Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out Read online

  Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out

  ISBN: 978-1-57951-105-0

  Copyright 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1990, 1999 by Timothy Leary

  Published by

  RONIN Publishing, Inc.

  PO Box 22900

  Oakland Ca 94609

  www.roninpub.com

  All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means electronic or mechanical, including photocopying recording or translating into another language, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without written permission from the author or the publisher, except for inclusion of brief quotations in a review.

  Library of Congress Card Number: 2009922666

  Printed in the United States of America

  Distributed to the book trade by PGW/Perseus

  Previously published as Politics of Ecstasy, chapters 12-22

  Foreword

  Hermes was the messenger of the gods and the brother of the goddess of wisdom, Athena. He was also something of a trickster. And, in his incarnation as Hermes Trismagistus, he served the role of being an initiator into the mystical depths of the ancient wisdom schools. Thus esoteric knowledge was once known as Hermeticism. Zeus rather liked him and made him his naughty messenger.

  Like Hermes, Timothy Leary was an “avowed rascal”—and his very delightful and poetic writings on the subject (he had an almost unparalled gift for word play), indicate that he understood the role of the rascal in an elevated, cosmological sense—i.e., the archetype of the trickster.

  The old panthiestic religions understood the importance of the trickster as a figure for spiritual awakening. So did the shamanistic cultures. Trickster is a major figure in American Indian folk wisdom. And also in Sufi tales. Leary implied that there is a certain type of “rascal”—with a certain grin and wink (and wisdom beyond wisdom)—who, in a spiritual sense, were far more trustworthy than the more sober types.

  In the Zen tradition, this is known as the School of Crazy Wisdom. Leary, himself, studied, or was otherwise acquainted with the masters of this tradition—Aleister Crowley, Milarepa, Ken Kesey, Lao Tsu, and Alan Ginsberg to name a few. But, Timothy Leary—in his own inimitable way—has become the twentieth century’s grand master of crazy wisdom, the Hermes of our age.

  In 1966, when I first heard the mantra, “Tune In, Turn On, Drop Out,” I was a well-adjusted college student in Wisconsin—planning to major in business administration. I expected to live a life according to the pattern that I saw established for me—help out in my father’s furniture and real-estate businesses and probably take them over, drink beer on the weekends and milk during the week. I had no inkling then that I was destined for a career communicating the realities of intuition, parapsychology and the wisdom traditions to the millions via television, radio and the internet. But, as I look back now on my own spiritual awakening, I can say that I responded—as did millions of my baby-boomer compatriots—to the siren call of Timothy Leary beckoning us to see reality in a fresher and larger way.

  I admire Leary’s work as a pioneer, a visionary, an explorer of consciousness, a systematizer, a social revolutionary and a scientist. But, I also realize that if Timothy Leary’s life were to be examined from the perspective of conventional morality, we would see a very different story. And the list of his high crimes and misdemeanors would be long indeed. So to me, Timothy Leary’s life and work stands as a testament to the value of crazy wisdom, to the Hermetic trickster archetype—in spite of the fact that this archetype will almost always encounter disapproval from the guardians of conventional morality and the status quo

  —Jeffrey Mishlove, Ph.D.

  Host, Thinking Allowed

  (National Public Television series)

  Author, The Roots of Consciousness

  President, Intuition Network

  Table Of Contents

  Foreword by Jeff Mishlove, Ph.D.

  Start Your Own Religion

  American Education as an Addictive Process

  Soul Session

  God’s Secret Agent A.O.S.3

  M.I.T. Is T.I.M. Spelled Backward

  The Buddha as Drop-Out

  Homage to Huxley

  The Mad Virgin of Psychedlia

  Homage to the Awe-full See-er

  The Molecular Revolution

  Neurological Politics

  Ronin Books

  You are God: Remember!

  1

  Start Your Own Religion

  The Purpose of Life Is Religious Discovery

  That intermediate manifestation of the divine process which we call the DNA code has spent the last 2 billion years making this planet a Garden of Eden. An intricate web has been woven, a delicate fabric of chemical-electrical-seed-tissue-organism-species. A dancing, joyous harmony of energy transactions is rooted in the 12 inches of topsoil which covers the rock metal fire core of this planet.

  Into this Garden of Eden each human being is born perfect. We were all born divine mutants, the DNA code’s best answer to joyful survival on this planet. An exquisite package for adaptation based on 2 billion years of consumer research (RNA) and product design (DNA).

  But each baby, although born perfect, immediately finds himself in an imperfect, artificial, disharmonious social system which systematically robs him of his divinity.

  And the social systems—where did they come from?

  Individual societies begin in harmonious adaptation to the environment and, like individuals, quickly get trapped into nonadaptive, artificial, repetitive sequences.

