\,,/ Psychonauts!
An old hippy dude, I'll call him #9, a self-described "connoisseur of all things consciousness", turned me on to the French philosopher/poet/mountaineer Rene Daumal a long time ago.
When #9 heard I was doing this blog gig about Daumal and psychonautics, he sent me this note:
"The French philosopher/mountaineer Rene Daumal conducted some youthful experiments with carbon tetrachloride. The experience convinced him for all time that there was something beyond our normal consciousness. As far as I know, that was the only time he experimented. He wrote an account of it, I believe called, "A Fundamental Experiment". He also called it "youthful stupidity".
#9 found this reference, "Soaking a handkerchief in carbon tetrachloride— a powerful anesthetic he used for his beetle collection— the sixteen-year-old Daumal held it to his nostrils and inhaled. Instantly, he felt himself “thrown brutally into another world”, a strange other dimension of geometric forms and incomprehensible sounds, in which his mind “traveled too fast to drag words along with it” (Daumal, Powers of the Word 164)."
#9 gave me three of Daumal's books: Mt Analogue, You’ve Always Been Wrong, and A Night of Serious Drinking. I highly recommend all three, but You’ve Always been Wrong and Mt Analogue have been must reads for psychonauts for nearly sixty years.
Those three books changed my life and helped me formulate some of the axiomatic principles by which I live.
If you’re a serious psychonaut pursuing deeper, inner truths and clarity, read YABW, including the Forward and Notes, and cogitate on what Daumal says for a while. Like "Jason and the Argonauts", you might eventually find the metaphorical golden fleece somewhere across the Psychic Sea.
When #9 heard I was doing this blog gig about Daumal and psychonautics, he sent me this note:
"The French philosopher/mountaineer Rene Daumal conducted some youthful experiments with carbon tetrachloride. The experience convinced him for all time that there was something beyond our normal consciousness. As far as I know, that was the only time he experimented. He wrote an account of it, I believe called, "A Fundamental Experiment". He also called it "youthful stupidity".
He proceeded to learn Sanskrit so he could read the vedas in their original form."
#9 found this reference, "Soaking a handkerchief in carbon tetrachloride— a powerful anesthetic he used for his beetle collection— the sixteen-year-old Daumal held it to his nostrils and inhaled. Instantly, he felt himself “thrown brutally into another world”, a strange other dimension of geometric forms and incomprehensible sounds, in which his mind “traveled too fast to drag words along with it” (Daumal, Powers of the Word 164)."
Humans, and whatever humans were before they were humans, once had no written language, no mathematics, not even the abstract concept of numbers. However, they did possess a collective wisdom, a natural philosophy based on their observations of their environment, natural cycles and of each other. They thought ahead in terms of generations, not minutes or hours or days or months, always with an eye on sustainability.
But then humans divorced themselves from nature, made it evil, something to be conquered and God says it's okay. It's our manifest destiny! Yay civilization!"
<cough, cough>
But then humans divorced themselves from nature, made it evil, something to be conquered and God says it's okay. It's our manifest destiny! Yay civilization!"
<cough, cough>
We have access to almost limitless information today, but knowledge is not wisdom. Wisdom requires subjective context and cannot be related to people directly. It has to come from within, not without. A person can’t be told how to be wise. As the alchemists and other ancients knew, wisdom needs to percolate, smolder and ferment for a while. Mystery cults, like early Christianity, worked this way, each member progressing through a series of "levels" as he/she acquired new skills and understanding of his/her self.
A wise person learns to think for his/her self, to derive and synthesize his/her own conclusions. There is no other path to wisdom.
Christianity is no longer a mystery cult and there are few legitimate organized alternatives. So that's why we become psychonauts; to acquire wisdom.
Christianity is no longer a mystery cult and there are few legitimate organized alternatives. So that's why we become psychonauts; to acquire wisdom.
The whole wisdom process--- observation/input, meditation/synthesis and percolation--- requires time, usually a lifetime, but though most people never become truly enlightened, the quest to become so is all that matters in the end.
Daumal compares that quest to preparing for and properly climbing a mountain in "Mt. Analogue."
Daumal compares that quest to preparing for and properly climbing a mountain in "Mt. Analogue."
Psychology Today has this to say about wisdom:
“It can be difficult to define Wisdom, but people generally recognize it when they encounter it. Psychologists pretty much agree it involves an integration of knowledge, experience, and deep understanding that incorporates tolerance for the uncertainties of life as well as its ups and downs. There's an awareness of how things play out over time, and it confers a sense of balance. Wise people experience a certain amount of calm in facing difficult decisions. Intelligence—if only anyone could figure out exactly what it is—may be necessary for wisdom, but it definitely isn't sufficient; an ability to see the big picture, a sense of proportion, and considerable introspection also contribute to its development.”
Usually, this doesn’t happen for men until just before they die. That’s just the way it is. It’s a low testosterone thing.
(Whew! I’m glad there’s a shot for that. <wiping sleeve across brow>)
Do you know a truly wise person? If so, count yourself lucky. Self-analysis and the wisdom that comes with it are rapidly being replaced by self-gratification and entertainment. Why wait for your own wisdom to develop when you can access the wisdom of a billion people on the Internet or in books?
How can wisdom come from zeros and ones? Why do humans always try to quantify and judge even those things and concepts that don't need such?
How can wisdom come from zeros and ones? Why do humans always try to quantify and judge even those things and concepts that don't need such?
All I’ve got to say to that is, “There is no quantification on the other side of the mirror."
