Timothy Leary Essays

  • Timothy Leary

    1007 Words  | 3 Pages

    Timothy Leary "Turn on, tune in, drop out." That saying has turned into the slogan of Timothy Leary’s mind-expanding movement. Although a graduate of both West-Point and Berkley, and a Harvard professor, these were not his greatest lifetime achievements. Throughout his publicized life, he became the spokesperson of the psychedelic age. His devotion to the belief that LSD and marijuana were gateways to enlightenment resulted in a new church, numerous prison sentences, and a following of

  • Timothy Leary

    1255 Words  | 3 Pages

    Timothy Francis Leary (October 22, 1920 – May 31, 1996) was an American writer, psychologist, futurist, and advocate of psychedelic drug research and use, and one of the first people whose remains have been sent into space. An icon of 1960s counterculture, Leary is most famous as a proponent of the therapeutic and spiritual benefits of LSD. He coined and popularized the catch phrase "Turn on, tune in, drop out." Contents [hide] 1 Biography 1.1 Early life 1.2 Psychedelic experiments and experiences

  • The Hippie Movement

    1545 Words  | 4 Pages

    When people hear the term hippie, they think of men and woman in loose clothing with flowers weaved in their hair. Although these men and women did in fact wear these things, they left a significant impact on society. Hippies were a part of the Counterculture movement, which basic ideals were to reject the ideas of mainstream society. The movement itself began with the protesting of the Vietnam War. Eventually, the movement was more than just protesting the war. Hippies promoted the use of recreational

  • Psychedelic Drugs and Their Influence on Creativity and Spirituality

    2719 Words  | 6 Pages

    Psychedelic drugs affect more then creativity, they are also known to have the ability to increase the users sense of spirituality and religion. In the academic journal, “Voice of The Psychonauts,” author Levente Moro explores the correlation between spirituality, and psychedelic drug use. He claims that when psychedelic drugs are taken in a “supportive” environment they have the ability to induce “deeply meaningful religious revelations and spiritual awakenings” (Moro et al. 190). Psychedelic

  • America and the Cyberpunk Counterculture

    1845 Words  | 4 Pages

    History has evolved through a series of counter-cultures, contraries to a community's subjective, shared system of beliefs that provide meaning to objective reality. Timothy Leary has defined the evolution of countercultures that range from the beatniks of the early fifties, the hippies of the sixties and seventies to the present day cyberpunks and new breeds (Vitanza 365). These groups have been met with resistance over the years as a result of their expressive attitudes and tendencies to

  • The CIA’s clandestine operation known as Project MKUltra

    1559 Words  | 4 Pages

    struggle for civil rights pervaded the minds of many young, disillusioned Americans who then sought an escape from their harsh reality. When they discovered a new and legal (until 1968) psychedelic drug thanks to public advocates like Ken Kesey or Timothy Leary, a massive demand was created, with roughly 2,000,000 individuals admitting to have tried it by the end of 1970 . In the early 1950’s, prior to Project MKUltra, the groundwork for underhanded scientific research was being laid. Immediately after

  • Psychedelic Rock and the Budding Hippie Culture

    1079 Words  | 3 Pages

    Leary being most remembered for being the man who brought psychedelic drugs into American culture, but he thought of himself as a philosopher more than anything else did. He was an undisputed leader of the psychedelic movement. “Leary, while he was lecturing at Harvard University, was the most prominent pro-LSD researcher. “Leary claimed that using LSD with the right dosage, “set” (what one brings to the experience)

  • The Sixties

    1038 Words  | 3 Pages

    1960’s Term Paper The 1960’s impacted the United States in profound ways. With the seventy million baby boomers growing into their teens, they brought with them change that is still evolving in our society today. The sixties was a time where American culture moved from being conservative to new and insightful ways of thinking. With these changes, it brought a new counter culture that would be known as the hippie culture. The hippies led way into a new sexual revolution that would break the old

  • LSD and the '60s Music Scene

    2451 Words  | 5 Pages

    that it could be used to control large groups of people. In the fifties, the CIA did various tests involving the use of acid to prove this point and the program was soon shut down. In the sixties, the drug became very popular with the help of Timothy Leary and it spread around the United States and the United Kingdom like wildfire. While possession of LSD was outlawed in late 1968, its use remained popular until the decline in the eighties. The drug made a comeback around 1990 through 2000 but declined

  • The History of the Psychedelic Movement

    4799 Words  | 10 Pages

    intellectual interest substantial enough to warrant a sub-field of study, in terms of Buddhist/American History examination. This paper will focus on the thought of the main harbingers of this movement, specifically Aldous Huxley, Alan Watts, and Dr. Timothy Leary. This study will also examine the corruptions of classical Buddhist philosophy wrought by these intellectuals concerned with integrating the psychedelic experience in an Eastern context. The connection between Buddhism and psychedelics in the American

