Timothy Leary lecture - UCLA January 1967 - video Dailymotion

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Transcript

00:00:00medical school in San Francisco and finally to Harvard where he served as a

00:00:06lecturer in clinical psychoanalysis. Dr. Leary at the age of 39 began

00:00:13experiments with psychedelics specifically LSD 25. In 1963 Dr. Leary

00:00:20and Richard Alpert were dismissed from Harvard in order to curb the

00:00:24undergraduate interest in LSD. Dr. Leary established in Mexico the International

00:00:32Foundation of Internal Freedom but the Mexican government demanded that he

00:00:37leave the country. He considers the current marijuana laws unjust and a

00:00:42violation of the Constitution specifically the First Amendment

00:00:46guaranteeing the right of spiritual exploration, the Fifth Amendment

00:00:51guaranteeing immunity of self-incrimination, and the Eighth and Ninth

00:00:55Amendments. At approximately ten minutes of one we will have a short break. Those of

00:01:01you who are interested in staying for a question-and-answer period will please

00:01:05please move to the front. Microphones will be set up at either side of the ballroom

00:01:10to accommodate those who wish to ask questions. Our only request is that you

00:01:15make your question only a question and not a statement so that as many people can

00:01:20ask Dr. Leary something as possible. And now it is my pleasure to welcome to the

00:01:25University Dr. Timothy Leary.

00:01:42Dr. Leary to continue the lecture also begun in the middle of a sentence. This time I am going to

00:01:57at UCLA, Los Angeles, California, United States of America, planet Earth, the year 1967 as

00:02:14time is reckoned in the common era, about a million or perhaps two million years after

00:02:21our species started its game, about two billion years after the genetic code began its game,

00:02:32about five billion years after God began his dance on this planet, well, we know where we

00:02:43are. The chemical I'm about to ingest is odorless, tasteless, and colorless. It's addictive.

00:03:13It can be lethal in large quantities. And it's harder and harder to get in its pure state.

00:03:34I have three things to say to you today. The first is that the only point of life is the

00:03:45religious quest. The second is that you must act out, express openly what you have learned

00:03:59in your religious experiences. And third, you must detach yourself from the immediate tribal game

00:04:11to find the timeless message within. Three things I have to say to you. First of all,

00:04:19when your life is over, you look back and you will remember that the only thing that had any point

00:04:25or meaning was your religious experience. By the religious experience, I mean the immediate direct

00:04:35ecstatic confrontation with the timeless energies which exist within you and any of your actions

00:04:44which do not center on the religious experience. Any of your actions which aren't leading you

00:04:54to get high, to center, are robot, peripheral, and eccentric. The religious search is the process of turning on.

00:05:11You have to turn on. Now after you've turned on, what do you do?

00:05:21You have to express it. You have to live it out. When you've contacted the divine process within,

00:05:28you'll discover to your astonishment that God is not, as you may have been told, a man who lived in

00:05:35the past

00:05:35and died and whose word is now preserved by such religious institutions as the Reader's Digest

00:05:46or the phenomenon of Christmas cards, nor the philosophy of Ronald Reagan.

00:05:56The divine process, if it's anything, if it can be described, and of course, man describes God at his own

00:06:04risk,

00:06:05but if it is to be described, it's closer to music. The divine process is a rhythm. It's a beat,

00:06:13which continues to manifest itself in sequences over and over again.

00:06:17Repetition. The same thing that's dancing in the stars, the same thing that's dancing inside the cells of your body,

00:06:24the same thing that's dancing inside the nucleus of the atom, the same problems of north, south, east, west, black,

00:06:30dark, invader, intrusion, escalation,

00:06:33water purification that we worry about at the political level. It's happening within every cell in your body.

00:06:38Indeed, every cell in your body is an organization of communication, defense, transportation, corruption, cleanliness,

00:06:47much more complicated than the city of New York. God's rhythm is expressed at every level of energy,

00:06:54and it's always sequenced. It's always cycle. It's always doubling back on itself.

00:06:59When you've turned on, you tune in on this beat, and then you have to start dancing, and the rest

00:07:06of your life becomes in tune

00:07:09with the rhythm that you're discovering within. After you turn on, you tune in.

00:07:18And you can't turn on and tune in unless you systematically, gently, aesthetically begin to detach yourself

00:07:31from the immediate tribal game, which is always anthill. And this process of detaching yourself,

00:07:40tuning in, we call drop out. You have to drop out.

00:07:46Now, it may seem eccentric to you that I, a middle-aged man, comes before you and tells you

00:07:54that you have to get religion. I'm a little astonished myself at being here and saying these things.

00:08:02Twenty-five years ago, I was a college undergraduate, meeting as we are today in rooms lit by electricity,

00:08:10listening to graying middle-aged men of the culture stand before us with microphones.

00:08:16Essentially, to present their philosophy of life, really to defend their point of view,

00:08:23to rationalize what they're doing, and with the implication that perhaps some of you would want to,

00:08:28some of us would want to follow the example of this speaker.

00:08:34Now, twenty-five years ago, when I was a college undergraduate, there was nowhere listed in the

00:08:41college catalog the courses that one might take

00:08:50to work into the profession, which I now belong to.

00:08:55You can look at your college catalog from aeroscience through to xerography and zoology,

00:09:01and you'll find no courses or majors in how to become a full-time searcher after the divine process.

00:09:09And the vocational counselors and the occupational psychologist won't help you either.

00:09:15You won't find my profession listed in the yellow pages of the phone book.

00:09:22Now, it's all taped out for you in the college catalog, beloved robots.

00:09:30Step by step, your life, any profession you want to choose, is there, as it was for me.

00:09:39If you want to go into politics, study history, law, political science,

00:09:45and when you graduate, join one of the two parties.

00:09:50And with a little hard work and luck and an Ipanic smile,

00:10:00you may get to be mayor or governor.

00:10:07Medicine, it's all taped out for you, beloved robots.

00:10:11Pre-med, medical school, internship, residency.

00:10:15Practice.

00:10:16In 15 years, you'll have your Cadillac.

00:10:21Interestingly enough, when I was an undergraduate,

00:10:23and I'm sure it's true here today,

00:10:27if you want to follow the profession of founding a religion,

00:10:32the last place that you'd probably encourage to do this

00:10:35would be in the divinity school.

00:10:40What is my profession?

00:10:42In other times, and in other countries today,

00:10:46my profession, which is the searcher of the divine process,

00:10:49goes under the name of guru,

00:10:52alchemist,

00:10:53shaman,

00:10:55psychophysicist,

00:10:57spiritual teacher.

00:10:59Now,

00:11:02my profession has a long and ancient history.

00:11:04It may be the oldest profession around.

00:11:07It's nothing new.

00:11:11I'm going to mention a few of my predecessors,

00:11:14with no implication that I equal them,

00:11:16but just as any young beginner profession looks to the textbooks

00:11:21and the men in his field in the past,

00:11:25so I do the same today.

00:11:28About a generation ago,

00:11:30two generations ago,

00:11:32there was a man at Harvard who was practicing my profession.

00:11:35He wrote what I think to be the best book ever written by an American psychologist.

00:11:40It's called The Varieties of Religious Experience.

00:11:43The man I'm talking about is, of course, William James.

00:11:46Now, William James is using a psychedelic drug.

00:11:50In his chapter on the mystic experience in The Varieties,

00:11:54as a matter of fact,

00:11:55he describes the effect of nitrous oxide,

00:11:58that's laughing gas,

00:11:59in wilder poetry and enthusiasm

00:12:02than we ever used to describe LSD when we were at Harvard.

00:12:07And Professor James at Harvard ran into a little trouble, too.

00:12:10They were saying,

00:12:13Do you know that Professor James is running nitrous oxide parties in the back bay?

00:12:25At other times in the past, such men as William Blake,

00:12:28did you know he was a psychologist?

00:12:31Shankar Sharan,

00:12:32the great visionaries and mystics of the Catholic and Protestant Church,

00:12:36the Hasidic thread throughout the Jewish religion,

00:12:39the Sufis of Islam,

00:12:41back to the Buddha and Lao Tzu,

00:12:45their tradition of finding meaning within,

00:12:49of finding some method of turning on,

00:12:51of finding the divine process inside,

00:12:53has been going on.

00:12:54It always runs along as a thread in human history,

00:12:58underlying the exploits of politicians and soldiers and legislators,

00:13:03but it's there.

00:13:04It's the most powerful tradition that men have ever passed on.

00:13:12There's something that most people don't understand about the visionary quest or the psychedelic experience.

00:13:18It's not just a glorious kick.

00:13:22Interestingly enough,

00:13:25there's just as much lawful regularity in the processes of consciousness which exist at many levels inside your nervous system

00:13:32and your cellular structures as there are in the forms of energy which we see around us.

00:13:36Just as the microscope 300 years ago opened up the possibility for man of bringing into vision lawful regular sequences

00:13:48of energy which were hithertofore invisible,

00:13:51so do the psychedelic drugs today bring into vision and awareness lawful processes and energy transactions which exist inside the

00:14:00nervous system which are just as real as the 3,000 words in the English language by which most of

00:14:07us define what we call normal reality.

00:14:11And I'm sorry to say that the procedures of my profession require just as much hard work, disciplined attention, and

00:14:22regular practice as do the disciplines of physics or chemistry or politics.

00:14:28The psychedelic experience is no shortcut.

00:14:30There's no instant mysticism.

00:14:32There's no instant psychoanalysis.

00:14:33There's no instant anything.

00:14:34Just as a person who first looked at the microscope could look at it and he didn't know what it

00:14:40was,

00:14:41so the initiate, the person who takes LSD for the first time, is whirled into a cellular, capillary, tissue, protein,

00:14:50molecule universe that is completely incomprehensible to him.

00:14:54Now, when the microscope was first discovered, someone could look at it and say,

00:14:58Ooh, amazing.

00:15:00Bugs.

00:15:03An artist might look at it and say, Amazing design.

00:15:07I'll paint new pictures.

00:15:10The neurotic would look at the microscope and say, Ooh, my mother-in-law.

00:15:16The guy from the establishment would look in the microscope and say,

00:15:23There's no place for us and for this in our Bibles and medical tracts.

00:15:28Clearly, this is the work of the devil.

00:15:31Arrest that man.

00:15:38But there's always those few people that look at the microscope and they begin thinking,

00:15:45What is this all about?

00:15:47And they keep looking.

00:15:49They keep looking.

00:15:50They keep looking.

00:15:51They look at a leaf.

00:15:53They look at a snowflake.

00:15:54They look at a raindrop.

00:15:55They look at a drop of blood from a sick person.

00:15:57A drop of blood from a whale person.

00:15:59And slowly, painfully, after hundreds of observations and careful record keeping,

00:16:06they begin to detect some lawful regularities here.

00:16:11And they start drawing little designs.

00:16:12And then they call someone else who's not a neurotic or who's not a police from the establishment looking for

00:16:19the devil.

00:16:20They say, Hey, look at this drop of blood from a sick person.

00:16:23And look at the drop of blood from a whale person.

00:16:27Do you catch on?

00:16:28Do you get the point?

00:16:31The science of cytology or microbiology was hard work.

00:16:36It took constant observation, record keeping, passing on to your fellow man, replication, checking out of observations.

00:16:46And very slowly, a science comes into being.

00:16:49Now, the science of turning on and tuning in is nothing new to our generation.

