an important piece of the "emergence of consciousness" puzzle

[Alex Curpas]

Thomas Ray builds on the work of the Shulgins and builds a fresh theory of mind based on the selectivity of specific drugs in activating neural receptors. Highly worth the time for anyone with an interest in consciousness.

https://www.transformpress.com/breadth-and-depth

[Alexander Bard]

What is Thomas Ray's background?

Is there a summary anywhere of his studies?

Best

Alexander

2017-08-25 12:02 GMT+02:00 Alex Curpas <alex....@gmail.com>:

Thomas Ray builds on the work of the Shulgins and builds a fresh theory of mind based on the selectivity of specific drugs in activating neural receptors. Highly worth the time for anyone with an interest in consciousness.

https://www.transformpress.com/breadth-and-depth

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[Alex Curpas]

Evolutionary biology and computer science. His page sums up the gist of his "mental organs" theory.

http://life.ou.edu/

[Alexander Bard]

Any chance we can invite Thomas Ray to join us here?

We can discuss this offlist, dear Alex. OK?

Best

Alexander

[Thomas Ray]

I recommend three steps to explore my work:

1.      View the video “Mental Organs and the Breadth and Depth of Consciousness” linked from: https://www.transformpress.com/breadth-and-depth

2.      Read the manuscript “Mental Organs and the Origins of Mind” linked from http://life.ou.edu/mind/

3.      Read the manuscript “Mental Organs and the Breadth and Depth of Consciousness” linked from: https://www.transformpress.com/breadth-and-depth

[Thomas Ray]

My personal page & research interests: http://life.ou.edu/

My brief biography: http://life.ou.edu/bio.html

My full Curriculum Vitae: http://life.ou.edu/cv/

My publications: http://life.ou.edu/pubs/#End

[Daniel Görtz]

Very nice! Thank you for this 

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[Alexander Bard]

Brilliant talk at the equally brilliant Breaking Convention, dear Thomas!

I'm digging into the details as we speak.

I can see a clear and central role for psychedelic research within Syntheism.

This is after all possibly the strongest candidate for genuinely spiritual experience in the 21st century.

Best intentions

Alexander

[Thomas Ray]

Alexander: The 30 minute Breaking Convention video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fMLCKBAosE) is mercifully short, however, its objective is to challenge the most deeply held belief of the “psychedelic establishment” (serious neuroscience researchers who embrace the serotonin-2A paradigm of psychedelic drug action).  I do not believe that it delves into the issues that should be relevant to Syntheism.  The 70 minute Transform Press video (https://www.transformpress.com/breadth-and-depth) directly addresses these issues.  One important facet of the work concerns the discovery of the complexity and underlying biology of the human heart, signs that the human heart is receding, what might be the causes and consequences, and how we might be able to reverse the trend.  Another facet of the work suggests that the complexity of the human heart can help to understand the emergence of our collective diversity of religious, philosophical, and secular traditions: animism (Shinto), Confucius (Confucianism), Lao-Tsu (Taoism), Jesus (Christianity), Siddhartha Gautama (Buddhism), Patanjali (yoga), Socrates (age of reason).  Both of these facets are covered in the video at Transform Press.

[Thomas Ray]

I am writing a paper titled "Is DMT an Endogenous Meta-Neurotransmitter?", whose abstract has been accepted for publication in a volume "Psychedelic Drug Research in the 21st Century", edited by Gallimore, Strassman, and Frecska (http://journal.frontiersin.org/researchtopic/5512/psychedelic-drug-research-in-the-21st-century).  I would like to share with you the current draft opening:

Think of this as a hypothesis paper.

DMT has the strongest interactions with the greatest number of receptors of twenty-nine psychedelic drugs broadly assayed by the National Institute of Mental Health – Psychoactive Drug Screening Program (NIMH-PDSP) (Ray 2010).  In light of this distinctive property of DMT, I would like to address the question of what role it might play in the human mind if it were endogenously produced and sustained at concentrations that would allow it to act at its full bouquet of receptors in normal daily life.  This leads directly to an astonishing possibility: that DMT could function as an endogenous “meta-neurotransmitter”, whose role is to provide a healthy balance to the human mind, by balancing the relative levels of activity of the diverse receptor systems that it interacts with.

