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Skarekrow
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Short answer - everything in between.
Hey…I’m doubling down my efforts with the meditations…no time like now.
sprinkles
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Yeah this seems to be a cycle that I repeat every year or two. Maybe it's just normal for me and I shouldn't worry.
Skarekrow
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We should all worry less…hahahaha.
Okay! Ready…begin.
JK
You know…sometimes you just have to say “Fuck” to it all...Fuck it all sprinkles….
Skarekrow
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Transcending Human Madness
To an impartial observer — say, an alien zoologist from another planet — there must be very compelling evidence that human beings suffer from a serious mental disorder, and are perhaps even insane.
The last few thousand years have been an endless catalogue of insane behaviour.
Recorded history is an endless catalogue of wars, and the story of the brutal oppression of the great mass of human beings by a tiny privileged minority.
The terrible oppression of women which runs through history — and which still exists in many parts of the world — is another sign of this insanity, as is the hostile, repressive attitude to sex and the body which most cultures have shared.
He or she would be puzzled by the fact that human beings seems to find it so difficult to be happy.
Why do so many people suffer from different kinds of psychological malaise — for example, depression, drug abuse, eating disorders, self-mutilation — or else spend so much time oppressed by anxieties, worries and feelings of guilt or regret, and negative emotions like jealousy and bitterness?
And why do so many people seem to have an insatiable lust to possess things?
Why are we prepared to go to such lengths to obtain material goods which we don’t actually need and which bring no real benefits to us?
In the same way, many people have a very strong craving for status and success; they dream of being famous pop or TV stars, and try to gain respect from others by wearing particular clothes, possessing status symbols or going to certain places or behaving in a certain way.
‘Why aren’t human beings content just to be as they are?’ the observer might ask himself. ‘Why are they so driven to gain wealth and status instead of accepting their situation and living in the present moment?’
Primal and Prehistoric Peoples
However, there are many groups of people in the world who don’t seem to be touched by this insanity — or at least, who weren’t until recent times.
‘Primal’ peoples like the Australian Aborigines, the tribal peoples of Siberia, Lapland, Oceania and other isolated areas, generally had a very low level of warfare, if any at all.
They also have high status for women, and are strikingly egalitarian and democratic.
Almost uniformly, anthropologists have been struck by how naturally content and carefree these peoples seem, as if they are free of the psychological malaise which afflicts us.
The Over-Developed Ego
This suggests that there is a fundamental difference between us and primal or prehistoric peoples, a difference which gives rise to the collective and individual insanity which plagues us.
Why should they be free of the insanity of warfare, oppression and materialism?
I believe that this fundamental difference is what might be described as our ‘over-developed ego.
’We appear to have a more pronounced sense of individuality — or ego — than primal peoples.
According to the anthropologist Lucien Levy-Bruhl, for example, the essential characteristic of primal peoples was their less ‘sharpened’ sense of individuality.
In his words, ‘the limits of their individuality are variable and ill-defined.’
He notes that, rather than existing as self-sufficient individual entities — as we experience ourselves — their sense of identity is bound up with their community and their land.
He cites reports of peoples who use the word ‘I’ when speaking of their group and others who see their land as an extension of their self, so that being forced away from their land would be tantamount to death (this is why primal peoples are often prepared to commit suicide rather than leave their lands).
The naming practices of certain peoples suggest this too.
For us, a name is a permanent label which defines our individuality and autonomy.
But Australian Aborigines, for example, do not have fixed names which they keep throughout their lives.
Their names regularly change, and include those of other members of their tribe.
Other native peoples use tekonyms — terms which describe the relationship between two people — instead of personal or kinship names.
On the other hand, our sense of ego is so defined and strong that many of us experience a basic sense of separation to nature, other human beings and even our own bodies.
We are self-sufficient individuals who can exist apart from the natural world, our communities and even each other.
I believe this over-developed ego is the fundamental madness from which we suffer from, and the root cause of our insane behaviour.
Intense ego-consciousness is a state of suffering. It brings a basic sense of isolation, of being separate from other people and the rest of reality.
We experience ourselves as fragile entities trapped inside our own heads with the rest of the world ‘out there,’ on the other side.
And our egos send a constant stream of ‘thought-chatter’ through our minds, a chaos of memories, daydreams, worries and fears which disturbs our being and creates a constant state of anxiety.
In addition, because we live in our thoughts so much, we find it very difficult to live in the present, and to appreciate the reality and beauty of the world in which we live.
The world becomes a dreary, half-real place, perceived through a fog of thought.
As a result of this, most people feel a basic sense of incompleteness and discontent.
