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Speaking to Piers about Prisoner of Infinity & the landscape of occultism, paranoid awareness, psychedelics as voluntary possession, & artificially induced liminality.
Part One: Discovery & Disillusionment (0 – 21 mins)
Peter Levenda’s defense of Michael Aquino, Strieber & Gurdjieff, a spaceship allegory, de-eroticization & spirituality, intimacy without vulnerability, from pornography to cannibalism, effects of crystal meth, a mutant strain of human, working with addicts, intact indigenous culture, Jeffrey Kripal on trauma & spirituality, the Auticulture audience, an arc of discovery & disillusionment, occultism & conspiracy theory, an allergy to the parapolitical, Erik Davis’ position, Kripal on Esalen, the difference between woolly-mindedness & strategic evasion.
Part Two: Chinese Siddhis (21 mins – 48 mins)
Tom O’Neill’s Chaos, Manson & MKULTRA, Diana Pasulka, being ignored, Gordon White, Chris Knowles, occultism & fucked-up-ness, bringing coherence, veterans of psychedelic experience, lessons unlearned, taking Crowley at his word, wanting to believe, internal dissembling, breaking the mirror of expectations, endless spiritual seeking, coming back to the body, spiritual commodification, the imported concept of spirituality, Western spirituality as occultism lite, the surrender path, knowledge & power, conflating psychism with spirituality, the quest for siddhis.
Part Three: Manufactured Revolutions (48 mins to 1 hr 9 mins)
Warring narratives on organized malevolence on right & left, negative identity, schismogenesis, Annika Lucas, power addiction, taboo violation, Rene Girard & the loss of differentiation, liminality & social identity, imprisoning structures, manufactured revolutions, (57 min edit) heroin addiction, Crowley’s cocaine addiction, cocaine psychosis, psychic possession, the centrality of drugs to social control, Bruce Alexander, the dislocation theory of addiction, naturally-produced dopamine, crack & whores, boosting the reward circuitry, escalating porno addiction, drugs & the sex industry, drug cartel death rituals, artificially induced psychopathy.
Part Four: Dissociation Rituals & Psychedelics (1 hr 9 mins – end)
Marijuana habit, putting the body to sleep, feeding the mind, alcohol consumption by French vs. Italians, solitary vs social use of drugs, the trauma of sustained stress, dissociation rituals, treating drug abuse with drugs, licit & illicit drug control, voluntary possession, spirit beings & plant use, Eduardo Duran, psychedelic back taxes, Maximon, Ayahuasca entities, idealizing shamans, ritual abuse & theater, hacking into the unconscious, back to liminality, plant-inception.
Songs: “Pirates” & “Patience” by Entertainment for the Braindead; “Energy_Hunters_Unicorn_Hard-on_Mystic_Materials, Refuck” by Foot Village; “The_Man_In_The_Picture” by Niamh_De_Barra; “Change” by Short Hand.
Great guest. I think a lot about that question at the root of addiction—where does it come from? Like asking what causes mass shootings? Why are some cultures so conducive to misery and addiction? Cognitive behaviorists seem ill-prepared to address the disconnect from nature. I suppose on the one hand what could be more connected to nature than focusing on breathing, focusing on your body, etc. But on the other hand, there’s this superficial attitude toward deeper causes, because you can’t do anything about it anyway, so why bother? As though with every serenity prayer, there appears to be more and more we cannot change. All the way up to being a dying species on a dying planet ruled by vampires. Addiction: Disease, or government sponsored spiritual genocide?
Gosh, a real downer when I write it out like that, but tis the season… Anyway, great talk! Really enjoyed it.
