Dirtbag Backbone (The Anthropology of The Future Pt. 5)

Overmind Anatomy.

"So here's the remedy you need: take a little spoon of sunshine, feels like it's gonna come from the inside...take a deep sip of The Milky Way - and everyday make sure you play."  -Realmedies, by Freddy Todd & Johnathan Santos

Rejoicing in my dirtbag backbone on a run.

As vertebrate mammals, we've got a spinal cord that connects the brain to the rest of the body.  This is how I know that my personal organism is a brain WITH a body - this crucial connection.  In the same way the brain is reminded of the body with the spine, it is essential that as humans we have a "dirtbag backbone."  This is an activity that one passionately commits to . . . something that gets you outside everyday - out in the open sky around plants and other animals - that reveals your connection to Mother Dirt.  We are sensory creatures that can plug in to laptops and VR goggles, but we are also actively motor-sculpted of dust & debris, and breathe in a vital atmosphere which absorbs through the inner-forest of the lungs. 

You may have already found your "dirtbag backbone" . . . it might be climbing, mushroom hunting, river-boating, surfing, or riding a bicycle.  For me it is predominantly trail-running.  It is something that makes your blood flow enthusiastically through the chambers of the drum-machine in your chest, and out to deliver the goods through the labyrinth of hollow vessels in every organ & each eyelid.  This "backbone" not only tells the truth that the homo Sapien is in unity with Earth, but also it is central to the form of character - to how the individual achieves identity.  It is something you could do without civilization even:  an ancient tangle with the woods & the wilds.  It is there even if you're broke - even if you sleep in a vehicle & feast on tins of sardines. . . you get outside and feel the fire coarse through your dirtbag backbone.  It breeds biomechanical rapture as the generosity of this habit feeds endorphins & endocannabinoids to your hungry, neurotransmitting grey matter. 

Gaia Vision.

As all of us shape the cultural habits of the future we're finding, let's not just rejoice in the dirtbag backbones we've found, but spread the idea to others evangelically!  You must have friends, family, or co-workers who haven't found their dirtbag backbone yet.  Encourage them to do as much.  Invite people to try a hike, run or climb with you who show some curiosity, but are perhaps slightly abash about their sedentary, plugged-in lifestyle.  Don't give up on folks!  Persistence breeds transformation.  Do not forget to marvel at what we're capable of on this planet.  In many science fiction stories and mythologies, beings of pure light are portrayed ("angels," "aliens," etc.)  If these exist, they likely can't do what we can do since we're not just on Earth, but earth is a part of our makeup.  There is deep vibration here. . . the capability for sound & music in our high-gravity Gaian playground.  We can show gratitude for getting a chance to be apart of this "walking-talking carbon-complex" by taking time everyday to hit the trail, climb the mountain, run the river, and surf The Flux through the ever-unwinding oblivion of Tomorrow. 

Shadow-Work

Imperative Existential Evolution (The Anthropology of the Future Pt. 4)

In the Aeroplane Over the Sea

"I don't consider myself to be a very educated person, 'cause I've spent a lot of my life in dreams. . . And I was walking around wondering, 'If I knew the history of the world, would everything make sense to me or would I just lose my mind?'  And I came to the conclusion that I'd probably just lose my mind.  The next day I went into a bookstore and walked to the wall in the back, and there was The Diary of Anne Frank.  I'd never given it any thought in my entire life.  I spent two days reading it and then completely flipped out. . . I spent three days crying, and just completely flipped out.  While I was reading the book, she was alive to me.  I pretty much knew what was going to happen.  But that's the thing.  You love people because you know their story.  You have sympathy for people even when they do stupid things because you know where they're coming from, you understand where they're at in their head.  And so here I am as deep as you can go in someone's head, in some ways deeper than you can go with even someone you know in the flesh.  And then in the end, she gets disposed of like a piece of trash.  And that was something that completely blew my mind.  The references to her on the record - like Ghost refers to her being born.  And I would go to bed every night & have dreams about having a time-machine and somehow I'd have the ability to move through time & space freely, and save Anne Frank."   -Jeff Mangum, lead-singer & lyricist for Neutral Milk Hotel, of The Elephant Six Collective (full interview at https://pitchfork.com/features/interview/7471-neutral-milk-hotel/)


Powerful.  For those of you who don't know the back-story:  Jeff Mangum was haunted by Anne Frank's diary. . . but rather than being haunted to despair, Jeff found a deep love for this adolescent girl that lived & died before his time.   It sparked the creation of the album In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, which many consider to be one of the greatest and most influential records of all time (if you haven't listened, please give it a spin:  https://open.spotify.com/album/5COXoP5kj2DWfCDg0vxi4F?si=KpzqKx-oSiGO-K459vIPjA).  The tracks on this album are the most played on my iTunes.



