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Timothy Leary: Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out
ByLeary sets out to define his audiencenot that this was necessary at that timebut the raison d'être for all his experiments was to change society in ways he thought would reform capitalist society. So he specifically addresses American youth 25 years or youngercertainly, he says, younger than 40 years old. Leary narrates in a flat, almost uniformly calm tonenot hypnoticbut definitely suggestive of meditation. "There is a Red Chimney" introduces Millbrook and weaves in symbology by drawing attention to the chimney stack which has an ancient Vishnu, the sustainer-of-life god. Part One sets the tone and scene for the Leary philosophy that believed the human mind could be constructively expanded by using certain hallucinogenic drugs.
Significantly, Leary, although armed with a Ph.D., considered himself a spiritual person, an appropriation he acquired after a mind-expanding trip to Mexico described with lucid ecstasy on "The Taking of LSD." However in using that flat tone in the narration, Leary ultimately ends up giving this track merely historical value. "Sensory Paradise" narrates a hilarious story of a policeman who was a marijuana advocate, inviting Leary to further seek mind expansion on his family's estate. "Elevation of Human Consciousness," sets up Leary's experiments to followa breakaway from the symbology of the tribal societal systems into a newer, mind-expanded new symbology of elevated human consciousness.
Part Two of the recording focuses on the new, post-LSD psychedelic world. "Tune In, Turn On, Drop Out," comes from a phrase coined by Leary when Marshall McLuhan told him that he should have a snappy slogan to promote LSD. The reality wasfor Learymore a question of breaking anatomical structures through mind expansion. Using his Spiritual Teacher avatar, Leary linked the elevation of the mind to altered states "Within the Temple of your Human Body." This is a remarkable document even today, long after the era when people seriously sought a chemically-aided expansion of the mind had come and gone.
Track Listing
Part One: A Message to Young People; Castalia Foundation; There
Personnel
Timothy Leary PH.D: Spoken word.
Album information
Title: Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out | Year Released: 2009 | Record Label: ESP Disk
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