I thought i'd post this here for the more intellectually advanced Cp'er (elitesnautica etc ) .... Timothy Leary's Eight Circuits of Consciousness Basically he theorizes that we use the left side of our brain right which contain circuits that have been turned on during evolution, but on the mostly inactive ride side of our brain, we have circuits for our future evolution which can be turned on by certain drugs ways. The first four circuits are the ones that are active as 1 being the oldest "NOTICE how drugs that stimulate the first four circuits, which are already activated, tend to be dangerously addictive, roughly ordered ascending from the first circuit. -deoxy Future Circuits 8 Spiritual Cosmic: ketamine, high dosage DXM, high dosage nitrous, jimson weed, DMT, high dosage LSD 7 Mythic Immortal: high dose LSD, Datura, DMT 6 Psychic Psionic: shrooms, mescaline, peyote, LSD, mornin glory 5 Sensory Hedonic: MDMA (ecstasy), marijuana, opium, low shroom dose Past Circuits 4 Social Civilized: unknown 3 Conceptual Paleolithic: stimulants, nicotine 2 Emotional Mammalian: alcohol, amyl nitrate 1 Physical Invertebrate: opiates, benzo's, prozac, PCP, prozac, nicotine "To understand neurological space, Dr. Leary assumes that the nervous system consists of eight potential circuits, or "gears," or mini-brains. Four of these brains are in the usually active left lobe and are concerned with our terrestrial survival; four are extraterrestrial, reside in the "silent" or inactive right lobe, and are for use in our future evolution. This explains why the right lobe is usually inactive at this stage of our development, and why it becomes active when the person ingests psychedelics. I. THE BIO-SURVIVAL CIRCUIT This invertebrate brain was the first to evolve (2 to 3 million years ago) and is the first activated when a human infant is born. It programs perception onto an either-or grid divided into nurturing-helpful Things (which it approaches) and noxious-dangerous Things (which it flees, or attacks). The imprinting of this circuit sets up the basic attitude of trust or suspicion which will ever after trigger approach or avoidance. "Preoccupies itself with physical safety and biological survival. Revolves around basic security needs and the warm, buzzy nodding sensations of infant bliss and being taken care of at the most primary levels of existence: food, shelter and enough sleep. When frustrated or over-emphasized the search for security intensifies, becomes an obsession and finally an addiction. Security Addiction expresses the lowest energy state of all trances. When the needs of this center are fulfilled, one lives with the knowledge of being a "survivor" with some ability to stabilize and secure others. SECURITY CATALYSTS: Food, water, shelter, sleep, maternal lactation, Valium, 3-6 hrs. of television, Prozac, all sedatives, nicotine, most pain-killers, PCP, morphine and heroin. Any drug acting on the breathing mechanism of the brain stem by slowing it down and, by overdose, stopping it entirely. OVERDOSE SYMPTOMS: Survival anxiety. The fear of: dying, of living, of eating (bolemia & anorexia), of chaos and of dirt. Obesity and malnutrition." II. THE EMOTIONAL CIRCUIT This second, more advanced bio-computer formed when vertebrates appeared and began to compete for territory (perhaps 500,000,000 B.C.). In the individual, this bigger tunnel-reality is activated when the DNA master-tape triggers the metamorphosis from crawling to walking. As every parent knows, the toddler is no longer a passive (bio-survival) infant but a mammalian politician, full of physical (and psychic) territorial demands, quick to meddle in family business and decision-making. Again the first imprint on this circuit remains constant for life (unless brainwashed) and identifies the stimuli which will automatically trigger dominant, aggressive behavior or submissive, cooperative behavior. When we say that a person is behaving emotionally, egotistically or 'like a two-year-old,' we mean that s/he is blindly following one of the tunnel-realities imprinted on this circuit. "Emotions as territorial signals. The compulsion for self-expression and personal freedom. Churns on the more aggressive emotional needs for dominance (political force), status, and self-esteem. Flight-or-fight reflex producing adrenaline rushes when confronting danger and personal triumph, as well as the depression and anxiety attacks often associated with low self-worth, feelings of helplessness and self-diminishment. When frustrated or over-emphasized, emotions inflate and/or deflate yielding conditions of taking oneself too seriously and/or not seriously enough. Mood swings. Emotional and Sexual Addictions. When emotional needs are satisfied, ego-strength and autonomy develop with some ability to excite, motivate and provoke others. EMOTIONAL CATALYSTS: Alcohol beverages. Amyl nitrate. Temper tantrums. Shouting matches. Military