THE LEAD PLAYERS

Timothy Leary 1920 - 1996

Timothy Leary was a psychology professor at Harvard University. After taking psilocybin mushrooms in Oaxaca Mexico he announced “I learned more about the human mind in 6 hours than I had in all my years as a Harvard psychologist”. After leaving Harvard, Leary became the self pronounced high priest of the counterculture movement in 1960’s America, encouraging young people to take LSD and “Turn on, tune in and drop out.” President Richard Nixon allegedly called him “The most dangerous man in America.”

Aldous Huxley 1894 - 1963

Aldous Huxley was a novelist and screenwriter, born in England and later living in Hollywood, California. Best known for his distopian novel Brave New World, in 1953 he took Mescaline with psychiatrist Humphry Osmond, and this experience radically changed the way he viewed himself and the world. The result was his essay ‘The Doors of Perception’ which influenced an entire generation of thinkers, artists, musicians and writers.

Alan Watts 1915 - 1973

Alan Watts was born in England, later moving to the USA. He began his spiritual career as a christian priest, before moving to the West Coast of America to teach Zen Buddhism. Watts wrote over 20 books in his lifetime, and his work is credited for helping to popularize Eastern Philosophy in the West. His book The Joyous Cosmology built on Huxley’s earlier Doors of Perception, describing and reflecting on his various adventures with psychedelics.