Be The Change

Our planet is experiencing change so rapid, so monumental, so overwhelming, that we have to wonder what the future has in store.

Has humanity lost its way?

Through the ages, great thinkers, scientists, shamans, philosophers, writers and spiritual leaders have tried to enlighten us to the hidden connections of our web of life, and increasingly we are confronted with their universal wisdom and logic that everything and all things are connected.

Humanity is reaching a pregnant moment in its development.

A crucial fork in its road of destiny. The next four years are considered to be particularly crucial. By 2012 we may be reaching a decision or chaos point beyond which we create a more secure and sustainable global society, or we suffer the consequences of systemic breakdown with social, economic and environmental systems on life support –or worst.

Culture is Your Operating System

by Terence Mckenna

In the past hundred years as the super technologies have been developed in the west, the smashing of atoms, the invention of radio, television, computers, immunology so forth and so on… data has been arriving about the practices of aboriginal cultures all over the planet that they dissolve ordinary realities, ordinary cultural values, through an interaction and symbioses.

A relationship to local plants that perturb brain chemistry. And in this domain of perturbed brain chemistry, the cultural operating system is wiped clean and some thing older — even for these people —  something older, more vitalistic, more in touch with the animal soul, replaces it. Replaces the cultural operating system some thing not determined by history and geography, but some thing writ in the language of the flesh it’s self. This is who you are, this is truly nakedness, you are not naked when you take of your clothes.

The Self

During the 1990's, three Nobel laureates in medicine, advanced research that revealed the primary function of DNA lies not in protein synthesis, as widely believed for the past century, but in electromagnetic energy reception and transmission. Less than three percent of DNA's function involved protein manufacture; more than ninety percent functions in the realm of bioacoustic and bioelectric signaling.

So why is it important to know that DNA functions in bioelectric signaling?

The Institute of Heartmath has discovered that the heart and brain maintain a continuous two-way dialogue, each influencing the other's functioning. Although it is not well known, the heart sends far more information to the brain than the brain sends to the heart. The signals the heart sends to the brain can influence perception, emotional processing and higher cognitive functions. The heart also generates the strongest rhythmic electromagnetic field in the body and this actually can be measured in the brainwaves of people around us.

Naguales - Duality Totems

If you have seen the movie "The Golden Compass", the following might help clarify the concept of "daimons" for you.  - Pholus

NAGUALES (Duality Totems):

The Nahua peoples, such as Aztec and Maya, believe each person has a connection to a spirit called a Nagual (NAH-gwahl), or more commonly by the Maya, Uay (oo-EYE) and Aztecs, Nahual (NAH-wahl), which is not necessarily a physical creature, but makes itself known to the person at some point and helps to guide and aid him or her. The word Uay or Nahual means “alter-ego” or “alternate form (or aspect)” and refers to the innate “duality” inherent in all gods and humans. Similar to the Eastern concept of Yin and Yang, implying “opposites”, but more generally, simply “different.” Duality is simply the Nahua way of saying that there are two sides to everything in life that had to stay in balance in order to maintain harmony.

These protector spirits are emanations of Spirit-Doubles from the soul. The concept is similar in many respects to guardian angels among Christians; Fetches among Pagan witches; Daimons among the ancient Greek faith which were both benevolent and malevolent spirits (Christianity absorbed the term as "demon" and, like the sylvan god Pan, changed them into evil creatures; devils); Kachinas among the Hopi and Zuni peoples; or Totem creatures among other Amerindian groups.

The Chontal people of Oaxaca in Southern Mexico maintain a belief in the independent life of a person's soul, similar to the life of Naguales. They hold that the soul lives in a person's heart or breath, and that it has a human form.

The Nagual is imagined usually as an animal, insect or bird, but could also be a plant like an ear of corn, a reed or a flower; part of the body like a bone, eye or hand; an object like a star, the Moon, a mirror, stone, house, or arrow; a title like shaman, warrior or an ancestor; a natural phenomena, such as light, darkness, rain, wind, lightning, solar flares or meteors; mythical creatures like fire-serpents; or even a concept like death, the Afterlife or an offering. Naguales are spiritually bonded to the person throughout their entire life and dies when the person dies. This relationship is called “Tonal” (Toe-NAHL) and the Nagual protects, guards and inspires the human or god with whom it is associated.

The term "tonal" is frequently used in contrast to the Nagual distinguishing between the creature or object and the relationship between the human and it's Nagual spirit. The term tonal derives from the Nauhualt word tonalli, a word bearing such connotations as solar heat, day, day name, destiny and soul or spirit. It is believed that the tonalli soul of an infant was sent from the highest of the 13 Heavens, Omeyocan, the Place of Duality. This soul was inextricably tied into the Aztec calendar called the Tonalphohaulli (called Tzolk'in by the Maya) of 260 days which is one of 20 Day-signs represented by a specific creature, object or concept, combined with a number between 1 and 13, representing a resonance of a galactic or cosmic energy or musical tone which modifies the Day-sign. In many parts of Mesoamerica, individuals were named for the day in the 260-day calendar on which they were born or baptized, and these dates had very specific auguries (auspices or omens) or "energies" related to them. For instance, 5-Monkey was considered a good day (He who was then born was like the workings and qualities of the day: telling of tales, and jesting, but there was no anger) but being born on the next day, 6-Grass, was evil (he who was then born lived only in torment on earth, suffered pain and trouble, and found afflictions).