00:16:55Every generation, every historical year in the past, has had its visionary voyagers.

00:17:00They've kept their logs.

00:17:02They've passed on their methods.

00:17:03They've passed on their observations.

00:17:05And we can check out the discoveries of the Buddha or Shankarashara or St. John of the Cross,

00:17:11just as a student of physics today can check out Galileo's experiments with inclined planes.

00:17:19And, you know, it happens to work.

00:17:23The divine process, the genetic code in its many manifestations, has been playing this game for two billion years.

00:17:29And there are regularities.

00:17:31Human language changes from century to century, but the nervous system doesn't really.

00:17:37The processes of energy around us, as registered by our sense organs, don't really change.

00:17:41The problems of survival on this strange, dark planet haven't changed that much in the last hundred thousand years.

00:17:47And these are the messages, ancient and orthodox, which are rediscovered, reinterpreted, and added to by the psychedelic voyager today.

00:17:59Now, let me tell you something about the process of turning on.

00:18:05You have to have a sacrament.

00:18:08What is a sacrament?

00:18:10A sacrament is something visible and external that you don't worship, but that you use as a key for getting

00:18:17you out of the immediate time-space tribal game and turning you on to what's inside.

00:18:24Now, if you look back over the history of human religions and the science of consciousness, you will realize, after

00:18:33a while, that man has used almost every possible technique for turning on.

00:18:39And, oddly enough, he's used opposite techniques.

00:18:43It staggers the imagination to think of something that man, at one time or another, hasn't used to turn on.

00:18:49He's used silence and solitude, or he's crowded together in large groups in small rooms to make chants and noises.

00:18:57He has used sexual renunciation, or he has used the carefully worked out, exquisitely detailed, the sacramonial techniques of tantric

00:19:06Buddhism, where your mate is the goddess and making love is the way to turn on to the divine plan.

00:19:15He has used fasting, and he has used careful diet, as macrobiotic people do today.

00:19:23Now, the sacrament is always seen as dangerous.

00:19:27And let's not cut corners here.

00:19:30Any sacrament which works is dangerous in two ways.

00:19:34In the first place, it flips you out of your mind.

00:19:36It flips you out of the space-time coordinates of Westwood and 1967.

00:19:43And if it doesn't do that, beloved robots, it's not working.

00:19:47You have to go out of your mind to come to your senses, to use your head, to resurrect your

00:19:53body, and to travel back in the soft time machinery, which is your tissue and cellular apparatus.

00:20:03But the real danger of a sacrament which works is its danger to the current establishment.

00:20:09If the sacrament works, it throws into different perspective the rituals and the orthodoxy and the structure of the time.

00:20:21Now, over and over again, we've seen this operate in human history.

00:20:24The Buddha, 2,500 years ago, tried all the methods.

00:20:28After he dropped out of the palace, he wandered around, he fasted, flagellated himself, studied the Vedas.

00:20:33None of them worked because they'd been made too institutional.

00:20:36You know, he sat down under the tree.

00:20:38You might call his turn-on technique the first sit-in.

00:20:42And he said, I'm going to stay here until I make it.

00:20:49About 500 years ago or so, a man named Martin Luther looked at the current establishment.

00:20:55You know, at that time, they said, in order to find God, you have to get a lawyer.

00:21:00It's all in this book, but the lawyers are the only ones who can have this book.

00:21:03And you have to pay the lawyer fees, which were called penances and indulgences, and he'll make it for you.

00:21:09It didn't make any sense to Luther.

00:21:11And he said, uh-uh, we've got to drop out of that.

00:21:15He's looked around for a new sacramental method.

00:21:19The sacramental method is always a new technological device.

00:21:23It's the first time the fellow ran down and got a reed and blew through it to reproduce breathing or

00:21:28took a skin and put it over a log and reproduced the heartbeat, the pulse of the universe, and he

00:21:34turned him on that way.

00:21:36It's always a new technological device, which is seen as unnatural by society.

00:21:40In the case of Martin Luther, the thing that made his religion go was a very dangerous device, the printing

00:21:48press.

00:21:48See, the printing press really pulled the rug out of the establishment because the printing press meant that you could

00:21:54print the Bible in large quantities.

00:21:56That meant, you mean, Martin, you're saying that any layman in his house can have this sacred thing and without

00:22:07the cardinals and the establishment, he can confront God by himself?

00:22:13Yeah, Martin Luther said, that's exactly it.

00:22:16It's you standing there naked with your turn-on instrument, the Bible, and making it.

00:22:23But Martin, if God had intended that man uses an artificial technique like a printing Bible, he would have made

00:22:32man that way.

00:22:41Now, another thing about your sacrament is if it turns you on, it confuses you.

00:22:46It's got to confuse you because you're just not prepared by the tribal dialect for what you're going to discover.

00:22:52Unfortunately, I must announce to you, Robus, that God doesn't speak English.

00:22:55He's been speaking English for about four or five hundred years.

00:22:58Before that, he spoke Latin.

00:23:00Before that, Greek, then Sanskrit.

00:23:02The facts of the matter is I read my cellular scripture.

00:23:06God's been talking cellular and molecular for hundreds of millions of years.

00:23:11And the biochemical phenomena is the key to deciphering what the divine process hath written.

00:23:21And remember, there's that regularity.

00:23:23You have to have maps.

00:23:24You have to have manuals.

00:23:26You have to have a guide.

00:23:27You have to be planned.

00:23:28Otherwise, you'll be very confused.

00:23:30And it's hard work.

00:23:31It's repetition.

00:23:32It's keeping your attention over and over again on this ancient voyage.

00:23:39Now, I want to give you a little illustration of this.

00:23:43The first time that I was ever turned on biochemically was by my father at the age of seven or

00:23:52eight.

00:23:54My father was a dentist.

00:23:56I had a toothache.

00:23:57I went to his office and he decided to take it out.

00:24:00And I remember he put that rubber mask over my mouth.

00:24:03And I saw his hand on the dial.

00:24:05And then, uh, zoom!

00:24:09I was at another level of consciousness.

00:24:11I don't remember too much about it except I laughed a lot.

00:24:15I can speculate now as to what I was laughing about.

00:24:18But then, uh, I could see his hand on the dial.

00:24:22He took me down and I left his office and went to school and so forth.

00:24:25But, um, many years later, about two years ago, as a matter of fact, uh, I was about to go

00:24:32to India

00:24:32where I was going to spend six months studying with some, uh, world-famous, uh, members of my profession,

00:24:38including Lama Arnagarika Govinda, the, uh, Lama's Buddhist scholar.

00:24:43And, uh, I didn't, I needed some fillings in my teeth.

00:24:47I didn't want to have a toothache on the banks of the Ganges.

00:24:50So, um, I started going to a dentist in Poughkeepsie, New York.

00:24:53It was about 15 miles away from where I lived.

00:24:55And, uh, I went 13 or 14 times and, um, the dentist used a, uh, consciousness contracting drug.

00:25:04Every time I went, he'd shoot me up with Novocaine.

00:25:07Now, uh, like booze or like, uh, the, uh, opiate derivatives, uh, uh, Novocaine is a consciousness contracting drug.

00:25:16It narrows attention down.

00:25:18You don't feel, uh, what's there.

00:25:20Uh, the psychedelic drugs, uh, marijuana, LSD, peyote, uh, open you up, uh, they go in the opposite direction.

00:25:26You're much too aware of, uh, sometimes what's going on.

00:25:29So, uh, so that I had, uh, several sessions, uh, with the dentist and, uh, I had to go back

00:25:33one more time, um, to have some scraping and cleaning.

00:25:38But before I went, Dr. Ralph Metzner, who has worked with us for about seven years, he's a Harvard psychopharmacologist,

00:25:44had a terrible toothache.

00:25:45And he rushed to the dentist, and it turned out he had a wisdom tooth impacted, and, uh, it was

00:25:49a complicated operation, and the dentist used gas.

00:25:53And I'll never forget that afternoon when, uh, Dr. Metzner came back to our center at Millbrook, and he walked

00:25:58in.

00:25:58Now, Dr. Metzner had taken LSD about a hundred times.

00:26:00He was the editor of the Psychedelic Review.

00:26:02Uh, he knew his way around the consciousness, uh, expansion territory.

00:26:06But he walked in, and he fell down on the couch, and he said, wow, forget about LSD.

00:26:15So, um, the next day, I had to go to the dentist.

00:26:21And I sat in the chair, and I, uh, the dentist said, well, uh, we're just going to do a

00:26:26little scraping.

00:26:26I won't use any note, can't you, today?

00:26:27I said, uh, doctor, uh, uh, how about some gas?

00:26:34Yeah, well, don't be silly, uh, they're going to hurt us.

00:26:35Well, uh, Dr. Metzner got to have gas.

00:26:41So, uh, he was humoring me, so, uh, he put the, uh, rubber mask over my mouth, and I could

00:26:46see his hand, uh, had a lot of black hair on it.

00:26:49And, uh, he turned the dial, and then, rum!

00:26:54How's that another level of consciousness?

00:26:57Now, the point of this story is, that, uh, the nervous system, the 13 billion cells in your brain, not

00:27:02to mention the, uh,

00:27:03uh, intercellular protein ladder of memory, is highly structured.

00:27:08Uh, it's not accidental.

00:27:10There are absolute lawful regularities there.

00:27:13Your nervous system is, uh, somewhat of the proportions of the galaxies that surround us.

00:27:18Your normal mind, uh, with its 3,000, uh, labels, uh, everything you think of as normal reality is to

00:27:26the rest of your brain, uh, as the planet Earth is to all these galaxies that surround us.

00:27:31And when you take a trip, you are going, out of your mind, off this planet, uh, into, uh, endless

00:27:39sequence of, uh, galactic possibilities, which have their own regularities.

00:27:44So, zoom!

00:27:45In the dentist's office in Poughkeepsie, I went out of my mind, and where did I go?

00:27:48I went right back to the dentist's chair at the age of seven or eight.

00:27:51And I began to laugh.

00:27:54And I realized that everything that had happened in the ensuing years that I thought was reality was a dream.

00:28:01Because real reality was this particular cluster of neurons, uh, in one of these galactic, uh, interstellar spaces in my

00:28:09own nervous system.

00:28:10When you're there, that's reality.

00:28:12Uh, when you take a psychedelic drug and you're in your, uh, soft membrane of your ear, reality is sound

00:28:18waves.

00:28:18Uh, if you take LSD and you're into your eye, reality is this thunderous beat of, uh, light bounding off

00:28:25objects at the speed of 186,000 miles a second.

00:28:28In these soft flower-pedal, uh, mosaic swamps of, uh, millions of, uh, rods and cones.

00:28:33So, there I was.

00:28:35I was home again.

00:28:36And everything that happened between these two dental chair operations was a dream.

00:28:40But what an incredible dream!

00:28:43The detail!

00:28:45Uh, I went to high school, and I went to college,

00:28:48and I went to, uh, World War, and I got my doctorate.

00:28:52Incredible!

00:28:53The detail!

00:28:54And, uh, then I, uh, went to Harvard, and I left Harvard.

00:28:57Hmm.

00:29:00Um.

00:29:03And I, I felt chagrined, uh, like how seriously I took it.

00:29:07I got angry, and I was jealous, and I was competitive, and I was depressed.

00:29:12But yet, how poignant that I did care, that the dream was so, uh, involved, that, uh, I, I did

00:29:20cry, and I did laugh, and I did triumph, and I did make love, and I did get jealous.

