$hamanism
February 26, 2010Henry Baum 6 Comments »Check out the long discussion on Reality Sandwich about its withdrawal from a Peru retreat scheduled for spring. Gist is that Daniel Pinchbeck was going to lead a group to take Ayahuasca. I entertained the thought of signing up for half a second because Pinchbeck’s writing has seriously opened my mind up, but I think in my current state Ayahuasca might just blow my head apart irretrievably.
The retreat idea fell apart due to financial problems and there’s a long discussion on the site between Rob from the Chimbre retreat, Reality Sandwichers, and Daniel Pinchbeck about the mix between spirituality and commerce. Really, think this thread is going to be referenced down the line regarding the problems of mixing God and money in any form – it’s not just a problem for Christian mega-churches. After a lot of back and forth and suspicion, Pinchbeck weighs in:
Since starting Evolver, we have been struggling with the question of how to finance this operation. Somebody like Rob, who comes out of the Wall Street world but discovered his soul through ayahuasca, is exactly our dream candidate for an investor and ally. We dearly wanted to work with him because we could see that he brought in a business force and acumen that we, who started this venture, tend to lack….
I still really love Rob and believe he means to do good for the world. However I also believe that the new spirit he discovered through ayahuasca is currently warring with the old Rob who made a fortune through the Wall Street vulture-fest. During our negotiations, I felt that he betrayed my trust and went back on his word. I asked him in emails if he felt I had betrayed his trust, and he admitted he did not. For me, I kind of agree with Don Juan that a man’s word is the only thing he really has. When I felt Rob was reneging in his initial offer to us about Chimbre, at the same time he seemed to be using all sorts of cunning and nasty negotiating tactics around Evolver, I felt that we also shouldn’t be involved with retreats supported by such an energy.
As a friend says, “It’s tragicomic. A psychedelia pillow-fight showdown. These are the progenitors of a ‘new consciousness’? Henry, we’re so screwed.”
Really fascinating to see people who are looking for enlightenment devolve into bickering and infighting. I found this on Youtube, which is fairly enlightening about Rob, the guy behind the disagreement. At 1:35, there’s a pretty revealing anecdote about his volatility. Don’t want to denigrate him totally, as I don’t know the guy, but Pinchbeck’s made a recent comment about how people can have their mind opened by something like Ayahuasca and think the work’s over – they’re enlightened, they’ve been to the other side, they’re priests. But real-world human instincts aren’t shed that easily.
The two most compelling movements I see right now are the Zeitgeist Movement and Evolver & Daniel Pinchbeck’s work regarding a possible change in consciousness. The Zeitgeist movement is anti-religion, and even anti-God, as the purpose of part one of Zeitgeist is to show how Christianity and other religions have a basis in sun worship, and that’s it, just worship of this object that leads to photosynthesis and creates life on the planet. Pinchbeck would argue, I imagine, that the sun’s relationship to the earth is as spiritual as it is physical – ala his essay in Toward 2012 about Cosmos and Psyche.
A merging of the two movements would be interesting. Zeitgeist’s plan seems to be to start a test society somewhere to prove a new economy could work – on his radio show, Peter Joseph, the filmmaker, mentions Finland as a possible starting point. An aside – he calls the integration of Zeitgeist into a real-world framework “Phase III,” which is what I call “The New City” in The American Book of the Dead, when a new community starts after WW III is over.
Could the two movements co-exist – a community of psychonauts and a community of atheistic libertarians? The real question is how successful any new community could be, given the proclivity for power grabs even by people who are supposedly enlightened. Not to be too pessimistic, but it’s going to take a hell of a lot of work to make any new revolution effective. If a planet of 8 billion people is already not on board with these sorts of ideas, how is it going to work if even the “believers” are fighting with each other? Making these grievances public is useful in order to iron them out, but it’s as if the human system is built to make the transition difficult.
There’s also the potential for demagoguery, especially among revolutionaries. That seemed to be people’s fear about Pinchbeck and Chimbre – that he was trying to profit off his celebrity. But that doesn’t really seem to be the case. I don’t know if Peter Joseph has it in him to be a cult leader, but my fear is that the Zeitgeist movement could devolve into that if the movement started an isolated society somewhere. Not saying that’s the case, but the Reality Sandwich debacle shows just how hard it is to create these sorts of forward-thinking movements. Zeitgeist is all about how power corrupts, and that’s true even for people who are fighting the power.
Yeah, it’s hard. But at least they’re trying.
February 27th, 2010 at 5:00 am
In reply: “The Zeitgeist movement is anti-religion, and even anti-God…”
Neither of these statements are true. As an author, I would imagine you understand the importance of research.
