Editing Timothy Leary (section)

===Millbrook and psychedelic counterculture (1963–1967)===
Leary's psychedelic experimentation attracted the attention of three heirs to the [[Andrew Mellon|Mellon]] fortune, siblings Peggy, Billy, and Tommy Hitchcock. In 1963, they gave Leary and his associates access to a sprawling 64-room mansion on an estate in [[Millbrook, New York]], where they continued their psychedelic sessions. Peggy directed the International Federation for Internal Freedom (IFIF)'s New York branch, and Billy rented the estate to IFIF.{{sfnp|Lee|Shlain|1992|p=97}} Peggy persuaded her brothers to let Leary rent a room at the mansion.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/02/us/peggy-mellon-hitchcock-dead.html|title=Peggy Mellon Hitchcock, Who Helped Timothy Leary Turn On, Dies at 90|first=Penelope|last=Green|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|date=May 2, 2024|accessdate=May 3, 2024}}</ref> Leary and Alpert set up a communal group with former Psilocybin Project members at the [[Hitchcock Estate]] (commonly known as "Millbrook"). One of the IFIF's founding board members, [[Paul Lee (environmentalist)|Paul Lee]], a Harvard theologian, a participant at [[Marsh Chapel Experiment|Marsh Chapel]] and a member of the Leary circle, said of the group's formation:

{{Blockquote|text=There was a big discussion about whether to go underground with it and make it a kind of secret initiation issue, or go public. But Leary was an Irish revolutionary and he wanted to shout it from the rooftops. So it went that way. It simply became a tsunami.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Timothy Leary Turns 100: America's LSD Messiah, Remembered By Those Who Knew Him |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/timothy-leary-lsd-acid-history/ |access-date=2022-07-16 |website=Vice.com |date=October 23, 2020 |language=en}}</ref>}}

The IFIF was reconstituted as the Castalia Foundation after the intellectual colony in [[Hermann Hesse]]'s 1943 novel ''[[The Glass Bead Game]]''.<ref name="Chevallier">Chevallier, Jim. [http://www.chezjim.com/ovum/castalia2.html "Tim Leary and Ovum - A Visit to Castalia with Ovum"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160604120540/http://www.chezjim.com/ovum/castalia2.html |date=June 4, 2016 }}, ''Chez Jim/Ovum'', March 3, 2003</ref>{{sfnp|Lee|Shlain|1992|p=98}}<ref name="Lander">{{cite web |url=http://wrldrels.org/profiles/LeagueForSpiritualDiscovery.htm |title=League for Spiritual Discovery |last=Lander |first=Devin |date=January 30, 2012 |work=World Religions and Spiritualities Project |access-date=September 24, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170118050115/http://wrldrels.org/profiles/LeagueForSpiritualDiscovery.htm |archive-date=January 18, 2017 |url-status=live }}</ref> The Castalia group's journal was the ''Psychedelic Review''.{{sfnp|Lee|Shlain|1992|p=98}} The core group at Millbrook wanted to cultivate the divinity within each person and regularly joined LSD sessions facilitated by Leary.{{sfnp|Lee|Shlain|1992|p=98}} The Castalia Foundation also hosted non-drug weekend retreats for meditation, [[yoga as exercise|yoga]], and group therapy.<ref name="Lander" /><ref name="UlrichJune2012">Ulrich, Jennifer. [https://www.nypl.org/blog/2012/06/04/transmissions-timothy-leary-papers-psychedelic-show "Transmissions from The Timothy Leary Papers: Evolution of the "Psychedelic" Show"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170924224659/https://www.nypl.org/blog/2012/06/04/transmissions-timothy-leary-papers-psychedelic-show |date=September 24, 2017 }}, New York Public Library, June 4, 2012</ref> Leary later wrote:

<blockquote>We saw ourselves as anthropologists from the 21st century inhabiting a time module set somewhere in the dark ages of the 1960s. On this space colony we were attempting to create a new [[paganism]] and a new dedication to life as art.{{sfnp|Stevens|1983|p=208}}</blockquote>

[[Lucy Sante]] of ''The New York Times'' later described the Millbrook estate as:

