Psychedelic Salon

Guest speakers: Terence McKenna, Ralph Abraham, and Rupert Sheldrake PROGRAM NOTES: (Minutes : Seconds into program) 03:48 Ralph Abraham: "So eventually the 60s happened, and probably my first experience that I would now identify as a real religious experience was the experience of LSD." 07:17 Ralph: "What’s gone wrong in the world now is a loss of connection to the sacred within and without organized religion." 13:30 Ralph: "The revascularization of music, I think, is very important. If I had to point to a single factor that I thought was destroying society faster than any other I think it would be evil music." 18:28 Ralph: "The value of getting the true partnership into the church would mean that we then wouldn’t have to replace the church just because it had been on the wrong track for 5,000 years." 18:48 Terence McKenna: "But isn’t this a little like trying to reform the Soviet Union and keeping the Communist Party around? I think the momentum of these institutions makes them hard to reform." 23:2

Guest speakers: Terence McKenna, Ralph Abraham, and Rupert Sheldrake PROGRAM NOTES: (Minutes : Seconds into program) 03:52 Rupert Sheldrake: Explains his concept of "Cannabis Day" 06:18 Terence McKenna: "One day in each lunar cycle would be Cannabis Day, I think." 10:22 Terence: "Time and attention used creatively banish the unconscious." 13:42 Ralph Abraham: "Shopping malls are actually the modern equivalent of the medieval abbeys." 20:04 Rupert: "The idea that time has its qualities is already something that has a popular following in the millions who study astrology in a vague or a professional way." 24:22 Rupert: "Drugs have qualities, and they open up different realms of experience. . . . And so what would happen, for example, if one took a powerful psychoactive that opened one to the astral realm, in the starry sense, and then invoked a particular star by name and tried to journey, or connect with, or become open to influences from that star? . . . I’d be rather frightened to try it, myself." 2

Guest speakers: Terence McKenna, Ralph Abraham, and Rupert Sheldrake PROGRAM NOTES: (Minutes : Seconds into program) 06:48 Ralph Abraham: Explains his bifurcation theory of the unconscious 08:01 Ralph: "We can speak of the consciousness of animals, the consciousness of plants, the consciousness of Mother Earth." 11:57 Ralph: "Chaos goes to the basement, and with this gesture created the bifurcation in consciousness, giving us the unconscious, which appears to be gaining ever since." 17:02 Ralph: "I think we want Saint George and the Dragon getting it on together in a May Day celebration where Dionysian elements are accepted." 18.21 Terence McKenna: "The orgies driven by the psychedelic religion completely frustrated that desire to identify male paternity." 21:21 Terence: "Basically the choice was between fun [through orgies] and full knowledge of the flow of your genes, and once it was decided that male paternity was an important issue, then the concept of ‘mine’ comes into existence. . . . And this w

Guest speakers: Terence McKenna, Ralph Abraham, and Rupert Sheldrake PROGRAM NOTES: (Minutes : Seconds into program) 05:40 Terence McKenna: "Going back to this thing about language, you get this same peculiar emphasis on language and letters in the esoteric doctrine that surrounds the chakras." 06:57 Terence: "Linearity in print conferred upon language an inability to deal with the invisible world in any meaningful way, and so it just became pathology, but now it’s returning, and people such as ourselves who have one foot in each world have a real obligation to cognize this and move it forward." 09:55 Ralph Abraham: "There is very little discussion of the intelligent science, mythology, and so on of these 100-, 200-, 300-thousand B.C., what is going on during these previous interglacials, and it could be that there was agriculture. There would be no way to rule that out." 15:30 Rupert Sheldrake: "If that’s possible [communicating with a star entity], what kind of information would such beings impart?"