Zeitgeist is simple pro-understanding; understanding how we got here. I know the AJ’s of the world cannot see past their own dogma, but the first Zeitgeist film was an art film; the movement didn’t exist then. Once the interest exploded, Addendum was made and it reflects the movement. On the subject of religion, Zeitgeist is neutral (up to the point that religious dogma is used to distort facts).
The focus is on understanding how we got here (all the lies we’re continually told), how it all works, and what we can do about it.
If you want to suggest that’s a bad thing, thing I wonder where your priorities are.
Thanks for considering this post. Nice site BTW
February 27th, 2010 at 8:23 am
Thanks for the comment. The phrase “anti-God” is perhaps overly negative, but I’ve heard Peter Joseph say that his conception of God is that it’s merely a reflection of physical processes – i.e. the sun is God because it makes plants grow. I think it’s in http://www.whoispeterjoseph.com.
When you compare that to the mysticism of, say, people who are interested in entheogens or consciousness research, and that seems fairly far afield of what’s been covered by the Zeitgeist movement. So, yeah, I don’t think Zeitgeist is militantly atheist or anything, because it’s about opening your mind to new ideas, but the films don’t really cover an alternative form of spirituality.
I link to Cosmos and Psyche. I’m not saying I agree with this premise, but it’s basic tenet is that the movement of the planets corresponds to upheaval on this planet. I’m fairly certain Peter Joseph doesn’t subscribe to this sort of mysticism and sees the damages of globalization to be a human construct and not the result of a spiritual shadow world that influences people to do terrible things. This is where I think it would be interesting to meld Peter Joseph’s ideas about the destructive power of humans and Daniel Pinchbeck’s explorations into the far reaches of consciousness. As of now, the two movements are fairly separate – though I heard about Zeitgeist on http://www.realitysandwich.com
February 27th, 2010 at 10:04 am
HI thank you for being faire in the presentation of these facts,, i am a suporter of RS an investor who is helping expand global awareness through numerous projects, DMT film, retreats RS evolver… unfortunately in an efofrt to help RS, their lack of understanding of basic business protocol sparked an unwarranted slander fest of someone who was only trying to help …. that is the truth,,,,sincerely rob ps ill be glad to answer any questions personally 914 3742727
February 28th, 2010 at 12:00 am
Thanks for the clear & thought out response. I understand your position better; though do think there maybe is room for a bit more research on your behalf.
For example, in response to “the films don’t really cover an alternative form of spirituality.”
I think this really depends on your definitions. The Zeitgeist movement has made the case that technological innovation (as applied to uniting the species) is “divinity in action”. Reasoning, on many levels, the goals of the movement & the positive aspects to many religions (which the movement embraces) are the same.
To say, if core of spirituality is recognizing & embracing the fact we are all one (another way of saying, we are all of the same materials & energy), then the Zeitgeist movement adopts many of the same tenets of any spiritual movement; only without the fancy dress and mystical rituals, which are reasonably not a requirement of living spiritually & embracing the global consciousness.
Not picking hairs here, but it’s easy to dismiss something as X when it doesn’t fit into your definitions of X; am writing here to offer information that may help widen your definition of X.
As for the whole RS retreat debacle; think it’s a shame that no one connected to that issue had the clarity of mind to see through it without resorting to bickering & blaming; doesn’t speak well of the overall effort. Don’t know enough about it to offer much else.
March 3rd, 2010 at 1:09 pm
[...] the heels of bickering about money between two consciousness researchers, I recently came across a lawsuit being filed against David Jacobs regarding his alien abduction [...]
March 19th, 2010 at 7:38 pm
I sent out a prayer into the universe a few weeks ago asking if aya is right for me at this particular time, since I’m doing some deep spiritual work on myself. Then, I signed onto RS and found this horrible back and forth. Although I would still be open to the experience in my local area if I found the right group of people, the thought came to me … what about our own local psychedelics, taken with intention and ritual? Just because mushrooms and marijuana seem “old hat” to us here, that doesn’t mean that we can’t benefit from them just as much if not more than aya, if we take them with honor and intention.
There are already signs that aya is being marketed as a party drug (someone is putting together an aya rave), so until the universe sends me a positive affirmation that this is where I need to be looking for my next steps forward, I will not be doing it. The universe, in fact, seems to be saying, “NO!”
We seem to be looking to someone outside ourselves to mediate for us in the world of the spirit. We can serve as our own shamans, after all. Yes, for deep work, we still may need a sitter. Do you know what I’m getting at, though? Although I’m sure that there are many people who’ve had wonderful, life-changing experiences on aya, it is not the only path. Drugs are not the only path. Maybe the search for ever more exotic medicines is just another manifestation of our collective illness.