[1]
Sender: mjaffe@mail.sdsu.edu (Maggie Jaffe)
Subject: Re: Leary and LSD
Dear Sixties People and Mike:
I think the media blitz of the catchy phrase "tune in, turn on, drop out"
effectively negated Leary's cautioning about LSD.
Maggie
mjaffe@mail.sdsu.edu
[2]
Sender: Jeffrey Apfel <tuckerpf@ix.netcom.com>
Subject: Re: San Fran. / Leary...
You wrote:
[snip]
>And I think this media-transformation phenomenon is relevant to Mike
>Martin's inquiry about Timothy Leary & "set & setting." Yes, that's the
>way I remember Leary's presentation about LSD, and it seems to be the way
>others closer to the culture remember him, rather than as someone who
>simply encouraged LSD consumption wherever & whenever the whim struck.
>Perhaps there's some ex-post facto "cleaning up of the record" by Leary
>here, but I suspect that the media hype about both the drug scene AND
>Leary (and the actual behavior of some folks) have fed this picture of
>Leary...
>
>Ted Morgan
I also remember "set and setting" as part of the Leary message.
However, the siren song of guru-hood is strong, and I also remember a
Leary (at least one time when I saw him in person) who was clearly
carried away by his exalted status. I seem to recall that this Leary
could also make statements that seemed somewhat more all-encompassing
and religious than a scientific (1964) view of "set and setting". But
that's sort of paradigmatic for the era, in my view, that he could be
and say both.
Jeff