Customer Reviews

Design for Dying

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Instead of simply raving about this extraordinarily brilliant piece of literature, let me get specific right from the get go.

First, Leary's essay on "Cyberphenomenology" is a thought experiment for the ages. In a few short pages, Dr. Leary leads you gently to the obvious conclusion that consciousness, (Dr. Leary, ever the scientist, doesn't really believe in "souls;" those are the department of his more woo-woo ex-compatriot Ram Dass), that witnessing phenomenological center of being, is not limited in space-time to the brain. I'd say that might provide some comfort for somebody about to shuffle-off their mortal meat-suit.

Given Leary's materialist bent as a serious scientist (yeah, he is a scientist--almost to a fault--no matter what else you want to say about him) this really is a shocking philosophical gem with pseudo-idealist/quasi-immaterialist implications. Leary is Irish, after all. And this is a work that Bishop Berkeley and Terrence McKenna alike were blessing from above. If you are at all interested in phenomenology, in consciousness studies, or in the mind/body problem, you've got to read Cyberphenomenology: You are Where You Think You are. It's profound simplicity is going to rock your world. These few pages alone are more than worth the cost of the book.

Secondly, and let me flash some credentials at you here, I am a Graduate Psychology student and my focus has been very much on "object relations" psychology and in Developmental Psychology. Developmental Structuralism took a hit in the 60s when everyone went loopy and fell for the performative contradiction (hypocritical hogwash) that is "post-modern post-structuralism." However, Developmental Psychology has been making a comeback of late with writers like Robert Keegan (The Evolving Self: Problem and Process in Human Development) and, most recently, Don Beck (Spiral Dynamics: Mastering Values, Leadership and Change), making the case for a post-post-modern "re-construction." All views are not equally valid. Hitler was not as evolved as Ghandi; hierarchies exist in nature and in human personality; so just deal with it. Piaget, Loveinger, Kohlberg, and Graves have all scientifically demonstrated that human consciousness evolves through sequential (and predictable) stage-structures.

What I have to tell you is that Tim Leary's "8-Circuit Model of Human Development," which is presented in Your Brain Is God but much more fully and beautifully worked out in Design For Dying, is the most complete and thorough model of structural development ever conceived. Critics (what the young people these days call "haters") all too easily fall into forgetfulness about Leary's credentials. The man was TEACHING PSYCHOLOGY AT HARVARD, for God's sake. He is dazzlingly brilliant. Whether you think it was wise for everyone and his brother to drop acid and make love with herpes-ridden strangers in Golden Gate Park (and who does?) or not, give the man his due. Leary escaped from high security prisons several times. He was no dunce. (The real dunces were the prison psychologists who gave Leary psych tests that HE HIMSELF HAD HELPED DESIGN). On cognition alone, Leary ranks as one of the Twentieth Century's epic intellects--right up there with Einstein and Crick and Gandhi and Goodall.

This 8-Circuit Model, or "Leary Theory" for short is proof positive. It holistically integrates the development of the subjective mind with the development of objective neurology. It addresses the philogenetic evolution of the species as well as the object-relations evolution of the individual. It also includes the cultural and social ramifications and implications that manifest at each successive stage.

Lastly, and this will offend the prudes and the puritans, Leary explains for good or for bad, which molecular metabolites light up which neuro-circuits. A lot has been said about drugs and their inability to provide peak or "peek" experiences of higher developmental stage-structures, but empirical science says otherwise. Watch kids at raves on MDMA "peek" experiencing higher developmental levels in the moral line or inter-personal line.

And even in cognitive lines, many epiphanies have been triggered by LSD from Francis Crick's vision of the double-helical structure of DNA to Dan Akroyd's idea for a little show called Saturday Night Live, from Kary Mullis' invention of Polymerase chain reaction techniques for copying DNA sequences, to Phil Jackson's revelation about the Texas Triangle offense, (phenethylamines and) tryptamines have provided (temporary) developmental shifts. To deny this is farcical. And don't even get me started on shifts in James Fowler's Spiritual line of development.

And drugs can drop you down to lower levels of personal or evolutionary development as well, of course. Heroine can return you to the state of the neonate..or even the amoeba!