People were not necessarily bound by these energies, but could be better understood as the "stage" upon which the individual played out their lives, and would learn to function within these energies tapping into other aspects of their life, through other names and personal Naguales.

As noted, often a child is given a Nagual at birth, such as the Day Sign which can be their spiritual name (i.e., Maya: Uuc Cauac/Aztec: Chicome Quiahuitl, which in English is “7-Storm” or “Reflective Firestorm"), or their given name is connected in some way to the Nagual. Most often, though, children are not told what their Nagual was until they were old enough to understand how to use the information. Othertimes, a person would find their Nagual by going off alone on a vision quest into the forest or desert.

The Nagual might appear in a dream or even be present when they wake up.

The Nagual is powerful, and even has the ability to transform its charge into the very creature or thing the spirit represents. For instance, the Feathered Serpent is the Nagual of the hero-god Quetzalcóatl, and the Nagual of Tezcatlipoca is a Night Jaguar, otherwise, these gods typically appear as normal humans. A curious aspect of Naguales, which may not be limited to the gods, is that they can also temporarily take on aspects and personas of different animals or objects and therefore different names, such as when Quetzalcóatl becomes Ehécatl, “the Wind.” The gods have also been known to have more than one Nagual in attendance, such as the fire-god, Xiuhtecuhtli, who usually has two Fire-Serpents (Xiucoatls, “turquoise serpents”),in the form of solar-flares or “returning comets.”

Each person’s Nagual, looks after that individual's needs on a spiritual level. On the rare occasions when a Nagual manifests as a material entity, it appears as a small animal of one sort or another. Normally, they communicate to their charges through dreams and visions from a realm called Uayib (oo-EYE-EEB), the Dreaming Place, that both can visit, but typically it is the Nagual that will travel while the charge sleeps to gather the information and report back in a dream. They can be sent off to carry out difficult tasks, such as confronting someone or helping someone who does not want to be helped.

To early Christian Colonial priests and missionaries, these form-changers, sometimes called, Naualli, were not considered simply to be baseless superstition, but were considered to be sorcerers or witches, and were a source of great concern. In 1600 CE, Fray Jaun Bautista warned of native sorcerers that transformed themselves into dogs, weasels, owls, chickens and jaguars. The 17th century parish priest Ruiz de Alarcón mentioned specific cases of native shape-shifters and explained their powers by claiming they had a pact with Satan. Although the concept of the Nagual recalls European conceps of witchcraft, it is clearly of native Mesoamerican origin, and closely tied to native concepts of shamanic power and transformation, and were frequently known for their ability to commit malignant acts, they also serve as protectors of the community. It was believed that even in battle, warriors could transform into a pack of wolves or jaguars to defend their territories. This can often blur the distinction between the shape-changing human and the actual Nagual.

A contemporary myth from El Salvador tells the story of a woman who could change into a pig. At the full moon she would kneel down or stand upon a rock. Turning three times to the right and three times to the left, she changes into a pig and frightens other villagers and steal from people as they came from the marketplace. One night a man watched as the woman transformed herself into the pig. When she left, he hid the rock. Try as she could, without the rock, she could not transform herself back and was forced to remain a pig.

Vision Serpent - a very important social and religious symbol, revered by the Maya. Maya mythology describes serpents as being the vehicles by which celestial bodies, such as the sun and stars, cross the heavens. The shedding of their skin made them a symbol of rebirth and renewal. During Maya bloodletting rituals, participants would experience visions in which they communicated with the ancestors or gods. These visions took the form of a giant serpent "which served as a gateway to the spirit realm." The ancestor or god who was being contacted was depicted as emerging from the serpent’s mouth. The vision serpent thus came to be the method in which ancestors or Gods manifested themselves to the Maya. Thus for them, the Vision Serpent was direct link between the spirit realm of the gods and the physical world. One of the most common rituals associated with the Vision serpent involved invoking ancestral sprits. Especially during coronation rites, the kings would contact the spirits for guidance and blessings. It is the Vision Serpent who provides the medium for contacting these deities. One such Vision Serpent was named Och-Kan.

Xiuhcoatl (Shee-wah-ko-ah-tul) or “fire serpent,” meaning “turquoise serpent” was serpentine creature with a segmented body and snout which can turn sharply backwards. Xiucoatl also means “returning comet,” and was associated with fire and the solar heat (i.e., solar flares). At least two nagual Xiucoatls attend the fire-god, Xiuhtecuhtli, and they are thought to signify the flames which represent the New Fire. Both the Sun and Night were adorned with xiucoatls, mythical and celestial serpents.

Itzam-Ye (EETS-ahm-Yay), the Serpent Bird, or Celestial Bird, is associated with the four corners of the world and perches high at the crown of the World Tree (Aztec: Ahuehuetl, Maya: Tzuk té or Yax'ché), the Tree of Heaven under which good souls rejoice, surveying all below. Itzam Ye is the Maya symbol of expanded consciousness, and is the personal Nagual of Itzamná. Itzam Ye flies forth from our consciousness, dispersing light around the world. In another guise, he may be Vukub-Cakix, "7-Macaw," the "false sun" the hero twins of the Popul Vuh shot from his perch atop the World Tree to prepare for the raising of the sky of the present world. The Quiche Maya identify the Big Dipper as 7 Macaw. Or it could be that Itzam-Ye and Vukub-Cakix are two distinctly different creatures. [source]

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Life is an Opportunity

This illustration represents the host of natural phenomena which collectively have created life as we know it. Life apparently requires a solar system having a planet with "suitable" conditions such as liquid water, nutrients, and sources of energy. Interactions between various substances and energy yielded the autocatalytic systems capable of passing information from one generation to the next, and the thread of life began.

