Timothy Leary
Timothy Francis Leary was born on the 22nd of October 1920 in Springfield, Massachusetts. He grew up as an only child in a strict Irish Catholic household. His father, Timothy Tote Leary, worked as a dentist and left his wife Abigail Ferris when Timothy turned fourteen years old. The young boy attended Classical High School before enrolling at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts. This Jesuit education required him to learn Latin, rhetoric, and Greek from 1938 until 1940.
Pressure from his father led him to leave Holy Cross and become a cadet at the United States Military Academy. During his first months at West Point, he received numerous demerits for rule infractions. He faced serious trouble for failing to report rule breaking by cadets under his supervision. An Honor Committee asked him to resign after accusations of a drinking binge went unadmitted. He refused to step down and found himself shunned by fellow cadets.
A court-martial acquitted him of the charges, but the silence continued alongside an onslaught of demerits for small rule infractions. In his second year, his mother appealed to family friend Senator David I. Walsh. The senator investigated personally and quietly revised the committee's position. Leary then resigned and was honorably discharged by the Army. About fifty years later, he called it "the only fair trial I've had in a court of law".
On the 13th of May 1957, Life magazine published an article titled Seeking the Magic Mushroom about psilocybin mushrooms used in religious rites by indigenous Mazatec people of Mexico. Anthony Russo, a colleague of Leary, experimented with psychedelic Psilocybe mexicana mushrooms on a trip to Mexico and told Leary about them. In August 1960, Leary traveled to Cuernavaca, Mexico, with Russo and consumed psilocybin mushrooms for the first time.
This experience drastically altered the course of his life. Back at Harvard, Leary and associates like Richard Alpert began a research program known as the Harvard Psilocybin Project. They analyzed psilocybin effects on human subjects starting with prisoners and later Andover Newton Theological Seminary students. Psilocybin was produced using a process developed by Albert Hofmann of Sandoz Pharmaceuticals who synthesized LSD.
Beat poet Allen Ginsberg heard about the project and asked to join. Leary shared optimism that psychedelics could help people discover higher consciousness levels. They introduced psychedelics to intellectuals including Jack Kerouac, Maynard Ferguson, Charles Mingus, and Charles Olson. The goal was to analyze therapeutic effects from a synthesized version of the drug found in hallucinogenic mushrooms.
Leary's psychedelic experimentation attracted attention from three heirs to the Mellon fortune: siblings Peggy, Billy, and Tommy Hitchcock. In 1963, they gave Leary access to a sprawling sixty-four room mansion on an estate in Millbrook, New York. Peggy directed the International Federation for Internal Freedom New York branch while Billy rented the estate to IFIF. Leary set up a communal group with former Psilocybin Project members at what became known as Millbrook.
One founding board member Paul Lee said the group wanted to cultivate divinity within each person through regular LSD sessions facilitated by Leary. The Castalia Foundation also hosted non-drug weekend retreats for meditation, yoga, and group therapy. Lucy Sante later described the estate as headquarters for five years filled with endless parties, epiphanies, breakdowns, emotional dramas, and numerous raids.
Repeated FBI raids ended the Millbrook era. Leary told author Paul Krassner about a 1966 raid by G. Gordon Liddy where government agents entered their bedroom at midnight. He stated he had never owned a weapon in his life but felt they had every right to shoot him if necessary.
Leary's first run-in with the law came on the 23rd of December 1965 when he was arrested for marijuana possession. On the 11th of March 1966, he was convicted under the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937 and sentenced to thirty years in prison plus a fine of $30,000. He appealed based on constitutional grounds regarding self-incrimination violations of the Fifth Amendment.
On the 19th of May 1969, the Supreme Court declared the act unconstitutional and overturned his conviction. That same day Leary announced his candidacy for governor of California against Ronald Reagan with the slogan Come together join the party. On the 21st of January 1970, he received a ten-year sentence for his 1968 offense with another ten added later totaling twenty years consecutive.
In September 1970, Leary escaped from a lower-security prison while working as a gardener. For a fee of $25,000 paid by The Brotherhood of Eternal Love, Weathermen smuggled him out in a pickup truck driven by Clayton Van Lydegraf. They helped both Leary and Rosemary leave the US eventually reaching Algeria where they sought Eldridge Cleaver's patronage.
