He found that no matter what the treatment, about 1/3 of the people improved, about 1/3 were the same and about another 1/3 actually got worse. There were control groups of people not getting any treatment at all and the results for those people were the same. Therefore, what is the big deal about psychotherapy? Leary saw all of this before he ever tried psilocybin or LSD. Once he found out about the chemicals that expand consciousness, he knew that the only psychotherapy that could mean anything is psychedelic psychotherapy. That means that the therapists have to take the LSD themselves and in certain situations even do it with their patients. If they are tripping together, the status titles "therapist" and "patient" and whatever that's supposed to mean, goes flying out the window. The therapist and the patient are equals.

With the teacher-student relationship, Leary was the teacher and the graduate students were the students, but Leary would give the graduate students LSD and guide them on their trips and at times do it with them. He didn't see himself like a typical teacher, as all powerful and superior to the student who is expected to bow down and kiss the teacher's feet. Leary saw how phony, superficial and unproductive that kind of relationship is. He knew that when people are tripping, everyone is equal and that the student can teach the teacher something. Leary's research project at Harvard was very enlightening to everyone involved. Each person would write a report on their experience and everyone got to see everyone else's report so that everyone had access to all the information.

During this process, Leary and his fellow researchers were really pioneers because there were no manuels, reference books or any kind of guidance to turn to. They had to learn and figure out for themselves the best and most effective ways to run LSD sessions and they did that. Timothy's dream was to have trained, skilled LSD guides run LSD sessions and train others to be LSD guides and have these learning centers all over the world with the full understanding, support and encouragement of all authorities. It would change the world for the better. It's too bad for us all that he never got that chance. The authorities just had no concept of who he was, what he was all about, what he was talking about or what he was trying to do. Even now, most people think of Timothy Leary as a lunatic or a dangerous madman who wanted to destroy everyone's brain with LSD. (Equally ridiculous are the people who think that Dr. Kevorkian is a maniac murderer who wants to kill everybody.)

Leary made a very important decision that has had a long range effect on the country. There were distinguished people other than Leary, over the age of 30, who were experienced and knowledgeable about mind-opening, consciousness-expanding drugs. There were differences of opinion among these people about the best way to present this great new thing to the society. Some thought that it should be kept secret among themselves, figuring that it can only cause them trouble because the country just wouldn't understand. The psychiatrists thought that the medical profession should be in control of these drugs and that it should all be done within the system so that it's "respectable". Others like the religious philosopher types thought that looking at it only from a medical point of view is way too limited in scope and misses the point.