What does this tragic yet touching tale give us?  It gives us imperative to keep loving & creating.  Rather than ultimately despair at the absurd horror of The Holocaust, Jeff dreams about traveling in a time machine to save Anne Frank, because in his heart one innocent child of The Universe's soul is reaching out to another's.  Even if not in waking-life, in dreams Donnie Darko-esque plot-twists are possible.  Through this process, Jeff gives birth to one of the most important musical pieces of the late 20th Century.

We'll probably never be able to travel back in time and change history (never say never though, right?).  We can, however, learn from every mishap and fuck-up if we view with proactive loving consciousness.  We're in the midst of an existential evolution, where every bout of depression, every fit of despair, every tragedy that we see humans commit against one another gives us the chance to say "It doesn't matter - I'm not giving up - I'll go on caring, giving, creating, and loving because I know it's what we're capable of.  I'll spread the seeds of compassion and wait for the flowers to bloom.  I'll do what I can, with what I have, where I am. . . and no matter how it plays out. . . I'll know I listened to my soul and that's all I can do."  If you can live this mantra day-to-day, you won't have anything to regret on your eventual death-bed. 

How did mass-shooting shock us so starkly at Columbine over twenty years go, and then continue to become commonplace?  Did you know an 18 year old high-school senior from Florida flew to Denver last year, bought a gun at a shop near Columbine High School, and intended to reenact the massacre?  (https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/17/us/columbine-threat-search-for-woman/index.html).  That was less than a year ago!  Thankfully she wasn't able to hurt anyone else. . . but even still a young, lost soul died with a bullet in her head.  These tragedies are caused by isolation, alienation, and resentment.  If we don't change cultural habits to ensure we're gathering together with open-minds and open-hearts and looking out for each other, isolation & alienation will continue.  Here is a recent Wall Street Journal article about how so many teenage girls have become sick with depression & loneliness (https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-lonely-burden-of-todays-teenage-girls-11565883328).  Here is a widespread crisis! We can change this with shift in intentions.  It starts with making the effort to relate to the people who are near us.  Make eye contact & smile when you walk by someone. . . you don't even have to speak: just locking the gaze quickly and giving the affirmation, the "namaste" that silently tells, "I know You and I are part of something that matters."  Don't ghost people. . . if you don't want to talk to someone tell them why. . . communicate your feelings.   Let's evolve with ecstatic enthusiasm. 

Grateful Transpersonal Psychology is Rational Spirituality (The Anthropology of the Future Pt.3)

"We think of an Idea: even though it's one of the most important factors in the entire construction of civilization (e.g. written word, the wheel, the internet) - but somehow or another, we don't think of IT (The Idea) as that - we think of people being that.  And we are. . . but we're being used by ideas.  I know that sounds crazy, I really do - I know it sounds dumb, too - but you are coming up with these thoughts - and we're thinking of them as random connections that you're making in your brain, which might be . . . it might be that; BUT it also might be that Ideas are like a Lifeform from another dimension that's trying to manifest itself in our current realm, and they do so through getting into people's heads - the more you call for them.  The more they're there for you - and the more you show up. . . and you can call that The Muse - you can call it whatever you want.  Tesla believed it.  Tesla believed he was getting signals from some other planet, or some other Lifeform."  -Joe Rogan to Duncan Trussell [in a recent podcast #1444, beginning at 2:44:18]

Joe, Duncan, & Overmind

Thank you Joe & Duncan, that doesn't sound "dumb or crazy!:  this is a powerful reflection, and one which emphasizes well the content this blog-entry twiddles with.  In "The Anthropology of The Future Pt.1," I mentioned the importance of giving some respect to Overmind, which is the name I use (coined by Arthur C. Clarke) for an entity who is sizeless, timeless, and responsible for setting The Cosmos into motion.   I want to untangle a bit both the power and the danger of using nomenclature in the department of discussing higher-power.  One of the first lines in the wise, ancient Chinese Tao Te Ching tells us that "The Name which can be named is not The Eternal Name" (http://www.taoteching.org.uk/chapter1.html).  In this way, when we refer to the Overmind (or you might say God or The Force or The Great Spirit), it is to acknowledge that we accept and understand that Eternal Entity's existence and power, and not to think that we actually know its name.  I like to capitalize the first letters of the sacred names to make it a proper noun - giving that entity some character and benefit-of-the-doubt.  Others may prefer always to refer to it as "something" or "a force" with lowercase letters, because they'd rather leave it seem less of a person and more of a blind-force.  Philip K. Dick (Minority Report, A Scanner Darkly, The Man in The High Castle) referred to this entity as the "Vast Active Living Intelligent System" (VALIS), which gives us not just a name, but a stellar definition of the entity in the name.  I find the best & most relevant spiritual allusions in science-fiction literature.  Science fiction is scripture & prophecy for the 21st Century, and paying it respect by using its nomenclature gives us all a fresh perspective over ancient religions' and mythologies' terms (a new age calls for a new mythos).  We use the names admitting that we are pointing to something far greater than ourselves.  The real danger comes when followers of cults or religions use the higher-power reference names to make-up claims about its desires.  Example:  "God is calling me to convert the natives in such-and-such island" or "Allah is telling me to quit my job" or "Let's let Jesus drive the car. . . "

