Neuropolitics: A Review of the Major Philosophies

Neuropolitics: The Sociobiology of Human Metamorphosis, Timothy Leary
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            Neuropolitics: The Sociobiology of Human Metamorphosis (1977) is a collection of essays written by Timothy Leary, with the help of Robert Anton Wilson and George Koopman. The writings occurred in a variety of prisons that Leary was incarcerated in from 1973 to 1976, with the majority coming from Folsom Prison in 1973. The book begins with a page displaying the statement that space migration, intelligence increase, and life extension (SMI²LE) are the strategies for evolution, which becomes an important theme in the book. Additionally, Leary writes that fusion is the goal of evolution. Neuropolitics is then divided into two parts, “the twilight of terrestrial politics,” or how we got here, and “the dawn of extraterrestrial politics,” discussing human life beyond Earth. The book is used by Leary as a commentary on modern society, an explanation of his eight-circuit model of consciousness, and a postulation of his thoughts on human evolution.

            The central nervous system (CNS) is an essential aspect of Neuropolitics. Leary proposes the term Neurologic to mean the understanding and controlling of one’s own CNS. Freeing our brains and bringing them under our own control is the route to freedom. Leary conceptualizes humans and society in the context of neural signals and communication. He often refers to the CNS are a receiver, integrator, and transmitter, but on a wider scope than typically percieved. For example, the 1960s revolution involved a cultural message that all were tuned in to, which was propagated by a small group of individuals who received, integrated, and transmitted these cultural signals. Most individuals would refer to the 1960s as a cultural revolution, while Leary calls it a neurological revolution. All of the battles between the conservatives and progressives, such as race, drugs, and war, were just a war on new consciousness. New consciousness is ultimately akin with Neurologic, with the goal of recognizing your conditioning and imprinting, shedding neural fictions such as ego and social reality, and reprogramming your CNS to encourage communication, intelligence increase, and eventually evolution.

Better living through chemistry
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Leary discusses the 1960s as a very important shift in consciousness and sees it as a step forward for the human race. He advocates for the use of neuroscience to discover chemicals for altering minds and believed chemicals should be used to study our CNS and understand the limits of the mind. This concept, particularly with marijuana and psychedelics like LSD, was prominent among the counterculture, some of academic science, and even the government at a time (Project MK-Ultra). Leary views the rejection of culture as the recognition that social reality is merely a fiction that our minds have been programmed to tune into. Programming is used to describe the collection of our imprints, conditioning, and the way in which our CNS and thoughts have been shaped. One method to recognize and reprogram can be the use of drugs, or other consciousness-expansion techniques such as yoga and meditation, all which grew in popularity in the 1960s. LSD is a way to free oneself from the “middle class monolith”, and recognize the world as a here-now paradise. Leary claims that those involved in law and the military are neurologically incapable of these things, thus leading to Nixon’s repression of new consciousness. A senseless control of drugs was embraced, outside of the advisement of physicians and researchers. Narcotics officers are considered thought police attacking individuals for the victimless crime of cultural descent. This ultimately stems from the idea that one’s enemy is whoever keeps one from power, and that Neurologic would shift power away from those who traditionally have it.

Someone else's words, not mine nor Leary's
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              Throughout Neuropolitics, Leary makes reference to his eight-fold model of consciousness. This begins with the first four terrestrial stages, which are our robot brain created by DNA and imprinting, and then explains the four post-terrestrial states that help expand our consciousness and evolve our species. The first stage is the biosurvival circuit, related to safety-danger complexes learned in infancy. The second stage is the emotional or ego circuit, including motion and emotion learned as a toddler. The third stage is the verbal-symbolic circuit, focusing on language and knowledge in the student years. The fourth circuit is the sociosexual circuit learned in adulthood, which accounts for personality and domestic behavior. Leary argues that these four circuits are the standard, but not only, circuits available based on our conditioning. These make up our concept of reality and must be constantly reinforced to keep the created reality from collapsing. Leary ultimately uses examples of prisoners and Patty Hearst, a girl captured by terrorists, to demonstrate these circuits and how they can be overridden. He explains that isolation will override circuit one and convincing someone of their helplessness or reliance on others can override circuit two. Circuit three can be adapted by isolating an individual from their language and forcing them to use a new one, and the last circuit can be reprogrammed through introduction to new sexual circuits. Ultimately, by holding an individual under specific conditions, their original ideas of reality, culture, language, and self, can be reprogrammed into a totally new perspective. Patty Hearst, a typical American college student, can end up joining the group that captured her, the Symbionese Liberation Army, when her circuits are overriden. Leary proposes another example with the hippies experimenting with drugs to weaken their imprinting and begin self-induced brain change. Leary advocates for our ability to understand and shed the programming of the first four circuits, and go on to develop our post-terrestrial consciousness.

