Elias J. Schisgall (Associate Managing Editor)
105-462: The Harvard Psilocybin Project was a series of experiments aimed at exploring the effects of psilocybin intake on the human mind conducted by Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert . The founding board of the project consisted of Leary, Aldous Huxley , David McClelland (Leary's and Alpert's superior at Harvard University ), Frank Barron , Ralph Metzner , and two graduate students who were working on
210-712: A M.S. in psychology at the Washington State College in Pullman , where he studied under educational psychologist Lee Cronbach . His M.S. thesis was on clinical applications of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale . In 1947, Marianne gave birth to their first child, Susan. Their son, Jack, arrived two years later. In 1950, Leary received a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of California, Berkeley . In
315-632: A campus protest calling for the abolition of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement . The article included the fact that ICE did not respond to a request for comment, leading to backlash from Harvard student groups who said that reaching out to ICE endangered Harvard students. The Crimson stood by its reporting and received support from journalistic ethics experts. During the COVID-19 pandemic , The Crimson abruptly switched to an internet-only format in March 2020. Paper editions were later restored during
420-534: A chemical key—it opens the mind, frees the nervous system of its ordinary patterns and structures. Leary married model Birgitte Caroline "Nena" von Schlebrügge in 1964 at Millbrook. Both Nena and her brother Bjorn were friends of the Hitchcocks. D. A. Pennebaker , also a Hitchcock friend, and cinematographer Nicholas Proferes documented the event in the short film You're Nobody Till Somebody Loves You . Charles Mingus played piano. The marriage lasted
525-417: A class required for the students' degrees. Additionally, Leary and Alpert gave psychedelics to undergraduate students despite the university only allowing graduate students to participate (a deal was passed with the administration to avoid this in 1961). The legitimacy of their research was questioned because Leary and Alpert also took psychedelics during the experiments, an accusation to which Leary replied that
630-410: A class that was required for graduation and colleagues felt they were abusing their power by pressuring graduate students to take hallucinogens in the experiments. Leary and Alpert also went against policy by giving psychedelics to undergraduate students and did not select participants through random sampling . It was also ethically questionable that the researchers sometimes took hallucinogens along with
735-481: A combination of psilocybin-assisted group psychotherapy (inside the prison) along with a comprehensive post-release follow-up support program modeled on Alcoholics Anonymous . The Concord conclusions were contested in a follow-up study on the basis of time differences monitoring the study group vs. the control group and differences between subjects re-incarcerated for parole violations and those imprisoned for new crimes. The researchers concluded that statistically only
840-608: A higher level of consciousness. They began introducing psychedelics to intellectuals and artists including Jack Kerouac , Maynard Ferguson , Charles Mingus and Charles Olson . Leary argued that psychedelic substances —in proper doses, a stable setting, and under the guidance of psychologists—could benefit behavior in ways not easily obtained by regular therapy. He experimented in treating alcoholism and reforming criminals, and many of his subjects said they had profound mystical and spiritual experiences that permanently improved their lives. The Concord Prison Experiment evaluated
945-459: A new sequence of behavior that reflects your vision." Repeated FBI raids ended the Millbrook era. Leary told author and Prankster Paul Krassner of a 1966 raid by Liddy, "He was a government agent entering our bedroom at midnight. We had every right to shoot him. But I've never owned a weapon in my life. I have never had and never will have a gun around." In November 1967, Leary engaged in
1050-499: A president, managing editor, and business manager. In 1991, student reporters for The Crimson, including Josh Gerstein, who decades would later break the news of the Supreme Court's plan to overturn Roe v. Wade , were the first to break the news that Harvard had selected former Neil Leon Rudenstine , then Princeton University 's provost, to succeed Derek Bok as the university's president. The reporters, who had learned of
1155-557: A project with mescaline . The experiments began some time in 1960 and lasted until March 1962, when other professors in the Harvard Center for Research in Personality raised concerns about the legitimacy and safety of the experiments in an internal meeting. Leary and Alpert's experiments were part of their personal discovery and advocacy of psychedelics . As such, their use of psilocybin and other psychedelics ranged from
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#17327907996731260-530: A publication established by ex-editors represented serious challenges to the Crimson ' s viability. In 1943, the banner on the paper read Harvard Service News , and the stories focused almost exclusively on Harvard's contribution to World War II . Under the authority of so-called wartime administrative necessity, alumni discouraged the Service News from editorializing. The paper was administered during
1365-468: A secret meeting in New York City, got their confirmation when they approached a surprised Rudenstine on his plane ride back to Boston . The story appeared in an extra bearing the dateline "Somewhere Over New England." Throughout the 1990s, there was a great deal of focus on making the staff of the paper more inclusive and diverse. Over time, a financial aid program was instituted to try to address
