I’ve been going through an interesting article, The Spy Who Came In From The Mold, by W.H. Bowart about Timothy Leary’s involvement with the CIA. I guess Bowart wrote a book several years ago called “Operation Mind Control“. Bowart claims to have recorded a conversation with Leary after his release from prison (which I think happened in 76) in which Leary details how he worked with the CIA. It’s kind of rambling, so I’ll winnow it down to the good parts.

I told Leary that, based on some of the documents I’d read, it seemed that he could have been just one of many scientist who’d been used without his knowledge by the CIA to conduct their mind control experiments.

“I’ve known this for ten years,” Leary said.

“You were witting of it?” I asked in surprise.

“Of course,” Leary said, leaning back in his chair with confidence.

I couldn’t believe my ears. The CIA had created the “Psychedelic Sixties” with Timothy Leary’s help? “You were wittingly used by the CIA?” I asked again. “…During the sixties? You knew you were being used by the CIA?”

[…] “I knew I was being used by the intelligence agents of this country.”

“What were you doing for them?” I asked. “What the hell were you doing? Did they want you to turn the kids on, huh? Were they trying to make the kids see God and leave the Vietnam war alone?”

[…] “I’m asking you what was the CIA’s motive? What were you used for?” I said again.

“The CIA recognized what you probably haven’t recognized yet, that I’m a very important national asset… “What can I say,?” Leary said.

That was Leary. He believed his own press releases.

He lit his half-smoked joint and continued. “Yeah. I saw in nineteen sixty-two or three, that there was a world struggle for the control of minds. That’s a crude way to say it… I saw, after Hiroshima, there would never be a big world war. World war would be at the neurological level, not at the level of tanks and planes and bombs… I proceeded as an intelligence agent since 1962, understanding that the next war for control of this planet and beyond, had to do with the control of consciousness. So I had to think very carefully about that…

I wanted my side to win the war…”

[…] I repeated the question: “Did you ever wittingly work for the CIA?”

“Yes,” he answered strongly. “I was a witting agent of the CIA, but, I’m not a willing agent of Nixon! I did everything in my power to throw out Nixon!” (So, it would appear, did the CIA.)

[…] “What are you doing for the CIA?” I said, disbelieving everything he said.

“I’m raising the intelligence of an elite… a very elite group of Americans,” he said. “So I think the future of freedom depends on a very small group of people who are smart enough to defend that liberty…”

Right after that, Leary starts to backtrack and say he never knew at the time he was being used, but knows it looking back. In any event, it’s rather difficult to untangle the mess of Leary’s involvement with the government, as he seems to have been not always entirely truthful. As far as I know it though, it’s an indisputable fact that he turned state’s evidence against the Weather Underground and others after his return to the US in 1973. I’ve written a little more about the circumstances surrounding that here. I have a couple other avenues I plan on following with all this before I wrap it up, so stay tuned. But suffice it to say that what little trust I ever had in Leary or his teachings has all but evaporated. Who knows though, maybe he really thought he was defending freedom by working with the CIA. Maybe the world was a different place then. Or maybe it’s a different place than how it appears. Seems fucking unlikely though.