And this negative state is the basic source of the cravings for possessions and power and status, which are a way of trying to complete ourselves and compensate for our inner discord.
We try to complete ourselves — and make ourselves significant — by gaining power over other people or by collecting wealth and possessions.
And in turn, this desire for wealth and power is at the heart of warfare and oppression.
But just as importantly, our strong sense of ego means that it’s difficult for us to empathise with other people.
We become ‘walled off’ from them, unable to ‘feel with’ them and to experience the world from their perspective or to sense the suffering we might be causing them.
We become able to oppress and exploit other people in the service of our own desires.
Perhaps the desire for wealth and power, minus the ability to empathise, is the root of warfare and the oppression of women and other social groups.
Maybe it’s also the root cause of our abuse of the environment.
It means that we experience a sense of ‘otherness’ to nature, and that we can’t sense its aliveness, and as a result we don’t feel any qualms about exploiting and abusing it.
Beyond the Ego
However, there is a method of healing our inner discord and transcending our insanity: through ‘transpersonal’ — or spiritual — development.
The whole purpose of transpersonal development is to transcend our intensified sense of ego, to blunt its walls of separateness and quieten its chaotic thought-chatter so that we can begin to experience a new sense of inner content and a new sense of connection to the cosmos and to other beings.
This is what the practice of meditation aims to do: to generate a state of inner quietness in which the ego fades away.
And this is what happens when we dedicate our lives to serving others rather than following our own selfish desires: separateness begins to fall away as we develop a heightened sense of compassion, a shared sense of being with other people and other creatures.
As we transcend the intensified sense of ego, we begin to see the world as a meaningful and harmonious place.
We become able to live in the moment and accept ourselves and our lives as they are, without wanting.
And we also move beyond the social insanity of warfare and oppression.
Since there is no discord inside us, we no longer crave for wealth and power, and now that we are no longer separate, we have the ability to empathise with other beings, and so become incapable of abusing or exploiting them.
When the ego is transcended, all of the madness of human behaviour fades away, like the symptoms of a disease which has now been cured.
That is the only true sanity, and perhaps the only way in which we can hope to live in peace and harmony on this planet.
Skarekrow
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Creating Your Future — Arise Great Warrior, Arise!
Are you doing what you always wanted to do?
Are you doing what you believe in?
Do you live the life that was meant for you to live?
From where do you seek approval?
Are you looking inward?
There are millions of people around the world who eagerly wait the weekend every week, the summer vacation every year, and later on, long before the age of retirement, they fantasize about that good free time during retirement.
If you ask these people how much they like what they are doing for a living, they will typically answer that their work “pays the bills.”Â
On the other side of the river, there is a different community of people.
When you ask them what they will do on the weekend or after they retire, they will simply state that they are already on an eternal weekend and timeless retirement, that their summer vacation and their vocation are both 365 days long every year.
These people do not have to prove that what they are saying is true about themselves.
Every time you meet them, they radiate joy and truth.
They are content.
They have time for others, not just outside their work time, but any time.
Interestingly enough, all of their bills are paid and in fact, some of these people are financially rich.
The way of the heart is not limited to leading us to enjoyable and fulfilling work, it is also the way for making every major or minor decision in our lives.
Creating Your Future
You can cross the river from the cloudy, muddy and rocky shore to the shore of sunshine and green pastures.
You can make that trip, just as not only famous people have done, but also as simple every-day people have done and are continuing to do every day.
If you sense that there is something missing in your life, and you do not look forward to going to work when you wake up in the morning, your chosen vocation very likely does not fulfill your needs.
And you can change all that.
First, there are several questions which need to be answered, because the answers will encourage and direct us towards the path we would like to be on.
By examining critically the different causes which on a daily basis keep our bodies weak and tired, our minds confused and restless, and our hearts sad and fearful, we will learn how to avoid such a way of living and see the alternative, the green pastures on the opposite shore.
Next, we should examine how and with what materials we will construct our own boat to be able to cross the river.
We can gain wisdom by meditating on the words of the wise people of the past.
We can see how they also crossed the river, and we can be inspired by their examples.
What are the reasons why some people are so content in life while others are not?
Why do some people seem happy when they are very absorbed in their work but lonely and miserable when they are away from their workplace?
As for the people who are radiating timeless joy, not just at the work place but also everywhere else, were they born that way or did they become that way?
How?
What is the way of thinking that causes people to do work which doesn’t use their talents and which does not express their individuality, or their values and ethics?
Where does this way of thinking — which enslaves people — come from?
Is it possible to adopt a new way of thinking which will enable us to break loose from our enslavement?
