Robert Anton Wilson on -REINVENTING FOODS: THE NEW ALCHEMY
Matthew Gaylor
[Note From Matthew Gaylor: Sent with the permission of The NeuroNomicoN:
The Journal of True Illuminism <ncc...@sprynet.com>]
-REINVENTING FOODS: THE NEW ALCHEMY
by Robert Anton Wilson
Long ago, back in the dark ages around 1920 actually, one of the
high-fruit/vegetarian fad diets of the period was promoted with the slogan,
"You
are what you eat." The amazing thing about this seemingly simple-minded
over-generalization is that modern science has tended to confirm it (although
not the diet that inspired it).
Everything you eat or drink has effects on every part of your body, and
on the integrity of the body-as-a-whole. Even more exciting: everything we eat
and drink also effects our "minds," which are functions of our brains.
French-fried potatoes are as "psychedelic" as LSD, although in a very different
(and long-range) fashion. As neuroscientists have discovered the links between
our brain chemistry and our experiential/perceptual world, the avant garde
third
of the population is turning on to "Designer Foods" or "food supplements" that
contain the seeds of a new 21st-century alchemy.
As Judith Hooper and Dick Teresi wrote in The Three Pound Universe,
"Everything we know from subatomic particles to distant galaxies, everything we
feel from love of our children to fear of enemy nations is experienced and
modeled in our brains. Without the brain, nothing, not quarks, not black
holes,
not love, not hatred would exist for us." And what the brain experiences as our
"reality" depends on the chemicals that serve as its language. In this
knowledge lies the possibility of higher intelligence and even longer life.
Since the 1960s, when a few young and radical scientists raised the
idea, increasing numbers of neuroscientists have been talking of "life
extension," "prolongevity," "rewinding our biological clocks," even of eventual
immortality. The more we learn about brain chemistry, the more plausible the
goal becomes. Thus, books like Ettinger's The Prospect of Immortality and
Harrington's The Immortalist made only a small stir in some futurist circles
when they came out in the 60s, but as research advanced and results become more
promising, the idea spread to the mass media. In 1982, Life Extension, A
Practical Scientific Approach, by Durk Pearson and Sandy Shaw became an
international bestseller, and "health food" and vitamin stores began selling
more and more compounds such as vitamins C and E and amino acid
supplements. The
pace has accelerated every year since then.
EVOLUTIONARY TURNING POINT
We are at a major evolutionary turning point, because we are actually
learning how to feed our brains on the nutrients that rewind and rejuvenate our
biological clocks. For instance, growth hormone (called GH by scientists)
tends
to produce many of the qualities we consider youthful clear skin, high energy,
preferential production of muscle and bone rather than fat, rapid healing of
wounds, "sparkle and bounce," and general immunological efficiency (ability to
fight off diseases). We loose all this as we age because our brains no longer
send the signals telling the pituitary gland to release GH. The most recent
research, reported in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine, shows
that elderly men, deficient in GH, given high doses of GH soon appear, by
several important measures, to possess the health profiles of men 20 years
younger as if they had "lost" 20 years of aging.
Is it possible to reset this biological clock and "persuade" the brain
to start sending those GH signals again? Yes, and the answer lies in the
careful
formulation of the amino acids arginine and choline plus specific vitamins and
minerals that act to maximize the use of the substances. Once the brain gets
enough arginine and choline, it begins sending the signals that release GH.
This formula is the secret of POWERMAKER II, a food supplement designed
by American research scientists Pearson and Shaw, who brought life
extension into the mainstream with their 1982 bestseller on the subject.
Pearson and Shaw
have developed a vast knowledge of nutrient metabolism, and follow current
research with an intensity matched by few other practicing scientists,
constantly revising their formulations as new research dictates. They recently
were honored by the American Aging Association, for significantly raising
public
awareness of the possibility that biomedical aging research will increase the
functional lifespan. POWERMAKER II is used by powerlifting champion Les Cheney
and other atheletes, who have discovered that it helps build stronger muscles
without any of the problems of anabolic steroids. Others simply use POWERMAKER
II to slow down the effects of aging and give themselves more years of
productive, energetic living. Pearson and Shaw's work on GH is being hailed as
one of the great contributions to anti-aging research.
The very name "alchemy" contains another key to long life. "Alchemy"
comes from the Arabic al-kymiya, which derives from the Chinese kim-iya, which
designated the ephedra sinica plant. This plant is the source of ephedrine, a
chemical which does indeed improve the user's chances of achieving a long life
by reversing the natural tendency of humans to grow more obese as they age
through the promotion of preferential fat burning via a process known as brown
fat thermogenesis.
CHANGES IN CONSCIOUSNESS AND PERCEPTION
Two recent articles in a medical journal suggest that ephedrine was in
fact the mysterious "Soma," which was praised so extravagantly in early Hindu
scriptures because of the dramatic changes it allegedly produced in
consciousness and perception. Ephedrine is the major ingredient in THERMOGEN
TEA, a popular weight-reducing agent also designed by Pearson and Shaw, who
once
again seem to have created one of the potions that the alchemists never found
or, as the ethmology of ephedrine suggests, found and lost. Thus, with GH
boosters and ephedrine, we are definitely on the trail of longevity the
Hermeticists sought. As for "True Wisdom," the second major goal of the
alchemists, we may not have the exact formula yet, but we do have some
compounds
known to boost mental efficiency. Lecithin, for instance, a natural source of
choline, increases general IQ of retarded persons, although it seems less
effective with persons of average or superior intelligence. Choline works
equally well with persons of all intellectual levels and, with the proper
co-factors, increases the brain's ability to focus, to concentrate, to solve
problems and, particularly, to enhance speaking and writing performances.
