Planetary Matrix (Tek-Gnostics Heresies excerpt)


“As a boy, I once rolled dice in an empty house…
playing against myself.
I suppose I was afraid. It was twilight, and I forget who won.
I was too young to have known that
the old abandoned house in which I played… was the universe.

I would play for man more fiercely…
if the years would take me back.”

- Loren Eiseley


Part One - Earth Matrix
The Greek philosopher, Aristotle said that man is by nature a social animal. As social beings, it is inherent within us to communicate. As tool builders, it is also within our nature to create and manipulate artifacts. To date, the world-wide-web is arguably one of humanity’s most ingenious and ambitious artifacts. It is nothing less than a vast working model of global consciousness. Each human with the means (computer, tablet, mobile, etc.) to connect to the web becomes, in a sense, a single, autonomous neuron in the global mind of Gaia, our home-world. Given the incredible creative potential, each individual earthling brings to this system, the possibilities for our global consciousness artifact are seemingly infinite.

As this global nerve-net becomes more complex and sophisticated, our evolving technologies have accelerated in their sophistication and complexity. Indeed, our terrestrial and satellite communications network encompasses the Earth in such a way as to be as integral to Earth’s functioning as one of her atmospheres. This information network or “infosphere” further deepens humanity’s potential within Gaia’s sentient life support systems.

The timely emergence of this so-called infosphere, may indicate that it is a natural, organic development of Gaia’s nervous system. If Earth’s environmental systems act as her autonomic nervous system, perhaps humanity and our artifacts, act as her conscious, somatic nervous system. Perhaps we serve as Gaia’s expanding and evolving nerve-net. Regardless, our infosphere appears to be on the brink of exponential expansion again, facilitated by what we have come to call… technological singularity.


If the singularity event is a culminating working model of global consciousness, this model intricately facilitates humanity’s evolutionary (paranormal) growth. Like any model, it helps us envision and assists us in transition into an awakened tek/human partnership. The model shows us how a man/machine system will work. Thus humanity and our artifacts evolve in tandem into the “century of singularity” as an amalgam of communicative intelligence.

Indeed, the singularity may be seen as an awakening of our collective communicative abilities. A partnership of artificial intelligence, as achieved through the networked, intelligence augmented path, with an evolving, paranormal humanity, becomes an amazingly powerful intelligence entity. Again, perhaps the timely marriage of man and machine is by design. Perhaps this is all “part of the plan.” As our technologies are an integral part of us, so too may what we have termed singularity, become an integral part of Gaia.

If we hypothesize that humanity acts as Gaia’s self-reflective faculty… if we act as an organic instrument of self-consciousness, it follows that we facilitate Gaia’s ability to think about Herself. The human collective, as global consciousness, allows our Mother Earth to pause and reflect… to be self aware. This “Eyes of the World” hypothesis may be expanded, by virtue of the spark of divinity within each human, to suggest that we also act as part of universe’s self-reflective spiritual sense organ. Perhaps on a much grander scale, Earth is a sleepy dendrite, about to “wake up” in a back-water corner of what we call the Milky Way Galaxy.


Within this mythology, each of us fulfill a dendritic perceptive and communicative role, for our sentient home-world. Gaia, orbiting Sol, our local star, in return fulfills a similar sentient role, as an individual within her community… the Milky Way. Our home galaxy thereby joins the universal intelligence community of galaxies, wherein Universe’s ultra-sentient persona, aka: God… pauses and thinks: “what a wondrous existence this universe is!” …wheels within wheels.

Now, within this body of work, the universe is analogous to… can be equated to… information (universe=information). Within this premise, information has a very special meaning: Information equals intelligence or coherent order. This is as distinguished from noise, which is incoherent chaos. Evolution of consciousness is the gradual emergence of information out of chaos.  This is the “lifting of the veil” or the steady increase in light… the change in focus from folly to wisdom, that the ancient Gnostics spoke of. The continuity in universe is not necessarily mere consciousness... but information… coherence. In this regard, the dualistic nature of universe can be expressed, not merely as light versus darkness, but rather: coherence versus confusion.