00:29:25So, uh, well, if that's the way, uh, God, uh, designed it, what can I do?

00:29:35There was one fleeting moment when I thought I could jump out of the dentist chair, and I could run

00:29:39down the street shouting,

00:29:39get me home, get me home, get me back to Millbrook, or I'm Timothy Leary.

00:29:45Then it seemed kind of untidy to have that dental napkin around, and, uh, I knew that, that, that he,

00:29:52I would probably, obviously, he knew more than I did, and he could get me back.

00:29:56And I said, all right, I never thought that the revelation would come this way with black hair in his

00:30:03hand.

00:30:06But the beauty, the grandeur, the detailed, um, exquisitiveness of that was such that, um, I'm ready to go back,

00:30:15Doc.

00:30:16Thy will be done.

00:30:20And then, uh, I see his hand in the dial again, and he took the mask off, and I looked

00:30:23up at him, and I said, whew, you know, how long has this been going on?

00:30:28He said, well, I just had, well, it was to me a deep, religious experience.

00:30:33It challenged the essence of my paranoia, and of my faith, and I saw the whole thing in a different

00:30:38perspective, and, oh, well, yeah, I said, uh, we give gas, uh, people have nightmares and dreams, they see animals,

00:30:44that's nothing.

00:30:44And, uh, you see, the dentist couldn't afford to have people having religious experiences in his office.

00:30:51Or they'd take his union card away, right?

00:30:55What time is it?

00:30:57Yeah.

00:30:59Uh, the point of that story, and it's an ancient story, the, uh, Chinese Taoist philosopher, Chancellor, said many, uh,

00:31:07centuries ago,

00:31:08that he had a dream that he was a butterfly, and after that dream, he was never sure whether he

00:31:14was a Chinese,

00:31:14philosopher who, uh, dreamt he was a butterfly, or a butterfly who, uh, talked philosophy.

00:31:23Because the, the terror of the situation, the terror of the neurological, ontological energy situation that we're flung into is,

00:31:32that, uh, there are as many levels of reality as there are energy systems around us, and structures, and soft

00:31:38machines to decode this energy.

00:31:39Uh, that's both the, uh, terror and the glory of the human, philosophic, or religious situation.

00:31:47Uh, turning on is not easy play, because the, the, the problem with, uh, our current sacraments,

00:31:58which are biochemicals known as psychedelic, the problem is they work.

00:32:05You better be prepared to go out of your mind.

00:32:09Does it come as any surprise that our sacrament today is chemical?

00:32:14We've used the wonders of modern chemistry, uh,

00:32:19to do everything to make our lives more comfortable,

00:32:22and to titillate ourselves with every form of, uh, amusement, like television.

00:32:27We've used modern chemistry to, uh, move us faster, and faster, and faster.

00:32:31I don't know where.

00:32:33We've used the wonders of modern chemistry to keep us healthy,

00:32:35and we've used the wonders of modern chemistry in the most amazing, uh, ways of turning ourself off

00:32:41through tranquilizers, barbiturates, and booze.

00:32:45Does it come as any surprise that we're finally getting around to using the wonders of modern chemistry

00:32:49to do that only meaningful thing in life,

00:32:52to find the divine process within, to turn on to the real meaning?

00:33:00Now, after you've turned on, you have to tune in.

00:33:04You have to express the glory, or the horror, or the confusion, or the clarity, uh,

00:33:11uh, in some acts of beauty, or of expression,

00:33:15you have to start dancing to the beat that you've, uh, turned on to.

00:33:22Um, it's no accident that we have psychedelic art today.

00:33:26If you look back, and it's what we're going through has been, you know,

00:33:28it's been going on over and over again, the same cycle.

00:33:31Drop out, turn on, tune in.

00:33:34Structure, drop out, turn on, tune in, drop out.

00:33:36Turn on, tune in.

00:33:40Drop out, turn on, you know,

00:33:43the phenomenon of psychedelic art is one of the oldest, uh, symptoms of the, uh, of the process.

00:33:50Every group who has stumbled onto a new sacrament, uh,

00:33:54gets this revelation, and they rush back to the tribe,

00:33:56and they put on the, uh, walls of the cave with the berries,

00:33:59or they, uh, uh, scratch out in the sand,

00:34:02or they, uh, get some new way

00:34:05to, to, to, to express it.

00:34:07You've got to express it.

00:34:08Uh, mainly for yourself, so you can remember it,

00:34:10so you can reconfirm it.

00:34:11But then, of course, to turn on other people as well.

00:34:13And then you build Chartre Cathedral.

00:34:15Then you build a Taj Mahal.

00:34:16You weave a Persian rug.

00:34:17You've got to express it somehow.

00:34:19Because that beat, you know, it's the old,

00:34:22basic deep rhythm.

00:34:23You've got to start tuning into it.

00:34:26And, of course, you're always successful.

00:34:28If you've really been turned on, uh,

00:34:30because most of mankind

00:34:32is caught imprinted in the tribal game.

00:34:34And when someone staggers back from the mountain,

00:34:36or from the desert, or from the lifeboat,

00:34:38or from wherever it was,

00:34:39and they, they, they start.

00:34:41This is how it is.

00:34:42As I saw it, it unfailingly communicates.

00:34:45Because the turned-down guy

00:34:47who's tuning in to your sense organs,

00:34:50he's tuning into your, uh,

00:34:52soft, uh, membranes,

00:34:53he's tuning into your cellular beat,

00:34:54he's tuning into your heart.

00:34:55It's no accident

00:34:56that the new art always takes on.

00:34:58It's no accident today that,

00:35:00like, can you name me,

00:35:01uh, one internationally famous

00:35:03rock and roll band

00:35:04that isn't, doesn't have in its repertoire

00:35:06a hymn or an ode, uh, to, uh, psychedelic drugs?

00:35:11Uh, this is part of the,

00:35:12the historical process.

00:35:14Um, we are here in Los Angeles,

00:35:17uh, this week to, uh,

00:35:21tune in.

00:35:22We're presenting at Santa Monica's

00:35:23Thursday and Saturday night

00:35:24our psychedelic celebration.

00:35:26Uh, we're using psychedelic art

00:35:28to, uh, reproduce and induce

00:35:30psychedelic experience

00:35:31to show what a trip is like.

00:35:32Now, we've got ourselves, uh,

00:35:34we turned on

00:35:35and, uh, we're tuning in

00:35:37and we got ourselves caught.

00:35:38Uh, I'm caught right now

00:35:40in show business.

00:35:42Uh, you know, I, I, I can't stop.

00:35:45Uh, we, uh, owe so much money,

00:35:48uh, to the, uh, agents

00:35:50and to the, uh, you know,

00:35:52the, uh, unions

00:35:54and the ushers and so forth.

00:35:55Whether we, we, we've been caught

00:35:56in this, um, this, uh, this process.

00:35:59We have recapitulated

00:36:00in the last few years

00:36:01in a very small, trivial way.

00:36:02The history of Christianity,

00:36:04uh, we're trapped

00:36:04with our big, uh, cathedrals

00:36:06and mortgages.

00:36:06And, um, uh, I'm dropping out.

00:36:09Uh, this is the last time, uh,

00:36:11you're going to see me

00:36:12in this role.

00:36:13Well, it's the last time

00:36:14you're going to see

00:36:14our psychedelic celebrations,

00:36:16uh, in this form.

00:36:17Because, uh, we, uh,

00:36:19you got to keep,

00:36:20this process, it's cyclical.

00:36:22You turn on, then you tune in

00:36:25and you get your structure,

00:36:25you weave your oriental rugs

00:36:26and then you're in danger

00:36:27of selling them, right?

00:36:29Uh, and then when you get to that,

00:36:30you've got to drop out again.

00:36:32Turn on, tune in, drop out.

00:36:33Now, I want to end, um, by, um,

00:36:36in the next, just ten minutes,

00:36:37by, uh, talking about dropping out.

00:36:40And to do this,

00:36:41I'm going to drop out, uh,

00:36:42right in front of you.

00:36:43Uh, I've been talking, uh,

00:36:45the professor, uh, game.

00:36:46And I have the professor uniform on.

00:36:49Uh, now you've listened to

00:36:51many people talk to you

00:36:52with, uh, microphones

00:36:53and electric lights

00:36:54and, uh, with shoes and ties.

00:36:56Um, I want, let's all drop out

00:36:59of the, uh, this 20th century game.

00:37:01You know, people have only been

00:37:03talking with microphones

00:37:04and electricity for about 50 years.

00:37:06You know that?

00:37:06You know, like, we think

00:37:07it's the only way, uh,

00:37:08to pass on, uh, the message.

00:37:10And it's not.

00:37:11Uh, for thousands of years,

00:37:13for tens of thousands of years,

00:37:14for hundreds of thousands of years,

00:37:16men have been, uh, sitting down,

00:37:19uh, by, uh, candlelight.

00:37:20Would you turn the lights off?

00:37:22Um, and, um, barefoot

00:37:26to talk about, um, what's what?

00:37:30Just a mic.

00:37:30Yeah.

00:37:35Yeah.

00:37:59I am, uh, taking off

00:38:00my shoes and socks.

00:38:08Now, this may appear eccentric,

00:38:12but for thousands of years,

00:38:15men who have cared about

00:38:16what it's all about

00:38:17have been sitting

00:38:19on the floor

00:38:22in front of natural light

00:38:24with bare feet

00:38:26talking the way I am now.

00:38:30It's the most ancient

00:38:33method of communication.

00:38:36It's, uh,

00:38:38sliding a little bit out

00:38:39out of, um,

00:38:41the 20th century

00:38:42electronic,

00:38:44electric

00:38:46atmosphere.

00:38:49And the message

00:38:50I'm going to pass on

00:38:51is the oldest message

00:38:53of all.

00:38:56Beloved robots,

00:38:58you've got

00:38:59to drop out.

00:39:01Now, I'll give you a little

00:39:03of my own personal history

00:39:04to illustrate, uh,

00:39:05this point.

00:39:08I was born

00:39:11a mutant.

00:39:13I was born

00:39:14perfect.

00:39:17I was born

00:39:18a Buddha.

00:39:20Uh,

00:39:21I'm an acid head.

00:39:22I'm a nucleic acid head.

00:39:24I talk to my cells,

00:39:26or I listen to my cells,

00:39:27and my cells tell me

00:39:31that the genetic code

00:39:33inside every cell

00:39:35in my body

00:39:36has been working

00:39:38for two billion years

00:39:39on what we might call

00:39:41improved product design.

00:39:45And my DNA code

00:39:46is like a Detroit, uh,

00:39:48plant design center.

00:39:50And for two billion years,

00:39:52my DNA code

00:39:53has been sending out,

00:39:54uh, consumer research,

00:39:57what you call RNA,

00:39:58uh, nucleic acid,

00:40:00uh, messengers.

00:40:02How's the climate

00:40:03out there?

00:40:04Oh, a glacier's coming?

00:40:05Yeah, let's grow

00:40:06a little more hair

00:40:07in the next one.

00:40:12Oh, uh,

00:40:13it's so snowy out there,

00:40:14so they're eating us up, huh?

00:40:16Well, let's change

00:40:16the color this year

00:40:17to white.

00:40:21Uh,

00:40:21what is she like,

00:40:22uh, this millennium?

00:40:23Uh, blue eyes?