Ray, T. S.  (2010). Psychedelics and the human receptorome. PLoS One, 5, e9019. Available via http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0009019

[Thomas Ray]

I realized that for those familiar with the effects of DMT, the paragraph I shared may be confusing, so below I share the first page, that should make the first paragraph more understandable:

Think of this as a hypothesis paper.

DMT has the strongest interactions with the greatest number of receptors of twenty-nine psychedelic drugs broadly assayed by the National Institute of Mental Health – Psychoactive Drug Screening Program (NIMH-PDSP) (Ray 2010).  In light of this distinctive property of DMT, I would like to address the question of what role it might play in the human mind if it were endogenously produced and sustained at concentrations that would allow it to act at its full bouquet of receptors in normal daily life.  This leads directly to an astonishing possibility: that DMT could function as an endogenous “meta-neurotransmitter”, whose role is to provide a healthy balance to the human mind, by balancing the relative levels of activity of the diverse receptor systems that it interacts with.

Theodosius Dobzhansky famously said “Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution” (Dobzhansky 1973).  The human mind is a product of evolution, thus Dobzhansky’s statement also applies to the mind, as a subset of biology.  Throughout this discussion I will retain an evolutionary mindset, and I will make no appeal to the supernatural, other worlds, alien entities, or quantum physics.

From the first published report on DMT (Szara 1956) up through the present, DMT has almost universally been deliberately taken at doses that cause the subject to go “beyond the veil” (Strassman et al. 2008), losing contact with reality, and entering an alternate reality.  Most discussions of the effects of DMT are based on the mental state beyond the veil.  However, the analysis in this manuscript will be entirely focused on the mental effects of DMT this side of the veil, in which the subject retains contact with ordinary reality.  This is necessary to maintain the evolutionary mindset, as subjects experiencing an alternate reality are not in a condition to succeed in the “Darwinian reality” in which they emerged through the process of natural selection, and in which they must survive.  I will examine a possible endogenous role for DMT in ordinary daily life, in which DMT is sustained at concentrations in the brain that would produce the full effects of DMT, this side of the veil.

[Denys Zagreus]

This sound ridiculously interesting! Very much looking forward to reading more about it, even though I have a hard time grasping the rationale. In what way would DMT balance the receptor activity? What are "concentrations that would allow it to act at its full bouquet of receptors in normal daily life"? 

I hear this and think it as if the brain would "microdose" DMT in order to produce the everyday "visionary" experience, an agent for the production of sufficient meaning (i.e. coordinating all mental and embodied processes into a coherent functional whole). When you then take DMT exogenously you merely "flood the system" producing a whole lot of meaning, distorting the balance and thus rendering the mental functioning out of bounds.

This might be a complete swing and miss, but I would love to hear if it lands somewhere even close to the ball park. :)

Phileo,

Denys

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[竜虎風森]

I have depth/breadth experience in Zen training. It is extremely boring throughout the static practice for a great deal of people who had been practicing for a while. Before that, I heard reports of (and myself experienced) ego-dystonic cognition.

In active practice (doing other things while still being in terms of what you're calling wider "breadth"), for me-- at first-- I was more alert and tended from moment-to-moment better.  At the very first, I was creative and felt very connected to myself (first 7 or 8 months).  After about a year and a half, I started developing temporary psychosis (prodromal schizophreniform).

When the 2-and-a-quarter years mark came around, I was in full-blown psychosis, chronic and acute.  Actually, after intake into an intensive outpatient "bridge" program, they showed me a report of their initial assessment (diagnostic impression).

    The words on Axis IV:  homelessness,  self-annihilation

I have no idea how, but I experienced full ego-loss after 2 years of Zen.  I escalated through these "gates" so quickly that-- after sitting about 25 minutes, like clockwork, some of my bodily regulation failed and my executive functions almost entirely shut down.  I felt all my senses-- more than the external 5-- so acutely at that point that if I broke concentration on my "hara" (lower abdomen; higher pubis), tension would rack up from my tailbone in succession up to the top of my spine.  At which point, I would scream uncontrollably about nothing other than releasing tension.

