Time: Was Timothy Leary Right?

[Dr. Leospace]

Was Timothy Leary Right?

Are psychedelics good for you? It's such a hippie relic of a question that it's almost embarrassing to ask. But a quiet psychedelic renaissance is beginning at the highest levels of American science, including the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and Harvard, which is conducting what is thought to be its first research into therapeutic uses of psychedelics (in this case, Ecstasy) since the university fired Timothy Leary in 1963. But should we be prying open the doors of perception again? Wasn't the whole thing a disaster the first time?

When the Elite Loved LSD

The answer to both questions is yes. The study of psychedelics in the '50s and '60s eventually devolved into the drug free-for-all of the '70s. But the new research is careful and promising. Last year two top journals, the Archives of General Psychiatry and the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, published papers showing clear benefits from the use of psychedelics to treat mental illness. Both were small studies, just 27 subjects total. But the Archives paper--whose lead author, Dr. Carlos Zarate Jr., is chief of the Mood and Anxiety Disorders Research Unit at NIMH--found "robust and rapid antidepressant effects" that remained for a week after depressed subjects were given ketamine (colloquial name: Special K or usually just k). In the other study, a team led by Dr. Francisco Moreno of the University of Arizona gave psilocybin (the merrymaking chemical in psychedelic mushrooms) to obsessive-compulsive-disorder patients, most of whom later showed "acute reductions in core OCD symptoms." Now researchers at Harvard are studying how Ecstasy might help alleviate anxiety disorders, and the Beckley Foundation, a British trust, has received approval to begin what will be the first human studies with LSD since the 1970s.

Psychedelics chemically alter the way your brain takes in information and may cause you to lose control of typical thought patterns. The theory motivating the recent research is that if your thoughts are depressed or obsessive, the drugs may reveal a path through them. For Leary and his circle--which influenced millions of Americans to experiment with drugs--psychedelics' seemingly boundless possibilities led to terrible recklessness. There's a jaw-dropping passage in last year's authoritative Leary biography by Robert Greenfield in which Leary and two friends ingest an astonishing 31 psilocybin pills in Leary's kitchen while his 13-year-old daughter has a pajama party upstairs. Stupefied, one of the friends climbs into the girl's bed and has to be pulled from the room.

A half-century later, scientists hope to unstitch psychedelic research from their forebears' excesses. Even as the Clinical Psychiatry paper trumpets psilocybin's potential for "powerful insights," it also urges caution. The paper suggests psilocybin only for severe OCD patients who have failed standard therapies and, as a last resort, may face brain surgery. Similarly, subjects can't take part in the Ecstasy trials unless their illness has continued after ordinary treatment.

Antidrug warriors may argue that the research will lend the drugs an aura of respectability, prompting a new round of recreational use. That's possible, but today we have no priestly Leary figure spewing vertiginous pro-drug proclamations. Instead we have a Leary for a less naive age: Richard Doblin. Also a Harvard guy--his Ph.D. is in public policy--Doblin founded the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) in 1986 to help scientists get funding and approval to study the drugs. (Doblin, 53, says he was too shy for the '60s, but he was inspired by the work of psychologist Stanislav Grof, who authored a 1975 book about promising LSD research--research that ended with antidrug crackdowns.) Doblin has painstakingly worked with intensely skeptical federal authorities to win necessary permissions. MAPS helped launch all four of the current Ecstasy studies, a process that took two decades. It's the antithesis of Leary's approach.

All drugs have benefits and risks, but in psychedelics we have been tempted to see only one or the other. Not anymore

Source: Time magazine
By JOHN CLOUD

 

[patilan420]

"droga" in latin language means "dryied herb".
much later the word "drug" obtained the meaning of "medicine"..

Of course every cure can be a poison, if used in unproper way.
Of course psychedelics are not for everyone (Huxley, one of the first western psychonauts said it clearly- psychedelics are a privelige for the healthy and happy people)
BUT is this

.Psychedelics chemically alter the way your brain takes in information and may cause you to lose control of typical thought patterns.

so "bad"
Do we realy need "control" or do we have to folow one and the same "typical" patern of thoughts???

