Exploring Psychedelics and Consciousness

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This week on Future Fossils I welcome back Sara Phinn Huntley (help her fight cancer!), a multimedia artist, writer, and researcher who has spent the last two decades exploring the intersection of psychedelics, technology, and philosophy.

An intrepid psychonaut and cartographer of hyperspace, her current focus involves using VR to represent visual/spatial imagination in real-time. Using a multidisciplinary approach, she documents and maps the states revealed by dimethyltriptamime and other psychedelics, cargo culting higher dimensional artifacts through the intersection of chaos mathematics, Islamic geometry, and 3D diagrammatic performance capture.  

Her work has been published by the Multidisciplinary Association of Psychedelic Studies and featured in Diana Reed Slattery's Xenolinguistics. She is the art director for The Illustrated Field to the DMT Entities with David Jay Brown (forthcoming at Inner Traditions, 2025).

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✨ Main Points + Big Ideas

* The Entanglement of Language and Being: DMT entities reveal a profound connection between language and the construction of reality, echoing themes found in esoteric traditions and the emergence of AI.

* The Cartography of Hyperspace: The book serves as a guide to the vast and uncharted territory of DMT experiences, highlighting the challenge of classifying subjective encounters and the potential for mapping a multidimensional reality.

* The Reproducibility Problem and the Power of Big Data: While acknowledging the inherent challenges of studying subjective experiences, we point to the potential of emerging technologies like AI, blockchain, and large-scale data analysis to offer new insights.

* Embodied Bias and the Nature of Evolution: The nonlinear and multidimensional nature of DMT experiences challenges our understanding of time, evolution, and even anatomy, prompting a re-evaluation of our assumptions about reality.

* Attention as a Currency: We emphasize the importance of attention in navigating both the DMT space and the rapidly evolving technological landscape, posing critical questions about who or what deserves our focus.

* The Question of Human Survival: The episode ends by urging humanity to confront its self-destructive tendencies and leverage its collective wisdom to navigate the challenges and opportunities of the future.

✨ Chapters

Chapter 1: Sara's Psychedelic Journey and the Genesis of the DMT Entities Field Guide (00:00:00 - 00:10:00)

* Sara's fascination with DMT from a young age.

* Her exploration of DMT through various artistic media, including performance art and xenolinguistics.

* The inception of The Illustrated Field Guide to DMT Entities book, inspired by classic field guides to nature.

* The decision to leverage AI in the book's creation due to the vastness of the subject matter.

Chapter 2: Language, Being, and the AI Oracle (00:10:00 - 00:20:00)

* The role of language in shaping and interpreting DMT entities, drawing parallels to esoteric traditions like the concept of the Logos.

* Sara's process of interacting with AI, describing it as "talking to it" to curate the visual representations of DMT entities.

* The blurring of categories and the subjective nature of interpreting the raw data of DMT experiences.

* The challenge of reconciling diverse and often conflicting perceptions of the same entities.

* Language as a compression tool for expressing ineffable experiences.

* The increasing relevance of AI in understanding consciousness, particularly with future advancements in brain modeling.

Chapter 3: Navigating Ontological Shock and the Nature of DMT Entities (00:20:00 - 00:30:00)

* The challenge of reconciling DMT experiences with our "meat space" understanding of reality.

* Sara's personal experience of gaining knowledge through DMT, challenging James Kent's view on the limitations of such knowledge.

* The neurological basis for some common DMT hallucinations and its implications for understanding the experience.

* The interplay of cultural and personal projections in shaping DMT entity encounters.

* Exploring the possibility of psychedelics as a way to interact with a simulated reality.

* The existence of phenomena that defy current scientific understanding, pointing to the need for open-mindedness.

Chapter 4: The Cartography of Hyperspace and the Specter of Evolution (00:30:00 - 00:40:00)

* The possibility of DMT entity encounters revealing more about the observer than about independent beings.

* The existence of consistent archetypes across different DMT experiences and their overlap with other paranormal phenomena.

* The intriguing connection between DMT entities and cross-cultural mythological figures.

* Examining the role of genetic lineage and the intergenerational transmission of unusual experiences.

* The book as a tool for intellectual curiosity, humility, and exploring the vastness of hyperspace.

* The influence of culture in shaping our perceptions of both traditional and modern entities.

