Snag an old Timothy Leary record

> Maybe I'm just addicted to certain ideas

psychedelics help that

Felix, thanks for the defense. :) I certainly think gender equality is one of the most important issues in the world. And I just wouldn't be able to abandon any of my interests. Maybe I'm just addicted to certain ideas...
And remember that not always one has full control of his or her life. It wasn't my choice not to take psychedelics so far, my life has just gone this kind of way.

zupakomputer - "Gender studies" does get a lot of stupid stuff done in its name, but it's not all stupid. And it certainly is not stupid to bring gender up in connection with psychedelics - boundaries of all sorts are examined and dissolved with them. Terence McKenna, Stan Grof - admittedly they are eccentric, but they are examples of important figures in the community who would definitely assert that gender and sexuality are worthy of talk at a "head conference."

That Nowhere Girl has not taken psychedelics - well that is a different issue. I'll admit that one loses some authority without the direct experience; but her ability to analyze documents/trends within the psychedelic movement(s) for gender bias would not be impeded.

As for society being "completely fake" and everyone knowing abouts mushrooms if it wasn't...well I don't agree with that. I think there have been plenty of "real societies" without knowledge of psychedelics, and wise ones too. And even in our Western heritage, the Greeks had mysteries, initiations - not everyone knew, and certainly not to the degree Leary spread LSD.

Yeah but - you wanted to give a talk about something as stupid as 'gender studies' at a Head Conference, and then it emerges that you haven't even done any psychedelics ever.

Which is a lot worse than some Prof. discovering mushrooms on holiday, and rather enthusiastically wanting everyone else in the world to join in with how amazingly spectacular it is.

It's the same 'old story': if society hadn't been completely fake to begin with, then Leary and anyone else would have known about shrooms. There wouldn't be the phoney invading un-natural culture that is not evolved from the tribal folks.
That appears to be what the other type of '60s gurus didn't realise; they weren't in agreement about bringing psychedelics to the masses, but they failed to realise what the problem was, or were not Nazi enough to deal with the problem perhaps.

If you recognise that something sacred cannot be known of, by a culture which has taken over the land and resources, without that culture spoiling and defacing the sacred - then you should become a part of sorting that out. You don't let it continue, and just keep all the good stuff unavailable or illegal.

I'm NOT a Leary fan (as you can perhaps see from my comment about his complex ;)), so I'll yet allow myself some criticism. It's interesting how Leary probably didn't notice any gender bias. And it's still there, some assumptions are made about the subject's social identity. The title "All Girls Are Yours" just made me mad - musically the track is pretty interesting, but the title has an attitude of a silly playboy. Anyway, what does it show us about the subject?
1) He is male (or perhaps a lesbian - but no, I don't expect Leary to notice this category). I know, actually it seems to be Ralph Metzner himself - but why didn't Leary go for a more neutral version? Because he didn't notice a male subject not being neutral?
2) He has sexual memories to recollect. Everyone is likely to recall, re-experience what has been important for him or her (whether openly or secretly), isn't (s)he? And still this aspect of posssible memories is made the most important one. Thus not only women, but also men who are not too keen on sex, are excluded. How lovely to consider oneself a rebel and still unknowingly promote mainstream values. :P

WONDERFUL stuff if not technically sharp, a psychedelic cultural classic, created with love in a time when 4 track recording was high tech. De riguer for any new Leary fan and an important piece of his media output over the decades. Though he nailed his famous TOTIDO phrase to the album, its actually his book Psychedelic Prayers in album form, inspired by the Tao Te Ching. Great sitar or whatever classic Indian strings throughout. I also love the vocal timbre of his paramour Rosemary featured in several songs. Throughout the mid/late 60s Tim and Rosemary would perform this whole show to audiences worldwide. It was meant to be made into a film and this was almost the direct soundtrack, though the film was never released...

Myself I believe Leary just had a complex... he used to hang out with lots of musicians and became jealous... ;) For example he "sang" with Ash Ra Tempel while in exile in Switzerland - if he had music on his mind even in such a nervous period, it show there must have been something really psychological about Leary's eagerness to play a musician.
Anyway, this record is pretty interesting... too bad I just can't accept having albums without artwork - it can be copied, it can be scanned, it can even be homemade, but I just hate CDs in blank envelopes with just track titles written on them... To me an album loses much of its value if it doesn't have a cover and inlay card.