State Of The Stone 95

All right. Well, it's nice to be back in San Francisco. I moved out of

California about eight months ago after 30 years and I still have

ambivalent feelings about it when I see springtime

coming on so

very beautifully

On the other hand, there are a lot of squirrels in the woods and I

I'm sort of preferring to pull back from all that and do

home projects

Workbench projects. I sort of think of these get-togethers. They happen periodically

cyclically, but unscheduled as a state of the stone

addresses or an

opportunity for the community to come together and everybody see who's here

once again, who has survived, who's gotten out

So forth and so on

I'm very

very bullish about the

situation

Fortunately, I hold the theory that things have to get a lot worse before they can get better

So whenever I see things getting worse, I assume that's the first step toward progress

I think that

In the time we've been getting together and talking about these things the general tone has changed

dramatically

when I

started talking about all of this my audience was entirely my peers

old freaks

and

Many of you were ten years old and now

The message has been out there for about 12 years

that psychedelics that psychedelics actually represent an opportunity for healing an opportunity to return to

Religion as it was practiced before the invention of the marketplace

And I'm very pleased as I

Go around meeting people and discussing this issue to see how much

Much of the youth culture has become sensitive to the psychedelic issue

Because it really means that after 20-30 years of

unstinting

distortion and misrepresentation

Representation

By the media and some of the powers that be

that

Nevertheless the curiosity is intact the opportunity is available and

People have not been fooled by the effort to

Demigrate

Dumb down

Sideline

Water down

Sell out

Whitewash

And

Screw over

The idea that

Psychedelic plants are

An

Excellent and

Necessary

Part

Of any

Program of

Spiritual

Self-exploration

I'm not going to talk that much about this today because I think it would be preaching to the converted

I'm not even going to

Remind you that our evolutionary heritage lies in the use of psychedelics

That it was in all probability

Psychedelics

That called forth

Our humanness

I've talked about this in numerous forums

It doesn't have to be particularly gone over today

Since this is a hometown crowd

Since this is peer review

I would rather go to some of the stuff that plays more

With more resistance in Des Moines and Cleveland

And beta test it here

While there's still time to recant

San Francisco is an incredibly forgiving town

If you need to go somewhere and make a mistake

This is probably the play

Anyway

After a

You know

I mean I've been

Altering my consciousness

Pharmacologically

Since I was 18

Then trying

To fold it back

Into the database

Of the culture

To make sense of it

Mathematically

Religiously

Philosophically

Historically

Artistically

So forth and so on

And

My conclusions become more and more

Radical

Last night in Sacramento

I lectured the psilocybin's impact

On human evolution

And they quoted some anthropologist somewhere

Who wouldn't even give his name

For the attribution of his no comment

Saying

It was too radical to even be considered

And I thought to myself

And the problem is

It's the most respectable idea I've got

So

Having given that its run for its money last night

What I'll talk to you about today

And then later we can have a question period

And it can be free ranging

And whatever your concerns can come to the fore

But it occurs to me that science has very radically failed

And it's an unusual point to make

Because we live in the impression that science is somehow at the pinnacle of its explanatory powers

And that it is going to give us clean air

Better societies

Safer sex

Better entertainment

And ultimately

Some kind of explanation about how the universe really works

And in the past year

We're

You know

Like happy kittens

They have dragged in and dropped on our doorstep

The top quark

Which is something to find out there in the bulrushes

If you didn't know to look for it

You probably would never find it

But nevertheless

For all of its capacity to razzle-dazzle

Science has some serious drawbacks

Some serious limitations

That psychedelic experiences

Make more starkly evident

I think

Simply because psychedelic people then compare

The full spectrum of their experience

To the paradigm they're being offered

For example

Science proceeds probabilistically

This is how it's been doing its work for about three centuries

This involves an assumption

That it has never been proven

And is very very difficult to test

It's the assumption that time is invariant

You see

Probability theory rests on the idea of experiment

Science proceeds by experiment

But built in to the concept of experiment

Is this very fishy notion called

The restoration of initial conditions

And it turns out that there ain't no such creature

You can never restore initial conditions

A way of putting it is

You can never go home again

Home again

You know

Heraclitus said

We never step into the same river twice

If you're paying attention

You might notice

That that means

We never step into the same river once

Right?

You see

Science is a historical process

That began with the Greeks

And naturally dealt with the simpler questions first

And the simpler questions are

You know

What is the world made of?

How does it work?

The complex questions are things like

What is language?

And how do we know truth?

The Greeks sort of bridged that one

But they had this idea

That because God was perfect

The universe should behave according to

Models of mathematical perfection

And so the planets were assumed

To go in perfect circles

And the classical objects of Aristotelian geometry

Were made the basis of science

Now one by one

Over time

These perfect mathematical objects

Have had to be dumped and gotten rid of

Because they came into contradiction

With observation

The difference between Ptolemaic astronomy

And Copernican astronomy

Is that Ptolemaic astronomy

Does all its calculations

With perfect circles

Within perfect circles

And what Copernicus said

Was wouldn't it be simpler

To use ellipses

And then you only have to use one ellipse

Rather than circles

Within circles

But the leap of faith

Or the leap of understanding

That you have to make there

Is the understanding that

Nature doesn't

The planets don't move

In perfect circles

They're not gods

They're balls of rock

Obeying the laws of gravitation

Keeping them in orbit

In orbit

So one by one

These perfect objects

Of Greek mathematical explanation

Were abandoned

The sole exception

Is the idea that time

Is a perfectly smooth surface

This idea is very necessary to science

Because it means that measurements

Of physical systems

Are not time dependent

In other words

It would be counter intuitive

To a scientist

To be told

You will get a different charge

For the electron

On Tuesdays

And Thursdays

Than Mondays

And Saturdays

They would say

That's preposterous

The charge of the electron

Must be invariant

In time

Why?

