Observations placeholder

Timothy Leary – High Priest

A session was arranged. We came to the home of the psychiatrist accompanied by a Vedanta monk and two female friends. After a lengthy and friendly discussion with the physician, Dick Alpert lay down on a couch. His girl friend's head rested on his chest. I sat on the edge of the couch, smiling reassurance. Fifty mgs. of DMT were administered intramuscularly.

Within two minutes Dick Alpert s face was glowing with serene joy. For the next twenty-three minutes he gasped and murmured in pleasure, keeping up an amused and enthusiastic account of his visions.

Exactly twenty-five minutes after administration, he smiled, sighed, sat up swinging his legs over the side of the couch and said, It lasted for a million : years and for a split second. Now it's your turn. - With this reassuring precedent, I took up position on the couch. Virginia sat on the floor holding my hand. Dick sat at the foot of the couch, radiating benevolence.

Five minutes after the injection, lying comfortably on the bed, I felt typical psychedelic onset symptoms - a pleasant somatic looseness, a sensitive tuning-in to physical sensations.

Eyes closed . . . typical LSD visions, the exquisite beauty of retinal and physical machinery, transcendence of mental activity, serene detachment. Comforting awareness of Virginia's hand and the presence of friends. Suddenly I opened my eyes and sat up……The room was celestial, glowing with radiant illumination light . . light . . . light . . .the people present were transfigured . . , godlike creatures we were all united as one organism; Beneath the radiant surface I could see the delicate, wondrous body machinery of each person, the network of muscle and vein and bone - exquisitely beautiful and all joined, all part of the same process.

Our group was sharing a paradisial experience - each one in turn was to be given the key to eternity - now it was my turn, I was experiencing this for the group. Later the others would voyage. We were members of a transcendent collectivity.

Dick Alpert coached me tenderly, handed me a mirror wherein I saw my face a stained-glass portrait.

Virginia's face was that of all women - wise, beautiful, eternal. Her eyes were all female eyes.

She murmured exactly the right message. It can always be this way.

Gradually, the brilliant illumination faded back to the three-D world and I sat up. Reborn. Renewed. Radiant with affection and reverence.