Aldous Huxley (Brave New World author and son of naturalist Thomas Huxley) wrote The Doors of Perception and The Gates of Heaven and Hell to describe his experiences with mescalin. Besides being a brilliant personal account, Huxley offers a wider perspective, calling on The Tibetan Book of the Dead, Native American Peyote Rituals, and the lives of creative geniuses with hints and suggestions at philosophy where verbal/conceptual thinking, the groundwork for the invention of time, is a trait we owe to evolution, as planning, worrying, this and that, are all concieved with the need for linear/daily thought leading to production and fulfillment. When we escape linear thinking, our mind becomes conscious of elements we would consider far more apppealing and worthy of notice- the folds in that robe, the life breathing through the grasses when our eyes lose focus and let a purer spirit show us the life exuding from everything around us. This state is so beautiful, moments so pure and spiritual, the artists rendition of what he sees is a debasement of that original surge within, when life breathed from everything he saw, and eternal contentment seemed hidden in that single flower pedal, the grime between th floor tiles, all so full of wonder until the tap of REAL-ization strikes down this limitless bliss when one tries to communicate through a particular poem or sketch, the divine brilliance he has seen in the apparently inanimate or mundane object. I have heard that the child's brain does not stop developing until the age of four or five. Therefore all the "No no, don't do that's" and the rules and unspoken social forces which direct the young child's upbringing can effectively establish a valve, whereby the scattered genius of a hungry mind is treated with discipline, and the functional child, operating on a system with values foreign to the nature of Being are forced upon him, his erratic genius- his ability to think non-linearly in "sub-space" adorns the child with the stigmas of learning disabilities and mental dilemmas resluting from his flirtations with the Spirit in him, as he becomes more and more "delusional" in a world where we don't accept our hermitic, island paradise existence out of fear, so we make associations of faulty verbal and "temporal" communications in order to reconcile our solitude by frequent social associations, whose rewards of a static and defined existence bring those who have breathed outside the bubble the classification delusional and mentally ill. And while the work of manic depressives have thrilled us through the ages, their genius coming from an apparent "other world", we fail to see the paradox: the genius of the great artist is the very same thing we experience on a timeless mushroom trip or manic delve into a field of apathetic study which has the power to reveal itself to those with the imagination and the submitted will to allow for a brief "enlightenment" whether it be visual, auditory, tactile etc. But the experience cannot compare to an intellectual "enlightenment" as the one sees a glimpse of everything in a single thing, and the other a mere association of artificial concepts whose movement can never influence the thoughtless ecstacy of beholding the perfection and surprise of nature manifested in everything around us. I would add that the problem in todays world is the struggle to find solutions. As if mapping the genome, or classifying species is bringing us closer to some kind of understanding. The less you know, the more you wonder about. The more you define, the more you differentiate. Everything dissipates. We attempt to understand evoloution through our conception of time, to find our way out of the labrynth we feel trapped inside without knowledge. Knowledge is an end. It's an attempt to find an order in a hamster wheel pursuit at something lurking ahead. Stop looking for solutions and you will stop finding problems. A mind finds comfort in the spirit where no questions are asked. It is simply the wonder of being.
Any suggested readings? I've tripped mildly once and had one antidepressant work really well for a few weeks, which provided me with brief acess to what I have since discoved to be many of the ancient eastern philosophies, which seem to describe many of the insights and enthralling understandings I felt when these two drugs had an effecton me. I'm trying to grow now, still trying to find the right med, and reading quite a bit, which is theraputic when I come across a thought or belief I unknowingly had been sharing all along. any responses are always helpful.
Much love,
matt
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Truth is the daughter of time, time doesn't exist...
Truth cannot exist within the human convention of time- The Goat Hath Spoken
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Read gnrm23's list.
Then check out these:
Douglas R. Hofstadter- Godel, Escher, Bach; the Mind's I; Metamagical Themas (only if you are Really into programming).
Nietzsche- Zarathustra, Beyond Good and Evil, the Birth of Tragedy... BUT before you read any of those, read Ecce Homo first as it is a good primer for the thicker stuff (ie Zarathustra).
William James- he's got a bunch of short writings.
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Note: In desperate need of a cure...
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Maps of The Mind
- by Charles Hampden-Turner
* From the cover "...the first comprehensive attempt to collect, describe, and draw in map form the most important concepts of the human mind put forth by the world's greatest writers, painters, philosophers and psychologists."
Cosmic Trigger
- by Robert Anton Wilson
* This is one of the best books I have ever read, funny, insightful, combines both the scientific and the mystical, a wonderful mental ride.
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more:
zen mind, beginner's mind / suziki roshi
BE HERE NOW / ram das
cosmos / carl sagan
what to do until the messiah comes / bernard gunther
maps on consciousness / ralph metzner
toward the one / pir vilayat hkan
this is it / alan watts
right where you are sitting now / r a wilson
howl and other poems / alan ginsberg
regarding wave / gary snyder
stalking the wild pendulum / itzak bentov
stranger in a strange land / robert a heinlein
the _valis_ trilogy / philip k dick
godbody / theodore sturgeon
this season's people / stephen gaskin
kesey's garage sale / ken kesey
nature, man, and woman / alan watts
the gnostic gospels / elaine pagels
"the mysterious stranger" (short story) / mark twain (also a movie, starring chris makepeace; but the movie is considerably toned down from the story...)
cleansing the doors of perception / huston smith
dhammapada
tao te ching
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just a few favorites, i suppose...
~~~
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old enough to know better
not old enough to care
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