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Last Friday, the man who coined the 1960s mantra “Turn on, tune in, and drop out” dropped out for the final time. Timothy Leary became famous when he and his colleague Richard Alpert were fired from Harvard University’s Psychology Department in 1963 after they took LSD with college students. Leary then became a leading figure of the 1960s counterculture, an acid guru whom Richard Nixon called “the most dangerous man in America.” Leary ran for governor of California in 1970, but his campaign was interrupted when he was arrested on a marijuana charge and sentenced to 10 years in prison. He escaped from prison and went to Algeria, where he lived as a fugitive with Black Panther Eldridge Cleaver. In his final years, Leary became an online activist and wrote a book called Chaos & Cyber Culture. Leary recently talked with Ian Zalewski of Pacifica station KPFK about censorship on the internet.
Timothy Leary died Friday morning at his home in Beverly Hills, California. He was 75 years old. His last words were “Why not? Why not? Why not?” Leary had promised to videocast his death live on the internet. Instead, his friends reportedly videotaped the experience for a future webcast. Leary’s ashes will be launched into space this fall on a Spanish satellite.
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AMY GOODMAN: You’re listening to Democracy Now!
Last Friday, the man who coined the 1960s mantra “Turn on, tune in, and drop out” dropped out for the final time. Timothy Leary died at the age of 75. Leary became famous when he and his colleague Richard Alpert were fired from Harvard University’s Psychology Department in 1963 after they took LSD with college students. Leary then became a leading figure of the 1960s counterculture, an acid guru who Richard Nixon called “the most dangerous man in America.” He ran for governor — that’s Leary — of California in 1970, but his campaign was interrupted when he was arrested on a marijuana charge and sentenced to 10 years in prison. He escaped from prison and went to Algeria, where he lived as a fugitive with Black Panther Eldridge Cleaver. In his final years, Leary became an online activist and wrote a book called Chaos & Cyber Culture. Leary recently talked with Ian Zalewski of Pacifica station KPFK in Los Angeles about censorship on the internet.
TIMOTHY LEARY: Well, I feel that no government, at least the American government, has any right, politicians, to pass laws, I think, that affects the behavior of individuals in their own homes or doesn’t affect anybody else, so that there’s no right of the government to decide what we should take or how much of it.
But at one time in America, the American — North American continent, all the way down to Mississippi, was controlled by Boston. That was a whole stuff about Boston, Boston, the Puritans. And Ralph Waldo Emerson was not allowed to lecture at Boston, because he was saying the divinity is within. It means God lies within the human being. This is a religion. It’s called humanism. It believes that every individual has within her or himself the neurological potentials and the DNA potentials to start, basically, a new culture, civilization, that’s developing.
Everything — I won’t be a nag — everything you say you’re going to talk in terms of classification and categories, nine out of 10 are categories invented by you know whom to put us in. So, there is a obvious, inevitable, perfectly understandable obsession on part of people that run the American religions. They don’t want us to know history the way it really is. They don’t know that there was a man named Ralph Waldo Emerson who was considered like that, that was actually — couldn’t get a job at Harvard, or Thoreau. He’s well known because he was the first antiwar person. Thoreau, as a matter of fact, he lived in Concord, about a half-mile from where we have the prison. And we go in the prison. We take LSD with the prisoners. We come out at lunch, and we go to this lake called Walden Pond. We sit there. Nobody was around, you know, like that. I ruined that one, too. I talked too much about it and burned that one down. Can’t believe the number of people that still blame me for ruining Studio 54.
IAN ZALEWSKI: How would you like to see the future of telecommunications?
TIMOTHY LEARY: Well, see, it’s working — it’s not that we’re talking about it. We’re doing it, see. Our program is such that you perform them. You can also join the silliness by dialing the right number.
IAN ZALEWSKI: What is the website number, if people want to get in touch with you?
TIMOTHY LEARY: It’s Leary.com. You can just point your browser to Leary.com or type in the full web address, which is http://Leary.com.
AMY GOODMAN: Timothy Leary, speaking with Ian Zalewski of Pacifica station KPFK in Los Angeles. Timothy Leary died of cancer Friday morning at his home in Beverly Hills, California. He was 75 years old. His last words were “Why not?” Larry had promised to videocast his death live on the internet. Instead, his friends reportedly videotaped the experience for a future webcast.
Democracy Now! has been on the air for three months. We’d love to hear and read your thoughts about this program, your ideas for the show. Grab a pen, and we’ll tell you how to reach out and touch us. You can call our listener comment line at 202-588-0988, extension 313. That’s 202-588-0988, extension 313. Or you can send us email at democracy@pacifica.org. That’s democracy@pacifica.org. If you’d like to purchase a copy of today’s program, you can call the Pacifica Archives at 1-800-735-0230. That’s 1-800-735-0230. Join us tomorrow for another edition of Democracy Now! We’ll be looking at the New Jersey primary. I’m Amy Goodman. Thanks for listening.
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