marches. Martial arts. High volume rock 'n' roll. Slamdancing. Reichian therapy. Any "drug" relaxing emotional inhibitions or catalyzing catharsis. OVERDOSE SYMPTOMS: Anxiety. Hypertension. Hysteria. Emotional dissipation and debilitation. Emotional numbness and vacancy." III. THE DEXTERITY-SYMBOLISM CIRCUIT This third brain was formed when hominid types began to differentiate from other primate stock (circa 4-5 million B.C.) and is activated for the linear left-lobe functions of the brain, determines our normal modes of artifact-manufacture and conceptual thought, i.e., third circuit 'mind.' It is no accident, then, that our logic (and our computer-design) follows either-or, binary structure of these circuits. Nor is it an accident that our geometry, until the last century, has been Euclidean. Euclid's geometry, Aristotle's logic and Newton's physics are meta-programs synthesizing and generalizing first brain forward-back, second brain up-down and third brain right-left programs. "Learning intellectual and linguistic skills for grasping and communicating ideas. Spins off conceptual needs for solving problems, defining terms, making maps, and articulating meaning. The central nervous system buzz of stimulating conversation, thinking, writing, reading and other symbolic and mathematical acts. When over-emphasized, one feels "locked inside one's head" with the angst of conceptual redundancy. Word Trance. Symbolic Addictions. When frustrated, psychological fears of becoming "stupid" or "insane" or "misinformed" or "meaningless" confuse thought processes. When satisfied, intellect and language develop coherency to support meaningful communication with others; one can "say what one means and mean what one says". SEMANTIC CATALYSTS: Reading, writing, arithmetic, speech, speaking on the telephone, nicotine, caffeine, sugar, chocolate, diet pills, amphetamines, cocaine. Consistent exposure to computer monitors, Internet and other on-line virtual communication systems. Any "drugs" acting on the various nervous systems as a stimulant to quicken thinking, speech patterns and symbolic associations. OVERDOSE SYMPTOMS: Nervousness. Thinking or talking too much. Mental exhaustion. "Neurosis."" IV. THE SOCIAL-SEXUAL CIRCUIT The fourth brain, dealing with the transmission of tribal or ethnic culture across generations, introduces the fourth dimension, time. Since each of these tunnel-realities consists of biochemical imprints or matrices in the nervous system, each of them is specifically triggered by neuro-transmitters and other drugs. NOTICE how drugs that stimulate the first four circuits, which are already activated, tend to be dangerously addictive, roughly ordered ascending from the first circuit. -deoxy "Development of personality in context to society. Social needs for belonging, getting along with people, developing friendships, romance, courtships, partnerships, marriages, domestication, family, and those morals and ethics maintaining community interest. The push and pull of attracting and repulsing forces—estrogen, testosterone & other growth hormones—influencing likes, dislikes, procreative love, mating rituals, domestic and community structures, and the morals and beliefs surrounding relations with others. When over-emphasized, personal identity homogenizes, or blends, into herd or tribal mentality. Social and Moral Addictions. When frustrated, the individual experiences alienation, marginalization and degrees of abandonment by the tribe, sometimes resulting in "psychopathic criminal retribution". As social needs are satisfied, a well-adjusted personality finds "its people" while defining and claiming its unique behavioral and ethical code amidst a society far too complex to always condone them. SOCIAL CATALYSTS: Social rituals, parties and gatherings. Cultural events and concerts. Church. Any "drugs" delivering social or community acceptance or sexual approval in exchange for submission to externally-imposed behavioral standards and moralities. Most television programs. Organized Religion. Mass Media. Corporate Advertising. The Welfare State. Social Security. Fascism. OVERDOSE SYMPTOMS: Loss of personality, autonomy and self as individual identity. Guilt complex, i.e. confusion between the morality of others and one's own ethics" NONE OF THESE TERRESTRIAL DRUGS CHANGE BASIC BIOCHEMICAL IMPRINTS. The behaviors which they trigger are those which were wired into the nervous system during the first stages of imprint vulnerability. The circuit II drunk exhibits the emotional games or cons learned from parents in infancy. The circuit III "mind" never gets beyond the permutations and combinations of those tunnel-realities originally imprinted, or abstractions associated with the imprints through later conditioning. And so forth. The four evolving future 'brains' are: V. THE NEUROSOMATIC CIRCUIT When this fifth "body-brain" is activated, flat Euclidean