Are we Karens, the world revolves around us?

(Illuminato) Modern neuroscience suggests that we do not actually perceive reality. That is, the reality we observe is not incoming data (bottom-up processing) towards us from the outside world. Rather, it is a projection (top-down processing) going from our minds out and duping us into believing we are passive observers seeing what's real. We see what we expect to see even when it's not there. Therefore, we are projectors unconsciously projecting our implicit biases, sitting as the audience of the theater of the mind, thinking we are looking at an objective show on the screen.

The habit of predicting becomes automatic

Predictive processing states that our brain functions like a prediction machine, constantly predicting what it will observe next and only adjusting its model of the world when its predictions do not agree with the sensory input it receives.

This video tries to explain this concept as well as can be done in ten minutes.

I feel like I didn't really explain the last part about psychedelics all that well, so here is the study from which I pulled the information: ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/article... (Corlett et al. 2009, "From drugs to deprivation: a Bayesian framework for understanding models of psychosis").

The researchers do not directly reference psilocybin (the entheogenic compound in "magic mushrooms") however. Instead, they refer to serotonergic compounds.

The Word of the Buddha

Maya means "illusion" in Sanskrit, not always in a negative sense of errant and misleading but also of dreamy and fantastic. We live in a fantasy, in an unreality, in a world (loka) we are projecting rather than taking in the way we think. We think we are being objective and rational, calm, cool, and collected (coherent in mind). But, in fact, we are implicitly biased, predictably irrational, uncalm, overheated, and dissolute, dispersed, and distracted. Meditation (first to calm then to develop insight) is an excellent remedy to "wake up." Enlightenment (bodhi) is waking up to reality. And what is "real"?

Oh, I misunderstood! Now I get it.

Nirvana is reality, seeing samsara for what it is and has always been reality, no longer grasping and clinging and crying about the unreal and illusory is reality. It is for the good, for freedom from all suffering, but we fear it. In our distorted view (our "perversion" or vipallasa) we take the fleeting to be permanent, the painful to hold the promise of pleasure and ultimate fulfillment, and the impersonal to be personal.

Not seeing the Three Universal Marks of Existence, we keep behaving (karmically engaging) as we do and suffering the endless consequences.

"Today, make smiling an exercise" (Thay)

When we act out of ignorance or hate/fear or craving, there's trouble ahead. We could put it behind us, but we would have to first stop, breathe, relax, and begin to mindfully see (i.e., see what really is rather than what we constantly project to be there by dispassionate and steady observation without abandoning the present moment).

Thinking goes in circles. Seeing is direct. If we just see, just watch, drop the reactions, things will begin to become clearer. Life is an illusion, but it doesn't have to be. There is "clear seeing" (vipassana) born of the Ennobling (Enlightening) Eightfold Path.

(After Skool) Aug. 6, 2024: This video is a collaboration with Fungi Academy, a Fungal Education Center based in Guatemala, Latin America. They produce amazing online and in-person courses. Learn more at fungiacademy.com. Subscribe to the Fungi Academy YouTube channel for more Free Fungal Education (fungiacademy). Jasper from Fungi Academy explains the science of Psilocybin, why it exists, what it cures, and how it works. To learn more about the Stoned Ape Hypothesis, check out this other animation on After Skool: Stoned Ape & Fungal Intelligence

(North Spore) Premiered July 24, 2024: Visit: northspore.com. Join Lou from North Spore as he explores the biggest, oldest, and most magical mushroom festival in North America in Telluride, Colorado. From foraging with mycologist Alan Rockefeller in the picturesque San Juan Mountains, to a private lunch with Chef Graham Steinruck, and participating in the wildest and wackiest mushroom parade in the world, this video has something for everyone. Use this link to get 10% off 2024 ticket (events.humanitix.com/telluride).

(Cleo Abram) May 31, 2023: Should psychedelics be legal? States and countries are legalizing psychedelics.

In 2020, Oregon became the first US state to decriminalize psilocybin and legalize it for therapeutic use. In 2022, Colorado followed suit.

Researchers have recently been touting the benefits of psychedelics for health conditions like depression, anxiety, PTSD, addiction, cancer-related distress, and the list goes on.

However, like cannabis, psilocybin is still illegal under federal US law. Given that ongoing fight, people might have questions. I know I do. Are psychedelics the next weed? Is that a good thing? Are psychedelics dangerous? Do they actually have scientific benefits? How do psychedelics work?

In this episode of Huge If True, we find out. Thanks to Dr. Ben Rein, neuroscience researcher and consultant on this episode. Enjoy Huge If True? There’s Dr. Rein’s videos on TikTok (https://www.tiktok.com/@dr.brein?lang=en)

CHAPTERS

"Don't smoke drugs, kids" said a younger Jimmy Kimmel once when he was playing a blackface Carl Malone on the "Kevin & Bean Show" on KROQ FM. This was years before he had his own show that so eclipsed morning sports on alt rock radio that we never hear about those days. Viewers of Family Guy might say the same thing after watching this episode on fairy dust. It has grown all out of proportion in our memory as one of the funniest things the writer room at Family Guy Central ever came up with. Is it "pixie dust" or speed? Let's find out.

