67 lines
3.2 KiB
Plaintext
67 lines
3.2 KiB
Plaintext
From: mwolfe@casbah.acns.nwu.edu (Mike Wolfe)
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Newsgroups: alt.drugs
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Subject: Leary and doubters
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Date: 10 Oct 1993 19:05:12 GMT
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Message-ID: <299md8$2ao@news.acns.nwu.edu>
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I thought this would interest some people. I was reading "The Politics of
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Ectasy", an excellent book by Dr. Tim Leary. In one of the sections he
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describes how to deal with doubters of drug use.
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"...it's really quite simple. Whenever you hear anyone sounding off on
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internal freedom and conciousness-expanding foods and drugs-whether pro or
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con-check out these questions:
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1. Is your expert talking from direct experience, or simply repeating
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cliches? Theologians and intellectuals often deprecate "experience" in
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favor of fact and concept. This classic debate is falsely labeled. Most
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often it becomes a case of "experience" vs. "inexperience".
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2. Do his words spring from a spiritual or mundane point of view? Is he
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motivated by a dedicated quest for answers to basic questions, or is he
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protecting his own social-psychological position, his own game investment?
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Is he struggling towards sainthood, or is he maintaining his status as a
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hard-boiled scientist or hard-boiled cop?
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3. How would his argument sound if it was heard in a different culture?
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(for example, in an African jungle hut, a ghat on the Ganges, or on another
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planet inhabited by a form of life superior to ours) or in a different time
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(for example, in Periclean Athens, or in a Tibetan monestery, or in a bull
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session led by any one of the great religious leaders - founders -
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messiahs)? Or how would it sound to other species of life on our planet
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today -to the dolphins, to the conciousness of the redwood tree? In other
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words, try to break out of your usual tribal game set and listen with the
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ears of another one of God's creatures.
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4. How would the debate sound to you if you were fatally diseased with a
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week to live, and thus less comitted to mundane issues?...
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5. Is this point of view one which opens up or closes down? Are you being
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urged to explore, experience, or gamble out of spiritual faith, join somone
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who shares your cosmic ignorance on a collaborative voyage of discovery? Or
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are you being pressured to close off, protect your gains, play it safe,
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accept the authoritative voice of someone who knows best?
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6. When we speak, we say little about the subject matter and disclose
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mainly the state of our own mind. Does your psychedelic expert use terms
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which are positive, pro-life, spiritual, inspiring, opening, based on faith
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in the future, faith in your potential or does he betray a mind obsessed by
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danger, material concern, by imaginary terrors, administrative caution or
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essential distrust in your potential? Dear friends, there is nothing in
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life to fear; no spiritual gain can be lost.
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7. If he is against what he calls "artificial methods of illumination," ask
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him what constitutes the natural. Words? Rituals? Tribal customs?
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Alkaloids? Psychedelic vegetables?
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8. If he is against biochemical assistance, where does he draw the line?
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Does he use nicotine? alcohol? penicillin? vitamins? convential sacremental
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substances?
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9. If your advisor is against LSD, what is he for? If he forbids you the
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psychedelic key to revelation, what does he offer you instead?"
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_mike
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