Psychedelic Salon

Guest speaker: Terence McKenna

PROGRAM NOTES:

(Minutes : Seconds into program)

[All quotations are by Terence McKenna]

3:05 "Basically, for me, the psychedelic experience was the path to revelation. It actually worked—on someone who thought nothing would work."

4:06 "What I like to talk about [at these gatherings]—and what I have very little competition in terms of talking about—is the content of the psychedelic experience, which is very difficult to ‘English’, or to bring into any other language."

4:39 "…that was sort of my core specialty, if you will: the ethno-pharmacology of consciousness and the phenomenology of the states there derived. But, after 25 or 30 years of doing this, it bleeds into all kinds of larger categories, like, ‘What is art?’, ‘What is human history?’, ‘What is the religious impulse?’, ‘What is the erotic impulse?’, ‘What is mathematics?’… ‘What is the future?’…"

5:50 Terence gives a brief personal history (childhood-1998).

9:20 "…psychedelics are actually a kind of miraculous reality that can stand the test of objective examination …there’s nothing ‘woo-woo’ about it. It has to do with perturbing states of brain chemistry and standing back and observing the effects wrought thereby."

12:49 "…I think a lot of people who have never taken psychedelics have the idea that it’s thermodynamic noise, that it’s just the brain isn’t working right, it’s firing randomly, and then some portion of it is trying desperately to lay gestalts of meaning onto this random firing, and so you get this kind of surreal careening from one supposed illusionary perception to another. Anybody that’s taken psychedelics knows this is not a very apt or cogent description…"

14:01 "I do not say that this is the only path out of the mundane coil of blind casuistry and entropic degradation. I don’t say it’s the only path out—it’s the only path I found. And I checked some of the other major players… Perhaps yoga can deliver this, perhaps Mahayanist metaphysics can deliver these things. Perhaps I was impatient, or lumpen, or simply not intelligent enough. But the good news about psychedelics is that they are incredibly democratic—even the clueless can be swept along if the dose is sufficient."

15:30 "…[the historical process] is inevitably ramping up into more and more hypersonic states of self-expression… and this is what’s causing this ‘end of history’ phenomenon, this eschatological intimation that now haunts the cultural dialogue. There is something deep and profound moving in the mass psyche… now exacerbated and focused by new communications technologies that are essentially prostheses, extensions of the human mind and body…"

18:10 "…at least since I read McLuhan and assimilated his notion of tools as things which have a feedback into how we see the world, it seemed to me that the psychedelic state was then like a predictive model for what human history wanted to do. Human history wants to break through all boundaries, to somehow have a realized collective relationship with deity, or with that which orders nature…"

18:56 "[The depth/meaning of the psychedlic experience] is all in the ‘implications’. It has to do with how much intelligence you bring to it in the beginning. If there’s no mind behind the retinal screen, then it’s just mental pyrotechnics. It’s how much we can make of the phenomenon that makes it so rich."

19:30 "[Aldous Huxley] was asked at one point: ‘What is the psychedelic experience?’ and he said, ‘It’s a gratuitous grace… It is neither necessary for salvation, nor sufficient for salvation.’ But it certainly makes it easier… One has attained a very fortunate incarnation, I think, to be in a culture, in a place, in a time when psychedelic knowledge is available."

20:20 "It’s a kind of paradox that… the hubristic enterprise of white man anthropology carried back all these medicine kits and mojo-bags and sacred plants and so forth and grew them in university botanical gardens and kept the stuff in locked drawers—it was like a Trojan Horse brought inside the city walls of Calvin’s Troy, and now the genie is out of the bottle."

26:24 "…the reason for the emphasis on shamanism and other techniques is: you will need techniques if you go into the deep water; and they can make your life very simple and save you from unnecessary suffering. Not all suffering is necessary. Maybe no suffering is necessary."

26:54 "One of the things that I’m keen to talk to you about is [that] there are various models of the psychedelic experience: that it’s the Jungian unconscious, that it’s the ancestor world, that it’s this or that. The one that I’m most struck by is [that] it’s the world of the Platonic ideals, it’s a world very closely related to mathematics. And in a way the shaman is a hyper-mathematician—not in that he proposes theorems and solves them, but that he perceives hyper-dimensionally."

28:58 "My motivation is, basically, curiosity… I’m fascinated that we’ve gotten this far. I mean, given that the most economical situation would be pure nothingness: What is this [reality]? Why is nature doing these things? Why does organization have such tenacity? What does it mean that we appear so late in the process and represent such a difference in nature?"

29:44 "We get used to reality because it’s so stable, but in fact, it’s an absolutely confounding situation."

