Dream Awake

Thank you all for turning out on a rainy night.

Before I get into the main body of tonight's entertainment,

I want to call your attention to the propaganda for an event in Mexico and another event in Hawaii.

These events, in the case of the Mexico event, you get a major slice of the psychedelic community.

You get Robert Montgomery, Jonathan Knott, Ann and Fasha Shulgin, Manolo Torres, Christian Resch, Terence McKenna,

and others who unfortunately slipped my mind at the ceremonial center of Palenque in Chiapas.

We've been doing these events somewhere in Mayan, Mexico for the past 10 or 12 years.

Many of you are graduates, which doesn't mean you can't come again, but I want to invite all of you there.

If you're interested in ethnobotany, shamanism, ethnopharmacology, altered states of consciousness,

the politics of all of this, this is as intense and information-packed an exposure as you can have,

and it's straight from the mouths of the scholars and scientists and writers who have spent a great deal of time in that area.

So I just want to invite you to that.

It's also a great party.

It's the height of mushroom season.

And there's nothing we could do about that.

So you just are on your own.

So when I start out on these tours, I usually have an agenda and prepared remarks.

And then as I make my way through my venues and I hear the feedback and I feel the ambiance of the people

and the throb of the zeitgeist, it all sort of just simply dissolves into an ongoing commentary

on our moment in space and time and the various dimensions, adumbrations, and opportunities of our dilemma.

But I want tonight to couch it for you in the context of, I guess, an extended metaphor.

We could talk about these things in many ways, but I find this particular extended metaphor illuminating.

And I start by recalling an observation from someone whose name rarely falls from my lips,

and that would be Gurdjieff.

And Gurdjieff said at one point, or was known to comment, that people are asleep, he said.

And he, by implication, suggested people awaken.

I'm not sure if he fully grasped the implication for his own product line had that occurred.

But in any case, you're on it, you're with me, yes.

It's very hard to give these lectures in such a way so that every person hears something different,

which is what is supposed to be going on, you know.

Well, so thinking about this comment that people are asleep,

I see several implications.

I ask myself, what is awake in my own notion?

And I thought to myself, awake is, for me, awake is where the laws of physics are fully operable.

You know, hurled objects shatter, electricity shocks, I cannot fly.

The laws of physics are in operation.

In that domain, I consider myself to be fully awake.

Now, in terms of occult and spiritual traditions,

the admonition to awaken always seems to imply that higher consciousness

is approached through an expansion of clarity and awareness.

And that seems obvious.

I don't argue with it as a rationalist.

But as somebody who has run the edges,

I've noticed something somewhat counterintuitive to that teaching.

And it's this.

It's that to contact the cosmic giggle,

to have the flow of kazooistry begin to give off synchronistic ripples,

white caps in the billows of the coincidental ether, if you will,

to achieve that requires...

A precondition is a kind of unconsciousness,

a kind of drifting,

a certain taking your eye off the ball,

a certain assumption that things are simpler than they are,

almost always precedes what Mircea Liad called the rupture of plane

that indicates, you know,

that there is an archetypal world,

an archetypal power beyond,

behind profane appearances.

And in my own life,

for those of you who are conversant with my output,

when I went to the Amazon in 1971

and had the experiences that are described in true hallucinations,

I had been, for many months before that,

in Asia,

smuggling,

hanging out,

and I had taken my eye off the ball.

I had become very gentle,

very relativistic in my approach to other people's opinions and behaviors.

I was easygoing,

is what I'm trying to say.

Too easygoing.

And in that situation of semi-unconsciousness and openness,

the cosmic giggle approaches.

And I compare this,

this is closing of a theme,

I compare this to sleep,

or to states that lie between waking and sleeping.

And so, again,

an odd take on this remark of Gurdjieff.

I remember someone many years ago said to me,

they evoked the symbol of the yin and the yang,

the two tears folded against each other within a circle.

And this person,

who was no Rishi, Roshi, Geshe, or Guru,

but simply observant,

said,

it's not the black side.

