The phrase was derived from a speach Leary gave at the beginning of a press conference he had in 1966. 'Like every great religion of the past we seek to find the divinity within and to express this revelation in a life of glorification and the worship of God. These ancient goals we define in the metaphor of the present — turn on, tune in, drop out.' From his biography in 1983, 'Flashbacks' he explained: -- 'Turn on' meant go within to activate your neural and genetic equipment. Become sensitive to the many and various levels of consciousness and the specific triggers that engage them. Drugs were one way to accomplish this end. -- 'Tune in' meant interact harmoniously with the world around you - externalize, materialize, express your new internal perspectives. -- Drop out suggested an elective, selective, graceful process of detachment from involuntary or unconscious commitments. 'Drop Out' meant self-reliance, a discovery of one's singularity, a commitment to mobility, choice, and change. _ Unhappily my explanations of this sequence of personal development were often misinterpreted to mean 'Get stoned and abandon all constructive activity'.
The Across the Universe version: 'Just tune in, turn off, drop out, drop in, switch off, switch on and explode.'
Actually, the way he describes it there, is the way I thought he meant it. He probably could have said it in a more understood phrase, maybe.
I used to think "Drop Out" meant he was encouraging highschool/college students to drop out of school... man was I wrong
Heaven sent the promised land Looks alright from where I stand Cause I’m the man on the outside looking in your post reminded me of pink floyd..
and your post reminded me of nevermore A wise man came across the sea In search of LSD philosophy With open heart and open mind To find the goodness in mankind Bare your soul and you're saved Believe the chosen that dreams in rage Chemicals improve the view Visions now have bloomed in you Windowpane is suffered bliss A psychedelic kiss Show to me your ideology Do you perceive or are you sleeping? Timothy Leary, where are you now The world needs you, we're going down In translation they used the key Altered visions, Tao Teh Ching Open sky to paint their dreams And see as did Lao Tzu Melt away all the hate and pain Mission is clear, awake the dreaming Go to sleep child, and dream When Timothy Leary first started speaking out in the sixties people didn't understand what he was trying to say, some people didn't want to understand him, the establishment wanted to kill him, they wanted to suppress him, squash him like a bug, we always want to kill what we do not understand, all he was trying to say was that we need to realize our inner harmony, to see things in a different way, to truly be free... Electric religion https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZZih4UzaB0
So that part in that documentary was real when they sawed his head off? That was so weird but kinda awesome.