1470-519: A slight improvement could be attributed to psilocybin, in contrast to the significant improvement reported by Leary and his colleagues. Rick Doblin suggested that Leary had fallen prey to the Halo Effect , skewing the results and clinical conclusions. Doblin further accused Leary of lacking "a higher standard" or "highest ethical standards in order to regain the trust of regulators". Ralph Metzner rebuked Doblin for these assertions: "In my opinion,
1575-418: A so-called humor magazine." The two organizations occupy buildings within less than one block of each other; interaction between their staff has included pranks, vandalism, and romance. Currently, The Crimson publishes two weekly sections in addition to its regular weekly paper: an Arts section on Tuesdays and a magazine called Fifteen Minutes on Thursdays. Issues of Fifteen Minutes come periodically in
1680-660: A sprawling 64-room mansion on an estate in Millbrook, New York , where they continued their psychedelic sessions. Peggy directed the International Federation for Internal Freedom (IFIF)'s New York branch, and Billy rented the estate to IFIF. Peggy persuaded her brothers to let Leary rent a room at the mansion. Leary and Alpert set up a communal group with former Psilocybin Project members at the Hitchcock Estate (commonly known as "Millbrook"). One of
1785-578: A student) was its circulation manager. Leary's and Alpert's research attracted so much attention that many who wanted to participate in the experiments had to be turned away. To satisfy the curiosity of those who were turned away, a black market for psychedelics sprang up near the Harvard campus. Other professors in the Harvard Center for Research in Personality raised concerns about the experiments' legitimacy and safety. Leary and Alpert taught
1890-805: A televised debate on drug use with MIT professor Jerry Lettvin . At the end of 1967, Leary moved to Laguna Beach, California , and made many friends in Hollywood. "When he married his third wife, Rosemary Woodruff, in 1967, the event was directed by Ted Markland of Bonanza . All the guests were on acid." In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Leary formulated what became his eight-circuit model of consciousness in collaboration with writer Brian Barritt . The essay "The Seven Tongues of God" claimed that human brains have seven circuits producing seven levels of consciousness. This later became seven circuits in Leary's 1973 monograph Neurologic , which he wrote while he
1995-410: A trip to Mexico and told Leary about it. In August 1960, Leary traveled to Cuernavaca , Mexico, with Russo and consumed psilocybin mushrooms for the first time, an experience that drastically altered the course of his life. In 1965, Leary said that he had "learned more about ... [his] brain and its possibilities ... [and] more about psychology in the five hours after taking these mushrooms than ... in
2100-723: A tsunami. The IFIF was reconstituted as the Castalia Foundation after the intellectual colony in Hermann Hesse 's 1943 novel The Glass Bead Game . The Castalia group's journal was the Psychedelic Review . The core group at Millbrook wanted to cultivate the divinity within each person and regularly joined LSD sessions facilitated by Leary. The Castalia Foundation also hosted non-drug weekend retreats for meditation, yoga , and group therapy. Leary later wrote: We saw ourselves as anthropologists from
2205-488: A tumultuous semester in office. In May 2024, the newspaper announced it has raised $ 15 million through a capital campaign launched in 2020. The goal was to get $ 6 million for innovation, $ 6 million for its financial aid program and $ 3 million for building renovations, which had not seen a major renovation in 35 years. The funds will be stored in an organizational trust managed by Crimson alumni. The Crimson commissioned its headquarters building at 14 Plympton Street in
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#17327907996732310-411: A vote of the student body—the announcement came with a full-page editorial announcing " magenta is not now, and... never has been, the right color of Harvard." This particular issue, May 21, 1875, also included several reports on athletic events, a concert review, and a call for local shopkeepers to stock the exact shade of crimson ribbon, to avoid "startling variations in the colors worn by Harvard men at
2415-561: A well-known figure of the counterculture of the 1960s . 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 transhumanism , human space migration , intelligence increase, and life extension (SMI²LE). Leary was born in Springfield, Massachusetts , an only child in an Irish Catholic household. His father, Timothy "Tote" Leary,
2520-423: A wide variety of hallucinogenic mushrooms, including Psilocybe mexicana . Psilocybin was produced in a process developed by Albert Hofmann of Sandoz Pharmaceuticals , who was famous for synthesizing LSD. Beat poet Allen Ginsberg heard about the Harvard research project and asked to join. Leary was inspired by Ginsberg's enthusiasm, and the two shared an optimism that psychedelics could help people discover
2625-517: A year before von Schlebrügge divorced Leary in 1965. She married Indo-Tibetan Buddhist scholar and ex-monk Robert Thurman in 1967 and gave birth to Ganden Thurman that same year. Actress Uma Thurman , her second child, was born in 1970. Leary met Rosemary Woodruff in 1965 at a New York City art exhibit, and invited her to Millbrook. After moving in, she co-edited the manuscript for Leary's 1966 book Psychedelic Prayers: And Other Meditations with Ralph Metzner and Michael Horowitz . The poems in
2730-497: Is not listed. In 1960, Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert ordered psilocybin from Swiss-based company Sandoz with the intent to test if different administration modes lead to different experiences. To a greater extent, they believed that psilocybin could be the solution for the emotional problems of the Western man. The first test group was composed of 38 people of various backgrounds. Soothing environments were chosen to conduct