Coming to know ourselves in order to create an enjoyable future is not a process that takes days, weeks, months, or a few years.
It can take our whole life, but we should always remember that being on the right path and aiming for our distinct identity and distinct role in life is what makes us happy.
Enduring and timeless joy is not found only upon reaching selfhood, it is planted and harvested in the process of trying to achieve it.
You will have to act in order to place yourself on the right path towards self-realization.
From a Small Seed…
Take as an example a farmer who has just one olive seed in his hand.
He looks at it, knowing it is strong and healthy, and he looks around and sees the majesty of nature.
With awareness he accepts the fact that the same power that has brought him into existence has also provided the seed and the soil, the sun and the water.
That is, the farmer knows himself; he knows who he is and what he has for use at his disposal.
How wise that farmer is when he looks at the seed and he sees not only one, but thousands of seeds.
That is imagination.
Now he must take out the weeds and prepare the ground, and trusting the powers of the universe, he then buries the seed in the soil.
Before he sees the grown tree and is rewarded with its precious olive oil, most likely he will often experience some fear and doubt.
How does he know if the weather will help the growth?
How does he know if an animal will not eat the seed while it is in the ground?
He must simply wait and believe for the best.
He has no other choice but to act, and then wait.
This time of waiting and wondering while the seed is buried in the ground could be the most frightening experience during the process.
Nevertheless, a farmer who knows himself and trusts other people for help if something goes wrong will enjoy the whole process, not just the olive oil he will obtain.
He finds reward in every step he takes, from observing to preparing to gathering.
At this point, the farmer has created his future; simply, in this case, he has produced his physical food.
Finally, he will truly enjoy the product of his labor – the olives and the olive oil.
The same cycle of observing, preparing, and gathering will again take place the next year with even more joy and less fear.
Now he has in his hand not just one seed but many.
It is essential to realize that this is our everyday life.
We gather what we plant.
If we plant in joy, we will gather it with more joy, and by knowing and trusting ourselves, the powers of the universe, and other people, we continue the cycle of planting and gathering with increasing joy and satisfaction for every new cycle of life-planning.
The Materialization of Fear
It is characteristic of our industrialized societies that it makes us lose our individuality, and so we become only a tiny part in the social machine. It is therefore of great importance that we keep in mind that such a way of living is foreign to human dignity and to our own happiness.
By working just to pay our bills, we are missing the meaning of life.
Sooner or later, we will have to lose ourselves in order to find ourselves, not for the sake of the machine but for our own sake, and therefore, for the sake of the whole world.
The increase in violence and environmental degradation observed in our days is the materialization of our unfulfilled hearts and unjustified fears.
Only happy people, content with themselves and in harmony with others and nature, can lead the world to peace and environmental sustainability.
The world needs more happy people.
It needs more people who work using their talents, who earn their living by doing what they love, and are passionate about.
These people have found their true self, peace, and joy.
They are fulfilled and in harmony, knowing who they are and what they do in their life.
Spiritual Poverty
During my teaching experience at several colleges and universities in North America and Europe, I have met hundreds of students and I have heard their stories. The statement “I am working on this degree because of my parents” is so common and illustrates a degree of tragedy – because we should not live the unfulfilled dreams of our parents.
Most of us mistakenly choose careers based on status, salary potential, or the pressure we receive from our well-meaning parents.
Unfortunately, this is not usually what we are most capable of doing or what is the most fulfilling for us.
My heart goes out to all these young boys and girls who are filled with beautiful dreams and who need encouragement to fulfill them, and to all those people who already have a career but who would also like to make a transition to fulfill their dreams.
I wrote these words for you.
Deciding early on the right training for the right vocation for healthy living in the future has now become even more crucial than in the past.
There is an apparent trend in many work places for longer work hours, yet more people feel less secure now because many are losing their jobs overnight.
But people who have realized their inner strength and unique talents can create or see opportunities for work any time, and stay above the water.
With every passing day, it is becoming more obvious that those who will have job security and peace in the future will not be those who are working for corporations; it will be those who have realized their inborn abilities and not just the skills acquired through education.
As computers continue to replace more workers every day and as unemployment rises, people will be forced by the need for survival to do work much different than they were educated and trained to do.
Thus it is crucial for people to become more active and decisive in seeking a personally satisfying career.
I myself had felt the urgency and had heard the clear inner voice years ago telling me to change the type of work I was doing, to go from research to teaching. I waited for many years before taking that little step onward, for reasons that each one of us would find very justifiable based on our world’s standards and fears.
