In James Joyce's Ulysses, Stephen Dedalus tells us, "History is the nightmare from which I am trying to awaken." I would turn this around and say that history is what we are trying to escape from into dream. The dream is eschatological. The dream is zero time and outside of history. We wish to escape into the dream. Escape is a key thing charged against those who would experiment with plant hallucinogens. The people who make this charge hardly dare face the degree to which hallucinogens are escapist. Escape. Escape from the planet, from death, from habit, and from the problem, if possible, of the Unspeakable.
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What happens on DMT... a troop of elves smashes down your front door, and rotates and balances the wheels on the afterdeath vehicle, present you with the bill and then depart. And it's completely paradigm shattering. I mean, you know, union with the white light you could handle. An invasion of your apartment by jewelled self-dribbling basketballs from hyperspace that are speaking demotic Greek is not something that you anticipated and could handle. Sometimes people say, "Is DMT dangerous? It sounds so crazy. Is it dangerous?" The answer is, only if you fear death by astonishment.
Remember how you laughed when this possibility was raised.. and a moment will come that will wipe the smile right off your face.
From New Maps of Hyperspace
2 comments:
I'd be happy to just escape from the Speakable.
Actually, I'm compelled to argue with you a bit, though I think you make a good point. Like most significant things, there are many layers to this.
Mapping the inner territory is as legitimate and vital a pursuit as mapping the outer. Some psychonauts are, and have been, legitimate human heroes -on a par with Jason.
There's so much to learn about our world, not to mention ourselves, we cut our potential off at the knees with a narrowing of vision.
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