Permanent
Woohoo

Imprints

How would you like to have all the woohoo you could ever want, whenever you’d like, forever? Permanent, or nearly permanent, neurological change is possible—it happens every day. The usual rules apply: intensity, duration, and novelty change the way the brain organizes itself, both physiologically and psychologically. If an experience is really, really intense, lasts a really long time, and is totally, mind-blowingly new to us, the change can be dramatic. And if the new information carried by the experience encourages fundamental change in the way we think and behave, then the changes may be global, influencing every part of the brain.

In classic animal behavior studies, Konrad Lorenz proposed a type of learning that appeared to be a part of the basic biological drives of birds and mammals. He noticed that at certain points in an animal’s life, it seems to be more susceptible to very suddenly taking on various preferences and life directives. For instance, he found that when a baby bird hatched from its egg, it would bond with the first thing that it saw. Usually, in a natural setting, that would be mommy bird, however, in laboratory settings Lorenz enticed birds to bond with ping-pong balls and other inanimate objects. When fully grown, these birds continued to identify with the ping-pong balls and would ultimately attempt to mate with them. It seemed that much of an animal’s psyche would form around these deeply learned patterns, which Lorenz called imprints. That is, if a bird imprints on a ping-pong ball, it identifies with that ball to the point where it believes and bases its behavior on the knowledge that it is, in fact, a ping-pong ball. The bird would then choose to hang out with ping-pong balls and eventually chooses one for a mate.¹ In human terms, the acquisition of imprints would mark our rites of passage: birth, taking our place in the family, gaining communication skills, sexual maturation, marriage, menopause, death.

Timothy Leary proposed that imprints are acquired at biologically key moments in a human’s life, that we form basic orientations for comfort, territoriality, language, and sex as we mature. He also proposed the possibility of “higher” imprints, which would account for basic orientations involved in such metaphysical concepts as somatic energy, synchronicity, meta-programming, and cosmic consciousness. Taking it beyond Lorenz, Leary believed that imprints could be acquired not only at the biologically preordained moments, but at moments of extreme stress, shock, ecstasy, and so on. More specifically, he proposed that chemical agents such as LSD could induce states in the human brain that would allow for re-imprinting or new imprints to be formed.²

In this paradigm, most of the learning we do falls into the category of conditioning. Learning that your friend’s telephone number has changed, or which bus to take to get to work would be considered conditioning—and if you don’t reinforce this kind of knowledge or behavior, you could conceivably forget it. Imprinting is a much more intense and permanent kind of learning that sets our basic self-concepts, our sexual preferences, our basic personality traits, our meta-programs, and our general strategies for learning and approaching the world. This relates more to the structure of what we learn and creates patterns for how we deal with the content.

Lorenz’s theories were created before neuroscientists began to suspect the processes of neuroplasticity. Based on what we know now, there seems to be no clearly delineated boundary between conditioning and imprinting, but more of a gradient between the two. For our purposes, when, through intensity, novelty, or duration, neuroplasticity reaches a point where changes are made globally in the brain, we’ll call that imprinting.

Initiation

Magicians and shamans have long taken advantage of these tendencies in the human brain. Imprinting is important to the concept of initiation. Initiation in a shamanistic or magical tradition is usually marked by a ritual that either celebrates a major neurological change in the candidate, or induces major neurological change in the candidate. The first type is more common in contemporary magical societies, but nonetheless, the emphasis is on acknowledging a change in personal epistemology on a deep, “hard-wired” level—an imprint, in Lorenz-speak. The second form of initiation is more common in indigenous shamanistic settings in which the initiation ritual induces intense neuroplasticity (an imprint, again) by use of shock, fear, pain, fasting, exhaustion, ecstasy, altered states, etc. When the point of imprint vulnerability (intense neuroplasticity) is reached, the new epistemology, the new personal narrative, is installed through ritual. The candidate leaves behind his or her old life and becomes a full member of the tribe or a shaman. (Of course, the contemporary magical initiations may also induce change and the traditional shamanistic ones also may celebrate turning points in the candidate’s life, as well as inducing neurological change.)
In some magical and shamanistic traditions, the point of susceptibility may be induced by the use of psychoactive drugs. While this remains fairly controversial in our society, what we know about the gene expression of the psychedelic experience makes a very plausible case for Leary’s ideas about LSD and imprinting.³ This may suggest both the possibilities of the use of entheogens and also their dangers; consciously or ritually oriented use can be enormously useful while random or recreational use may open us up to unwanted imprints that can be very difficult to change back.

