Customer Reviews

Psychedelic Prayers: And Other Meditations (Leary, Timothy)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

"How does muddy water become clear? Muddy water becomes clear through stillness. How does one become still? One becomes still, by moving with the stream.".... With these words Timothy Leary set the cornerstone of Hippie philosophy in Eastern Mysticism. The hidden influence of "Psychedelic Prayers," will come to light in the passage of time. It's influence on music ("All things must pass." Beatles), TV ("Kung Fu," series), Film ("Easy Rider"), Hollywood, ("Star Wars"), just reflect the imprint on our collective consciousness... The general acceptance of the Tao's "I Ching," (High Priest), " The Tibetan Book of the dead," (The Psychedelic Experience) and later "The Art of War," (Sun Tzu), all you can see, trace there acceptance by the Hippies and later the baby boomers to this great work... In a search led by Harvard Scientists and students of religion. They looked for ways to map and understand awareness. Map Consciousness in ways that would empower people to program there own lives... Suppressed by many forces the "Tao Te Ching," is now, in the wake of Dr. Leary's death being re-released. This is only the second printing. Of what may be looked upon as one of the earliest, if not the first prayer book of the unnamed, unseen, as yet unformed philosophy of the group of people who have grown out of a tribe called Hippies. This was the first translation into American... Released as One of two guide book on how to explore higher con-sciousness before the prohibition. "Psychedelic Prayers," expanded on knowledge of set and setting, learned by the "Hashish Club of Paris," a century ago. They linked these techniques to ancient sacred texts of consciousness exploration... While it appears on the surface that these manuals are guide books to temporary trips. They are really guides to the use and abuse of consciousness. The first effort the "Psychedelic Prayers," offered here, was based on the "Tao Te Ching." "The Psychedelic Experience," based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead was the second more serious text book version... How you can be fulfilled, enlightened, more aware. How to wake up to live. How you can have anything you want, whenever you want it, wherever you want it. with whoever you want to have it with... Amazon books please send me a copy as soon as its re-released. You have my order. My 30 year old copy has been my constant companion. "...In the best sessions one does not know there is a guide..."

Tim Leary first introduced Lao Tzu to me in the late sixties. He translated the Tao Te Ching into American from the English. "No one has ever done it better." Tim's version of "Psychedelic Prayers," still stands as essential Tao. The Tao many of us will travel forever.

The I Ching came to me in a completely different way. I had read the introduction to John Blofeld's translation of Richard Wilhelm's version of the I Ching; not knowing it could me used as an oracle. That night a few mystifying ladies from Yale University campus, took me home and in an incense & candle lit session, showed me how to enter the mysterious consciousness of the Tao.

My concern then as now has been the philosophy of Tao. Book two of Wilhelm's I Ching teaches of the philosophical background of the pattern of change. Everything changes but change has a design.

This probably led to my trading Commodities Futures for a living.

Recently I found Richard Wilhelm's similar magnificent masterpiece "Tao Te Ching: The Book of Meaning and Life by Lao Tzu."

Anyone who has had an interest in Psychedelic Prayers, these last thirty years may want to consider Wilhelm's views on Lao Tzu's consciousness.

Just as in Book Two of the I Ching, Wilhelm dives right into Lao Tzu's mind with clarity like no one else.

An astoundingly arrogant and ridiculous rendering of Lao Tzu's major philosophical treatise - Leary can't be considered a decent poet, let alone capable of apprehending Lao Tzu's awareness from his own purple haze.