Timothy Leary's Dead
Doctor Timothy Leary began to preach the gospel of LSD and left
Harvard in search of disciples. As high priest of the drug
scene, he taught us that the risk of rational disorder is
worth taking in view of the possibility of rational expansion.
In other words, the risk of a horrifying head trip was worth
taking in view of the possibility of a euphoric experience.
We were taught that LSD offered new perspectives, new horizons
never before dreamed of. We learned that we could expand
our minds, deepen our consciousness and thus lift ourselves
out of the mundane existence we saw in society. We began
to dream of a state of anarchy in which glorious liberty
dwelt, where we could be transported into fabulous, mind-bending
realms. We thought drugs could make a note of music take
on an infinite variation of tone and make flowers more glorious
in a thousand ways. Colors took on new meaning and the total
man was deepened and enriched and made transcendent.
It was preached as a means of religious experience and
we swallowed it, hook, line, and sinker. After all, what
credibility did Christianity have as a valid religious experience?
So drugs were the answer to a false hope called Christianity.
We wanted to be set free to act in a way that would benefit
all mankind.
We were prepared, at least some of us, to take the calculated
risk. Taking LSD was no longer viewed as an irresponsible
action, but rather as a way to find oneself, one’s
purpose on this earth. It was worth the gamble simply because
we saw the possibilities of enlargement and discovery. When
Timothy Leary began to preach the drug gospel, we were ready
to listen and believe in his hope and his future. He was
our high priest and prophet, leading us into realms undreamed
of. We were fed up to the gullet with a false hope, with
broken promises of a religion that didn’t work. So
we dropped out of church (which was absolutely no different
than the rest of the insane world), dropped out of school,
and dropped out of mainstream society. After all, most of
us who were a part of the drug scene shared a common experience
of Sunday school (as if we needed another day of school),
and one hour of boredom once a week in our upbringing.
By smoking pot and taking LSD, we were searching for something
that the Christ of Christianity could not give to anyone.
We were searching for adequacy, meaning, and fulfillment,
and we were shouting it out loud and clear with all our
heart. Since no one told us the truth, we had to be set
free by our own gospel, a gospel we were more inclined to
accept. All our life growing up we heard the words, “You
will know the truth and the truth will set you free,”
but no one told us the truth. “If the Son sets you
free, you will be free indeed,” was the message we
heard over and over again. But the freedom we experienced
on LSD seemed far greater than anything the bamboozlers
on TV or in church pulpits were offering. None of them showed
us the life of being a disciple, of obeying the wonderful
commands that would truly set us free.
So when Timothy Leary came along,we were ready to leave
everything to follow him, since he was going somewhere we
wanted to go. He offered a measure of hope and we were enthusiastic
about his gospel. We were ready for it. The time had come.
Christianity had run its deadly course and we were ready
for life!
Christianity never told us the most vital things that
the Son of God had to say — to leave everything and follow
him; to leave our possessions behind, our family and friends;
that no one could be his disciple unless he gave up all
of his own possessions. He also said, “Do not think
I came to bring peace on earth; I did not come to bring
peace, but a sword... He who does not take up his cross
and follow me is not worthy of me.”
To a materialistic Christianity, this was absurd and blasphemous.
We were looking for a real family and love, the love described
in the Bible, but we had never seen it lived out or practiced.
If someone had told us, for example, about a real family
of love, and said that if we obeyed his commands, we would
not be destroyed like the communes we were once members
of, we would have done it. If there had been such an example
thirty-five years ago, we would have realized that those
who suffer hardship to endure in his word are really his
disciples. They are the ones who really know the truth and
are set free indeed. It would have saved us a lot of heartache
and disillusionment.
We wanted a new life; we wanted to give up our old, boring
life. We were looking for the life Messiah offered us, but
no one could show us where to find it! Christianity was
a circus of confusion, with its many rings of shows going
on all at once, where everyone was doing their own thing
ał whatever was right in his own eyes. Not only did it draw
attention to itself, but each preacher, who, like a performer
in a circus, drew attention to himself.
That is why we Christian kids rebelled (It wasn’t
really a rebellion, though, for we had nothing substantial
to rebel against). The risk of a bad experience on drugs
was worth taking in view of possibly finding what we longed
for. But, really, a drug experience wasn’t what we
wanted! We longed for something deeper, and hoped that by
taking drugs we would find it. In other words, our experience
in Christianity was so empty that it was unable to satisfy
the gnawing void inside.
We went into the drug scene with open eyes, longing and
hoping and yearning for something to fill us up. We were
willing to take that calculated gamble with drugs since
the glorified truth spoken by the clergy was not in the
least being lived out by them, much less by the church who
were their students. “And many false prophets will
arise and mislead many.” We were some of the many,
for you can know a tree by its fruit.
We had a case against our parents who got high on caffeine
and uppers and downers prescribed very righteously by their
quack physicians. Pot was not proven addictive and they
called us addicts while they were addicts on every conceivable
legalized drug, including alcohol and tobacco. We gloated
in our righteousness as they did in theirs. We were disgusted
with the whole hypocritical scene of the establishment,
with Christianity being the most disgusting!
?We shouted, “Unfair!” when they refused to
give up what they demanded us to give up. Instead, they
condemned the innocent and made us lawbreakers because they
would not legalize pot. All the while, they were dying with
emphysema, cancer, and liver problems (all quite legally).
The adult society of cigarettes and alcohol and prescription
drugstore drugs became the champions of honesty and integrity,
while we were demoralized and exasperated until there was
no more hope of recovering and fitting into their way of
life. They engaged in a perverted rationalization to arrive
at the conclusion that we were the rebels and they were
the standard by which rebellion was measured.
They told us that we could only be saved if we became
like them, finding adequacy and meaning for our lives and
fulfillment when we abandoned our lives to an all-sufficient
Christ. But in one voice, we all scoffed at them and asked, “Where is this all-sufficient Christ of yours who
makes a difference and makes those who believe in him all
one?” We were searching for the Christ the church
was supposed to represent. We were looking for the unity
promised by Messiah in John 17:21-23. Then we would have
believed.
So where are we today after all this injustice we endured?
Are we bitter and hopeless about the past? No. Are we still
taking drugs and searching for fulfillment? No, we have
found something better. We have put our mishandled past
behind us and have begun something new. What we have found
has filled the void inside us. No, it’s not LSD or
even legalized pot. It’s the Master — Yahshua the
Messiah. His life is filling us. It’s worth a chance,
even a gamble, to risk all and come and see. We will personally
talk with you and you can meet our friends, our brothers
and sisters. For we have met the One who does make a difference.
Revelation 18:24; 17:6
John 8:31-32
Luke 14:33
Matthew 10:34,38
Mark 3:31-35
Matthew 23:3; 7:15-20
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