill his teaching obligations 233 00:13:43,360 --> 00:13:46,160 Speaker 1: because he went traveling instead. This is actually what they 234 00:13:46,240 --> 00:13:48,880 Speaker 1: nailed him for was that he wasn't teaching his classes. 235 00:13:48,920 --> 00:13:51,400 Speaker 1: It wasn't the actual research that he was doing. He 236 00:13:51,440 --> 00:13:53,640 Speaker 1: was just kind of like, I'm just gonna travel instead 237 00:13:53,640 --> 00:13:55,960 Speaker 1: of teaching my classes. And they were like, look, the 238 00:13:56,080 --> 00:13:59,679 Speaker 1: job says teach the classes. You're not really doing the job. Sorry, 239 00:13:59,679 --> 00:14:03,040 Speaker 1: you're on now. This is the moment where Leary and Alpert, though, 240 00:14:03,080 --> 00:14:06,040 Speaker 1: are propelled into stardom because they get kicked out of 241 00:14:06,080 --> 00:14:08,200 Speaker 1: Harvard and that's a big deal, right, and they become 242 00:14:08,360 --> 00:14:12,560 Speaker 1: proponents for psychedelics. Peter Connors writes this book called The 243 00:14:12,559 --> 00:14:16,119 Speaker 1: White Hand Society about Leary and his relationship with Alan Ginsberg. 244 00:14:16,520 --> 00:14:18,800 Speaker 1: He says, this is really there's a certain point, and 245 00:14:18,800 --> 00:14:21,720 Speaker 1: this is it where Larry gives up on science. Instead 246 00:14:21,760 --> 00:14:25,480 Speaker 1: of looking for data to legitimize his psychedelic research, he 247 00:14:25,560 --> 00:14:30,000 Speaker 1: started talking about spiritual enlightenment instead. This wasn't entirely his 248 00:14:30,040 --> 00:14:32,800 Speaker 1: fault because let's think about it, he had no adequate 249 00:14:32,880 --> 00:14:36,880 Speaker 1: scientific language in place to do so. Uh. Instead he 250 00:14:36,960 --> 00:14:39,680 Speaker 1: fell back on hip poetic language that he picked up 251 00:14:39,720 --> 00:14:43,040 Speaker 1: from hanging out with people like Alan Ginsburg and Charles Olsen, 252 00:14:43,560 --> 00:14:46,880 Speaker 1: and that really ended the field of psychology taking him 253 00:14:46,920 --> 00:14:49,800 Speaker 1: seriously in anyway. But it also makes me think like 254 00:14:49,920 --> 00:14:53,280 Speaker 1: ultimately Leary, like this is a guy who was better 255 00:14:53,280 --> 00:14:55,040 Speaker 1: suited to be a shaman than a scientist. This is 256 00:14:55,080 --> 00:14:58,560 Speaker 1: a guy who's better fitted to be this this celebrity 257 00:14:58,600 --> 00:15:02,120 Speaker 1: figure than than the an actual researcher. Yeah, and now 258 00:15:02,160 --> 00:15:05,400 Speaker 1: I have a lovely story before we end the Harvard 259 00:15:05,440 --> 00:15:08,240 Speaker 1: stuff and jump into his time with the Millbrook group. 260 00:15:08,760 --> 00:15:12,200 Speaker 1: So William S. Burrows is one of the people who 261 00:15:12,280 --> 00:15:17,080 Speaker 1: actually denounced Timothy Leary for the same thing. Williams Burrows 262 00:15:17,120 --> 00:15:20,880 Speaker 1: obviously interested in psychedelic author of Naked Lunch. Yeah, he 263 00:15:20,960 --> 00:15:23,760 Speaker 1: goes to visit Timothy Leary while he's at Harvard. And 264 00:15:23,840 --> 00:15:27,880 Speaker 1: Burrows gets there and he's like, where are the scientific studies? 265 00:15:27,920 --> 00:15:30,600 Speaker 1: Like I expected there to be mazes with rats running 266 00:15:30,600 --> 00:15:33,760 Speaker 1: through them and electrodes and stuff. What you aren't proving anything. 267 00:15:34,080 --> 00:15:36,160 Speaker 1: All you're doing is just sitting around and getting high 268 00:15:36,160 --> 00:15:41,000 Speaker 1: and enjoying yourself. So even william S Burrows was like, no, sorry, 269 00:15:41,000 --> 00:15:43,840 Speaker 1: Like I'm not buying this. So it makes you sympathize 270 00:15:43,840 --> 00:15:46,320 Speaker 1: with this Harvard faculty crew who are like kind of 271 00:15:46,360 --> 00:15:48,880 Speaker 1: painted throughout the history of psychedelics as just being these 272 00:15:48,880 --> 00:15:51,800 Speaker 1: like stodgy old men, right, But like even william S 273 00:15:51,840 --> 00:15:55,240 Speaker 1: Burrows was like, you're not really doing anything here. Yeah, 274 00:15:55,360 --> 00:15:57,760 Speaker 1: Burrows is basically saying, I thought you were one of them, 275 00:15:57,800 --> 00:16:02,040 Speaker 1: but you're just one of us, you know, Yeah, yeah, exactly. Alright, 276 00:16:02,040 --> 00:16:03,960 Speaker 1: we're gonna take a quick break, and when we come back, 277 00:16:04,200 --> 00:16:06,240 Speaker 1: we're gonna move on to the next chapter in the 278 00:16:06,320 --> 00:16:10,640 Speaker 1: life of Timothy Leary. Than all right, we're back. So 279 00:16:10,680 --> 00:16:13,600 Speaker 1: this is a great quote that comes from Louis Mannan's 280 00:16:13,760 --> 00:16:16,680 Speaker 1: New Yorker article on Timothy Leary, and I think it's 281 00:16:16,720 --> 00:16:19,040 Speaker 1: a good segue into his time with the Millbrook Group. 282 00:16:19,080 --> 00:16:22,600 Speaker 1: He says the only things Leary was serious about were 283 00:16:22,680 --> 00:16:27,360 Speaker 1: pleasure and renown. He underwent no fundamental transformation when he 284 00:16:27,480 --> 00:16:30,680 Speaker 1: left the academic world for the counterculture. He liked women, 285 00:16:30,920 --> 00:16:33,160 Speaker 1: he liked being the center of attention, and he liked 286 00:16:33,160 --> 00:16:35,840 Speaker 1: to get high. And then there's this is another quote 287 00:16:35,840 --> 00:16:38,880 Speaker 1: from it. He was a counter culture salesman, and he 288 00:16:38,920 --> 00:16:42,960 Speaker 1: wore on every occasion the same blissed out smile, a 289 00:16:43,080 --> 00:16:47,120 Speaker 1: rictus somewhere between a beatifick, what me worry grin and 290 00:16:47,200 --> 00:16:50,840 Speaker 1: a movie stars frozen stare into the flash bulbs. One 291 00:16:50,880 --> 00:16:54,760 Speaker 1: of his ex wives described it as the smile of 292 00:16:54,800 --> 00:17:00,880 Speaker 1: the ego actually eating the personality. That. I can't think 293 00:17:01,040 --> 00:17:07,800 Speaker 1: of a harsher condemnation. That's brutal. Alright, So these guys 294 00:17:07,840 --> 00:17:10,840 Speaker 1: get kicked out of Harvard. That's where we left off, basically, right, 295 00:17:11,800 --> 00:17:14,440 Speaker 1: Albert and Leary they go and they say, well, let's 296 00:17:14,440 --> 00:17:17,479 Speaker 1: just establish our own privately funded research group, and we're 297 00:17:17,480 --> 00:17:20,960 Speaker 1: gonna call it the International Foundation for Internal Freedom, and 298 00:17:21,000 --> 00:17:23,680 Speaker 1: it's going to be in Mexico. Basically, we'll get a 299 00:17:23,720 --> 00:17:26,600 Speaker 1: bunch of people around the world to form groups. They'll 300 00:17:26,600 --> 00:17:29,200 Speaker 1: take LSD and they'll report their results to us. Would 301 00:17:29,200 --> 00:17:34,080 Speaker 1: be kind of like citizen science, very scientific. Unfortunately, the 302 00:17:34,119 --> 00:17:36,680 Speaker 1: Mexican government wasn't having it, so they stepped in and 303 00:17:36,720 --> 00:17:41,200 Speaker 1: they demanded that Albert and uh Leary leave. So they leave. 