Aliens And Drugs
This one’s going to make a lot of people uncomfortable, and perhaps anger a few more. That’s a good thing.
You can meet aliens on demand.
McKenna
So said Terence McKenna, the psychedelic sage, and another name you might not know about, Dr. Rick Strassman. McKenna (who died of a brain tumor in April of 2000) took over the mantle of psychedelic cheerleader and tripmeister from Timothy Leary, according to Leary himself and many others. Strassman’s 2001 book DMT: The Spirit Molecule described repeated encounters with alien-like beings under the influence of the alkaloid Di-Methyl Tryptamine (DMT).
Strassman
Old Guard Ufologists express horror at the mention of mind-altering drugs. This is the sort of thing that they have been trying to get away from for years. One of the first things in UFO accounts is always the old standby “The witness was not drinking that night,” even though there are precious few instances where people have hallucinated anything on alcohol. If you’re drunk enough to imagine an alien ship landing in front of your car, it might be surprising that you could find your way to the car in the first place, or remember anything about the experience. The study of Ufology deals almost exclusively with witness testimony. Opening the “doors of perception” shuts the credibility door. Can’t have that.
I do not discount the psychedelic experience. For one thing, everything is remembered consciously after the drug wears off. Writers like Aldous Huxley and scientists such as Andrija Puharich have extolled psychedelics as a key to altered states of consciousness that put us in touch with the inner and outer world, and makes the user more aware of the blurred line between the two. The line between “reality” and imagination is certainly an integral part of the UFO experience. The “imaginal” realm may be where UFO entities reside most of the time. Do not equate “imaginal” with “unreal.” A discussion of this dichotomy would take more room than we have here.
McKenna wrote and talked about his experiences under the influence of psychedelics, including a memorable trip to the Amazon, when at sunrise, he observed what he described as a “perfect Adamski-type saucer” sailing over a river. Notably, this was NOT under the influence of any drugs. He did not know what to make of this at the time. Perhaps there was something there in the sky, but his mind chose to frame it in an admittedly ridiculous context.
He is perhaps best known for his encounters with something he called “self-transforming machine elves,” seen when under the influence DMT. He described these “entities” as playful, curious, and yet immensely wise, eager to teach as much as to learn. This echoes some of Whitley Strieber’s descriptions of his “visitors.” Thousands of others have described similar encounters. I sometimes choose to see them as not “mere hallucinations,” but a manifestation of the continuum of consciousness of which we are a part, but are perhaps only dimly aware of our place within it. Most of us think we are the only members.
McKenna had much to say on the nature of reality, consciousness, and our current views on these intimately related subjects, which is far too extensive to go into here. That’s what the internet is for.
Strassman may be an even bigger threat to the Ufological status quo, because he is a credentialed scientist who makes cautious statements about extra-human entities encountered during DMT “trips.” What is more horrifying is that he cannot be shelved as a drugged-out kook, since the experiences he describes were related to him by test subjects in one of the only (if not the only) legal and scientific study of the effects of DMT on a group of selected test subjects.
From 1990 to 1995, Strassman worked with sixty volunteers at the University of New Mexico. Assisted by hospital nurses, he administered DMT intravenously (actually injected into muscle tissue) to the subjects, and sat by to observe and record the reactions. There was also extensive debriefing after the sessions to note anything that was not described vocally during the drug trips. About half of the volunteers met up with something that they described as “alien” during their experiences. At first, Strassman had trouble even admitting that this was going on. He wrote:
When reviewing my bedside notes, I continually feel surprise in seeing how many of our volunteers “made contact” with “them,” or other beings…Research subjects used expressions like “entities,” “beings,” “aliens,” “guides,” and “helpers” to describe them. The “life forms” looked like clowns, reptiles, mantises, bees, spiders, cacti, and stick figures. It is still startling to see my written records of comments like “There were these beings,” “I was being led,” “They were on me fast.” It’s as if my mind refuses to accept what’s there in black and white.