But our soul is eager to find full expression and to devote itself to serving others by using the gifts and talents that have been bestowed on us.
Suppressing that force can lead us not only to inner turmoil and unhappiness, but even to the loss of our health.
Not only was my mind in confusion and my mood bad day after day, but also my body was experiencing terrible pain.
I was simply miserable all that time, trying to avoid the calling of my heart.
I was in spiritual poverty and I was creating spiritual poverty for those around me.
Jumping Into The Unknown
Do we have to reach the bottom before we awaken and realize the meaning of life?
It need not be that way.
Quitting my role in government nuclear labs and jumping into the unknown transformed my inner life and influenced many of the people around me in a beautiful way.
Searching for the truth and speaking it is our first vocation, and without it, we can never fulfill our destiny.
Following the inner voice to abandon familiar waters and false security is no less than speaking the truth to the whole world and to ourselves.
The decision to work on what seemed to me as natural as breathing — teaching — was the best decision I could have made for my whole life span on this planet. To revise my career has been the most frightening experience I could ever have imagined; nevertheless, it has also been the most elevating and exciting experience that I could have possibly expected.
I know that this is also true for many people who have dared to try the experiment.
The road to happiness is always the road towards the unknown.
Our culture today promises security, but we know well that what we need is inner security, which comes only from knowing our true selves and from knowing our magnificent talents, potential, and abilities.
The path we need to travel is not reached by receiving security from the work we do at the command of others, but instead, from the work we do at the command of our deepest yearnings for self-expression, by simply doing what we most enjoy.
It is the way we can never fail.
Our motto should be, “We work for ourselves in order to serve others” instead of “We work for others in order to serve ourselves.”Â
After you finish reading these lines, what will you do about the calling of your heart?
Will you postpone the day of your freedom?
You are not alone.
Ask the advice of a wise friend; it is the easiest and most inexpensive way.
Or read another book on this subject.
Perhaps, visit a counselor and pay attention to his/her advice.
Attend a lecture or a workshop where an inspiring speaker could provide the spark you need to take the step.
Usually speakers on this subject are people who have done just that in their own lives.
At an early age, they may have stood up strong before family, friends and society to choose their own destiny, to do what they enjoy most, or maybe later in their life, they took the leap of faith to change careers and do what they really love.
Allow them to transfer their flame to your heart so you can also take the leap of faith you need to take.
Just as a car needs to have gas in order to keep moving, you may need a good counselor, a good book, and a good friend to stand by you, inform you, and encourage you.
But for a car to start moving, it needs a spark; even with the tank full of gas, it will not move without it.
As important as the gas is, so is the spark.
A great inspiring lecture or seminar will take you emotionally to higher places, but soon you will feel hopeless and flat again.
That is why you must patiently and constantly strive for the change in your life.
Arise Great Warrior, Arise!
People without career satisfaction can hardly be in peace.
It has been said that the grand total of peace in the world is the total sum of the peace of its people.
For thousands of years, many cultures have used the olive branch as a symbol of peace and goodwill.
Wars will continue to take place, machines will keep breaking down, things will keep getting lost, and many people will keep becoming more fearful of the future.
But butterflies will still keep moving from flower to flower, and the fragrance of basil and orange blossoms will still give inspiration to anyone of us who want to live with joy.
Only happy people can lead the world to peace.
During your lifetime on this planet, you are like a warrior in a battle against all kinds of cultural barriers and spiritual wounds, which prevent you from reaching selfhood.
Fear no more, for endless joy is your final end.
You must “fight the good fight” in your lifetime in order for your inside to come into harmony with your outside.
Therefore arise, great warrior, arise!
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I've never heard that before.
Oh...wait...Are you talking about doing meditation only....and not taking it out in real life and practicing using it doing Mindfulness?
I learned Vipassana from Jack Kornfield by using his book for beginners and then reading his book A Path With Heart and Wise Heart. I also belonged to weekly meditation group where we did Walking Meditation for at least 10 minutes each time we met. This practice taught me a lot about bringing my awareness out into my world. I also went on a 3.5 day silent retreat where we couldn't talk with others around us unless emergency. No eye contact or gesturing either. What an experience to open my eyes.
Have you run across Jon Kabat Zinn? Dan Siegel?
sprinkles
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I'm talking about daily living practice, not meditation. I'm talking about living it, and not just doing 10 minute daily maintenance. I believe it was Osho that implied something like this by saying
Skarekrow
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Skarekrow
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Exploring the Link Between Autism and Anomalous Experiences
In his book, “The Soul of Autism,” author Bill Stillman provides dozens of examples of people with an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) who have had a spiritual, psychical, or anomalous experience–call it what you will.