This thread, which has been maintained by DNA molecules for much of its history, is shown weaving its way through the primitive oceans, gaining strength, and gradually acquiring the lineages of organisms whose descendants populate our modern biosphere. Plants and animals then moved onto the land, where more advanced forms, including humanity, ultimately arose.

Finally, assisted with a technology of its own making, life has reached back out into space to understand its own origins, to expand into new realms, and to seek other living threads in the cosmos.

You have to have a personal experience of something to worship, and this is what has been lacking. What the churches are peddling is high abstraction and you really have to work yourself up into a lather to be able to accept that as worthy of that kind of attention.

The psychedelic subset of society is into an experience. It’s accessible -- in a way we are like Calvinists not in our ethics or our restraint on behavior but in our insistence on a direct personal relationship with the mystery.

This is something very new we have really accepted the idea that truth be sensed through hierarchies, basically from Newsweek, Time and the Washington Post, down to us as consumers of these various images of what is going on. The notion that you might know more about reality than the combined editorial board of Scientific American and the Journal of Foreign Affairs is startling stuff, we always give ourselves away. We don't realize it depends on you -- to believe that at Cornell or down at SRI people understand the universe...is not helpful. YOU must understand the universe, and if you don't know partial differential calculus....then your model of how the universe works must do it without partial differential calculus.

In other words it's not read anywhere where one model will work, and in fact I think all abstract models should be highly suspect.

It's an opportunity, you have to view life as an opportunity, what are you doing with it? -- are you afraid of it? Some people live their lives, apparently what they are doing is arranging their deathbed scene, and they want it to take place in a large baronial house with clipped green lawns -- acres in surround. They want the room in which they die to be filled with fine art. They want their loving heirs to be beautifully assembled while they pass out the finalism.

They spend their entire life creating the dramatic scenario of their passage. Of course you have to work hard to make the money to buy that house, you have to sire all these children and educate them into your values so they won't be stabbing you in the back and misbehaving in this situation. You have to create loyalty, possession, power -- all of these things and then you won't die in the ditch, unknown and abandoned.

But on the other hand what was the quality of that life?

Life is an opportunity, how much pressure should you put on it? How many places should you go? How many drugs should you take? How many sexual configurations should you experiment with? How many professionals should you have? How seriously do you take it? Do you just think life is a lark, and it's fine with you that you’re going to go into a pine box and be forgotten for all eternity?

I think of it as a telephone booth being filled with water and you can see that when the water reaches the top of the telephone booth you’re going to be dead as a doornail. And, so you have 30 years to figure it out --we are alive; there is no contest about that.

Do you have some inner consolation that won't happen, and that your going to go off and be with all those who have ever died?

It's extremely improbable that we should be alive, that we should be here thinking, feeling, sharing. The fact that we are alive, throws open the whole game and means anything is probably possible.

I doubt if it's easy, I bet you have to be very, very smart to figure out what's going on and get it right.

I guess I have a sort of private religion of intelligence. It isn't how good you are, it's how wily you are, which was the Greek virtue of Odysseus, which was always his epitaph – that he was Wily Odysseus.

Reality is some kind of maze; it isn't to the swift that the race goes. It's to the thoughtful, the careful, and the one who can tease it all apart.

For puzzle solving, the psychedelic is this tremendously powerful tool, because it extends the domain of mind, and that’s what is necessary to make it go.

"If one leaves aside the last three hundred years of historical experience as it unfolded in Europe and America, and examines the phenomenon of death and the doctrine of the soul in all its ramifications - Neo-Platonist, Christian, dynastic-Egyptian, and so on, one finds repeatedly the idea that there is a light body, an entelechy that is somehow mixed up with the body during life and at death is involved in a crisis in which these two portions separate. One part loses its raison d’être and falls into dissolution; metabolism stops.

The other part goes we know not where. Perhaps nowhere if one believes it does not exist; but then one has the problem of trying to explain life. And, though science makes great claims and has done well at explaining simple atomic systems, the idea that science can make any statement about what life is or where it comes from is currently preposterous." -- Terence McKenna

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Hemp, Ganja, Marijuana, Magic Weed : Green Gold

Through history, many cultures have come across Cannabis and the use is not new to most civilizations. In ancient Germanic culture, Cannabis was associated with the Germanic love goddess, Freya. The harvesting of the plant was connected with an erotic high festival. It was believed that Freya lived as a fertile force in the plant's feminine flowers and by ingesting them one became influenced by this divine force. The Celts may have also used Cannabis as Hashish was found in Hallstatt, birthplace of Celtic culture. According to some scholars, Cannabis was an ingredient of holy anointing oil mentioned in various sacred Hebrew texts.

