Peter Alexander McWilliams (August 5, 1949 – June 14, 2000)

Early life

McWilliams was born to a Roman Catholic family in Detroit, one of two sons of Henry G. and Mary ( Toarmina; later Fadden) McWilliams. His father worked as a supervisor at a drugstore and his mother was a part-time salesperson.

He attended Allen Park High School and Eastern Michigan University and later enrolled at Maharishi International University. At the age of 17 he wrote a collection of poems called Come Love with Me and Be My Life, which he self-published under the name Versemonger Press.

He wrote TM with Harold H. Bloomfield, and later co-wrote the book How to Heal Depression.

McWilliams was active in Erhard Seminars Training with Werner Erhard and Stuart Emory's "Actualizations" large-group awareness training before meeting John-Roger in the fall of 1978.

He wrote nearly 40 books

Health issues and death

McWilliams was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in 1996.

Cannabis activist Richard Cowan and other critics of the drug policies in the United States have described his death as murder by the U.S. government, insofar as they denied him the use of the medical marijuana which might have prevented his death. William F. Buckley stated that McWilliams was vomiting and in pain when he died.

He is entombed at the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Westwood, California.

Selected bibliography

  • Surviving the Loss of a Love (Versemonger, 1971)
  • The McWilliams II Word Processor Instruction Manual () (1983)
  • You Can't Afford the Luxury of a Negative Thought () (1988), co-authored with John-Roger
  • Life 101: Everything We Wish We Had Learned about Life in School but Didn't () (1990)
  • Do It! Let's Get Off Our Buts (1991)
  • How to Survive the Loss of a Love (1991), co-authored with Melba Colgrove and Harold H. Bloomfield
  • Come Love With Me and Be My Life (1992)
  • Portraits – A Book of Photographs by Peter McWilliams (1992)
  • Ain't Nobody's Business If You Do: The Absurdity of Consensual Crimes in a Free Society (1993)
  • Life 102: What to Do When Your Guru Sues You (1994)
  • Love 101: To Love Oneself is the Beginning of a Lifelong Romance (1995)

See also

  • Legal history of cannabis in the United States
  • Gonzales v. Raich
  • Health issues and the effects of cannabis
  • Cannabis legalization in the United States

References

  • Feature in People magazine