Manifesting the Mind: The Trailer

A visitor to physicist Niels Bohr's cabin in the woods pointed to a horseshoe mounted above the door. "Surely, Professor Bohr, you do not believe in such superstitious nonsense."

"Certainly not," Bohr replied. "But they say that it works whether you believe in it or not."

Niels Bohr's horseshoe is a lot like quantum mechanics which works like a charm whether physicists really understand it or not (we don't). Niels Bohr's horseshoe is also like a psychedelic drug which can offer an ordinary person a glimpse of Ineffable Reality unmatched by what any religious ceremony can produce. LSD works no matter what you believe. You don't have to fast, meditate for hours, memorize the catechism, read the sacred books or go to church. NO BELIEF IS NECESSARY. As Terence McKenna once put it: "Now even bad people can see God."

Physicists are learning to come to terms with the utter madness of quantum theory and our society has benefitted tremendously from their ingenuity in deciphering what physicist Heinz Pagels called "the Cosmic Code". However our culture has yet to discover how to effectively deal with the plants and molecules that allow "even bad people to see God" in any other way than by fearfully outlawing their use and severely punishing heretics with long prison terms.

Raiding medical marijuana dispensaries and arresting Administers of the Sacrament at Burning Man are really bad ideas--such actions seem more characteristic of an ignorant totalitarian state than a nation that truly cares for its citizens' freedom, well being and sense of adventure.

Many primitive cultures valued psychedelic exploration and created social forms in which the use of psychedelic substances was ritualized and channeled into beneficial directions. If unlettered peoples who live in the jungle can devise ways to safely explore deep inner space for the benefit of their fellows, one can only imagine how a society that invented space travel, quantum mechanics, symphony orchestras and compound interest might benefit if responsible use of these remarkable substances was encouraged rather than banned.

Andrew Rutajit's video "Manifesting the Mind" explores some of the possibilities that the imaginative use of psychedelics might hold for a technologically advanced society. This Youtube clip is a trailer for Rutajit's video which is scheduled for release sometime in February 2009.

Also coming soon: "2000-year-old Pickup Line" 

to be published here on St. Valentine's Day.

First Exposure

Today was interviewed at Bruce Damer's "God Farm" in Boulder Creek by Andy and Jennifer from Bend, OR (friends of Iona Miller's) who are making a video on the entheogenic origins of Christmas. Background music was a rare (for Santa Cruz) thunderstorm which blackened the sky. (Pix = Bruce and Jennifer). Bruce, Allan Lundell and I played the 3 Wise Men bringing gifts to the Infant God--and hoping to get gifts back, gifts that reflect our deepest wishes. Allan's wish: how would an enlightened community actually behave? Bruce (who lived for a spell in Prague) told of the traditional Czech visit of Saint Nicholas accompanied by two devils to whom you were supposed to give propitiatory gifts. I wanted from the Little God some new physics tool that would open new doorways into Nature--brand new applications of quantum physics that would directly connect our human minds to the several other minds around us. I wished to be given some concrete ways to use quantum physics to expand human consciousness. I wanted some new ideas for this blog which is intended to be a record of my efforts (as one of BC's token Wise Men) to create a totally new physics in which human consciousness is an essential ingredient. Bon voyage. Bon appetite. Bon chance.