Another of the participants said, “They do seem interested in you, in people, especially in their feelings…it was interested in my fear, and in me.”
If you are at all familiar with the abduction literature, these phrases and descriptions are exactly what is reported by people who claim to have been taken out of their beds or cars or wherever and led onto machines that looked like spaceships. Some of the DMT test subjects even talked about quasi-medical exams.
The fundamentalist skeptic stirs, rises, and grumbles, “See? It IS all in the mind.” Those with any semblance of an inquiring and reasonably independent disposition cannot deny the parallels. I cannot claim any abduction experiences, either straight or on drugs, but the data intersections are intriguing, and point to a need for a revised view of just what this alien encounter thing is all about.
So call up the aliens if you want. All you need is a good connection.
More coverage of McKenna and Strassman can be found at brainsturbator, which has been known to link to us from time to time.
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Jan 23 2007 
January 23rd, 2007 at 6:20 am
Greg:
A very interesting post. It has got me to thinking about how we perceive the world. We are only capable of viewing a small band of the light spectrum and we hear within a narrow range of sound. Why can’t our consciousness also be a narrow band within a much larger spectrum? Can drugs and u.f.o.s temporarily alter people to be conscious outside of this narrow band.
In order to get us closer to what the true nature of what u.f.o.s are we need to look at all the data that is relevant, even if it contradicts any long standing assumptions. It doesn’t mean that it negates the reality of what people are reporting, only that it is more complex than we imagine.
Thanks again for the great post, it may be that the study of DMT on test subjects may get us a little closer to the true nature of this phenomenon.
January 23rd, 2007 at 8:09 am
Greg
As you know, I consider Strassman’s book to be one of the most important UFO related books ever published. But the sad and depressing thing is, ask most ufologists about it and you’ll just get a blank, vacant stare.
That’s because it’s not about nuts-and-bolts aliens and hybrid babies.
His book is not about that - it’s much more important than all that fodder. But you’re absolutely correct that such books create anger and an uncomfortable feeling to the old guard.
Partly it’s based on an attitude to drugs that portrays anyone who takes drugs as a wasted, diseased junkie.
I always find it very strange that people express outrage about drugs, yet alcohol kills untold numbers of people per year.
Look at cigarettes: an absolute unstoppable killer. Cigarettes are drugs. Anyone who smokes cigarettes and can’t stop is a DRUG ADDICT. Plain and simple.
But people who are drug-addicted smokers see their addiction as ok. Why? Because the government says it’s legal, that’s why. They have this absurd view that if some old guy in Government says it’s ok to smoke, that this doesn’t put them on a par with someone who can’t start the day without snorting coke.
But, the legal issue aside, there is ZERO difference. And what about food addicts? That’s as bad. Super-sizing at the drive-thru does nothing but destroy arteries - far worse than some drugs. But it’s seen as acceptable to do that and end up driving around in a little motorized cart because people are too big to walk anymore.
But food, booze, and cigarettes are seen as acceptable. It’s obvious why mind-altering drugs aren’t seen as acceptable: because they allow people to expand outside of what passes for society’s rigid conformities.
That’s a generality, and that’s not me going all hippy (as you know, a hippy is the last thing I am!); but it’s just a fact. Government’s don’t want people just doing their own thing. They want us rigid, conformity-driven figures.
And as far as the way in which Strassman has not been embraced by mainstream ufology is concerned, it’s partly driven by the fact that Strassman and McKenna have shown that the “UFO phenomenon” is not as straightforward as little gray men coming here and stealing our DNA.
The truth is so alien as to be beyond the conventional theories about aliens! But that doesn’t sit well with those that want it all to be about spaceships, DNA experiments, and Captain Zspat of Planet Xazzadag.
January 23rd, 2007 at 8:11 am
Great post! Everyone knows, or should know, that this is an aspect of the UFO experience that has become taboo because of the desperation for credibility that many in the UFO world have.
