3 times the blurb specifies Amanita, 0 times Psilocybin.
Narrative: Amanita Only, Not Psilocybin
Key to color highlighting: Due to pop connotations (“urban dictionary”), the non-qualified word “mushroom” is assumed to mean specifically Amanita only, unless multiple species is suggested by the wording.
Amanita / Psilocybin (& Amanita)
[the cover has a large Amanita]
“Jesus, Mushrooms, and the Origin of Christianity analyzes the prevalence of a specific motif – the mushroom – in Christian art, proposing that this image is evidence of the true foundation of Christianity and the Catholic Church. Examining Christian art from 200 CE to the present, author John Rush argues that Jesus was not an actual, historical person, but a personification of the Holy Mushroom, Amanita muscaria and the mystical experience brought about by the ingestion of mind-altering plants and fungi by early, experimentally minded Christian sects.
“Drawing on primarily historical sources, Rush traces the history – and pictured face – of Jesus, which was constructed and codified only after 325 CE. In the process, he shows how the mushroom was very much apparent, though often disguised, in the early years of Christian art, thus revealing the nature of the original Christian cults, rites, and rituals – including mushroom use. Jesus, Mushrooms, and Origin of Christianity emphasizes Jesus’ message of know thyself, seek wisdom, and be a decent person, which leads to peace, love, and spiritual growth, asserting his symbolic murder was a conspiracy by powerful reactionary forces who replaced his message with the oppressive religious-political system that endures today. Rush’s brilliant exposition of Amanita muscaria use by early Christians challenges mainstream views of Western religious history and is both provocative and persuasive.”
Narrative: Original Christianity, Not Medieval Christianity
Key to color highlighting:
In early Christianity / In medieval (& early) Christianity
Jesus, Mushrooms, and the Origin of Christianity analyzes the prevalence of a specific motif – the mushroom – in Christian art, proposing that this image is evidence of the true foundation of Christianity and the Catholic Church. Examining Christian art from 200 CE to the present, author John Rush argues that Jesus was not an actual, historical person, but a personification of the Holy Mushroom, Amanita muscaria and the mystical experience brought about by the ingestion of mind-altering plants and fungi by early, experimentally minded Christian sects.
Drawing on primarily historical sources, Rush traces the history – and pictured face – of Jesus, which was constructed and codified only after 325 CE. In the process, he shows how the mushroom was very much apparent, though often disguised, in the early years of Christian art, thus revealing the nature of the original Christian cults, rites, and rituals – including mushroom use. Jesus, Mushrooms, and Origin of Christianity emphasizes Jesus’ message of know thyself, seek wisdom, and be a decent person, which leads to peace, love, and spiritual growth, asserting his symbolic murder was a conspiracy by powerful reactionary forces who replaced his message with the oppressive religious-political system that endures today. Rush’s brilliant exposition of Amanita muscaria use by early Christians challenges mainstream views of Western religious history and is both provocative and persuasive.”
Never Trust an Entheogen Scholar: God Holding Mushrooms, Found by John Rush
Score on confirmation lookups of scholarly citations: 0 for 4
After hallucinogenic mushrooms, Rush’s gallery proves, against Brown’s excessive skepticism, that God holds a mushroom in right hand, and there’s a mushroom touching left index finger:
After hallucinogenic mushrooms, Rush’s gallery proves, against Brown’s excessive skepticism, that God holds a mushroom in right hand, and there’s a mushroom touching left index finger:
God holding a hallucinogenic mushroom in right hand. Also, a hallucinogenic mushroom touching left index finger. Found by John Rush; I cannot take credit for this find. Below God are the four sacred plants: Poppy, Rue, Cannabis, Henbane, and Amanita.
The Illusion that Irvin in 2022 Praises This Pro-Mushrooms Book
In the Egodeath Mystery Show podcast, listening to my reasoning about Jan Irvin’s praise of Rush’s book & Jan’s date being 2022 vs 2011, I saw a vulnerability in my spoken reasoning; I conjectured while listening to the episode: “BUT WHAT IF IT’S A SLIGHTLY MODIFIED/UPDATED 2011 BLURB?”
I looked up Rush’s 1st edition and CONFIRMED MY NEGATIVE CONJECTURE, and thus confirmed my initial conjecture, that this Irvin blurb was written in 2011 EVEN THOUGH the blurb NOW SAYS “ON WEBSITE”.
I verbally said “this proves”, but listening, I retorted “Not necessarily! This is a 2nd Edition, remember!
The blurb might have been merely updated changing it from “dvd” to “website” – I then confirmed that’s the case!
Rush’s 1st Edition has the same review blurb by Irvin except it said “on the DVD”.
I could not believe that Irvin 2022 would say an entheogen scholarship book is “enlightening”.
Seeing the forest for the trees: Scene perception and the admissible contents of perceptual Experience
Progress and paradigms in the search for the neural correlates of consciousness: Editorial introduction to the special issue “The neural correlates of consciousness”
The search for the neural correlate of consciousness: Progress and challenges
Finding the neural correlates of consciousness will not solve all our problems
Brain structural complexity and consciousness
A structural constraint on neural correlates of consciousness
You can’t always get what you want: Predictive processing and consciousness
The neural correlates of consciousness under the free energy principle: From computational correlates to computational explanation
“Recent clinical trials show that psychedelics such as LSD and psilocybin can be given safely in controlled conditions, and can cause lasting psychological benefits with one or two administrations.
“Supervised psychedelic sessions can reduce symptoms of anxiety, depression, and addiction, and improve well-being in healthy volunteers, for months or even years.
“But these benefits seem to be mediated by “mystical” experiences of cosmic consciousness, which prompts a philosophical concern:
“do psychedelics cause psychological benefits by inducing false or implausible beliefs about the metaphysical nature of reality?
“This book is the first scholarly monograph in English devoted to the philosophical analysis of psychedelic drugs.
“Its central focus is the apparent conflict between the growing use of psychedelics in psychiatry and the philosophical worldview of naturalism.
“Within the book, Letheby integrates empirical evidence and philosophical considerations in the service of a simple conclusion:
“this “Comforting Delusion Objection” to psychedelic therapy fails.
“While exotic metaphysical ideas do sometimes come up, they are not, on closer inspection, the central driver of change in psychedelic therapy.
“Psychedelics lead to lasting benefits by altering the sense of self, and changing how people relate to their own minds and lives-not by changing their beliefs about the ultimate nature of reality.
“The upshot is that a traditional conception of psychedelics as agents of insight and spirituality can be reconciled with naturalism (the philosophical position that the natural world is all there is).
“Controlled psychedelic use can lead to genuine forms of knowledge gain and spiritual growth-even if no Cosmic Consciousness or transcendent divine Reality exists.
“Philosophy of Psychedelics is an indispensable guide to the literature for researchers already engaged in the field of psychedelic psychiatry, and for researchers-especially philosophers-who want to become acquainted with this increasingly topical field.”
Thinking and Perceiving: On the Malleability of the Mind (Stokes 2021)
“Human beings are in contact with the world through their minds.
“One can make sensory perceptual contact with the world: One sees the tree and hears its leaves flutter.
“And one makes cognitive contact with the world: One forms beliefs about the tree, memories of how it was in the past, and expectations of how it will be in the future.
“Can the first, perception, be influenced in important ways by the second, cognition?
“Do cognitive states such as memories, beliefs, and expectations affect what one perceives through the senses?
“And what is the importance of these possible relations to how we theorize and understand the human mind?
“Possible cognitive influence on perception (sometimes called “cognitive penetration of perception”) has been long debated in philosophy of mind and cognitive science: Some argue that such influence occurs, while others argue that it does not or cannot.
“In this excellent introduction and overview of the problem, Dustin Stokes examines the following:
The philosophical and scientific background to cognition and perception
Contemporary ways of distinguishing cognition and perception
Questions about the representational content of perception versus cognition
Distinct theories of mental architecture: modularity versus malleability
Consequences for epistemology, philosophy of science, and aesthetics
Philosophical and scientific research on perceptual attention
Perceptual skill, learning, and expertise
Perceptual content, objectivity, and cultural bias.
“Additional features, such as chapter summaries, suggestions for further reading, and a glossary, make Thinking and Perceiving an ideal resource for students of
philosophy of mind and psychology,
cognitive psychology, and
cognitive science.” [translation: Cognitive Neuroreductionism. Where is Cognitive Phenomenology? It ended up in Wouter Hanegraaff’s Rejected wastebasket, check there.]
Griffiths Glorifies Meditation Despite Asserting that Psilocybin Puts Meditation to Shame as the Real Fake Method
1 hour of harshing on lie-based non-drug meditation, the ironic “advanced meditation” [sic] that’s outshone by the far brighter light of Psilocybin, the real deal that puts meditation to shame.
Jordan Peterson pointed out Griffiths’ self-contradictory pushing of his non-drug meditation religion’s “advanced meditators” (advanced avoiders of the real authentic actual meditation and source).
Bow down to the rightful pedestal occupant, the rightful true king, Psilocybin, and oust the false king, phony, fake, non-drug meditation.
Non-drug meditation is popular precisely because non-drug meditation is the best way to avoid the threat of being enlightened is meditation.
The perfect substitute for psilocybin transformation is meditation.
The best and most popular way to avoid mental worldmodel transformation is non-drug meditation and making that your false authority, Odysseus Psilocybin versus the false suitors: fake meditation, phony mysticism, fraudulent esotericism.
The solution is not “advanced meditation” plus augmented by Psilocybin.
The authentic result is advanced Psilocybin plus augmented by meditation put in its place, advanced meditation is advanced folly and avoidance, having been revealed as folly and incoherence by Griffiths.
Griffiths let out that Psilocybin is better than advanced meditation.
The game is up, the false history: Psilocybin the true king that actually delivers the goods, spells the end of lie-based meditation.
Timestamps
0:00 – Intro.
0:18 – Content. 4712.wav.
10:00 –
10:07 –
24:30 – Show Identification.
24:39 – Content. 4713.wav.
30:00 –
38: 00 –
42:15 – Show Identification.
42:27 – Leading edge altered state theory.
42:35 – Content. 4714.wav. The measure of truth is Psilocybin.
50:00 – Criticizing Hatsis.
1:05:48 – Guitar (13:00).
track 4 of 🎸🌌 Rebirth into the Sphere of Shattered Stars.
Errata: background room noises, partly due to sometimes using room mics.
Alternate room mics & close mics a couple times.
mirrored end, room mics, with room noise
1:18:49 – Outro.
1:19:09 – End.
Artist: Illumination Valve. Song: 🎸🌌 Rebirth into the Sphere of Shattered Stars, track 4.
Source Recordings
3 files recorded just now Jan 23 2023: VOX_TK_4712.wav VOX_TK_4713.wav VOX_TK_4714.wav
Griffiths Converts Dread to Grief Like Panofsky Converts Mushrooms to Italian Pines
Reductionist of Negative Experiences Cybernetic Control Seizure Threat Risk Discovery (guarding the gateway to Control Transformation treasure) to Ordinary-State Grief
The Insane Badness of CEQ – Website, Book (3 Vols.), & Lecture Series
How McKenna/ Ruck/ Rush (the “Moderate” = Minimal Entheogen Theory of Religion) Deletes Mushrooms from Christianity and then Accuses Christianity of Deleting Mushrooms: Go Out of Your Way to Attach Your Label “Heretical, Elite, Secret” to Nullify Mushroom Evidence
“As the evidence for the presence of hallucinogenic mushrooms in Christian iconography becomes more plentiful and more widely distributed, it seems obvious that they are only a small part of those existing or existed.”
Where Panofsky writes “hundreds” of Pilzbaum, I read “thousands”.
Ruck & Rush are hard at work removing/separating each mushroom image from Christianity, by rushing to always frame and en-cage each find as “heretical” and “secret” and therefore “doesn’t count”, neutralizing and transforming each piece of evidence into yet more demonstration that proper Christianity omitted mushrooms.
Panofsky converts-away mushrooms into pine trees, through his concocted “templates” fiction.
Ruck & Rush convert-away mushrooms into deviant heretical secret removed hidden separated non-Christian alien importations, underground only, through their sheer force of pushing their narrative, even though their own evidence base that they deliver directly contradicts their pushed narrative.
“So, fortunately, we can persist in our main objective, which is to tell the self-defeating, un-strategic, sob-story narrative that we’re addicted to: The Big Bad Church stomped out all mushrooms.
“It’s more valuable to us to tell that narrative, than to permit there to have been mushrooms inside of Christianity. We are willing to sacrifice all of the mushrooms in Christianity, in order to continue our key narrative (like Muraresku’s), “the church is so bad, it had no mushrooms” (and we’re dedicated to keeping it that way).”
I totally proved that this is exactly what John Rush 2022 2nd edition narrative (contra its own evidence) is doing.
This was a highly successful & rewarding analysis to prove this subtle point, that one’s narrative commitment can be the opposite of one’s presented evidence/data.
An important analysis/discovery about self-defeating narrative commitments impeding entheogen scholarship.
My color highlighting analysis is an expose of John Rush’s self-contradiction between his narrative he’s pushing vs. his presented evidence base.
Muraresku is also excessively narrative-driven.
John Lash has to remove the existence of Mithraism to achieve propping up his narrative.
Hanegraaff outdoes them all: he removes all of the 5000 stars from the sky, in order to prevent rebirth, at top of Saturn layer, from delivering the initiate into heimarmene/fatedness, to enable telling his backwards tale of the mind being transformed from eternalism to possibilism.
Allegro’s Plaincourault image contradicted his story/narrative. Someone I read a day ago said that Allegro wrote nothing about the inserted Plaincourault image — the writer said that Allegro’s book had no caption and practically no mention of the fresco — yet, my Plaincourault article (from my edition of SMC, I guess) has a very interesting “huh?!” wording, as two sentences about the fresco:
Did Ruck (or whoever) miss this passage? The writer claimed that Allegro wrote nothing.
Did Allegro in some edition strike the image, as Hatsis wrote, and also strike these narrative-contradicting sentences? –
“The prime example of the relation between the serpent and the mushroom is, of course, in the Garden of Eden story of the Old Testament. The cunning reptile prevails upon Eve and her husband to eat of the tree, whose fruit “made them as gods, knowing good and evil” (Gen 3:4). The whole Eden story is mushroom-based mythology, not least in the identity of the “tree” as the sacred fungus, as we shall see. Even as late as the thirteenth-century some recollection of the old tradition was known among Christians, to judge from a fresco painted on the wall of a ruined church in Plaincourault in France (pl. 2). There the Amanita muscaria is gloriously portrayed, entwined with a serpent, whilst Eve stands by holding her belly.(20)” – Allegro, Sacred Mushroom, 1970, p. 80
So which is it: recollection of a 1300-year-long(!!) tradition? Or, only the earliest primitive Christians, per John Rush’s narrative that he’s committed to pushing, no matter how many mushrooms he has to disqualify and neutralize (by creative negative framing) in order to prop up his committed narrative?
It amounts to a kind of gaslighting: All those mushrooms you see everywhere in the Church constitutes proof that the Church was that devoted to omitting all mushrooms. Don’t you agree that the Church is just awful for doing that?!
Wait — who is it that’s removing mushrooms from Christianity – the Church, or rather, the entheogen scholars?!
____
I read aloud some of your book’s Biblio today – really interesting entries in the fragment that I read, Don Lattin, and John Lash “The discovery of a lifetime”.
I noticed today your book pointed out John Rush’s strange claim that the Creator of Plants holds something, I did a deep dive on this a year ago, he is clearly empty handed – strange.
____
I like the way after the Amanita book, Gosso did a follow-up Psilocybin book.
I’ve had people state to me with full confidence that there’s no Psilocybin mushrooms in Christian art – their confidence is a sign of their ignorance.
I blame entheogen scholars in general, they all fell into the Amanita Primacy Fallacy.
The final obstacle blocking entheogen scholarship is entheogen scholars. Including Paul Stamets, along with everyone – only Samorini escaped, in that generation of scholarship.
Success, I tried searching on a substring of that at my site:
Find in page: seems obvious that they are only a small part
Apparently there is a robot translation that matches the string, rather than a copy of your article’s passage.
