Timothy Leary--Rare 1992 TV Interview, Psychedelic Guru, LSD

[Music] hey Timothy Larry grew up in Boston Massachusetts is that where you grew up I spent my first 18 years in a very small town in western Massachusetts college where and I went to about seven colleges actually I was expelled from several of them I went to West Point for two years I went to a church with school I got my master's degree from Washington State University in Pullman right and then my doctorate in psychology at UC Berkeley Berkeley expelled from where did you say several expelled for what reason yes well I was expelled for the University of Alabama for spending the night in the girls dormitory now you're gonna ruin my reputation like you several but was expelled what else for what other reasons you said one fell from a Jesuit school called the Holy Cross College for gambling playing poker blackjack late at night during a religious retreat with a son of an Italian mafia guy from from New York that got me they graduated me right there you've been outspoken ever since you were a kid them really Timothy Leary has always been his own person on my unspoken person yes I lived a very I would say a lonely childhood it was a very isolated little town and I didn't see much of the sophisticated world so I lived as a child an extraordinary life I read books all the time and I dream dreams of doing heroic things to help the human race and my model my idol was philosopher named Socrates and I based my entire life on Socrates so that's where Timothy Leary that he's he's the guy that caused all the trouble for me is his motto was he said that the aim of human life Kippy was to know thyself now this was very subversive cuz the very idea of someone saying you're a herself you're a you're a serf you're a slave he was he was inventing the idea of individuality and then you could do something about your life now as soon as I studied the books about salaries I realized that there's a dangerous profession because you're you're teaching people to get attention Authority I realized that this job which I was going to undertake the corrupting of the minds of youth it paid poorly you could get you in serious difficulty the authorities and in the case of Socrates that got him him locked but I've enjoyed this profession and in the last 70 years in America it's been a wonderful time it has for a dissident philosopher because so much change has happened that do you think do you think the kids today know thyself there's a lot of them don't they don't have identifications of their own self they don't know who they are they just follow the leaders and at the truth it's been that way right it's been that way for most human beings throughout most human history right at certain times in human history culture right when everything's favorable you know what's called a renaissance now they had one in Athens because Athens was protected by geography from the big empires right there's another great a great Renaissance in around Venice and northern Italy and a renaissance preaches that the basic religion of humanism right renaissance period we had one of the sixties here and what was humanism he said the aim of individual life is to know yourself and to treat each other as human beings and this flies in direct opposition to every fundamentalist religion to every a political party where you're supposed to work for the for God or for the state so and what happens in a renaissance we we rediscover the wonderful potential of the inner human being right it becomes the clothes tend to come off because there's more human contact and beauty and and erotic activity is a tends to be more active at this period so in the 60s we had a classic renaissance which ended in 1980 when the repression of reagan-bush chemo we all know that's right right Berkeley which at Berkeley I went there for four years and I taught a new taught for about four years at Berkeley philosophy psychology psychology but that's really philosophy too isn't it really yes that comes psychiatrist you know go ahead I agree with you I agree we just can't be so what do you think you were there in the 60s or once it's the 60s you were in there when were you there in no I I was a graduate student at Berkeley 1944 DS really in 50 okay and I taught around Berkeley and did research there as a faculty member and researcher for about nine years I left Berkeley basically to go to Harvard in 1959 you went to Harvard as it as until the faculty member tackled him when did this all begin for Timothy Leary this creating of LSD when did that all is that started well I didn't create a lesbian well you did something about it they all think you are the creator but you're not I know you're not experimental I don't know any about chemistry at all yeah and I'm now involved computers and I can hardly turn my own computer on I use these tools as ways of increasing intelligence and getting to operate your mind in your brain to be intelligent to know thyself yet learn how to operate your mind and your brain and there's we don't use it enough people use it just this much yep and there's a B it's a lot there tell me more about that well of course most schools do not teach young people to think for themselves the idea is to most schools indoctrinate to train you to play your part in a factory Society or just you're gonna be a lawyer and you'll be a doctor and you've got to be a crook because the cops we have to have cops and crooks that they they're all these roles that are being taught right any schools but rarely I would there are a lot of good teachers out there and I'm sure either really Timothy there are many teachers out there particularly now people that went through the 60s when thinking for yourself was popular and almost authorized yes there are a lot of good teachers out there that are doing their best to encourage and stimulate their students to think for themselves themselves there's sixties kids there now that's what I have always thought for myself ever since I was a kid oh that's fine individual on my meeow meeow nobody likes give you no but I'm just saying Tim I've always been me that's why I was like just give me did you is that right so tell me more about the LSD