2835-625: The Associated Press . Not even a staff writer yet, Lukas had arrived at the university with Joseph McCarthy 's home number in his pocket. His father was an opponent of McCarthy's and a member of the American Jewish Committee , the group that produced Commentary magazine. In 1966, The Harvard Crimson, Inc. was incorporated as a nonprofit Massachusetts corporation. The incorporation was involuntarily revoked, then revived, in 1986. The paper's key leadership include
2940-654: The Bay Area as an assistant clinical professor of medical psychology at the University of California, San Francisco ; concurrently, he co-founded Kaiser Hospital's psychology department in Oakland, California , and maintained a private consultancy. In 1952, the Leary family spent a year in Spain, living on a research grant. According to Berkeley colleague Marv Freedman, "Something had been stirred in him in terms of breaking out of being another cog in society." Leary's marriage
3045-492: The Harvard Square area in 1915. It was designed by Jardine, Hill & Murdock , and has been called "stolid, institutional and boring. All the things the Crimson isn't." Any student who volunteers and completes a series of requirements known as the "comp" is elected an editor of the newspaper. As such, all staff members of The Crimson , including writers, business staff, photographers, and graphic designers, carry
3150-770: The Kaiser Family Foundation . In 1957, he published The Interpersonal Diagnosis of Personality , which the Annual Review of Psychology called the "most important book on psychotherapy of the year". In 1958, the National Institute of Mental Health terminated Leary's research grant after he failed to meet with a NIMH investigator. Leary and his children relocated to Europe, where he attempted to write his next book while subsisting on small grants and insurance policies. His stay in Florence
3255-680: The New York Public Library include complete records of the IFIF, the Castalia Foundation, and the League for Spiritual Discovery. In late 1966 and early 1967, Leary toured college campuses presenting a multimedia performance called "The Death of the Mind", attempting an artistic replication of the LSD experience. He said that the League for Spiritual Discovery was limited to 360 members and
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3360-555: The 1960s and 1970s, at the height of the counterculture movement , Leary was arrested 36 times. As a clinical psychologist at Harvard University , Leary founded the Harvard Psilocybin Project after a revealing experience with magic mushrooms he had in Mexico in 1960. He led the Project from 1960 to 1962, testing the therapeutic effects of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) and psilocybin , which were legal in
3465-514: The 21st century inhabiting a time module set somewhere in the dark ages of the 1960s. On this space colony we were attempting to create a new paganism and a new dedication to life as art. Lucy Sante of The New York Times later described the Millbrook estate as: the headquarters of Leary and gang for the better part of five years, a period filled with endless parties, epiphanies and breakdowns, emotional dramas of all sizes, and numerous raids and arrests, many of them on flimsy charges concocted by
3570-675: The Book "The Psychedelic Experience. A Manual Based on the Tibetan...". On September 19, 1966, Leary reorganized the IFIF/Castalia Foundation under the name the League for Spiritual Discovery , a religion with LSD as its holy sacrament , in part as an unsuccessful attempt to maintain legal status for the use of LSD and other psychedelics for the religion's adherents, based on a "freedom of religion" argument. Leary incorporated
3675-472: The Crimson to expose the risks related to the consumption of mescaline. Andrew Weil, a freshman who was not allowed in the research out of spite, wrote a “Hit Piece" on the research. Andrew Weil later apologized for his actions and betrayal of Leary, Albert, and the others involved. A dispute rose on campus, which led the Harvard Center for Research in Personality to organize a meeting on 14 March 1962 to solve
3780-742: The Dean. The faculty of the College had suspended the existence of several previous student newspapers, including the Collegian , whose motto Dulce et Periculum ("sweet and dangerous") represented the precarious place of the student press at Harvard University in the late 19th century. The Magenta ' s editors declined Dean Burney's advice and moved forward with a biweekly paper, "a thin layer of editorial content surrounded by an even thinner wrapper of advertising". The paper changed its name to The Crimson in 1875 when Harvard changed its official color by
3885-490: The Harvard Psilocybin Project and conducted experiments in conjunction with assistant professor Richard Alpert . In 1963, Leary was terminated for failing to attend scheduled class lectures, though he maintained that he had met his teaching obligations. The decision to dismiss him may have been influenced by his promotion of psychedelic drug use among Harvard students and faculty. The drugs were legal at
3990-437: The Harvard scandal. Leary believed that LSD showed potential for therapeutic use in psychiatry . He developed an eight-circuit model of consciousness in his 1977 book Exo-Psychology and gave lectures, occasionally calling himself a "performing philosopher". He also developed a philosophy of mind expansion and personal truth through LSD. After leaving Harvard, he continued to publicly promote psychedelic drugs and became
4095-415: The IFIF's founding board members, Paul Lee , a Harvard theologian, a participant at Marsh Chapel and a member of the Leary circle, said of the group's formation: There was a big discussion about whether to go underground with it and make it a kind of secret initiation issue, or go public. But Leary was an Irish revolutionary and he wanted to shout it from the rooftops. So it went that way. It simply became
4200-559: The League for Spiritual Discovery as a religious organization in New York State , and its dogma was based on Leary's mantra: "drop out, turn on, tune in". ( The Brotherhood of Eternal Love later considered Leary its spiritual leader, but it did not develop out of the IFIF.) Nicholas Sand , the clandestine chemist for the Brotherhood of Eternal Love, followed Leary to Millbrook and joined the League for Spiritual Discovery. Sand