It's not the white side.

It's the interface.

It's the edge.

And I found,

by observing sleep,

and some of you may recall the motto in Athanasius Kirscher's Amphiatrium Satientium,

that's chiseled over the alchemist's doorway.

I can't do it in Latin,

but it says,

while sleeping,

watch.

While sleeping, watch.

And I've noticed that while going to sleep,

there is a barrier,

a place in the process of going to sleep,

that is like a mercurial edge.

It's a river.

It's a zone of hypnagogia.

You often pass through it post-orgasm.

It's a place of drifting,

amoeboid,

colored,

after-image lights,

and then true hallucination,

images,

strange,

transcendental or transpersonal images.

Well,

so then,

so far in the context of pursuing this extended metaphor about sleep,

I've talked basically,

essentially about the individual's relationship

to the concept,

to the fact.

But there's also a social or a political,

a species-wide implication.

It occurs to me that at any given moment,

because of the way the planet is as a thing,

some considerable percentage of human beings are asleep,

always.

And many are awake.

And so,

if the world soul is made of the collective consciousness of human beings,

then it is never entirely awake.

It is never entirely asleep.

It exists in,

I guess you can hear me,

it exists in some kind of indeterminate zone.

And this to me is the clue to understanding something that is personally fascinating to me.

And it revolves around why people believe such weird things.

And why,

either as a consequence of the approach of the millennium,

or the breakdown of traditional values,

or the density of electromagnetic radiation,

or for some reason,

a balkanization of epistemology is taking place.

And what I mean by that is,

there is no longer a commonality of understanding.

I mean,

for some people,

quantum physics provides the answers.

Their next-door neighbor may look to the channeling of archangels,

with equal fervor.

I mean,

if this is not a balkanization of epistemology,

I don't know what it is.

It is accompanied by a related phenomenon,

which is technology,

or the historical momentum of things,

is creating such a bewildering social milieu,

that the monkey mind cannot find a simple story,

a simple creation myth,

or redemption myth,

to lay over the crazy contradictory patchwork of profane,

techno, consumerist, post-McGluenist,

electronic, pre-apocalyptic existence.

And so,

into that dimension of anxiety,

created by this inability to parse reality,

rushes a bewildering variety of squirrely notions,

epistemological cartoons,

if you will,

and conspiracy theory,

in my humble opinion,

I'm somewhat immune to paranoia.

So,

those of you who aren't,

you know,

gaze in wonder.

Conspiracy theory is a kind of epistemological cartoon about reality.

I mean,

isn't it so simple to believe that

things are run by the greys,

and that all we have to do is trade sufficient fetal tissue to them,

and we can solve our technological problems?

Or isn't it comforting to believe that

the Jews are behind everything?

Or the Communist Party?

Or the Catholic Church?

Or the Masons?

Well,

these are epistemological cartoons.

It's,

you know,

kindergarten stuff in the art of amateur historiography.

I believe that the truth of the matter is far more terrifying.

That the real,

the real truth that dare not speak itself

is that no one is in control.

Absolutely no one.

You know,

you don't understand Monica.

You don't understand Netanyahu.

It's because nobody is in control.

This stuff is ruled by the equations of dynamics and chaos.

Now,

there may be entities seeking control.

The World Bank,

the Communist Party,

the rich,

the somebody others.

But to seek control is to take enormous aggravation upon yourself.

Because this,

this process that is underway

will take the control freak

by the short and curly

and throw them against the wall.

It's like trying to control a dream,

you see.

The,

the global destiny of the species

is somehow unfolding

with the logic of a dream.

Well,

now a Jungian would say,

no surprise here,

history is the collective dream of humanity.

It is run by archetypal energies.

It is downloaded by the zeitgeist

into the various milieus and epochs

of,

which it is composed.

This,

this seems reasonable to me.

I don't,

I don't want to give you the impression

it's too linear

to understand

that what I am saying is

that awake is good,

asleep is bad.