what happened there you you started something there with that creation a lot of pot and everything I didn't start anything the use of a certain botanical vegetable substances go psychotropic to activate the brain that's been going on for thousands of years it has been it Socrates and that whole group of Plato and the loose in Ian's mysteries they were using marijuana hashish and opium aha the use of drugs or vegetables to activate your brain to open up new circus of your brain that's it's called shamanism and many say that most of the religions that much of the philosophy has come from groups like the group around Socrates Odysseus at Harvard University because there's been a long tradition honorable tradition really of the use of psychedelic drugs at Harvard Ralph Waldo Emerson aha started what was called American transcendentalism flying in the in the face of the Puritan ethic in Boston Emerson was banned from Harvard and Boston for about thirty years longer than I was really yeah and then the same time there was an active use of psychoactive drugs by British poets then William James who founded the psychology department Harvard wrote a book called the varieties of religious experience in which he talked about his experiences with hashish and and nitrous oxide so when I went there I was joining a long Club of honorable and very distinguished philosophers who believed in transcendence or basically they were humanists as opposed to the engineer tradition of MIT or the puritanical fundamentalist tradition of Christianity right right right but in 1975 years they came to five years prison for a little abuse of marijuana is it just for a little marijuana five years they well they said you for more than five I was sentenced to both federal and state prison never could have total 30 years 30 but you didn't spend 30 years well I escaped after nine months you did know I didn't know what do you mean you escaped I trained trained trained very carefully and I climbed a wire and climbed a wall and I was met by a guerilla outlaw group and I got political asylum in Algeria and how long were in Algeria about nine months out there were the Black Panthers and then I went to with the Black Panthers not really no I have I've written several unauthorized autobiography right right I'm not sure with your book yes I got one called flashbacks you get it in the bookstores right now huh it's got the whole sordid story there and that's being made into a movie now by Interscope okay young man named Bhima Stagg who's writing script about my life so tell me more about me with the Black Panther and Algeria and then from there you went to you back to prison I had to escape from actually Algeria because the Algeria was a socialist fundamentalist economic country and that's no barrel of laughs now I know it communism and Islamic fundamentalism right I literally had to escape I spent some time and switzer then I was captured by the DEA we're in Switzerland no in Afghanistan and the airport and brought back and I did about three and a half all together I did four and a half years in prison for the possession of a to roaches of marijuana four and a half years mm-hmm so it really turns your life around didn't it uh from a professor and harbor and running escaping what did you do the four and a half years in prison Timothy Leary what did Timmy Timmy Reid actually thought about what do I tell you I used that time wise they enjoyed it I know I'm not after you enjoyed it I'm not advocating prison boys and girls but I found it interesting and an education experience for me to be a psychologist at the very bottom of the prison system because after I escaped they were angry at me and they put me at the bottom and I had I got a view of society you know we get down the bottom you really see how the police state operates also I love being in prison because I didn't have to pay the rent I didn't have to answer the telephone I didn't have to produce your erections you know on a regular basis just a joy right and when I was in solitary confinement like that best because you know why why my roommate was a very funny guy kept me entertained all the time was he is he still there or is he out now that's me your roommate oh you I see you here okay you're a funny man you know that thank you you're you're actually doing a stand-up comedy - okay why don't you stand up I give my college lecture but I give it it's comedy and comedy Flair no no I make fun of Authority I make fun of I'm very aggressive that's comedy that's funnest but I'm not a stand-up but no I meant you know I'll tell dick jokes you know I don't know we just say dick on this program yes of course you can but no I understand that yeah I don't I don't do that kind of stand-up I I try to mercilessly make fun of Christianity and Islam and politicians so that's just part of my job as like as a dissonant philosopher what happened after you got out of prison the day you arrived out of prison first of all what prison were you in which one I was in 49 jails and prisons and for four continents so immediately after my release I was released from California when Jerry Brown became governor and I got there was a release from federal prison after Reagan was thrown out right I'm sorry Nixon 1976 and when I came to Hollywood and I've been involved in communication and computers and electronics and immediately is this what ran through your mind in jail who you were preparing for this when you got out commuters a great follower of a man named Marshall McLuhan who wrote those wonderful books about communication and he said that if you want to change a culture if you want to change yourself if you want to change religion right change the medium the mode of communication and he said that Gutenberg created Protestantism when he had at the mass assemble book right everybody could read and now the new form of communication is electronic so I'm a fanatic about electronics my brain electronic brained your den aren't you an electronic brains experiments right now you're yeah that's right yeah tell me about that well maybe we should I don't give the lectures anymore and okay the negative junk the next two sudden Monday nights that easy TV on Santa Monica Boulevard