Arthur Kleps

Arthur Kleps

Summary
In 1960, Arthur Kleps was working as a school psychologist when he had a strong visionary experience on 500 mg of mescaline sulfate which he had ordered through the mail. After sending Timothy Leary a copy of his Neo-Psychopathic Character Test, Kleps was invited to visit Leary, Richard Alpert and Ralph Metzer who had moved to the Millbrook Estate.

In 1964 Kleps was fired from his position after writing a paper about marijuana. He then bought a piece of property in the Adirondacks and founded the Neo-American Church. He played the role of "Chief BooHoo, the Patriarch of the East" for the psychedelic church, a title intended to remind him not to take himself too seriously. The church used LSD and peyote as its sacrament and modelled itself vaguely after the Native American Church. After a long court case, the authorities eventually ruled that while native americans were allowed to take peyote within the context of religious ceremonies because it was traditional, the Neo-American church was not allowed that right because, in their eyes, the religious connection was being used as an excuse.

In 1967 Kleps moved to Millbrook and lived there for a year before it was dissolved due to police pressure in 1968. Timothy Leary described Kleps as a "mad monk". While living at Milbrook, Arthur Kleps was dosed one morning on a large dose of LSD and underwent a mystical experience. He eventually documented his adventures there in his book Millbrook. Unfortunately, Kleps also has a reputation for anti-semitic tendancies and at one point was kicked out of the Netherlands on this charge. Art Kleps died in 1999.
Author of (Books)
# Milbrook: A Narrative of the Early Years of American Psychedelianism [online version] (1975)
# The Boo Hoo Bible: The Neo-American Church Catechism and Handbook (1971)
Author of (Articles)
# Synchronicity and the Plot (1966)