In the early ’60s, Weil was a dues-paying member, so to speak, of the Harvard Psychedelic Club (see  Don Lattin’s book of the same name). He participated with Timothy Leary, Richard Alpert (better known as Ram Dass later in life), and  Ralph Metzner on a series of psilocybin projects at Harvard University (and beyond). Weil co-edited the Psychedelic Review journal and the book the Psychedelic Reader, and he was present for both the Marsh Chapel Experiment and the Concord Prison Experiment. After Leary and Alpert unceremoniously parted ways with Harvard, Weil joined them for a summer at the Hitchcock Estate in Millbrook, New York. He says a “prophetic lucid dream” convinced him to leave there before things went awry, leading him back to teaching psychology for a time.

In the late ’60s, Weil began working with multimedia guru Gerd Stern on projects. In 1971, their company purchased a recording studio in Boston, Intermedia Sound. There, Weil championed singer-songwriter Paul Pena, whose “Jet Airliner” became a hit for the Steve Miller Band  (“I get requests at least once a month or more for permission to use ‘Jet Airliner’ for this project or that project,” says Weil, who’s also a music publisher). Aerosmith recorded their debut album (featuring “Dream On”) at Intermedia. And Weil received an executive producer credit on Roger Powell’s critically-acclaimed electronic music album Cosmic Furnace (1973).

In addition to psychology, Weil has taught Tai Chi and Qigong. He’s studied Neuro-linguistic programming and hypnotherapy, and is a longtime student of the works of G.I. Gurdjieff. Through his company Value Mentors, Weil acts as a coach for individuals, families, and corporations, helping them to identify their core values and to express those values in their daily lives. 

And now back to psychedelics: After ceasing his experimentation in 1968 (“I had unlearned what I needed to unlearn” is how he puts it), Weil began exploring psychedelics again during the pandemic (some mushroom experiences, plus one MDMA session). Weil describes his most recent trips as preparatory work for “dropping this body at a certain point.” He has also, on occasion, “guided and advised the leadership” of the Wisdom Dojo—combat veterans who have employed psychedelics as part of their healing work.

Weil, who is 88 years old, reflected on his life’s experiences for DoubleBlind from his new home in Oahu, Hawaii, where he moved last year after over three decades in Colorado. What follows is an interview that has been edited for length and clarity. 

DoubleBlind: Your first cannabis experience was in 1952 or 1953, when you were about 15 or 16?

Gunther Weil: My friend Mike Melvoin and I grew up together in Milwaukee. We were jazz buffs early on. So, we used to go down to the Black neighborhood in Milwaukee to a couple of jazz bars. And Mike was already so proficient on piano, he would sometimes sit in with other musicians. And of course, cannabis was just part of the culture. We were kind of adopted by a few of the jazz musicians in Milwaukee. 

Do you feel that your early cannabis experiences were good preparation, in certain regards, for your first psilocybin experience?

Perhaps, in this sense: I was already familiar and comfortable with what we might call altered states.

When I first met Tim Leary, when I was a graduate student at Harvard in 1960, he was my faculty advisor. He mentioned that his interest was in working with psychedelics as a tool for exploring human consciousness, and he offered the opportunity to work with him if that interested me. And, if not, we both would be better off going our separate ways. So, I immediately said yes!

What kind of preparation work did you do for your first psilocybin trip? Was it discussing with Tim Leary and Richard Alpert their experiences, plus reading, say, R. Gordon Wasson or Aldous Huxley? 

I don’t recall actually being that prepared. The preparation came after the fact. And then, of course, it was no longer preparation for the first experience, but probably a preparation for that which followed. 

I remember Tim, in other sessions, would spend a few minutes speaking about set and setting, about preparing ourselves by essentially embracing the people, the situation, the environment. To suspend self-criticism, or any other form of critique, and just to enter into a state of not knowing, if you will, and letting that kind of basic compassion and curiosity—of being comfortable with not knowing—be the primary “set” as you enter this psychedelic domain. So, I would say that’s good advice for any learning, any situation, not just the psychedelic experience.

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