Essence is the immortal portion of our awareness. When we die, we disappear from this planet forever and our life experience is absorbed into our Essence. The ego absolutely must transcend the illusion that it is the center of the psyche. Psychedelics can be extremely valuable tools in this work. (more)

[The Ayahuasca Monologues] • In most ancient cultures, there was no separation between shaman and stargazer. I was drawn early on to the models of Shamanic Astrology and Evolutionary Astrology.  Both perspectives focus on the karmic dynamics and evolutionary intent of the soul. (more)

Like the mythical diving figure depicted on the Temple of the Descending God at the ancient ruins of Tulum, I found myself descending into a cosmic portal.  There's a worm hole, or serpent ladder at the core of the world, and at the brain's core, where the deepest and highest functions of our physiology involve union with the "afterlife," through the "other world."  (more)

We are swimming in a sea of mostly nitrogen. The spinal cord and brain have a central area filled with light-transmitting fluid surrounded by a powerful electrodic system capable of stimulating emission.  This is a capability we are evolving into; it will lead to better interdimentional communication. (more)

In the age‑old image of the uroboros lies the thought of devouring oneself and turning oneself into a circulatory process, for it was clear to the more astute alchemists that the prima materia of the art was man himself. (more)

Reality Sandwich will no longer be involved with the retreats at the Chimbre Center, and Daniel Pinchbeck and Ken Jordan will not be attending them.  (more)

When I first drank ayahuasca the insights I received were as numerous as the swirling colors and out-of-body visions. As my relationship to the medicine has deepened, the insights I keep close to my heart have become simpler and less material. Part 1 in the series Meditations from the Medicine. (more)

[The Healing Journey] • Fire was the first brainwave stimulation device. This is one reason we can spend hours staring into a fire in such a calm, evocative and viscerally contemplative way. Add a version of storytelling . . . then add a version of music . . . and you have Synaesthetic Surround, current science’s take on fireside dreamtime.   (more)

Reports have appeared of people who see Avatar and fall into depression at their inability to access a world as beautiful and spiritual as Pandora, the mythical planet depicted in the film. But before you join a PADS support group, consider the lessons of LSD. (more)

My mind continues to wonder, is this a perfect definition for intelligence supplied to me via Ayahuasca experience and nature herself? For any techno shamanic philosophical nerd out there -  this is exciting stuff. So my first intuition is to 'throw this out there' and see how it holds under honest scrutiny amongst my online and offline chums in the conflict of idea regarding intelligence and consciousness, both eastern and western, both mathematical and intuitive, which is part of the purpose of this article. I am eager to enter into rational, analytical, and intuitive discussion regarding this definition. I am hoping that any community that assists in refining it's revelation with me  may hold the 'holy grail' of intelligence itself, the ability to elegantly define it empirically and objectively once and for all. If not we will still become more intelligent in the process, either outcome seems to prove the utility of this very simple proposition, Intelligence is Self Teaching.

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When our ancient ancestors were ejected from the forest's womb-like protection that had hot housed our evolution, the neural system it nurtured was exposed to the kinds of hostile ecological and biochemical environments it had not encountered for millions of years. Since that time our brain has suffered a progressive and catastrophic failure in its development. (more)

The defeatist belief that all pursuits arise from a selfish core in all humanity denies the deeper motives that also activate people. But from his pinched and narrow perch at the edge of society, the drug addict sees that we resemble him in our frantic material pursuits and our delusions and that we exceed him in our hypocrisies. (more)

Studying near-death-experience case studies, it became clear that I could hope to provide some answers to our most perplexing question: What happens when we die? (more)

You remain lucid inside, an observer. The anthropologist taking notes can be inside a maelstrom of visual hallucinations. It is as if it was a science-fiction movie, you're saying: "Wow, what a film!" (more)