Open Doors

With this, and without any further ado, I am most pleased and most happy to introduce our very special guest speaker tonight, Mr. Harris McKenna.

It's a pleasure to be here. It's wonderful to see so many familiar faces and so many faces, period.

I've never been to Port Wainimi before. Probably some of you feel the same way.

But I've been doing a lot of traveling recently. I was in New York last weekend at the Open Center and in Prague two weeks before that.

So this is the end of a long season of traveling. I'm not home yet, but at least I'm in my own time zone.

I want to especially thank Andy Voth and the Carnegie Museum of Art in Oxnard for inviting me to participate.

It represents a real commitment to free speech and First Amendment rights, I think, for an art museum.

Art museums have been taking some knocks recently, and so I think they doubly should be commended for their courage.

And I want to explain, as Andy mentioned, this is a benefit for botanical dimensions, which explains the double price over the ticket.

All of this money will go to the preservation of medicinal plants with a history of shamanic usage.

That is the special focus of our botanical garden in Hawaii.

And before I start the formal lecture, I'd like to just say a little bit about that.

As you know, the rainforests of the world are being cleared at a very frightening rate, and perhaps voices are beginning to be heard to halt this destruction of the natural environment.

But whether it's halted or not, the destruction of the knowledge of native peoples concerning the uses of the plants in the rainforest, this is disappearing without doubt in the next 30 years.

Because these people are moving into cities, taking jobs in the ordinary market economy, and thousands of years of accumulated folk medical knowledge is being lost.

So the real world political work that Kath and I do is associated with botanical dimensions.

We conceived it together many, many years ago, and then about six years ago, Kath took it over, put it on its official feet, made it a non-profit foundation, and has run it day to day since then with tremendous energy and efficiency.

So I'd like to acknowledge Kat McKenna here, my better half, in fact, my only good half.

Yes, and then I wanted to underscore what Andy said, a very special event two weeks from now at the Carnegie Museum.

Roy Tuckman, Roy of Hollywood, bon vivant, countercultural figure, informational ferret of our time.

Will be recast as an experimental composer of great energy and imagination.

And I hope you'll all turn out for Roy.

He's been a wonderful force in my life and I think in the cultural life of Southern California.

Both Roy and Diane have done a wonderful job in raising the quality of public dialogue in Southern California, which I think is a precondition for any kind of clear thinking about our future or our political situation.

So, here's to Roy and Diane.

Okay, well, the theme that unites these lectures is creativity and the techniques by which the artist can refine his or her vision, expand the vision, communicate the vision.

And before I get into that issue, I thought I would talk just a little bit about my notion of creativity per se.

What is it in and of itself?

And when I think like that, of course, I cast my mind back to nature.

Nature is the great visible engine of creativity against which all other creative efforts are measured.

And creativity in nature has a curious distribution.

It's something which accumulates through time.

If we stand back and look at the universe, we see that at its earliest moments, it was very simple.

It was a plenum.

It was without characters or characteristics.

It was what in Hindu mythology is called the Turaya, which is described as attributeless.

And naturally, if something is without attribution, you can't say much about it.

It takes a while for it to undergo a declension into more creative realms.

And these creative realms are distinguished as domains of difference.

The precondition for creativity is, I think, disequilibrium, what mathematicians now call chaos.

And through the life of the universe, as temperatures have fallen, more and more complex compound structures have arisen.

And though there's been, you know, many a slipping back in this process,

over very large spans of time, we can say that creativity is conserved,

that the universe becomes more creative.

And out of that state of creative fecundity, more creativity is manifest.

So that, from that point of view, the universe is almost what we would have to call an art-making machine,

an engine for the production of ever more novel forms of connectedness,

ever more exotic juxtapositions of disparate elements.

And out of this, I believe, arises implicitly a set of principles that we can then apply to the human artist in the human world.

Nature's creativity is obviously the wellspring of human creativity.

We emerge out of nature, almost, and this idea, I think, was fairly present close to the surface of the medieval mind.

We emerge out of nature almost as its finest work of art.

The medieval mind spoke of the productions of nature.

This is a phrase you hear as late as the 18th century, the productions of nature.