<blockquote>the headquarters of Leary and gang for the better part of five years, a period filled with endless parties, epiphanies and breakdowns, emotional dramas of all sizes, and numerous raids and arrests, many of them on flimsy charges concocted by the local assistant district attorney, [[G. Gordon Liddy]].<ref name=Sante>{{cite news |last=Sante |first=Lucy |title=The Nutty Professor |series='Timothy Leary: A Biography,' by Robert Greenfield |work=[[The New York Times Book Review]] |date=June 26, 2006 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/25/books/review/25sante.html?pagewanted=all |access-date=July 12, 2008 |url-access=registration |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120509165407/http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/25/books/review/25sante.html?pagewanted=all |archive-date=May 9, 2012 |url-status=live }}</ref></blockquote>

Others contest the characterization of Millbrook as a party house. In ''[[The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test]]'', [[Tom Wolfe]] portrays Leary as using psychedelics only for research, not recreation. When [[Ken Kesey]]'s [[Merry Pranksters]] visited the estate, they received a frosty reception.{{sfnp|Wolfe|1989|p=99}} Leary had the flu and did not play host.{{sfnp|Higgs|2006|p=78}} After a private meeting with Kesey and [[Ken Babbs]] in his room, he promised to remain an ally in the years ahead.{{sfnp|Leary|1983|p=206}}

In 1964, Leary, Alpert, and [[Ralph Metzner]] coauthored ''[[The Psychedelic Experience]]'', based on the ''[[Tibetan Book of the Dead]]''. In it, they wrote:

<blockquote>A psychedelic experience is a journey to new realms of consciousness. The scope and content of the experience is limitless, but its characteristic features are the transcendence of verbal concepts, of [[spacetime]] dimensions, and of the ego or identity. Such experiences of enlarged consciousness can occur in a variety of ways: sensory deprivation, yoga exercises, disciplined meditation, religious or aesthetic ecstasies, or spontaneously. Most recently they have become available to anyone through the ingestion of psychedelic drugs such as LSD, [[psilocybin]], [[mescaline]], [[dimethyltryptamine|DMT]], etc. Of course, the drug does not produce the transcendent experience. It merely acts as a chemical key—it opens the mind, frees the nervous system of its ordinary patterns and structures.{{sfnp|Leary|Alpert|Metzner|2008|p=11}}</blockquote>
[[File:Timothy Leary (1969 press photo).jpg|thumb|265x265px|Leary in 1969]]
Leary married model [[Nena von Schlebrügge|Birgitte Caroline "Nena" von Schlebrügge]] in 1964 at Millbrook. Both Nena and her brother Bjorn were friends of the Hitchcocks. [[D.&nbsp;A.&nbsp;Pennebaker]], also a Hitchcock friend, and cinematographer Nicholas Proferes documented the event in the short film ''You're Nobody Till Somebody Loves You''.<ref>{{cite web| last = Pennebaker| first = D. A.| title = ''You're Nobody Till Somebody Loves You''| publisher = Pennebaker Hegedus Films| url = https://phfilms.com/films/youre-nobody-till-somebody-loves-you/| access-date = February 3, 2018| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20180204124446/https://phfilms.com/films/youre-nobody-till-somebody-loves-you/| archive-date = February 4, 2018| url-status = live}}</ref> [[Charles Mingus]] played piano. The marriage lasted a year before von Schlebrügge divorced Leary in 1965. She married [[Tibetan Buddhism|Indo-Tibetan Buddhist]] scholar and ex-monk [[Robert Thurman]] in 1967 and gave birth to Ganden Thurman that same year. Actress [[Uma Thurman]], her second child, was born in 1970.

