That was well researched and interesting. Ex nurse and a Christian, so found it fascinating on the biological and daemon muse view. Look forward to more.
Did you happen to see at any point the episode of Taxi where Jim, as Elaine’s date to a high-society party, volunteers to plays the piano after the concerned host explains to Elaine that the pianist she hired never showed up?
The end of your essay made me think of it… happily, as it was my father’s favorite episode. You might get a chuckle out of it too.
I should clarify… I in no way meant to dismiss the effect of what you wrote. I actually found that Shanon piano story very moving… it sort of gave me chills as I read it. And yet it still brought the episode to mind, because even though only fictitious comedy, it was still as though Jim was taken over by (or “infused with the power of”) some other force.
And also, what he says about m-m-music lessons… well, that is what made the entire scene… and makes it too good not to share. (Hopefully you already had a chance to watch and I haven’t spoiled it. 😉) It gets me every time. And I still hear my dad’s laughter every time he watched it.
Good questions. I think the daemon muse (and the wider concept of the daimon, such as in Patrick Harpur's "Daimonic Reality") are rooted in the unconscious, and the Jungian idea of the conscious mind as one part of the wider psyche. Psilocybin (magic mushrooms) at high doses offers similar possibilities to those mentioned for DMT, but with a greater lucidity that allows you to write during the experience, and observe how the process of writing is altered by the experience you are writing about. The sense of otherness, the elevated "numinosity" and the felt presence of alien or godlike entities, is very powerful. It's surprising to experience complete sentences rising up from the depths into consciousness, as though coming from elsewhere. My take is that this type of dissociation is revealing the surprising extent to which many thought processes take place below the threshold of consciousness, leading to familiar experiences of creative flow, of thoughts and ideas "arising" rather than being constantly under full conscious control. I think the key thing (especially with psychedelics) is to recognise all this as part of the wider "self." The conscious mind is like a reception desk for some vast inscrutable machine such as the one in 'Forbidden Planet,' but it's still "you." It's not so much a question of locating this activity in some isolated part of the the brain; this "autonomous intelligence, force or presence" is itself "the brain" as it instantiates the psyche as an integrated whole, conscious and unconscious. To encounter the unconscious as an "other" with psychedelics can be like entering the abyss and getting lost in the underworld. I look forward to the next instalment...
I quite agree with what you say: "The conscious mind is like a reception desk for some vast inscrutable machine such as the one in 'Forbidden Planet,' but it's still 'you.' It's not so much a question of locating this activity in some isolated part of the the brain; this 'autonomous intelligence, force or presence' is itself 'the brain' as it instantiates the psyche as an integrated whole, conscious and unconscious."
That's very well put. And again, you get a yes from me. The current post on DMT and the pineal, as well as the next post on Stan Gooch's ideas about the cerebellum, as well as any others that might take shape, in the series are intended as much (or more) for their evocation value as for any specific "answer" they might yield. Indeed, as you say, what really matters in the end is the clarified recognition of thought's automaticity, and more, the automatic nature of the entire mental process.
I'm a confirmed Patrick Harpur fan, btw, with Daimonic Reality ranking very high on my list of favorite books.
I think that the perceived credibility of any thesis or scientific hypothesis about mind, creativity etc, and of any dualization of illusion and reality, crucially depends on the state of consciousness of the person articulating it, witness the choice between theoneurology and neurotheology, or the originative vs derived role of the pineal gland and DMT in creativity and mysticism.
NDEs and psychedelic drugs show how the objective,"waking", state in which we ordinarily live can be radically invalidated and revealed as one of many possible ways of structuring the excessive richness of being, as one of infinite streams in the maelstrom in which everything is thinkable, including the origin of thought itself, the cyclone whose unpaired eye I AM.
I'm totally with you, Gabriele. William James's classic observation from THE VARIETIES OF RELIGIOUS experience comes to mind: "Our normal waking consciousness, rational consciousness as we call it, is but one special type of consciousness, whilst all about it, parted from it by the filmiest of screens, there lie potential forms of consciousness entirely different. We may go through life without suspecting their existence; but apply the requisite stimulus, and at a touch they are there in all their completeness, definite types of mentality which probably somewhere have their field of application and adaptation. No account of the universe in its totality can be final which leaves these other forms of consciousness quite disregarded.”
Brill, thank you! Particularly taken by the last footnote about the lungs. Perhaps there’s something here that speaks to the transcendent possibilities of singing and playing wind instruments? With various traditions that utilise droning instruments or chant (I’m thinking, for example, of Buddhist, Australian aboriginal, Gnawa ceremonies, plainchant), the attention is typically drawn to the meditative quality of the repetitive sound and activity, but I don’t think I’ve come across anyone pointing specifically towards the possibility of such processes promoting endogenous production of DMT via the lungs. The honkyoku tradition of shakuhachi music, too, is understood first and foremost as a practice of meditation, cultivating higher states through the awareness and deepening of the breathing, given greater physiological clarity if Strassman’s speculations might be correct.
Like you, I was quite struck when Strassman made that comments about the lungs. I dig your spontaneous speculations here, which are nicely evocative of possibilities.
That was well researched and interesting. Ex nurse and a Christian, so found it fascinating on the biological and daemon muse view. Look forward to more.
I'm glad it appealed to you, Rena. Hope the next installment likewise hits right.
