Background
Kleps was born in New York April 17, 1928 to a Lutheran minister and his wife.
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Arthur Kleps
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Syracuse University.
Career
In 1952 Arthur J. Kleps married Beverly Jean Rahn (born 1934), but the marriage was annulled in 1954. Kleps earned a Bachelor of Science and Masters in Psychology from Syracuse and by 1959, began working as a psychologist at the Lynchburg Training School in Virginia. The institution is notable for its role as a state mental hospital that was challenged for its role in the forced sterilization of patients in Buck v.
Bell (1927) and Poe v.
Lynchburg Training School and Hospital (1981). In 1960, Kleps ordered 500 mg of a hallucinogen, mescaline sulfate, in the mail and ingested lieutenant
He experienced a psychedelic trip that influenced severe changes in his life and outlook. Kleps ceased employment with Lynchburg Training School, reportedly being fired in 1964 for writing a pro-marijuana paper.
He founded the Neo-American Church and sought protection for the right to use marijuana and hallucinogens as religious sacraments.
We are not drug addicts. We are not criminals. We are free men, and we will react to persecution the way free men have always reacted.
Eventually a test case in 1968 signaled the judiciary"s unwillingness to extend the same rights to drug use to the Neo-American Church as is permitted to Native American tribes who use peyote for similar purposes.
Kleps continued affiliation with the church. He later authored two books: The Boo Hoo Bible: The Neo-American Church Catechism and Handbook (1971) and Millbrook: A Narrative of the Early Years of American Psychedelianism (1975)
Kleps spent time in Europe, notably Amsterdam, where he accused American Express and the Drug Enforcement Administration of intercepting his mail containing travelers checks.
He died July 17, 1999. His last official residence was Sacramento, California.
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He testified before the United States Senate"s Judiciary Committee in May 1966, defending citizens" rights to use these drugs to explore consciousness.
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Born
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Died
July 17, 1999 (aged 71) -
Nationality
United States