ies to -- my environment, the world around me, animals. I understand my internal, biological ORGANIC, processes are coalescing into what I know as my mind. Coming to be in touch with my energy-system, my sleep-system, coming to explore alternate states of my mind, has made me realize I am a biological process, a dynamic becoming. Human beings are animals of this earth, and somehow this has been cast down the wayside in the wake of transhumanism. Was it the enlightenment? Is philosophy itself humanity's poison? So aware are we of our death, we behold that orb of Esoteric knowledge in the palm of our hands, so that we cannot see the hunting grounds before us. We project our abstractions, so that we may claim victory over death,we attempt to solve the mysteries of the universe, to conquer the celestial bodies, so that we may transcend them and fulfill ourselves as the godhead, find the ultimate state of Being, the Absolute. But these are projections of the human imagination --a mechanism emergent of physical states -- a mechanism which is a tool for interpreting, understanding, coping with reality.So, the human being's consciousness has created in him a mechanism for the projection of that which is unattainable in reality. It is this that keeps him from submitting to the physical woes that torment him daily. He must continually fight lack -- in other words, fulfill needs. As Camus postulated, man's status as an absurd Sisyphus, constantly plagued by lack, does not cast him into the pits of nihilism because of such mechanisms within the Intellect. However, modern and postmodern (Western) civilization is structured in such a way as the basic needs of the human being are met effortlessly by a seemingly omniscient State-propagated-economic-system. If not carefully tended to, this leaves the mechanism of imagination either overactive or completely dulled as an element in a culminated intelligence.
Psychedelic trips are a projection of conscious imagination, human imagination being a survival mechanism (as one aspect of an overall Intellect), sending one into a state wherein subconscious projections overwhelm conscious awareness. Because we are the culmination of all that has come before us, imagination is composed of symbols from the collective unconscious infused into the individual through genetic mutation, as well as that which the individual himself adds through his experiences, and his Ideation which always in some way directly or indirectly refers thereto (for example, a unicorn is an ideation and is strictly unreal but
is composed only of that which can be found in the real world). The imagination thus validly refers to the real world in that it is emergent of specific, long-evolved physical states which have developed over the ages in accord with the very same forces, elements, and limitations as the cosmos itself, and all the celestial bodies. Thus, when those who are especially adept at retrieving messages from deep within the psyche compose works of metaphysical and/or ethical mythology or lore, their works and ideas coincide metaphorically with actual states of affairs. This sort of understanding of reality appeals to the right-brain sensibilities and is useful. However the capability that the imagination introduces to the human mind is the capability of mis-representation (see Dretske). Those who are not so skilled in retrieving and deciphering messages from the psyche, create ideas that do not dovetail with reality, and in their incompatibility, create confusion.Thus, the reason I believe that anthropomorphic polytheistic mythology, artwork and philosophy is important is because it casts an engaging, thrilling, lucid and personable light on the underlying forces of nature and of reality that define us and our universe. Thus we use our imagination to find our own place as the species homo sapiens sapiens (other species have other mechanisms) and also to understand how it is that we are a part of it.
The most important thing psychedelics can help you do is to observe the way you fit in with the ecology of the earth to create in your mind a firm understanding of yourself as a dynamic, biological process, and further attempt to project those observations into a lucid, clear and viable conception of your place in the cosmology of the universe.
Pondering such matters in a balanced and disciplined manner leads to spiritual wellness; which in turn leads to a drive, or a "fighting spirit" as it were, to achieve mental and physical wellness in turn. Thus, we can achieve healing through the use of naturally-occuring plant compounds, by allowing ourselves radically different perspectives on the way our imagination informs our experience as human beings with unique minds.
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