My first run in with Tim Leary was in 1964 when, as an undergraduate, I studied social psychology and personality theory. Leary and Coffey (circa, 1950) helped to quantify and clarify the pioneering work of Dr. Henry Stack Sullivan, an Irish-American who had invaded the clinical world of psychiatry with the notion that "personality" was a hypothetical construct which could only be understood in terms of reciprocal patterns of inter-personal relationships.

Leary and Coffey first formulated a research model which contributed to the understanding of personality. This led Leary and others to the development of significant new personality tests as well as the dynamic and wholistic approach to psychotherapy best represented by so many contemporary group and family therapies.

Unfortunately, Leary is all too rarely remembered for his breakthrough research (perhaps understandably by the general public given the insanity of press coverage) but even by other psychologists who, while acclaiming his early work as brilliant, then dismiss him for "falling into LSD". And yet it is this very work which led to such notions as relative and dynamic interaction, and reciprocal relationships which permeate modern approaches to psycho-therapy. Leary's dilation of Sullivan's ideas provides a quantitative profile of an individual's interactions across various observable behaviors. These measurements can then be compared between raters, (friends, doctors, self, etc.) and disparities explored and examined.

My second run in with Tim was in 1964-65 when I took 800 micro grams of LSD, a dose something more than recommended. I had a "trip" which lasted for over two days and was flooded with information which ranged from Chinese slot machines in full color to space travel to intricate personality maps and on and on. The "trip" left me confused and anxious and over the years I began to hypothesize that all "neurosis" is a result of information shifts and overload.

Imagine the hunter-man facing the agriculture man and he facing the industrial man, and he in turn facing the technological man. The mind-brain unit attempts to struggle with the new information in various ways, some creative, some destructive. Regardless, the result is anxiety, until a new model or formulation takes place. Frequently, whole civilizations collapse as they "refuse" to accommodate the new info-tech which will inevitably transform them. Thus I concluded that man is not in search of his soul as Jung postulated but in search of ways to integrate new info-tech with old info-tech. Therefore, I discarded the notion of pathology and viewed anxiety and depression as attempts to cope with minor and major shifts in reality models. This lead to notions of semantic maps (which Osgood et. al. (1957) were kind enough to provide) and shifting centers of interests (a form of coming together and moving apart at mutual points of information interactions) and infinite peripheries (being open to expanding and new information or people). Finally, years later, a new therapy [World View(s)] developed which I directly attribute to Leary, social psychology and the flood of new data created by my LSD experience.

My third run in with Tim took place through Israel Regardie, the first author to sign with Falcon Press. Regardie and I were working on The Complete Golden Dawn System of Magic, when for some reason Regardie decided to contact Leary. I was simply present when the conversation took place over the phone. A tentative meeting was set up but before this could take place Regardie died. Before his death he wrote of Leary, "...posterity, I am certain will have a finer appreciation of what he has contributed to this world than we have today."

My fourth run in with Leary took place at the Los Angeles Airport. There was a hurried and handsome middle-aged gentleman standing directly in front of me. He looked very familiar although the last picture I saw of Leary was when he was 40ish. I accumulated the courage and asked him if he was Tim Leary, he replied yes and I introduced myself as the Publisher of Falcon Press. He said he would like to talk with me, but was in a hurry to catch his plane. We parted with a smile.

Three years later in 1987 Leary and I finally sat down in his home in Beverly Hills and signed the contract which led to the publication of this book as well as four others (The Future History Series). Falcon Press is pleased to have the "Head Coach" aboard.