304 00:17:41,560 --> 00:17:43,679 Speaker 1: They've got no place left to go. Cambridge doesn't want them, 305 00:17:43,720 --> 00:17:46,399 Speaker 1: Mexico doesn't want them. Well where do they go? They 306 00:17:46,400 --> 00:17:49,320 Speaker 1: go to this country estate in Millbrook, New York that 307 00:17:49,440 --> 00:17:52,840 Speaker 1: was provided to them by a millionaire who sympathized with 308 00:17:52,920 --> 00:17:55,680 Speaker 1: their research in LSD. This is what we all need, man, 309 00:17:55,760 --> 00:18:00,320 Speaker 1: We just need a sympathetic millionaire. This millionaire was will M. 310 00:18:00,359 --> 00:18:05,440 Speaker 1: Melon Hitchcock, also known as Mr Billy. Huh yeah. Mr 311 00:18:05,480 --> 00:18:08,479 Speaker 1: Billy was the grandson of the founder of Gulf Oil. 312 00:18:08,560 --> 00:18:11,240 Speaker 1: This is where all his money came from. And at Millbrook, 313 00:18:11,359 --> 00:18:15,159 Speaker 1: Leary established what he called the Castallia Foundation, which he 314 00:18:15,240 --> 00:18:19,000 Speaker 1: said was dedicated to the scholarly study of LSD and 315 00:18:19,040 --> 00:18:22,720 Speaker 1: its spiritual applications. So what's one of the things he 316 00:18:22,760 --> 00:18:26,120 Speaker 1: does while he's there that's anywhere close to academic. He 317 00:18:26,119 --> 00:18:30,480 Speaker 1: helps develop a device that's called the experiential typewriter. Uh, 318 00:18:30,600 --> 00:18:35,000 Speaker 1: and this allows psychedelic subjects to record what they're experiencing 319 00:18:35,040 --> 00:18:38,000 Speaker 1: as it's happening. Otherwise they can't tell you. This is 320 00:18:38,080 --> 00:18:42,800 Speaker 1: essentially him saying, I can't not be high while I'm 321 00:18:42,800 --> 00:18:45,800 Speaker 1: doing these studies on people, So we need something that 322 00:18:45,840 --> 00:18:49,520 Speaker 1: we can just hit buttons of to get across what's happening, 323 00:18:49,600 --> 00:18:51,679 Speaker 1: rather than have somebody who's in the room who can 324 00:18:51,720 --> 00:18:54,520 Speaker 1: sort of translate it. Right, It's easier to have a 325 00:18:54,520 --> 00:18:57,800 Speaker 1: a special typewriter for people that that are high than 326 00:18:57,880 --> 00:19:00,800 Speaker 1: to have a single person that is not high. And 327 00:19:01,119 --> 00:19:03,560 Speaker 1: it seems to be the case. Yeah, yeah. So this 328 00:19:03,560 --> 00:19:06,720 Speaker 1: thing looked like an old adding machine, had large buttons 329 00:19:06,760 --> 00:19:08,840 Speaker 1: on it that had labels to indicate what kind of 330 00:19:08,840 --> 00:19:11,840 Speaker 1: bodily sensations you were experiencing or if you were having 331 00:19:11,880 --> 00:19:14,760 Speaker 1: hallucinations or you had a sense of entering the void. 332 00:19:14,840 --> 00:19:16,879 Speaker 1: I'd love to see what the graphics, right, I think 333 00:19:17,040 --> 00:19:19,560 Speaker 1: it would be an emoji. Right, he's describing he was 334 00:19:19,800 --> 00:19:22,880 Speaker 1: inventing an emoji's only type. Right, you know what. Yeah, 335 00:19:23,040 --> 00:19:26,240 Speaker 1: we're not giving him enough credit. Yeah, Tynethy Leary invented emojis. 336 00:19:26,359 --> 00:19:28,320 Speaker 1: We wouldn't have the Emoji movie if we're not for 337 00:19:28,400 --> 00:19:33,760 Speaker 1: Timothy Leary. Uh, yeah, to to blame him for something else. Okay, 338 00:19:33,800 --> 00:19:36,680 Speaker 1: So then this thing basically, after you you know you're high, 339 00:19:36,760 --> 00:19:38,560 Speaker 1: you pound on all these buttons, it prints out a 340 00:19:38,560 --> 00:19:41,879 Speaker 1: little paper script that records what your trip was like. Uh. 341 00:19:42,040 --> 00:19:46,639 Speaker 1: Some articles characterized the Millbrook Group and Leary as actually 342 00:19:47,000 --> 00:19:49,840 Speaker 1: not being as a kind of like psychedelically crazy as 343 00:19:49,880 --> 00:19:53,480 Speaker 1: you might think they were. Uh. They were sometimes depicted 344 00:19:53,480 --> 00:19:58,160 Speaker 1: as being East Coast upper class elitists and very exclusive. 345 00:19:58,240 --> 00:20:01,800 Speaker 1: Now Ken Kizi in his R Prankster's came out there 346 00:20:01,840 --> 00:20:04,280 Speaker 1: at one point, uh, and they were like, oh this 347 00:20:04,320 --> 00:20:07,000 Speaker 1: is great, let's go meet these psychedelic pioneers. And they're like, 348 00:20:07,040 --> 00:20:09,800 Speaker 1: oh man, these guys are just total stiffs. They're boring. 349 00:20:10,600 --> 00:20:14,680 Speaker 1: Um so it's interesting interaction between these two worlds. Yeah, 350 00:20:14,760 --> 00:20:17,159 Speaker 1: like because you tend to think, well, Leary would have 351 00:20:17,160 --> 00:20:19,960 Speaker 1: just been able to move throughout the counterculture and he 352 00:20:20,000 --> 00:20:23,119 Speaker 1: would do some brad be embraced everywhere, but but not 353 00:20:23,240 --> 00:20:26,720 Speaker 1: so so. During this time with Millbrook, Leary was convicted 354 00:20:26,760 --> 00:20:28,679 Speaker 1: on several charges. This is when a lot of the 355 00:20:28,680 --> 00:20:32,280 Speaker 1: prison stuff happens. It's all related to drug use in possession. 356 00:20:32,400 --> 00:20:36,399 Speaker 1: The Millbrook house itself was raided and Leary was arrested 357 00:20:36,600 --> 00:20:41,040 Speaker 1: by who g Gordon Liddy And at the time, ge 358 00:20:41,200 --> 00:20:44,159 Speaker 1: Gordon Lyddy was the He was part of the County 359 00:20:44,240 --> 00:20:47,320 Speaker 1: Sheriff's department there in New York. Now, later on he 360 00:20:47,359 --> 00:20:50,680 Speaker 1: went to be part of the Watergate Burglary. Uh, and 361 00:20:50,760 --> 00:20:53,760 Speaker 1: he ends up kind of teaming up with Timothy Leary 362 00:20:53,800 --> 00:20:57,400 Speaker 1: down the way. Yeah, we'll get into that in a bit. So. Yeah, 363 00:20:57,520 --> 00:21:00,359 Speaker 1: so this is, man, this is where things just really 364 00:21:00,400 --> 00:21:05,040 Speaker 1: started getting bonkers, right Mill Millbrook and afterwards are just 365 00:21:05,520 --> 00:21:08,959 Speaker 1: where things really let loose with Leary. Yeah. Now, this 366 00:21:09,040 --> 00:21:13,119 Speaker 1: is definitely a period where on one level, uh, Leary 367 00:21:13,160 --> 00:21:16,480 Speaker 1: and his bunch they are being targeted. Yeah, totally. On 368 00:21:16,520 --> 00:21:18,280 Speaker 1: the other hand, you could also say, well, they're kind 369 00:21:18,280 --> 00:21:22,399 Speaker 1: of they're making themselves easy targets. But you eventually end 370 00:21:22,480 --> 00:21:25,440 Speaker 1: up in kind of gray area there when when you're saying, well, 371 00:21:25,560 --> 00:21:28,239 Speaker 1: you know, did he have it coming or not. But 372 00:21:28,720 --> 00:21:30,800 Speaker 1: now this is certainly a period of time though, where 373 00:21:30,800 --> 00:21:33,439 Speaker 1: you can say that that Leary and people in his 374 00:21:33,480 --> 00:21:37,040 Speaker 1: circle were being targeted by the authorities. On the other hand, 375 00:21:37,080 --> 00:21:38,919 Speaker 1: you might charge while they were, they were kind of 376 00:21:38,960 --> 00:21:42,480 Speaker 1: making themselves ideal targets for these uh, for these forces 377 00:21:42,520 --> 00:21:45,520 Speaker 1: as well. Yeah, yeah, I mean, well, let's take this 378 00:21:45,600 --> 00:21:49,240 Speaker 1: as an example. Okay, so right after this raid happened, 379 00:21:49,359 --> 00:21:52,320 Speaker 1: Leary goes down to New York and at the Manhattan 380 00:21:52,359 --> 00:21:55,959 Speaker 1: Town Hall. There he gives a talk, and there he 381 00:21:56,040 --> 00:21:59,640 Speaker 1: says LSD it might actually be a problem. And he says, 382 00:21:59,720 --> 00:22:03,879 Speaker 1: quote l s D maybe creating a new race of mutants. 