The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 71, No. 22, Ed. 1 Friday, March 2, 1984 Page: 14 of 24
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continued from page 13
She talked about LSD as if it
were aspirin, and she were a
Christian Scientist.
Her question to Leary was
"Won't this rapid advance in
computer learning cause a
breakdown of the American
family?"
Another aspect of Leary's
philosophy is an almost Marxist
view of history. He plays on this
for awhile, comparing familial
roles in feudal, capitalist, and
communist economies. He
pointedly docs not mention the
upsetting results of a rapidly
advancing intelligence. Instead, he
declares that the family will always
be a group of people related by
love, no matter what their roles
are. "i he positive thinker is
satisfied; after all, she knows
exactly what Dr. Leary means.
A man sitting behind me asks
this question: "I'm sure a lot of
middle-aged Dads are finding that
their children know a lot more
than they do. I tried to play video
games with my kids, but they
always beat me. I don't even play
anymore. Will the next generation
of computer-taught children make
us obsolete?" This from a man with
roughly five pounds of gold and
jewels displayed prominently on
his hands and wrists.
In Changing My Mind, Among
Others, Leary advocates a
technocracy: put the power into
the hands of those who control
technology. He tells this man to go
ahead and play with his kids; learn
from them; take home a part of the
future they're going to create. The
clear message is: there's not all that
much to this computer revolution -
go ahead and learn about it - it's
not that hard. Leary mentions
talking with a young child about
the technology used in making the
movie Wargames. The man looked
satisfied; now he can go take his
kids to see Wargames and ET. He's
part of the future now.
In an hour and a half, there was
one question of medical interest. A
young woman asked about the
possibility of using brain
reprogramming to restore motor
function in cases of brain damage.
Leary is a repository of
psychological information, when
he is called upon to be so. He
referred the questioner to studies
done by several institutions, all of
them legitimate places of medical
research.
His campaign platform
stated: "The purpose of
government is to
entertain."
It took several days before I
finally figured out what was going
on. Why were the hypnotists so
unaware of human motivations
and neuroses? Why was Leary
behaving like the leader of a
corporate-sponsored seminar on
"How to control you life and profit
by it?" Why was he editing the
most interesting and radical parts
of his philosophy? Why is he
pushing computer software now,
when he's put so much time and
effort into pushing psychoactive
drugs?
To answer these questions, I
took a broad look at the history of
Timothy Leary and the United
States. In 1957, he started
formulating a particularly
The Rice Thresher, March 2, 1984, page 14
Portrait by Jan Bak
interesting philosophical perspec-
tive. He claimed that it is possible
to alter a human brain for the
better by using psychoactive drugs,
LSD in particular. And this is all
he claimed. He took great pains to
prevent becoming a religious
figure. The only authority he
claimed was his Ph.D. in
psychology and his scientific
experience with psychoactive
drugs. Harvard revoked his tenure
for holding LSD sessions with
graduate students. He was kicked
out of Mexico, Antigua, and
Dominica in the period of May-
August 1963. Throughout the
period of 1963-70, the establish-
ment press portrayed Leary as a
crackpot, a crazy psychologist
gone wild on LSD. But to the
subculture and its press, Leary was
a hero, a national spokesman for
freedom and fun. In 1970 he ran
for governor of California on the
Democratic ticket.
He had the support of every
underground paper in the state,
endorsements by Jimi Hendrix
and the Beatles, and a song, Come
Together, Join the Party. (John
Lennon later recorded Come
Together, an altered version.) His
campaign platform stated: "The
purpose of government is to
entertain."
Had he been allowed to file, his
opponent would have been Ronald
Reagan. One week before the date
to file for the election, Leary was
imprisoned without bail for
possession of a marijuana seed.
Even if he had lost the election, he
could have had control of the
California Democratic Party. He
was, of course, in prison during the
election.
Upon his release from prison, he
fled the country, travelling in
Europe and North Africa, until he
was blatantly kidnapped in
Afghanistan. He was brought by
American agents back to the
United States where he was
sentenced to maximum security at
Folsom Prison. Ronald Reagan
was Governor. Richard Nixon was
President. Timothy Leary was in
jail, and he was going to stay there.
Leary is, after all, not so hard to
understand. He is a man in
possession of a powerful way to
change the consciousness of an
enormous amount of people. He
claims to have found a way for the
human race to know more about
itself than ever before. He
advocates great change, and like
many philosophers before him, he
has been persecuted for his views.
The judge in Laredo sentenced
Leary to jail for his dangerous
ideas.(Don't believe it? Read the
transcript of the case.)
LSD is powerful. LSD is scary.
LSD can provoke monumental
changes in a human being's mental
framework. With the aid of LSD,
Leary claims to have delineated
twenty-four areas of human
consciousness, 12 of them
unattainable without outside help.
This is what Leary's software
does - these programs claim to
promote understanding and
control of these areas of
consciousness. And you can't get
arrested for selling computer
software.
For twenty-five years, Timothy
Leary has advocated a revolution
in human consciousness. His
philosophy is summed up in the
title of an article written in 1966:
"You Are a God, Act Like One."
He is extremely interested in
scientific advances, especially in
quantum physics, psychology,
sociology, biology, and genetics.
He was particularly interested in
the fact that the Northwestern
University student newspaper
recently devoted an entire issue to
the resurgence of LSD use on
campus.
Throughout his life, Leary has
been in a strangely frustrating
position: he is a highly intelligent
human being, with a rational
world-view which his society has
refused to consider seriously. In a
sense, he must realize that his part
is over. LSD, marijuana, cocaine,
barbituates, amphetamines are
now an integral part of the
national culture. The generation
that knew Leary as an outlaw
psychologist is now well-
established. The next generation
knows his ideas, but not his
name.Today there are very few
revolutions in the sense that the
sixties produced revolutions, but
there is a revolution happening in
information processing and
education, fostered by the
phenomenal growth of the utility
of the home computer.
So Timothy Leary has edited his
philosophy and mastered the
techniques of the quasi-
psychological motivator. Instead
of spreading LSD on college
campuses, he sells computer
software to vaguely neurotic
hypnotherapists, computer
software designed to impart the
kind of knowledge Leary gained
through using psychoactive
chemicals. He is, and always was,
an irrepressible optimist. He said
in 1968 that you can use LSD to
learn to be happy, intelligent, and
productive. In 1984, he says that
you can use a home computer to
achieve the same result. In 1968, he
advocated the responsible use of
LSD by anyone who wanted to use
it. In 1984, he advocates the same
for computer software. He's still
talking to the subculture of the
baby boom generation.
The amount of strife shown by
American society in the past
twenty-five years indicates that the
American national consciousness
is badly in need of a change. We are
on the verge of destroying
ourselves in several different ways.
Timothy Leary came very close to
accomplishing a change (for the
better?) in California in 1970. He
was, of course, prevented and
arrested. Now, he's trying to help
the children of the movements he
started with powerful ways to learn
about themselves: computers.
And, again, you can't get arrested
for selling software.
m $
, v ■
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Mitchell, Mark M. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 71, No. 22, Ed. 1 Friday, March 2, 1984, newspaper, March 2, 1984; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth245554/m1/14/?q=%22%22~1: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.