My astral TV just picked this up from a PBS station in 2073.
Long shot establishing a vista of alpine meadow with snow capped peaks in the far background. In the middle distance is a small pagoda-like pavillion. George Harrison and Ravi Shankar play Indian flavored Grateful Dead music in the background as the camera begins to travel in toward the pavillion.
As the camera approachs the pavillion, we begin to hear a voice over the music.
Voice- (Cheerful and solemn). . . slowly, slowly, that’s good! Now feel that sensation, stay locked on your partner’s eyes and just feel. . .
The camera moves slowly up to the pagoda and we see a dozen couples, all in their mid-teens, seated in lotus posture facing each other. Their knees almost touch, but not quite. Everyone is fixed on their partner. The camera travels through the group, then focuses in on the old fat Buddha seated on a pile of cushions. He continues to talk, eyes closed and with a big smile, as the camera closes in and fades out.
Fat Buddha – . . . yes, feel it. Feel that desire, that longing, that tingling in groin, that tightening of the nipples. Feel it and know that it is holy. You are feeling the god or goddess responding to the god or goddess of your partner. This feeling is holy, to be treasured, never squandered, never disrespected. . .
We fade back in after dark. The group is sitting around a large fire, some couples snuggled together, others listening to a conversation with the Fat Buddha. He sits on a log on the far side of the fire and several young people are talking intently.
Young people – “You mean it was like that!” I don’t believe it, how could that be. . ?” “How did they survive, if everyone was crazy?”
Medium close up of Fat Buddha, smilling and nodding.
Fat Buddha – Oh, yes, quite. How did we survive? But it is all true, I remember it. Sexualization of society, everything was sold with sex, linked with sex, until no one respect the divine awareness that dwelt in their bodies. They died young, twisted with fear and guilt. Sex became equated with death and for a while, there seemed no point to living. The darkness was winning, had almost won in fact, and then — well that is a long story that most of you have heard before.
Cut to young faces shinning in the firelight.
Young people – Please, tell us again! We want to understand what it was like. . .
Scene fades away as voice over of Fat Buddha begins.
Fat Buddha – It started in the late 20th century, at the end of the age of destruction and just before the Great Change. . .
And then the MIBs, the SOBs, jammed my channel #5, who awoke feeling slightly peeved at only contacting the future; she had her sites set on the dolphin spirits from Rigel. So it goes. . .
As for the ideas in your “Heaven and Hell” piece, well, I think you are close, but not quite on target. Please read William Blake’s work, “The Marriage of Heaven and Hell.” It’s been an inspiration to me through the years.
And now for the main event, “DMT as the magikal secret.”
Three books you need to read thoroughly: “True Hallucinations” and “The Invisible Landscape,” by Terrence McK; and “Psychedelic Shamanism” by Jim DeKorne. These volumes spell it all out, and make some important distinctions among hallucinogens.
In thinking about psychedelics, it’s good to keep in mind how they work. Any altered state of consciousness is created by changing the activity of neurotransmitters in the brain. Neurotransmitters are chemicals that mediate the propagation of nerve signals across the synapse. In other words, they shape the quantum wavefront we call mind. Among the chemicals known to act as neurotransmitters are norepinephrine and serotonin.
We can divide hallucinogens into groups based on their similarity in structure to these two neurotransmitters. The norepinephrine group, the MDAs and MDMAs, the super speeds like STP, and Mescaline, produce a resonant alignment of the body’s energy fields. Mescaline, which induces an awareness of an exterior intelligence, creates a resonance between the body’s field and that of the earth itself, with mescalito seen as a projection of father earth.
The serotonin group is much more interesting. Serotonin is found in the pineal gland and seems to be a neurotransmitter and neurohormone associated with internal and external perception. The pineal gland is an internalized photo-sensitive endrochrine mechanism, often thought of as a third eye. It receives input from the optic nerve and the limbic region and is sensitive to a wide range of wave-like stimulus, including sound and electro-magnetism. It also contains the precursor mechanisms needed to convert serotonin and melatonin into their hallucinogentic counter-parts, DMT and beta-carboline.
These are the basic active alkaloids in yage, and, given that the brain can produce these chemicals on its own, the question becomes: why do we need to ingest them to have an effect? The answer lies within the structure and effect of LSD.
The naturally occuring amides, such as found in Morning Glory and Woodrose seeds, and rye ergotism and Sleepy Grass fungi, are complex indole rings with similarities to both norepinephrine and serotonin. These complex chains of molecules interact with many different receptor sites in the brain to produce a kaliedoscope of somatic, psychological and psychic states. They have very rarely been used as shamanic drugs. Only the Toltec warriors and their descendents used Morning Glory seeds, and it was not in a truly shamanic context. Amide hallucinations are of a secondary nature, that is they derive from a broad range of brain receptor stimulation, rather than the direct interaction of pineal chemicals.
Now, LSD is a synthetic amide, a serotonin type indole ring with another complex of chains stuck to it. This chain starts like the other amides, but is synthetically altered to end up as a melatonin like substance similar to beta-carboline (6-methoxy tetrahydro harman). LSD then, unlike the natural amides, actually does engage the pineal gland directly. The problem lies in the synthetic simplicity of the LSD molecule. It activates certain receptors, but leaves others, some of them very important shamanically, untouched. You can use LSD shamanically, but it’s like trying to steer a rudderless boat in a high sea — no fun and downright dangerous.
If the bio-chemical key to higher consciousness lies in the chemical complexity of the pineal gland, then the interaction of tryptamine and carboline, or serotonin and melatonin, is critically important. LSD demonstrates what happens when these button are punched at once, bright lights, disorienting sound and color confusion, etc. Sometimes, out of that short circuit reaction comes a glimpse of pure bliss and infinite wisdom.
But suppose that some really sharp neuro-pharmacist/ethno-botanist type designed a synergistic mix of alkaloids that allowed, first of all, access to that direct serotonin/pineal gland gnosis, and then second allowed the mind to expand in telepathic resonance? In other words, a compound drug that allowed the mind to function without the disabling isolation brought on by serotonin/melatonin imbalances.
Well, that’s what yage actually is; a complex synergy of beta-carboline MAO inhibitors, exactly the same as 6-MTH, a cyclized form of melatonin, and tryptamines, similar to 5HT, serotonin itself. The yage creates the full spectrum linkage of receptors needed for a controlled flow shamanic experience. Psylocyben is a phosphorylated version of Psylocin which is only one bond away from DMT. Mushrooms contain a mix of Psylocin and Psylocyben alkaloids, and this blend results in a powerful internal information stream type of experience. Both DeoDMT and DMT work the same way, but are absorbed and reconfigured much more quickly than the phosphorylated form found in mushrooms. Access to the information stream is overwhelming to the un-trained. Mushrooms and DMT provide a one-way connection, sort of a receive only radio set. Yage adds interactivity.
Exposure to the yage compounds trains your brain to produce the complex naturally in the pineal gland. This is a component in the shamanic training; eventually you will need yage only with strangers and for special occasions when extra clarity is needed. DMT is part of the magickal secret, oh yes indeed, but the whole secret is in how to use these complex alkaloids in their galactic ritual setting. How do we sing our way to the stars, that’s the question.
Well, got to go now. Hope this helps. Stay in touch, etc.
Dr. Strange, written to Russell on June 23, 1997