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Turn on! LSD pioneer Ram Dass recalls pal Timothy Leary
MAUI — Twenty summers ago my friend Timothy Leary passed. Not one to look back, I live in the present moment, and at the moment I think of a loving friend, a wonderful, creative scientist, a radical and activist.
He taught me the art of escape, how to think for myself, outside the system. So he and I are old buddies. I didn’t lose him when he dropped his body. I feel his presence in my heart now as clearly as I did then.
Though I got fired from Harvard, I was never thrown in jail, while poor Timothy got the brunt of it. He handled it differently. He was the revolutionary, I was the evolutionary. I didn’t completely understand: as the clinician I turned inward, as the social scientist he looked outward.
We were complementary. Then our work with psychedelics got caught up in the social upheaval of the ’60s. The research ended.
Today psychedelics are helping, in safe settings and under the care of clinicians, patients suffering from PTSD, addiction and end-of-life issues. These new applications are like our grandchildren: we are connected.
Today’s researchers are more sophisticated. They understand “set & setting” and know that psychedelics are not for everyone. They are strong tools. I can’t advocate caution enough.
I am 85. Psychedelics don’t play a direct role now, but doctors give me plant medicine for pain, avoiding opiates. Death is nothing to worry about. Some days all I want to do is get there as fast as I can!
People should get comfy with where the death of their body will lead them, but the whole idea of death and rebirth as a transformative process is still new to our culture. My life remains emotionally and spiritually rewarding. Here on Maui, I practice unconditional love every day and endeavor to share it with a culture so thirsty for it.
Philosophers stone – selected views from the boat http://philosophers-stone.co.uk
Source: http://www.phoenixisrisen.co.uk/?p=11505
