I am 100 percent in favor of the intelligent use of drugs, and 1,000 percent against the thoughtless use of them, whether caffeine or LSD. And drugs are not central to my life.
Timothy LearyRead
The brain is not a blind, reactive machine, but a complex, sensitive biocomputer that we can program. And if we don't take the responsibility for programming it, then it will be programmed unwittingly by accident or by the social environnement.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Our brains are complex systems that we can intentionally influence, but neglect may lead to external programming.
Timothy Leary's quote emphasizes the active role we play in shaping our own minds. It suggests that our brains function like advanced computers, which require conscious programming to achieve desired outcomes. If we fail to take charge of this process, our thinking and behavior may be unconsciously shaped by external influences and social surroundings rather than by our own choices.
Themes
MindProgrammingResponsibilityEnvironmentPerception
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational speech about personal growth.
More from Timothy Leary
All quotes →Think for yourself and question authority.
Timothy LearyRead
There are three side effects of acid: enhanced long-term memory, decreased short-term memory, and I forget the third.
Timothy LearyRead
My advice to myself and to everyone else, particularly young people, is to turn on, tune in and drop out. By drop out, I mean to detach yourself from involvement in secular, external social games. But the dropping out has to occur internally before it can occur externally. I'm not telling kids just to quit school; I'm not telling people to quit their jobs. That is an inevitable development of the process of turning on and tuning in.
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The danger of psychedelic drugs, the danger of mind-opening, the danger of consciousness expansion, the danger of inner discovery is a danger to the establishment.
Timothy LearyRead
If you are serious about your religion, if you really wish to commit yourself to the spiritual quest, you must learn how to use psychochemicals. Drugs are the religion of the twenty-first_x000D_ century. Pursuing the religious life today without using psychedelic drugs is like studying astronomy with the naked eye because that's how they did it in the first century A.D., and besides_x000D_ telescopes are unnatural.
Timothy LearyRead
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