Design for Dying

: A'X^' .-'- W'^^ 1f :- TliVIOTHY LEA^Y I M C T l-i Y TIMOTHY LEARY IS DEAD. As the fringe guru himself put it, "Mademoiselle Cancel moved in to share [his] body." But in the days before he died, Leary never one to miss an opportunity for a party- used his approaching death to create an Optimism, courage, joy, and spirituality were central to Leary's final days and his death. for I Design Dying Pary' last book shows us how we too can make dying the high point of life. Irreverent /'s parting shot new for ways the living us to take contro! of jrmine when and how we plan for "directed Drchestrate to reflect continued on back flanl Design for Dying ^D E S I G^ FOR lOYING, TIMOTHY LEARY WITH R. U. SIRIUS ^^JW3 Harper<^ge ^w Imprint o/HarperSanFrancisco DESIGN FOR DYING. Copyright 1997 by Futique Trust. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For information address HarperCollins Publishers, 10 East 53rd Street, New York, NY 10022. H2irperEdge Weh Site: http://www.harpercollins.com/harperedge HarperCollins, HarperSanFrancisco^'^, and HarperEdge^"^ are trademarks of HarperCollins Publishers Inc. FIRST EDITION Designed by Laura Lindgren Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Leary, Timothy Francis Design for dying / Timothy Leary with R.U. Sirius. 1st ed. p. cm. Parts of this book are paraphrased from previous writings by Timothy Leary. ISBN 0-06-018700-X (cloth) ISBN 0-06-092866-2 (pbk.) 1. Death. I. Sirius, R.U. II. Title. BD444.L415 1997 128'.5 dc21 97-6846 97 98 99 00 01 (RRD) 10 987654321 Contents Credits u vii INTRODUCTION by Timothy Leary u 1 INTRODUCTION by R.U. Sirius u 7 PART ONE: LIVING 1 . What Is the Meaning of Life? u 1 3 2. Cybernautics: Modern Alchemy u 45 3. Language u 59 4. Drugs u 67 5. Psychology u 73 6. Mutation u 83 PART TWO: DYING 7. Dying? Throw a House Party! u gg 8. One Last Taboo for the Road u 1 07 9. Design for Approaching Death u 121 1 0. Death Is the Ultimate Trip u 1 31 PART THREE: DESIGNER DYING 1 1 . Picking an Alternative Tech(nique) from the Evolutionary Menu u 143 12. The Cryonics Option u 153 13. Nanotechnology u I6I 14. The Twenty-first Century: Cyborgization and Postbiological Immortality Options u 167 1 5. Timothy Leary 's Final Escape u 1 75 addendum: Timothy Leary's Dying Performance as Remembered by His Friends u i7g CREDITS We were assisted in this book tremendously by Eric Gullichsen. Also by Mary Dowd, Michael Horoxvitz, Vicky Marshall, and Douglas Rushkoff. Parts of this book are paraphrased from previous xvritings by Timothy Leary. Design for Dying Introduction BY TIMOTHY LEARY IN January 1995, 1 was told by two wise and SOMETIMEgentle medical doctors at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles that my prostate gland had become the host of a healthy, robust, spectacularly ambitious cancerous tumor. It turns out that I am not alone. A cover story in the April 1, 1996, issue of Time entided "The Man's Cancer" placed my face alongside a group of illustrious and infamous men who have recently overcome or currently suffer this mal- ady. Pictured were General Norman Schwarzkopf, Bob Dole, Sidney Poitier, Jordan's King Hussein, Jesse Helms, Jerry Lewis, Michael Milken . and me! Rumor has it that 80 percent of males between the ages of 75 and 90 develop prostate cancer. And I'll speculate that 101 percent of males over age 101 end up playing host to this illness. Before my diagnosis I was unaware of these vital facts. I was also ignorant of the function of this interesting gland, the prostate. Why was I so ignorant? After all, I am a medically trained psychologist. I have taught at two prestigious medical INTRODUCTION schools. I have written more than forty books about the human condition. And still I knew nothing about my prostate gland. The dictionary defines the prostate as "a gland that surrounds the urethra of males at the base of the bladder, comprising a muscular portion that controls the release of urine, and a glandular portion that secretes an alkaline fluid that makes up part of the semen and enhances the motility and fertility of sperm." What a busy little organ! The prostate is called to duty only at those engrossing moments of male orgasm. It facili- tates male fertility. The prostate contributes very little to the plumbing, metabolism, or survival of my body. It serves only a genetic function. DNA has designed this complex gland as a procreative tool for the reproduction of the species, with no regard for my personal health! These thoughts led to a humbling conclusion. DNA apparently uses me