It looks like there’s a risk of getting two copies of the same volume at Amazon, uncertain how to buy 1 copy of Vol 1 and 1 copy of Vol 2. With more research, I might be able to figure it out.
Voice Recording Topics Jan. 29, 2023: Reconciled Houot Dissertation on Anti-Fear/Pro-Control Psychedelic Technology of Symbols
Saturday (yesterday), all day reading journal articles.
All day today Sunday, discussed (recorded) the below topics Jan. 29, 2023, for Egodeath Mystery Show.
Final recording of the day: VOX_TK_4741.wav (Jan 29 2023).
Wow what a day of voice recording/ spoken idea development.
Many hours of voice recording, with re-cycled, 2nd-gen. guitar background:
Star 4047 🎸🌌 Rebirth into the Sphere of Shattered Stars
Star 4055 🎸🌌 Rebirth into the Sphere of Shattered Stars
Star 4056 🎸🌌 Rebirth into the Sphere of Shattered Stars
Star 4065 🎸🌌 Rebirth into the Sphere of Shattered Stars
My voice kept locking up, but then when I sat and read aloud & commented (talking loud to far mics), my voice opened up naturally.
Latest Level-2 Labelling of the Egodeath Theory/ the Theory of Psychedelic Eternalism
Started day by discussing/ refining this pair of terms (slow going/intensive):
literalist ordinary-state possibilism with autonomous control
analogical psychedelic eternalism with dependent control
Acro’s defined:
lop/ac
ape/dc
My top 3 messages I push/ assert/ bring
See section in this page; I read it aloud.
This felt quick & easy — or I didn’t really develop these points; I focused instead on “what exactly are my top 3 or 4 or how many breakthroughs?”
Brown’s Book & Biblio
Read Brown’s book The Psychedelic Gospels, Kupfer, Marcia is the name for the “youths in trees cutting branches” passage. The Bibliography is quite interesting and I need to read it, and there are many pages that I haven’t read.
Why My New 4 Terms Are Better than My 2006 4 Terms
As stated in other topic below: This was slow going, might be rather fragmented to listen to while I work out this reconstruction. Intensive idea development work.
Why ‘Analogy’ Is Better than ‘Metaphor’
Why ‘Psychedelic’ Is Better than ‘Dissociation’
partly see below heading: The word ‘psychedelic’ vs. ‘hallucinogen’ vs. ‘entheogens’
Why ‘Eternalism’ Is Better than ‘Determinism’
Though everyone’s heard of the word ‘determinism’, everyone understands ‘determinism’ to specifically mean domino-chain causality.
Kafei proved that.
The word ‘determinism’ as it is universally understood (domino-chain causality) is NOT what I mean. I literally specifically mean eternalism, not determinism.
I posted ‘eternalism’ 6 months after the 2006 main article.
Why ‘Dependent Control’ Is Better than ‘Cybernetics’
The word ‘psychedelic’ vs. ‘hallucinogen’ vs. ‘entheogens’
The word ‘psychedelic’ vs. ‘hallucinogen’ vs. ‘entheogens’.
Christopher Partridge’s interesting critical discussion (defense of ‘psychedelic’, against “entheogen”) that maybe is in the book Contemporary Esotericism.
Erik Davis advocates ‘psychedelic’.
Ultra lame wimpy complaint by Ruck, “We need a new word, because the word ‘psychedelic’ has cooties” 🙄 OMG so you’re saying we have to not use the correct, perfect word, just because you claim that “it’s ruined”, by cooties?Ridiculous!I need this word — This sounds like a “You” problem.
If it had any life left, in 2021, your fake new word, ‘entheogen’, has been corrupted and diluted to death by Wouter Hanegraaff, simply by his applying the “etymology sets meaning” grade school-level fallacy.
… in his keynote speech chapter Entheogen Esotericism in Contemporary Esotericism book. (& vid of him reading aloud as keynote speech at YT). Where he falsely said no one used it.
I posted it, a scathing post titled “Entheogen Esotericism”, 6 years before Hanegraaff, aimed exactly against his B.S. non-drug esotericism (a self-contradiction). I bet the right URL at Archive.org will pull it up; I got close. My posting is at the Egodeath Yahoo Group archive.
That “‘psychedelic’ has cooties” Ruck argument didn’t stop the field of “Psychedelic Therapy” and “Psychedelic Science”, because they couldn’t get funding using the bunk false (“now hit yourself in the face“) word: “Hallucinogenic Therapy” / “Hallucinogenic Science”.
They couldn’t get funding using Ruck’s “God is real” word: “Entheogenic Therapy” / “Entheogenic Science”.
The process of elimination leaves the only viable word, which is the correct word anyway, that everyone correctly knows, and is etymologically sound: “Psychedelic Therapy” / “Psychedelic Science”.
I wrote the below section: “I Changed from ‘Entheogen’ to ‘Psychedelics’ Mainly Because No One’s Heard of the Word ‘Entheogens”
My Top Intellectual Breakthrough Experiences
Intellectual autobio: if you plot my experience of puzzle-solving type of intellectual breakthoughs / puzzle-solving experience 1985-2023, what then – empirically, this time — are the mountain peaks?
This was slow going, might be rather fragmented to listen to while I work out this reconstruction. Intensive idea development work.
If I actually draw a plot, might discover more about how discovery works and my history. A goal was to try to relate my top 3 breakthroughs with my top 3 messages I bring.
I, by this technique of picturing plotting this curve, discovered my top breakthroughs:
Jan 1988 – Block universe mental worldmodel transformation in loosecog is the actual nature of ego transcendence.
1995 – How to repudiate and zap the remaining dirtiness of thinking that’s still relying on possibilism-thinking.
Oct 2002 – Got confirmation of my Core theory from myth & reformed theology.
Nov 2013 – {tree vs snake} = possibilism vs eternalism.
Nov 2020 – Decoded the Eadwine image by applying my Dec. 2015 hypothesis of Dancing Man image right leg = eternalism-thinking. Solved the need to confirm my 2015 hypoth.
March/April 2022 – branching-message mushroom trees/non-branching + handedness. Cycling back around, applied Eadwine decoding to finish decoding Dancing Man image.
Toward a Philosophy of Psychedelic Technology: An Exploration of Fear, Otherness, and Control (Houot 2019): ‘Surrender’, ‘Perennial’
Ended the day’s spoken idea devmt session with word search in Houot dissertation:
“surrender” (especially; highly productive), then
“perennial” (brief).
Reconciled the Egodeath theory w/ Houot’s calls for treating fear/ surrender/ Other entity/ control.
I Changed from ‘Entheogen’ to ‘Psychedelics’ Mainly Because No One’s Heard of the Word ‘Entheogens
Not Viable: “The Theory of Entheogenic Eternalism”
No one’s heard of the word ‘entheogen’.
Everyone’s heard of the word ‘psychedelics’.
People correctly understand the word ‘psychedelic’.
The word ‘psychedelic’ (or ‘eternalism’) is what I mean.
Not Viable: “The Theory of Psychedelic Determinism”
Everyone’s heard of the word ‘determinism’.
Everyone understands ‘determinism’ to mean domino-chain causality.
The word ‘determinism’ as it is universally understood (domino-chain causality) is NOT what I mean.
Kafei proved that.
Viable: “The Theory of Psychedelic Eternalism”
Josie Kins recognizes the word eternalism — but conflates it with domino-chain causality; misdefines the word.
Failed: “summary of my theory: analogical entheogenic eternalism”.
In contrast, there is no single word as good as ‘eternalism’, so I use that jargon technical term – determinism is extremely, definitely hard-defined as domino-chain causality like Kafei pointed out to me.
I tried to redefine the word ‘determinism’ to mean eternalism, and that failed.
I first posted the word ‘eternalism’ about 6 months after my 2007 tweak of my 2006 main article.
As consistently used in the field, the word ‘determinism’ is VERY different than the word eternalism, and eternalism is EXACTLY what I mean, while ‘determinism’, as it’s always used, is very much NOT what I mean.
resolved: Damnit i’m trying to record talking about reclaiming the word ‘psychedelics’ vs ‘entheogens’ or ‘hallucinogens’, but I can’t remember why I switched from the word ‘entheogens’ back to ‘psychedelics’. Oh #1 reason: no one heard of the word ‘entheogens’.
It was different reasons than Griffiths, who reasoned:
Project: Type in and Upload 1988 Article, Publish It
I would really like to take a look at a prepped, cleaned version of my 1988 article draft(s), The Theory of Ego Transcendence. Though the 1997 spec elegantly succinctly expresses that content, so represents accurately my theory’s scope per 1988.
Photo: Cybermonk ~2012. Upper left: late 1988 draft ~5 Lower left: August 1988 draft 1. Right: 1989 idea development journal. Binders: per-semester idea development, Spring 1986 through Summer 1989.
todo: Upload my articles to Academia.edu.
What errors/typos did I find in my Plaincourault article when I read it aloud last year? A wealth of info in that article. All journal articles have typos.
Psychedelic Eternalism: The Only Non-Vague Theory and Clear, Useful Explanatory Model
There are really only two options:
Vagueness. Unclear, unhelpful, useless explanatory models of religious revelation, satori, enlightenment. Whether such a theory of mind is naturalistic or supernaturalistic, freewillist or no-free-willist, it’s all the same: a heap of fog is the result.
Clear, summarizable, useful, relevant, simple: the Theory of Psychedelic Eternalism. The Egodeath theory.
Explaining possibilism vs. eternalism – as experiential/phenomenological modes, and as “cognitive” abstract/theoretical mental models.
Explaining how to, subjectively, transform from depending on possibilism-premised control, to eternalism.
Explaining how religious mythemes and motifs describe the above.
Letheby, the Problem Isn’t Naturalism vs. Supernaturalism; the Problem is Vagueness and Implicit-Only Definitions
Definitional Irresponsibility by Letheby and Everyone Debating “Mystical” Experience
How can a self-identified “philosopher” have zero grasp that a word is merely a label, and must be defined every time?
Letheby has a strange helpless passive stance toward words’ “inherent” meaning; acts like words come from God and have a single, fixed meaning.
As if the term “cosmic consciousness” is an exact synonym of “supernaturalism”, that necessarily, inherently connotes supernaturalism.
My criticism of the typical “mysticism” approach is that it revels in vagueness – as Sanders & Zijlmans complained about a “mystical” or “weirdness” approach: what’s wrong with those is they are too vague, as typically used.
Something was amiss reading Letheby. Inconsistent, self-contradictory.
He says it’s bad, psychedelic clients’ talk of having experienced “cosmic consciousness“, because that “IS” supernaturalism.
Letheby contradicts himself when he says “it turns out, the word ‘spirituality’ doesn’t necessarily mean supernatural – so ‘spirituality’ is an ok word, if we use different, suitable, naturalistic connotations.”
If we grant you that, then we must refute your treating the phrase “cosmic consciousness” as if it were any different than the word ‘spirituality’ in that respect.
Whether a word “means” naturalism or supernaturalism, is a function of our connotational definition, each time we use the word.
The problem with “I was touched by God” isn’t that it is or isn’t supernatural. The problem is IT IS TOO VAGUE until we define our terms and this means defining two opposed definition of each term under dispute:
mystical
cosmic consciousness
spiritual
Joyous Cosmology [a term used in these papers in Metz’s journal, Philosophy and the Science of Mind, to represent “supernatural beliefs” from psychedelics]
Jeez, doesn’t anyone know Semantics 101?? WTF!
We’ll never get anywhere if it is JUST NOW occurring to you, 90 years after Korzybski’s Science and Sanity, that 🤔 🤯 hey, the word ‘spirituality’ doesn’t necessarily mean supernatural; it could be naturalistic. NO SH*T 🤦♂️
But this is a massive-scale problem, affecting every word and network of word-usage.
Don’t you get it? Evidently Letheby thinks that the word ‘spiritual’ is somehow special and different than the term ‘cosmic consciousness’.
As if the exact same pair of opposed definitions couldn’t be applied to the term ‘cosmic consciousness’.
Letheby acts (writes) like:
“Now that the word ‘spiritual’ has taken on [notice the weak, helpless, passive voice/stance] possible naturalistic connotations, there actually can be such a thing as “naturalistic spirituality”. 🤯
Letheby, dummy, obviously, that implies that we can do the exact same thing with every term that you (densely) reject, eg:
“Now that the term ‘cosmic consciousness’ has been realized that it can take on possible naturalistic connotations, there actually can be such a thing as “naturalistic cosmic consciousness“. isn’t this screamingly obvious?
There is no hope, ppl are too mentally slow
Stop this superstitious, passive relationship to word-connotations and definitions.
The problem isn’t that word X “means” supernatural or naturalistic; the problem is that these words are too VAGUE and so we need to define our damn terms. Is this not ultra-obvious?
Johnson Falsely Says Fatalism Is a Supernatural Belief
Johnson Falsely Says Fatalism Is a Supernatural Belief
“after a psychedelic experience, on average people shifted away from physicalist and materialist views (both consistent with naturalism) and toward panpsychism and fatalism (which can be seen as deviations from naturalism).”
Johnson writes: fatalism vs. naturalism. What next? “eternalism vs. naturalism”?
This would be like saying that Sam Harris pushes supernaturalism because he asserts no-free-will.
Johnson comments on Letheby’s Redefinition of Pop Word ‘Spiritual’ to Be Naturalistic Instead
“In chapter 9 Letheby argues for the concept of naturalized spirituality, which is essentially the positive psychological aspects that people associate with the term “spirituality,” including meaning and purpose, but that do not involve supernatural beliefs.
“This is an area where the adoption of lay terms without specifically anchoring them as scientific constructs is dangerous,
“for example as we argued for the concept of “impulsivity” in psychological science (Strickland & Johnson, 2021).
“This has practical implications for how experiences are measured.
“If one patient is asked if their psychedelic session was spiritual, he or she might say that it was full of reflections on the purpose of life and on connections with loved ones, but no, it was not “spiritual” as no angels or spirits were seen.
“A different participant might describe an extremely similar experience involving life purpose and connections with loved ones, and when asked if it were “spiritual,” he or she might say
“Were you not listening to my description? Of course it was spiritual!”
“Diverging implicit definitions of terms such as “spiritual” might therefore invite substantial variance into analyses investigating the mechanisms and processes of psychedelic therapy.”
The problem is FAR worse, and thoroughly systemic, as I wrote years ago: networks of connotations systemically need to all shift together. a la Watts: Way of Zen.
EVERYONE in this field is ALWAYS stupidly, unthinkingly using implicit definitions of terms — that’s the universal normal mode.
Mind those typos, Metz! New journal: Philosophy and the Typo Sciences
I wrote before reading that paragraph:
Another huge error by everyone other than me is exposed, a HUGE problem: Letheby says we “merely” need to use different connotations of the word ‘spiritual’.
Don’t you realize that this totally undermines everything everyone has ever debated? Like saying “It’s merely a matter of semantics.”
It didn’t occur to anyone to ask “but what does ‘spiritual’ mean, does it nece’ly connote supernatural beliefs?”
Now at this too-late date, brilliant Letheby raises that question:
“Hey I just now thought of something:
“if we use a different conception/connotations for the word ‘spiritual’, maybe it could be naturalistic.” Ya think??!! duh!!! 🤦♂️
I always put the central spotlight on “What connotation-network, for each word?” Define your terms, is the dominant #1 consideration.
MEQ 50% Bad, CEQ 90% Bad
The subtle badness of the MEQ begat the disaster that’s the CEQ.
The MEQ is actually the SMEQ; the Stace Myst. Exp. Ques.; the Stace/Leary MEQ, a questionnaire to detect whether you had Stacean Mystical Experience.
Authors try to obscure by calling it the “Pahnke/Richards MEQ”, but it actually comes from Walter Stace, converted by Timothy Leary’s guidance of Walter Pahnke into a questionnaire format.
What Griffiths calls a “complete mystical experience” is neither complete, nor actually mystical in the neutral broad proper sense.
It’s merely Stacean so-called “mystical”, it is only merely “mystical” in being filtered and constructed per the fabricated Stace mis-modelling of mystic exp’c.
