How to Operate Your Brain

A fantastic audio-video, psychedelic, hypnotic, awakening movie, from 1993 !
Turn on, Tune in and Take Charge


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This is an experiment in mind formation, in-formation, forming, controlling, operating your mind and your brain, using digital techniques to overload, scramble, confuse, unfocus your mind.

The natural state of the brain is chaos. We’re dealing with a complexity of in-formation. The first thing to do is to overwhelm your focused mind, your linear mind, by overloading signals, digital patterns, clusters of photons and electrons which produce a pleasant state of confused chaos. This is the state of the brain when it is ready to be informed, that is, to be reprogrammed.

The human brain contains one hundred billion neurons, each neuron is as powerful as a large computer, and each neuron has around ten thousand connections with other neurons. Within our foreheads there is a chaos, inside our brains there is a galaxy of information, which is incomprehensible to our linear minds.

This contrasts and compares perfectly with the chaos without. We’re living in a universe, which has one hundred billion galaxies, each galaxy with star systems, planets, a complexity, again, which to our minds right now is chaotic, incomprehensible.

Chaos is beautiful. Now many times we are afraid because we want order. We can’t deal with the confusion and disorder. We want form. We want rules. Yes, throughout human history there have been people—religious leaders, political leaders—who will give you order. They will give you rules and commandments.

But chaos is basically good. Relax. Surf the waves of chaos and learn how to redesign your own realities. Sit back. Flow. Open your eyes. Turn off your minds. Unfocus, and let the waves of chaos roll over your brain. Float. Drift, Zoom. Design. Create new order, your order, your style from chaos.

Yes. Yes. Chaos. Yes, yes, chaos . . .

The aim of human life is to know thyself. Think for yourself. Question authority. Think with your friends. Create, create new realities. Philosophy is a team sport. Philosophy is the ultimate, the ultimate aphrodisiac pleasure. Learning how to operate your brain, learning how to operate your mind, learning how to redesign chaos.

The religious leaders, the political leaders want to give you orders to run your life, to determine how you think. The basic goal is to operate your own mind. Think for yourself.

Around three thousand years ago, a group of human beings in Athens, Greece, developed a new philosophy, a basic religion of humanity that is called humanism. Socrates said that the aim of human life is to know thyself. Create and design your own order from chaos. Socrates did not give commandments. Socrates did not impose order. Socrates asked questions. He encouraged his friends to speculate, design, to create, to interact their own versions of reality. Socrates said the way to perform philosophy is in small groups, raising questions, learning from each other, changing, changing your mind, growing together, thinking together.

The religious leaders said "You can’t say that, Socrates. The gods are in control. Who are you to say you have a self? How dare you think you can know? The Gods determine. Sacrifice to the gods; obey the gods." Socrates said, "No. Look within." For that, they gave Socrates the hemlock, because he dared to tell people, "Think for yourself. Question authority.”

To think for yourself, you must learn how to reprogram, reform, inform your own brain. To do this, to take responsibility for your brain, it is necessary to question everything that you have been taught, to question authority, to learn to take the brave step of taking responsibility for operating your brain. For designing, redesigning, reforming the chaos within.

Throughout human history, as our species has faced the frightening, terrorizing fact that we do not know who we are or where we are going in this ocean of chaos, it has been the authorities—the political, the religious, the educational authorities—who attempted to comfort us by giving us order, rules, regulations, informing—forming in our minds—THEIR view of reality. To think for yourself, you must question authority and learn how to put yourself in a state of vulnerable open-mindedness, chaotic, confused vulnerability to inform yourself.

Think for yourself. Question authority.

Then came Marshall McCluhan, in the 1950's. McCluhan said, in the Socratic sense, "The medium is the message." The words you use, the modes of communication you use determine the realities you inhabit. Most of our lives, most of us live in realities determined by others, imprinted in our brains by education, by religion, by politics, by the authorities. McCluhan said, "If you want to change your mind, change the medium." Change the words you use. Change the mode of communication. If you change the medium, you change yourself. You change your society.

In the 1960’s, a new mode of communication developed: television. The kids growing up in the 1950’s learned how to tune in, turn on, fine tune, turn off, select, determine what hits your eyeballs. You control your eyeballs and your eardrums. You direct, manage the media that program your brain. McCluhan said, "Who controls the media is programming your mind and programming your brain."

We are using in this tape the new media of digital, multimedia, audiographic overload, attempting to create the state of open-mindedness, pleasant vulnerability in which we will in-form and imprint the messages of The Sponsor: "Use your head. Learn how to operate your brain."

To operate your brain you must understand how to use your eyes. "Oh say, can you see?" Oh say, can’t you see what is being done to your eyes? Who controls your eyeballs, controls your mind, imprints your brain. Oh say, can’t you see that the messages that hit your eyeballs in modern television are creating realities, imprinting messages from the sponsors who are not usually interested in your learning how to design your own realities.

