“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 mean, it’s not that it’s a bad book. But neither is it especially gripping, despite the claims to the contrary included inside the covers in the 1975 4th edition printing I recently picked up as part of a trilogy at a local used book shop. I haven’t researched it in any great depth, but apparently over the years there has been a good deal of controversy over whether or not Carlos Castaneda, the author of this book, simply invented the character of Don Juan, or at least extrapolated from real people and experiences to create this quasi-anthropological account of Yaqui Indian sorcery.

Leaving the veracity of it aside, the first half of the book reads as a rather dry, seeming factual account of Castaneda meeting and convincing an old native man, Don Juan, to teach him about peyote - the psychedelic cactus. Over time, Don Juan takes Castaneda on as an apprentice and introduces him to the pathways of the “man of knowledge” and of the sorcerer. And perhaps more importantly, he introduces him to the psychedelic “allies” of datura, and the “little smoke” - a mixture derived from psychedelic mushrooms.

Accounts of Castaneda’s psychedelic voyages occupy a relatively small part of the text, though they seem to be of central importance. The characters of Don Juan and Castaneda are really not sketched out at all, which maybe is a factor in why certain people have alleged none of this stuff ever actually happened. For some reason though, that controversy doesn’t interest me overly much, nor do Castaneda’s trip reports. Anyone who is familiar with drug literature (or the direct use of psychedelics) won’t find much insight into those experiences contained within this text. Or at least, that’s my opinion anyway.

One of the things I did really enjoy, though it was not given much coverage in the text was that Don Juan required Castaneda to grow, care for, collect and prepare all of the psychedelic substances himself before he could actually use them. As I’ve written elsewhere, I am beginning to think that this firsthand intimately physical experience of plants may be just as important - if not moreso - than the actual psychedelic experiences these plants offer.

The second half of this book is a quasi-anthropological breakdown of the teachings of Don Juan into a classification system invented by Castaneda. I mostly just skimmed through this section as it didn’t really shed any new light for me on what had been expressed within the first portion of the book. And if anything, it lacked the sense of life that the first part contained. It may have been written by Castaneda more in the hopes of lending his book an air of scholarly legitimacy; it’s hard for me to say either way.

While I didn’t especially love this book and while I read it I didn’t feel much impact from it, I have to say that I have found myself coming back to some of the ideas expressed in it later on. I will be thinking through a certain problem or reading something else, and all of a sudden, I will see how one of Don Juan’s teachings connects very elegantly to the subject at hand. So it has had more of a “slow-roasting” effect on me than I was anticipating.

That said, I’m not especially eager to read any of the other two books in the trilogy that I picked up, although I have heard they are substantially different (another point people use to challenge their authenticity). In the end, I’d say this book is one of those things to read only if you are interested in the so-called “classics” of psychedelia.

With a new version of The Wicker Man to be released in theatres September 1st, I thought it would be appropriate to review the original in the hopes that others will see the classic horror flick for what it’s not. It is not a typical, generic, movie that carries itself on cheap scare tactics. I’m not impressed by the amount of remakes that have been plaguing the screens, especially when most remakes didn’t need or deserve to be done. I would rather see a remake that takes a magnificent plot, and adds effects that could not have been accomplished at the time, like The Langoliers. But because I’m such a fan of the first film, I’m going to see the remake anyway. I might change my opinion, but don’t hold your breath.

The Wicker Man was a horror film unlike any other. It banished the stereotypical creepy environment. No eerie dead trees and mist blanketing a full moon. Instead, you have lush green Scottish fields and fruit, horseback-riding, women dancing naked, drinking, merriment, and song. The very thing to get me in the mood to whip out the djembe and sing to the stars. Here to spoil the fun of these hedonistic Heathens from Summerisle we have a copper from the mainland: Sgt. Howie (Edward Woodward). When this buzz-kill receives a letter from the island about a girl missing for many months, Howie goes forth to investigate. The virgin Christian gasps in horror at the sight of jarred foreskins, public lovin’, and school children dancing around the maypole. Everywhere he goes the humorless Sgt. is subjected to this strange foreign culture, convincing him that the missing girl was murdered under circumstances of Pagan barbarities. I’m of the opinion that a horror film should be balanced out with some good humour, which is well met by the locals. Lord Summerisle, played by Christopher Lee, embodies the classy, fun loving, cheeky High Priest who contrasts Howie’s tight-assed character absolutley. Everyone conducts themselves innocently in the face of his annoyance and confusion, but each person is telling a different story. Something is definitley amiss. In comparison to the rest of The Wicker Man, the conclusion is blunt. I had spent a few hours trying to decide what the director was trying to say. I finally decided that he wasn’t actually trying to make any moral point, but rather meant to make the viewer uncomfortable. It succeded. But I must admit that a part of me was giggling, and that made me a little more uneasy.