This mythic hypothesis would place humanity in a more profound role… as an intelligence system of Gaia, which in turn plays a role in a galactic and ultimately universal intelligence network. The mechanism whereby Gaia’s humanity-wide system sends signals… communicates… is none other than our old friend, synchronicity. Per Jung’s theory, synchronicity is acausal, in that it is affected by meaning, rather than causation. It does not appear to be limited or even effected by either space or time. This synchronistic network of communication is available everywhere and every-when at once… on a cellular level, on a human level, as well as on a galactic level. …wheels within wheels.


Returning to humanity’s planetary rise to prominence over the last 10,000 years… this may turn out to primarily be an evolutionary leap for Gaia… rather than merely a human evolution. Viewing Humanity as a sense organ of planet Earth arguably places our rapid evolution as a component of or a development of Gaia’s evolution. However, the question remains as to what was the catalyst that sparked our species’ intelligence increase?

The question brings us (back) to Terrance McKenna and what has been called his “stoned ape” hypothesis. In his 1993 book: Food of the Gods: The Search for the Original Tree of Knowledge (sub-titled: A Radical History of Plants, Drugs, and Human Evolution), McKenna proposed that the explosive evolution from Homo erectus to Homo sapiens was sparked by the addition of the mushroom psilocybe cubensis, in their diet. Per McKenna, over a timeframe of a mere 100,000 years, proto-human evolved into modern human, facilitated in part by the sustained ingestion of the psilocybin mushroom.


Following herds of wild cattle across the African savannahs, our ancestors ingested these mushrooms, scavenged from the herd’s dung piles. Over time, the psilocybin mushroom became part of early man’s (paleo!) diet. Low doses of psilocybin improve visual acuity. Thus, our ancestors, in consuming psilocybin mushrooms, became more successful hunters than those whose diet did not include the mushroom, resulting in a higher rate of reproductive success. 

In a 1992 interview in High Times Magazine, McKenna further explained…
High Times: You have a unique theory about the role that psilocybin mushrooms play in the process of human evolution. Can you tell us about this?

Terrence McKenna: Whether the mushrooms came from outer space or not, the presence of psychedelic substances in the diet of early human beings created a number of changes in our evolutionary situation. When a person takes small amounts of psilocybin visual acuity improves. They can actually see slightly better, and this means that animals allowing psilocybin into their food chain would have increased hunting success, which means increased food supply, which means increased reproductive success, which is the name of the game in evolution.

It is the organism that manages to propagate itself numerically that is successful. The presence of psilocybin in the diet of early pack-hunting primates caused the individuals that were ingesting the psilocybin to have increased visual acuity. At slightly higher doses of psilocybin there is sexual arousal, erection, and everything that goes under the term arousal of the central nervous system. Again, a factor which would increase reproductive success is reinforced.

HT: Isn’t it true that psilocybin inhibits orgasm?

TM: Not at the doses I’m talking about. At a psychedelic dose it might, but at just slightly above the “you can feel it” dose, it acts as a stimulant. Sexual arousal means paying attention, it means jumpiness, it indicates a certain energy level in the organism. And then, of course, at still higher doses psilocybin triggers this activity in the language-forming capacity of the brain that manifests as song and vision.

It is as though it is an enzyme which stimulates eyesight, sexual interest, and imagination… and the three of these going together produce language-using primates. Psilocybin may have synergized the emergence of higher forms of psychic organization out of primitive proto-human animals. It can be seen as a kind of evolutionary enzyme, or evolutionary catalyst.

(Note: In the second installment of this excerpt, we will expand and explore the Matrix concept, taking it to a galactic level.)




Those interested in purchasing The Tek-Gnostics Heresies will find it available on Amazon and other such online booksellers... or the intrepid reader can buy a copy directly from your humble author at the Tek-Gnostics HEADshop.


Comments

Anonymous said…
That gobshite* McKenna stated:

"...when I reached La Chorerra in 1971 I had a price on my head by the FBI, I was running out of money, I was at the end of my rope. And then they recruited me and said, "you know, with a mouth like yours there's a place for you in our organization". And I've worked in deep background positions about which the less said the better. And then about 15 years ago they shifted me into public relations and I've been there to the present."

"they" the FBI or some other agency (of a mycelial/otherwise (would-be) pervasive nature)?