What I would rather do

is explain this whole gradient

of possible positioning

vis-a-vis your life

and your destiny,

these choices

that you have,

and then

have people understand

that they choose,

you choose

to be asleep

or partially asleep

or fully awake

or to be

one part of the time

and in some situations

and one part of the time

and in other

situations.

Now,

if in fact

we exist inside

some kind of morphogenetic field

that is created

by the sum total

of human minds

on the planet

and if in fact

in half or more

of those minds

at any given moment

the rules of the dream

hold sway,

then it is no

surprise

that when we make

our way

into society

or just

when we live

our lives

there is an

eeriness

to it,

there is a

fatedness

to it,

there is a

plottedness

to it.

You know,

we are inside

some kind of

engine of narrative

I believe.

You know,

some science fiction

writers

such as

Greg Egan

and others

have suggested

that this could

even be

a form

of recorded

medium.

You can see

the thumbprints

of editors

on our reality

if you are

truly

paying attention.

I mean,

if you are

a devotee

of the theory

of stochastic

and

random

unfolding

of events

then you have

to look

very carefully

at how

unrandom

and how

mythical

and archetypal

most people's

lives are.

Now,

if you take

psychedelics

and hurl

yourself

to the edge

and spend

time with

strange

aboriginal

people

in remote

parts of the

world

the cosmic

giggle

becomes

your friend

but in

fact

people's

lives

everyone's

lives

are touched

by deep

magic

and I

you know

again

the primary

data

is experience

and then the

models are

built backward

from the

primary data

without

prejudice

and in an

attempt to

transcend

historical

momentum

and when I

do that

what I see

is that

the

carrier

of the

field

of the

cosmic

giggle

in most

people's

lives

is love

love

is some

kind of

output

which

messes

with

the

entropic

tendency

toward

probabilistic

behavior

in nature

what do I

mean by

that

I mean

you can

be the

janitor

at

Microsoft

and

the

chief

the

vice

president

in chief

of

operations

his

daughter

can

bring

him

lunch

one

day

and

you

can

from

a

distance

have

from

that

point

to

having

the

five

children

she

bears

you

go

off

to

Harvard

and

the

Sorbonne

it's

just

a

matter

of

running

the

clock

forward

these

things

have

I mean

to you

it may

seem

like

a

miracle

but

to

those

of

us

who

are

students

of

human

happenstance

it's

inevitable

you can

launch

your

story

and

I've

you know

in the

course

and looking

at my

life

and other

people's

lives

and

narrative

I

think

that

the

secret

of

I don't

want to

say

anything

as

pretentious

as

transcendence

or

enlightenment

but

the

secret

of

taking

hold

of

one's

destiny

is to

understand

that one

is a

character

a

character

is a

different

thing

than

this

idea

that

you're

a

three

dimensional

animal

inside

a

democracy

with

a

Christian

heritage

and

you know

a

dewey

decimal

cataloging

system

or

whatever

anyway

these

are

some

of

the

notions

that

occur

to

me

in

the

really

struggle

I

think

to

believe

that

you

actually

live

inside

the

model

of

reality

that

science

and

Newtonian

physics

and the

mathematical

analysis

of

nature

have

given

us

you

know

not

to

get

too

philosophical

here

but

for

positivist

philosophers

everything

that

is

important

color

feeling

taste

ambition

apprehension

appetition

these

things

are

called

secondary

qualities

in

other

words

they're

peripheral

they

arise

at a

lower

level

of

understanding

they

are

somehow

determined

by the

presence

of the

animal

body

and hence

dismissible

by a

theory

of

pure

abstraction

which

says

you know

what

is

real

is

spin

charge

angular

momentum

none

of

these

things

are

very

rich

concepts

for

a

living

human

being

who

knows

what

any

of

these

things

are

so

one

I mean

we don't

have

time

in a

