FIRST PUBLISHED IN THEE DATA BASE, SPRING 1994
In Thus Spake Zarathrusta, Neitzsche claimed that Man was simply “a rope, fastened between animal and Superman – a rope over an abyss.”With the help of Timothy Leary’s “Neuropolitics” & Robert Anton Wilson’s “Prometheus Rising” (both Falcon Press), Stuart B examines the ins and outs of the human mind and shows you just how you can advance towards that post-human frame of mind.
The key, some would say, to a happier and more fulfilled life is being able to explain to ourselves why we act in certain ways. Do you hate the way you react instinctively in situations, saying later “It was just the way I was brought up”? If we can distinguish and intrinsically know how our brain works, then perhaps we can transcend those foolish, impulsive gestures. In time, we can start to understand the behaviour of those closest to us, but how can we unravel the minds of others if we don’t know our own?
Meditation aims to distinguish your mind from your body in the hope of raising consciousness. Another good way to do this is to actually think of your brain – what is it? We can look at our minds as we would a home computer. The physical protoplasm that is the brain (the jelly in your skull) is the hardware of consciousness – we know where it is and we are aware of it all the time. Software also exists in your brain at all times – stored either at the forefront (eg. family, friends, immediate experiences) or in the deep recesses (eg. holiday locations, school teachers, old films) – but it also exists “out there” in “the real world”.
Software can basically be taken as everything we see or do, what we taste, what we hear, what we think we hear and so on. From this unruly mess of software signals, how does a specific “person” emerge?
Our own mind is formed by “software” programs entering and ‘bonding’ in our brains. There are three fundamental elements to these programs.
The first is the most important as it is the most difficult to alter. These are known as imprints. The vital thing to remember about imprints is that they can only be accepted at certain points of the mind’s development (eg. birth, childhood, adolescence).
The second type is conditioning. You are conditioned on a daily basis by society, media, the state, by people perpetuating the ‘norm’. Fortunately, conditioning can be broken – indeed THEE DATA BASE exists to destroy bad conditioning.
The third is milder than conditioning and is known as learning. This is easier to break – as we learn more, we “change our minds” on a whole variety of things.
We are partially in control of conditioning and learning. Imprints, however, are a different matter all together. Once they are wired into our minds, they form the absolute foundations which conditioning and learning build upon. When the threefold structure is complete, we call it reality. We say “SHe lives in a different reality from the rest of us” and it is true. As everyone’s imprints, conditioning & learning are different, their reality is also different.
To truly understand our own minds, we must break down our notion of reality even further. Timothy Leary championed a notion of the brain’s circuits that was later adapted by Robert Anton Wilson in “Promotheus Rising” (Falcon Press). Leary asked us to look at our minds as having a set of eight “mini-brains”, “Circuits” or simply “gears”, which are each used in different situations throughout our lives. In the same way as our everyday automobile, we will respond to these different situations with different gears.The first four gears / circuits exist in the commonly used left lobe of the brain and are concerned with our survival in today’s society. The next four are “post-terrestrial” – they lie in our silent right lobe and are for use when the human race has evolved sufficiently. As you are about to discover, however, we can access our “future” brains right now with the aid of a few interesting psychedelics. Let us examine each circuit individually.
1. THE BIO-SURVIVAL CIRCUIT
This “mini-brain” was the first to evolve somewhere around 2-3 billion years ago. As the first circuit it is the most fundamental being imprinted at the moment of birth. Within these few glorious moments, the circuit locks into your mind and your lifelong basis of trust & suspicion is formed. This is “Basic Instinct” – you will judge whether to approach or to retreat with this circuit. It is however the most rapid cicuit of them all – similair to the way a dog barks instantly at the slightest noise. Think of all the decisions that need to made in a possible ” GO FORWARD OR GO BACK?” conflict. Is the person male / female? Large / small? Young / old? Known / unknown? etc.etc. We need to make these decisions in a split second and it is the first circuit that “helps” us in doing so.In its most basic terms, this brain is also known as consciousness – that is, the sense of being biologically alive.
To activate : Opium / morphine will reduce you to this state of infancy – passivity & floating consciousness.
2. THE EMOTIONAL TERRITORIAL CIRCUIT
This circuit was formed c. 500 million years CE (Common Era) and corresponds with man’s ability to move from the crawl to the walk (mirrored in this circuit imprinting when the helpless baby becomes a toddler). SHe began to issue territorial demands and everyone began to compete with one another. The second circuit will organise itself into either a strong, dominant role or a weak submissive one, depending on the surrounding environment during imprinting. Let us look at the dog analogy again – the litter of puppies soon work themselves into a top dog vs. bottom dog hierarchy. We often say “SHe is behaving like a two-year old…” and we have the emotional circuit to thank for that. We call this brain the ego in that it revoles around our sense of importance in “the pack”.
To activate: Alcohol – territorial & emotional issues always raise their heads when blind drunk. Think about it.
