File:Dr._Timothy_Leary_(1970_AP_Photo).jpg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons
Timothy Leary
Sign in to saveAlso known as Timothy Francis Leary, Dr. Timothy Leary
American psychologist (1920–1996)
Timothy Leary was an American psychologist who became a prominent advocate for the use of psychedelic drugs, particularly LSD, in the 1960s. His research and public promotion of these substances made him an influential and controversial figure in counterculture history, shaping debates about drug policy, consciousness, and personal freedom that continue to influence society today.
AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.
Person · Open Library
- Born
- October 22, 1920
- Died
- May 31, 1996
- Works
- 136
Top works
- The effects of test score feedback on creative performance and of drugs on creative experience
- Techniques du chaos
- Laughing Leary
- Tao te ching
- Wanted!!
via Open Library + Wikidata
Listeners · Last.fm
- Listeners
- 9,925
- Total plays
- 96,699
Tags
Timothy Francis Leary, Ph.D. (October 22, 1920 – May 31, 1996) was an American writer, psychologist, computer software designer, and advocate of psychedelic drug research and use. As a 1960s counterculture icon, he is most famous as a proponent of the therapeutic and spiritual benefits of LSD. During the 1960s, he coined and popularized the catch phrase "Turn on, tune in, drop out." Leary once recruited John Lennon to write a theme song for his California gubernatorial campaign (which was inter
Recent publications · Crossref
5 total works indexed
- The Pittsburgh sleep quality index: A new instrument for psychiatric practice and research
· 1989 · cited 29,226x
- A global reference for human genetic variation
· 2015 · cited 17,798x
- Global burden of 369 diseases and injuries in 204 countries and territories, 1990–2019: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019
· 2020 · cited 15,989x
- The need to belong: Desire for interpersonal attachments as a fundamental human motivation.
· 1995 · cited 14,849x
- Global burden of bacterial antimicrobial resistance in 2019: a systematic analysis
· 2022 · cited 13,923x
via Crossref · CC0
Quotes
- “We always have urged people: Don't take LSD unless you are very well prepared, unless you are specifically prepared to go out of your mind. Don't take it unless you have someone that's very experienced with you to guide you through it. And don't take it unless you are ready to have your perspective on yourself and your life radically changed, because you're gonna be a different person, and you should be ready to face this possibility.”
- “People use the word "natural" … What is natural to me is these botanical species which interact directly with the nervous system. What I consider artificial is four years at Harvard, and the Bible, and Saint Patrick's cathedral, and the sunday school teachings.”
- “Art's certainly made a lot of money, and got on a lot of shows — he got himself into the Nixon White House riding on the death of his daughter. And I think that's ghoulish! That's ghoulish.”
- “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.”
- “If you want to change the way people respond to you, change the way you respond to people.”
- “Women who seek to be equal with men lack ambition.”
via Wikiquote · CC BY-SA
~40 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Timothy Francis Leary (October 22, 1920 – May 31, 1996) was an American psychologist and author known for his strong advocacy of psychedelic drugs. Evaluations of Leary are polarized, ranging from "bold oracle" to "publicity hound". According to poet Allen Ginsberg, he was "a hero of American consciousness", while writer Tom Robbins called him a "brave neuronaut". President Richard Nixon disagreed, calling Leary "the most dangerous man in America". During the 1960s and 1970s, at the height of the counterculture movement, Leary was arrested 36 times.
As a clinical psychologist at Harvard University, Leary founded the Harvard Psilocybin Project after an experience with magic mushrooms he had in Mexico in 1960. For two years, he tested psilocybin's therapeutic effects, in the Concord Prison Experiment and the Marsh Chapel Experiment. He also experimented with lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), which was also legal in the US at the time. Other Harvard faculty questioned his research's scientific legitimacy and ethics because he took psychedelics himself along with his subjects and allegedly pressured students to join in. Harvard fired Leary and his colleague Richard Alpert (later known as Ram Dass) in May 1963. Many people learned of psychedelics after the Harvard scandal. Leary continued to publicly promote psychedelic drugs and became a well-known figure of the counterculture of the 1960s; he popularized catchphrases that promoted his philosophy, such as "turn on, tune in, drop out", "set and setting", and "think for yourself and question authority".
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Timothy Leary” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.