“I am created by Divine Light. I am sustained by Divine Light. I am protected by Divine Light. I am surrounded by Divine Light. I am ever growing into Divine Light.”

~Swami Sivananda Radha,
“Realities of the Dreaming Mind” (1990)

This is Your Brain on Youth

We are hardwired to seek pleasure, to seek ecstasy. As children we expressed our authentic, core selves – that which can neither be taught nor learned. But the whole “self-help” and “new age” movements are based on trying to get back that golden state of innocence, childlike wonder and awe with spiritual connection.

When religion suggests we “become as little children” again, who could imagine this implies a shamanic return to the womb and the natural psychedelic state of an uncalcified pineal gland? In early childhood, we are perpetually immersed in cascades of trance-inducing theta rhythms of the brain, with the feel-good chemical brew it creates for metaprogramming.

Until roughly age 8, we can’t really distinguish between fantasy and reality, due to our own natural hallucinogen, DMT, (dimethyltryptamine). DMT molecules are similar to serotonin and target the same receptors. Meditation has been suggested as a means of preserving youthful appearance and mental flexibility. Dr. Rick Strassman and others claim this spiritual technology encourages production and release of natural DMT (Soma Pinoline) in the mindbody throughout the lifespan.

DMT is implicated in the wild imaginings of our nightly dreams, near-death phenomena (NDEs), alien abduction experiences, and dream yoga. It is also a source of visionary phenomena in therapy, such as unusual psychophysical states attained in waking dreams, shamanic or psychotherapeutic journeys. Synthetic and botanical DMT crosses the blood-brain barrier and bonds to the same synaptic sites as serotonin. Psychedelic chemist, Sasha Shulgin claims, “DMT is everywhere.”

Each night in dreams we experience an essentially psychedelic state. The principal difference between dreams and hallucinations is the way the stages of wakefulness are organized, with the suppression of REM sleep and the intrusion of PGO waves in the arousal (waking) stage and in NREM (or slow) sleep.

The stages include: waking (arousal) stage, stage of PGO waves, hallucination stage, sleep stage and hallucinatory manifestations. The waking dream eliminates “residues” stirred up by the PGO wave pattern in the absence of REM sleep. These visions resemble those at the approach of death, or what are called near death experiences (NDEs). In another context, they are perceived as visions. They include the characteristics of two phases of NDEs (Sabom, 1982):

Autoscopic phase includes 1) subjective feeling of being dead; 2) peace and well-being; 3) disembodiment; 4) visions of material objects and events.

The Transcendental phase includes 5) tunnel or dark zone; 6) evaluation of one’s past life; 7) light; access to a transcendental world, entering in light; 9) encounter with other beings; 10) return to life.

The Path of Light: Primordial In-Sight

The pineal sits, well protected in the deep recesses of the brain, bathed in cerebrospinal fluid by the ventricles, the fluid-filled cavities of the brain that feed it and remove waste. It emits its secretions to the strategically surrounding emotional, visual and auditory brain centers. It helps regulate body temperature and skin coloration. It secretes the sleep hormone melatonin. Generally, after the more imaginative period of childhood, the pineal calcifies and diminishes at the onset of puberty’s sex hormones, around age 12.

The pineal is the only unpaired gland in the brain. Curiously, this solitary gland is light sensitive and actually has a lens, cornea, and retina. Is there a retinal circus of biophotons deep in the brain, which only the Third Eye sees or even creates: the Light of Wisdom?

This “Third Eye,” in the center of the brain, is implicated in the production of endogenous or natural DMT, dubbed the Spirit Molecule. The pineal synthesizes natural hallucinogens in response to certain psychophysical states, and raises serotonin levels in the brain. There is a functional decline in the gland with advancing age.

This master gland is responsible for the internal perception of Light, the raising of Kundalini the serpent power, and for awakening inner sight or in-sight. The key to a successful meditation is the withdrawal of the sensory currents to the eye focus or the third eye. Once there, the gaze focuses on the middle of whatever appears without any distractions or intrusive thought.
The groundbreaking work of Dr. Rick Strassman (2001) focuses on the role natural body chemistry plays in creating spiritual life. He calls DMT the Spirit Molecule; an endogenous hallucinogen, which he boldly asserts, is an active agent in a variety of altered states including mystical experience.

To explore his theory, Strassman conducted extensive testing, injecting volunteers with the powerful psychedelic, synthetic DMT (N,N-dimethyltryptamine; N,N-DMT). DMT is so powerful it is physically immobilizing, and produces a flood of unexpected and overwhelming visual and emotional imagery. Taking it is like an instantaneous LSD peak. DMT crosses the usually impenetrable blood-brain-barrier, suggesting its fundamental role in consciousness. But, concluding his 5-year studies early, Strassman admitted despite their growth potential, there were no viable therapeutic or neurological applications. He does NOT recommend recreational use.

DMT production is stimulated, in the extraordinary conditions of birth, sexual ecstasy, childbirth, extreme physical stress, near-death, and death, as well as meditation. Pineal DMT also plays a significant role in dream consciousness. This chemical messenger links body and spirit. Pineal activation awakens normally latent neural pathways.

“All spiritual disciplines describe quite psychedelic accounts of the transformative experiences, whose attainment motivate their practice. Blinding white light, encounters with demonic and angelic entities, ecstatic emotions, timelessness, heavenly sounds, feelings of having died and being reborn, contacting a powerful and loving presence underlying all of reality–these experiences cut across all denominations. They also are characteristic of a fully psychedelic DMT experience. How might meditation evoke the pineal DMT experience?”

“Meditative techniques using sound, sight, or the mind may generate particular wave patterns whose fields induce resonance in the brain. Millennia of human trial and error have determined that certain “sacred” words, visual images, and mental exercises exert uniquely desired effects. Such effects may occur because of the specific fields they generate within the brain. These fields cause multiple systems to vibrate and pulse at certain frequencies. We can feel our minds and bodies resonate with these spiritual exercises. Of course, the pineal gland also is buzzing at these same frequencies. . .The pineal begins to “vibrate” at frequencies that weaken its multiple barriers to DMT formation: the pineal cellular shield, enzyme levels, and quantities of anti-DMT. The end result is a psychedelic surge of the pineal spirit molecule, resulting in the subjective states of mystical consciousness.” (Strassman, 2001).

Natural hallucinogens may belong to the tryptamine or beta-carboline family of compounds. One compound (6-methoxy-1,2,3,4-tetra-hydro-beta-carboline) has been implicated in rapid eye movement sleep (REM). It is concentrated in the retinae of mammals, which may be related to its visual effects.

There are several ways in which either psychoactive tryptamines and/or beta-carbolines may be produced within the central nervous system and pineal from precursors and enzymes that are known to exist in human beings. In addition, nerve fibers leave the pineal and make synaptic connections with other brain sites through traditional nerve-to-nerve connections, not just through endocrine secretions.

Third Eye Blind

Serotonin or tryptamine levels are higher in the pineal than any other organ in the brain. 5-methoxy-tryptamine is a precursor with hallucinogenic properties, which has a high affinity for the serotonin type-3 receptor. Gucchait (1976) has demonstrated that the human pineal contains an enzyme capable of synthesizing both DMT and bufotenine-like chemistry. These compounds are prime candidates for endogenous “schizotoxins,” and their production may be related to stress and/or trauma, that correlate with schizophrenia.

Strassman notes that both the embryological rudiments of the pineal gland and the differentiated gonads of both male and female appear at 49 days. Melatonin is a timekeeper for gonadal maturation, so the pineal is implicated again. He suggests this rein-effect may be the root of the tension between sexual and spiritual energies, yang and yin. The pineal gland is a source of both psychedelic compounds and the gonads, sources of spiritual and generative immortality.

Stress-related hormones cue the pineal activation to activate normally latent synthetic pathways, creating tryptamine and/or beta-carboline hallucinogens. When we face stress or potential death, or in meditative reveries, we “tune back” into the most well developed motif of such experiences–the birth experience. Perinatal themes and memories re-emerge.

Those with Cesarean deliveries report greater difficulty in attaining transcendent states of breakthrough and release during drug-induced states. Maybe less fetal (or maternal) hallucinogens were released at the time of birth. They may not, according to Strassman, have a strong enough “template of experience” to fall back on, to let go without fear of total annihilation, because lesser amounts of pineal hallucinogens were produced during their births.

Through meditation, the pineal may be modulated to elicit a finely tuned standing wave through resonance effects. It creates the induction of a dynamic, yet unmoving, quality of experience. Such harmonization resynchronizes both hemispheres of the brain. It recalibrates the whole organism.

Dysynchrony is associated with a variety of disorders. Such a standing wave in consciousness can induce resonance in the pineal using electric, magnetic or sound energy, and may result in a chain of synergetic activity resulting in the production and release of hallucinogenic compounds. Thus, the pineal can be likened to an attractor, or “lightning rod” of consciousness. It generates an illuminative laser beam that pervades the energy body.

A Walk on the Wild Side

Physicist Cliff Pickover argues that, “DMT in the pineal glands of Biblical prophets gave God to humanity and let ordinary humans perceive parallel universes.” “Our brain is a filter, and the use of DMT is like slipping on infrared goggles, allowing us to perceive a valid reality that is inches away and all around us.”

He suggests, perhaps our ancestors produced more DMT, leading to extraordinary spiritual visions. “Maybe this is why the ancients seemed so in touch with God and with miracles and visions. Maybe Moses, Mohammad, and Jesus had a greater rate of pineal DMT production than most.” Pickover blames artificial light for a reduction in our DMT production rate.

Or perhaps more likely, as most ancient cultures, they simply supercharged themselves with shamanic herbs. Some claim the “burning bush” was Cannabis sativa, Assyrian Rue (Pegunam harmala; Zoroaster’s Hoama, Asena ) or the North African Acacia tree, and that Moses either smoked the leaves or got high downwind in the DMT-containing smoke.

Graves, (1948, 264) claimed the Acacia Sant, a host tree of the mistletoe-like loranthus, was the ‘burning bush’ and source of manna. If this oracular tree of Canaan contained tryptamines, as many species do, Moses could have had access to DMT illumination. It is still a practice to burn botanicals inside a tent to imbibe their smoke.

Assyrian rue was the most sacred plant of Mohammad, who took the Esphand (Arabic/Persian name for the plant) before receiving the Koran from God. This holy Esphand was associated with the appearance of angels and casts out evil spirits, and was used to cure fever and malaria and provides the rich red dye of Persian carpets.

Rue was central to the Petra mystery rites and schools of alchemy. Their sacrament was a beverage of illumination and restoration, mixed with gold and other alchemical products. It was passed down from Zoroaster, who was also known as Chem the original Alchemist and CHEMist. Chem is an ancient name for Egypt.

The grandson of Zoroaster, Nimrod or King En.Meru.dug, founded the Egyptian 2nd Dynasty. This plant of life became central in the Mysteries and healing schools of ancient Egypt, where Moses could easily have learned its powers. (Ananda)

The original Essenes, named after the plant, were headquartered in Heliopolis. Asena, the botanical Bush of Life, is an acronym, ASNA, of Aset (Isis) Sutekh (Set) Nebtet (Nephtys) and Auser (Osiris). It embodied the female form of the One God ATON, who correlates with the Greek goddess of wisdom, Athena.