383 00:22:04,440 --> 00:22:08,399 Speaker 1: This is like the kind of hyperbole that he's starting 384 00:22:08,440 --> 00:22:10,960 Speaker 1: to use in his rhetoric. He said he was going 385 00:22:11,000 --> 00:22:13,840 Speaker 1: to stop using LSD and he urged others to do so, 386 00:22:14,080 --> 00:22:18,280 Speaker 1: but he also advocated that LSD would cure alcoholism, accelerate learning, 387 00:22:18,359 --> 00:22:21,520 Speaker 1: and maybe helpful and treating all forms of mental illness. Well, 388 00:22:21,520 --> 00:22:23,480 Speaker 1: as we know from the last episode, some of these 389 00:22:23,520 --> 00:22:25,320 Speaker 1: things seem to be true. We just need to do 390 00:22:25,359 --> 00:22:28,760 Speaker 1: more research on them. But because of its harmful side effects, 391 00:22:29,040 --> 00:22:33,840 Speaker 1: Leary advised using other methods to produce psychedelic effects. So 392 00:22:33,920 --> 00:22:36,280 Speaker 1: he says, you can just simply do this with the 393 00:22:36,359 --> 00:22:40,240 Speaker 1: right lights, sounds, and a stroboscope. So he's basically like, 394 00:22:40,400 --> 00:22:42,760 Speaker 1: I just don't bother with the LSD anymore, Just like 395 00:22:42,840 --> 00:22:46,000 Speaker 1: get in the right mood, man, and we'll like put 396 00:22:46,040 --> 00:22:48,040 Speaker 1: the right kind of colorful lights in the room and 397 00:22:48,440 --> 00:22:50,720 Speaker 1: things like that, and it's the same experience. Well, this 398 00:22:50,760 --> 00:22:52,520 Speaker 1: is this is a really you know, I found this 399 00:22:52,560 --> 00:22:54,879 Speaker 1: to be a really interesting chapter in his life based 400 00:22:54,880 --> 00:22:57,480 Speaker 1: on Greenfields telling in the biography, and I do want 401 00:22:57,520 --> 00:23:01,480 Speaker 1: to just drive home. Like Greenfield is not a Leary apologist, 402 00:23:02,040 --> 00:23:04,720 Speaker 1: if anything, like his book could have been titled Timothy 403 00:23:04,800 --> 00:23:09,720 Speaker 1: Leary colon a mess, right, but but he he gives 404 00:23:09,720 --> 00:23:14,520 Speaker 1: an interesting account of this. So in this talk, Leary 405 00:23:14,640 --> 00:23:18,840 Speaker 1: prophesieses an evolution in human consciousness that will allow humans 406 00:23:18,840 --> 00:23:22,639 Speaker 1: to consult their own heightened cellular consciousness and live in 407 00:23:22,680 --> 00:23:26,359 Speaker 1: harmony with nature. So basically like the abandonment of cities 408 00:23:26,480 --> 00:23:29,320 Speaker 1: and and everything you know is growing green again, and 409 00:23:29,359 --> 00:23:32,120 Speaker 1: where it's like a new Eden on Earth, you know, all, 410 00:23:32,880 --> 00:23:36,639 Speaker 1: you know, sort of you know, highly optimistic, sort of 411 00:23:36,760 --> 00:23:40,679 Speaker 1: hippie dippy kind of ideas, which one might expect. But 412 00:23:40,720 --> 00:23:43,760 Speaker 1: then he calls for a one year moratorium analysis D usage. 413 00:23:44,280 --> 00:23:47,880 Speaker 1: And this is because of the changing legal status of 414 00:23:47,880 --> 00:23:51,320 Speaker 1: of of l s D and on the heels of 415 00:23:51,359 --> 00:23:56,000 Speaker 1: all these various legal problems that he's encountering. And uh. 416 00:23:56,000 --> 00:23:59,120 Speaker 1: In Greenfield points out that this was quote a calculated 417 00:23:59,160 --> 00:24:02,879 Speaker 1: strategy to curry favor with the establishment. With the current 418 00:24:02,960 --> 00:24:06,800 Speaker 1: level of LSD use in America having reached epidemic proportions, 419 00:24:07,119 --> 00:24:10,439 Speaker 1: Tim wanted to restore his own credibility by becoming the 420 00:24:10,480 --> 00:24:13,920 Speaker 1: man with a solution to the problem. Yeah. I mean, 421 00:24:14,000 --> 00:24:16,560 Speaker 1: I think this is really where we start seeing that 422 00:24:16,640 --> 00:24:22,560 Speaker 1: he unfortunately made decisions for his own well being over 423 00:24:23,119 --> 00:24:27,280 Speaker 1: the decisions that may have you know, helped highlight what 424 00:24:27,359 --> 00:24:30,399 Speaker 1: these psychedelics were capable of any kind of medical or 425 00:24:30,440 --> 00:24:36,640 Speaker 1: mental health prospect right, Uh and any really was self serving. Yeah. 426 00:24:36,720 --> 00:24:39,320 Speaker 1: Now you mentioned how he said, well you can use 427 00:24:39,359 --> 00:24:42,440 Speaker 1: alternate methods. Well, he had told he told everyone, well, 428 00:24:42,480 --> 00:24:45,040 Speaker 1: if you've used l s D, then you maybe don't 429 00:24:45,080 --> 00:24:46,919 Speaker 1: need it anymore. You can use alternate methods, and if 430 00:24:46,920 --> 00:24:49,040 Speaker 1: you don't know alternate methods, I'll teach you. You You know, 431 00:24:49,119 --> 00:24:52,240 Speaker 1: this is a such price, I bet, but this is 432 00:24:52,280 --> 00:24:56,880 Speaker 1: an area where I feel like, um, like Leary is correct. 433 00:24:57,000 --> 00:24:59,360 Speaker 1: You know, we know that there are other ways to 434 00:24:59,359 --> 00:25:05,080 Speaker 1: to have of hallucinatory experiences, including meditation, including things like yoga. 435 00:25:05,480 --> 00:25:08,359 Speaker 1: Uh So he's actually correct here, you know, his whatever, 436 00:25:08,440 --> 00:25:14,280 Speaker 1: his his exact motivations aside. You know, he's saying, yeah, 437 00:25:14,320 --> 00:25:16,639 Speaker 1: you can, you can have some sort of heightened sense 438 00:25:16,680 --> 00:25:20,480 Speaker 1: of of being. You can you can have this alternate 439 00:25:20,560 --> 00:25:25,440 Speaker 1: experience without the use of this substance that's becoming problematic now. 440 00:25:25,480 --> 00:25:28,159 Speaker 1: He even goes on to testify before the Senate in 441 00:25:28,240 --> 00:25:30,879 Speaker 1: nineteen sixty six on the nature of l s D. 442 00:25:32,000 --> 00:25:34,399 Speaker 1: But this turns out to be a rather lackluster performance. 443 00:25:34,400 --> 00:25:37,199 Speaker 1: So he wasn't very assertive. And there's it's I was 444 00:25:37,240 --> 00:25:40,959 Speaker 1: reading the the back and forth here and there's just 445 00:25:41,000 --> 00:25:43,800 Speaker 1: like a lot of stuff where he makes a statement 446 00:25:43,920 --> 00:25:46,640 Speaker 1: and then they're asking him if is that is are 447 00:25:46,640 --> 00:25:49,280 Speaker 1: you being metaphorical or is that a literal statement? And 448 00:25:49,320 --> 00:25:52,040 Speaker 1: they spend time discussing that. They talk about how l 449 00:25:52,080 --> 00:25:55,800 Speaker 1: s D might theoretically be controlled in some fashion, but 450 00:25:56,000 --> 00:25:58,560 Speaker 1: everyone was pretty much disappointed with how it came out, 451 00:25:58,600 --> 00:26:01,520 Speaker 1: Like he basically this was the a point where Leary 452 00:26:01,600 --> 00:26:04,159 Speaker 1: could really stand up and be the like, the positive, 453 00:26:04,240 --> 00:26:08,960 Speaker 1: optimistic voice of the of the counterculture and speak for 454 00:26:08,960 --> 00:26:12,120 Speaker 1: for this substance and speak for its research potential, and 455 00:26:12,320 --> 00:26:15,199 Speaker 1: he wasn't able to come through. I just imagined like 456 00:26:15,240 --> 00:26:18,200 Speaker 1: people like John C. Lily or Sasha Shulgun were like 457 00:26:18,640 --> 00:26:21,760 Speaker 1: just sitting at home, like face to palm, just like 458 00:26:22,359 --> 00:26:24,600 Speaker 1: like man, like you were supposed to be the one 459 00:26:24,640 --> 00:26:27,920 Speaker 1: that made this accessible for the rest of us, and 460 00:26:27,960 --> 00:26:32,280 Speaker 1: now we're all screwed. Also, I'm really glad Twitter wasn't 461 00:26:32,320 --> 00:26:34,560 Speaker 1: around when Timothy Learry was alive. Can you imagine he 462 00:26:34,600 --> 00:26:39,879 Speaker 1: would have been insufferable on Twitter? Probably? All right? This 463 00:26:40,040 --> 00:26:43,240 Speaker 1: is also around the time where he gives his infamous 464 00:26:43,400 --> 00:26:47,679 Speaker 1: nineteen sixties six Playboy interview. This came up in every 465 00:26:47,720 --> 00:26:50,480 Speaker 1: single article I read about him, So I went and 466 