Timothy Francis Leary (October 22, 1920 – May 31, 1996) was an American psychologist and writer, known for advocating psychedelic drugs. During American legality of LSD and psilocybin, Leary conducted experiments under the Harvard Psilocybin Project, resulting in the Concord Prison Experiment and the Marsh Chapel Experiment. Though obtaining useful data, Leary and his associate Richard Alpert were fired by Harvard University amid controversy surrounding such drugs.Leary believed LSD showed therapeutic potential for use in psychiatry. He popularized catchphrases that promoted his philosophy such as "turn on, tune in, drop out" (a phrase given to Leary by Marshall McLuhan); "set and setting"; and "think for yourself and question authority". He also wrote and spoke frequently about transhumanist concepts involving space migration, intelligence increase and life extension (SMI²LE), and developed the eight-circuit model of consciousness in his book Exo-Psychology (1977).During the 1960s and 1970s, he was arrested often enough to see the inside of 29 different prisons worldwide. President Richard Nixon once described Leary as "the most dangerous man in America".
– Marianne Busch, – Mary Della Cioppa, – Nena von Schlebrügge, – Rosemary Woodruff, – Barbara Chase
Children
Zach Leary, Susan Leary, Jack Leary
Parents
Timothy "Tote" Leary, Abigail Ferris
Movies
The Net, Hofmann's Potion, Conceiving Ada, Life and Times of Allen Ginsberg, Roadside Prophets, Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Shocker, Cityscrapes: Los Angeles
Star Sign
Libra
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Quote
1
LSD is Western yoga. The aim of all eastern religion, like the aim of LSD, is basically to get high; that is, to expand your consciousness and find ecstasy and revelation within.
2
The kids who take LSD aren't going to fight your wars... They're not going to join your corporations. They won't buy it.
3
Each religion has got their own way of making you feel like a victim. The Christians say "you are a sinner", and you better just zip up your trousers and give the money to the pope and we'll give you a room up in the hotel in the sky.
4
I declare that The Beatles are mutants. Prototypes of evolutionary agents sent by God, endowed with a mysterious power to create a new human species, a young race of laughing freemen.
5
If you don't like what you're doing, you can always pick your needle and move to another groove.
6
Think For Yourself. Question Authority.
7
Tune in, turn on, drop out [trademark phrase that became a '60s counterculture catchphrase]
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Fact
1
G. Gordon Liddy of Watergate fame was an assistant district attorney in the late 1960s and participated in a law enforcement raid on Leary's upstate compound. According to Liddy's autobiography 'Will' Leary greeted the police and Liddy wearing only a shirt and no pants or underwear. Few drugs were found and nearly all charges against Leary were dismissed.
Once appeared on stage dressed as Satan, proclaiming, "I am the god of Hellfire!" An acid-head in the front row yelled in fright, and ran screaming out of the amphitheater.
Biography in: "American National Biography". Supplement 1, pp. 348-351. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.
7
According to his son, his last words were most unusual. He reportedly sat up in bed, shouting "Yeah! Why not? Why not?" He then laid back down and said "Oh! Beautiful! Beautiful!"
8
Claimed he was conceived on the night before Prohibition went into effect in the USA.
9
His death was announced on the internet with a black screen on his website, and the words "Timothy has passed."
10
While he toyed with the idea of cryogenic suspension, he never went ahead with it. Instead, his body was cremated, with a portion of his ashes placed on a small rocket that is presently in Earth orbit, and will eventually burn up as it re-enters the atmosphere (the rocket includes portions of the ashes of Star Trek (1966) creator Gene Roddenberry).
$10 Million