I remember at one UFO West conference in LA many years ago where the scuttlebutt was that McKenna had been removed from the speaker schedule (on which he had been trumpeted as the major draw) because he told the organizers he would bring mushrooms for the audience. “They want to see aliens, I’ll show ‘em aliens,” McKenna was rumored to have said.
McKenna and Streiber both spoke at a Whole Earth expo I attended in Chicago once. McKenna spoke about the “alien presence” in the internet; Streiber actually commented on that, saying that he was more concerned with the actual physical beings he had encountered at his cabin.
January 23rd, 2007 at 9:11 am
Seein’
Thanks for the comments. If you haven’t read Strassman’s book, you really need to! I think it should be shelved with the UFO books.
January 23rd, 2007 at 9:18 am
Nick,
You continued where I left off! I feel exactly the same way about most drugs, except possibly the ones that tend to make people a burden to others and to the health care industry. It’s just a symptom of our reality and society that makes people abuse them–just like alcohol. Psychedelics appear to be mostly (or maybe completely) harmless to a casual user.
Like one of my heroes, comedian Bill Hicks said, any drugs that open up the mind and engender compassion, while making you realize how you’re being screwed every day are illegal-they’re bad for the economy!
January 23rd, 2007 at 9:20 am
Kenn,
Strieber of all people should know about alternate states of consciousness and the plastic nature of mind and reality. Perhaps he didn’t want to be perceived as standing in the same camp as a “drug promoter.” I may be misrepresenting him though.
January 23rd, 2007 at 11:33 am
Literally every second each of us moves 388 miles as the Milky Way moves towards the constellation Centaurus. Also, every second, the Sun moves around the Milky Way at a rate of nearly 140 miles. We won’t consider the Earth going around the sun or even the rotation of the Earth.
I make this point to suggest that the actualization of reality is beyond our understanding. There certainly could be something `beyond’ our now-space and it indeed could be consciousness or consciousness related (information processing). And, indeed, beings or entities may exist that may indeed be able to be reached from not only Earth - but from our own consciousness — altered or not by DMT. Perhaps even, a significant % of `abductions’ occur this way and not in the physical sense. But, a significant % does NOT equal 100% and I still find cases such as Travis Waltons to be the `foil’ to saying ALL abductions begin in the mind.
January 23rd, 2007 at 5:13 pm
I wrote in one of Greg’s earlier post about the Leaky Embargo and Musicians, specifically John Lennons encounter with “bugs” that presented him with an Egg. I also hypothesized about how much John and Yoko reminded me of Crowley and his relationship with Roddie Minor. Lennon was the “Eggman”, as was, in essence Crowley’s LAM entity. Terrence McKenna once wrote:
“Say this is what we’re doing, and then they proceed to sing objects into existence. Amazing objects. Objects that are Faberge Eggs, things made of pearl, and metal, and glass, and gel, and you, when you’re shown one of these things, a single one of them, you look at it an you know, without a shadow of a doubt, in the moment of looking at this thing, that if it were right here, right now, this world would go mad. It’s like something from another dimension. It’s like an artifact from a flying saucer. It’s like something falling out of the mind of God - such objects DO not exist in this universe, and yet, you’re looking at it. And they’re clamoring for your attention. ” ‘k at this! ‘Look at This! Look at THIS!” and they pull these things… and each one, you look into it and it begins to open into this wonder that you must fight. You say “No, don’t look at it, look AWAY from it!” because it’s so wonderful that it’s swamping my objectivity and destroying my ability to function in this space.