Guest speakers: Terence McKenna, Ralph Abraham, and Rupert Sheldrake PROGRAM NOTES: (Minutes : Seconds into program) 02:24 Terence McKenna: "When you start looking at the question of these disincarnate entities, the first thing that strikes you is their persistence in human experience and folklore. This is not something unusual or statistically rare." 07:57 Terence: "The eradication of spirit from the visible world has been a project prosecuted with great zeal concomitant with the rise of modern science." 10:01 Terence: "If we examine the history of early modern science, we discover that some of the major movers and shakers were in fact being guided and directed in the formulation of early science by disincarnate entities." 12:59 Terence: "The aversion to the irrational is something that science inherited from Christianity." 17:59 Ralph Abraham: "I think it was in 879 in the council of Byzantium that spirit was made illegal, and then we went from three to two, so there’s only body and soul . . . and t

Guest speakers: Terence McKenna, Ralph Abraham, and Rupert Sheldrake PROGRAM NOTES: (Minutes : Seconds into program) 05:38 Ralph Abraham: "It does seem very attractive to think of the electromagnetic field as some kind of favored intermediary among all the physical fields." 07:41 Rupert Sheldrake: "There’s this mystery of light. I still think Maxwell’s electromagnetic formulations of light are much too simple." 10:56 Ralph: "I think that we ought to think about the possibility that this effect [the paranormal] will not be confirmed in laboratories." 15:39 Rupert: "There is some sense in which our imagination, our image-making facility, is self-luminous." 25:54 Ralph: "We have therefore in our individual consciousness a particular affinity with the electromagnetic field . . . as epitomized by vision." 30:41 Terence McKenna: "Why is divine omniscience a necessary concept? Can’t the universe get along just being partially aware of what’s going on? . . . What problems are solved by hypothesizing that not

Guest speakers: Terence McKenna, Ralph Abraham, and Rupert Sheldrake PROGRAM NOTES: (Minutes : Seconds into program) 04:52 Rupert Sheldrake begins a discussion about light. 10:55 Rupert "What kind of influence could be moving outward through the eyes as part of the image-forming perceptive process, and in this outward projection in some sense project the image we see, the image we see is part of this outward flux." 14:17 Terence McKenna begins his commentary on Rupert’s ideas about light, expanding them into the realm of imagination. 21:08 Ralph Abraham challenges Terence and Rupert on some of their points. Download MP3 PCs – Right click, select option Macs – Ctrl-Click, select option

Guest speakers: Terence McKenna, Ralph Abraham, and Rupert Sheldrake PROGRAM NOTES: (Minutes : Seconds into program) 02:29 Terence McKenna: "The ego is essentially paranoia institutionalized." 03:53 Ralph Abraham: Considers the possibility that ego became strengthened when psychedelic usage became less frequent. 05:29 Terence: Talks about a "psychedelic rebirth." 08:15 Terence: "A calendrical reform would be a wonderful thing, and I have just the calendar all worked out." 09:48 Terence: "It’s an effort to deny man’s mortality, this solar calendar. It’s reinforcing a false notion of permanence, and what we actually want is a calendar that says ‘all is flow, all is flux, all relationships are in motion to everything else. It’s a truer picture of the world." 13:22 Rupert Sheldrake: Comments on the fact that the Islamic calendar fits the definition of Terence’s suggested calendar. 16:22 Rupert: "One of the things that’s clear is that chaos is feminine, and creation out of chaos is like the creation out o

Guest speakers: Terence McKenna, Ralph Abraham, and Rupert Sheldrake PROGRAM NOTES: (Minutes : Seconds into program) 02:29 Ralph Abraham: "So I should like now to speak about the chaos of ordinary life and the relationship of this chaos to the imagination." 05:41 Ralph: "Chaos, Gaia, and Eros are the gods, or concepts, of the primitive types." 13:56 Ralph: "People have a resistance to their own creative imagination, and I’m suggesting that this resistance has a mythological base." 20:55 Terence McKenna: "Chaos is feminine. Chaos is intuitional. Chaos has a very flirtatious relationship with language." 22:16 Terence: "The birthright that connects us to the divine is our poetic capacity, our ability to resonate with an idea of ideal beauty and to create that which transcends our own understanding in the form of art through the imagination." . . . "We have a secret history. Knowledge of which has been lost to us and only now is recoverable . . . " . . . "We are the victims of an instance of traumatic abu

