The Harvard Psilocybin Project was a run of studies in which Harvard psychologists Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert gave psilocybin to volunteers. Alpert dated the Harvard-affiliated work from autumn 1960 to the end of 1962 and described over four hundred subjects in a prison, a religious community and the university (Alpert’s letter, 1963).
Its methods were loose by today’s standards. Leary said sessions were held in subjects’ homes with everyone present under the drug’s influence (Harvard Crimson, 1962). A 1998 review reports that 88% of early subjects said they had learned something of value, with no control group behind the figure (Doblin, 1998). The project produced the Concord Prison Experiment, and Leary sponsored Walter Pahnke’s Good Friday Experiment.
Colleagues objected at a March 1962 meeting, and state officials then required a physician to give the drug (Harvard Crimson, 1962). On 27 May 1963 Harvard announced Alpert’s dismissal (Harvard Crimson, 1963). A 2023 review dates the project to 1960 and notes it triggered an ethical debate over hallucinogens (Plazas and Faraone, 2023).
Sources
- Alpert’s letter to Pusey, Harvard Crimson, 1963
- Psychologists Disagree on Psilocybin Research, Harvard Crimson, 1962
- Harvard Crimson, 9 July 1963
- Doblin, 1998, Journal of Psychoactive Drugs
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