00:26:50,520 --> 00:26:53,360 Speaker 1: I pulled the actual text and read the interview. This 467 00:26:53,520 --> 00:26:56,200 Speaker 1: was man. Playboy must have spent a lot of money 468 00:26:56,240 --> 00:26:58,399 Speaker 1: on the sheets of paper that they printed this interview 469 00:26:58,400 --> 00:27:01,480 Speaker 1: on because it was like a novel. Uh. He makes 470 00:27:01,520 --> 00:27:06,440 Speaker 1: some really outrageous claims here, including that women commonly can 471 00:27:06,520 --> 00:27:09,960 Speaker 1: have several hundred orgasms during sex on l s D. 472 00:27:10,520 --> 00:27:15,320 Speaker 1: So that doesn't seem to be true. Again, fair enough, 473 00:27:15,400 --> 00:27:17,320 Speaker 1: we haven't done that much research on it, but I'm 474 00:27:17,359 --> 00:27:20,760 Speaker 1: pretty sure that's not true. Uh, some other stuff he said. 475 00:27:20,800 --> 00:27:23,760 Speaker 1: He talks more about that LSD cease fire, basically saying 476 00:27:24,119 --> 00:27:26,679 Speaker 1: that he thinks that the two generations that are you know, 477 00:27:26,720 --> 00:27:29,919 Speaker 1: battling over LSD right now need to just like cool 478 00:27:29,960 --> 00:27:32,199 Speaker 1: off for a little while so they can get to 479 00:27:32,240 --> 00:27:34,520 Speaker 1: the point where they can start looking at it analytically. 480 00:27:35,160 --> 00:27:39,080 Speaker 1: He also says like some frankly really misogynistic stuff here, 481 00:27:39,119 --> 00:27:41,159 Speaker 1: not just about you know, women and sex, but he 482 00:27:41,200 --> 00:27:44,360 Speaker 1: says every woman has built into her cells and tissues 483 00:27:44,440 --> 00:27:47,879 Speaker 1: the longing for a hero sage mythic male to open 484 00:27:47,960 --> 00:27:52,280 Speaker 1: up and share her own divinity. But casual sexual encounters 485 00:27:52,280 --> 00:27:55,840 Speaker 1: do not satisfy this deep longing. Uh So he's just 486 00:27:55,960 --> 00:28:00,600 Speaker 1: he's really making these like huge mythic pronouncements. It's just 487 00:28:02,080 --> 00:28:04,679 Speaker 1: I think in poor taste. Maybe in sixties six it 488 00:28:04,720 --> 00:28:06,280 Speaker 1: was taken as being sort of a little bit more 489 00:28:06,280 --> 00:28:09,200 Speaker 1: eccentric and interesting. Yeah, this is certainly to modern readers, 490 00:28:09,280 --> 00:28:12,800 Speaker 1: This does sound like the ego consuming the personality. Now 491 00:28:12,840 --> 00:28:15,520 Speaker 1: this is this next quote is really one of the 492 00:28:15,560 --> 00:28:19,240 Speaker 1: worst ones he's asked about homosexuality, and he says, the 493 00:28:19,320 --> 00:28:24,240 Speaker 1: fact is that LSD is a specific cure for homosexuality. 494 00:28:24,280 --> 00:28:27,639 Speaker 1: It's well known that most sexual perversions are the result 495 00:28:27,680 --> 00:28:32,400 Speaker 1: not of biological binds, but of freaky, dislocating childhood experiences 496 00:28:32,440 --> 00:28:36,919 Speaker 1: of one kind or another. Consequently, it's not surprising that 497 00:28:37,000 --> 00:28:40,040 Speaker 1: we've had many cases of long term home sexuals who 498 00:28:40,120 --> 00:28:42,840 Speaker 1: under l s D discover that they are not only 499 00:28:43,040 --> 00:28:46,600 Speaker 1: genitally but genetically male. I don't even know what he's 500 00:28:46,600 --> 00:28:50,120 Speaker 1: saying that, uh, that they are basically attracted to females. 501 00:28:50,160 --> 00:28:52,800 Speaker 1: The most famous in public of such cases is that 502 00:28:52,840 --> 00:28:57,520 Speaker 1: of Alan Ginsburg, who has openly stated that he the 503 00:28:57,560 --> 00:29:00,000 Speaker 1: first time that he turned onto women was during an 504 00:29:00,160 --> 00:29:03,600 Speaker 1: LSD sessions several years ago. This is only one of 505 00:29:03,680 --> 00:29:07,560 Speaker 1: many such cases. Okay, so I have a lot, a 506 00:29:07,600 --> 00:29:09,680 Speaker 1: lot of problems with with all of this stuff. Yeah, 507 00:29:10,160 --> 00:29:12,160 Speaker 1: but I mean one of them is that it's not 508 00:29:12,240 --> 00:29:17,200 Speaker 1: like Leary didn't did not and had not had numerous 509 00:29:17,400 --> 00:29:22,800 Speaker 1: friendships and uh and professional relationships with with with homosexual people, 510 00:29:23,640 --> 00:29:26,880 Speaker 1: including Alan Ginsberg. Yeah, and uh, Dr D was another 511 00:29:26,920 --> 00:29:29,440 Speaker 1: one I mentioned. Uh, you know, Tuscaloosa has been kind 512 00:29:29,440 --> 00:29:32,960 Speaker 1: of this um uh, the university there being this this 513 00:29:33,080 --> 00:29:37,040 Speaker 1: sort of you know, fortress of of of liberal minds 514 00:29:37,040 --> 00:29:40,520 Speaker 1: at the time, and a number of different homosexual professors, uh, 515 00:29:40,800 --> 00:29:42,720 Speaker 1: many of which had you know, had gone to bat 516 00:29:42,880 --> 00:29:45,800 Speaker 1: for for Leary and helped him with the connections he 517 00:29:45,880 --> 00:29:49,280 Speaker 1: needed to navigate that portion of his life. So it 518 00:29:49,360 --> 00:29:54,480 Speaker 1: just seems just completely ridiculous and uh uh and disappointing 519 00:29:54,600 --> 00:29:56,600 Speaker 1: to to hear him talk about Yeah, I mean he's 520 00:29:56,640 --> 00:29:59,840 Speaker 1: saying stuff that's like patently untrue he has no evidence for, 521 00:30:00,160 --> 00:30:02,040 Speaker 1: but that on top of all of it, he's throwing 522 00:30:02,080 --> 00:30:06,080 Speaker 1: his friends under the bus. You know. It's just it's strange. Uh. 523 00:30:06,200 --> 00:30:08,840 Speaker 1: And So really this is the point where a lot 524 00:30:08,880 --> 00:30:12,280 Speaker 1: of people feel like he helped hasten the blackout on 525 00:30:12,280 --> 00:30:15,680 Speaker 1: psychedelic research, because every time he had a stunt like this, 526 00:30:15,800 --> 00:30:17,520 Speaker 1: or the one where he gave that talk in the 527 00:30:17,560 --> 00:30:23,240 Speaker 1: Manhattan town hall, it would just accelerate the establishments thoughts that, 528 00:30:23,280 --> 00:30:25,640 Speaker 1: oh my god, we absolutely have to shut this down, right. 529 00:30:26,240 --> 00:30:31,200 Speaker 1: So the Millbrook Group goes on to disband and Leary 530 00:30:31,320 --> 00:30:36,160 Speaker 1: becomes a psychedelic speaker coach, and this is really the 531 00:30:36,240 --> 00:30:39,280 Speaker 1: latter part of his life what most people know him for. Uh. 532 00:30:39,320 --> 00:30:42,680 Speaker 1: He's a public figure. He's associated with psychedelics and spiritual discovery. 533 00:30:42,880 --> 00:30:44,959 Speaker 1: He even starts his own church called the League for 534 00:30:45,000 --> 00:30:48,600 Speaker 1: Spiritual Discovery. He writes a bunch of books. In a 535 00:30:48,680 --> 00:30:51,280 Speaker 1: one segment that I read about this, a guy named 536 00:30:51,320 --> 00:30:55,400 Speaker 1: Steve Silverman described Leary as a genius marketer during this time, 537 00:30:55,560 --> 00:30:57,920 Speaker 1: and he says he could have had a brilliant career 538 00:30:58,040 --> 00:31:02,120 Speaker 1: hyping up luxury cars, iPad or social media startups. Instead 539 00:31:02,360 --> 00:31:06,240 Speaker 1: he was hawking LSD and psychedelic nosis. Uh. And then 540 00:31:06,280 --> 00:31:10,080 Speaker 1: in that same conversation, Connors, who wrote that a white 541 00:31:10,120 --> 00:31:12,960 Speaker 1: Hand society book that I mentioned earlier, he responds and 542 00:31:12,960 --> 00:31:16,440 Speaker 1: he says Leary got caught in a circular trap of 543 00:31:16,600 --> 00:31:20,080 Speaker 1: marketing himself so he could get money to then afford 544 00:31:20,160 --> 00:31:25,280 Speaker 1: to defend himself from his prosecutors. Uh, it's just all 545 00:31:25,360 --> 00:31:27,320 Speaker 1: kinds of crazy stuff are going on. He gets pulled 546 00:31:27,360 --> 00:31:31,200 Speaker 1: over in nineteen sixty eight. Uh, he's he's driving down 547 00:31:31,320 --> 00:31:34,320 Speaker 1: Laguna Beach and he's arrested for drugs. His son was 548 00:31:34,400 --> 00:31:36,760 Speaker 1: so stoned in the back seat that when they pulled 549 00:31:36,840 --> 00:31:39,360 Speaker 1: him into the jail he took off all of his 550 00:31:39,440 --> 00:31:42,600 Speaker 1: clothes and started masturbating. When he was shown what his 551 00:31:42,680 --> 00:31:46,920 Speaker 1: son was doing, Leary laughed. His daughter was sentenced to 552 00:31:47,000 --> 00:31:51,120 Speaker 1: six months in prison. Jack was ordered to undergo psychiatric observation. 