Leary formulated what became his eight-circuit model of consciousness during the late 1960s and early 1970s in collaboration with writer Brian Barritt. The essay The Seven Tongues of God claimed human brains have seven circuits producing seven levels of consciousness. This later became seven circuits in Leary's 1973 monograph Neurologic written while imprisoned.
The eight-circuit idea was not exhaustively formulated until publication of Exo-Psychology by Leary and Robert Anton Wilson's Cosmic Trigger in 1977. Wilson contributed to the model after befriending Leary in the early 1970s using it as framework for further exposition in Prometheus Rising among other works. Leary believed first four circuits Larval Circuits or Terrestrial Circuits are naturally accessed at transition points like puberty.
Second four circuits Stellar Circuits or Extra-Terrestrial Circuits were evolutionary offshoots triggered as humans evolve further. These circuits would equip humans to live in space and expand consciousness for scientific progress. Function of fifth circuit accustoms humans to zero gravity environment though location remained unspecified in brain structures neural organization or chemical pathways.
Leary invented acronym SMI²LE as succinct summary of pre-transhumanist agenda combining SM space migration plus I squared intelligence increase plus LE life extension. His space colonization plan initially envisioned five thousand Earth most virile intelligent individuals launched on vessel Starseed One equipped with luxurious amenities.
This idea inspired musician Paul Kantner's 1970 concept album Blows Against The Empire derived from Robert A Heinlein Lazarus Long series. While incarcerated in Folsom State Prison during winter 1975-76 he became enamored of Princeton University physicist Gerard K O'Neill plans constructing giant Eden-like High Orbital Mini-Earths using raw materials from Moon orbital rock obsolete satellites.
In 1980s Leary fascinated by computers internet virtual reality proclaiming PC is LSD of 1990s. He enjoined historically technophobic bohemians turn on boot up jack in becoming promoter of virtual reality systems demonstrating Mattel Power Glove prototype part lectures From Psychedelics to Cybernetics.
In January 1995, Leary diagnosed with inoperable prostate cancer notifying Ram Dass and old friends beginning process directed dying termed designer dying. He did not reveal condition to press until after Jerry Garcia death in August. Leary and Ram Dass reunited before his death May 1996 seen documentary film Dying to Know: Ram Dass & Timothy Leary.
His last book Chaos & Cyber Culture published 1994 contained writing about talking cheerfully joking sassily personal responsibility managing dying process. Book Design for Dying giving new perspective death dying published posthumously. Leary wrote belief death merging entire life process website team led Chris Graves updated daily proto-blog noting daily intake various illicit legal chemical substances including nitrous oxide LSD psychedelic drugs.
Leary died aged seventy-five the 31st of May 1996. Death videotaped posterity request Denis Berry Joey Cavella capturing final words. During final moments he clenched fist saying Why then unclenching said Why not uttering phrase repeatedly different intonations dying soon after. Last word according son Zach beautiful. Seven grams quarter ounce ashes arranged friend Celestis buried space aboard rocket carrying remains twenty-three others including Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry.
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Common questions
When and where was Timothy Leary born?
Timothy Francis Leary was born on the 22nd of October 1920 in Springfield, Massachusetts. He grew up as an only child in a strict Irish Catholic household.
What happened to Timothy Leary at West Point Military Academy?
Timothy Leary received numerous demerits for rule infractions during his first months at West Point. An Honor Committee asked him to resign after accusations of a drinking binge went unadmitted, but he refused to step down and found himself shunned by fellow cadets before eventually being honorably discharged.
How did Timothy Leary become involved with psychedelic research?
Anthony Russo told Timothy Leary about psilocybin mushrooms used by indigenous Mazatec people of Mexico. In August 1960, Leary traveled to Cuernavaca, Mexico, with Russo and consumed psilocybin mushrooms for the first time.
Why did Timothy Leary escape from prison in September 1970?
Timothy Leary escaped from a lower-security prison while working as a gardener. The Brotherhood of Eternal Love paid a fee of $25,000 to smuggle him out in a pickup truck driven by Clayton Van Lydegraf.
What is the eight-circuit model of consciousness created by Timothy Leary?
Timothy Leary formulated the eight-circuit model of consciousness during the late 1960s and early 1970s in collaboration with writer Brian Barritt. This model divides human consciousness into four Larval Circuits naturally accessed at transition points like puberty and four Stellar Circuits triggered as humans evolve further.