situation

like

this

to

explore

all

the

implications

of

this

dream

analogy

that I'm

pursuing

but

one

that

interests

me

is

the

plasticity

of

time

in the

dream

and I

think

I would

argue

as the

devil's

advocate

that it

is the

plasticity

of

historical

time

and the

acceleration

sense

of

out of

control

spin

up

or

spin

down

into

new

domains

of

possibility

that is

the

strongest

evidence

present

at hand

that we

are

in

some

kind

of

dream

I've

struggled

my

whole

life

with

I've

always

believed

or I've

always felt

the power

of the

statement

the world

is made

of

language

but of

course

you think

about this

proposition

for 30

seconds

and the

question

that arises

then is

if the

world

is made

of

language

then

language

well I

think

it's

appropriate

to speak

of this

to an

audience

as

digitally

sophisticated

as I

assume

you

must

be

I

think

the

primary

insight

that

has

been

secured

here at

the end

of the

20th

century

the

primary

contribution

of

20th

century

thinking

if you

will

is

to

have

understood

finally

that

information

is

primary

that

this

world

this

cosmos

this

universe

this

body

and

soul

are

all

made

of

information

is a

deeper

and more

primary

concept

than

space

time

matter

energy

charge

spin

angular

momentum

the

world

is

made

of

language

the

implication

for

the

digerati

is

that

reality

can

therefore

be

hacked

if

reality

is

made

of

language

then

what

we're

saying

is

that

it's

code

and

if

it's

code

then

it

is

far

more

deeply

open

to

manipulation

than

we

ever

dared

dream

we've

been

messing

around

on

the

desktop

opening

files

with

religions

and

political

systems

and

xenophobic

theories

and racial

superiority

all this

crap

that haunts

the human

historical

adventure

means we

have not

addressed

the

deeper

level

and in

thinking about

this

and the

relationship

to dream

and human

culture

I have

realized

that

cultures

are

like

operating

systems

we are

like

hardware

the

human

animal

is a

piece

of

biological

wetware

slash

hardware

and

it

has been

we know

pretty much

as we

confront it

today

for at

least

140,000

years

at

Klasis

River

cave

mouth

in

South

Africa

they

have

excavated

homo

sapien

skeletons

100,000

years

old

and

that

person

could

have

sat

in

the

front

row

here

tonight

and

nobody

would

have

batted

an

eyebrow

so

the

human

hardware

has

been

in

place

for

a

while

what

has

changed

rapidly

in

comparison

to

the

rates

of

biological

evolution

is

are

the

operating

system

the

people

who

excavated

Ur

which

was

at

that

time

thought

to be

the

world's

first

city

and

in

any

case

is

the

city

seven

millennia

old

when

they

excavated

the

central

plaza

at Ur

they

set up

there

by

the

earliest

kings

of Ur

and

that

was

the

cultural

operating

system

and

if

in

a

deal

trading

goats

for

olives

the

dispute

arose

people

had

reference

to

the

central

operating

system

and

these

things

were

determined

well

now

Ur

was

fine

rational

exploration

of

nature

it

didn't

support

astrological

knowledge

about

the

movement

of

the

stars

as

we

have

gone

forward

through

culture

we

have

swapped

out

these

operating

systems

and

at

each

swap

out

there

has

been

a

lot

of

hair

pulling

and

cussing

and

screaming

anyone

who

sickening

from

the

bowels

kind

of

coldness

says

you

know

you

realize

it

all

hangs

by

a

thread

now

this

situation

or this

operating

system

metaphor

I think

is a

useful

one

for

understanding

and

again

a

circle

closes

the

balkanization

of epistemology

that

causes

me

such

anxiety

if

you

meet

an

aboriginal

person

from

the

amazon

for

example

they

may

be

running

Witoto

3.0

as

their

operating

system

nicely

supports

animistic

magic

huge

capacity

when it

comes to

making

fish

traps

and

bird

traps

Witoto

is a

powerful

