The Cracking Tower: A Strategy for Transcending 2012 by Dekorne Jim

Author:Dekorne, Jim [Dekorne, Jim]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: North Atlantic Books
Published: 2010-05-04T16:00:00+00:00

Heraclitus defined Logos as the inherent order in the universe, a kind of pre-Einsteinian synthesis of form, energy, and matter. Later the meaning included the concept of a sentient entity—a kind of God, if you will (though initially without Jehovah’s toxic-parent personality). Then Logos became identified with logic and “the Word.” McKenna, famous for his assertion that reality is made of language, seems to be using all of the above definitions here.

Nevertheless, it’s still pretty grandiose to promote oneself as the “mouthpiece for the incarnate Logos.” What’s the difference between that and some street-corner stoner proselytizing God’s doctrine of psychedelic salvation? Leary and associates tried a similar rap thirty years earlier with disastrous results. Possibly the only reason that McKenna got away with it a second time was because of his “larger-than-thine” vocabulary, silver-tongued discourse, and relatively elite audience—no Day-Glo louts at a Terence McKenna seminar. (Granted that he also espoused lots of very provocative ideas!)

Any doctrine of psychedelic salvation is a treacherous creed indeed, though I am not claiming that McKenna was necessarily wrong. Given the historical context from which his revelations emanated, who could say that they weren’t initiated by the Logos (more likely one of “His” celestial subordinates) to promote species survival? It is strongly arguable that so-called consensus reality has grown at least as psychotomimetic as the reality revealed by hallucinogens—even a good deal more so.

I hold to the concept of a middle ground, a perceptual no-man’s-land, in which sanity is defined as a dance between inner and outer worlds. If I’m stoned all the time, I run the risk of schizophrenic ideation; if I never check out the other side, I run the risk of being trapped in an increasingly lethal consensus reality. If I favor either one of them over the other, I am vulnerable to some brand of insanity. (Don’t be fooled by this dimension, don’t be fooled by that dimension, don’t be fooled by any dimension. Never, ever, forget: Nada del mundo es verdad por lo que mi ojos ven!—“Nothing in the world is true that meets my eyes!”) Sanity is taking full responsibility for your choices all of the time—staying in the saddle and not falling off on either side of reality’s horse. This is the alchemical concept of the unus mundus, or “one world,” which I discuss in greater detail Psychedelic Shamanism.70

Let’s now consider the consciousness koan from another shaman’s point of view.

Of all the psychedelic pioneers who became big-name cultural icons, I regard John Lilly as the most shamanic, and at some levels the most credible. A medical doctor, psychoanalyst, and researcher in the fields of biophysics, neurophysiology, electronics, and neuroanatomy, Lilly is probably most famous for his investigations into interspecies communication with dolphins. His study of the human brain at the National Institute of Mental Health led him to examine the effects of sensory deprivation on consciousness. Basically, he wanted to answer the question: “Are the activities of the brain generating the mind or is there something greater

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