And human creativity emerges out of that, whether you have a model of the Aristotelian great ladder of being,

or a more modern evolutionary view, where we actually consolidate emergent properties

and somehow bring them to a focus of self-reflection.

Now, I'm sure that we couldn't carry out a discussion of this sort

without observing that the prototypic figure for the artist, as well as for the scientist, is the shaman.

The shaman is the figure at the beginning of human history that unites the doctor, the scientist, and the artist

into a single notion of caregiving and creativity.

And I think that, you know, to whatever degree art over the past several centuries has wandered in the desert,

it is because this shamanic function has been either suppressed or forgotten.

And we've, different images of the artist have been held up at different times.

The artist as artisan, the artist as handmaiden of a ruling class or family,

the artist as designer for the production of integrated objects into a civilization.

This notion of the artist as mystical journeyer, as one who goes into a world unseen by others

and then returns to tell them of it, was pretty much lost in the post-medieval and renaissance conception of art

up until the late 19th century or early 20th century, where, beginning with the romantics,

there is a new permission to explore the irrational.

This really is the bridge back to the archaic shamanic function of the artist.

Permission to explore the irrational.

The romantics did it with their elevation of titanic emotion,

romantic love specifically.

The symbolists in the mid 19th century did it by a re-emphasis on the emotional content of the image

and a rejection of the previous rationalism.

And that emphasis on the image and on the emotions

set the stage then for what I take to be the truly shamanic movements in art

which begin really with Alfred Jarry in the late 1880s and early 1890s.

Jarry, you may remember, was the founder of something called the Ecole du Pataphysique,

the pataphysical college.

Jarry announced, pataphysics is the science.

The problem was nobody could understand what it meant or what it stood for,

including Jarry.

Jarry was tight with L'Entremont, who, you may recall, said,

I am fascinated with that kind of beauty that arises

when a sewing machine meets a bicycle on an operating table.

See, this was a true effort to bend the boundaries of art,

to create new permission, permission really for the unthinkable.

And this, again, reinforces the shamanic function.

What do we mean when we say the unthinkable?

The envelope of that which can be conceived.

At least 200 years, the ostensible mission of the artist

has been to test the conceptual and imagistic envelope

of what the society is willing to tolerate.

And this has taken many forms.

The deconstruction of imagery that we get with abstract expressionism,

going back into impressionism and the pointillism.

Permission for the irrational imagery of the unconscious

and the German expression of this purpose

to somehow destroy the idols of the tribe,

dissolve the conceptual boundary of ordinary expectation.

Well, in order to do this, it seems to me

there is a precondition for the creation of art,

which I call understanding.

And I don't mean this in an intellectual sense.

I mean it in the sense that Alfred North Whitehead intended

when he defined understanding

as the apperception of pattern as such.

As such, there's nothing more to it than that.

You see, if we were to look at this room

and we were to squint our eyes

and I'm doing this right now

and I see that the room divides itself

into people dressed in red

and people dressed in blue.

This is a pattern

and it tells me something about what I'm looking at.

Now I shift my depth of field.

Now I'm looking at where men are sitting

and where women are sitting.

This is a different pattern

and it tells me more about what I am looking at.

The number of these patterns

theoretically present in any construction

is infinite.

That says to me then

that the depth of understanding

cannot be known.

It cannot be known.

Everything is imminent.

William Blake makes this point, you know,

that you can see infinity in a grain of sand.

So understanding then

is the precondition for creativity.

And this understanding

is not so much intellectual

as it is visual.

Visual.

And in thinking about this

I realized

what an influence upon my own ideas

in this area

Aldous Huxley was.

not the Huxley

that we might ordinarily associate

with my concerns

the Huxley of the doors of perception

and heaven and hell

but the Huxley

of a very modest book

that he wrote in the early 50s

called

The Art of Seeing.

And in that book

he makes the point

that a good art education

begins with a good drawing hand

that to be able to coordinate

the hand and eye

and to see

into nature

to see

into the patterns

present

as such

is

the precondition

for a kind of approach

to the absolute.