30:15 After Terence mentions an Evelyn Underhill book on mysticism: "…I wanted these [mystical] experiences at a younger age… The thing that’s so powerful about the psychedelics is that they perform on demand, which, almost in principle, you cannot expect of a mystical experience, because that would be, essentially, man ordering God at man’s whim."

31:23 "[The psychedelic] seems magical in the sense that it seems to respond to human will. One decides whether this is the evening or not. And sometimes people have said to me, well, don’t you want to achieve these things ‘on the natch’? Well, to me, that suggests a certain degree of out-of-controlness…"

32:22 "…it’s the difference [between] waiting in an attitude of the expectant supplicant, or being the hierophant… and being able to call down the power, or go up to the power, at will. And that’s a fantastic thing, and a responsibility."

34:44 "Part of what the psychedelic point of view represents is living a certain portion of your life without answers. Just accepting that certain dilemmas will never resolve themselves into some kind of a complete answer. That’s why psychedelics are so different from any system being sold, from one of the great elder systems like Christianity, to the latest cult…"

36:20 Terence spends about six minutes discussing the pharmacology of DMT, focusing on plant sources and synthesis.

44:10 Terence recommends the the work of Mayan calendar expert John Major Jenkins.

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These program notes were compiled by Bill, who joins us in the Psychedelic Salon from his home in Japan.

Guest speaker: Terence McKenna

PROGRAM NOTES:

(Minutes : Seconds into program)

3:08 "…the story of the universe is that information, which I call novelty, is struggling to free itself from habit, which I call entropy… and that this process… is accelerating… It seems as if… the whole cosmos wants to change into information… All points want to become connected…. The path of complexity to its goals is through connecting things together… You can imagine that there is an ultimate end-state of that process–it’s the moment when every point in the universe is connected to every other point in the universe."

4:43 "On one level, I think there is a cultural singularity… a place in our cultural development where we can’t predict or understand what will happen to us… a kind of flip-point… or doorway… or revelation…"

5:20 "The human adventure has become the cutting-edge of cosmic destiny, but it won’t always be so…"

7:04 "…we wished for transformation. Western civilization built it into it’s cultural agenda… and now, under the aegis of market-capitalism… somebody is going to put something together that is just going to completely redefine and rewrite the nature of reality itself… I’ll bet you it’s some kind of technology/drug-type thing… It may already be here."

8:18 "What do you do when you can do anything? That’s really the question at the end of history. Once you have overcome all limitation, what is the human agenda?"

8:53 In response to a question about the role of individuals who are becoming aware of the approaching cultural singularity: "…I think we’re more than watching–I think that we spin it. We’re the spin doctors of the thing. In other words, if there’s a prophecy that must be fulfilled, it’s a kind of general prophecy… [It] is open to human definition through specific acts of creation."

9:34 "The levels of novelty or habit in any given moment will be fulfilled–but how they’re fulfilled is a matter of human decision."

11:00 "The strangeness of our condition signifies the nearness of the attractor. The reason that our world is accelerated… is because of the nearby presence of this cultural black hole, this singularity of technology and biological intent, that is feeding backwards into time these apocalyptic images…"

11:55 "In the collective unconscious–in which, each of us shares a part–the thing at the end of time is spinning… and it’s throwing off scintillations, which are distorted images of itself. The transcendental object at the end of time infects the history that precedes it with the images of its approaching unfoldment. This is what I mean when I say, ‘History is the shockwave of eschatology.’ The presence of history on this planet means this thing is moving beneath the surface–this protean form. When it manifests, it will shed the institutions of history the way a butterfly sheds a chrysalis."

13:32 Terrence suggests that Novelty Theory might explain the apparent existence of ‘dark matter’ and ‘dark energy’ in the universe.

14:25 "…I don’t believe that 90% of the matter in the universe goes unobserved… It’s not that there’s mass missing–it’s that there’s a law missing."

15:01 "…Why does the Milky Way tend to stay the Milky Way? The answer is: because, as a spiral galaxy, it’s a more complex organism, a more complex structure, than it is as a dissipated, homogeneous mass."

15:42 "…the Novelty Constant… is the constant that then causes large-scale structures to persist through time, for no other reason than that they represent higher orders of organization."

16:40 Finding support in contemporary astrophysics’ postulation of an anti-gravitational factor that causes the universe to grow outward forever (and not collapse on itself), Terrence notes that: "…one of the things Novelty Theory says is [that] the universe never goes back to its initial conditions."

20:36 "You can’t conceive of information in a way that the hallucinogens can’t then see your bid and raise the ante."

21:15 Terrence gives a seven minute summary of how his interest in the I Ching developed into a mathematical analysis of the King Wen Sequence, culminating in his Timewave theory.

