Timothy Leary’s famous encouragement to America in the sixties was to turn on, tune in, and drop out.
What he wanted to do was change the world by altering the individual’s perception of it; not by actually
transforming reality. To do this, he didn’t praise the power of positive thinking, he didn’t advocate the
gated, cloistered life, nor did he push Zenlike fantasies. He encouraged recreational drug use. Reality,
Leary argued, is what we perceive and perception can be altered. He envisioned a good government
lovingly lacing the town water with the perfect narcotic concoction that would pacify the animal instinct,
ennoble the angelic in us, and unleash the creative. Rose colored glasses creating a rosy world.
Leary’s vision eventually proved a nightmare and Haight-Ashbury was more hell than heaven. But the
idea that the mental machinery can be worked on chemically and that immaterial man can be mastered
by the material has not died but only grown in favor. The approach the ancients took in treating the ills
of the world holistically by addressing the needs of body and soul together has largely been dismissed in
the Scientific Age. The integration of psychology and theology is understood to be a simple
impossibility. Twenty-first century Christians often grapple with the question of taking prescription
medicine prescribed by their psychiatrist. Are these drugs taken in lieu of a miracle or is the drug itself
miraculous? Do drugs effect a change in me and reverse the effects of the curse or are they a
capitulation in the war for personal sanctification. Or is the answer somewhere in between? This is a
very important, personal, and possibly sensitive issue for most of us, but one we really need to be
talking about. Please take a few minutes to read the link to the article by Jeremy Pierre and think
through some of the insights he offers on this question and come prepared to discuss it on Sunday
morning. We’ll be meeting upstairs in the Family Life Center at 8:30 am. Hot coffee and a fresh baked
goodie will be there to warm you up. See you Sunday!