figure-ground configurations explode multi-dimensionally. Gestalts shift, in McLuhan's terms, from linear VISUAL SPACE to all-encompassing SENSORY SPACE. A hedonic turn-on occurs, a rapturous amusement, a detachment from the previously compulsive mechanism of the first four circuits. I turned this circuit on with pot and Tantra. This fifth brain began to appear about 4,000 years ago in the first leisure-class civilizations and has been increasing statistically in recent centuries (even before the Drug Revolution), a fact demonstrated by the hedonic art of India, China, Rome and other affluent societies. More recently, Ornstein and his school have demonstrated with electroencephalograms that this circuit represents the first jump from the linear left lobe of the brain to the analogical right lobe. The opening and imprinting of this circuit has been the preoccupation of "technicians of the occult"--Tantric shamans and hatha yogis. While the fifth tunnel-reality can be achieved by sensory deprivation, social isolation, physiological stress or severe shock (ceremonial terror tactics, as practiced by such rascal-gurus as Don Juan Matus or Aleister Crowley), it has traditionally been reserved to the educated aristocracy of leisure societies who have solved the four terrestrial survival problems. About 20,000 years ago, the specific fifth brain neurotransmitter was discovered by shamans in the Caspian Sea area of Asia and quickly spread to other wizards throughout Eurasia and Africa. It is, of course, cannabis. Weed. Mother Mary Jane. It is no accident that the pot-head generally refers to his neural state as "high" or "spaced-out." The transcendence of gravitational, digital, linear, either-or, Aristotelian, Newtonian, Euclidean, planetary orientations (circuits I-IV) is, in evolutionary perspective, part of our neurological preparation for the inevitable migration off our home planet, now beginning. This is why so many pot-heads are STAR TREK freaks and science fiction adepts. (Berkeley, California, certainly the Cannabis Capital of the U.S., has a Federation Trading Post on Telegraph Avenue, where the well-heeled can easily spend $500 or more in a single day, buying STAR TREK novels, magazines, newsletters, bumper stickers, photographs, posters, tapes, etc., including even complete blueprints for the starship ENTERPRISE.) The extraterrestrial meaning of being "high" is confirmed by astronauts themselves; 85% of those who have entered the free-fall zero gravity describe "mystic experiences" or rapture states typical of the neurosomatic circuit. "No photo can show how beautiful Earth looked," raves Captain Ed Mitchell, describing his Illumination in free-fall. He sounds like any successful yogi or pot-head. No camera can show this experience because it is inside the nervous system. FREE-FALL, AT THE PROPER EVOLUTIONARY TIME, TRIGGERS THE NEUROSOMATIC MUTATION, Leary believes. Previously this mutation has been achieved "artificially" by yogic or shamanic training or by the fifth circuit stimulant, cannabis. Surfing, skiing, skin-diving and the new sexual culture (sensuous massage, vibrators, imported Tantric arts, etc.) have evolved at the same time as part of the hedonic conquest of gravity. The Turn-On state is always described as "floating," or, in the Zen metaphor, "one foot above the ground." "Disconnected from previous goals and survival concerns of Circuits 1-4, this first of four "post-survival" centers opens the five senses as the chief source of all life and relevant information. Being Here Now. The natural sensory rhythms and impulses of the body uncensored by mental, emotional or moral intervention. The hedonic needs for rapture, bliss and ecstatic experience. The post-survival quest for nirvana. When frustrated, the despair and spiritual discontent of "entrapment in the corporeal world of survival issues." When over-emphasized, excessive hedonism becomes debauch, dispersion and disintegration of personal integrity of concentration, i.e., "spaced out bliss ninnies." Ecstasy Junkies. When hedonic needs are met, a state of charismatic magnetism infuses the personality, as seen with some rock stars, film celebrities and performing artists. HEDONIC CATALYSTS: Empathogens (MDMA, etc.), cannabis, opium, hashish, lower doses of psilocybin. Tantric and Hatha yoga, listening to music (subjective assessment), sex magick, performing live dance and live theatre, Sufi whirling dervishes, ecstatic pagan rituals, falling in love, endorphin rushes from "second wind" states (long distance running and working out), verbal fasting (mandatory silence), zen meditation. OVERDOSE SYMPTOMS: "Spaciness." Loss of meaningful connection with "consensus reality" sometimes showing poor time management and an oblivion to the emotions, thoughts and ethics of others. Time/spatial disorientation and distortions. Difficulty articulating, i.e. "Like, wow, man..."" WHat do you think?