4305-616: The Senate Naval Affairs Committee, who investigated personally. The Honor Committee quietly revised its position and announced that it would abide by the court-martial verdict. Leary then resigned and was honorably discharged by the Army. About 50 years later he said that it was "the only fair trial I've had in a court of law". To his family's chagrin, Leary transferred to the University of Alabama (UA) in late 1941 because it admitted him expeditiously. He enrolled in
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4410-548: The U.S. would face "another era of prohibition." Leary's testimony proved ineffective; on October 6, 1966, just months after the subcommittee hearings, LSD was banned in California, and by October 1968, it was banned nationwide by the Staggers-Dodd Bill. In 1966, Folkways Records recorded Leary reading from his book The Psychedelic Experience , and released the album The Psychedelic Experience: Readings from
4515-613: The U.S., in the Concord Prison Experiment and the Marsh Chapel Experiment . Other Harvard faculty questioned his research's scientific legitimacy and ethics because he took psychedelics himself along with his subjects and allegedly pressured students to join in. Harvard fired Leary and his colleague Richard Alpert (later known as Ram Dass) in May 1963. Many people only learned of psychedelics after
4620-400: The academically sound and open Concord Prison Experiment , in which inmates were given psilocybin in an effort to reduce recidivism , and the Marsh Chapel Experiment , run by a Harvard Divinity School graduate student under Leary's supervision in which Boston area graduate divinity students were administered psilocybin as a part of a study designed to determine if the drug could facilitate
4725-488: The beginning of 2004 The Crimson began publishing with a full-color front and back page, in conjunction with the launch of a major redesign. The Crimson no longer prints in-house but used to print over fifteen other publications on its presses. The Crimson has a rivalry with the Harvard Lampoon , which it refers to in print as a "semi-secret Sorrento Square social organization that used to occasionally publish
4830-518: The book were inspired by the Tao Te Ching , and meant to be used as an aid to LSD trips. Woodruff helped Leary prepare weekend multimedia workshops simulating the psychedelic experience, which were presented around the East Coast. In September 1966, Leary said in a Playboy magazine interview that LSD could cure homosexuality. According to him, a lesbian became heterosexual after using
4935-450: The committee, which never met again afterwards. It is believed that Leary and Alpert used Harvard stationary to order more psilocybin from Sandoz to stock up before leaving for their Zihuatanejo Project . Alpert's reputation on campus quickly became tainted. There was concern amongst some students that "private psilocybin parties" were taking place. On 27 May 1963, Alpert was fired for distributing psilocybin to an undergraduate student. At
5040-487: The drug-use phenomenon, eventually with the intention of "stamping out" such usage by criminalizing it. Leary was one of several expert witnesses called to testify at these hearings. In his testimony, Leary said, "the challenge of the psychedelic chemicals is not just how to control them, but how to use them." He implored the subcommittee not to criminalize psychedelic drug use, which he felt would only serve to exponentially increase its usage among America's youth while removing
5145-435: The drug. Like most of the psychiatric field, he later decided that homosexuality was not an illness. By 1966, use of psychedelics by America's youth had reached such proportions that serious concern about the drugs and their effect on American culture was expressed in the national press and halls of government. In response to this concern, Senator Thomas Dodd convened Senate subcommittee hearings to try to better understand
5250-438: The ego or identity. Such experiences of enlarged consciousness can occur in a variety of ways: sensory deprivation, yoga exercises, disciplined meditation, religious or aesthetic ecstasies, or spontaneously. Most recently they have become available to anyone through the ingestion of psychedelic drugs such as LSD, psilocybin , mescaline , DMT , etc. Of course, the drug does not produce the transcendent experience. It merely acts as
5355-568: The existing accepted standards of honesty and truthfulness are perfectly adequate. We have those standards, not to curry favor with regulators, but because it is the agreement within the scientific community that observations should be reported accurately and completely. There is no proof in any of this re-analysis that Leary unethically manipulated his data." Leary and Alpert founded the International Federation for Internal Freedom (IFIF) in 1962 in Cambridge, Massachusetts , to carry out studies in
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#17327907996735460-489: The experience of profound religious states (where all ten divinity students reported such experiences), to frequent personal use. Huston Smith 's last work, Cleansing the Doors of Perception , describes the Harvard Psilocybin Project in which he participated in the early 1960s as a serious, conscientious, mature attempt to raise awareness of entheogenic substances. Of the members of the subgroup in which Smith took part, Leary
5565-403: The experiments. Each subject controlled its own intake dosage, and the lead researchers Leary and Alpert also ingested the substance. This study led to the conclusions that, while 75% of the subjects in general described their trip as pleasant, 69% were considered to have reached a "marked broadening of awareness". 167 subjects in total participated to the 1960 study. At the end of the study, 95% of
