Pioneering Mescalin Experiment by Huxley and Osmond Humphrey Osmond introduced Mescalin to Aldous Huxley, leading to Huxley’s first psychedelic trip. Together, they planned the ‘outside project’ to recruit 50-100 intellectuals to take Mescalin under a controlled environment. Influential figures like Carl Jung and Albert Einstein were considered for the project, which aimed to study and openly report their experiences, but it never materialized. Transcript: Speaker 1 Humphrey Osman was the man who brought Mescalin to all the Suxley who is a great man of letters. He had written fantastic books which all of your listeners would probably know about maybe they were forced to read them in high school. So his books in the 1930s and all the way through sort of pre-saged the modern world. Huxley and Osman were in a correspondence. Osman came down from Saskatchewan to Huxley’s house to bring him Mescalin and he had his first psychedelic trip described in this book. Shortly after that Osman and Huxley were trying to put together something they called the outside project and the outside project would recruit or what they called lure. They would lure 50 to 100 really interesting intellectuals, scientists, writers to take Mescalin. So they would provide a set and setting, this is before the term was coined, and people like Carl Jung were approached. Albert Einstein, people of the time and their experiences would be recorded and then sort of reported openly. And this project never happened. (Time 0:03:54)
Psychedelics and Enhanced Thinking In the 50s and early 60s, influential figures like Claire Booth Luce and Carrie Grant were known to use LSD and other substances to enhance their thinking abilities. Gerald Hurd suggested that LSD could lead to high degrees of concentration, which is essential for genius functioning. This enhanced focus is linked to convergent thinking, allowing for solutions through free associations and promoting long-range connections in the brain. Psychedelics like LSD and psilocybin appear to increase long-range brain connections, enabling the brain to integrate information from a broader perspective beyond normal mindset limitations. Transcript: Speaker 1 So this was going on and you know we hear about Claire Booth Luce, who was a big proponent who was taking LSD, who was a very famous Republican, Congresswoman and much more, and we have Carrie Grant, quite possibly John F. Kennedy. So there was this whole intelligentsia on acid in some sense or Mescalin or other substances in the 50s. And in the early 60s it was proposed in an article by Gerald Hurd that these things we looked at because that high degrees of concentration are the very mark of genius functioning and He felt that LSD gave you that. It gave you a sort of concentration without it being overtly limiting. And today we call this convergent versus divergent thinking. You know, if we’re noodling around on a thing for a long time and you’re banging your head against a wall, as I know you probably do, Jim, as we all do, you kids can’t get a solution. But divergent thinking allows your mind to go out and do free associations. Speaker 2 And one of the things we know about least some psychedelics, particularly LSD and psilocybin, is they appear to promote, upregulate long range connections in the brain. When you look at a brain that’s brain imaging studies, you see a very significant increase in long range. So it makes sense that your brain is now integrating further afield than it does when you’re in your normal mindset. (Time 0:05:50)
The Criminalization of Psychedelics and the Impact on Scientific Research The criminalization of LSD by the governors of California and Nevada in the 1960s led to a nationwide panic and the cease of psychedelic research on creative problem solving. This criminalization made a whole branch of clinical science illegal, leading to a long climb back to scientific respectability. It wasn’t until the 1990s that studies on psychedelics started again, with organizations like MAPS sponsoring research. Currently, with the support of the research community and MAPS, MDMA is close to entering clinical use after a long hiatus in psychedelic research. Transcript: Speaker 1 Precisely. And this was the hypothesis of Willis Harmon, Jim Fademan, Myron Stolleroff, and a group at San Francisco State College when they invited 23 professionals to come and use Mescalin Or LSD and work on creative problem solving, like in the lab. And they published a preliminary pilot study in 1966. Psychedelics as agents for creator, catalysts for creative problem solving. And then the hammer came down. The governors of California and Nevada criminalized LSD. And that was sort of a nationwide role of criminalization across, because there was a panic around LSD, as you know. And so letters went out to these researchers basically saying cease and desist. And a whole branch of science was made illegal of clinical science of psychiatric research and creativity. And so as we know, after that was a long climb back to any kind of respectability within the scientific community, studies starting up in the early 90s again. And then we have maps, have to research institute. And they finally, you know, we’re probably a year away from at least MDMA coming into clinical use through the good graces of all the research community and maps as the sponsor. (Time 0:07:24)
Expanding the Mind’s Lens The universe presents an infinite landscape of genius to explore, a mission that could span billions of years. By altering our mental lens through psychedelics, we can enhance our focus, perceive new patterns, and make novel associations, ultimately changing our perception of nature and the universe around us. Transcript: Speaker 2 We can’t leave a drop of genius in the jar, right, Jim? Absolutely. And we have a unbelievably big universe to think through and figure out. And you know, that’s a mission for a billion years, probably we might as well get started on it. Speaker 1 Yeah. And I think somebody said that if you didn’t tweak the light coming through the microscope, your eye could not see the moons of Saturn through the telescope, rather if you are a microscope To, you have to bend the instrument and change the way even nature comes to you. So perhaps psychedelics are the shaping of the lens of the mind so that we can focus and we can receive new things, new patterns, new associations. (Time 0:16:09)