Which brings us to a major point about initiation: these are deep and, for practical purposes, permanent changes that can affect many, if not all, aspects of life. Be very, very sure that it is what you want before inducing deep neurological change. Most changes that we choose to make in our lives and most issues that we decide to address can be effectively completed and resolved with much simpler methods. Usually we choose to work within our existing imprints, within the narrative landscape already familiar to us, rather than, in effect, changing our whole world.

Rites and Wrongs

In terms of what we have discussed so far, initiation is a way to make major rewrites to the personal narrative that defines the sense of self. These narratives can be mundane in nature or mythic in scope. Some of the initiation-like rite of passage rituals that we find, naturally occurring so to speak, in our society tend to reinforce the cultural status quo of standardized narratives. A child’s first day at school is often a scary one, yet the child knows that this is a part of growing up and becoming an adult human. The fear can be enough to induce extreme neuroplasticity, yet the lessons imprinted are rarely those about reading, writing, or arithmetic; they are about the child’s place among his or her peers, about the hierarchy and authority of the teachers, and societal roles in general.

Likewise, marriage rituals can induce neuroplasticity via fear, pomp and spectacle, exhaustion, group participation, and the liberal use of intoxicants. While these can be beautiful rituals and absolutely wonderful if consciously chosen and directed, in their usual form they reinforce standard societal concepts of family and sexual relationships whether they are appropriate for those involved or not. Indeed, marriage rituals often seem more effective at imprinting gender roles than the stated intent of bonding-for-life. In some contemporary cultural settings, the unspoken presupposition of the wedding ritual is that only when you are married do you take your place as a full, adult member of the group. The current controversy over gay marriage probably reflects more about the nature of marriage as a culturally sanctioned imprinting ritual than some of the political and religious ideas commonly expressed during debate.

If we accept only the narratives our society hands to us, our lives will follow the script of an old TV sitcom. Life rarely follows such simplistic narratives, and things can get pretty confusing if our brain is following a predictable Father Knows Best plot while the world offers up the complexity and diversity of real life. Use these techniques to give the story of your life some woohoo.

Initiation rituals can be used to improve your life or hinder it. In many parts of the world, a common shamanistic and magical initiation rite involves the simulated or near death of the candidate. In Inuit shamanism, for instance, the initiate is buried in snow, as if dead, and left until nearly so. Upon his or her exhumation and resurrection, the subject is given the symbols and knowledge of the tribal shaman, which, following such a ritual, will be etched deeply upon the brain.⁴ In Haitian voodoo, however, a similar ritual is used to create the legendary zombies. The subject is given a drug made from a fish neurotoxin that simulates death, is buried, and then later exhumed. Upon “revivification,” the subject is told that he or she is, in fact, dead and has been resurrected at the pleasure of the sorcerer. The subjects take on an imprint in which they believe they are willing “undead” servants.⁵

Okay, so that’s the caveat before you get involved in the massive rewiring of your neurology—make sure any changes are something that improves your life, something you have chosen and can appreciate. Drone or free individual, zombie or shaman, it’s up to you.