5670-451: The fall 2021 semester. In July 2022, the paper announced that it was changing from daily to weekly issues that fall as part of a shift to digital-first journalism. On April 29, 2022, the paper editorialized support for the BDS movement . In a May 1, 2022 editorial, the editors wrote, "We are proud to finally lend our support to both Palestinian liberation and BDS — and we call on everyone to do
5775-484: The first four that would be triggered at transition points as humans evolve further. These circuits, according to Leary, would equip humans to live in space and expand consciousness for further scientific and social progress. Leary suggested that some people might trigger these circuits sooner through meditation, yoga, or psychedelic drugs specific to each circuit. He suggested that the feelings of floating and uninhibited motion sometimes experienced with marijuana demonstrated
5880-417: The form of glossies. The Crimson is a nonprofit organization that is independent of the university. All decisions on the content and day-to-day operations of the newspaper are made by undergraduates. The student leaders of the newspaper employ several non-student staff, many of whom have stayed on for many years and have come to be thought of as family members by the students who run the paper. The Crimson
5985-520: The group, Leary coined the famous phrase " Turn on, tune in, drop out ". In a 1988 interview with Neil Strauss , he said the slogan was "given to him" by Marshall McLuhan when the two had lunch in New York City, adding, "Marshall was very much interested in ideas and marketing, and he started singing something like, 'Psychedelics hit the spot / Five hundred micrograms, that's a lot,' to the tune of [the well-known Pepsi 1950s singing commercial]. Then he started going, 'Tune in, turn on, and drop out.'" Though
6090-529: The issue. The meeting turned into a trial against Leary and Alpert, and was reported in the Crimson by a journalist who discreetly assisted the meeting. This article accelerated the crisis. Local newspapers followed and published information about the drug scandal on university grounds. A member of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health stated the experiments led by Leary and Alpert should be conducted by "sober" researchers, followed by
6195-432: The leadership of a political party which has inflicted damage on the universities of Germany through measures which have struck at principles we believe to be fundamental to universities throughout the world." The Crimson defended it, "That political theories should prevent a Harvard student from enjoying an opportunity for research in one of the world's greatest cultural centers is most unfortunate and scarcely in line with
6300-469: The liberal traditions of which Harvard is pardonably proud." The paper returned to its traditional civilian version in 1946, and it grew larger, more financially secure, more diversified, and began more extensive coverage of the world outside the campus during the early Cold War era. While financially independent and independent of editorial control by the Harvard University administration,
6405-482: The local assistant district attorney, G. Gordon Liddy . Others contest the characterization of Millbrook as a party house. In The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test , Tom Wolfe portrays Leary as using psychedelics only for research, not recreation. When Ken Kesey 's Merry Pranksters visited the estate, they received a frosty reception. Leary had the flu and did not play host. After a private meeting with Kesey and Ken Babbs in his room, he promised to remain an ally in
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#17327907996736510-410: The more popular "turn on, tune in, drop out" became synonymous with Leary, his actual definition with the League for Spiritual Discovery was: " Drop Out —detach yourself from the external social drama which is as dehydrated and ersatz as TV. Turn On —find a sacrament which returns you to the temple of God, your own body. Go out of your mind. Get high. Tune In —be reborn. Drop back in to express it. Start
6615-533: The newspaper remained under the university's administrative control with its student staff subject to university rules and discipline. Radcliffe women on staff were forced to follow curfews to which Harvard men were not subject, and that interfered greatly with the late hours required in producing a newspaper. Throughout the 1950s, The Crimson and various university officials exchanged letters debating these restrictions. Crimson editors pushed for later curfews for their female writers, who grew increasingly involved in
6720-421: The newspaper's daily operations. Under president Phillip Cronin ('53), women became staff members rather than Radcliffe correspondents. Crimson writers were involved in national issues, especially when anti- communist investigative committees came to Harvard. Future Pulitzer Prize –winning writer Anthony Lukas ' stories, including an interview with HUAC witness Wendell H. Furry , were sometimes picked up by
6825-624: The non-commissioned officer track while enrolled in the psychology subsection of the Army Specialized Training Program , including three months of study at Georgetown University and six months at Ohio State University . With limited need for officers late in the war, Leary was briefly assigned as a private first class to the Pacific War -bound 2d Combat Cargo Group (which he later characterized as "a suicide command ... whose main mission, as far as I could see,
6930-427: The outgoing guard. This process is referred to as the "turkey shoot" or the "shoot". The unsigned opinions of ' " The Crimson Editorial Board" are decided at triweekly meetings that are open to any Crimson Editorial editor (except those editors who plan to write or edit a news story on the same topic in the future). The Crimson is one of the only college newspapers in the U.S. that owns its own printing presses. At
7035-442: The paper's headquarters, and its purchase of Harvard Illustrated Magazine and the establishment of an editorial board in 1911. The Illustrated ' s editors became Crimson photographers, and thereby established the photographic board. The newspaper's president no longer authored editorials single-handedly, and the paper took stronger editorial positions. During 1930s and 1940s, reduced financial resources and competition from
