Techno Pagans

...cosmic trigger, probably on the influence of some psychedelic drugs, but we'll come to that.

And in it, he summarizes yours and your brother's work on the time wave.

And he, in fact, charts out history into three major sections, the 67-year section,

which will comprise the bulk of my life, an interesting 13-month section, which will happen in 2011,

and then an interesting six-day section, which will happen immediately preceding the winter solstice in 2012,

in which, I believe, during the last six-day session, there will be more novelty than has existed on the planet since ever.

And I looked at this, and I had been reading.

I'd started off easy, so I'd read Alvin Toffler, and then I could take a little bit more,

so I worked myself up into Pierre-Théard de Chardin, and then I came across that, and I said,

well, this appears to be the case.

It was confirmed to me internally in a way that I could not particularly argue with, I could not argue out of.

It was simply a foundational fact, and all of my work thereafter was based on a premise

that the universe is seeking a type of closure, that, in fact, things are converging.

And so my own life study had been perhaps an exploration of what those avenues of convergence were,

and it ended up over a period of years that my own life story became a search to create the forms of that convergence.

So we'll now flash forward to my first experience of virtual reality, which happened in 1990,

and required absolutely no technology except about 500 micrograms of LSD-25.

I'd been thinking, I'd been reading, and all of a sudden I drop acid after several years,

and of course if you've taken several years' break, and all of a sudden flush yourself back into that realm,

you can find that things really pop up.

And I found myself in a virtual world.

And what I found in this virtual world, the thing that I must have suspected that I would find in this virtual world,

wasn't an artificial Tron-like environment.

It wasn't something that was entirely artificial.

What I beheld in that environment was an image of the planet,

as if I was cruising above it in a spaceship.

And I knew that part of my own destiny, as connected with virtual reality,

wasn't to escape into another dimension,

but to find a way to make real to us the things that we can't always see,

because we exist at a level of scale, of experience, that hides them from us.

And at that point in my life,

I decided I needed to leave New England and come to California,

where everything was really going on.

This was 1990, and VR was the hot new thing.

And we forget now that VR was the hot new thing before the Internet became the hot new thing.

But for a while, it was the cheese.

And I moved to San Francisco,

which made it much easier to get good drugs.

And I started to explore, by working, by building systems,

what virtual reality was.

And this started to have a profound change

on my own understanding of how reality was constructed,

because my psychedelic description of reality,

which is that mind forms reality,

began to conflate or become identical with

my physical or scientific description of reality,

which is that mind forms reality.

And all of a sudden, I understood that

everything I used to understand about the way the universe works

wasn't as true as I had thought.

And so this began to inspire in me a search,

a search to get to some basic level of being

that would allow me to work in a world

that was manifest because of my own will.

And just as much as manifest because of your own will.

Because where we're going,

the simulated and the real

are going to get really blurry.

And we don't have any tools.

We don't have any tools of mind.

Western culture,

which is based on this idea of this objective,

external reality,

it's not hard.

It's all become very soft,

and it's all flowing together.

So we need to now start to find

ways of describing what's going on.

And so what we need to do,

I found in my own investigations,

is to take a look at cultures

that describe the world magically,

that understand that perception

shapes what you are,

and you shape what you see.

And that they're not separate areas,

they're not separate domains,

but you have to consider them as a whole.

So the four sort of prongs

that got talked about in the blurb

that was written for this piece

are techno-paganism.

And techno-paganism is maybe,

you could describe it a bunch of different ways,

and I certainly didn't make the word up,

and I certainly didn't apply the word to myself,

but it stuck,

because Wired Magazine published an article

two years ago,

with my face blazoned on it,

photoshopped, reversed, in color,

and said,

this is a techno-pagan.

And really what it was trying to do

was trying to articulate

my own experience of being thrust into this world

where everything was melting,

and nothing was solid,

and trying to come to grips with it

philosophically,

trying to come to grips with it ontologically.

And my own explorations

had led me to understand

that in fact in a world

where anything you want is true,

the only way you can deal with this

is by learning how to deal with your will.

Dealing with your will

is what magic has always,

in all cultures,

always been about.

This is why the shaman doesn't go insane

when the world just disappears.

He's ready for it.

They're ready because they understand

that where they are

isn't bound up in their view of the world.

The internet

is a connective layer.

And you were talking about this last night.

It's beautiful.

If you took a picture of this room in 1990,

and you took a picture of it today,

everything would look exactly the same,

and yet everything is completely different.

