Digital Be-In History

Timothy Leary on the Be-In

Time delayed video from John LillyÕs house in Hawaii, shown at the New Human Be-In, January 14, 1992 (the 4th Annual Digital Be-In and the 25th Anniversary of the Human Be-In)

It was 25 years ago today that there happened in San Francisco something called a Human Be-In. It was amazing because without any publicity, without any commercial advertising, something like 50 or 60,000 people arrived in Golden Gate Park to celebrate so mething new. And you know what that new thing is, its a new renaissance a new spirit of freedom, of individuality, of breaking away from the old authorities. I'll talk more about what happened, but first I want to say that it was a beautiful day in San Fr ancisco, 25 years ago a parachuter parachuted right down into the audience, and the Grateful Dead was there and the young rock and rollers in San Francisco, and Allen Ginsberg was there, and I was there. Now, what was interesting about this, that nobody c ould explain, how come 60,000 people would come together on a Sunday like this without and promotion or commercial advertising. You know what, the same thing happened in New York about four months later. You know what happened, two years later in Washingt on D.C. a million people mobilized to stop the war in Viet Nam. Suddenly this "people power" this notion of something Ð by the way, there were no arms, there were no guns, there was no threat, it was people coming together peaceably to just show that they weren't going to be pushed around anymore. Now, this was not new, it's been happening throughout human history. It's called a renaissance, and every hundred 500 years it happens again, it happened in Italy, in what the 14th century, it happened in Athens with Socrates, people get together and say we're going to start something new. This was a wonderful movement because by 1976 we had stopped the war in Viet Nam, we were investigating the CIA, can you believe that. But what always happens, you know what h appens, when you overthrow the tyranny, there is moment of freedom and then of course the hard-liners move in. So in 1980 the hard-liners moved in in America, but you know what happened, in Europe, in England, in Spain, finally in Eastern Europe, the same message of people getting together without arms, young people, with that spirit, with that glow, with that look in their eyes, like Woodstock, the sense of a new breed Ð "we're not going to take orders anymore." The time we watched the Berlin Wall, the greatest jail break in history. You know, the greatest tyranny in history: it happened in China with Tiannaman Square, and of course the hard-liners come in. This movement is happening over and over again, and we celebrate the joy of freedom and individua lity and looking into each others eyes and smiling, but then, you know and I know that the hard-liners come back. I am going to tell you frankly, that the next 8 years are going to be tough, because the problem with freedom is, that once you free people, most of us don't know how to handle freedom and we start fighting among each other, so the next few years until the year 2000, are going to rough in American, it's going to be rough in Europe, its going to be rougher in the Eastern European countries. And I want to tell you, the solution is, it's the old Socratic notion: "Believe in yourself" Ð have a small group of friends who share your belief, you'll find networking, use electronics, use fax, use camcorders, keep the message going, because this time, we are not going to lose, by the year 2000, the spirit that started in San Francisco 25 years ago, and emerged in Washington, and emerged in the Isle of Wight with Dylan, which emerged in Berlin, which emerged in Tiannaman Square, and that wonderful Yelts in thing in Moscow Ð it's going to keep going, but you've got to be true to yourself and your friends, and link up, and we're going to make it happen!