McKenna once wondered what it would be like if someone where to bring back one of these Faberge Eggs (I’d love to find the quote again) and I’ve wondered if Lennon wasn’t somehow gifted one. One may discount Gellers tale for various reasons, but if you’ve read it, you know that Yoko was there, heard John’s story the next morning and saw the Egg. It is also no secret how protective she is of John’s memory and she has never refuted the story as told by Geller. This says something. I could go on about Jimmy Page and and his fascination with Crowley and how it influenced Led Zeppelins music…more leak in the embargo… but that I will leave for another day. I recently wrote this over at Nearthwort…
I have my own hypothesis. Those interacting with us often demonstrate a keen interest in genetics and our reproductive methods. Hopkins refers to ‘transgenic’ entities while the rest of UFOology refers to them as hybrids. Tied in to this hypothesis is my belief that these entities may be, for the intent and purpose of this discussion..timeless. If we grant that they have been around awhile and also grant they they may be able to manipulate us genetically, a logical possibility could be they they desired to encode some type of method for communication, under the right circumstance, into our DNA…..DMT, in the proper dose, may simply unlock this sequence and…..off you go.
A long strange trip…
~J
January 23rd, 2007 at 6:49 pm
m4ever,
What I’m saying is that our entire existence is in the mind. This has been said countless times before, but getting our minds around the concept takes a bit of explaining.
My model for the time being is this: We only have one instrument (our brains) for experiencing the world “outside.” Everything that we can experience happens a few milliseconds after it actually happens. It all has to be processed by us before it’s registered as “reality.” Most things are so robust “out there” that we can reasonably count on them to be there when we look again.
Now I sound like a drug-addled hippie.
When we get to something as weird as a UFO encounter, I’m not sure that many of us know what to do with it. During the experience, our brains are furiously trying to put the experience in a mental “box.” We’ve been provided that box by the culture, by movies, T.V. and books. The Hills may have been provided that by a process that we don’t know about yet.
Don’t think I’m trying to say that UFO abductions are imagined. I don’t agree with that at all. What I was trying to say here is that McKenna and Strassman pointed out that some people seem to have abduction-type experiences without the UFO component. That brings the whole subject into question–not if it’s real or not, just what our minds do with it.
If there are indeed minds and entities that are non-human, and they are communicating with us (which I think there are) they may use whatever is available to open that channel. Their methods of getting ideas across, or simply saying “hello” may not be anything we recognize as attempts at such.
January 23rd, 2007 at 6:51 pm
Jonah
You said the same thing I just did in another way. Language is a clumsy thing sometimes, but we’re trapped in it. The “aliens” may not be amenable to ape gruntings, or have developed along another path.
January 23rd, 2007 at 6:55 pm
That is a very interesting post as I have always held a belief that certain drugs could un-lock the brain and create what you might term “Ambient dimentional shifting.” Which would manifest as local environmental changes that can be percieved by the drug user and possibly alter the perception of individuals not on the drugs. (this is true sorcery) due to the dangerous nature of such expirimentation I have declined to take part. Much in the same way I have declined to be hypnotized.
In another vein of expirimentation however I also believe that sexual activity and alterations of circadian and lunar rhythems can accomplish the same effects. This might account for paranormal events that seem to follow new-borns. Perhaps in the future we will learn how much our spiritual perceptions are altered by our bio-mechanical perceptions.
Good post Greg.
Jess
January 23rd, 2007 at 7:10 pm
really interesting stuff. i’m not surprised to hear that McKenna isn’t discussed much in ufological circles given his dim veiw of the field, especially the abductees. i recall he even made some disparaging comments about the late John Mack.
one important thing that i don’t think was mentioned is that D.M.T. is naturally produced in the brain. this opens the possibility of a spontaneous “trip” that could conceivably coincide with a close encounter.
and pursuing this subject further will lead us to consider the ancient Vedic soma cult, the Eleusian Mysteries in honor of Demeter, Goddess of Opium, and the various Native American shamanic practices, to name just a few examples. all taking us back to the “Gods as aliens” meme.
