In “Archaic Revival”, Terence McKenna explores consciousness, civilization, and the profound effects of magic mushrooms. He provocatively suggests that the ingestion of psilocybin—a compound found in certain mushrooms—may have played a critical role in the development of human language. McKenna bases this argument on the idea that, once humans domesticated cattle, mushrooms containing psilocybin proliferated in their dung. This theory isn’t isolated to McKenna; for instance, the 5,000-year-old Ötzi the Iceman, discovered in the Alps, was found with mushrooms in his possession, suggesting their medicinal or hallucinogenic use.
It’s important to clarify that I’m not advocating the use of magic mushrooms. However, maintaining an open mind about the more significant questions concerning consciousness is essential. If experimenting with entheogens—a term meaning “god-revealing substances”—can open doors to alternate dimensions of reality, we should not be quick to close our minds and hearts to these possibilities. The term “entheogen” is gaining traction today, possibly as a way to ‘cleanse’ the image of these substances, previously known as psychedelics. A comprehensive resource on this topic can be found at [this link](http://deoxy.org/index.htm).
Reflecting on my own experiences, I recall how my understanding of reality was transformed after reading Aldous Huxley’s “The Doors of Perception” and other works from the psychedelic era. A few personal experiments with mushrooms significantly altered my perception, challenging the boundaries of what is considered ‘real.’
Over time, I became convinced that just as geopolitical imperialism exists, there is also a form of cognitive imperialism. This concept refers to the dominance of a particular worldview over others, often marginalizing alternative perspectives. I now believe that many of humanity’s political issues stem from the narrow ‘reality tunnels’ we navigate—tunnels shaped and reinforced by cognitive imperialism.
This cognitive domination, or the enslavement of awareness, permeates our entire culture. Take, for example, the Inuit people, who have over 20 different words to describe various types of snow, while in the West, we only use the word “snow” because that is all we perceive. Similarly, the Aboriginal peoples of Australia have numerous words to describe “sand,” recognizing its many forms, yet we see only “sand.” These examples may seem trivial, but they illustrate the broader point: our language and perception are limited by our cultural and cognitive frameworks.
When we venture beyond the so-called “real” 3-D world, we enter a domain where words become almost useless. In these realms, symbolism takes precedence. Symbols are multivalent entities, not confined to a single linear meaning. For example, a triangle or cross symbol does not possess just one sense. Entheogens have the potential to reveal multiple levels of meaning simultaneously, akin to a window or door opening to the light. Plato’s analogy of the cave, where people are chained to chairs facing a wall on which shadows are cast, represents this closed realm of Darkness. In his story, one person frees himself, turns to see the source of the shadows—a candle—and then notices a glimmer of light from another direction. As his eyes adjust, he steps outside the cave, initially blinded by the Sun’s intense light. However, as his vision acclimates, he discovers a world of colour and life. When he returns to the cave to inform his fellow prisoners, they consider him delusional, unable to free themselves from their cognitive slavery.
The cave in Plato’s analogy is the Consensus Reality, its truth dictated by the Great Bell Curve, often cited by statisticians as the realm of reality. However, physics and mathematics point us toward a new direction, away from this shadow world. While I’m neither a physicist nor a mathematician, the little I do understand reveals a world vastly different from the one Isaac Newton experienced when the proverbial apple struck his head. Today, that apple could be perceived in three distinct ways, each as accurate as the other while appearing identical. Firstly, there is the 3-D apple Newton felt on his head. Secondly, the apple of subatomic physics, which Newton would not recognize as familiar. Thirdly, an apple would attract the earth towards it rather than simply falling. Each perspective is “real,” depending on our operating paradigm.
Whether Carlos Castaneda’s Don Juan existed or not, the Yaqui Indian sorcerer’s notion of different descriptions of the world, each real in its own way, holds true.
Science seems to find “evidence” of a Global Mind—a concept that shamans, mystics, magicians, and saints have intuitively understood for millennia. The entheogenic experience opens these Doors of Perception, leaving us to walk through and perceive multiple worlds simultaneously without necessarily being under the influence of these substances. As William Blake expressed in “The Marriage of Heaven and Hell”, “If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is, infinite. For man has closed himself up till he sees all things through narrow chinks of his cavern.” This sentiment, from which Huxley derived the title of his book and which inspired the name of the rock band “The Doors”, closely mirrors Plato’s vision as he emerged from the cave.
Cognitive imperialism is the enemy we must overcome. To become Spirit Warriors, we must shift from the imperialism of the mind to the wisdom of the Heart. From the Heart, we can empathize with the suffering of others, and our actions can be fueled by compassion. The Heart of humanity is deeply connected with the Heart of Gaia, the Sun, and the cosmos. Our struggle against the forces of Darkness—the Masters of War, the Keepers of Concentration Camps, the Greed Kings who keep the poor shackled with hunger—is a struggle of the Global Mind and Gaia’s Heart against those who remain blind and deaf to the Light and the Word. The challenge is that those blind and deaf to the Light and the Word currently hold material power.
Yet, I believe that more of us will emerge from the shadows in these times. As we adjust our vision to the world of Gaia’s Heart/Mind, we may indeed usher in an era of peace.
A Reflective Note on Entheogens
Jonathan Ott offers a compelling critique of the Christian enmity towards entheogens:
“The Christian enmity [towards entheogens] is easy to explain. Since the Christians were promulgating a religion in which the core mystery, the holy sacrament itself, was conspicuous by its absence, later transmogrified by the smoke and mirrors of the Doctrine of Transubstantiation into a specious symbol, an inert substance, a placebo entheogen, the imposture would be all-too-evident to anyone who had known the blessing of ecstasy, who had access to personal religious experiences. Thus a concerted attack on the use of sacred inebriants was mounted, and the supreme heresy was to presume to have any direct experience of the divine, not mediated by an increasingly corrupt and politicized priesthood. The Pharmacratic Inquisition was the answer of the Catholic Church to the embarrassing fact that it had taken all the religion out of religion, leaving an empty and hollow shell with no intrinsic value or attraction to humankind, which could only be maintained by hectoring, guilt-mongering and plain brute force.”
Jonathan Ott
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Journeys and Star Gazing 