553 00:31:51,560 --> 00:31:55,080 Speaker 1: Leary got one to ten for possession of marijuana. So 554 00:31:55,280 --> 00:31:57,200 Speaker 1: this is one of many cases where he goes into 555 00:31:57,280 --> 00:31:59,960 Speaker 1: jail and he gets out right. He's described in the 556 00:32:00,040 --> 00:32:02,640 Speaker 1: New York Times obituary when he died. This is how 557 00:32:02,640 --> 00:32:05,600 Speaker 1: the New York Times described him as having an elegant, 558 00:32:05,680 --> 00:32:09,200 Speaker 1: happy contempt for authority. And this is around the time 559 00:32:09,560 --> 00:32:13,040 Speaker 1: where Richard Nixon infamously refers to him as the most 560 00:32:13,200 --> 00:32:17,560 Speaker 1: dangerous man in America. Again, hyperbole everybody all over the place. 561 00:32:17,760 --> 00:32:20,120 Speaker 1: Sounds a lot like right now people are just throwing 562 00:32:20,160 --> 00:32:24,560 Speaker 1: out like this stuff that is just like super extreme. Uh. 563 00:32:24,720 --> 00:32:27,160 Speaker 1: He talks to Marshall McCluin during this period of time. 564 00:32:27,440 --> 00:32:30,000 Speaker 1: This is when McCluin advises him, Yeah, you know what 565 00:32:30,080 --> 00:32:31,480 Speaker 1: you should do. You need to come up with a 566 00:32:31,560 --> 00:32:35,280 Speaker 1: catchy slogan to advertise the wonders of LSD. This is 567 00:32:35,280 --> 00:32:38,560 Speaker 1: where we get turn on, tune in, drop out from 568 00:32:38,560 --> 00:32:41,520 Speaker 1: basically McLuhan saying like, you need to get better at 569 00:32:41,560 --> 00:32:44,640 Speaker 1: brand marketing. Dude. I never thought that that was a 570 00:32:44,680 --> 00:32:48,840 Speaker 1: really great slogan for anything. I mean the dropout part especially. 571 00:32:48,880 --> 00:32:51,920 Speaker 1: It's just like, I don't want to try something that's 572 00:32:51,920 --> 00:32:56,240 Speaker 1: gonna make me drop out of something, right, yeah, yeah, yeah. Um. 573 00:32:56,400 --> 00:32:58,760 Speaker 1: He basically becomes a celebrity during this time. I said 574 00:32:58,760 --> 00:33:00,200 Speaker 1: this at the top of the first episode. This is 575 00:33:00,200 --> 00:33:03,040 Speaker 1: where he becomes famous for being famous. Right. He ends 576 00:33:03,080 --> 00:33:06,720 Speaker 1: up associating and taking trips with and I mean psilocybin 577 00:33:06,800 --> 00:33:10,840 Speaker 1: trips with authors, musicians, criminals, and movie stars. Right. He 578 00:33:10,920 --> 00:33:13,320 Speaker 1: just gets famous for hanging out with these people. In 579 00:33:13,440 --> 00:33:17,520 Speaker 1: nineteen seventy, he declares his candidacy for governor of California. 580 00:33:17,760 --> 00:33:22,800 Speaker 1: Who is he running against? Ronald Reagan? Now this was 581 00:33:22,840 --> 00:33:27,840 Speaker 1: interrupted when he was convicted on marijuana charges again. Uh, 582 00:33:27,880 --> 00:33:30,760 Speaker 1: and he escaped. This is this is the craziest part 583 00:33:30,760 --> 00:33:33,640 Speaker 1: of the whole story. He escapes prison. This is at 584 00:33:33,720 --> 00:33:38,840 Speaker 1: San Luis Oba Cipo. I guess that's a prison in California, 585 00:33:38,880 --> 00:33:42,920 Speaker 1: and his followers help him get to Algeria. He essentially 586 00:33:42,920 --> 00:33:46,560 Speaker 1: goes from Algeria to Switzerland and then to Afghanistan before 587 00:33:46,600 --> 00:33:49,680 Speaker 1: returning to the United States in nineteen seventy three. Eventually 588 00:33:49,760 --> 00:33:51,880 Speaker 1: serves three more years in prison. But hold on, I 589 00:33:51,920 --> 00:33:55,600 Speaker 1: just jumped over like four years of crazy behavior. Let's 590 00:33:55,640 --> 00:33:58,960 Speaker 1: zoom in on this a little bit. Supposedly his escape 591 00:33:59,040 --> 00:34:02,760 Speaker 1: from prison was this assisted by the weather underground and 592 00:34:02,800 --> 00:34:06,440 Speaker 1: in Algeria he was the house guest of Eldridge Cleaver, 593 00:34:06,640 --> 00:34:09,440 Speaker 1: who was part of the Black Panthers. That they didn't 594 00:34:09,440 --> 00:34:11,840 Speaker 1: get along, So he goes on to Switzerland. You know 595 00:34:11,840 --> 00:34:15,279 Speaker 1: who he meets in Switzerland, Albert Hoffman, the guy who 596 00:34:15,360 --> 00:34:20,200 Speaker 1: invents LSD. They sit down and have a conversation. But uh, 597 00:34:20,280 --> 00:34:22,399 Speaker 1: I also want to mention Greenfield, who we've been talking 598 00:34:22,440 --> 00:34:25,440 Speaker 1: about this whole time. It's in Algiers with the two 599 00:34:25,440 --> 00:34:28,000 Speaker 1: of them first meet up. So this is Greenfield's first 600 00:34:28,040 --> 00:34:31,000 Speaker 1: experience with with Timothy Leary is while he's on the 601 00:34:31,120 --> 00:34:35,520 Speaker 1: run from escaping prison. When he returned to the US, 602 00:34:36,120 --> 00:34:38,560 Speaker 1: here's the thing, he was facing way more jail time 603 00:34:38,600 --> 00:34:41,319 Speaker 1: than three years, and he informed on all of his 604 00:34:41,400 --> 00:34:46,800 Speaker 1: previous associates to the authorities. That includes his third wife, Rosemary, 605 00:34:46,960 --> 00:34:49,560 Speaker 1: So he informed on her as well. She had left 606 00:34:49,640 --> 00:34:52,359 Speaker 1: him during the middle of all this, he ends up 607 00:34:52,560 --> 00:34:58,040 Speaker 1: writing articles for the conservative magazine National Review. And in 608 00:34:58,080 --> 00:35:01,720 Speaker 1: these articles he starts attacking on Lennon and Bob Dylan. 609 00:35:02,200 --> 00:35:04,400 Speaker 1: And the reason why was he wanted to demonstrate that 610 00:35:04,440 --> 00:35:07,360 Speaker 1: he had rehabilitated so they wouldn't put him back in prison. 611 00:35:07,760 --> 00:35:10,560 Speaker 1: And this this again sounds like the classic pattern with 612 00:35:10,640 --> 00:35:13,600 Speaker 1: Leary that the Greenfield points out that he'll he'll get 613 00:35:13,640 --> 00:35:16,200 Speaker 1: on a kick where he's following a rigid system and 614 00:35:16,239 --> 00:35:19,200 Speaker 1: adhering to some sort of you know, expectation of what 615 00:35:19,239 --> 00:35:21,960 Speaker 1: he should be, but it's only gonna last for so yeah, 616 00:35:22,000 --> 00:35:23,759 Speaker 1: he turns around and bites the hand that feeds him. 617 00:35:23,840 --> 00:35:28,200 Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, so okay. After this, he mainly spends time 618 00:35:28,239 --> 00:35:32,480 Speaker 1: on the campus lecture circuit. This includes public debates with G. 619 00:35:32,840 --> 00:35:35,399 Speaker 1: Gordon Liddy. This is like one of the most fascinating 620 00:35:35,440 --> 00:35:38,520 Speaker 1: parts that we found in this entire affair here. Yeah, 621 00:35:38,640 --> 00:35:42,920 Speaker 1: the Liddy thing is interesting because both Leary and Liddy 622 00:35:42,920 --> 00:35:47,080 Speaker 1: had become caricatures of themselves