It's simply

A first pass

With the razor

Of simplicity

I mean

Explanation should be

As simple as possible

But no simpler

Or you

You miss the point

So when we look

At complex phenomenon

Like the fall of empires

Love affairs

Corporate takeovers

Social revolution

These things

Never happen the same way

Twice

That's why we invented

What we call the social sciences

Meaning no science at all

But full of good intention

These kinds of complex phenomena

Are very critically dependent

On initial conditions

You know

A love affair

Between whom

And whom

Where

Under what economic conditions

What were the religious preferences

Of the parties

And what did their parents think

And what did their children think

In other words

Initial conditions

Set the course

And yet initial conditions

Are never the same

In these complex systems

Science works very differently

From ordinary perception

As you can see

If you walked around

On the floor

Of this gathering

Anomaly is highly prized

Here

If we have a thousand people

Who go out on a starry night

And see only the ordinary constellation

That is buried

But if one person goes out

On a starry night

And sees a rectangular black object

A city block long

With softly glowing yellow lights

Moving along the horizon

That's big news

Science works exactly the opposite

If you want for example

To carry out a scientific observation

And you measure

Let's say the electrical charge

Running through a wire

And you measure it a thousand times

And 999 times

It's between 3 and 4 volts

But one time

You get a measurement

Of 1290 volts

A good scientist

Discards the aberrant measurement

He says

Well that can't be right

That's ridiculous

Get that puppy out of there

Now average the other 999

Completely different way

Of doing intellectual business

Than the way it is done

At the edge of human thought

Where we seek

The curious

The anomalous

The unusual

And then that leads us

To wild generalization

Backward

Against the pattern of normality

Of normal happenstance

Ok

So

This enslavement

To Greek idealism

Of this particular sort

Has caused science

To be fairly helpless

In describing the kinds of complex systems

That now more and more dominate our lives

Global economies

The internet

Interlocking markets

So forth and so on

I want to suggest

It's a two part suggestion

And this is the first part

That there is going to have to be

There is going to have to be

A general revision

Of how science does its business

If we want to actually extend

The explanatory power of science

Into the domain

Of human social and intellectual complexity

And what science is going to have to do

Is recognize that like everything else

Ever examined

Through the lens of science

Time is going to have to be seen as

Some kind of variable phenomenon

Something that is not a perfect mathematical plane

But is

But has a topological texture

At some level

It may appear smooth

From a certain distance

But as your point of view

Sinks into it

This perfect smoothness

Is revealed to be

In fact

A composite of irregularities

That it is

Made of fractal subsets

Of itself

Now science has led

In this discovery

Of the fractal reordering

Of nature

But it hasn't

Extended it to time

The big news

Coming out of science

In the last ten years

Perhaps the last

Certain truth

That science will secure

Before its transformation

And it's a very important one

It's that nature

Is self-similar

Across scale

This is something

That couldn't have been said

Even ten years ago

Nature is self-similar

Across scale

This is big news

Big understanding

And what does it mean?

Well it means

I'm sure you all have

Pondered

The similarity

Between the structure

Of an atom

A galaxy

And

A solar system

And

If you inquired

About this

You were told

It's coincidence

Well P.W. Bridgman

Is the person

Who pointed out

That a coincidence

Is what you have left over

When you apply

A bad theory

You see?

So

Until ten years ago

When you asked this question

You would be told

It's a coincidence

You know

It's easy

To make a scientific revolution

I can remember

When I was about nine

Going to my mother

In a state of high excitement

And saying

Have you noticed

That South America

Will fit against Africa

Like a puzzle piece?

And then we looked into it

And we were told

This is a coincidence

Well it wasn't ten years

Before Continental Drift

Made a revolution

Out of the earth sciences

By doing what?

By recognizing

What an eight year old child

Could point out

That Africa and South America

Were obviously

Once joined together

You don't have to be

A rocket scientist

See this?

