Category Archives: Timothy Leary Archives

Sasha Shulgin – “This is why I do the work I do…”

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From the Timothy Leary Archives Blog.

Sasha Shulgin (June 17, 1925 – June 2, 2014) – Santa Barbara Psychedelic Conference, 1983

Sasha ended his talk with these words:

“There are a multitude of tenuous threads that tie together the fragile structure of the human spirit. The life-giving with the death demanding side; the exalted voice with the mundane; the strongly centered Self with the drive toward dispersion and loss of center.”

“These all co-exist in all of us, but there is an essential blockade between these inner worlds which, I truly feel, can be penetrated only with the words and tools and the understanding that may be most easily obtained through the area of psychedelic experiences…”

“My personal philosophy might well have been lifted directly out of the writings of William Blake:

‘I must create a system, or be enslaved by another man’s . . . ‘

“I may be wrong, but I cannot afford the possibility of being wrong.  I must do what I can. This is why I do the work I do–and as fast as I can–and make available to all the fruits of this doing, so that some voice may quietly materialize within each individual, as to his or her role in human survival, in an annihilating environment.”

“I will do what I can.   As fast as I can.”

Michael Horowitz, Sasha Shulgin (middle), Andrew Weil, at the Psychedelic Conference II, in Santa Barbara, 1983.

Michael Horowitz, Sasha Shulgin (middle), Andrew Weil, at the Psychedelic Conference II, in Santa Barbara, 1983.

More About Timothy Leary and Marshall McLuhan

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Michael Horowitz and I decided to continue the story about Timothy Leary and Marshall McLuhan, and their unique friendship.

Leary, McLuhan and Electronic Technology

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From the post:

Marshall McLuhan, media theorist and philosopher of electronic technology, had a stronger and more lasting influence on Leary than any other of Tim’s contemporaries.  McLuhan “predicted the World Wide Web–the ‘Global Village’–almost thirty years before it was invented” (Paul Levinson, Digital McLuhan:  A Guide to the Information Millenium).  McLuhan wrote:  “The right-brain hemisphere thinking is the capability of being in many places at the same time. Electricity is acoustic.  It is simultaneously everywhere.”

Leary, for whom “the medium is the message” was the single most potent meme that came out of the ‘60s, fully embraced McLuhan’s concept of the Global Village as the natural evolution of the new media technology.  With the launch of the personal computer revolution, Leary famously said:  “The PC is the LSD of the ‘90s.”   He lived long enough to have one of the earliest personal websites.

New Article for Boing Boing: Timothy Leary and Marshall McLuhan, turned on and tuned in

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Marshall McLuhan and Timothy Leary

Marshall McLuhan and Timothy Leary

Timothy Leary and Marshall McLuhan, turned on and tuned in

By Michael Horowitz and Lisa Rein, for BoingBoing.

From the article:
McLuhan urged Leary to promote LSD the way advertisers promoted a product: “The new and improved accelerated brain.” He advised him to “associate LSD with all that the brain can produce—beauty, fun, philosophic wonder, religious revelation, increased intelligence, mystical romance.” But above all, he should stress the religious aspect. “Find the god within.” He encouraged Leary to come up with a winning jingle or catch-phrase along the lines of: “Lysergic Acid hits the spot/Forty billion neurons, that’s a lot.”

McLuhan told Tim to “always smile” and radiate confidence, never appear angry. He predicted that while Leary would “lose some major battles on the way,” he would eventually win the war. “Drugs that accelerate the brain won’t be accepted until the population is geared to computers.”

Leary wrote: “The conversation with Marshall McLuhan got me thinking [that] the successful philosophers were also advertisers who could sell their new models to large numbers of others, thus converting thought to action, mind to matter.”

Inspired by McLuhan, Leary took LSD and devoted several days to creating a slogan. He claims he was in the shower when he came up with “Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out.”

Timothy Leary on the Wall Street Occupation Movement

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Dr. Timothy Leary and Anonymous - United In Their Support Of The Occupation - Collage by Carolyn Ferris

Michael Horowitz (Tim’s Personal Archivist – Since 1970) and myself (Tim’s Personal Digital Librarian – Since 1995) thought you might appreciate this little tidbit that sounds like it was written TODAY! After this craziness in Oakland, even. (Even though, of course, it wasn’t, cause Timmy’s been dead since 1996.)