January 23rd, 2007 at 10:47 pm
m4ever,
Also, I did not say that abductions begin in the mind, Travis Walton included. The zap from the hovering UFO may have precipitated Walton’s experience in a similar way, perhaps releasing in his brain the naturally occurring DMT. Maybe this is the ufonauts way of opening the door to communication, or they just ray-gunned him so that they could pick him up. I don’t know. We’re considering options here.
January 23rd, 2007 at 11:03 pm
Jonah,
If an artist could reproduce one of those “eggs,” he or she would not only become a celebrity and wealthy overnight, it might change things to where we wouldn’t need things like money or fame!
But that’s idealistic.
What would probably happen is that people who were ready for it could see it for what it was, and others would only see a brightly colored egg. Ingrained programming dies hard.
January 23rd, 2007 at 11:12 pm
chaos_engineer,
It’s not surprising that McKenna had a dim view of ufology. He most likely harbored the idea that those saucer nuts were standing around discussing what it might be, while he was out there in the trenches meeting with the damned aliens.
I have a problem with the western, Christian “God” idea. It seems to be an anthropomorphized image of an ineffable concept–an attempt to personify an organizing force inherent in the universe.
Strangely, this recalls a remark made on the UFO Coverup Live! special of 1989. One of the AFOSI people who was interviewed in silhouette, with his voice scrambled, said that the aliens worship the universe itself as their deity.
Interesting, to say the least!
January 24th, 2007 at 3:06 am
Greg,
I appreciate both of your responses. Like you, I worship phenomenology and my favorite thinker ever is Edmund Husserl. So, let’s speculate.
Actually — all space is ‘past’ to ‘every space point’. It takes ‘time’ for the light to bounce off the monitor to get to my retina to be processed etc. But, it’s more than that — those spaces (such as the monitor or the room I am looking into) already have their REAL space OCCURING - already have a REAL future to reach our eyes (we will see that space when the light gets ‘here’).
So, yes, like Jethro Tull said — we are ALL ‘living in the past’ — that is except for our OWN ’space-point’ — which IS IN THE OCCURING REAL NOW — for us. The Only Real Now for us; we actually with our perception are ‘folding’ the other spaces ‘past’ into being our ‘perceived present - which has ONLY past objects.
Let’s take this perception thing further since it’s fun to speculate - since EVERY OBJECT WE SEE — and I mean it - every object — since every object we see HAS ALREADY OCCURRED — our ’space-flow’ IS DETERMINED. So much for freewill ‘within the past’ - fortunately, we probably have freewill in the only space that matters - ours. And, all the above while ‘moving’ over 500 miles a second (about .0024% the speed of light) within a timecone of space. We are ON A PLANET and IN A SYSTEM — we are more than our minds and there is more to the universe than ‘mind’ at least to me.
Finally, I want to point out what the ‘now’ of everything ‘looks like to our unaided eyes’ that is beyond the Moon. (remember, the moon that we see/perceive ‘happened’ about 1.3 seconds ago in the ‘past’ - the sun ‘happened’ about 8 minutes ago). Everything ‘beyond’ the moon comes into our unaided retina as nothing more than a point of light (except for our sun). Entire star systems that existed billions of years ago (and all other star systems) come into our abilitiy to process information about them as a point of light. The ’spaces’ and things that we can have any real influence on must occur within our ‘light-moment’ of near spaces. Our common consensus - where our consciousness exists.
And, all this leads back to my comment about entities - since ALL entitites would be part of ‘past things that have occured’ (to our perception) YET at the same time ‘have their own now - in our future’ could IMHO ‘come’ from that ‘future’ into ‘our present’ IT’S ACTUALLY HOW WE CO-EXIST on a given ‘plane’ — a ‘go into the past’ if you will — with their ‘current-now’.
Finally, I understand that the human mind is presented with about 100 images with a given second of space-time — and that we only ‘register’ about 5-10 of those ‘perception frames’ a second — who knows what we are ‘leaving out’. Thanks for reading my mind-perceptions.
