I can only speak from my own experiences. When we are of this world in the "real" sense we give up a part of our spirituality. I am not referring to organized religion or a value based society that points to the sky expecting answers. I am referring to heart felt connections that permit us to live -- responsibly, yet freely -- in the moment. I believe there is a pantheistic aspect to all of our existences, which is free from the dogma of orthodoxy. Our beliefs are formed not just through the pursuit of hierarchical learning, but from understanding the importance of intuition in our being. Rollo May referred to this phenomena of surrendering our insides to the teachings of others in 'The Loss of Innocence'. We sacrifice our souls in our indoctrination into the realm of hierarchical pursuits. We trade who we are for the acceptance by others for what we are "supposed" to be. In the end, we accomplish much according to those standards that are imposed upon who we were originally. But, at what cost? And for whose gain and whose loss?
It's a real conundrum...life. I feel I need to plunge deeper if I am to attain any measurable value in this existence of mine. I've barely scratched the surface this time around. Sure. I've had my moments, which is more than most. And I suppose in that context, shouldn't that be enough? I am satisfied with what life offers. But, in the end, it only offers what we allow.
Which takes me back to my original premise. We only live deeply when we abandon our fear from holding back. Walking through the fire is less about getting burned and more about experiencing the moment. It is only then that we live.
Freed from the trivialities of convention, humanity moves me. Sometimes we need to walk away in order to take those two steps forward. What is life? Negentropy triumphing over entropy. Richard Marsh -- a former teacher of mine -- used to tell me: "Sometimes we need to get out of our mind in order to get into our mind..." I think he learned this axiom while on the beach in Zihuatenjo with Timothy Leary. It was undoubtedly a revelatory insight while in a hallucinogenic drug addled state. Nonetheless, the lesson is readily learned. We serve a higher purpose when we allow ourselves to get in touch with ourselves. A circle rather than a straight line. Forward movement does not come from a simple choice of negentropy over entropy. The path of evolution is circular.
While at the Institute of Visual Perception at Princeton University, British researcher Osmond Humphrey collaborated with well known author Aldous Huxley in a series of experiments involving the use of the hallucinogen peyote. Much of the experimentation was the basis in defining premature psychological closure as a method of connecting the dots to form an image not present but inferred from limited visual information. The result was Huxley's 'Doors of Perception' and Humphrey coining the term in an epigram to Huxley: "To fathom Hell or soar angelic, just take a pinch of psychedelic."