  When the individual’s behavior and consciousness get hooked to a routine sequence of external actions, he is a dead robot, and

  When the individual’s behavior and consciousness get hooked to a routine sequence of external actions, he is a dead robot, and

  When the individual’s behavior and consciousness get hooked to a routine sequence of external actions, he is a dead robot, and it is time for him to die and be reborn. Time to “drop out,” “turn on,” and “tune in.” This period of robotization is called the Kali Yuga, the Age of Strife and Empire, the peak of so-called civilization, the Johnson Administration, etc. This relentless law of death, life, change is the rhythm of the galaxies and the seasons, the rhythm of the seed. It never stops.

  Drop Out. Turn On. Tune In

  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.

  But the sequence must continue. You cannot stand still.

  Death. Life. Structure.

  Any action that is not a conscious expression of the drop-out-turn-on-tune-in-drop-out rhythm is the dead posturing of robot actors on the fake-prop TV studio stage set that is called American reality.

  Actions which are conscious expressions of the turn-on, tune-in, drop-out rhythm are religious.

  The wise person devotes his life exclusively to the religious search—for therein is found the only ecstasy, the only meaning.

  Anything else is a competitive quarrel over (or Hollywood-love sharing of) television studio props.

  How to Turn On

  To turn on is to detach from the rigid addictive focus on the fake-prop TV studio set and to refocus on the natural energies within the body.

  To turn on, you go out of your mind and:

  1. Come to your senses—focus on sensory energies.

  2. Resurrect your body—focus on somatic energies.

  3. Drift down cellular memory tracks beyond the body’s s
pace-time—focus on cellular energies.

  4. Decode the genetic code.

  Note well: at each of these levels (sensory, somatic, cellular, molecular), attention can be directed at energy changes within or without the body. If attention is directed externally during the session, the outside world is experienced in terms of a non-symbolic energy—language focus. Be careful. This can be shocking. The props of the TV studio stage set are suddenly experienced:

  1. As sensory (e.g., the room is alive, out of control, exploding with light and sound)

  2. As somatic (e.g., the room is alive, undulating with digestive rhythm)

  3. As cellular (e.g., all props and actors take on a stylized, mythic, reincarnate hue)

  4. As molecular (e.g., all props and actors shimmer impersonally as vibratory mosaics)

  Recognition eliminates fear and confusion. To turn on, you need maps and manuals.

  To turn on, you must learn how to pray. Prayer is the compass, the gyroscope for centering and stillness.

  Turning on is a complex, demanding, frightening, confusing process. It requires diligent yoga.

  Turning on requires a guide who can center you at the TV-stage-prop level and at the sensory, somatic, cellular, and molecular levels.

  When you turn on, remember: you are not a naughty boy getting high for kicks.

  You are a spiritual voyager furthering the most ancient, noble quest of man. When you turn on, you shed the fake-prop TV studio and costume and join the holy dance of the visionaries. You leave LBJ and Bob Hope; you join Lao-tse, Christ, Blake. Never underestimate the sacred meaning of the turn-on.

  To turn on, you need a sacrament. A sacrament is a visible external thing which turns the key to the inner doors. A sacrament must bring about bodily changes. A sacrament flips you out of the TV-studio game and harnesses you to the 2-billion-year-old flow inside.

  A sacrament which works is dangerous to the establishment which runs the fake-prop TV studio—and to that part of your mind which is hooked to the studio game.

  Each TV-prop society produces exactly that body-changing sacrament which will flip out the mind of the society.

  Today the sacrament is LSD. New sacraments are coming along.

  Sacraments wear out. They become part of the social TV-studio game. Treasure LSD while it still works. In fifteen years it will be tame, socialized, and routine.

  How to Tune In

  You cannot stay turned on all the time. You cannot stay anyplace all the time. That’s a law of evolution. After the revelation it is necessary to drop back in, return to the fake-prop TV studio and initiate small changes which reflect the glory and the meaning of the turn-on. You change the way you move, the way you dress, and you change your corner of the TV-studio society. You begin to look like a happy saint. Your home slowly becomes a shrine. Slowly, gently, you start seed transformations around you. Psychedelic art. Psychedelic style. Psychedelic music. Psychedelic dance.

  Suddenly you discover you have dropped out.

  How to Drop Out

  Drop out means exactly that: drop out.

  Most of the activity of most Americans goes into robot performances on the TV-studio stage. Fake. Unnatural. Automatic.

  Drop out means detach yourself from every TV drama which is not in the rhythm of the turn-on, tune-in, drop-out cycle.

  Quit school. Quit your job. Don’t vote. Avoid all politics. Do not waste conscious thinking on TV-studio games. Political choices are meaningless.

  To postpone the drop-out is to cop out.

  Dismiss your fantasies of infiltrating the social stage-set game. Any control you have over television props is their control over you.

  Dismiss the Judaic-Christian-Marxist-puritan-literary-existentialist suggestion that the drop-out is escape and that the conformist cop-out is reality. Dropping out is the hardest yoga of all.

  Make your drop-out invisible. No rebellion—please!

  To Drop Out, You Must Form Your Own Religion

  The drop-out, turn-on, tune-in rhythm is most naturally done in small groups of family members, lovers, and seed friends.

