Dr. Ralph Metzner Comments A Bit On All the Recent Press

July 8, 2011 – 1:54 pm

Ralph Metzner and Timothy Leary - Harvard Days (1960-61)

Here’s Ralph’s post on his own blog about the last few weeks of press on the archives.
Ralph was a graduate student at Harvard, working on his Ph.D in Clinical Psychology, which he received.  He took graduate classes with Leary and Alpert, was introduced to psilocybin mushrooms, and became a research assistant on the Harvard Psilocybin Project started by Tim and Richard.   While continuing to study for his Ph.D, he became a central figure in the research project, participating in all the experimental work, first with psilocybin and mescaline, and later with LSD and DMT.

He co-authored the key research papers, was the editor of “Psychedelic Review” (the first journal devoted to psychedelic drugs) through much of its run, and co-authored the seminal text of the era, “The Psychedelic Experience,” based Upon the “Tibetan Book of the Dead.”

After getting his Ph.D from Harvard, Ralph moved to the Millbrook Estate and continued to be a central figure in the Psychedelic Movement, well into the ’60s, performing in the psychedelic celebrations, and co-starring with Tim and Rosemary in the feature film, “Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out.”  He also published one of the earliest anthologies of people’s psychedelic experiences, “The Ecstatic Adventure” (1968).

Ralph and Ram Dass recently published a book on these seminal years, “The Birth of the Psychedelic Culture.” We worked with Ralph placing many photos from the archives in the book, which also has a nice introduction by John Perry Barlow.

Of particular interest in this post by Ralph, is his comment to David
Presti’s blog post published on June 23, 2011:

“Thanks for this sensitively nuanced appraisal of my former colleague and dear friend Tim Leary. Your statement that “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” is right on target.

I think in retrospect his pioneering contributions will be recognized and appreciated, while his flamboyant and provocative style of self-presentation will be forgotten. More books about him are coming out all the time – the most recent being Peter Conners’ White Hand Society – The Psychedelic Partnership of Timothy Leary and Allen Ginsberg.

He was the funniest man I’ve ever known. When asked about Nixon’s judgement of him as “the most dangerous man in America” he said “It’s true – I’ve got America surrounded.”

By lisa | Posted in Academic Research, Books About Tim, Harvard Research, Media Coverage, Uncategorized | Tagged | Comments (0)

The Economist Weighs In: “Research into hallucinogenic drugs begins to shake off decades of taboo”

June 29, 2011 – 2:44 pm

Nice to see that, for the most part, the Economist gets it!

This piece keeps an open mind about the potential benefits of this research finally being published and made publicly available.

Acid tests: Research into hallucinogenic drugs begins to shake off decades of taboo

Excerpted from the article:

“These papers will be interesting not only culturally, but also scientifically, as they reflect what happened between the early medical promise of hallucinogens and their subsequent blacklisting by authorities around the world…”

“Which was a pity because, like many other drugs the authorities have taken against as a result of their recreational uses, hallucinogens have medical applications as well. But time heals all wounds and now, cautiously, study of the medical use of hallucinogens is returning.”

“Psilocybin has shown promise in treating forms of OCD that are resistant to other therapies, in relieving cluster headaches (a common form of chronic headache) and in alleviating the anxiety experienced by terminally ill cancer patients. The first clinical study of LSD in over 35 years, also on terminally ill patients, is expected to finish this summer. Peter Gasser, the Swiss doctor leading the experiment, says that a combination of LSD and psychotherapy reduced anxiety levels of all 12 participants in the study, though the statistical significance of the data has yet to be analyzed.”

It’s hard to believe that the paragraph above, and the one below, came from the same article (although the piece resumes its optimistic tone at the very end).

From the article:

“It may, of course, be that LSD has no clinical uses. Even when no stigma attaches to the drugs involved, most clinical trials end in failure. But it is worth seeing whether LSD might fulfill its early promise. And if the publication of Leary’s archive speeds that process up by exorcising a ghost that still haunts LSD research, then the New York Public Library will have done the world a service.”

