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My recent post on talking with trees has generated some interest among readers in discussing Terrence McKenna, homeopathy, and similar topics. This post is for that. I’ll keep outright spam out, but otherwise won’t heavily moderate the comments here. Have fun.
Other posts in this series:- How Energy is like LSD (May 9, 2012)
- Discuss Terrence McKenna (May 10, 2012)
- I Trust Experiences, Not Explanations (May 10, 2012)
- Talking with Trees: Try it Yourself (May 11, 2012)
Last comment from WSA, to kick things off:
@Yvonne, Interesting thought that, about how it might be necessary to access the consciousness of the plant by ingestion of the material substance, or some other means, rather than just being in its energy field and attempting access or communication through telepathy or other braincentric means… although… as I type it occurs to me to ask: IS telepathy solely brain related? Can’t say I have ever wondered that before, but the entire field of Oriental Medicine ascribes to the Heart much of what current science relegates to the brain. There is a fringe element of scientific research that is working on memory and other body tissues because of some of the odd experiences of organ transplant recipients (http://tinyurl.com/7x87jch;) but it’s certainly not mainstream science.
Certainly one of the time-honored ways Shamans communicate with the Sprits of plants and other substances and beings is by ingestion leading to journeying. But from what I have been taught, they can also journey to other dimensions and communicate with the essences of those substances without ingestion, can they not? Didn’t McKenna say that he was able to journey to the dimensions of the Spirits of the hallocinogenics that he had previously ingested after the first journey via other means? I think he did, but am not sure as it’s been so many years since I listened to his audio teachings or read his books.
Stanislov Grof, a research partner of Timothy Leary, who invented what he called “Holotropic Breathwork” allowed as how he and his research subjects were able journey to the same dimensions he had formerly accessed with hallocinogenics using controlled breathing and meditation protocols. What I don’t remember is if he represented those dimensions as “real” outside of the realm of the individual human mind, or not.
McKenna’s work is fascinating to me. And it’s also interesting, to me, to note that he died fairly young of a brain tumor; I find that interesting because many hallucinogenics are funguses and there is considerable evidence that points to the possibility that cancer and tumors are often fungal, or fungus related.
Back to other ways of accessing consciousness of plants and other beings: If you are familiar with homeopathy, the Provings (part of the process of making and defining a homeopathic remedy) elicit information that I think can be stretched to be called “consciousness” of whatever substance is being Proved; if it’s not forms of consciousness, exactly, it is certainly the archetypes of the realm of the collective consciousness/unconscious or perhaps a bit of both. If you are not familiar with homeopathy I can post a bit more information about it, but it’s far afield of Mike’s post and I think he would think it far afield of his work with Direct Magick, so I don’t want to take up space here with such an off-topic tangent without his prior approval.
Even though Mike tossed us off into another thread, it is cool, because many of my thoughts and reflections are unformed preliminary. On the relationship between bodily “thinking” and psychic links to plants and mineral entities by other physical means, what about kinesiology? I use it all the time, and it functions in very “magickal” ways, although I would have to ask Mike, with his scientific orientation, what might be going on with the electricity and the mental/spiritual connection. I am going to think some more about this.
What do you think is happening? Give me a scenario and I might have an answer.
Well, the map that I use is very crude, very unscientific, and very simplistic. But as far as interacting with trees and crystals, it seems to me that you do not help yourself by suggesting that these forms lack intelligence or consciousness. The degrees of consciousness of our earth have been charted in various levels inclusive of the most basic forms (the first dimension/density, the realm of minerals, metals, and elements lacking space-time awareness) up the ladder of complexity (ours being the fourth dimension, with souls, angels, spirits inside and outside of physical bodies with time and space) and conscious awareness. Like I said, it is a simple map. But it does tell me that consciousness exists on a continuum, and we are barely off the bottom floor!
On communicating with spirits and trees and such, you have made me think that while we *might* be talking to our own brains, we might also be talking to a translated communication that exists in our own mind. Assume, just for a moment that the tree actually does possess some conscious awareness; how might a communication from the tree (or the quartz) be translated or interpreted by the mind?
Mike, Thanks for this space. I will watch with interest. I cannot contribute until the first of next week, but thanks again.