            The post-terrestrial consciousness circuits are a bit harder to grasp than the terrestrial circuits. The fifth circuit is the neurosomatic circuit, which involves sensory space, detachment, and a hedonic feeling. He makes a reference to eastern cultures, stating this circuit has the feeling of floating just above the ground. Some techniques to develop and engage this circuit are sensory deprivation, 

Perhaps an image from an unrelated paper will help clear this up
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marijuana use, and yoga. The experiences of an astronaut may also engage this circuit. The sixth circuit, the neuroelectric circuit, is the nervous system becoming aware of itself outside of circuits 1 through 5. This circuit involves becoming aware of our programming and experiencing a fission-fusion of all perceptions into parallel universes of alternate possibilities. It can be engaged through psychedelic drugs, along with techniques such as yoga. This circuit is essential because it is the universal translator, and would allow us to communicate without the use of the third verbal circuit, but through feedback, telepathy, and computer link-up. This is what Leary would define as true reason, and notes that Voltaire believed the Age of Reason was soon to come, yet we are still living in the dark ages without the engagement of the neuroelectric circuit. The seventh circuit is neurogenetic, involving signals from within individual neurons, and a DNA-RNA dialogue. He relates this circuit to Jung’s collective unconscious, and also finds LSD and out-of-body experiences can help engage this circuit. The neurogenetic circuit is one of the keys to extending our lives to the eventual potential for immortality. The final of the eight circuits is the neuroatomic circuit. Here, consciousness may precede basic biological units and the space-time continuum. One way of reaching this state may be through out-of-body experiences. Leary states some philosophers who may have reached this circuit, such as Socrates and Thomas Edison. This circuit opens new universes and realities, and allows us to embrace our future selves. He also includes rejection of this circuit as manifested in the aristocratic rejection of science fiction and drugs. It is the activation of these post-terrestrial circuits that will allow us to embrace evolution via SMI²LE.

            The second part of Neuropolitics explains post-terrestrial life once consciousness has been expanded. The human race has solved the challenges of living on Earth: bio-survival problems, territorial expansion and control, and reached a dead end at cultural homogeneity. Life on Earth is now bringing new problems such as overpopulation, energy shortage, aimlessness, overconsumption, and nuclear proliferation. Thus, the Earth is now a useless vessel, making space migration the inevitable next step of evolution. Leary explains that is notable in many religions involving a theme of heavens beyond Earth, as well as culture in science fiction such as Star Wars. Space migration will allow us to re-attain individual freedom of space-time and create small group structures to best suit our CNS.

This is one way of looking at things
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            Space migration is inherently associated with intelligence increase and life extension. First, intelligence increase is needed for the two other outcomes. Intelligence is defined as the range and acceleration of information received, integrated and transmitted. Leary uses this definition to state that humans are different than animals because of our superior capacity to receive, remember, organize, and transmit. Intelligence increase is inevitable with consciousness migration into the higher post-terrestrial circuits. Connectedly, life extension is only possible with space migration and intelligence increase. New neural efficiency is necessary for life extension, and the goal of science will be more focused on the conquest of death.

If this is a HOME, count me in
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The three tactics of evolution (migration, mutation, and metamorphosis) are being transformed as humans move into space. Leary claims that the message of our DNA code tells us to migrate from our nursery planet, as life will become an interstellar communication-transportation company. Exploration and exploitation are genetic imprints, and as we have maximized those on Earth, our womb, we must continue into space to survive and evolve. On Earth, migration has resulted in metamorphosis of the individual and mutation of the species through evolution, which will continue and advance in space. Humans will build HOMES, high orbital mini earth systems. Each HOME will be a complete ecosystem of extraterrestrial materials that are self-supporting and house a group of humans that creates their own, optimal culture. While there may be some risks, Leary concludes with the elegant statement “Since it will be fun to live in space, get smarter, richer, and live longer while evolving into new interstellar species, why not?” Ultimately, this is Leary's proposal of utopia.