The evidence: ancient hair samples

Ancient humans were getting high on hallucinogens during cave rituals 3,000 years ago, according to a new study. Researchers made the discovery after studying Bronze Age strands of hair found in the Es Càrritx cave on the European (Spanish) island of Menorca.

The cave was first occupied around 3,600 years ago and was used as a funeral space until around 2,800 years ago, the researchers said.

The study, published the journal Scientific Reports, found psychoactive substances atropine, scopolamine, and ephedrine on hair strands, which had been dyed red.

Mind ur own business, Moderns it's a cave thang

The natural substances, which we might call "drugs" today, would have induced delirium, causing symptoms such as extreme mental confusion [awareness of other dimensions normally hidden from humans, such as subtle energies, frequencies, and visions of colors, sounds, and the presence of others and their activities beyond the normal range of our vision and awareness] and "strong and realistic hallucinations [visions]."

The scientists believe the substances, likely derived from various plants [natural entheogenic substances containing DMT], were used as part of rituals held at the cave.

These may have involved shamans [intermediaries] "who were capable of controlling the side-effects of the plant drugs," according to the study.

The strands of hair had been placed in wooden and horn containers decorated with concentric circles.

"The concentric circles on the wooden containers may have depicted eyes and could have been a metaphor for inner vision related to a drug-induced altered state of consciousness," according the press release.

"As preserved human hair is rare in archaeological contexts, this was an unusual opportunity to detect levels of drugs in biological samples," Prof. Elisa Guerra-Doce, an associate professor of prehistory at the University of Valladolid, told Motherboard.

Previous evidence of drug [medicinal plant] use by ancient humans had been indirect and largely based on depictions in art. More

Frank Marino was a psychedelic hippie kid in the Sixties. He took a bad trip after playing with the drugs of the day for a while.

He was a kid, and the acid (LSD) sent him out, out into the beyond sanity. He was hospitalized, and he gravitated to an acoustic guitar there as if it were a piece of flotsam and jetsam from the sunk boat of his world.

He clung onto it and eventually was pressured into a record deal. He calls the bad trip ordeal his "Mahogany Rush."

He would jam with friends all day in a room, and that became the name of the band. It was more a genre ("acid rock") than a band. Any bandmember who played with him, joined his experience and entered his Mahogany Rush.

This artwork represents what it was like, an Alice in Wonderland experience on overdrive, and it didn't end. It put him off drugs for the rest of his life.

It's been "a long, strange trip" as the Grateful Dead might describe it, and it has led all the way to tonight, when he appears on Coast to Coast to talk about it.

What was that reality, that existing place some people visit on "trips"?

American cultural anthropologist Dr. Michael J. Harner, Ph.D. wrote an academic article titled The Sound of Rushing Water after consuming ayahuasca (DMT derived from the plant medicine Banisteriopsis caapi, aka natema, yage, caapi...Daime and many other names) with shamans in the Amazon rainforest.

The experience altered him. He had been asking too many "dumb" questions, the shamans he was asking, not wanting to be annoyed by answering such basics, eventually talked him into trying it. It ended all his questions because he suddenly saw that they had not been speaking in metaphor or dreaming or fantasizing. What they told him they could see, he saw. It was literally true.

Reptilians (nagas, Silurians) appeared to him and said, "We are the true gods of this world." What were they talking about, given that they seem to outlive humans by many decades? They live underground and in the shadows, possibly cloaking themselves and walking among us (like in the movie They Live) unseen or unnoticed by design. Obey, we're told, and don't question.

This psychedelics researcher approached his death with calm and curiosity

I've got a little pile of rocks on my desk. It's not as weird as it sounds. They're small, smooth stones I've picked up during vacations to various beaches. It's a habit I picked up from my mom, who always took home some piece of the beach that she could hold when she returned to her life in a landlocked state.

For me, the six stones are a reminder of things that are bigger than whatever daily stress is eating away at my psyche [lit. "soul," mind]. A reminder that, despite the chaos and trauma in this life, in this world, at this moment, it is all still ephemeral.

The rocks stay. Then the rough edges smooth over time and ultimately, they dissolve into sediment and blow away into the air or get swept away by the water.

On top of this small assortment of rocks is a relatively new addition: a gold-plated medallion about the size of a quarter. On one side, the words "Meditation" and underneath, "The true method of knowledge is experiment," from the poet William Blake.

There are other dimensions of which to be aware

On the other side, there's an engraved image of mushrooms and a kind of blessing: "May you remain aware of awareness [which is kind of the definition of Buddhist mindfulness or sati]."

A scientist named Roland Griffiths gave that medallion to me. He and I talked back in April as one of the first conversations in this series (Enlighten Me). Griffiths had spent the later stage of his career exploring the ways that psychedelic drugs, specifically psilocybin [magic mushrooms], could help patients with depression, addiction issues, and even terminal cancer.