Dr. Timothy Leary (1920-1996)


As these research papers are gradually made available to the public, it will become clear that the majority of them did not end in failure.

Early research pointed to the use of various psychedelics, in a supportive* environment, with trained professionals, was effective in assisting in the successful treatment of alcoholism, depression in terminally-ill people, pain relief in cancer patients, for breaking the mind-set of imprisoned repeat offenders, for producing authentic religious experiences, and for unblocking creativity.

The concept of “guides,” an idea that came from the Huxleys (Aldous and Laura), was a central part of Leary’s experimental design.   At least one member of the Leary team would remain undosed, and the member tripping with the subject would take a smaller dose.  But usually the researchers relied solely on their own prior experiences to be effective guides.

*Editor’s Note: We say a “supportive” environment rather than a “controlled” environment (sterile clinic rooms, no other trippers, no music or amenities,  doctors hovering over with note pads) because Leary and his team quickly learned that these sort of environments were part of the reason for the bad trips. Also, few of those docs (in the “controlled” environment studies) had ever taken LSD or Psilocybin themselves. Or had only taken one trip, at a very low dosage, in order to keep scientific detachment. In contrast, Dr. Leary and his colleagues quickly realized this was one area where the doctor had to experiment with the drug themselves in order to truly understand what the subject was experiencing.

By lisa | Posted in Academic Research, Media Coverage, Psychedelics for Health | Tagged , | Comments (0)

New York Magazine Article On A Bad Trip

June 27, 2011 – 1:25 pm

Timothy’s longtime archivist Michael Horowitz sent this comment on the piece in New York Magazine (June 27 issue):

The New York Magazine writer who covered the recent acquisition of the Timothy Leary archives by the New York Public Library seems to have a morbid interest in descriptions of the worst moments of people’s psychedelic trips.  With only a couple of exceptions, the excerpts presented from the original reports deal solely with the confusion and irrational fears that manifest during the onset of effects in people given LSD or psilocybin for the first time.

This highly selective editing ignores the fact that, lo and behold, these same folks in the middle and later stages of their trips, and upon reflection afterwards, concluded it was one of the most uniquely insightful and glorious experiences of their lives.*

Most went on to further investigate, write and speak of the personal and potential societal benefits of these compounds.

This is not to say that psychedelic drugs cannot provoke freakouts, although it should be noted that standard dosages in those days were considerably higher than they are today. Leary and his team innovated the design of a supportive environment with attention  to dosage, set and setting–the parameters that were used 50 years later by the investigators at Johns Hopkins who recently released a followup to their study of a year ago that largely validated the findings of the Harvard researchers.**

*38% described it as “very pleasant” and 32% as “ecstatic.”  See:  Leary, Littwin, Metzner, “Reactions to Psilocybin Administered in a Supportive Environment” (1963)

**Fourteen months after participating in the study, 94% of those who received the drug said the experiment was one
of the top five most meaningful experiences of their lives; 39% said it was the single most meaningful experience.
See: http://healthland.time.com/2011/06/16/magic-mushrooms-can-improve-psychological-health-long-term/

Here’s the NY Magazine piece: How Was Your Trip, Allen?
Acid commentaries from Timothy Leary’s just-revealed archive.

By lisa | Posted in Media Coverage, Trip Reports | Tagged , , | Comments (1)

Nice Post By The Berkeley Blog About Tim’s Legendary Mind

June 26, 2011 – 10:06 am

A lovely, historically accurate, trip down memory lane, courtesy of David Presti, senior lecturer of neurobiology at CAL.

The numbered footnotes in the excerpt below link directly to the relevant Johns Hopkins University research study.

Oh boy oh boy, do we have a lot of Johns Hopkins University research studies to talk about! 🙂

Here’s an excerpt from David’s lovely blog post:

“Timothy Leary was a visionary.  He explored ideas 50 years ago that psychological research may productively return to in the coming 50 years.  He was deeply interested in the nature of the human mind and in human behavior.  He conducted psychedelically-assisted psychotherapy with prisoners, hoping to have positive impact on their rehabilitation.  He carried out studies of psychedelic substances demonstrating that, with careful preparation and attention to set and setting*, life-transforming mystical experiences may take place.