Just ask Alice. Or Lucy.
Just ask Alice. Or Lucy.
#9 gave me three of Daumal's books: Mt Analogue, You’ve Always Been Wrong, and A Night of Serious Drinking. I highly recommend all three, but You’ve Always been Wrong and Mt Analogue have been must reads for psychonauts for nearly sixty years.
Those three books changed my life and helped me formulate some of the axiomatic principles by which I live.
If you’re a serious psychonaut pursuing deeper, inner truths and clarity, read YABW, including the Forward and Notes, and cogitate on what Daumal says for a while. Like "Jason and the Argonauts", you might eventually find the metaphorical golden fleece somewhere across the Psychic Sea.
Just as a taste, this is what Daumal had to say about awareness and the spiritual death of a sleeping consciousness in YABW:
“You’ve always been wrong. Like me, like every man, you’ve let yourself slide down easy, futile slopes. Your mind has only traveled in dreams toward the truth. ... This is where you started, but you chose the wrong door. Or rather you thought you started; you fell asleep on the threshold and dreamed your beliefs about the world and the mind.
See what is before you. Above all, don’t start to question the reality of this world. By what authority could you judge it? Do you know what absolute reality is? Whoever starts on a voyage must start from wherever he is; he mustn’t think the destination is already reached just because he has an accurate and detailed itinerary in his hands; the line on the map has no meaning unless he can pinpoint his present location. You as well; look at yourself. I mean: wake up, find yourself. The place where you are is where you must begin: the present state of your consciousness, together with all it contains. And all our speculation will never amount to more than the itinerary of a merely possible voyage. ...
What I would like you to do can be summed in two words: remain awake. ... Even then you can realize that if you passively accept the conditions imposed on your consciousness, you’re asleep. Awakening is not a state, it’s an act. And people are much less often awake than their words would have us believe. (Just watch some TV!)
A man wakes up in the morning in bed. Scarcely on his feet, he’s already asleep again. Going through all the automatic impulses which make his body get dressed, go out, walk, get to work, go through the prescribed daily routine, eat, chat, read a newspaper... doing all that--- he’s sleeping. ... Man does not spend a third of his life, as they say, but nearly all his life sleeping in this true slumber of the mind. And it’s easy for slumber, which is the inertia of consciousness, to catch man in its traps; for man, being naturally and almost irremediably lazy, might indeed be willing to awaken. ...Then wanting to rest in his awakening, he falls asleep. Just as one cannot will oneself to sleep, since willing, in whatever form, is still an awakening, one can remain awakened only if one wills it at every moment.
And the only direct act you can take is that of awakening, of becoming conscious of yourself. ...
And as the reality of mind lies in the activity, the very idea of a ‘thinking substance’ being nothing unless that idea is thought in the here and now, this sleep--- this absence of action, this privation of thought--- is truly spiritual death.”
This excerpt is condensed from René Daumal’s "You’ve Always Been Wrong, An Appeal to Consciousness." Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press, 1995, pp. 11-13. Introduction by Jack Daumal. English translation by Thomas Vosteen.
Be aware. Think for yourself. Begin your climb up the mountain. Do it right, and you’ll be richly rewarded, not in material things, but in spirit, something that can’t be quantified or qualified, though I’m sure somebody is trying to do both. You’ll know truth when you perceive it; maybe not today, or next week, or next month, but soon enough you’ll start catching glimpses of it.
I’ll leave you with this little worm squirming in your restless minds:
“There is a door within the self. When this door is opened, a unity is revealed that encompasses all beings and transcends all boundaries. Mystics in every religious system in every culture and in every age have reported this to be the highest truth. Those who have had such an experience agree that the state is elusive and usually recalled only in fragments. However, those who have achieved even a moment of this visionary understanding consider it of incalculable value. Cultures have developed dozens of ways to apprehend this unitive state. Paths include physical austerities, cycles of prayer, meditation, devotions, breathing rituals, and physical postures. A significant number have used plants in combination with other practices. There are those of us who believe that however one ascends the mountain, the view from the summit is the same. What one gains from that vista and from the climb will depend, as it always has, on how one incorporates such moments into one’s life. This is how a human being can change:
‘There’s a worm addicted to eating grape leaves. Suddenly, he wakes up, call it grace, whatever, something wakes him, and he’s no longer a worm. He’s the entire vineyard, and the orchard too, the fruit, the trunks, a growing wisdom and joy that doesn’t need to devour.’”
Excerpt from Rumi, “The Worm’s Waking”
(Translation by Coleman Barks)
and
Fadiman Ph.D., James (2011-05-18).
"The Psychedelic Explorer's Guide:
Safe, Therapeutic, and Sacred Journeys"
(Kindle Locations 437-440).
Inner Traditions Bear & Company. Kindle Edition.
Think for yourself. Be aware. Educate yourself about yourself. The information you need is already in your head.
Question everything. You've been imprinted and indoctrinated, bamboozled and hornswoggled all your life. The process continues every minute of every day.
Killing your tv and Xbox might be a good place to start.
Don’t panic, no matter what happens. Keep an open mind and an open heart. Learn to be the orchard, not the worm. Above all else, don’t look down when you’re climbing that confounded mountain!
Question everything. You've been imprinted and indoctrinated, bamboozled and hornswoggled all your life. The process continues every minute of every day.
Killing your tv and Xbox might be a good place to start.
Don’t panic, no matter what happens. Keep an open mind and an open heart. Learn to be the orchard, not the worm. Above all else, don’t look down when you’re climbing that confounded mountain!
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