When in full lotus, if I didn't scream, my upper spine would start pivoting my tailbone in such a wide fashion that {--> right-knee --> left-knee --> left-buttock --> right-buttock -->} would lift and then come down to the mat (zafu) in that order.

So I was basically a human Weeble intensely energized but completely derealized.  I believe my ardent practice prevented me from hallucinating. My psychosis was "simple" until the last few months of my practice in late 2012 (all negative/shutdown symptoms, and one specific positive symptom, disorganized thought).

At the very end, I was doing less static practice (shikantaza was my only static practice), but still perseverating the active practice-- because I had so much gd intensity in my viscera-sans-what-most-people-call-"affect" though I was clearly affected (I stripped all emotions back to sensations in the body, but dissociated from the sublimated ones).

    During that small window of time, I developed delusions, thought-insertion, paranoia and disorganized thoughts. My assessment of functioning (GAF, Axis-V per DSM-IV-TR) dropped below 50 and I was committed to an inpatient ward at the same facility.

I kept going in my Zen practice, and experienced clinical trauma that I wasn't able to feel until after my psychosis fully deactivated, which required I drop all those practices (due to traumatic associations, that also triggered some executive function disabling) I did in Zen.  I switched to a mixture of Jungian archetypal psychology, Taoism, with auxiliary sensory aids from a local pan-spiritual shop (stones, scents); that combination snapped me out of the executive function relapses but still kept me in the same affective space of my active Zen practice.

ZEN

Insights galore! --> Creativity --> Boredom yet strangely an emotional freedom --> Derealization with the same emotional freedom (and an almost entirely lacking cognitive involvement --> Simple psychosis (including loss of affect, when I was already cognitively inactive for the most part) --> Schizophreniform Disorder.

TAO (+ other shit)

--> Simple psychosis --> Partial remission (remaining derealization) --> Boredom + Emotional freedom + cognitive presence) --> Honestly, stuck at boredom.

ALLOWING MYSELF to be autistic (I'm diagnosed, level-2 severity sensoribehavioral, Severely-impaired immediate/working memory, level-1 socioemotional, Above-average nonverbal IQ composite, Highly-superior/genius [but I don't like the latter] verbal IQ composite)

     --> Boredom almost entirely absent, awareness of all-the-things-in-my-bodymindheart-whatever extremely high especially when well-nourished --> awareness the same, plus socioemotional insights frequent and sometimes distressing --> "Sage'ing out", when I discover things with very, very little information or exposure, only to find out later that there's entire pools of emerging authors and social scientists (and behavioralists) expressing very recently these same connections/things, in both metaphysics and politics.

-->  Hence me being here.  I now do Zen if I'm under a time-constraint in combination with emotional dysregulation. 25 minutes pro re nata. Good enough.

However, I will say that since for ethical reasons I've divested myself from nearly every institution other than gasoline, not even the automotive industry (I buy locally, paid-in-full), post-secondary education and the workforce.... In such a hyperindividualistic-yet-strangely-conformist/work-drone'ish culture, that means I have almost no one who even remembers how to maintain an informal, unstructured affiliation.  And the ones that do remember are either diagnosed schizophrenic or on hard times (thus disconnected from the workforce as well).

I assert that the U.S. is sadomasochistic as a means of being slaves at work, compensating after work, and needing to create frequent mini-psychodramas rather than fluid friendships... Because the former drives them (without awareness) into their repressed stuff, while the latter requires awareness lest you lose your friend by being unkind or inconsiderate.

Perhaps both low 5-HT2 and 5-HT1...?