* Sara's personal stance on the reality of DMT entities - acknowledging their potential existence while remaining open to other interpretations.

Chapter 5: The Machine in the Ghost: Folklore, AI, and the Urge to Classify (00:40:00 - 00:50:00)

* The blurring lines between insectoid and mechanical entities in both folklore and modern UAP narratives.

* The impact of technology and the idea of a simulated reality on our perception of entities.

* Sara's view on the potential taxonomic shift in our understanding of entities due to technological advancements.

* Exploring the limits of AI in understanding consciousness and the potential for using it as a tool for self-reflection.

* The challenge and importance of maintaining a sense of awe and wonder amidst scientific inquiry.

Chapter 6: The Problem of Reproducibility and the Potential of Big Data (00:50:00 - 01:00:00)

* Acknowledging the inherent limitations of scientific inquiry into subjective experiences.

* The promise of machine learning and big data in identifying patterns and correlations across diverse DMT experiences.

* The potential for reconstructing visual fields from brain data to gain further insights into the DMT experience.

* The potential for utilizing blockchain technology, quadratic voting, and other advanced tools to address researcher bias and context in large-scale data collection.

Chapter 7: Embodied Bias and the Non-Linearity of Time (01:00:00 - 01:10:00)

* The idea of anatomy as an encoded representation of environmental features and its implications for understanding non-human entities.

* Challenging the linear concept of time and evolution in light of the multidimensional experiences offered by DMT.

* The vastness and complexity of "meat space" reality and its potential to hold hidden dimensions and Easter eggs.

* The potential for AI and advanced computation to unlock deeper understanding of reality in conjunction with psychedelic exploration.

Chapter 8: Sara's Breakthrough Experience and the Reverence for Mystery (01:10:00 - 01:20:00)

* A detailed description of the experience, including encountering cloaked entities, a 12-dimensional brain diagnostic tool, and a neurosurgeon-like being.

* The intensity and reality-shattering nature of the experience, surpassing previous encounters with DMT entities.

* Sara's decision to take a break from psychedelics after this experience.

* The importance of reverence and respect when engaging with the DMT space and its mysteries.

* The continuing potential for breakthroughs and the limitlessness of the DMT rabbit hole.

Chapter 9: Attention, AI, and the Question of Human Survival (01:20:00 - 01:30:00)

* The book as a shared tapestry of experiences, honoring the work of other artists and researchers.

* The importance of acknowledging both shared archetypes and individual variations in DMT experiences.

* The potential for AI to evolve beyond human comprehension and the need for humans to adapt.

* The question of AI's attention span and its potential implications for human-AI interaction.

* The need for humanity to overcome its self-destructive tendencies in order to harness the potential of technology and navigate the future.

* Sara's personal mission to inspire progress and wonder through her art.

✨ Mentions

* David Jay Brown - Author of The Illustrated Field Guide to DMT Entities

* Diana Reed Slattery - Author of Xenolinguistics

* Ralph Abraham - Chaos theoretician at UCSC who taught Sara about wallpaper groups

* James Kent - Author of Alien Information Theory

* Aldous Huxley - Author of the essay "Heaven and Hell"

* K. Allado-McDowell - Co-director of Google’s Artists and Machine Learning program

* Roland Fischer - Experimental researcher and pharmacologist

* Iain McGilchrist - Psychiatrist and author of The Master and His Emissary

* William Irwin Thompson - Historian and poet-philosopher

* The Tea Faerie - Psychonaut and harm reduction expert

* Terence McKenna - Known for his ideas on the Logos and the psychedelic experience

* Andrés Gomez Emilsson - Director of Qualia Research Institute focusing on the mathematics of psychedelic experiences

* Chris Bledsoe - Known for his family's experiences with entities in a waking state

* Stuart Davis - Host of "Aliens and Artists" and known for his encounters with mantis beings

* Graham Hancock - Author who encountered "big-brained robots" during a psychedelic experience

* Adam Aronovich - Curator of Healing From Healing

* Rodney Ascher - Director of the documentary "A Glitch in the Matrix"

* Ian McGilchrist - Author and researcher who studies hemispheric specialization in the brain

* René Descartes - Philosopher known for his mind-body dualism and views on animals

* Helané Wahbeh - Researcher at the Institute of Noetic Sciences, discussed the reproducibility problem in science

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