You just have to

Have some experience

With crossword puzzles

And an open mind

So

Nature is self-similar

Across scales

That means

That an atom

Is like a galaxy

Is like a solar system

But it means

More than that

It means

That we can extrapolate

Toward cosmic

Processes

By

Thinking about

Our own lives

Because our own lives

Are a tiny

Fractal

Piece of data

That is part

Of a much larger

Integrated

Modular

Hierarchy

That we now

Realize

Will have the same

Architectonic

As our own

Immediate experience

Except it will be

Expressed

On a much larger

Scale

So

That's the first

And simplest

Part

Of this

Suggestion

For a reformation

Of science

That I want

To propose

First of all

That this fractal

Principle

Be more clearly

Enunciated

And understood

Everybody

Is talking

About fractals

But it took

Ralph Abraham

To get it down

To a bumper

Sticker

For me

And it is

Nature

Is self-similar

Across scales

Companies

Explode

The same way

Economies

Explode

The same way

The biota

Of a continent

Explodes

Processes

Are always

Similar

But only

Differ

In scale

And

What that means

Then

That our most

Immediate

Datum

Of experience

Which is

The feeling

Of being

In a body

Alive

And feeling

Can be

Extrapolated

And

Mapped

On

To larger

And smaller

Processes

In the universe

To give

Not only

A sentient

Universe

The living

Universe

A dynamic

Universe

A universe

With purpose

But

It

It also

Gives us

A universe

With a very

Interesting set

Of closure

Properties

That are different

From the ones

We learned

From science

The thing about

Science

And its

Cosmology

Is that

It makes us

Irrelevant

We're told

That we are

An accident

Around

An ordinary

Star

In an ordinary

Galaxy

In an ordinary

Portion

Of the local

Supercluster

And its just

Ordinary

Nothing

To be excited

About

And then

You know

You have

Existentialism

Which says

Well then

If you want

To get excited

You have to admit

That you're just

Doing it

On your own

Hook

Discovering

Meaning

We confer

Meaning

The existentialist

Tell us

And its good

As long as

It lasts

And then

That's nothing

Too

But

All of these

Conclusions

Have been based

On ignoring

A second fact

About nature

That is as

Cogent

As its

Fractality

And far more

Important for us

I believe

And this

Second factor

Is

The further

Back in time

You go

The slower

Everything

Unfolds

Our present

Domain

Of experience

Is a domain

Of furious

Activity

I mean

Every

Many

Things

Go on

On this planet

In a single day

There are inventions

There are books

There are

Transactions

There are

Meetings

And

Dissolutions

We live

In a busy

Busy

World

As you journey

Backward

In time

The world becomes

Less and less

Busy

When you leave

The domain

Of organic

Evolution

The world

Becomes

Boring

As hell

And when you go

Further back

To the period

Before even

Molecular

Chemistry

You know

It's so boring

One can barely

Compose a comment

So

Infused

With

Ennui

Is the

Observer

In the contemplation

Of the scene

But science

Has never

In

Coltated

This

Observation

Into its

Model

Of reality

We're told

Time is

Invariant

Therefore

This notion

Of speeding

Up

Or

Of complexity

In some parts

Of time

And not

In others

It must be an artifact

Of observation

It must be an illusion

Or a mistake

It isn't

Real

But

I maintain

It is one

Of the most

Persistent

Facts

About

Reality

That

And

I've spoken of it

Here in terms of

Things get simpler

As you go backward

In time

We could

Stand that

On its head

And point out

That things get

More complex

As you move

Forward

In time

And that means

That this

Moment

Is the most

Complex

Moment

The universe

Has ever known

At least

The local universe

That means

In a way

If the universe

Started

At the big bang

It ends

Right here

Right now

What I call

Local

Now

Because

The rest of time

Has not yet

Undergone

The formality

Of occurring

So

Here we are

The inheritance

Of the big bang

Standing

In the

Ultra complex

Local

Now

What do I mean

By complex

Well

On the

Platform

Of

Cellular

Evolution

Arose

Higher

Animals

Complex

Ecosystems

On the

Platform

Of that

Arose

Early

Human

Culture

Upon

That

Platform

Rose

Late

Human

Culture

Including

My

Point

Here

That I want to

Try to sell

You on

Is that

Nature

Is a

Novelty

Conserving

Engine

Of some sort

That

Far

From being

A random

Process

Driven

Toward

Entropy

By the

Second Law

Thermodynamics

Nature

Is a

Process

Of

Complexification

That

Whenever

This

Process

Is

Delta

Blow

It

Immediately

Sets

Out

To

Recover

And

Surpass

Whatever

Previous

Level

Of

Complexification

It

Had

Attained

Well

No

It

Holds

Out

The

Possibility

Of

A Theory

Of

Ethics

Because

We

Are

The

Most

Complex

Phenomenon

That

We

Know

Of

On

This

Planet

Now

You

May

Edge

Forward

In

Your

Formatically

Or

Any

Other

Way

Norbert

Weiner

And

Some

Of

Those

People

Spent

Of

Time

On

This

Intuitively

I

Think

It

Is

Plus

metal

Fe

With

seems fairly clear

you would have an uphill battle

to argue against that

some weasel might

but who knows

I mean hell you can't get consensus

on what time it is

but

if nature

is a novelty conserving

engine, if that's what

nature treasures

then we are not

the chance witnesses

of an existential universe

we are in fact

all God's children

in some sense

in other words

we represent

the quintessence

gathering together

of novelty

we are more than

mere matter

we are more than

mere biology

we are more than

mere aboriginal culture

we are all of those things

plus we are

our technical

our skin of technical

connections

our

extruded culture

our fecal coral reef

of transistors

resistors

transponders

databases

and transmission systems

all of that

is superimposed

on the organic

so suddenly

this

message

that

has been

relatively ignored

by

secular

intellectuals

for 500 years

the

message

of

our

importance

in the divine

plan

gets a real

leg up

the puzzle

then is

if we are

the part

of the universe

where value

has come to

rest

in the process

of compressing

complexity

then why is it

that

in practical terms

we seem like

a loaded gun

held at the head

of the planet

in other words

all other

systems

and processes

seem to have

been put

at risk

to achieve

this

in other words

all other

systems

and processes

seem to have

been put

at risk

to achieve

this thin and wavering spire of complexification

that threatens to come down around our ears at any moment

and send us back to the 14th century,

if not the Stone Age, if we mismanage ourselves.

Well, I think that we need to look at this process

from the broadest possible perspective

and try to decondition ourselves from the assumptions of science.

Every theory has what I call a hard swallow.

I mean, probably because every theory is horseshit in some sense.

I mean, truth is known in silence,

so if you're going out of that area,

you should expect some rather peculiar blemishes on the enterprise.

So every theory has a hard swallow.