Now out of this process

of seeing

which I'm calling

understanding

the creative process

ushers in

novelty

and many of you have heard me speak of novelty

in another context

in the context of

nature

as a novelty producing

engine

of some sort

and ourselves

almost as

the hand

the handiwork

of nature

but this same

handiwork of nature

which we

represent

we also

internalize

and re-express

through the novelty

of the human world.

well now

if we take

seriously

the

shamanic model

as a basis

for our

authentic art

then

certainly

in the modern context

what we see

missing

from the repertoire

of the artist

are

shamanic techniques

and

it's for the discussion

of these shamanic techniques

I believe

that I was brought here

this evening

so

I want you to cast your mind back

to a great

seminal moment

germinal moment

in the history

of human thought

which was

about 25,000 years ago

the great glaciers

that had covered most of the Eurasian landmass

began to melt

and human populations

that had been islanded

from each other

for about

15 millennia

began to

re-contact each other

and reconnect

and out of this

comes what is called

the Magdalenean revolution

from 18,000

to 22,000 years ago

and what it is

is nothing less

than

a tremendous

explosion

of

creativity

and

aesthetic

self-expression

on the part

of the human species

we find

for the first time

bone and antler

technology

takes its place

along with

stone

technology

musical instruments

appear

over a wide

area

and

cave paintings

some paintings

in areas

and recesses

so remote

from the surface

of the ground

that

it takes

several hours

to reach them

are painted

and

set up

in

dramatic

tableaus

specifically

designed

to bring

together

sound

light

and

dance

in

hierophanies

extravaganzas

of aesthetic

output

that

invoke

a kind

of

transcendent

other

that human

beings

for the first

time

are trying

to come

to grips

with

and make

some kind

of cultural

statement

about

and this

pulling

into matter

of the

ideas

of human

beings

first

you know

in the forms

of

beadwork

and

chipped stone

and carved

bone

within

twenty thousand

years

ushers into

the kinds

of high

civilizations

that we

see

around us

and points

us toward

the kind

of

extraplanetary

mega

civilization

that we

can feel

operating

on our

own

present

like a

kind

of

great

attractor

now

this

only a

secondary

consideration

the

real

notion

is a

kind

of

seizure

by the

tremendum

by the

other

which

then

forces

us

to

take up

matter

clay

bone

flint

and put it

through a

mental process

where we

then

excrete

it

as

objects

that have

lodged

within them

ideas

this

seems

to be

the

special

unique

transcendental

function

of the

human

animal

is

the

production

and

condensation

of

ideas

and

what

made

it

possible

for

the

human

animal

is

language

if

you're

seeking

the

thumb

print

of

the

transcendental

on

the

myriad

phenomena

that

compose

life

on

this

planet

to

my

mind

the

place

to

look

is

human

language

human

language

represents

an

ontological

break

of

major

magnitude

with

anything

else

going

on

this

planet

I

mean

yes

bees

dance

and

dolphins

squeak

and

chimpanzees

do

what

they

do

but

it's

a

hell

of

a

step

from

there

to

Wallace

Stevens

let

alone

William

Shakespeare

language

is the

unique

province

of

human

beings

and

language

is

the

unique

tool

of

the

artist

the

artist

is

the

person

of

language

and

I've

you know

given a lot

of thought

to this

because

the work

that I've

done

with

psilocybin

mushrooms

and the

observations

of

psychedelic

plant

use

in the

Amazon

centered

around

ayahuasca

lead me

to the

conclusion

that it

is the

synergy

and

catalysis

of

language

that lies

behind

not only

the

normal

organization

but

then

its

ability

to

set

a

course

for

a

transcendental

dimension

and

pursue

that

course

against

all

the

vicissitudes

of

biology

and

history

over

or

thousand

years

language

has

made us

more

than a

group

of

pack

hunting

monkeys

it's

made us

a group

of

pack

hunting

monkeys

with

a

and

the

fallout

from

that

dream

has

given

us

our

glory

and

our

shame

our

weaponry

our

technology

our

art

our

hopes

our

fears

all

of this

arises

out of

our own

ability

to articulate

and to

communicate

with each

other

and I

use this

in the

broad

sense

I mean

for me

the glory

of the

human

animal

is

cognitive

activity

song

dance

sculpture

poetry

all of

these

cognitive

activities

when we

participate

in them

we cross

out of

the domain

of animal

organization

and into

the domain

of a genuine

relationship

to the

transcendent