00:40:24Okay, a little more blue

00:40:25in the next design.

00:40:30I was born

00:40:32the DNA code's

00:40:33best answer

00:40:34at the time

00:40:36to the energy system

00:40:37on this planet.

00:40:40I was born a mutant.

00:40:41I was born perfect

00:40:43at the time.

00:40:44And then what happened to me?

00:40:47Well,

00:40:48I fell into the hands

00:40:49of my mother and father.

00:40:52Mom and dad

00:40:53went to work

00:40:53as quickly

00:40:55and relentlessly

00:40:56as they could

00:40:57to rob me

00:40:58of my Buddhahood

00:40:59and to make me

00:41:01into a good boy.

00:41:06At the age

00:41:07of five or six,

00:41:08my parents did something

00:41:10which my genetic code

00:41:11thinks is quite deplorable.

00:41:14At that tender,

00:41:16susceptible age,

00:41:17they turned me over

00:41:18to some strangers

00:41:20who hung around

00:41:22a primary school

00:41:23pushing addictive drugs.

00:41:26the drugs

00:41:27were tribal symbols

00:41:30and the drug pushers

00:41:32that hung around

00:41:33those primary schools

00:41:33were my teachers.

00:41:36I wonder if the same thing

00:41:38happened to most of you.

00:41:41You know,

00:41:42each one of you

00:41:43was born perfect.

00:41:44A complete

00:41:46two billion year

00:41:46deck of cards

00:41:48was in your hands.

00:41:49You were all born

00:41:50Buddhas.

00:41:51Don't you remember?

00:41:54What happened?

00:41:57Probably the same thing

00:41:58that happened to me.

00:42:02The tension

00:42:03between the generations,

00:42:04young and old,

00:42:05is the oldest tension

00:42:06in human history,

00:42:07my cells tell me,

00:42:09is particularly

00:42:10difficult today.

00:42:12At no time

00:42:13in human history

00:42:14are two generations

00:42:15farther apart

00:42:16than the people

00:42:17under 25

00:42:18and the people

00:42:20over 50.

00:42:22Now,

00:42:24I'm here to preach

00:42:25harmony

00:42:25and union.

00:42:27I don't want

00:42:28any of you

00:42:29to rush home

00:42:29and beat up

00:42:30on Mom and Dad.

00:42:33Indeed,

00:42:34I suggest

00:42:34that when you're ready,

00:42:36when you're spiritually

00:42:37ready to do so,

00:42:39go home

00:42:40and turn on

00:42:40Mom and Dad.

00:42:47Now,

00:42:48I'm quite serious

00:42:49about this.

00:42:50See,

00:42:51this is the

00:42:52ancient,

00:42:52ancient

00:42:53setup.

00:42:55Young versus

00:42:56the old.

00:42:57You've got

00:42:57to drop out

00:42:58of the old man's

00:43:00game.

00:43:01For thousands

00:43:02and thousands

00:43:02of years,

00:43:06aged

00:43:07and probably

00:43:08impotent men,

00:43:10east and west,

00:43:11have been sending

00:43:12young,

00:43:13seed-carrying

00:43:15men

00:43:16out

00:43:17to kill each other.

00:43:19Why?

00:43:20To defend

00:43:22the chess pieces

00:43:24of status

00:43:24and external power

00:43:26that go along

00:43:27with

00:43:28menopausal

00:43:29mentality.

00:43:36When,

00:43:37you see,

00:43:37we were all born

00:43:38turned on.

00:43:39We were all born

00:43:40completely hooked

00:43:42up to the whole

00:43:42process.

00:43:4413 billion cells

00:43:45all radiating

00:43:46in tune

00:43:47with each other

00:43:48and what's going

00:43:49on outside.

00:43:50And we've been

00:43:50robbed,

00:43:51step by step

00:43:52by step,

00:43:52of this internal

00:43:53power.

00:43:55Men seek

00:43:56external power

00:43:58when they've lost

00:43:59the internal

00:43:59power.

00:44:01Men who are

00:44:02sad,

00:44:03sad,

00:44:03sickness,

00:44:04age,

00:44:04death,

00:44:05begin to grab

00:44:06on the outside.

00:44:08And don't kid

00:44:09yourselves,

00:44:10beloved young

00:44:11robots,

00:44:11for thousands

00:44:12and thousands

00:44:13of years,

00:44:14aged and

00:44:15probably impotent

00:44:15men in the east

00:44:16and west,

00:44:18Athens and

00:44:18Sparta,

00:44:21Persia and

00:44:22Athens,

00:44:23France and

00:44:24England,

00:44:25for thousands

00:44:26of years,

00:44:27these aged men

00:44:28have been

00:44:29fingering

00:44:30the lovely

00:44:32long tube

00:44:33of power

00:44:33which has

00:44:34just been

00:44:35given them.

00:44:36It was the

00:44:37spear,

00:44:37it was the

00:44:38sword,

00:44:39it was the

00:44:39longbow,

00:44:41those lovely

00:44:41cylinders of

00:44:42external power.

00:44:44Now,

00:44:45come on.

00:44:47Are you going

00:44:48to fall for

00:44:48this?

00:44:49You've got

00:44:50to drop

00:44:50out.

00:44:51Now,

00:44:52by dropping

00:44:53out,

00:44:53I don't mean

00:44:54any acts

00:44:55of rebellion.

00:44:56Don't vote,

00:44:57don't picket,

00:44:58don't protest,

00:44:59no visible

00:45:01sign,

00:45:02because anything

00:45:02you do in the

00:45:03way of overt

00:45:04political activity

00:45:05is playing the

00:45:06game,

00:45:08it's playing

00:45:08the power

00:45:09game.

00:45:10Dropping

00:45:10out means

00:45:11gently,

00:45:13invisibly,

00:45:14beautifully

00:45:14finding what's

00:45:16inside and

00:45:17expressing it

00:45:18slowly in a

00:45:19cellular fashion

00:45:19around you.

00:45:21Now,

00:45:21there are a lot

00:45:21of misunderstandings

00:45:22about drop

00:45:23out.

00:45:24You say,

00:45:24Timothy,

00:45:25you just can't

00:45:26go in front of

00:45:27high school kids

00:45:28and college kids

00:45:29and tell them

00:45:29to drop out

00:45:30of school.

00:45:33Beloved robots,

00:45:34I've got to.

00:45:36Are you under

00:45:37any illusions

00:45:37about the fact

00:45:38that UCLA

00:45:39is sponsored

00:45:41by taxes

00:45:42paid by

00:45:43menopausal

00:45:44people to

00:45:44make you

00:45:45like them?

00:45:51Now,

00:45:52another

00:45:52misapprehension

00:45:53here is that

00:45:54dropping out

00:45:55is an escape.

00:45:56People say to me

00:45:56over and again,

00:45:57middle-aged

00:45:58people with a

00:45:59scotch in

00:45:59their hand

00:45:59usually.

00:46:02Now,

00:46:03this is all

00:46:04very interesting.

00:46:05I'm sure I'll

00:46:06grant you that

00:46:06you can find

00:46:07God and beauty

00:46:08and wisdom

00:46:08within,

00:46:09but it's an

00:46:09escape with

00:46:10LSD.

00:46:11The real way

00:46:11to do it

00:46:12is to slug it

00:46:13out here

00:46:13with mortgages.

00:46:14You've got to

00:46:14do it through

00:46:15suffering.

00:46:16You've got to,

00:46:16that's the real

00:46:17reality,

00:46:18and there's no

00:46:18way you can

00:46:19avoid that.

00:46:21Beloved robots,

00:46:23that's the big

00:46:24lie.

00:46:24The real

00:46:25addictive

00:46:26narcotic

00:46:26process in

00:46:27this country

00:46:28is the

00:46:29establishment.

00:46:30Now,

00:46:30do you know

00:46:31what addictive

00:46:31narcosis is?

00:46:33I've never

00:46:33taken heroin,

00:46:34but I've talked

00:46:34to a lot of

00:46:35junkies,

00:46:35and they say

00:46:36it goes like

00:46:37this.

00:46:37You stick the

00:46:38needle in

00:46:39your vein,

00:46:40and then very

00:46:41quickly you

00:46:42fall into this

00:46:42kind of womb-like,

00:46:44gauzy cotton,

00:46:47pleasant situation

00:46:49where the

00:46:49things that

00:46:50go on out

00:46:50there,

00:46:51what's really

00:46:51going on,

00:46:52you don't care

00:46:52about.

00:46:53It's so

00:46:54cozy.

00:46:55It's so

00:46:56cozy,

00:46:57and it's

00:46:57always so

00:46:58pleasant,

00:46:58and all you

00:46:59want to do

00:46:59is to keep

00:47:00it coming.

00:47:00That's the

00:47:01only thing

00:47:01you're concerned

00:47:02with,

00:47:02is to keep

00:47:03this process

00:47:03coming into

00:47:04your vein

00:47:05that makes

00:47:05it so warm

00:47:06and soft

00:47:07and cottony

00:47:07cozy.

00:47:08You good

00:47:09boy,

00:47:09now you're

00:47:09in high

00:47:10school.

00:47:10Yes,

00:47:11now you get

00:47:11a little

00:47:11car.

00:47:12Isn't that

00:47:12nice?

00:47:13Doesn't that

00:47:13feel good?

00:47:14Yeah.

00:47:14Now college,

00:47:15get a bigger

00:47:16car.

00:47:16Oh yes,

00:47:17you're doing

00:47:17fine.

00:47:18Just keep

00:47:19it coming.

00:47:20Doesn't that

00:47:20feel good?

00:47:21There's nothing

00:47:21to worry about.

00:47:22There you go.

00:47:23Now you're

00:47:24a junior

00:47:24executive.

00:47:25Oh yes.

00:47:25Now you get

00:47:26a nice car.

00:47:27Yeah.

00:47:28Get a nice

00:47:28split level

00:47:29house.

00:47:29Isn't that

00:47:29good now?

00:47:30And look

00:47:30at that

00:47:31television.

00:47:31Isn't that

00:47:31great?

00:47:32Now what do

00:47:33you want?

00:47:33Yeah.

00:47:33Oh you're

00:47:33doing fine

00:47:34now.

00:47:34Yeah.

00:47:35You're

00:47:35going to

00:47:35take over

00:47:36the office.

00:47:36Now you get

00:47:37to have

00:47:37that winter

00:47:38in Florida.

00:47:39Doesn't that

00:47:39feel good?

00:47:40What's there

00:47:41to worry about?

00:47:41It's going

00:47:42fine.

00:47:42Got your

00:47:43insurance

00:47:43paid?

00:47:44Oh you're

00:47:44doing wonderful.

00:47:45Fine.

00:47:45You're

00:47:45all set?

00:47:46Yeah.

00:47:46Now we

00:47:46got the

00:47:47senior

00:47:47citizens

00:47:47house.

00:47:48Isn't

00:47:48that

00:47:48beautiful?

00:47:49Wonderful

00:47:49color

00:47:49television.

00:47:50There you

00:47:51go.

00:47:52Wasn't

00:47:52that

00:47:52easy?

00:48:01The real

00:48:01hard thing

00:48:02to do

00:48:02is to

00:48:03drop

00:48:03out.

00:48:03Now what

00:48:04does

00:48:04dropping

00:48:04out mean?

00:48:04It means

00:48:05you come

00:48:05home one

00:48:06day and

00:48:07you say

00:48:07I won't

00:48:08play it

00:48:09anymore

00:48:09George

00:48:09V.