Given that the heart of shamanism has always been that medicine men (and women) could travel upward to heaven realms and downward to hell realms, it seems that Leary has, with his 8-Circuit Model, provided a detailed neuro-biochemical description of shamanism (and mysticism).

There are many touching stories by and about Tim in this book. (MY favorite involves Tim giving away his automobile to a stranger because he was late to a Dodger game.) There is wisdom about Death and Dying. Anyone who is about to give up the ghost or anyone has a loved one preparing to depart absolutely must read this book.

However, for my money, as a Graduate Psychology student, it is Leary's Cyberphenomenological thought experiment and his astoundingly complete model of human development that scholars will be talking about hundreds of years from now. Amazing stuff, truly.

Buy the book.

"Design for Dying" is a brilliant, brilliant last work of a mind that spent most of it's adult life probing the ultimate questions of mortality, immortality, and exactly what it is we mean by "self". Dr. Leary brings his considerable intellect into a final, often stunning focus on the self-organization of information, and on what of that information makes up our perception of who and what we are, all cloaked in his own pixie-like humor. Occasionally adding his own insights and humorous barbs, R U Sirius has done an admirable job in bringing together Timothy Leary's final notes into a wonderful, readable whole.

Timothy Leary's final media jump into the unknown world of death and technology. Famed LSD Guru, former Harvard Professor and author of some 20 books, Dr. Timothy Leary attempts to marry technology with the dying process. Before doing this, he gives a brief history of his life, the trials and tribulations. Once he discovers his own diagnosis of prostate cancer he then takes the step to make death a public and cultural issue. Attempting to have his brain frozen, or consider nanotechnology to "fix" himself, or perhaps have his ashes flown into space. Leary's job in this book to make the reader aware of the many ways one can die with dignity. I enjoyed this book because its the one book that Leary wrote with the most accessiblity and clearity unlike his other chaos works. The book also has an addendum from all his friends. Certainly Timothy Leary fans will cherish this book, as well as those interested in the process of death.

A decent book but Tim was pretty out there by this time in his life but at the same time he did see an accurate vision of what was to and what is to come in the technological era.

One of the few books Ive encountered that I can truly describe as life changing.Throghout his life Dr Leary was the ultimate individual, freethinker, and rebel, and the lives of the people he touched are no doubt much better off for his inspiration.As evidenced in this book, his boundless energy and enthusiasm never waned, even in the face of unimaginable suffering in the grip of a crippling terminal illness.In my humble opinion Learys final months(and probably his entire life)epitomized the primary concepts laid down by Viktor Frankl with his formulation of existential psychology, nothing in life has any meaning other than the meaning we attach to it, including death.As far as Im concerned the good doctor succeeded in his attempt to "give death a better name, or die trying".5 stars, highly reccomended.

a very hopeful humanist tome that enlightens and entertains, showing us that confidence and illumination go hand-in-hand.

Also serves as a loving tribute to the genius who inspired (and continues to inspire) many.

Absolutely a humanist classic that should be read many times.

There are really two sides to this book: The part where he talks about his impeding death ("throw a big party!" "Do it in style") and the politics of dying is brilliant. The part where he talks about science is ridiculous and shows that Leary has no clue what he is talking about.

In the first part, Leary tries to give a synopsis of how he understands the world. There are some really uninformed statements and some extremely bold and plainly wrong comparisons. For example, he equates the medieval alchemists system of dividing all matter into earth, water, sky and fire with the periodic system of elements. According to Leary they are pretty much the same. Well, they are not. One is a superstition, the other is a table organizing scientific observations about electron orbits around nuclei. There are many blunders like this, which should make anyone who paid attention in science class in high school shake their heads. Leary's excursions into DNA, information and the universe lack any basis. He was old and sick, and can be forgiven for it, but please don't think you are learning anything about science here.

The second part is very uplifting, which must be one of the hardest things to do when writing about death. It is deeply humanist and advocates personal choice and an approach away from emergency high-tech medicine and together with friends for this last part of everyone's life. Leary argues that totalitarian, monotheistic religions want to take control about all fundamental steps in life (birth, sex, death) away from humans and that we should move on and regain individual control. His arguments should make sense to anyone who is not brainwashed by these religions.

There is an appendix where Leary's friends describe his dying experience.