Drugs

I have long been fascinated with the ideas that Terence McKenna put forth in his 1993 book Food of the Gods, paramount among them the thought that psilocybin in the diet of early humans was instrumental in the development of language, music, and culture.²

The primate tendency to form dominance hierarchies was temporarily interrupted for about 100,000 years by the psilocybin in the Paleolithic diet. This behavioral style of male dominance was chemically interrupted by psilocybin in the diet, so it allowed the style of social organization called partnership to emerge, and that occurred during the period when language, altruism, planning, moral values, esthetics, music and so forth—everything associated with humanness—emerged during that period. About 12,000 years ago, the mushrooms left the human diet because they were no longer available due to climatological change and the previous tendency to form dominance hierarchies re-emerged. So, this is what the historic dilemma is: we have all these qualities that were evolved during the suppression of male dominance that are now somewhat at loggerheads with the tendency of society in a situation of re-established male dominance. The Paleolithic situation was orgiastic and this made it impossible for men to trace lines of male paternity, consequently there was no concept of “my children” for men. It was “our children” meaning “we, the group.” This orgiastic style worked into the effects of higher doses of psilocybin to create a situation of frequent boundary dissolution. That’s what sexuality is, on one level, about and it’s what psychedelics, on another level, are about. With the termination of this orgiastic, mushroom using style of existence, a very neurotic and repressive social style emerged which is now worldwide and typical of western civilization.—Terence McKenna³

It’s one of those mentally stimulating speculations that McKenna was so good at producing. Alas, short of a time machine, we have little way to prove his hypothesis. But just imagine if some ritual or chemical circumstances would fire up mirror neurons for a whole protohuman tribe at once. The result would be a big, boundary-dissolving group experience. Hell, it would probably be a big orgy. As I write this piece, brain scan studies involving psilocybin are underway, so we soon may know if McKenna’s fungal friends also activate the parts of our brains that allow us to share experience and dissolve the ego boundaries that, in part, define our present culture. I think it’s a fair bet, with an additional bonus, perhaps. Recent genomic studies of LSD demonstrate that acid very specifically targets genes involved with neuroplasticity, with the brain’s ability to rewire itself and learn on a deep level. I would be surprised if psilocybin didn’t also express a similar set of genes. If both these speculations prove true, then we have substances that not only can aid in the dissolution of ego boundaries, but also encode this experience in the brain as a fundamental way of experiencing the world.

Additional evidence that psychedelic drugs can access the mirror neuron system and model-building faculties of the brain comes in the form of, you guessed it, entities. Some, but not all, of these substances can induce states in which users report contact with entities of all different kinds, including the God of monotheistic religions, elves, angels, demons, plant spirits, power animals, the spirits of other humans, and cartoon characters. A particularly well-known phenomenon, for instance, is the experience of “elves” associated with the use of the tryptamine drug DMT.⁴

When we perceive an experience, our minds can be aware of only a limited amount of information. A vast amount of information passes by our conscious minds. Some of this is obvious: there are wavelengths of light and sound that we are unequipped to perceive. There are processes happening on an extremely small level—among molecules, atoms, and subatomic particles—and there are processes happening on a vast scale, including the motion of the planet, sun, solar system, and galaxies. But all of that information—and more—is contained or implied in most experiences. When we change our perceptions using a drug or plant medicine, we change the way our brains process perceptions. Suddenly a different range of information from the same experience can be available to us. Our tendency to recognize entities will find and represent to us the patterns of information that reflect a whole—and we perceive elves, demons, angels, gods, and other imaginary friends of various sorts, who may display a unique type of wisdom.

The psychoactive plants earn human or entity names: cannabis is marijuana, Mary Jane; Salvia divinorum is Sally or, in Mazatec lore, the herb of Maria the shepherdess; psilocybin mushrooms are Teonanacatl, flesh of the gods; the mescaline-containing San Pedro cactus is named for Saint Peter; Iboga is the guide to the ancestors;⁵ and the powerfully psychoactive Datura plant is called the Devil’s Root.

Many of these plants are considered to possess indwelling spirits, an intelligence that seeks to communicate with humans through the psychedelic experience. In our ongoing metaphor of neurological modeling, we can understand these spirits as interactions between the state induced by the medicine and our entity-delineating brain. As we might with any state that we experience, we can access a state entity and derive information from it. The state represents chemical information from the plant and the state entity can communicate that information and a wide variety of related, implied information.

For instance, the cannabis plant contains a rather lengthy list of potentially psychoactive substances called cannabinoids. The two best studied are THC and CBD. THC is more psychedelic and stimulates arousal of the brain and increased awareness, among other things. CBD, on the other hand, tends to slow things down, relax, and send consciousness toward snooze-land. Every cannabis plant has a unique balance of cannabinoids, including a unique ratio of THC to CBD. This balance of chemicals depends on genetics of the plant, growth conditions, timing of the harvest, and many other variables, all of which may be conveyed to a state entity on an unconscious level. That plant-specific information can in turn imply information about trade routes and transportation among humans, about the climate in the part of the world where the plant was grown, about the people who live in that part of the world and tend crops, and more general information about the world in which all of this happens. As the state entity is also based in your brain, it can offer information about the interaction of your consciousness with the world that the plant knows.