This finding has recently been replicated and extended by exquisitely designed studies conducted at Johns Hopkins Medical School (4,5), the latest installment of which just appeared a few days ago (6).  Shamans may have known such things for a very long time, but in contemporary biomedical science it helps to have demonstrations with controlled studies conducted at prestigious institutions.

Other recent work has demonstrated the therapeutic efficacy of psilocybin in relieving anxiety and improving mood in terminal cancer patients (7), and the efficacy of a very different kind of psychedelic substance, MDMA, in the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder (8).  These are all clinical studies of profound importance and, if the trend continues, research like this will continue to expand (9).”

*Editor’s note: “dosage” is often left out of the “set and setting” equation, but it inevitably plays a key role in the experience, as the Johns Hopkins study shows.

By lisa | Posted in Johns Hopkins University Research, Media Coverage, Psychedelics for Health | Tagged | Comments (0)

Time Magazine: ‘Magic Mushrooms’ Can Improve Psychological Health

June 25, 2011 – 3:00 pm

Time Magazine has just announced an exciting new study recently released from Johns Hopkins University.

Here’s a link to the full report in the Journal Psychopharmacology.

Michael Horowitz (Tim’s personal archivist) sez:

“The acquisition of the Timothy Leary Archives by the New York Public Library represents a turning point in the academic acceptance of the value of the psychedelic research done by Dr. Leary and his Harvard colleagues in the early 1960s.

The announcement comes within days of the news from Johns Hopkins that, in a 14-month follow-up review of their investigation of the effects of psilocybin taken under optimal conditions of dosage, set and setting, the percentage of subjects describing it as “the best or one of the five best experiences of their lives” climbed from 83% to 94%.  This study virtually replicates the design and results of the investigation carried out by Leary and his associates under the auspices of the Harvard Psilocybin Project nearly half a century ago – which nonetheless led to Harvard giving Leary and Alpert their permanent exit papers from Academia.”

Read the article: ‘Magic Mushrooms’ Can Improve Psychological Health

Excerpt from article in TIME:

Begin excerpt: “The important point here is that we found the sweet spot where we can optimize the positive persistent effects and avoid some of the fear and anxiety that can occur and can be quite disruptive,” says lead author Roland Griffiths, professor of behavioral biology at Hopkins.

Giffiths’ study involved 18 healthy adults, average age 46, who participated in five eight-hour drug sessions with either psilocybin — at varying doses — or placebo. Nearly all the volunteers were college graduates and 78% participated regularly in religious activities; all were interested in spiritual experience.

Fourteen months after participating in the study, 94% of those who received the drug said the experiment was one of the top five most meaningful experiences of their lives; 39% said it was the single most meaningful experience.

Critically, however, the participants themselves were not the only ones who saw the benefit from the insights they gained: their friends, family member and colleagues also reported that the psilocybin experience had made the participants calmer, happier and kinder.” — end excerpt.

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NY Times: New York Public Library Buys Timothy Leary’s Papers

June 17, 2011 – 8:37 am

A Few Examples of the Hundreds of Files In the Timothy Leary's Personal Archives

It is very exciting for us to have the New York Times finally announce the New York Public Library’s acquisition of Tim’s amazing archives.

Thanks to all the members of “Team Tim” over the years that helped to make this all possible!

The below is excerpted from the NY Times article:

Ginsberg’s “session record,” composed for Leary’s research, was in one of the 335 boxes of papers, videotapes, photographs and more that the New York Public Library is planning to announce that it has purchased from the Leary estate…

The archive will not be available to the public or scholars for 18 to 24 months, as the library organizes the papers. A preview of the collection, however, reveals a rich record not only of Leary’s tumultuous life but also of the lives of many significant cultural figures in the ’60, ’70s and ’80s.