Cannabis also has a Biblical reference and is said to have been used by Jesus himself. The wandering ascetics from India consumed the Cannabis flower in the form of a very popular Hallucinogenic drink called Bhaang. Sufi saints from Persia, the Sikhs in India, the Rastafarians worshiping their God JAH have all made use of Cannabis in some form or the other. There are many modern movements like the Ethiopian Zion Coptic Church and the Church of Cognizance which consider Cannabis to be the Holy Eucharist and the Tree of Life.

The Pineal Gland or the 'Seat of the Soul' as described by Rene Descartes, is the focal point of our spiritual guiding system which makes us go beyond the five senses of rationality and become multisensory, tuned into and aware of higher dimensions of consciousness within a holographic cosmos. Cannabis or Marijuana among other psychedelics facilitates the activation of the pineal gland and helps turn on the third eye or the mind's eye directing our spiritual evolution to wholeness.

 

The pineal gland, located in the centre of the brain, is about a quarter of an inch in size, reddish-gray, and weighs about one-tenth of a gram. Unlike other parts of the brain which come in pairs, the pineal gland is singular. Its location in the center of the brain and presence in other species indicates it is an older part of humanity's evolutionary brain system.

The pineal gland is present in all lower vertebrae. In other species, like birds, reptiles and frogs, the pineal gland is called the parietal eye or "third-eye" as its functions closely resemble that of an actual eye. In these other species, the pineal gland has components of an actual eye, with a cornea, rod and cone. It is considered to be the vestige of a functional sense organ of early primitive vertebrates.

Directly affected by the light taken in through the eyes, the pineal regulates sleep, menstrual cycles, mating seasons, hibernation, seasonal flight patterns and many other "instinctual" behaviors.

Tryptamine Trippiness

Psychedelic researcher Dr. Rick Strassman has explained how the pineal gland "is quite active in synthesizing compounds related to serotonin, an important neurotransmitter in the brain. Neurotransmitters are the chemical messengers allowing communication among individual nerve cells. Most typical psychedelic drugs, such as LSD, mescaline, psilocybin, and DMT are active in brain sites which are also affected by serotonin. In addition, most of these drugs are similar in their chemical structure to serotonin."

Strassman states that most of the above substances belong to the "tryptamine" class of drugs, and proposed that the pineal gland produces "one or two endogenous tryptamines found in human blood and cerebrospinal fluid. This latter fluid continually bathes the brain, and compounds found in it most likely affect brain function.

Strassman also explains how "psychedelic drugs, meditational states, spontaneous near-death experiences and other phenomena which may induce stereotypic death/rebirth and paradisal/hellish states act via the pineal gland."

Lyttle points to the universal mystic vision of God as an all-consuming white light, and postulates that on a physiological level, this experience is produced from chemical reactions in the pineal gland which is extremely light sensitive. "Light, the eyes and the 'third eye' or pineal gland form a triad which directly controls and regulates normal or altered consciousness and many bodily functions? these three factors are also directly related to, or implicated in, mystical states and the 'psychedelic' experience."

Visions of white light are not only associated with mysticism and psychedelic explorations, but are also a prevalent image recorded by those who experience the near-death state. A reason for this recurring theme in near-death states may be found with Dr Strassman, who suggests that after death, as the pineal gland shuts down, some of the chemical present in it may turn into "psychedelic" drugs!

According to Dr Strassman, the pineal gland may not only play an important role in death, but also in birth, possibly even in rebirth...

The pineal gland first becomes visible in the human fetus at the same time as does the clear differentiation of the fetus into female or male gender. The time for both of these events is 49 days, the period of time that, according to several Buddhist texts, the life force of a deceased individual coalesces around its next corporeal existence. If the life force does indeed enter through the pineal, the manifestation of this coming and going would be the release of psychedelic tryptamines, which would mediate the visionary experiences associated with near-death, and near-birth states.

Spiritual Traditions

Certain initiatory cults, such as Tantrism, Kundalini and Gnosticism, acknowledged the role of the pineal gland in the spiritual process. The spiritual/instinctual life force was seen as a serpent, due to its physical structure extending from the genitals, through the spine and up into its single all-seeing eye in the pineal gland.

These spiritual systems focussed around the raising of this primordial serpentine energy, based in the genitals and at the core of the pro-creative process. Through certain yogic practices this energy can be reversed and forced to travel up the spine into the brain, where it is reputed to cause "enlightenment".

In the Kundalina system, which has seven distinct energy centers, the pineal gland has been variously identified with the "Ajna Chakra" and alternatively the "Sahasrara Chakra". Both pre-Christian Mithraic and second century Gnostic texts also distinctly refer to the pineal gland in relation to seven distinct energy centers and this serpentine energy.

Not surprisingly, a common experience of those who have successfully raised their kundalini is the vision of all-consuming white light. More importantly, the devotee who successfully raises the kundalini experiences a radical switch in consciousness, obliterating the sense of individuation, and enters Nirvana.

Another potential reference to this curious little gland may occur at the end of the New Testament book of Revelation, where we find that the elect will know God intimately, "his name will be in their foreheads," which is where the pineal deeply lies. Noting the gland's strong connection with light, the rest of the passage is interesting:

"There will be no more night; they will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light."

Likewise in the Qabalistic tradition, the primordial archetypical man, Adam Kadmon, shines forth with a light from his forehead that was rich in complex patterns and linguistic symbols. Similar imagery occurs in the Persian tradition of the light-like sacred fluid, the "vivifying and spermatic" xvarenah. "Ahura Mazda is preeminently the possessor of xvarenah, but this 'flame' also springs from the forehead of Mithra and like a solar light emanates from the heads of sovereigns."

