posted October 15, 2010 02:18 PM         

What you probably don't know
about our history, how we got here,
and how we're gonna get out of this mess.

posted October 16, 2010 07:06 PM         

CNN story on John's Hopkin's University study
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7yKpvBQhTw

Richard Alpert Talk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mReRUfZf0_w

"I particularly like speaking to very conservative groups, where I 'm introduced with everything except psychedelics. 'He was at Harvard and did research on consciousness, and went to India." And, what happened, something's missing. I get up and I say, 'The most significant single event of my life happened on March 6, 1961 when Tim Leary gave me psilocybin.' And I can feel the lips [in the crowd] get very tight. And I say, 'I've taken it hundreds of times since then; LSD and all of them. And so you must assume that anybody who's done that must be psychotic. But I would point out that you paid to come hear me.'... And I can honestly say that what happened to me in 1961 was so - whatever it was, I am still growing into it now. That it has guided the course of my life. That it cut through at such a profound level my ability to keep people as them. And though I've tried (because this culture is very good at keeping everybody as them, so that you're almost totally alienated), whatever it was that happened to me then keeps undercutting my ability to distance myself from other people in my mind without realizing I'm doing a mind-trip on myself. Because the inner validity of the experience of us was so profound."

posted October 18, 2010 11:44 PM         

~ Maria Sabina, Mazatec Wise Woman

"There is no difference in principle between sharpening perception with an external instrument, such as a microscope, and sharpening it with an internal instrument such as one of these... If they are an affront to the dignity of the mind, the microscope is an affront to the dignity of the eye and the telephone to the dignity of the ear."

~ Alan Watts, The Joyous Cosmology:
Adventures In The Chemistry Of Consciousness

posted October 29, 2010 01:21 PM         

The following review has special application to those who would seek to dismiss this book out-of-hand once they get an inkling of the controversial positions it describes. My questions and comments to these people are as follows:

Have you read Eisler's "The Chalice And The Blade", the anthropological text upon which McKenna bases much of his argument? More importantly, have you experienced psilocybin (not a small dose, but the 5 dried gram dosage recommended by the author)? Have you ever tried to induce a mystical experience by ingesting a sufficient dose of this sacred medicine? If not, then what makes you think you have a leg to stand on? Apparently, this is an experience which you won't even allow to be included in your model of the world. And, yet, did you happen to notice the cultural revolution in civil rights and anti-war sentiment which occurred during America's brief exposure to psychedelics?

Are you at all familiar with shamanism, the oldest form of spiritual practice on the planet? Have you researched the various indigenous societies around the world which have been safely utilizing plant allies for centuries, if not millenia? Are you familiar with their peaceful way of life? They work an average of sixteen hours a day -- they aren't slaves to a fanatical work ethic. They don't promote a way of life which entails the massive waste of human and environmental resources, and the accumulation of untold tons of junk. They never posed a threat to the survival of all animal life on this planet, as we're doing now. They don't live superficial, unreflective, spiritually-bankrupt lives, as the vast majority of Americans do. They wouldn't know the meaning of a "post-modern existential crisis". These people never fell from grace. They're dancing in the Garden of Eden as we speak. That doesn't interest you??

Psychedelics may seem to be a fringe issue, existing in the margins of human experience, but in many cultures, and for thousands of years, they are or have been recognized as a central part of how we establish harmonious conditions within ourselves, between each other, and in the natural world.

McKenna traces the history of man from a unique perspective, drawing attention to a previously neglected, yet formidable, dimension of human experience; namely, our relation to the plant kingdom. He illustrates, with the exactness and discipline of a true scholar, how we have co-evolved with certain plant species, and how human consciousness has (and, consequently, how human events have) shifted in relation to the chemicals we have sanctioned. The abiding interest of mankind in experiencing novel tastes and states of consciousness is, for McKenna, something we need to acknowledge and come to terms with, if we are to reach the next stage of evolution. Just as sexuality was demonized and repressed during Victorian times, our culture is demonizing and repressing the natural human urge to experiment with, and to expand, uncommon states of consciousness through the ingesting of psychedelic compounds.

As philosopher Alan Watts wrote in his book "The Joyous Cosmology; Adventures in The Chemistry of Consciousness": "There is no difference in principle between sharpening perception with an external instrument, such as a microscope, and sharpening it with an internal instrument such as one of these... If they are an affront to the dignity of the mind, the microscope is an affront to the dignity of the eye and the telephone to the dignity of the ear."

I suggest you look into the recent study conducted by John's Hopkins University, in which psilocybin was administered to subjects who subsequently rated it among the five most significant and transformative experiences of their lives. Rigorous scientific evidence now exists to support the claim that states of awareness induced by psilocybin are indistinguishable from those experienced by the great saints and mystics of all time. I submit to you that there is nothing more humble than a mushroom, and that nothing is more humbling than finding God in a mushroom. "The fool laughs when he hears the way. If the fool did not laugh, it wouldn't be the way." (~ Lao Tzu) In short, your dismissive scoffing is grossly insufficient to dispute the solid evidence in support of these claims.

McKenna has given us a work, the true importance of which can hardly be overestimated. Perhaps the only adequate thing we can say about it is that it is a work of true genius. Like many great visionaries, McKenna did not receive the credit due to him while he was alive. We can only hope that, for the sake of life on this planet, his work will eventually receive the recognition owed to it. Karmically speaking.