Read More »

By lisa | Posted in Media Coverage, New York Public Library | Tagged , | Comments (1)

The New York Public Library Acquires The Archive Of Influential Psychologist And Writer Timothy Leary

June 17, 2011 – 8:23 am

Dr. Timothy Leary, wherever he is now, is smiling

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The New York Public Library Acquires The Archive Of Influential Psychologist And Writer Timothy Leary

Personal Log Books, Letters, Photos And Much More Provide New Insights About Leary, His Studies, and the Counterculture Movement

The New York Public Library’s Manuscripts and Archives Division has acquired over 300 boxes of material belonging to Influential psychologist and author Timothy Leary, whose controversial research on psychedelic substances and their ability to affect positive behavior change, increased creativity, and spiritual renewal made him a key figure in the counterculture movement of the 1960s and 1970s. See official NYPL Press Release here.

The archive amounts to 412 linear feet of letters, manuscripts, research documents, notes, legal and financial records, printed materials, photographs, video and audio tapes, CDs and DVDs, posters and flyers, and artifacts, dating from Leary’s youth in the 1920s until his death in 1996.

There are extensive materials connected to his life as a clinical psychologist, including his times at Harvard University – where he headed the team that conducted the first major studies of psychedelic drugs – and at the Millbrook Estate in New York, where he expanded his research and spiritual discovery. There are also materials pertaining to his childhood, his tragic young adulthood, his eventual imprisonment and exile, and his last 20 years in Los Angeles, California, where he focused on the upcoming computer age.

The materials tell an invaluable story of man called both “the most dangerous man in America” by President Richard Nixon and “A true visionary of the potential of the human mind and spirit” by William S. Burroughs.

“Timothy Leary was, without question, one of the most controversial figures of his era, if not the 20th century,” said Michael Horowitz, Leary’s long-time archivist and bibliographer. “He was a polarizing figure in a time of generational conflict, a bold challenger of the status quo (perhaps his most enduring mantra is ‘Question Authority, Think For Yourself’).  The author of some 30 books and nearly 400 research papers, essays, and articles, Leary’s charisma and ability to articulate both the inner visionary landscapes and the sociopolitical implications of psychedelic experience made him, in Ginsberg’s words, ‘a hero of American consciousness.’ It is fitting that The New York Public Library has acquired this central archive of the second half of the 20th century, for it was at Cooper Union that Leary, along with Richard Alpert (later Ram Dass), gave his first public lecture in a non-academic setting; Greenwich Village venues, where he produced the earliest psychedelic theatrical events; and Hudson Street, where he handed out his own press release at the formal opening of the League for Spiritual Discovery.”

Some key items in the archive purchased from the Leary Estate include:

Thousands of letters to Leary, many from luminaries of the 1960s era, including Aldous and Laura Huxley, Gerald Heard, Alan Watts, Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs, Peter Orlovsky, Charles Olson, Arthur Koestler, Huston Smith, Walter Houston Clark, Walter Pahnke, Humphry Osmond, Al Hubbard, Oscar Janiger, Cary Grant, Charles Mingus, Maynard Ferguson, Michael Hollingshead , Robert Anton Wilson, Gordon Wasson, Ken Kesey and Augustus Owsley Stanley. Other correspondence is with his family – including letters to and from his mother, his wives and his children – as well as publishers, attorneys, politicians, and his numerous adversaries, including G. Gordon Liddy, and law enforcement figures from local sheriffs to Drug Enforcement Agency and Central Intelligence Agency operatives.

Professional and research papers, which will provide scholars a unique opportunity to study Leary’s clinical work from graduate school through his years at Millbrook, including hundreds of reports documenting the psilocybin-induced experiences of Harvard graduate students and faculty, creative artists, prisoners at the Massachusetts State Prison at Concord, and theology students.