Science, their hard swallow,

is what's called the Big Bang,

the idea that the universe sprang from nothing

for no reason whatsoever

in a single moment.

So notice that whether you find that persuasive or not,

it is the limit test for credulity.

Do you understand what I mean?

I mean, if you will believe that,

what would you dig in your heels on?

I mean, if you would believe that,

then my family has a bridge over the Hudson River

that we are willing to let go for a song,

and you could really get in on something good there.

The Big Bang is completely improbable,

utterly improbable.

It is the most improbable of all improbabilities.

So just remember that,

when the fascism of science is telling you

that astrologers don't know what they're talking about,

and somebody else doesn't know what they're talking about.

I mean, science has built a house of cards

on worse than sand, quicksand.

I would like to propose a completely different theory,

which sounds, I know, far-fetched,

but I think it answers certain problems

that can't be reasonably dealt with otherwise.

I would like to propose

that the universe is headed toward a singularity,

not that it was born in a singularity

and has been blasted outward

with the unraveling of the laws of physics ever since,

but rather the idea that the universe

is not a purposeless explosion

running down into entropy,

but in fact the universe is some kind of process

that is running along fairly well-defined runnels,

or what the British biologist C.H. Waddington called creodes.

In other words, it is not, again,

it is not a flat surface

over which we are free to lurch and careen

in some kind of random walk

or parody of Brownian motion.

It isn't that at all.

It is a topology.

It is a surface, a slalom

whose high walls confine us

as we move deeper and deeper

into the process of complexification.

And we move into that process

faster and faster and faster.

And this is where it gets woo-woo

because I am, you know,

willing to say I'm convinced,

anyway,

I'm willing to say I'm convinced

that history is the enunciation

of the nearby presence

of a transformational event.

In other words,

a planet without history

is what you get

if it's business as usual.

The chipmunks dig their burrows,

the hummingbirds fertilize the nectar,

the trumpet flowers,

the ants dig out the ground.

Everything proceeds normally.

History is what happens

when an animal species

has its genome distorted

by the nearby presence

of a transcendental object.

It only lasts 12 to 1500 generations.

It's very brief

in terms of the life

if the life of this planet

were a city block,

history would be as thick

as a piece of typing paper.

That's how long it lasts.

And yet,

this is all we've ever known.

The inside

of this transitory domain

called history.

And without thinking about it very much,

we have,

our secular society tells us

to assume it will go on forever.

You know,

assume it will go on forever.

That's a bigger stretch

than the Big Bang for me.

I cannot see how anyone

could assume

that human history

will go on,

not forever,

but let's say

as long as it has gone on.

Can anyone imagine

the next 10,000 years

of technological development

and global civilization?

It's a joke.

Can anyone imagine

the next 1,000 years

or 100 years?

I think

that the asymptotic curve

of technological development,

complexification,

the spread of communication technologies

and yada, yada, yada

is happening so fast

that within our lifetimes

we can see

the transcendental object

rearing up

and throwing the shadow

of its enormous

protean form

across the surface

of social processes

and social evolution.

History,

the purpose of history

is to create

the planetary crisis

and it's doing

a splendid job of it.

You know,

apparently,

monkeys

would rather kick back

and chill

and so we only function well

under pressure

and so the pressure

is rising

and, you know,

our responses

have been astonishing.

When the African continent

dried up,

we invented agriculture.

When spoken language

was insufficient,

we invented alphabets.

When they were insufficient,

we invented

mathematical modeling.

When the complexity

of the world

exceeded our mathematical models,

we built

computational machinery

to expand the power

of our mathematical tools.

We seem to function well

under pressure

and now we are coming

under pressure.

Not this.

This is not pressure.

This is the long garden party

before pressure

when people can still,

you know,

worry about

whether they're getting

enough antioxidants

and so forth

and so on.

Not to gore

anyone's particular ox.

I'm as concerned

about antioxidants

as the next person.

But I think

that for a very long time,

maybe,

oh, I don't know,

pick a number,

but let's say 50,000 years,

at least since language,

shamans

or users

of hallucinogenic plants

have had

what Wordsworth called

intimations

of immortality.

That aside

from everything else

which crowds

the shamanic

mind space,

there is

this view

along the forward

vector

of time

to this

brilliant

boundary

dissolving

light

that seems

to

throw

its influence

across

all processes

that precede it.

And religions,

great religions

that involve

the faith

of hundreds

of millions

of people

are intimations

of this

transcendental

object

at the end

of time.

And they all

get it wrong,

of course.

They get it wrong

because it is

always filtered

through the vicissitudes

of the historical

moment

and the political

needs

of those

who are telling

the tale.

But if you

take all of these

things not as

God's revealed

truth,

but more as

God's image

in the funhouse

mirror of

bent ideology,

you can

sort of

extract out

of all

these images

a sense

of what

the transcendental

reality

must be like.

And I think,

you know,

recurring to the

idea that we

are fractally

organized,

that we

are

microcosms

of the larger

structure

of the universe,

then I think

in the natural

phenomenon

of

orgasm

and in

the,

how would

you put it,

the human

plant interaction

occasioned by

psychedelics,

so orgasm

and the

psychedelic

experience,

we actually

in fractal

form

anticipate

this boundary

dissolving

conclusion

to the

historical

process.

I mean,

that's why

Eros is

like a

compass

of hope,

why everybody

says,

you know,

after the

hortatory

political

breast beating

and all of

that,

everyone knows

that what

we really

need is

love,

that without

that it

won't work.