Because in 1990,

we didn't have this layer of bits

that's flowing seamlessly among all of us.

And it's changed us.

It's radically sped up the way

we deal with information in society.

And every bit of information

that passes through you

changes you.

You cannot be unaffected in any way

by any bit of information.

So the internet is acting

as this enormous accelerator.

It's acting as something

that's passing through all of us

and radically transforming us.

And part of what it's doing

is ripping us apart.

And that's dangerous.

If we don't approach that carefully,

and if we don't approach that

with a lot of heart,

we're going to find ourselves

and what we think of as ourselves

ripped away in that process.

One of the reasons why I think

it's very important

that this is happening at Esalen

is because if Esalen

were running a political campaign,

their slogan would be

It's the body, stupid.

Because it begins here

and it ends here.

And if we can stay in our bodies

even while we're projected

into cyberspace,

we have some zone for sanity.

We have some zone for being.

And psychedelics

can produce these

boundary dissolutions

where you flow into another thing.

What we're going to see,

and it's actually quite true,

that certain types of VR

can produce precisely

the same affect.

There are zones

where virtual reality

can be very dangerous

for that reason

or incredibly powerful

and meaningful

for that reason.

So where I would like

to work from this weekend

is I really want to work

from the heart.

I personally think

in my own philosophy

that to work in technology

you have to work

from the heart center

because otherwise

you'll create golems,

you'll create frankensteins,

your creations

will run away from you.

And that's the essence

of the story of the golem

is that this is a creature

that was created

with the breath of life

but without the light

of knowledge

or the heart,

the heart of God.

So we really have

to work from that.

And one of the things

that we'll be doing

this weekend for that

and we're inviting you,

I don't think we're requiring you

because that would just not

be in the center of this place,

but we're inviting you

at 7.30 in the morning

both tomorrow and Sunday

to come practice

kundalini yoga.

And kundalini yoga

works very much

on the heart center.

It's not strenuous.

I guarantee you

it will be fun.

We have a very good teacher,

James,

who will be teaching this.

And the idea is

that with these exercises

we can help to open up

our heart center

so that when we talk tomorrow,

when we meet tomorrow,

we can really be working

from that.

Even when we're talking

about these ideas

that may be very

technologically relevant,

they won't be isolated

in our minds.

That all said,

I also want to explore

the joyous nature

of what we can do.

And a lot of my work

has been around exploring

the joyous nature

of what we can do.

We have to,

if we're working

from our hearts

in these environments,

then a part of what

we want to do

is be joyous

in these environments.

One of my biggest gripes

about the Internet

is that it can't

as yet contain

the tenor

of human emotion

which is so important.

If we're building

this edifice

to be the global mind

and it can't laugh,

we've got a big problem.

If it can't sing,

we have a big problem.

And so one of the things

we'll be doing

probably in the evening

on Saturday

is doing something

we call voce,

which Paul and I

have been working on.

We call it

World Song or voce,

which is a singing

or a toning technique.

And it can produce

a quality of connection

in a group of people

which is,

the closest I've heard

it described

is almost like

instant ecstasy.

in the sense

of the drug.

And it's a temporary

sort of lowering

of interpersonal barriers

in a really,

really wonderful way.

And hopefully

at the end

of all of this

I will have been inspired

and Terence

will have been inspired

by what you had to say

and will be able

to bring that

heart-centeredness

which has to,

I believe,

remain at the heart

of how we work

when we're working

in the world

and with technology

in the world.

Isn't he a great guy?

If I had the

Timothy Leary laurels

with me,

I'd hand them all

up.

how the bad penny

could pass.

Well,

that's,

I love listening

to Mark

rap this stuff

and he really knows

where he's coming from

and it's exciting

stuff.