Files and correspondence detailing Leary’s experience with Harvard, including his initial acceptance, the University’s eventual resistance to his research, his controversial research methods and his eventual dismissal. These files depict the evolution of Leary’s studies from rigorous, empirical research into more free-flowing, scientifically problematic exploration, as well as the promotion of psychedelics.

The complete records of the organizations Leary formed to continue his research after leaving Harvard, including the Freedom Center, Castalia Foundation and the League For Spiritual Discovery. Session reports from the League for Spiritual Discovery include completed questionnaires and letters describing the mushroom and LSD induced experiences of many notable cultural figures. Letters between Leary and his research partners and these institutions also document their turbulent and intense personal and professional relationships.

Extensive correspondence, legal briefs, prison writings, letters of support and petitions sent to and produced by the four Leary defense funds during his time in prison after his arrest in 1973. There are also materials connected to his exile period in Algeria and Switzerland, including correspondence, notebooks, statements, letters and manuscript material.

Copies of government documents, released to Leary under the Freedom of Information Act, pertaining to various agencies’ surveillance of Leary, as well as his arrest. Leary’s cooperation with the authorities, still considered by many as a betrayal of the counterculture, is also well documented.

Computer generated text, correspondence and material relating to the computer revolution, the Biosphere project, space colonies, cryogenics and more from his time in Los Angeles.

More than 300 videotapes and 300 audiotapes featuring Leary, including about 50 early lectures. A large portion of these tapes are noncommercial and probably represent the only copies in existence.

Manuscripts of published books and articles, as well as a substantial number of unpublished works, some book length. Scores of unpublished essays on a variety of subjects, unproduced movie scripts, fiction and poetry are also included.

“When one surveys the existing and available archival record of the 1960s, it would hard to find a comparable collection,” said William Stingone, curator of the Library’s Manuscripts and Archives Division. “Leary’s papers provide virtually untapped resource for researchers studying the emergence and development of the American counterculture.”

“The estate is thrilled to have these papers in a place worthy of their historic value”, says Denis Berry, Co-trustee of the Futique Trust, Dr. Leary’s estate. “Its availability to everyone is something he would have appreciated.”

The material – kept meticulously by Leary – has a long history before being acquired by the Library. According to Horowitz, the archives were turned over to “a pair of hip scholarly activists” for safekeeping when Leary was sent to prison, and they kept the materials safe until it they were seized by the FBI in the 1970s. Eventually, they were released to Leary, who kept them in storage until the developers of Leary.com, one of the earliest personal websites, sifted through and organized the vast collection. Most recently, the archive was part of the Futique Trust, Dr. Leary’s Estate.

John Perry Barlow, lyricist for the Grateful Dead and cyberspace visionary added “When future historians try to untangle the cultural history of America between Eisenhower and Obama, I can’t think of many whose lives will reveal more about what happened to us during those weird decades than Timothy Leary’s. A potently catalytic figure, he had much to do, for better or worse, with who we have become today. If we are to understand ourselves, it’s a good idea to understand Tim. It won’t be easy, but these papers will help.

Zach Leary, Tim’s stepson says, “Growing up I was always taught the importance of the power of information. I was always being encouraged to document, share and produce my thoughts – but I never understood why. Fifteen years after his death it is a revelation that he had the self realization to share his life’s work with us. These papers represent one of the great databases of the post World War 2 cultural revolution. They are a treasure trove of the intricacies of the human mind, our collective conscious, the confusion and hope of a generation and most of all the works of a brilliant man. My congratulations go to the New York Public library for taking a stand to make this happen.”

Joichi Ito, friend to Dr. Leary and currently Executive Director of the MIT Media Lab says, “Timothy was an amazing super-node at the nexus of so many of the most interesting conversations and work during his life. He was also an avid writer, collector and archivist. His archives hold the answers and keys to many of the period’s biggest mysteries, and provide a crucial perspective for understanding an extremely important period in the history of the world. It’s truly exciting that the New York Public library has the vision to understand the value of the archives and support in making it available to all of us.”