With that,

the political,

social,

intellectual,

and technological

details will

probably take

care of

themselves,

but love

in the

heart of

a monkey,

which is

what we

are,

is an

effort to

image this

transcendental

thing at

the end

of time.

I mean,

to love

is to

open to

the presence

of the

other,

and that's

a very,

very profound

boundary,

dissolution.

ultimately

at death,

I think

probably the

only way

you can

meet death

fully in

command of

your faculties

is to

love it,

to surrender

to it.

Well,

we each

can make

whatever piece

we can or

cannot make

with our

own death,

but we

get much

more agitated

when we

contemplate the

death of

the species

or the

death of

the planet,

because that

seems to

involve such

higher stakes,

such greater

loss.

What I

observe in

nature is

a very high

stakes gambler.

You know,

nature is like

the good

shepherd in

the gospel

story.

I mean,

she will

leave the

99 to

save the

one that

is lost.

her interest

in complexity

and her

willingness to

allow it to

adumbrate in

ourselves to

such excruciating

levels is

basically a

willingness to

put every

gray whale,

dandelion,

parakeet,

and spotted

owl on

notice that

the human

enterprise is

somehow an

acceptable risk

for them

to endure.

And I

think that

the way

psychedelics

play into

all of

this is

they,

by being

boundary

dissolving,

by being

deconditioning

agents,

they strip

from your

eyes this

downer

trip that

we have

inherited out

of the

scientific

model of

reality.

we are

not lost

in a

mute,

uncaring,

purposeless

universe.

How anybody

could ever

suppose this?

It takes an

extraordinary

power of the

denial of

simple

observation to

come to this

conclusion.

Nevertheless,

this is what

modern science

tells us.

if this

isn't

obvious to

you,

then you

probably need

to do

five grams

in silent

darkness

on an

empty

stomach

and just

weigh the

various ideas

that are being

peddled in the

intellectual

marketplace.

You know,

Big Bang,

God's Love,

Transcendental

Object at the

End of

History.

It's a small

number of

items on

the menu.

Most of

these items

on the

menu are

simply

ideologies.

None,

except for

psychedelics,

I would

submit,

are an

experience,

a direct

experience.

And this

is what gives

it a leg

up.

It's not

an appeal

to reason.

It's not

an appeal

to reason.

And in fact,

it is ultimately

unreasonable.

You know,

Tertullian

when he was

asked about

the resurrection,

they said,

you know,

why do you

believe in

this?

It's so

stupid.

And he

said,

credo te

absurdum.

I believe

it because

it is

absurd.

I believe

it because

it is

absurd.

This is a

thoroughly

modern

sentiment.

If the

rest of the

fathers of

the early

church had

been as

hip as

that statement,

we wouldn't

have come

away with

the original

sin and

the virgin

birth.

I believe

that there

is very

little time

left that

history is

the

enunciation

of human

morphogenetic

transformation

that is

under the

control of

the largest

control

structures in

the planetary

ecology.

In other

words, it's

not up to

Bill Clinton

or Skink

Gingrich or

any of

these reptiles.

It is

not a

matter of

human

decision.

It is

built in

to the

dynamics

of the

planet.

And

consequently,

all this

western

breast

beating and

blame-taking

about what

we did and

how we

fucked up

and all

this is

a bunch

of nonsense.

Nobody

screwed up.

You have

to have

an enormous

sense of

your own

self-importance

to believe

that you

got away

from the

control of

nature

and

against

her

wishes

were able

to set

the planet

up for

Armageddon.

I mean,

it's such

a typical

western

fantasy

of

freedom

and

opportunity

to do

evil.

History

is not

evil.

It's

misguided

and

messy

and

very

redundant

and

iterative,

but it

isn't

evil.

For

some

reason,

12,

10,

15,000

years ago,

the human

family

divided

into

two

camps,

the

sacred,

ritual,

eternal,

shamanic

style

of

existence,

which lived

lightly on

the land

and was

tribal

and

non-technologically

based,

and

our

style,

which was

a style

of

conquest

and

denial,

virtual

reality

building.

I mean,

now this

is thought

to be the

technological

edge,

but the

earliest

technology

for virtual

reality

implementation

was

language,

followed

quickly by

the hard

wiring we

call

urbanization.

You know,

once you have

an urban

setting,

you are

walking

around inside

of virtual

reality.

This is

an ideology

that has

been turned

into matter.

It's as

virtual as

anything could

possibly be.

There is

nothing new

about setting

up symbols

and taking

them for

truth.

I mean,

this seems

to be our

unique

curse,

as it

were.

What the

psychedelics

do is

decondition

us from

all the

media-induced

ratios of

perception and

value systems,

and then you

just see that

culture is

just some

story that a

bunch of

people got

together,

all culture.

It doesn't

matter whether

you're rainforest

pygmies or

Japanese bankers

or whoever you

are.

Your story is

just some

story that

has a certain

amount of

drama, a

certain amount

of self

congratulation,

a certain

amount of

risk, and

it keeps

thought away,

that story.

But if we

dissolve our

cultural story,

then we

discover what it

is that we've

been ignoring

for 20,000

years, which

is the

nature of

nature, that

it preserves

novelty, that

it is an

engine for

the production

of complexity,

that this

complexity

extends from

the abiotic

realm into

the biotic,

into the

cultural, into

the technological,

seamlessly, with

no ontological

break or

transformation.

shamans have

a number of

abilities which

are thought

to indicate

their special

status.

They can

predict the

weather.

They can

tell where

the game

has gone.

They are

very adept

at seeing

into little

social hassles

like who's

sleeping with

whom that

they shouldn't

be or who

stole the

chicken.

