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 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.”
For 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
twenty-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 shows going
on all at once, where everyone was doing their own thing —
whatever was right in his own eyes. Not only did it draw attention
to itself, but each preacher, 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
us.
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!”
but 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 (quite legally).
The adult society of cigarettes
and alcohol and drug-store 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, we all in one voice 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.
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