That’s a charge from Charles Stang to Griffiths in a vid interview on Harvard Div School YT ch.
Griffiths says:
a complete mystical experience
That actually means:
a complete newbie mystical experience
a complete Stacean mystical experience
a complete unitive beginners mystical experience
Authentic/Good:
the Egodeath theory, the Theory of Psychedelic Eternalism
Psychedelic eternalism provides a complete active transformative mystical experience, not merely the beginners’ passive sensation of unity.
a complete transformative mystical experience
transformation from possibilism to eternalism mental worldmodel
a complete mystical [in true/neutral sense] experience
The Entheogenic Conception Can Be Naturalized; Naturalistic Spirituality; Naturalistic Entheogenics (Letheby 2022)
Those phrases are from Letheby Precis article in Metz’ new 2020 journal Philosophy and Mind Sciences. January 25, 2022
The Egodeath theory (the Theory of Psychedelic Eternalism) doesn’t use the term ‘spirituality’, but instead: Transcendent Knowledge; mental model transformation, ego transcendence.
Not “spirituality” (unhelpful term).
Letheby term “The Entheogenic Conception” – 3 hits in the article:
“if the predictive self-binding account is on the right track, then it is plausible to regard psychedelic[s] as reliable agents of epistemic and spiritual benefit; in other words, to embrace a naturalized Entheogenic Conception of these substances.”
“to show that the Entheogenic Conception of psychedelics as agents of insight and spirituality can be naturalized.”
Section 5 heading:
“Naturalizing the Entheogenic Conception“
Metzinger’s Opening Article in Issue 1 of Philosophy and Mind Sciences
“However, most if not all of these conditions cannot adequately be describedas involving conscious states in which self-consciousness is radically disrupted,let alone entirely missing.
“Take thought insertion, for example, which refers to schizophrenic patients’ reported feeling that some of their thoughts are not really theirs and have been inserted or implanted in their heads.
“How should we characterize the experience described in such reports?
“It has been argued that the relevant reports might be prompted, at least in part, by the patients’ lack of a sense of agency over the relevant thoughts (Gallagher, 2004; O’Brien & Opie, 2003; Stephens & Graham,1994).
“According to this explanation, ordinary thoughts in healthy individuals come with the sense that one is the author of these thoughts; by contrast, inserted thoughts in schizophrenic patients are not accompanied by this sense of agency.
“The relevant feature that is allegedly disrupted in this case – the sense of being in control of one’s mental activity and of causing one’s thoughts– is arguably a form of self-consciousness: it refers to the experience of one’s thoughts as originating in one’s own mental activity.
“However, a flood of recent data on mind wandering and spontaneous, task-independent thought (Fox & Christoff, 2018) shows that the phenomenal qualities of “mental ownership” and “mental agency” can be dissociated even in the healthy population:
“when lost in discursive thought or immersed in a manifest daydream we experience ownership of our thoughts, but without a sense of cognitive control over them.
“Empirical research shows that this may actually be the case for two thirds of our conscious mental life (Metzinger, 2015).
“Accordingly, schizophrenic thought insertion might be better explained by the presence of an additional experience of “alienation” with respect to one’s thoughts, or a feeling that one’s thoughts are controlled by an external agent, rather than the mere loss of the sense of agency over one’s thoughts (as in mind wandering).”
Why did CEQ Initial Item Pool not select the item from HRS, “It was difficult to control my thoughts”? And why did no version of “I felt like a puppet” end up in final CEQ?
Answer: “Because difficulty in controlling your thoughts wouldn’t be a challenging experience.” And it doesn’t fit our business model.
We’re not interested in those weird, crazy, psychedelic-specific challenging experiences, only in ordinary-state based challenging experiences.
Letheby’s Sugarcoating of Loss of Control of Your Thoughts as “Loss of the Sense of Agency Over Thoughts”
“the ostensibly unitary category of “ego dissolution” is heterogeneous, encompassing such diverse phenomena as the blurring or dissolution of bodily boundaries, the loss of the sense of agency over thoughts, and perhaps even the total abolition of all forms of self-consciousness.
“One possible resolution of these issues is as follows: the predictive self-model, like the brain’s predictive models in general, “
Avoids “loss of control” phrase. Sanitized.
Active Ego Cancellation/Transgression/ Transcendence is Greater Than Mere Passive Ego Dissolution
I increasingly get confirmation that formal active ego cancellation demonstration is greater than mere passive “ego dissolution” lifting/cessation.
tho same para, Leth. continues:
“Psychedelics disrupt these different net-works to different extents in different conditions—depending, no doubt, on set andsetting—and thereby induce qualitatively distinct varieties of ego dissolution experience with distinct neural correlates” https://philosophymindscience.org/index.php/phimisci/article/view/9627/9160
Fact 1: CEQ Deletes 18 of 21 of OAV’s Dread (DED) Items – All Other Discussion of CEQ Is Postmortem of What Went Wrong
The first thing you should know about the Challenger space shuttle is that it blew up (when I started the Egodeath theory Oct 1985 & especially 1986), January 28, 1986, when my efforts at quick 2 weeks of getting posi-control had failed.
The first thing you should know about CEQ is that it deletes 18 of 21 of the Dread (DED) effects items. All other analysis of CEQ is postmortem of What Went Wrong.
“I am a Lecturer in Philosophy at The University of Western Australia (UWA).
“My areas of specialization are philosophy of mind, philosophy of cognitive science, and philosophy of neuroscience.”
Cog Sci > Neuro Sci
The greatest enemy of Cognitive Science is Neuroscience. Accept no substitutes/replacements – the old “substitute / replace / eliminate” strategy.
The purpose and function of Neuroscience is to substitute for, replace, and eliminate Cognitive Science.
Letheby is Neuroscience, therefore Letheby is the enemy of Cognitive Science.
“My research interests include the causal mechanisms and epistemic status of transformative spiritual practices, the possibility of a “naturalistic spirituality”, and the nature of self-awareness. At UWA I teach topics including logic, epistemology, philosophy of science, and philosophy of psychology and psychiatry.
“My research to date has focused mainly on the use of classic psychedelic drugs in neuroscience and psychiatry.
“In several articles and a book, I have argued that a traditional conception of psychedelics as agents of insight and spirituality can be reconciled with naturalism, the philosophical position that the natural world is all there is.
“I argue that psychedelic experiences can have significant epistemic benefits for those who undergo them, and furnish important evidence concerning the nature of spirituality and self-awareness; however, I also argue that
“they may pose significant epistemic risks to those who undergo them, and do not – as some have thought – provide compelling evidence against naturalism.
“I take a neurophilosophical approach, grounding my philosophical analyses in scientific findings [pfff – you mean Stace’s 1960 out of print book, rock solid fog of vaporous mystic Quantum Ineffability -cm], and I have engaged in several interdisciplinary collaborations with neuroscientists and psychologists.
“My monograph Philosophy of Psychedelics was published in 2021 by Oxford University Press, in the series International Perspectives in Philosophy and Psychiatry.
“An open-access symposium featuring multiple commentaries on the book was published in 2022 by the journal Philosophy and the Mind Sciences.”
“The book has received two awards to date, both from The University of Adelaide (where I worked as a postdoc while writing it): the Faculty of Arts Prize for Outstanding Research by an Early Career Researcher and the School of Humanities Early Career Prize for best publication in 2021.
“A review series on the book will be published soon in The Polyphony, and a Spanish translation of the book is forthcoming from Editorial Blauplan.”
Symposium About Book – Philosophy of Psychedelics (Letheby)
The discussion overemphasizes loosecog transformation of the mental worldmodel of self/agent, personal control agent. underemphasizes loosecog transformation of the mental worldmodel of world in which the king steers; time & possibility branching.
However ‘world’ is mentioned in end of Conclusion in Precis article by Letheby:
“Psychedelic therapy is … an “existential medicine” … a transformative, experiential re-appraisal of basic assumptions concerning the self, the world, and the relations between the two.
“Unconstraining cognition by unbinding the self-model; revealing the vast potential of consciousness by exposing the constructed and mutable nature of our phenomenal worlds—this is the essence of psychedelic therapy, and it is perfectly consistent with a naturalisticworldview” https://philosophymindscience.org/index.php/phimisci/article/view/9627/9160
There’s also a Bubble of Simulation (my 1990s article) / metaperception/ Max Freakout passage:
p. 11: see paragraph: “On one interpretation of PP [predictive processing], conscious experience is a kind of “controlled hallucination” generated by this modelling process.
“All the furniture of our experiential worlds—the tables, chairs, and people that we encounter from day to day—are the products of a thoroughly internal process of world-simulation or virtual-reality modelling.
“However, these mental models exhibit a feature known as phenomenal transparency: we do not experience them as models, but simply as the world itself (Metzinger, 2014).
“It is as though we “look through” the models to their referents.
“As Antti Revonsuo (2006) puts it, our brains give us a thoroughly realistic and convincing “out-of-brain experience”.
“Most of the time we cannot easily regard the constituents of our experiential worlds as virtual entities, or as products of a modelling process.
“Phenomenologically speaking, they simply appear as reality, and we automatically regard them as such: transparency in action.
“Occasionally, however, this transparency is undermined, such as in lucid dreams or stubborn perceptual illusions, and our mental representations move from transparency to phenomenal opacity: we can, unusually, experience them as representations—atleast to an extent. In my view, the controlled hallucination view of con”
The Bubble of Simulation: Subjective Experience as a Virtual Environment Michael Hoffman 1996 Crash Collusion, issue 10, pp. 21-22, 1996 http://egodeath.com/BubbleOfSimulation.htm
“This connects with an important observation from the phenomenology of mindfulness meditation: to see thoughts and feelings as mere thoughts and feelings is ipso facto to disidentify with them (Albahari 2006, pp. 63-64).
“Unbinding and phenomenal opacitygo hand-in-hand:
“when specific mental contents are no longer attributed to the subject of experience, they become (phenomenologically) an object of experience—a transient and fallible appearance in consciousness.
“By reducing the brain’s confidence in its hypotheses about who, what, and where “I” am, the boundaries of the phenomenal self can be shifted to exclude many of the thoughts, feelings, and perspectives with which we usually identify.
“These mental contents can then enter an open, spacious attention in the phenomenal guise of mere thoughts and feelings; no longer identified with so strongly, they evoke less defensiveness and reactivity.
“Once again, this processof disidentifying with self-related mental contents and thereby coming to see their contingency and fallibility is described clearly by patients:”
Philosophy and the Mind Sciences, Vol. 3, 2022: Special Issue: Book Symposium: Philosophy of Psychedelics (Letheby 2021)
Lisa Bortolotti, Kathleen Murphy-Hollies The Agency-First Epistemology of Psychedelics
Chiara Caporuscio Belief Now, True Belief Later: The Epistemic Advantage of Self-Related Insights in Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy
Matteo Colombo Serotonin, Predictive Processing and Psychedelics
Sascha Benjamin Fink Psychedelics Favour Understanding Rather Than Knowledge
Sarah Hoffman Positive Affect and Letheby’s Naturalization of Psychedelic Therapy
Aidan Lyon, Anya Farennikova Through the Psychedelic Looking-Glass: The Importance of Phenomenal Transparency in Psychedelic Transformation
Joshua M. Martin, Philipp Sterzer How Level is the ‘Cognitive* Playing Field’? Context Shapes Alterations in Self**-Conception During the Psychedelic Experience
Thomas Metzinger’s books were found by me (~2014?) to be so similar to the Egodeath theory that I thought he republished Egodeath website, but OTOH my ideas are obvious (yet not).
Obviously, religious revelation is of psychedelic eternalism.
d/k when i first got/ read/ found Metzinger’s books.
The mental world-model of self-in-world is mental constructs – OF COURSE. Didn’t Wm James write that in 1880?
“Philosophy and the Mind Sciences (PhiMiSci) focuses on the intersection between philosophy and the empirical mind sciences.
“PhiMiSci is a peer-reviewed, not-for-profit open-access journal that is free for authors and readers.
“PhiMiSci is an independent publication, but builds on the success of the Open MIND project (2015; Metzinger & Windt, eds.; also published by MIT Press) and the PPP project (2017; Metzinger & Wiese, eds.).
“Both were peer-reviewed, open-access edited collections published independently of commercial publishers.
“Editorial policy
“PhiMiSci is open for submission of stand-alone articles.
“If you would like to propose a special issue for PhiMiSci, please take a look at our guidelines for special issues.
“A description of our editorial procedure be found here.
“Open access policy and copyright
“We are dedicated to publishing high-quality articles with maximum accessibility and visibility.
“We believe that the results of academic research should be made available to the public for free, with no costs for readers or authors, especially as in most cases, the research is already supported by public funding.
“By default, PhiMiSci publishes all papers under a CC-BY license, which permits use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided appropriate credit is given to the original author(s), and the original source and a link to the Creative Commons license are provided.
“If a different Creative Commons license is preferred by an author, they must indicate this during the submission of their manuscript.
“Other suitable Creative Commons license additions include that any repurpose must be non-commercial (NC) or that it must not be cut or altered (ND).
“PhiMiSci does not publish under anything but a Creative Commons license.
“All authors retain the copyright of their papers and full publishing rights without restrictions.”
The Psychedelic Religion of Mystical Consciousness (Strassman 2018)
Stace Takes Another Hit – Davis 2020 Gnosis journal (editor April DeConick) article “Gnostic Psychedelia”
Good article, I resonate with many points. Even notes the over-influence of James and Stace.
Defines, sort of/ as if, two opposed versions of mysticism:
Hermetic = Stacean “mystical experience” vs. Gnostic = w/ DeConick, a critical, Gnostic equivalent opposed conception of the realm of so-called “mystical experience”.
“Within the official clinical discourse, at least in America, the key to individual healing is largely tied to the capacity of psychedelics to trigger transcendental unitive and ecstatic experiences whose “mystical” character is vouchsafed, it must be said, byscholarship that is over half a century old.
[and ridiculously narrow, particular, and specific! Stace 1960 (out of print), James 1902. All the clinical talk of “mystical experience” is not actual mystical experience, but is, instead Stacean so-called “mystical experience”, specifically, narrowly, particularly.
The CEQ Is the Broken Wastebasket for the MEQ
The CEQ is the (broken) wastebasket for the failures of the MEQ created by James, Stace, Leary, Pahnke, Richards, & Griffiths.
Your experience of Stacean mystical experience as shaped and filtered through the MEQ and its wastebasket the CEQ, is created through selection bias, filtering, pushing Leary/Pahnke/Richards/Griffiths worship of a hyper specific arbitrary “meditation” and “mysticism” paradigmatic interpretation framework. Corporate Mysticism definition/conception.
Your mystical experience is conceived by Stace in 1960 as inescapably and as surly as (according to John Lash) you are a follower of Wasson, including your considerable departures from his theory. -cm].
Erik Davis continues:
“The value of unitive experience also continues to influence many underground therapists as well.
“There is little room in this discourse for affirmation of weirder, more frightening, and even paranoid psychedelic experiences.
“Encounters with archons—with visions of cosmic jailers, meddling aliens, and creepy mind parasites—are either swept under the carpet, or cast as unnecessary features that result from bad clinical protocols or improper set and setting.”
Davis there is warm; he fails to say enough that they control your intention.
A dissertation writer “Toward a Philosophy of …” mis-wrote “the ultimate fear is that there are entities”, bizarrely totally missing the point: add: THAT CONTROL YOUR CONTROL THOUGHTS/INTENTION.
The dragon monster shadow reveals you don’t control the source of your control thoughts.
That is the greatest fear. Not mere pointless so-what, “there are other entities”, as the dissertation strangely states, without explaining why existence of entities implies the mind’s greatest fear.
The Insane Badness of CEQ – Website, Book (3 Vols.), & Lecture Series
The Psychedelic Scandal of CEQGate
todo: gather best passages I wrote on the disaster red flag generating machine that is the CEQ article. Not nece’ly w/ “CEQ” in the page title.
The Insane Badness of CEQ – Website & 3-volumn book, & Lecture Series
My Top 3 Great Breakthroughs
I’m glad I re-found a Dec. 2013 Erik Davis passage that struck me a couple months ago late 2022: Written when I was confirming and announcing my great breakthrough #2 of 3.
