The Thin Membrane

[sire_012]

Many people report the impression that they are tearing through a membrane when on DMT and Salvia. It seems science is catching up.

A New Slice on Physics
Is the world we see trapped on a thin membrane separating us from vast other realms? Some scientists say that would explain a lot.
By K.C. Cole
Times Staff Writer

http://www.latimes.com/templates/misc/printstory.jsp?slug=la-sci-branes17may17002430&section=/printstory

[Halfglass]

Sire: Yeah, "...Branes can enclose the Big Bang like a sheet of CELLOPHANE..." Interesting use of analogy huh? This stuff sounds like the "Bands of eminations from The Eagle" as discribed by don Jaun. It seems reasonable (considering the subject matter that is) that altered states--and that crackling one experiences on 10x salvia, DMT, or even in the case of don Juan's rants--the movement of the "Assemblage Point" to tune into other bands of eminations (branes?), that these scientists might be talking about the same thing. I can't wait 'till someone with a mind like Hawking will have the balls to write a book on first hand accounts of DMT trips and what it may be showing in respect to current theories in physics.

[ May 24, 2003, 04:58 PM: Message edited by: Halfglass ]

[sire_012]

the movement of the "Assemblage Point" to tune into other bands of eminations (branes?)i think in many ways that we may just be (presently) recklessly launching ourselves through a tear(s) in the brane. lacking proper navigational skills we may be just popping into random brane X one time and then never getting back to that same brane again. that may also be why reports of intelligences met during certain experiences differ so greatly both collectively and individually from experiment to experiment. i have read many reports where a person has a very different experience each time they launch through the brane. however there have also been many reports where simply willing an intent going into an experience can alter that experience greatly.. a first step in the navigation game seems to be having an idea 'where' you want to go with it.

perhaps that is the role from which ceremonials came and where they are heading back, acting mainly as vector points in navigation in unfamiliar realms, allowing the traveller to (more or less) choose his road trip itinerary rather than have it chosen for him.

a crowded marketplace at a heavy tourist trap in a third world state of mind might not be the best place to stretch out your legs and take a nap in the warm glow of the sun. you may want to keep a closer eye on your wallet and not nessarily trust the quality of the t-shirt you bring back from there. however, just a few branes over there's a veritable wellspring of paradise, some beautiful locals, and one of the finest times a mind could find.

;/

peace

b

[Halfglass]

Navigation: that's the trick isn't it? One thing seems to be common enough with contact with Other--the insect or reptilian or elf themes. In my DXM experiences I got better and better at moving around. In the beginning I was being searched like a computer file by what I call the "Cable-faced"...they were insect-like (I could easily see where people would come away with that impression). Later the Cable-faced Other started to sort of avoid me, as if they could tell I was on to them (I ripped myself away from one and forced my eyes open durring one mind-search--which left me confused and paranoid on my bed--but the Other seemed to have been "hurt" or upset too. I later was examined and accused of "racism"! and out of fright apologized.) Too there were always these other things...alive "electric flowers" (I could see where one might call them pixies). They were friendly and would pose for me because I "told" them I later wanted to render them in a painting. This navigation got so easy that by my 5th or so high dose trance, I would say "Hi" to the "flowers" and "nod" to the Cable-faces (who would stand like gaurds at entry ways in the Hive) and I went on to other amazing experiences. Too bad DXM is so draining--I'm left with a book's worth of notes though. I wonder how much each different chemical has to due with "where" one ends up? I've never done DMT but the reports often sound similar to what I saw--perhaps one day I'll be able to make the comparison.

[daniel]

Really enjoyed that article.

Maybe "2012" is the threshold when some advanced subsection of human neuronauts learn how to surf the multitudinous 'branes in earnest.

[Proteus]

Hi everybody. Just finished reading Phillip Pullman's "His Dark Materials" trilogy (i.e. The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, and The Amber Spyglass) and i'm confident that nearly every regular contributor to this discussion forum will find them engaging reading on a number of levels. Normally, i'm not one for the "fantasy" genre, but Pullman's "Dark Materials" trilogy is fantasy in the way that Tolkein's "Lord of the Rings" is fantasy--only far more gnostic (in all sense of that term).

For one thing, the crisis that gives the story its dramatic tension is that--ta da!--the Totality is composed of an infinite number of overlapping universes that approximately map each other like infinitely thin membranes. The crux of the story is that the separation between the universes has been compromised which precipitates a pitched battle between the forces of "Control" and a loose alliance of "rebels" that oppose the soul-killing weight of "The Authority's" rules.

Pullman might well be doing some tripping when he's not out collecting Whitbread Awards for his writing. In the second book of the series, he introduces us to a tool--the Subtle Knife--that allows its keeper to cut windows into each of these universes and enter them. But doing so, we discover at the very end, is (in Halfglass' terms) "draining" on the traveller and causes unintentional and unforeseen damage to the fabric of what i've been calling the Totality. In short, this series enacts many of the themes that we BOTHers have been wresting with in this virtual space. Pullman is a great story-teller, incredibly inventive, warm, humane, and wise.

Here's a very small taste, taken from the end of the third book.