as you know

shamans

in all times

and places

gain their power

through

relationships

with helping

spirits

which they

sometimes call

ancestors

sometimes call

nature spirits

but somehow

the acquisition

of a

relationship

to a

disincarnate

intelligence

is the

precondition

for authentic

shamanism

now

nowhere

in our

world

do we have

an institution

like that

that we do not

consider

pathological

except

in the

now

very

thinly

spread

tradition

of the

muse

that

artists

alone

among

human beings

are given

permission

to talk

in terms

of

my

inspiration

or

a voice

which told me

to do this

or

a vision

that must

be realized

the

thin

the thin

line

the thin

thread

of

shamanic

descent

into

our

profane

world

leads

through

the office

of the

artist

and so

if

society

is to

somehow

take hold

of itself

at this

penultimate

moment

as we

literally

waver

on the

brink

of planetary

extinction

then the

artist

like

Ariadne

following

her

thread

out of

the

labyrinth

is going

to have

to follow

this

shamanic

thread

back

through

time

and you

know

one of the

most

disempowering

things that

has been

done to

us

by the

male

dominant

culture

is to

brush

out

our

footprints

into

the

past

we

don't

have

a

clue

as to

how

we

got

here

most

people

can't

think

further

back

than

the

first

Nixon

administration

let alone

you know

the arrival

of the

Vikings

the fall

of

the melting

of the

glaciers

so forth

and so

on

we

have

been

disempowered

by

a

rational

tendency

to

deny

our

irrational

roots

which

are

a

kind

of

embarrassment

to

science

because

science

is

the

special

province

of

the

ego

and

magic

and

art

are

the

special

province

of

something

else

I

could

name

it

but

I

won't

it

I

think

so

how

seriously

then

are we

to

take

this

I'll

call it

an

obligation

to

follow

the

shamanic

thread

back

into

time

well

I

I think that it is a matter of saving our own souls, that this is the real challenge.

You know, I love to dig at the yogans by saying nobody ever went into an ashram with their knees knocking in fear over the tremendous dimension they know they were about to enter through meditation.

Still truer and more sad, still more true and more sad, is the notion that very few of us pick up our sculpting tools or our airbrush with our knees knocking with fear because we know we are invoking and acting with the muse at our elbow.

And somehow I think the artists need to recover this sense of mystery.

One of the most depressing things to me about the art scene, and I had a chance to reconnect with this because I was just in New York, is it now has a kind of directionless quality.

You can go into a gallery and you cannot tell whether it is 1990, 1980, 1970, or 1960 because a kind of eschatological malaise has settled over art.

All notion of any forward movement toward a transcendental ideal has been put aside for the exploration of idiosyncratic vision.

And I grant you this is a tension, and perhaps in the question period we can talk about this.

There is a tension between the individual vision and the notion of an attractor or a collective vision which wants to be expressed.

But to my mind, this is the same dichotomous tension that haunts the individual in his or her relationship to Tao.

You know, we don't want to be lost in ego, but on the other hand, if we completely express the Tao, we have no sense of self.

The ideal seems to be a kind of coincidencia appositorum, a kind of literalizing of a paradox where what we have is Tao, but we perceive it as ego.

And in the application of this notion to the art problem, I would say what we need is a situation where schooling, if you want to put it that way,

or a tendency toward a coherent vision expressed by many artists, is spontaneous.

Each artist imagines that they are pursuing their own vision, yet obviously they are in the grip of an archetype,

which is rising through the medium of the unconscious.

Now, the last time we saw this in American art was in abstract expressionism,

which was probably in terms of the values, in terms of tension and the amount of emotional gain between one artistic moment and another.

The break between abstract expressionism and what preceded it was the most radical break in American art in this century.

Abstract expressionism actually carried us in to a confrontation with what the quantum physicists were telling us,

that the universe is field upon field of integrated vibration, that there is no top level, there is no bottom level,

that the ordinary structures of provisional space-time are simply that,

that if we can rise out of the human dimension,

then we discover these larger, more integrated dimensions where mind and nature somehow interpenetrate each other.

