We get an overview of their careers, the arc of their
personal transformations. The director counters the popular view that Leary
promoted the promiscuous use of LSD when in fact he was persecuted by the state
and spent four years of his life in jail, one in solitary confinement for
possession of half an ounce of weed.
Wednesday, September 27, 2017
Dying to Know With Timothy Leary and Ram Dass
by Michael Grosso
The other night on Netflix I watched a documentary, directed
by Gay Dillingham (2016), titled Dying to
Know. It’s about the death of Timothy Leary, and focuses on Leary’s long
friendship with Ram Dass. The film
serves as witness to a great friendship between two extraordinary Americans,
academics turned icons of the 1960s counter-culture.
Saturday, September 16, 2017
Near-Death Experience: A Metaphor of Transformation
by Michael Grosso
One of the more surprising phenomena to emerge in the 20th
century was the so-called “near-death experience.” Apart from its claims as pointer to the possibility of life
after death, its great value may also lie in its fertility as a metaphor. You can see this in various ways. The first thing that occurs to me, it
plays a subtle role in all things dramatic. Every drama entails a conflict where one risks death
of one sort or another. The closer
the hero comes to death or being vanquished, the greater dramatic value of the
final triumph.
I may complain about the inconvenience of being bedridden
with flu; but if my heart stops, there is a chance that I confront a being of
light that puts all my previous assumptions about reality in the shade. Quantum leaps of consciousness are not
free lunches. This old idea is
enshrined in the ancient Greek dictum:pathei
mathos “by suffering, learn.”
Surely, the important lessons of life don’t come cheaply. But with apps nowadays for everything
under the sun, one might easily forget that wisdom cannot be shipped overnight
from Amazon.
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