at this point, Um, you know, 623 00:35:47,120 --> 00:35:55,440 Speaker 1: inflated cartoon characters of liberal goofiness and conservative uh curmusgionary. Uh. 624 00:35:55,640 --> 00:36:00,440 Speaker 1: They even made a movie to capitalize on their fame 625 00:36:00,600 --> 00:36:03,239 Speaker 1: or or I guess to squeeze the last bits of 626 00:36:03,320 --> 00:36:06,120 Speaker 1: juice out of it. Um And There's a three New 627 00:36:06,160 --> 00:36:10,359 Speaker 1: York Times review of the film by Vincent Canby, and 628 00:36:10,400 --> 00:36:12,120 Speaker 1: he shares the following I thought, I thought this was 629 00:36:12,120 --> 00:36:16,319 Speaker 1: particularly telling. The two men are not exactly freaks, but 630 00:36:16,480 --> 00:36:19,560 Speaker 1: one has the suspicion that they wouldn't be showing off 631 00:36:19,600 --> 00:36:22,000 Speaker 1: in this way if they could possibly make a living 632 00:36:22,280 --> 00:36:26,320 Speaker 1: in some other fashion. Whether accurately or not. The movie 633 00:36:26,360 --> 00:36:29,000 Speaker 1: suggests that the world has passed them by and that 634 00:36:29,080 --> 00:36:31,920 Speaker 1: this personal appearance tour is one of the last ways 635 00:36:31,960 --> 00:36:36,680 Speaker 1: in which each can turn his individual notoriety to profit now. 636 00:36:36,719 --> 00:36:39,160 Speaker 1: The reviewer also goes on to say that despite their 637 00:36:39,280 --> 00:36:42,719 Speaker 1: their personas, there is a scene in the film where 638 00:36:42,719 --> 00:36:46,080 Speaker 1: where each man um and their current wives sit down 639 00:36:46,160 --> 00:36:48,480 Speaker 1: and have breakfast together and they're having just this a 640 00:36:48,640 --> 00:36:53,280 Speaker 1: very normal conversation about you know, just just everyday stuff 641 00:36:53,320 --> 00:36:55,920 Speaker 1: like not a nothing, nothing about law or politics or 642 00:36:56,000 --> 00:36:58,640 Speaker 1: drugs or counterculture. Like there is this moment where you 643 00:36:58,680 --> 00:37:02,160 Speaker 1: see this idea that or perhaps just yet, two people 644 00:37:02,160 --> 00:37:05,680 Speaker 1: who are just trying to make a living for the 645 00:37:05,760 --> 00:37:08,120 Speaker 1: time being, and this is what they have. This would 646 00:37:08,120 --> 00:37:12,240 Speaker 1: have been like, uh, if Steve Bannon and Lindsay Lohan 647 00:37:12,480 --> 00:37:15,080 Speaker 1: went on tour together or had like a reality TV 648 00:37:15,200 --> 00:37:18,680 Speaker 1: show together where they just constantly argued, Yeah, and and 649 00:37:18,719 --> 00:37:22,480 Speaker 1: if you've neither had you know, a significant enterprise to 650 00:37:22,480 --> 00:37:24,759 Speaker 1: to back them up with that, Right, Yeah, it's kind 651 00:37:24,800 --> 00:37:27,960 Speaker 1: of I get the impression. That's kind of like it's 652 00:37:28,080 --> 00:37:30,480 Speaker 1: kind of like celebrity TV. If if if this had 653 00:37:30,480 --> 00:37:32,799 Speaker 1: happened today, it would have been a Leary and Liddy 654 00:37:32,800 --> 00:37:36,400 Speaker 1: television show on some reality network, right, them trying to 655 00:37:36,480 --> 00:37:40,200 Speaker 1: learn how to dance better than one another? Exactly? All Right, 656 00:37:40,280 --> 00:37:42,080 Speaker 1: why don't we take one more break, and then when 657 00:37:42,080 --> 00:37:43,719 Speaker 1: we get back, we're gonna talk about the end of 658 00:37:43,800 --> 00:37:50,360 Speaker 1: Leary's life and his focus on of all things cybernetics. Alright, 659 00:37:50,400 --> 00:37:53,720 Speaker 1: we're back. So we've talked a lot on our show 660 00:37:53,760 --> 00:37:57,839 Speaker 1: before about cyborgs and cybernetics and transhumanism and what that 661 00:37:57,920 --> 00:38:01,480 Speaker 1: has to do with space travel. It turns out Timothy 662 00:38:01,600 --> 00:38:05,640 Speaker 1: Leary in his seventies became fascinated by all this stuff, 663 00:38:05,840 --> 00:38:09,759 Speaker 1: specifically electronic communication, and he would tell his audiences that 664 00:38:09,880 --> 00:38:13,600 Speaker 1: electronic communication was going to be what would free their 665 00:38:13,640 --> 00:38:19,879 Speaker 1: brains and souls from oppressive orthodoxes like education, religion, and politics. 666 00:38:20,280 --> 00:38:23,600 Speaker 1: In particular, he was fascinated by things like virtual reality 667 00:38:24,040 --> 00:38:26,880 Speaker 1: computer games. He even went so far as to start 668 00:38:26,880 --> 00:38:30,080 Speaker 1: his own software company before he died. He also predicted 669 00:38:30,120 --> 00:38:35,480 Speaker 1: that implanted acceptal electrodes would one day be used recreationally. Uh, 670 00:38:35,560 --> 00:38:37,759 Speaker 1: and we're not quite there yet, but it just goes 671 00:38:37,800 --> 00:38:39,960 Speaker 1: to show how how interested he became. You know, the 672 00:38:40,080 --> 00:38:44,720 Speaker 1: role technology could play in alternate states of of awareness. Yeah, 673 00:38:44,880 --> 00:38:47,600 Speaker 1: I don't know. I'm I'm I don't know if I'm 674 00:38:47,680 --> 00:38:51,480 Speaker 1: quite there with Timothy Leary on this one, because we 675 00:38:51,560 --> 00:38:54,760 Speaker 1: are now in an age where electronic communication is so vast. 676 00:38:54,840 --> 00:38:57,440 Speaker 1: Like I said earlier, he would have been insufferable on Twitter. 677 00:38:57,480 --> 00:39:00,400 Speaker 1: I can imagine. I can't imagine what this be like. 678 00:39:00,440 --> 00:39:05,360 Speaker 1: And I don't know necessarily that these technologies have enabled 679 00:39:05,440 --> 00:39:09,480 Speaker 1: us to a break free of oppressive orthodoxy like education, religion, 680 00:39:09,480 --> 00:39:13,359 Speaker 1: in politics. But hey, there's still time, right, I mean, 681 00:39:13,360 --> 00:39:16,080 Speaker 1: it's only been like twenty years since he passed away. 682 00:39:16,239 --> 00:39:20,360 Speaker 1: Speaking of which, So, he died in nine at his 683 00:39:20,440 --> 00:39:23,680 Speaker 1: home in Beverly Hills, California. He was seventy five years old. 684 00:39:24,239 --> 00:39:28,360 Speaker 1: Interesting thing about this is, outside of his fascination with psychedelics, 685 00:39:28,520 --> 00:39:32,799 Speaker 1: and electronics. His other fascination was with death and out 686 00:39:32,800 --> 00:39:36,719 Speaker 1: of body experiences near death, so this was something that 687 00:39:36,760 --> 00:39:39,399 Speaker 1: he turned into a public performance as well. He made 688 00:39:39,400 --> 00:39:42,719 Speaker 1: it an event. He had video cameras record his death. 