He penned this in 1990, and slightly revised it in 1994.

Michael asserts under no uncertain terms that Tim would be behind what Anonymous, the Occupy Wall St. Movement, and ultimately Wikileaks/Julian Assange are doing. Daniel Ellsberg was Tim’s hero. Period.

Here’s’ a little excerpt: (Full story is over on the T R U T H O U T website.)

Imaginary conversation with Tim and Anonymous here.

From Tim’s writings:

“The post-political information society does not operate on the basis of obedience and conformity to dogma. It is based on individual thinking; scientific know-how; quick exchange of facts around feedback networks; high-tech ingenuity; and practical, frontline creativity. The society of the future no longer grudgingly tolerates a few open-minded innovators. The cybernetic society is totally dependent on a large pool of such people, communicating at light speed within and without geographical boundaries. Electrified thoughts invite fast feedback, creating new global societies that require a higher level of electronic know-how, psychological sophistication and open-minded intelligence.”

“This cyber-communication process is accelerating so rapidly that to compete in the world information marketplace of the 21st century requires the navigational skills of change-oriented, innovative individuals who are adept in communicating via the new cyber-electronic technologies.”

“The new breeds are simply much smarter than the old guard. They inhale new information the way they breathe oxygen. They stimulate each other to continually upgrade and reformat their minds. People who use cyber technology to make fast decisions on their jobs are not going home and passively letting aging, close-minded politicians make decisions about their lives.”

“The emergence of this new open-minded caste in different countries around the world is the central historical issue of the last 40 years.”

Celebrate The Timothy Leary Archives With Me In San Francisco Tonight

I’ve been so busy this week, I almost forgot to tell you about what’s turning out to be a rather large get together tonight in San Francisco at 111 Minna Gallery from 6:30pm-2am.
The event is to raise awareness about one of my latest obsessions/duties: being the Digital Librarian for Timothy Leary’s personal archives.
I’ve made a little website with Jen Simmons (again! we’ve been quite a team lately 🙂 where you can learn more about the archives and the people that surrounded Tim during his adventurous lifetime.
Here’s the invite! Don’t worry about RSVP-ing at this short notice – just say you saw it on my blog, and it’s cool.
See you there I hope!
lisa
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You are cordially invited to an evening of film, art and music inspired by Timothy Leary and his archives.
Confirmed guests include: Ralph Metzner (Colleague of Tim’s at Harvard and co-author of “The Psychedelic Experience”), Joi Ito (Tim’s Godson, CEO Creative Commons),Denis Berry (Futique Trust Trustee), RU Sirius (Collaborator, Author), John Perry Barlow (Friend of Tim, EFF Co-Founder, Grateful Dead Lyricist), Michael Horowitz (Tim’s Personal Archivist), Lisa Ferguson (Grew up at Millbrook, Director of “Children of the Revolution”), Zach Leary (Tim’s Stepson, Leary.com), Joey Cavella (Leary.com, Retinalogic), Chris Graves (Leary.com, Retinalogic) and many more!
Brewster Kahle will also be on hand to give a little tour of the Internet Archive’s recently launched Timothy Leary Video Collection.
When: February 8, 2009
Where: 111 Minna Gallery
2nd Street Between Howard and Mission
San Francisco, CA 94105
415-974-1719
http://www.111minnagallery.com/
Time: 6:30pm-8:30pm – Reception
9:00pm-10:30pm – Premiere of “The Terrestrials” film by Rene Daalder
10:30pm-2am – Party back at 111 Minna Gallery
We’ll be announcing the launch of several creative projects that use material from the archives, such as “The Terrestrials,” a documentary premiering right after the reception, and “The Leary Virtual Experience,” a 3-D site in the virtual world Second Life, courtesy of the Wishfarmers.
“The Terrestrials,” Directed by filmmaker Rene Daalder, is a feature-length scifi documentary that follows 6 students of UC Santa Cruz as they digitize Tim’s video archives.
The film will be premiering immediately following the reception, at 9pm, just a few blocks away from the gallery, at Obscura Digital:
Obscura Digital
460 Bryant St.
San Francisco, CA 94107
(415) 227-9979
http://obscuradigital.com/
After the screening — and during it if you don’t feel like watching a movie – there will be a party going on all night at the 111 Minna Gallery, featuring DJs and dancing, with visuals by Tiki TV — all featuring media from the Timothy Leary Archives.