Turn on, tune in, drop out Turn on, tune in, drop out "Turn on, tune in, drop out" is a counterculture-era phrase popularized by Timothy Leary in 1966. In 1967 Leary spoke at the Human Be-In, a gathering of 30,000 hippies in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco and phrased the famous words, "Turn on, tune in, drop out". It was also the title of his spoken word album recorded in 1966. On this lengthy album one can hear Leary speaking in a monotone, soft-spoken voice on his views about the world and humanity and describing nature, Indian symbols, "the meaning of inner life", the LSD
League for Spiritual Discovery be used as an aid to LSD trips), and underground newspapers to which the group subscribed. The League for Spiritual Discovery's belief structure was based on Leary's mantra: "drop out, turn on, tune in." Though the more popular "turn on, tune in, drop out" became synonymous with Leary, his actual definition was: ""Drop Out" – detach yourself from the external social drama which is as dehydrated and ersatz as TV. "Turn On" – find a sacrament which returns you to the temple of God, your own body. Go out of your mind. Get high. "Tune In" – be reborn. Drop