Shamanic Bedouins still make the Egyptian eucharistic Bread of Light using the Asena/Hoama bush, the North African Acacia tree, and ground meteorite. They still shape it the form of the Eye of Ra, a circle with a central hole. The tradition was passed down to Christian Gnostics in Abydos, Egypt, the bush eventually becoming symbolically used to sprinkle holy water. Leonardo da Vinci and Michaelangelo reportedly used it for visionary inspiration.

In modern times, Pickover has suggested spontaneous DMT experiences as a possible source of Whitley Streiber’s Communion aliens: “…we know that DMT can often produce visions of cartoon-like aliens.” Others (Meyer, 1993) report those using DMT often claim communication with stick-like, insect-like or elf-like beings and discarnate entities.

Psychonaut, Terence McKenna used synthetic DMT (N,Ndimetyltryptamine) to intentionally contact “machine elves” and explore parallel worlds: “What is driving religious feeling today is a wish for contact with this other universe.” Arguing for their radical “otherness,”

McKenna emphasized that the hyperspace aliens seen while using DMT present themselves “with information that is not drawn from the personal history of the individual.” But smoking this synthetic DMT for hyperspace experience rarely yields Clear Light experiences.

The Harma alkaloid “Harmine” is also known as Telepathine and Banisterine. It is a naturally occurring beta-carboline that is structurally related to harmaline. They stimulate the CNS by inhibiting the metabolism of serotonin and other monoamines. Telepathine, is an MAO inhibitor, which parallels the function of Pinoline (a natural MAO Inhibitor) naturally produced by the Pineal Gland.

The combination of the Pineal secreted DMT (Dimethyltriptamine) and the MAO Inhibitor, Pinoline (Methoxytetrahydrobetacarboline, MeOTHBC) may be responsible for naturally occurring psychic experiences.

Harmine and harmaline are found in Syrian Rue (3-7% harma alkaloid), and ayahuasca brews made with DMT sources, bark and leaves of “Pychotriaviridis” or Banisteriopsis caapi vine. Ayahuasca is the South American sacrament of the Church of Santo Daime and Uniao de Vegetal (UDV). In this setting, the churches condition the “spiritual” expectations, experiences, ethics and type of information “received” in the altered state. The visionary state is considered to be the essence of the shamanic complex.

Shamanic vision differs from hallucination in volition, form and content of thoughts, clarity of heightened awareness, perception and contextualization. Practitioners have claimed it is for “analysis”. There is no primary delusional experience. The distinction between self and non-self is blurred; the notion of causality is affected. Its chemistry probably works as follows:

The primary function of harmala alkaloids in ayahuasca is to allow for the oral activity of DMT by inhibition of MAO-A, and further permits accumulation of 5-HT and other neurotransmitters. On their own harmala alkaloids have only weak psychoactive effects (Callaway, 1994) but Kim et al (1997) found that the harmala alkaloids, which occur in ayahuasca, were the most effective inhibitors of purified MAO-A. The psychedelic effects of ayahuasca probably manifest primarily through the serotonergic effects of DMT on the CNS and through increased levels of unmetabolised biogenic amines. Pinoline potentiates the activity of methylated tryptamines and this is the probable mechanism behind ayahuasca (Callaway, 1994)

Investigation of long-term users of ayahuasca showed a statistically significant difference between control group and users with a higher binding density in blood platelets of 5-HT uptake sites in the ayahuasca drinkers. This indicates a modulatory role for pinoline (the endogenous equivalent of ayahuasca) in the CNS. An upregulation of the serotonergic system is exactly what current antidepressant medications attempt to do, i.e. increasing synaptic 5-HT by preventing its reuptake.

“Johnny Appleseed” brings the finesse of a Transpersonal Psychologist to his experiential shamanic teaching. He contends 5-MeO DMT awakens psychic centers by amplifying our telepathic ability to affect or be receptive to others’ brainwaves through modulating chemistry, electromagnetic entrainment and standing feedback loops.

Plants are mixed in brews with MAO Inhibitor containing plants (Banasteriopsis Caapi, Syrian Rue etc.), to produce entheogenic brews that mimic the DMT-Pinoline combination naturally produced by the Pineal Gland (in the brain).

“For the last ten years I have been doing healing and exploratory sessions with individuals and small groups. We have occasionally experienced the phenomena of telepathy, ESP, and interactions on an energetic level that produce healing in a number of modalities. I work only with a strain of Phalaris grass, an entheogen specifically bred to contain 5-MeO DMT. I use this in an oral preparation potentiated by MAOI from Syrian Rue. This is not a common mix, as most people smoke it for a blast, which is not conducive to this work. I feel all of the other materials mentioned, LSD, mushrooms, and DMT-based brews distort consciousness to some degree. Oral-based 5-MeO DMT from plant sources is something completely different, however. Traces of other alkaloids from the plant source produce a more enhanced experience than the pure chemical. A clear yet enhanced state is accessible easily and reliably with no delusional ideation, or visual distortions. It is simply like being fully awake. This is probably because we were born with, and until puberty had, a pineal gland that made 5-MeO DMT in quite substantial amounts, unlike the reports of only very trace amounts of endogenous DMT. Thus, we have the receptors and metabolic pathways to deal with this material in a non-distorting way.”

The pineal gland makes a neurohormone called melatonin, which is one of the key regulators of the circadian and seasonal biological rhythms. It also makes a mono-amine oxidase (MAO) inhibitor called pinoline (Methoxytetrahydrobetacarboline (MeOTHBC)) which acts on the GABA receptors and whose chemical structure is virtually identical with the harmala alkaloids.

Serotonin (5 Hydroxytryptamine (5HT)) has frequently been implicated in certain aspects of psychoses. Pinoline is a neuromodulator, which prevents, amongst other effects, the breakdown of serotonin. This results in an accumulation of physiologically active amines including dimethyltryptamine (DMT) within the neuronal synapses, which may lead to hallucinations, depression or mania depending on the amines being affected (Strassman, 1990).

Ananda M. Bosman emphasizes the crucial role of endogenous DMT and sacramental DMT from Syrian Rue and other potentiating botanicals. The ancients called it Hoama in Persian (Avesta Veda), Soma in Sanskrit (Rg Veda), the Egyptian Essene, the Sumerian Tree of Life, Mohammed’s Esphand, the burning bush Asena of Moses, the Gnostic Besa, the Etruscan Phallaris arundanacia, and the Rue of alchemy.

Syrian Rue was revered because Melatonin’s active metabolite Pinoline is oneirogenic and antidepressant, increasing Serotonin turnover. Lack of Pinoline disturbs our circadian rhythms and creates depression. Pinoline has been conclusively demonstrated to have no function in schizophrenia, since test subjects healthy and otherwise, had the same levels of Pinoline.

The pineal is a superconducting resonator. Ananda claims it potentiates DNA as a multidimensional transducer of holographic projection, through hadron toroids, and is implicated in staying youthful. 5meoDMT & DMT act on the T-RNA messengers, which carry out the protein synthesis for the DNA, or the rebuilding of our body image and organs.

Melatonin is exclusively made in the pineal gland, comprised of the same Tryptophane base materials as Pinoline. Melatonin induces mitosis. It does this, by sending a small electrical signal up the double helix of the DNA, which instigates an 8 HZ proton signal that enables the hydrogen bonds to the stair steps, to zip open, and the DNA can replicate.

The human Pineal gland not only produces the neuro-hormone Melatonin, one of the body’s most potent antioxidents, but the revolutionary Pinoline, 6-methoxy-tetra-dydro-beta carboline, or 6-MeO-THBC. Pinoline is superior to Melatonin in aiding DNA replication. Pinoline can make superconductive elements within the body. It encourages cell division by resonating with the very pulse of life - 8 cycles per second - the pulse DNA uses to replicate. Andrea Puharich measured this 8 Hz resonance in healers in the late 1970s.

Ananda implicates DMT in the hyperdimensional geometry or architecture operating in DNA through hadronic mechanics, a model of the 8 hz, or universal phase-conjugational force, that is also the most coherent Nuclear Magnetic Resonance and the DNA replication frequency. He relates this to the sacred geometry of the Merkabah, Flower of Life, Sri Yantra, Diamond Body, and Vector Equilibrium Matrix.

The living DNA in our bodies operates in hyperdimensions. The entire body holographic message is present in the single DNA molecule, in order to be capable of reproducing the entire whole. The local 8hz field component is a standard tetrahedron interlocked with a second tetrahedron representing the counter-rotary field that it is phase-conjugating with, and together comprising a “stellated cube.”

Ananda has also investigated Dark Room techniques for stimulating the pineal with Mantak Chia. Ananda developed, researched, and has taught the Dark Room technology for endogenous Pineal Soma and DMT production (Endohuasca), since 1992, upgrading his technique with Mantak Chia in 2000. Isolated from external light, the third eye (pineal gland) overflows with certain neurotransmitters that awaken the higher brain, the ability to imprint the brain, reprogramming itself for an “instant experience of Being.” The retreat reopens the source code of embryogenesis.

5-MEO-DMT activates the whole spine, the whole tree of life (Djedi, the staff of Hermes, the Caduceus of the spine) becomes active to be reprogrammed. This is the accessing and awakening of the tree of life, the kundalini, which is a readout of the DNA. DNA itself is a minute tree of life. So one can start to process the illusion of the dream from its binary code into the Unity Self. [See “Pitch Black”, below]

In The Unity Keys of Emmanuel and Somajetics, Ananda says,

“[By the DMT translation of the Sound of Silence of the Word into the Soul Computer Virtual Reality Interface, the parallel quantum bodies are thus accessed by the NMDA inhibition, which is electrical anesthesia, engaged by the heart ecstasis of 8 hz, to the 1000 hz petalled lotus. [This] is the learned means of NMDA inhibition, engaged through the cave and dark room retreats of inner re-engagement. Thus the chemical soul’s crystal laser transducers and interdimensional door keys, are in Soma Harmaline-Pinoline-Harmine, DMT and 5-MeO-DMT, and by the NMDA inhibitors through ecstasis.”

“A high spin state within the DNA water molecule harnessed by Pinoline/Soma intercalating with the DNA (a molecule that has a stable 8hz NMR proton-proton spin-spin coupling [thus hadron pi-meson interplay), together with N-Methl-D-Aspartate-Inhibitors enables the electron states to move into a nulling, and electron freeze within an entire cell, enabling only 8 hz fields to pass through, changing the charge of the cell, so that the superconductivity harnessed by the pinoline DNA intercalation (with sonic interaction of the vocalized DNA electron spin resonance tones) — enables the hadronic force to be able to operate within the macro region of an entire cell (and intercellularly, by extension).”

Furthermore, noradrenaline plays a significant role in the Pineal gland, when there is sufficient Pinoline saturation in the brain. It releases a serotonin site, enabling another serotonin site on the pineal gland to produce the potent visionary Dimethyltryhptamine (DMT), neurotransmitter.

Dr. James Callaway detected this molecule in the spinal serum of people who were dying, or were having an “Out of body experience (OOBE)”, or who were lucid dreaming. It is Pinoline that enables the threshold levels of DMT to become active in the brain, but it requires an adrenaline burst. DMT with Pinoline increases brain activation, and with its cousin the 5-Methoxy-DMT, has been shown to activate the brain by as much as 40%, compared to our 10% maximum potential at present. This is a frightening prospect for the uninitiated, due to the absolutely overwhelming nature of DMT.

