FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF LERI/LERI.HISTORY
Scotto (in Leri.FAQ 1.0):
"Leri-L was formed after a large group of us discovered LSD-25 and Internet at about the same time. The period that followed was very giddy and silly..."Annie:
"Nice place, nice folks, challenging conversations, intelligent people. It reminded me of another place I was in, a long time ago."*** Leri-L had its genesis in the town of Cedar Falls, Iowa, at the University of Northern Iowa. After a rather chaotic group zoom in which Weird Momma "turned on" free agent rez and Scotto, suddenly it became apparent that Cedar Falls, Iowa, was not likely to support the kind of psychedelic scene that the crew needed for synthesis of ideas and support. Every book by Dr. Timothy Leary at the school library was devoured, but something, needless to say, was missing: the free exchange of ideas among a peer group. As synchronicity would have it, rez and Scotto suddenly discovered the Internet, and soon were crawling through Usenet news, looking for places to share theories and experiences. Eventually, after some exploring and consideration, the following post appeared:
Article 23703 (316 more) in alt.drugs: From: moore7004@iscsvax.uni.edu Subject: Playing the OTHER acid game Date: 9 Mar 92 23:59:58 -0600 So my cousin Commodore Leri stopped by the other day, and he said, "Did you get the Travel Yahtzee I sent you?" And I said, "Yeah." And he came real close, and he said, "Hey..." low tones, breathy muttering, there could be BUGS all over this place... "Hey," he said... "Who's doing the pioneer thing since I went back to the Dog Star?" And I said, "Me and only me, 'sfar as I know." Is anyone else doing the pioneer thing? I.e. actual reconnaissance and assimilation, reimprinting, etc.? None of the typical "Had a happy time, watched a few cool movies" type stuff -- that stuff is great, mind you, I'm just looking for something else. We only use 10% of our brains -- anyone want to use more? I just figure, I can't be the only one playing this kind of experimental game... Now that we know that we can't just fall into the preexisting communities of karmic game-playing, as they seem to be self-limiting, how can we establish an infracommunity in which this type of discussion is possible? Point being -- have we just not found the right place to look yet? If you got info to trade, or want to chat, lemme know... Leri was only half right. Scotto the Malicious P.S. My cousin Hagbard says hello.*** The name Leri is taken from an essay by Dr. Leary, written during his prison years, in which he takes on the identity of an "alien" from Sirius, Commodore Leri, and describes his imprisonment as the natural consequence of an alien trying to adjust to the ridiculous constraints of American society. This metaphor is an important one, more important, perhaps, than the name's link to Dr. Leary himself.
Scruff:
"I spent an entire workday reading alt.lists and came across this bizarre paragraph written by this character dubbed scotto. As I read and reread that paragraph, I knew that this list must either be a discussion of psychedelics and their constructive uses with the name derived from Leary, or a group of paranoid delusionists with the name a corruption of 'leery'. Either way, I was curious; I got the FAQ the next day and got my answer -- it was both."Noah the Dharma Bum:
"Well... I've been a semi-lurker (why can't we ever have a fleshmeet in walking distance from my house?!) for nearly two years now. In the past months, I have, without posting anything of substance, felt a lot closer to Leri than ever before. I'm starting to understand more. I'm starting to be secure enough in my own social relations that I can see Leri as a community of which I am a part, as opposed to a group that I can feel like a part of as a crutch when the people with whom I have day-to-day physical contact make me feel like an outsider. I no longer _need_ Leri. I can now just be a part of it without pressure and dependence. It's a good feeling. It's nice to be back."Brian Cameron:
"I came to Leri with, believe it or not, a fairly negative mindset, very likely induced by the social atmopshere of the net in general. I've had very low impressions of the various net.communities that my presence has floated into and out of, so with my critical eye I found quite a number of problems with the Leri community, yet it was interesting enough to keep my eye. I got involved with a lot of useless arguments, felt I was wasting my time, and just about that time the Leri community descended upon my hometown and, dare I say, transformed me."Erica:
"i was a very different person then, with a very different perspective. the lerifolk intrigued me and made me feel envious and yet more uncertain of myself than i already was. i was impressed by the intensity of the relationships i saw there, but at the same time i did not believe the genuine depth of them. i wondered if the net really could sustain long-distance relationships [of both the platonic and not-so-platonic variety]. that was a long time ago and much has changed since then :)."Spigot:
