ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, June 16, 1996 TAG: 9606170007
SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: SAN FRANCISCO
SOURCE: STEPHANIE SALTER SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER
Sometime in September or October, seven grams of Timothy Leary's remains will be launched into orbit via commercial satellite.
Leary, the scientist who became an advocate of LSD in the mid-1960s, died May 31 at age 75. Riding along with him and some 15 other private passengers will be a few grams of the late Gene Roddenberry, creator of ``Star Trek.''
It is tempting to imagine ...
Roddenberry: Dr. Leary, I presume. It's about bleeping time. I've been waiting for you since '91.
Leary: Hey, could I help it that you got a nice, clean heart attack at 70 and I got stuck with prostate cancer and had to wait until 75? Besides, what's this b.s. about waiting, Gene? Your wife spilled the beans in '94 when she was in Cape Canaveral for some big dinner: You've already been up. On the Space Shuttle Columbia, no less. NASA confirmed it: ``Roddenberry's ashes were taken aloft in a container as a `personal effect' of one of the astronauts, who wasn't named.''
Who was it, Gene? I hope it was one of the women.
I'll never tell. That was the '50s! I joined the LAPD so I could make money while I peddled TV scripts. It came in damned handy for ``Dragnet.''
But you were such a good cop, Sergeant Roddenberry. Didn't the police chief make you the head of research for - ?
Addictive drugs. Lucky for you, Leary, I quit the force in '54.
LSD is not addictive.
Yeah, but it's illegal.
Well, it wasn't when I got into it at Harvard and boldly went where few button-down, cookie-cutter, Western-Civ types had gone before. What a coincidence, eh, Gene? Almost the precise time I began exploring inner space, you were searching outer space with the first round of ``Star Trek.''
Right. Coincidence. Like, you went to West Point and I wrote a series called ``West Point.''
And how about the fact that we were both in the Army? You learned to fly airplanes, and I got a look at what life would be like during the nine years I'd spend in prison for carrying two joints.
Yeah, but, in between, the Weather Underground and your third wife busted you out of prison and you went on the lam in Algeria. I could have made a hell of a miniseries out of that.
I wish you had, Gene. I'd take a Borg brainwashing or Klingon torture over Folsom any day.
But you survived it, Leary, and here we are: just a couple of old GIs on board this shiny new Spanish communications satellite together, ready to be blasted into the ether for a year or maybe 10.
Gene, just before I died, when I heard you were going to be on this launch, I jumped up and down in my wheelchair. Really, I did. It just seemed so right, you know?
Was that after you decided against having your head frozen?
Yeah, like I said at the time, those cryonics guys have no sense of humor, and I was worried I would wake up in 50 years surrounded by people with clipboards.
I think we did something like that on ``The Next Generation.'' Or maybe it was with Shattner in the original. I get mixed up.
Bleep the past, Gene. I'm crazy to know about now. You've already been up. What's it like?
What do you want it to be like, Leary? One of your acid trips?
Well, I could think of worse. Like doing those talk shows in the '80s with Gordon Liddy.
OK, Leary. The best acid trip you ever had? Plus the greatest single round of lovemaking? The most fabulous wine you ever tasted? The most breath-taking sunset? The most exquisite piece of music you ever heard or poem you ever read? Put all those together and multiply them by several billion. It's even better than that.
Are we going to see God, Gene?
Of course. But you'll be surprised how familiar God looks.
You mean I've already seen him? I always tried. That's what the acid was for.
Not him, Leary. God. No gender. I thought you expanded your mind. Everybody's seen God. Anytime they look at a drop of water, the night sky or in the mirror. It's like you suspected, Leary, God just is. Most people can't handle that until they get over on this side.
Oh, God.
Right. So, are you ready for, say, warp six?
Why not?
You really want to see God, Leary?
Yeah.
LENGTH: Medium: 92 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: 1. LSD guru Timothy Leary died in May of prostate cancer.by CNB2. Gene Roddenberry, creator of ``Star Trek."