00:48:10I'm

00:48:10sorry

00:48:11LBJ.

00:48:12I won't

00:48:13play it

00:48:13anymore.

00:48:17Then what

00:48:18do you

00:48:18do?

00:48:19Then you

00:48:20discover

00:48:21you're a

00:48:22two billion

00:48:22year old

00:48:23piece of

00:48:23soft

00:48:24machinery

00:48:24on this

00:48:24strange

00:48:25and rather

00:48:25unfriendly

00:48:26planet

00:48:27and where

00:48:27do you

00:48:27go from

00:48:28there?

00:48:28You really

00:48:29have to be

00:48:30creative.

00:48:31How are you

00:48:32going to

00:48:32spend the

00:48:32next 40

00:48:3250 years?

00:48:34How are

00:48:35you going

00:48:35to survive

00:48:35with this

00:48:36hostile

00:48:37species

00:48:37around you

00:48:38that are

00:48:38going to

00:48:38eat you

00:48:39up?

00:48:40Push

00:48:41you down?

00:48:41What are

00:48:42you going

00:48:42to do?

00:48:43The drop

00:48:43out has

00:48:44to become

00:48:45creative.

00:48:46You have

00:48:46to start

00:48:47right at

00:48:47scratch

00:48:48barefoot in

00:48:49front of

00:48:49the candle

00:48:50and you

00:48:50figure out

00:48:51where do

00:48:52we go

00:48:52from

00:48:52here.

00:48:53Dropping

00:48:54out has

00:48:54always been

00:48:55the toughest

00:48:56procedure.

00:48:57Staying in

00:48:58is the easy

00:48:59addictive

00:48:59way.

00:49:02Now,

00:49:03don't vote.

00:49:05Don't take

00:49:06jobs.

00:49:07Don't belong

00:49:08to political

00:49:09parties.

00:49:09Remember back

00:49:10in 1962

00:49:11we elected

00:49:12a peace

00:49:13candidate?

00:49:13fight?

00:49:15Do you

00:49:16think it

00:49:16makes any

00:49:16difference

00:49:17who wins

00:49:17the fight

00:49:18in China?

00:49:19In Poland

00:49:20the Catholic

00:49:21cardinal agrees

00:49:22completely with

00:49:23Gomelko that

00:49:24we've got to

00:49:24keep dresses

00:49:25long and

00:49:26keep people

00:49:27working hard.

00:49:29Menopausal

00:49:30mentality

00:49:32simply quarrels

00:49:33over who's

00:49:33going to run

00:49:34the show.

00:49:34But menopausal

00:49:36mentality wants

00:49:37to pass laws

00:49:37to keep you

00:49:39coming along.

00:49:41Now,

00:49:42what are we

00:49:42going to do

00:49:42with this

00:49:43older generation?

00:49:44You see,

00:49:44you young people

00:49:45are just about

00:49:45a majority

00:49:46now.

00:49:48What are you

00:49:48going to do?

00:49:48Now,

00:49:49obviously we

00:49:49can't,

00:49:50as the

00:49:50Berkeley

00:49:51radicals

00:49:51want us

00:49:51to do,

00:49:52you know,

00:49:52they've

00:49:52corrupted

00:49:52our motto

00:49:53turn on

00:49:53tune and

00:49:54drop out

00:49:54in Berkeley

00:49:54now.

00:49:55They say

00:49:56tune in,

00:49:58drop out,

00:49:58and take

00:49:59over.

00:50:00Now,

00:50:01I'm sorry,

00:50:01this is

00:50:03menopausal

00:50:03mentality.

00:50:04It grieves

00:50:04me to see

00:50:05young people

00:50:05who think

00:50:05they're far

00:50:06out and

00:50:06avant-garde

00:50:07and activists

00:50:07repeating

00:50:08these same

00:50:09old lines

00:50:09about power,

00:50:10student power,

00:50:11got to take

00:50:12over the

00:50:12university.

00:50:13Like,

00:50:13what would

00:50:13Jerry Rubin

00:50:14or Mary

00:50:14Sabo do

00:50:15if they

00:50:15became

00:50:15chancellor?

00:50:16Well,

00:50:17the first

00:50:17thing they'd

00:50:17do would

00:50:18be ban

00:50:18LSD.

00:50:20But what

00:50:21are you

00:50:21going to

00:50:21do,

00:50:21you young

00:50:22people,

00:50:22when you

00:50:22start

00:50:22turning on

00:50:23and tuning

00:50:23in and

00:50:24dropping

00:50:24out with

00:50:25this

00:50:25enormous

00:50:27group of

00:50:2750-year-olds

00:50:29who aren't

00:50:30going to give

00:50:31up power?

00:50:31We can't

00:50:32pass laws

00:50:33because we're

00:50:33not into

00:50:33that anymore,

00:50:34are we?

00:50:35The way

00:50:36it operates,

00:50:37the way

00:50:37anything that

00:50:38lives and

00:50:38grows,

00:50:39operates,

00:50:39my cells

00:50:40tell me,

00:50:41is in

00:50:41the cellular

00:50:41fashion.

00:50:42We all

00:50:43start as

00:50:43a single

00:50:43cell.

00:50:44You have

00:50:45to do

00:50:45it yourself,

00:50:46then find

00:50:46two or

00:50:47three friends,

00:50:48then you've

00:50:48got the

00:50:48beginnings of

00:50:49a tribe,

00:50:49we're all

00:50:50primates,

00:50:51we're all

00:50:51tribal animals,

00:50:52then very

00:50:53slowly you

00:50:53begin turning

00:50:54on other

00:50:55people.

00:50:56Now,

00:50:56what are we

00:50:56going to

00:50:56do about

00:50:56the older

00:50:56generation?

00:50:57I'm quite

00:50:58serious.

00:50:59The young

00:50:59people have

00:51:00got to go

00:51:00home and

00:51:02turn on

00:51:02mom and

00:51:02dad.

00:51:03See,

00:51:04here's what

00:51:04you do.

00:51:04On your

00:51:05next vacation,

00:51:06after you've

00:51:06started this

00:51:07process,

00:51:07you go

00:51:08home,

00:51:09like who's

00:51:10going to

00:51:10turn on

00:51:10LBJ?

00:51:12See,

00:51:12I'm not

00:51:12going to

00:51:12do it.

00:51:13It's going

00:51:13to be

00:51:14Linda Bird.

00:51:17That may

00:51:18sound far

00:51:18out,

00:51:19but statistics,

00:51:20Time Magazine

00:51:21says that

00:51:2120% of

00:51:22college students

00:51:23today are

00:51:24using marijuana

00:51:24LSD.

00:51:25That's that

00:51:25last time

00:51:26issue on

00:51:27youth.

00:51:28Of course,

00:51:28the percentage

00:51:29of youngsters

00:51:30who are using

00:51:31LSD and

00:51:31marijuana are

00:51:32centered in

00:51:33the better

00:51:34colleges.

00:51:34It's the

00:51:34Ivy League

00:51:35colleges,

00:51:35the California

00:51:36colleges,

00:51:36the University

00:51:37of Chicago,

00:51:38there are

00:51:39very few

00:51:40problems with

00:51:40pot in

00:51:41Mississippi

00:51:42State

00:51:42Teachers

00:51:43College.

00:51:45We're

00:51:45bourbon

00:51:45drinkers,

00:51:46huh?

00:51:47So that

00:51:48means that

00:51:49the people

00:51:50who are in

00:51:50this country

00:51:50today,

00:51:51with their

00:51:52menopausal

00:51:52mentalities,

00:51:53escalation,

00:51:54de-escalation,

00:51:55credibility gaps,

00:51:55and so forth,

00:51:57the one thing

00:51:58that they've got

00:51:58going for them

00:51:59are their

00:51:59kids.

00:52:00And their

00:52:00kids,

00:52:00where did

00:52:01the kids

00:52:01go to

00:52:01school?

00:52:01They went

00:52:02to school

00:52:02at Harvard,

00:52:03right?

00:52:03They went

00:52:04to school

00:52:04at UCLA,

00:52:05didn't you?

00:52:07Linda Bird?

00:52:08So the

00:52:08dialogue has

00:52:09got to be,

00:52:10sooner or

00:52:10later you're

00:52:10going to have

00:52:11to come home

00:52:11and you're

00:52:11going to have

00:52:12to sit down

00:52:12in your

00:52:13living room

00:52:13with Dad.

00:52:15Hello,

00:52:16Daddy Bird.

00:52:18Son,

00:52:19would you like

00:52:19to have a

00:52:19drink?

00:52:21No,

00:52:21Dad.

00:52:22I don't

00:52:23think I'll

00:52:23have a

00:52:23drink right

00:52:23now.

00:52:24Dad,

00:52:26don't you

00:52:27think you've

00:52:27done enough?

00:52:30Don't you

00:52:31think you've

00:52:31worked hard

00:52:31enough now?

00:52:32You ran

00:52:33for the

00:52:34Senate 30

00:52:34years ago,

00:52:35Dad.

00:52:37Don't you

00:52:37think you

00:52:37should rest,

00:52:38Dad?

00:52:39Why don't

00:52:39you,

00:52:41Daddy Bird,

00:52:43why don't

00:52:44you just

00:52:45retire now

00:52:46and spend

00:52:47the 10

00:52:47years left

00:52:49finding God.

00:52:50Come to

00:52:51your senses.

00:52:52Learn to

00:52:52use your

00:52:52eyes and

00:52:53your ears.

00:52:54Run barefoot

00:52:55on the

00:52:55beach.

00:52:56Can you

00:52:57do that?

00:52:58Now,

00:52:59we're going

00:52:59to have to

00:52:59take away

00:52:59all your

00:53:00toys.

00:53:02UCLA

00:53:03students,

00:53:04we cannot

00:53:04let the

00:53:05menopausal

00:53:06mentality

00:53:06vote.

00:53:07Nobody

00:53:08over 50

00:53:08should be

00:53:09allowed to

00:53:09vote.

00:53:14They

00:53:14shouldn't

00:53:14be allowed

00:53:15to have

00:53:15power.

00:53:16They

00:53:16shouldn't

00:53:16be allowed

00:53:16to have

00:53:17cars

00:53:17hurling

00:53:18around.

00:53:18What's

00:53:19a 60

00:53:19year old

00:53:19lady doing

00:53:20in a

00:53:20car?

00:53:23She

00:53:24should be

00:53:24sitting

00:53:24somewhere

00:53:25out in

00:53:26the meadow

00:53:29smoking

00:53:29marijuana.

00:53:39Now,

00:53:40as you,

00:53:41you've got to

00:53:42start your

00:53:42own religions.

00:53:43you've got

00:53:43to get a

00:53:44few friends

00:53:44together

00:53:45and figure

00:53:46out what

00:53:46life is

00:53:47all about

00:53:47and write

00:53:48down your

00:53:49little chart.

00:53:49In the state

00:53:50of New York,

00:53:50to start a new

00:53:51religion,

00:53:51it takes six

00:53:52people,

00:53:53a hundred

00:53:53bucks,

00:53:53and a

00:53:53lawyer.

00:53:55A hundred

00:53:55bucks is for

00:53:56the lawyer.

