I have a propensity for “paranormal” subject matter. This may or may not have caused my opinions to be slanted yet, in truth there is a creeping underlying wanting of scientific and rational explanations. That slow moving current beneath my exploration of all that is strange could very well be the last reminder of what I tend to think of as fading idealisms, constructs, and belief systems – reality tunnels as Robert Anton Wilson might call them – and all begging to be stomped out and abandoned. We tend to dwell in that small facsimile of our perceptual architecture, bound by laws and rules so neat and tidy as to give us the illusion of safety and order in this world. All that is needed is the slightest nudge through any shift in perception and the world around us shows its potential for unraveling. Chances are that one will not give up their safety blanket so easy, clench it with a white knuckle grip as the frayed edges of materialist dogma waver in delicate uncertainty. For those who dare to step further into their own cracked looking glass, it is quickly realized that a reliance on hard science should be treated only as a minute fractional portion of whole picture. It is also realized that hard science and its principles have become a religious institution in its own right (just as much as Atheism or Corporatism) and the fanatical clergy of this authoritarian cult are quick to mock and ridicule the unbound mystics, the paradigm-shattering vigilantes, and all others seeking an alternative truth. I’d like to consider myself in this former company but it is that same ridicule that kept me from ever reporting my UFO sighting in 1999. Even within the UFO community, with its stories of transdimensional star brothers and reptilian overlords, the mere fact that I had LSD in my system completely and totally discredited me and the others I was with. We were not reliable witnesses and were automatically categorized into a group that should be ignored and branded with the societal stigma that drugs create an unstable mind. There are many within psychedelic culture as well who would say “Yes, of course you saw a UFO. You were on acid”. Even when directly given the keys to a limitless number of inner and outer universes, there is often a tendency to reduce the psychedelic experience to a simple chemical reaction in the physical brain causing the misfiring of neurons, which in turn just makes us see some crazy stuff that’s not really there. Yes, I’m sure that happens on an introductory level but once familiar with toe-dipping in the hallucinatory pool there develops an ability to begin distinguishing a breathing wall with pleasant patterns on it from a giant fully realized three dimensional insectoid embodiment of alien intelligence.
As long as we can hold close the mantra of “we know absolutely nothing” the reality for each individual will continue to evolve. And should we not expect all degrees of reality to evolve alongside the monkeys? I do hold admiration for the proponents of quantum physics as they are bridging the gap frantically, although maybe unknowingly, back to the true origins of science. We see the dawning of all we believe to be possible in our modern day – space travel, genome editing, artificial intelligence, and on and on – in the grand schemes and ideas of mysticism and of the ancient alchemists. The only tangible concept we may end up having is this acknowledgement. As much as both the old and new wizards have tapped into though, there is an infinity that still stretches before us. Dada Gunamuktananda, a medical student turned yogi, has been credited with the meme that “consciousness is the final frontier” where as I think that it is really the only frontier there has ever been. Without our consciousness to translate the scope of experience, everything ceases to exist. In contrast to that, but aligned with the dualistic nature of the human condition, within our consciousness everything strives to exist.