Stillman, who himself has Asperger’s Syndrome, writes about these perceptions with a firsthand knowledge.
Another author with an ASD, Donna Williams, has recounted her own psychic experiences, connecting them with sensory sensitivity and thin boundaries.
Even among savants–who make up about 10 percent of the percentage of people with ASD–anomalous perceptions are not unknown.
A large-scale study of child savants in the 1970s turned up a few whose parents reported that their son or daughter had extrasensory perception; a more recent cataloging by savant expert Dr. Darold Treffert indicates a similar smattering of cases.
I suspect that such accounts reflect a genuine difference in sensory processing–and, consequently, a different sense of self.
Accumulating evidence suggests that people with an ASD (or, for that matter, a Sensory Processing Disorder or SPD) are, from an early age, bombarded by sensory input that they have trouble discriminating.
Their boundaries, we might say, are thinner than those of other people for whom the distinction between “outer” and “inner” is more constant, more firm.
But even among individuals living with such a condition, there is a spectrum between high functioning and low functioning forms.
People with high functioning forms of ASD or SPD will have somewhat thicker boundaries and a more fully delineated conception of self.
People with low functioning forms will be more likely to withdraw into their own world, dissociate from feelings and sensations that become overwhelming, and become less engaged and communicative.
As I have proposed elsewhere (for a fuller accounting, see my book “The Spiritual Anatomy of Emotion”), thin boundary people are most likely to report anomalous perceptions whereas thick boundary people are more likely to engender anomalies.
Perhaps the most outstanding illustration of the latter is Matthew Manning, a 58-year-old Brit who, at the age of 11, began to find himself at the center of a series of increasingly powerful poltergeist displays.
They began with the “mere” unaccounted-for movement of a silver tankard and flowerpot and then, when he was 15 and living in a much older (18th century) house in Cambridgeshire, escalating to furniture lifting off the ground and household objects variously levitating or hurtling through the air.
Even more bizarre, the signatures of dead people–several hundred of them, all in different hands–began to appear, roughly scrawled, on Manning’s bedroom wall.
The first was signed by one Robert Webbe, a 17th-century figure who left a message that indicated, as Manning puts it in an interview with GQ, that he “seemed to have no idea that he was dead.”
On one occasion, witnessed by observers, Manning’s father ushered the whole family into the garden, with his son’s bedroom roped off, leaving a pencil on the bed.
When they returned after ten minutes, another inscription had been added.
Some of the names, which were systematically photographed, appear in historic parish registers; others were of unknown provenance.
The story becomes stranger still.
The family moved to another house, whereupon, in his brother Andrew’s words, the poltergeist “just erupted, like a volcano under the house.
When it got very bad I went to sleep in my sister’s bedroom. The house had no carpet because we had just moved, and that made it all the noisier–bangings, crashings, thumpings. We had no explanation. We just hoped it would stop.”
When Matthew was sent away to school, his parents and siblings experienced “a tidal wave of relief that he had left,” wrote GQ’s Richard Chalmers.
But the boarding school then suffered through a similar predicament.
One of Manning’s former classmates recalls:
“There were 24 of us in bunk beds. Things just started to happen. Water appeared from nowhere. I remember my bed moving when there was nobody near it. On one occasion, this pile of dinner plates came crashing down, out of thin air, and shattered on the floor. Where they came from, who knows? Matthew was frightened. I was bloody terrified. It was the sort of experience that, unless you’ve been through it, you can’t begin to comprehend.”
The tale takes one further turn.
While working on an essay, Matthew found that his hand began to produce writing that was not his.
This took him quite aback at first.
But then, after producing a long composition, he noticed that the poltergeist activity ceased for about 24 hours.
So he deliberately tried the strange exercise again.
“A lot of what came through,” he recalls, “was nonsense; other things purported to be messages from people who had died … I had always imagined that the automatic writing, whatever it was, was probably flotsam that was coming out of my unconscious … But when I began writing in Chinese and Arabic … well, that did freak me out a bit. Because those languages were not, so far as I was aware, present in my subconscious.”
Nor was Matthew any kind of artist.
Upon being prompted by his mother to “channel” artwork, though, he produced a number of pictures reminiscent of artists ranging from Albrecht Dürer (a 16th century painter and printmaker) and Aubrey Beardsley (a 19thcentury author/illustrator) to Pablo Picasso.
The drawings “seemed to be a striking mimicry … even though flawed in some technical detail, their style and execution faithfully mirrored the original model,” explained Jan Ehrenwald, in “The ESP Experience: A Psychiatric Validation.”