This mind-light from the forehead is also identical with the 3rd Eye of Shiva, which when opened in the individual burns away the concept of ego-bound consciousness, and when opened collectively has the potential to burn away the ties and fetters of the Old World Order.

Perhaps if enough modern psychonauts achieve the pineal experience we can push this new frame of mind onto the rest of ego-bound humanity. Here at the turning of the millennia, in the apocalyptic year of 1999, never has the potential for the state of mind which has been the goal of yogic sages, and psychedelic voyagers alike been so possible to attain for humanity as a whole.

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Terence McKenna

Terence Kemp McKenna (November 16, 1946 - April 3, 2000) was a writer, philosopher, psychonaut and thnobotanist. He was noted for his knowledge of the use of psychedelic, plant-based entheogens, and subjects ranging from shamanism, the theoretical origins of human consciousness, and his concept of novelty theory. Terence has been studying the ontological foundations of Shamanism and the Ethnopharmacology of spiritual transformation for the past quarter century. An innovative theoretician and spellbinding orator, Terence has emerged as a powerful voice for the psychedelic movement and the emergent societal tendency he calls The Archaic Revival. Poetically dispensing enlightened social criticism and new theories of the fractal dynamics of time.

"In the twilight of human history, McKenna's prescription for salvation is just so crazy it might work."

Terence McKenna grew up in Paonia, Colorado He was introduced to geology through his uncle and developed a hobby of solitary fossil hunting in the arroyos near his home. From this he developed a deep artistic and scientific appreciation of nature.

At age 16, McKenna moved to, and attended high school in, Los Altos, California He lived with family friends because his parents in Colorado wished him to have the benefit of highly rated California public schools. He was introduced to psychedelics through The Doors of Perception by Aldous Huxley and the Village Voice.

One of his early experiences with them came through morning glory seeds (containing LSA), which he claimed showed him "that there was something there worth pursuing."

In 1964, circumstances required McKenna to move to Lancaster, California, to live with a different set of family friends. In 1965, he graduated from Antelope Valley High School. McKenna then enrolled in U.C. Berkeley. He moved to San Francisco during the summer of 1965 before his classes began, was introduced that year to cannabis by Barry Melton and tried LSD soon after.

As a freshman at U.C. Berkeley McKenna participated in the Tussman Experimental College, a short-lived two-year program on the Berkeley campus. He graduated in 1969 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Ecology and Conservation. He spent the years after his graduation teaching English in Japan, traveling through India and South Asia collecting butterflies for biological supply companies, and smuggling hashish into the United States.

Following the death of his mother in 1971, Terence, his brother Dennis, and three friends traveled to the Colombian Amazon in search of oo-koo-he, a plant preparation containing DMT. In La Chorrera, at the urging of his brother, he allowed himself to be the subject of a psychedelic experiment which he claimed put him in contact with Logos: an informative, divine voice he believed was universal to visionary religious experience. The revelations of this voice, and his brother's peculiar experience during the experiment, prompted him to explore the structure of an early form of the I Ching, which led to his "Novelty Theory".

These ideas were explored extensively by Terence and Dennis in their 1975 book The Invisible Landscape - Mind Hallucinogens and The I Ching. In the early 1980s, McKenna began to speak publicly on the topic of psychedelic drugs, lecturing extensively and conducting weekend workshops. Though somewhat associated with the New Age or human potential movement, McKenna himself had little patience for New Age sensibilities, repeatedly stressing the importance of the primacy of felt experience as opposed to dogmatic ideologies.Timothy Leary once introduced him as "one of the five or six most important people on the planet".

Terence McKenna advocated the exploration of altered states of mind via the ingestion of naturally occurring psychedelic substances. For example, and in particular, as facilitated by the ingestion of high doses of psychedelic mushrooms, and DMT, psychedelic, and DMT, which he believed was the apotheosis of the psychedelic experience. He spoke of the "jeweled, self-dribbling basketballs" or "self-transforming machine elves" that one encounters in that state.

Although he avoided giving his allegiance to any one interpretation (part of his rejection of monotheism), he was open to the idea of psychedelics as being "trans-dimensional travel"; literally, enabling an individual to encounter what could be aliens, ancestors, or spirits of earth. He remained opposed to most forms of organized religion or guru based forms of spiritual awakening.

The "Stoned Ape" hypothesis of human evolution McKenna hypothesized that as the North African jungles receded, near the end of the most recent ice age, giving way to savannas and grasslands, a branch of our tree-dwelling primate ancestors left the forest canopy and began to live in the open areas outside of the forest. There they experimented with new varieties of foods as they adapted, physically and mentally, to their new environment.  Among the new food items found in this new environment were psilocybin-containing mushrooms growing near the dung of ungulate herds that occupied the savannas and grasslands at that time. McKenna, referencing the research of Roland L. Fisher, claimed that enhancement of visual acuity was an effect of psilocybin at low doses, and supposed that this would have conferred an adaptive advantage. He also argued that the effects of slightly larger doses, including sexual arousal, and in still larger doses, ecstatic hallucinations and glossolalia — gave selective evolutionary advantages to members of those tribes who partook of it. There were many changes caused by the introduction of this psychoactive mushroom to the primate diet. McKenna hypothesizes, for instance, that synesthesia (the blurring of boundaries between the senses) caused by psilocybin led to the development of spoken language: the ability to form pictures in another person" mind="" of="" p="" s="" sounds.="" the="" through="" use="" vocal=""

About 12,000 years ago, further climate changes removed psilocybin-containing mushrooms from the human diet. McKenna argued that this event resulted in a new set of profound changes in our species as we reverted to the previous brutal primate social structures that had been modified and/or repressed by frequent consumption of psilocybin.