Good podcast topic for Egodeath Mystery Show – discuss these 4 breakthroughs.
Breakthrough 1: Jan. 1988: Actual Nature of Ego Transcendence
Jan 1988: The actual nature of ego transcendence (ego cancellation) is transformation from possibilism to eternalism in loosecog state; block-universe eternalism.
Breakthrough 1.5: 2003: Myth Corroborates Core Theory (2006 main article)
This is more of a devcelopment than a point-in-time breakthrough. When did the hypoth occur to me, that instead of Mr. Historical Jesus confirming my Core theory of 1997 outline, myth would do that?
Not only myth; at same time/era (1999-2003), I got similar confirmation from Reformed theology and asking why there’s no book about total history-of-ideas of determinism in all forms. Got a green light from all domains.
I received important confirmation then from Elaine Pagels’ first 3 books, in that personal library era 1999-2003, into 2006, 2007 follow-through until Jan 2008-Sep 2011 hiatus from public theory posting. Milestone: My Pagels book reviews/summaries of her first two books (John, Paul writings per gnostic view).
Breakthrough 1.5 (no outstanding date id’d, though I did go to a celebration dinner around then; need to identify what the specific breakthrough was) would be around 2003 when I was getting confirmation that mythology – not Mr. Historical Jesus – confirms the Egodeath core theory and myth describes plant-induced loosecog no-free-will.
This was the setup and I finally saw the way to write my 1988 article, as my 2006 main article, by incorp’ing myth and by switching from 12 Principles at the top level, to just 4 Principles at the top level:
metaphor, dissociation, determinism, cybernetics
which I’d now label as:
metaphor, psychedelics, eternalism, control transformation
Breakthrough 2: Nov. 2013: {tree vs snake} = possibilism vs. eternalism; non-branching theme
Nov 2013: {tree vs snake} = possibilism vs. eternalism. Power of Myth + Douris kylix of Jason/Athena/Ladon serpent.
Breakthrough 3: Nov. 2020: Decoded Eadwine Image
Nov 2020: decoded the Eadwine image. Led to formal {branching-message mushroom tree} (+ {handedness}) motif full identification by March 2022.
Capitalism on Psychedelics: The Mainstreaming of an Underground (Davis 2018)
The Future of Psychedelic Discourse (Davis 2013), Debunks the “Prohibition Stopped Science” Narrative
I re-found a passage that struck me: Written when I was confirming and announcing my great breakthrough #2 of 3.
The Future of Psychedelic Discourse Erik Davis Dec. 2013 Originally: The Multidisciplinary Association of Psychedelic Discourse in Erowid Extracts 25 (Dec. 2013), 4-5. url https://techgnosis.com/the-future-of-psychedelic-culture/ –
“But the multidisciplinary character of psychedelia also reflects one crucial and under-acknowledged reality: prohibition did not halt serious research.
“Indeed, one of the biggest fibs bandied about in discussions of the current research revival is the (often self-serving) claim that psychedelic science ground to a halt in the 1960s and is now “back”.
“This is true only if you somehow believe that science needs the imprimatur of the state in order to actually be science.
“What actually happened was that droves of individuals (with and quite often without academic pedigrees) pursued all manner of hard-nosed research, including ethnobotany, chemical analysis, novel synthesis, extraction methods, and therapeutic protocols.
“Many DIY researchers were driven to share their results as well, not only through underground publications, mail networks, computer bulletin boards, and friendships, but through formal and semi-formal gatherings devoted to open dialogue.”
Modes of Sentience: Psychedelics, Metaphysics, Panpsychism (Sjöstedt-Hughes 2021)
“Modes of Sentience is an essay collection by philosopher of mind Dr Peter Sjöstedt-Hughes that explores the extraordinary
intersection of psychedelic experience with philosophy,
the analysis of mind in relation to panpsychism,
multiple dimensions of space, time, and
other metaphysical matters. “
breadth, height, width, & depth
“Keeping apace with the psychedelic renaissance in science and medicine, this collection proposes new philosophical models for discerning altered and alternate modes of sentience.”
I like the implication against the awful construct “altered state vs. rationality“. Hate that!! Opposite of truth. Falsest of dichotomies.
Psychedelic Buddhism: A User’s Guide to Traditions, Symbols, and Ceremonies (Crowley 2023)
“Lama Mike Crowley presents techniques for Buddhists who wish to incorporate psychedelics into their practice, sharing the kind of spiritual experiences and benefits that can be gained through entheogen use.
“He also explores meditation techniques and guidance for psychonauts who are interested in the maps of inner space provided by Buddhism.”
“Presents guidance and techniques for Buddhists who wish to incorporate psychedelics into their practice as well as for psychonauts who are interested in the maps of inner space provided by Buddhism
“• Explores the use of psychedelics in Buddhist practice, sharing the kind of spiritual experiences that can be gained with each
“• Describes meditation techniques, with special attention being given to the generation of the Four Positive Attitudes
“In this user’s guide to psychedelic Buddhism, Lama Mike Crowley presents techniques for Buddhists who wish to incorporate psychedelics into their practice as well as for psychonauts who are interested in the maps of inner space provided by Buddhism.
“The author details how psychedelics have led to spontaneous awakening experiences, such as “Indra’s net” and universal voidness, that were once thought to be available only to advanced meditators.”
advanced avoiders of the real thing, Psilocybin
“He explores the use of psychedelics, such as LSD and psilocybin mushrooms, in a Buddhist context, sharing the kind of spiritual experiences and benefits that can be gained with each.
“The author also looks at the use of psychedelics encoded in Vedic and Buddhist scriptures, particularly in the Vajrayāna tradition, from the Middle Ages until the present day.
“Presenting an informed summary of Buddhism for psychonauts, the author explores the key beliefs of Buddhism, the life of the Buddha, and the practices followed in various yānas, or paths.
“He describes meditation techniques, with special attention being given to the generation of the Four Positive Attitudes: loving-kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity, each being taken from their personal to their universal forms.
“He looks at Buddhist symbols, ceremonies, deities, and initiations, as well as psychic powers in Buddhist tradition, and how these ideas and practices can be used in the exploration of the inner realms of consciousness.
“Providing a complete guide to integrating psychedelics into Buddhist practice, this book reveals how the ancient Buddhist teachers discovered their universal maps of consciousness and how you can use their wisdom to guide your journey.”
Into the Mystic: The Visionary and Ecstatic Roots of 1960s Rock and Roll (Hill 2017)
“Music critic Christopher Hill examines the visionary, spiritual, and mystical influences on the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Grateful Dead, Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, the Incredible String Band, the Velvet Underground, and others to show how 1960s rock and roll music transformed consciousness on both the individual and collective levels.
“Explores the visionary, mystical, and ecstatic traditions that influenced the music of the 1960s
“Examines the visionary, spiritual, and mystical influences on the Grateful Dead, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, the Incredible String Band, the Left Banke, Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground, and others
“Shows how the British Invasion acted as the “detonator” to explode visionary music into the mainstream
“Explains how 1960s rock and roll music transformed consciousness on both the individual and collective levels
“The 1960s were a time of huge transformation, sustained and amplified by the music of that era: Rock and Roll.
“During the 19th and 20th centuries visionary and esoteric spiritual traditions influenced first literature, then film. In the 1960s they entered the realm of popular music, catalyzing the ecstatic experiences that empowered a generation.
“Exploring how 1960s rock and roll music became a school of visionary art, Christopher Hill shows how music raised consciousness on both the individual and collective levels to bring about a transformation of the planet.
“The author traces how rock and roll rose from the sacred music of the African Diaspora, harnessing its ecstatic power for evoking spiritual experiences through music.
“He shows how the British Invasion, beginning with the Beatles in the early 1960s, acted as the “detonator” to explode visionary music into the mainstream.
“He explains how 60s rock and roll made a direct appeal to the imaginations of young people, giving them a larger set of reference points around which to understand life.
“Exploring the sources 1960s musicians drew upon to evoke the initiatory experience, he reveals the influence of European folk traditions, medieval Troubadours, and a lost American history of ecstatic politics and shows how a revival of the ancient use of psychedelic substances was the strongest agent of change, causing the ecstatic, mythic, and sacred to enter the consciousness of a generation.
“The author examines the mythic narratives that underscored the work of the Grateful Dead, the French symbolist poets who inspired Bob Dylan, the hallucinatory England of the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper, the tale of the Rolling Stones and the Lord of Misrule, Van Morrison’s astral journeys, and the dark mysticism of Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground.
“Evoking the visionary and apocalyptic atmosphere in which the music of the 1960s was received, the author helps each of us to better understand this transformative era and its mystical roots.”
Psychedelic Cults and Outlaw Churches (Marinacci 2023)
Psychedelic Cults and Outlaw Churches: LSD, Cannabis, and Spiritual Sacraments in Underground America Mike Marinacci July 18, 2023
“A comprehensive tour of North American spiritual groups that use psychoactive drugs in the search for higher consciousness.
“From LSD-powered guru Timothy Leary to cannabis-sex cults to psychedelic outlaw churches, Mike Marinacci explores prominent psychedelic religious groups and cults in depth.
“He examines the lives of their colorful leaders, the origins of their unorthodox beliefs, the controversial practices of their congregants, and their many conflicts with both law enforcement and public opinion.
“Explores prominent psychedelic churches and sects in depth, including the Native American Church and their peyote rituals, the cannabis-sex temple known as the Psychedelic Venus Church, and the Church of Naturalism, an LSD-therapy cult that came to a murderous end.
“An encyclopedic survey of dozens of minor organizations—many of which have never before been documented in an authoritative source
• Shares personal interviews and anecdotes about the strange, outrageous adventures of religious psychonauts, alongside rare photos and illustrations.
“For thousands of years, human beings around the world have used hallucinogenic plants and fungi to alter consciousness and connect with the Divine.
“Although such practices faded with the rise of organized religion, the last century has seen a revival of entheogen-based spirituality in North America.
“From LSD-powered guru Timothy Leary to cannabis-sex cults to psychedelic outlaw churches, Mike Marinacci presents a comprehensive tour of North American religious sects and spiritual groups that use entheogens and psychoactive drugs in the search for higher consciousness, mystical insight, and spiritual enlightenment.
“Exploring prominent churches and cults in depth, he examines the lives of their colorful leaders, the origins of their unorthodox beliefs, the controversial practices of their congregants, and their many conflicts with both law enforcement and public opinion.
“He looks at the Native American Church and their legal battle over their peyote rituals, the cannabis-sex temple known as the Psychedelic Venus Church, the murderous end of the LSD-therapy cult known as the Church of Naturalism, and several other major groups and temples of psychedelic spirituality.
“He then offers an encyclopedic survey of dozens of minor organizations, many of which have never been documented in an authoritative source before.
“Sharing personal interviews and anecdotes about the strange, outrageous adventures of religious psychonauts alongside rare photos and illustrations, this extensively researched study of underground psychedelic religious groups in the United States reveals their spiritual and cultural influence from the 1960s to the present day.”
Gallery of Cat-Shaped Mushrooms
Cats: Keepers of the Spirit World John Rush October 3, 2023
I envy Brown and everyone, they are omniscient, they know all about things that I don’t know anything about.
IOW, everyone constantly and relentlessly ASSUMES massive unthinking presuppositions, that I don’t.
The Dominant Discourse Narratives are what drives people’s “thinking”.
People are mental slaves of memes.
Brown asks (my reformatting) this major official question:
Brown’s Official Question
todo: paste Brown’s orig. wording
If a psychoactive mushroom rite were widely practiced, but only among the ecclesiastic/pagan elites and their initiates, during the Middle Ages, where do we draw the line between:
* Labelling this as “secret”.
* Affirm that the evidence supports the maximal thesis.
What nuance (if any) needs to be added to support either position?
How do you address this issue re: claims of lack of textual evidence?
How do you, with your knowledge of Greek and Latin, address this issue re: claims of lack of textual evidence?
______________________
Hope Cyberdisciple adds his secret email compositions to his site, eg:
I don’t agree that psychoactive mushroom rites were widely practiced only among the ecclesiastic/pagan elites and their initiates.
That’s not my wording and I would not construct that formulation.
So much raft of assumptions we’re being led to take on, but I take on none of them.
I see 3 narrowing qualifiers I’d omit from that formulation:
* “rites” – I’d speak minimally/neutrally about “usage”, not the dubiously heavily loaded-up term “rites”.
* their initiates? There are simply “initiates” or “users”, not “their” (the elites’) initiates.
* I reject Ruck’s removal of mushrooms from within normal Christianity (the kind that counts) by Ruck’s isolating “mushrooms” to only the elites.
I’m not interested in these needless narrowing hypotheses right out the gate.
I reject the framework that’s given by Ruckian moderate-i.e.-minimal entheogen scholarship: secret, heretical, abnormal, elite, hidden, underground, deviant, alien, externally introduced – I reject all such directions of assumption.
All I know, all I hold and assume, is that there was evidently a lot of use of Psilocybin inside of, as in, coming from within, the Eucharist practice.
The evidence does not cry out “secret”; the evidence just cries out “a lot of masterful mushroom use”.
The highly developed and sophisticated theme of {branching-message mushroom trees} doesn’t communicate “secret elite veiled suppressed”, it only conveys “a lot” and “extremely high comprehension” by that culture/era.
One of the greatest achievements of all time is the efficient profound communication, the visual art motifs of {handedness} together with {branching-message mushroom trees}.
Cybernetics = communication & control.
Line-in-the-sand aggressive (not neutral) article title per the Radical Maximal Entheogen Theory of Religion:
Compelling Evidence & Proof of Explicit Psilocybin Mushrooms in Christian Art to Communicate Non-Branching Stable Control
On Nov. 10, 2020, Brown asked if we wrote about “compelling evidence” and “criteria of proof”, the above url date represents Nov. 12 or 13, the page began.
‘Psilocybin’ in the revised title is maybe gratuitous and not true/exclusive, but this is the time for vigorous pushback against the Amanita Primacy Fallacy.
I continue to see YouTube videos that are exclusively about Psilocybin, yet exclusively use Amanita as decoration to disambiguate psychoactive vs. dinner mushrooms.
Amanita imagery doesn’t at all connote “Amanita”; it solely denotes “Psychoactive”; that’s all it means.
🍄 means Psychoactive mushrooms, almost always Psilocybin (Cubensis, Liberty Cap, Panaeolus).
This popular culture takes it for granted that everyone just understands that Amanita is the billboard for Psilocybin, exactly as Dale Pendell wrote in Sentence 1 in his Amanita section.
I have to buy Pendell’s book, I should have, he earned it, because I saw “Amanita” in the table of contents and thought “His page 1 of the chapter better point out that no one uses Amanita” – he blew me away with exactly saying this, strongly, in his opening sentence.
The 2014 2-vol set, uses the disputed “mystical talk” lexicon & framework – with critique calling for more flexibility beyond Stace 1960?Seeking the Sacred with Psychoactive Substances: Chemical Paths to Spirituality and to God
The SMEC: the Stacean Mystical Experiences Questionnaire, about Stacean Mystical Experiences
Every time in this “debate” someone writes “”mystical experiencing”, that really means the ultra-particular conception of Stace 1960, rigidly baked-in by Leary/Pahnke/Richards into what became the MEQ, ie the SMEC: the Stacean Mystical Experiences Questionnaire.
The SMEC: the Stacean Mystical Experiences Questionnaire; the Questionnaire to detect/ construct/ filter/ create Stacean Mystical Experiences.
The negative, repressed, suppressed remainder is redirected to the CEQ, where 18 of 21 Dread (DED) effects were summarily discarded by Hopkins into Wouter Hanegraaff’s Rejected wastebasket, replaced by ordinary-state based Grief counselling services instead.
Bait & switch to get rid of negative experiences from “mystic experiences” and then get rid of actual psychedelic-specific negative effects and retain only the ordinary-state overlapping negative effects.
Charles Stang specifically criticizes by name, Stace & James, as failing to match the old archive of mystics’ reports.
Griffiths’ slide deck presentation mentions these supposedly rock-solid “science” foundation figures who need critiquing that’s overdue.
