June 28, 2006
Leary
It is true, yes, that in our drug education program in the ‘8Os we realized that set and setting–that is what you expect and what your environment lays on you–determines 99 percent of the experience. It’s not the drug, it’s your expectations and environment. So we went around saying, “Take LSD, you’ll improve yourself, you’ll be a loving person, you’ll be smarter, you’ll find God, you’ll suddenly feel at one with all nature.” Plus, plus positive, we were openly, nakedly, advocating feeling good, being smarter, being a nicer person, being nonviolent, loving yourself, unity with nature…We were deliberately trying to brainwash since we knew that seven or eight million people were taking LSD and we were deliberately trying to brainwash them into hopeful, utopian, positive, loving experiences. At the same time the drug enforcement establishment was running around saying, “Take LSD, jump out a window,” “Take LSD, become homicidal,” “Take LSD, go to a mental hospital…” I admit we were brainwashing. We were trying to brainwash people to become better, to believe in themselves and to believe in the glorious ness of life. But the narcs were brain washing, too, and they inevitably controlled more of the media than we did and for those who were foolish enough to listen to them, yeah, they had bad trips.