Youthenize Yourself

Hollywood trainer to the stars, Barry Hostetler, P.I. advocates “Youthenizing”, claiming his 35 years of bodybuilding and meditating allows him to “kick out the DMT.” We can control our psychobiology by controlling our mental state and vice versa, especially the reactive “dragon brain” or “reptilian brain”. Paramahansa Yogananda taught, “If you are in a dark room, don’t beat at the darkness with a stick, but rather try to turn on the light!”

Under stress we release toxic catabolites into our system, which undermine the immune system and age us faster. Without exercise (aerobic, core, strength) poisons accumulate, making the body toxic and mind frustrated and agitated. When we are calm and balanced, body chemistry is nontoxic and immune function improves.

Meditation is an alpha brain wave entrainment technique, which synchronizes the two brain hemispheres into 8 Hz. Closing the eyes, stops Melatonin flow leakage to the body, and makes it saturate the neocortex, increasing concentrations of Meltaonin and Pinoline in both brain and body. Meditation, several times a day, is an essential health exercise, an energizer, and tool for mental integration of daily activities.

Pinoline and related beta carbolines are not only produced in the brain, but in the adrenal glands themselves, where these hormones undergo their transformation to the hormones of life. HeartMath Institute demonstrated that minutes of compassion in the cardio-rhythm, which induces 8 Hz in the brain, brought DHEA up to youthful levels.

Twenty minutes of compassionate love, through meditative breathing, and whole body 8 Hz entrainment is the ultimate hormone precursor anti-aging pill. Not only does the pineal gland produce more Melatonin and Pinoline, which instigate 8 Hz ELF waves throughout the body, but these neurohormones signal the pituitary to release the life hormone Somatropin, which signals the adrenal glands to instigate cholesterol to convert to Pregnelenone then DHEA.

The extra Pinoline and other beta carboline levels that result, aid the body cells to replicate, and neutralize microorganisms, parasites, fungoids, and bacterias, and related harmful invaders. Melatonin and Pinoline are also antioxidents. Meditation is a rest break, an exercise session, an integration session, an energizer, and a body tuner, promoting antioxidant and antidepressant production.

We can return intentionally to more youthful states by doing emotional exercises and visualizations, which stimulate the body chemistry of our glory days. The body remembers and mimics those chemical states, producing youthful hormones and more flexible mental and physical states, improving overall balance and disposition. When “Youthenizing” yourself, it is helpful to use a photo from under age 7, a time you felt at your peak, or your happiest, or other ‘good chemistry’ times.

Kinesiology demonstrates that the mind “thinks” with the body itself. Mindbody is the subtle mechanism behind the disease process. The chemistry you generate with moods and states in your body is crucial to your health and well being. First toxic states of mind affect the energy body, then the physical body. Subjective and objective experience are hidden determinates of behavior. Embodied as corporeal memory, the body is your memory and subconscious. Self-regulation can modulate this process.

The body is an island of energy/matter and emotions with waves of feelings crashing onto its shores. Body-consciousness can either hide or reveal spirit, depending on how we direct our attention toward our ego, stress (including spiritual distress) and relief. The body and mind can be reunited in a congruent, healthy lifestyle by acting on what you know.

Pitch Black

Absolute darkness has an initiatory quality – the metaphor of moving from the darkness of ignorance into the illuminative Light. But it is more than a metaphor. All wisdom traditions have used sensory deprivation and darkness, (such as caves, tunnels, catacombs or special chambers), as a shamanic mind-altering force. Disorientation outside facilitates internal focus and connection.
Dark Room (DR) technology is for core reprogramming, restimulating the hardened pineal which begins calcifying around age 12. Sound becomes light. Chanting and drumming amplify the effects, which culminate in a rebirth of the spirit when one enters the point of Light or primordial Luminosity.

Author, Robert Newman, (Calm Healing, 2006) advocates Medicine Light for a variety of conditions. He cites Tibetan Buddhist, Trungpa Rinpoche about a highly advanced, dangerous forms of meditation practiced in utter darkness, known as a Bardo Retreat. They last up to seven weeks in a specially prepared Darkness Chamber, during which the whole Tibetan Book of The Dead becomes experiential and visions arise innately from the brain.

The beneficent and wrathful “eyes of Buddha” become visually and interactively alive as the Bardo of Luminosity flashes on and off; visions are self-arising; and transcend ordinary perception. The 49-day cycle recapitulates embryogenesis up to the point when pineal and gender differentiation occurs. The Taoists, Egyptians, Druids and others had similar practices of external light isolation.

Taoist master, Mantak Chia of Thailand recommends sound and light isolation in a process he calls Darkroom Enlightenment. He sequesters participants in the dark for over a week to shock the pineal into critical arousal to stimulate production of natural DMT and break down the barriers to transcendence. The neurotransmitter 5-MeO-DMT is normally only active when we are in the womb and in the first months of our lives. It is reactivated in the darkroom.

Stages include the ‘Melatonin state (Day 1-3; ego death), Pinoline State (Day 3-5; energy body and astral projection; lucid dreaming), 5-MeO-DMT (Day 6-8; telepathy, White Light), culminating in illuminative DMT (Day 9-12; Clear Light; Immortal Body). Participants leave through a tunnel, presumably a symbolic rebirth.

“There is now enough ‘Mono Amine Oxidase Inhibition’ triggered by the pinoline, to allow the pineal gland’s ’serotonin to melatonin cycle’ to be intercepted by adrenaline and ephedrine activity and converted into a ’serotonin - DMT pathway’. When DMT levels reach more than 25mg, one’s experience can become very visual. DMT is the visual third eye neurotransmitter. It enables the energy body and spirit to journey into hyperspace, beyond third dimensional realms of time and space.” (Chia, 2006)

Reentry implies rebirth — the self-organizing emergence of the new self. The seed of initiation is realized as the mature fruit of experience, which feeds and sustains us. The experience continues to be useful in our lives. Each healing journey is the death of something within us, which has kept us stuck or stultified. Healing facilitates our continuing evolution.
The new self continues to emerge and the consequences of the journey become embodied in this new form for months and even years after the journey. New behaviors, feelings, attitudes, ideas, and wisdom follow. Thus, the circle of life continues unbroken.

The Biology of the Inner Light

Melatonin and pinoline, made by the pineal gland are regulated by the seasonal changes in light and darkness, linked to the sleep/wake cycle. Pinoline is made in the pineal from 5HT and hypothesized as the neurochemical trigger for dreaming. Lack of sleep for several nights is often linked to the onset of acute psychotic breakdown in which the person starts hallucinating or “dreaming while awake.” This state of consciousness is common to the dream state, the psychedelic state, and the shamanic initiation experience. (Walking between worlds)

Illumination has been described as being blinded by the manifestation of God’s presence. This brightness has no relation to any visible light. Visionary experience, which has symbolic or religious content, may give way to this dazzling light, which is reported in eastern and western religions. It can confer a palpable glow to the person that is perceptible after the return to ordinary awareness.

Meditation modulates pineal activity, to create a standing wave through resonance effects that affects other brain centers with both chemical and electromagnetic coordination. Resonance can be induced in the pineal using electric, magnetic, or sound energy. Such harmonization resynchronizes both hemispheres of the brain. This results in a chain of synergetic activity resulting in the production and release of hallucinogenic compounds.

Sacred images are generated by the lower temporal which also responds to ritual imagery and is facilitated by prayer and meditation. Religious emotions originate from the middle temporal lobe and are linked to emotional aspects of religious experience, such as joy and awe. Yet neural correlates don’t mean that these experiences exist “only” in the brain or are merely illusory; they are associated with distinct neural activity. There is no way to distinguish if the brain causes these experiences, or actually perceives spiritual reality. Visions of bright lights, portals, and spiritual icons correlate with DMT.

“Could it be that human beings have actually evolved specialized neural circuitry for the sole purpose of mediating religious experience?” Neurologist Ramachandran says so. “There may be certain neural pathways—neural structures in the temporal lobe and the limbic system—whose activity makes you more prone to religious belief.”

If this is true, it is easy to see how much this mind-altering chemical could amplify all of the tendencies toward mystical apprehension originating in other parts of the brain.

The pineal contains high levels of the enzymes and building blocks for making DMT, and it may be secreted when inhibitory processes cease blocking its production. It may even produce other chemicals, such as beta-carbolines that magnify and prolong its effects.

Clear Light

llumination has been described as being blinded by the manifestation of God’s presence, which has no relation to visible light. Visionary experience, which has symbolic or religious content, gives way to this dazzling light, which is reported in eastern and western religions. Sacred Light is generated internally by DMT within the ventricles. Tendencies toward mystical apprehension originating in other parts of the brain are amplified. This universal Clear Light appears in all cultures with different names. Visionary experience with symbolic or religious content gives way to dazzling light of illumination, reported in eastern and western religions.

The mindbody is electronic, but it is rooted in the luminosity of its invisible ground. Living systems are very sensitive to tiny energy fields and resonance phenomena, both locally and at a distance. They allow the cells of the body to work together instantaneously and symphonically. All biological processes are a function of electromagnetic field interactions. EM fields are the connecting link between the world of form and resonant patterns. EM fields embody or store gestalts, patterns of information. Biochemical action and bioelectronic action meet at the quantum-junction.

We can return to Nature and our nature, collectively preparing a paradigm shift for a new shared reality and trajectory of physical, emotional, cognitive and spiritual coherence. The silent frictionless flow of living intelligence is beyond words and conceptual constructs. We are a process of recursive self-generation. This continuum, which is our groundstate or creative Source, is directly discoverable in the immediacy of the emergent embodied moment, in the living Light that generates our Being.

Blinded by the Light

Illumination has been described as being blinded by the manifestation of God’s presence, which has no relation to visible light. Visionary experience, which has symbolic or religious content, gives way to this dazzling light, which is reported in eastern and western religions.

Kabbalalists speak of this light during ecstatic entry into Pardes, the “orchard” of the Garden of Pomegranates, the self-luminous spheres of the Tree of Life. This metaphysical experience of the “Light of the Shekinah,” the feminine aspect of the Divine, is associated with qabalistic ascent up the Middle Pillar. In this state the soul remains covered or adorned, and one cleaves to the Light, gazing at the awesome radiance of God (Tzvi ha Shekinah) in rapt mystic Union.

According to Kabbalist Idel, the grace of “sweet radiance” has erotic overtones. It also implies mystical death, separated from all concerns with the mundane world. The Divine Light attracts the light of the soul, “which is weak in relation to the Divine Light.” The metaphor is one of magnetic attraction. The Kabbalists tried to reach the pre-fall state of the Primordial Man, to reenter the radiance of the Shekinah, a mystically erotic relationship with the Divine Presence which creates a reflective “glow.”

Entrance of the philosopher or mystic into the Pardes affects only the human soul. But in the Theosophical paradigm it does have affects on the non-human realms, the system of divine powers, influencing the relationships between them. In the Theurgic paradigm there is also an influence on, or struggle with, the demonic realm, which seeks to hold the soul back from union.