I've been into

this psychedelic thing

since the late 60s

and it's transformed

in different ways

and there's been

a strange

sort of literary

parallelism

or cloud

over my own life

so that as my

obsessions

evolved

society

obligingly

evolved

in the same

direction

and when I got

started with

psychedelics

it was because

I was

interested

in the mystical

experience

a la

Yakub Burma

and Thomas

Traherne

and all that

sort of thing

and I had read

Aldous Huxley's

book

The Doors of

Perception

so it was

a spiritual

intentionality

and as time

passed

I was completely

satisfied

in that

but I also

became interested

then in

what were

psychedelics

in terms of

their impacts

on large

numbers of

people

and on human

social and

cultural evolution

because to me

it was just

this incredible

power

this dimension

which my

own culture

completely

denied

and overlooked

but that

obviously

from the

first time

I had a

major trip

on

it was clear

to me

that this

had to have

evolutionary

implications

and it

seemed to me

as I read

my Darwin

and

Freud

that

there

had to be

some kind

of quickening

influence

in human

emergence

that

if not

outright

transcendental

was

certainly

unique

and out of

the ordinary

order of

nature

and so

that I

spent years

thinking about

psychedelics

implications

for human

evolution

and most

of you

if you're

interested

know my

theories about

all this

well then

the engagement

with it

extended

further

and I

began to

see it

as

a lens

for

coordinating

large amounts

of data

in order

to

essentially

prophesize

the future

that the

future

somehow

I had

the notion

that history

and the

individual

life

built around

the psychedelic

experience

were fractal

reflections

of each

other

and that

led to

the conclusion

that history

is a trip

and that

led to the

conclusion

that the

best was

yet to

come

or the

best was

bet to

come

I'm not

sure

so it

had this

sociopolitical

and historical

implication

and it

wasn't as

simple as

just imagining

what would

happen if

societies would

permit these

things

but I could

also see

that it

was a

catalyst

on

imagination

that

you know

whatever it

was that

psychedelics

were doing

it was

taking

anybody's

notion of

reality

anybody's

mindset

and radically

extending it

and if they

found that

comfortable

they were

ecstatic

and if they

found it

horrifying

they were

traumatized

but the

common thread

was

takes

ordinary

minds

makes them

bigger

stranger

more grotesque

less predictable

more bizarre

so

then

that was

not yet

the

outer

parameter

of the

issues

that this

phenomenon

the psychedelic

experience

seemed to

engage

it seemed

to me

that at

the personal

and experiential

level

the thing

that was

so astonishing

about it

was not

that it

led

at least

for me

directly

what it

led to

was

more

art

than I

conceived

of existing

how

was it

that you

know

in a

five hour

psilocybin

trip

an ordinary

person

lying in

darkness

sees more

art

than is

stored

and cataloged

in all

the museums

of Europe

I mean

this was

confounding

to me

and I

had a

Jungian

bias

too

so I

was

full of

the notion

of the

commonality

of the

unconscious

and all

that

and so

I was

puzzled

why don't

I see

these

motifs

in

Tibetan

paintings

shipibo

carving

how can

something

which is

so near

over a

very slight

energy

threshold

involved

in taking

these

substances

be so

distant

from our

cultural

values

and our

store

of

images

and it

was

around

this

time

roughly

that I

began to

hear the

first buzz

about virtual

reality

and I

knew

the minute

I understood

the concept

I knew

in the same

way that I

knew

when I

heard about

the first

Mac

and LSD

and

potassium

sugar

perchlorate

rocket fuels

that this

was going

to be

the next

great

thing

and

as a

tool

of art

as a

tool

for

leading

us

beyond

the notion

that we

are

a hive

society

of advanced

primates

because that's

how we

visually

appear

to the

empirical

point of

view

that's

an

out of

context

description

of what

we are

it's like

a schematic

or an

aerial map

what we

really are

is the

community

of mind

knitted

together

by codes

and symbols

intuitions

aspirations

histories

hopes

the

invisible

world

of the

human

experience

is far

more

real

to us

than the

visible

world

which is

little

more

than

a

kind

of

screen

or

stage

upon

which

we

move

so

this

thing

Mark

said

I

heard

it

for the

first

time

and

got

it

that

the

purpose

of

VR

is

to

show

us

aspects

of

reality

that are

not

artificial

but

that are

fields

of data

not

ordinarily

coordinated

by ordinary

perception

you know

Ralph Abraham

who's a

favorite

around here

has talked

about

how

mathematics

which has

been a

high priesthood

of arcane

formulae

and special

signifying

languages

is giving

way to

visual

understanding

if you

talk to

someone

about a

seven or

eight

dimensional

process

