View Full Version : The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead
crushingstep7
07-08-2007, 14:15
The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead
by Timothy Leary
So I'm reading it right now, and my cat was wondering...
is the book intended for people using certain drugs, or just psychadellics in general??
My cat knows Timothy Leary is really big into Acid but could it apply to shrooms too?
crushingstep7
07-08-2007, 15:42
wtf how did that book get there
haha
~lostgurl~
07-08-2007, 15:49
LOL, I add it to all the book reviews.
Nagognog2
07-08-2007, 16:46
As was often said back in the 1960's: "That book has caused more bad trips than anything else combined."
(I have a first edition signed by Owsley, but would never consider asking someone to read it before their first excursion.)
crushingstep7
08-08-2007, 05:30
Lol... well what do you mean by a bad trip?? Just a rough trip? I'm just getting the impression that people would have a tough time because it's hard to handle all at once???
Maybe not you tell me.
Pachanoid
11-09-2007, 04:05
As was often said back in the 1960's: "That book has caused more bad trips than anything else combined."
(I have a first edition signed by Owsley, but would never consider asking someone to read it before their first excursion.)
Ummm... forgive my ignorance, but why not?
enquirewithin
11-09-2007, 04:54
^Some gorillas don't like Timothy Leary!
It was unintended as trip manual (http://www.lycaeum.org/books/books/psychedelic_experience/tibetan.html) by Leary, Alpert and Metzner and was used as such by them in them sixties. It was based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead. (http://www.lib.virginia.edu/small/exhibits/dead/) I used to have a copy called the American Book of the Dead.
The Tibetan Book of the Dead is intended to be read to the dead as they are dying, I believe, but it's esoteric meaning supposedly is one of spiritual rebirth during life.
sgurrman
14-08-2008, 20:30
The idea of Nagognog that this book caused more bad trips in the 1960s than anything else is an interesting one. Why might that be so? The book was intended to do the opposite:to prevent 'bad trips' by creating a positive guide to what was going on, and help the tripper through the potential difficulties. There are two things that I can think of. Firstly, it is a very precise and detailed guide, and (from what I've heard) most psychedelic trips are not predictable in that kind of way. Secondly, I don't think it would be suitable for most people on their first, or early kind of trip. You would need to be familiar with the general landscape of psychedelic experience before trying to use such a manual.
Recently, I have been reading the book in parallel with the Bardo Thodol, the original Tibetan Book of the Dead. It occurs to me that, if taken seriously, the book is a serious tome. It's about experiencing total reality, which is about as heavyweight as things come. It also makes clear that Leary, Metzner, and Alpert were, at the time, dead serious about the spiritual quest via psychedelics, and were able to verbalise awesomely some of what was going on. The book is on a high level spiritually. It is often forgotten, amongst the media hype and his own weakness for self-advertising, that Tim Leary was dead serious about psychedelics as a psychospiritual route. And one of the things that comes through to me on reading the book is how these guys were spiritual heavyweights. In its own way, this is the real thing.