Bruce Damer, historian and speaker/author on the counterculture points out that: “the acquisition of this enormous collection by an institution as respected as the New York Public Library is a major endorsement of the importance of the history and ideas of not only Dr. Leary but of the counterculture itself.”

The remarkable collection will be available to researchers and the public in about two years, after the papers are processed.

Contact: Angela Montefinise | 212.592.7506 | angelamontefinise@nypl.org

Denis Berry, 831 566-0325, denisberry1@juno.com

By lisa | Posted in New York Public Library, Press Releases | Tagged , | Comments (0)

Come To Tim’s 90th Unbirthday Party Friday Night in Berkeley

October 21, 2010 – 2:20 pm

Tune in, Turn On, Chow Down! Happy Birthday Timmy!

Turn On, Tune In, Chow Down!

What: Dr. Timothy Leary’s 90th Unbirthday Party

When: Friday, October 22, 2010

Where: Harold’s Arthouse Gallery

2905 Shattuck Ave.

Berkeley, CA
Time: 8pm – midnite

FREE ADMISSION

Near Ashby BART!

This is not an Official Event of the Dr. Timothy Leary Futique Trust,
just of its Librarian (Lisa Rein).
To celebrate, the Trust let me make slides of 50 rare photographs from Dr. Leary’s Official Archives – some never before seen – for use in our visual light show that Harold Adler will be putting on.
Cake and a birthday toast at approximately 9:30 pm.
See You There!
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Dr. Timothy Leary’s “Declaration of Evolution” – In English and Persian

June 25, 2009 – 11:13 am

Here is the final and accurate translation – two and a half years in the making!

*****this below kept for historical record only***

Here’s the post from June 25, 2009:

In light of what’s been going on in Iran this past week, we thought this Persian Google translation of Dr. Leary’s “Declaration of Evolution” was rather timely.

When I asked Michael Horowitz, Tim’s Personal Archivist, about how he remembers Tim feeling about this particular work, he had this to say:

“Tim considered it “A manifesto for the psychedelic generation modeled on the Declaration of Independence” (TL Bibliography, p. 190).

It was published as the final chapter of his seminal collection, THE POLITICS OF ECSTASY (1968), and afterward, in periodical and pamphlet form. Tim preferred the term “evolution” until he was imprisoned and escaped in 1970, when he found “revolution” more suitable. But he reverted back to “evolution” when he began writing his Future History series, beginning with the monograph NEUROLOGIC, in 1973. He identified the emerging generation of scientifically-minded psychedelic activists as Evolutionary Agents or Change Agents, a concept recently adopted by members of both political parties (cf. Barack Obama).

The fact that this important text will now be available across the Middle East would have pleased Tim enormously. Getting his message out was what mattered most to him, especially when accomplished through the newest, most cutting-edge technology. (McLuhan’s statement, “the medium is the message,” was to Tim the most important concept in his lifetime as a communicator.)

Tim would be pleased by Twitter’s recent usage in Iran in helping democracy communicate its message to the masses (and back).”

— full text coming… 🙂

By lisa | Posted in History, Significant Documents | Tagged | Comments (1)

Video and Transcription of Bruce Damer at Feb 8 Reception

March 21, 2009 – 5:50 pm

Bruce Damer told the audience about the gems in the archive.

(Video: Allan Lundell)

Complete Transcript
I’m kind of a newbie. I’m one of the tech nerds. Many of you know me as a pack rat of Silicon Valley. I archive and collect stuff, and I have a big Digibarn Computer Museum with a lot of stuff, and I love to tell other people’s stories, and just to give you an idea, when Denis unlocked the storage lockers with the archives in them, and she rolled up the drawer and went in there and it’s like, my archive brain started to go. And the first box I saw said “Trips,” and I said to Denis “We shouldn’t open that box, right. Purple Haze may come out of this box. And he said no no, that’s Amtrak tickets and that’s Passports and stuff.” Ahh, darn it. Don’t open the trips box at the Leary archive!

