Turn on, Tune in, Drop out?
Psychedelics vs the System.
Disclaimer: The intention of this article is not to glorify or promote the use of drugs in any way that is either illegal or unsafe.
Dropping by the Office
In 2017, an article titled “Turn on, tune in, drop by the office” was published in the Economist by author Emma Hogan. The article explores the relatively recent trend of microdosing, and how people are doing it to increase productivity and creativity at their jobs, among other things. My response is a hearty, “Hooray! I am excited to work better than ever before!”
None of what Hogan talks about is too far off what the Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski, wrote in his manifesto. There, Kaczynski argued that the Technological Industrial System requires us to use drugs in order to cope with the system itself. Instead of humans changing the system to fit their needs, the system changes humans to fit its needs. Drugs are a method of controlling our behavior to better fit the system.
It is no wonder Hogan says…
Already many Americans are happy to medicalise productivity. In 2011 3.5m children were prescribed drugs to treat attention disorders, up from 2.5m in 2003, and these drugs are widely used off prescription to enhance performance at work. By one estimate, 12% of the population takes an antidepressant. Americans also try to eliminate pain, mental or otherwise, by other means; the opioid epidemic has partly been caused by massive over-prescription of painkillers. — Emma Hogan, Turn on, tune in, drop by the office
Hogan does not explore what happens to those who do not treat themselves with drugs to work better for the system — the system that produces many of the symptoms people are seeking medication for. Both Hogan and Kaczynski use antidepressants as an example of drugs used to control behavior, so it is fitting that psychedelics are being studied as antidepressants, among other treatments. “Too bored with your soulless job? Take psychedelics!” is what the dystopian advertisements could one day say.
What is missing from Hogan’s article is a critique of the system that encourages us to take drugs to produce. The critique of the system is essential to the quote Hogan references by Timothy Leary, “turn on, tune in, drop out.” Consider that psychedelics were being researched and showed promise before they were made illegal and all research canceled, but now they are being studied and some are being given “breakthrough therapy” designation by the FDA.
The system silenced the legitimate research that was happening in the past (it silenced truth and science). This tale tells us that the system is full of absurdities. It would be hilarious if such absurdities did not result in real suffering, but that is what happens when people are deprived of a natural medicine, as it is what happens with so many other systemic errors. The tale of psychedelics is a critique of the system.
To return to work for a broken system with a smile on your face, ready to do more work than ever before because you are on drugs, reminds me of the MK-ULTRA experiments (experiments done by the U.S. Government to brainwash / control the mind, sometimes with the aid of drugs such as LSD). “Dropping by the office” on a microdose of psychedelics is akin to brainwashing yourself for the system. It further reminds me that being forced to take drugs for the system is a common trope among dystopian science fiction tales (check out the movie Equilibrium).
I hope you recognize that we also pump livestock full of drugs — steroids and antibiotics — in order to produce more economic output for the system. Their situations tend to be more horrifying than what humans subject each other to, but there is a clear analogy between human workers and livestock. We merely need to look back to the Industrial Revolution, or at less developed nations, to see what the system is capable of doing to humans. And what does the system do to the planet and its other inhabitants?
Leary’s Message: Turn on, Tune in, Drop out
Leary believed that psychedelics allow us to turn on, tune in, and drop out. So what did he mean by this phrase? Read Leary’s own words below, but I will also paraphrase the message here. “Turn on” and “tune in” mean to connect with ourselves and those around us harmoniously. “Drop out” means to question and fight for change in the areas of society (and the realm of ideas that govern our behavior) that are, in comedian and LSD user George Carlin’s words, “bullshit!”
The lesson I have learned from over 300 LSD sessions, and which I have been passing on to others, can be stated in six syllables: Turn on, tune in, drop out.
“Turn on” means to contact the ancient energies and wisdoms that are built into your nervous system. They provide unspeakable pleasure and revelation.
“Tune in” means to harness and communicate these new perspectives in a harmonious dance with the external world.
“Drop out” means to detach yourself from the tribal game. Current models of social adjustment mechanized, computerized, socialized, intellectualized, televised, Sanforized make no sense to the new LSD generation, who see clearly that American society is becoming an air-conditioned anthill. In every generation of human history, thoughtful men have turned on and dropped out of the tribal game, and thus stimulated the larger society to lurch ahead. Every historical advance has resulted from the stern pressure of visionary men who have declared their independence from the game: “Sorry, George III, we don’t buy your model. We’re going to try something new”; “Sorry, Louis XVI, we’ve got a new idea. Deal us out”; “Sorry, L. B. J., it’s time to mosey on beyond the Great Society.”
