Books and Manuscripts

A Very Rare Report Published by Timothy Leary and the Harvard Psilocybin Project on the Effects of Magic Mushrooms

"In the last decades western civilization has discovered that the eating of certain plants can produce an astonishing effect upon human consciousness...The substance used in the present study is psilocybin, a synthetic of the Mexican 'sacred mushroom'. This mushroom was introduced to Americans by the mycologist R. Gordon Wasson and the active ingredient, psilocybin, was synthesized by Dr. (Albert) Hoffman."

(Cambridge, Massachusetts): Harvard University, ca. 1962. Likely one of only 100 copies printed. 10-page mimeographed document, printed in purple ink, signed by Leary at top of first page; stapled at top left corner. Horowitz, Walls & Smith AA34

An important precursor to the psychedelic revolution in the United States: Timothy Leary and the Harvard Psilocybin Project's (HPP) earliest known report on their research into the effects of magic mushrooms.

"Apparently the earliest paper on the research conducted by the Harvard Psilocybin Project. One hundred seventy-five subjects participated in this 'first naturalistic study.' Results are determined from questionnaires. 'The majority of our volunteer subjects report pleasant, educational, and even life-changing experiences.' Not more than 100 copies produced at the Center for Research in Personality, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass., for authors' distribution in 1962. Cited in: Wasson, 'Hallucinogenic Mushrooms . . . Psilocybin' (1963), no. 253." (Horowitz, Walls & Smith, An Annotated Bibiliography of Timothy Leary, pp. 107-108).

Interest in the psychedelic effects of psilocybe mushrooms piqued in the United States following the publication of work by mycologists Valentina Pavlova Wasson and R. Gordon Wasson, and their experiences with psilocybin mushroom ceremonies in Oaxaca, Mexico. In 1959 Leary was hired by Harvard University to conduct doctoral research in the Psychology Department's Center for Research in Personality, and in early 1960, he and fellow Harvard psychology professor, Richard Alpert (now known as Ram Dass), became intrigued by the possibilities psilocybin held for their research after reading the Wassons' work. Later that year Leary traveled to Mexico to try the mushrooms firsthand, and the experience completely changed the direction of his research. Upon his return, he and Alpert established the Harvard Psilocybin Project, Leary's first research project at Harvard. Between 1960-62 the HPP conducted several experiments on the effects of psilocybin by administering the mushrooms to participating students, academics, as well as notable artists and musicians, including Aldous Huxley, Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs, Jack Kerouac, Arthur Koestler, and Alan Watts. Sessions were notably held outside of a clinical setting--usually in participants' living rooms--and often involved Leary and Alpert taking the mushrooms themselves with the volunteers. Following each session participants were asked to fill out a questionnaire about the positive or negative benefits of their experience. This is the first report issued by the HPP which collates data from their initial sessions. From the beginning of their research, the HPP drew criticism from within the Psychology Department, and from Harvard at large, and eventually led to both Leary and Alpert's firing in 1963. Although his time at Harvard was short, Leary's work there, and his outspoken views on the transformative qualities of magic mushrooms, LSD, and other psychedelic drugs, were incredibly influential and helped lay the groundwork for the burgeoning hippie and counter-culture movements of the 1960s.

Very rare, we have not traced any copies in the auction record. OCLC locates only one copy--appropriately enough--at Harvard University.