There are so many different psychedelic drugs, and so many different people.
The "Liery's aproach" was his aproach, everyone has his own aproach and all we are CHOOSING willingly what to do with our lives.

Of Course Tim was "right" in many of his conclusions, and perhaps he was "wrong" in some.

BUT unless if we try by our selfs we will never know.

I've tryied LSD (2 times) and I do not want to try it any more. I did not like the DOUBTS this compaund brought to my mind.
Me personaly like the tryptamines much more
(let's not forget, that LSD came by the study of a PARASITICK fungi,
so it is no surprise, that this chemical in particular is posible to have some more negative effects than the symbiotick psilocybe mushrooms)
So , what's the point?

Shall we do what uncle Tim did?
Or shall we avoid what he did?
Undoubtedly, he was just a man, and some of his actions was more "right" than others.
What he did with his life was his choice, and for shure those choices affect our world here and now.
Just as every one else's, in some extent.
(me personaly prefere the McKena's aproach, but this is off the toppick)

Of course people can learn from Tim's " mistakes" just as they can learn by his "succseses".

p.s. after 8 years of law study it's so clear for me that "right" and "wrong" is REALY NOT the way we are able to understand the aftermath of our actions.

 

[Guest]

i am curious about your LSD experiences. i've had 2 of them also, and i am still confused. do I like it ? or do I hate it ?
i loved my thoughts, they were so pure and fundamental and i stopped time in both occasions, but i got terrified in the last experience: my left side went numb before the peak, and stayed that way for about 12 hours. i thought: that's it for me.
i haven't tried it since, but i've got that little psychonaut bug inside that keeps on telling me: "this time you'll have the biggest trip ever, it will change your life". i know it isn't so...so that's why i am asking you: why did you had enough of the acid ?

 

[Guest]

sorry for not writing about the research in my previous post.
i think that society is very different from the 60's and 70's. perhaps this "drug culture" needs to be revised and re-researched. i will be happy on the day that i can call europe democratic! that'll be the day when one can choose what to take, what to do and what to be. nowadays, i can only be what i am supposed to be, and that isn't very bright. i've chosen to live with people, and i had to make some choices. and that means no sex in church, no naked driving, and no masturbation in front of children.
that's fine by me, what bugs me is that i cannot go to the grocery store and buy some heroin or go to the pharmacy and ask "do you sell shirts? no? then give me some mdma!"

 

[Pinealjerker]

I like acid just as much as I like shrooms or DMT, for chemically they're really not that different. I love them all. I don't think we have to be too concerned about the parasitic fungi thing. It's the chemicals which open inner doors, no matter where those chemicals came from.

Your signature is:

Shudhosi, budhosi, niranjanosi
sansare-maya parivarji tosi
sansare svapanam tyaya moha nidram
nigan-ma mrityor twai-sat svaroope

What does it mean?

Shudhosi - clean (sudha)
Budhosi - intelligent (buddha)
niranjanosi - (don't know the meaning of that word)
samsara-maya: the illusion of birth and death:
parivarji - renunciation, renunciate
samsara-material existence;
svapanam-cleansing?;
tyaya-(don't know that word, should it be tyaga, detachment, or tyaja, give up?)
moha - illusion
nidram - sleep
nigan-ma - (don't know)
mrityor - death, dying
twai-sat svaroope - your eternal form

 

[patilan420]

We don't "have to" be concerned about anythnd, we are just 'able to" be..
I'ts a personal choice to care or not if the things we use come from the laboratory, from the symbiotic lifeforms or from parasites.

I just do care.
LSD is neither so similar to the endogenick serotonine,
neither so comoun in Nature, neither was used so much by our ancestors in our evolutionary past, as psylocibin/psilocine.

Even if I liked the effect of LSD I would be concerned because of the things above.