689 00:39:42,760 --> 00:39:45,080 Speaker 1: He built the whole thing up from a year before 690 00:39:45,080 --> 00:39:46,920 Speaker 1: when he was first told that he was diagnosed with 691 00:39:46,960 --> 00:39:50,880 Speaker 1: prostate cancer, and his friends collected his writings and his 692 00:39:51,000 --> 00:39:55,120 Speaker 1: papers all on a leery themed website and they posted 693 00:39:55,160 --> 00:39:58,920 Speaker 1: films of him there. He even recorded his daily drug 694 00:39:59,000 --> 00:40:01,319 Speaker 1: intake on this website. It was basically a blog before 695 00:40:01,320 --> 00:40:04,879 Speaker 1: there were blogs. Uh, now I want to recap here, 696 00:40:05,120 --> 00:40:08,520 Speaker 1: let's return just We've been hitting on this over and 697 00:40:08,560 --> 00:40:10,880 Speaker 1: over and over again throughout the episode, how self destructive 698 00:40:10,920 --> 00:40:14,040 Speaker 1: he was. He went through two divorces. He went through 699 00:40:14,080 --> 00:40:18,520 Speaker 1: one separation, his first wife committed suicide. His second wife, 700 00:40:19,040 --> 00:40:23,120 Speaker 1: who was the mistress that he he left his first 701 00:40:23,120 --> 00:40:26,120 Speaker 1: wife over and who she committed suicide over, that woman 702 00:40:26,239 --> 00:40:29,719 Speaker 1: left him after he struck her and their landlady called 703 00:40:29,719 --> 00:40:33,080 Speaker 1: the police on them. And then his daughter also committed 704 00:40:33,120 --> 00:40:36,600 Speaker 1: suicide in nineteen nine. So he left this wake of 705 00:40:36,680 --> 00:40:40,200 Speaker 1: broken people behind him. It just doesn't leave a good 706 00:40:40,200 --> 00:40:43,520 Speaker 1: taste in my mouth. Yeah, that was. That was my 707 00:40:43,560 --> 00:40:46,120 Speaker 1: experience with the research as well. I didn't go into 708 00:40:46,160 --> 00:40:50,040 Speaker 1: this idolizing Leary, but but I went and went into 709 00:40:50,080 --> 00:40:53,960 Speaker 1: it like appreciating some of the things he's said before 710 00:40:54,120 --> 00:40:57,319 Speaker 1: and the use of his persona in various bits of 711 00:40:57,360 --> 00:41:00,320 Speaker 1: fiction or music. And it was it was disappint wanting 712 00:41:00,360 --> 00:41:03,560 Speaker 1: to to really, uh not only to see this pattern, 713 00:41:03,560 --> 00:41:06,439 Speaker 1: but then to spend a lot of time reading about it. Yeah. 714 00:41:06,480 --> 00:41:09,279 Speaker 1: I think like after he had been like, you know, 715 00:41:09,360 --> 00:41:12,799 Speaker 1: he's been mythologized over the years, especially for our generation, 716 00:41:13,880 --> 00:41:16,840 Speaker 1: I expected more. You know, well a lot of you know, 717 00:41:16,880 --> 00:41:18,839 Speaker 1: I noticed that a lot of people were kind of 718 00:41:18,880 --> 00:41:24,640 Speaker 1: critical on Amazon, for instance, of the Greenfield biography because 719 00:41:24,640 --> 00:41:26,160 Speaker 1: they thought, you know, it's like, oh, he's just kind 720 00:41:26,160 --> 00:41:28,240 Speaker 1: of a it's kind of a hatchet job or whatever. 721 00:41:28,320 --> 00:41:33,160 Speaker 1: But uh, I think the thing is that the biography 722 00:41:33,200 --> 00:41:37,000 Speaker 1: reveals more about the real Timothy Leary than a lot 723 00:41:37,040 --> 00:41:43,479 Speaker 1: of people. You know, we're comfortable confronting. Now he's dying, 724 00:41:43,520 --> 00:41:46,520 Speaker 1: as he said, and uh, and he's keeping a track 725 00:41:46,560 --> 00:41:50,160 Speaker 1: of the various substance he's he's taking. So Leary actually 726 00:41:50,160 --> 00:41:53,000 Speaker 1: considered taking LSD on his deathbed, and this would have 727 00:41:53,040 --> 00:41:54,920 Speaker 1: and in doing this, he would have been following the 728 00:41:55,000 --> 00:41:58,080 Speaker 1: lead of Altre Huxley, who took an injection of a 729 00:41:58,160 --> 00:42:01,960 Speaker 1: hundred micrograms on his death ad um. Now, in the 730 00:42:02,000 --> 00:42:04,839 Speaker 1: time leading up to his dead Leary did use ketamine 731 00:42:04,920 --> 00:42:08,520 Speaker 1: and enhanced it with Niger's hawk side he drank towards 732 00:42:08,520 --> 00:42:13,080 Speaker 1: the end there was a lot of smoking, especially Carol Rosen, 733 00:42:13,360 --> 00:42:16,719 Speaker 1: a friend who was that at his bedside, said that 734 00:42:16,920 --> 00:42:20,600 Speaker 1: his penultimate words were why not, why not? Why not, 735 00:42:20,719 --> 00:42:24,840 Speaker 1: repeating the final question fifty times fifty times in different voices, 736 00:42:25,560 --> 00:42:30,000 Speaker 1: and then, according to his son, he said beautiful and died. Okay, 737 00:42:30,400 --> 00:42:33,480 Speaker 1: part of me is very cynical and has to wonder 738 00:42:34,239 --> 00:42:37,319 Speaker 1: how much of that was performed, given that he knew 739 00:42:37,320 --> 00:42:39,719 Speaker 1: that the cameras were on and everything. That's yeah, that's 740 00:42:39,760 --> 00:42:43,560 Speaker 1: that's true. Now, he had pursued chronic suspension at one point, 741 00:42:43,640 --> 00:42:46,640 Speaker 1: but his final wishes were that his cremated remains be 742 00:42:46,719 --> 00:42:49,840 Speaker 1: distributed among his friends as well as shot into space. 743 00:42:50,280 --> 00:42:53,160 Speaker 1: So indeed, a year later, seven grams of his ashes 744 00:42:53,200 --> 00:42:55,200 Speaker 1: and a vial went into a space into space on 745 00:42:55,239 --> 00:42:57,360 Speaker 1: a Pegasus rocket. And this, by the way, it was 746 00:42:57,400 --> 00:43:00,879 Speaker 1: the rocket that also contains seven grams of ashes. From 747 00:43:01,360 --> 00:43:04,759 Speaker 1: a few other notable individuals, including Gene Roddenberry. Now, so 748 00:43:04,800 --> 00:43:07,000 Speaker 1: how do you get Do you buy into that ahead 749 00:43:07,000 --> 00:43:10,280 Speaker 1: of time or does somebody sponsor you? How does that work? Um? 750 00:43:10,320 --> 00:43:14,240 Speaker 1: I think in Leary's case it was a sponsorship situation. Now, 751 00:43:14,600 --> 00:43:18,759 Speaker 1: Greenfield in his biography as some everything up that, I 752 00:43:18,800 --> 00:43:21,160 Speaker 1: think rather succinctly at the end, he says, a self 753 00:43:21,160 --> 00:43:24,239 Speaker 1: proclaimed at cheer leader for change who himself had never 754 00:43:24,280 --> 00:43:27,560 Speaker 1: been able to change, Timothy Leary had finally achieved his 755 00:43:27,600 --> 00:43:31,000 Speaker 1: heart's desire in death as he could never be in life. 756 00:43:31,160 --> 00:43:33,480 Speaker 1: He was not only free, but soaring through the heavens 757 00:43:33,719 --> 00:43:36,759 Speaker 1: at which he had gazed so often in wondering during 758 00:43:36,840 --> 00:43:40,440 Speaker 1: his most improbable life. That's a that's a very nice eulogy, 759 00:43:40,560 --> 00:43:43,080 Speaker 1: I think, Yeah, I mean, but I mean it also 760 00:43:43,160 --> 00:43:45,840 Speaker 1: just sums up, you know, a lot of the disorder 761 00:43:45,840 --> 00:43:48,359 Speaker 1: that was there as well. Yeah. Absolutely, But it paints 762 00:43:48,440 --> 00:43:51,040 Speaker 1: him in a nicer picture than I think, honestly, maybe 763 00:43:51,080 --> 00:43:53,640 Speaker 1: we have in the last two episodes of the show, 764 00:43:53,920 --> 00:43:56,040 Speaker 1: we've been trying. I really wanted to give him the 765 00:43:56,080 --> 00:43:58,879 Speaker 1: benefit of the doubt, you know. Yeah, it's the same here. Yeah. 766 00:43:59,239 --> 00:44:01,920 Speaker 1: So actually, I mean, in this earlier but Leary's archives 767 00:44:01,920 --> 00:44:05,600 Speaker 1: are today's stored at the New York Public Library. Reportedly 768 00:44:05,719 --> 00:44:09,399 Speaker 1: the library paid nine hundred thousand dollars for them, uh, 769 00:44:09,400 --> 00:44:11,960 Speaker 1: and a portion of that, just to be clear, went 770 00:44:12,040 --> 00:44:17,040 Speaker 1: back toward processing the collection. These archives had an interesting 771 00:44:17,080 --> 00:44:19,080 Speaker 1: life before they showed up the library because they were 772 00:44:19,080 --> 00:44:21,520 Speaker 1: moved from place to place so that they could avoid 773 00:44:21,560 --> 00:44:27,160 Speaker 1: the FBI season. Uh. And they they actually did end 774 00:44:27,200 --> 00:44:30,120 Speaker 1: up getting seized by the FBI regardless, and then they 775 00:44:30,120 --> 00:44:32,719 Speaker 1: were returned. They ended up in a storage facility in 776 00:44:32,760 --> 00:44:39,480 Speaker 1: California until now the library houses his documents alongside George Washington, 777 00:44:39,760 --> 00:44:46,279 Speaker 1: Herman Melville, and Truman Capodi. So in closing, um, yeah, 778 00:44:46,320 --> 00:44:48,799 Speaker 1: there was there was definitely a lot more chaos and 779 00:44:48,840 --> 00:44:52,719 Speaker 1: disorder