"Stoned Ape"? About as valid as Bill Hicks "Tool" sampled statement that "...if you don't believe drugs have done good things for us, do me a favor. Go home tonight. Take all your albums, all your tapes and all your CDs and burn them. 'Cause you know what, the musicians that made all that great music that's enhanced your lives throughout the years were rrreal fucking high on drugs..."

Hicks died at the age of 32 after a life largely spent courting the "heaven and hell" debauches on offer via the "abuse" of "substances" as part of a "rock 'n roll" courting & promoting lifestyle.

"Dangerous" was the name of one of his "comedy specials" celebrating said lifestyle, but what's actually dangerous is not understanding that a soul doesn't need to get "high" (at least not from substances plant or processed in origin, the human body producing a variety of chemicals similar, but not the same, as those found in that on offer from many a tye-dyed, or even sharp-suited, type/styled establishment peddling it's psychonautical & stimulating wares) so as to create "art" ("modern art" though... perhaps the presence of "substances" of the Brownstone/star variety explain some things), these "substances" wend the user, neophyte or "head", down the merry way of misdirection, trap & so very often illness, madness/imprisonment for dealing/assault & death. Then there's the quality of this "drug" enabled "music" (& other pop-cultural offerings) reinforcing misdirecting sentiments in the service of something using humanity as a vector to further itself, endgame being human extinction.

McKenna's "glioblastoma multiforme, a highly aggressive form of brain cancer" was described as embodying the "synchronistical peculiarity" of "resembling a cap-shaped mushroom".

Both TM & BH were fellow devotees of worldviews that ended their lives early & the devotion to of which, or even one "poor choice" of drug taking, that has ended so many other lives early. The continued myopic heralding of them, & their legion, as being on the side of "truth/love" (whatever positive is called into action in the hopes of shooing away concerns & questions, "question everything... well... not EVERYTHING (just take a hit of this") when in truth something destructive & hateful is in the process of enaction.

A soul isn't born into this world so as to further ruin so will Terence & Bill "come back" as something that grows out of a cow pat? Maybe there'll be stuck in a repetitive white-tunnel just one more toke soul-loop-the-loop as consequence of promoting their ideals.

*A common Irish term of endearment for anyone unfamiliar, no doubt McKenna would have agreed that indeed he was a "gobshite".
Jack Heart said…
KTV...

Great comment... now tell us what you really think!
Anonymous said…
Ha! Bill's spirit, if not ensconced in the form of Alex Jones/able to occupy multiple vessels simultaneously, perhaps inspired my "rant". So, an addendum, to cool my comment (from 'the other side'):

The hedonistic, carefree (= careless) use of 'entheogens' McKenna (a prodigious weed smoker) Hicks & co. engage(d) in & promote(d), the kind of behaviour curated by "Burning Man" & it's mini-clones sporing all over - 'legalisation/decriminalisation' making societies as a whole one giant 'festival' atmosphere - is ruinous (& that's without taking into consideration the dosing of humanity as a whole via pharmaceutical pollution of water supplies compounding the effect of 'recreational drug use' (which also ends up in municipal water supplies)). However, 'entheogens' or rather plant healers may, if conscientiously incorporated into a way of living, contribute to the development of positive outcomes, but this is only a possibility if this choice is made with care, care must be the heart of this, & any other matter, otherwise, irrespective of (some potential) health improvements that may occur, ruin will be the only outcome.
Jack Heart said…
KTV...
I noticed you did indeed manage to slip in a mild endorsement for “plant healers” ...amidst your condemnation and proclamation of ruin! However, your point is spot on. “Conscientious Care” is at the Heart of the matter. Conscientiousness and Care must be our approach in dealing with humanity’s outward ailments, as well as inward shamanic journeying.

It may appear that “Burning Man Culture” mirrors the festive debauchery that accompanied the fall of Rome... after all... “The Empire Never Ended!” History does not repeat itself... but it rhymes!

However, don’t rush to judgement. Even the very wise cannot see all ends. Care must be taken... even in our commentary!

With that said... thanks for your thoughtful comments. You clearly have given such topics much thought. A favor though... Stop and smell the roses along the way... in the words of the great, mythic rock band (CIA asset?) the Greatful Dead...