What a great discussion. Thanks for talking about addictions & drugs in such a lucid way. The whole spirits-in- psychedelics is a perspective most people don’t talk about enough. In the ayahuasca scene that I’m familiar with, a lot of effort is made to protect the space — for good reason, as I’ve come to realize.
part one : pornographic “syncholes”, interesting to think about indigenous cultures and their experience (or lack thereof) of addiction, Los Liminalistas, never go full-retard in a culture where talking about the history of the banking system makes you a “Joo-hatin-Nazi”
part two : here is the primer from Knowles’ new fiction (alien abduction ?) novel : “An up-and-coming rock star disappears from the stage in a flash of blinding white light”, I always liked the old rocket pack analogy for psychedelics from the first NK interview.. I don’t remember if anyone brought-up that a rocket pack would be cheating if the idea was to walk up the trail
part three : yes, everyone should read VOK, there is a saying that was made popular by the Dave Chappelle show a decade ago (?) : “cocaine’s a HELL-of-a drug”
part four : implanting imagery into the psyche while disassociated you say .. https://bit.ly/36e48Dm, and yeah, the green Salvia woman defiantly says “okay, let me be a human for the next three minutes and I will let you be a plant”
happy new year and thanks to all, except that Salvia woman, pushy broad
“Los Liminalistas, never go full-retard…” 🙂
Another great interview. On a cracking roll Jasun. I hear you both and agree for the most part. Incisive and informed, sincerely appreciated.
Although I’m undecided and know from experience that substance (a)buse can be detrimental to health and being, I do think that most substances can be helpful in one’s ‘development’, as can many experiences. They certainly helped me (in particular phases of my life), although I made sure to undo some of it through repeated (ab)use. Nevertheless, I’m not so confident to throw the psychedelic experience out with plant possession. It really is a tough one even if abuse is obviously something to be avoided.
The question which will remain unanswered is what would have happened if one had pursued a different approach to development and healing other than psychedelics.
This seems esp telling:
“They certainly helped me (in particular phases of my life), although I made sure to undo some of it through repeated (ab)use.”
Is that the loss-leader strategy of plant spirits: they give you something for free, knowing that, in most cases, the punter will come back and max out all his credit cards on future visits?
Very possible. I’ve taken Oshana’s thoughts on the subject very seriously. Your argument and logic are compelling. However, I’ve left room for the chance that, like many things which nourish us, these particular plants serve a similar function. Genuinely undecided on psychedelics, whereas booze and artificial chemical substances are pretty obviously detrimental to health after years of abuse and I emphasise abuse. I’ve never really abused psychedelics and have approached them with fear and respect from the very first experience. I never played the shaman role, more of a self-healing/growth/discovering/uncovering (you get the picture) so I never really overdid them the way you did with Salvia. The idea of being stone cold sober freaks me out because I don’t know how to deal with sobriety, the excess energy, and just being myself. Quite unbearable. I do recognise that being oneself is the requirement to discovering who one genuinely is. Not making excuses.
Agreed….. I am deeply ambivalent about this….that being said, these plants are traditionally held to be medicines and not some kind of “spiritual path.” Westerners love “spiritual kicks.” We aren’t much for chopping wood and carrying water. What I love about Jasun’s work is that it puts the question in a really meaningful context – namely trauma, disbodiment , and cultural programming. I, for one, was “possessed” by sex, drugs, and rock n roll. Psychedelia, occultism, and exotic spirituality were a huge part of that,
From Anneke Lucas- whom you must interview- (suggested by your guest)
“Sexual abuse is used on children because it breaks down boundaries. Every child who is sexually or otherwise abused is psychic, which turns their physical vehicle into an easily opened channel. The best actors are extremely mentally pliable, and can, even without make up, appear physically different, depending on the character they inhabit. They are channeling an unintegrated part of them that may be shut out of their consciousness, or they may perhaps even channel another entity.
“My own example is unusual, because I lacked the self-esteem from the extreme childhood sexual abuse, and was primed for power – yet chose against it at each step of the way.
“Just as in incestuous families, those children who remain faithful to the parents and stay silent, reap the rewards of inner family status and inheritance. Actors gain status on the world stage and are paid accordingly.
“The hierarchy is trauma-based. The belief in authority is the most dangerous superstition. All those who have blindly accepted the good intentions of authorities, have become co-opted in the worst atrocities in the history of humankind.”
I remember this lady from a documentary. Insane personal story and pertinent insight into the topic of abuse by the political elite. Just looked her up and found this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLp5LM18wIU&feature=emb_title
yes she has done a TED talk; are you just sharing it or are you making a point about her mainstream acceptability?
Both. I find it curious that she’s giving Ted talks in addition to sharing her story.
*in addition to wanting to share her story.
Thank you for sharing this conversation.