3. THE DEXTERITY / SYMBOLISM CIRCUIT
Around 4-5 million years CE man began to communicate and the third circuit came into play. When the child begins to move from mere toddling to the more experimental “playing”, this gear clicks in. More than ever, the surrounding enviorment is vital here, and most daytime TV discussions centre around its importance. If the environment is vibrant and rich with wonder for the child, SHe will take a ‘bright’ or ‘articulate’ imprint. If people around the child are deliberately stupid, it is likely that SHe will take a ‘dumb’ imprint. If the first is consciousness and the second ego, this third circuit is known as mind. The ability to communicate both verbally and physically and the ability to understand symbols. These first three ‘left-lobe’ circuits were described by Carl Jung as sensation, feeling & reason, which is fairly close to the mark.
To activate: Coffee/ tea, high protein diet, speed
4. THE SOCIO-SEXUAL CIRCUIT
We know now that each circuit corresponds to a particular stage of WoMan’s development. This fourth circuit is about as far as the human race has gone in terms of “everyday” usage. It appeared with “domestic” WoMan in the industrial society and is commonly known as adult personality or the sex role. First sexual experiences and orgasms are “bio-chemically bonded” and, unfortunately, remain for life (unless changed with drastic brain-washing). It is claimed that fetishes and perversions are also wired into your brain during early sexual encounters.The fourth gear, on another level, introduces the mind to the concept of tribal history and culture – the fourth dimension of time.
To activate: There is no known substance as yet, but we do know that it is generated by human glands after pubescense and flows through adolescent bloodstreams.It is worth bearing in mind that all of the first four circuit “activators” cannot change the basic imprint, they can only take you to a certain state and cannot “change your mind”.
Everything, however, is about to change. The next four circuits deal with our future evolution – if we are to make the move into space, we need to be aware of more than just four cheap circuits.
5. THE CYBER-SOMANTIC CIRCUIT
This circuit allows us to experience the wonders of “neurosomantic bliss”. We are talking about being “turned on” or “tuned in”. The experience of floating or free-fall (for life in zero-gravity obviously), being “high” or, and here we have it, being “spaced-out”. The transcendce of gravity or the move from visual space to sensory space.
To activate: Cannabis is “the original and the best”!, but we can also turn the circuit on with freefall, surfing, ski-ing and by prolonged sexual play without orgasm (Sensual massage, vibrators, Tantric arts and so on).
6. THE CYBER-ELECTRONIC CIRCUIT
Circuit six is the sci-fi buff’s wet-dream. It is the “universal translator”, allowing us to understand and communicate with higher intelligences & species above us in evolution. It helps us to transcend all that Circuit 1-4 users see as important (petty personal politics are no longer an issue – wars are seen as mere charades). It will allow for communication without speech (telepathy) and an ability to program & reprogram one’s own brain.
To activate: No specific chemical is available yet, but mescaline & LSD will open the mind to a mix of Circuit 5 / 6 signals. The opening of this circuit can be alarming, so it is not advised to be done in surroundings that you are not comfortable with (the classic bad trip can occur).
7. THE CYBER-GENETIC CIRCUIT
In common language, the seventh circuit makes us aware of “reincarnation” and “past lives” by opening an ability to receive signals from within ourselves, within our own DNA. It allows us to be aware of our own immortality, the fact that the death of your present ‘person’ is not neccessarily the end. This is Jung’s”collective unconscious”, the genetic blue-print archives and the awareness of inter-species co-existence.
To activate: Specifically LSD, also peyote and psilocybin. Several years of advanced raja yoga will also do the trick.
8. THE CYBER-ATOMIC CIRCUIT
Leary & Wilson see the final circuit as “dealing with the universe as it is”. We are talking here about an “atomic consciousness” – “a quantum mechanical communication system that does not require a biological container” (I think they mean us…). This blows everything else away quite literally. It is so great that it cannot be comprehended by us at this time. When we turn on Circuit 8 the whole notion of time and space is completely obliterated. To quote Wilson: “It is hard to avoid hyperbole…but everything one can associate with the idea of being at Oneness with God is part of what is experienced in the vistas of this metaphysiological circuit.” Are we ready for that?
To activate: Dare we at this stage in our development? The only ones to do so are experienced at the highest level of shamanism and various yogas. With this in mind though, it allows us to see that the drug-enforcement camp is all wrong when it claims that designer drugs are escapist. It is nonsense – they are pursuitist, opening our minds to the possibilities of future evolution.
So we have shifted gear throughout the human mind with Timothy Leary as our guide. What can be learned from all this?
I think it is clear to see that our first steps into the world have shaped us until we die. But as we have also seen, it need not be the case – re-programming and re-imprinting with drugs is possible. This is, I suppose, an advertisment for the glorious benefits of cannabis and LSD. If you imbibe to party, you are missing out on the true wonders – taking a trip and dancing all night will not expand your mind. Get comfortable – at home with some like-minded friends. Take more than you ever have (plenty much more!), then talk, think, meditate, read, be honest, open yourself right up to anything that might happen and wait until the sun rises. By then, you may have changed your mind forever.
Leary & Wilson’s essay “From Inner World To Outer World To Inner Space To Outer Space” appears in Leary’s “Neuropolitique” and is expanded in Wilson’s “Prometheus Rising”. These are both distributed in the UK by Counter Productions, PO Box 556, London, SE5 ORL.