  For both psychedelic and legal reasons, you must form your own cult.

  The directors of the TV studio do not want you to live a religious life. They will apply every pressure (including prison) to keep you in their game.

  Your own mind, which has been corrupted and neurologically damaged by years of education in fake-prop TV-studio games, will also keep you trapped in the game.

  A group liberation cult is required.

  You must form that most ancient and sacred of human structures—the clan. A clan or cult is a small group of human beings organized around a religious goal.

  Remember, you are basically a primate. You are designed by the 2-billion-year blueprint to live in a small band.

  You cannot accept the political or spiritual leadership of anyone you cannot touch, con-spire (breathe) with, worship with, get high with.

  Your clan must be centered on a shrine and a totem spiritual energy source. To the clan you dedicate your highest loyalty, and to you the clan offers its complete protection.

  But the clan must be centered on religious goals. Religion means being tuned in to the natural rhythm. Religion is the turn-on, tune-in, drop-out process.

  Because you and your clan brothers are turned on, you will radiate energy. You will attract attention—hostility from the TV establishment, enthusiastic interest from rootless TV actors who wish to join your clan. Everyone basically wants to turn on, tune in, and drop out.

  Avoid conflict with the establishment. Avoid recruiting and rapid growth. Preserve clan harmony.

  Your clan must be limited to essential friends.

  You must guard against the TV power tendency toward expansion.

  Your clan cannot become a mail-order, mass-numbers organization.

  The structure of your clan must be cellular.

  The center of your religion must be a private, holy place.

  The activities of your religion must be limited to the turn-on, tune-in, drop-out sequence. Avoid commitments to TV-studio power games.

  You must start your own religion. You are God—but only you can discover and nurture your divinity. No one can start your religion for you.

  In particular, those Americans who use psychedelic chemicals—marijuana, peyote, LSD—must appraise their goals and games realistically. You smoke pot? Good. But why? As part of your personality game? As part of the American TV-studio perspective? To enhance your ego? As part of your TV role as hipster, sophisticate, rebel? Because it is the in-thing to do in your stage set? Because it is a social-psychological habit? Good. Keep on. The “pot game” is a fascinating scenario to act out, the entertaining game of illicit kicks.

  There is another way of viewing psychedelic drugs, including pot: from the perspective of history. For thousands of years the greatest artists, poets, philosophers, and lovers have used consciousness-expanding substances to turn on, tune in, drop out. As part of the search for the meaning of life. As tools to reach new levels of awareness. To see beyond the immediate social game. For revelation. For light in the darkness of the long voyage.

  Every great burst of activity has grown out of a psychedelic turn-on. The visionary then rushes back to tune in, to pass on the message. A new art form. A new mode of expression. He turns others on. A cult is formed. A new TV stage set is designed, one that is closer to the family-clan-tribal cell structure of our species.

  Do you wish to use marijuana and LSD to get beyond the TV scenario? To enhance creativity? As catalysts to deepen wisdom?

  If so, you will be helped by making explicit the religious nature of your psychedelic activities. To give meaning to your own script, to clarify your relationships with others, and to cope with the present legal setup, you will do well to start your own religion.

  How to Start Your Own Religion

  First, decide with whom you will make the voyage of discovery. If you have a family, certainly you will i
nclude them. If you have close friends, you will certainly want to include them. The question, with whom do I league for spiritual discovery? is a fascinating exercise.

  Next, sit down with your spiritual companions and put on a page the plan for your trip. Write down and define your:

  Goals

  Roles

  Rituals

  Rules

  Vocabulary

  Values

  Space-time locales

  Mythic context

  Here is an interesting exercise. You will learn a lot about yourself and your companions. You will see where you are and where you are not.

  You will find it necessary to be explicit about the way your clan handles authority, responsibility, sexual relations, money, economics, defense, communication.

  In short, you are forming not only your own religion but your own natural political unit. This is inevitable because the basic political unit is exactly the same as the basic spiritual grouping—the clan. Did you really believe that church was only where you went for an hour on Sunday morning?

  Make your clan unique. Do not slavishly copy the roles and language of other groups. The beauty of cellular life is that each unit is both so incredibly complexly similar and also so unique. The more you understand the infinite complexity of life, the more you treasure both the similarities and the differences. But you have to be turned on to see it. At the level of the studio-prop game, both the similarities and the differences are trivial.

  In defining the goal of your religion, you need not use conventional religious language. You don’t have to make your spiritual journey sound “religious.” Religion cannot be pompous and high-flown. Religion is consciousness expansion, centered in the body and defined exactly the way it sounds best to you. Don’t be intimidated by Caesar’s Hollywood fake versions of religiosity. If life has a meaning for you beyond the TV-studio game, you are religious. Spell it out.

  So write out your own language for the trip: God or evolution, acid or sacrament, guide or guru, purgatorial redemption or bad trip, mystic revelation or good high. Say it naturally.