The softening of Western rationalism has gone very far, which anyone can easily be convinced by reading some modern popular book on cosmology or quantum physics. Nevertheless, I would like to throw a little more heat through introducing the idea of ​​some connection between the measurements, which is achieved most reliably and directly by using indole hallucinogens with their long history of human consumption and their evolution together. Such compounds, obviously, act as regulators of cultural change and can be a means of gaining access to the intent of some very large self-regulating system. Perhaps this is the Superintelligence of our whole species or some kind of “planetary mind”, or maybe we were too limited in our search for an inhuman mind, and some completely different, radically different from us, intelligent species shares our stay with us The earth.

I offer these ideas in a speculative way. I do not have solid personal knowledge of what is happening here. I just believe that I have a sufficient understanding of the customs, expectations, criteria of evidence and the “general knowledge” of human beings to be able to note that what happens when DMT is drunk is much more peculiar than anything that could be termed “intoxication”. Under the influence of DMT, the mind finds itself in a convincingly real, clearly alien world that coexists with us. Not in the world concerning our thoughts, hopes, fears, but rather in the world of babies – their joys, dreams, their poetry. Why? I have not the foggiest idea. These are just facts: this is how it happens to us.

Among the main schools of thought of the 20th century, only Jung’s psychology sought to consider some of the phenomena that are so important for shamanism. Alchemy, which Jung studied very carefully, was the heiress of a long tradition of shamanistic and magical methods, as well as more practical chemical procedures – such as metal processing and embalming. Literature on alchemy testifies that the uplifting swirl of the contents of an alchemical vessel was fertile soil for projecting the contents of a naive pre-scientific mind. Jung insisted that alchemical allegories and emblems were the product of the unconscious and could be analyzed in exactly the same way as dreams. From Jung’s point of view, the discovery of the same motives in the fantastic speculations of the alchemists and in the dreams of his patients was a serious support for his theory of the collective unconscious and universal common archetypes of the latter.

In his study of alchemy, Jung came across reports of Kabiri – elven alchemical children whose appearance or tangible presence is an integral part of the last stages of alchemical creation. These alchemical children are like those little helper spirits whom the shaman calls for help. Jung regarded them as some autonomous side of the psyche that temporarily got out of the control of the ego. Unfortunately, the explanation that these alchemical geniuses are “autonomous aspects of the psyche” is not an explanation at all. This is the same as describing an elf as a small non-physical entity of indeterminate origin. Such explanations only postpone the need for contact with the deeper nature of the experience itself.

Science was not useful in the matter of elusive human contacts with other types of mind. She prefers to direct her attention somewhere else, noting that subjective perceptions, although unusual, are not her area. What a pity, since subjective experience is all that any of us have. In any case, to a large extent the subjective nature of the so-called objective universe is now confirmed by the most objective of the sciences – physics. In new physics, the subjective observer is inextricably linked with the observed phenomena. Interestingly, but this is a return to the shamanistic point of view. The true intellectual legacy of quantum physics may be the new respect and priority that it places on subjectivity. Turning us to subjectivity also means endowing the language with a tremendous new force, since language is the material from which the subjective world is made.

Thanks to psychedelics, we learn that God is not some kind of idea, God is a lost continent in the mind of man. This continent was rediscovered during a great danger to us and our world. What is it? Coincidence, synchronism, or a brutally senseless neighborhood of hope and death? Several years ago, I turned the work of my life to understanding the mystery of the experience caused by tryptamine hallucinogens. After all, this mystery is not one that can be explained by science. Of course, I understand that people distribute their obsessions, trying to fill the whole space. But in the critical events surrounding the emergence of cattle breeding and language in human beings, I found an ancient echo of those moments that I felt and witnessed personally.