"The first night, when I saw a couple posts, I thought it was ‘hippy-like’. At the time, what that meant to me was ‘sloppy thinking’ and ‘touchy feely’. But it was intriguing, and I subscribed. At the time, I was beginning to suspect that there was a greater depth to life than I had been experiencing, and I was looking for something to shed some light on this feeling. I remember spending a couple weeks reading, and getting the feel for it. And just when I thought I had a feel for what it was, the school semester began, and several people who had been absent returned and completely changed the feel of the list. But the changed feel seemed much friendlier, and I soon found myself posting."Crazy Fingers:
"I had intended on withholding from posting for a few weeks, so as to get the general feel of things, but on the second day couldn't resist jumping in. Three weeks later, I was at my first fleshmeet, and reality has not been the same ever since."Scruff:
"My initial feelings were that there was something much deeper going on than just the list; something that no amount of reading or posting would make me a part of. There was a bond among this group that went beyond the list, and yet it wasn't clear at first what that was."svann:
"I joined leri around 92, finding it listed in one of those facks that circulate on the net, those large fishing nets that surf about looking for contenders. first impressions: a bit cliquey, ranty, and not my style, however, I began to see something behind the surface that resonated with some part of my psyche more than other lists. soon I realized that leri was a group much like myself had been in the past, but I had forgotten about. Then I saw some leri elements as composed of ideas that were situated in the future, that I myself was striving for. Somedays I felt lucky to have stumbled upon it, other days I was angry at the mucho volume that it generated forcing me to constantly update my meager disk space alloted to me from my account. it was worth it tho, cuz I kept on it, and found to my humilty, people on there that could express themselves much better than I could on many topics. I found that my early experiences with * were shared by other people...before I only had certain books to clarify what I had learned via *.. however, here on leri were real flesh and blood primates that I instantly felt connected to who had not only read some of those books, but had taken the ideas in those texts much further."Nozzle:
"I fell in love with the whole idea, the passion and vitality that was present in the list at that time. It was too too cool. The intelligence, creatitivity and humor made me feel right at home. I was really struck by the impression that this list reflect the multi-dimensional aspect of the participants -- that it wasn't just topic based, and it wasn't just a chat forum, but here was where people talked about their lives, and we weren't afraid to claim that the relationships we forged here were as consequential as the friendship we had with the people with whom we shared physical space. Often, these were one and the same -- or so it seemed over time."Casey:
"Actually, when I read things like 'scorched earth' (aqaraza), 'Realms of the Human Unconscious' (dlr), or the Kurt Vonnegut excerpt (Gray) I still think 'What the fuck!?!' although probably not in the way you're thinking of. I started thinking about the first threads I saw, and I remember actually thinking .. 'What the fuck?!?' because there were a bunch of people thinking about, but more important, discussing things I suspected, but, to me, were not real, ie. not something you'd sit down and talk about.. When I see people who actually think about questions like: 'are experience and knowledge connected' ('cosmicbob has no doubt', Robert Funkhouser); 'What _is_ communication' ('relationships: Implicit/Explicit Diads', free agent .rez); 'Alingual thought' (Remind me.. ); and 'how real are we' ('evidence of our existence', Jim Hawtree), I'm going to hang around for a while."Crazy Fingers:
"To learn the Leri mythology, you must listen and ask questions. A bit of wisdom has been accumulated by this Family, and in the insane stories of events you may have missed, the oral tradition of stories and jokes and memories, one can get a feel for the current of Leri and how far we've come."Nozzle:
"Because leri, like a turbulent system, ended up such a wild phenomena, it seems like the founding ideas and intentions must have been equally large and profound. However, as the scientists of chaos discovered, the smallest initial conditions may give rise to the most unpredicatable and dramatic outcomes. Without a doubt the underlying ideals of those who started the list, and their own personal perseverence were vital to the success – but the fact that it had such humble beginings is a source of hope to many that their own lives may also have such profound works hidden therein."