A discussion between Clark Heinrich and James Kent on the nature of mystical experience.

The following is an e-mail discussion between James Kent and Clark Heinrich which was prompted by an earlier discussion entitled The Case Against DMT Elves.

Clark Heinrich is the Author of Magic Mushrooms in Religion and Alchemy.

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From: "clark heinrich"
To: "James Kent"
Subject: elves
Date: Tuesday, June 22, 2004 10:43 AM

Hi James,

Good and observant article about DMT; I share your thoughts about it. I've had a hunch for a while that the drug somehow allows us to 'see' the workings of our own brains (I have 'seen' the bright waves of the substance entering my own brain, for example) and the autonomous (and semi-conscious?) functionaries to be found therein. Because of the brain's inherent tendency to impose form on the relatively formless, these functionaries take fleeting shapes. Think mitochondria, all dressed up with no place to go. It always seems to me that these 'entities' are more enchanted with me than I with them; that they are trying to impress me. Perhaps these strange brain critters become aware of us at the same time, and we mistake each other for gods.

Thanks for the thought-provocation.

Clark

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From: "James Kent"
To: "clark heinrich"
Subject: Re: elves
Date: Tuesday, June 22, 2004 9:34 PM

Hi Clark,

It's always nice to get replies to stuff I've written, especially from people who make an effort to inform themselves and publish their analysis. The whole thing about elves and aliens was whipped into the public consciousness via Terence, who despite being brilliant was also given to poetic flights of fancy, and was a natural-born yarn spinner, so who can blame him? But I've been down his rabbit hole and found that it doesn't lead anywhere, yet I suspect his memes will continue to burble at least until 12.21.2012, at which point anyone still clinging to the more fringe aspects of Terence's rap will have to look elsewhere for answers (unless we are actually sucked into a novelty spike and the archaic revival truly begins!).

The whole idea of individualized neural subroutines performing reflexive (recursive, feedbacked, etc.) analysis in synchrony with other neural subroutines is exactly the kind of model I am building with Psychedelic Information Theory. The split facets of ego simultaneously personalizing, alienating, obsessing over, idealizing, and demonizing all the others (played out in visual memory of course) can whip up a whole panoply of deeply personal and transpersonal soap operas in the span of just a few minutes. Get this voodoo working in a group of people and look out! The recursive meta levels of obsessive interpersonal analysis can cause empathy, alienation, ego boundaries, and groupthink go right through the roof!

That this "magical transcendence" can be so finely orchestrated and reproduced with a high level of success is really the most stunning thing about psychedelics and the cultural/ritual myths and trappings that accompany them. The technology is all there, the research is all there, the metaphysical (religious, mystical, shamanic) analysis is all there. It is just a matter of cataloging the bits of gray area that perform each sensory processing task along the pipe, and then diagramming the signal flow and circuitry interactions created when various systems get excited simultaneously and engage in this kind of reflexive (recursive) exercise. And, of course, the task of explaining the emotional and rational effects of such removed/heightened perspectives, and why/how these specific states of consciousness can (hopefully) elevate our understanding of self and/or bring us closer to understanding what God is and what it all means. I hope to demystify psychedelics to the point where people can see past the hype (pro and con) and evaluate the state of consciousness for what it is, which is, to say the least, one of the oddest and more remarkable experiences anyone is ever likely to have.

Peace, and keep up the good work.

James

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From: "clark heinrich"
To: "James Kent"
Subject: Re: elves
Date: Wednesday, June 23, 2004 10:30 AM

> I hope to demystify psychedelics to the point where people can see past the hype (pro and con) and evaluate the state of consciousness for what it is...

You've bitten off quite a chunk, but from what I read so far, you have the teeth and digestive power to make your project work. The whole world is in dire need of truth-telling, no less so the psychedelic world. It is a bit disheartening to see so many in the entheogen subculture clinging to the old forms in new dress (or, sometimes, the same old dress). Enlightenment, as you know, is a process, not an end product, and it takes constant work and application in order to make progress (read: get smarter). If we don't figure things out, who will? My new book addresses this directly. It's titled God Without Religion: Tools for the Modern Mystic. It's high (!) time to break completely from the old forms and go straight to the heart of these matters. You are doing it from the scientific side and I am doing it from the more subjective, ethereal side. Both are necessary and will lead, I think, to the same general conclusions. Religion, as it is understood today, has precious little to do with transcendent consciousness and how to achieve it. Even that old war-horse Buddhism, with its kinder and gentler Zen side, is too bound-up in the past and ritual for my taste. As with utilitarian architecture, form in spiritual matters should follow function; on your end this means no clinging to misconceptions and nonsense, while on my end -- the same. You have tackled entheogenic function in its most literal sense, while I grapple with its most figurative, and we meet on the ground of being itself.

Clark

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From: "James Kent"
To: "clark heinrich"
Subject: Re: elves
Date: Wednesday, June 23, 2004 2:03 PM

> It's high (!) time to break completely from the old forms and go straight to the heart of these matters.

Yes! I have long thought that we've been way overdue to move into a post-religious phase of human culture. I mean, 2000 years is long enough to drag around the corpses of our dead prophets. Science and rationalism, as well as direct independent verification, proves that anyone can be a mystic, and thus we are all prophets. Why offer slavish devotion to one prophet's dogma over another's, and why bother fighting about it or nit-picking the details? The answers to these questions have nothing to do with God, but everything to do with power, money, and control. The roots of the entrenched religious power structures are deep, they control much capital and hold many minds, and the success of even recent start-ups like Scientology, the Moonies, the Raelians (and by the same token TM's fringe Timewave-Zero devotees) proves that even in the age of reason many people still prefer their prophets and dogma to be fanciful and full of science fiction.

Oh well, perhaps we are in the "death throws" of organized religion and the latest round of hating, pulping, and beheading of one another will soon pass into a kind of "What the fuck were we thinking?" era, much like the sickening, blood-soaked hangover that passed through Europe at the end of WWII. At least that put everyone on the continent off the idea of intolerance for a while. I hope reaching a similar realization with organized religion won't require the same massive amounts of killing and warfare as was required in WWII, but to be honest the outlook is bleak right now. My best hope is that by 2012 (to pick an arbitrary date) we will have been sufficiently flung into the horrors of the 21st century that we will finally stop and realize that the burdens of history are only slowing us down from badly needed reform at all levels of society. As the generations of the 20th century die off a new age will slowly take over and a new paradigm will trickle down to every corner of the globe in all layers of society. I don't have a name for this new 21st century movement (like "the Enlightenment" or "Postmodernism"), but it has it's roots in the information age, the environmental movement, and good old-fashioned democratic individualism. The closest label I can think of is the "Global Awakening." I sense that it is already happening, but we shall see. We can only hope...

James

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From: "clark heinrich"
To: "James Kent"
Subject: Re: elves
Date: Thursday, June 24, 2004 6:29 PM

I like the way you think -- probably because I think along similar lines. I agree with all of it, and share the same hope that somehow people will wake up to what is going on and put a stop to it. In fact I've thought of a silly grass-roots slogan (a play on Nancy Reagan's infamous "Just Say No") that I want people -- en masse -- to chant to their government officials until they pay attention: Just Stop It. That's all, just stop it. Stop everything and start mediation, now. The old slogan from the sixties, "What if they gave a war and nobody came?" is what would happen if everyone just stopped it. Totally naive, I know, but I'm ready to try anything. If the pawns refuse to move, the kings and queens and bishops can't do anything.

Keep writing. You're on to something...

Clark