HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_015302.jpg

Tim Leary, Ram Dass, and Me In 1964, | assigned Robert Anton Wilson to write a front-cover article in The Realist, which he titled “Timothy Leary and His Psychological H- Bomb.” When that issue was published, Leary invited me to visit the Castalia Foundation, his borrowed estate in Millbrook, New York. The name Castalia came from 7he Bead Game by Herman Hesse, and indeed, the game metaphor permeated our conversation. Leary talked about the way people are always trying to get you onto their game- boards. He discussed the biochemical process “imprinting” with the same passion that he claimed he didn’ t believe anything he was saying, but somehow | managed to believe him when he told me that | had an honest mind. “| have to admit,” | said, “that my ego can’ t help but respond to your observation.” “Listen,” he assured me, “anybody who tells you he’ s transcended his ego .. .” Leary and his research partner, Ram Dass (then Richard Alpert) were about to do a lecture series on the West Coast. At the University of California in Berkeley, there was an official announcement that the HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_015302