He soon became a fixture of popular counterculture, and his popularity continued to grow, culminating in the early to mid 1990's with the publication of several books such as True Hallucinations (which relates the tale of his 1971 experience at La Chorrera), Food of the Gods and The Archaic Revival. He became a popular personality in the psychedelic rave/dance scene of the early 1990s, with frequent spoken word performances at raves and contributions to psychedelic and goa trance albums by The Shamen, Spacetime Continuum, Alien Project, Capsula, Entheogenic, Zuvuya, Shpongle, and Shakti Twins. His speeches were (and continue to be) sampled by many others.

In 1994 he appeared as a speaker at the Startwood Festival, which was documented in the book Tripping by Charles Hayes and were produced on both cassette tape and CD.

McKenna was a contemporary and colleague of chaos mathematician Ralph Abraham and biologist Rupert Sheldrake (creator of the theory of "morphogenetic fields"", not to be confused with the mainstream usage of the same term), and conducted several public debates known as trialogues with them, from the late 1980s up until his death. Books which contained transcriptions of some of these events were published. He was also a friend and associate of Ralph Metzner, Nicole Maxwell, and Riane Eisler, participating in joint workshops and symposia with them. He was a personal friend of Tom Robbins, and influenced the thought of numerous scientists, writers, artists, and entertainers, including comedian Bill Hicks, whose routines concerning psychedelic drugs drew heavily from McKenna's works. He is also the inspiration for the Twin Peaks character Dr. Jacoby.

In addition to psychedelic drugs, McKenna spoke on the subjects of virtual reality(which he saw as a way to artistically communicate the experience of psychedelics, techno-paganism, artificial intelligence, evolution, extraterrestrials, and aethetic theory (art/visual experience as information-- representing the significance of hallucinatory visions experienced under the influence of psychedelics).

McKenna also co-founded Botanical Dimensions with Kathleen Harrison (ethnobotanists) (his colleague and wife of 17 years), a non-profit ethnobotanical preserve on the island of Hawaii, where he lived for many years before he died. Before moving to Hawaii permanently, McKenna split his time between Hawaii and a town called Occidental, located in the redwood-studded hills of Sonoma County, California, a town unique for its high concentration of artistic notables, including Tom Waits and Mickey Hart.

Novelty theory and "Time Wave: Zero Point"

One of McKenna's ideas is known as novelty theory. It predicts the ebb and flow of novelty in the universe as an inherent quality of time. McKenna developed the theory in the mid-1970s after his experiences in the Amazon at La Chorreraled him to closely study the King Wen sequence of the I-Ching. Novelty theory involves ontology, extropy, and eschatology.

The theory proposes that the universe is an engine designed for the production and conservation of novelty. Novelty, in this context, can be thought of as newness, or extropy (a term coined by Max More meaning the opposite of entropy). According to McKenna, when novelty is graphed over time, a fractal waveform known as "timewave zero" or simply the "timewave" results. The graph shows at what time periods, but never at what locations, novelty increases or decreases and is supposed to represent a model of history's most important events. The algorithm has also been extrapolated to be a model for future events. McKenna admitted to the expectation of a "singularity of novelty", and that he and his colleagues projected into the future to find when this singularity (runaway "newness" or extropy) could occur. Millenarians give more credence to Novelty theory as a way to predict the future (especially regarding 2012 than McKenna himself. The graph of extropy had many enormous fluctuations over the last 25,000 years, but it hit an asymptote at exactly December 21, 2012. In other words, entropy (or habituation) no longer exists after that date. It is impossible to define that state. This is also the date on which the Mayan long calendar ends. The technological singularity concept parallels this, only at a date roughly three decades later.

ODE TO MISTER T

It's been a few years now since we heard your nimble tongue and Irish wit catch our noggin's furry snitch,and spin her into a mindbending ride to yonder bowels of noodles. That's noodles as in grey matter, liken to da kine fiery Pele's orgasmic orbital spray of inner beauty beyond any thermometer's dream. Oh yes, we remember you, the one who's courage surpassed the stiffest starched police captain's airy bladder upon the radio waves in the city of lights.

You, the explorer of yon arctic and hellish regions no one dares to lay their soft sane minds upon. Treading far beyond and further than this world's imagination, and returning with stories and fables that legends are made of. The Great Mushroom stands behind your words and thoughts, like a guardian angel she showers us with loving spores of delight. One small puff upon the Dragon's Mouthwatering Tongue, and all that matters really doesn't anymore. What matters is simple breathe and fall gently back upon our soft carpeted eyes rolled back behind the edge of the world. Unraveling that twisted vine of death, and serving a magical blend of root and sludge that would make a deadman rise up and dance a jig, you are still up to no good, ya rascal!