VALIS & Gaia

The higher-power (VALIS / Overmind) must, in some way, be related to symbolically (not literally) by homo Sapiens.   This shouldn't be too hard to wrap your head around, since we mostly relate to each other symbolically.  Even romantic love-poems are chock full of similes and metaphors as one lover communicates with another lover.  When you call someone your brother or sister, how often is that speaking symbolically of the relationship with that person, and not actually meaning a DNA sharing relative (i.e. "brother from another mother")?  Are Jesus of Nazareth & Rumi's teachings literal or symbolic?  They speak in parables and through poetic analogy.  The truths and wisdom they show us are not derived from The Scientific Method.  Jesus' "Father" or Rumi's "Beloved" can't be detected with any instrument, and yet the teachings strike a deep chord inside of us.  I've never seen an Overmind-Father in real life, in the sense of a walking, talking entity which is responsible for making the world we inhabit - but can I know it somehow, by listening to other teachers stories, and seeing what patterns are etched into a stunningly complex, ever-unfolding Cosmos (music, math, natural splendor)?   Inhabitants of this world refer to "Mother Earth" or even consider the planet a living organism known as "Gaia."  The word "matter," which refers to the elements / molecules which compose our bodies and planet, is one letter off from the Latin "mater" translating to "Mother."   So the material world. . . all the matter.  . . that's our higher-power Mother!   So why wouldn't there be a living Father that is the organizing forces which causes the Matter to behave in a way that started with a  single pinhead of light exploding and gradually forming galaxies; and the planet Earth is one space-ball from the explosive scatter where Life evolves to spawn sentient beings which can love, learn, and appreciate?   Beings that can relate with one another, and detect / appreciate their surroundings with five distinct senses.  What would homo Sapiens, these Children of Overmind & Matter, be capable of if they channeled the attention that they have historically given to collecting money / power into celebration & reverence for their transpersonal Father & Mother?  This can be our future anthropology . . . a culture seeking higher satisfaction than the pursuit of bank accounts & toys, which ultimately leave us feeling empty at the end of the day. 


Do I need to run tests and experiments to know this story?  No.  The Scientific Process shows us truths (or rather what isn't true) in our manifest operating-system.  It is marvelous, we learn much, and we need to use it as a tool for growth in the evolution of our species.  However, to be at peace with one another and with the "Name-which-cannot-be-named," it takes gratitude, humility, and reason WITHOUT ego, hedonism, or cynicism. 

Gratitude means not just saying "thank you" but living with an openness and appreciation for every gift given .  Every act can be out of gratitude:  that you're happy to be here, glad someone is your friend or lover, glad that "something" sparked the chain reaction that led to being here & now and having a computer or phone to read blogs on.  Worship is gratitude to The Overmind.  Humility means you accept that you are just one small creature among many other creatures that channel ideas into innovation and celebration.  Humility is knowing that neither you, nor any other human being, invented The Real World.  Reason is rational thinking and behavior.  Reason means we do use science, education, and logic to live our lives and understand what is happening instead of superstition, claims without evidence, and unlikely conspiracy theories (by that I don't mean that there aren't "behind the scenes" powers pulling strings we can't always see. . . but don't tell me aliens banged chimpanzees to make homo Sapiens, when a crash-course in biological anthropology provides sensible theories).  Reason means respecting Occam's Razor.



Ego has various definitions depending on the discipline.  When I speak of it, I mean the story about yourself that you tell yourself who you are.  You have a different body (vessel) than I do, but you are NOT the story that you tell about yourself, or I tell about you, or the story your agent sells to the media.  The more you identify with that made-up story, the greater the "inflated ego."  You are something much deeper and real than that, and your body is a mirror that is capable of reflecting and refracting the knowledge & light that VALIS transmits. Ego is inevitable in walking talking homo Sapiens, and a valuable tool when the person exhibits humility.  Left unchecked, however, it can wreak greed or despair.  It is the quintessential cause of the delusion of separation (especially when combined with isolation).  Hedonism is living for bodily satisfaction, and many of us have already discovered what it feels like getting to the bottom of that barrel (think young celebrities who chase booze, sex, and food to an early death or total mental break-down).   Finally there's cynicism, which sees deceit & selfishness as the seemingly true core of humankind.  Usually it takes experiencing compassion  from others to accept that kindness & compassion can and will happen instead of living with a cold heart, but there is another aspect of cynicism, which is:  if your ego's engine runs on selfishness & deceit, it will be quick to see it in others, and assume that it is the lot of who people are and what drives them.  Just one cynical ego can trickle-down through an entire family or community, poisoning the ground upon which they live with misery.

The Sacred inspired science fiction inspires our culture.