  • Erika Dyck Psychedelic Psychiatry: LSD on the Canadian Prairies

    2681 Words  | 6 Pages

    Erika Dyck Psychedelic Psychiatry: LSD on the Canadian Prairies (Winnipeg: The University of Manitoba Press, 2012). Erika Dyck provides the reader and interesting view of early historical psychological research on LSD, lysergic acid diethyl-amide. This book is composed of Dyck’s  scientific interpretation and dissection of earlier psychedelic psychiatry research by Humphry Osmond, and Abraham Hoffer. A Swiss biochemist named Albert Hofmann dissolved a minimal amount of      d-lysergic acid diethyl-amide

  • Drugs: The Beatles's Use Of Drugs

    948 Words  | 2 Pages

    During their time together, the members of The Beatles experimented with several different drugs. Drugs played a major role in the career of the Beatles as they influenced many of the songs as well as played a significant role on the bonding the band shared. Each band member had his own preference of drugs. However, the most significant impact drugs had on the Beatles were due from Preludin, cannabis, and LSD for reasons that were quite different. The Beatles were introduced to the amphetamine

  • The 1960s Countercultural Sensation

    1079 Words  | 3 Pages

    The 1960s counterculture was a cultural sensation which first began to take shape in the United States and from there on it spread throughout the rest of the west. It spread sometime in the early sixties to early seventies. The counterculture sensation began to catch on quickly and it eventually went on to become groundbreaking. Several components contributed in making the counterculture of the 1960s a unique era from the other opposition movements of the previous eras. The post-war baby boom created

  • Psychedelic Drugs (aka Psychedelics)

    6133 Words  | 13 Pages

    Psychedelic Drugs (aka Psychedelics) Introduction: Throughout human history people have sought experiences that somehow transcend every day life. Some sort of wisdom that might progress their knowledge of self and of the world that they live in. For some reason they believed that the tangible world just could not be all there is to life. Some believed in a greater force that controlled them, some believed of invisible beings that influenced their lives, some of an actual other world that paralleled

  • Stereotypes and Stereotyping - I Was a Teenage Hippie

    1542 Words  | 4 Pages

    Stereotyping - I Was a Teenage Hippie Imagine a 17-year-old kid. He is five feet eleven inches tall, weighs 180 lbs., with very long hair and a beard. His hair parts in the middle and stops at his waist, meaning his hair is about three and a half feet long. He dresses not for the fashion of the day, but with old standards: blue jeans and a flannel shirt in the winter or blue jeans and a short sleeve shirt in the summer. Generally, his shirts in summer are T-shirts, typically with some provocative

  • The Role Of Drug Culture In The 1960s

    1175 Words  | 3 Pages

    While drugs are seen as a divisive issue today, in the 1960s they were much more accepted and widely available. It is during this time period that drugs that are highly illegal now were available and used daily in many cultures around the world. Many of these drugs, such as cocaine, were seen as a “cure-all” and supposedly helped with a variety of ailments. These are the reasons I find drug culture in the 1960s particularly interesting. I also think it is interesting how drugs such as acid and marijuana

  • The Importance of Drug Use During the Vietnam War

    938 Words  | 2 Pages

    Throughout the Vietnam era drugs were popular among the hippie counter culture as well as young soldiers. Many veterans and hippies became addicted to the substances they were using, whether it be heroin, or methamphetamine. One can see that drugs had an impact on both social groups through the analysis of the hippie counter culture and the Vietnam soldiers. During the sixties thousands of people moved to the san Francisco bay area, settling in the north beach district, Berkeley, or the Haight-Ashbury

  • One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

    582 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the 1950’s, mental hospitals weren’t what they are now. In Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, he shows how people in mental hospitals were treated at that time all through the eyes of an Indian man named Chief Bromden. Ken Kesey uses his personal experiences to add settings and even characters to show this in his writing. His life is clearly seen by McMurphy’s problem with authority which goes perfectly with his own and by the setting of a mental hospital, which Kesey once worked

  • One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest

    859 Words  | 2 Pages

    One flew East, One flew West, One died without a part of his brain. In my opinion the main theme of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is conformity. The patients at this mental institution, or at least the one in the Big Nurse’s ward, find themselves on a rough situation where not following standards costs them many privileges being taken away. The standards that the Combine sets are what makes the patients so afraid of a change and simply conform hopelessly to what they have since anything out of

  • Informative Essay: The Effects Of LSD

    1063 Words  | 3 Pages

    Known as the substance that inspired Jim Morrison, Steve Jobs, and the Beatles, LSD is a hallucinogenic drug with mind-blowing effects. LSD stands for lysergic acid diethylamide, but it has many nicknames such as acid, blotter, doses, or tabs. Many people use acid illegally as a psychedelic drug, but it could act as more than that if used properly. LSD is a misunderstood drug that is desperately in need of more LSD was first synthesized in Bazel, Switzerland, in 1938 by a chemist working for Sandoz