in Leary's life than than than I anticipated going 780 00:44:52,719 --> 00:44:55,920 Speaker 1: in again not not being very familiar with the details 781 00:44:55,960 --> 00:44:58,360 Speaker 1: of his life, just sort of having the pop culture 782 00:44:58,400 --> 00:45:02,719 Speaker 1: awareness of him and a meat you filtered awareness of him. Um. Yeah, 783 00:45:02,760 --> 00:45:07,600 Speaker 1: it ended up being, uh at times, a depressing journey 784 00:45:07,640 --> 00:45:10,279 Speaker 1: to to uh to read more in detail about his 785 00:45:10,360 --> 00:45:14,080 Speaker 1: life and his work. Yeah. I agree. The New Yorker 786 00:45:14,200 --> 00:45:16,920 Speaker 1: review of the Greenfield biography that we use for a 787 00:45:17,000 --> 00:45:20,080 Speaker 1: lot of this compares him to Wilhelm Reich, who we 788 00:45:20,160 --> 00:45:24,439 Speaker 1: also have an episode on uh, and they basically say, look, 789 00:45:24,440 --> 00:45:29,120 Speaker 1: they're both renegade psychologists who became brand fads among quote 790 00:45:29,160 --> 00:45:33,279 Speaker 1: unquote enlightened people. Uh. To me, Leary seems to be 791 00:45:33,640 --> 00:45:36,640 Speaker 1: more like a sly huckster than any kind of contributor 792 00:45:36,719 --> 00:45:40,040 Speaker 1: to philosophy or psychology. Like I said, that's unfortunate. I 793 00:45:40,080 --> 00:45:43,239 Speaker 1: guess I just expected more. Uh. The Don Latin book 794 00:45:43,280 --> 00:45:46,640 Speaker 1: The Harvard Psychedelic Club, which I also read through, refers 795 00:45:46,680 --> 00:45:49,239 Speaker 1: to him as the trickster throughout the book, like they 796 00:45:49,280 --> 00:45:53,960 Speaker 1: give a sort of like mythical mythical status to each 797 00:45:53,960 --> 00:45:57,160 Speaker 1: of the characters from the Harvard Psychedelic Club. Richard Alpert 798 00:45:57,239 --> 00:45:59,840 Speaker 1: or or Rohm Dosk gets the term the seeker, but 799 00:46:00,200 --> 00:46:02,640 Speaker 1: Leary is the trickster, so he'd be kind of like 800 00:46:02,680 --> 00:46:07,400 Speaker 1: the low key of this Avengers. Yeah, it seems like. Yeah, 801 00:46:07,440 --> 00:46:09,600 Speaker 1: I had a hard time reading all this research and 802 00:46:09,640 --> 00:46:14,160 Speaker 1: not seeing a selfish, kind of egomaniacal guy who seemed 803 00:46:14,160 --> 00:46:16,840 Speaker 1: to sacrifice all of his family and friends along the 804 00:46:16,880 --> 00:46:20,520 Speaker 1: way just so he could extend his five minutes of 805 00:46:20,560 --> 00:46:23,799 Speaker 1: either fun or fame or both. I don't know. So yeah, 806 00:46:23,880 --> 00:46:28,759 Speaker 1: it was really disappointing unfortunately. UM yeah, I'm curious. I'm 807 00:46:28,800 --> 00:46:30,560 Speaker 1: sure that there are plenty of people who are listening 808 00:46:30,600 --> 00:46:34,920 Speaker 1: to this episode who are real, uh, devout you know, 809 00:46:35,360 --> 00:46:38,839 Speaker 1: fans of Leary and his wisdom, and maybe there's something 810 00:46:38,840 --> 00:46:40,799 Speaker 1: that Robert and I are missing out on here. I 811 00:46:40,800 --> 00:46:44,319 Speaker 1: don't know. Well, I will say this and to sort 812 00:46:44,320 --> 00:46:46,920 Speaker 1: of you know, I ended on a positive note. Leary's 813 00:46:46,960 --> 00:46:49,480 Speaker 1: words have definitely inspired me in the past, and I 814 00:46:49,520 --> 00:46:52,720 Speaker 1: think I'll continue to find inspiration in some of his words. 815 00:46:53,080 --> 00:46:56,120 Speaker 1: One of the weird things that happens with icon celebrities 816 00:46:56,120 --> 00:46:59,400 Speaker 1: and and even profits is that there emerges this disconnect 817 00:46:59,400 --> 00:47:03,520 Speaker 1: between cell and perception, between actuality and the ideal. So, 818 00:47:03,640 --> 00:47:06,239 Speaker 1: you know, the pop culture Leary here is I think, 819 00:47:06,280 --> 00:47:10,720 Speaker 1: something of a fiction, but it can serve as a 820 00:47:10,719 --> 00:47:14,080 Speaker 1: as a beneficial fiction, I think at times. So I'd 821 00:47:14,120 --> 00:47:15,640 Speaker 1: like to to close that here with a quote that 822 00:47:15,680 --> 00:47:18,000 Speaker 1: I've always valued, uh and and one that I tend 823 00:47:18,000 --> 00:47:20,040 Speaker 1: to sort of employ as a guiding principle for for 824 00:47:20,080 --> 00:47:22,839 Speaker 1: stuff to blow your mind. So I will read it 825 00:47:22,960 --> 00:47:26,840 Speaker 1: once again in uh in my impersonation of Timothy Leary 826 00:47:27,560 --> 00:47:30,719 Speaker 1: throughout human history, as our species is face the frightening, 827 00:47:31,080 --> 00:47:34,200 Speaker 1: terrorizing fact that we do not know who we are 828 00:47:34,760 --> 00:47:37,000 Speaker 1: or where we are going in this ocean of chaos. 829 00:47:37,440 --> 00:47:40,759 Speaker 1: It has been the authorities, the political, the religious, the 830 00:47:40,880 --> 00:47:48,320 Speaker 1: educational authorities who attempted to comfort us by giving us order, rules, regulations, informing, 831 00:47:48,719 --> 00:47:52,600 Speaker 1: forming in our minds their view of reality. To think 832 00:47:52,640 --> 00:47:55,520 Speaker 1: for yourself, you must question authority and learn how to 833 00:47:55,520 --> 00:47:59,200 Speaker 1: put yourself in a state of vulnerable, open mindedness, chaotic, 834 00:47:59,320 --> 00:48:05,520 Speaker 1: confused vulnerability to inform yourself. Now that I can agree with, Yeah, 835 00:48:05,680 --> 00:48:08,880 Speaker 1: that I think that lines up with with how we 836 00:48:08,880 --> 00:48:11,600 Speaker 1: tend to approach topics here. How I think we should 837 00:48:12,239 --> 00:48:15,080 Speaker 1: always approach any kind of you know, authority figure, even 838 00:48:15,080 --> 00:48:18,640 Speaker 1: when that authority figure is Timothy Learry. So hope you 839 00:48:18,760 --> 00:48:23,239 Speaker 1: enjoyed this marathon of Timothy Leary and LSD information that 840 00:48:23,280 --> 00:48:26,319 Speaker 1: we gave you this week. We are probably going to 841 00:48:26,360 --> 00:48:30,359 Speaker 1: be doing a Facebook Live trailer talk event the day 842 00:48:30,400 --> 00:48:34,279 Speaker 1: after this episode releases, So if you're listening the day 843 00:48:34,440 --> 00:48:38,480 Speaker 1: of go to our Facebook page. Uh that Friday morning 844 00:48:38,520 --> 00:48:42,440 Speaker 1: will probably be on Facebook Live talking about movies that 845 00:48:42,440 --> 00:48:47,239 Speaker 1: are related to Timothy Leary and or LSD and psilocybin. Yeah, 846 00:48:47,280 --> 00:48:50,520 Speaker 1: some sort of Psychedelic Cinema celebration. We haven't figured it 847 00:48:50,520 --> 00:48:53,839 Speaker 1: out yet, but it'll probably probably be more fun than 848 00:48:53,840 --> 00:48:57,960 Speaker 1: the details of Larry's life. Yeah, maybe so uh so right. 849 00:48:58,320 --> 00:49:00,359 Speaker 1: If you want to contact us or follow us on 850 00:49:00,400 --> 00:49:02,759 Speaker 1: that or find out when that's happening, we're all over 851 00:49:02,800 --> 00:49:05,239 Speaker 1: social media. We'll try to post an advance let you 852 00:49:05,239 --> 00:49:07,560 Speaker 1: know what the timing is on that. We're on Facebook, 853 00:49:07,560 --> 00:49:10,080 Speaker 1: we're on Twitter, we're on Tumblr, and we're on Instagram. 854 00:49:10,160 --> 00:49:11,520 Speaker 1: And if you want to get in touch with us 855 00:49:11,560 --> 00:49:13,600 Speaker 1: the old fashioned way, just shoot us an email at 856 00:49:13,640 --> 00:49:26,080 Speaker 1: blow the Mind at how stuff works dot com for 857 00:49:26,239 --> 00:49:28,560 Speaker 1: more on this and thousands of other topics, because it 858 00:49:28,640 --> 00:49:52,600 Speaker 1: how stuff works dot com