A vision like that, a coherent vision, has yet to announce itself here in the post-history, pre-apocalypse phase of things.

Well, I guess I have a kind of reactionary side when I think about the creative endeavor.

I believe that the psychedelic experience,

as encountered by each of you in the privacy of your own mind,

or as encountered by a pre-literate society somewhere in the world,

that that psychedelic experience is, in a way, the Rosetta Stone,

not only for understanding the encryption that our own lives represent each to ourselves,

but it's also a Rosetta Stone for uncoding the historical experience.

Art is this endeavor to leave the animal domain behind,

to create another dimension, orthogonal to the concerns of ordinary history.

And this orthogonal domain, to my mind, is glimpsed most clearly in the psychedelic experience.

The psychedelic experience shows you more art in an hour and a half

than the human species has produced in 15 or 20,000 years.

Now, this is an incredible claim.

This is why I make it.

The energy barrier which separates us from this tremendous repository of transcendental imagery is very low.

You know, it's a matter of a little personal commitment

and the substances which make the transition possible.

The perturbation of brain chemistry is easily done.

What is not so easily done is the assimilation of the consequences of this act.

Ordinarily, we assume that consciousness is channeled between tremendously deep walls.

That there is no way to force a confrontation with the other or the transcendent or the unconscious.

We tend to assume that, you know, we're going to have to do double duty at the ashram for three decades

before you're vouchsafed even a glimpse into these places.

This is not true.

Culture, and this is my message to artists and to anybody else who cares to notice,

culture is a plot against the expansion of consciousness.

And this plot prosecutes its goals through a limiting of language.

Language is the battleground over which the fight will take place.

Because what we cannot say, we cannot communicate.

And by say, I mean dance, paint, sing, meme.

What we cannot say, we cannot communicate.

We can conceive of things that we cannot communicate.

But, and I think every one of us here has done that.

And that's a thrilling thing.

That is the deep homework.

The psychedelic inner astronaut sees things which no human being has ever seen before.

And no human being will ever see again.

But in fact, this has no meaning unless it is possible to carry it back into the collectivity.

And what motivates me to talk to groups like this is the belief that we do not have centuries of gently unfolding time ahead of us

in which to, you know, gently tease apart the threads of the human endeavor and create a bright new world.

And that's not our circumstance.

This is a fire in a madhouse.

And to get a hold on the situation, I think we are going to have to force the issue.

Well, one way of forcing the issue or a chemical definition of forcing the issue when you're talking about a chemical reaction is catalysis.

We want to catalyze consciousness.

We want to move it faster toward its goals, whatever those goals are.

Well, I believe that to the present moment, language, again, in the broadest sense, speech, dance, musical composition,

language has just been allowed to grow like topsy.

It's been a kind of every man for himself situation.

Now, what we really need as we see ourselves moving from one species among tens of thousands of species on this planet,

over the past 10,000 years, we have redefined ourselves.

And now, like it or not, we are the custodians of the destiny of this planet.

Our decisions affect every life form on the planet.

And yet, we are still communicating with each other with the extremely precise medium of small mouth noises mediated by ignorance and hate.

This doesn't seem like the way to do business as we approach the third millennium.

So, what I'm hopeful for and what I actually see happening, I mean, I think that we're on the right track.

The birth of a new kind of humanity is going to take place.

But there are still a lot of decisions to be made.

How violent shall this birth be?

What toll shall it take upon our mother, the earth?

What shape shall the baby be in when it finally is delivered?

These are the decisions that artists can mediate and control.

Most people are afraid of the unconscious.

This is why, you know, you can have a psychedelic compound like DMT,

which is very much like ordinary brain chemistry,

appears completely physiologically harmless,

only lasts 10 minutes,

extremely powerful,

and generally in this society, you have no takers.

This is because there has been a failure of moral courage.

And the failure of moral courage is perhaps most evident in our own community,

the community of the artists.

In a way, it's the poets that have failed us

because they have not provided a song or sung a vision

that we could all move in concert to.