00:53:58You've got to

00:53:59get six

00:53:59people to

00:54:00sit down

00:54:00with you

00:54:01and lay

00:54:03their blue

00:54:03chips on

00:54:04the line

00:54:05and figure

00:54:06out on

00:54:06paper

00:54:08what you

00:54:09think life

00:54:09is all

00:54:09about,

00:54:10how you're

00:54:11going to

00:54:11find

00:54:11meaning,

00:54:12how you're

00:54:13going to

00:54:13turn on

00:54:14to the

00:54:14divine

00:54:14revelation.

00:54:15Use any

00:54:15sacrament

00:54:16you want.

00:54:17Use any

00:54:17ritual you

00:54:18want.

00:54:19Don't

00:54:19borrow the

00:54:20rituals from

00:54:20anyone else.

00:54:21The thought

00:54:22that young

00:54:22people would

00:54:23be using

00:54:23in their

00:54:24religions

00:54:24the particular

00:54:25rituals and

00:54:26jargon that

00:54:26we use in

00:54:27our small

00:54:27religion would

00:54:28shock me.

00:54:29You've got to

00:54:30start your

00:54:30own religion.

00:54:32Now,

00:54:32after you do

00:54:33this you're

00:54:35going to

00:54:35be in a

00:54:36little trouble

00:54:37with Caesar.

00:54:38This is the

00:54:39ancient dialogue

00:54:40what belongs

00:54:41to Caesar and

00:54:42what belongs

00:54:43to God.

00:54:44I'm going to

00:54:45give you a

00:54:46simple formula

00:54:49for protecting

00:54:50your spiritual

00:54:51quest.

00:54:52Anything that

00:54:53moves out

00:54:53there on

00:54:55the highways,

00:54:56the waterways,

00:54:57the airways,

00:54:58the automobiles,

00:54:59the airplanes,

00:55:00the banks,

00:55:01the weapons,

00:55:02the land,

00:55:02anything out

00:55:03there,

00:55:04that belongs

00:55:05to Caesar.

00:55:06He's controlling

00:55:07that with

00:55:08guns.

00:55:09If you don't

00:55:10like the

00:55:10particular

00:55:10Caesar,

00:55:11vote him

00:55:11out of

00:55:11office or

00:55:12throw him

00:55:13out of

00:55:13office.

00:55:13That's been

00:55:14done for

00:55:14years.

00:55:15But it has

00:55:16nothing to

00:55:16do with

00:55:17the real

00:55:17spiritual

00:55:18meaning of

00:55:18life,

00:55:21which takes

00:55:22place inside

00:55:23the kingdom

00:55:23of heaven.

00:55:24Now,

00:55:25where is the

00:55:25kingdom of

00:55:25heaven?

00:55:26The kingdom

00:55:27of heaven is

00:55:28your body.

00:55:29The gates

00:55:30to Eden are

00:55:30your sense

00:55:31organs and

00:55:31the boundaries

00:55:32of heaven

00:55:34is your

00:55:35skin.

00:55:36Remember what

00:55:37the man

00:55:37said?

00:55:38Seek ye the

00:55:38kingdom of

00:55:39heaven,

00:55:39it's within

00:55:40you.

00:55:41Now,

00:55:41he didn't

00:55:41mean that

00:55:42metaphorically,

00:55:44but he meant

00:55:44that literally

00:55:45within you,

00:55:46inside your

00:55:47body,

00:55:47is the

00:55:48kingdom of

00:55:48heaven.

00:55:50No one

00:55:51has the

00:55:52right to

00:55:52tell you

00:55:53what you

00:55:54do inside

00:55:54your own

00:55:55body.

00:55:55Why?

00:55:56Because inside

00:55:57your own

00:55:57body,

00:55:58you are

00:55:58God.

00:55:59Inside my

00:56:00body,

00:56:00I'm

00:56:00God.

00:56:01I can

00:56:01change the

00:56:02levels.

00:56:02I can

00:56:03change the

00:56:03climate.

00:56:04I can

00:56:04change the

00:56:05whole

00:56:05procedures only

00:56:06inside my

00:56:07body.

00:56:08Now,

00:56:08because I'm

00:56:09doing this

00:56:10and I'm

00:56:10God

00:56:10inside my

00:56:11own body,

00:56:12that gives

00:56:12me no

00:56:12right to

00:56:13rush out

00:56:13on the

00:56:13freeway and

00:56:14stop the

00:56:14cars and

00:56:15say,

00:56:15I'm the

00:56:15new

00:56:15Messiah,

00:56:16folks.

00:56:18Because the

00:56:18freeway belongs

00:56:19to Caesar.

00:56:20And my

00:56:21divinity ends

00:56:22exactly where it

00:56:23begins, at the

00:56:24ends of my

00:56:25sense organs and

00:56:26my skin.

00:56:28Now, what

00:56:31touches the

00:56:32delicate flowers

00:56:33of my eyes,

00:56:35or what

00:56:36vibrates against

00:56:37my eardrum and

00:56:38filters through the

00:56:39soft, liquid-filled

00:56:40canals of my

00:56:41ear?

00:56:41Who and what

00:56:42touches my

00:56:43skin is God's

00:56:45business, mine.

00:56:46What I

00:56:47introduce in my

00:56:48body, sexually

00:56:50or chemically,

00:56:51is my

00:56:53business and

00:56:55nobody else's.

00:57:01Now, at the

00:57:01present time in

00:57:02the United States,

00:57:02there are lots of

00:57:03laws telling you

00:57:04the color of the

00:57:05person you can

00:57:06introduce in your

00:57:07body.

00:57:07That's called

00:57:08miscegenation laws.

00:57:09They are profane

00:57:11and they're

00:57:11irreligious and

00:57:13they've got to be

00:57:13disregarded.

00:57:14There are lots of

00:57:15laws today in the

00:57:16United States

00:57:17governing what

00:57:18you can put inside

00:57:19your body to

00:57:20change your

00:57:21consciousness.

00:57:22These laws are

00:57:23atheistic and

00:57:25violations of the

00:57:26sanctity of the

00:57:27human body.

00:57:29Now, big brother

00:57:30in Athens, Rome,

00:57:32Washington, FDA,

00:57:33FBI, public

00:57:34health, he's

00:57:35always interested in

00:57:36our welfare,

00:57:37right?

00:57:39He can say,

00:57:40but we're doing it

00:57:40for your own

00:57:41good.

00:57:41The color of the

00:57:43person that you go

00:57:44to bed with or the

00:57:44kind of chemical you

00:57:46put in your body is

00:57:47our business because

00:57:47we want you to be

00:57:48happy, healthy

00:57:50robots.

00:57:52Sorry, FDA, FBI,

00:57:54Mr. Rome.

00:57:55Uh-uh.

00:57:57Now, what you can

00:57:57do, Mr. FDA in

00:57:59Rome, is this.

00:58:00You can put a

00:58:01label on the

00:58:01package and you

00:58:03can send the

00:58:04IFDA lectures here

00:58:06to lecture to us.

00:58:07Fine.

00:58:08You can put the

00:58:11message, the

00:58:11warning on the

00:58:12package.

00:58:12Even if I want to

00:58:13kill myself, it's

00:58:15my business because

00:58:16is there one myth

00:58:17or one religious

00:58:18theological system

00:58:22in human history

00:58:23that didn't allow

00:58:23God to end the

00:58:25universe, whether

00:58:26it's Vishnu taking

00:58:27his divine sleep

00:58:28or the God of the

00:58:30Old Testament

00:58:30thundering it down

00:58:31in fire or just

00:58:33you turning the

00:58:34button off because

00:58:34you're coming back.

00:58:35It's an endless,

00:58:36timeless process.

00:58:37Don't worry about

00:58:38that.

00:58:38If I want to kill

00:58:39myself quickly through

00:58:41cyanide or slowly

00:58:43through camel cigarettes,

00:58:45it's my business.

00:58:47Now, Mr. Big

00:58:49Brother in

00:58:50Washington, Rome can

00:58:51put the label on

00:58:52the package.

00:58:52He can say,

00:58:53warning, cigarette

00:58:54smoking causes lung

00:58:55cancer.

00:58:57Okay?

00:58:58He can put,

00:58:59warning, cyanide

00:59:00causes death through

00:59:01stomachache.

00:59:03He can put,

00:59:04warning, LSD

00:59:05causes death

00:59:06rebirth.

00:59:08He can put,

00:59:09warning, marijuana

00:59:11brings you to

00:59:12your senses.

00:59:13No!

00:59:19But what I do

00:59:20within is my business.

00:59:21Now, if the

00:59:22things I put in me

00:59:23lead me to rush

00:59:24around outside

00:59:25disturbing Caesar's

00:59:26order, arrest me.

00:59:29If the things I put

00:59:30in my body cause me

00:59:31to be untidy or to

00:59:32break laws out there,

00:59:34I have no defense.

00:59:35There are plenty of

00:59:35laws to protect

00:59:37public decorum and

00:59:39highway, byway

00:59:40safety.

00:59:41Those are Caesar's

00:59:42laws, fine.

00:59:42But in the

00:59:43sanctity of my

00:59:44own home, with

00:59:45my family, my

00:59:46co-religionists, in

00:59:47front of our

00:59:48shrines, smoking

00:59:49marijuana or

00:59:50camel cigarettes, or

00:59:52even if we want to

00:59:52be as reckless as to

00:59:53drink some booze now

00:59:54and then.

00:59:56That's our business.

00:59:58Now, one final word of

01:00:00warning.

01:00:01As you turn on, tune in,

01:00:03and drop out, you're

01:00:06going to discover that

01:00:07you're a mutant, that

01:00:08you're perfect, that

01:00:09you're God, because you

01:00:11are.

01:00:11But be careful.

01:00:13If you rush home and

01:00:15say, well, Daddy Bird,

01:00:18I'm God, your father's

01:00:20going to say, mother,

01:00:22come here, call the

01:00:24doctor.

01:00:24Yes, he's come home

01:00:25from UCLA and he

01:00:26says he's God.

01:00:30You're likely to end

01:00:32up in a psychiatrist's

01:00:33office or worse if you

01:00:34go around announcing

01:00:35your two-billion-year-old

01:00:36divinity, which is an

01:00:39ironic commentary on

01:00:41the atheism and

01:00:42external addiction of

01:00:45our culture.

01:00:46At other times, and

01:00:48indeed, in most places

01:00:51in the world today, like

01:00:53India, in the East, if a

01:00:55man comes down to the

01:00:56marketplace and comes

01:00:57home and says, hey, I'm

01:00:59God, you know, his

01:01:01father says, well, I'm

01:01:02glad you caught on.

01:01:04He always was a slow

01:01:05learner.

01:01:07Matter of fact, the

01:01:08standard form of greeting

01:01:09in India today is this.

01:01:16Namaste.

01:01:20Namaste.

01:01:21Namaste.

01:01:22I salute the God

01:01:24within you.

01:01:27And then, walk down in

01:01:29the middle of a sentence

01:01:30to the next lecture.

01:02:01We'll take about a five-minute break for those of you who are going to move around. There will be

01:02:09time to ask questions. There will be microphones set up at the side. Give us a chance to get ready.

01:02:16We'll be ready to go in about five minutes.

01:04:52Take LSD. The crutch will be gone.

01:05:01Yes, I was wondering what you, when you say the term dropping out, I want to ask you why you

01:05:11are in, if you were going to drop out, why are you so involved in the game right now in

01:05:16the process of making money and going to nightclubs and performing your psychedelic rituals?