Please note: for the following exercises, it is assumed that you have researched and have knowledge of whatever psychoactive substance you are employing, including proper dosage, method of use, contraindications, effects of the substance, duration of the dose, legal status, and anything else pertinent to the exercise and your general well-being. A good place to research such things is www.erowid.org.

This next exercise uses simple evocation techniques to help create easy, fluent communication with plant spirits. Maintaining concentration may be more or less difficult in the presence of a plant spirit. Having a visual or physical reminder of the ritual process can be helpful. This can be accomplished by placing a symbol, a notebook for recording results, or even a copy of this book, somewhere that you’ll be sure to see it, within the ritual space. Enjoy the woohoo, too!

Exercise A2.1 Contacting
the Spirit of a Plant Medicine

 

Banish your ritual space.

 

Take a dose of the substance, in whatever way is safest and most effective for you. If the substance is one for which the intensity or specific effects may prevent conscious ritual work, then you can work with the state as it begins, as it wears off, or with a memory of the experience.

 

Pay attention to the way the medicine makes you feel, inside. There may also be visual, auditory, olfactory, or gustatory perceptions at the same time; for now pay attention to the feeling. Pay very careful attention to HOW it makes you feel, the structure of the feeling. Where does the feeling start? What kind of feeling is it? Where does it go as it develops? Does it continue to move? Is it static? Follow it through to its peak. Then decide: “If this feeling had a color, what would it be?” Imagine the color (or colors) in your body in exactly the areas where the feeling is experienced. Then imagine that you are taking the colored shape out of your body and flip it around to face you. Place it on the floor outside your circle and breathe deeply, feeding it breath and energy on each exhalation.

 

Keep breathing and feeding it energy until it transforms. The entity may change size, shape, position, movement, brightness, color, or any other factor. Once it has transformed, imagine you are communicating with it. Ask it what it wants to be called. Ask it what it can teach you that it has never before revealed. Ask it how you can feel really good more often or how you can apply its wisdom in your life. Ask about specific situations in your life that you hope to learn about. Find out whatever you can from it. Thank it for everything.

 

Closing—Absorb the entity and anything else you may have created in your aura during this operation.

 

Repeat Banishing.

Again, there are numerous variations. The energy flow can be enjoyed and anchored without externalizing it. The plant spirit state entity can add woohoo to larger entities, charge sigils, or be sent off to accomplish tasks. Similarly, you can explore or include drug states with most of the energy flow and entity-based exercises in this book. Different drugs will combine better with different exercises. Exploring even a small part of this woohooful wonderland of choices should be attempted only with a very hardy constitution and a bold spirit of adventure.

Even small doses of some substances can enhance neuroplasticity in practical and controllable ways. A recent study involving a combination of hypnosis and nitrous oxide demonstrated that a small, steady dose of the anesthetic gas enhanced visualization abilities and increased the suggestibility of the subjects.⁶ Increased suggestibility is a concept from the field of hypnosis that essentially means that the subject can remember and follow instructions more easily and may be, in general, more open to learning. This points toward neuroplasticity.

Aleister Crowley suggested that larger, acute doses of nitrous oxide could offer students a taste of the mystical experience, knowledge that would allow them to know when their yoga practice was yielding fruit.⁷ This brings us to an exciting area of research. Nitrous oxide is a commonly used anesthetic that works by blocking the neurotransmitter glutamate at receptor sites called NMDA (N-methyl D-aspartate) receptors. Lower doses, as noted, may increase neuroplasticity and learning and larger doses may quiet the “me” spot in the brain in a way that allows for a boundary-less experience—and even higher doses cross the line into unconsciousness, entirely extinguishing the concept of “me” (and most other concepts as well). Along the way, entities and other fun phenomena may be perceived.

Another well-studied drug with a similar biochemical effect as nitrous oxide is the general anesthetic ketamine. The effects of oral, snorted, or injected ketamine last significantly longer than an inhalation of laughing gas, but some of the same odd things occur—and maybe even some odder ones. Higher doses of ketamine seem to reboot the brain in a way that allows for sweeping and lasting change to be experienced. Several studies have now confirmed that severely depressed patients given a single psychedelic dose of the drug will demonstrate marked improvement that lasts for months.⁸ Pharmaceutical companies are now scrambling to create versions that can be patented for use as a psychiatric medication.

The “brain reboot” experience is an interesting one from our point of view. Essentially, some aspects of the brain seem to shut down, and then, when the brain starts up again, it goes searching for reality, a seemingly very basic transderivational search that, one by one, restores or replaces some of the basic elements of personal epistemology. That is, what you are thinking about when you come back from the “k-hole” becomes, to a large extent, your reality. This experience can be influenced by the “set and setting,” what we refer to as the ritual frame.⁹

If, as I’ve speculated, transderivational search is an actual delineation of reality or a shift into subtly alternate universes, then NMDA antagonist drugs such as nitrous or ketamine may prove to be powerful tools for both therapeutic and magical purposes. Very high doses of other psychedelics, including LSD and DMT, may also affect the NMDA receptors in a similar way. This experience has been equated with the neurochemical pathway of the Near Death Experience,¹⁰ which also seems to offer a “brain reboot,” temporary (but radical) changes in experience of “self,” and lasting improvements in mood and epistemology.

Of course, these death/rebirth, self/no-self experiences are well over the line into imprinting and initiation and may be explored in the context of the Initiation Ritual Frame, described in a previous chapter.

[contents]