Then two years ago, he himself was diagnosed with Stage 4 colon cancer. The doctor was now the patient, and Griffiths was facing his own mortality [imminent death].

I was changed by our conversation. First of all, he was the person who finally convinced me to delve more deeply into meditation — a practice he credits with helping him navigate the closing chapter of his life.

And that's the part that really stuck with me, how Griffiths was able to sit with his dying. Or, rather, sit in his last months of living and let go of any fear or despair [maranasati or "mindfulness of death"].

I emailed Griffiths in late September to see how he was doing and to share with him that I had been more committed to my meditation and was seeing real benefits in my life. He told me to stick with it — and I'm paraphrasing here — so you can see that thoughts, feelings, and sensations come and go if you let them. Otherwise, they can limit who you think you are.

"Ego death" scares the ego but is a great relief.

A few weeks later, Roland Griffiths died on October 16, at the age of 77. I keep his medallion on my pile of rocks to remind me that impermanence is the natural state of things.

And while we may not [though we almost certainly do but not the "we" we're used to in the limited sense of our self-serving ego and all its wants and craving] have a choice about when or how we leave this world, we get to choose how to live every day until that moment comes. [That's true, if only we knew, we really do have choice. What are we waiting for, permission to live?]

Here is our conversation [Rachel Martin with Roland Griffiths] from earlier this year. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Rachel Martin: You started working a lot with psilocybin ['shrooms]. Can you describe what that is in layman terms?

Roland Griffiths: It is a classic psychedelic drug. It comes from psilocybin-containing mushrooms and has been used for hundreds to thousands of years with indigenous cultures for ceremonial healings or sacramental religious experiences. It comes on fairly quickly and it doesn't last as long as LSD or mescaline, so it is easier to work with.

Martin: Do you use the expression "trips"? More + AUDIO

3K-y.-o. red hair (Scientific Reports/Nature)

Scientists have discovered the use of [entheogens] by humans in Europe 3,000 years ago.

They believe shamans [intermediaries between the human and other planes] used [plant medicines] as part of rituals held at the Es Càrritx cave in Menorca, Spain.

Menorca Island, Spain

Previous evidence of ancient drug use had been indirect and largely based on depictions in art.

Ancient humans were [utilizing these entheogens] during cave rituals 3,000 years ago, according to a new study. Researchers made the discovery after studying Bronze Age strands of hair found in the Es Càrritx cave on the Spanish island of Menorca.

The cave was first occupied around 3,600 years ago and was used as a funeral space until around 2,800 years ago, the researchers said.

The study, published the journal Scientific Reports, found psychoactive substances atropine, scopolamine, and ephedrine on hair strands, which had been dyed red. More:

I'm richer and get better drugs than you, Neil.

Tyson, an American [actor,] astrophysicist, author, and science communicator, shared one thing that keeps him up at night, leaving Rogan speechless.

On Tyson's TikTok, the famed astrophysicist, known for bringing science to the masses, shared a clip captioned, “We have more in common with mushrooms than you think.”

With his 4.8 million followers, it is no wonder that the clip quickly went viral. The comment section was on fire, with many making fun of the host [Joe Rogan].

One user wrote, “This is why I love Neil. He makes science understandable for everyone, even Joe Rogan.”

Another shared, “Joe Rogan had no idea what he was talking about during this whole interview, and it’s awesome.” More:

Terry Gross, Fresh Air (NPR); Pat Macpherson, Ananda, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Dr. Julie Holland, author of the new book Good Chemistry, says that when antidepressants don't work, psychedelic plant medicines (entheogens) can be used in conjunction with talk therapy to help work through traumas.

People treated with synthetic chemical antidepressants for years are never cured. These profitable pharmaceuticals are not "cures" and make no such promise. After years some patients hit a wall, a point when such treatment no longer even eases symptoms.

Dr. Holland, a psychiatrist, says that's where entheogenic substances -- often called "psychedelic drugs" as if they were recreational highs -- could help.

Dr. Holland was in charge of the psychiatric emergency room at Bellevue Hospital on weekends from 1996 to 2005. She currently has a private psychotherapy practice in Manhattan, NY.

She's also a medical monitor in research by the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS, maps.org), which involves, in part, developing psychedelics into prescription medications.

.

I prefer good meditation.

Her new book, Good Chemistry, explores how she thinks psychedelic drugs, including LSD (acid), psilocybin (magic mushrooms), MDMA (ecstasy) and cannabis (high CBD marijuana), might be used more widely in psychiatry to make treatment more efficient and effective.

"There are certain plant medicines in particular — things like psilocybin or ayahuasca — that really help people not only explore their personal trauma," she says, but also "this feeling of unity and connection. People really come away from these experiences having a new perspective."

Some Buddhists see value in entheogen use.

Dr. Holland acknowledges that the use of psychedelic drugs (entheogens) in psychiatry is controversial — but she says the practice is slowly gaining acceptance.

"Good psychotherapy takes years and there are a lot of fits and starts," she says, "and people run away when things get too heavy. But it's changing more and more.... The data is so compelling that in my opinion, people in my profession have no excuse for not knowing what's going on." More