I am 100 percent in favor of the intelligent use of drugs, and 1,000 percent against the thoughtless use of them, whether caffeine or LSD. And drugs are not central to my life.
Timothy LearyRead
At one point consciousness-altering devices like the microscope and telescope were criminalized for exactly the same reasons that psychedelic plants were banned in later years. They allow us to peer into bits and zones of Chaos.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote suggests that devices like microscopes and telescopes, much like psychedelic plants, were once seen as threats due to their ability to reveal hidden aspects of reality.
Timothy Leary's quote reflects on the historical resistance to tools that expand human understanding, such as microscopes and telescopes, which were once outlawed due to their potential to alter perceptions and reveal complex realities, similar to how psychedelic substances have been banned. This highlights a recurring fear in society regarding the expansion of consciousness and the exploration of chaos, which these devices and substances facilitate.
Themes
ConsciousnessUnderstandingChaosPerceptionExploration
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about scientific innovation at a conference.
More from Timothy Leary
All quotes →Think for yourself and question authority.
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There are three side effects of acid: enhanced long-term memory, decreased short-term memory, and I forget the third.
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The brain is not a blind, reactive machine, but a complex, sensitive biocomputer that we can program. And if we don't take the responsibility for programming it, then it will be programmed unwittingly by accident or by the social environnement.
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My advice to myself and to everyone else, particularly young people, is to turn on, tune in and drop out. By drop out, I mean to detach yourself from involvement in secular, external social games. But the dropping out has to occur internally before it can occur externally. I'm not telling kids just to quit school; I'm not telling people to quit their jobs. That is an inevitable development of the process of turning on and tuning in.
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The danger of psychedelic drugs, the danger of mind-opening, the danger of consciousness expansion, the danger of inner discovery is a danger to the establishment.
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