For your journey has not ended, and we wait word from the other side what goodies you have for us when we meet again. There have been many souls and good-hearted warriors

who have paved a trail for the rest of us hoodlums to follow, but it was you that lined the road with rubies and gold, sing and smiling that Wiley Coyote way, luring us simple folk into the world of awakenings that will never shut our mind's eyes again. Praise to those who follow upon Terence's narrow trail, treading upon his light souled steps, for now you are the explorer with the torch he has handed you upon his last breath.

Great Buddha TM, your wise silence has rocked the nature of our foundations, unsettling the suits and ties thathang them poor lads and lasses high upon the trees of glass. Mucho Mahalos for your firm seatedness holding bay them demons of society from rising up again. We are humbly grateful and eternally blessed to have had the pleasure of your company,and we duly promise to meet again, behind our own eyelids this time.

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Shamanism

The Shaman are beings with the ability to heal themselves, and others, work with energies and 'see' visions. through the mastery of energy as a medium of transformation and have been credited with the ability to control the weather, divination, the interpretation of dreams, astral projection. The spiritual healing methods of shamanic are now receiving increased and significant attention in our culture.

Shamanism is a range of traditional beliefs and practices that involve the ability to diagnose, cure, and sometimes cause human suffering by traversing the axis mundi and forming a special relationship with, or gaining control over, spirits. Shamans have been credited with the ability to control the weather, divination, the interpretation of dreams, astral projection, and traveling to upper and lower worlds. Shamanistic traditions have existed throughout the world since prehistoric times.

Shamanism is based on the premise that the visible world is pervaded by invisible forces or spirits that affect the lives of the living. In contrast to animism and animatism, which any and usually all members of a society practice, shamanism requires specialized knowledge or abilities. Shamans are not, however, organized into full-time ritual or spiritual associations, as are priests.

The word shaman originated among the Siberian Tungus (Evenks) and literally means he (or she) who knows; the belief that the word may be derived from Sanskrit is perhaps due to a confusion of the words 'shamanism' and 'shramanism', from the sanskrit shramana, Pali and Prakrit samana; but the samanas were ascetics, not shamans.

It has replaced the older English language term witch doctor, a term which unites the two stereotypical functions of the shaman: knowledge of magical and other lore, and the ability to cure a person and mend a situation. However, at the present time this term is generally considered to be pejorative and anthropologically inaccurate. Medicine man is preferred, especially as not all traditional peoples approve of the use of shaman as a generic term, given that the word comes from a specific place and people.

Shamanistic practices are thought to predate all organized religions, and certainly date back to the neolithic period. Aspects of shamanism are encountered in later, organized religions, generally in their mystic and symbolic practices. Greek paganism was influenced by shamanism, as reflected in the stories of Tantalus, Prometheus, Medea, Calypso among others, as well as in the Eleusinian Mysteries, and other mysteries. Some of the shamanic practices of the Greek religion were later adopted into the Roman religion.

There is a strong shamanistic influence in the Bön religion of central Asia, and in Tibetan Buddhism. Buddhism became popular with shamanic peoples such as the Tibetans, Mongols and Manchu beginning with the eighth century. Forms of shamanistic ritual combined with Tibetan Buddhism became institutionalized as the state religion under the Chinese Yuan dynasty and Qing dynasty. One common element of shamanism and Buddhism is the attainment of spiritual realization, at times mediated by entheogenic (psychedelic) substances.

The shamanic practices of many cultures were virtually wiped out with the spread of Christianity. In Europe, starting around 400 CE, the Christian church was instrumental in the collapse of the Greek and Roman religions. Temples were systematically destroyed and key ceremonies were outlawed. Beginning with the middle ages and continuing into the Renaissance, remnants of European shamanism were wiped out by campaigns against witches. These campaigns were often orchestrated by the Catholic Inquisition.

The repression of shamanism continued as Christian influence spread with Spanish colonization. In the Caribbean, and Central and South America, Catholic priests followed in the footsteps of the Conquistadors and were instrumental in the destruction of the local traditions, denouncing practitioners as "devil worshippers" and having them executed. In North America, the English Puritans conducted periodic campaigns against individuals perceived as witches. More recently, attacks on shamanic practitioners have been carried out at the hands of Christian missionaries to third world countries. As recently as the nineteen seventies, historic petroglyphs were being defaced by missionaries in the Amazon.

It has been postulated that modern state campaigns against the use of psychedelic substances are the offshoot of previous religious campaigns against shamanism.Today, shamanism, once universal, survives primarily among indigenous peoples. Shamanic practice continues today in the tundras, jungles, deserts, and other rural areas, and also in cities, towns, suburbs and shantytowns all over the world. This is especially widespread in Africa as well as South America, where "mestizo shamanism" is widespread.

Many recent efforts have been made trying to link shamanic practice and knowledge with Western, scientific beliefs. Anthropologist Jeremy Narby has proposed that shamans take their consciousness down to the molecular level, working with DNA and viruses that they see as the twin serpents or malicious "darts". The holomovement theory proposed by David Bohm is often seen as an approach to create a scientific foundation for concepts such as parallel worlds and alternative ways to traverse time and space.


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Kymatica

Esoteric Agenda part II

Ben Stewart, the bright young musician and philosopher, creator of "Esoteric Agenda" has released his second documentary.