This remarkable capacity is exactly what distinguishes savants–but Matthew is not obviously impaired and is, in fact, quite at home as a conversationalist.
So does Matthew have any touch of autism?
It’s hard to say but he might have had a more pronounced form of autism as a child.
Matthew is recalled by psychologist Peter Bander as, “an introvert who … absolutely refused to talk to strangers. When scolded for mischievousness, he would withdraw into a corner and remain there, sometimes for hours, curled up in total isolation.”
Some years later, the headmaster of his boarding school described him as “a loner and rather lethargic.”
Manning might well have grown out of this inwardness given the many interviews and public appearances he undertook in his late teens and twenties.
When we consider what could possibly produce someone like Matthew Manning, it’s significant that, three weeks before he was born, his mother suffered such a severe electrical shock that she feared she might lose him.
This reinforces a point I have previously argued, that challenges to normal development in the womb may be the surest precursor of the conditions we’ve looked at–whether synesthesia, autism, savantism, prodigiousness, environmental sensitivity, or the attunement to/generation of anomalous experiences.
Skarekrow
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I try to make a good mix and keep it interesting, thank you!
And thank you for all the thumbs!
Hope you are doing well?
Free Mind
I'm a Dragon! Rawr!
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And you do a great job of that!
I'm doing fine, thanks for asking. Just noticing more and more often the mentalities and ideas I hold about certain subjects/actions, and how they can and should be corrected so that I can better myself and improve. A major one right now is my dedication into doing things I deem to be important. I feel like a slave in my own mind when I can't stick to something, ever had that?
Yourself? I hope you're doing o.k bud. ^^
Skarekrow
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Thanks again.
I think everyone has that experience throughout their lives to one extent or another.
I’m doing okay. Trying to improve as well…some days it seems impossible, while others I feel I make some good progress.
Skarekrow
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Dalai Lama
Everyone wants to be happy; happiness is a right.
And while on a secondary level differences exist of nationality, faith, family background, social status and so on, more important is that on a human level we are the same.
None of us wants to face problems, and yet we create them by stressing our differences.
If we see each other just as fellow human beings, there'll be no basis for fighting or conflict between us.
Skarekrow
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The Evolutionary & Ecological Importance Of Psychedelic Plants
“…it is almost as if the vegetal world assigned certain plants to be the diplomats and teachers to our young confused species, to help put us on a different path than the one we have chosen, racing to ecological decimation and self-extinction. How else to explain the consistent messages received in mushroom, ayahuasca, iboga, and peyote visions of a world out of balance, of the need to take responsibility, of the vast empathic sentience of the Gaian Mind? …In the same way that we garden plants, teacher plants like ayahuasca seem to garden us when we digest them” [1]
That our indigenous ancestors were more connected to the earth than we are is not up for debate.
Also up for little debate is that the destruction of our environment is increasing at an alarming rate, threatening the premature extinction of our species, due to the modern way of life in which humans live more on nature than with it.
When we started believing we could control life, we in many ways lost touch with the innate wildness within ourselves and the world around us.
Simply put, we became less human.
When the earth still existed as a luscious place, rich in great plant diversity and wild land, people were more conscious and aware of the interconnectedness of all life forms -and more importantly, perhaps, that “things” like plants are living, intelligent organisms.
As a result, the earth flourished.
Many attribute these enhanced levels of consciousness in which the world seemed more alive and people believed there was no separation between themselves and nature to the leap in consciousness provoked by psychedelic plants, long hailed as “visionary plants.”
In fact, sacred use of psychedelic mushrooms, in which they were worshiped as vehicles with divine messages imperative to the well-being of man, can be traced as far back as the late Neolithic age.
Proof can be found at the Tassili Plateau in Southern Algeria.
Tassili Plateau looks almost like a maze of some sort, made out of stone escarpments chiseled by the wind into numerous narrow perpendicular corridors decorated with rock paintings of shamans dancing with psychedelic mushrooms in their hands and sprouting from their bodies.
The image of mushrooms sprouting from their bodies is often interpreted as a representation of their ability to enhance and emanate the spirit when ingested.
One of the more well-known theories regarding the historical role of psychedelics in evolution is Terrence McKenna’s Stone Ape theory.