And I did not liked it both times. Why? because it made me feel "lost" on the next day(and even several weaks after)
"uncertain" in any way to deside and take actions.
(on the contraery, all the other psychedelicks I've tryied (exept Salvia Divinorum and Datura Stramonium) made me much more certain, devoated, blissed(blessed) or whatever.

Felt like LSD is "leading" me nowhere, but just making me "doubt" about things which realy should not bother me(as if to put first the left shoe or the other)

Yes , the society is now different than 45 years before.
It's everchanging, isn't it?
For shure, in almost all of the past times of our speeshes the psychedelics was part of our ancestor's life.

Only in the 20-th sentury they was prohibited, and the resoult was realy not fun.
They are still prohibited, but the level of information and the interaction between people now alowes us not to be so concerned about the prohibition.

No nead to "popularize' enything any more, because everithing is just as popular, as it could be.
Just search the "google" or the wickipedia.. ( In ONE thing Tim Liery was defenately "right" and it is the Internet- the most popualr and adictive psuchoactive invention of our kind, wit the greatest potential to change our vew ofthe world)

I try to try everything (that's why I tryied datura once upon a time)
but some things I dislike will never try again.
What became clear for me is that the Datura can be very tricky and strange poison, and that LSD would be perfect for "psichedelick terorism"( the microscopick dose and the ability to be injested through the skin... and the confusing effect on the potential "victim"... But do we reali nead such aproach? Would I do such thing? no, not realy...

p.s. "I" this "I" that... "EGO" in ancient greek, and "AZ" in my language..
it's amaizing multy-pourpouse TOOL(The tool wich invents all other tools), so usefull if used properly and so dangerous if used unproperly...
using it well is an art, but identifying our Selfs with it is realy a bad mistake.

" You are forever pure
You areforever true
the dream of this world
can never touch Youre true self
so give up youre attatchments
and give up youre confusion
fly in that space
that's beyond all ilusion"
(that's the aproximate translation
of this bhajan text.
sorry for the alphabethical mistakes in all the languages used by me.
cleaner the language, better the verbal comunication.

 

[Brugmansia]

I can write for hours about this, but personally I think that nothing can ever beat reality in this world as basic existance. And create an utopia for all the people here, with each other and for each other.

Nor religion, any God, any psychoactive or any individual may ever reach that.

I consider myself blessed with an heavenly psychedelic life, which gave me a place in the ultimate state of being, though rarely. Or entered the paradise/heaven as religions may call it.

My 1st Acid and MDMA trip can be considered as the ultimate evolution, but merely for my own mind at that time, just my own state of being. And it ended with something awful in fact, the comedown to reality. Left outside alone with no might to get the entire world 'there'.

Leary was quite extravert in his expression and expressed it so, that by taking in a chemical a turn on has been made, it was just a matter of getting everyone under influence according his approach.

Albert Hofmann's potion's (Osmond, Huxley, Junger) prefered scenario was more to remain the experiences to a more sedative package.

However, I believe that myself I'm more falling for Hofmann's approach. Sober place and mindsetting, and diving DEEP with no influences around. Just your own soul.

I never got 'lost', but difficult feelings with seperating my inner life from reality. And trying to get a rid of off the urge to inject the psychedelic idealogy into reality. The 'need' to change some aspects in reality is something where nearly everyone needs to deal with soon or late, I estimate.

One thing I believe is that acid is quite an easy substance to get along with, much easier than an excessive amount of shrooms and salvia. I guess Datura or PCP is what goes beyond it, even though it is no psychedelic anymore. One preperation that would help the individual would be: Educate before you medicate yourself.

 

[Guest]

i've had very strong SD trips, and i find the acid more difficult to deal with. with SD i don't get so much inside of my mind as i get with acid. i like to trip in my bed, with everything turned off and alone at home. with SD, i can do this with no problems, i don't get scared or lost. with acid, i get immediately lost and get so much into the visuals that i no longer can tell what's real.
never did datura, it seems more like a poison than an entheogen to me...

