Friday, November 5, 2010

Tripping

I may well stumble through this.

Saw a post that introduced a "new" concept to me, entheogen. Seems to be the use of new chemical constructions to play with the brain, i.e., trip.

I think that is a foolish path. The brain has evolved to present our consiousness the information needed for our body to survive. I won't insist it is the "truth" that we normally experience, but it will say it works, as averaged over the millennia of our evolution.

What I feel certain about is that tripping is never, ever, "closer to the truth."

Our sensory system and our consciousness system is made up of biological circuits. "wet electronics" if you will. If we pour odd substances into the soup of ourselves it will cause bizarre conduction paths and twisted images and feeling and thoughts will result. In the same way tinkering with the settings in a camera will yield fantastical pictures. But this is not closer to the truth of the object out from the lens.

And, I would wager, that all tripping experiences are objectively farther from the truth than sobriety when you are otherwise healthy.

The clearest meaning of entheogenisis is that someone is trying to make money from you.