(Context: A witch, Seraphina Pekkala, relates the gist of a conversation she's just had with a female angel, Xaphania, to an earth-woman named Mary Malone):

"She [Xaphania] said that all the history of human life has been a struggle between wisdom and stupidity. She and the rebel angels, the followers of wisdom, have always tried to open minds; the Authority and his churches have always tried to keep them closed. . . . And for most of that time, wisdom has had to work in secret, whispering her words, moving like a spy through the humble places of the world while the courts and palaces are occupied by her enemies."

This exchange seemed to describe the situation that folks in the psychedelic underground (and other shamanic wisdom traditions) are in, now more than ever.

Anyway, a very enjoyable read that enacts this new scientific theory about the structure of the Totality.

[imported_bob]

Thanks for the suggestion, By the way, I was book browsing at Borders and I came across a book called "Faerie wars" in the young adult section by a guy named Brennan. It seems to be in the same genre as this trilogy. I flipped through it, and I noticed a description of "dark faeries" as being responsible for UFO abductions of the present day. Has anyone read this?

Also, while logging in tonight I came across the following:

http://channels.netscape.com/ns/atplay/package.jsp?name=fte/ufoencounter/ufoencounter

A funny coincidence. The night before last the alternator in my car went out; the car was acting really funky (speedometer moving wildly, lights going on and off)

My boss joked: "maybe you were "scanned "by aliens". He doesn't know that I have an interest in these topics. Anyway, I thought his use of "scanned" was kind of interesiting at the time. See article above, for what its worth. Eerie to me.

bob

[daniel]

This is intuition or guesswork, but I think some of these encounters have to do with what we are doing to the planet's electromagnetic envelope through cellular and other forms of new technology. We are changing the "mesh" of forces that holds everything together, allowing new "energies/entities" inside our particular planetary sheath. This seems reasonable when you realize that human consciousness is a phenomenon of electromagnetic waves.

But this is not in my mind something we are "doing," it is being done through us, to stabilize consciousness and the planetary situation at a different level - or in Arguelles' terms to "activate the noosphere."

Lately I have been reading theories that human consciousness does not change and evolve slowly, but changes in sudden mutations. This is the theory in Jean Gebser's enormous The Ever-Present Origin, and an idea behind The Origin of Consciousness and t he Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind. Gebser thinks the next mutation will be from the current "mental - rational" to what he calls "integral - aperspectival," involving especially a different relationship to time. Does anyone know about this stuff?

[Halfglass]

Daniel: I can give an example of direct experience along those lines. Deep in a trip/trance I was shown a molecular level view of sperm cells being "formed" in some kind of chamber. "It's where they make their babies" something said. (This use of "they" I found alittle disturbing.) Then I saw a structure with sophisticated leech-like things attaching to it--becoming part of it. A "man" explained, "We are using our thoughts to construct this." I later drew a picture with colored markers and my friend said, "That looks like DNA!" and he was right, I'd rendered a ladder-like thing, it was even twisted like the double helix. (I didn't make the connection because I was still out of it--in the so called afterglow of the trip.)

[Buzz]

Halfglass,

I'm wondering what the media is that got you into that trip/trance space?

Also, have you read Jeremy Narby's book "The Cosmic Serpent: DNA and the origins of knowledge". I suspect you have, but Narby makes the case that tobascueros and Ayahuesca shamen of South America visit those DNA/molecular realms. He points out a lot of that stuff in Pablo Amaringo paintings, Aborigine wall paintings, etc...

As for the leeches, during a trip on Yage, Micheal Harner saw dragons decend upon a seemingly lifeless earth. They had come from somewhere in outerspace and were escaping something. They told him that they had decided to "hide" in the DNA here. Terrance McKenna reports a similar vision in "True Hallucinations" ( I think).

Somewhere in my recent reading I read that some group of scientists who studied DNA said that some of the material is "alien" (their words) to us.

An aside from the discussion, but I thought this might interest you.

[Halfglass]

Buzz: About every two to three weeks this past winter I was doing heroic doses of DXM (1000 to 1400mg spread out over a few hours). Because of its anesthetic qualities (mellowing you), and its way of making the Anti-Ego the main "I" experiencing the trip (which enables one to remain indifferent to the ultra barrage of visions, encounters with ancestors, chittering plasma/plastic pixies, tours of the brain, organic/metalic "robots", "cities" made of living things, dream chambers where every dream you've ever had is stored...it's endless) it lends itself greatly to closed eye tripping. It's gotten a reputation as a poor man's psychedelic--but that doesn't concern me. This stuff is the most profound psychedelic I've ever tried. There's nothing like it--over a gram and you're breaking through to new worlds. Of course this is sitter territory (I would be upstairs in a bed while my friend would be in for the night watching TV downstairs)...walking is hard (so I started keeping a "chamber pot"...he he)and more than once I was glad to have a voice from earth there. P.S. No I haven't read that book but I think I will--seeing on a molecular level happened alot on those trips--it's funny but you just know thats what you're seeing. (Well that and the tour guides telling you about it.) I've got 30,000 words assembled so far on what I experienced so there's plenty for me to tap into for posting! What a mess to try and put order to. I came away with my belief system shifted, mainly to idealism.

[ June 10, 2003, 01:10 AM: Message edited by: Halfglass ]