Leary and LSD
Michel J Martin (martinmj@astro.ocis.temple.edu)
Mon, 29 Jan 1996 10:12:26 -0500
Members of the list,
In the course of my reading on drugs in the sixties, I have come
across an important contradiction which someone may be able to clarify.
David Farber, in his synthesis of the sixties THE AGE OF GREAT DREAMS
says that Timothy Leary rejected the proposition of Aldous Huxley that
LSD should be used by only a very few, psychologically stable people (p.
80-81). Yet, newspaper reports from late 1966 which I have looked at
announced that Leary began to "tell students to abstain," fearing that
young people were using LSD improperly--and certainly not in the
religious sort of way he wanted. He was quoted in the NEW YORK TIMES on
April 22, 1966 saying that he feared that LSD might "be creating a new
race of mutants."
Can anyone shed light on this apparent inconsistency? Perhaps
both claims are true. That is, perhaps Leary rejected Huxley's judgment
before 1966 but found reason to call for restraint thereafter.
Best,
Michel J. Martin
Temple Univ., History
martinmj@astro.ocis.temple.edu