Leary met Rosemary Woodruff in 1965 at a [[New York City]] art exhibit, and invited her to Millbrook.<ref>{{cite news| title = Timothy Leary's Wife Drops Out| newspaper = [[Village Voice]]| date = February 5, 2002| url = https://www.villagevoice.com/2002/02/05/timothy-learys-wife-drops-out/| access-date = September 27, 2017| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170928150149/https://www.villagevoice.com/2002/02/05/timothy-learys-wife-drops-out/| archive-date = September 28, 2017| url-status = live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news | last = McLellan | first = Dennis | title = Rosemary W. Leary, 66; Ex-Wife of 1960s Psychedelic Guru | newspaper = [[Los Angeles Times]] | date = February 9, 2002 | url = https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2002-feb-09-me-leary9-story.html | access-date = September 27, 2017 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150503151636/http://articles.latimes.com/2002/feb/09/local/me-leary9 | archive-date = May 3, 2015 | url-status = live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news | last = Sward | first = Susan | title = Rosemary Woodruff – LSD guru's ex-wife | newspaper = [[SF Gate]] | date = February 9, 2002 | url = http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Rosemary-Woodruff-LSD-guru-s-ex-wife-2876113.php | access-date = September 27, 2017 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170928103348/http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Rosemary-Woodruff-LSD-guru-s-ex-wife-2876113.php | archive-date = September 28, 2017 | url-status = live }}</ref> After moving in, she co-edited the manuscript for Leary's 1966 book ''Psychedelic Prayers: And Other Meditations'' with Ralph Metzner and [[Michael D. Horowitz|Michael Horowitz]].<ref name=MAPS>{{cite web | last = Hoffmann | first = Martina | title = Rosemary Woodruff Leary – Psychedelic Pioneer | publisher = [[Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies|MAPS Bulletin]] | date = 2002 | url = https://www.maps.org/news-letters/v12n2/12253hof.html | access-date = September 27, 2017 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170710001312/http://www.maps.org/news-letters/v12n2/12253hof.html | archive-date = July 10, 2017 | url-status = live }}</ref> The poems in the book were inspired by the ''[[Tao Te Ching]]'', and meant to be used as an aid to LSD trips.<ref name=MAPS/><ref name=Chevallier2>Chevallier, Jim. [http://www.chezjim.com/ovum/castalia3.html#jean "Jean McCreedy and Psychedelic Prayers"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170928150008/http://www.chezjim.com/ovum/castalia3.html#jean |date=September 28, 2017 }}, ''Chez Jim/Ovum'', March 3, 2003</ref> Woodruff helped Leary prepare weekend multimedia workshops simulating the psychedelic experience, which were presented around the East Coast.<ref name=MAPS/>

In September 1966, Leary said in a ''[[Playboy]]'' magazine interview that LSD could cure homosexuality. According to him, a lesbian became heterosexual after using the drug.<ref>Marwick, Arthur. ''The Sixties: Cultural Revolution in Britain, France, Italy, and the United States''. Oxford University Press, 1998, p. 312.</ref><ref>{{cite magazine| title = Playboy Interview: Timothy Leary| magazine = [[Playboy]]| date = 1966| url = https://archive.org/stream/playboylearyinte00playrich#page/4/mode/2up| access-date = May 8, 2016| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20171011095538/https://archive.org/stream/playboylearyinte00playrich#page/4/mode/2up| archive-date = October 11, 2017| url-status = live}} "...the fact is that LSD is a specific cure for homosexuality."</ref> Like most of the psychiatric field, he later decided that homosexuality was not an illness.{{efn-ua|{{harvnb|Leary|1982|p=256}}: "Since homosexuality has always been a part of every society, you have to assume that there is something necessary, correct and valid - genetically natural - about it."}}

By 1966, use of psychedelics by America's youth had reached such proportions that serious concern about the drugs and their effect on American culture was expressed in the national press and halls of government. In response to this concern, Senator [[Thomas J. Dodd|Thomas Dodd]] convened Senate subcommittee hearings to try to better understand the drug-use phenomenon, eventually with the intention of "stamping out" such usage by criminalizing it. Leary was one of several expert witnesses called to testify at these hearings. In his testimony, Leary said, "the challenge of the psychedelic chemicals is not just how to control them, but how to use them."{{sfnp|Leary|1982|p=144}} He implored the subcommittee not to criminalize psychedelic drug use, which he felt would only serve to exponentially increase its usage among America's youth while removing the safeguards that controlled "set and setting" provided. When subcommittee member [[Ted Kennedy]] asked Leary whether LSD usage was "extremely dangerous", Leary replied, "Sir, the motorcar is dangerous if used improperly...Human stupidity and ignorance is the only danger human beings face in this world."{{sfnp|Leary|1982|p=151}} To conclude his testimony, Leary suggested that legislation be enacted that would require LSD users to be adults who were competently trained and licensed, so that such individuals could use LSD "for serious purposes, such as spiritual growth, pursuit of knowledge, or their own personal development."<ref>{{cite web| title = Legend of a Mind: Timothy Leary and LSD| publisher = The Pop History Dig| date = 2014| url = http://www.pophistorydig.com/topics/timothy-leary-1960s/| access-date = May 10, 2016| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160324040757/http://www.pophistorydig.com/topics/timothy-leary-1960s/| archive-date = March 24, 2016| url-status = live}}</ref> He argued that without such licensing, the U.S. would face "another era of prohibition."{{sfnp|Leary|1982|p=148}} Leary's testimony proved ineffective; on October 6, 1966, just months after the subcommittee hearings, LSD was banned in California, and by October 1968, it was banned nationwide by the Staggers-Dodd Bill.{{sfnp|Stevens|1983|p=431}}