In the anthropology of our future, We the People ought be like worshipful Vulcans:  giving praise to the Unseen Sacred through regular gatherings to acknowledge our humility & gratitude through celebration, while also keeping daily rational attitudes about doing our part to live in balance with Mother Earth (see Ant. of Future Pt.1 for more on some ideas about new "sacred spaces").  I am most adamant on this becoming an essential behavior, because something joyful happens when two or more conscious humans interact and recognize they're part of a more Vast Force.  Whether it's through philosophical conversations or dancing in ecstatic unity as Children of the Spirit. . .something REAL happens.  When another individual is enlightened in the sense of having experienced ego-death, or just knowing the Truth of Interconnection, there is a shared bliss that orbits in the air around the enlightened ones. 



I've felt the joy of collective praise in Christian gatherings that I was required to attend as a boy & adolescent, because even if the teachings of an institution are flawed / corrupt / poisonous, the people's spirits still get elated when they join in song for worship (I feel it way stronger at immersive, entheogen-fueled music-festivals these days).   What do I mean by flawed & corrupt teachings?  Many traditional religions (and / or cults for that matter) have failed a large part of the proper spiritual equation by letting in ego.  When someone says "God told me this..."  or ". . . the Lord is telling me to that..." they are making The Overmind into an ego of their imagining.  In this way, they believe that they can KNOW what that Overmind is telling us precisely, and make up stories about it to have power over people or give a  false sense of psychological comfort.  In extreme cases, cult-leaders charismatically march everyone to a mass-suicide.  In less extreme cases, priests or pastors impart life-advice to members of the congregation under the guise of it being "God's Will."  Ancient scriptures are recordings and translations of old stories about humans' experience with "something."  If someone tells you The Bible is "literally the word of God" they are missing the point.  One thing that should be implied in any universe (so is my conviction) is that it is meant for a purpose and is the way it is for a reason.  If a church tells you that the world is "fallen" or "ruined" by sin, a devil, etc.  they're essentially saying The Overmind messed up.  That doesn't make sense. . . the "something" that sparked us is the "Someone" that wants us and / or needs us.  If anyone ever tells you that by accepting that Jesus Christ died on the cross, your sins will be forgiven and you'll get into someplace called "Heaven" when your body dies (or if you think this), I suggest reading Rob Bell's book Love Wins for a look at how mysterious Jesus of Nazareth's teachings really are, and how what he was saying is likely something far different than the "I'm being ransomed so that you don't go to  hell" bit (https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/love-wins-by-rob-bell/248061/#isbn=0062049658&idiq=4261880).  I implore the teachers and followers of orthodox Christianity to denounce any attachment to the insane notion that our current world is "fallen," and everyone needs to "let Jesus into their heart" to be saved.  It is psychologically poisonous to teach people (especially children) that their lives in these bodies are corrupted by an "Original Sin," and environmentally irresponsible to Gaia, this Earth-Mother planet of ours, to preach that the world is done for and we must just worry about getting into the right afterlife.  Other blog entries will be devoted more to the timeless value of Jesus' lessons and how the "died for sins" view does a disservice to said teachings.  I will note quickly, however, that Jesus and Buddha both appeared as teachers of love & compassion in societies wrought with inequality of wealth and despicable treatment of the poor (around the same time even, give or take a couple hundred years).  They were transpersonal messangers, teaching how-to-act-better for the healthy growth and care of all the Cosmic Neurons. 





Great thinkers and innovators often allude to a sensation that their Big Ideas "just come to them". . . like how in the quote up top, Joe Rogan referred to Nikola Tesla saying signals received came from "another lifeform."  It's a Lifeform that isn't just you or me or he or she.  There is a field of study devoted to consciousness that transcends individual human beings - it's called transpersonal psychology.  In my time studying and reading books by transpersonal psych. authors, I've been thrilled to finally find academics that attempt to understand how The Overmind is operating in our human lives.  Transpersonal psych. looks at all of history as a process of mental evolution leading up to who we are and what we have today.   In the Tesla meme to the left, you can see he is fully embracing transpersonal / Overmind psychology, his ego not desiring attention for "his" ideas but rather he wants others to come up with their own thoughts, to contribute to our Collective Destiny.   He wants all of the Cosmic Neurons to get excited and fire off knowledge!  This is what we want in our culture - we want to communicate with one another to innovate for greater potential, and we are fortunate to have such a powerful tool as The Internet to do so (can you imagine if we were all locked away in quarantine without the connecting force of online access?)  At the same time, we shan't forget that The Internet is a tool and not a constant entertainment center.  We must be mindful of not getting lost on social media or streaming sites, being sure to make eye-contact with one another in actual life, and not ignoring the golden opportunities of interaction by always whipping out the screen to get sucked into. 

