Given the fact that we are fast descending into the biggest wave of mass extinction in 65 million years (almost certainly most of it man made) its encouraging to see that the latest issue of the Bulletin of Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) is dedicated to the vital and lively relationship between psychedelics and ecology.
Ordinarily reserved for psychedelic research news, this 72-page special issue of the MAPS Bulletin has a great crop of refreshing and refoliating articles ranging from an interview with the recently deceased founder of the Deep Ecology Movement, Arne Naess (who was inspired to create the movement through his own LSD experience), to a retrospective by Harvard psychedelic psychologist, Ralph Metzner, on consciousness expansion and the birth of the 1960's green countercultre. Other contributors to this great journal, available free online, include Kat Harrison, Stanley Krippner, Greg Sams, Jeremy Narby, Dennis McKenna, Dale Pendell, John Allen, Daniel Pinchbeck, and (me of course) David Luke, along with other writers and some spectatular artwork.
"...I think that the bottom line on the evolutionary scale is that these plants are teachers... These plants are trying to teach our species about nature, and about how we fit into that. " Dennis McKenna
5 comments:
David Luke, In response to your on Ecology / Deep Ecology :
Industrial Society Destroys Mind and Environment.
Industrial Society is destroying necessary things [Animals, Trees, Air, Water and Land] for making unnecessary things [consumer goods].
"Growth Rate" - "Economy Rate" - "GDP"
These are figures of "Ecocide".
These are figures of "crimes against Nature".
These are figures of "destruction of Ecosystems".
These are figures of "Insanity, Abnormality and Criminality".
The link between Mind and Social / Environmental-Issues.
The fast-paced, consumerist lifestyle of Industrial Society is causing exponential rise in psychological problems besides destroying the environment. All issues are interlinked. Our Minds cannot be peaceful when attention-spans are down to nanoseconds, microseconds and milliseconds. Our Minds cannot be peaceful if we destroy Nature [Animals, Trees, Air, Water and Land].
Chief Seattle of the Indian Tribe had warned the destroyers of ecosystems way back in 1854 :
Only after the last tree has been cut down,
Only after the last river has been poisoned,
Only after the last fish has been caught,
Only then will you realize that you cannot eat money.
To read the complete article please follow any of these links.
Industrial Society Destroys Mind and Environment
Industrial Society Destroys Mind and Environment
Industrial Society Destroys Mind and Environment
Industrial Society Destroys Mind and Environment
sushil_yadav
Delhi, India
Sushil,
Thank you for your thoughtful and impassioned response. I agree.
I think the kind of response required is the implementation of "Nature Rights" akin to Human Rights, as have recently been adopted in Ecuador...
http://blogs.nature.com/news/thegreatbeyond/2008/09/ecuador_grants_rights_to_natur.html
far from perfect, this is a step in the right (or rights?) direction.
Good article - great reference also, your writing has me reviewing quite a bit of my own personal experience, I found this part very interesting:
'But if a person is empathizing with Nature in this state, whose feeling’s is she or he feeling? The notion that there is some entity with which to empathize implies that the thing itself has emotions, and the idea emerges that Nature itself and the beings who inhabit it – be they animal, vegetable or perhaps even mineral – are also sentient. Such animism is at the root of all shamanic belief systems, and, as Jeremy Narby (2006) noted, "shamanism involves attempting to dialogue with nature”'
Empathy is an interesting communication method, and not necessarily 'emotional' the way we view it. This is what so many people don't understand when attempting to converse with animals/trees/rocks...or when disagreeing that they are sentient. Although these beings may seem to emit an 'emotion' (or nothing at all to some) - it is perhaps more accurate that we are able to feel an emotional quality to a much bigger conversation...one which we find hard to 'hear' unless we slow down a bit or speed up depending on which being is 'talking'.
Many times we anthropomorphize or label the 'feeling' with human emotive qualities but whatever the being is experiencing may be beyond our own.
Have you read the Jacobsen's Organ by Lyall Watson?
In attempting to analyse my own telepathic/empathic ability I have had to look very hard at just what is being communicated and how. In my opinion information piggybacks on the wave of feeling/sensing. If I can tune in to the wave of feeling from whatever is sending, I can hear the message. I hope this makes sense. It is biological though, one of my main contentions about psi - these abilities are part of our genetic make-up...thus there may be a combination of factors that lead to communication.
An example would be staring out of the window on a hot windy summer day in northern CA - suddenly feeling pain and horror, not knowing from where and having nothing wrong with my reality, but sensing it from the wind...which at that time was blowing up the valley from the south. I sensed death, and in truth the horror of Nicaragua...and then read about a massacre a few days later. Did I smell it, feel it...?
This can go all the way into 'earthquake' sensitivity which is working on a much bigger platform, Gaia...where something is communicated to animals and humans who listen...something like, Run! From micro to macro there is a tremendous amount of amazing communication existing right beyond the level of our ordinary consciousness...perhaps the psychedelics are the 'ticket to ride'.
If you can 'hear' the majesty of mountain, you might only 'chop it down with the edge of your hand', instead of blowing it up to get to the coal within.
Very much enjoying your time on Graham's forum.
Hi String,
Thanks for your fascinating comments.
I haven't yet read Jacobsen's Organ by Lyall Watson, but Watson's Supernature was one of the books I read as teenager that hitched my interests to parapsychology and all that.
I was particularly intruigued by your comments:, "If you can 'hear' the majesty of mountain, you might only 'chop it down with the edge of your hand', instead of blowing it up to get to the coal within."
I recently came across a Hopi prophecy and a warning to the Lehman Brothers not to mine the sacred Black Mesa for coal, else they would face economic collapse with severe knock on effects...which, of course, became all to true.... or so the story goes...
http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_14842.cfm
Yes, I have just been talking about that exact issue to someone else this week. No Az is where I am based when in the US (Flagstaff). Such a strange area...Coal Mine Canyon one of the oddest places. One doesn't walk at night out in the mesas.
The Hopi/Dine area is a very interesting one to travel to in more ways than one!
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