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.
box
mill valley
california
i am
faustin
gray
for sound
photosynthesis
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