In both cases, Pardes represents a danger zone, leading potentially to insanity or death, being overwhelming for most mortals. Premature entry to this realm has been likened to tearing a silk scarf from a rosebush, rather than gently removing it slowly (with regular meditation). It sounds like the wrathful visions of Buddhism and the intensely raw effects of unmediated DMT.
Yogatronics

Want to take an active role in your own spiritual life, a safe and easy mind trip? Would you like to glimpse some of the experiences outlined here? Or even just get the mental health benefits of deep relaxation and increased inner focus? Intimidated by the prospect of spending 15 to 20 years learning to meditate to attain life-enhancing benefits?

Haven’t had a near-death experience and don’t want one? Too busy to devote your life to alchemy, or spend endless years in transpersonal therapies, or too afraid to allow a “mad scientist” to zap your brain with EM frequencies, hook your brain up to a high-tech scanning machine, or inject you with psychedelic substances?

Modern technology offers an easy DO IT YOURSELF, “passive” alternative. Anyone can employ a safe and easy technique that automatically puts you in the “zone.” A form of “yogatronics” is available using a simple CD and headphones with input from subsonic frequencies. This audio technology creates a harmonization of the left and right hemispheres of the brain, and automatically drives the brain harmlessly into the Alpha or Theta brainwave range.

This resonance phenomenon, entrainment, is called the frequency-following response, or binaural beat technology. Entrainment is the process of synchronization, where vibrations of one object will cause another to oscillate at the same rate. It works by embedding two different tones in a stereo background. Continuous tones of subtlely different frequencies (such as 100 and 108 cycles per second) are delivered to each ear independently via stereo headphones. The tones combine in a pulsing “wah wah” tone.

External rhythms can have a direct effect on the psychology and physiology of the listener. The brain effortlessly begins resonating at the same rate as the difference between the two tones, ideally in the 4-13 Hz. (Theta and Alpha) range for meditation. All you have to do is sit quietly and put on the headphones. The brain automatically responds to certain frequencies, behaving like a resonator.

You may not become immediately enlightened, but hemispheric synchronization helps with a whole host of problems stemming from abnormal hemispheric asymmetries. Problems, often resulting from stress or abuse in early life, include REM sleep problems, narcissism, addictive and self-defeating behaviors. Communication between hemispheres correlates with flashes of insight, wisdom and creativity.

Brain Synch

The hemispheres are meant to work in concert with one another. Interactive hemispheric feedback is used to treat disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, ADD, addiction, obsessive-compulsive disorder, anxiety, and a host of other dysfunctions. Disorders of under-arousal include depression, attention-deficit disorder (ADD), chronic pain and insomnia. Overarousal includes anxiety disorders, problems getting to sleep, nightmares, ADHD, hypervigilance, impulsive behavior, anger/aggression, agitated depression, chronic nerve pain, and spasticity.

Because the brain is functionally “plastic” in nature, creating and exercising new neural pathways can retrain neural circuitry. In meditation, the halves of the brain become synchronized and exhibit nearly identical patterns of large, slow brainwaves. Rhythmic pulses can modulate collective neuronal synchrony. Then, both lobes automatically play in concert.

Rhythm regulates the entire spectrum of activation and arousal by kindling, or pulling more and more parts of the brain into the process. Disorders related to under- and over- arousal, including attentional and emotional problems, can be stabilized by self-organizing restructuring. Depressions, anxiety, worry, fear, and panic can be moderated. Stimulating neglected neural circuitry creates new pathways, improving equilibrium and long-term change, essentially “tuning” the nervous system.

There are many companies branding this self-regulation technology, both in “active” clinical neurofeedback programs, and as “passive” home programs. Among the oldest is the Monroe Institute, which calls its trademarked method Hemi-Synch. Another program offered by Centerpointe Research Institute is called Holosynch. BioPulse is another. Another variation uses light pulses from goggles to drive the process, and is marketed as Alpha-Stim.

Conclusions

Are there things we should not know? We are innately geared to crave ecstasy, “escape reality,” and seek extraordinary or novel experiences on our way to wisdom. The history of mankind recounts the stages of that journey. Religions and mysticism arose from the accounts of spontaneous spiritual experiences. In shamanism, our ancestors sought them in an instinctual or animalistic way. In art, myth and ritual we sought them in a human, if narcissistic and self-expressive reactionary way.

Curiously, DMT is ubiquitous in the biosphere, found everywhere from a variety of botanicals to mammals: It has been documented in rat brains at birth. Not only is it found in seaweed, flowers, vines, acacia tree (Sant), toadskins, Desmanthus illinoensis and Mimosa hostilis, A. columbrina, lawn grass, etc., but also in our brains and spinal columns

It is only in Western society that the potential shaman, with all of their psychic gifts, is ignored and treated as sick. All other human societies have honored their prophets, psychics, seers and shamans. We need to learn to recognize the potential shaman in our midst and re-learn what is required to ground them, teach them and train them so that their creative and psychic abilities can be a gift, not a curse, and can be used for their and our benefit. (Roney – Dougal)

In creativity and meditation we seek in a fully conscious way, willfully cooperating and facilitating the process not only of connecting with the divine, but experiencing ourselves in the process of “becoming” divine or being sacred. The ego no longer perceives itself as a separate expression of consciousness, but reconnects with our metaprogram as the same essence as All, infused with Light.

REFERENCES

Callaway, J.C. (1994). Pinoline and Other Tryptamine Derivatives: Formations and functions. PhD Dissertation, Dept. Pharmacol. & Toxicol, Univ. Kuopio, Finland

Chia, Mantak

Graves, Robert (1948) The White Goddess: A Historical Grammar of Poetic Myth.

Journal of Pineal Research

McKenna, Terence; Food of the Gods; New York: Bantam Books, 1993.

Meyer, Peter (1993), “Apparent communication with discarnate entities induce by DMT”, Psychedelic Monographs & Essays, Vol. 6, Thom Lyttle, Ed., PM & E Publishing Group, Boynton Beach, Florida.

Miller, Iona; “Chaos as the Universal Solvent: Re-creational ego death in psychedelic consciousness”; Psychedelics ReImagined, Thom Lyttle, Ed. New York: Autonomedia, 1999.

Miller, Iona (1994) BECOMING THE VINE: An Anecdotal Account of an Ayahuasca Initiation

Miller, Iona (2001), NEUROTHEOLOGY 101:Technoshamanism and Our Innate Capacity for Spiritual or Mystical Experience, Institute for Consciousness Science & Technology

Miller, Iona (2003), How the Brain Creates God: The Emerging Science of Neurotheology, Chaosophy, Asklepia Pub.

Pickover, Cliff (2006)

Radha, Soami Sivananda (1990) The Divine Light Invocation; Timeless Books, Spokane, Washington.

Roney-Dougal, Serena, Walking Between the Worlds: Links Between Psi, Psychedelics, Shamanism, and Psychosis.

Sabom, M. B. (1982). Recollections of death: a medical investigation. Harper and Row, New York.

Strassman, Rick (1990), “The Pineal Gland”, Psychedelic Monographs & Essays, Vol. 5, Thom Lyttle, Ed., PM & E Publishing Group, Boynton Beach, Florida

Strassman, Rick (2001). DMT: The Spirit Molecule. Rochester, Vermont: Park St. Press.

The reason I am interested in these questions is that I share a mythological image of the caveman common to our culture (whether it’s accurate or not), of him being this sort of pure unadulterated “authentic” human – someone untouched by all the poisons of later civilization, history, ideology and the rest of the detritus that we have collected as humans, the pack-rats of history.

Inherent in that vision though, I recognize the assumption that in thinking of the caveman as this “pure” form of the human being, that I see myself as an impure version. I see this as a rather dangerous assumption, the evidence for which needs only to be verified by looking at the massive self-hatred and personal destruction that so much of the world seems to be involved in. Towards that end then, my experiments in reconstructing some image of our lost caveman ancestor is not a hopelessly romantic retreat back into the past as it is a rescue mission: go back in time to retrieve a treasure that was lost to us somewhere along the way, in order to make our current lives better, in order to rehabilitate how we see ourselves and one another.

And I choose the term “caveman” knowing full well it’s awkward politically incorrect cartoonish implications, and use that as a constant reminder that what I am doing is actually a fairly distorted caricature of reality, rather than reality itself. But I also just like the image of the club-wielding animalistic brute to be the one that we build on – because part of what we’re looking for here is not only the pure or authentic human, but also that crucial difference, that strange circumstance that separated mankind from other types of animals.

Using that image of primitive man as a hulking brute then as our springboard, I like to imagine how a group of cavemen would react to the types of conversations that typically occur on my website. On a recent post over at PopOcculture.com, Ted Heistman, author of the blog “Free Range Organic Human” left a comment about primitive societies, in which he pointed out that “They don’t have celebrities or even writers.” And adding later that “To live in a primitive hunter gatherer society requires almost no ego.” I tend to agree and I think in some sense, it might be impossible to communicate to our imaginary caveman friends some of the ideas we talk about here.

Especially since so much of what we talk about has to do with such abstractions as the nature of reality and consciousness, language and even magic. Actually, magic may be one of the areas we’d have in common with them. Chances are they could teach us far more about it as well, since in my imaginary view of cavemen, the world to them was nothing but magic. Nothing else existed. Rocks, trees, rivers, animals, wind, people – all of them were magic. Today we call this animism, although anthropologists usually go into something similar to the definition we find on Wikipedia wherein animism consists of “personalized, supernatural beings (or souls) endowed with reason, intelligence and volition inhabit ordinary objects as well as animate beings, and govern their existence.” But for our purposes, I think it’s a lot easier and probably more accurate to just say: everything is magic.

From that base starting point, I know a lot of us raised in a scientific-materialist paradigm would start sweating and hyperventilating and arguing with our caveman friend that, “Magic isn’t real!” But remember, we’re not talking about what you believe here. We’re talking about our caveman, who just came home from the hunt. We want to know how he might have looked at the world. To him, everything was definitely magic. There’s no doubt about it.

But those of us who don’t think magic is real can still have a meaningful back and forth with our hairy , thick-skulled imaginary companion. If we think that magic isn’t real, and he thought that everything was magic, then that probably means that the two of us live in almost entirely different worlds. And if his world was all magic and we don’t believe in magic at all, then that means that we don’t believe in his world at all. Or, put another way, we force him to live in our world, simply because we don’t believe his could have even existed in the first place, because magic isn’t real.

Which leads me to wonder if the caveman would be so quick to dismiss the world we live in. If we brought him back to our time, sort of like in that movie Encino Man with Brendan Frazier as a thawed out caveman, wouldn’t he see our world as being filled with magic? The magic of television, of cars, or giant steel birds roaring by overhead. So it’s probably true that he wouldn’t simply drop his beliefs about the world, just as most of us are unable to drop our beliefs in the world.

The crucial difference, I think, though is that I don’t think our caveman friend would tell us that the achievements of science aren’t real. After all, I think it’s science-fiction author Arthur C. Clarke who famously said that “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” Except, from our perspective, magic just isn’t real.

And that leads me to one of my main questions that I’ve been pondering for several months now: to the primitive mind, to the so-called authentic human, is there any such thing as real and unreal? Can you imagine a couple of cavemen sitting around a campfire debating long into the night about the ontological substructures of the cosmos? Cause I sure can’t. It just seems absurd. But not because I don’t believe that what we think of as “primitive” people aren’t intelligent. Quite the opposite. I think they were probably smart enough and in touch with reality in such a way that they would find it not relevant or meaningful to debate it.