The reflex reaction of society to the creative dropout is panic and irritation. If anyone questions the social order, he threatens the whole shaky edifice. The automatic, angry reaction to the creative dropout is that he will become a parasite on the hard-working, conforming citizen. This is not true. The LSD experience does not lead to passivity and withdrawal; it spurs a driving hunger to communicate in new forms, in better ways, to express a more harmonious message, to live a better life. The LSD cult has already wrought revolutionary changes in American culture. If you were to conduct a poll of the creative young musicians in this country, you’d find that at least 80 percent are using psychedelic drugs in a systematic way. And this new psychedelic style has produced not only a new rhythm in modern music but a new decor for our discotheques, a new form of film making, a new kinetic visual art, a new literature, and has begun to revise our philosophic and psychological thinking.
Remember, it’s the college kids who are turning on the smartest and most promising of the youngsters. What an exciting prospect: a generation of creative youngsters refusing to march in step, refusing to go to offices, refusing to sign up on the installment plan, refusing to climb aboard the treadmill.
Don’t worry. Each one will work out his individual solution. Some will return to the establishment and inject their new ideas. Some will live underground as self-employed artists, artisans and writers. Some are already forming small communities out of the country. Many are starting schools for children and adults who wish to learn the use of their sense organs. Psychedelic businesses are springing up: bookstores, art galleries. Psychedelic industries may involve more manpower in the future than the automobile industry has produced in the last 20 years. In our technological society of the future, the problem will be not to get people to work, but to develop graceful, fulfilling ways of living a more serene, beautiful and creative life. Psychedelics will help to point the way. — Timothy Leary, Playboy September 1966
Many interpret Leary’s “drop out” incorrectly and claim that it means to totally disengage with society / the establishment; but in the quote above, we see that he specifically says, “Some will return to the establishment and inject their new ideas.” Leary’s “drop out” is much more nuanced. As I said above, it is actually using your new perspective to change the bullshit in your life.
Leary Catches Flak
Leary and his call to “drop out” are often blamed for getting psychedelics banned. Perhaps the most scathing review comes from Hunter S. Thompson in his book Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.
Indeed. But what is sane? Especially here in “our own country” — in this doomstruck era of Nixon. We are all wired into a survival trip now. No more of the speed that fueled the Sixties. Uppers are going out of style. This was the fatal flaw in Tim Leary’s trip. He crashed around America selling “consciousness expansion” without ever giving a thought to the grim meat-hook realities that were lying in wait for all the people who took him too seriously. After West Point and the Priesthood, LSD must have seemed entirely logical to him … but there is not much satisfaction in knowing that he blew it very badly for himself, because he took too many others down with him.
Not that they didn’t deserve it: No doubt they all Got What Was Coming To Them. All those pathetically eager acid freaks who thought they could buy Peace and Understanding for three bucks a hit. But their loss and failure is ours, too.
What Leary took down with him was the central illusion of a whole lifestyle that he helped to create … a generation of permanent cripples, failed seekers, who never understood the essential old-mystic fallacy of the Acid Culture: the desperate assumption that somebody — or at least some force — is tending that Light at the end of the tunnel. — Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Today, those fighting for psychedelics are wary of the past association between psychedelics and being anti-establishment. The organization Third Wave refers to the use during the 60s as “irresponsible, spontaneous consumption,” and calls for “integrating psychedelics into mainstream society” with a new era of use. This is similar to Founder and President of MAPS (Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies), Rick Doblin’s, critique below.
What Doblin means by “getting it right” is not just a reference to experimental execution but also to overall attitude. “We lost this battle the first time around because of arrogance,” he says. “Tim Leary wanted LSD to bring down the establishment. Terence McKenna said psychedelics are inherently opposed to culture. That was the arrogance. Theirs was an entirely romantic notion but also isolationist and uncomfortably superior. I’m trying to reverse that trend. I want to mainstream psychedelic medicine. My motto is ‘Tune in, turn on and go to the bake sale.’ ” — Steven Kotler interviewing Rick Doblin, Playboy April 2010
Inherent to the criticism by Third Wave and Doblin are calls for the system and psychedelics to come together in harmony, but consider some of the implications. The system will only condone use of psychedelics in ways that benefit it (as is evidenced by Hogan’s microdosing article), and yes, the system benefits itself through healing the people that compose it.