McKenna believed the evolutionary lineage of homo sapiens could be traced back to psychedelic mushrooms in the grasslands of Africa, claiming it acted as a “tremendous force for directing the evolution of human beings away from that of the anthropoid apes and toward the unique adaptation that we see as special human beings today.” [3]
Biochemical Relationship Between Psychedelic Plants And The Human Brain
“Why is there overlapping biochemistry between certain plants and human brains? One proposal is that there is an evolving niche, one that is necessitated by an ecosystem whose survival is threatened.” -Kim A. Dawson [2]
Further fueling the idea that psychedelic plants play an important ecological and evolutionary role is the fact that psychedelic plants contain psychoactive chemicals that are strikingly similar to those found in the human brain, enabling them to act as synergetic keys that dissolve illusions of separateness from the natural world and other life forms, thereby restoring biochemical unity.
The entheogenic chemicals in psychedelic plants responsible for shifting a person’s consciousness to reveal their inextricable interconnectedness with nature are remarkably similar to ones found in the human brain, such as indoleamine neuro-hormones like serotonin and melatonin regulate states of consciousness.
Psychoactive chemicals, which were created millions of years ago before the existence of mankind, were generated by the serotonin molecule, making it of no surprise that they are serotonergic activators that influence the serotonin receptors in the neural networks of all life forms.
However, they do not activate all serotonergic receptors.
Rather, they activate selective receptors in the brain to produce specific effects in the neural networks.
Although psychedelics, also known as “serotonergic neurognostics,” have an impact on various 5-HT receptors, they have the greatest impact on 5-HT2a receptors, which are found throughout the human body.
Areas with high concentrations of 5-HT2a receptors, namely the gastrointestinal system, immune system, cardiovascular system, and the brain, are affected the most due to their intrinsic, overlapping biochemistry with the serotonergic activating nature of psychedelic plants.
In the brain, the cerebral cortex, thalamus, hippocampus, amygdala, and olfactory bulb are strongly affected, leading to alterations in hippocampal processing of sensory data and learning, altered gene expression, and heightened visual processing.
Essentially, sensory gating (discussed in this previous article on the doors of perception) is altered, allowing more sensory input to reach consciousness.
Although a large portion of modern day society holds negative views regarding the use of psychedelic plants, the significant overlapping biochemistry of psychedelic plants and the human brain makes it quite difficult to continue to adhere to the belief that they are harmful and should be avoided, much less that they hold no relevance to our existence and well-being.
It is hard to fathom that their remarkably similar biochemistry is of no importance on an ecological scale.
Clearly, we are not as “separate” from the natural world and plants, such as psychedelics, as we may have been led to believe.
RESOURCES
1. http://realitysandwhich.com/u/danielpinchbeck
2. Dawson, K. A. The Ecological Niche of Psychedelics. Maps Bulletin. 6(1)
3. http://lyaceum.org/~sputnik/McKenna/Evolution/
just me
Well-known member
- MBTI
- infj
The Evolutionary & Ecological Importance Of Psychedelic Plants
“…it is almost as if the vegetal world assigned certain plants to be the diplomats and teachers to our young confused species, to help put us on a different path than the one we have chosen, racing to ecological decimation and self-extinction. How else to explain the consistent messages received in mushroom, ayahuasca, iboga, and peyote visions of a world out of balance, of the need to take responsibility, of the vast empathic sentience of the Gaian Mind? …In the same way that we garden plants, teacher plants like ayahuasca seem to garden us when we digest them” [1]
That our indigenous ancestors were more connected to the earth than we are is not up for debate.
Also up for little debate is that the destruction of our environment is increasing at an alarming rate, threatening the premature extinction of our species, due to the modern way of life in which humans live more on nature than with it.
When we started believing we could control life, we in many ways lost touch with the innate wildness within ourselves and the world around us.
Simply put, we became less human.
When the earth still existed as a luscious place, rich in great plant diversity and wild land, people were more conscious and aware of the interconnectedness of all life forms -and more importantly, perhaps, that “things” like plants are living, intelligent organisms.
As a result, the earth flourished.
Many attribute these enhanced levels of consciousness in which the world seemed more alive and people believed there was no separation between themselves and nature to the leap in consciousness provoked by psychedelic plants, long hailed as “visionary plants.”
In fact, sacred use of psychedelic mushrooms, in which they were worshiped as vehicles with divine messages imperative to the well-being of man, can be traced as far back as the late Neolithic age.
Proof can be found at the Tassili Plateau in Southern Algeria.
Tassili Plateau looks almost like a maze of some sort, made out of stone escarpments chiseled by the wind into numerous narrow perpendicular corridors decorated with rock paintings of shamans dancing with psychedelic mushrooms in their hands and sprouting from their bodies.
The image of mushrooms sprouting from their bodies is often interpreted as a representation of their ability to enhance and emanate the spirit when ingested.