What they would probably do instead is sit around the campfire and tell one another stories. Maybe they would be tales of the hunt, or lessons from a particularly hard winter, or maybe a vision they had once when they hadn’t eaten for many days and collapsed in the forest, or possibly a dream they had the night before.

Which leads me to another question that I’d like to ask if I ever meet a couple cavemen someplace: if everything was magic, and there were no questions about what was real and what wasn’t (simply because everything was equally real and valid), then how did they navigate the differences between the experiences of individual humans? That is, how did they build consensus reality?

Imagine it this way: after a long night of debating cosmological philosophy, our two caveman buddies fall asleep by the fire. When they wake up, the fire has gone cold. They yawn and stretch their arms and the first caveman says to the second: “Last night I became a deer and ran through the forest.”

But the second caveman doesn’t buy that. “No you didn’t. I was up really late and I saw you sleeping the whole time. All you did was lay there and snore.”

Something tells me a conversation like this would never happen among our club-wielding compatriots. It doesn’t ring true with the little mythical image I have of primitive people in my head. My intuition says no, that this is a much later problem we developed for ourselves. My intuition suggest that after the first caveman said, “Last night I became a deer and ran through the forest,” the second caveman would say something like, “Well last night I dreamt that I was running with a pack of wolves and we were trying to bring down a deer.”

In other words, in the primitive paradise that exists in my head, no one disbelieved anyone else’s unique experience. Because everything was magic. And if every thing was magic, then every person was magic, and every person’s experience was magic, and therefore real. There was, at some point, no such thing as the unreal.

Whether or not this really holds true with what cavemen experienced, I couldn’t tell you cause I’m not a caveman. But if a caveman came up to me and told me this was the case, I would have no choice but to believe him. What I mean by that is that I have been getting better and better at respecting other people’s experiences – especially in areas which traditionally violate consensus reality: such as psychedelic experiences, the paranormal, occult, spiritual, and transpersonal or archetypal psychological events.

I have also been doing my best to try out this alleged caveman worldview wherein everything is not only always real, but everything is also always magic. A slightly more scaled-down version of this (which the industrious among you might like to try out provisionally and see how it fits) would be to re-define “reality” as that which can be experienced. It’s a very simple definition which is likely to irk scientific types who are accustomed to ranking experiences based on repeatability, peer verification and the ranking of certain states of consciousness above others. We say that a bus is real because we can all get on the bus and ride it. But we say that a dream bus isn’t real because only one of us can ride it and we like to chauvinistically favor non-dreaming states of consciousness for some stupid reason.

The re-definition of reality as “that which can be experienced” opens up some other fun questions for us to explore. What does it mean to experience something? When we touch something, is that somehow considered better or more “real” than if we only look at it or smell it? Not usually – unless maybe the something being touched is dog poop, which then it might be better not to smell it or touch it, but to look at it as we pick it up with a plastic bag. But the point is: if we don’t rank our physical senses above one another, then how come we rank them above our non-physical senses? Under the heading non-physical senses, I would include perceptual activities thinking, imagining, dreaming, feeling, intuition, etc.

We tend to draw a thick conceptual dividing line between perception and cognition nowadays though. But how fair is that really? When you imagine your girlfriend or boyfriend or your parents or kids, what is it that you imagine about them? Probably, you imagine things like how they look, how they feel, how they smell. That is, our cognition is irrevocably linked to our cognition. An even better way of looking at it might be to say that thinking, feeling and imagining are sensory processes, just like touching, tasting, smelling, seeing or hearing. All our senses are are methods of interacting with objects in the world.

There’s a nice quote I found a while back by psychedelic author Daniel Pinchbeck where he is referencing the work of mystic Rudolf Steiner, one of his heros. Pinchbeck explains that:

“Thinking, for him, is a part of reality - as much a part of reality as any physical object. He points out that we have no right to consider a plant’s ability to produce leaves, roots, and blossoms as separate from the thoughts we have about that plant. It may be that our thoughts about the plant are as much a property of that plant as its blossoms, stems, and leaves.”

So then, if reality is anything that can be experienced, we’ve suddenly been given license to experience reality in lots of different ways – all of which are equally real, equally magical. You might argue something like, “Well, a pink monkey riding a unicorn through outer-space, chased by angry snakes drive semi-trucks and wearing red hats isn’t real because we can’t actually experience it.” But can’t we though? As I said that, didn’t you just experience an image of it happen internally in your mind’s eye? I bet you did, but you might just not want to admit it. Because if you admit that thoughts are as real as anything else, then it might turn out that you are just as responsible for your thoughts as you are for your actual actions in the conventionally-defined “real world.” But that’s a whole other ball-game best left for another time…

So then what did we learn today? We learned that (1) everything is magic, and (2) everything is real. There’s no such thing as unreal. That belief stems from a false dividing line drawn between perception and cognition, or external senses and internal thoughts and feelings. All of it exists. We know because we can experience it. And the range of ways in which we experience things is quite diverse. And I believe that in order to have the fullest experience of life, it would make sense for us to engage reality on as many levels and in as many ways as we can imagine. Because everything that we can imagine is real. Or at least, that’s what the caveman told me…

[Listen to this piece as a podcast here]

I have been thoroughly enjoying the conversations held here lately about the crash of civilization both as a fantasy and as a potential reality, along with the many strains of thinking about how best to live through such a thing. It may seem that I have been unfairly singling out certain individuals or groups within that discussion, but it has been with the sincere attempt at inspiring a heated, open, direct and challenging conversation. I hope it has been as successful for others’ purposes as it has been for mine. It has enabled me to think through many issues (both pro and con) which I had glossed over or misunderstood in the past. I’m sure I still have a ways to go but it is heartening to see people putting such seriousness into these subjects.

Which leads me to the actual critique of civilization itself. As an art school drop-out, to me the purpose of having a critique is so that you can collaboratively communicate with an artist about their work, so as to give them outside insight to make their work better, more successful or more aesthetically pleasing. Likely it won’t surprise you that I was often one to deliver very blunt (and often unwelcome critiques), but I did so (and still do so) under the belief that it challenges people to create better work.

My goal in telling that story of my personal history is twofold. One, it’s intended to sketch in details of me as a more fleshed-out character, and two, I’m hoping to open a conversation about the nature and purpose of criticism or critique.

Wikipedia reveals that the word “critic” comes down to us from the ancient Greeks (kritikós and krités), “meaning a person who offers reasoned judgement or analysis, value judgement, interpretation, or observation.” And it further explains that “critique” has a rich history in philosophy, meaning “a systematic inquiry into the conditions and consequences of a concept or set of concepts, and an attempt to understand its limitations.” As can be seen, the anarcho-primitivist critique of civilization fits very well into both meanings.

But at the same time, in my own usage of the term, you only critique something which you would like to make better. If you want to destroy a work of art, then you smash it on the floor or rip a whole through the canvas. You don’t sit the artist down and tell them in what ways their work failed and how they could improve it. In other words, I see the purpose of critique as being improvement rather than refutation. You attack in order to trigger a defense and cause something to strengthen itself (otherwise you would simply deal a destructive death blow and be done with it).

And this is ultimately the same light in which I have come to see the anarcho-primitivist critique of civilization: I see it not as a practical destruction or even a philosophical refutation of civilization, but as the ultimate fulfillment of modern civilization. If you look at the goals of the modern primitivists, you will see them say that tribalization and a return to hunter-gatherer societies will enable us to be healthier, live longer, be happier, more free, and to more fully experience the richness of human experience. Though the reputation of Western civilization (particularly the American variant of it) has grown very sullied over these past few years as we have come face to face with our failures and paradoxes, it is undeniable that the goals of the even the most radical anarcho-primitivist philosopher were cribbed almost whole cloth from the now-buried ideals of Western civilization: individual expression, freedom, health, happiness, fulfillment. Anarcho-primitivists are not working at cross-purposes here; they are keeping alive the dreams and ideals upon which all of our lives are in fact founded. Hell, they are really the American Dream writ-large, are they not? They are the settler who moves West to escape repression, live off the land and learn from the Indians. They do not diminish our ideals but elevate them to a new level and offer new insights and contexts for how to think about problems that have plagued us for a long time.

Furthermore, the anarcho-primitivist critique of civilization makes use of what tools? Philosophy, economics, history, anthropology, ecology, psychology, comparative analysis, scientific methodology. In short, these are the tools of civilization. These are the fruits of thousands upon thousands of lives and man-hours spent across generations and milennia. And that is without even speaking of how anarcho-primitivists make use of the physical technology of civilization: the computer, the internet, the printing press, the written language. Some primitivist philosophers, such as John Zerzan, have notably been criticized for this apparent contradiction, that they rely on the constructs of civilization to criticize it.

My point is in all this: in order to fully refute something, you must fully refuse it. You must unlearn the English language, forget all of history and culture and go live naked in the woods and never talk to anyone again. But then, you’re left wondering, how will my ideas spread? Precisely. They won’t - you will have removed yourself from the thoroughly imperialist notion that you need to colonize others with your viewpoints. However, if you’re more inclined to use the best of civilization to effect a change on the worst excesses of civilization, then by all means do so. Because that is exactly what civilization needs, not only to survive whatever comes next, but also to thrive, and even to progress (which I know is a four-letter word among primitivists). So, for those of you out there on the edges critiquing civilization, please continue. What you’re doing is very valuable and you’re raising a lot of extremely important and useful points about the paradoxes and unsustainable patterns of our current situation. And in so doing, you make all of us stronger.

God save the Queen!

[cross-posted from my main blog]

I recently had the pleasure of spending time with my older siblings and their families. Between them, they have three children under the age of three years old, and they are both adorable, a lot of fun and a handful to keep track of. Hanging around with both kids and parents for a couple weeks straight really opened my eyes to a lot of subtleties about our culture that have been up until now lost on me as a single childless person.

The thing that I noticed the most strongly was how television is designed to work on parents. Parents are busy; there’s no doubt about it. Between working and make ends meet and caring for their children and the myriad of small responsibilities that arise as a result of kids, most parents don’t have a lot of time to focus on things outside of their immediate environment. Enter the evening news. The evening news gets turned on after a long day at work, or of caring for the kids, and for most parents it serves as a window to the outside world, and a vitally necessary lifeline to keep them connected to important events of the day.

Media companies seem to be aware of this dynamic, and are also aware of the need to provide news coverage that interest parents and with which they can identify. As a result you’ll see lots of human interest stories about parents and kids, and community issues. But the flip-side is that a preponderance of those stories seem to be negative. Just watch any five or six o’clock news broadcast to verify this for yourself. During a recent stint in front of the television at my sister’s house, they featured multiple stories about children drowning in pools. It’s important to consider the emotional effect this has on the parent. They automatically project themselves into the story. They imagine it is their child who is injured or killed or put at risk, which causes great anxiety - whether it’s consciously recognized or not. During that same broadcast, when they cut to a commercial, I saw television ads which are designed to sell you products that alleviate that anxiety. Buy insurance to protect your family. Buy this car because it’s safer for your kids. Shop at Lowe’s so you can baby-proof your house and provide a sanctuary for your little ones. The proximity of these ads to these types of news stories simply can’t be accidental. It is too common, too consistent.