January 24th, 2007 at 4:14 pm
Man or alien this site rocks. Did anyone think that certain substances can cause flash backs just like some near death experiances. Just as Strieber was originally a disbeliever; eventhough, he made money off of selling science fiction. Til that fateful opening of the mind through hypnosis. How long was he a disbeliever. The drugs may have been the creators of the aliens or the elixor to erase the the hidden actions of the past files of the not to see memories. Of all the experiance personally and from others I wish I had been on a drug. Then at least it may be easier to deal with. What it all comes back to is if a experiance is ment to happen it happens; whether, we want to believe it or not. If we come out of it alive this is great. Life has many faces even if we can only see what appears in front of us.
January 25th, 2007 at 9:35 am
m4ever,
What I was trying to stress is that the universe et al is meaningless until it hits our senses. Yes, I’m fairly certain that there is something outside of our minds, but it all comes through the filter of consciousness.
Perhaps the ufonauts don’t worry about time. Perhaps they come from “everytime.”
January 25th, 2007 at 9:41 am
sasdave,
Glad you are enjoying the blog.
What I was trying to say in the post was that there may be many roads to experiencing the “other.” We perhaps make unreasonable distinctions between psychedelic-induced experiences and “normal” state of mind experiences of the anomalous.
January 25th, 2007 at 10:05 pm
[...] Aliens And Drugs ET on demand [...]
January 27th, 2007 at 9:11 pm
“seeinisbeeleevin” might have nailed it with the observation that we normally see a very small portion of what is all around us. Some drugs enable us to blow the lids off our craniums and take in–though perhaps for a short fleeting instance–that which is normally hidden.
I could talk for days on this, but for the most part you all stole my thunder with your previous posts.
January 27th, 2007 at 10:34 pm
Adam,
Funny, that’s how I sometimes feel about your writing, as well as Nick’s (and Mac Tonnies, and Paul Kimball)–ideas I may have had, but are expressed much better and more expansively.
January 28th, 2007 at 12:17 am
Greg (and All),
Well, I feel the same way–that you or others express it better, or fill in the missing passages, which I may have missed. So forgive me if I steal from you at a later date–I give you full privileges to steal from me… Maybe we ALL are completing the story together. Or at least moving the dialogue forward as a collective front—without really thinking about it as such. Unified anarchy.
This whole thread on drugs and UFO’s is probably the most interesting area that I’m writing/researching on these days. If you listen to my webradio show, I’ve intentionally made a point about asking my guests about their UFO experiences, and also any drug related UFO experiences, and I’m amazed at where these discussions have led. To ignore what’s going on here is to turn a blind eye at an emerging…something.
It all comes back, I think, to something that is unique to the human experience–or maybe not–animals are aware of a whole lot that we aren’t. But I digress…I don’t think of the UFO experience as ALIEN. (There I go with caps, again.) Drugs–or whatever gets you through the night–opens those channels that have been there since the beginning. It is what makes us humans–this contact with the other. That which seems so beyond us is all around us every waking moment. Sounds like I just wrote a poem. We just forget about IT—or never know IT. IT “is†US.
Drugs are effective, as they break down the barriers which we ourselves have constructed. Every waking moment we should be trying to remove these barriers. Unfortunately, and with each waking moment, as we grow older, we subconsciously construct more barriers around us. So it’s a constant battle—to see beyond our societal conditioning—and to find a way to break down those barriers, and to continue to grow as a species. This is what Leary and Wilson were talking about.
Also, this is post number 23. So maybe it should stop here.
February 7th, 2007 at 10:50 pm
[...] If the guy actually did see an alien after getting stinking drunk, I stand corrected in my assumption that no one has ever hallucinated a close encounter under the influence of alcohol. Maybe he was drinking mezcal, which is made from a cactus with hallucinogenic properties. According to some researchers, this might actually give it some legitimacy as a real encounter. What I’d really like to see is a painting of Saint Martin zapping the alien back to wherever it came from. [...]