 

[spice]

So, was Tim right?

The very phrasing of the question dims his contribution in the sense that it requires a black-and-white answer for a gray question.

I find that its easy for a lot of people to refuse to give Tim Leary his due. What these people don't know, or forgot, is that this guy was a doctor of psychology at Harvard and very respected, before he took the eternal path.

His education didn't just vanish because he did LSD. His perspective ON that education did, though, and he was one of the first I read that really tried to explain the connection between education and programming....when you read the entire body of Learys work, as I have, you realize that he was trying to pour words over something which is essentially a non-verbal experience. NOT just the tripping on acid, but the mutation of values, the alteration in the way your mind processes reality as a whole.

What people dont really understand is that somebody had to be Tim Leary, and he had the intellectual courage to do it. That should count for a lot more than it does in peoples minds.

He was spot on in his observations when he called Western society 'plastic' and soul-less.

When one creates and perpetuates a society that worships greed, how can the FRUITS of such society be anything but putrid and rotten?

His questions made many people very nervous, always a good sign.

A pertinent question may be;

Was Tims approach to psychedelics ( give them to everyone)
more beneficial to us all than Aldous Huxleys ( artists and educated only)?

Its a moot question now, partly because Tim and many others made the decision that it would be done, and it has been.
Personally, I feel we all owe Tim Leary a debt of gratitude, whatever his personal failings were.

patilan420- you said that LSD made you feel 'lost' and 'uncertain'...

Maybe LSD was just trying to show you 'real' reality....

....formless
.....boundless
......without direction

the only things that give our existence direction and substance are ego and self, collectively. Tim called LSD a 'conditioning detergent'
which I feel to be a quite accurate label.

At higher doses, its an extremely potent ego-detergent as well.

The gray area here is that we, western society, dont have enough of an understanding of how we create psychoses, neuroses, and the like to be able to stop doing it. Of course, most of the answers are in childhood....

....which always, but always, leads me to John Lilly and metaprogramming, because THIS is how you reverse the ass backwards way of looking at things that dad taught you (dad was a great guy, but only the product of his dad,etc)


but first you have to recognize the need for it.


Tim contributed a LOT to the current understanding of psychedelics, as well as influencing many others who went on to contribute.

2 thumbs up, Tim.

R.I.P.

 

[Guest]

you've been a long time without posting, spice (or a long time since I saw a post from you). i've missed your posts a lot. i like informed people.

 

[spice]

hi daytripper-
I tend to agree with you on the datura....some kids around here died recently ( not the first I've heard, either) experimenting with datura.

 

[patilan420]

Yes, a big-BIG "Thank You Tim! :heart: " for all you did, and for the COURAGE to do it.
because it's true, that he was not the only psychologist, who tryied psychedelics and investigated this enormous hidden world, but he was the first who DID something with this Knowledge, in attempt to CURE the "western world" from the" greedy syndrom" and the resoult triggered the "psichedelic revolution"
He was an extraordinary man who found himself in a hard time and turned it into "tturning point" for all mankind.
So nomatter how "right" is his aproach "here and now", it was the only posible aproach, which created tnis "here and now" , so it was the only "right" aproach for a men like him "there and then".
He was forced to take this aproach by the circumbstances and peformed The Best he could, and he Did It, he actualy brought back the psichedelicks into the publick field of choice...

So I do not blame him for the choice of drug, LSD is very USEFULL for that pourpouse, few thousand doses in the pocket, easy ingestion, and for Shure the "doubt" effect was and still is desperately neaded in the Modern Western World.

p.s.(off) Yes, scopolamine IS a poison A deadly and incidious one...
So as the nicotine. if psychedelics expands consciousness, than nicotine shrinks it, and scopolamine disassembles it.
Nomatter how many people dyied and how many times the once who lived saying" don't do it, please" newbies still do it.. what to do?