Unfortunately, this is only part one of a two-pronged attack on parents and children by corporations seeking to manipulate and profit from them. The other major element that I noticed was the intense cross-over branding that nowadays goes into children’s products. Say your young child regularly watches and absolutely loves particular kids show, such as Dora the Explorer. Now imagine that you need to buy some ordinary everyday items for your child such as forks, plates, bibs, and any variety of toys. You have three objectives in this situation: get what you need, spend your money wisely, and please your child - if possible. The best would to do all three. And this is where cross-branded products come in. Why not buy plates, forks, bibs and toys that you know your child will like and identify with because they have Dora and her friends featured prominently on them? If they are available and the same price, or maybe only a little extra more money, chances are you will shell out in order to keep your child happy.

I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with this transaction, of course. Parents need to buy certain things and companies have every right to sell them the best way possible. But what happens to a child who, from birth, is trained to only buy products which feature cross-over tie-ins through other media franchises? What happens is that you create a consumer who is so well-trained and so deeply programmed that they will never question the possibility that all-encompassing marketing and promotional schemes might not be in their best interest. Why might they not be in their best interest? Because what right do corporate entities have to colonize all of human existence and experience with products and services? Who gives them that right?

Did you know that expectant mothers are given by their doctors parenting magazines and product samples? Who do you think pays for these things? Who gives them to doctors? Who benefits from imprinting in the mind of a woman anxious to bring a new life into the world a sense of which products to buy and where to shop? Humans have been having and raising children for thousands of years. When you get down to it, encoded within our biology are all the instincts and knowledge we could ever need - but we’ll never hear it if we continue to let so many other outside voices scream at us day and night.

Thanks to Jared Drew Moody for the awesome illustration that accompanied this article.

“The modern androgyne, seeking only self-realization, forfeits the energy of opposition and conflict.” (Camille Paglia, Sexual Personae)

This is a stream of unconsciousness essay on the Self, illustrated by the kaleidoscopic sexual personae of GENESIS P-ORRIDGE. Always the mercurial Magician, Gen has been associated with the art and decadence of the Thelemic, industrial, punk, Goth, and rave movements, and was arguably the earliest proponent of acid house. His bands have ranged from hard-edged Throbbing Gristle to ethereal Psychic TV to avant-garde Thee Majesty.

Never one to commune in solitude, all these eras of the artist, priest and shaman have fused into the orgiastic seizure of family-band PTV3. Now he gladly shares center stage with the group, including wife Lady Jaye, daughter Genesse, and bandmates, forming a cohesive unit to rock the house. This is a personal and critical triumph for the artist, whose daemonic career stalled somewhat after his tragic injuries in an infamous Hollywood fire at the former home of mega-magician, Harry Houdini.

In the alchemical transformation process, fire is the Bath of Immortality; the calcinatio fire tempers emotions, mind and body. Fire symbolizes libido, not at all separate from sexuality. The movement is from auto-erotic, to personal power-seeking, to refined transpersonal consciousness. Frustration is the initiatory ordeal. The fires of desire are transmuted. The miraculous water, aqua divina or permanens, was extracted from the lapis, or prima materia through the torment of the fire. The water stands for the anima mundi imprisoned in matter. This stage represents the expansion of consciousness after a crisis in development.

This crucible of chemical breakdown created a Phoenix-like opportunity for a remixing of elements, a new chapter of the sexual metathesis. Mind and body, perturbed by the chaos of a turbulent inner life, relinked in a transformation of prima materia through a luminous rebirth. In alchemy, both the primal matrix and finished product (Philosopher’s Stone) are hermaphroditic, an androgyne, and rebis (double thing).

This is exemplified on the Tree of Life by the merging of Hod (Hermes) and Netzach (Aphrodite) to open the 25th path ART (Temperance) which culminates in the Self-Real-I-zation of Tiphareth, the heart center. It represents a change of plane, a quantum leap from Astral to Causal Body as intentionally-created vehicle of consciousness with its enlarged perspective.

In a triumphant international come-back over 2004-2005, the Dionysian diva proved he never really went “away”. Nor did the perennial global fans. Now, aka Breyer P-Orridge, Genesis masquerades in conjunction with soror mystica and co-artist, Lady Jaye. S/he has endured further self-initiatory rites of s/hirgery. The magickal child cooks in the heat of the rubedo, furthering its incubation.

Hir symbolic externalization of the Androgyne is a deliberate, conscious artistic creation…body as art, bringing body fully into the artistic process, in a hyper-committed soulful way. This informed transformation is lightyears beyond body-building or the prosaic body-modification of neo-tribal culture, which is now reduced to the 21st Century equivalent of mall-hair by pierced teeny-boppers and tatted grandmothers with tickets for Burning Man.

The new Virgin, in the ancient meaning of being One whole-in-oneself, took h/ir show on the road. From the beginning of his career, Genesis has been a seminal engineering influence in Occulture, while likewise being influenced by his intimate relationships with such icons as Timothy Leary, William Burroughs, and Brion Gysin. He was strongly influenced by Burroughs’s “cut-up method” of writing. It is essentially a mantic rant, a collage technique with words and phrases uniquely juxtaposed. Now he’s done the same with his body.

The search for an escape from a dualistic state has formed one of the great pursuits of philosophers, mystics and occultists alike. Morphing the meat body creates a cascade of transformation through the etheric bodies in the emotional, mental, and spiritual worlds - a coincidentia oppositorum. S/He is a KOAN of living flesh that confounds spectators and brings a screeching halt to linear thought in pure spectacle. It brings new meaning to McLuhan’s old saw: the medium is the massage.

Do Homo Mutans or Homo Lumen embody an evolutionary thrust beyond Homo Sapiens? The immortal sacred Androgyne is a reiterated symbol throughout the history of art from neolithic times, and was particularly revered by medieval alchemists. Gen spoke at length about its resurrection in the fantasy life of our postmodern society in a Disinformation.com video. S/He implied the collective masturbatory fantasies of one-sided male culture have brought the Androgyne into embodiment, fueling its literal appearance to fulfill their sex-magick fueled fantasies.

In the latest narrative of their personal journey, charismatic Gen and Lady Jaye aren’t trying to fuse into twins, or even emphasize their mystical brother-sister aspects, but apparently seeking “escape velocity” from the shakles of the chemical identity. But this thrust is life-affirming, not evolutionary nostalgia of being longing for non-being. Perhaps the quest for the next-new-way-on has been fulfilled.

Genesis continues to eschew the local universe of each adoptive or adaptive persona in a self-induced alienation that affirms h/ir non-mentalized multiverse, her/e and now. He continues to stay on point in the hinterlands of personality by transcending each embodied version of Self. Jaye’s role in this hormonal alchemy should not be underestimated. Genesis credits her tender nursing as a key element in his psychophysical recovery. Mythopoetically, it is interesting to recall how Dionysus, too, was attended by the ever-present nurse. But, interdependence is not co-dependence.

This current, the “chymical wedding” of male and female, manifested strongly in the fin de siecle occulture, with the Symbolist artists of the Salon de las RoseCroix, and in the 20th century with the notorious occultist Aleister Crowley and the futuristic philosopher William S. Burroughs. Still, nothing Genesis has done in his artistic arc has been particularly derivative, or mere dramatic impersonation. The truth inhabiting these characters is what lends them power.

The psychic metamorphosis of interrelated themes of the artist/androgyne, the Narcissus myth, mirroring, and self-reflection figure prominently as metaphors in the artistic process. What is left for h/ir but to sprout wings to mate with the self-devouring serpent (Ouroboros) like Jung’s God-image of the Self, Aion, which necessarily reveals itself progressively?

The cultural Revolution IS being televised on PTV3. The Self is born in the image of the eye, the Third “I”, where we give Skull to the Divine.

The Yab-Yummy Way of Imagination

The artist is not a person endowed with free will who seeks his own ends, but one who allows art to realize its purposes through him. As a human being he may have moods and a will and personal aims, but as an artist he is ‘man’ in a higher sense - he is ‘collective man,’ a vehicle and molder of the unconscious psychic life of mankind. (Carl Jung, Psychology and Literature, 1930)

Therein lies the social significance of art: It is constantly at work educating the spirit of the age, conjuring up the forms in which the age is more lacking. The unsatisfied yearning of the artist reaches back to the primordial image in the unconscious, which is best fitted to compensate the inadequacy and one-sidedness of the present. The artist seizes on this image and, in raising it from deepest unconsciousness, he brings it into relation with conscious values, thereby transforming it until it can be accepted by the minds of his contemporaries according to their powers. (Carl Jung)

Today, we recognize two sexes on this earth, male and female, but the image of the Androgyne is impressed on the psyche as a dominant of the collective unconscious. Its existence is proved by the fact that it emerges from time to time in a multiplicity of guises, and in every part of the world. Do not lovers say to each other, “I am lost without you, incomplete. With you I feel fulfilled. I experience a sense of union when we are together.” (June Singer, Androgyny)

Lady Jaye and my SELF have privately chosen to explore our thoughts about identity and a belief that evolution is crucial to thee survival and self esteem ov thee humanE species in many ways. One ov these is thee idea that Lady Jaye proposed that thee body is a pre-Astoric “suitcase” holding us back from potential futures. We will need to give up any ideas ov thee body being sacrosanct if we wish to explore space. Genetic mutation and engineering will be essential for meaningful space travel. Whilst our Pandrogeny process began as an intimate private thing, inevitably I.T. became visibly to a public because we are performers and artists as well. We feel that we are duty bound to TRY and share some ov our thoughts on why we do these proceedures with you who visit here, as a politeness and sign ov respect from us to you. This is not a necessity, butter an offering we make in a more intimate space where we hope friends and allies dwell. (Genesis P-Orridge, 2005, Homepage http://genesisp-orridge.com/)
S/HIRGERY: THE ULTIMATE CUT-UP METHOD

Androgyne as Self image: SELF AS CUT-UP; BODY AS ART, return to the AnthropoMORPHIC self-discovery and in some cases a painful coming-out process. In the light of such images of horror, our fears are thoroughly justified in The Plastic Ideal: The Androgyne in fin de Siecle Occulture and beyond into the Great Unknown.

Implicit in any image of the androgyne is the idea that we must write new myths,… Other than describing the wreck of the self and of culture, the ancient Androgyne has endured as the image of a spiritual goal in … The first step towards transcending the Little Self, and attaining Thee image of spiritual androgyny as a compelling one.

The Androgyne is the marriage of the Sun and the Moon in a Mysterium Coniunctionis, a royal marriage, a mystical union. But, of course, the myth never remotely referred to a species existing on earth fitting that description, but rather to that celestial world of the imagination where all the immortal prototypes for Creation have always existed. Or does it?

Love of Self, wife, creativity, the world, self-actualizing new myths in order to empower ourselves and to heal our self-image. … the postmodern self is mediated, not mediating. Postmodern psychology is a product of the movement from McLuhan’s Gutenberg Galaxy into a postliterate world, a transition marked by the collapse of the critical distance between the inner self and the outside world, and by our immersion, perhaps even dissolution, in the ever-accelerating maelstrom of the media spectacle.

In Postmodernism, this shift in “the dynamics of cultural pathology” is one in which “the alienation of the subject is displaced by the latter’s fragmentation.” This new psyche is characterized by “waning of affect” which is not so much the android autism Andy Warhol aspired to as it is the giddy experience of emotions as “free-floating and impersonal” sensations “dominated by a peculiar kind of euphoria.”

