League for Spiritual Discovery

Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert were psychedelic researchers at Harvard University in the Psychology Department during the early 1960s. In 1962 Leary set up a grassroots nonprofit group with Alpert (later known as Ram Dass) called the International Federation for Internal Freedom (IFIF), in order to carry out studies in the religious use of psychedelic drugs. IFIF was subsequently disbanded and renamed the Castalia Foundation (after the intellectual colony in Herman Hesse's The Glass Bead Game), when Leary and Alpert set up a communal group in 1963 at the Hitchcock Estate in Millbrook, New York. Leary and Alpert lived and worked at the Millbrook estate with a small group devoted to the exploration of consciousness-expanding drugs. The group's journal was the Psychedelic Review. The Castalia Foundation hosted weekend retreats on the estate where people paid to undergo the psychedelic experience without drugs, through meditation, yoga, and group therapy sessions. The origins of the League for Spiritual Discovery can also be found in the Original Kleptonian Neo-American Church, whose clergy members administered sacraments in the form of psychedelic drugs. The church was founded in 1965 by Arthur Kleps, a participant in Leary's circle at Millbrook. == History ==

On September 19, 1966, Leary reorganized the IFIF/Castalia Foundation under the nomenclature of the League for Spiritual Discovery, a religion with LSD as its holy sacrament. They were influenced by the Native American Church's historical peyote use. Leary's goal was to create a new concept of religion based on his communal experiences at Millbrook, in which people with shared spiritual goals came together to expand consciousness. The organization was also referred to as the League of Spiritual Discovery. became synonymous with the sixties. Nicholas Sand, the clandestine chemist for the Brotherhood of Eternal Love, followed Leary to Millbrook and joined the League for Spiritual Discovery. Sand was designated the "alchemist" of the new religion. Owsley Stanley encouraged Sand to shift his operations to California, and offered him the services of his lab partner, Tim Scully. There Sand and Scully manufactured Orange Sunshine LSD - their history is documented in the documentary The Sunshine Makers. At the end of 1966, Nina Graboi, a friend and colleague of Leary's who had spent time with him at Millbrook, became the director of the Center for the League of Spiritual Discovery in Greenwich Village. The Center opened in March 1967. Graboi explained "The League of Spiritual Discovery had only two commandments: Thou shalt not alter the consciousness of thy fellow man, and Thou shalt not prevent thy fellow man from altering his own consciousness." Graboi accepted the position as director to disseminate information about the use and misuse of psychedelics, in order to minimize their ill effects. Leary and Alpert gave free weekly talks at the center, and other guest speakers included Ralph Metzner and Allen Ginsberg. It had initially opened at a theater that became the location for the Fillmore East. He was arrested on December 26, 1968 in Laguna Beach for possession of marijuana. In 1970, Leary received a ten-year sentence for the marijuana arrest. He escaped from prison with help from the Weather Underground and Black Panthers, but was arrested again in 1973. He was released from prison in 1976. Around end of 1967/early 1968 the League for Spiritual Discovery was closed down, and the New York Center for the League of Spiritual Discovery was abandoned shortly after Graboi left her position as director. Leary's papers at the New York Public Library include complete records of the International Federation for Internal Freedom, the Castalia Foundation, and the League for Spiritual Discovery. == Revival ==

In October 2006, the League for Spiritual Discovery was restarted, taking all of the original intents of the prior organization as a foundation, but updating the message and expanding the work. ==See also==