Trialogue: Crop Circles (1991)

Trialogue: Crop Circles
Terence McKenna, Rupert Sheldrake & Ralph Abraham
Esalen, California, 1991

Exploring the crop circle phenomenon. The Plasma Vortex theory. Why are crop circles associated with megalithic sites? The evolution of their patterns and features. A look at some of the diverse theories: from migrating hedgehogs to the celestial theory. Is there a single satisfying explanation? Is the hoax theory an unlikely explanation? Terence's theory that crop circles are an intelligence operation and an experiment in deception.

Further investigations into the crop circle mystery. Are crop circles a method of Gaian communication? An international crop circle competition. Crop circles should be empirically investigated. Terence explains his 'trap theory' -- Are they a disinformation project aimed at preserving orthodoxy? Reactions to Terence's theory. Christian and pagan ideologies and the impact of Christianity on paganism. Christian animism. Appreciating sacred places. Rupert's plan for a research project on crop circles.

Image: 780ft. crop circle in the form of a double (six-sided) triskelion composed of 409 circles, Location: Milk Hill, 2001

MP3

Trialogue: Cannabis (1991)

Trialogue: Cannabis

Terence McKenna, Rupert Sheldrake & Ralph Abraham

Esalen, California, 1991

Terence's interest in cannabis. The feminising and boundary-dissolving influence of cannabis. Cannabis intoxication and dreams. Cannabis and anxiety. Victorian tales of cannabis. The influence of hashish on India and the Middle East. Cannabis as the carrier of a new set of values. A tool for creativity and the enhancement of empathy and communication. A medicine for cultural evolution? The difference between smoking and eating cannabis. How hemp is related to stories. An aid to the appreciation of sacred places. The impact of abstinence on peak performance. Cannabis as an aid for concentration and connectivity.

The shadow side of cannabis. The dangers of habitual usage. Cannabis and energy levels. The chemistry of cannabis. The impact of cannabis on memory and language. Aphrodisiac effects. Cannabis versus alcohol. Why is it illegal? Early use of cannabis. The drug war. Researching the different qualities and various forms of cannabis. Age-related experimentation. Decriminalisation versus legalisation. The impact of legal restraints on the attraction for illegal substances. Hemp. Is the right to the exploration of consciousness a part of the pursuit of human freedom and happiness?

MP3

Trialogue: Gender Issues (1991)

Trialogue: Gender Issues
Terence McKenna, Rupert Sheldrake & Ralph Abraham

Esalen, California, 1991

Ralph's hypothesis of androgyny. A person's soul does not necessarily share the gender restriction of the biological body. Social practices that emphasize gender differences can hinder the exposure of a complete person. Achieving maximum androgyny through the exploration of sexual experience. Proposals for the salvation of the nuclear family. Healing emotional diseases in relationships. How would androgyny impact monogamy and the behaviour of women? Androgyny as a state of completeness in a person's psychological make up. Celibacy as a method for personal development. Men's and women's movements. Is gender differentiation a necessary feature of human society?

Exploring ways to recover the extended family. The popularity of computer networking. New ways to satisfy the need for community. Our addiction to travel and the need to minimise mobility. The benefits of travelling on foot. Can the computer revolution help reduce the need for travel? A model for a locally-based community. Can the men's and women's movements help stabilise gender relations? The revival of interest in rites of passage. Voluntary monogamy.

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Trialogue: Saving The World (1991)

Trialogue: Saving The World
Terence McKenna, Rupert Sheldrake & Ralph Abraham

Esalen, California, 1991

What can be done to solve the problem of over-population and resource depletion? Could encouraging a population policy save the world without disregarding individual concerns? How do you provoke a shift in consciousness that would result in people wanting less children? Resource depletion in high-tech societies. The prejudice against only children. How could such a plan be implemented? A new way to empower women. Exploring the potential positive and negative effects of achieving zero population growth on a planetary scale.

Further speculations on the impact of population policies. How a capsule that enables gender choice of offspring could make population growth plummet. Saving resources by moving people to different locations. Curbing resource depletion and overpopulation. Grassroots research projects on family dynamics. The liberation of women. Reforming people's attitudes through family dynamics models. The role that social sciences, mathematics and myth could play in saving the world. A demographic modelling disc. Family numerology. A positive re-evaluation of the only child. A sociological research programme.

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Trialogue: Grass Roots Science (1991)

Trialogue: Grass Roots Science
Terence McKenna, Rupert Sheldrake & Ralph Abraham

Esalen, California, September 1991

The institutionalisation of mainstream science has alienated the public and marginalised the amateur base of science. A new model for science is both possible and necessary. The need for big science to reintegrate with grassroots science. Examples of important low budget amateur research projects. How the computer revolution and the formulation of specific questions could empower grassroots science. Global environmental problems are likely to provide the main motivation for the revival of grassroots science. Rescuing science from the distorting demands of capitalism. The benefits of combining holistic and analytical research. A grassroots research project on holistic medicine.