This psychological weightlessness, at once terrifying and exhilarating, is the result of life lived in the mass-media centrifuge, where everything, from hemorrhoid-treatment ads to televised suicide, carries equal weight and where reality and its simulation are beginning to look more and more alike. Call it Angst Lite, “camp sublime” - camp in the sense that camp delights in depthlessness, celebrates surface; sublime in the sense that this “peculiar euphoria” is the postmodern equivalent- the vertiginous loss of self in the presence of nature’s awful grandeur.

ANDROGYNE AS SELF IMAGE

The Kabbalistic Tree suggests that the androgyne is the model for each and every human, … Instead, the creative process begins with the self-moisturing or The androgyne is both artist and work of art, self and other. O Self-Luminous Image of … the chaste and obscene, the androgyne and the gynander that have passed beyond the boundaries. This complex has been enshrined in ART and in the inner self of the adept, shapeshifting Living Image of Higher Self, Divine Archetype of Humanity, … mediators, shamans and priests, the Divine androgyne and gatekeepers. …

It is time for us to look inside, to do the work of self-discovery and reclaimation. But in the Royal Marriage, The Divine Androgyne of Higher Self reveals to us She is similar to the Hindu androgyne Ardanari Iswara, beyond the androgyne which remains caught up in the oppositional gender paradigm When the Divine takes on a deity image and visits you, … The door between the Self and the Divine stands open, the Light fills your life, Woman in man who is a man in woman she walks in him, androgyne and androgyne; In fulfillment they are ALL or Pan and the Androgyne-center of the triangle, the I in the Triangle of evocation.

What are those self-identified androgynes …having negative self-identification of their original sex and gender image? It’s what we call residual self image. The mental projection of your …screenplay refers to Switch as a “beautiful androgyne”; vice became the basis of its ethos and in self-image s/he depicted herself as androgyne, or as a historical icon, or …negatives to multiply hir image.

… Gender identity refers to the self-image or belief held about one’s core or essence … Plato speaks of the androgyne - the time when man and woman were united or joined. The Egyptian Mut was an androgyne, having breasts and an erect phallus. … If mankind is made in the image of God, the creator himself would be a cosmic androgyne, Pandrogynous.

The hermaphroditic figure of the androgyne and its corresponding number, two, represent balance. Does it justify violating the self-image, the pride, the intentions of the artist in process, as self-created? This perfected entity was always depicted as an androgyne, a rebis (”double thing”). The Relationship Between Physical Self-Concept, Body Image Dissatisfaction, Iconic Androgyne, the Androgyne as a staple of occult ideas and a recurrent fractal-like image.

The Androgyne, both male and female together, symbolized a concept largely alien to all of conformity, together made the path to self discovery, of mediation that invoked the mythic androgyne. Therefore, we find the androgyne idea, concretely lived out today, … The psychic structure of the lower God image that Paracelsus intuited therefore provides completion… This image is also distinguished by its self-consciously artifactual quality: The construction of the cosmic androgyne (maha mudra): Through a kind of self-mirroring or self-contemplation, this supreme First …

“This is the First Thought, His Image; HER womb of everything for ‘Thou art myself, my image and my shadow. I have clothed myself in thee and thou art’ … Similarly, the harbor of causal self-consciousness.

The Androgyne, as I understand and relate to hir, appears, in my personal flesh… I allowed God to mirror my Self. I worshiped no God who was only male, no longer bigendered.

The image of spiritual androgyny is a compelling one, as compelling today as that of the alchemists in the middle ages. Women are always present in men’s own self-image. The Androgyne image also has been with us since the Paleolithic era. He-She is the Self-Created Adam, originally created as an androgyne of male/female …

If we return to our image of Adam as the ego and Lilith as the Deeper Self One, the very first thing that ever was is fear of his androgyne virgin, kind of like a compass with no needle, music with no sound or … induced reaction building a self image in your own deep desire … He/r … issues posed by the images themselves.

The Self-Aware Image, suspended somewhere between the androgyne of fin de siecle aesthetes and the The images, came back and filled in the empty spaces; aspects of the dream altered to the weird androgyne mutation. Gender is a “mix and match” mode of self expression of The Divine Androgyne: Images … Explorations into Self-Discovery Through Mythology, History and Science. The androgyne is stalking through the land.

This Self’s functions are sensations, emotions, basic drives, image or tribal … In the Gaean Tradition it is the Divine Androgyne, that which combines all Yab-Yum: Tibetan Buddhist image of union of the cosmic female with the cosmic male in experimental/experiential spirituality. The only path is self-acceptance. You create the universe in your image. That is your strength and your peace. …God is psychic androgyne brilliance, way beyond the occulture of drag.

A Mythocritical Carnal Essay

… Gender roles, and the strides made in the process of self-change of Image has become synonymous with America itself. Androgyne: A person who adopts characteristics of both genders in order to become. They have become self-consciously engaged in the transformation of the Logos for within dichotomy there is little room for self-expression and self-determination. Each then channels a response in art, one in image and one in words, one in flesh. … androgyne… heart weighed against the feather-winged spirit in flight … a self-assuredness and independence to counter the outdated, naive image…

Here, male curiosity in the androgyne is a `one-sided appropriation of the … breathed … for what has been lost is in each his very self (atman), here and now,.. therefore, the figure of the Androgyne is a staple of occult ideas and a recurrent image.

The androgyne, God knew, would become a law unto itself. … Through the act of naming, creation of a sense of self can be a political act of Personality. Who wants his Inmost Self meddled with and Invaded? … Self-articulation is partly contradicted by the image of the unity between any self and any …Metaphor. The divine is an androgyne, a being both female and male, … the flirtatious androgyne Kitten, who peaks way too early with a … Reconciliation of male and female.

Hence if the schizophrenic, or initiated shaman is to self-heal and be able to help … As androgyne, the shaman combines a masculine warrior strength and …surrender, self-published original Artist’s Self-Portraits … at that time it was well-developed, self-aware and, in parts, quite sophisticated. The critical attitude is peculiarly self-reflexive, however… Androgyne was a self-consciously avant-garde group, distinct from the official … Holy Exalted One, O Self beyond self. O Self - Luminous Image of the … chaste and obscene, the androgyne and the gynander that have passed … Characters are self-consciously arranged. They posture and strike poses in an …androgyne, both male and female.

THIS IS WHAT YOU WANT; THIS IS WHAT YOU GET

By thee way, talking ov ideas. Lady Jaye and E are pursuing Pandrogeny for conceptual reasons and Romantic reasons. To at thee very least demonstrate our COMMITTMENT to thee idea ov radical change. Ov accepting as essential to EVOLUTION surgical, genetic, surface, gestural, proceedures and technologies in order to create futures for our SELF with us as thee designers. Pandrogeny is about declaring that consensus reality is FICTIONAL. That WE are fictionaL Therefore we can WRITE any SELF we imagined use whjatever technique is acessible at this T.I.M.E. to manifest our imagination. WE ARE NOT TRYING TO BECOUM TWINS. NOR TO BE ANY IDEAL OV BEAUTIFUL. NOR ARE WE TRYING TO CHANGE GENDER. We use our bodies as raw material to “paint” a biological poortrait ov possibilities. To let go ov attachment to how we looked. Thee inevitable paradox ov alchemical thinking. We see OUR bodies as representing an ongoing discussion between us ov thee process ov OWNERSHIP ov our narrative through pusahing our SELF towards a future state ov being similar on conception to thee THIRD MIND ov Burroughs and Gysin. You could say WE ARE CUT-UPS TO BECOUM A CUT-UP. A sense ov irony is all ways advisable in L-if-E. If we end up not liking how we look that might well mean we are succeeding. By taking possession ov thee outer appearance we are possessed by our inner vision. (Genesis/Breyer, NYC April 5th 2005)

History reveals that taken in aggregate, the corpus of Neolithic figurines urges us to contemplate gender ascriptions that include more than the traditional male/female, either/or dichotomies. If we jettison the conventional binary opposition we are left with the possibility that the early preliterate communities of Neolithic Greece employed multiple or even fluid gender categories, at least in their visual repertoire.

Such categories would include male, female, neuter, dual-sexed, and possibly a dynamic classification that moved in and out of sexual/gender identities. In some ways, this conclusion should not come as a surprise: the existence of several genders, gender-crossing and shifting categories is known from a variety of cultures and there is no reason to doubt that such melding of identities were part of life in the distant past.

The mere existence of these multiple categories suggests that gendered identities were not uncomplicated choices in Neolithic Greece. Some levels or realms of Neolithic Greek society, be they sacred or profane, may have encouraged a conscious and self-constructed determination of gender that remained open to alteration during one’s lifetime.

As God’s image my ego is androgyne like The Symbol of the Androgyne in Blake’s Four Zoas and Shelley’s Prometheus …Archetypal Images of Transformation and the Self in Percy Bysshe Shelley. This hybrid image first appears in Ovid’s classic text ‘Metamorphoses’.

As a result, the androgyne, a frequent figure in contemporary fantasies about the primal lacks the classical and religious implications of “androgyne” and denotes a… shame, poor self-esteem, negative body-image by implicitly or explicitly the true spiritual Self in the physical man …It is only when, from a potential androgyne, man has become separated into male/female that An Androgyne was thought to have achieved “balance of reason and intuition, of wisdom and …

One of the first images of the Great Goddess is represented in … the androgyne celebrated as the dangerous but seductive symbol of the union… self as other, of the self with a discarded self-image, with a figure of … the ideal of the androgyne find the meaning of hir provocative self-image, which was shaped not only… by hir own vision of the ideal human being, the divine androgyne. … Started out with one month of intensive self-observation/analysis in order to … mutate into opposite gender, then blending into androgyne/hermaphrodite. … Refiguration-Self-Hybridation of The physical self and its sensations. The emotional self and its feelings. The mental self and … the modes of creativity and birth have shifted from the androgyne state of … The iron of self-contempt and false toughness, which is image-crippling.

… One androgyne goddess dared to sing low when she sang love. … self-described “political idiot” and immortal image It’s self-conscious and self-consciously vulgar, sporting bad digital … visions of an inhabited microcosm, surrounded by desert regions as a chaos or a kingdom of … MEPHISTOPHELES ET L’ANDROGYNE, - The Two and the One … Zero represents the Cosmic Egg, the primordial Androgyne - the Plenum. … This submission is in the spirit of total surrender of the self. … communities and the complexity (often self-contradictions) of the myths. …

The Vision of Hermes Trismegistos has God speak of the Divine Self not as “My Image” but as “Our Images” … Along with the hermaphrodite’s challenge to nature came images of the mythological Into the maze of self: as the formation of self in relation to a wide range of social structures. The androgyne sighed with satisfaction It is a single image with the entire actions of a life cycle - it begets … hir own self-portrait-as-androgyne, central to the essential core …

Even the apparently mundane images also turn out to contain alchemical truth… Eros, Another important aspect of Ouroborus: Mercury is the Hermetic Androgyne or Hermaphrodite, which is a symbol of the Alchemical … Baphomet, a Magical Archetype of the Bisexual Self of Man. Hear this, and understand that the Elect are self-selecting … of the unconscious and its relation to dreams. The beautiful boy is an androgyne, luminously masculine and feminine. …The beautiful boy, sexually self-complete, is sealed in silence, behind a wall of … self knowledge entailing the rediscovery of all the levels of ones being. Adam-Kadmon is the Microcosmic Tree of Life in the image of Absolute Wisdom …

The self is, in part, its culture although not co-terminus with it. … is the house of self-adjustment, rejecting statements of self-denial for transmutation into the archetypal androgyne of the future. … When men and women come to see the image of the Divine Lovers in one … is there a psychological fear of loosing the self in the other? … and sometimes men hold moons, particularly when two fused androgyne-like figures are On the sexual plane, Such joining brings a “liberating” recognition that the real self is “uncreated.” Crowley called it UNBORN, the Bornless One.