And then,

most importantly,

shamans can

cure or, to

put it slightly

more cynically,

shamans have

an incredible

ability to

choose clients

that get

well.

Well, which

is not to

knock them.

I mean, any

doctor will

tell you this

is part of

being a good

doctor.

So, if you

analyze these

abilities, you

see that they

go from being

miraculous and

mysterious to

being trivial

and straightforward

if you assume

that the

shamans can

see forward

into time in

a way that

ordinary people

can't.

Well, then,

where the game

went, next

week's weather,

who's sleeping

with who, and

who will get

well, become

trivial.

No big deal.

And so, the

charge that

shamans are

tricksters is,

in a sense,

true, except

that the trick

is not an

illusion.

It's a real

trick.

They really

can project

their consciousness

into hyperspace.

And, thinking

about this, and

thinking about the

psychedelic

experience, I

think this is

a clue, a

partial clue, to

how to

unravel our

dilemma in

being.

Because, you

know, here's an

analogy from

chemistry.

You've all

probably took

chemistry in

high school.

You know how

sulfur has two

melting points.

Sulfur, we

think of as a

yellow powder.

But, put it

in a spoon and

heat it, and

it will turn to

a black liquid.

Keep heating it,

and that black

liquid will turn

to a black

solid.

Continue heating

it, and that

black liquid, and

that black solid

will turn back

into a liquid.

Sulfur has two

melting points.

This is a very

curious property

of some forms

of matter.

It seems to me

it suggests an

analogy about

our own

consciousness,

which is,

consciousness is

a kind of

omnidirectional

threat detection

and assessment

system that a

very paranoid

and small

monkey put in

place in a

grassland

environment

frequented by

very large

hunting cats.

And so,

the purpose

of consciousness

is to inform

you of something

horrific about

to happen,

in the hope

that you can

then take some

action against

it.

But, in the

bottom of a

cave, or high

up in a tree,

or on a small

island, or

somewhere where

you feel safe,

if you will

then intoxicate

yourself with

psychedelics,

the evolutionarily

defined and

paranoid

threat detection

configuration of

consciousness

breaks down.

And you

discover that

you have an

angel inside

your head.

And this

angel is the

non-paranoid,

non-carnivorous

monkey who

is still,

nevertheless,

you.

And that

from this

angelic point

of perception,

both the

past and

the future

have an

immediacy,

a co-presence

with the

moment that

they lack

in ordinary

experience.

And I

believe that

as we create

a non-paranoid

world,

a loving

world, a

world where

people can

operate in an

atmosphere of

trust of

each other,

that consciousness

is slowly

trying to

relax and

recast itself.

And the

grease for

these skids is

of course the

psychedelic

experience because

it forces this

dissolving of

cultural values.

It catalyzes it.

what it might

take you 40

years to do

through a

process of

rational analysis

and psychotherapy

and deconstruction

and so forth

and so on.

It can happen

literally overnight

on a sufficiently

alarming dose

of a

psychedelic

substance.

The reason I'm

willing to speak

to this is

because I

think it's not

without reason

that in this

final moment of

historical

culmination

that our

inventorying of

the life and

customs of this

planet has

brought to

our attention

then these

aboriginal

practices

because they

are the

other half

of the

equation.

What we

have brought

forward is

little truths

like energy

equals mass

times the

velocity of

light squared

so forth

and so on.

We are the

masters of

matter and

energy but

not the

masters of

our own

dreams,

our own

spiritual

striving.

For that

we are going

to have to

infuse our

sense of

technique,

technical

accomplishment

with the

heart

heart, basically.

The heart

that these

aboriginal

cultures have

kept intact.

The next few

years are going

to be wild

and woolly,

wilder and

woollier than

anything we have

seen so far.

Things, this

tendency of things

to appear to be

getting both

better and

worse is going

to be itself

exacerbated

tremendously.

And people

who have

outmoded or

silly or

incomplete or

insufficient

models of

reality are

going to find

themselves running

very, very hard

to catch up

with a rising

sense of

anxiety.

I think

it's going

to necessitate

a discussion

about

time's

direction,

the meaning

of history,

the meaning

of the

presence of

messianic and

utopian

visions in

our shamanic

and spiritual

legacy.

And I am

convinced that

the best thing

we can do

to help

this along

is to

argue against

anxiety,

inform people

concerning the

shamanic

technologies that

are available

to them,

and urge

people to

have faith

in the

larger

dynamical

processes that

define the

universe.

The universe

has been at

this game

a long,

long time.

It knows

what it is

about far

better than

do we.

and if we

wish to

align ourselves

with cosmic

purpose,

we have to

find out

what it is.

And to find

out what it

is, we have

to go outside

of our cultural

values and

our programming.

And we are

not,

fortunately,

without helpers,

without aids,

the plants

have always

been there.

They are the

repositories

of this

transforming

gnosis.

And if we

avail ourselves

of it,

we can

overcome

the dis-ease

of culture

and begin

to function

for each

other

as we should,

which is

as nodes

of transformative

information

and domains

of permission,

surrender,

and affirmation

that recover

the real meaning

of humanness

that history

has tended

to mitigate

and betray.

That's

what I have

to say

this afternoon.

It's

ten after

four.

Thank you

and I'll do

questions.

So,

questions.

Sure.

The question

is about

ayahuasca

and its ability

to heal

the body

and the mind.

In a way,

the question

is just a

continuation

of what

we've been

talking about

because

ayahuasca

is one

of these

aboriginal

hallucinogens

that has

arrived

on the

menu

of western

culture

right when

we need it.

