Legend of a mind: The archives of Timothy Leary
by David Presti, blogs.berkeley.edu
June 23rd 2011
Hooray for public libraries! Last week the New York Public Library announced
its acquisition of the personal archives of Timothy Leary (1920-1996) (1).
While many students in college today do not know who he is, Timothy Leary is
without a doubt one of UC Berkeley’s most famous graduates. He received his
PhD in psychology at Cal in 1950. The title of his dissertation, which has
gone missing from the shelves of the various UCB campus libraries, but can be
requested from the UC library storage warehouse and perused in-house, is The
social dimensions of personality: group process and structure. It is a
sophisticated analysis of interpersonal interactions during group psychotherapy
sessions. Following his doctorate, he taught psychology at Cal and other
places for several years, before moving to become director of psychological
research at the Kaiser Foundation Hospital in nearby Oakland, California.
During this period he wrote a classic book on the quantitative measurement and
modeling of personality, a subject in which he was a pioneer. His
accomplishments got him invited to teach at Harvard University, and in 1959 he
returned to his native Massachusetts to assume a teaching and research position
there. What happened thereafter has become the stuff of legend.
In 1960 Leary encountered the powerful mind-altering properties of Psilocybe
mushrooms, after the shamanic use of these mushrooms was revealed to
contemporary society in a Life magazine article published in 1957. The article
had been written by Gordon Wasson, a New York City bank executive and mushroom
scholar, after receiving knowledge of the therapeutic use of these mushrooms
from Maria Sabina, a Mazatec healer from southern Mexico. Being a psychologist
interested in the nature of the human mind, Leary was, to say the least,
impressed by his encounter with what was obviously a most powerful probe of the
human psyche. He decided to focus his research in this area and began a series
of projects at Harvard investigating the effects and potential therapeutic
benefits of psilocybin, the primary psychoactive chemical identified from
Psilocybe psychedelic mushrooms. Psilocybin had recently been identified by
Albert Hofmann, the Swiss chemist who in 1943 discovered the powerful
psychoactive effects of LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide). In those days, the
use of such substances was not controlled by any laws, and LSD was already the
subject of extensive and highly regarded clinical study in the nascent
discipline of biological psychiatry. Leary collaborated with others at Harvard
to conduct and accomplish successful research, but the psychological complexity
and turmoil precipitated by work with such powerful substances eventually led
to Leary and his psychologist colleague Richard Alpert (later Ram Dass) getting
kicked out of the University in 1963. Some of this era has been documented in
two excellent recent books (2,3).
Unfettered by the etiquette of the Academy, Leary became a free agent and
attracted a great deal of media attention with his flamboyant and provocative
style. He gave numerous public lectures promoting personal experimentation
with psychedelic substances, as well as scientific and clinical research. He
developed close relationships with folks like Allen Ginsberg, Aldous Huxley,
and John Lennon. In 1968, The Moody Blues even recorded a song about him,
entitled Legend of a Mind. Arrested for possession of marijuana, he received a
draconian jail sentence, appealed, had the conviction overturned, was arrested
again for marijuana possession, jailed, escaped in 1970, left the country, was
captured, brought back to the US, imprisoned again in 1973, and released in
1976. President Richard Nixon, so goes the legend, is said to have referred to
him as the most dangerous man in America. A wild ride, indeed!
Psychedelics are substances of great power. Their effects can range from
terrifying to ecstatic. They may facilitate great psychological healing, but
also trigger or exacerbate psychological problems. Various sectors of human
society have utilized them, in their plant or mushroom forms, for centuries at
least, and quite possibly for millennia, for their healing potential. This
potential is conferred upon them by the power they have to open the human
psyche, with all the risks that may come from delving deeply into the world of
the mind. In their use by indigenous shamans, be it Mazatec mushroom
ceremonies, peyote circles in North America, ayahuasca rituals in the Amazon,
or iboga ceremonies in Africa, the experiences are always conducted with the
utmost care, support, and ritual structure. Certainly among the lessons
learned from the contemporary exploration of these and related substances is
that such great power is worthy of the very highest respect.
Opinions about Timothy Leary are often strongly polarized. He was a brilliant
and visionary psychologist, and also a trickster, a rascal, and a provocateur.
It has been popular to demonize him, in his exuberance and flamboyance, for
drawing excessive attention to the use of these powerful substances, thus
contributing to a situation that resulted in clinical and other scientific
research being shut down by the legal restrictions placed on these substances
by the end of the 1960s. This is far too simple. Leary, his era, and the
issues with which he was involved were complex. Although books have been
written, the role of Timothy Leary in the early days of contemporary
psychedelic research and his impact on society during the second half of the
20th century are far from having been fully explored. Kudos to the New York
Public Library for acquiring these archives and thus insuring they will be
preserved and available to present and future scholars!
References
(2) Ram Dass, Ralph Metzner, & Gary Bravo, Birth of a Psychedelic Culture,
Synergetic Press (2010)
(3) Don Lattin, The Harvard Psychedelic Club, Harper (2010)
(4) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16826400
(5) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18593735
(6) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21674151
(7) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20819978
(8) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20643699
(9) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21141361
Original Page:
http://blogs.berkeley.edu/2011/06/23/legend-of-a-mind-the-archives-of-timothy-leary/
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