Scan barcode
jackb's review against another edition
4.0
"That would not stop the research nor would it stop the party."
For as much good as they did, these guys probably stuffed drug research for 20-40 years. Seemed they were more interested in getting rekt than the actual science of it.
Well written and researched, very interesting.
For as much good as they did, these guys probably stuffed drug research for 20-40 years. Seemed they were more interested in getting rekt than the actual science of it.
Well written and researched, very interesting.
kaybarz7's review against another edition
challenging
informative
slow-paced
0.75
Did not like this book overall. It was informative in parts, but overall was slow and boring.
achadamaia's review against another edition
5.0
This was one of the most engaging books I've read in a long time.
ssejig's review against another edition
3.0
An interesting look at how the science experiments begun by two men at Harvard ended up changing the world.
Not sure why the four men (including the man who got Leary and Alpert kicked out of Harvard and another guru)each got a nickname. The full names were still used.
A little confusing the way the narrative jumped around, even within different sections. Overall, a good, seemingly well-researched book.
Not sure why the four men (including the man who got Leary and Alpert kicked out of Harvard and another guru)each got a nickname. The full names were still used.
A little confusing the way the narrative jumped around, even within different sections. Overall, a good, seemingly well-researched book.
jlmb's review against another edition
3.0
I read The Electric Koolaid Acid Trip many, many years ago and enjoyed it. When I saw the cover of this book, I recalled the scene in the Acid Trip book where the pranksters show up at the Millbrook mansion to meet & hang out with Timothy Leary. They are all shocked and horrified to find out how waspy & square & uptight everyone is there. That's odd, I thought at the time I read that scene. Leary is Mr LSD himself, how is he square? This book by Lattin both clears up my confusion about that issue and also greatly adds to my knowledge of the development of LSD in this country in the 60s.
I learned a lot of fun facts. Ram Dass(Richard Alpert) was Leary's BFF and a big acid guy before he became a new age-y guru. Dr. Andrew Weil, mr. organic, crunchy-granola guy, was the guy who got Leary fired from Harvard. Huh! Leary hung out with The Stones and started doing heroin because Keith Richards made it seem cool. (Ok, Keith is certainly an alpha male when it comes to inherent coolness. I think a lot of people thought if they did dope like Keith, then they would be cool like Keith. Wrong. Oops!)
The biggest fact I came away from this book knowing is that Leary was a pretty shitty human being - ESPECIALLY when it came down to his wife(who killed herself because of him), his two neglected kids, and his former BFF Richard Alpert. Wow, I was amazed at how Leary used Alpert for years - Alpert both supporting him financially and raising his kids for him while Leary galavanted around the world. Then when the money ran out & the kids got old enough to look after themselves(for the most part) Leary turns on Alpert and says he doesn't want a gay man around his kids because he will molest them. WTF! Hello, Alpert is their dad more than you, you big jerk. Alpert came across as a really sad guy. If only he had been born twenty or so years later and being gay wouldn't have been such a negative thing for him. I got the sense that he was never really able to accept his sexuality and that played a big part in his search for enlightenment.
Huston Smith, whom I had never heard of prior to this book, came out as by far the best of the bunch. Sounds like a real cool guy with an interesting life. I plan to check out his autobiography soon. His inclusion in the book seemed a bit of a stretch. He wasn't involved with the other 3 guys the way they all were. And he didn't have very much to do with LSD. That was the weakest part of the book - attempting to link him to the other 3 stories.
People really had grandiose ideas about LSD. I feel kind of bad that when I took it I never tried to look for spiritual enlightenment - it was just a fun high. There were so many hopes and plans for LSD and it turns out just be something kids do to get fucked up. Maybe if the government hadn't banned the study of it? Who knows?
I learned a lot of fun facts. Ram Dass(Richard Alpert) was Leary's BFF and a big acid guy before he became a new age-y guru. Dr. Andrew Weil, mr. organic, crunchy-granola guy, was the guy who got Leary fired from Harvard. Huh! Leary hung out with The Stones and started doing heroin because Keith Richards made it seem cool. (Ok, Keith is certainly an alpha male when it comes to inherent coolness. I think a lot of people thought if they did dope like Keith, then they would be cool like Keith. Wrong. Oops!)
The biggest fact I came away from this book knowing is that Leary was a pretty shitty human being - ESPECIALLY when it came down to his wife(who killed herself because of him), his two neglected kids, and his former BFF Richard Alpert. Wow, I was amazed at how Leary used Alpert for years - Alpert both supporting him financially and raising his kids for him while Leary galavanted around the world. Then when the money ran out & the kids got old enough to look after themselves(for the most part) Leary turns on Alpert and says he doesn't want a gay man around his kids because he will molest them. WTF! Hello, Alpert is their dad more than you, you big jerk. Alpert came across as a really sad guy. If only he had been born twenty or so years later and being gay wouldn't have been such a negative thing for him. I got the sense that he was never really able to accept his sexuality and that played a big part in his search for enlightenment.
Huston Smith, whom I had never heard of prior to this book, came out as by far the best of the bunch. Sounds like a real cool guy with an interesting life. I plan to check out his autobiography soon. His inclusion in the book seemed a bit of a stretch. He wasn't involved with the other 3 guys the way they all were. And he didn't have very much to do with LSD. That was the weakest part of the book - attempting to link him to the other 3 stories.
People really had grandiose ideas about LSD. I feel kind of bad that when I took it I never tried to look for spiritual enlightenment - it was just a fun high. There were so many hopes and plans for LSD and it turns out just be something kids do to get fucked up. Maybe if the government hadn't banned the study of it? Who knows?
papablues050164's review
4.0
The Seeker, the Trickster, the Healer and the Teacher. Thus has the author characterized four men who changed our perception of reality and what was possible. Each chapter is broken into sections following the trajectory of these men: Timothy Leary, Trickster and showman; Richard Alpert, the seeker who made a pilgrimage to India and returned as spiritual leader Ram Dass; Huston Smith, a professor of religion who offered insight and an inclusive view towards all belief systems; and Andrew Weir, better known today as a promotor of holistic medicine. In the early 60’s three of these men were involved in the Harvard Psilocybin Project, an exploration of the mind-altering effects of LSD. Along each man’ path, we are led on side-paths involving Swiss chemist Albert Hoffman, the man who synthesized LSD-25 in 1938 and made the world’s first acid trip in 1944. We also hear of the experiments in 1950 by Drs. Max Rinkel and Robert Hyde which were secretly funded by the CIA. At turns Leary is not as bad, but then again worse than we imagined. His and Alpert’s expulsion from Harvard in 1963 was spurred largely by a story in a college newspaper by then-student Weir, who in a nasty twist of irony would years later find himself in a similar situation. That expulsion basically took the leash off of Leary, whose antics led to the illegalization of LSD and to a lesser extent, to the War on Drugs. Thanks in large part to these four, the counterculture in the 1990s became our culture; way-out ideas like yoga, meditation, alternative medicine didn’t seem so far out anymore. Humor suffuses much of their antics over the years, reeling in subsidiary allies like author Aldous Huxley and poet Allen Ginsberg. The final pages touch on the author’s own excursions on his acid trips in the early 70’s, the first being an euphoric and the second a horrific trip whose effects lasted for weeks. Having been subjected to enough pot parties in the same time period, and a personal affront best spoken of in another blog…while I disagree with the whole ‘turn on, tune in and drop out’ notion, I found much that was intriguing and humorous in this book.
mssarahmorgan's review
3.0
Could be better organized, but pretty fascinating nonetheless. Especially having recently read Huston Smith's Why Religion Matters. I had no idea there was any connection between Smith and Leary.