Seven Languages of God

Timothy Leary is an outstanding American writer and psychologist, a participant in the campaign to study psychedelic drugs. One of the first to begin research on hallucinogenic substances, above all LSD, he conducted experiments on himself and on his students. Under his direction, centers for “liberation” and “spiritual discoveries” were created, where psychedelic sessions and meditations were practiced. He was at the origins of the transpersonal psychology movement. For the possession and use of drugs, he was sentenced to ten years in prison.

Biographers say Leary managed to fit into his bright and intense life thousands of lives—appearing in multiple guises. A famous Leary quote, stated in an interview with The Realist, became well known: “Everyone gets the Timothy Leary they deserve.”

Over the seven thousand years of human civilization, neither philosophy nor science has been able to explain in a sensible way what the meaning of life is.

Starting from the Renaissance, science devoted much attention to safety and extending life expectancy. Fortunately, a byproduct of such research was accidental, unplanned discoveries that required new philosophical reflection. LSD is an example.

But here we face very complex ethical and political problems. The techniques for altering the psyche and mental control, discovered in the 1960s, sparked intense public debate in the 1970s about civil rights and freedoms. The simplest—yet key—questions for the evolution of our species sound like this: Who will decide whose consciousness will be changed, and how? Who will decide who will control the changing consciousness pharmacological substances?