Timothy Leary

Psychologist, Author

1920 – 1996

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Who was Timothy Leary?

Timothy Francis Leary was an American psychologist and writer, known for his advocacy of psychedelic drugs. During a time when drugs such as LSD and psilocybin were legal, Leary conducted experiments at Harvard University under the Harvard Psilocybin Project, resulting in the Concord Prison Experiment and the Marsh Chapel Experiment. Both studies produced useful data, but Leary and his associate Richard Alpert were fired from the university nonetheless because of the public controversy surrounding their research.

Leary believed LSD showed therapeutic potential for use in psychiatry. He popularized catchphrases that promoted his philosophy such as "turn on, tune in, drop out"; "set and setting"; and "think for yourself and question authority". He also wrote and spoke frequently about transhumanist concepts involving space migration, intelligence increase and life extension, and developed the eight-circuit model of consciousness in his book Exo-Psychology.

During the 1960s and 1970s, he was arrested often enough to see the inside of 29 different prisons worldwide. President Richard Nixon once described Leary as "the most dangerous man in America".

Famous Quotes:

  • Turn on, tune in, drop out

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Born
Oct 22, 1920
Springfield
Also known as
  • Dr. Timothy Leary
  • Timothy Francis Leary
  • Dr Timothy Leary
Parents
Spouses
Children
Religion
  • Agnosticism
  • Hinduism
Ethnicity
  • Irish American
Nationality
  • United States of America
Profession
Education
  • University of California, Berkeley
  • University of Alabama
  • Washington State University
  • United States Military Academy
  • College of the Holy Cross
Employment
  • Harvard University
  • University of California, Berkeley
  • Kaiser Family Foundation
Lived in
  • Springfield
Died
May 31, 1996
Beverly Hills

Submitted
on July 23, 2013

Citation

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"Timothy Leary." Biographies.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Mar. 2024. <https://www.biographies.net/people/en/timothy_leary>.

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