most people

completely

blur out

if you

show them

an animation

of an

ongoing

eight

dimensional

process

everybody

understands

without a

word being

said

exactly

what is

happening

so

I see

virtual

reality

as a

way

not of

escaping

any

notion

of

empirical

reality

but

as a

way

of

reportraying

invisible

levels

of the

given

world

that are

very

vital

and

important

to us

how we

see

flows

of

energy

how we

understand

complex

economies

how we

understand

the

fractal

hierarchies

of nature

everything

is about

to get

very much

more

complicated

much

larger

the

number

of

choices

are

about

to

exponentially

explode

in a

sense

these

technologies

point us

toward

if not

literal

godhood

than a

kind

of

fictional

godhood

we are

all going

to become

the masters

of the

narrative

in which

we are

embedded

our

separate

stories

are going

to take

on

dimensions

so

multifarous

that for

all practical

purposes

we will

each

move

into a

cosmos

of our

own

creation

and

control

in a

way

all that

is happening

is that

what is

already

co-present

with

three-dimensional

reality

is being

literalized

but

literalized

in

time

scales

that make

the nature

of the

game

apparent

to all

but the

dullest

among us

I mean

after all

we have

always lived

in virtual

realities

ever since

we abandoned

nomadism

and defined

a polis

and a

wilderness

and

you know

when

Hammarubi

set up

the first

codes

in Babylon

these were

operating

codes

these were

constraints

on the

human

system

that did

not

fully

implement

its

capabilities

but rather

defined

and limited

it

for purposes

of implementing

certain

design

goals

well now

we have

been in

the birth

canal

of the

design

process

for about

8000 years

now

and we can

see light

at the end

of the tunnel

the French

have a

notion

of

forward

escape

that means

when the

situation

gets so

crazy

then you

just

hit the

accelerator

and drive

straight up

the middle

and that's

the forward

escape

and technology

represents

this

for us

our ideologies

are probably

lethal

obviously

lethal

I would say

but they

are

fortunately

a kind

of

chrysalis

of

ideological

constraint

that technology

is in the

process

of dissolving

and you

know

William Butler

saw this

in the

19th century

Teilhard de

Chardin

reached it

in the

40s

and the

50s

McLuhan

expressly

articulated

this vision

in the

50s

and the

60s

this is

really

you know

as Ahab

tells the

crew

in Moby Dick

this is

what you

shipped

for

mate

this

was the

plan

you know

Plato

said

if God

does not

exist

man

will

create

such a

thing

and we

are

creating

a

simulacrum

of our

highest

hopes

and the

effort

to

define

the

actual

delimiting

architecture

of our

hope

is an

intellectual

exercise

that we

have

never

previously

submitted

to

and what

I mean

by that

is

when you

can do

anything

what do

you do

we've

always worked

within the

constraints

of mortar

glass

steel

our

economic

scales

our

physical

scales

VR

eliminates

all

of this

you know

the difference

between a

ten story

building

and a

hundred

story

building

in virtual

reality

is one

zero

in a

line

of code

well

with

that

kind

of

freedom

the

human

imagination

which has

been

defined

by

limitation

the

planet's

surface

the

needs

and wishes

of others

is going

to unfold

in these

super

spaces

and

you know

it's a

gnostic

epiphany

if you

believe

what it

really

comes down

to

in terms

of

the

politics

and

psychology

of it

is a

final

resolution

to my

mind

of the

question

is man

good

in other

words

with all

constraints

removed

do we

descend

into

a

world

of

you know

Freudian

nightmare

and

simulated

sadomasochism

or do

we

express

something

which

matter

always

mitigated

against

so that's

what I think

is

I'm sure

we will

do both

I mean

the essence

of choice

means

not only

will

we

collectively

do both

probably

each and

every one

of us

will do

both

you know

occasionally

you flop

on the

seamy

side

it

gives

a

literary

quality

to life

that's

lacking

among

the

tight

ass

so

well I

don't know

it's a

quarter of

ten

do you

want to

riff off

that

for a bit

and then

we'll

send

these

folks

packing

I've

been

piecing

together

an

essay

while I've

been here

which I'm

calling

West of

Esalen

which is

interesting

because if

you take a

look at

what's

west of

Esalen

you see

a gaping

cliff

which has

been growing

of late

and

Esalen

as is all

of California

is breaking

off and

falling into

the sea

and there

is no

safe land

anywhere

and that's

more than

a metaphor

for where we

are now

and it's

interesting

because

there's

talk about

what Esalen

has to do

with the

modern age

and yet

so much

of what

we think

of as

modern

language

has been

shaped by

what's

come out

of this

place

talking about

somebody's

vibes

or being

touchy-feely

or even

doing yoga

which is

now of course

