Conversation with Luke Dodson on the many snares, pitfalls and red herrings of the counter-cultural/psychedelic scene, the trajectory of the artist, the lure of self-destruction, and two lost soul brothers.

Part One: Dawn Toads (0 – 29 mins)

Erik Davis, Jeffrey Kripal, Prisoner of Infinity, Kripal’s spiritual bypassing, valorization of trauma, The Toad of Dawn, DMT tough love, Davis, Terence McKenna, Robert Anton Wilson’s proto-transhumanism, Leary’s cure of homosexuality, psychedelic skepticism, Aldous Huxley and the Fabians, J.B. Priestley, the Albany Trust, Pedophile Information Exchange, Huxley’s Island, “benign” population control with drugs.

Part Two: Among the Compromised (29 mins – 56 mins)

The genesis of Prisoner of Infinity, mapping the culture, Jan Irvin vs. Charles Upton on unified conspiracy theory, the trap of demons, Anthony Peake, hidden presence of intelligence agencies, gauging how compromised someone is, Esalen, the entheogen as reduction of God to the immanent, encounters with nonhuman entities, the valorization of DMT, no pathway to God, digital geometry, fairyland, Extinction Rebellion, Bruce Parry, the life of a forager, transcendental egoists.

Part Three: A History of Delusions (56 mins – 1 hr 32 mins)

Mind expansion, harm to the body, a history of delusions, how deep does the trauma go, the regressed and progressed part, Oshana & the transmission, nutrition over flavor, aboriginal uses of entheogens, Gordon Wasson, learning about plants, the stuff of life, Ayahuasca, a predator’s relationship to psychedelic plants, fools rushing in, psychedelics & psychotherapy, the crucial fiction, gathering trinkets of power, seeking poetic inspiration, Blake & true reality, mapping the infinite, Dostoyevsky’s dilemmas, mistaking the ancestral for the eternal, therapeutic artwork.

Part Four: The Tortured Artist (1 hr 32 mins – 2 hrs 6 mins)

Personal vs. impersonal writing, egomania vs narcissism, Seen & Not Seen, tuning into the witness, seeing one’s life as raw material, processing awareness, viewing life as a work of art, Borges + LSD, magical writing, a fictional barrier of armor, 2012, The Invisibles, narrative affinities, lost brothers, Sebastian’s crucifixion, the path of self-destruction, The Sorrows of Young Werther, the origin of modern suicide and the collapse of the Christ myth, self-scapegoating, the tortured artist, summer of discontent.

Part Five: (2 hrs 6 mins – end)

Copycat suicides, Sebastian’s death, glorifying suicide, an intimate & tragic connection, suicide as imposed meaning, The Room, salvaging a futile life through an act of will, condemnation of our teenage self, an ancestral convergence.

Luke's blog

Songs: “Pirates” and “Smile” by Entertainment for the Braindead; "For Your Safety & Security" & "Thorns of Love" by Pyramid Youth; "Fury of Light" by The Bones of JR Jones; (Luke D); “Changes” by Short Hand.