operating

system

for

a

rainforest

aboriginal

in

our

culture

you

know

there

are

I

have

no

idea

at

least

ten

or

twenty

operating

systems

all

going

at

the

same

time

some

will

run

Mormonism

some

will

support

Catholicism

others

Kabbalah

goes at

the speed

of light

others

support

quantum

physics

some

support

econometrics

others

support

political

correctness

and

these

things

are

mutually

exclusive

and

so

looking

at

this

and

looking

at

this

clash

of

operating

systems

I've

come to

the

conclusion

and some

of you

may have

heard me

say this

before

that

culture

is not

your

friend

that's

the final

conclusion

you see

well

this came

to me

a few

months

ago

when I

had my

yearly

physical

and as

I was

buttoning up

my doctor

said to

me

he said

you know

in the

19th

century

most

people

your age

were

dead

and

and I

realized

that

that this

was true

and that

one of the

among all

the revolutions

that we

are enduring

one of

them is

that we

live

nearly

twice as

long

as

people

lived

very

recently

in the

past

well

culture

is a

kind

of

neoteny

and I

don't want

to belabor

that at

great

length

but

for those

of you

who are

not

biologists

neoteny

is

the

retention

of

juvenile

characteristics

into

adulthood

it's

used to

describe

animal

behavior

for

instance

I'll

give

the

most

spectacular

example

of

neoteny

there

is

a

kind

of

animal

which

lives

in

ponds

in

Africa

and

it

reproduces

like

a

fish

it

lays

eggs

on

the

bottom

of

these

ponds

more

fish

like

animals

come

from

these

eggs

and

so

forth

however

if

the

pond

dries

up

the

creature

undergoes

metamorphosis

and

becomes

an

animal

somewhat

like

a

gecko

and

lays

eggs

and

from

these

eggs

come

creatures

that

are

like

geckos

in

other

words

this

is

an

animal

which

are

general

body

hairlessness

compared

to

other

primates

we

look

like

fetal

apes

human

beings

look

like

fetal

apes

why

what is

neoteny

well this

is hotly

debated

among

evolutionary

biologists

but the

point I

want to

make

is

a

sociopolitical

comment

which is

culture

itself

is some

kind of

neotenizing

force

because

what it

culture

provides

is a

bunch

of

rules

so you

don't

have to

think

and a

bunch

of

myths

so you

don't

have to

think

again

culture

has

all

the

answers

you

know

you

want

to

know

where

people

came

from

well

when

the

sky

god

got

out

of

his

canoe

at

first

waterfall

and

took

a

leak

then

we

the

true

people

appeared

like

ants

and

we've

been

living

here

ever

since

oh

gee

thanks

I'm

glad

I asked

you

know

this

is

what

culture

does

for

you

so

but

now

technology

throws

a

curve

and

the

curve

is

that

we

live

so

long

that

we

figure

out

what

a

scam

this

is

we

figure

out

that

what

you're

supposed

to

work

for

isn't

worth

having

we

figure

out

that

our

politicians

are

buffoons

we

figure

by

ambition

you

know

you

get

the

picture

we

figure

it

out

well

then

as

intellectuals

and anybody

who figures

it out

is an

intellectual

believe me

because

they're

slinging

the

programming

to push

you

the

other

way

so

then

intellectuals

defined

as

people

who

figure

it

out

discover

that

you

are

alienated

that's

what

figuring

it

out

means

it

means

you

understand

that

the

BMW

the

Harvard

degree

this

whatever

it

is

that

this

is

all

baloney

and

manipulated

and

hyped

and

that

mostly

you

have

a bunch

of

clueless

people

who

are

figuring

out

which

fork

they

bad

thing

to

be

alienated

now

let's

speak

for

a

moment

in

order

to

fulfill

the

promise

read

by

in

the

introduction

about

psychedelics

and

what

are

they

doing

in

this

fine

situation

well

what

they're

doing

is

forcing

this

maturation

process

by

dissolving

boundaries

which

is

what

they

do

they

are

exposed

they

can

go

to

what

they

can

do

them

or

a

or

a