by Alex Grey

We know WWII was horrendously tragic and atrocious to the point that it is surprising we didn't all bomb each other to extinction.  But, you know what else happened back then?  A Swiss chemist discovered LSD while he was browsing fungus to find new medicines to give mothers during childbirth.  On April 19, 1943 (now celebrated as "Bicycle Day") Albert Hofman took the first ever intentional dose of LSD and rode his bicycle home (LSD would quickly be used in psychotherapy - it particularly was helpful to combat alcoholism, which might have destroyed this country if the new Atomic Bomb didn't.  Bill W. , one of the founders of Alcoholics Anonymous, even credits the experience he had after therapeutically ingesting LSD to showing him "the higher-power" which helped keep him sober and create the "12 Steps," a system which has helped countless individuals prevent themselves from self-destruction).  On the same day in history as Hoffman's prototype-human-acid-trip, April 19, 1943 - the Jews unleashed their first intentional uprising against the Nazi soldiers in Warsaw, Poland (
https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/warsaw-ghetto-uprising).  Can you believe it?  At the precise time that a solitary wizard of medicine  gave his new baby lysergic acid diethylamide a whirl, the Jewish people threw up their fists and said "Let my people go!!!"  to the vicious Nazis for the first time.  It would take time for Hofman's LSD to get out and do its work, just as it would take time for the Nazis to be defeated (many Jews died in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, but it motivated others under Nazi oppression to act similarly : to take action, and resist the destructive power even if many of them would die in the process).  Curiosity breeds innovation, while courage breeds justice for The Cosmic Neurons.

by Alec Falle Hamilton (www.gnarwhal.com)

The aforementioned instance of what occurred on April 19, 1943 , my friends, is what we call synchronicity.  To me, it is the mark of a higher-power of organization at work in The Universe.  You can call it "coincidence," however, those of us who experience it in our lives rarely chalk it up to totally blind-chance (11:11).   Synchronicity can even infect you delightfully. . . doubling or tripling its presence after observing it once on a given day or week.  It often hits in waves. . . awesome waves.  I bet these sort of synchronistic waves caused chemical systems to give birth to biological systems, and the "punctuated bursts" in species evolution where many features transformed rapidly and with complexity (see Stephen J. Gould's Theory of Punctuated Equilibrium).   As my American Religions professor Dr. Peters stated to the class early in one semester, "It seems like what there is, is:  something out there.  And some days it's with you. . . and some days it's not."  Dr. Stanlislav Grof (who was head of clinical LSD research at Johns Hopkins in the 1970s) has an entire book devoted to synchronicity entitled When the Impossible Happens (I highly recommend if you're hungry for more transpersonal psychology and / or to absorb some autobiography of one of the great minds in psychedelic research (https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/when-the-impossible-happens-adventures-in-non-ordinary-realities_stanislav-grof/442389/#isbn=159179420X&idiq=10285100).    Grof, like myself, has undoubtedly lived a life where responsible using & sharing of LSD and other psychedelics increases synchronicity in one's day-to-day.  Most likely, the synchronicity is always there, and the substances just open our eyes wide enough to see it!  We can't know for sure because observation alters outcome, particularly when we are altering the observer's power OF observation (Michael Pollan would refer to this as the "active placebo effect").  There is also a heart-felt emotional response. . . psychedelics (or entheogens, as I fancy to call them) have a unique ability to give a strong sense of connection to nature, the universe, music, art, and fellow humans.  Is this a hallucination. . . a trick of the molecule?   I think not, but rather, the truth of our interconnection becomes most obvious and evident when using the entheogenic tools and curious intention to open our minds to such reality.   These plants and fungi are gifts wired into the complex web of life on Mother Earth. . . gifts which remind us of our ties to The Maker Mind.  Gifts which we'll see used more and more very soon as doctors & psychologists need real medicine to cure real people whose real minds are disconnected and disenchanted in a real way (read Michael Pollan's How to Change Your Mind for more on this  https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/how-to-change-your-mind-what-the-new-science-of-psychedelics-teaches-us-about-consciousness-dying-addiction-depression-and-transcendence_michael-pollan/18599816/#isbn=0735224153&idiq=32784520    . . . or just talk to me, your friendly neighborhood shaman ;-) )



On a final note, let's look at a bit of etymology (my favorite branch of linguistics).  The prefix "psych" (as in psychology, psychiatry, psychedelic) comes from the Greek "psyche" or "psykhē"  which can translate not only to mind but also soul, spirit, life.  This is important for people to be cognizant of, for finding our future anthropology, because when we talk about "spiritual fulfillment" or whether or not someone is a "spiritual person," we're talking of life & mind rather than superstitious tendencies or half-baked "woo-woo" notions.  The idea of feeling & understanding "A Great Spirit" is no different than recognizing The Overmind or "something out there."  Psychological health doesn't just mean waking in the morning and being functional enough to attend classes or clock in at work everyday (if you're reading this in COVID-19 lockdown, maybe you can't even get to school or work for some time), it means your soul health - your relationship to spirit.   So don't dismiss people at a rave or festival having "spiritual" experiences.  That can be you, too - if you let your guard down, absorb the rhythm, and dance along with The-One-That-Knows-How-to-Dance.  An understanding of transpersonal psychology, combined with gratitude (+ entheogenic medicines if accessible) will give you just the rational spirituality that many of us know & love, and all of us need. 