Kymatica (from the Greek "ta kymatica" meaning "matters pertaining to waves") will venture into the realm of Cymatics and discuss matters of spirituality, altered states of mind, the ego, and personal responsibility.

Cymatics (from the Greek "κύμα" (kyma), meaning "wave" and "τα κυματικά"(ta kymatica), meaning "matters pertaining to waves"), is the study of wave phenomena, pioneered by Swiss medical doctor and natural scientist Hans Jenny (1904-1972).

The movie focuses on human and universal consciousness and points out psyche disease that mankind has induced by creating insane illusion, which is the main cause of pain and suffer. Goes deeper into metaphysical aspects and connects ancient hidden myths and history with modern ways of society and political outcome. Explains shamanism, duality, and reality behind DNAs and modern false beliefs.

The questions that have remained timeless and profound throughout history have been all but left for dead.

There have been messages left in scripture, archeological remains, shamanic traditions, philosophy, poetry, art and music.

As we move closer to an apex of technological and intellectual information, we find ourselves farther and farther away from feeling any comfort or wholeness within our hearts and souls. Yet even though the concept of spirituality should have been long gone by now, we are seeing an awakening among people and a growing desire for truth.

For the first time in history we are finding that there are no sole saviors or lone prophets to guide us, but a whole race waking from a sleep that has brought this world to the brink of destruction. In a world where Apocalyptic catastrophes seem inevitable, we must look at the solutions in a whole new manner.

As the latest quantum mechanics and metaphysics are just being discovered, we notice that we are not moving forward, but returning to a consciousness that the ancient shamans, mystics and sages have left for us.

It is a new age.

An age for responsibility and stewardship. And as we begin to look for answers in the world within, the world without will reflect. In this new age, we will discover that we are all one mind, one organism, and one spirit.

We are the savior we have been waiting for.

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Jungle Trip

Lost in the heart of the Peruvian Amazon, there is a vine that is said to talk to humans, giving an understanding to the secrets of life. The custodians of this plant are the medicine men, or shamans. The divine does not give up its’ secrets easily.

It appears the botany of the plant is only half the story.

To know it fully, you must experience its’ effects.

Ever since he discovered the talking plants, studying human sciences at University, he has experienced with the hallucinogenic flora.

British plants are one thing, but in the Amazon they use Banisteriopsis caapi, or Ayahuasca, for their therapy and it’s a strong medicine. The bitter Ayahuasca brew first makes its’ drinker violently sick, but it’s in the fierce and often terrifying hallucinations that follow that the healing is said to lie.

Banisteriopsis caapi, also known as Ayahuasca, Caapi or Yage, is a South American jungle vine of the family Malpighiaceae. It is used to prepare Ayahuasca, a decoction that has a long history of entheogenic uses as a medicine and "plant teacher" among the indigenous peoples of the Amazon Rainforest. It contains the beta-carboline harmala alkaloids and MAOIs harmine, harmaline, and tetrahydroharmine. The MAOIs in B. caapi allow the primary psychoactive compound, DMT (which is introduced from the other primary ingredient in Ayahausca, the Psychotria viridis plant), to be orally active. [read more]

Ayahuasca, the ancient amazonian psychoactive brew Shamans have used for centuries as a holy sacrament, possesses the power to cure all illnesses and ailments including HIV Aids.

Jungle Trip is a brilliant documentary on Ayahuasca Shamanism, the largest psychedelic religion in our world today.

Lost in the heart of the Peruvian Amazon, there is a vine that is said to talk to humans, giving an understanding to the secrets of life.

Ayahuasca refers to a psychotropic brew made by indigenous Indians of the Amazon jungle from a woody vine (Banisteriopsis caapi, B. inebrians, or B. quitensis) and the leaves of the chakruna plant (Psychotria viridis).

Although the name ayahuasca is often used to describe the B. caapi vine, it also refers to the mixture of these two very different plants.

Local medicine men, or shamans, prepare the mixture, sometimes substituting plants for chakruna (also known as sami ruca and amirucapanga), and adding different plants to the mixture depending on the nature of the ceremony.

Ayahuasca is used by shamans to induce an altered state during which the shaman can look into the future, travel in spirit form, induce healing, remove spells, and cast spells on others.

The word ayahuasca comes from the Quechuan Indian words aya ("spirit," "ancestor," or "dead person") and huasca ("vine").

Together these words refer to the "vine of the soul" or "vine of the dead," a vine that reportedly can free the soul or spirit. Different Amazonian Indian tribes call the plant by names such as yage' (pronounced "yah - hey"), yaje', caapi, natem, pinde, karampi, dapa, mihi, kahi, and many other local names.

Historical Use Of Ayahuasca

Evidence from pre-Columbian rock drawings suggests hundreds of years of ayahuasca use in the Amazon, although Western scientists and explorers have only been exposed to the brew over the last 150 years. In 1851 British plant explorer, Richard Spruce, discovered the Tukanoan Indians in the upper Rio Negro region of the Brazilian Amazon using a liana (vine) known as caapi to induce a state of intoxication. Ecuadorian geographer Villavicencio first mentioned ayahuasca in 1858 while he was exploring the jungles of Ecuador. He described how the source of the drink was a vine used to foresee the future battle plans of enemies, diagnose illness, determine which spells were used and which to use, welcome foreign travelers, and insure the love of their womenfolk. Villavicencio took the drink himself and described the experience of "flying" to marvelous places.