So now we are in the absurd position

of being able to do anything.

And what we are doing is fouling our own nest

and pushing ourselves toward planetary toxification and extinction.

This is because the poets, the artists,

have not articulated a moral vision.

The moral vision must come from the unconscious.

It doesn't have to do, I believe,

with these post-meaning movements in art,

deconstructionism and this sort of thing.

That art's task is to save the soul of mankind

and that anything less is a dithering while Rome burns.

Because if the artists who are self-selected

for being able to journey into the other,

if the artist cannot find the way,

then the way cannot be found.

And ideology is extremely alien to art.

Political ideology, I mean.

And if you will but notice,

it is political ideology that has been calling the shots

for the last seven or eight hundred years.

We can transcend politics

if we can put some other program in place.

You cannot transcend politics into a void.

And I believe that a world without ideology

could be created

if what were put in place of ideology

were the notion of the realization

of the good, the true, and the beautiful.

You know, the three-tiered canon

of the platonic aesthetic.

The reconnect, the notion of the good,

the true, and the beautiful.

Then use psychedelics

to empower the artist

to go into this vast dimension

that surrounds human history

on all sides to an infinite depth

and return from that world

with the transcendental images

that can lift us to a new cultural level.

The muse is there.

The dull maps that rationalism has given us

are nothing more than whistling past the graveyard

by the bad little boys of science.

You only have to avail yourselves

of these shamanic tools

to rediscover a nature

which is not mute,

as Sartre said

in a kind of culmination of the modern viewpoint.

Nature is not mute.

It is man who is deaf

and the way to open our ears,

open our eyes,

and reconnect with the intent

of a living world

is through the psychedelics.

Now, as you know,

biology runs on genes

and genes are the units of meaning

of heredity.

But we could make a model

of the informational environment

that is represented by culture

and in fact this is done.

A word has been invented,

meme, M-E-M-E, meme.

A meme is not the smallest unit of heredity.

A meme is the smallest unit

of meaning, of an idea.

Ideas are made of memes.

And I think the art community

might function with more efficiency

in the production of visionary

aesthetic breakthroughs

if we would think of ourselves

as an environment

modeled after the natural environment

where we as artists

are attempting to create memes

which enter an environment

of other memes

that are in competition with each other

and out of this competition of memes

ever more appropriate,

adapted,

and suitable ideas

can gather

and link themselves together

into higher and higher organisms.

Now, in order for this to happen

there is an obligation

upon each one of us

to carry our ideas clearly

because in the same way

that a gene must be copied correctly

to be replicated

or it will cause

some pathological mutation

a meme must be correctly replicated

or it will cause

a pathological mutation.

For instance,

I would say

what the Nazis did

to Friedrich Nietzsche's philosophy

was a bad cop,

a miscopied meme

became a toxic mutation

inside a culture.

So,

I would suggest

to the people in this room tonight

that you take a good look around

at who's here.

Artistic people,

psychedelic people

look pretty much like everybody else

out in society.

But we have come here tonight

self-selected

for our interest

in the empowering capacity

of psychedelic plants

and the empowering capacity of art.

So,

we represent

an affinity group,

a population

with a potential

for

mutagenic impact

on the ideological structures

of the rest of society.

So,

look around.

Someone here

has what you need.

And if you can only figure out

who it is,

you can make a novel connection

to move them

into a new level

of creativity.

Well,

what is this new level

of creativity?

Some of you may be familiar

with a theme

that was very big

in medieval religious art

which was

the apocalypse

of St. John

or of somebody.

There are a number

of these apocalypses.

And I think that

many of us

may come out

of a kind of secular background

or have not given

this kind of

a religious idea

too much consideration.

but

my

idiosyncratic conclusion

based simply

on trying to be honest

about the content

of the psychedelic experience

is that

human history

really is

on a collision course

with a

transcendental

object

of some sort.

it is not going

to be business

as usual

into the endless

unfolding

confines

of the future.

The very fact

that human history

is occurring

on this planet,

the very fact

that a primate

has left

the ordinary

pattern

of primate activity

and gone

into the business

of running

stock markets

and molecular

biology labs

and art museums

indicates to me

the nearby presence

in another dimension

of a kind

of hyper

organizing

force

or what I call

the transcendental

object.

