Comments on: Timothy Leary's archives: Bridge from '60s to '90s

A day with the massive collection of artifacts from the late psychedelic researcher reveals that he went from proponent of LSD to proponent of the PC. And back again.

[shootthecops]

leary always seemed more of a person that inserted his so called influence rather than actually having any real impact towards progressions of legalization of drugs. at most, he was a polarizing figure, but hardly much of a revolutionary leader for anything more than LSD. all i remember about the guy is that he stole Bill Hicks jokes, history is not kind i suppose.

[ferretboy88]

"He was meticulous (though) and I think he did understand the importance of what was going on."

So was Hitler and the Germans. They were also meticulous with saving documents. So what? How many people were killed or hurt from taking his drugs? How many family's were ruined?

[ferretboy88]

Taking drugs will never make you smarter. How many lives were ruined by people taking LSD? How many people took that and then freaked out and jumped out a window. All of the friends I ever had that took drugs ended up being in rough shape and they wished they never had.

[skeetro]

Good questions...How many people were ruined? I don't know, do you? What is the actual, documented number of people who took LSD, and jumped out a window? I believe Leary had a saying about LSD causing complete an utter paranoia and hysteria in people who have NOT taken it....this post only helps to make that arguement. Dare to be drug free man, and go through life with this perspective, it's obviously working out for you.

[ferretboy88]

Drugs are worthless. It makes you smarter to read a book then to take drugs. Look at all the people everyday who's lives are ruined by drugs. Its in the news every day. People need to look up to doctors and scientists instead of drug users.

[bmn_1213]

Sometimes I take the drugs first. But I agree with you that reading AND taking drugs, in whichever order you choose, will make you smarter, by expanding you perception and enabling you to see things from outside your narrow perspective. I would kindly caution you, however, NOT to believe everything you see on the "news." Many people who can't seem to restrain themselves from speaking publicly on this subject are motivated not by facts, experience or goodwill, but rather by politics or the incomprehensible (as well as reprehensible) urge to spread ignorance! Also don't believe the propaganda that drug users are some separate group that doesn't do anything else; they are amongst us! For example, DOCTOR Leary was a scientist but was also rumored to have taken drugs.

[bmn_1213]

I've taken a lot of LSD. I also know how to end questions with appropriate punctuation. And yes, taking drugs *can* make you smarter.

...though I learned about question marks long, long before eating acid.

[gary85739]

Leary was a visionary. He helped many seek the truth within them. His LSD studies/days were rather brief when compared to the over-all good he brought to an emerging society of those that decided that making their own decisions based on fact where better than following the ill-advised dogma of the times!

Leary lives on in free thought....

[gary85739]

Perhaps billionaires like Gates/Jobs could easily purchase the entire Leary archives and donate it to the Library of Congress!

Now, that's part of the "trickle down theory" that might actually work!

[Seaspray0]

Gates has already donated billions. Jobs doesn't know the meaning of donate. Good luck.

[ferretboy88]

It took Jobs 15 years to even pay for his kid. He left a pregnant mother on the streets.

[psychlones]

Actually, Gates never donated a dime until he connected with and eventually married Melissa who apparently browbeat the concept of improving your monetary situation, vis a vis the Taxman, by giving your money away into his head. Smart lady there :-)

[Jack K1]

I remember Leary's writings during the '80's and '90's. He was one of the early promoters of PCs as a mind-liberating device, limited only by one's imagination. In that, he was only a voice in the crowd of tech-writers. His voice was heard not due to the originality of his ideas but due to the fame of his name.

At a time when I was advising clients regarding their direction in technology, Leary's was a voice not worth hearing except as an end-chapter to his personal biography.

[stskhalsa]

Tim was my friend. In fact, I think Tim was hanging with me when John met him at the WCCF. Say what you like, but Tim caught on to the importance of the personal computer before most of the prior commenters were, I suspect, born. Tim's influence on the direction of the computer revolution was not so much direct as indirect. Many of us had read/heard Tim in the '60's and he influenced the cultural mindset. The pioneers in personal computing saw what we were doing as revolutionary, literally. It's hard to remember that from the modern perspective in which personal computing is ubiquitous. The revolution, depending on your perspective, has either succeeded so thoroughly that it's now forgotten, or been so completely co-opted that the revolutionary ideals are gone. Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss.

[AppleSuxLeo]

Another worthless burnout from the sixties.

[Republic512]

You have no idea...

[flameproof]

I, too, knew Tim. He was not "another worthless burnout from the sixties" as Mr. AppleSuxLeo so succinctly opines, but a kind, generous and adept psychologist and philosopher, teacher and futurist who was needlessly and worthlessly persecuted by two of histories worst political demons: Nixon and Regan. He didn't, as a few other less educated commentators have put it, advocate indiscriminate drug use, but the right of the individual to decide for themselves what drugs they aught to ingest without interference from state monitoring or corporate control.

He was succinctly life-affirming and promoted consciousness expansion by whatever means were available to the individual. In the early '90's he promoted the idea that in the future there would be virtual "communities" of people (like this one) where we would all share in the marketplace of ideas to create a better future for ourselves and our children. He even thought that eventually these virtual "realities" would be indistinguishable from what most people consider "real" reality.

He never promoted himself over his ideas and ideals. If he became the focus of them, then truly, then as now, as a personality only the media was ever to blame for that.

[snesich]

You don't know much. Do you?

[rreecer]

The poor commenters here have all been brainwashed by their conservative parentes and churches. Their heroes are Sarah Palin and Joe the Plumber, how can you possibly ever expect them to have even one deep thought?!!

[peramica]

I help to manage an archives with media stretching back into the 1930's, and digitization and preservation can be a real problem. There are a lot of resources available from the Open Archival Information System. Also, there are some companies that offer to convert analog media to digital. Best of luck with the further preservation

[AppleSuxLeo]

Tune in , Turn on , Burn out. Drugs are for losers.

[magikbus]

This has probably already been answered, but here is a link to a company that digitizes reel-to-reel http://www.digitizeitnow.com/convert-reel-to-reel.html?gclid=CJja-53az5gCFQu-GgodkzDC1w

[gary85739]

Live long enough and you'll find that only drugs can keep you around/alive, whether you like it or not...

This story is NOT about drugs, it's about Learys understanding of computers!

Computers became Learys new drug...and they are now OURS...

Who here will "wean" themselves from computers?

Step right up...if you can...but we know, you can't and won't...