Timothy Leary

By the mid-1960s, LSD was the counterculture's drug of choice and even college professors and intellectuals were experimenting with it. No one was more visible in the national media than Timothy Leary, a former Harvard University clinical psychology professor, whose message "Turn on, tune in, and drop out," was taken to heart by millions of Americans. Hundreds of rich and famous Americans made the pilgrimage to Leary's rambling estate in Millbrook, New York, where they dressed in flowing Indian robes, practiced Eastern meditation, and wore flowers in their hair while Dr. Leary introduced them to the mental rollercoaster rides provided by LSD.

Leary believed that LSD could save the world by raising the consciousness of the human race. To spread his message he gave this interview to Playboy magazine in September 1966. The government, however, was less than...