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Encounter in the Holographic Network
The evidence suggests that we live in a completely interconnected, vastly intelligent, highly communicative holographic network. That is exciting in itself, but what of the practical side of this network? What does it do? Who uses this communications network and what do they talk about?
Life and Death
Judging from the work of Cleve Backster, it would seem that the death of brine shrimp is an important enough event for this system to talk about. So this system is concerned with the most fundamental aspects of living things... life and death. Assuming that brine shrimp are no more important than other living things, this system reacts to the death of living organisms. Looks like a feedback loop to me.
Symbiotic Realtionships
Various religious and mystical traditions have described just such a system. But the shaman is thought to be the original practitioner. The shaman contacts plant spirits directly, either by partaking of the plant drug itself or entering a trance state aided by drumming or other shamanistic practices. While in this altered state, the shaman asks the plants how they are to be used and they answer. Again assuming that the shaman is no more important than other living things, it appears that this system can be used to foster symbiotic relationships. Once that is understood, it is apparent that many complex symbiotic relationships we find in nature have been negotiated through this system of communication.
The symbiotic relationship is usually for the purpose of aiding a species in one of the three basic functions of all living systems... growth, reproduction and dispersal.
The Hopi Corn Mother is a such a relationship. The Hopi Indians hold spring ceremonies that include living sprouts of corn. They are communicating their intent directly to the corn plants. The deal is food for the tribe in exchange for reproduction for the corn. Throughout the season they communicate with their plants through ceremony to reinforce the bond between their tribe and the Corn Mother. This arrangement has been successful for thousands of years under very difficult circumstances. Both partners have reaped a reward.
However, it is fairly easy to find relationships between species that are not cooperative arrangements, but wherein one species is clearly taking advantage of another.
There is the orchid that grows its petals to imitate the back of certain species of female fly so closely that the male attempts to mate with it. In so doing, he pollinates the orchid. The flower emits a pheromone that smells like the female fly. The flower also gives off heat, up to 15 degrees higher than the surrounding air. This relationship can hardly make the grade as "symbiotic" in the true sense. The fly is being tricked. It is hard to see what benefit the fly and his species get from the arrangement, but the orchid gets pollinated, something it can accomplish in few other ways. We humans sometimes take the place of the fly, but other than that, the orchid is helpless to reproduce.
So the system is not necessarily a two way communication. Deceit can be involved.
The Gods
We are talking about relationships between real species, not supernatural beings. The gods are not simply mythic beings, but living species that intake nutrients and expel waste. Like all creatures they have a spiritual component; they are members of this system. Throughout history there have been many plants that have acted like gods to mankind. Although these relationships are well documented, we have failed to grasp their full significance.
Where do thoughts come from?
Another thing to consider is the fact that we access this communications system through internal parts of our consciousness. Can we tell the differences between intuition, inspiration and the messages from god? Do we really know what generates our thoughts? We seem to have control over the process, but sometimes thoughts come into our heads that are surprizing to the conscious mind. What writer has not laughed out loud at some clever twist of thought that seemed to come out of nowhere? Isn't it possible that some of our thoughts come to us from this communications system?
The Corn Mother is a shy god and you must listen closely to hear her at all. Even Bacchus, the god of wine, with all his brass and bluster, is not much for talking to his followers. Their messages are subtle and not so easy for the uninitiated to understand. However, there are plant gods that aren't at all shy and talk with a very loud voice. These are the hallucinogenic fungi.
Symbiotic Strategies
Whether we are talking about addictive, hallucinogenic, or therapeutic properties, we tend to look at the drugs produced by plants from the standpoint of how their chemicals react in the human body. But if we are willing to admit that this system is intelligent we must consider that other members of this system are intelligent as well. We must understand the reasons these drugs are produced from the viewpoint of the plants themselves. If addiction, hallucination and therapeutic value can be seen as strategies to aid the plant in the recruitment and retention of symbiotic partners, we have a key that unlocks some very special doors.
The Encounter
This brings us to my personal experience.
