Writings that sparkle with the psychedelic revolution. The Politics of Ecstasy is Timothy Leary's most provocative and influential exploration of human consciousness, written during the period from his Harvard days to the Summer of Love. Includes his early pronouncements on the psychedelic movement and his views on social and political ramifications of psychedelic and mystical experience.
Here is the outspoken Playboy interview revealing the sexual power of LSD-a statement that many believe played a key role in provoking Leary's incarceration by the authorities; an early outline of the neurological theory that became Leary's classic eight-circuit model of the human nervous system; an insightful exploration of the life and work of novelist Hermann Hesse; an effervescent dialogue with humorist Paul Krassner; and an impassioned defense of what Leary called "The Fifth Freedom"-the right to get high.

This timely book, Timothy Leary's "cyberpunk manifesto," is his future-vision of the emergence of a new humanism with an emphasis on questioning authority, independent thinking, individual creativity, and empowerment via computers and brain technologies. Cyberpunks brings together some of Leary’s most provocative writings, along with selections from interviews and conversations with a variety of writers and thinkers. Individual chapters include “How I Became an Amphibian,” “Personal Computers; Personal Freedom,” and “Navigational Game Plane.” “How to Boot Up Your Bio-Computer” typifies Leary’s outrageous yet surprisingly grounded ideas, linking pagan, nature-based rituals with a “collective boot-up” of the brain through stimulation from certain natural plants. Together, these pieces describe a new breed of human being who embraces technology, uses it to revolutionize communication and evade and annoy Big Brother, while at the same time achieving personal success, attaining political power, and above all, having fun.

Death is increasingly on the agenda for baby boomers moving ever closer to it. Timothy Leary brings some startlingly fresh ideas to this topic. Fundamentally, he claims, we have been brainwashed by our institutions — government, organized religion, the healthcare industry — to accept death as an inevitable end. Leary argues instead that death is misunderstood, that we don't have to die, and that there are "commonsense alternatives." His theory rests on the transhumanist approach that says human beings are evolving into spiritual machines — beings that are part human and part machine and eventually will not die as the term is commonly understood. Being fitted with machine parts like bionic knees is part of this process. And as we evolve through the cybernetic age, he says, we will gain new wisdom that broadens our definition of personal immortality and gene-pool survival — the "postbiologic option of the information species."

He famously exhorted people to "turn on, tune in, and drop out," but Timothy Leary had a lot more to say about drugs — a lot more. Leary on Drugs compiles every interesting thing he ever said about the subject. Drawing from Leary’s books, interviews, magazine articles, and scholarly journals, the book includes essays, quotes, and stories, ranging from his first acid trip and the sociology of LSD to drug war hysteria, the right to get high, and advice on using psychedelics responsibly.

Throughout the ages, intelligent, affluent, ambitious, and just plain hot-to-trot humans have sought out aphrodisiacs — everything from rhino horns to green M&Ms. Here, Timothy Leary argues that the true aphrodisiac is the mind. By knowing how to stimulate the most sensitive organ of all, the brain, readers can enrich their sex lives beyond their wildest dreams. Leary begins by telling his own coming-of-sexual-age story in typically witty fashion, then goes on to explore humanity's obsession with physical pleasure, digital activation of the erotic brain, and the fascination with cybersex. He explains how phones and computers allow perfect strangers to achieve amazing levels of intimacy and why telecommunicated sexual messages are now a standard courting technique for young people in industrial-urban societies. Ruminating on everything from sexual liberation to electronic foreplay, Leary offers a persuasive explanation of why the key to arousal is "all in your head."