In 1966, [[Folkways Records]] recorded Leary reading from his book ''The Psychedelic Experience'', and released the album ''The Psychedelic Experience: Readings from the Book "The Psychedelic Experience. A Manual Based on the Tibetan...".''<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.folkways.si.edu/timothy-leary/readings-from-the-book-the-psychedelic-experience-a-manual-based-on-the-tibetan-book-of-the-dead/documentary-prose/album/smithsonian |title=Smithsonian Folkways - The Psychedelic Experience: Readings from the Book "The Psychedelic Experience. A Manual Based on the Tibetan..." - Timothy Leary |work=Folkways.si.edu |date=March 20, 2013 |access-date=May 29, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150529221650/http://www.folkways.si.edu/timothy-leary/readings-from-the-book-the-psychedelic-experience-a-manual-based-on-the-tibetan-book-of-the-dead/documentary-prose/album/smithsonian |archive-date=May 29, 2015 |url-status=live }}</ref>

On September 19, 1966, Leary reorganized the IFIF/Castalia Foundation under the name the [[League for Spiritual Discovery]], a religion with LSD as its holy [[sacrament]], in part as an unsuccessful attempt to maintain legal status for the use of LSD and other psychedelics for the religion's adherents, based on a "freedom of religion" argument.<ref name=Lander/><ref name=UlrichJune2012/> Leary incorporated the League for Spiritual Discovery as a religious organization in [[New York State]], and its dogma was based on Leary's mantra: "drop out, turn on, tune in".<ref name=Lander/> ([[The Brotherhood of Eternal Love]] later considered Leary its spiritual leader, but it did not develop out of the IFIF.) [[Nicholas Sand]], the clandestine chemist for the Brotherhood of Eternal Love, followed Leary to Millbrook and joined the League for Spiritual Discovery. Sand was designated the "alchemist" of the new religion.<ref name=Grimesmay>Grimesmay, William. [https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/12/us/nicholas-sand-chemist-who-sought-to-bring-lsd-to-the-world-dies-at-75.html?mcubz=0 "Chemist Who Sought to Bring LSD to the World, Dies at 75"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170912102731/https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/12/us/nicholas-sand-chemist-who-sought-to-bring-lsd-to-the-world-dies-at-75.html?mcubz=0 |date=September 12, 2017 }}, ''[[New York Times]]'', May 12, 2017</ref> At the end of 1966, [[Nina Graboi]], a friend and colleague of Leary's who had spent time with him at Millbrook, became the director of the Center for the League of Spiritual Discovery in [[Greenwich Village]].<ref name=Forte>{{cite book|last=Forte|first=Robert|title=Timothy Leary: Outside Looking In|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NXqrOQAACAAJ|date=March 1, 1999|publisher=Park Press|page=79|isbn=978-0892817863|access-date=September 24, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160430042452/https://books.google.com/books/about/Timothy_Leary_Outside_Looking_In.html?id=NXqrOQAACAAJ|archive-date=April 30, 2016|url-status=live}}</ref>{{sfnp|Graboi|1991|p=207}} The Center opened in March 1967.{{sfnp|Graboi|1991|p=220}} Leary and Alpert gave free weekly talks there; other guest speakers included Ralph Metzner and Allen Ginsberg.<ref name=Forte/>{{sfnp|Graboi|1991|pp=222–224}} Leary's papers at the [[New York Public Library]] include complete records of the IFIF, the Castalia Foundation, and the League for Spiritual Discovery.<ref name=StatonJune2011>Staton, Scott. [https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/turn-on-tune-in-drop-by-the-archives-timothy-leary-at-the-n-y-p-l "Turn On, Tune In, Drop by the Archives: Timothy Leary at the N.Y.P.L."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170924224924/https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/turn-on-tune-in-drop-by-the-archives-timothy-leary-at-the-n-y-p-l |date=September 24, 2017 }}, ''[[The New Yorker]]'', June 11, 2011</ref>