28:12 "I don’t say, ‘If you take mushrooms, you’ll find yourself caught up in the dynamics of the Mayan calendar.’ But you might. Many have."

28:25 "I’m more rational than I may sound, here,,, because I doubt. I know absolutely how flakey this sounds… I’m not here to found a cult. I just had a very wiggy experience… The problem with most people’s really wiggy experiences is that it never gets down to the nitty-gritty…"

30:03 "…[but] the good thing–in my view–of what happened to me is, it actually got down to a mathematical proposition… a hypothesized law…"

30:40 Terrence compares his ‘discovery’ of the Timewave to another "mathematical download": ‘The Myth of Er’, and Plato’s description of the ’spindle of Necessity’, from the 10th book of Plato’s Republic.

32:00 "[the I Ching] is a mathematical notation system… for the purpose of creating a physics of Time…based on human observation, and… it arises in a context, we presume, of shamanism and proto-Taoist values."

32:57 "The essence of understanding Time lies in understanding organism. So it yields to a very low-tech, observational style of natural science, which we call yoga. By looking inside the body and the mind, as you still gross physiological functions, subtler and subtler shells of vibration and emanation and physiological activity come into view, and… my hypothesis is that, eventually, if you do this with sufficient care and attention, you get down to… the level of the primal quantum-mechanical vibrations that lie behind everything. In other words, you are in the realm of the primal patterns, whose activity downloads and eventuates as the macro-physical world."

35:32 "Time is not (as Newton thought) pure duration, some kind of intellectual abstraction necessary for a serial universe. Time is a real thing. It’s as palpable as electricity. It’s as real as radiation. It’s a thing. And so, what’s going on is: Objects which arise in time carry the impress in their structure of the medium in which they arose. And so organism becomes a microcosmic downloading, a mapping of the architectonics of Being."

40:20 "…Life is undergoing some kind of conquest of geometry. I almost picture it like protoplasm flowing into a crystal landscape–we conquer this geometry by assuming its shape, in some sense. So, it transforms us, even as we overrun it."

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These program notes were compiled by Bill, who joins us in the Psychedelic Salon from his home in Japan.

Guest speaker: Terence McKenna

PROGRAM NOTES:

(Minutes : Seconds into program)

1:50 "Whether meditation and psychedelics are the same thing I think depends on your meditation and your psychedelics. Different meditations strive for different things. Much meditation is about emptying the mind of phenomena. This would certainly not be a description of the psychedelic state."

4:14 "Ultimately, the meditation path and the psychedelic path must somehow lead to the same kinds of data if the claims of both are to be respected, which is that they give deeper knowledge about reality."

6:03 "The chemistry of DMT suggests that, in deep REM sleep, it’s possible every single night you have a DMT flash, but it does not transcript into short term memory."

6:20 "…or imagine a drug that allowed you to enhance long-term memory, so that you could slip into reveries of a summer day 30 years ago, and play it back, moment by moment by moment. Again, this is not shooting for the moon, pharmacologically…"

6:58 "It’s a false dichotomy, the idea that somehow you should be able to achieve these things ‘on the natch’, and they’re not authentic if you achieve them through psychedelics. This is just a con…"

7:55 Terrence tells the story of how his ‘gringa’ friend telepathically knocked a Peruvian shaman’s nephew off of his feet.

10:30 "Where the problem area lies–people think it lies in taking too much– [but] it lies in taking too little, because if you take too little, you can resist it, you can struggle with it…"

12:17 Terrence describes how he takes mushrooms.

14:00 "The most mind-boggling parts of it are just not possible to bring out of it, because language fails, because English–there are no words…"

14:30 Terrence talks about fear during a psychedelic experience, and how to deal with it.

15:39 "The thing to do is to sit up, and to sing."

18:53 "…the ego feels threatened by the boundary-dissolution… and it can actually say to you, ‘You are dying, and here’s the evidence.’ And you have to say: ‘No, it’s unlikely,’ and sing your way through it."

22:24 Terrence speculates that some psychedelic-seeming aspects of Tibetan/Mahayana Buddhism may have actually resulted from ancient experiences with psychedelics and/or cannabis.

26:39 "What always fascinated me was hallucination, because it was, to me, the proof that I was dealing with something outside myself. …a single image would have taken me hours to draw and figure out…"

28:49 "The impression you have when you smoke DMT is: This isn’t a drug… this is something else… this is a doorway into another modality that exists all the time, independent of my thoughts or feelings about it… It certainly doesn’t seem to be a place designed to fit human expectations."