The other warning of note here is that with many of the traditional methods, you could hurt yourself or go just that little bit beyond “near death” into the real thing. In fact, that’s the point. Without the possibility of real danger, the candidate’s commitment to the ritual may be incomplete and the intensity insufficient. With some knowledge of the factors that contribute to neurological change, however, initiation rites can be created that are not only much safer, but full of woohoo as well. Fear can build intensity, but so can ecstasy.

Permanent Structures

The actual rituals employed in initiation are similar to the ritual structures used in other contexts. The difference comes from the increased intensity, duration, or novelty. Intensity may be the most common factor in these methods, though we do also find duration and novelty. For instance, duration may be applied in techniques that employ fasting or isolation, such as a “vision quest,” in which the candidate is sent out into the wilderness to wait for a particular experience. In this kind of ritual, the candidate is given operative metaphors and mythology prior to leaving on the quest—the tales of ancestors or gods who have an interest in him or her, for instance—and when the intensity and duration of the experience reach a threshold level, the vision is obtained and the candidate’s life is changed. The mythic narrative may be supported by prayer, chanting, dancing, drumming, or dreaming techniques throughout the quest.

Often the rituals are quicker and more intense. In some cultures, rites of passage are marked by ritual circumcision, scarring, or tattooing and the pain from these activities drives neurological change that helps to define the candidate’s place in the society. Similar techniques can be used for more personal initiation rites. Some people will get tattoos or piercings that represent symbolic change in personal narrative or a dedication to a particular path. If this is performed in ritual circumstances, it can be quite effective and, indeed, permanent.

Sex rites can be quite powerful. Arousal and infatuation may cause neuroplasticity related to interpersonal bonding. Orgasm, particularly ones experienced as being fully satisfying, can induce change in the brain. Sexual activities that push one into novelty, or induce intense emotional states through the breaking of cultural taboo may also be quite powerful agents of neuroplasticity.

Dancing, running, walking, martial arts, and other kinds of physical movement can be powerful stimuli for neuroplasticity. For the most part, these must be of considerable intensity, duration, or novelty. However, movement has such a strong correlation with neuroplasticity,⁶ incorporating even small amounts of movement can benefit most ritual techniques.

Other activities that, when pushed to extreme woohoo, may also be of use include chanting, singing, spinning, pranayama, firewalking, bungee-jumping, skydiving, high diving, spacewalking, childbirth, stage fright, blood loss, asphyxiation, fasting, and pretty much anything else that takes you to the extremes of human experience. Some of these are really dangerous, and the danger is part of their effectiveness. Again, this kind of initiation ritual is to be used only with great forethought—and the safer methods are usually just as effective. Ecstasy will change your brain as well as fear.

The following exercise introduces more intense neuroplasticity-inducing experiences to the ritual frames we have already explored.

Exercise 11.1 Initiation Ritual Frame

 

Select a set of elements and develop a cloud as in the “Elementary Cloud” and “Silver Lining” techniques. Include as much detail as possible. Explore every combination of drawing in, stepping into, and evoking and invoking at every stage of the process.

 

Make great big entities for each of your elements and place them in appropriate places. Have actual humans step into them and perform in their roles, if possible.

 

Internalize and externalize the symbols of your elements and the overall shape of your cloud as much as possible. This may include developing rhythms or chants for each element, creating visual symbols to place within view, verbal descriptions or poetry, and anything else you can think of to place the symbols before your senses and in your mind. If you have humans performing in the roles of the god/esses, they can chant, drum, sing, draw, or engage in other activities specific to the entities.

 

Move through this internal and/or external environment as you use a technique to induce extreme neuroplasticity. Enflame yourself with praying, dance your ass off, expand the hell out of your mind, take yourself well beyond your previous experience.

 

Maintain continuous exposure to the metaphor/elements/entities that define the desired imprint before, during, and immediately after any neuroplasticity-inducing activities.

 

When the ritual is complete, reabsorb all imaginings and go enjoy your life.

Once again, these general guidelines can be adapted to a wide variety of methods and for diverse content. It’s your mind; make the ritual your own.

[contents]