Timothy Leary

Psychedelic experiments and experiences



Leary argued that psychedelics, used with the right dosage, set and setting, and with the guidance of psychology professionals, could alter behavior in unprecedented and beneficial ways. The goals of Leary's research included finding better ways to treat alcoholism and to reform convicted criminals. Many of Leary's research participants reported profound mystical and spiritual experiences, which they claim permanently altered their lives in a very positive manner. According to Leary's autobiography, Flashbacks, they administered LSD to 300 professors, graduate students, writers and philosophers, and 75 percent of them reported it as being like a revelation to them and one of the most educational experiences of their lives.

In the Concord Prison experiment, they administered psilocybin to prisoners, and after being guided through the trips by Leary and his associates, 36 prisoners allegedly turned their backs on crime. The normal recidivism rate of prisoners is about 80 percent, but of the subjects involved in the project, about 80 percent did not return to prison, i.e. a 20 percent recidivism rate. However, the results of this experiment have been largely contested by a follow-up study, citing several problems, including differences in the length of time after release that the study group versus the control group, and other methodology factors, including the difference between subjects re-incarcerated for parole violations versus those imprisoned for new crimes. This study concluded that only a statistically slight improvement could be shown (as opposed to the radical improvement originally reported). In his interview within the study, Leary expressed that the major lesson of the Concord Prison experiment was that the key to a long-term reduction in overall recidivism rates might be the combination of the pre-release administration of psilocybin-assisted group psychotherapy with a comprehensive post-release follow-up program modeled on Alcoholics Anonymous groups to offer support to the released prisoners. The study concluded that whether a new program of psilocybin-assisted group psychotherapy and post-release programs would significantly reduce recidivism rates is an empirical question that deserves to be addressed within the context of a new experiment


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_Leary

The Concord Prison Experiment was conducted from 1961-1963 inside the walls of the Concord State Prison, a maximum-security prison for young offenders, in Concord, MA by a team of researchers at Harvard University under the direction of Timothy Leary, which included Michael Hollingshead, Dr. Allan Cohen, Dr. Alfred Alschuder, Dr. George Litwin, Dr. Ralph Metzner, Dr. Gunther Weil, and Dr. Ralph Schwitzgebel, with Dr. Madison Presnell as the medical and psychiatric adviser. The original study involved the administration of psilocybin to assist group psychotherapy to 32 prisoners in an effort to reduce recidivism rates. The experiment was designed to evaluate whether the experiences produced by psilocybin could inspire prisoners to leave their antisocial lifestyles behind once they were released. How well it worked was to be judged by comparing the recidivism rate of subjects who received psilocybin with the average for other Concord inmates.

Records at Concord State Prison suggested that 64 per cent of the 32 subjects would return to prison within six months after parole. However, after six months, 25 per cent of those on parole had returned, six for technical parole violations and two for new offenses. These results are all the more dramatic when the correctional literature is surveyed; few short-term projects with prisoners have been effective to even a minor degree. In addition, the personality test scores indicated a measurable positive change when pre-psilocybin and post-psilocybin results were compared.

However, the results of this experiment have been largely contested by a follow-up study, citing several problems including differences in the length of time after release that the study group versus the control group were compared, and other methodology factors including the difference between subjects reincarcerated for parole violations versus imprisoned for new crimes. This study concluded that only a statistically slight improvement could be shown (as opposed to the radical improvement originally reported). In his interview within the study, Leary expressed that the major lesson of the Concord Prison experiment was that the key to a long-term reduction in overall recidivism rates might be the combination of the pre-release administration of psilocybin-assisted group psychotherapy with a comprehensive post-release follow-up program modeled on Alcoholics Anonymous groups to offer support to the released prisoners. The study concluded that whether a new program of psilocybin-assisted group psychotherapy and post-release programs would significantly reduce recidivism rates is an empirical question that deserves to be addressed within the context of a new experiment

I have to be in the right mindset to discuss this subject.

Someone get me some LSD.

Lucy in the sky with diamonds.

Was that really a sort of 'tribute' to LSD, or an Urban myth?

Same with the Stranglers track, 'Golden Brown', I was led to believe that was a tribute to smack..?

Being a freaking god of knowledge with the Beaddles...

Official stance:

"Lucy in the sky with diamonds" had NOTHING to do with LSD. It was based on a dear..... Dear friend Lucy O'Donnell........ And anything to do with the beaddles.... If you ask me it is like asking, freaking, lennon, him, self.....

Thanks.

What about Golden Brown, then?

Not Gordon Brown..

I cannot honestly say about the stranglers.... The way they lyrics go that could easily be heroine or a girl lol.

The Stranglers' single "Golden Brown", from the late 1970s, is believed by some to be about a batch of brown heroin from Afghanistan that arrived in the UK around that time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heroin

Also...


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_Turkey


According to Peter Brown in his book The Love You Make, the song was written in a "creative outburst" following Lennon and Yoko Ono going "cold turkey" from their brief heroin addictions

I was going to mention "traffiking" cause I watched the music video to the song on youtube after you brought it up but I was too lazy to do that.... Shows that big ol gateway from venice? No idea what it's called I forget... But it was how all substance of anything came from the east to the west, it had to pass through that arch....