Griffiths Is Always Talking About Stacean “Mystical Experience”, not Mystical Experience
In front of each use of the phrase “mystical experience” in these articles, always write “Stacean”, William Stace 1960 out of print book.
The dominant discourse narrative set of connotations, an intensely RIGID and completely PARTICULAR cast-in-stone, inflexible mental model of what they mean by “mystical experience” – which Charles Stang contrasts against the older reports of actual mystics, which match high dose Psilocybin challenging experiences.
When they debate whether M.E. is “true” or “is false”, they ALWAYS mean this rigid, trademarked, particular conception of “M.E” according to Stace 1960.
“Recent clinical trials show that psychedelics such as LSD and psilocybin can be given safely in controlled conditions, and can cause lasting psychological benefits with one or two administrations.
“Supervised psychedelic sessions can reduce symptoms of anxiety, depression, and addiction, and improve well-being in healthy volunteers, for months or even years.
“But these benefits seem to be mediated by “mystical” experiences of cosmic consciousness, which prompts a philosophical concern:
“do psychedelics cause psychological benefits by inducing false or implausible beliefs about the metaphysical nature of reality?
“This book is the first scholarly monograph in English devoted to the philosophical analysis of psychedelic drugs.
“Its central focus is the apparent conflict between the growing use of psychedelics in psychiatry and the philosophical worldview of naturalism.
“Within the book, Letheby integrates empirical evidence and philosophical considerations in the service of a simple conclusion:
“this “Comforting Delusion Objection” to psychedelic therapy fails.
“While exotic metaphysical ideas do sometimes come up, they are not, on closer inspection, the central driver of change in psychedelic therapy.
“Psychedelics lead to lasting benefits by altering the sense of self, and changing how people relate to their own minds and lives-not by changing their beliefs about the ultimate nature of reality.
“The upshot is that a traditional conception of psychedelics as agents of insight and spirituality can be reconciled with naturalism (the philosophical position that the natural world is all there is).
“Controlled psychedelic use can lead to genuine forms of knowledge gain and spiritual growth-even if no Cosmic Consciousness or transcendent divine Reality exists.
“Philosophy of Psychedelics is an indispensable guide to the literature for researchers already engaged in the field of psychedelic psychiatry, and for researchers-especially philosophers-who want to become acquainted with this increasingly topical field.”
Philosophy and Psychedelics: Frameworks for Exceptional Experience (Hauskeller 2022)
I just recorded pretty nice content for Egodeath Mystery Show. 3 spotlights are my contribution:
Mystical experience and ego transcendence is actually transformation from possibilism to eternalism mental world-models of time, control, possibilities.
Freakout solution and context: Explain the subjective dynamics of control transformation during transformation from possibilism to eternalism, to get the treasure of Transcendent Knowledge, to get past the guarding dragon/ danger/ threat angel of death with flaming sword guarding the way of Balaam along vine yard path where no where to turn to left or right, and guarding the gate of Garden of Eden, lest/if you get past gate guarded angel death blade flaming, would reach out and eat the fruit of immortality from the tree of life promised to the elect at end of Revelation, bookending the Bible.
Religious myth is metaphor analogy describing the above two points.
My most recent point may be that the goal isn’t “avoid the threat/ dragon/ shadow”, but rather, to get the treasure; Transcendent Knowledge, gnosis, perfection, completion of initiation; enlightenment, purification, ability to pass through the gate, satori, mental model transformation from possibilism to eternalism.
That point fully struck me in late 2022 after advising Oregon Psilocybin Advisory Board about teaching the danger and reconciling the danger but I neglected to provide context, get the treasure, Transcendent Knowledge, mental worldmodel transformation from possibilism to eternalism.
These are the 3 contributions and points of focus that I bring, in
the Egodeath theory;
the theory of ego transcendence;
the cybernetic theory of ego transcendence;
psychedelic eternalism:
the Theory of Psychedelic Eternalism.
Calling all mystics: Clergy psychedelic study aims to awaken spiritual experiences (Lattin 2015)
https://psychedelichistorian.com/wp-content/uploads/bodleian-fol-027v.jpg cut right major trunk, nonbranching tail touched by nonbranching trunk, right paw affirms nonbranching cap, standing on right (not left) leg touching cut trunk; avoid affirming/touching branching zone of tree. 1, 2, 4, 1 left trunk morphology. left foot touches fire. – Cybermonk analysis/commentary. right leg = eternalism, vs possibilism. genre = esotericism puzzles. no branching in tree cap/crown.
Article: Calling all mystics: Clergy psychedelic study aims to awaken spiritual experiences (Lattin 2015)
Garb, B. A., & Earleywine, M. (2022). Mystical experiences without mysticism: An argument for mystical fictionalism in psychedelics, Journal of Psychedelic Studies, 6(1), 48-53. doi: https://doi.org/10.1556/2054.2022.00207
Abstract
“Mystical experiences frequently precede decreases in human suffering or increased functioning.
“Therapies that include the ingestion of psychoactive substances in supportive environments often lead to improvements that correlate with the magnitude of the mystical experiences generated.
“A close look at these phenomena from a philosophy of science perspective might put empiricists in a quandary.
“Arguments with critics of the import of these mystical experiences, prohibitionists, or others who are apprehensive about psychedelic-assisted treatments, might prove awkward or difficult given the tacit assertion that the mystical genuinely exists.
“The assumption might even dampen theorizing in ways that remain outside of theorists’ awareness.
“The predicament might lack the epistemic humility ideal for good science as well.
“Nevertheless, abandoning the construct of mystical experiences would require ignoring compelling, replicated empirical work.
“We argue that a version of philosophical fictionalism that draws on research in logic and linguistics can help investigators engage in this discourse without implying a belief in the mystical.
“Comparable approaches have proven helpful in mathematics and empiricism more broadly.
“Mystical fictionalism could help theorists view reports of mystical experiences as true even if the mystical fails to be veridical.
“The approach creates an expressive advantage that could assist researchers and theorists eager to refine our understanding of mystical experiences and improve psychedelic-assisted treatments.
“Mystical fictionalism might also inspire novel looks at correlates of mystical experiences that might serve as mediators of their effects, potentially generating models with comparable explanatory power that sidestep the need for a fictionalist approach.”
Oregon Psilocybin Services Update
Oregon Health Authority (OHA)
December 27, 2023 Subject: OHA Adopts Final Rules for Oregon Psilocybin Services
Greetings,
Oregon Psilocybin Services (OPS) has great news to share as we near the end of 2022!
We have officially adopted the final set of administrative rules needed to implement the Oregon Psilocybin Services Act (ORS 475A).
“In addition, a Letter to the Public and Hearings Officer Report summarize feedback we received during the public comment period and some of the decisions that were made by the agency.
“With the adoption of these rules, the Oregon Psilocybin Services (OPS) section will begin accepting applications for four licensure types on January 2, 2023.
“OHA’s role includes the regulation of these licensees.
“Persons operating outside the licensed system may be subject to criminal penalties which is a matter for local or state law enforcement.
“With the close of 2022, we bring an end to the development period in the Oregon Psilocybin Services Act (ORS 475A) and shift into launching the nation’s first regulatory framework for psilocybin services!
Oregon Psilocybin Services (OPS) is pleased to present a final copy of the adopted rules necessary to implement the Oregon Psilocybin Services Act: Oregon Administrative Rules (OAR) Chapter 333, Division 333: Psilocybin.” “We want to thank everyone who shared written comments during the Public Comment Period. …”
“The Oregon Health Authority, Oregon Psilocybin Services (OPS) section is proposing to adopt administrative rules in chapter 333, division 333.
“The proposed rules implement ORS chapter 475A, the Oregon Psilocybin Services Act (“the Act”).
“The Act creates a first of its kind regulatory framework for licensed production of psilocybin products and sale of psilocybin products and services to clients.
“The rules address all aspects of this framework and support the Act’s goals of promoting access and equity while protecting health and safety.
“The rules are necessary to implement the Act which requires that they must be adopted by January 1, 2023.
“The rules address a variety of subject matter including requirements for licensure including
storage and security,
standards for psilocybin products,
packaging and labeling requirements,
safety standards and guidelines for provision of psilocybin services,
pp. 65-67 of The Psychedelic Gospels: after submitting a written request, the Browns were granted permission to visit the Wasson Archives at Harvard University.
They went there in summer of 2012 before departing for their extended research trip to Europe and the Middle East.
“As a result of that visit, the Wasson Archives sent us the image of Wasson and Richardson with Maria Sabina, which we published as color plate 4 in the book.
“We also read a good deal of Wasson’s voluminous correspondence, including with Robert Graves, and in the process came upon the two 1952 letters from Panofsky.
“We requested [in 2012 or in 2019 when writing the article] and received the images of the two letters along with permission from the Wasson Archives to reprint them with proper citation.
“For this reason, the Panofsky letters are cited as follows in this [2019] article:
Figure 2.
Letter of Erwin Panofsky to R. Gordon Wasson, May 2, 1952. Wasson Archives, Harvard University Herbarium, Cambridge, Mass
Figure 3.
Letter of Erwin Panofsky to R. Gordon Wasson, May 12, 1952. Wasson Archives, Harvard University Herbarium, Cambridge, Mass
“To honor our responsibility to the Wasson Archives, this [the above] is the way to cite the Panofsky letters when you reprint them, along with the fact that they were published in our article …”
Ruck, M. Hoffman, and Brian Muraresku set up Wasson West:
The Wasson-Ruck Entheogenic Research Institute and Archives (WRERI) http://wassonwest.com
“Our consciousness is always on a journey, both in everyday reality as well as when we have psychedelic experiences.
“Entering into these magical psychedelic realms can either be a dangerous adventure or a rewarding exploration, and that is up to you.
“Preparation and integration are the essential tools for you to get the most out of your psychedelic journey, and knowing what they are and how to use them is part of every consciousness explorer’s indispensable toolbox.
“The book has three parts: Map, Preparation and Integration.
“The Map shows an overview where landmarks can be identified, which is extremely necessary while in the unpredictable psychedelic reality.
“Preparation goes beyond the basic safety rules of set & setting; it is meant to steer the trip in the desired direction and thus facilitate the subsequent Integration, which occurs when you rebalance your emotions and bring what you learned on the journey back into your daily life.
“How do you do that?
“This book is made especially for you; it is both a guide for the journey of your consciousness in the psychedelic reality but also in the ordinary state of consciousness.
“As such, it will help you to prepare and integrate any experience. Psychedelic, the “manifestation of the psyche,” means that the journey happens within you.
“This book is a guide to becoming more present with yourself during your work with these substances, facilitating your reconnection with Soul and the authentic experience we are having on this planet.
“Psychedelics have the power to provide us with the direct experience of temporary states of Awakening, where we experience Presence – in the here and now — and the Opening of the Heart. This state of grace cannot be induced, but can be fostered using will, knowledge and action.
“The real magic of mushrooms and natural psychoactive substances is revealed when we free ourselves from the day-to-day mental and emotional filters and can finally contemplate and rejoice in the infinite beauty and perfection of existence.
“This is the wish for anyone who will read and use this book.”
“This is the book I would have liked to read before trying magic mushrooms. I would have saved myself many problems and a lot of time.”
“How many should I take? How? Where? Mushrooms or truffles? What is the difference?
“What about Psilacetin? Music? Side effects and contraindications? Where to find them? What about microdosing?
“These are some of the questions you can find an answer to in this book.
“The Magic Mushroom User’s Guide is like three books in one.
The first book is a Quick Guide, a few pages in which you find only essential information, useful not just as an introduction to the topic, but something you can read every time you need a summary of the steps to take and the ones to avoid.
“The second book is an in-depth analysis of the Quick Guide in which we delve deeper into this marvellous and magical world, with more useful and interesting information.
“The third book goes further and allows us to discover how the most advanced scientific studies and the most ancient spiritual traditions can come close to each other also thanks to mushrooms.
“Here you will find a number of original studies about mushrooms, essential for those who want to deepen their understanding of what these magical fruits of the Earth really are.
It is an indispensable text for beginners, also necessary for the more experienced explorers of states of consciousness and being, in fact the author deals extensively with ceremonial practices with mushrooms, both solo and in groups.
“This manual is the perfect choice if you want to meet Sacred Mushrooms; knowledge, respect and trust are the keys for not getting hurt and for getting to know yourself. “
A. wrote:
“detailed and complete guide to the use of magic mushrooms, with everything you need to know before having this kind of experience, starting from the motivation, where and how to organize it, setting, company, dosage, what to expect and all the information that can help you understand whether it is the right thing for you.
“second half of the book – possible origins of mushrooms, their history on this planet, medical, scientific and spiritual aspects related to this kind of experience.
“links to consult on the web, and all the bibliographic resources.
“an interesting text, even for those who have already experienced mushrooms and know a few things about them.” (Alexandra Hopkins)
Author page: https://shroomcircle.com – “I am the author of all the posts on this blog and I have written three books, all devoted to the knowledge and use of Psilocybe Mushrooms, which you may know better by these names: magic mushrooms, hallucinogenic mushrooms, psychedelic mushrooms, shrooms and even Sacred Mushrooms.
“The first book is an instruction manual that goes far beyond everything you need to know, such as contraindications, doses, and ways to consume;
“the second one is the ideal complement to the first, it is the only book you can find on how to prepare and integrate a perhaps difficult or challenging psychedelic journey;
“finally, the third book (not yet translated into English) answers all the frequently asked questions I have received over the years from my readers.
“These are necessary and complementary texts, where you find the indispensable instructions to explore your consciousness and know yourself safely.” snapshot jan 25 2023
Beyond the Narrow Life: A Guide for Psychedelic Integration and Existential Exploration (Ortigo 2021)
Beyond the Narrow Life: A Guide for Psychedelic Integration and Existential Exploration June 29, 2021 Kile M. Ortigo Ph.D. William A. Richards Ph.D. (Foreword)
“In her interview for Richard L. Miller’s new book, Psychedelic Wisdom, Julie M. Brown, M.A. – psychotherapist, psychonaut, and coauthor The Psychedelic Gospels – describes her cosmic consciousness experience, see Julie’s presentation to Aware Project in LA: https://vimeo.com/367537082.”
Brown’s Questions for Cyberdisciple About the Nature of Secrecy
todo: retrieve.
Minimal Entheogen Theory Deletes Mushrooms from Christianity and then Accuses Christianity of Deleting Mushrooms
How McKenna/ Ruck/ Rush (the “Moderate” = Minimal Entheogen Theory of Religion) Deletes Mushrooms from Christianity and then Accuses Christianity of Deleting Mushrooms:
Go Out of Your Way to Attach Your Label “Heretical”, “Elite, “Secret”, to Nullify all Mushroom Evidence.
High Dose Previously Gave 39% Freakouts Under Optimal Set/Setting, Now Fixed by Griffiths to Only 30% Freakouts
High dose.
Optimal set/setting.
Newbies or a series of 5 Hopkins sessions.
39% had extreme fear/terror/panic/paranoia.
Became 30%, without explanation.
A math-gaming mystery.
In my page about the Moving Past Mysticism quasi-debate, see the two contradictory Griffiths quotes in page section.
That “39% Dread -> 30%” page section has my best writeup summary of the foul, dirty, wholesale deletion and replacement of all of the Dittrich APZ/OAV Dread of Ego Dissolution (DED) effects (suppress/ repress “the Shadow”!) by Griffiths’ new, promoted Grief category of psychedelic effects questions.
Actual, psychedelic-specific challenging effects are not our business model, so we just deleted them.
“The classic book on statistical graphics, charts, tables.
“Theory and practice in the design of data graphics, 250 illustrations of the best (and a few of the worst) statistical graphics, with detailed analysis of how to display data for precise, effective, quick analysis.
“Design of the high-resolution displays, small multiples.
“Editing and improving graphics.
“The data-ink ratio.
“Time-series, relational graphics, data maps, multivariate designs.
“Detection of graphical deception: design variation vs. data variation.
“Sources of deception.
“Aesthetics and data graphical displays.
“This is the second edition of The Visual Display of Quantitative Information.
