Simon Powell - The Psilocybin Solution

To be sure, the suggestion that psilocybin visions are dreamlike is theoretically useful, yet it seriously downplays their dramatic impact and “Otherness.” But because there is clearly some similarity in the chemical basis and phenomenological quality of dreams and psychedelic visionary episodes, their relationship—in terms of neuronal processes—demands further exploration, and so this is where we head, in part, in the next chapter. We must bear in mind though that the vision-generating side of the mushroom experience is only the half of it, since the altered perception of reality with eyes open is of equal interest. However, as stated, both these phenomena are intimately related to the processing of information within the neuronal systems of the brain, and we therefore need to begin thinking more deeply about the relationship between billionfold patterns of neuronal firing and consciousness. I have already introduced the idea that vast patterns of orchestrated neuronal firing are conscious experience, yet this concept is so profound that I shall repeatedly return to it in order to fully explore its worth as an explanatory model for understanding the nature of the brain and mind.

Whether it be a vivid dream or an entheogenic vision, the normal perception of an object or a psychedelic perception, the underlying structure of such experiences can now be discerned. The common mediating factor is information, and the way that information is transmitted, organized, and substantiated by the neuronal firing activity of the brain. Information, the “currency” of the brain, emerges as the key concept in explaining the normal conscious mind, the entheogenic mind, and the dreaming mind. We continue our avid investigations in the next chapter, as we spiral in toward the secret of the sacred mushroom.

The purpose of this and the following chapters is to build on the ideas previously introduced to further get a handle on the mind, or consciousness, and how it is possible for one to experience a transcendental communion with a seeming Other. At this juncture I repeat that I believe mind stuff to be information, or at any rate that consciousness is an informational pattern embodied within the neuronal firing system of the brain. Moreover, it seems likely that psilocybin works by enabling novel patterns of information to emerge that are not normally “permitted” due to the default constraints that usually operate in the brain. This much seems clear from what has already been said about the way in which neuronal firing substantiates informational states and how such informational states are dramatically altered through the chemical action of entheogenic compounds.

In other words, mind stuff resolves itself as being informational stuff. This is perhaps not too controversial a claim, but what I eventually hope to show is that matter, or physical stuff, is also informational in nature. This would mean that everything, whether atoms, molecules, organisms, or thoughts, could be described in informational terms . The mind and body could then be seen as consisting of essentially the same kind of substance, that is, as particular forms of information.

Of course the concept of what information itself is, or what information actually means, is a decidedly muddy issue, despite the fact that we now live in the Age of Information. Books carry information, as do DVDs, apple seeds, bank statements, fossils, fiber-optic cables, hormones, food wrappers, and the human genome. So too do vast networks of firing neurons carry information, whether infused with psilocybin or not. As to the notion of atoms (of which the above-mentioned information-carriers are all composed) being units of information also, the case is less clear. However, should I succeed in the coming chapters in defining both consciousness and matter in informational terms, then I should also be able to explain more clearly why psilocybin is able to generate both Other-derived visions and an altered perception of reality—all in terms of the flow and flux of information. In fact, armed with a sweepingly new informational view of reality, one might come to perceive oneself and the world with a new outlook. Indeed, the information paradigm of which I speak yields a whole array of truly stunning conceptual consequences.

The issue confronting us—that of understanding consciousness—is, as you probably realize, a decidedly hoary beast, covered in thorns and about as amenable to close analysis as is the wind on a very blustery day. Formally speaking, it is known in the philosophical trade as the mind/ body problem. At its heart lies the seemingly inseparable gulf between the world of physical matter and the world of consciousness. We know much about the structure and behavior of the former, yet relatively little about the latter. Before we go on with our quest to understand the nature of consciousness in the light of the psilocybin experience, let’s take a very brief look at the history of this most murky philosophical quagmire.

The seventeenth-century French philosopher Descartes is generally credited with fully appreciating and documenting the mind/body dilemma. Descartes concluded that there were two sorts of universal stuff—mind and matter—and that they interacted in some mysterious ghostlike way. This dualistic “ghost in the machine” view of consciousness has annoyed many a philosopher and scientist alike. Especially scientists, for they do not like talk of incorporeal entities (elusive minds) not located in three-dimensional space being somehow able to interact with matter. Perhaps this explains why most psychologists have until quite recently been content to ignore the issue of consciousness. It is such an enigmatic phenomenon, and yet it is consciousness that is the very core of our being.

Consciousness defines you right now, for instance. This book might be physical and clearly tangible, yet what are your thoughts to know this? And even more problematic is the mind’s ability to act directly upon matter through the body. How can a thought that is non-weighable and not made of physical particles nonetheless be able to move the collective atoms in, say, one’s fingers? How can some sort of informational pattern embodied within the brain act upon so-called matter?

To reach some understanding we must either side with the old Cartesian dualistic belief or launch ourselves wholeheartedly into an alternative “informational monism,” in which the reality process consists of only one stuff—information. As I hope to show, the nature of the psilocybin experience suggests that we embrace the latter scenario.

Since the musings of Descartes, philosophers have engaged in a veritable free-for-all in their attempts to either defend Descartes’ ideas or do away with them and somehow unite mind with matter. Indeed, some academic philosophers make it their professional business to immerse themselves night and day in the mind/body problem. So annoyingly problematic is the existence of consciousness in an apparently physical Universe that entire academic careers have been built on this subtle paradox. Row upon row of shelves in the philosophy section of university libraries are given over to books dealing in some way with the mind/body problem.

Still, as far as I am aware, not one professional mind/body philosopher has become seriously involved with psychedelic experimentation in order to further our knowledge and insight into the dynamic interplay between chemistry and altered states of awareness. In fact, most books purportedly dealing with the issue of consciousness patently ignore psychoactive substances altogether, as if they had nothing whatsoever to teach us. I suppose that most traditional mind/body “specialists” balk and quiver at the very idea of psychedelic shamanism and its alchemical explorations of the mind. Maybe visionary plants are simply too scary for armchair-bound philosophers to confront. Whatever the case, entheogenic flora and fungi have remained a peripheral phenomenon, studied solely by anthropologists, ethnobotanists, and a handful of adventurous mavericks. It is hoped this state of indifference may soon be shattered and that science comes to properly address the delicate interface between chemistry and consciousness.