01:05:21I also want to ask you why...

01:05:23Wait, let's ask that, and then I'll give you a second question. I don't perform in nightclubs. Not that I

01:05:33have anything. I think that a religious service could be held in a nightclub.

01:05:37The new religion always starts, you see, with those three groups. The young, the creative artists who are dissatisfied with

01:05:45society, and with the minority groups of color. The Christian religion, you know, didn't start in Canterbury Cathedral. It started

01:05:52in the low-down, offbeat, galley, slave meeting places. The new religion always starts in the Lower East Side.

01:06:02Now then, as far as making money, I wish that were true. The reason that, as I say, that we're

01:06:10continuing this one cycle of celebrations that we contractually agreed to is so that we will break even.

01:06:18We're a non-profit organization, and no personal monies are made. Now, why do I do this at all? Frankly,

01:06:27it was a mistake. We got led, step by step, into this large hall where you advertise, and you have

01:06:35to have a publicity in order to fill it. That was a terrible mistake, and we'll never do that again.

01:06:39It happened. The way that happened was that we had been working on psychedelic art techniques at Millbrook, and we

01:06:45were running summer sessions, and we were becoming more and more effective, because, believe it or not, we're God-intoxicated.

01:06:52You've got a tough minority group in your hands than us, because to us, we're in touch with the Divine

01:06:59Presence. So we developed this psychedelic art, which really was working.

01:07:02And then we said, well, take it down to New York City and turn on some other people there. And

01:07:07we couldn't get a small theater, and we got into a large theater, and the most terrible thing happened to

01:07:12us.

01:07:12We became successful, and Variety had headlines. Doc Larry grosses $10,000 a week. And the critics uptown Broadway came

01:07:24to ask, ooh, it's a new Andy Warhol type of happening. Everyone's got to see it.

01:07:27And then, you know, they said, come around to build a big cathedral now. So many people want to get

01:07:35to Chartres. You know, come on, you've got to build a big temple for all those people in Delhi.

01:07:39But in the question, then you've got to have to get the lumber and the ivory and so forth. Oh,

01:07:43now you started this. Your next celebration's got to be, because thousands of people want to see it.

01:07:48So then you've got to spend more money for it. It was all a mistake. We're sorry we did it.

01:07:52We've learned from it, and we're dropping out.

01:07:53As I said, this particular tour is the last time you'll ever have the opportunity to see our Taj Mahal

01:07:59Canterbury Cathedral, because we're dropping out of it.

01:08:02Now, you had a second question.

01:08:04I want to know, do you think that you could attain the place where you are now without any education?

01:08:10You said that you were born a Buddha, and then your parents deformed you, so to speak.

01:08:15And I was wondering if you are condemning your education and telling us to drop out of school so that

01:08:19we can't reach the state that you are in, in our own selves.

01:08:22Oh, listen. Of course, take everything I say with a grain of salt. Nobody really knows. Don't listen to whatever

01:08:34anyone tells you to do about putting who or what you put into yourself.

01:08:39Be very skeptical.

01:08:42But I feel, sincerely, that because I was thrown into the hands of primary school teachers who were complete strangers

01:08:50to my parents.

01:08:51I was an anonymous little robot that's five or six years old, my busted brown collar.

01:08:55They put me into the hands of the complete strangers.

01:08:59They didn't know who that first grade teacher was, with all of her fierce commitment to make me a good

01:09:03boy and to make me into a good little robot.

01:09:06But, yes, I feel that the educational process I went through lost me about 30 years.

01:09:12And if someone had told me, as we, the psychedelic religionists, are telling our kids, don't do that.

01:09:21Don't go through that.

01:09:22Every symbol that you learn, see, you're hooking up, it's a neurological loop in your nervous system.

01:09:29Every symbol is a weight.

01:09:31And every one of these symbolic connections, red, white, blue, two times two is four, you think that's great.

01:09:37But you're also, these become heavy molasses, conditioned reflex chess pieces.

01:09:43It's very hard to break out of two times two is four, red, white, and joy.

01:09:49Oh, joy, no, red, white, and blue.

01:09:52Be very careful.

01:09:54Be very, very careful of what symbol connections you put in your nervous system,

01:09:59because your teachers literally are training you to be symbol junkies.

01:10:03Every time we teach our kids anything, we teach them the way out of the symbol.

01:10:08Don't ever teach anyone a symbol that you don't have the antidote for.

01:10:13And I must sincerely answer your question.

01:10:15Yes, I regret very, well, it's my karma.

01:10:18But our kids are taught, what I'm telling you, at our center in Millbrook,

01:10:23and in our religion, which numbers about 360 people,

01:10:27we can't let it go beyond 360 because it's a nice round number.

01:10:31And how can you possibly have a religion of more than 300 or 400 people?

01:10:35How can you possibly turn on and share the divine process with more than 300 or 400 people?

01:10:40So how can you possibly have in your religion more than that?

01:10:43But the people in our religion have children.

01:10:45We have 15 children that live in Millbrook right now.

01:10:47Every one of those kids over the age of six has had a psychedelic drug experience

01:10:51and is taking psychedelic drugs as regularly as Catholic children go to confession and communion.

01:10:57These kids are being taught what we believe,

01:10:59that education is a narcotic addictive process which will make an ant he'll rub it out of you.

01:11:04And we may be wrong, take what I'm saying with great skepticism,

01:11:08but we are living consistently by what we have learned in our psychedelic experiences.

01:11:12We're passing it on to our kids.

01:11:13And our kids at seven, eight, and nine are making discoveries about the nature of reality

01:11:19that it took the Western civilization about 2,000 years, Immanuel Kant, to work out.

01:11:23And we may be wrong.

01:11:25We're a social experiment, as any new tribe is, as any little band of mutants are.

01:11:30That's how we see ourselves, living in a feudal society where we pay feudal dues to Baron Rockefeller of New

01:11:37York

01:11:37and to the king in Washington.

01:11:41We're living by our wits, as tribes have always done in feudal societies.

01:11:45We're an experiment.

01:11:47We may be all eccentric.

01:11:48Don't follow our method, but listen to us and watch,

01:11:52because we think we're in tune with the basic, tribal, primate, cellular, beat, temple of God.

01:11:59And we may have a way of life going that may save us all from becoming a planetary, air-conditioned,

01:12:09free-weighed, blonde, tanned, crew-cut race of robots.

01:12:24Let's say that the process of turning on, turning in, and dropping out is eternally cyclic or repetitive.

01:12:33Don't you feel that there's a way out of that process?

01:12:35I mean, with the Buddha, LSD and things like that are like a raft across the river.

01:12:41Once you cross the river, you leave the raft there.

01:12:44You found the end.

01:12:45And is there an end to your quest?

01:12:49Yes, that's the highest level question.

01:12:53I'm asked hundreds of questions a week, and that's the highest level question I'm ever asked.

01:12:56And I hope that in every audience someone would ask that question.

01:13:03See, what he's raising...

01:13:04See, all these problems, we're beginning just to realize our problems,

01:13:08were being studied 4,000 years ago by the wisest race of men that we have any history of.

01:13:16These are the Vedic Vedic philosophers in India 4,000 years ago.

01:13:20They were studying reality and what's life about at a higher level than the West has ever reached.

01:13:26Now, the question he was just asked is, it's a Buddhist question.

01:13:29The Buddha says that beyond the life cycle itself, there is a center where everything is pure, void harmony,

01:13:37and from which, it's like the solar, lunar, diamond, peacock feather eye of God,

01:13:43which is both everything and nothing at one time.

01:13:45From there, you look out from that center and you see all the evolutions of all the planets.

01:13:50Now, I believe this to be true, because I've been in that center at flashing moments of what men call

01:13:55illumination in the past.

01:13:56From that center, you see the whole business.

01:14:00Now, at that point, you don't need LSD, you don't need words, you don't need anything.

01:14:08My spiritual searchings had not carried me to that high a level.

01:14:12I hope that I...

01:14:13See, I'm going to drop out and I'm going to go to the East in about six months,

01:14:16and you're not going to hear from me or see me around for at least a year.

01:14:20And I hope during this year that I will learn things by taking LSD once a week

01:14:25and reading no book that is less than a thousand years old.

01:14:29I hope during this year to get to a point where I can give you a better answer to that

01:14:34question,

01:14:36because I hope that everything I'm saying now will appear to me and to you in two or three years

01:14:41as the babbling of a child, because it is an endless process, which is the miracle and glory of it.

01:14:51My question is directed to the following problem.

01:14:55What is illusion and what is reality?

01:14:58Now, some have argued that we simply can't get behind our thought models

01:15:03because our thought models are determined by our physiology.

01:15:06Now, do you feel that by, for instance, dropping acid,

01:15:10one can transcend one's own physiology?

01:15:24No, I don't.

01:15:27LSD is a highly complicated biochemical phenomena,

01:15:31which obviously interacts with the nervous system in very powerful ways,

01:15:37and I think does shake up and disturb and open up protein memory molecular chains,

01:15:47which probably are not neurological, but I think are intracellular.

01:15:53But you're still within physiology.

01:15:56See, you have to accept karma.

01:15:59Karma to an orientalist is the fact that your seed was planted on this particular slope

01:16:05so that your branches and twigs and whole structure was lopsided

01:16:11because of the fact that you were born in the United States in the 20th century

01:16:14with a particular concept, because you were born in this kind of a body.

01:16:17If you were born 50, 100,000 years from now,

01:16:20you would look back on us the way we look back on the early cavemen.

01:16:24This is all physiological in addition to social, political, and personal karma.

01:16:29I think that we always have to accept the fact that we see the whole process

01:16:33from within this transient physiological instrument.

01:16:38It is possible to get this instrument tuned in to such a point

01:16:44by using sacraments like LSD that you're in touch with cellular, genetic,

01:16:50and even meta-living phenomena.

01:16:55That's my hypothesis, that the nervous system can tune itself in,

01:16:59just like a leaf on a tree can tune itself in on a twig, branch, and down a root.

01:17:04It is possible for the human nervous system, even for the human mind,

01:17:08the 20th century UCLA mind, to be flashing in and out of a centeredness

01:17:13that is tuned in on these many different levels

01:17:15of molecular and cellular physiological energy.

01:17:19But I don't think LSD can get you out of the physiological.

01:17:24Yes, I would like to know if you...

01:17:27Go on with that?

01:17:32I would like to know if you've noticed

01:17:36any lessening in your ability to verbalize after taking a lot of acid.

01:17:43The question is, I think, have I noticed a difference

01:17:46in my pattern of verbalization since I've taken LSD?

01:17:51Well, it's very difficult for me to answer a question about the effect of LSD

01:17:56on my own personal game.

01:17:59First place, I'm an Irishman.

01:18:02And Irishmen are giving to talk a lot

01:18:04in wild, poetic, imaginative fantasies.

01:18:09Also, I'm talking about farther-out things.

01:18:12And when I talk to an audience today,

01:18:13I'm aware of the fact that I'm just not trying to talk

01:18:17to two levels of consciousness, symbol awareness,

01:18:20as I used to when I was a professor,

01:18:21and to keep you from slipping in another level of consciousness, stupor.

01:18:27I'm talking to audiences now in which maybe 50 of you

01:18:30are at a higher level of consciousness right now than I am.

01:18:33Any of you have had a martini to drink today or at a lower level,

01:18:38but maybe some of you smoke marijuana today,

01:18:40in which case you're aware of a lot of things

01:18:42that I'm not aware of around us

01:18:43or in the tenor of my voice and so forth.