“This edition provides excellent color reproductions of the many graphics of William Playfair, adds color to other images, and includes all the changes and corrections accumulated during 17 printings of the first edition.”
Blurb: “You are in possession of an exquisite machine motionlessly buoyant in the softly circulating fluids of your skull.
“A world-building machine.
“And psychedelic molecules are the tools for tuning and operating this machine…”
Message: Metaprogramming amplifies egoic power. A partial truth.
“psychedelics stimulate the brain and change the nature of the subjective world.
“In sufficient doses, these molecules have the potential, not only to alter the structure of the normal waking world, but to replace it entirely – to hurl the tripper into fantastical realms of immense complexity and strangeness, bursting with extraordinary ecologies of apparently intelligent and communicative beings.”
A detail not mentioned: Detecting/becoming aware of an uncontrollable controller of one’s control-thoughts.
“the brain’s ability to construct our model of reality in normal waking life deepens, the mechanism by which psychedelic molecules perturb its world-building machinery such that entirely novel and unimaginably bizarre worlds emerge begins to reveal itself.
“Explains in unprecedented depth and detail how psychedelic molecules interface with the human brain, alter the structure and dynamics of the experienced world, and rapidly and efficiently switch the brain’s reality channel, opening up a vast number of alternate worlds for discovery and exploration.
“Ultimately, using both molecular and post-molecular technologies, humans will be able to enter countless different worlds at will, to establish communication with the beings resident therein, and to engineer reality itself.”
To enter the revealed eternalism world, to pass through that gateway, repudiate relying on naive possibilism-thinking.
Shift from relying on left leg to right leg, to pass through the gate.
1:19:09, 118 MB, stereo. Final 13 minutes is guitar, starting 1:05:00.
“Ep229 Psilocybin Central.mp3”
Content
1 hour of harshing on lie-based non-drug meditation, the ironic “advanced meditation” [sic] that’s outshone by the far brighter light of Psilocybin, the real deal that puts meditation to shame.
Jordan Peterson pointed out Griffiths’ self-contradictory pushing of his non-drug meditation religion’s “advanced meditators” (advanced avoiders of the real authentic actual meditation and source).
Bow down to the rightful pedestal occupant, the rightful true king, Psilocybin, and oust the false king, phony, fake, non-drug meditation.
Non-drug meditation is popular precisely because non-drug meditation is the best way to avoid the threat of being enlightened is meditation.
The perfect substitute for psilocybin transformation is meditation.
The best and most popular way to avoid mental worldmodel transformation is non-drug meditation and making that your false authority, Odysseus Psilocybin versus the false suitors: fake meditation, phony mysticism, fraudulent esotericism.
The solution is not “advanced meditation” plus augmented by Psilocybin.
The authentic result is advanced Psilocybin plus augmented by meditation put in its place, advanced meditation is advanced folly and avoidance, having been revealed as folly and incoherence by Griffiths.
Griffiths let out that Psilocybin is better than advanced meditation.
The game is up, the false history: Psilocybin the true king that actually delivers the goods, spells the end of lie-based meditation.
Timestamps
0:00 – Intro.
0:18 – Content. 4712.wav.
10:00 –
10:07 –
24:30 – Show Identification.
24:39 – Content. 4713.wav.
30:00 –
38: 00 –
42:15 – Show Identification.
42:27 – Leading edge altered state theory.
42:35 – Content. 4714.wav. The measure of truth is Psilocybin.
50:00 – Criticizing Hatsis.
1:05:48 – Guitar (13:00).
track 4 of 🎸🌌 Rebirth into the Sphere of Shattered Stars.
Errata: background room noises, partly due to sometimes using room mics.
Alternate room mics & close mics a couple times.
mirrored end, room mics, with room noise
1:18:49 – Outro.
1:19:09 – End.
Guitar length:
18:49 -5:48 13:01
Artist: Illumination Valve. Song: 🎸🌌 Rebirth into the Sphere of Shattered Stars, track 4.
Source Recordings
3 files recorded just now Jan 23 2023:
VOX_TK_4712.wav
VOX_TK_4713.wav
VOX_TK_4714.wav
Miking
L: AT2020, eq 4.5 3 -15
R: CAD M39 cardioid, eq 4.5 3 -9
Limiter & 80Hz cut
Page Needed about False Substitution for Avoidance of Psilocybin
This is a huge theme for me. A major recurring pattern.
Every approach (non-drug meditation/ mysticism/ esotericism/ etc.) is false and wrong; it’s all for the purpose of giving an inert substitute, for the purpose of shutting out the real deal, Psilocybin.
Pick Your Lie: Christian, Jewish, or Buddhist/Hindu
Jewish b.s. about meditation equally infuriating as New Age b.s. obsequiously glorifying non-drug meditation with undue misplaced respect while insulting the hell out of Psilocybin.
In Lattin’s article, I like the comments and comparisons about degrees of abandoning or ignoring or preserving traditional religion.
I have mixed feelings about sticking with Christian or Jewish traditions. The tradition of telling lies disrespecting and insulting Psilocybin? Pass.
I’m also strongly against running off to foreign worship of Orientalism.
“If it’s alien, it must be true and superior to our own B.S. religion.”
“Our religion is a lie, therefore the alien religions are true.”
“Our religion’s priests are Salvation Salesmen. Therefore I’m going to marry the Meditation Hucksters instead.” Didn’t you hear The Who’s song “Won’t Get Fooled Again?”
“Both junk Science and junk Religion are wrong and unprofitable, so I’m taking up the 3rd alternative, junk Esotericism instead.”
None of which come anywhere near delivering the real deal, which is psychedelic eternalism.
Infuriating Usual Baloney Worshipping the False Idol and Lie of Non-Drug Meditation as if the Real, Authentic Thing (Lie-Based Meditation)
“Nevertheless, Green still believes that the cautious use of psychedelics can open one up to the same higher states of consciousness that are described by Jewish mystics.”
That’s because the historical source of mystic experience is Psilocybin. Read Dan Merkur’s books.
“There is a chemical component to what we call mystical experience.
“If that happens in the brain with psychedelics, I don’t see anything inauthentic about that. “
EVERYTHING is wrong with that reasoning.
“The problem is that if someone has that experience after twenty years of meditation, there’s a certain gravitas to that experience.”
oh 🤬 you! parrotting other people’s unthinking memes, robot 🤖
This is MEDITATION APOLOGETICS.
Why do people give meditation ANY respect at all?
The grotesque fawning, through-the-roof level of respect for bunk, non-drug meditation is completely undeserved and is built on a massive lie.
There’s a “gravitas” because they realize they WASTED 20 years supporting a LIE.
That’s totally prejudiced and biased and false and the opposite of the historical truth.
The MEDITATION narrative/ dominant discourse = LIES.
“If you pop a pill and have that experience you don’t understand what happened or have that gravitas.”
“You don’t have the tools to approach it, to integrate it into your life.
“But that doesn’t make the experience itself inauthentic.
“It means that the context in which it takes place is a less serious context.””
13:35 – Summary of Houot’s thesis: there are 3 groups of ppl: moderns (session clients), mystics, shamans.
Mystic surrenderism is ok, but must add shamans’ control over the technology. That’s too vague. Need a clear representation of mystic surrenderism, and a more negative view of shamans’ experience (disintegration).
{surrender} = switch from relying on possibilism-thinking to eternalism-thinking.
Jettison & repudiate habitual reliance on possibilism-thinking, to save stable viable control, to produce a transformed mode of control that’s suited to the eternalism experiential mode.
17:06 – 17:14 – Errata: 8 seconds of silence.
If I re-produce this episode (doubtful), break into 2 mp3s and remove this gap.
20:00 – What are the dates/months of the articles that pretend to debate Johnson & Sanders’ call to omit a mysticism push on the part of the session guides? The timeline of the debate articles. Should list here – or in the above webpage – these dates, in TOC headings.
30:00 – The pro-mysticism scientists refuse to address Sanders’ actual point. Sanders calls for a non-mysticism framework approach to the study of psychedelics effects/experiences.
The pseudo-replies of the critics who pretend to reply to Sanders’ article, evade Sanders’ clearly articulated point. They strive to apply a mysticism framework to scientifically study mystical experiences (not psychedelic effects/ experiences).
40:00 – Pseudo-replies advocate studying “weirdness” and “msyticism”, which are too vague, per Sanders (Zijlmans actually).
Alan Watts condones vagueness and revels in inarticulate, re: satori.
Wilber’s “trans-rationality”, same flaw. Wilber failed to give me the knowledge I needed. Andrew Cohen’s series of magazine issues with Ken Wilber, failed to deliver what they needed to, FAILED TO ANSWER “WHAT IS ENLIGHTENMENT?” Cohen’s magazine name “What is Enlightenment?” Why did Cohen/Wilber part, if they parted ways?
Vague, and that vagueness (apophatic mysticism, the Stace ineffabilism dogma) is proven to be false and wrong because it fails to deliver psychedelic eternalism.
51:36 – Content (4687.wav) – Don Lattin’s summary article about the debate. Sanders & Zijlmans article, Moving Past Mysticism. Johnson’s previous article “Consciousness, Religion, and Gurus: Pitfalls of Psychedelic Medicine”
1:00:00 – Are we trying to study psychedelic effects broadly (per the Naturalistic Scientists), or are we trying to study psychedelics-induced mystical experiences specifically (per the Mystical Scientists)? Sanders needs to FORCE the spotlight onto this specific question, as one of the two distinct questions.
Sanders (a Naturalistic Scientist) makes a coherent, clear argument. Draws attention to the choice of frameworks, to study whatever we’re studying, presumably psychedelic effects broadly.
The Mystics do what Mystics typically do: vague, strawman, poor writing, poor thinking/ argumentation, AVOIDANCE OF THE POINT.
A broken record, the Mystical Pseudo-Scientists‘ only “argument” move is to again emphasize, only: “It’s important to study mystical experiencing.” Zero engagement with Sanders’ stated points, and they NEVER quote Sanders.
1:10:00 – The BUNK CEQ Challenging Effects Questionnaire (CEQ) discards all the effects that are specific to the altered state, and they use selection bias and creative filtering, to only allow state-generic effects, especially their scheme’s objective/mission, to fabricate a new, Grief category IN PLACE OF, TO REPLACE the psychedelics-specific challenges.
Cherry-picking to twist and filter psychedelics to produce only acknowledgment of the ordinary-state-sounding effects like “sad, grief”. Totally bunk result.
There’s nothing psychedelic about this BOGUS psychedelics psychometrics questionnaire. The psychedelic-specific effects were omitted by Griffiths team.
2:17:00-2:17:06 – Errata: 6 seconds silence gap. Article says “Perennial Philosophy” book by Huxley, “1946” false in U.S.; 1945 U.S. Don’t use “faiths” to mean “religions”. It’s a Protestant-ism. Like Boomers arguing that all psilocybin effects should be compared (witheringly) against the “standard reference authoritative” whjich is taken for granted as non-drug meditation. I’m against the assumption that authentic meditation is non-drug meditation. I’m not against literal meditation itself, but against this system of assumptions, which serves to eliminate Psilocybin. That’s the purpose of the assumption-set behind non-drug meditation whcih is claimed as authoritative: its purpose is to avoid, substitute for, prevent, and eliminate Psilocybin, because Psilocybin is effective and authoritative. To avoid enlightenment, non-drug meditation is pushed.
That is the purpose of the non-drug meditation doctrine: to eliminate Transcendent Knowledge and Psilocybin. To avoid ego death, ego cancellation. To preserve egoic delusion and falsehood.
2:20:00 – Where is the Hopkins session room’s Buddha statue when not in the session room?
How many miles has that Buddha statue walked back and forth between its two placements?
“syncretic blends” shamans, …. is this the Houot dissertation I’m reading from?
Maria Sabina was candidate #2, who replaced un-photogenic shaman guy. It’s all PR propaganda, IT’S ALL STAGED. M Sabina is a staged media PR event, fake through and through. Exposed by Jan Irvin’s http://gnosticmedia.com main articles.
2:30:00 –
2:40:00 –
2:45:00 – Don Lattin’s article about the Mysticism vs. Science debate, interviews Zijlmans.
In the article about the increasing or decreasing series of Psilocybvin dosage over ~5 sessions, the problem is exacerbated, that all during the session, the person knows that they will be graded on how correctly they fill in the now-familiar MEQ.
The MEQ very much primes, shapes, selection-bias filters and constructs their experience, this aspect is not blind at all.
This is training volunteers to steer them toward YOUR / Stace’s preconception and theoretical model of what altered-state experiencing is supposed to be.
Which is not so bad, if you are moulding them to MY model, which is psychedelic eternalism.
But alas you are moulding them to Stace’s bunk model, bunk according to Harvard Div. School Charles Stang historian of mysticism and mysticism theology of mysticism.
Hoffman, M. (1985–2007b). Gallery: Christian mushroom-trees. Retrieved from http://www.egodeath.com/WassonEdenTree.htm#_Toc135889185 – Goes to article: Wasson and Allegro on the Tree of Knowledge as Amanita Section heading: Gallery: Christian Mushroom Trees
The two links are not clickable in the Brown article (web view & PDF).
The Immortality Key: The Secret History of the Religion with No Name Author: Jerry B. Brown
Pages: 5–8 Online Publication Date: 11 Mar 2021 Publication Date: 11 May 2021 Article Category: Book Review DOI: https://doi.org/10.1556/2054.2021.00170 ERRATUM TO THIS ARTICLE
“In her interview for Richard L. Miller’s new book, Psychedelic Wisdom, Julie M. Brown, M.A. – psychotherapist, psychonaut, and coauthor The Psychedelic Gospels – describes her cosmic consciousness experience, see Julie’s presentation to Aware Project in LA: https://vimeo.com/367537082.”
Sacred Plants and the Gnostic Church (Lupu/Brown 2014)
Christianity’s Psychedelic History (Brown 2022 at Hancock Site)
Christianity’s Psychedelic History: Reply to Thomas Hatsis’ Review of The Psychedelic Gospels Jerry Brown 24th February 2022 https://grahamhancock.com/brownj1/
Citation of the Egodeath theory website
Brown wrote (personal communication, Jan. 22, 2023 and possibly earlier):
“As you know, Cyberdisciple provided material contributions to this article, which are acknowledged in the footnotes.
“And, near the end of the article I cite you as follows:
“Mushroom images in art: The field is also in need of robust categories for classifying depictions of mushrooms in art.
“For example, Samorini proposes a two-fold typology of mushroom trees, using the Plaincourault Amanita muscaria and the Saint Savin psilocybin mushroom as ideal types.21
“I find Hoffman’s categories useful for classifying the two varieties of MICA that we photographed at the following religious sites. The text in parentheses indicates the black and white Figure (Fig.) or color Plate (P) in The Psychedelic Gospels that displays our photographs of these images.”
ASC – images suggesting altered states of consciousness
Chapel of Plaincourault, France (P5)
Chartres Cathedral, France (P18)
/ end of Brown excerpt
Hatsis Email to Brown
Not sure if I’ll keep this here or move some to Idea Development page 15. This might be low-value, needless distraction.
Brown wrote (personal communication, Jan. 22, 2023 and possibly earlier):
“Here (below) is the threatening and slanderous email that Hatsis sent me on August 22, 2019, to which I refer in the first paragraph of my article.
“Due to Tom’s objection that this email was “confidential,” I was not allowed by the Hancock editor to include this email it in my Reply to Hatsis.
“As you see, this email which is reprinted in full below – except for Hatsis’ email address – is not marked “confidential.”
“After receiving this email, I stopped debating Hatsis and broke off communications with him with an email that said “I am a scholar not a mud wrestler.”
On Thu, Aug 22, 2019 at 2:02 PM Psychedelic Witch <…> wrote to Dr. Brown:
“The *moment* I am disrespected, called a liar (in not so many words), or accused of foul-play simply because Jerry is ignorant of medieval history (and medieval art, and medieval Christian history, and ancient Christian history, and ancient Gnostic history, and medieval heresy, and ancient Jewish history, and all the relevant languages needed to actually answer this question), I am going to unload on this entire nonsensical idea in a way that will have those who believe this bullshit crying in a corner.
“I’ve been too generous and nice, and I will NOT be walked over or insulted again.