Hopefully you now know what he means 
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Neuropolitics: Reception and Response

            It is difficult to pinpoint the reception and influence of this text. There is little information available regarding reviews or critiques of Neuropolitics. It is safe to say that this book did not have a widespread impact and remains fairly unknown in modern times. Most likely, very few people really cared about this book. However, for a subset of futurists, psychonauts, or a countercultural individual, the ideas presented in this book may have been well received. For example, there are letter of correspondence between Carl Sagan and Leary throughout the years in which this was written. Sagan seems to think similarly to Leary in terms of extraterrestrial intelligence and exploration, and the potential evolution of the human CNS (Sagan, 1974). Less directly, some individuals, from normal people to scientific pioneers, might agree with Leary’s claims about the use of psychedelic drugs (or other methods) for consciousness expansion and intelligence increase. One example is Kary Mullis, a Nobel Laureate for improvements to polymerase chain reaction. Mullis has stated that LSD was mind-opening and extremely important experience, and Albert Hoffman, the inventor of LSD, claims that Mullis stated LSD was essential in his development of polymerase chain reaction (Harrison, 2006; Mullis, 2000). Steve Jobs has said that using LSD was “one of the two or three most important things” he had done in his life (Markoff, 2005).

Steve Jobs is on board
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Crick understanding DNA, and clearly trippin'
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Francis Crick, another Nobel Laureate, mentioned the use of LSD as a thinking tool and helped him envision the double-helix shape of DNA (Rees, 2004). In a report about ayahuasca by CNN’s Lisa Ling, a veteran with PTSD describes the psychedelic experience as unraveling his previous conditioning and helping to shed his automatic maladaptive responses to certain stimuli (Stroder, 2014), which is analagous to the description of these drugs by Leary. In a direct parallel to Leary’s fifth circuit, there is a phenomenon known as the overview effect, in which astronauts claim having a cognitive shift in awareness associated with space travel (O’Neill, 2008). Although these are specific examples, there is evidence that scientists, experimenters, and regular people share experiences similar to ideas proposed by Leary, particularly consciousness expansion and intelligence increase, whether it by drugs or other means. However, all of this is based on subjective experiences and individual cases, and the science is not there to support it.

Not sure what this woman has to do with it
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It is important to consider that Leary writes this text as a philosopher, rather than a scientific psychologist. Leary’s ideas are backed in little to no objective data. Leary uses Neuropolitics to discuss his ideas as a futurist, seemingly hoping that one day the rest of the world will be able to tune in with him. Almost 40 years later, it is difficult to assess how many of his ideas and predictions have succeeded and failed to reach their prophecy. Most of his ideas are conceptual, and tend to be vague and tough to grasp. However, one can see how some predictions are manifesting. The potential for space migration is one of Leary’s predictions that is beginning to play out. For example, NASA and Elon Musk are devoting resources to make space exploration and travel more feasible, and plan to develop potential Mars colonies (NASA, 2015; SpaceX, 2015). It seems Leary’s ideas of space migration may be in early phases, although not exactly in the way he describes. Intelligence increase is more difficult to assess, and I don’t believe Leary would be content with the way society has developed. Based on Leary's description of the problems of our government and society, not much has changed. With the modern obsession of reality television, popular culture, and many other “mindless” activities, Leary would likely argue that the majority of individuals are still trapped in their programming and terrestrial consciousness. The use of psychedelic drugs is not as salient in culture now as it was in the neurological revolution of the 1960s. Despite these failings in modern times to evolve consciousness and neurologically, Leary would likely see some positive progress in technologies, such as the internet, that allow for rapid transmission and reception of signals and mass connection. While immortality may seem far-fetched, life extension is a continuing goal of science that often has small progressions that add up to large changes over a long enough timeline. Treatments for almost every life-threatening disease (such as cancer, AIDS, etc.) have advanced tremendously and continue to extend lives. The average life span of humans is lengthening with further advances in medicine and science (World Bank, 2013). Overall, his predictions are not perfect, but there are some identifiable trends that relate to, and result in, Leary’s SMI²LE.

