LEARY LECTURES AT HARVARD FOR FIRST TIME IN 20 YEARS (Published 1983)
- ️Mon Apr 25 1983
- April 25, 1983
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For the first time since his dismissal from Harvard 20 years ago for experimenting with mindaltering drugs, Timothy Leary returned today to praise the university as the ''big league of chemical psychedelic experimentation.''
''Since the day we were canned, I never have felt any rancor against Harvard,'' Mr. Leary told a full house at Memorial Hall. ''Harvard is the main line of American transcendental thinking.''
Mr. Leary, a former lecturer, appeared with Richard Alpert, 49 years old, an assistant clinical psychology professor who was dismissed with him in May 1963. The university contended that they broke an agreement against using undergraduates in drug experiments.
''The problem, was, of course, the world wasn't ready for us,'' Mr. Leary said. No Regrets for One
''I think they were,'' Mr. Alpert interjected. ''Not for one moment do I wish I was not thrown out of Harvard.'' Both men were introduced by Dr. David Clarence McClelland, a psychology professor who headed the Center for Research in Personality where they did research. He said in 1962 that he feared the permanent effects of their experiments.
Mr. Leary, 62, contended that Harvard had always attracted scholars interested in drugs and the mind. and had always been in the ''mainstream tradition of far-out, Sufi, gnostic, Harvard experimentation.''
He also asserted that in the 1950's the Central Intelligence Agency placed ads in the campus newspaper to recruit Harvard students to participate in experiments with mind-altering drugs. Student Promoted Lecture
Joseph A. Kasof, a Harvard graduate student in sociology, said he promoted the lecture because of his interest in psychedelic drugs. He hired the hall and security force and paid for advertising at a total cost of about $2,300, he said.
Tickets were $3, and crowds of students stood outside in the rain asking for extras. Mr. Kasof said that the speakers agreed to appear for no fee but that he planned to split any profits with them.
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