Timothy Francis Leary was born on October 22 1920. At the age of 13 his parents abandoned him. He graduated from Springfield Classical High. He then attended three different colleges. He got his bachelors degree in psychology at the College of The Holy Cross. He then received a masters degree at Washington State University and got his Ph.D at the University of California. He then took a job at Harvard as a assistant professor. He was later fired for failing to conduct his scheduled classes and lectures. Another reason for his dismal was his role in the mushrooming popularity of the then legal substances among the Harvard students and teachers.
In August 1960 Leary went to Guernavaca a Mexican City and tried mushroom for the first time. This experience changed his life forever. He said " 5 hours after taking the mushrooms I learned and ponder more about my brain and its possibilities and psychology then I did the last 15 years studying it."( Leary Wikpedia 1) After that he argued that psychedelics used with the right dosage and setting could reform convicted criminals and treat alcoholism. He then conducted the Concord Prison experiment in which he gave 36 prisoners mushrooms and gave a speech on how to change their life. 80% of the prisoners turned their back on crime and never came back to the prison once they got out.
Leary had runs in with the law before, but always found a way out of it. That is until he went to cross the boarder from Mexico into the U.S. The cops found marijuana which was his daughters but he took the blame for it. Under the Marihuana Tax Act he was sentenced to 30 years of jail, given a $30,000 fine and order to take psychiatric treatment. Leary saw this unconstitutional and the Supreme Court agreed with him, it was unfair sentencing so he got off with 10 years in prison.
Leary was released from prison on April 20, 1976. When he got out he started writing books and LSD, and still praised acid and mushroom and the effects it could have on ones life. He then married Barbara Blum. In 1986 Leary's oldest daughter committed suicide after years of metal instabitily. Early in 1995 Leary found out that he was terminally ill with prostate cancer. Leary's death was videotaped at his request. He had his body donated to science where they cut off his and put it on ice to run tests on it. Then seven grams of his ashes were arranged by a friend to be sent up in space on a small rocket containing the remains of 24 other famous or rich people who paid to have this done once they died.
Timothy Leary had a great influence on the music scene "Come Together" by The Beetles was written for Leary when he was sent to jain for 10 years. Infected Mushroom also uses "Turn on tune in and drop out" which was Leary catch phrase for that ear as lyrics in one of their songs. Some other artists that use him in their songs are: Third eye, Marcy Playground and Tool. Leary also had many regular people that loved him and believe in what he stood for. All in all Timothy Leary had a great influence on the Counterculture and its relevance to drugs.
I got my information from:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_Leary
http://deoxy.org/leary.htm
http://www.freeinfosociety.com/article.php?id=65
http://www.popsubculture.com/pop/bio_project/timothy_leary.html
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