03 Apr “Turn On, Tune In, and Drop Out”
Timothy Leary (October 22, 1920 – May 31, 1996) was one of the most prominent figures of the 60s counterculture. Originally from the East Coast, Leary lived in LA from 1976 until his death in 1996.
Leary was most famous as a loud, vocal proponent of LSD. It may seem strange in a day when acid is mostly considered one of a smorgasbord of festival drugs, but in the 60s, it was advocated as an aid in spiritual search. Leary, along with colleagues, wrote The Psychedelic Experience comparing tripping to The Tibetan Book of the Dead, and in 1966, founded the League for Spiritual Discovery, a religion declaring LSD its holy sacrament.
Fired from his professorship at Harvard (along with Richard Alpert, now widely known as the spiritual teacher, Ram Dass) for research into the therapeutic possibilities of psychedelics, Leary appeared frequently in the media advocating for the right for individuals to explore our own minds. He was arrested numerous times on bogus drug charges because he was considered a threat to the status quo, culminating with Richard Nixon proclaiming him “the most dangerous man in America.”
Later, Leary performed in colleges and nightclubs as a “stand-up philosopher” and was an early adopter and proponent of computers and their possibility for mind expansion. He hung out with numerous celebrities including Johnny Depp, Aldous Huxley, Dan Akroyd, and Alan Ginsberg and was often seen around LA at trendy hot spots.
Certainly, due to Timothy Leary’s influence, many have used psychedelic drugs in their spiritual search and found meaning there. His life and work influenced many people to explore altered states of consciousness and alternative religious movements.
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This is an excerpt from Catherine Auman’s book Guide to Spiritual L.A.: The Irreverent, the Awake, and the True
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