WEBVTT 00:10.770 --> 00:29.590 One of the games my brother liked to play with the mushrooms was, you know, in this dialogue situation, he was always saying, tell me something I can't possibly know, right? And that will validate that it's not me, you know, that this is coming from. 00:29.590 --> 00:48.010 I don't know that he ever succeeded in getting it. It's very cagey, you know, they're very tricky that way. It's, you know, but occasionally they do seem to tell people things that they can't possibly know or that they've never thought about in quite that way. 00:48.010 --> 00:59.570 And now it's come out, for example, that, you know, Crick's insight into the structure of DNA was assisted by LSD, you know, and he... 00:59.590 --> 01:12.270 reluctantly, but finally admitted that that was a big influence. And many computer scientists, you know, Steve Jobs has said LSD has been very useful for his creativity. 01:12.730 --> 01:40.200 Cary Mullis, the Nobel Prize winner who figured out the PCR chain reaction has been quite upfront about it. LSD gave him the ability to get down with the molecules and see what's happening. 01:40.200 --> 01:41.340 In some sense. 01:41.360 --> 02:10.460 There is a communication. In some sense, the question isn't even valid, because where do the boundaries between the self and the world exist? You know, we're not really separate. I mean, we're part of this information field. And, you know, this notion that consciousness, I mean, I do think that consciousness does, it's like a property of the continuum. 02:10.460 --> 02:11.180 It's like... 02:11.360 --> 02:27.140 The old physical physicist concept of the ether or something. It kind of permeates everything. And it's not really localized in the human brain or necessarily even generated by the human brain. 02:27.140 --> 02:41.140 Why does the brain require DMT for normal function, if, you know, this is indeed true? Yeah, and it's hard to say. I mean, I think that perhaps one of the functions of ordinary levels of DMT is kind of... 02:41.360 --> 02:43.800 Like a, you know, kind of reality thermostat. 02:44.920 --> 02:48.400 If you have a certain kind of narrow window of 02:49.080 --> 02:53.200 levels of DMT in the brain, it maintains this ordinary 02:54.100 --> 02:58.800 level of, you know, perceptual, you know, consensus reality that most of us live in. 02:59.220 --> 03:05.980 You know, kind of like the endo-matrix in a way, as opposed to like an externally applied, you know, psychological or, you know 03:06.680 --> 03:08.680 consciousness kind of matrix like in the movie. 03:09.480 --> 03:11.180 You know, this is one 03:11.180 --> 03:16.340 that's internally generated but it may be that the brain is a place where it 03:16.340 --> 03:21.440 becomes focused and concentrated you know the brain may be as much a receiver 03:21.440 --> 03:27.560 of the signal as it is a generator of the signal you know nobody can really 03:27.560 --> 03:34.820 say but that's that model in some ways appeals more to me than the notion that 03:34.820 --> 03:40.160 it's all coming from the brain the brain is more like a node you know and there's 03:40.160 --> 03:46.400 this sort of field of consciousness that permeates everything and to a 03:46.400 --> 03:51.260 certain degree everything is conscious I think of the shaman as entering into 03:51.260 --> 03:58.700 this net of being in the higher worlds in the heaven worlds and that's why I've 03:58.700 --> 04:04.220 personified the net of being this painting behind us as this continuum of 04:04.220 --> 04:09.160 heads interlocking infinitely in all directions 04:09.160 --> 04:10.100 because 04:10.100 --> 04:10.140 you know 04:10.140 --> 04:19.140 that points to being as a continuum as a network in a sense to an infinite realm 04:19.140 --> 04:26.340 and this is a part of the deep fabric of our being I think because we sense 04:26.340 --> 04:35.520 ourselves as souls related to many there is this everyday world but you can 04:35.520 --> 04:40.080 be in a place where there is no you and still perceive the world 04:40.080 --> 04:40.140 as a whole as if you're in a place where there is no you and still perceive the world 04:40.140 --> 04:40.320 as being a place where there is no you and still perceive the world 04:40.320 --> 04:44.760 that