Turn on, tune in, drop out

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For the album by Timothy Leary, see Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out (album). For the single by Freak Power, see Turn On, Tune In, Cop Out.
Look up tune in, turn on, drop out in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

"Turn on, tune in, drop out" is a

LSD
experience, peace, and many other issues.

History of the phrase

In a 1988 interview with

press conference in New York City on September 19, 1966. It urged people to embrace cultural changes through the use of psychedelics by detaching from the existing conventions and hierarchies in society. It was also the motto of his League for Spiritual Discovery.[2]

In his speech, Leary said:

Like every great religion, 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.[3]

Leary explains in his 1983 autobiography Flashbacks:

"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 engaging 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 active, 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 are often misinterpreted to mean "Get stoned and abandon all constructive activity".[4]

Turn on, Tune in, Drop out is also the title of a book (

psychedelic drugs
.

In 1967, Leary (during the salon known as the

Houseboat Summit) announced his agreement with a new ordering of the phrase as he said, "I would agree to change the slogan to 'Drop out. Turn on. Drop in.'"[5]

By the early 1980s, while on a speaking tour with G. Gordon Liddy, the phrase had transformed to "turn on, tune in, take over."[6]

During his last decade, Leary proclaimed the "PC is the LSD of the 1990s" and re-worked the phrase into "turn on, boot up, jack in" to suggest joining the cyberdelic counterculture.[7]

See also

References

  1. ^ Strauss, Neil (2011). Everyone Loves You When You're Dead: Journeys into Fame and Madness. New York: HarperCollins. pp. 337–38.
  2. ISBN 080164092X
    .
  3. PBS and WGBH. 2007-03-14. Archived from the original
    on 2017-01-28. Retrieved 2017-09-17.
  4. Flashbacks: A Personal and Cultural History of an Era. p. 253.[full citation needed
    ]
  5. ^ Hagerty, Lorenzo (1967). Psychedelic Salon 193-WattsLearyHsbtSumit67. Retrieved 2012-02-02.
  6. ^ Molenoar, David (November 18, 1982). "Guru Debates Macho Burglar". Kalamazoo News. pp. 1, 5. Retrieved 2022-03-09.
  7. ^ Ruthofer, Arno (1997). "Think for Yourself; Question Authority". Archived from the original on 2006-11-23. Retrieved 2007-02-02.
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