Ayahuasca

is made

of a

large

woody

jungle

vine

which

contains

an

MAO

inhibitor,

harmine,

which is

complexed

with DMT

which comes

from

a plant

called

Cicotria

viridis,

chacruna.

And

these two

plants

are mixed

together

and boiled

and the

solid fraction

is eventually

dis...

and the boiled fraction is concentrated tremendously

and then you get a liquid

that is the equivalent of a slow-release DMT trip

and over four or five hours

you are swept into a titanically alien psychedelic experience

characterized by DMT-like hallucinations

yeah, good question

interesting question

the question is

harmin and harmaline

what's the difference

well, both are beta-carbolines

harmin occurs in ayahuasca

harmin is harder to take than harmaline

harmaline occurs in Syrian rue

and is by itself a hallucinogen

and probably in the presence of cannabis

which certainly in Iran wouldn't have been a problem

it's probably quite an active hallucinogen

harmin, the one in banisteriopsis coffee

is a little rugged

if you actually reach hallucinatory level on it

you're fairly close to toxicity

a lot of generalizations have been made about harmaline

based on harmin

that we now probably should go back and look at

if you are looking for a source of a good

if you're looking for a good MAO inhibitor source

harmal, which is the seeds of pagam and harmal

are sold in many Iranian markets

and if you buy

two grams of that reduced to powder

and taken orally

will thoroughly inhibit your MAO

for four to six hours

and if you then add a tryptamine

it will not metabolize away

and you'll have a psychedelic experience of some sort

a lot of people are doing this

there's a whole movement

I don't know if you're aware

about ayahuasca analogs

in other words

finding local plants in your environment

that contain MAO inhibitors and DMT

so that instead of going to the Amazon

and spreading cultural death

you can in the confines of your own kitchen

cook up a kind of ayahuasca-like thing

a lot of people are experimenting with this

there have been a few tummy aches

no, we haven't lost anybody

but this is definitely one of the frontiers

of botanical consciousness

while I'm on the subject

let me, just in the interest of stirring the pot

so to speak

call your attention to

there is a new psychedelic

that has been discovered

that is, I believe

very destined to play a role in our future

and that is salvia divinorum

this Mexican mint

which has a compound

it's either an isoquinaline

or a sesquiterpene

not an alkaloid

that is active

at the one milligram level

that's astonishingly intense

that's big news in pharmacology

LSD is active at 500 micrograms

that's half a milligram

but LSD is a hybrid of the laboratory

this new compound called alpha-salvanorine

or salvanorine alpha

occurs in this Mexican plant

salvia divinorum

in quite robust amounts

I mean, it's well worth your while

to extract it

it's worth your while to chew it

it's worth your while to smoke it

and, you know, the reports about this substance

are pretty exciting

even DMT test pilots

come back white-knuckled

from this one

as far as contraindications

you should know

some people lose consciousness

and get up and move around

even though they're loaded

so this suggests what we call

the tie-em-to-the-tree protocol

you know, it only

it only lasts about 40 minutes

so just have somebody rope you

as Ulysses had his crew

rope him to the mast

and then you can hear the siren song

without disgracing yourself

yes

yes, this is a reference

to my time wave theory

which I obliquely referred to today

but didn't flay you with the details

but the nice thing about my theory

is it has these hideous tests

built into it

that are unavoidable

you can't sweep it under the rug

and one of the tests is

that the theory predicts

that next year

beginning around, I believe

the end of February

and on through till December

is going to be

without contest

the most dramatic plunge

into novelty

so far

in our lifetimes

and so it has to outdo

the fall of the Soviet Union

it has to even outdo

Ross Perot's announcing

for the presidency

there are giants

that it must surpass

so I will be

either here crowing

a year from now

or it will be very hard

to get calls through to me

as I

I'll be in seclusion

yeah

you're describing

consciousness

of our consciousness

as having been

in need of

a lack of individuation

well

it's

it's the issue

between

individuation

and ego

and I think

your question

implies

a confusion

of the two

I mean

we

we glory

in the

in our individuality

our uniqueness

our

specialness

but the ego

is

something else

the ego

is something

which seeks

to actually

empower itself

at the expense

of other

people

and so

you know

there has to be

a trade-off

I think

the glory

of western

civilization

is our

empowering

of our

uniqueness

the unique

artistic vision

the unique

scientific vision

the appalling

thing about

western civilization

is how

we have

you know

taken the worst

aspects

of

dominator

society

and

institutionalized

it

and then

passed laws

which make it

almost impossible

to overturn it

so

I'm not

preaching

any form

of

ant hill

fascist

or

communist

or

otherwise

but I do

think

you know

that we

over identify

ourselves

with

things

we

over identify

our happiness

with

objects

one of the

great things

about

psychedelics

that is

so

corrosive

to

capitalistic

values

is that

psychedelics

show you

that the best

stuff

is in your

own head

you know

better than

walking down

madison avenue

looking in the

windows

is sitting in

your shabby

apartment

on six dried

grams

looking in

the windows

you know

when you talk

about

transcendental

objects

the thing

that

occurs to

me

is

let's get back

to some other

things you say

about

hypercognition

or hypercognitive

objects

if you go

into certain

states

you can see

sort of like

hologrammic

visions

where

your consciousness

is not

mediated

by

senses

but

you're

perceiving

things

that have

holographic

qualities

could you

talk about

hypertransition

what this

the experience

the chauvin

will sometimes

have

in perceiving

hypercognitive