One of the more well-known theories regarding the historical role of psychedelics in evolution is Terrence McKenna’s Stone Ape theory.
McKenna believed the evolutionary lineage of homo sapiens could be traced back to psychedelic mushrooms in the grasslands of Africa, claiming it acted as a “tremendous force for directing the evolution of human beings away from that of the anthropoid apes and toward the unique adaptation that we see as special human beings today.” [3]
Biochemical Relationship Between Psychedelic Plants And The Human Brain
“Why is there overlapping biochemistry between certain plants and human brains? One proposal is that there is an evolving niche, one that is necessitated by an ecosystem whose survival is threatened.” -Kim A. Dawson [2]
Further fueling the idea that psychedelic plants play an important ecological and evolutionary role is the fact that psychedelic plants contain psychoactive chemicals that are strikingly similar to those found in the human brain, enabling them to act as synergetic keys that dissolve illusions of separateness from the natural world and other life forms, thereby restoring biochemical unity.
The entheogenic chemicals in psychedelic plants responsible for shifting a person’s consciousness to reveal their inextricable interconnectedness with nature are remarkably similar to ones found in the human brain, such as indoleamine neuro-hormones like serotonin and melatonin regulate states of consciousness.
Psychoactive chemicals, which were created millions of years ago before the existence of mankind, were generated by the serotonin molecule, making it of no surprise that they are serotonergic activators that influence the serotonin receptors in the neural networks of all life forms.
However, they do not activate all serotonergic receptors.
Rather, they activate selective receptors in the brain to produce specific effects in the neural networks.
Although psychedelics, also known as “serotonergic neurognostics,” have an impact on various 5-HT receptors, they have the greatest impact on 5-HT2a receptors, which are found throughout the human body.
Areas with high concentrations of 5-HT2a receptors, namely the gastrointestinal system, immune system, cardiovascular system, and the brain, are affected the most due to their intrinsic, overlapping biochemistry with the serotonergic activating nature of psychedelic plants.
In the brain, the cerebral cortex, thalamus, hippocampus, amygdala, and olfactory bulb are strongly affected, leading to alterations in hippocampal processing of sensory data and learning, altered gene expression, and heightened visual processing.
Essentially, sensory gating (discussed in this previous article on the doors of perception) is altered, allowing more sensory input to reach consciousness.
Although a large portion of modern day society holds negative views regarding the use of psychedelic plants, the significant overlapping biochemistry of psychedelic plants and the human brain makes it quite difficult to continue to adhere to the belief that they are harmful and should be avoided, much less that they hold no relevance to our existence and well-being.
It is hard to fathom that their remarkably similar biochemistry is of no importance on an ecological scale.
Clearly, we are not as “separate” from the natural world and plants, such as psychedelics, as we may have been led to believe.
RESOURCES
1. http://realitysandwhich.com/u/danielpinchbeck
2. Dawson, K. A. The Ecological Niche of Psychedelics. Maps Bulletin. 6(1)
3. http://lyaceum.org/~sputnik/McKenna/Evolution/
This is funny. Two things that have even a remote similarity are plants and human brains? This is good stuff. Guy that wrote this must have tried it a lot.
copied"Psychedelic drugs[edit]
The psychedelic drugs psilocin/psilocybin, DMT, mescaline, and LSD are agonists, primarily at 5HT[SUB]2A[/SUB][SUB]/2C[/SUB] receptors.[SUP][85][/SUP][SUP][86][/SUP][SUP][87][/SUP] The empathogen-entactogen MDMA releases serotonin from synaptic vesicles of neurons.[SUP][88]" Wikipedia
copied medicinenet"[/SUP]Agonist: A substance that acts like another substance and therefore stimulates an action. Agonist is the opposite of antagonist. Antagonists and agonists are key players in the chemistry of the human body and in pharmacology."
Key words: ACTS LIKE ANOTHER SUBSTANCE
- A serotonin receptor agonist is a compound that activates serotonin receptors, in a manner similar to serotonin. Non-selective agonists: Psilocin and DMT are serotonin analogs found in certain plants or mushrooms. These compounds act on a variety of serotoninreceptor types. Key words: SIMILAR TO
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Skarekrow
~~DEVIL~~
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- Warlock
Some people have more vegetation in their brain than others.
In all seriousness there is neuroscience behind it.
If it wasn’t similar to our brains, then the chemicals wouldn’t work on it would it now?
We CAN have an actual discussion about different subjects just me.
If you start a thread and call it “Illegal President” then you should expect people to disagree with you.
I don’t expect people to personally believe everything I post here, they (and you) are more than welcome to state your position.
Nice troll attempt.