A good horror film makes you think and forces you to address the feeling of uneasiness it leaves in the back of your mind. This classic does just that. There is no real sense of closure. With most horror films you can easily identify who the villains and heroes are. The Wicker Man dosn’t give you such an illusion, and so is just a bit closer to reality. There seems to be a bit of light and darkness with all the characters, and the fact that you don’t neccesarily see it right away makes the mystery that much more exciting. I am determined not to spoil the ending for those who haven’t seen it. So, as tempted as I am, I’m just going to leave you with this: As far as the ending is concerned, before you draw a conclusion about anything, consider that the producers thanked the real Lord Summerisle and the Heathen populace for helping to make the movie. Aside from that, look up the historical facts before you take it too seriously. It is a great horror movie that is also very fun and nostalgic.

[Originally appeared on No Official Capacity]

It is, of course, an introductory work on Afro-Carribean magic and religion, detailing a bit of the history of the religion, along with a smattering of spells and legends related to it. It also features a chapter dedicated to brujeria - “black magic.” As a survey, it never gets very in-depth. But moreso than that, I didn’t feel like it did a very good job of introducing these traditions to the outsider. The information was certainly conveyed in a straightforward and easy to understand way, but it didn’t really “connect the dots,” so to speak. Everything was sort of disjointed and it didn’t leave me feeling like my understanding of Santeria was at all richer for the experience of having read the book.

From my own perspective, I would have appreciated getting more of an understanding of the world-view associated with the religion, as this is the part of the tradition which I think is most inaccessible to outsiders. It’s easy to relate myths and give ingredients for spells, but doing so doesn’t transform the reader’s understanding, nor does it philosophically or emotionally key them into the personal undercurrents of what the religion is all about.

Unfortunately, I am just beginning to read up on Santeria and associated Afro-Carribean religious systems, so I’m unable to recommend a similar and better book on the subject. My final analysis of Gonzalez-Wippler’s book though is that it’s only worth picking up if you come across it in a used bookstore or perhaps a library. There must be better, more modern and more thorough books that have been written on the subject over the last thirty years.

The Subversive Use of Sacred Symbolism in the Media is a recorded speech and PowerPoint presentation which can be viewed in it’s entirety on Tsarion’s Taroscopes website. The lecture rounds out at about 100 minutes and was originally delivered at the Conspiracy Con 2003 conference.

While I enjoyed some of the thinking in Tsarion’s video, it is roughly what you’d expect from a presentation at a conspiracy conference. It is big on outrageous connection-making and small on factual accuracy. And it goes without saying that it’s extremely paranoid.

One of Tsarion’s main theses seems to be that graphic designers and marketers the world over have access to secret occult archives, from which they are consistently drawing visual and thematic inspiration in a concerted effort to subjugate the human spirit. It’s exactly as preposterous as it sounds - especially if you’ve ever done any graphic design work yourself, or have friends in the business. Like any business, graphic design and marketing are about maximizing your time, effectiveness and profits. With scattered real-life exceptions, esoteric concerns simply do not enter into the picture.

In any event though, the real message that I took away from this video is one that I agree with: that advertising is manipulative (if not always evil). It plays on people’s insecurities, and it attempts to hurl useless and sometimes dangerous products and services into the gaps we all have in our lives as humans. To seek spiritual salvation through consumerist avenues only opens you up more and more to this system of deprivation and domination. So, for that reason, I find Tsarion’s efforts to pull people out of this negative spiral both noble and worthwhile.

I also do think that there is something to the chaotic way he just slams together symbolism and weird imagery from media and occult sources. It shows how the same themes important to humanity have essentially never changed. And it very effectively shows you how to think not in rational/linear terms, but in clusters and by chains of (loose) associations. This can be a very valuable skill for creative thinking and the exploration of truth - or it can simply make you snort in derision as your rational mind is violated again and again. Either way, it is unfortunate that the only explanation he chooses to employ is one of shadowy international conspiracies controlling the media.

However, if we ourselves were to apply this same level of creativity to the meta-narrative he’s employing as to the symbols themselves, we could come up with any number of equally “plausible” possibilities:

1. That graphic designers haven’t got a clue about any of this
2. That graphic designers are intentionally and covertly injecting sacred symbols into mundane media to wake people up and spiritually enrich their lives
3. That media and pop culture nowadays are the natural containers of spiritual symbolism and transmitters of value systems today in the same way that mythology and folktales were in ages past
4. That it’s all evil - business, advertising, etc - but that God or the gods have begun a secret spiritual invasion to transmute this lead into gold, and that the symbols of the divine appear initially in the trash stratum.

The point of all this conjecture is simply this: if you’re going to go in and tinker with your belief systems and worldviews using the methodologies of conspiracy theory or occult investigation, then you owe it to yourself to explore all possible explanations - not just the ones that are sinister and paranoid. And remember that life is more convoluted and confounding and complex - and downright beautiful - than any theory or thesis could ever account for.