See how neurons look like people dancing?  We're Cosmic Neurons!

The Anthropology of The Future (Pt. 2: The Corporeal Cooperate Clan)

Cooperation is more than just "getting along" and being polite to one another. . . it is the reigning factor that gave (and gives) homo Sapiens their edge over other species.   It's not cheesy nor is it "ideal thinking" - it's who we are. We work things out - help one another, solve problems, and find sustenance.  When we made our debut in Africa as the latest & greatest in bipedal hominid technology, homo Sapiens formed small communities (tribes) where the men would band together and hunt game on multi-day trips, while women would generally gather tubers, nuts, seeds etc.  In this way, the people all played their part to collect food for the entire tribe.  Socially, the people within the tribe viewed one another as equals, finding camaraderie in their task of teamwork initiated satiation.

Now, biologically we are still the creatures we once were.  We've got the legs to chase antelopes. . . the fingers that can pinch fruit off of a tree, and the olfactory unit that can smell to sense if that fruit is ripe for the picking.  By standing up and using our hands as opposable-digit appendages instead of feet, our fingers learned to build and grasp tools for an advantage above animals who only have tooth & claw at their disposal.  Through eating the meat we hunted, our brains were able to gradually develop more rich centers of information processing (the organic computer algorithms advanced rapidly).  Perhaps certain fungi ingested gave capacity for abstract thought - the ability to associate an image with a sound (spoken word) or symbol (writing) was gained.


With our language brains and our new set of tools (literally new tools - as in tool themselves were new), homo Sapiens head north and hit some fertile land between what we now call the Tigris and Euphrates river.  With the tools and mental capability to observe that a seed going into the earth makes more food-plants, farming begins.  All the while we're doing it cooperatively.  And then someone (let's call him Dadam) uses his tools and budding (albeit primitive) engineering skills to build a shelter which houses grain.  Dadam is proud that he can store the tribe's grain in walls and a roof so it doesn't get washed away or eaten by wild beasts (as an inventor of one of the first buildings SHOULD be proud!).  Dadam, with his sharp wits, realizes that the tribe can even take time off from farming the gain since they are able to store it up.  Everyone works together in the busy season, and everyone takes a break in the off season.  The granary is a smash hit and all rejoice in the drum-circle.



Now, Dadam is getting old and will soon die.  He asks his son, Domald, to manage the granary when he is gone.  Dadam shows Domald how in certain months the grain is collected and stored, and in other months it is distributed among the families in the tribes.  People get enough to eat & rejoice in fellowship at the drum-circle rave every Friday night.  Life is good and Dadam is proud at the little civilization he has created, he ponders, as he gets very sleepy lying alone under a tree.  His heart beat syncs to the beat of the drum-circle in the distance, even as it is the final beats of his heart.  His life-light flips off and he dies smiling.

Now Domald is running operations at the granary the first busy season with his father no longer alive in The Civilization formerly known as A Tribe.  Even though Dadam always worked with the others in the field to plant and harvest the grain, Domald elects not to do such.  He realizes that he can sit back and be lazy while the rest work.  When the others ask why he won't join them in the fields, Domald points a hunting spear at them and threatens to hurt them if they don't let him alone.  He guards the grain with his spear and tells the others that they need to keep bringing him the food, and he will doll it out to them each week in exchange for the work they do.  The others are sad and upset that Domald won't join them and that he is pointing a spear at them like they are wild animals.  They are particularly sad that while they rejoice in the drum-circle each Friday night, Domald wanders off by himself, hoarding a jug of fermented liquid along with attractive young women of The Civilization.  Once again he has used the hunting-spear in hostile threat, but this time to force the women to cling at his side and obey his commands.  In their hearts they don't want to live like this, but are frightened Domald will hurt or kill them if they don't follow his orders.   The other men don't think Domald is right to treat the women like this and are also pretty steamed that their girlfriends are gone.  The drum-circle has become a resentful sausage-fest, and the men begin to brawl instead of dancing as they did when the gals were around and Dadam lead The Civilization.

*******

This extremely brief & imagined (although based on what we know of late prehistory) story of humanity is to show you that cooperation is our default system. . .it is what feels right and what has given evolutionary success.  In the first seed of civilization, we see Dadam erect a structure but still utilize it for the good of everyone.  His son's anti-social decisions make Domald to look like a real jerk, and we see how Domald using violent threats & hoarding supplies / women disrupted the flow of life in The Civilization.  Individuals like Domald are what Terrence McKenna referred to as "The Dominator" archetype.  We're not sure exactly where or how it started as much is unknown about pre-Babylonian civilization in the Middle-East.   I can guess it was something like the story of Dadam & Domald.  This "Dominator" mindset manipulates other humans to achieve a seemingly better position for the individual flexing the threats.  But looking back, as conscious beings who are where we are now - is this really what anyone wants?  

