Okay, this means war. Not content to impinge on our territory by having Jacques Vallee as a guest-blogger, Boing Boing now also has Graham Hancock posting articles about DMT, the afterlife, and ayahuasca tourism. Back off BB, or I’ll have to have a quiet word with the secret masters about the situation (you and me Pescovitz, mano-a-mano)!
After an earlier series of articles about crop circles, yesterday Jacques posted a new entry titled “I, Product” giving a different take on the growing access that companies have to our private data:
You may think of yourself as a user of Google, Facebook or Amazon, but you are actually their product.
Sure, Google will provide you with search results, but they are not in the search business; they are in the advertising business. Their profits come from marketing firms that buy your behavior.
Similarly, Amazon is not in the book business, although they will send you the books you’ve ordered. They are in the personal information business.
The assets of modern web-based companies are the intimate profiles of those who “use” them, like you and me. Time to forget the nice pronouncements like “Do no evil” that accompany the wholesale destruction of privacy now taking place on the web, or rather within the walled gardens that companies like Facebook, Google and Apple are erecting around us on the web. Compared to them, the Chinese censors re-inventing their Great Wall are a bunch of sissies.
Meanwhile, Graham has posted two articles already as an invited Boing Boing guest-blogger. The first, “Death Holds No Sting: New Perspectives on Psychedelics” covers the latest research into the therapeutic potential of psychedelic drugs and then goes deep down the rabbit hole discussing contact with DMT entities. Today’s post focuses on ayahuasca as a ‘new sacrament’ to cure the ills of the West:
Fortunately, say the shamans, they are in a position to offer a remedy. They know of certain plants, growing deep in the rainforest, whose leaves contain dimethyltryptamine — DMT, for short — the powerful hallucinogen whose extraordinary effects I described in yesterday’s essay. Mixed with the pulped inner fibers of a sinuous jungle vine, and boiled in water for a day and a night, these leaves contribute their properties to Ayahuasca (meaning the “Vine of Souls” or “Vine of the Dead”) a potent hallucinogenic brew that’s been in continuous use amongst the cultures of the Amazon for at least three thousand years. The shamans I’ve talked to do seriously suggest that adoption of the brew in the West could yet save us, and all humanity, from the spiraling collapse of ecosystems and the growing murmur of insane conflict that our own behavior has unleashed.
The idea is far from as ridiculous as it might at first sound. As I reported yesterday there’s already good scientific evidence that the judicious and responsible use of hallucinogens can be life-enhancing and life-changing, banishing the fear of death amongst terminal cancer patients and giving veterans real relief from the damaging effects of post-traumatic stress disorder. If that can be so — and be good science as well — then the shamans could be right, or at least not completely wrong, to suggest Ayahuasca as a remedy for the wider ills of the West.
All three are thought-provoking pieces, with plenty to debate, and there’s some good content in the comments at BB regarding each. There’s also a bunch of the now ubiquitous “this is woo!” responses…it’s like ‘skeptics’ are making a concerted effort to be more annoyingly preachy than any other religious group out there. Kudos to Randi and co. for creating such a close-minded, semi-Fascist group of followers!
Anyhow check out the guest-blogs it’s all good stuff. Still Pesco, it’s on buddy…