7140-431: The postwar era, Leary was galvanized by the objectivity of modern physics ; his doctoral dissertation ( The Social Dimensions of Personality: Group Process and Structure ) approached group therapy as a "psychlotron" from which behavioral characteristics could be derived and quantified in a manner analogous to the periodic table , foreshadowing his later development of the interpersonal circumplex . Leary stayed on in
7245-408: The preceding 15 years of studying and doing research". Back at Harvard, Leary and his associates (notably Alpert) began a research program known as the Harvard Psilocybin Project . The goal was to analyze the effects of psilocybin on human subjects (first prisoners, and later Andover Newton Theological Seminary students) from a synthesized version of the drug, one of two active compounds found in
7350-607: The problem of a lack of socioeconomic diversity. Today, some 90 editors participate in the financial aid program every semester. Crimson editors repeated their scoop of Harvard's presidency in 2001, beating out national media outlets to report that Lawrence Summers would succeed Rudenstine, and again in 2007, being the first to report Drew Gilpin Faust 's ascension to the presidency. On January 12, 2004, The Crimson printed its first color edition after obtaining and installing four new Goss Community color presses. The date also marked
7455-417: The purpose of the higher four circuits. The function of the fifth circuit was to accustom humans to life at a zero gravity environment. Leary did not specify the location of the eight circuits in any brain structures, neural organization, or chemical pathways. He wrote that a higher intelligence "located in interstellar nuclear-gravitational-quantum structures" gave humans the eight circuits. A "U.F.O. message"
7560-464: The races". The Crimson included more substance in the 1880s, as the paper's editors were more eager to engage in a quality of journalism like that of muckraking big-city newspapers; it was at this time that the paper moved first from a biweekly to a weekly, and then to a daily in 1885. The paper flourished at the beginning of the 20th century with the commission of its own building in 1915, located at 14 Plympton Street in Cambridge , which remains
7665-537: The religious use of psychedelic drugs. This was run by Lisa Bieberman (now known as Licia Kuenning), a friend of Leary. The Harvard Crimson called her a "disciple" who ran a Psychedelic Information Center out of her home and published a national LSD newspaper. That publication was actually Leary and Alpert's journal Psychedelic Review and Bieberman (a graduate of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard, who had volunteered for Leary as
7770-1165: The remainder of the war. While stationed in Butler, Leary courted Marianne Busch; they married in April 1945. Leary was discharged at the rank of sergeant in January 1946, having earned such standard decorations as the Good Conduct Medal , the American Defense Service Medal , the American Campaign Medal , and the World War II Victory Medal . As the war concluded, Leary was reinstated at UA and received credit for his Ohio State psychology coursework. He completed his degree via correspondence courses and graduated in August 1945. After receiving his undergraduate degree, Leary pursued an academic career. In 1946, he received
7875-432: The researchers had to be in the same state of mind as the subject to understand his experience in the moment it happens. In 1961, two Harvard students ended up in the mental hospital after consuming psilocybin, and the Harvard administration started to dislike the project. While Leary and Alpert were described as ridiculing the rules that were set by the school, they also said they did believe that nothing should deny someone
7980-542: The right to explore their inner self, or this would mean taking another step towards totalitarianism. In addition, research participants were not selected according to random sampling . Many of these concerns were printed in The Harvard Crimson (edition 20 February 1962). Leary and Alpert immediately replied to the Crimson to attempt to rectify its negative tone. A few days later, Dana L. Farnsworth, director of Harvard University Health Services, also wrote to
8085-648: The safeguards that controlled "set and setting" provided. When subcommittee member Ted Kennedy asked Leary whether LSD usage was "extremely dangerous", Leary replied, "Sir, the motorcar is dangerous if used improperly...Human stupidity and ignorance is the only danger human beings face in this world." To conclude his testimony, Leary suggested that legislation be enacted that would require LSD users to be adults who were competently trained and licensed, so that such individuals could use LSD "for serious purposes, such as spiritual growth, pursuit of knowledge, or their own personal development." He argued that without such licensing,
8190-498: The same." The paper's editorial board admitted that where it previously held a "skeptical" stance on the matter, it has now shifted to fully supporting the BDS campaign, insisting that, "The weight of this moment — of Israel 's human rights and international law violations and of Palestine's cry for freedom — demands this step". In 2024, The Crimson scooped national outlets to the news that Claudine Gay would be resigning her post after
8295-465: The state Food and Drug Administration which declared its intention to open an investigation on the psilocybin experiments. In April, the state authorities finally decided to authorize the psilocybin experiments under the conditions that a (sober) physician is present during the experiments. When an advisory committee demanded Alpert give away his psilocybin to legal authorities for safe-keeping, he insisted on keeping some for his personal use. This outraged