“You give me respect and I am happy to return in kind. Lie about me once more, accuse me of anything, and the kid gloves come off.
Their enemies didn’t accuse Christians of mushrooms – therefore, what follows?
In his earliest article, for a UK journal, Hatsis a priori assumes that mushrooms were so reviled by everyone in antiquity, that we know that Christians didn’t use mushrooms, because if they did, their adversaries would have accused them of this heinous act.
This argument is untenable, since enemies accused enemies of everything that was considered bad.
The fact that the Christians’ enemies, who accused them of all things that were considered bad, didn’t accuse Christians of mushrooms, indicates that Antiquity didn’t consider mushrooms bad.
Hatsis is the anti-mushroom psychedelic witch, projecting his own intense disparagement of mushrooms onto Antiquity.
No one would make the erroneous argument he makes, except by projecting one’s own thoroughgoing anti-mushroom attitude onto Antiquity.
Incoherent “Culturecide” Charge Is Begging the Question
Beg the question much?
In one of his online articles, Hatsis falsely argues that if you assert Christians used mushrooms, you are [definitely] committing culturecide, by overwriting their culture by your own invented projections.
But how does he know he is not the one forcing his own misinterpretations upon mushroom imagery artists?
He ought to have written that if we say Christians did, or didn’t, use entheogens, we MIGHT risk committing culturecide, but we can’t know how to avoid that, until we figure out whether they did or didn’t.
It is stunning how bad Hatsis’ arguments are. He seems to have low aptitude for reading, writing, and thinking.
I am not passing judgment on all of Hatsis’ contributions or potential, but saying he is as mixed a bag as any scholar… a particularly mixed bag.
Course at Psychedelics Today: Psychedelics: Past, Present, and Future
An in-depth understanding of the history and science of psychedelics
Motivation for creating page: I can’t find my pages and sections about Browns’ work at this WordPress site.
Key Questions from Brown About “Secret” Mushrooms
Exact quote from Brown (personal comm.): Sep 7, 2021 Su: Battles in field; “secrecy” and evidence
“If a psychoactive mushroom rite were widely practiced, but only among the ecclesiastic/pagan elites and their initiates, during the Middle Ages, where do we draw the line between labelling this as “secret” or affirm that the evidence supports the maximal thesis, and what nuance (if any) needs to be added to support either position?”
If a psychoactive mushroom rite were widely practiced, but only among the ecclesiastic/pagan elites and their initiates, during the Middle Ages:
Where do we draw the line between labelling this as “secret”, or affirm that the evidence supports the maximal thesis?
What nuance (if any) needs to be added to support either position?
Video: The Psychedelic Gospels: Evidence of Entheogens in Christian Art (Breaking Convention ch., 2019)
Vid title: Dr Jerry B Brown – The Psychedelic Gospels: Evidence of Entheogens in Christian Art Uploaded Sep 26, 2019
Brown’s Nov 9 2020 email: “And, lastly, here’s the video of my presentation at that 2019 Breaking Convention.
“FYI, there’s also a video of Hatsis’s presentation as well.
“These individual presentations took place separately from the debate.
Vid blurb:
“The Psychedelic Gospels: Evidence of Entheogens in Christian Art
“Based on stunning photographs of psychoactive mushrooms found in churches and cathedrals in Europe and the Middle East, this presentation documents original research on the presence of entheogens in early and medieval Christian art. After making the surprising discovery of a sculpture of an Amanita muscaria mushroom in Rosslyn Chapel, Scotland, my wife/coauthor Julie and I set out to investigate the presence of entheogens in Christian art: in frescoes, illuminated manuscripts, mosaics, sculptures and stained-glass windows. At the churches and cathedrals studied, we utilised an interdisciplinary approach combining in-depth anthropological field work with art history, church history and ethnobotany.
“The key results are threefold. First, we found compelling evidence of sacred mushrooms (both Amanita muscaria and Psilocybe) in Christian art in religious centres as diverse as small parish chapels (France), high holy places (England and Germany), early basilicas (Italy) and remote cave churches (Turkey). Second, based on these findings we proposed the “Theory of the Psychedelic Gospels,” which argues that Christianity has a psychedelic history. Third, these discoveries resolve the epic controversy between ethnobotanist R. Gordon Wasson and linguist John Marco Allegro, which has cast a long shadow over the study of entheogens in Christianity. These results are significant ̶ and controversial.
“If the theory of the psychedelic gospels is validated, the scientific and religious communities will have to rethink the history and perhaps even the origins of Christianity. For this reason, in The Psychedelic Gospels: The Secret History of Hallucinogens in Christianity (2016), we call for the establishment of an Interdisciplinary Committee on the Psychedelic Gospels in order to document and evaluate the presence of psychedelics in Christian art.
“Jerry B. Brown, Ph.D., is an author, anthropologist and activist. From 1972 to 2014 he served as founding professor of anthropology at Florida International University in Miami, where he taught a course on “Psychedelics and Culture.” He is coauthor with Julie M. Brown of The Psychedelic Gospels: The Secret History of Hallucinogens in Christianity (2016). He is also coauthor of “Sacred Plans and the Gnostic Church,” Journal of Ancient History (2014) and of the forthcoming “Entheogens in Christian Art: Wasson, Allegro and the Psychedelic Gospels,” Journal of Psychedelic Studies (2019).
Thomas Hatsis and Jerry B.Brown go head to head to debate this question.
Filmed at The University of Greenwich, London, as a collaborative event between Breaking Convention and The University of Greenwich Psychedelic Society on 14 Aug 2019.
Brown Asked if We Wrote About Compelling Evidence & Criteria of Proof on Nov. 10, 2020
Exact quote:
“Have you, Cyb or anyone outlined what compelling evidence, or criteria of proof would be?”
To Brown Jan. 22, 2023: Critique of Panofsky’s Letters
Thanks, I read your email of Apr. 27, 2022 today.
Did you photograph Panofsky’s letters? I’m not sure how to credit them, other than that you published them, Brown & Brown 2019.
There are many more points to critique in Panofsky’s letters, and Wasson’s abuse of them, than what you covered in your 2019 article. I’ve posted & spoken about these critiques and what’s revealed.
You didn’t note that:
Wasson looked up and hand-wrote the detailed Brinckmann book name and author name, on Letter 1, and Wasson censored the citation in Letter 1, and that Panofsky’s 2nd Letter again strongly recommended the Brinckmann book.
Never does Wasson let leak, actual scholarship: do not mention Brinckmann’s book (against Panofsky’s attempt to provide a semblance of scholarly citation).
Also you didn’t mention:
Such damning evidence of anti-scholarship by Wasson: that Panofsky attached two pilzbaum photostat images, which Wasson makes sure to not show or publish or mention.
Panofsky’s arguments are full of giant holes, revealed by your publishing Letter 1 & 2 together.
The iceberg effect: 90% of Panofsky’s argument rests on unstated presuppositions; he only provides a sketch of the surface of the argument, and counts on the reader to gullibly assume the rest and follow Panofsky’s biased lead.
__________________________
Citation $&*@!! Needed! Where’s the $&*@!! citations, Wasson?!
Highly valuable to me, Panofsky letter 2 confirms my 2005 accusation of Wasson withholding scholarly citations that Panofsky certainly must have provided to back up the extremely strong assertion that art historians have covered pilzbaum. I failed to make this my #1 summary point at top of article, though I bitterly complained all through the article.
“Why should we trust Wasson’s stated judgment (“what I have found is the unanimous view of those competent in Romanesque art”) and his unstated process of his finding of competence, especially when he declares that “those competent … Art historians of course do not read books about mushrooms”? Wasson refrains from giving us even a single shred of evidence, withholding the details (assuming there are any details to withhold) that led the art historians to their conclusion – or dogma or party line – that mushroom trees aren’t mushrooms. He delivers forth only the supposed conclusion, painting a scene as hazy, undefined, and unspecific as Saint Paul on the earthly life of Christ.
“Wasson doesn’t provide any citations of published scholarly studies of ‘mushroom trees’ or ‘Pilzbaum’, where we can weigh the merit of the art historians’ confident consensus and see how or whether they’ve addressed the most-persuasive objections to their consensus view.”
“Wasson doesn’t show us any citations of published scholarly studies of ‘mushroom trees’ or ‘Pilzbaum’: the result is 1-sided apologetics; within this presentation, we are only permitted to hear the opening assertions and position statement of one party in the debate, not to see how that position responds to the other side’s objections.
“Wasson didn’t go to the trouble of providing citations of the eminent art historians’ published studies on Pilzbaum. These would need to be studies that convincingly show why the mushroom-and-tree interpretation is surely wrong …”
“With no citations given of published, thorough studies, the result is an argument from authority. Wasson’s unscholarly attitude and method here, toward his readers, is striking. We’re not even supposed to wonder how exactly the art historians reached their conclusions on this highly relevant and interesting matter; we’re to mentally picture hazy, idealized, intensive scholarly research, producing unimpeachable, compelling results, and imagine the conclusions as having been tested in the fire of robust critical examination. Either this, or we’re supposed to be impressed and compelled solely by the arguments contained in Panofsky’s letter, as though it were impossible to think of any objections to his sparse argumentation.”
That was pretty insightful/resourceful critique from me in 2006 based only on a fragment of Letter 1. I wish I noted Wasson’s ellipses right where I knew & deduced that there must be a citation (Brinckmann’s book).
I image-processed the images of Panofsky’s two letters and re-printed them out, much clearer.
Your 2019 article body has a transcription typo, I read it aloud and the letter photo out loud, a subtle word swap changed the meaning and my critique of Panofsky (in voice recording Egodeath Mystery Show podcast episode), which I had to correct.
“the finished product” [Panofsky’s fabricated “template”] vs. “the finished project” [the Plainc. fresco]. Back to the sources!
All software has bugs, all articles have errors. Including my 2006 Plaincourault article, to my surprise while reading it aloud on the Egodeath Mystery Show podcast.
In that article, I especially wish I had listed summary item 1: Wasson must be withholding citations that Panofsky certainly must have provided. It turns out, your 2019 article reveals that Panofsky attached images as proof that art historians have acknowledged pilzbaum and it’s not entirely bluster, Panofsky’s claim that art historians have treated/ covered/ discussed pilzbaum.
— Cybermonk
Photographs of Panofsky’s Two Letters to Wasson
Per Brown (pers. corr.), cite the letters as shown.
“some especially ignorant craftsman may have misunderstood the finished product, viz., the “Pilzbaum”, as a real mushroom. But even that is not very probable because even the most mushroom-like specimens show at least some trace of ramification; if the artists had labored under the delusion that the model before him was meant to be a mushroom rather than a schematized tree he would have omitted the branches altogether.” – The most influential art historian, Erwin Panofsky
“Erwin Panofsky.- Please keep my poor little pictures as long as you wish. And I really recommend to look up that little book by A. E. Brinckmann.”
In 2005, I wrote:
“Wasson refrains from giving us even a single shred of evidence, withholding the details (assuming there are any details to withhold) that led the art historians to their conclusion – or dogma or party line – that mushroom trees aren’t mushrooms.”
Hatsis claimed that his misspelled term Discipuli Allegrae isn’t literally asserting that Brown is or I am literally a follower of Allegro; but merely means anyone who asserts that mushrooms areintertwined with Christianity.
This denial is B.S. from Hatsis. In fact, Hatsis really does think that anyone who asserts “mushrooms” (an entirely problematic term) in Christian history is literally a follower of Allegro.
I have PROOF of this in Hatsis’ email to me where he asserts like, “the ONLY reason that you guys have switched to asserting Psilocybin instead of Amanita is because Allegro …”
I (semi-jokingly) have no idea what he wrote after that – it doesn’t matter, because he just completely sank himself and revealed his unconscious presupposition paradigm.
Hatsis is projecting: because HE started off gullibly a follower of Allegro, he ASSUMES that everyone else comes from initially following Allegro, just as Hatsis did.
In fact, the Egodeath theory, including the radical maximal entheogen theory of religion, has exactly ZERO influence from Allegro.
I’ve posted and written up details about that already, in intellectual autobiography thread/posts.
In no sense whatsoever does the Egodeath theory or the maximal entheogen theory of religion come from Allegro.
Nor is the Egodeath theory (the Theory of Psychedelic Eternalism) in any sense a “variant of” or “departure from” Wasson’s theory, as John Lash equivalently assumes of everyone who ever thinks any thought about visionary plants in connection with religion.
Through some mysterious process of attribution that Lash hasn’t explained, if you think “mushroom+religion”, then Wasson must have put his idea into your mind, somehow.
Through some mysterious process of attribution that Hatsis hasn’t explained, if you think “mushroom+religion”, then Allegro must have put his idea into your mind, somehow.
(What about Richard Schultes, or Robert Graves though — don’t all your thoughts belong to him, instead of Wasson or Allegro?)
You could make a (weak) case that the Egodeath theory was influenced by things I rejected: mysticism, meditation, and esotericism.
But there is no case for the Egodeath theory being influenced by Allegro (or Wasson) – as a matter of historical development of my Theory.
But Hatsis cannot imagine such a thing as entheogen scholarship that’s not influenced by or coming from Allegro.
Equivalently, John Lash cannot imagine such a thing as entheogen scholarship that’s not influenced by or coming from Wasson.
No Such Thing as Cubensis, Panaeolus, or Liberty Cap in Europe Before 1976
Beware that in this context, whenever Hatsis writes or says “mushroom”, he strictly means Amanita, and considers (if forced to think) Psilocybin to not exist in the West prior to 1976, following Paul Stamets’ preposterous implied assertion than Cubensis didn’t grow on bovine dung in Europe before 1976.
The un-qualified word ‘mushrooms’ is as unusable, now, as the word “entheogen” which Wouter Hanegraaff has ruined by diluting and cheapening to death.
From now on, everyone must specify explicitly “Amanita” and/or “Psilocybin mushrooms”, not just “mushrooms”, which Wasson/ Allegro/ Ruck/ Heinrich/ Irvin/ Rush has mis-led everyone (read: Hatsis) into treating as an exact synonym of Amanita, thus eliminating any ability to consider Psilocybin.
We have to FORCE the spotlight of attention, the primacy and center of the cosmos, to shift from Eleusis/ ergot/ kykeon and from Allegro/ Amanita/ Plaincourault to Canterbury/ Psilocybin/ Samorini/ sacred meals & mixed wine banqueting.
Dominant narratives/discourses work by eliminating the real thing by substituting a fake substitute in its place.
The function of focusing on Kykeon/ Amanita/ Plaincourault/ Allegro is to prevent thinking about Psilocybin mixed wine.
— Cybermonk, Jan 22, 2023
Followup Message
I found the “Your view is because Allegro …” assertion from the anti-mushroom psychedelic witch.
“The thing is, you are all looking for mushrooms* in Christian art because Allegro said there were amanita muscaria (not psilocybe) buried in text (not art).
I’ve talked to Carl Ruck about this and he agrees with me** – Allegro was wrong about the etymological thing.
So you are sort of in this hypocritical position where you don’t even believe the very foundation from which you base your theory.
There is an irony here that is so symphonic in its poetical implications.
So, in short, the Liberty Cap claim does not amount to much.***
You want to move the conversation away from the fly agaric because there is no evidence for it.
Sorry, dude, but I’m not fooled by your sleight of hand at all. “
/end of Hatsis’s excerpt
See link for more tomfoolery context.
There IS evidence for Amanita, but more important & relevant is perceiving the copious evidence for Psilocybin.
*Beware: For Hatsis, the word ‘mushrooms’ means exclusively Amanita.
**Carl Ruck is the one pushing the “Secret Amanita Cult” theory that you [Hatsis] are intent on disproving, against your faithful buddy Ruck who I heard you in the livestream say “I agree with Ruck!”.
I agree with you, on most of that rejection of Ruck’s thesis of “Secret Christian Amanita Cult”, as you have named it.
I read aloud all of Hatsis’ set of online anti-Irvin/ anti-Rush articles, in past episodes of Egodeath Mystery Show.
In Hatsis’ articles, he routinely argues that the neutral, scientific assumption that avoids culturecide projection, is the Naturalistic interpretation.