01:18:46So I am talking in a much more incoherent way.

01:18:48Many people say,

01:18:50I would say whiskey-drinking reporters

01:18:52often say of my talking that I'm incoherent.

01:18:54And I agree, because I'm talking in circles.

01:18:57I'm talking in cycles.

01:18:58I'm talking at many different levels.

01:19:01And in the McLuhan sense,

01:19:03I don't use subject-predicate paragraphs

01:19:07and how we turn the page and go to the next logical sequence.

01:19:11If you ever talk personally to Marshall McLuhan,

01:19:12he's a fascinating talker, in addition to being a Celt,

01:19:16he starts talking and he gets right off the page and off the line

01:19:19and he's talking and it sounds like prose that should be written,

01:19:23but he's just stringing these pearl beads of words around,

01:19:27which, come on, Marshall, be logical.

01:19:30You're supposed to take a subject-predicate,

01:19:32paragraph, period, change the thought.

01:19:36Life isn't that way.

01:19:37So I think I am more incoherent,

01:19:39but I also think I'm much more creative,

01:19:41according to my own chessboard,

01:19:42than I was before I took psychedelic chemicals.

01:19:47Dr. Leary, implied in my last question

01:19:53was an underlying question.

01:19:56That is, all right,

01:19:57since man can't transcend his physiology by dropping acid,

01:20:01then how does one know, for instance,

01:20:04if a particular vision or a particular experience, say,

01:20:09isn't merely just an illusion that we need to see?

01:20:12An illusion what?

01:20:15An illusion that we need to see.

01:20:18Pardon me.

01:20:20You mean the LSD religion?

01:20:23Well, not only the LSD religion,

01:20:25but other things perhaps that one might experience

01:20:27through dropping acid,

01:20:30not necessarily religious things.

01:20:32But assuming that our physiology

01:20:36does determine our thought models,

01:20:38how is it possible to know

01:20:40if that isn't merely another form of illusion

01:20:44rather than reality?

01:20:48Well, in the first place,

01:20:49I don't go along with the terms illusion reality.

01:20:53I think everything is real.

01:20:56I think Webster's Dictionary is real,

01:20:57and all the words in Webster's Dictionary are real.

01:20:59They're little wiggles of black and white.

01:21:01They may not have no connection

01:21:03with any other level of reality,

01:21:06but my definition of reality is

01:21:09there are infinite numbers of realities

01:21:12which are defined as different patterns of energy

01:21:15decoded by different structures.

01:21:17So I think that what goes on inside the nucleus of an atom

01:21:20is a reality.

01:21:22It's a reality that's invisible to us.

01:21:23What goes on inside your body is invisible to us.

01:21:26One level of reality is the symbolic mind

01:21:29that we were taught in college and in high school.

01:21:35The glory of the situation to me

01:21:37is that you tune in on more of these levels

01:21:40and you harness them up.

01:21:41It's a bead game that we are playing.

01:21:43We're trying to be able to register

01:21:46and incorporate and integrate and coordinate

01:21:48many, many different levels of reality.

01:21:51But it is a game.

01:21:53The LSD religion,

01:21:55which is going to be the orthodoxy in this country

01:21:56in 10 or 15 years, is a game.

01:21:58I think it's a much higher level game

01:22:00and a much broader game

01:22:02and a much more harmonious divine game

01:22:04than the one that's played out

01:22:05in a whiskey drinking culture.

01:22:07But it's still a game.

01:22:08And people in this room will see

01:22:10within 10 or 15 years

01:22:11an LSD orthodoxy.

01:22:13The LSD game is going to go

01:22:15the way of every other game.

01:22:17There'll be a psychedelic commission in Washington

01:22:20which will be passing down directives saying,

01:22:21students are forbidden to take LSD 100

01:22:24until they pass marijuana 1A.

01:22:27At that time, you'll realize what's happened

01:22:30and you will not let that happen.

01:22:31You will just move on.

01:22:34I'm very optimistic

01:22:35about the evolutionary process.

01:22:37And I don't want you to buy this.

01:22:39This is my testimony of sheer romantic faith.

01:22:43I happen to worship the DNA code

01:22:46as the most complex manifestation

01:22:48of the divine process that I can understand.

01:22:50I think the DNA code has been doing this

01:22:53for 2 billion years

01:22:53always by the skin of its teeth.

01:22:55The DNA code is always down there

01:22:57inside the nucleus of every cell

01:23:00spinning out this wonder,

01:23:02wonderful variety that we call

01:23:04every form of life,

01:23:05vegetative, mammalian, and so forth.

01:23:07I think the DNA code is continually

01:23:08freaking itself out and surprising itself.

01:23:11Oh my God, we made too many of them

01:23:12and they're eating them up.

01:23:13So we have to balance it out.

01:23:16It's an incredible game

01:23:17when you see what the DNA code is doing.

01:23:19It always comes through

01:23:21with the right solution.

01:23:23It's always, well, we say that one.

01:23:26And it's always eating itself up

01:23:27in this incredible conversation

01:23:29that it's having with itself.

01:23:30And it's basically unified.

01:23:31It started 2 billion years ago, we're told.

01:23:34I think that the DNA code

01:23:37always produces the particular molecule it needs.

01:23:39The language of the DNA code is molecular.

01:23:42It always produces the vitamin

01:23:44or it always produces

01:23:45the particular chemical that's needed.

01:23:47And I think that right now,

01:23:49not 100 years ago,

01:23:51not 10 years from now in the future,

01:23:52but right about now,

01:23:54LSD is the particular molecule

01:23:57the DNA code has thrown into our mouths

01:24:01to deal with the sickness of our times.

01:24:04Because we need something like LSD

01:24:06to wake man up

01:24:07or he's going to really offend

01:24:09the genetic code.

01:24:12Now, in 10 or 15 years,

01:24:14LSD won't work anymore.

01:24:16It'll be corrupted.

01:24:17It'll be a game.

01:24:18And then the DNA code,

01:24:20I have complete faith,

01:24:22will develop,

01:24:22open up our nervous system

01:24:24a little more

01:24:24to solve the problem again.

01:24:26But there's no illusion.

01:24:28It's all real.

01:24:29At every level of reality

01:24:30and every level of energy,

01:24:31it's real.

01:24:32And one thing that disturbs

01:24:34the people in my profession

01:24:35is that some people

01:24:38get turned on

01:24:38to one level of reality.

01:24:40You can get turned on

01:24:41to your eyeball.

01:24:42And like the first time

01:24:43you take LSD

01:24:43or sometimes use marijuana,

01:24:45you become so entranced

01:24:46with vision.

01:24:47It's all alive.

01:24:48It's all, of course, alive.

01:24:49It's the light

01:24:50bouncing into your retina

01:24:51at a speed of 186 miles.

01:24:53Do you think about things out there?

01:24:54There's nothing but light

01:24:55that hits your eye.

01:24:56Then they become so involved

01:24:57with retina

01:24:59that they build

01:25:00a whole system of that.

01:25:01Mandala.

01:25:02The only way to find God

01:25:03is through Mandala

01:25:04and through

01:25:05training the eye

01:25:06and centering

01:25:07or through breathing

01:25:08or through mantra chanting

01:25:09or through hatha yoga

01:25:10and posturing

01:25:11or through sacred dance

01:25:13or through the Bible

01:25:14or through my particular

01:25:16through the sexual chakra

01:25:17or through the heart chakra.

01:25:19If you study the history

01:25:20of my profession,

01:25:21you'll find

01:25:21that at times

01:25:24the psychedelic scholars

01:25:26have said

01:25:27that every organ of the body

01:25:29is the only way

01:25:29to find God

01:25:30and we'll kill anyone

01:25:31that disagrees with us.

01:25:33But there are many levels

01:25:35of reality.

01:25:36The glory, I think,

01:25:37of the human situation

01:25:38is that we can't this time

01:25:39really explore

01:25:40this wide variety,

01:25:41use all of them

01:25:42to find meaning

01:25:44and we'll be very tolerant

01:25:46about the particular

01:25:48religious sacraments

01:25:49and energy systems

01:25:50that other people

01:25:51use to turn on with.

01:25:53Could I have one more question,

01:25:54please?

01:25:56By dropping out,

01:25:58as you want us to do

01:25:59or suggest that we do,

01:26:00aren't we really aiding

01:26:02and abetting

01:26:02the establishment

01:26:03by giving them

01:26:04a clearinghouse,

01:26:05clearing out the people

01:26:06that they don't need

01:26:07or they don't want

01:26:08so they can carry out

01:26:09their plans of destruction,

01:26:10their monstrous ideas

01:26:13and plans?

01:26:14All right.

01:26:15Suppose

01:26:17that a considerable percentage

01:26:19of college-age

01:26:20and high-school-age kids

01:26:23try this experiment.

01:26:24Okay, we'll drop out

01:26:27for just six months.

01:26:29Just six months,

01:26:31Daddy Bird,

01:26:32that's all.

01:26:33Can't we have six months?

01:26:34Is your society so brittle

01:26:36that you can't let

01:26:38high-school and college kids

01:26:39just take a breather

01:26:40for six months?

01:26:42That means, Daddy Bird,

01:26:43we won't be going

01:26:44to high school or college,

01:26:45so I don't know

01:26:46what those teachers

01:26:46are going to do.

01:26:48We're not going to join

01:26:49the army for six months.

01:26:50We're not going to fight.

01:26:50We're not going to picket.

01:26:51We're not going to do

01:26:53any social game.

01:26:54Just for six months,

01:26:56with that whole shaky system

01:26:58slide to a halt

01:27:00and crumble.

01:27:01We won't,

01:27:02in the next election,

01:27:03everyone under 30

01:27:03just won't vote.

01:27:06No, I'm sorry.

01:27:07I can't see any difference.

01:27:10My cells don't respond

01:27:12to you, Governor Brown,

01:27:14or to you, Ronald Reagan.

01:27:15Sorry.

01:27:17I'm voting it should be

01:27:18Bob Dylan versus

01:27:20the Rolling Stones, maybe.

01:27:24Six months.

01:27:26Try that experiment.

01:27:27Six months.

01:27:27The kids just,

01:27:30just surfing the beach.

01:27:33Just six months.

01:27:35You see what would happen.

01:27:37How could they fight a war

01:27:39without you?

01:27:40Matter of fact,

01:27:41you know, teenagers

01:27:44support the businesses.

01:27:46Why?

01:27:46What would happen

01:27:46to all those shiny

01:27:47convertibles from Detroit

01:27:49if the teenagers had said,

01:27:50nope, we won't ride in cars

01:27:51for six months?

01:27:53What about the oil business?

01:27:55Well, you know,

01:27:55oil politics runs the world.

01:27:57You know,

01:27:57behind LBJ

01:27:58is the Texas oil men.

01:28:01If the teenagers

01:28:01didn't burn up

01:28:02all that oil,

01:28:04the world would stop,

01:28:06wouldn't it?

01:28:09Try it.

01:28:17Turn on.

01:28:19Turn on.

01:28:19Tune in.

01:28:20Drop out.

01:28:21Turn on.

01:28:22Tune in.

01:28:23Drop out.

01:28:24Turn on.

01:28:25Tune in.

01:28:26Drop out.

01:28:27Turn on.

Timothy Leary lecture - UCLA January 1967

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