Talk:Turn on, tune in, drop out

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I've had a hard time finding the meaning of the phrase, I've update the article to reflect what I've learned from asking people who lived in the 60's. My description could be better as could my phrasing. Corrections welcome. --Commonchaos 22:39, 24 May 2005 (UTC)

I thought the phrase refered to television. Leary was criticizing people who would turn on the TV, tune in to a station, and drop out of real life. Nothing to back this up though, so I'm not putting it in the article yet. --Keenan Pepper 13:27, 25 May 2005 (UTC)

No, no, no, Keenan, I am quite sure you're wrong. ToTiDo was a positive phrase, as is made pretty clear in the book. I'll explain it all to you at our leisure. Cain 21:38, 25 May 2005 (UTC) [Note, that is not a flame, just a friendly jab. Through the power of the intarweb and the magic of wiki, Keenan, an old schoolmate, ended up on this, a page I have contributed to.]

Sadly anough, the youth of the 1960's usually didn't "drop out" and the ending consaquence of that action was usually death. Death from taking psychedelics? I don't think so. People may well have died from taking other drugs (e.g. heroin) but Leary was only referring to psychedelics, so I don't believe that this particular sentense is either correct, or necessary.

I am unsure about the interpretation given for "Drop out." The one there seems to indicate that Leary proposed only a brief encounter with psychedelia, which is not consistent with his own life. I find the previous version, re: dropping out of society, much more tenable. Cain 16:06, 17 Jun 2005 (UTC)

turn on,tune in,drop out,is a way of life in a sense. Its like a balance of well i dont really now but its definatley a balance of something, maybe life? Take a job for example, you "turn on" by initaiting yourself to search for a job, once you obtain the job you "tune in" you learn everything you can about the job,how to do the best you can and then make it better, you then "drop out" becuase you cant stay on one thing for too long or it will run your life and youll become obsessive. Its the same with drugs, your "turn on" by first taking the drug, then "tune in" by learning about the drug whether scientific or spiritual and exploring the drugs effects, You then "drop out" becuase you can stay high all the time for many obvious and not so obvious reasons

[edit] Origin of the phrase

Robert Greenfield quotes Merv Freedman in his 2006 biography of Timothy Leary as stating that Leary had modified the phrase from the title of an article of his, "Drugs on Campus: Turned On and Tuned Out," which appeared in The Nation six months before Leary first used the phrase at the LSD Conference in Berkeley.

Also, when Leary talked about his meaning of the phrase in Flashbacks, it is important to remember that Leary contradicted himself constantly--that is to say, he was a liar. He likes to revise history. He defined what he meant by the phrase at the time in the same speech.

About, "turning on," he said, "Get in touch first of all, with your sense organs . . . Get in touch with your cellular wisdom. Get in touch with the universe within. The only way out is in. And the way to find the wisdom within is to turn on."

Regarding "tuning in": "harness your internal revelation to the external world around you. I am not suggesting that we all find a desert island and curl up under a palm tree and take LSD and study our navels. As I look around at the people who have taken LSD, far from being inactive, lazy, and passive, I see them in every walk of life and in every age group, struggling to express what they are learning. The hippy movement, the psychedelic style, involves a revolution in our concepts of art and creativity which is occurring right before our eyes. The new music, the new poetry, the new visual art, the new film."

And most importantly, "drop out," which he is attempting to revise in Flashbacks: "Is our American society so insecure that it cannot tolerate our young people taking a year or two off, growing beards, wandering around the country, fooling with new forms of consciousness? This is one of the oldest traditions in civilized society. Take a voyage! Take the adventure! Before you settle down to the tribal game, try out self-exile. Your coming back will be much enriched."

So yes, he was encouraging young people to drop out of school, job, and normal life for "self-exile." His remarks to the contrary in Flashbacks are revisionist in nature.

Knardi (talk) 22:37, 28 November 2007 (UTC)