In late 1966 and early 1967, Leary toured college campuses presenting a multimedia performance called "The Death of the Mind", attempting an artistic replication of the LSD experience.<ref name=Chevallier/>{{sfnp|Graboi|1991|p=206}} He said that the League for Spiritual Discovery was limited to 360 members and was already at its membership limit, but encouraged others to form their own psychedelic religions. He published a pamphlet in 1967 called [http://www.leary.ru/download/leary/Timothy%20Leary%20-%20Start%20Your%20Own%20Religion.pdf ''Start Your Own Religion''] to encourage people to do so.<ref name=Chevallier/>
[[File:Timothy-Leary-Los-Angeles-1989.jpg|thumb|Leary in 1989]]
Leary was invited to attend the January 14, 1967 [[Human Be-In]] by [[Michael Bowen (artist)|Michael Bowen]], the primary organizer of the event,<ref>{{cite web| title = Human Be-In in San Francisco 1967| work = The Allen Ginsburg Project| date = July 9, 2011| url = http://ginsbergblog.blogspot.co.uk/2011/07/human-be-in-in-san-francisco-1967-asv8.html| access-date = May 27, 2016| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160630044906/http://ginsbergblog.blogspot.co.uk/2011/07/human-be-in-in-san-francisco-1967-asv8.html| archive-date = June 30, 2016| url-status = live}}</ref> a gathering of 30,000 [[hippie]]s in San Francisco's [[Golden Gate Park]]. In speaking to the group, Leary coined the famous phrase "[[Turn on, tune in, drop out]]". In a 1988 interview with [[Neil Strauss]], he said the slogan was "given to him" by [[Marshall McLuhan]] when the two had lunch in New York City, adding, "Marshall was very much interested in ideas and marketing, and he started singing something like, 'Psychedelics hit the spot / Five hundred micrograms, that's a lot,' to the tune of [the well-known Pepsi 1950s singing commercial]. Then he started going, 'Tune in, turn on, and drop out.'"<ref>Strauss, Neil. ''Everyone Loves You When You're Dead: Journeys into Fame and Madness.'' New York: HarperCollins, 2011, 337-38</ref> Though the more popular "turn on, tune in, drop out" became synonymous with Leary, his actual definition with the League for Spiritual Discovery was: "''Drop Out''—detach yourself from the external social drama which is as dehydrated and ersatz as TV. ''Turn On''—find a sacrament which returns you to the temple of God, your own body. Go out of your mind. Get high. ''Tune In''—be reborn. Drop back in to express it. Start a new sequence of behavior that reflects your vision."<ref name=Lander/>

Repeated [[FBI]] raids ended the Millbrook era. Leary told author and Prankster [[Paul Krassner]] of a 1966 raid by Liddy, "He was a government agent entering our bedroom at midnight. We had every right to shoot him. But I've never owned a weapon in my life. I have never had and never will have a gun around."{{sfnp|Krassner|2000|p=304}}

In November 1967, Leary engaged in [[Leary–Lettvin debate|a televised debate]] on drug use with [[MIT]] professor [[Jerry Lettvin]].<ref name="debate">{{Citation |title=LSD: Lettvin vs Leary |date=November 30, 1967 |url=http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/7df2a7-lsd-lettvin-vs-leary |work=Open Vault from WGBH |access-date=December 21, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111027114834/http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/7df2a7-lsd-lettvin-vs-leary |archive-date=October 27, 2011 |url-status=live }}</ref>