Timothy Leary

Timothy Leary (October 22, 1920 - May 31, 1996) was an American writer, psychologist, and drug campaigner. As a proponent of the drug LSD during the 1960s, he coined and popularized the catch phrase "Turn on, tune in, drop out."

Dr. Leary argued that LSD, used with the right dosage, set (what one brings to the experience), and setting, preferably with the guidance of professionals, could alter behaviour in unprecedented and beneficial ways. His experiments produced zero murders, zero suicides, zero psychoses, and zero bad trips. One of the goals of his research was to find better ways to treat alcoholism.

Leary was convicted of a drug possession charge, fled, and eventually imprisoned for several years. When he arrived in prison, he was given a standard psychological test that the prison used to assign inmates to appropriate work assignments. Having written the test himself, he was able to give the answers that got him a job working in the prison library.

During his lifetime, Leary was the subject of the Moody Blues song "Legend of a Mind", which memorialized him with the words, "Timothy Leary's dead. No, no, he's on the outside looking in."

During the months before his death from inoperable prostate cancer, Leary authored a book called Design for Dying. The book was an attempt to show people a new way of viewing death and dying.

After his death, some of Leary's ashes were sent into space on a rocket carrying the remains of 24 people (including Star Treks Gene Roddenberry).

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