Geometric Thinkers and Endogenous Trippers Geometric thinkers like Einstein are likely to have been endogenous trippers because their thought processes involved unique experiments and viewpoints, such as Einstein’s Gudanken experiments leading to special relativity. This tradition extends to chemistry and biochemistry, where thought experiments and visionary experiences have led to significant discoveries like the benzene ring, DNA’s double helix, and PCR gene sequencing by individuals who reported using substances like LSD for inspiration. Transcript: Speaker 2 And I think I did an earlier podcast. You made the case of pretty convincingly that you know, geometric thinkers like Einstein are also likely to have been endogenous trippers. Yeah, I think definitely. He describes as his Gudanken experimenta, the writing alongside a beam of light, for example. Yeah, the way he came to special relativity in particular was like, whoa, you know, this was you had to be able to think almost a literal simulation point of view to get there. And it wasn’t that hard once you were able to do that. But nobody else had ever done that before. And once he got there, he wrote down some relatively simple math, which described it. But you would never have found it without that Gudanken experiment. Speaker 1 Yeah, so it started out. I mean, some of his thought experiments are pretty crazy, like two trains are coming at each other at night. And the beams of light are coming. Are they twice the speed of light, you know, or the waves or particles of light? And it’s a great tradition in physics. And it turns out that in chemistry and biochemistry, thought experiments and sort of trippy visions are a classic from the benzene ring discovery through a dream all the way, you know, Through supposedly Crick’s experimentation with LSD to see the double helix. Although I think it’s not that conclusive, but that he was actually using LSD in the 50s is conclusive. And then we have Carrie Mullis and his discovery of PCR gene sequencing in the 80s, which he talked about using LSD. (Time 0:19:48)
In-depth analysis of the origins of civilization The speaker is considering inviting a guest who suggests that the advancements in civilization, such as democracy, mathematics, and theater, originated from an initiation ritual involving a potion consumed by 1000 people in a Telesterean temple. This initiation is believed to have transformed humanity from a hunter-gatherer society. Transcript: Speaker 1 He definitely would be an excellent guest and I’ll be speaking with him shortly. Speaker 2 Tell him I said, if he wants to be on the show, he’s hereby invited. How bad could a book about Elusis be, right? Speaker 1 What Brian argues is that not only were all of the 1000 people at the time in the Telesterean temple took this potion after months of preparation and perhaps the entirety of antiquity, The civilizational invention of antiquity from the polity, democracy, aqueduct, sporting events, theater, mathematics, the academy all came from, in a sense, what was described As an initiation of humanity, turning it from a hunter-gatherer (Time 0:24:13)
Civilization’s Transformation Through Initiation The speaker argues that the development of civilization, including elements like democracy, aqueducts, and mathematics, can be traced back to an initiation ritual at the Telesterean temple where people took a potion. This initiation transformed humanity from hunter-gatherers into literate city builders, leading to the creation of the Roman grid. The collapse of civilization during the late Bronze Age, around 1400-1200 BC in the Eastern Mediterranean, marked a significant decline, with Greece losing literacy during this period. Transcript: Speaker 1 What Brian argues is that not only were all of the 1000 people at the time in the Telesterean temple took this potion after months of preparation and perhaps the entirety of antiquity, The civilizational invention of antiquity from the polity, democracy, aqueduct, sporting events, theater, mathematics, the academy all came from, in a sense, what was described As an initiation of humanity, turning it from a hunter-gatherer civilization of fishermen and living just after the ice ages in Europe into the city building, thinking a little bit Literate civilization that then Rome copied. And we’re still living in the Roman grid. We are in that designs that came out of the Greek experiment and how to build a world. Speaker 2 Now I would love to know, did he address, and I’ll read the book and we’ll see, but the greatest in the West at least, the greatest collapse of civilization was not the collapse of Rome. It was the late Bronze Age collapse in the whole Eastern Mediterranean where my sini and Crete, Kinoesus, all that, the equivalent societies in Egypt, etc. Around 1400 BC, a little bit after the times of the Trojan War, it was 1200 BC, they all simultaneously collapsed and Greece, for instance, actually lost literacy. That’s an amazing thing to consider. (Time 0:24:24)
Decline in Disruptive Patents and Papers Since 1980 The number of disruptive patents and papers has drastically declined since 1980, despite the exponential increase in the number of papers published daily. This decrease is attributed to various factors including overspecialization, commercialization of universities, and the lack of freedom for broad exploration. A significant reason for this decline is the limited opportunities for individuals with solution-focused personalities to thrive, as they often become overly specialized and constrained in their academic pursuits. Transcript: Speaker 1 Yes, this was published through Harvard. And it was it’s a real stunner. Because since 1980, the number of disruptive patents and papers, meaning that they create disruption in the field of instrumentation or new thinking devices approaches for medical Science has dropped precipitously. We sit here think, well, we have our smartphones and we have this and that, but the rates of actual innovation have plummeted by the measure of disruptive patents and papers. Even though there are hundreds of times more papers published daily than there were in 1980. And this is laid at the feet of many causes, which one of them could be we over specialized people. One of them could be laid at the cause of the sort of commercialization of the university and the lack of freedom to broadly search for things. But for my money, it’s definitely a little bit of both of that. But primarily, it’s because people of a nature of a solutioning type personality find very few places they can call home. So they go to college, they have a good time to get into graduate school, then with the time they get to their PhD, they’re ground to a pulp by doing something very narrowly specialized, Crossing a T or dotting an eye on some previous result to get their PhD successfully. (Time 0:34:06)