Matters of the Mind IV

The mind in current human perception is described as follows: 'That which is responsible for one's thoughts and feelings; the seat of the faculty of reason.' Other qualities assumed to be properties of the mind are 'Recall or remembrance', 'An opinion formed by judging something' and 'Knowledge and intellectual ability' That is basically what the human mind is capable of expressing concerning the human mind. It is in no way mind blowing although most of us has had instances in his or her life in which their mind was boggled to a level beyond the power of words to express.

Cultures are as advanced as their language is. Anything we experience we attempt to put to words, try to describe. Even if things are not written down or otherwise recorded, our language determines the accuracy of the account that we record. At least that is the theory. It becomes more difficult to describe an event, though or feeling when words fail to describe the experience in a way that does justice to whatever we experienced. The possibility to express ourselves in language, images, sounds or shapes etc. has its limitations.

Or has it?

Consider this. The frames of reference that we were given, is given to us by religion, education, science etc. The food we eat, water (or other beverages) we drink, are also grown, purified or produced by others. Even the air we breathe, has been affected by so many affecting substances, entities or objects that we can never know what is in it. What is in the things we were taught, our nourishment and medication? Basically everyone is clueless about these matters. In addition, certain substances are declared illegal and / or hazardous, which resulted in most law abiding people being uninformed about the effect they have on our body and mind.

Most of the time authorities determine what is good for us, what is necessary and what is forbidden. There is very little room for any of us to make our own choices, do our own experiments and find out own way through space and time. But one only has to look at the current state of this planet and all life on it to be able to say that there is something very wrong with that way authorities are going about their responsibilities. If this does not ring a bell in your head, stop reading here and go do something else. If it does, continue to read.

Extended or unconditioned vision

There is a book titled "The Cosmic Serpent", subtitled 'DNA and the origins of knowledge' written by Jeremy Narby and there is a video presentation held by Terence McKenna called 'Evolving Times' That elaborate from distinguished points of view on the matters that I would like to elaborate on in this blog entry. That matter is removing the boundaries that limit your mind. To people conditioned by common western perception the contents of both the book and the video may seem radical, but you might ask yourself why you consider it to be so. Is it because you have come to that conclusion by your personal thinking process or is it radical because general opinion (fully controlled by mainstream media) has told you it is radical?

If you think the latter is the case and you agree with it, stop reading here and go do something else. If not, you may want to click the link that will lead you to the McKenna video clip and if what he says makes sense to you, you may consider to buy the book mentioned above this paragraph. One thing about the book that struck me was the fact that the writer of this book was struck by the way dwellers of the Peruvian Amazon area conducted agriculture. From a western (scientific) view their gardens were totally chaotic, but provided all the indigenous people needed, food, medication and resources to make tools. When the author asked where they learned how to maintain them, the answer sounded like this:

"You know, brother Jeremy, to understand what interests you, you must drink ayahuasca."

That was not the answer that fitted snugly in the frame of reference of a western mind, to which the indigenous person added after noticing his amazement:

"Some say it is occult, which is true, but it is not evil. In truth, ayahuasca is the television of the forest. You can see images and learn things."

In his video presentation McKenna says something similar when asked if AI (artificial intelligence) has a future, whereby the person who asked the question probably meant to say that it might become a threat to humans if computers became too smart (for us). McKenna answered that the mushroom told him that computers are computers and that they would develop their own type of intelligence and that humans would evolve into their specific kind of intelligence.

The common denominator in these two events is the psychedelic substance (psilocybin) that has the tendency to remove limitations from our perception and what is more it is able to provide concrete information that is not bound to one particular space and time. It was able to show the Peruvians how to establish and work their gardens and explained to McKenna what would take place in the future concerning the development of AI in relation to humankind.

In other words: the blurring of boundaries of perception, allowing the mind to go beyond the limits induced by all (allowed, legal) sources of knowledge of society, gave information that was inaccessible without the use of the psychedelic chemicals and it gave visions of the future. Now imagine that each human being would have these capacities all the time and everywhere. Would you think the current hierarchy of this world and its power structures could be maintained? If you would conclude that this would not be the case, could it perhaps be the reason why certain plants and substances are intentionally declared illegal?

In other words: If you were in a position of power in this world and able to control such matters, enjoying all privileges you can imagine and never having to worry about anything but to stay in power so you can continue to enjoy your privileges, would you not forbid the use of these substances to remain in power?

Have a nice day thinking for yourself about these matters.