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as Timothy transmuted his experiential revelations into the stuff ofevolved “brain circuits.” His writings about these trips, most of thempublished in The Intelligence Agents, make for particularly pleasurablereading. At once frivolous and revelatory, Leary’s joie de vivre hadnever leapt off the pages in quite the same way.While in exile in Switzerland, Leary had the opportunity to spendtime with some major figures that intersected his world. He spentan afternoon chatting pleasantly with Albert Hofmann, the Sandozchemist who had discovered LSD. Hofmann had mostly positivethings to say about LSD, but objected that Tim had popularizedthe drug amongst adolescents. He met with Christophe Wenger,psychedelic enthusiast and grandnephew to Hermann Hesse, whogave him a prized Hesse painting. And he partied with Andy Warhol,who confessed to Tim his mutual fascination with Crowley. But it wasthe time that he spent visiting with Keith Richards and his commonlaw wife Anita Pallenberg that would have the greatest consequence.Keith and Anita were in tax exile nearby in the south of France, alongwith the other Rolling Stones and their enormous entourage — all ofthem using and abusing the entire spectrum of drugs while recordingthe revered Exile on Main Street album.It was through Pallenberg that Leary met the woman some saywas his bête noire — although that depends on whose stories youbelieve. Joanna Harcourt was the wild child daughter of Europeanaristocracy who had followed the Euro Trash sex drugs and rock androll party circuit before finally falling into the well-punctured armsof Keith and Anita. Smart, sassy and spoiled, she was infamous allaround Europe for behaving outrageously in refined social circles. AsTimothy colorfully described it, “she boogied naked on the glass tabletops.” Pallenberg had told Joanna that Leary was the world’s greatestphilosopher, but a lonely man.When Timothy and Joanna met, they immediately started takingvast quantities of acid together nearly every day. It was a period ofhigh rapturous magic for the couple, but all of it tinged with a hint ofhysteria. They were each, in their own way, flipped out desperadoes.Tim’s desperation was as real as an armed Interpol agent whileJoanna’s was more of a spiritual and emotional sort, but they sawthemselves in each other. eTimothy Leary’s Trip Thru Time71