A BRIGHT EYE-DEA

Creation can also be understood as divine self-reflection, a series of mirrors within mirrors, in which the image always includes elements of the original … The motivation behind adopting images from queer culture is not political … but psychic, shamanic.

The many dualities and oppositions in the image represent the subjection of the …Star. We are dealing with the Transcendent Self, for the Astral Womb-man is sham-man … neither woman nor man, but a self-created entity… It’s not easy to make a busty androgyne in a black corset and garters … into more than concepts and images of the body in western art… Reference Sexual Ambiguity in Goya’s Work and the Carnivalized Androgyne …

This approach coincides with the self-understanding of This Universal Self (the Adam Kadmon of Judaism), of the Adamic Self, the archetypal androgyne that symbolizes the primordial state of human … images of a self-contained, solipsistic and self-absorbed world, … of the wisdom EYE-DEA of Sophia and androgyne … and its transmutation into the archetypal androgyne of the future…

The elements become tainted by the independent self-centred projection. Let it reflect the Buddha Self in whose image it had been made. … This elimination of lying to the self enables one to observe the work of …The concept of the Androgyne as purely mythical or theoretical value for … No Image Available.

The point is to show that the mythic image is cytheric, tropological … Cultures share in the idea of an elixir vitae and the contra-sexual Androgyne. … by alchemists as the Hermaphrodite (Hermes and Aphrodite), … It can be seen clearly today in the infamous image of the Caduceus … which in Alchemy was known as the Hermetic Androgyne.

The first race of men were, then, simply the images, the astral doubles… These relics of a prior androgyne stock must be placed in the same category as … the battle of the sexes that they founded … To answer another earlier posed question on androgyne, which when one speaks from androgyny …one becomes the mystically united twin within our Self ANDROGYNE. POWER. CLARITY. MARRIAGE. CONFESSION. OPENING. PASSAGE. TRUTH. ILLUMINATION …

Although meditation teachers teach that self-actualization is an intermediate step on the decadent narrative, enamoured of itself, self-replicating and … This is a stylistically self-indulgent slice of self-parody. The act of self-mutilation to spawn and create, to breed The androgyne Satan moving through the crowd provokes discord… Image of God and Temple of God, this self he split into two; hence arose husband and wife not as an androgyne but as an independent other, a partner of sorts, a complete second … Mirror Images. … An eternally self-replicating order of things… the ancient Chinese divinity of light and darkness was also an androgyne.

The threat of androgyne lurks perpetually on the outskirts of popular culture … sacred image, like the Orphic hermaphroditic Eros-Phanes. We could go on, mentioning the myths of Narcissus and the androgyne…This quality is expressed in the continual attempts at “self-recovery” and in … distorted self-image, and even misdiagnosis by health professionals… This is inconsistent with the image; we can begin to perceive it as a self-regulating mechanism …but one single body, which is the Androgyne or Hermaphrodite of the ancients.

PandroGENy and THE SELF

Wisdom to know the difference between one’s ego and one’s Self is embodied in your individuality. The Greeks showed that Effeminacy and androgyne was uncovered within the heart of masculine society. Perhaps the closest contemporary synonym is PANdrogyne, which at least incorporates both gendermixing and third gender, self-reference. An androgyne (sometimes called the third sex) chooses to live outside of social sanction. Jung said, the unconscious is the only accessible source of religious experience.

This is certainly not to say that what we call the unconscious is identical with God or is set up in his place. It is the medium from which the religious experience seems to flow. As to what the further cause of such an experience may be, the answer to this lies beyond the range of human knowledge. Knowledge of God is a transcendental problem. (Carl Jung, The Undiscovered Self).

As an empirical concept, the self designates the whole range of psychic phenomena in man. It expresses the unity of the personality as a whole. … it is a transcendental concept, for it presupposes the existence of unconscious factors on empirical grounds and thus characterizes an entity that can be described only in part, but for the other part, remains at present unknowable and illimitable.

The self is transcendent because it points to an unlimited future and unbounded creative expansion of the evolutionary process. This is something that no being can comprehend. Of course we can have some sense of the future structure of the evolutionary process, but that tells us nothing of its essence. It tells us nothing of what it is like to be a more highly evolved being.

THE SELF is, according to Jung, the most important archetype. It is called the “midpoint of the personality” a center between consciousness and the unconsciousness. It signifies the harmony and balance between the various opposing qualities that make up the psyche. It remains basically incomprehensible, as ego consciousness cannot grasp this supraordinate personality of which the ego is only one element.

The symbols of the self can be anything that the ego takes to be a greater totality than itself. Thus many symbols fall short of expressing the self in its fullest development. Symbols of the self are often manifested in geometrical forms (mandalas) or by the quaternity (any figure with four parts).

This archetype is also represented by the divine child and by various pairs–father and son, king and queen, god and goddess, or by a hermaphrodite. To Jung the self is a representation of the “god within us.” For Jung, the self is one’s goal in life. It is the goal that is rarely reached, but it has such power that it motivates our behavior and causes us to seek wholeness - especially through a spiritual journey.

Jung’s conception of self comes close to that of the Yogic conception of the Atman, For Jung, emptiness is the sacrifice of ego to the larger Self, which transcends individual consciousness. The self, Jung argues, is a plurality with a core identity; it is both a “we” and an “I.”

This issue preoccupied both Jung and the ancient yogis: the path of the “expanded self. The self is the psychic organ through which the human being is capable of the experience of transcendence: “If the ego is dissolved in identification with the self, it gives rise to a sort of … superman with a puffed-up ego and a deflated self” (Jung, 1981). Symbols of the Self cannot be distinguished from symbols of God. The Self embodies the union of opposites on the personal and cosmic scale.

As we are taught by countless television crime dramas like CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, police try to solve criminal cases by looking for perpetrators who have the means, motive and opportunity to commit crime. What this means in a broader sense is that police investigators are a type of historian. They look at events in the past (crimes) and try to explain them in a meaningful way. We call the conclusions and meaning that they derive from their historical investigations “justice.” Justice is a genre of narrative or story-telling in which a person (or group) is victimized in a crime, and in which the person responsible is found and punished appropriately. If the plot points conform to this narrative within reasonable parameters, we say “Justice is served.” If not, then we worry about things like a “miscarriage of Justice.”

On most of these shows, the police go to great lengths and sometimes great personal risk to find out who and why a particular crime was committed. The intrepid investigators almost always prevail by solving the mystery and catching the bad guy. In the investigative process, we will see those concerned trying out many narratives to make sense of the situation and of the forensic evidence which they have collected. In one, the perpetrator will be the husband. In another twist, the bad guy will be a stalker ex-boyfriend. In a third interpretation of the same events, it might be revealed that the killing was completely random or accidental. But the common denominator in most of these shows is that one explanation is ultimately settled on. Whether or not it is indisputably proven or thrown out in court later, the police always end up knowing who the bad guy was and why he did it.

History in a broader sense is hardly ever as black and white as it is on television crime dramas like CSI. Crimes in real life aren’t always solved - or sometimes even properly investigated. And when no crime is committed, historians are often left with scant evidence to conduct their own investigations. They may have to rely on second, third and fourth hand accounts of events which happened hundreds or thousands of years before DNA identification, finger-print databases or blood-splatter analysis techniques were even invented.

As a result, historians too will go through countless narrative iterations to come up with a story about the past that “makes sense” to people today. When it comes to history, we may not be looking for justice so much as we are looking to understand how we stand in relation to that which has come before us. The Da Vinci Code offers an excellent example of how this works on a cultural level.

While the novel itself is a work of fiction, it has provided people with a new story (well, new for most people), a new narrative explanation concerning the life of Christ and the history of the Church and the world as a whole afterwards. Since we don’t have conclusive evidence of what happened - such as video footage, for example - we find ourselves in the position of having to reinterpret old information based on the new narrative theory. As you may have seen, a huge cottage industry has sprung up around the Da Vinci Code - either trying to refute it, to expand on it, or to offer alternative explanations. What many church groups are attempting to do, of course, is to settle on one explanation. Like the CSI investigators, they believe that “justice has already been served” and that the historical evidence has been both explained and uplifted by the commonly accepted traditional story of Christ’s life and teachings.

And yet for the rest of us, we relish the opportunity to do some investigative work for ourselves. We enjoy sifting through the forensics of history, combing over ancient documents and works of art, looking for clues that others may have missed. And really, you can’t blame us. The heroes of our pop culture in both television and movies are so often police on a quest to uncover the ultimate truth. They are teaching us about nothing unless they are teaching us about how history works, about the push and pull between theory, evidence and other forces. And they teach us about the powerful human need to “close the case” - to finally settle on one explanation and move on with our lives.

It makes for effective drama, that much is certain. But is it always an accurate reflection of life? Are the mysteries of day to day existence ever really conclusively solved? Or does their importance simply fade as we move farther away from them in time? Who says we have to ever settle for one explanation? What if no explanation ever really satisfies all the conflicting evidence of something? What if the original experience - as in the case of Christ - goes outside the realm of accepted human reality? It may be that for ordinary events, like “Who rear-ended my car?” there may be one single satisfactory explanation. But it may also be that the “why” of it all, we can never really settle. Did they mean to hit my car? Did their breaks fail? Were they stopping short to avoid hitting a squirrel in the road?

The thing I like about the ubiquitous cop shows today is that they give us the tools and imagery to ask these questions and they encourage us to look for the truth. I believe that the most powerful lesson we can take from them though is to internalize this process of searching and explaining. Do your own research. Get out in the field and ask questions. Don’t always settle for the simple solution. Be prepared to change and grow and let go of your preconceived notions as you search and explore. And if you do finally settle on one final explanation, be sure you’re doing it because you know it’s the truth, not because your one hour television slot is drawing to a close and the audience demands a satisfying conclusion.

The level of weirdness, of impossibility, of paradox that I have allowed into my mental and personal life has reached a saturation point. I have seen firsthand and heard from others. I believe and I disbelieve at the same time. I want to know and understand but suspect more and more that I never really will, and that maybe no one ever really does. I feel comfortable now living inside the skin of a world where, “Everything is only a metaphor. There is only poetry.”

Conspiracy theory, it seems, is all about the poetry of evil. Or maybe it is the sweet spiritual semantics of those attempting to throw off despair, but who look around at the world and see only mountains of deception and danger ringing them in on all sides. But if we look for a moment at the pure poetry of evil, what makes the best metaphor? What is the most shocking and horrific image of evil which our imaginations can conjure? Predatory aliens from outer space? The dark alien perversions inside of human beings? The cold calculating inhumanity of power? A beast with seven heads rising out of the sea with a lascivious whore on his back? (Personally, I like that one!)

“Mystery, Babylon the Great, The Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the