know it la cienega right and that's in Santa Monica Boulevard between La Cienega and Sandman's West Hollywood we're having a wonderful time because we're each Monday night we invite geniuses wizards in this new field haha of electronic multimedia and we produce we're learning how to produce trance States by using a computer-generated images and electronic patterns in fact why don't we put on this little tape now do you have you have a tape right now you're the commercial like a commercial you see on TV and you to measure from the product for the product right message from the sponsor is learn how to use your eyeballs and operate your brain so let's run this your eyeballs and yeah mmm interesting let's see it okay [Music] the windows your eyes today what's on your screen operate your brain welcome your own brain use the methods that might an advertised trailer is an infomercial you put your own message come again otherwise would be program control [Music] scramble your brain basically my brain most friends love watch off the dazzle diamond sending young girls eyes she'll watch it sucks whether the diamonds are grilled that friend wrong diamond is the power to those people who know how to use them and now get this idea from just gets all out there my ideas what sort of persons what sort of persons attract 2 Timothy Leary what sort of a person to try aspect intelligent people I know people minds and they want to be their own persons but what sort of person people I can tell you who people who do not like me are those people were deeply committed to a religious orthodoxy or to a fundamentalist cause right open-minded people like me people that yeah troublemakers Bohemians artists would you consider yourself a bohemian well it's one phrase hippie I'm a beatnik I'm a bohemian I'm basically a an outsider I'm a dissenting philosopher and there I was a good market for a good audience because basically a lot of people out there want to be turned on and want to learn how to operate their brains what's been has been the biggest lesson for Timothy Leary in your life well it's foolish to be you know I don't pretend to be a wise person I don't know I don't I have raised questions I don't give answers that's a sucky stone I will give you an answer here we're playing the ping-pong game of an interview right let me see the best tip I could give anyone if you want to grow and learn how to become smarter enjoy life more and remain young hang out with people that are smarter than you are and they can teach you something about your mind and your brain and I'm proud to say that I hang out my friends every week I look at my calendar my appointment book and I see the people that I hang out with who sort is some of the people well a Sunday for example at my house and Beverly Hills lights I had a turkey roast I didn't do anything about the turkey for 70 members of Alcor alcor's an organization who believe that people they're going to have their bodies or their brains frozen you read about course of course of course I'm a member I might be one of them glad we had yeah we have 65 or 70 people in my home aha we plan to meet each other maybe in 20 or 30 or 40 years because we brought back by the tag that's the tag that tells doctors do not autopsy me send me freezing Rini this frees the young so that giving example now these people these 60 people by their by definition that they they think for themselves right right there there I like their Mavericks yeah and they're smart because you got to be smart you have to understand the physics and the biology and the memory so this my people Monday nights I go every Monday night I go to a easy TV and we're assembling easy TV what do you mean by assembly you just you gather people round people came and they paid they buy didn't they come in but we're tumbling yeah for example there's a a play called Timothy and Charlie's but me and Charlie Manson it was written by Tim real and they do incredible audio visuals so they perform what we're doing is Kippy is emerging and he's EVP every Monday night right the power of electrons to create an environment and then out of the environment the lecturer comes or the actors in the play suddenly jump out of the screen like environment we are we're developing experiments in what's called virtual reality right and these young people and were under luckiest really the man in the world every every week I meet new people that are on that frontier of electronic communication and consciousness expansion and intelligence increase what's been the hardest for Timothy Leary what's been the hardest for you well I suffer as we all do about the incredible poverty and hunger and violence and military power I mean just when you read that the Hindus are fighting the Muslims like the Catholics are fighting the Protestants and Belva the the stupidity and the ignorance and the control of the of the military and the religious people that pains me very much and as I think it does most of us out there you're very concerned aren't you Timothy you've been concerned I'm looking at you right now you're very concerned what's out there but is it are we doing the right thing right now with our military force we well military force is going on - yeah you don't want to be in that ok military force you're America's are we doing the right thing to - I know we should help them it's a terrible thing I'm not next time that but basically I think I don't like the idea of having military people doing that because it's like horrifying salute me absolutely anything that glorifies the military you're gonna pay for that right you're gonna pay for that in your budget you're gonna pay for that in bloodshed so I'm basically I've been to a West Point Skippy I was actually born what are you a my father was a an army officer I was born at West Point like that one of the schools you got kicked out of and I got kicked out of no I got to resign from your time I know the military mind very well and the military mind is not to be tried I do too I used to entertain 10-15 years of my life all over merit on the world yeah Vietnam and everything and I know the military yeah and I don't agree as a military being they're hardliners the hardline America