Such a prejudice is baseless.
Sep 7 2021 email, from Cyb, Su: “Battles in field, “secrecy”, and evidence –
Cyb, In your innocent & vulnerable discussion about sophisticated art interpretation of meaning more than one thing:
You forgot about The Mushroom Exception.
In art and letters, things mean more than one thing – EXCEPT when one of those things is entheogens; in that case, a thing in art/letters can only have one meaning: the naturalistic, meaning ordinary-state mundane item, certainly not visionary plants.
______________________________
What You Really Mean, Based on Etymology
Also re: the Nadeau’s short critique of TIK, pdf at Acad.edu, I was glad that the third fallacy Nathan pointed out was (as Wouter Hanegraaff does re: ‘entheogen’) the “etymology sets the meaning of a word” fallacy.
Eleusinian Eleusinian Mysteries, Eucharistic Myths: Problems for B. Muraresku’s Immortality Key Nathan Nadeau
“The Root Fallacy: presupposes that a word actually has a meaning essentially bound up with its shape or its components (etymology over usage).[9]”
“[9] Carson, D. A. Exegetical Fallacies, (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1996), 28. Carson isaccessible, but ideally one will reference James Barr, Semantics of Biblical Language.”
Nadeau bolsters my claim, that in 2012 chapter for Christopher Patridge’s book Contemporary Esotericism, where Wouter Hanegraaff titled his keynote paper “Entheogenic Esotericism”, Hanegraaff puts forth a grade-school level of fallacious argument, that the “real meaning” of ‘entheogen’ is “anything that anyone could possibly claim gives a religious experience” (which is, actually, the Universal Set, as I immediately proved via lamp, dishtowel, and car engine, on the Egodeath Mystery Show podcast).
The effort to lift every claimed mystic technique up to the now (inconsistently) venerated level of ‘entheogen’, fails, and only succeeds at lowering the word ‘entheogen’ to be completely worthless, watered down, cheapened, and denatured.
Like Erik Davis directed Hanegraaff on Twitter: fine, go ahead and wreck the word ‘entheogens’ and make it worthless, but stay well away from our word ‘psychedelic’ and its etymology.
— Cybermonk
Graham Hancock Facebook Forum about Brown’s Rebuttal Article
Graham Hancock posted Brown’s AoM article on his Facebook account.
There, the article received over 1.5K likes and hundreds of Comments, many of which Brown responded to.
Graham’s goal regarding the Hatsis & Brown articles is to provide a neutral platform for civil debate on the question of mushrooms in Christian art.
Hancock has over 400,000k followers on Facebook, who are primed to hear more on the question of mushrooms in Christian art.
“It is our pleasure to welcome Julie and Jerry Brown, authors of The Psychedelic Gospels: The Secret History of Hallucinogens in Christianity, as our featured authors for November. [2021]
“Their book takes the reader on an anthropological journey throughout Europe and the Middle East.
“They provide compelling visual evidence that documents the role visionary plants have played in Christianity,
challenging the reader to rethink what they believe they know about the origins of Judeo-Christianity and the life of Jesus.
Carl Ruck in Dec. 2021 is working on Plaincourault images.
I was a little surprised that in April 2022 I was able to contribute to interpreting/decoding Plaincourault re: mythemes of {handedness} & {non-branching}.
The Egodeath theory = the Theory of Psychedelic Eternalism.
My theory’s prediction is that:
The fresco ought to favor right leg/limb.
And ought to find branching and non-branching features added.
As I’ve done countless times while testing the Egodeath theory as an [undefeated] explanatory hypothesis, held breath and analyzed fresco…
As typically, had to do some visual-elements processing … … had to stand and test postures.
Confirmed. Eve’s weight is on right foot, not left.
Right foot is on ground, left isn’t.
Left foot is based on right foot which is on ground.
= rely on eternalism-thinking, instead of familiar (ordinary-state based) possibilism-thinking, to have viable stable control in the altered state.
And I did decoding in the realm of The Psy Gospels bones analysis. Flesh cloaks underlying bones, revealed by Psilocybin represented by Psilocybin’s billboard, which is and was and will be 🍄.
— Cybermonk
Derby Team
Julie M. Brown is coauthor of The Psychedelic Gospels and anything else here attributed to the Browns.
This means that any mistakes in their co-written books or articles are twice as major, which conveniently gives two criticisms/exposes for the price of one.
If Julie can’t handle the criticism, stay out of the roller derby rink; it’s a man’s sport.
“The central question guiding this study is: In what ways can modern users conceptualize the psychedelic experience that counters the current fear-laden discourse on drugs?
“Misconceptions and falsehoods conflate current ways of considering drugs in general and psychedelics in particular.
“Fears of psychedelics serve as the framework to apply philosophies of mind and technology to the reexamination and amendment of psychedelic concepts and terms. Governmental and religious institutional actors fear psychedelic users will:
harm one’s self and others because psychedelics are still falsely believed to have analogous properties to mental illness;
the incommunicability of seemingly non-rational states cause disjunction between shared sociocultural knowledge; and
psychedelics are arguably similar to mystical experiences, thus mainstream religion fears individuals’ direct access to divine realms, which could upend their hierarchical and spiritually monopolistic power structures.
“Next, modern researchers commonly advise users to “surrender” to psychedelic experiences, a term likely adopted from mysticism.
“Since surrender implies a master role is at play, a discussion on master-subject relations emerge when confronting the “psychedelic Other,” i.e. the spatial context, experiential content, and originating from within or without users’ minds.
“To better understand users’ fears, an analysis of known and unknown fears provide context to the ultimate psychedelic fear, that of a conscious and intelligent unknown presence.” … you forgot: … which has the power to control your thoughts and intentions.
“Against these fears of psychedelic Others, a new conception of (altered) states of self develops that considers the current debate in cognitive neuroscience and philosophy.
“Narrative and minimal selves are co-present during psychedelic experiences depending on dosage and intoxication levels, and a new qualitative framework is proffered to understand these implications.
“Finally, it is suggested that modern psychedelic users need not abandon the prototypical mystic to conceptualize their experiences, but instead might consider another prototypical figure, the shaman.”
“Rather than dealing in surrender and fear like mystics and modern users, drug-taking shamans control and master their experiences through the joint use of symbolism, techniques, and technologies.
“A change in prototype also has epistemological significance, that is, from perennialist to constructivist approaches when considering psychedelically subjective knowledge.
“In view of built narratives regarding self and knowledge, i.e. narrative self and epistemological constructivism, analysis shows how shamans use symbols with technologies to control their experiences and the idea of symbolico-technological relations is proposed.
“The above philosophical insights have prescriptive consequences that provide new opportunities for modern society and users to conceptualize psychedelic experiences, to control them, and as a result, to reduce fear.”
/ end of Houot Abstract
Introduction Section of Dissertation
From Houot’s Introduction:
“The abovementioned practices intrigue, and, benefit many people in need; yet, the opposite side of the psychedelic coin is hardly discussed in great detail, that of the negative experience or “bad trip,” the fear people experience.
“In a recent psilocybin study at John Hopkins University, nearly 40% [39%] of hallucinogen-naïve participants reported “extreme ratings of fear, fear of insanity, or feeling trapped at some time during the session” with 44% reporting delusional or paranoid thinking (Griffiths et al, 2011, 656). ” – “39%” confirmed [despite the “30%” in CEQ article for same high-dose amount 0.429 mg/kg = 30mg/70kg as written in 2011 article “Psilocybin occasioned mystical-type”!]
“I want to know more about the why and what people are fearful of.“
(Also here’s the time course plot I was looking to find again! Gentle mound shape. I too noticed in another Griffiths article, – and posted about it at this site – the dose-dependent effect. Higher dose -> 40% panic-terror trips.)
Griffiths there writes:
“Psilocybin-induced fear/anxiety or delusions [section heading]
“Although volunteers were carefully screened and psychologically prepared, and close interpersonal support was provided during sessions, on questionnaires completed at the end of the session, 39% of participants (seven of 18) had extreme ratings of fear, fear of insanity, or feeling trapped at some time during the session.
“Such episodes occurred in [whopping] six of seven of these participants after the 30 mg/70 kg [high] dose and in [measly] one of seven after the 20 mg/70 kg dose [medium dose?].
“Monitor ratings of peak anxiety/fear during the session showed dose-rated increases, with each dose producing a significantly higher rating than the lower doses (Table 1).
“After 30 mg/70 kg, monitor ratings of anxiety/fear across the session showed varying time courses of onset and duration, with peak effects of anxiety/fear being rated as early as 60 min in some participants, but as late as 180 or 240 min in others (see Fig. 2 for illustrative data).”
What Houot Gets Wrong
Houot incorrectly states that the ultimate fear is of unknown entities. That completely misses the point.
The ultimate fear is of the threat of catastrophic loss of control of the mind, including because of an uncontrollable higher controller, that’s the creator of your near-future personal control thoughts.
Dates are all wrong in the body of the text – very amateurish and confusing and unhelpful and a pain, you have to keep checking the actual dates in the Bibliography and even then some dates of publication are wrong.
The rough, folk-psychology description, {surrender}, ultimately means transformation from possibilism-thinking; from mental worldmodel transformation from possibilism to eternalism.
Start relying on right leg instead of left leg; move off left onto right.
Surrender and jettison reliance on habitual possibilism-thinking as the basis for seemingly powerful agency steering in apparent branching possibilities.
Jettisoning Jonah
Withhold not the child-thinking, yet harm not the lad: surrender is equivalent to sacrifice.
Surrender = formally repudiate reliance on naive possibilism-thinking; affirm and rely on eternalism-thinking instead, in the peak advanced mystic altered state.
Half of the Publication Dates in the Body Are Grossly Incorrect (Freud 1999)
Are you not aware that Freud was long dead by 1999?
The blame must be the advisors: Why did they let this amateurish mistake remain?
The most awkward thing about this dissertation is the incorrect publication years in the body of the text.
It drives me up the wall and is highly unhelpful and confusing, that Houot quotes the book that Huxley wrote in 1999.
You can’t trust any dates in the body of the text, and have to check the Bibliography to get the real dates.
Publication Dates off by 2 Years or 70 Years
There are 9 years – not 6! – between The Perennial Philosophy and The Doors of Perception: Published 1954 vs. 1954.
I’ve seen articles by someone like Griffiths stating Perennial Philosophy was published 1957, and Doors of Perception 1953.
Where are they getting these wrong dates?
That’s only 6 years apart.
Explanation of Doors “1953”: May 1953 is the date of ingesting mescaline.
Houot misstates “Huxley 1947” for Perennial Philosophy, when the official copyright page reads 1944 & 1945.
Where are people copying this wrong date from? What book the other day says “Perennial Philosophy 1947” and “Doors of Perception 1953”?
I must have spoken about this on Egodeath Mystery Show, I swear I posted something mocking this dissertation’s reasoning:
“Just become shamans instead of mystics, b/c shamans never have issues”.
I’m certain I wrote something, but finding my rare word ‘shaman’ didn’t turn up my previous mention of this article.
Houot’s Griffiths References I didn’t need to use
Griffiths’ reply to my 2006 main article which started the Psychedelic Renaissance: Griffiths, R. R., Richards, W. A., McCann, U., & Jesse, R. (2006). Psilocybin can occasion mystical-type experiences having substantial and sustained personal meaning and spiritual significance. Psychopharmacology, 187(3), 268-283.
Griffiths, R. R., Richards, W. A., Johnson, M. W., McCann, U. D., & Jesse, R. (2008). Mystical-type experiences occasioned by psilocybin mediate the attribution of personal meaning and spiritual significance 14 months later. Journal of Psychopharmacology, 22(6), 621-632.
Griffiths, R. R. (2018). Personal email communication on October 24-25, 2018. Griffiths confirms that it’s arbitrary, Walter Stace’s assertion/ assessment that “60% fulfillment of these mystical effects constitutes a complete mystical experience”.
They did not have a Stace/ Leary/ Pahnke/ Griffiths “Complete [Newbie] Mystical Experience”.
That ultimate Psilocybin “effect”, gaining transformed control (fulfilling Houot’s 2019 dissertation) by transformation from the possibilism to eternalism mental worldmodel, requires the complete series of ten sessions of re-dosing two bowls of Cubensis at t3 hours.
Download for 1 week starting Jan. 20 2023: https://we.tl/t-GFa6LEWDDB I should make an instructions page: about WeTransfer site; how I transfer .mp3 to mobile device; using Music player EQ presets.
Content: Houot based the entire 65-page Master’s dissertation on the usual unthinking, prejudiced, unconscious assumption: NO MYSTIC EVER USED PSILOCYBIN MYSTICISM DIDN’T COME FROM PSILOCYBIN
Jan 21 (next day) I read more of the dissertation. As always, partly right, partly off-base. Yes we can have “more control” and we can “avoid Surrenderism” – but in some sense, we gain less control, and transforming the mental model of control and world is equivalent to surrendering. You surrender your old mental model and jettison it, to gain stable viable control that is fit for the Psilocybin Eternalism state, experiential mode.
Content
0:00 – Intro guitar (4711.wav of Jan 20 2023)
0:24 – Intro voice
0:52 – Content
How to find the extreme maximal position.
The only authentic meditation is Psilocybin meditation.
The only authentic mysticism is Psilocybin mysticism.
The only authentic esotericism is Psilocybin esotericism.
Shutting out evil future me from taking a more hardline extreme position.
59:13 – Guitar (8:09 total; remainder of episode)
1:04:16 – Guitar: Mirror tail fadeout
1:05:04 – Guitar: Lost ending of track 3, rev
1:07:22 – End
Guitar
Artist: Illumination Valve Song: 🎸🌌 Rebirth into the Sphere of Shattered Stars, track 3 of 4, final 2.5 minutes, including the wished-for sweet sustained extra ending found! ☺️ 🎉 12:45-15:15. Song is named BLENDR1 on the deck.
This expose amounts to showing the uncontrollability of the Spirit of Psilocybin and makes a mockery of the efforts of psychedelic beginner Science to understand and control the loose cognitive state.
If only they had the Egodeath theory — the Theory of Psychedelic Eternalism — this would have been prevented. 😑 Or not. 🤷♂️
This page corrects my slightly off memory, I thought the escapee made it upstairs to talk with a priest, but actually he was on his way to a dean.
That changes slightly the backdrop for my joke about rooting for the escapee from the psychedelic experiment, April 20, 1962.
Huston Smith wrote:
“Realizing that he was overpowered – barely, for under the influence his strength was like Samson’s – John, tightly flanked, submitted to being walked back to the chapel where Wally [Walter Pahnke] injected an antidote. [maybe thorazine/CPZ]
“Immediately he was back in his right mind but with total amnesia as to what had occurred.
“It took twenty-four hours for all the pieces of the episode to come back to him and be fitted into place.
“God, it turned out, had chosen him to announce to the world the dawning millennium of peace and good will.
“(As often happens in such cases, the actual wording of the message made little sense to normal ears.)
“In his homily in the chapel, John broke the news to our congregation, but he needed to get it to the world at large, which was what caused him to leave the chapel.
“When, walking down Commonwealth Avenue, he saw the plaque announcing “Dean of the College of Liberal Arts” by the entrance to 745 Commonwealth Avenue, it occurred to him that deans have influence, so if he could get to that dean, that dean would call a press conference that would complete John’s mission.
“The postman’s packet was for the dean, he felt sure, so if he attached himself to it, it would take him to his targeted dean.”
Don’t run away from the psychedelic experiment room confinement
It would be irresponsible to joke about encouraging volunteers for 3 dried grams worth of Golden Teacher (= 30 mg psil.) to escape from their confinement to eyeshades, headphones, and entrapping blanket, where you are only permitted to get up to use the bathroom and even then, the door is kept ajar.
Guidelines for Safety – Johnson/ Griffiths/ Williams
Human Hallucinogen Research: Guidelines for Safety Johnson M, Richards W, Griffiths R. 2008 Journal of Psychopharmacology, 22, 603-620. 22(6):603-20. doi: 10.1177/0269881108093587. Epub 2008 Jul 1. PMID: 18593734; PMCID: PMC3056407. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3056407/