Guest speaker: Sheldon Norberg PROGRAM NOTES: (Minutes : Seconds into program) 02:40 News of a Mexican informant for the DEA who committed murder while wearing a wire for the U.S. 05:30 Reminiscences of (and synchronicities at) Burning Man 2006 08:15 Discussion about Sheldon’s book, Confessions of a Dope Dealer 10:44 How Sheldon got into the dope dealing business 18:24 Using cannabis is a socializing ritual for young people 24:25 On being un-comfortably numb and doing work with psychedelics 31:08 Do most heavy users eventually reach a point where they move from using psychedelics primarily for pleasure to using them primarily for a studied expansion of their own consciousness? 34:36 Psychedelics are astronomically more powerful and completely different from alcohol 36:40 The "Third I" theory of tripping 43:38 Living in tripland isn’t always beneficial Download MP3 PCs – Right click, select option Macs – Ctrl-Click, select option Links: Sheldon Norberg – Progressive Drug Educator "Confession

Guest speakers: Terence McKenna, Ralph Abraham, and Rupert Sheldrake PROGRAM NOTES: (Minutes : Seconds into program) 02:14 Ralph Abraham: Takes issue with McKenna’s and Sheldrake’s interpretation of chaotic attractors. . . . To a mathematician, the word ‘attractor’ does not necessarily imply attraction. 07:23 Rupert Sheldrake: "But Newtonian physics and the triumph of the mechanistic system, in my opinion, only works because what it was seeking to deny was introduced into it by a kind of subterfuge and pretended that this was a mechanical principle whereas it was something else." 09:37 Ralph: "The idea of two dimensional time could aid us here." . . . The problem with the teleological approach is that the cause is in the future. 10:54 Ralph: "The more interesting idea is to make a model for evolution itself." . . . "The determinant of evolution [in the case being discussed] is the free will in the moment as the collective action of the citizens in the present." 13:24 Rupert: … discuses the concept of m

Guest speakers: Terence McKenna, Ralph Abraham, and Rupert Sheldrake PROGRAM NOTES: (Minutes : Seconds into program) 01:23 Ralph Abraham: A short primer on chaos theory. . . . The emergence of form from a field of chaos. 08:57 Rupert Sheldrake: "The problem I have with chaos theory . . . " The issue of indeterminacy in the real world. . . . The illusion of total predictability. . . . Indeterminacy may exist not just at the quantum level but at all levels of natural organization. . . . How form arises from chaos. . . . In some sense, energy may be seen as an agent of change. 21:24 Rupert: The question of how do new fields, new forms, come into being in the first place? Where do they come from? . . . The nature of the mathematical realm, the formative realm. Is there a kind of mathematical realm before the universe, somehow beyond space and time. [lozo: he goes on a kind of Olaf Stapelton riff] . . . 26:04 Rupert: "The view that I want to consider is that the world soul, or the world imagination, makes u

Guest speaker: Terence McKenna, Ralph Abraham, and Rupert Sheldrake PROGRAM NOTES: (Minutes : Seconds into program) 01:34 Rupert Sheldrake: "It’s like the creative process is like the welling up of new forms." . . . "I think in our own case the one model for this is dreams." . . . "It seems almost impossible to have an expected dream." . . . "Our imagination is also released through psychedelics, in its extreme form." . . . "Is there a kind of Gaian dreaming taking place on the night side of the planet?" 05:03 Terence McKenna: "I think a Gaian dream would be human history." . . . "It [the psychedelic experience] seems rather to be an ontological reality of its own that the human being has simply been privileged to briefly observe." . . . "To my mind, the imagination is the source of all creativity." 07:53 Rupert: "So do you think that the psychedelic experience is then the tapping into the Gain imagination?" 08:02 Terence: "Absolutely, and I think psychedelic experiences and dreams are different only

Guest speaker: Myron Stolaroff PROGRAM NOTES: (Minutes : Seconds into program) 03:13 "My talk is about the future of human consciousness." 08:18 " The discovery of who we are and what our potential can be was given an enormous boost when Dr. Albert Hofmann came forward with LSD." 11:11"What is it like to enter the dimensions of higher consciousness? . . . I have been unusually blessed to have the privilege of entering dimensions never previously imagined.. . . just having experienced glimpses is enough to muster determination to press forward, for it is now clear that our Real Self, the true I that resides in the heart of each of us, is present and available, and is worth far more than anything one could possibly imagine." 14:45"There is no question that the appropriate use of LSD can open many important doors." 16:51 "The greatest sources of pain come from mistreatment, particularly at a young age where comprehension has not yet developed. Fear, pain, neglect, accidents, forced restrictions, are all