Back in '77 some friends of mine and i put together a magic mushroom farm. We got some stropharia cubensis spores, built an inoculating hood per directions in the Psilocybin Magic Mushroom Grower's Guide, and got a truckload of compost. We got to the stage where we had quart mason jars full of mycelium with which to spawn our compost when the bottom fell out of the project. I left with a few jars as my share and headed for the desert.
They hadn't fruited because we had more than one mycelium growing in each jar. No 'shrooms, but the chemical composition of the mycelium is practically the same, so i ate a jar full. In the jar along with the mycelium was some rye, oyster shell and other nutrients. I had read that there was nothing toxic here and i didn't want to fool around with a little recreational high... i wanted a major trip. Well, i got one.
I soon met a mushroom entity(actually it was more like several entities) that proceeded to demonstrate this communications system to me. They introduced me to other plants and showed me that i could feel their "thoughts". I had had some experience with LSD and peyote, but this was not the type of hallucination i was expecting. There were no visions or creatures, just a powerful presence that spoke to me with thoughts that were large blocks of information, like someone inserted a new disc in my computer. I "knew" the meaning of the blocks instantly, but they included details that took me years to match up with my view of reality.
I asked, "Who the f**k are you?" They told me that they had "passed themselves off as god" to humans for centuries. They didn't say to me, "I am God". They admitted that they are not THE god, but imposters. They said they had entered my DNA and were now a permanent part of me.
One of the points they made was that the mycelium was protected growing in the soil and was never intended to be eaten. The mushroom fruit, however, was given freely and was laced with their religious messages. It was like i had caught them in their workshop with no massages ready and they were forced to answer my questions directly. They were also dying in my stomach while they had access to my nervous system through their psilocybin. It reminded me of a deathbed confession. So, i asked them, since they had played god, why had they set religions against each other in endless wars that had resulted in the needless deaths of millions of people. Here is the answer they gave:
"We need mankind to take us to a new home in the Stars. Man is a lazy animal. He won't leave this planet for cold space while earth is still inhabitable." They are seeking a symbiotic partner to aid with their dispersal! They are willing to destroy the biosphere to do achieve their goal!
They told me many things during that encounter. I have spent the intervening years checking and crosschecking that information with history and the writings of others who should know and it has all checked out. If you are familiar with the works of John Allegro, R.G.Wasson, Terrance McKenna, James Arthur and some of the other mushroom detectives, you know that there is ample evidence that hallucinogenic fungi have been involved in the formation of man's religions, secret societies and warrior cults. In the last half century, encounters similar to mine have spawned countless groups that bear a remarkable resemblance to those ancient cults. These are also well documented.
John Allegro remarks about the ancient mushroom cults:
"It seems to be a pattern of religious movements based on the sacred fungus that long periods of relative calm and stagnation are interspersed with flashes of violent extremism which die away again after persecution, only to re-emerge in much later generations."
They are Back
Literally millions of earth's citizens have partaken of magic mushrooms since they resurfaced in our modern culture. If it follows it's present course, civilization is surely heading towards the total destruction of the biosphere and the migration of some of our species into space. Are these fungi at the root of this behavior? I think so.
Granted i have made some assumptions here that haven't been proven, but i'm confident that in time they will. For example, even though it seems obvious to me, i don't know of anyone making the connection between the functioning of this communications system and symbiotic relationships. Those who accept the premise that the shaman receives valid information from hallucinogenic plants are few in spite of Jeremy Narby's exciting book "The Cosmic Serpent". Although this information has been around for half a century, the works of the mushroom detectives has not met with wide acceptance. Even the very concept of an intelligent universe is doubted by many. However, the deception i describe would explain a great deal of mankind's questionable behavior.
I don't sell books or tapes or cd's or do seminars. I don't profit from this at all. In fact, playing to blank stares and raised eyebrows for more than twentyfive years hasn't even been fun. But i keep preaching my version of the gospel because i really have no choice. That is the power of such an encounter.
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References
Cleve Backster's Primary Perception
Science, Spirits, and Core Shamanism
by Michael Harner
More on the Mushroom Detectives
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