Had Leary’s book been published today, I don’t think it would be well received, or even read by many. The book contains little to no legitimate evidence to support Leary’s claims, and would not be accepted among the scientific community. For example, the eight-circuit model of consciousness is highly theoretical and has never been a prominent theory among researchers of neuroscience or consciousness. Many people still largely reject ideas such as immortality, widespread neurological changes, consciousness expansion, and space migration, as science fiction. That being said, some individuals may recognize the potential for SMI²LE as legitimate, even if they are not possible in the present. There still remains a subculture of individuals who use drugs, meditation, and other methods to shed themselves free from programmed reality in attempts to experience different ways of thinking and alternative consciousnesses. Still, at the time it was published and in modern times, this remains a book that is likely read by few, and accepted by even fewer.

It seems like this guy must have read Neuropolitics
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This is one of the most far-out books I’ve ever encountered, and I have mixed thoughts on many aspects of the book. I definitely had a lot of fun reading this book. Yet as a scientist, one cannot really accept any of the claims in this book, due to lack of data. Some evidence is presented to back up Leary’s claims, yet examples that confirm his hypotheses and ignore refuting evidence could have easily been cherry picked. Still, Leary’s ideas of consciousness expansion and futuristic predictions are captivating. The evolution of the human CNS and expanded consciousness is very appealing and perhaps provides hope. Life extension is a current goal of many fields of scientific inquiry. The problems of life on Earth are changing and the reality of human life in space is a growing possibility. Often his comments about government and culture are still visible in modern society. I think the way Leary describes our evolution through CNS changes makes sense, although I may not agree with the mechanism or pathway he suggests. In the end, I’ll side with Leary with his concluding statement “why not?” 

The Life & Times of Tim... Leary

Hopefully someone gets it
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Timothy Leary was born in 1920 and raised in Springfield, Massachusetts in an Irish Catholic community. He first attended the College of the Holy Cross, but in 1940 attended West Point under familial pressure. Leary had many conflicts and moved around within the military and colleges for a few years, until ending up at Deshon Military Hospital in Pennsylvania. Here, Leary married his first wife Marianna and received a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology. Leary then attended Washington State University and studied under Lee Cronbach (Devonis, 2012). He received his M.A. with his thesis “Dimensions of Intelligence” (Barron, 1996), about intelligence testing in a clinical setting (Devonis, 2012). Leary was then admitted into UC Berkeley’s PhD program in Clinical Psychology in 1946, under the advisement of Hubert Coffey. In 1950, Leary received his PhD with a dissertation focusing on change in group therapy, “The Social Dimensions of Personality: Group Structure and Process”.

Undergoing transformation upon receiving PhD
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He remained at Berkeley as an instructor and took over as director of clinical research with the Kaiser Foundation in Oakland. At the Kaiser Foundation, Leary and his colleagues studied individual personality and social interaction, leading to a major publication in 1957, “The Interpersonal Diagnosis of Personality.” At this point in his career, Leary was well respected and viewed favorably amongst academic and clinical psychologists (Devonis, 2012).

            
           Leary’s life demonstrates the tale of an academic and clinical psychologist, who transitioned to an explorer, psychonaut, philosopher, futurist, and countercultural icon. In the late 1950s, Leary encountered many experiences leading to a major life change. Leary was left the sole parent of two children when Marianna committed suicide in 1955. Leary had a brief, unsuccessful second marriage shortly after. Having no permanent academic ties, Leary left the country in 1958 and met David McClelland in Italy, leading to Leary’s teaching position at Harvard in 1960. The environment at Harvard was the beginning of Leary’s, and many other intellectuals’, interest in hallucinogenic drugs and their effects on consciousness. Leary first used psychedelics in 1960, taking psilocybin in Mexico. This seemed to spark change in Leary, and led him to interact with a “psychedelic club” at Harvard (Lattin, 2010). Leary worked prominently with other psychologists with similar interests at the time, such as Richard Alpert (now Ram Dass) and Ralph Metzner. As a psychologist, Leary largely embraced a humanist perspective, but traveled further outside the mainstream of the typical academic (Devoinis, 2012). This led to Leary’s contact with many individuals in the countercultural art and literature world, such as Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg. Leary continued studying psychedelics and conducted an experiment at Concord State Prison in which psychedelics were used as a therapeutic adjunct to reduce recidivism. Leary was then involved in the “Good Friday Experiment,” a project of his graduate student to study the effects of psychedelics on religious experience. In 1962, Leary formed the International Foundation for Internal Freedom, an organization designed to continue investigating consciousness-altering drugs (Russin & Weil, 1963). Leary and Alpert were both dismissed as Harvard faculty in 1963 (Devonis, 2012). Alpert was dismissed for administering psilocybin to an undergraduate student off-campus, and while the cause for Leary’s dismissal was stated as failure to attend his lectures, Leary claims that is untrue and many feel the real reason was his growing use and interest in psychedelics (Russin & Weil, 1963).