32:18 Terrence speculates about the future of the ‘free individual’ in the electronic/information age: "…[whether] each of us will become a kind of god… [or will we become] …a socialist gas… a hive-mind…"

36:28 "Part of the thing I found with hanging with shamans… is that, once you get past the language barrier… shamans… are simply curious people–intellectuals of a certain type."

37:05 "…the shamans, who are the keepers of the cultural values, are also… keepers of the secrets of the theatrics of the cultural values, and so they live their lives in the light of the knowledge that it all rests on showbiz."

37:41 Refering to Shamanism: The Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy and History, The Eternal Return, two books by Mircea Eliade: "…the shaman is socially marginal… and is feared by the people… [but] then the shaman comes forward in this critical role as… mediator between the cultural mind and the real world."

40:17 "…the logos–the alien A.I., the higher and hidden god that is trying to reach down to you and deliver the message–is a collagist. It can’t really compose the message except out of bits and pieces of what you already posses."

44:20 Terrence tells his story about the "good shit" miracle.

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These program notes were compiled by Bill, who joins us in the Psychedelic Salon from his home in Japan.

Guest speaker: Terence McKenna

PROGRAM NOTES:

(Minutes : Seconds into program)

Guest speakers: Earth and Fire Erowid

PROGRAM NOTES:

Fire & Earth, founders of Erowid.org

(Photo by Bill Radacinski, taken at the

100th birthday celebration for Dr. Albert Hofmann)

In this highly original talk, Earth andFire, the founders of Erowid.org, provide a clear and convincing argument for the positive role "Drug Geeks" can play in civilized society. They also provide some interesting ways in which to think of this newly-evolving human culture.

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Guest speaker: Sasha Shulgin

PROGRAM NOTES:

Shulgin

Sasha Shulgin

(photo by Bill Radacinski)

This podcast of the Psychedelic Salon Sasha Shulgin’s in-depth talk about cacti, which was given at the 2002 Mind States Conference held in Jamaica. After podcast #022 of another talk Sasha gave in Jamaica, we received a lot of eMail saying, "More Dr. Shulgin!!!!" . . . And so, here he is once again.

Although Sasha has given a lot of presentations at conferences all over the world, it isn’t often that he has devoted a single talk exclusively to a discussion of his extensive research into these intriguing plants.

In addition to PIKAL and TIKAL, Transform Press has also published Sasha’s new book about cacti, all of which are listed in the BOOKS section on the Shulgin’s page at Palenque Norte.

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Guest speaker: Alex Grey

PROGRAM NOTES:

Alex &Allyson Grey (photo by Bill Radacinski)

This is a talk Alex Grey gave at the 2002 Mind States conference in Jamaica. In it, he describes his journey as an artist as he takes us on a tour of some of his work. Pictures of the art Alex describes in this talk may be found on his personal Web site www.alexgrey.com.

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Guest speakers: Susan Blackmore, V.S. Ramachandran, Richard Glen Boire, John Gilmore, Ralph Metzner, and Jaron Lanier

PROGRAM NOTES:

Here are a few samples from the 2003 Mind States conference that was held in Berkeley, California in May of that year. Sound bites from the following talks are included here:

Susan Blackmore:"The Grand Illusion of Consciousness"

V.S. Ramachandran: "What Neurology Can Tell Us About Human Nature"

Richard Glen Boire: "Neurocops: Welcome to the REAL Drug War"

John Gilmore: "Our Constitutional Rights of Anonymous Travel"

Ralph Metzner: "Seven Phases of Social-Cultural Transformation Catalyzed by LSD"

Jaron Lanier: "Post-Symbolic Communication"

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LINKS:

Mind States Conference Central

Guest speaker: Sasha Shulgin

PROGRAM NOTES:

This is Sasha Shulgin at his best . . . talking about some of the most beautiful molecules on Earth. Recorded at the Mind States conference in Jamaica in 2002, this is classic Sasha.

"The revolution is in the ditch until you get your chemistry together."   ---Terence McKenna

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Guest speaker: Ann Shulgin

PROGRAM NOTES:

This is a talk given byAnn Shulgin at the Mind States Conference in 2002. It provides a rare look into the world of psychedelic therapy during the years immediately preceding the scheduling of MDMA as a Category I substance. This schedule level means that the U.S. Government considers MDMA to have no medical value. After you listen to what Ann Shulgin has to report, you will see how wrong the government is about the medical value of MDMA.

SOUND BITES: A newborn baby has no shadow. . . . The shadow represents the parts of us that, for whatever reason, we have come to think of as parts of ourselves that are not acceptable, not lovable, and not OK. . . . Whenever you find yourself reacting negatively to a person or group of people, consider the possibility that you may be reacting to your own shadow." –Ann Shulgin

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