“I may be going to hell in a bucket... but at least I’m enjoying the Ride!”
Anonymous said…
Aye, am just off for a woodland stroll, have a good day.
Dennis/87 said…
Burning man is a foray into the galactic center of freedom and experience.
The goodwill at burning man is legion. No thing to sell or buy. People there are beings of a spiritual nature. What is wrong with peace love and understanding? To shine forth is key! 87
Anonymous said…
1/2

"Burning Man" is problematic because It spored out of the corruption that hosted Leary, Dass, McKenna (T & D), Grof et al & which they collaborated in the continuing curation & development of. This "counterculture" that they & their acolytes celebrate was nothing of the sort, "The Man" would never allow anything to take place in the societies It experiments upon that could ever be a threat to Its continuing Work to achieve complete & total dominion over a submissive humanity, but we don’t need to consider things on such a "universal" scale as the "turn on, tune in, drop out" ideal has resulted in millions, upon millions of lives wrecked as fallout from "substance abuse" (those taking & those not whose lives have been ruined as a consequence anyway) that contemporary "safe space" approved exhortations of "do no harm"/"stay hydrated" etc do nothing to mollify or lessen the toll & frequency of occurrence.

"Turn on, tune in drop out", the guiding mantra of this ideology, is such an absurdity, a human being doesn't "turn on", we're not some kind of device nor do we "tune in", at least not like some kind of device - unless of course via conditioning we come to consider ourselves being something analogous to one - to believe ourselves to be inhuman, "drop out", though excused as meaning in the sense of 'dropping out of the system'/influence of "The Man", is the worst of It, the nihilistic forces predicating themselves on humanity drooled like never before when hippies & "flower children" began incanting this over & over. The most misanthropic consequence of this woozardry is refusing to understand that "peace & love" is so very, very often in the service of that working for war & hate & for those denying this due to a trip vision/notion that says otherwise ("hey don't kill my buzz man") failing to ensure their "love" isn't hate.

The "Hey chill out buddy! Take a hit on this & get with the programme"/"Goddamn squares!" sentiment seeks to excuse the abandonment of a soul's sacred duty: the care of the self. Nothing good comes without this dedication & anything presenting Itself as so, but acting in opposition, is a subversive vector of predation.

"Mind Expanding" graces trippy experiences with a significance undeserved, for to encounter that which defines oneself beneath the superficialities drudgingly grafted atop contemporary lives (& to find one's place in the grand scheme of things) a walk away from some urban/civilised area will suffice, a soul need not even do this for existence always finds a way to reveal itself to us even in the most built up, developed & grim places, whether it's a bird flying overhead or perched on a windowsill, sunlight/rain, a gift of flowers etc or even at worse getting caught up in an unfortunate circumstance wholly brought about by residing in a city, all there is to know in any of these things is the truth of existing. I know brain chemistry & sensory organs can be considered "trippy" due to how they respond to stimulus but tabs of acid, or whatever dose of choice/happens to be available/offered, aren't involved in these processes & any similarity between that endogenous & that to be experienced in a hit of whatever is a trick of the light & the most obscene things seek to present & garb themselves as bringers of (true) illumination.
Anonymous said…
2/2

When adepts state that psychedelics open a person up to novel views of existence otherwise unavailable, & that It’s necessary to partake so as to live a full life this emphasises the essential flaw at work for a soul doesn't need to "get high" to experience states of being that inspire the fulfilling of potential, to believe otherwise is the "drop out" mantra in full effect - to "drop out" of understanding that there's more to life than that which can be revealed by psychedelics. The proselytizing of psychedelics, & associated lifestyles, by the likes of "Burning Man" as means to achieve this way of life is a myopia that closes existence off from "Burners" etc. Odd(?) how this "mind opening" acts as a closing, It's as if there's something acting through psychedelic experiences inculcating misdirecting notions guised as enlightener.

Any positive that comes from the most carefully prepared & supported dosing relies wholly on long established non-psychedelic "sets and settings" so as to have any chance of beneficial efficacy. Psychedelic/entheogenic/plant healer use is dependent on non-psychedelic means so as to have any chance of playing a part in what will, if astutely judged, turn out to be wise choices of taking, but only choices that in turn are facets of those made without being “under the influence”.

