a mystic and a mind: Psychedelic mushrooms and the death experience

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Psychedelic mushrooms and the death experience

A remarkable article in the NY Times in the Sunday Magazine about research on psychedelic mushrooms. A very long and well researched article on this subject. You typically don't see much about this because of peoples misperceptions about the drug. Even trying to have a reasonable discussion about these drugs can be difficult. Many people have a very negative impression, and this is the direct result of a determined propaganda campaign. This negative propaganda is a result of Leary and others in the 60's promoting the use of psychedelics as miraculous substances that everyone should take. This was grossly irresponsible. These drugs are powerful and should not be used casually. Set, setting, dose, and preparation are critical to creating the desired experience. The Magic Bus crew was even worse. Had they steered people in the right direction, with careful introductions, explanations and support they could have learned more and not stirred up such a backlash.

Cultures where psychoactive drugs are used as a part of ritual to steer people through the stages of life and to help with crises do not have problems of casual use and abuse. This comes from not having a structure for use and a place in society for these materials.

The biggest barrier to wider acceptance of these drugs is organized religion. Religions do not want their flocks to be told that they don't need an intermediary or interpreter for god. They can and should experience it for themselves. This is part of the ongoing battle between secular and religious factions in our nation.

We need to start by getting approval for more research. Though the big drug companies are not interested as there is not enough profit for them, funding could still be obtained if it were legal. There a plenty of highly successful people (Steve Jobs, e.g.)who have used these drugs. It wouldn't take much money to do a lot of research.

Be sure to read the comments to the article. There is a lot of interest in this subject from people who would like to have had some way to help their loved ones. And a lot of the commenters have tried the drugs, showing just how common these materials are. Large numbers of people have taken them and many feel they have achieved important insights.

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The Self-Aware Universe

In the beginning, there was only energy. But it was energy so dense that it was denser than “matter.” This energy of infinite density started expanding, and in doing so, some of the energy “condensed” into matter. Matter attracts gravity. More matter attracts more gravity, and more matter. When a large enough mass of matter accumulates, it can condense to form a star. If the mass is large enough, nuclear reactions will begin and the stars produce energy, largely in the form of light. Now, the universe is illuminated.

The universe is now lit up, but it is still not very complex, especially in terms of chemistry. After the big bang, matter consists largely of hydrogen and helium, with only tiny amounts of a couple of other elements. This makes for boring chemistry, there only two elements, one is inert. The hydrogen can only form one compound, H₂.

Besides producing a lot of energy, stars also produce new elements. While small stars only produce elements up to carbon, the large stars can produce all of the elements in the periodic table. These elements are produced and dispersed when these large stars go supernova. These really large stars also don’t shine for very long, the largest will burn out in only 10 million years, or even less. Thus, for every billion years, there are hundreds of generations of supernovae seeding the universe with chemical elements.

Eventually, some of these elements recombine, by gravity, and form planets and stars. In a star, these elements don’t do much; stars are too hot for chemistry. But on a planet things can happen, if conditions are right. The temperature must be right. If it is too hot, large molecules are not stable and will decompose. If it is too cold, there is no molecular motion, and too little energy. Without molecular motion chemistry cannot occur, or will occur very slowly.

Out of all those elements in the periodic table, one stands out for its complex chemistry. That element is carbon. Carbon is the most moderate of elements, exactly in the middle of the table where it only wants to share electrons. Carbon wants to share electrons so much that it even combines with itself. One of these pure carbon substances is diamond, the hardest and most refractory material known. This is reflective of the strength of the C─C bond.

These strong C─C bonds make the backbone for large, complex molecules. When molecules become large, they have the potential to store information. Eventually, a molecule that could store large amounts of information developed. This molecule became so large that it could encode the universe. The universe now has a memory.

Retained information allows more complexity to develop, but retention of information requires energy, hence chemosynthesis developed, and much later, photosynthesis. The ability to utilize energy increases complexity.

Sensory systems develop out of a need to interact with the environment as an energy source. Eventually, observation and interaction with the environment allows for the possibility of manipulating the environment. Manipulating the environment requires intelligence. Eventually, through increasing complexity, life develops to ability to be self aware.

The Universe, through its own processes and laws, developed within itself the capacity of awareness. The Universe is now alive, it can now observe itself. We think of evolution as strictly a biological process, but biological evolution was only a portion of this process. Chemical evolution had to occur before that, and nuclear evolution first. All of it had to happen the way it did for us to be here. We are intimately connected to all of it, to all other forms of life, to the rocks, and the planet, and the solar system. The signatures of these processes are in our DNA, our chemical composition and our nuclear (isotopic) composition. We are from here.

We tend to think of ourselves as the end of this process, but where would it go from here if allowed to continue? What would be the ultimate expression of evolutionary advancement? What if that is a being that has the ability to closely observe and deeply understand the universe while at the same time being in a constant state of amazement and awe about the fact that this actually happened, and that they are privileged be alive? A being that understands the close relationship with everything else we see. We all came from the same place; we are all a result of amazing events that actually happened. What would it be like to live that way? What if you felt that deep connection and understanding all the time.