Re-distributing the budget in science. How to motivate and fund more amateur research projects. How grassroots science could contribute towards the solution of global environmental problems. The grassroots component in archaeology; paleontology; astrology; nutritional studies and consciousness research. Large-scale projects can be influenced enormously by the discoveries of grassroots science. The benefits of taking a holistic approach to the whole field of knowledge. The importance of posing appropriate questions to researchers. Low budget experiments that could change the world. Encouraging amateur scientists through a revitalized scientific education. 

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Trialogue: The Apocalypse (1989)

Trialogue: The Apocalypse
Terence McKenna, Rupert Sheldrake & Ralph Abraham

Esalen, Big Sur, California: 1989

The apocalyptic tradition: paranoid self-fulfilling prophecy or an intuition of instability? Stripping the provincialism from apocalyptic messages. Apocalyptic scenarios, including the 'God-whistle' theory. The ecological catastrophe as the appropriate interpretation of the Apocalypse. Steering the Apocalypse toward a tolerable conclusion. The power of faith.

Big Bang cosmology as a projection of the Judaeo-Christian model of history. The fate of the sun. The projection of the Apocalypse in 2012. Ecological catastrophe and forces of novelty that may create planetary metamorphosis. Global crucifixion. The recovery of Eden. The personal apocalypse: a glimpse of post-mortal life. Interplanetary morphic resonance. The green version of the apocalyptic vision.

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Trialogue: Education In The New World Order (1989)

Trialogue: Education In The New World Order
Terence McKenna, Rupert Sheldrake & Ralph Abraham

Esalen, Big Sur, California: 1989

How could the educational system be reformed and resacralized? An initiation-based educational model not confined to the rational or humanist worldview. Initiations into trades, professions and skills. Adolescent initiation rites. The workshop system of education as a model. Feminizing the educational system. The need for choice and a complete knowledge of history. A workshop voucher system with the interplay of different specialities. A spiritually based educational system with religious initiation.

Resacralizing education and re-visioning the workshop system. The incorporation of an initiatory quality throughout the educational system. Free-market economics in education. A self-initiating, self-propagating, self-organising and self-regulating system. A pioneering pilot project in an existing workshop centre. A 

devious way for achieving the resacralization of the world.

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Trialogue: The Resacrilisation Of The World (1989)

Trialogue: The Resacrilisation Of The World
Terence McKenna, Rupert Sheldrake & Ralph Abraham

Esalen, Big Sur, California 1989

In what ways can we bring the sacred back into the world? Ralph's religious background. Loss of connection to the sacred as a root cause of world problems. Resumption of rituals. Resacralization of music. The aesthetics of the world soul. Feminism, the revival of partnership society and a reinvigorated psychedelic priesthood. Revival of Gothic cathedral-building. Festivals and the sacralization of space and time. The 'greening of God'. The global consequences of the shift in the sense ratio. The 'Archaic Revival' and resacralization by religion.

The unifying flag of Gaia. A true Gaian religion. Revulsion at religion and scientism. Psychedelicizing and sacralizing green politics. The timescale problem. A green order associated with every religion. Connection with sacred places. The sacralization of science. Ritualized mushroom cults, and the mushroom as the Ur-symbiont of humanity. The will to make our own position relevant to the encroaching crisis. The forces in opposition to the resacralization programme. The revival of pilgrimage and a sense of sacred time. A possible nucleation event.

MP3

Trialogue: The Unconcious (1989)

Trialogue: The Unconcious
Terence McKenna, Rupert Sheldrake & Ralph Abraham

Esalen, Big Sur, California: 1989

What is the nature of the unconscious, and how can we access its restorative powers? Bifurcation theory of the unconscious. Evil and the repression of chaos. Escape from evil by bringing the unconscious back. The idea of the sacred city. From psychedelic partnership phase to restrictive dominator phase. Alcohol and cultural neurosis. The age-related reestablishment of shamanic sacraments. Habituation and the unconscious. The calendar as an engine for illuminating the unconscious, through rituals and festivals. The unavailable unconscious and the maintenance of consciousness. Christmas as a child's festival. Caffeine and industrial capitalism.

Sacred plants and calendar-based rituals. Sacred sites and celestial communication. Invocation, psychedelic visions and the consciousness of the natural world. The role of dominator drugs. Denial and its dangers for our evolution. Sacred festivals. The difficulty of accessing the restorative powers of the unavailable unconscious. Lightening the dark through prayer, astrology and a resurrection of magic. The Gaian unconscious.