Guest speakers: Terence McKenna, Ralph Abraham, and Rupert Sheldrake PROGRAM NOTES: (Minutes : Seconds into program) 02:36 Rupert Sheldrake: Bringing together the idea of creation and imagination, or evolutionary creativity. . . . There is a profound crisis in science that will change science as we know it because the two fundamental models concerning the basic nature of reality that we have are coming to a head-on collision. "If the universe is evolving, then the laws of nature are evolving as well." . . . [Perhaps] "things are as they are because they were as they were." . . . "There must be an interplay between habit and creativity." . . "Could there be a kind of imagination working in nature?" . . . 16:32 Terence McKenna: "If the laws of nature are eternal, where were they before the big bang?" . . . . "The immense improbability that modern science rests on, but cares not to discuss, is this: The belief that the universe sprang from nothing in a single moment." . . . "History is the tracks in the sn

Guest speakers: Terence McKenna, Ralph Abraham, and Rupert Sheldrake PROGRAM NOTES: (Minutes : Seconds into program) 04:36 – Terence McKenna introduces the Trialogue concept and history 08:46 – Rupert Sheldrake introduces himself, talks about his theory of morphogenic resonance, and tells of his first meeting with Terence and Ralph 20:16 – Terence talks about his fascination with natural history, gives a little more background on his life, and explains how he came to develop his theory of novelty 32:50 – Ralph Abraham tells how he and Terence met, how Rupert joined the group, and he gives an overview of chaos theory and how it opened up previously unavailable areas of investigation to mathematical analysis. Then he explains how the three of them will attempt to conduct this, their first public trialogue. 46:55 – Terence "The flutter of the moth’s wings can trigger a hurricane. This is not a poetic statement. This is a fact of the matter within this kind of description of nature." "The world is not a

Guest speaker: Daniel Pinchbeck PROGRAM NOTES: Here is Daniel Pinchbeck speaking at the Oracle Gathering in Seattle at the end of October 2006 where he discussed "meeting the other". In this presentation he asks, are the entities met in aliens abductions, fairy stories, and psychedelic visions actual "others" or projected aspects of our own psyche? How can we understand and articulate these encounters in a meaningful way? Download MP3 PCs – Right click, select option Macs – Ctrl-Click, select option

Guest speaker: Lorenzo PROGRAM NOTES: This is a talk that Lorenzo gave at an Oracle Gathering in Seattle at the end of October 2006. In it he discusses three possible approaches to the 2012 meme: Muddling along, waiting for a mystical/magical transformation, or taking charge of your own life and planning for a personal change even though no major external events occur. Download MP3 PCs – Right click, select option Macs – Ctrl-Click, select option

Guest speaker: Dale Pendell PROGRAM NOTES: In his 2006 Palenque Norte lecture at Burning Man, Dale Pendell introduced the concept of Horizon Anarchism, and we are fortunate to be able to present this talk in its entirity in this edition of the Psychedelic Salon. If you think you know everyting there is to know about anarchism, you owe it to yourself to hear Dale’s talk about this interesting new approach. One of my favorite soundbites is "Isolation is one of the keys of state power. So it is very important for us to get together and have fun." Photo (at right) taken at Burning Man 2006 by Lorenzo Dale Pendell’s new book, Inspired Madness: The Gifts of Burning Man is now available in your local bookstore and in Lorenzo's Amazon store. Download MP3 PCs – Right click, select option Macs – Ctrl-Click, select option

Guest speaker: Nick Sand PROGRAM NOTES: In his 2006 Palenque Norte lecture at Burning Man, Nick Sand explains how best to use some of the more interesting combinations of sacred medicines. Additionally he answered a wide range of questions that included such diverse topics as the relationship of the atomic bomb to LSD and the reasons he left the quiet life of academia to create Orange Sunshine, which was considered to be some of the best acid available in the 1960s. Download MP3 PCs – Right click, select option Macs – Ctrl-Click, select option