Timothy Leary's Death Mask

Timothy Leary's Death Mask

Just to give you ideas of some of the magic and the power of this material. There was another box we opened up, and in it was Tim – Tim’s face, the Death Mask, and many of you might have seen it on CNET. The Death Mask is in a Tiffany box. I don’t know why, but there it is, and wrapped around it was this scarf. And Denis said “This scarf’s never in here.” What was it doing wrapped around the death mask…and I said I know, Tim’s spirit sucked this scarf right up into that Tiffany box and wrapped it around, because this was one of the scarfs he was wearing just before he died. He had a jacket like this.

And so, she handed it to me, and said “it’s obviously for you to take on the road, cause you have all these black and white clothes.” And today I didn’t wear black and white. I thought I would sort of psychedelic it up here a bit. And so, I’ve been taking this all over the world. When I give talks, I’m wearing this, and, Tim’s traveling. So, this allows me to tell people about the Leary archive, and take Tim with me.

Anyway, some of the other boxes…Some of the magic. One of the boxes that I opened up was of Lorenzo Haggerty, who does the Psychedelic Salon podcast, and I said (gasp) There it is: IFIF! On this little sort of rat-eared folder. That stood for International Federation for Internal Freedom. And we pulled it out, and absolutely what it was, it was the trip reports, it letters that they were sending from Harvard to arrange to fly to Mexico to try Psilocybin mushrooms. It says “Alpert,” who’s “Ram Das” now, “350 micrograms, notes. Leary, 450 micrograms, notes.” And I thought “these are their first trips.”  Amazing stuff.

Of course, Tim’s ashes are in there. You can hold them.

timashes

Tim’s high school newspaper is in there showing that he was Editor of the newspaper in 1937. His baby pictures are in there.

tim-john-yoko

Timothy Leary, John Lennon, Yoko Ono - Montreal, 1969

There’s a letter from John Lennon in there, and its, get this, for you Beatles memerophiles, the letter says, and I can’t do the Liverpool accent, “Dear Tim, Thank you for coming to our love-in thing last week. You look fabulous.” And actually there’s a photograph of Tim sitting on the bed with Yoko and John.

(And in the letter) he says “I’m going to write a song for your campaign.” It turns out Tim was thinking of running for governor of California. Can you imagine the world we’d be living in today if this had happened?  It says “Dear Tim, I’m writing a song for your campaign. I’m calling it ‘Come Together, Join the Party!”

And I’m thinking, “did the Beatles know that it was being written for Tim Leary, this song, Come Together?”

So, I just want to invite you to consider, if you’re out there. If you have a large property with acreage, and you have spare buildings on your estate. What a wonderful thing to have, to house this beautiful material that is so compelling, and give this museum a great home. And what better place than in the Bay Area?

And is there anything else that we could think of? Oh yeah, tapes, really interesting. Boxes and boxes of reel to reel tapes. Now get this, one of the tapes says, you can see that it says it’s a trip report – when they are recording during a trip. But it’s scratched out, and right under where it’s scratched out it says “John Coltrane Live, 1959” at some club. And I thought “Oh no. They clobbered an original John Coltrane.”

But there’s some amazing stuff. There are lawsuits to the Superintendent of Folsom prison. Tim was filing lawsuits while in prison. There’s a great big canister wrapped in leather that is the film shot of while he was prison at the time. It’s just amazing stuff, and he collected everything.

I mean there’s tons of letters from Allen Ginsberg, there’s letters from the Pythons (members of “Monty Python’s Flying Circus”). It’s not just Tim’s life, it’s the intersection of all of this stuff coming in and going out, from 1920 to 1996.

So it covers many many eras, and many many people. And once we get it digitized and put up into an archive, as Brewster was saying, it will unravel not only Tim, but it will unravel untold histories and may help us live better in the 21st century. (And I think Tim’s mind was somewhere out in the 21st century 🙂

(Note: The above transcript has been edited a bit for historical accuracy.)

By lisa | Posted in IFIF, Tim Leary Archives Party - Feb 2009, Videos | Tagged , , , | Comments (1)