MP3

Trialogue: Entities (1989)

Trialogue: Entities
Terence McKenna, Rupert Sheldrake & Ralph Abraham

Esalen, Big Sur, California: 1989

Are disincarnate and non-human entities mental projections or non-physical, autonomous entities? What can we learn from them? Their variety and persistence in human history. Early modern science and angelic communication. The shamanic model. The aversion to the irrational in Christianity and science. The need to analyze the entities' messages. A mathematical model of body, soul and spirit. Entities as inhabitants of the spiritual domain of the logos. The evolution of their multifarious representations. The dogma of purgatory. Contacting these entities through dreams and psychedelics. The deepest layers of the faery tradition. Metaphors of light? Entities as artificers and their use of language. Is the world soul behind these entities? Corn circles.

Pre-Christian ritual magic. The call to prepare language for these encounters. Experiential contact with the celestial sphere. The humanist illusion of self-sufficiency, leading to societal possession. Mammon. A celestial battle on earth? Redirecting attention to the positive forms. The ultimate partnership -- reconnecting the Gaian and celestial spheres to the human spirit. Where could the new alchemical kingdom be?

MP3

Note: (DR JOHN DEE (1527-1608/9) Alchemist, mathematician, astrologer, kabbalist, occultist and magician. Active in British military and diplomatic affairs. John Dee was 'Queen's Intelligencier' to Queen Elizabeth 1 and a close associate of Sir Francis Walsingham, founder of the British Secret Service. In 1582 Dee's crystal, through contact with angelic spheres, revealed the keys to the Enochian language. The angel instructed Dee and his friend Edward Kelly to point to specific letters which when reversed backwards and forwards revealed messages. The crystal was used to fortell events of a political and military nature, for example regarding the fate of the British Empire and the Spanish Armada. Dee's practice of military/political scrying for Walsingham and Queen Elizabeth 1 is a precursor to the 1972-1995 US Military remote viewing program. The Enochian language was later studied by Aleister Crowley and US rocket scientist Jack Parsons of the O.T.O. In 1994 the Enochian letters were used as glyphs to operate the arc angle in the MGM film 'Stargate' one year before the US remote viewing program, 'Stargate', was made public. A series of remote viewing drawings were made in the presence of Dr John Dee¹s scrying crystal at the Science Museum, London and experiments were made using Dee's Aztek/Obsidian mirror at the British Museum).

Trialogue: Light & Vision (1989)

Trialogue: Light & Vision
Terence McKenna, Rupert Sheldrake & Ralph Abraham
Esalen, Big Sur, California: 1989

How is our own vision related to light, and how is the perception of the world soul related to light? What is the connection between physical light and other definitions of light? Where are visual images located? Attention felt across space and the sense of being stared at. The electromagnetic field as the medium of the morphic field. A look at some possible experiments in this area. Dowsing. Pheromones.

The electromagnetic field as intermediary among the physical fields. The field-like structure of perception and mental activity. Pheromones as the chemical regulation of the whole earth? The mystery of light and the self-luminosity of the imagination. DMT and attention. The anti-universe theory. The role of the electromagnetic field in the soul of the world. The hierarchical mental ecosystem. Galactic minds, the solar eye and divine omni-perception. How novelty can cause an unconscious Gaia to rise into awareness. A cognitive map of the Gaian mind.

MP3

Trialogue: Chaos & The Imagination (1989)

Trialogue: Chaos & The Imagination
Terence McKenna, Rupert Sheldrake & Ralph Abraham
Esalen, Big Sur, California: 1989

How can chaos theory and full access to the imagination aid us in our understanding of the world and in the creation of our future? Chaos in mythology. The repression of chaos, the rise of patriarchy and the fall into history. The chaos revolution. Bringing chaos tangential to the burning planet. Vision plants and shamanism. Our 'secret history' and how it relates to the Gaian mind. The creative act as the night sea journey. The living mystery of the imagination. Dominator and partnership culture.

Festivals, a calendrical reform and 'pharmacological intervention'. Oscillating models of chaos, creativity and the imagination. Eleusis as a great turning point. The Virgin of Guadalupe. The Faustian pact with the physical world. The cultural cul-de-sac of the dominator mode. Restoring partnership values, opening our lives to chaos and the world soul. Chaos as Gaian fury and as a moment of opportunity. A forward escape into technology?

MP3

Trialogue: Creativity & Chaos (1989)

Trialogue: Creativity & Chaos

Terence McKenna, Rupert Sheldrake & Ralph Abraham

Esalen, Big Sur, California: 1989

The chaos revolution, chaotic attractors and indeterminism in nature. The emergence of form from the field of chaos. The formative process in cooling. Is the mathematical realm of the world soul in co-evolution with ordinary reality? The potential of mathematics to aid us in our own evolution by extending our language for dealing with complex systems. Visual intuitions and the Butterfly Effect.