Did you happen to see at any point the episode of Taxi where Jim, as Elaine’s date to a high-society party, volunteers to plays the piano after the concerned host explains to Elaine that the pianist she hired never showed up?
The end of your essay made me think of it… happily, as it was my father’s favorite episode. You might get a chuckle out of it too.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=QybXY1vWUxI&list=PLbw_IAQVaCc2Sm1i2Mu6bvIImpJ6VGzgF&index=1&pp=iAQB
Great essay. Looking forward to your next installation on this subject.
I have not, in fact, seen that episode, but I always liked that show, and I appreciate the heads up and link. Thanks, Georgia! This should be fun.
I should clarify… I in no way meant to dismiss the effect of what you wrote. I actually found that Shanon piano story very moving… it sort of gave me chills as I read it. And yet it still brought the episode to mind, because even though only fictitious comedy, it was still as though Jim was taken over by (or “infused with the power of”) some other force.
And also, what he says about m-m-music lessons… well, that is what made the entire scene… and makes it too good not to share. (Hopefully you already had a chance to watch and I haven’t spoiled it. 😉) It gets me every time. And I still hear my dad’s laughter every time he watched it.
Good questions. I think the daemon muse (and the wider concept of the daimon, such as in Patrick Harpur's "Daimonic Reality") are rooted in the unconscious, and the Jungian idea of the conscious mind as one part of the wider psyche. Psilocybin (magic mushrooms) at high doses offers similar possibilities to those mentioned for DMT, but with a greater lucidity that allows you to write during the experience, and observe how the process of writing is altered by the experience you are writing about. The sense of otherness, the elevated "numinosity" and the felt presence of alien or godlike entities, is very powerful. It's surprising to experience complete sentences rising up from the depths into consciousness, as though coming from elsewhere. My take is that this type of dissociation is revealing the surprising extent to which many thought processes take place below the threshold of consciousness, leading to familiar experiences of creative flow, of thoughts and ideas "arising" rather than being constantly under full conscious control. I think the key thing (especially with psychedelics) is to recognise all this as part of the wider "self." The conscious mind is like a reception desk for some vast inscrutable machine such as the one in 'Forbidden Planet,' but it's still "you." It's not so much a question of locating this activity in some isolated part of the the brain; this "autonomous intelligence, force or presence" is itself "the brain" as it instantiates the psyche as an integrated whole, conscious and unconscious. To encounter the unconscious as an "other" with psychedelics can be like entering the abyss and getting lost in the underworld. I look forward to the next instalment...
I quite agree with what you say: "The conscious mind is like a reception desk for some vast inscrutable machine such as the one in 'Forbidden Planet,' but it's still 'you.' It's not so much a question of locating this activity in some isolated part of the the brain; this 'autonomous intelligence, force or presence' is itself 'the brain' as it instantiates the psyche as an integrated whole, conscious and unconscious."
That's very well put. And again, you get a yes from me. The current post on DMT and the pineal, as well as the next post on Stan Gooch's ideas about the cerebellum, as well as any others that might take shape, in the series are intended as much (or more) for their evocation value as for any specific "answer" they might yield. Indeed, as you say, what really matters in the end is the clarified recognition of thought's automaticity, and more, the automatic nature of the entire mental process.
I'm a confirmed Patrick Harpur fan, btw, with Daimonic Reality ranking very high on my list of favorite books.
I think that the perceived credibility of any thesis or scientific hypothesis about mind, creativity etc, and of any dualization of illusion and reality, crucially depends on the state of consciousness of the person articulating it, witness the choice between theoneurology and neurotheology, or the originative vs derived role of the pineal gland and DMT in creativity and mysticism.
NDEs and psychedelic drugs show how the objective,"waking", state in which we ordinarily live can be radically invalidated and revealed as one of many possible ways of structuring the excessive richness of being, as one of infinite streams in the maelstrom in which everything is thinkable, including the origin of thought itself, the cyclone whose unpaired eye I AM.
I'm totally with you, Gabriele. William James's classic observation from THE VARIETIES OF RELIGIOUS experience comes to mind: "Our normal waking consciousness, rational consciousness as we call it, is but one special type of consciousness, whilst all about it, parted from it by the filmiest of screens, there lie potential forms of consciousness entirely different. We may go through life without suspecting their existence; but apply the requisite stimulus, and at a touch they are there in all their completeness, definite types of mentality which probably somewhere have their field of application and adaptation. No account of the universe in its totality can be final which leaves these other forms of consciousness quite disregarded.”
Brill, thank you! Particularly taken by the last footnote about the lungs. Perhaps there’s something here that speaks to the transcendent possibilities of singing and playing wind instruments? With various traditions that utilise droning instruments or chant (I’m thinking, for example, of Buddhist, Australian aboriginal, Gnawa ceremonies, plainchant), the attention is typically drawn to the meditative quality of the repetitive sound and activity, but I don’t think I’ve come across anyone pointing specifically towards the possibility of such processes promoting endogenous production of DMT via the lungs. The honkyoku tradition of shakuhachi music, too, is understood first and foremost as a practice of meditation, cultivating higher states through the awareness and deepening of the breathing, given greater physiological clarity if Strassman’s speculations might be correct.
Like you, I was quite struck when Strassman made that comments about the lungs. I dig your spontaneous speculations here, which are nicely evocative of possibilities.