Deeply embedded in your wiring is the desire to COOPERATE with your sisters and brothers so that everyone can have a blast at the Friday-night drum-circle (or nightclub, or bass-church!) after each week's work is through.  When guns & ammunition are your instinct or game-plan during a sudden economically challenging time, you look like Domald sharpening his spear to control the granary's supply.  Your ideas and actions are ruining the potential for everyone dancing joyously around the drum-circle when the work is through.  This Domiator attitude created crooked power-systems like The Roman Empire, which we're still working on dismantling today.    

This isn't a parable to compare socio-economic models of capitalism vs. communism (those arise from grassroots values & behaviors).  It is a small picture of how the choice you make every second of every day in how you relate to your neighbors is the choice that rules the outcome of forces which we're all contending with collectively:   natural disasters, planetary warming. . . invisible COVID super-beasts.  

If Batman & Jesus don't need guns to save the day, than neither do you.  In this future we're finding - let's not just be good but THE BEST towards one another.  Share instead of hoard.  Ask "How can I be of service?"  instead of  "How are you?"   Bravely take the risk to be vulnerable so that you are open to compassion, care, and cooperation.  How long do you really think you'll stay entertained guarding your basement with a rifle?  Nobody will want to play Nintendo with you if you're acting like a hostile Domald.  You'll have nobody to dance with either!  That is not a sacrifice any of us should be willing to make.  Keep your head up and channel your energy on staying healthy and helping those who need help in challenging times.  Teach somebody something they don't know.  As far as "just not knowing what's gonna happen," remember Michelangelo's wisdom that "GENIUS IS ETERNAL PATIENCE."  

P.S. If you want a great read about an MIT grad who became weary with our slavery to technology, and thus went to live in an Amish community in an experiment to see "just how much we need" to be happy living this life, check out this book:  

The Anthropology of the Future (Pt.1: Setting Sacred Space)

I ran today on Mill Creek Rim after a rain-storm.  It was the bees'-knees!   This entry isn't to reflect on running, but rather the beginning in a series on Peer Broozer's Social Psyence:

© Phutureprimitive 

Have you studied the anthropology of the future?  Has anyone?  I've considered it often, since I first brainstormed the concept at one point in my 20s (along with many others, but this one has stuck with me. . . demanding my attention and mental affection).  How can we guess at our lifestyles in the coming years, and channel our actions to attain a desirable culture?  Not only does the idea tickle with wonder, but as an initial anthropology major in college I realized we were OUT OF OTHER CULTURES TO ANALYZE.  The academics of the 20th Century took care of most of that, including my beloved adviser at West Chester, Paul Stoller.  He went to Western Africa and studied as an apprentice to a sorcerer for over a decade.  How cool is that?   But. . . us undergrads in the early 2000s didn't have any new tribes to go ethnographize.  What culture can we put under a microscope to learn more about what it means to be human?  Why. . . the culture we're creating, of course.  What will it be.?. . . after all, we can't worship money and stare at social media forever. . . the COVID quarantine is showing us that.  As we continue the paradigm shift of finding-the-future, we need to become an evolved species that has all dimensions of its needs cared for, the way they were when we lived in egalitarian tribes and, most importantly, with a respect for The Sacred. 

We've lost touch with setting time & social gathering occasions to show our respects (AKA worship) to . . . to. . . whatever you wanna call it (I'm not here to preach about whether it is The Source, God, The Great Spirit, the Unseen Mystery, Flying Spaghetti Monster, Brahman, etc.)  For sake of my writings, I will call it THE OVERMIND.  And giving that nomenclature is scientifically correct as well, as science points to this Universe being built of INFORMATION and not dead matter ("The Overmind" was also featured in Arthur C. Clark's Childhood's End, which is a work of "Future Anthropology" if there ever was one).  Information requires a system of mind or computer to operate, and computers are made by humans, therefore:  We live in an overmind - The Overmind (might as well keep it proper since we're shooting for a return to reverence for The Sacred, after all).

Melting into One at the mercy of rhythm.

The greatest route I have found to jiving with The Overmind is through music.  After all, "universe" literally means "one song," so it makes perfect sense that music is our greatest utility for feeling a sense of being with & respecting The Sacred.   In particular, I've found that rhythm-heavy electronic dance music (EDM) has the greatest power to dissolve one's ego and be AT ONE with The Source that is producing the "One Song."  I was at the Gem & Jam Festival in Tucson earlier this year and did not drink a drop of alcohol the entire time (the first time I've been without booze at a music festival), which gave me the capacity to transcend (trance-send even) in a more conscious and deep way than ever I have before.  It was during Manic Focus' set (pictured above) that the sensation first kicked in, and it lasted through Tipper's set.  My sense of "self-conscious" ego, in that I am Peter "Panic" Brewer left entirely, and my - no, THE Consciousness existed purely in the flow of creation happening all around, particularly in the music.  The next day, I referred to the experience to a friend as "ending up in The Cosmic Cockpit."  One feels a HIGHER WILL at work, a will which set the spark of the Big Bang off to evolve light & matter to the point of enjoying music in the vessels of human bodies. It happened to me slightly at other times in my life, but never this fully and lasting this long.  Here is my break down on what this means exactly (many who've had this experience likely feel it is "ineffable," but having minored in religious philosophy in college, I can attempt to explain):



