Neuro evolution will go on!Timothy Leary's model of the nervous systemand its past and future development

classless Kulla

Predecessors

Traditional:

ca. 15th century, Indus valley, Northern Italywater – cream – cheese – worms – humans – gods

Scientific:

Alfred Russell Wallace, 19th century theory of evolution,but: „designed“ spiritual capacities

Leary's Participant Psychology

The Existential Transaction, 1957

Interpersonal Diagnosis of Personality, 1956

focus on relations, social „games“

understanding behavior by environment & circumstances

real-life situations, personal involvement

patient and psychologist form research group

Psilocybin

"...mentally travelled back through the aeons..."

putting things into perspective

patient and psychologist take the same „medicine“

(quotes from „I Have America Surrounded“ by John Higgs)

Leary's approach before LSD

instead of narrowing down human psychology to a certain role considered obligatory for everyone in society:

a) relativize this: different games with different rules and for different reasons

b) expand horizon & put things into perspective ( by administering psychedelic mushrooms)

Psilocybin4 to 5 hoursagonist of serotoninalters (sense of) reality

LSD12 to 16 hoursagonist of serotonin and dopaminalters (sense of) realitydirectly connects nervous system & emotions to altered reality

The difference

The Marsh Chapel experiment

LSD combined both of Leary's requirements for his new approach in psychological research:

it created the common ground like psilocybin (widening the perspective, individual self-awareness of one's place in evolution)

also interrelated this with the functioning of the own nervous system & the own emotions

The right tool for the job

Social impact of LSDdid not cause „The 60s“

„lit a fire“ under new ideas & movements

influenced many key figures of „The 60s“

anticipation of the desired world

encouragement to bring it about

Leary hysteria

Neuro evolution

human nervous system as ensemble of up to 8 autonomous neural circuits

circuits develop both over the course of natural evolution and during each individual's life

increase complexity of interaction with the outside world and with oneself

The terrestial circuits1) bio-survivalpleasure – anxiety, attraction – distractionearly animals, early infant life, Freud's „oral phase“

2) territorialdomination – submission, attack – retreatpredators, Freud's „anal phase“

3) symbolictools, language, negotiationapes, ants, humans

4) socio-sexualrules and (sexual) taboos, social orderanimals in tribes and states

The extra-terrestial circuits

5) neuro-somaticintensity and quality, transcending the first 4 circuitsonly some humans but fast growing numberTHC, „getting high“

6) metaprogrammingwillful recombination and reimprinting of all circuitsLSD, „taking a trip“

7/8) neurogenetic, neuroatomic, quantumsuper-purpose, cosmic reunion, „Starseed“„returning home“

Ash Ra Tempel & Timothy Leary„Seven Up“A-Side: „Space“

„Downtown“

Ash Ra Tempel & Timothy Leary„Seven Up“A-Side: „Space“

„Power Drive“

Ash Ra Tempel & Timothy Leary„Seven Up“A-Side: „Space“

„Right Hand Lover“

Ash Ra Tempel & Timothy Leary„Seven Up“B-Side: „Time“

Stoned Ape Theories"...only 0.01 per cent of the original dose enters the brain, where it remains for only 20 minutes. (...) drug itself seems to have left the brain before the psychological effects start.“ (Lee/Shlain: Acid Dreams)

„Any attempts to explain this, such as the drug acting as a 'trigger' for an unknown natural biochemical state, or creating a role for the body in relation to consciousness, just seems whacky and unacceptable to the scientific community." (Higgs)

a) McKenna: mushrooms in the savannah, coevolution

b) DMT: sleep/waking barrier

Chaos & Cyber Culture

The first e-commerce transaction took place in the early 1970s, on the ARPAnet network, which later evolved into the Internet. This was a drug deal. Students of MIT used the network to arrange the sale of some marijuana with students of Stanford.

Weary of Learyadvocated free market survival of the highest

actively and knowingly brainwashed many people including his wife Joanna

never accepted responsibility for the millions of unprepared trips

used metaprogramming as an excuse for Verrat

(1970) „Now that wealth and beauty surrounded him, the economic struggle of the common man didn't trouble [Leary] too greatly. Indeed, just months after pledging 'eternal solidarity' to the Brazilian Marxists who had escaped from jail and fled to Algiers, he found himself drinking with the Brazilian autocrats who jailed them in the first place.“

Neuro evolution will go on!currently arrested development

caught between repression and commodification

necessary compensation drowns experiments

drugs rather used for adapting to the requirements of market, office and factory

can the world become (like) a good trip?