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Enclosed please find a cache of documents from the Michael Horowitz collection on Timothy Leary from the New York Public Library, collected under the title: The Periodic Table of Energy (Correspondences Among: the Periodic Table of Elements, the Neurogenetic Theory of Evolution, the Tarot, the I Ching, the Zodiac) - Transmitted by Joanna and Timothy Leary with Robert Anton Wilson. Vacaville Prison, CA, USA: May 1974. [Amended]
CLICK HERE TO ACCESS: The Periodic Table of Energy - Leary & Wilson (PDF)
These appear to be black and white scans of the original Leary manuscript documents that were auctioned off back in 2012, which were estimated to sell for $30k – $50k.
All of the sample pages match exactly, as does the title and description.
However! There do indeed appear to be small differences between the pages available here and those offered in the manuscript for sale by Tree and Leaf Books for $3,999.99.
Some of the sample pages match exactly, whereas others appear to be different iterations of the same text.
I haven't done a detailed comparison yet, but from a decent skimming of these pages and my memory of The Game of Life and Info-Psychology, I would say The Periodic Table of Energy represents a distinct formulation of Leary's ideas, though clearly early drafts of concepts that he would revisit, and further develop, in later works.
Maybe the most interesting item amongst the documents comes from Berkeley Barb, Vol. 21, No. 9(500) (March 14-20, 1975). A double page spread featuring a condensed formulation of The Periodic Table of Energy, credited to both Leary and Wilson.
The original collection of documents had a low quality scan that was quite difficult to read, but fortunately the complete Berkeley Barb archives are available online and I was able to replace those pages with high definition full color scans. It really is a thing of beauty, so here's a stand alone PDF of just that piece for easy access and appreciation.
The original collection of documents had a low quality scan that was quite difficult to read, but fortunately the complete Berkeley Barb archives are available online and I was able to replace those pages with high definition full color scans. It really is a thing of beauty, so here's a stand alone PDF of just that piece for easy access and appreciation.
UPDATE! And here's more on the Berkeley Barb version of The Periodic Table of Energy from Gabriel Kennedy. (With thanks to MG for the link!)
As with the previous drop of RAW archival material, I'm curious how much of this will turn out to be previously unknown, or at least exceedingly rare.
I should probably point out that the cover art provided at the top of this post and on the PDF itself is not archival, but rather something I put together for this release.
Thanks to Tom Jackson for bringing this lost book to my attention!
The pages in this recovered manuscript are probably too early in the editorial draft process to consider The Periodic Table of Energy fully found, but I'd say it's at least now in a maybe state.
The pages in this recovered manuscript are probably too early in the editorial draft process to consider The Periodic Table of Energy fully found, but I'd say it's at least now in a maybe state.
Also! So very many thanks to the New York Public Library for freely providing scans of this material. Especially notable given how expensive this information had been previously! Libraries are the absolute super very best <3<3<3
10 comments:
Fantastico. The etsy/ebay version currently available notes RAW as a contributor and has a 5 page Index which starts with an Intro by RAW.
This is definitely a proto version of the Game of Life, an occult transmission, and not a proto-Exo-psychology, which is more of "scientific" presentation. Curiously, he lists other books, and it appears that "Interstellar Neurogenetics" is the proto-Exo-Psychology.
Absolutely!!
and just to add this here as well:
It for sure looks like the ebay/etsy version is a later edit.
The "index of transmissions" sample page has typed corrections from the NY Library version.
So maybe the ebay/etsy version is RAW's edit of the original manuscript?
Though many of the sample pages still have the same handwritten corrections as the NYL version, so it doesn't appear to be a finished edit, whomever was working on it.
Excellent -
If find it so interesting in the Berkeley article Leary says he intentionally included 3 mistakes to lead the reader astray like a puzzle to decipher. Anyone know what those may be? I have an inkling - guess I'll get to work...
Kinda seems like a put-on by Leary, giving himself wiggle room to change things, especially since this model was pretty much brand new, and would go through numerous permutations over the years. Let us know if you find anything though!
Just my 2cents. Although Leary is credited as a co-author in the Barb, the piece reads to me like pure Wilson with maybe some Leary weaved in (I really need to read it again with that in mind). Intentional mistakes strikes me as more of Wilson thing than a Leary thing.
OK, it's my take that Berkeley Barb piece is written by Wilson who co-credited Leary. I think the last section, 3-4 paragraphs with the bit on Sagan, may belong to Leary. I want to say I've read it before, but I can't remember where.). Leary had been "missing" in the California Penal system for the previous 9+ months prior to publication and completely out of contact. Wilson had been collaborating with Leary for about six months before Leary went missing. My take from the Starseed Signals is that Wilson was reading and digesting all of Leary's writings, plus he was still coming out of the Crowley deep dive and the Sirius experience and trying to digest and integrate and make sense of it all. And I think here with the Barb Piece, he read and digested the 200 page PToE, and distilled it down to a 2 page summary, mixing in some Gurdjieff vibration levels, and throwing a few (3) wrinkles into it.
Meanwhile, as Bobby suggests, Wilson could have been editing and updating the original Joanna PToE, giving us the updated etsy/ebay version.
It blows me away that all this is like one of five books that he was working with Joanna with during the first 18 months or so of prison before he went missing, and by far and away the most complex of the 5. And of those, two eventually saw mass publication as Game of Life and Exo-Psychology once he was pardoned and released. I still have no idea if there's a copy of Interstellar Neurogenetics out there. I had never heard of it before this and my preliminary internet searching has turned up nothing in terms of a published work.
I think you're absolutely correct about Interstellar Neurogenetics becoming Exo-Psychology.
Right in the intro to Part 1: "EXO-PSYCHOLOGY: The Principles of interstellar Neurogenetics"
What's interesting is that in the second issue of Bob Shea's "No Governor" zine RAW has a piece called "Anarchism and Magick in the Light of Interstellar Neurogenetics" in which he references "Interstellar Neurogenetics" amongst other Leary works, indicating that Leary did indeed circulate something under that name.
The first several paragraphs of the Berkeley Barb piece are straight out of Leary's manuscript, just heavily condensed and rephrased (not unlike Pound editing Eliot), but once we get to the explanation of the circuits I lose the connection to Leary's manuscript, and it does indeed seem to be more RAW than Leary.
Fun stuff!
Nice catch, Bobby. It's all blurring into mush for me at this point. I've been reading a ton of Leary lately, researching the development of his ideas on the 8C model, from the 50s-70s.
I just went through Horowitz's annotated Leary bibliography, and there was no mention of Interstellar Neurogenetics or PToE at all, but it does index the Barb PToE essay.
I'm so interested in seeing this work as I've not seen it in published form. I do think the NYPL collection has the not so great scans that you mentioned. I'd love to get them a readable copy if we could find it.
BTW, Michael Horowitz collection (Ludlow-Santo Domingo library) is at Harvard. The NYPL collection was purchased from Futique Trust, Dr Leary's Trust, and was his personal collection not Michael's.
Denis Berry
Futique Trust
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