Choline is itself converted into acetylcholine, a ubiquitous
neurotransmitter that has been known to improve comprehension and memory as
well
as muscle tone. Choline is combined with fructose, copper, and B vitamins,
in a
product called MEMORY FUEL another fruit-flavored powder that is pleasant to
drink, non-addictive, legal everywhere, and similar to certain stimulant drugs
but without their long-term nefarious effects.
The co-factors are necessary, incidentally, because none of the
chemicals mentioned are themselves neurotransmitters (the brain's own signaling
devices). Pearson and Shaw have made a particularly important contribution by
ascertaining the proper co-factors for a number of brain chemicals. To release
a neurotransmitter, a scientist must first find the chemical that starts the
synthesis of the neurotransmitter and then the co-factors that carry the
process
through to the actual release of the substance. Thus, the naturally occurring
amino acid phenylalanine plus the proper co-factors in proper proportions
causes
the brain to produce the neurotransmitter noradrenaline, a powerful stimulant.
The good news: You can get all the phenylalanine you need without
extensive hunting in medical supply outlets. It appears, with all the
co-factors necessary to produce noradrenaline, in two products now available,
BLAST and FAST BLAST, which include caffeine to enhance the stimulant
effect. A
milder version, for people who are doing intellectual work with an emergency
deadline but who don't want to get too "wired," is called RISE & SHINE; it
contains phenylalanine plus co-factors but no caffeine.
All these products are sold as powders that mix with water or fruit
juices, making a drink that most people find delicious.
INCREASING SEX DRIVE
You might also be interested to know that choline+arginine+the proper
co-factors= increased sex drive. These compounds, you may remember, are the
major ingredients in POWERMAKER II, which many are using not only to just turn
fat into muscle and live longer, but also to enjoy a more zestful sex life. It
doesn't cure impotence, but if everything else is functioning properly,
POWERMAKER II makes sexual experience more intense, especially if one is
already
using MEMORY FUEL. For maximum sex boost, take POWERMAKER II about 45 minutes
before going to bed together.
Although the effects may be similar, there is an important difference
between manipulating the brain's own chemicals with the body's own trigger
chemicals and attacking the brain with alien compounds that only create a
simulation of the natural "high" of healthy functioning. The difference
between
the new legal compounds and illegal drugs is much more important than any
superficial similarities. After a brief "flash," followed by stimulation,
cocaine causes the brain's noradrenaline and dopamine levels to drop
drastically, which is why, when it wears off, cocaine users experience "lows"
and depressions that cause them to take more and more of the stuff, leading to
addiction (or at least addict-like behavior...). Phenylalanine on the other
hand, stimulates increased production of noradrenaline and permits release over
an extended period. There is no "low," no depression, no crash, and no
compulsion to take more and get "high" again.
Durk Pearson defines the major difference between these new "designer"
brain fuels and traditional hard drugs as follows: "Designer Foods are
non-addictive. They're absorbed quickly by the body. It's nothing more than
normal processing of nutrients. And because neurotransmitter production is
increased, rather than supplies being depleted, dose reduction has no toxic
side-effects as is the case with most drugs the effects don't diminish even if
taken over a long period of time."
The late Norbert Weiner, founder of the science of cybernetics, defined
brain malfunctions (emotional and/or mental "illness") as "disturbances in the
traffic" -- the traffic of brain chemicals, that is. Few forms of
emotional/mental stress have been correlated with actual brain damage in the
gross sense, but people with such problems do not perceive/feel/think like the
healthy norm. The problem, as Weiner suggested, seems to lie in traffic
jams or
misdirected traffic among the brain chemicals. Most of the conspicuous
symptoms
of aging also correlate with "disturbances in the traffic" between brain
chemistry and immunological system, and between those and other body systems.
UNCLOGGING BRAIN TRAFFIC
No matter what diet you eat, these "traffic problems" will probably
catch up with you eventually, simply because of air and water pollution,
and the
other toxins in our environment. But several vitamins, minerals and amino
acids
have been found to be useful in fighting off and reducing the effects of these
pollutants, and Pearson and Shaw have combined them all in a formula called
SUPER RADICAL SHIELD (SRS), which is designed to finesse the metabolic
pathways.
Through correlated strengths and strategic bioavailabilities, SRS contains
many
compounds that have been proven in nutritional studies to contribute to the
longer life of experimental animals. "If we took nothing else, we would take
our SUPER RADICAL SHIELD," Pearson and Shaw have said.
Since recent medical research indicates that even heavy smokers escape
some of the dangers of the habit if they take a form of vitamin A called beta
carotene every day, Pearson and Shaw also designed a BETAMAX CAROTENE capsule,
for those who haven't yet quit smoking. (There is also a hefty dose of this
beta
carotene in SUPER RADICAL SHIELD).
"Better living through chemistry," which started out as a commercial
slogan of the Dupont corporation, became the motto of the pot-smoking youth
revolution of the 1960s. Now as the epochal discoveries made by brain
scientists in the last two decades begin to yield safe, effective commercial
products of the sort that we have been describing, it has an entirely new
meaning. We are the first generation to have the knowledge to reprogram our
brains, which means that we are also learning to reprogram our bodies, since
every body function is determined by brain chemistry.
You really ought to try some of these new brain fuels and have fun with
your new head! Who knows? The new alchemy may not only give us longer life,
and True Wisdom but also the traditional Hermetic goal of Perfect Happiness.
****
Contact information for the only source on the planet for all 32 Durk Pearson
and Sandy Shaw life extension/intelligence increase formulas:
Life Services Supplements, Inc.
1-800-542-3230.
Call and ask that their full color catalog be sent to you immediately. They
will want to know how you heard of the company. Use our referral ID number
please: 040139.
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