8400-478: The subjects declared that the psilocybin experience had "changed their lives for the better". In 1961, Leary decided to orient the study towards the possibility of psilocybin assisted rehabilitation of inmates. It resulted in the inmates being able to visualize themselves in a "cops-and-robbers game". Other professors were concerned with Leary and Alpert's abuse of power over students. They pressured graduate students to participate in their research who they taught in
8505-466: The subjects they were studying. These concerns were printed in The Harvard Crimson , leading the university to halt the experiments. The Massachusetts Department of Public Health launched an investigation that was later dropped but the university eventually fired Leary and Alpert. According to Andrew Weil , Leary (who held an untenured teaching appointment) was fired for missing his scheduled lectures, while Alpert (a tenure-track assistant professor)
8610-596: The subpoena, stating that it would not comply with ConnectU's demands for documents. On April 23, 2006, The Crimson was the first to allege that portions of Harvard student Kaavya Viswanathan 's highly publicized debut young adult novel How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life had been plagiarized from two bestselling books by novelist Megan McCafferty . Further allegations were later made that Viswanathan's novel had drawn inappropriately from other novels as well. In 2019, The Crimson came under fire from some Harvard student groups after an article on
8715-482: The time only Mescaline and the Peyote cactus were illegal. It would be five years until psilocybin and LSD were made illegal. Both Leary and Alpert had been rising academic stars until their battles with Harvard and their advocacy of the use of psychedelics made them major figures in the nascent counterculture . Timothy Leary Psychedelic film Timothy Francis Leary (October 22, 1920 – May 31, 1996)
8820-623: The time. Leary's work in academic psychology expanded on the research of Harry Stack Sullivan and Karen Horney , which sought to better understand interpersonal processes to help diagnose disorders . Leary's dissertation developed the interpersonal circumplex model, later published in The Interpersonal Diagnosis of Personality . The book demonstrated how psychologists could use Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) scores to predict how respondents might react to various interpersonal situations. Leary's research
8925-527: The title of editor. If an editor makes news, they are referred to in the paper's news article as a " Crimson editor", which, though important for transparency, also leads to characterizations such as "former President John F. Kennedy '40, who was also a Crimson editor, ended the Cuban Missile Crisis." Editorial and financial decisions rest in a board of executives, collectively called a "guard", who are chosen for one-year terms each November by
9030-591: The university's ROTC program, maintained top grades, and began to cultivate academic interests in psychology (under the aegis of the Middlebury and Harvard-educated Donald Ramsdell) and biology . Leary was expelled a year later for spending a night in the female dormitory and lost his student deferment in the midst of World War II . Leary was drafted into the United States Army and received basic training at Fort Eustis in 1943. He remained in
9135-793: The unveiling of a major redesign of the paper itself. In 2004, The Crimson filed a lawsuit against Harvard University to force the Harvard University Police Department to release more complete records to the public. The case was heard before the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court in November 2005. In January 2006, the court decided the case against The Crimson and in favor of the university. In November 2005, The Crimson had its records subpoenaed by ConnectU in relation to its lawsuit against Facebook . The Crimson challenged
9240-475: The use of psilocybin and psychotherapy in the rehabilitation of released prisoners. Thirty-six prisoners were reported to have repented and sworn off criminality after Leary and his associates guided them through the psychedelic experience. The overall recidivism rate for American prisoners was 60%, whereas the rate for those in Leary's project reportedly dropped to 20%. The experimenters concluded that long-term reduction in criminal recidivism could be effected with
9345-444: The war by a board of Harvard University administrators, alumni, and students. In 1934, The Crimson defended a proposal by Adolf Hitler 's press secretary, Ernst F. Sedgwick Hanfstaengl , to donate to Harvard a prize scholarship to enable a Harvard student to attend a Nazi university. The Harvard Corporation voted unanimously to refuse the offer: "We are unwilling to accept a gift from one who has been so closely identified with
9450-404: The worst failing of the book is the omission of any kind of proof for the validity and reliability of the diagnostic system," Eysenck wrote. "It is simply not enough to say" that the accuracy of the system "can be checked by the reader" in clinical practice. In 1965, Leary co-edited The Psychedelic Reader . Penn State psychology researcher Jerome E. Singer reviewed the book and singled out Leary as
9555-438: The worst offender in a work containing "melanges of hucksterism". In place of scientific data about the effects of LSD, Leary used metaphors about "galaxies spinning" faster than the speed of light and a cerebral cortex "turned on to a much higher voltage". The Harvard Crimson The Harvard Crimson is the student newspaper at Harvard University , an Ivy League university in Cambridge, Massachusetts . The newspaper
9660-512: The years ahead. In 1964, Leary, Alpert, and Ralph Metzner coauthored The Psychedelic Experience , based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead . In it, they wrote: A psychedelic experience is a journey to new realms of consciousness. The scope and content of the experience is limitless, but its characteristic features are the transcendence of verbal concepts, of spacetime dimensions, and of
