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, Leary can be heard speaking in a monotone soft voice on his views about the world and humanity, describing nature, Indian symbols, "the meaning of inner life", the LSD experience, peace, and many other issues.

History of the phrase[]

In a 1988 interview with Neil Strauss, Leary said the slogan was "given to him" by Marshall McLuhan during a lunch in New York City. Leary added McLuhan "was very much-interested in ideas and marketing, and he started singing something like, 'Psychedelics hit the spot / Five hundred micrograms, that's a lot,' to the tune of a Pepsi commercial of the time. Then he started going, 'Tune in, turn on, and drop out.'"^[1] The phrase was used by Leary in a speech he delivered at the opening of a press conference in New York city on September 19, 1966. It urged people to embrace cultural changes through the use of psychedelics by detaching from the existing conventions and hierarchies in society. It was also the motto of his League for Spiritual Discovery.^[2]

In his speech, Leary said:

Like every great religion, we seek to find the divinity within and to express this revelation in a life of glorification and the worship of God. These ancient goals we define in the metaphor of the present—turn on, tune in, drop out.^[3]

Leary explains in his 1983 autobiography Flashbacks:

"Turn on" meant go within to activate your neural and genetic equipment. Become sensitive to the many and various levels of consciousness and the specific triggers engaging them. Drugs were one way to accomplish this end. "Tune in" meant interact harmoniously with the world around you—externalize, materialize, express your new internal perspectives. "Drop out" suggested an active, selective, graceful process of detachment from involuntary or unconscious commitments. "Drop Out" meant self-reliance, a discovery of one's singularity, a commitment to mobility, choice, and change. Unhappily, my explanations of this sequence of personal development are often misinterpreted to mean "Get stoned and abandon all constructive activity".^[4]

Turn on, tune in, drop out is also the title of a book (ISBN 1-57951-009-4) of essays by Timothy Leary, covering topics ranging from religion, education, and politics to Aldous Huxley, neurology, and psychedelic drugs.

In 1967, Leary (during the salon known as the Houseboat Summit) announced his agreement with a new ordering of the phrase as he said, "I would agree to change the slogan to 'Drop out. Turn on. Drop in.'"^[5]

During his last decade, Leary proclaimed the "PC is the LSD of the 1990s" and re-worked the phrase into "turn on, boot up, jack in" to suggest joining the cyberdelic counterculture.^[6]

In popular culture[]

The phrase has been referenced across different mediums of entertainment, including but not limited to the following examples.

Music[]

The lyrics, "Turn on, tune in, drop out" are included verbatim in several songs.

• Psychedelic rock band Strawberry Alarm Clock parodies the quote in their 1967 song "Incense and Peppermints", singing "Turn on, tune in, turn your eyes around" in one of the lines.
• Gil Scott-Heron criticized the concept in his 1970 poem and song The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, with the line "You will not be able to plug in, turn on and cop-out".
• "Turn On, Tune In" by Threshold
• "DI-1-9026" on the album Nail by Scraping Foetus Off the Wheel
• "Drop Out" by Infected Mushroom
• "Ever-Increasing Circles" on the compilation album by the band Carcass
• "Turn On Tune In Drop Out" by Cracker
• "Turn on, Tune in, Stay inert" in "Flash Delirium" by MGMT
• "Turn On / Tune In / Drop Out" on The Fugs' album Tenderness Junction
• "Tune In, Drop Out" in "Trigger Hippie" by Morcheeba
• "Relax" by Superorganism
• Another variation, "Turn On, Tune In, Cop Out", was the title of a 1993 single by the band 'Freak Power'—the name a reference to the hippie culture.
• Jay Aymar parodied the phrase by saying, "Tune Out, Turn Off, Drop By", referring to the proliferation of cellphones & social media on his album 'The Chicken Came First'.^[7]
• The band 'Half Man Half Biscuit' vary the phrase to refer to being made redundant in their song, "Turned Up Clocked On Laid Off" on the album 'This Leaden Pall'.^[8]
• The french rock band Poncharello made an album called "Turn on, Tune in, Drop out with Poncharello"
• The song "My Cosmic Lover" by the progressive rock band The Flower Kings uses a soundclip of Leary saying "turn on, tune in, drop out".

Film, television, video, radio, and comics[]

• The CSI episode title "Turn On, Tune In, Drop Dead" also parodies the quote, with the episode focusing on how two victims who are supposedly-dead get up and walk away.
• The Sliders episode "Just Say Yes", revolving around a society of government-enforced drug usage, features a reversal of the quote: "Tune out, turn off and drop in, people."
• A variation of the quote ("Tune in, Turn on, Talknet") was used during the 1980-90s for NBC Radio's Talknet nighttime programming block of call-in advice shows.
• The film Across the Universe features a cover of the Beatles song Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite!, in which Eddie Izzard ad libs a variation of the phrase ("Just tune in, turn off, drop out, drop in, switch off, switch on, and explode.").
• In an episode of Superjail!, the Twins, while high on an alien drug, say a variant of the phrase, "Tune up, turn around, drop in."
• The music video for "Something's Always Wrong" by Toad The Wet Sprocket features Infomercial-style parodist elements--the lasting being an on-screen message to the viewer--"Turn on, tune in, drop out..."
• In the comic book series Doom Patrol and the television streaming series Doom Patrol (TV series), Robotman (Cliff Steele) can sometimes be seen wearing a shirt that reads, "Turn on, Tune in, Drop Dead."
• In the comic book series the phrase is repeated multiple times by the gang books on tape.

Books[]

• The popular Thai author Rong Wongsawan featured the term on the cover of his book "In the Haze of Marijuana" about San Francisco. He also used the term at his writer's retreat in Mae Rim, Chiangmai, which is called the "Tune In Garden."
• In the book A Scanner Darkly by Philip K. Dick one character takes over the identity of the main character in a phonecall and ends his dispute with the words: "Turn in, tune out."

Videogames[]

• Music composer Hideki Naganuma used audio samples of Timothy's San Francisco speech, albeit rearranged to "Tune in, turn on, drop out", in the soundtrack "Rock It On" for the videogame Jet Set Radio
  • On the later released sequel, Jet Set Radio Future, the audio sample appears once again in the soundtrack "Rock It On (D.S. Remix)", but now cut to only play "Drop out."
• In the multiplayer game Grand Theft Auto Online, the content update website for The Cayo Perico Heist reveals a new radio station, Kult FM. In the radio station's announcement description, it mentions "Tune in, turn on and space out to the sounds of Kult FM."

See also[]

Look up tune in, turn on, drop out in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Eight-circuit model of consciousness

References[]