beings

like that

well

obviously

the world

arrives at

the surface

of your skin

as one

thing

and then

it enters

into

channels

perceptual

channels

of distinction

the eyes

bring you

some data

the ears

bring you

data

and the

idea is that

within the

brain

all these

channels

are supposed

to be

recombined

to give you

the original

input

and apparently

this is

culturally

a culturally

defined

undertaking

in other words

when you

think

you think

you're

thinking

the way

people have

always

thought

but in

fact

how people

think

is very

much

dependent

on

media

and

informational

biases

in the

society

in which

they were

raised

I believe

most western

people

hear themselves

think

in other words

they hear

the equivalent

of a voice

speaking in

their head

and it

speaks

their

thoughts

when you

smoke

halfway

decent

pot

or take

psychedelics

or something

like that

you become

aware

that the

processing

of incoming

audio

data

shifts

slightly

toward the

visual

and you

see

what people

mean

or their

speech

seems more

colorful

it seems

to convey

more

and I

think

whether we

process

incoming

speech

by the

ear

or by

the

eye

internally

is a

cultural

piece of

cultural

conditioning

and that

in fact

we are

in the

act of

changing

over

that

you know

this

generation

of young

people

who are

always

dissed

as

illiterate

are in

fact

print

illiterate

but they

know more

about

electronic

literacy

than the

people

who are

knocking

them

and their

bias

is primarily

toward the

eye

rather than

the ear

that's why

what we really

have are two

cultures

talking past

each other

and I

think that

psychedelics

sort of

strip out

culturally

conditioned

styles

of sensory

processing

and that

what we

call

hallucinations

are nothing

more than

our thoughts

beheld

to some

degree

and that

we're not

used to

beholding

our thoughts

we're used

to hearing

our thoughts

yeah

the question

is talk

about time

speeding up

maybe we're

experiencing

the rapture

right now

well in a

sense that's

what I was

hinting at

history

is

a very

low

volume

version

of the

rapture

and the

20th century

is a

slightly

higher

volume

of the

rapture

and you

know the

year

preceding

concrescence

will be

yet more

like the

rapture

and the

minutes

preceding

concrescence

probably

hell it

will be

the

rapture

the

universe

is seeking

some kind

of completion

at a

very very

rapid

state

and

clearly

technology

is

now

what is

driving it

for a long

time it

was driven

by chemistry

and then

1.3

billion years

ago it

began to

be driven

by genetics

biology

became the

carrier of

change

on this

planet

20,000

years ago

it moved

into what

some people

call the

epigenetic

domain

that means

change

not in

the genes

writing

is an

epigenetic

behavior

language

is an

epigenetic

behavior

painting

dance

language

or possibly

borderline

quasi

genetic

quasi

epigenetic

as

Chomsky

implied

the thing

that we're

not

coming to

terms with

because it's

almost literally

it's

unthinkable

is that

history

is a

birthing

process

history

episode

where you

begin at

the top

of the

birth canal

and you're

a cheerful

nomad

herding your

cattle across

the African

plains

worshipping a

mother goddess

having your

orgies

having your

intoxications

so forth

and so on

that's us at

the top of

the birth

canal

thousand

years ago

now

you know

we are

at the

narrow

neck

and

we feel like

we're being

squeezed to

death

suffocated

there is

not enough

water

there is

not enough

air

there is

only

pressure

and

how

in this

moment of

cumulative

global

crisis

can we

imagine

that this

is simply

a passage

to a

wider

domain

of being

as different

from the

world we

have known

as

this

world

is

from the

omniotic

oceans

womb

but

humanness

survives

humanness

is fully

present in

the womb

fully

present in

the world

makes the

transition

through the

narrow neck

of the

birth canal

and we

will make

the transition

I am

confident

through the

narrow neck

of modern

history

and into

this wider

post-historical

domain

how much

of our

foolishness

our

habits

we will

be able

to take

with us

into that

new

domain

we don't

know

we'll be

lucky

if we get

to keep

the body

you know

and I'm

for that

but I'm

also

completely

aware

it may

not go

according to

my wishes

there may

come a

moment

when there

are levels

of surrender

that are

trying to

the most

crazed

among us

but nature

is clearly

now in

the third

and final

act of

her love

affair

with

complexity

and our

cultures

our

technologies

now have

such a

momentum

for the

production

of this

kind of

complexity

that

political

decisions

hardly

matter

anymore

that's

become

a

sideshow

and

driven

by

money

and

scientific

understanding

technology

has

taken

the lead

and

by

technology

I don't

mean

simply

machines

I use

McLuhan's

definition

technology

is simply

the

extensions

of man

the

extensions

of man

we are

hardwiring

the

unconscious

we are

shrinking

the planet

to a

point

we are

democratizing

the

availability

of data

we are

digitalizing

our past

so that it

doesn't

decay

and we

are

triangulating

and

anticipating

our

future

and

discovering

it

as we

live

into

it

to be

more

fun

than we

ever

dared

imagine

more

psychedelic

than we

ever

dared

imagine

and

I

look

for this

to continue

until it

just reaches

excruciating

levels

you put it

very well

we are

in the

shadow

of

the

rapture

that is

the end

of history

and this

is

the end

of this

little

get

together

thank you

very much

there are

tapes of

many many

of my

past

lectures

available

from

sound

photosynthesis

they are

the best

source

of this

material

see you next

this

this recording

is copyright

sound

photosynthesis

p.o.

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mill valley

california

i am

faustin

gray

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photosynthesis

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