all the rage

in late

millennial

culture

these are

all impulses

that came

out of this

place

so there's

something about

this space

and about

the body

which is

incredibly

right

and even

if Esalen

vanished

tomorrow

god

god is

forbid

even if

it did

the impact

of it

as an

institution

has been

profound

and I think

perhaps what

we're trying

to do here

this weekend

and tonight

is to extend

the franchise

of Esalen

into another

realm

to say

that the

values

that make

us human

the values

that make

us

good

are the

values

that come

out of

what's done

here

and maybe

they're values

that rely

on the body

in some way

that even

as we talk

about this

gnostic release

this uploading

of the soul

into some sort

of silicon

which we will

talk about

that there's

this body

that's behind

sort of bitching

saying

excuse me

I'm real

and I am

the potential

I am the

ground

in which

you work

because of

that

I hope

that we

will spend

some of

the weekend

not just

speculating

but constantly

looping

and bringing

it back

into the

body

and where

the body

is

the question

of the body

is one

of the largest

questions

in virtual

reality

that's a

curious

contradiction

and yet

it's true

where is

the body

in cyberspace

where are

you

when your

email is

flashing across

the net

when your

agents are

doing your

bidding

where are

you

and how

do you

maintain

yourself

and it was

interesting

because there

was a

comment

that was

made

earlier

about

psychedelics

as a

shortcut

versus

yoga

or one

of the

other

traditions

and I

know

that in

my

own

life

I

need

both

of

them

because I

need

the

psychedelics

in

to be

able

to

have

the

vision

but I

need

the

yoga

in

order

to

maintain

the

stability

to

express

the

vision

and so there's

both dials

there

it's as if

the internet

is some sort

of collective

psychedelic

we're going to

need the body

as we pass

through it

so that we can

explore the zones

within ourselves

that are the good

yeah it's great

what you say

about that we're

trying to

push the

definitions

of

Esalen's

relevance

because

you know

the entire

intellectual

and spiritual

effort here

over the past

thirty years

flies under

the flag

of the human

potential

movement

and that's

what it's

called

and certainly

what we're

talking about

here and

trying to

bring gently

onto the

stage

is an

enormous

frontier

of human

potential

we are

to some

degree

beginning to

design

ourselves

or beginning

to design

our potential

in the

service of

the idea

of a

perfected

humanity

of some

sort

and what we're

talking about

here is not

genetic

manipulation

or eugenics

or any of

these somewhat

dubious

enterprises

with a

clouded

history

but using

technological

prosthesis

to extend

and enrich

humanness

to enrich

communication

and it is

believe me

the want

of good

communication

that is

the thing

probably

if anything

undoes us

this will be

it

that our

languages

failed

that we

misread each

other's

intent

that we

could not

understand

each other

so the

project of

refining

language

is

the same

project as

the ending

of history

I mean

history is

the story

of languages

that failed

and when

language grows

perfect

history will

end

and language

may not

look

like it

looks today

or sound

like it

sounds today

the realization

that's flowered

in the wake

of the internet

and the rise

of cybernetics

is that

everything is

made of

information

is the primary

datum of

being

concepts like

time and

space and

energy

are orders

of magnitude

removed from

the present

at hand

when compared

with a

concept

like

information

and as

Mark said

every iota

every bit

of information

that passes

through us

that we

generate

that we

transmit

changes us

so I'm

seeing here

almost a

theosophical

epiphany

of language

trying to

bootstrap

itself

toward realms

of platonic

perfection

which as

organic beings

we experience

as love

love

beauty

truth

these are

the vectors

of human

becoming

they always

have been

they always

will be

and the

technologies

that open

these paths

for us

are

no more

and no less

powerful

than

the human

beings

that wield

them

and millennial

implication

and what

lies

as the

goal

is

true

humanness

in

sympathetic

symbiosis

with the

planet

and with

these

strange

children

that we

have brought

into the

world

our

machines

I mean

that is

the challenge

at the

end of

history

and that's

what we'll

be talking

about

this

some

sleep

Mark

I wanted

to ask

you

where

is

the

yoga

is

here

no

tomorrow

morning

they have

movements

here

in the

big room

in the

meeting room

in the

big house

everyone

familiar

where the

big house

is

it's

across

the

bridge

and

it's

the

big

house

as opposed

to the

little house

which it's

opposite

from

the

big

house

please

you'll

enjoy it

if you

have a

blanket

or something

bring it

it'll be

comfy

but if

not

don't

worry

about

it