Alpert & Leary featured in Harvard Crimson's article on psyilocybin experiments
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            Following dismissal from Harvard, Leary began to deliver his message about consciousness expansion and cognitive freedom to a wider audience. From 1963 to 1966, Leary owned a communal living facility in Millbrook, NY and continued his experimentation with psychedelics, particularly LSD. Leary also traveled to India to engage with gurus and reinforced his role as a teacher and spiritual explorer. He remarried multiple times and eventually was arrested on a felony conviction of marijuana possession with his fourth wife in Mexico in 1965. The arrest continued fueling the split opinions of the controversial Leary. He acquired great recognition among the American youth, the countercultural and hippie movements, drug culture, and literary intellectuals (Devonis, 2012). On the other hand, the American Psychological Association (APA) dismissed Leary upon his felony conviction (Barron, 1996).

            
           Leary’s removal from academic society had no impact on his growing influence as a popular culture icon. However, Leary encountered more legal troubles and again was convicted of drug possession in 1970. Radical left-wing societies, such as the Weather Underground, helped Leary break out of prison and flee to Algeria and Switzerland. Leary was arrested when traveling to Afghanistan and returned to the USA (Barron, 1996; Devonis, 2012). It was around this time that Richard Nixon labeled Leary as “the most dangerous man in America” (Colker, 1996). 

Timothy "most dangerous man in America" Leary, as labeled by Richard "Not a Crook" Nixon (who sucks grapes)
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Leary was released from prison in 1976, and marketed himself as a pioneer and philosopher, rather than a scientist, who rejected mainstream society and politics. Leary gained interest and endorsed computer culture in the upcoming decades. He also continued to discuss drugs, neurological and cultural evolution, and intellectual free agency. Some major concepts that recurred throughout the career of Leary are questioning authority, consciousness expansion, self-management of the CNS, imprinting, and SMI²LE (Devoinis, 2012).

SMI²LE
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Leary made multiple attempts to rejoin the APA with the support of peers, but was always rejected (Barron, 1996). The APA’s Division of Personality Assessment and Research later honored Leary in a 1994 symposium “The Legacy of Timothy Leary” (Barron, 1996). Leary died in 1996, at age 75, of a natural death related to prostate cancer. He had often considered cryogenically freezing his body, but ultimately was cremated following death (Barron, 1996). He had left a manuscript, Design for Dying, which was published posthumously in 1997. Leary has written many books and scholarly articles, and was a founding member and co-editor The Psychedelic Review (Barron, 1996). Some of his major works include The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead, Neurologic, and Neuropolitics: The Sociobiology of Human Metamorphosis. Leary has also released or collaborated on multiple music albums, computer games, and films.

          The legacy of Timothy Leary remains today and will for many years to come. Leary is one of the most controversial moden figures in psychology and society. He was met with widespread negativity from many academics, politicians, police, and mainstream culture, but extensive acclaim from hippies, counterculturals, some non-academic intellectuals, and a few academic peers. Leary is largely left out of modern psychology and textbooks of history of psychology, despite some potentially useful contributions, as a researcher and philosopher, and a well-known reputation. Still, Leary’s works remain relevant, receiving both criticism (Doblin, 1991) and attempts at replication (Griffiths et al., 2006). Leary’s most famous quote, and an excellent characterization of his philosophy, is “turn on, tune in, drop out.”