9765-913: Was a dentist who left his wife Abigail Ferris when Timothy was 14. He graduated from Classical High School in Springfield. Leary attended the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts , from 1938 to 1940. He received a Jesuit education there, and was required to learn Latin, rhetoric, and Greek. Under pressure from his father, he left to become a cadet in the United States Military Academy . In his first months at West Point, he received numerous demerits for rule infractions and then got into serious trouble for failing to report rule breaking by cadets he supervised. He
9870-468: Was already at its membership limit, but encouraged others to form their own psychedelic religions. He published a pamphlet in 1967 called Start Your Own Religion to encourage people to do so. Leary was invited to attend the January 14, 1967 Human Be-In by Michael Bowen , the primary organizer of the event, a gathering of 30,000 hippies in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park . In speaking to
9975-470: Was also accused of going on a drinking binge and failing to admit it, and was asked by the Honor Committee to resign. He refused and was shunned by fellow cadets. He was acquitted by a court-martial, but the silencing continued, as well as the onslaught of demerits for small rule infractions. In his sophomore year, his mother appealed to a family friend, United States Senator David I. Walsh , head of
10080-455: Was an American psychologist and author known for his strong advocacy of psychedelic drugs . Evaluations of Leary are polarized, ranging from "bold oracle" to "publicity hound". According to poet Allen Ginsberg , he was "a hero of American consciousness", and writer Tom Robbins called him a "brave neuronaut ". President Richard Nixon called him "the most dangerous man in America". During
10185-505: Was an important harbinger of transactional analysis , directly prefiguring the popular work of Eric Berne . On May 13, 1957, Life magazine published " Seeking the Magic Mushroom ", an article by R. Gordon Wasson about the use of psilocybin mushrooms in religious rites of the indigenous Mazatec people of Mexico. Anthony Russo, a colleague of Leary's, had experimented with psychedelic Psilocybe mexicana mushrooms on
10290-546: Was designated the "alchemist" of the new religion. At the end of 1966, Nina Graboi , a friend and colleague of Leary's who had spent time with him at Millbrook, became the director of the Center for the League of Spiritual Discovery in Greenwich Village . The Center opened in March 1967. Leary and Alpert gave free weekly talks there; other guest speakers included Ralph Metzner and Allen Ginsberg. Leary's papers at
10395-569: Was dismissed for allegedly giving an undergraduate psilocybin in an off-campus apartment. Harvard President Nathan Pusey released a statement on May 27, 1963, reporting that Leary had left campus without authorization and "failed to keep his classroom appointments". His salary was terminated on April 30, 1963. Leary's psychedelic experimentation attracted the attention of three heirs to the Mellon fortune, siblings Peggy, Billy, and Tommy Hitchcock. In 1963, they gave Leary and his associates access to
10500-479: Was encoded in human DNA. Many researchers believed that Leary provided little scientific evidence for his claims. Even before he began working on psychedelics, he was known as a theoretician rather than a data collector. His most ambitious pre-psychedelic work was Interpersonal Diagnosis Of Personality . The reviewer for The British Medical Journal , H. J. Eysenck, wrote that Leary created a confusing and overly broad rubric for testing psychiatric conditions. "Perhaps
10605-493: Was founded in 1873, and is run entirely by Harvard College undergraduate students. The Harvard Crimson was one of many college newspapers founded shortly after the end of Civil War . The paper describes itself as "the nation's oldest continuously published daily college newspaper", although this description is contested by other college newspapers. The Crimson traces its origin to the first issue of The Magenta , published January 24, 1873, despite strong discouragement from
10710-807: Was in prison. The eight-circuit idea was not exhaustively formulated until the publication of Exo-Psychology by Leary and Robert Anton Wilson 's Cosmic Trigger in 1977. Wilson contributed to the model after befriending Leary in the early 1970s, and used it as a framework for further exposition in his book Prometheus Rising , among other works. Leary believed that the first four of these circuits ("the Larval Circuits" or "Terrestrial Circuits") are naturally accessed by most people at transition points in life such as puberty. The second four circuits ("the Stellar Circuits" or "Extra-Terrestrial Circuits"), Leary wrote, were "evolutionary offshoots" of
10815-482: Was strained by infidelity and mutual alcohol abuse . Marianne eventually died by suicide in 1955, leaving him to raise their son and daughter alone. He described himself during this period as "an anonymous institutional employee who drove to work each morning in a long line of commuter cars and drove home each night and drank martinis ... like several million middle-class, liberal, intellectual robots". From 1954 or 1955 to 1958, Leary directed psychiatric research at
10920-670: Was to eliminate the entire civilian branch of American aviation from post-war rivalry") at Syracuse Army Air Base in Mattydale, New York . After a fateful reunion with Ramsdell (who was assigned to Deshon General Hospital in Butler, Pennsylvania , as chief psychologist) in Buffalo, New York , he was promoted to corporal and reassigned to his mentor's command as a staff psychometrician . He remained in Deshon's deaf rehabilitation clinic for
11025-471: Was unproductive and indigent, prompting a return to academia. In late 1959, Leary started as a lecturer in clinical psychology at Harvard University at the behest of Frank Barron (a colleague from Berkeley) and David McClelland . Leary and his children lived in Newton, Massachusetts . In addition to teaching, Leary was affiliated with the Harvard Center for Research in Personality under McClelland. He oversaw
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