scared me losing my ego was the scariest thing I have and I still don't 04:44.760 --> 04:50.580 like it a profound state which may be reached by use of these entheogens 04:50.580 --> 04:55.500 psychedelics hallucinogens whatever you're going to call them um which is 04:55.500 --> 05:04.240 known as ego loss or ego death unfortunately subsequent to the coinage 05:04.240 --> 05:09.420 of this term ego has come to be used in a completely other sense 05:09.420 --> 05:09.920 um the ego of the spirit that I am and it's a whole other world but it's a whole other sense and that's why I'm here in this moment 05:09.920 --> 05:09.960 and I think we've got some very interesting questions about why we're here in this moment 05:09.960 --> 05:10.020 and I think we've got some very interesting questions about why we're here in this moment 05:10.020 --> 05:17.380 it has been used in the sense of pride and that is not what ego death is about 05:18.180 --> 05:24.020 ego death would mean you lose your sense of eye for good and that's not what happens they mean 05:24.020 --> 05:35.300 a temporary suspension of the ego when ego death is spoken of ego death means the death of you 05:35.300 --> 05:45.780 as a concept whereas we walk around thinking of ourselves as things we think of i am sitting in 05:45.780 --> 05:55.220 the chair therefore you know i am a thing the chair is a thing when we reach the realm of ego 05:55.220 --> 06:03.940 death or ego dissolution or whatever you're going to call it there is no longer any perceived 06:03.940 --> 06:05.220 boundary between 06:05.860 --> 06:18.280 oneself and the chair in this state there are no things there is just one continuous experience 06:18.920 --> 06:26.920 in some sense all of experience is an illusion you know everything that we experience in the here 06:26.920 --> 06:34.440 and now and our state of being is a hallucination an elaborate hallucination that our brains 06:34.440 --> 06:36.920 construct we happen 06:37.000 --> 06:44.040 to call it consensus reality but it's still i mean i mean physics tells us that you know 06:44.680 --> 06:51.960 the picture of reality that we build so that we can navigate through the world and not step in 06:51.960 --> 06:57.560 front of buses and stuff like that and do all those you know the world doesn't really look like 06:57.560 --> 07:06.600 this at all you know the brain constructs a model of reality that more or less maps onto reality it's 07:07.000 --> 07:10.040 inside the human race but that's another picture in order to be able to prepare us for the real 07:10.040 --> 07:33.640 well-being of the real world i think there's actually a bunch of 07:33.640 --> 07:35.080 uh 07:35.080 --> 07:36.600 but you also have real tools 07:36.600 --> 07:45.340 all open to our being you know we have a complete freedom of the continuum of being if we change the 07:45.340 --> 07:50.460 nature you know we have the model and we have the real world out here and we have the sensory 07:50.460 --> 07:58.560 neural interface that's taking this information in interpreting it and giving us the model if we 07:58.560 --> 08:06.580 change the nature of the sensory neural interface a little or a lot if we substitute say DM 08:06.580 --> 08:14.420 T for serotonin you know the model of the world that we get changes radically and who's to say 08:14.420 --> 08:21.320 that that's any less valid than the model that you know the brain constructs for you know for 08:21.320 --> 08:30.880 everyday purposes so this idea that you know I mean it's it's all illusion it's all hallucination 08:30.880 --> 08:36.560 that's what experience is you know I mean that's why in some ways 08:36.560 --> 08:42.920 I sometimes get a little impatient with with people that say you know well a drug experience 08:42.920 --> 08:50.240 cannot possibly have any spiritual validity well I'm here to tell you that all experience 08:50.240 --> 08:57.200 is a drug experience you know we're all on drugs all the time largely because we're made 08:57.200 --> 09:05.780 of drugs you know and that's what drives us you know experience is you know sort of the 09:06.560 --> 09:11.900 what issues out of this biochemical process of you know all these 09:11.900 --> 09:18.560 neurotransmitters and hormones moving around our brain I mean it's drugs