I feel like every purchase is consent to a pain and stupidity machine.  My ability to see histories (and synthesize from effect back to multiple possibly causes) has increased, which is what the Taoism section reminded me of.  However, it isn't done with words.  I don't know how to describe it other than a series of feelings (beyond the primal) that chain together, draw me in, increase my appreciation for things both enlivening and distressing.  More curious, and even if it's distressing, eventual gratitude and coherence.  Like everything is as the historicities of all the people involved co-created, even if they weren't aware of co-creation.

For example:  Gratitude and acceptance (not ethical acceptance-- some of these "all the people"s be damaging and somewhat disgusting).  Of people as foreign to my ethics as White supremacists and conversely Anti-fa.

Idk. As long as it is in-step with what people have paved the way for, I find absolutely no anxiety whatsoever, or cognitive impairment.  It's only when it doesn't make sense (yet) that I'm anxious/frustrated for a little bit.

idk if this can help you, but it seems like my 5-HT{1,2,7}, Alpha-1, and occasional Alpha-2.
(I'm not a particularly sentimental person, so I was never incentivized to continue practices like metta, though I do know easy ways to trigger that, [that I learned actually through Neopagan "darkwork"], loving-kindness and affective empathy.)

I'm assuming autism's genetic influence on 5-HT and other receptors (via segment duplications as well as deletions, and some larger structural variations in the genotype) causes some of this naturally, which would explain why Zen was basically overkill, and Tao was basically under-kill.

I like my way of being, sans any exogenous influence, aside from how it affects my timeliness in doing things I find somewhat insane, and affects rapport with low-autistic-traits people.

Maybe all the spiritualities in all the world were trying to create autism? (That's a bit self-aggrandizing, so my tendency is to dismiss it after suggesting it.)

---Keric

[Jacob Marinko]

Hi Dear Syntheism Group,

I have been a part of this list for quite some time now, and even if I felt the urge at many times to join threads and conversations I have restrained myself.

Mostly due to that I’ve been through, what society refer to as a ”Crises”, by diving into the divorce from my ex-wife and mother of two children two years ago.

My own view is that I got a great chance to do some long needed personal work and find a different path after some 10 years trying to fit in to the western image of a successful ”Male”. 

So I dove into a journey of learning a lot of physical movement, such as natural movement, travel and used psychedelics, mainly San Pedro, Mushrooms and Ayuascha as well as shamanic studies and practices combined with deep immersions into the forrest in solitude, meditating, contemplating and almost killing myself with a spear type used to hunt Bears and Wild Boars with in Russia…

Another restraint has been, and still is, that I am in no way a scholar, academically trained or have any form of formal education. I am not very deeply into bits and pieces of ”sciences”, the philosophies and systems of the world. I like to learn by experience and figure out what I can from that.

I am fond of ”synchronicities” or at least the illusion I think they are, and recently there has been events in my life synchronizing with conversations here as well as thoughts I have walked with for a while. Especially the entrance of Thomas Ray and his work.

Now, this is I stepping in and I am not well versed with the social codes, how-to’s and such things here so let me know if I am stepping out of bounds. You may be very blunt with me, I am not so tender or especially keen to take things deeply personal. However I will value each response.

Some 4 years ago I visioned, founded and developed a Tech Start Up with a partner, now gaining a second round investments from 2 private investors and Almi Invest (Swedish Governmental Venture Capitalist). After a two year sabbatical I will get back into ”business” mainly by writing and blogging and I just released a first article on LinkedIn, touching on discussions and talks here.

This morning ”Keric” expressed things that touched me very deeply on an intuitive level. A part of it was this:

"However, I will say that since for ethical reasons I've divested myself from nearly every institution other than gasoline, not even the automotive industry (I buy locally, paid-in-full), post-secondary education and the workforce.... In such a hyperindividualistic-yet-strangely-conformist/work-drone'ish culture, that means I have almost no one who even remembers how to maintain an informal, unstructured affiliation.  And the ones that do remember are either diagnosed schizophrenic or on hard times (thus disconnected from the workforce as well).

I assert that the U.S. is sadomasochistic as a means of being slaves at work, compensating after work, and needing to create frequent mini-psychodramas rather than fluid friendships... Because the former drives them (without awareness) into their repressed stuff, while the latter requires awareness lest you lose your friend by being unkind or inconsiderate."