Today we see psychedelics being touted as a new class of medicine. Psychedelics are to be used as prescribed by those the system deems fit, i.e. licensed doctors and recognized religions, in the ways it deems acceptable. The “responsible” use Third Wave advocates for will, once put through the system, only amount to what is condoned by the system — it will not be use that is free from bullshit like what Leary advocated for.
Although it may seem as though there is no hope for psychedelics other than furthering the system and its bullshit, the merger of the two worlds — the system and psychedelics — still holds promise for the vision of Leary.
Leary May Have the Last Laugh
Soon, the psychedelics that Leary used to fight the system will be used by the system. So consider the possibility that psychedelics will perk us up and allow us to work in positions we hate and a society we disagree with. In some cases, such as microdosing, people are less likely to have the immediate, profound realizations of what is wrong with their lives. Without the ability to realize how miserable we are in the system, how is systemic change going to come?
Perhaps people who microdose will realize their misery, albeit in a less groundbreaking way than those who take normal to large doses, by becoming healthier mentally. Healthy mindedness in turn has the potential to incrementally improve the system as a natural consequence. Far too often people repeat the cycle of their misery and expect others to do so as well. Misery becomes a learned behavior. Psychedelics have the potential to break the cycle of misery and change how we live (which will produce cycles of healthy behavior) via healthy mindedness and immediate, profound realizations.
Perhaps the unintended consequence of the system using psychedelics is that psychedelics will radically change the system for the better in the end. However, this will take a long time. The system resists rapid large scale change (unless it benefits the system), which is why Leary and the Flower Children were thwarted, and why everybody looks shamefully upon them today. The system won the initial conflict, but the war is long.
Why do I have these beliefs? If we look at what people say who take psychedelics, the answer tends to be very similar. As I covered in The Dark Side of Psychedelics, people generally experience a shift in consciousness from their psychedelic experiences. The shift in consciousness leads to trouble returning to the “tribal game” Leary speaks of. This is so much the case that there is a popular saying shared with those who do not want to return: “Chop wood and carry water.”
The phrase “chop wood and carry water” was made popular by psychedelic spiritual leader Ram Dass, a personal and professional friend of Leary’s, in his book Be Here Now. Another version I have found on Reddit is, “Before enlightenment chop wood and carry water, after enlightenment chop wood and carry water.” Returning to chop wood and carry water may be fine in some situations, but it is certainly not the answer to every situation. Many people make life altering changes for the better after taking psychedelics and coming face-to-face with the bullshit in themselves or the tribal game.
The psychedelic community’s recognition of the shift in consciousness has been repeated by some of the psychedelic community’s most beloved figures. Check out this quote by Terence McKenna:
Psychedelics are illegal not because a loving government is concerned that you might jump out of a third story window. Psychedelics are illegal because they dissolve opinion structure and culturally laid down models of behavior and information processing. They open you up to the possibility that everything you know is wrong. — Terence McKenna, The New Science of Psychedelics (2013)
I will repeat the most important part: psychedelics “open you up to the possibility that everything you know is wrong.” This claim should remind you of Leary’s push to drop out of the tribal game, George Carlin’s “bullshit.” Well, check out the quote below by George Carlin.
“I’ll tell you this — that’s why they put it [LSD] on that list of bad drugs, because they know it opens up the mind. It can be dangerous, I’m not saying it’s not dangerous in some way, you take too much, take the wrong kind, get it from the wrong –” — George Carlin
McKenna and Carlin make the same claim: that psychedelics are illegal because they open up the mind. Not only do they make the same claim, they use the same term, “open up.” I believe this term gets to what it is that psychedelics do, and why long term change in the system is inevitable when the system incorporates psychedelics into it. Here is another quote to leave off on…
I believe that with the advent of acid, we discovered a new way to think, and it has to do with piecing together new thoughts in your mind. Why is it that people think it’s so evil? What is it about it that scares people so deeply, even the guy that invented it? What is it? Because they’re afraid that there’s more to reality than they have ever confronted, that there are doors that they’re afraid to go in. And they don’t want us to go in there either, because if we go in, we might learn something that they don’t know. And that makes us a little out of their control. — Ken Kesey, BBC documentary The Beyond Within: The Rise and Fall of LSD (1987)