The idea of an attractor for the entire cosmic evolutionary process. The role of the attractor in chaos dynamics. Motivation and attraction. The value of spoken language. Mathematical modelling. The relationship between mathematical models with chaotic behaviour and the chaos in life. Idolatry and models becoming reality. The feminine aspect of creativity. 

MP3

Trialogue: Creativity & Imagination (1989)

Trialogue: Creativity & The Imagination
Terence McKenna, Rupert Sheldrake & Ralph Abraham

Esalen, Big Sur, California: 1989

The crisis in science: collision between the permanent and evolutionary views of the nature of reality. The universe as an evolving system of habits. Did natural law exist before the Big Bang? Cosmic creativity, imagination and the womb of chaos. Chaotic sudden perturbations. The Omega Point. The ego's response to chaos. The cosmic attractor in the evolutionary process

How is human imagination related to the creative principle of nature? The nature of the Gaian mind. Human history as a Gaian dream. The Divine Imagination as the source of all creativity. How can we extract the message of the Gaian mind? How could the imaginations of the solar system, galaxy and cosmos be related to each other? Dark matter and the cosmic unconscious. The nature of the Logos. The personal apocalypse. The journey of language to the Divine Imagination. Natural law, ordinary reality and chaos.

MP3

Trialogue: History, Fractals & Change (1998)

Trialogue: History, Fractals & Change

Terence McKenna, Rupert Sheldrake & Ralph Abraham

The fractal idea of history, and millenia as the plateaus of history. These bifurcation periods as opportunities to influence the creation of the future. What kind of future or change are we trying to create? The need for the enhancement and spread of clarity. Psychic pets and their role in breaking the spell of rationalism. Psychedelics, the World Wide Web and psychic pets as forms of boundary dissolution. The need for change 

in the educational system. The problem of the rejection of mathematics.

MP3

Trialogue: Consciousness & Machines (1998)

Trialogue: Consciousness & Machines

Terence McKenna, Rupert Sheldrake & Ralph Abraham

A discussion on the evolution of consciousness as it relates to machines. Symbolic logic, nanotechnology and the possibility of a synthetic super-intelligence. Artificial Intelligence as a part of ourselves that could shape our evolution. Virtual computers as the source of the AI. Partnership or conflict between human and machine? How much control do we have in the evolution of machine intelligence? Challenges to the premises of the AI 

argument. Quantum computers, machine-time and the possibilities of the World Wide Web.

MP3

Trialogue: The Evolutionary Mind (1998)

Trialogue: The Evolutionary Mind
Terence McKenna, Rupert Sheldrake & Ralph Abraham

What could have been the cause for the breakthrough in the evolution of human consciousness around 50,000 years ago? Collective memories of predation and how they may shape our minds today. The role of the imagination in our evolution. Physiological evolution and the idea of divine brain surgery. The psilocybin hypothesis. The transformation of human nature through connection with higher levels of consciousness in the 
universe. The universal information field and cosmic evolution.


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Trialogue: Cast Of Characters (1989)

Trialogue: Cast Of Characters

Terence McKenna, Rupert Sheldrake & Ralph Abraham

An introduction to the first series of public trialogues held at Esalen, California in 1989. Morphic Resonance, the novelty wave, chaos mathematics, and their roles in the paradigm shift. The vision of nature as alive, and a new understanding of the soul of the world. The three masks - evolutionary creativity, the cosmic imagination and chaos. Insights into the nature of time. The practical application of chaos theory to the problems of the 

world. The human soul as a reflection of the world soul.

MP3

Trialogue: Hazelwood House (1993)

Trialogue: Hazelwood House, England 1993

In their first trialogue held outside of California, Terence McKenna, Ralph Abraham, and Rupert Sheldrake begin this session by telling us what they think about one another. Then Rupert Sheldrake challenges Terence and Ralph to speculate on the as yet unknown physical principle underlying the ability of homing pigeons to return to their roosts. 

McKenna covers a wide range of topics with thoughts like, "That's what life is. It's a chemical strategy for the conquest of dimensionality."

Public workshop, Trialogues, Hazelwood House, Devon, ENGLAND (June 25- 27)

Art: Francisco De Goya, 'Where there's a will there's a way' (Donde hay ganas hay mana), Plate 13 of Los Disparates

Etched about 1819 - 1823 (published 1864)

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Rupert Sheldrake: A New Science Of Life (1987)

Biologist Rupert Sheldrake, Ph.D., author of A New Science of Life, has stimulated and even startled the scientific world by challenging mechanistic thinking in the life sciences. Dr. Sheldrake proposes a startling alternative to the idea that genetic programming is solely responsible for diversity of form, development of behavior and development of mind in living creatures.