And I believe

that this

transcendental

object

is casting

an enormous

shadow

over the human

historical

landscape

so that

if you're back

in

ancient Judea

you have

an anticipation

of the Messiah.

If you are

at Eleusis

at the height

of the practice

of the Eleusinian

mysteries

you have

an anticipation

of

the dark

God.

These

anticipations

of an

unspeakable

transcendent

reality

that are

always

clothed

in the

assumptions

of the

individual

artist

and the

society

in which

he or she

is working

are in fact

genuine

and that

you don't

have to

give yourself

over to

fundamentalist

religion

to

connect

with the

fact

that human

history

is

an adventure

and this

adventure

has a number

of

startling

reverses

and sudden

plot

shifts

that are

very difficult

to anticipate

and that

we are

coming up

on one

of those

the

civilization

that was

created

out of

the

collapse

of the

medieval

world

has

now

shown

its

contradictions

to be

unbearable

and though

no one

of us

knows

what the

shape

of the

new

civilization

will be

somehow

in the

singing

of the

ayahuasca

songs

in the

rainforest

in the

tremendous

hypermetallic

transcendental

off-planetary

flash

of psilocybin

in the

teaching

of the

self-transforming

machine elves

that seem

to dwell

in the

DMT

dimension

we see

that the

ordinary

linear

expectations

of history

are breaking

down

and that

the

truth

of

the

eminence

of the

mystery

is breaking

through

all the

structures

of denial

of

the male

dominator

paradigm

that has

been

in place

so long

the way

to make

this birth

process

smooth

the way

to bring

it to a

conclusion

that will

not betray

the

thousands

and thousands

of generations

of people

who

suffered

birth

and disease

and migration

and starvation

and lonely

death

so that we

could sit

here this

evening

the redeeming

of the human

enterprise

all lies

then

in helping

this thing

come to birth

and each

artist

is an

antenna

to the

transcendental

other

and as

we go

with our

own

history

into that

thing

and then

create

a unique

confluence

of our

uniqueness

and

its

uniqueness

we

collectively

create

an arrow

out of

history

out of

time

perhaps

even out

of matter

that will

redeem then

the idea

that man

is good

redeem

the idea

that man

is good

this is

the promise

of art

and its

fulfillment

is never

more near

than the

present

moment

thank you

very much

we'll

I think

we'll take

I'm happy

to take

questions

here

being in

the realm

of the ego

and art

and shamanism

being in

some

other realm

that's

defined

the name

my own

psychedelic

experience

convinced me

of the

existence

of that

other realm

but I

felt

not enough

sense of

personal

power

to be

that

antenna

that you're

saying

that artists

can be

or bringing

that

other

until I

became

convinced

that the

existence

not only

of me

within

that other

realm

but that

other realm

within me

and perhaps

the psychedelic

experience

prepared me

for that

second

awareness

but

perhaps you

could comment

on how

if

possible

that

second

awareness

could be

become

more easily

accessible

what do

you mean

by the

second

awareness

say a

little

more

about

it

of being

aware

that

other realm

is something

that's also

very personal

and

well

yes

I mean

it seems

it's

it's a

landscape

that begins

within the

self

and seems

to extend

into the

world

I mean

one of the

very puzzling

things about

the psychedelic

experience

is

that it

argues

that we

are not

atomic

individuals

running around

in some

kind of

society

but that

if you

actually

drain

the

psychic

water

away

you'll

discover

that we're

all

connected

at the

roots

that

it

isn't

a

journey

to

another

world

it's

a

journey

inward

to

a

world

that

is

already

present

and

there

the

astonishing

thing

is

how

alienated

we

are

from

our

own

interior

from

the

interior

world

to

the

alien

nature

of

the

psychedelic

experience

and

how

it

seems

to

be

mappable

over

something

as

radical

as

the

UFO

experience

this

is

because

we

truly

do

not

know

who

we

are

the

past

10,000

years

have

been

so

disempowering

to

us

we

are

really

like

the

children

of

a

dysfunctional

relationship