"Burning Man" extols "leave no trace" but the lifestyle it curates, the lasting side-effects in attendees, & what they then go on to do in "straight" society (whatever that means in this doped-up & psychotropically stimulated & suppressed age - which must be due in no small part to what collective "heads" have pissed & shat back into the water supply after getting "high"), doesn't result in this ideal. "Burning Man" & Its spores aren't some kind of higher-dimensional romancing our "Flatland" only to depart with no trace or proof of Its having existed aside from inspired notions in those “experienced”, the consequences are myriad & legion & are at work upon us all, "Burner", would-be "Burner" or otherwise (& that this consequence of their choices is never acknowledged by the “mind expanders”, that I’ve ever heard, emphasises hate is at work).

(Also there's the promotion & advancing of the transhumanist destiny that goes hand in hand with this scene as if the above weren't enough, Leary's 90’s “cyberdelic” reworking of the phrase gifted to him by Marshall McLuhan into "turn on, boot up, jack in" is a consequence of the frying of his "circuits by all the acid he took & stands as monument to an inability to accept that "drugs” do do bad things".)
Jack Heart said…
KTV (1/2)... To your point: "The Man" would never allow anything to take place in the societies It experiments upon that could ever be a threat to Its continuing Work to achieve complete & total dominion over a submissive humanity" ...such defeatist rhetoric plays into hands of the Archonic powers (AKA "The Man"), all but ensuring it's worldly dominion.

I would submit to you that the "tune in" component of Leary's psychedelic triad, is exactly what you achieve in your "walk away from some urban/civilized areas."

Counter-cultural movements like Burning Man, while imperfect, are indeed a blow against the Empire in that they allow for a broader interpretation of human social endeavor.

Trippy experiences, always intensely personal, regardless of stimulus, are the very foundation of creativity and at the cutting edge of cultural evolution. Alternatively, obscenity is in the eye of the beholder...
Jack Heart said…
KTV (2/2)... The Burner's "leave no trace" is a sound environmental concept in the stewardship of our homeworld. It is an overt act of conservation... and the true (if not forgotten) foundational principle of conservatism.

I completely agree that the consequences of participation of Burning Man or any other social interactions are: myriad & legion & are at work upon us all. It is precisely the intensely personal experience each of us takes away from any endeavor that allows for personel growth. Accepting the consequences of such is known as taking responsability.

I also agree that the transhumanist/apocalyptic vibe is a little wierd. Talk about Mad Max and Thunder Dome!

- Cheers!
Anonymous said…
If we consider human being, including ancestors & descendents, as a single organism, then perhaps the psychedlic movement that exploded on the setting, that's come to be exemplified by the idealised likes of "Burning Man" (which can be considered some kind of psychedelic acting on the broader society it's situated in), could be read as an attempt to contribute to bringing about a course correction in the species away from further committance to behaviours ruinous to existence.

It's not that psychedelics themselves would bring this about, it's the broader cultural & scientific milieu out of which they arise that make a shift in focus of this kind required & inevitable, whether individual souls wish to or not, whether they've ever tripped or not, destiny cannot be avoided, actions have consequences.

A "Burner":

""We were Bohemians, and Bohemias are interesting. Bohemia is a world that artists create." They’re made by people who live by their gifts and live for their gifts and live to give those gifts to others. The Bohemians have a kind of erotic sense of property. They share with one another. They cooperate with one another. They collaborate with one another. What Bohemias reflect is the natural life of artists, how they behave in their authentic environment. And these were the principles we followed."

https://burningman.org/culture/philosophical-center/founders-voices/larry-harvey/la-vie-boheme/

Certainly an artful way of putting things.
Jack Heart said…
KTV... per your: "could be read as an attempt to contribute to bringing about a course correction in the species away from further committance to behaviours ruinous to existence" This is a metaphor I pursue in The Heresies" ...referring to the phenomenon as an inoculation.

As you no doubt know, the "Bohemia" sanctuary has a long tradition, recently referred to as a "Temporary Autonomous Zone" or TAZ by the anarchic poet, Hakim Bey.

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