Preface

TIMOTHY LEARY
Your Brain I§ God
Timothy leaiy
Ronin
Berkeley, CA
YourBrainbGod
by Timothy Leary ISBN: 1-57951' 052^ 3 Copyright 1988 by Timothy Leary Copyright 2001 by Futique Trust
Published by
RONIN PubUshing, Inc.
PO Box 522 Berkeley, CA 94701 www. roninpub. com
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying, re- cording, or by any informational storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the Futique Trust or Ronin Publishing, except for inclusion of brief quotes in a review.
Editor: Beverly Potter
Cover art: Stevee Postman
Cover design: Judy July, Generic Typography
Printer: Bertelsmann
Printed in the United States of America Distributed by Publishers Group West
Library of Congress Card Number - 2001 1 18555 Material in the book previously published in Changing M}? Mind Among Others by Timothy Leary.
Table of Contente
Introduction
1
1. Do- It- Yourself Thrology
5
2. Sacramental Ritual
7
3. Eight Craftsof God
14
4. Orgins
18
5. Predator- Prey Politics
21
6. Epistomology
27
7. Ethics
32
8. Esthetics
35
9. Ontology
39
10. Evolution
41
11. Ultimates
47
12. Tools of Experimental Theology
49
13. Planning a Session
56
14. The Psychedelic Guide
62
15. Ego Loss
65
16. Imprinting the Taoist Experience
69
17. Psychedelic Prayers
73
18. Your Are a God, Act Like One
85
19. LSD as a Sacrament
90
20. A Holy Mess
99
Live your
highest vision
Introduction
^^ n 1966, the Harvard' Millbrook psychedelic KDJ researchers decided to exploit the religious ^^f metaphor in order to encourage people to take charge of their own brain functions. I was uneasy about failing back on the religious paradigm. For 40 years I had been conditioned to respond
negatively to the word "God. " ^immmmmmmmmmmi^
Any time someone started I Wa5 Uneasy aboUt
shouting about God, I auto- failing bad on the
matically expected to be rdigioUS paradigm,
conned or threatened by some wmmmmmmmmmmm semiliterate hypocrite.
We tried to avoid this insidious buzzword. God knows, at one point we talked about LSD as a "brain vitamin" or dietary supplement — but this more accurate label sounded dodgy in those day — who knows, perhaps it would fly today in this age of mega- suppliments, smart drugs and life- extension. However, self- control of one' s diet was not to become respectable until the holistic medicine of the 1970s.
Our own commitments and role- models were always scientific. For example, we succeeded in training illiter-
Your drar\\5 God
ate prisoners to perform the functions of — and to talk like — psychologists. And our summer training camps in the Hotel Catalina in Zlhuatenjo, Mexico, effectively taught a wide range of intellectuals how to reimprint their own brain programs.
Our logic seemed clear — ^brain- activating drugs expose people to powerful, mind- blowing experiences that shatter conventional ideas about reality. If left alone by society, our International Foundation for Internal Freedom ( IFIF) would have succeeded in training several thousand neurologicians who, in their own communities, could have trained hundreds of thousands of Americans to use their own heads.
But wisely or foolishly, we got ■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■i
scared off this scientific approach. Mo5t freedom
After being expelled from Harvard, IT10\/ement5
Mexico, Antigua, and Dominica in f OUght the battb the late Spring of 1963 , we cravenly on fdiqiOUe turf . decided that the authorities were not ■■■■■■■■■■■i ready for the 2P^ Century concept — Every Citizen a Scientist. So we fell back to the familiar historical turf upon which most earlier freedom movements had fought the battle — religion.
Activating the Divinity Within
Though it might be against the law for responsible American citizens to use psychoactive plants and drugs to change their brains, surely 400 years of Western civilization must support the right of Americans to worship the divinity within, using sacraments that worked for them. We stud- ied the meaning of the word sacrament usually defined as something that relates one to the divinity. One of the most offensive, flaky characteristics of 1960s acid- users was their compulsion to babble about new visions of God, new answers to the Ultimate Secret of the Universe.
Timothy Leary 3
For thousands of years individuals whose brains were activated had chattered about "ultimate secrets" in the context of mystical- personal religious revelation. We were forced to recall that for most of human history, science and philosophy were the province of religion. And most specifically, all ^.^,.,,..,,___,..,..,,^^
references to what we would ^, , ^ . . ^
now call the "psycho- Throughout hi6tory.
neurological were described . ^ , , ,
t. . , acti\/at^ brains ha\/e
m religious terms. \ ^^ i i
chattered about
Our political experiences "ultimata Secrets''
at Harvard also pushed us in j^^^ j,u^ COntCXt
the direction of the reUgious ^^ mystical-per^nal
metaphor. When it became ^^^^^^ rcvdatm.
known on campus that a ................^..^^
group of psychologists was
producing revelatory brain- change, we expected that astronomers and biologists would come flocking around to learn how to use this new tool for expanding aware- ness. But the scientists, committed to external manipu- lations, were uninterested. Instead we were flooded by inquiries from the Divinity School.
Brain Change Taboo
Our problem — typical of time- travel agents dealing with primitive cultures — was that a dramatic change in neurology must be gently introduced in the language a culture traditionally uses for those "mysterious, un- known, higher powers" which its science has not yet explained. A review of 20^^ Century literature showed that there was obviously a strong taboo against "brain- change. " By 1960, indeed, the brain had re- placed the genitals as the forbidden organ that must not be touched or turned on by the owner. The only way in
Your drahh God
which consciousness- change experiences could be dis- cussed was in terms of philosophic- religious. Even Buddhism, an atheist method of psychological self- control, allowed itself to be classified as a religion.
Back to the Wisdom of the East
We must go back
to the wisdom
of theE^stf
Richard Alpert
announced.
So religion it was. I recall the moment of decision — During a wild, all- night LSD session in our mansion in the Boston suburbs, Richard Alpert came up to me, eyes pop- ping, and announced, "The East! We must go back to the wisdom of the East! " Go back?
The lawyers agreed. There is apparently nothing in the Bill of Rights to protect scientific freedom. The Constitution was written in a horse- and- buggy pre- technological era. But there was a First Amendment protection of Freedom of Religion. After all. Catholic mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm priests were allowed Com-
munion wine during Prohi- bition. So I agreed to the religious posture — with conditions. There was to be no kneeling down, no dogmas, no holy men, no followers, no churches, no public worship, no financial offerings. . -, .
There wa5 to bs
no kncchq down, no doqmsie, no holy men, no followers. no churches,
no public worship, no financial offerings....