In is undeniable that there are greater forces at work above (The Cosmos), below (gravity), around (the atmosphere), and within (biological systems).  We can't entirely explains how or why these forces operate.  However, day-to-day, we choose to identify mostly with The Ego (that flashy, mental construct).   The Ego is nothing more than a story you tell yourself and others.  That's it.  So - when an experience like mine at Gem & Jam happens, you are still conscious but IDENTIFYING WITH AN ENTITY THAT IS NOT THE EGO.  You realize you are "part of God," or your "Atman is a piece of Brahman," or you're at "One with The Great Spirit." . or YOU ARE AN EXCITED NEURON IN THE BRAIN OF THE OVERMIND.  The latter is a most sensible way to talk about The Sacred in our current time.  We are learning about ourselves through psychological sciences lately, and thus, being a neuron in a Bigger Brain is the most rational way we can explain how to relate to The Overmind.  And. . . what an honor and pleasure this is!  All us raver kids - we're onto something here, and it goes beyond sex, drugs, and debauchery:  This is WORSHIP.

As I'm leaving the festival I glow heavily with the experiences of the weekend.  When I am getting back to normal life and no longer have such breathtaking interactions with The Overmind, I get to thinking. . . "Why don't we Cosmic Neurons get together more often and feel like this?"   Sure, there's churches. . . but let's face it - the World's "great religions" aren't making the cut any longer (if they ever were).  Most of them are based around ancient mythologies or enlightened teachers' teachings.  Some of them are power-structures that wish to control & manipulate.  They provided their services while they could, but now let's work to gather and find a new way of showing reverence to The Sacred. . . one that will fit nicely in our "anthropology of the future."  Sure, there's Burning Man. . . there's clubs. . . there's immersive festivals - but what do these all have in common?  Consumerism.  They depend on ticket sales.  Why must this be the only way that we can gather and get groovy with The Flying Spaghetti Monster?

I propose that, as homo Sapiens entering a new paradigm which needs a proper culture, we gather and dance together to rhythm-heavy music blasted through only the highest quality sound systems we've got.  We can do it once a week!  Call it Infinite Funky Friday. . . a sabbath for The Overmind's excited, dancing neurons.  And why rhythm-heavy EDM type stuff?  Well, in the anthropology of magic, religion, and witchcraft (which was the name of  a class at West Chester University that Dr. Stoller taught and / or still teaches) there are a few different "spiritual" experiences observed where an individual loses the ego and becomes "something else" (trance, spirit possession, etc.).  The methods to induce these may include chanting, DRUMMING, and / or ingestion of substance (usually psychedelic / entheogenic).  So, if our new Sacred spaces ("churches") use EDM, they can have a similar effect as what drums had on tribal individuals and shamans who entered "trance."  EDM (artistically produced) and blasted through big, bad-ass speakers is THE MOST POWERFUL DRUM on Earth.

You might say "but we've got clubs we can do this in . . . why do we need to make 'churches' for the bass to blast?"  To that, I'll once again point out that The Sacred needs to be separated from consumerism. . . it can't depends on ticket sales.  Nothing can be sold at these gatherings. . . especially not alcohol (if we want to get all us Neurons elevated optimally, we don't need or want alcohol there).  At least, let's not serve it on Infinite Funky Friday.  Save the boozing for Saturday, or Sunday, or any other day.  But give this new sabbath your sober attention.  Now if there was a multi-day weekend retreat / Sacred festivals type shindig, alcohol could be considered on the second or third day to let loose perhaps, but the first day of such a retreat (which might very likely be Friday. . . an Infinite Funky one!) should be free of it, to have clear hearts & minds in setting a worshipful attitude to The Sacred Overmind.

The seeds of gatherings / churches like these have already planted.  While living in New Orleans in 2012, I went to an event every Sunday night at The Dragon's Den club called Bass Church.  And it really was a church for me and many others!  It was my time once a week to get with The Great Mystery, in a city fraught with energy & attention directed towards much hedonism.  In Denver there is a Rhythm Sanctuary where groovy people gather to take part in ecstatic dance (other towns and cities hold ecstatic-dance events as well).  We need these gatherings my fellow homo Sapiens. . . we need to get together and feel that, collectively, we ARE a part of something greater than our egos and our possessions.  We desperately need the community that forms when people elect to set aside time & place for worship.   Even if you're an atheist, consider switching to deism to allow the idea that SOMETHING set the universe in motion which led up to these fantastic meat puppets that we've become (or just get to dancing collectively and see if you can feel emotionally there is higher-power instead of trying to work it out logically in your head), who are lost if they don't interact lovingly and cooperate for greater good.  We need to feel the heart beating as ONE.