and my body as a lumbering, complicated vehicle to carry around the precious, delicate genetic code locked in my sperm. She (DNA) has cunningly located her fertility and sperm-mobility equipment in a protected and bustling area of my body. It makes sense, then, that prostate cancer occurs when men age and their frequency of orgasm decreases. The function of the prostate is to squirt out its sperm-carrying alkaloid at the time of ejaculation. Clearly, infrequent orgasms result in a backed-up puddle of precious fluid in the swollen prostate glands of the elderly. As I puzzled over these spooky thoughts, another emo- tional event occurred. One of my closest friends, a charming, intelligent, postmenopausal lady, discovered that she had breast cancer. Since neither of us had any desire to play the passive- patient/victim role, we scoured the available literature about INTRODUCTION our illnesses. We were charmed to note that breast cancer, one of the most common lethal diseases for women, might be con- sidered a close cousin to cancer of the prostate. The mam- mary glands apparently play no role in the survival of the woman. They can be removed with no threat to the body. Like the prostate they serve the species, not the individual. It's not surprising to learn that women who do not bear children have a significantly higher rate of breast cancer. Our attempt to combine scientific fact with rumina- tion about genetics led us to wonder about the mysterious demonization of cancer. I find it fascinating and scary that I had docilely accepted the scenario that the cancer, like com- munism, was the ultimate "evil" threat to life. Why are so many of us uninformed about this disease? The answer is obvious: denial/taboo. Most human beings don't want to think or talk about death. The taboo is understandable. None of us primitive primates knows why we're here or where we're going. These issues are scary. Each human being is equipped with a 120-billion-cell brain, but we haven't yet learned how to use it. Few of us are aware of our neural ineptness. The organized religions have comforted us by provid- ing infantile fairy tales about God and promises of discarnate immortality. Pray and obey, keep your legs crossed, avoid orgasms, and you'll get the one-way ticket to heaven. But perhaps by making close and intimate acquain- tance with our hard-working body parts and by nobly taking control of the operation of our brains, we may be able to soothe our ancient fears with common sense. Designer Dying Personally, I've been looking forward to dying all my life. Dying is the most fascinating experience in life. You've got to INTRODUCTION approach dying the way you live your life with curiosity, hope, experimentation, and with the help of your friends. I have set out to design my own death, or de-anima- tion as I prefer to call it. It's a hip, chic thing to do. It's the most elegant thing you can do. Even if you've lived your life like a complete slob, you can die with terrific style. I call it "Designer Dying," and it involves two basic principles by which I've lived my life: think for yourself and question authority. Related to the many problems one faces in maintining a life characterized by self-reliance and personal growth and anticipating an educational and self-fulfilling death are five challenging questions: 1 . Where is personal consciousness located? Answer: One's personal consciousness is stored in the nervous system. The brain is the hardware the biocomputer that fabricates and navigates the realities we inhabit. The software systems that operate the brain are a combination of your genetic makeup and your experience these programs, direc- tories, files, and personal operating systems define the individual soul. 2. What happens to personal consciousness when bod- ily functions cease? Answer: Unless scientific methods of preservation and/or reanimation are employed, when the body dies the brain rots. Your personal software systems crash. Your hard drive is destroyed. If you choose to ignore the preservation/reanimation options, there are two ways to deal with your defunct software: you can be passively buried in a coffin and let it rot in the landfills we call cemeteries, or you can be cremated. Cremation is more dignified than rotting. Cremation is a choice made by the owner/manager of the brain and is approved by the polytheistic-pagan-humanist religions that glorify the individual's gods-within and encourage reincarna- INTRODUCTION tion or reanimation planning.

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