A Psychonaut is a person who uses
psychoactive entheogens as guides, or means, to achieve inward spiritual experiences, and who reflects
upon these experiences and applies them to their own life in a positive way, with the intent of
bettering themselves.
The word entheogen is a modern term derived from two Ancient Greek words entheos and genesthai.
Entheos means literally 'in God', more freely translated
'inspired'. The Greeks used it as a term of praise for poets and other artists.
Genesthai means 'to cause to be'. So an entheogen is 'that which causes (a person) to be in God'.
Two Commandments for the Molecular Age:
Thou shalt not alter the consciousness of thy fellow men.
Thou shalt not prevent thy fellow man from altering his or her own consciousness.
Alan Watts was a philosopher, writer, speaker, well-known autodidact and expert in comparative religion.
Best known as an interpreter of Zen Buddhism in particular, and Indian and Chinese philosophy in
general. He was a proponent for shifts in Western attitudes regarding society, the natural world, lifestyles
and aesthetics. There is a huge audio archive of his great philosophy lectures with his own
characteristic humour available online.
RAW was a futurist, novelist, scientific philosopher, libertarian and a Ph.D in psychology. He's written many great works of
fiction and non-fiction. In a 2003 interview with High Times magazine, RAW
described himself as a "Model Agnostic" which he says "consists of never regarding any model or map of
Universe with total 100% belief or total 100% denial. Following Korzybski, I put things in probabilities,
not absolutes... My only originality lies in applying this zetetic attitude outside the hardest of the
hard sciences, physics, to softer sciences and then to non-sciences like politics, ideology, jury verdicts
and, of course, conspiracy theory." More simply, he claims 'not to believe anything,' since 'belief is the
death of thought.'
Terence McKenna was a writer, philosopher, innovative theoretician and orator.
He was notable for his many speculations on subjects ranging from the Voynich Manuscript to the
origins of the human species to Novelty Theory, which claims time to be a fractal wave of increasing
novelty, which culminates dramatically in 2012. His concept involved a combination of hallucinogenic
chemical agents, Gaianism, and shamanism. He features on the Shamen track Re-evolution of the
Boss Drum album. He was a powerful voice for the psychedelic movement.
Psychologist, philosopher, explorer, teacher, optimist, author, campaigner for psychedelic drug research
& use, 60s counterculture icon and computer software designer!
During the 1960s, he coined and popularized the catch phrase "Turn on, tune in, drop out."
He helped initiate a renaissance which is still only beginning to elaborate itself.
President Richard 'not-a-crook' Nixon once labeled him the most dangerous man in America. In the supposed
land of the free his research was made illegal and he was thrown into prison for years in solitary
confinement... after which the CIA tested LSD on unknowing soldiers, gotta love that US government.
Dr. John C. Lilly, M.D. was a physician and psychoanalyst specializing in biophysics,
neurophysiology, electronics, computer theory, and neuroanatomy. He was a pioneer researcher into
the nature of consciousness using as his principal tools the isolation tank, dolphin communication
and psychedelic drugs, sometimes in combination. This work led him to interspecies communication
research projects between man and dolphin. Timothy Leary praised him as the twentieth century's
Columbus, who brought back conspicuous data from the far most inner world journey.
Daniel Pinchbeck is a philsopher, writer and advocate of psychedelic drug use and experience. He is the author of
Breaking Open the Head: A Psychedelic Journey into the Heart of Contemporary Shamanism. In Breaking Open the Head,
Pinchbeck explored shamanism via ceremonies with tribal groups such as the Bwiti of Gabon and the Secoya in the Ecuadorean
Amazon. In 2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl, he examines indigenous prophecy through personal and philosophical approaches,
and offers the hypothesis that humanity is experiencing an accelerated process of global consciousness transformation,
leading to a new realization of time and space and, possibly, a harmonic planetary civilization within the next six years.
He's working on a new magazine called Evolver which will be released december 2006.
Dr. Albert Hoffman was a prominent Swiss scientist and best known as the "father" of LSD.
Michael Harner, Ph.D. is an anthropologist and shaman, his book Way of the Shaman was a groundbreaking work and he has a few great
shamanic drumming audiobooks to get you into a Shamanic Altered State. Harner's reputation was essentially destroyed by ignorant academic peers
when he "went native" and began to represent himself as a shaman, and actually learned something compared to his close-minded colleagues.
Aldous Huxley was a British writer who emigrated to the United States. He was a member of the famous Huxley family who
produced a number of brilliant scientific minds. By the end of his life, Huxley was considered, in certain
circles, a 'leader of modern thought.'
Martin W. Ball, Ph.D. is a musician, artist and writer.
His latest writings are Mushroom Wisdom and Orobai's Vision. Mushroom Wisdom is a practical guide to spiritual consciousness through the use of entheogens and shamanic techniques of mystical awareness. The book also features original artwork.
Orobai's Vision is a dynamic and captivating first installment of my four-part Tales of Aurduin series, combining such inspirations as shamanism, sacred geography, etc
Bill Hicks was an American stand-up comedian, satirist, social critic, philosopher and revolutionary.
Doug Stanhope is another American comedian and is running for American president as a libertarian candidate in 2008! :p
He's compared a lot to Bill Hicks, Deadbeat Hero is a great standup,
Word of Mouth is even better! Because of his no-nonsense style large-scale walk-outs by his American audiences are not uncommon, Doug admits cheerfully
"People will leave. I go on stage, it's like I'm leading you into battle - you're not all going to be here at the end."
He also has a half hour video out of him and a friend on mushrooms tripping in a hotelroom called "Drug Abuse" floating around on vid sites.
Dr. Richard Alpert later known as Baba Ram Dass, was a professor of psychology at Harvard University who
became well known for his controversial research program which studied the effects of LSD. He later
converted to Hinduism and is currently one of the most prominent American Hindus. He wrote the
famous book "Be here now." I also recommend the great documentary "Fierce Grace."
(Ram Dass needs our help!)
Zoe7 is an alias for a notable psychonaut, Joseph Marti. He is noted for being a pioneer in combining
psychedelics with brain wave sensors-essentially allowing him to take psychedelics in a specific brain wave
state such as REM sleep or delta wave sleep. This has been found to radically alter the experience.
Recently, he's been heavily involved with South American shamanism. Essentially, he leads
retreats where people pay to do ayahuasca.
Jack Kerouac was an American novelist, writer, poet, artist, and part of the Beat Generation.
Ken Kesey was an American author, best known for his novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and as a cultural
icon whom some consider a link between the beat generation of the 1950s and the hippies of the 1960s.
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