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Rating: 
Summary: Total Hype
Review: I was personally quite disapointed in this book. The statement 'Ram Dass's famous "Be Here Now," is a prelude to "The Psychedelic Experience,"' is beyond misleading. Be here now had so much to say, but this book adds nothing to the already huge body of liturature written on the topic. If you are interested in this text, get the html version off the net and spend your money on something serious, like the Tibeten book of Living and Dying.
Rating:
Summary: Total Hype
Review: I was personally quite disapointed in this book. The statement 'Ram Dass's famous "Be Here Now," is a prelude to "The Psychedelic Experience,"' is beyond misleading. Be here now had so much to say, but this book adds nothing to the already huge body of liturature written on the topic. If you are interested in this text, get the html version off the net and spend your money on something serious, like the Tibeten book of Living and Dying.
Rating: 
Summary: Re: Total Hype (not!)
Review: I would like to clear up some apparent confusion in the reviews below: Ram Dass' book "Be Here Now" *can't* be a prelude to this book, since "Be Here Now" was written I think seven years *after* "The Psychedelic Experience." For those of you who don't know, "Ram Dass" is in fact Richard Alpert, one of the three authors of "The Psychedelic Experience." To say that this book "adds nothing to the already huge body of liturature written on the topic" is like saying that The Bible adds nothing to the already huge body of christian literature. This book was at it's time absolutely revolutionary. It is to my knowledge the first work published giving a detailed road map for those travellers seeking spiritual enlightenment with the aid of psychedelics. The brilliant reinterpretation of the Bardo Thodol as a guide for premortem ego death and the interpretation of numerous aspects of eastern mysticism in general in the light of Leary's "Game of Life" theory (e.g. "heavy world game playing" interpretations of "karma") makes the meaning of these ancient mystic teachings readily accessible to the mind of the western psychonaut. If you're a psychonaut and want to better understand your experiences, read this book. If everybody who wanted to try a psychoactive substance would first read this book, there would probably never again be anybody who would have what s/he would call a "horror trip" (unless the heavy game players don't understand what they're reading and insist on taking the substances anyway.) Read it and weep. Wishing you Good Journeys, erasurehead
Rating:
Summary: Re: Total Hype (not!)
Review: I would like to clear up some apparent confusion in the reviews below: Ram Dass' book "Be Here Now" *can't* be a prelude to this book, since "Be Here Now" was written I think seven years *after* "The Psychedelic Experience." For those of you who don't know, "Ram Dass" is in fact Richard Alpert, one of the three authors of "The Psychedelic Experience." To say that this book "adds nothing to the already huge body of liturature written on the topic" is like saying that The Bible adds nothing to the already huge body of christian literature. This book was at it's time absolutely revolutionary. It is to my knowledge the first work published giving a detailed road map for those travellers seeking spiritual enlightenment with the aid of psychedelics. The brilliant reinterpretation of the Bardo Thodol as a guide for premortem ego death and the interpretation of numerous aspects of eastern mysticism in general in the light of Leary's "Game of Life" theory (e.g. "heavy world game playing" interpretations of "karma") makes the meaning of these ancient mystic teachings readily accessible to the mind of the western psychonaut. If you're a psychonaut and want to better understand your experiences, read this book. If everybody who wanted to try a psychoactive substance would first read this book, there would probably never again be anybody who would have what s/he would call a "horror trip" (unless the heavy game players don't understand what they're reading and insist on taking the substances anyway.) Read it and weep. Wishing you Good Journeys, erasurehead
Rating:
Summary: Excellent discovery!
Review: The book is brilliant! Just one thing I would add; Takeeverywhere it says LSD and replace it with Amanita muscaria (Which wasthe real entheogen this manual is experientially based upon). Then you have it! Keep in mind that NONE of the world's religions tell the whole truth, and this includes Tibetan Buddhism. All Patriarcal religions have severe problems and you should know what those problems (false dogmas) are before experimenting. The discovery that this book is not necessarily a book for the dead but a book to map the consciousness of those experiencing the Shamanistic 'Death Experience' is crucial to humanity's understanding of Tibetan Buddhism and other world religion.
Rating:
Summary: Life before death
Review: The funny thing about this is, thousands of copies of "the Tibetan Book of the Dead," found there way on to the shelves of hippie homes, because people thought they were getting Tim's "Psychedelic Experience." We were seeking one thing and being confused with another. The Psychedelic Experience is a manual where many, many people who I have met; claim to have been enlightened just by following Tim's directions. We know the Beatles, The Grateful Dead, The Rolling Stones; The Moody Blues were all exposed to these teachings, before they became really big stars. "When you've seen beyond yourself, then you may find peace of mind is waiting there." George The Beatles did a song about The Psychedelic Experience; they called it "The Void." You may remember it! "Turn off your mind, relax, and float down stream," "Lay down all thoughts, surrender to the void," "I'll play the game "existence" to the end of the beginning," "The Psychedelic Experience," is about life before death, The Tibetan Book is about life after death. Ram Dass's famous "Be Here Now," is a prelude to "The Psychedelic Experience," but few people read that far. There are three introductions in the Experience. Skip two and just read the one by lama Govinda. Tim was a researcher at Harvard University, those other introductions were written for people long dead. The rest of the experience is quite simple (once you have had the experience that is.) Leary's Psychedelic Experience do it now!!
Rating:
Summary: flow with fire-blood....
Review: This is undoubtedly Learys definitive work.This guide book is absolutely essential if you are going to take a psychedelic drug.It really makes sense of the visions and sensations you will encounter in the different stages,or Bardos of the trip.To put it simply and to the point,Lennon said of this book,"Learys method is the only way to trip".It really is a great guide book that should send you in the right direction. PRICELESS.
P.S:All the negative reviews of this book all seem to miss the point...its a GUIDEBOOK in the truest sense of the word,an internal 'roadmap'.Its not meant to preach to you a certain point,its there to be used as a manual-to memorize and if need be,to read during your trip.You will need to get beyond the sometimes 'poetic' style and get to the essence of the message.
Rating:
Summary: please float DOWNstream, thank you.
Review: While this book has a good premise, it was a little too stuffy for my taste. This book is far too dry to convey the chaotic frenzy of life lived while under the influence of mind altering drugs. I think this book is so popular just because 'the high priest of LSd', Tim Leary, wrote it, and not necessarily for its own merits. If this book would be your first exploration of those realms beyond our earthly experience, I say look elsewhere, such as Food of the Gods, by Terrence McKenna. If you have already partaken of Terrence McKenna and others, and this book is just to round out your library, it is worth having.
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