I’d like to share that text here and I am willingly open to receive your thoughts, corrections and such, since I am searching for ways to influence this business into a more Syntheistic and altered state of consciousness approach. Especially yours, Keric

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/mayaillusion-refering-worklife-jacob-marinko?published=t

Alexander, I am sure you will tell me as it is.

Now, I will watch the Breaking Convention Video and shiver a bit as I wait for thunder…

Namaste and all that

28 aug. 2017 kl. 19:48 skrev Thomas Ray <tomr...@gmail.com>:

Alexander: The 30 minute Breaking Convention video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fMLCKBAosE) is mercifully short, however, its objective is to challenge the most deeply held belief of the “psychedelic establishment” (serious neuroscience researchers who embrace the serotonin-2A paradigm of psychedelic drug action).  I do not believe that it delves into the issues that should be relevant to Syntheism.  The 70 minute Transform Press video (https://www.transformpress.com/breadth-and-depth) directly addresses these issues.  One important facet of the work concerns the discovery of the complexity and underlying biology of the human heart, signs that the human heart is receding, what might be the causes and consequences, and how we might be able to reverse the trend.  Another facet of the work suggests that the complexity of the human heart can help to understand the emergence of our collective diversity of religious, philosophical, and secular traditions: animism (Shinto), Confucius (Confucianism), Lao-Tsu (Taoism), Jesus (Christianity), Siddhartha Gautama (Buddhism), Patanjali (yoga), Socrates (age of reason).  Both of these facets are covered in the video at Transform Press.

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[竜虎風森]

Jacob,

While your article touched on things that are ontologically and epistemologically relevant, you committed the same error of those turning away from dualism:  That anything experienced in a location that has predominant dualistic norms must automatically be bad, unhealthy, "wicked", etc....

There's no need to throw the baby (positive milieus of modernity) with the bathwater (duality), especially when the actual duality is that some undertakings-- healthy &/or useful &/or fun &/or helpful processes-- spawn from a mulitperspectival perspective (dualism, 'trinalism', 'quaternalism', etc...).

Sometimes, [x>1]'istic processing is more accurate than monistic/'unitalistic,sometimes monism is a more accurate scope.  It also depends on which aspect of something you're looking at.

Neither is more real than the other.  The view that something pre-/ancient-human (or baby-like/childlike) is of more consequence and represents something we're missing is probably location/culture-specific.  Some cultures may have too much of that, and are in another way starved of concepts, intellectual investigation, descriptive words, etc...

The view that such a perception or perceptive capacity (pre-, ancient-, ancestral-, babylike, childlike) is "more" [anything] than dualism, 3-ism, 4-ism, poly-ism, w/e.... is in and of itself dualistic... and a metaphysicist on a website I find insightful calls that the viewpoint of "fetal/natal numinousness".

Somehow something pre-personal represents something more meaningful or more "real".  That's how the story goes.  The pursuit of such a state, and valuing or romanticizing of that state to the point where you see "childlike innocence" as being above the everyday-(adult-)human perceptive capacity, is extremely biased toward people who find refuge in schools of though that are (Mahayanian) Buddhistic, Maharishian, Krishnamurtian, (Advaitin) Vedantic, Zen, Aikido'ic, etc....

Some people are happier and thrive more in adult perception.  Their experience-- as long as the antecedents of their concepts have a referent antecedent in ontic "reality" or epistemological-with-antecedents-in"reality"-- are just as real as the experiences of a practitioner of Aikido seeing their inner 'force' pervading all things and viewing it as the result of subtle movements or sympathetic vibrations.

In terms of meaning (some things can be felt as meaningful even if they're not more joyous), people are all over the map, too.

There's nothing to "save all beings" from, basically, other than a person locking themselves into one of those perspectives at the exclusion of the other.

Ethically, and compassionately, my eye for "saving" (helping) is trained upon both Buddhists and everyday folk, bc anything too far out from moderation is toxic.

---Keric

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