Warning! Warning! Warning! Warning! Who controls your screen controls the programs in your mind. Your eyes are the windows of your brain. The eyes are extensions of the brain. The eyes are made up of hundreds of layers of neurons, rods, cones. Your eyeballs deal with one energy: It’s light. Through your eyes come illumination, vision, perception, enlightenment, illumination. Your eyes are the windows of your soul. Who controls your eyeballs programs your brain. Learn how to dial, fine tune your eyeballs. Learn how to unfocus your eyes, dilate your pupils, learn how to open up to illumination and light, and then refocus and redesign your own inner order, your own designs, your own language.

In the 60’s, we said. "Power to the people." In the 90’s, the digital multimedia 90’s, we say, "Power to the pupil."

Illuminate. Enlighten. Envision. Light waves. Sound waves. Light waves. Open eyes. Open mind. Open your brain. Learn how to send messages using electrons. Your brain loves light. Who controls your eyeballs programs your mind.

We are also passing on, in this demonstration, the message of Ralph Waldo Emerson, the first and probably the greatest American philosopher who said, "Divinity lies within." Don’t look to the churches or to the big marble institutions. Your divinity lies within. You must learn to operate your brain, operate your soul. Learn how to communicate brain to brain, soul to soul with other people. Your divinity lies within.

The brain is designed to design realities. If you operate your own brain skillfully, you can learn to design your own realities, learn how to communicate in the language of the brain: electrons and photons. We are doing this now. We are sending messages from our brains, using the vehicle of electrons and photons, to your eyeballs. As we watch this screen, our minds are bedazzled, our minds are softened, our linear, sharp logical thinking is gentled, and we are communicating brain to brain. We are using the electron, computer circuits, to feed each other’s brains with light.

This is the first paragraph, the first attempt, the first child’s primer in how to communicate using both the orderly left brain and the chaotic, confusing language of photons and electrons. The brain is a photovore. Your brain, my brain, our brains live on light. Just as the body needs air and carbohydrates, our brains are starved for light, for illumination, for revelation.

Use your head. Learn how to operate your brain. The brain is designed to design realities.

Marshall McCluhan made the prophecy. He told us that the aim of evolution was to use media to create what we all want: the global village, the language, which can be understood by every human being, by every brain. The basic language of humanity, the language of the brain, lights, sounds, rhythms, pulsating your bones, moving your body. We all know this language. We can all sing and dance this language of electrons, of radio waves, of rhythms.

Now we have digital communication. We can create our fantasies. We can create our rhythms, design on screen. A new language will develop, a global language, not based on letters, not based on grammars, the language which we all understand, based on clusters of waves of light and sound. We all understand. We all celebrate. We all glory in the light, the illumination, the contact, the intersection, the interaction from around the world, the language of form. We will create a language of international, global brain linkup. Anyone in any culture watching this screen will get the general picture. It’s one global village. It’s one global human spirit, one global human race. As we link up through screens, linked by electrons and photons, we will create for the first time a global humanity, not separated by words or minds or nationalities or religious biases.

Now listen to The Message from The Sponsor: "There is one, global human race."

We're just now learning to communicate brain to brain, soul to soul.

Trance Rituals, Modern and Ancient, healing technologies for the self and the world

Hello,

I am scrolling through my bibliography to prepare a conference about psychedelic festivals as modern rituals, are you aware of the following works ?


Psychedelic Festivals in the Planetary Era Anthropology Thesis by Ana Flávia Nogueira Nascimento ( neip.info )

Michael Belden McAteer, ““Redefining the Ancient Tribal Ritual for the 21st Century:” Goa Gil and the Trance Dance Experience " (Bachelor of Arts, The Division of Philosophy, Religion, and Psychology, Reed College, 2002).

Udi Pladott , “Meaning, Motion and Gesture In Psychedelic Trance Music” (seminar “Music as Motion, Gesture and Action" Department of Musicology, Tel Aviv University The Yolanda and David Katz Faculty of the Arts),

Christopher B. Larkin, “Turn on, Tune in, and Trance out : The Exploration of Entheogens and the Emergence of a Global Techno-shamanic Ritual ” (Degree in Sociology/Anthropology, Lewis and Clark College, 2003),

Recent elucubrations about Psychedelic Trance Festivals as a Space for Cognitive Liberty


Outstanding Documentary about an African cult

Subtitled version of Jean Rouch's "Les Maîtres Fous" (1955). A documentary about an african sect based on ceremonies during which the members are possessed by the spirits of european colonial entities.
It is worth mentionning that this film was very badly recieved, originally, both by africans shocked by the "savagery" of this ritual, and by europeans shocked by how white men are caricatured in this ritual. Today, this film is one of the most important, and most praised, classics of visual anthropology.