and the hardliners in Russia in the hardliners in Somalia they all want a ha take our our wealth and use it to end weapons Oh some of your books tell me some of your books said I have not read I got to be honest with you how many books have you got out I Oh 30 35 35 really what's the most popular of Timothy Peters flashbacks about the mirror the mirror mind mirror was a computer game tell me about the mind here well I've been working for the last ten years on programs that allow the person to turn the computer screen into a like a mine phone right and to put your thoughts there five or six years ago you don't do this with words alphanumerics but now you can use city around and graphics so uh-huh the these new image processors and computers are tools right to learn how to operate your brain and how to communicate more clearly and become smarter can be the Liri married married I've been married seven and a half times I have a an addiction problem Skippy I'm addicted to addicted to marriage being married okay you ready make your juanita - yeah and the first two or three four years is wonderful but then you realize if you're dependent on it and that you know and then so I have I'm proud to say that I have been lucky enough to have as my live-in companion some of the smartest most beautiful women in the world and every good thing that does come from me I owe to my property her name is Barbara Barbara yeah I met her in Rome years ago she used to live in Rome she was an actress and a model there yes she was I didn't know that at the time but beautifully very intelligent yeah and elegant you'd like to be around intelligent brilliant people you will be around dumb people sometimes Timothy don't look at me though have you ever been around yes III try to leave a trail of fun and joy yeah we all as we go through life you meet a lot of people right there not necessarily brain surgeons but I tried any interaction to leave a little trail of sunshine or you know a little joke or something because I basically believe in humanity yes I believe in the human potential and my life is about awakening or encouraging people to develop their potential and generate all night Timothy at night years later writers I mean late in that person yeah it seems like today because I think you read a lot you read must a lesson everything I don't read books as much anymore I read magazines and I do a lot of the computer stuff is that important for us to know what's out there in the world today or sometimes it confuses me when I turn to TV on and listen to the news it's upsetting it's sad it's sad I took I can't sleep at night sometimes that's why I don't want to listen to the news late late night how do we handle that how do we handle that well see when people ask me questions like that my answer is think for yourself okay figure out yourself think for yourself cause I don't want to different oh I see I see and you have to experiment with yourself and listen to other people's ideas but you basically you have to do it yourself I see thank for yourself can be the Larry what makes Timothy Leary happy what does he are you a happy person I think I'm one of the happiest people have ever lived really yes then even throughout this whole you have any regrets in your life right now yes that's a logical question I regret the fact that I moved around so much and being in prison and being so controversial it was very hard on my children and it was very hard on a couple of my marriages because at one point Richard Nixon called me the most dangerous man in America and I was being stopped and chased by the police everywhere I went for it was just my basic crime was I was abusing the First Amendment by by talking too much think for ourselves we think for ourselves were dangerous it was very hard to answer your question on my children to have their father you know such a hated person my son when he went to high school I was actually beat up by other kids because he was my son yes and this takes a tremendous of course still in the middle-class America and so I it's not as bad as it is for most children in the world but still I regret that it was my kind of life was hard on people that were closest to me and their because family and friendship are the basic things how is he handling it today your son they're they're doing fine they're doing fine they're going to school got five grandchildren and I'm in touch with him all the time and and I go up and down and there's not as much enmity that I think people are not the government is going around you know chasing me now I hope but things are still great it's going to be a great 1990s I'll tell you a little story was told to me it's a time to rejoice because when you think about it there are bad things happening we have the president right a vice president and two dynamic you know strong first lady's right all of whom are younger than old farts like Bob Dylan and Mick Jagger it's all new young isn't it great which is post-world War two and it's the sixties kids and so you like that I don't I'm not claiming that the Clintons gonna be a great politician with this hopeless job but the spirit of hope that Clinton and Bush and yeah there's a there's a around the world there's a sense that I do too it's a Kennedy during that when Kennedy was elected in 60s he gave us hope to actually Kennedy was not a very good president yes but still the fact he was young and Jackie and they gave a sexy break of the Hope and vigor and courage and then he might bring Dylan to the White House to play for him I like Dylan don't you like doing Bob Dylan ah Jimmy I know how to do that yeah rumor is that that they might bring the Grateful Dead no they're not gonna bring Dylan I don't know tell me about Timothy Leary's book and life story and movies what's gonna happen are they gonna be doing that of chemically I don't know I would you like to see do you're like almost like a

Channel: Alan Eichler

Views: 128,741

Rating: 4.8582525 out of 5

Keywords: Timothy Leary (Writer), Skip E Lowe (Performer), LSD (Drug), Psychedelic (art genre), Interview (TV Genre), Television Program

Id: S0NSi7tiQBE

Length: 29min 26sec (1766 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 03 2017