Today it is necessary to face the sought and found answer. Before us is a flickering dimension, so enormous that its contours can hardly be accommodated in the focus of the human coordinate system. Our animal existence, our planetary existence ends. According to geological time, this end is only in a few moments. The great dying, the great extinction of many species has occurred at least since the climax of the pinnacle of partner society in prehistoric Africa. Our future is in the mind; the only hope for the survival of our weary planet is that we will find ourselves in our minds and make of it a friend who can reunite us with the Earth, while taking us to the stars. A change, more radical in significance than all that was before, looms directly ahead. Shamans have kept the gnosis of the availability of the Other for millennia; today is planetary knowledge. The consequences of this situation have only just begun to emerge.

Naturally, I do not expect my words to be taken seriously. However, these conclusions are based on experience that is accessible to anyone who finds the time to investigate DMT. The experience itself lasts less than fifteen minutes. I do not foresee criticism from people who did not bother to conduct this simple and unconditional experiment. After all, how seriously can critics deal with the problem if they are not disposed to take a few minutes of their time to experience this phenomenon on their own?

Deep psychedelic experience not only offers the opportunity to live in a world of sane people, in harmony with the Earth and with each other. He also promises an excellent adventure, a meeting with something completely unexpected – with some other neighboring world, full of life and beauty. Do not ask where he is; at the moment we can only say – not here, not there. We are still obligated to acknowledge our own ignorance regarding the nature of the mind and regarding exactly what the world is to be and what it is. For several millennia, and even more, our dream was to understand these issues, and we were defeated. Yes, defeat, if we do not remember another possibility – the possibility of “completely different.”

Some lost souls scan the heavens in search of a friendly “flying saucer” that will penetrate the earthly sphere and take us to Paradise; others suggest seeking salvation at the feet of various rishis, roshis, geishas and gurus. Researchers would better look into the work of nerds, anthropologists, and chemists who located, identified, and characterized the hallucinogens of shamans. Thanks to them, we got our hands on a tool for the salvation of human souls. This is a great tool, but it is a tool that should be used. All our addictions for centuries – from sugar to cocaine and television – have been a tireless search for something taken from us in Paradise. The answer has been found. There is nothing more to look for. He is found.

RETURN TO OUR SOURCES

Using plants of the type described above will help us understand the valuable gift of partnership with plants, lost at the dawn of time. Many people crave facts about their true identity. Plant hallucinogens clearly direct this essential identity. Not knowing your true identity means being some kind of crazy, soulless thing, a golem. And, of course, this image, painfully Orwellian, is applicable to the mass of human beings now living in societies of highly developed industrial democracy. Their authenticity lies in their ability to obey and follow the changes in the mass style that are conveyed by the media. Preoccupied with the consumption of anesthetized food, the absurd communications of the media, and the politics of disguised fascism, they are doomed to a poisoned life at a low level of consciousness. Possessed by the daily television program, they are the living dead, lost for everything except the act of consumption.

I believe that the failure of our civilization to resolve issues related to the problem of psychoactive substances and habitual destructive behavior is an unfortunate legacy for all of us. But if we sufficiently rebuilt the image of ourselves and the image of the world, we could make a tool from pharmacology that gives us the most ambitious hopes and dreams. Instead, pharmacology has become a fiendish servant of the rampant slide into regulation and the destruction of civil liberties.

Most people have a predilection for certain substances and, more importantly, everyone has a predilection for one or another standard of behavior. Trying to see the difference between habits and addictions threatens the indissoluble fusion of mental and physical energies that form the behavior of each of us. People who are not involved in relationships of food stimulation or stimulation with psychoactive substances are rare, and judging by their commitment to dogma and the intentional narrowing of their horizons, they were not able to create any viable alternative to involvement in substances.

Here I tried to explore our biological history and our more modern cultural history in search of something that might be missed. My theme was human agreements with plants, created and torn over the course of millennia. These relationships formed every aspect of our identity as self-reflecting creatures – our language, our cultural values, our sexual behavior, what we remember and forget in our past. Plants are a lost link in the search for an understanding of the human mind and its place in nature.