Part1 here :

Psychedelic Festivals in the Planetary Era

Abstract of Anthropology Thesis by Ana Flávia Nogueira Nascimento

Nowadays, a new social phenomenon known as global psychedelic trance movement has been gaining more and more incomers in the whole world through ritualistic festivities focused on an electronic music style, called psychedelic trance which stimulates dancing and the altered states of consciousness, also integrating psychedelic art, nature and use of psychoactive substances that act in the physical, emotional and spiritual mind.
In this fluid and virtual context that has been reached by the most recent technological discoveries is the Psychedelic Art, which has now been embraced mostly by certain "computerized" youth sector, which makes use of signs and symbols that marks them in the contemporary scenario. The speed of getting information, now accessible through means of communication and their digital technology enables global social spaces related to new informational processes, creating new ways of amusement and interpersonal relations.
This article is the result of a two-year observation process held in the "Psychedelic Festivals" which took place in Brazil between 2003 and 2005. The result is an analysis concerning how in a contemporary society, surrounded by technology, speed, globalization of information and by the permeability of cultures, the experiences in mind expansion relate with cyber culture and with the spread of the Psychedelic Art throughout planet Earth - Planetary Era.

Link to thesis (portuguese)

PEYOTE TO LSD: A PSYCHEDELIC ODYSSEY

PEYOTE TO LSD: A PSYCHEDELIC ODYSSEY on The History Channel(R)

"Peyote to LSD: A Psychedelic Odyssey" Airing on The History Channel, April 20, 2008 @ 8:00pm. (PRNewsFoto/Gryphon Productions Inc.)

VANCOUVER, BC UNITED STATES

Premieres on The History Channel(R) Sunday, April 20, 8-10pm ET/PT

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, April 2 /PRNewswire/ -- From Amazon
jungles to the American Plains, British mental wards, Swiss labs, New York
mansions and Grateful Dead shows, the history of hallucinogenic drugs is as
fantastic as the visions the drugs produce. Wade Davis, is a modern-day
anthropologist, author ("The Serpent and the Rainbow") and protege of one
of psychedelia's most intrepid forefathers -- Richard Evans Schultes. Davis
traces Schultes' life's work as one of the greatest botanist-explorers of
the 20th century and reveals an illustrated history of the world's most
mind-altering plants and substances in: PEYOTE TO LSD: A PSYCHEDELIC
ODYSSEY, premiering Sunday, April 20, 2008 at 8:00 p.m. ET/PT on The
History Channel(R).

(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080402/LAW501)

Winner of the prestigious 2008 CINE Golden Eagle Award, the documentary
follows the career of Schultes, who journeyed into far-flung areas in
search of ritualistic healing medicines known to produce powerful visions:
Peyote, mushrooms, Ayahuasca. Davis, a former student of Schultes at
Harvard and author of Schultes' biography ("One River"), travels to the
exotic locations Schultes once voyaged to, seeking the same experiences.

Along the way, set to the music of the Grateful Dead and featuring
input from experts such as Dead co-founder Bob Weir, plus Dr. Andrew Weil,
and LSD inventor Dr. Albert Hofmann, the documentary reveals how
hallucinogens got from jungle shamans to the hippie generation. Questions
arise about the attitude toward psychedelics: their great potential
benefits versus perceived harmful side effects. Why is it that so many
ancient cultures consider hallucinogenic plants -- a medicine given from
God, while in today's culture they are outlawed, and even reviled. PEYOTE
TO LSD: A PSYCHEDELIC ODYSSEY is a long, strange trip that began decades
ago, but is probably nowhere near its end. Even now, new uses for
hallucinogens are being sought and tested by leading universities and
medical institutions.

PEYOTE TO LSD: A PSYCHEDELIC ODYSSEY is produced and directed by Peter
von Puttkamer of Gryphon Productions Inc. along with producer Sheera von
Puttkamer and co-producer Wade Davis. Executive Producer for The History
Channel is Michael Stiller. An exhibit of Richard Evans Schultes'
photographs will run at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History
in Washington, DC, April 16 - November, 2008. See the trailer at
http://www.gryphonproductions.com or on YOU TUBE.


SOURCE Gryphon Productions Inc.

Psychedelic Perceptions by James Joseph

Review : I am currently reading this book...
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Author : James Joseph
Year : 2006
Weblink
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Synopsis :

There exists within our world a unique category of medicines, unparalleled in their ability to heal the human mind.

Utilized by our ancestors for thousands of years, these consciousness-altering plant derivatives effectively suspend the psychological defense mechanisms and egoic mind, allowing a 4 to 12 hour internal revelation into the origins of our own addictions, neuroses, fears, personality disorders, and patterned behavior. Invaluable as this mind-revealing encounter may be, there is no doctor able to prescribe this therapeutic method, as it has been deemed by our legal system to be devoid of any medical value.

There exists within our world a revered class of sacraments, unequaled in its effectiveness to initiate a direct experience of transcendental knowledge.

Applied in ritualized ceremony for hundreds of generations, these special plants hold the potential to generate the biochemical requisite necessary to attain the highly sought Mystical Experience. Yet, there exists no priest, rabbi or minister permitted to facilitate this method of direct knowing to the congregation, as it has been judged by authorities to posses a high potential for abuse.

Psychedelic Perceptions is a multi-perspective examination of how — and more importantly why — the substances which produce vital access to non-ordinary states of consciousness have been unjustly portrayed, legally forbidden, and misunderstood in our society.