Bless you shankara, I wish we had more posters like you on the forum
(This place has strayed far from what I intended it to be, lol But so does doing too much LSD
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I have some similar thoughts, when I was younger I was also convinced like the people in the documentary profess that LSD really can show a person a glimpse of enlightenment, see 'reality' more clearly for what it really is, understand our own souls etc... open up the 'doors of perception' as Aldous Huxley described. The idea proposed by the 'Brotherhood' in the film that getting millions of hits out into the world would change the total consciousness was a bold attempt, lol
But now later in life I think perhaps the results were over-exaggerated, and that taking it too far is more destructive than helpful. Very little that is actually useful when a person tries to integrate back into the 'real world' etc. In fact in some ways it makes it even harder. Is this a reflection of the drug itself? Or the nature of the 'real world'?
Also interesting stuff about Leary being CIA, that is worthy of its own discussion.
IMO there was some truth to the hippy movement and the onset of psychedelics... to a degree I think people WERE waking up in mass numbers, seeing the war in Vietnam for what it really was, snapping out of the TV hypnosis. I do think this was a threat to establishment control/mind control and for sure they had to subvert it/steer it in a new direction that they were able to control. How they did that makes for some fascinating tales (Laurel Canyon, etc)
Where/how on that timeline Leary fits in is an interesting exploration for sure. Whether he was directly aware of his role, or simply being used I don't know. Same goes for his friends and colleagues, guys like Robert Anton Wilson or Ram Dass, etc
