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Final Version of Psychedelic Information Theory by James Kent

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This is a surprisingly well-written book. I am a sort of "spiritualist" myself, but the way this book explains some of the psychedelic phenomena I also experienced is so convincing that it almost makes me accept the possible validity of a strictly materialistic point of view regarding these matters.

( The fact that we are "information processing machines" actually brings back spirituality through the back door as a natural product of the human imagination, so I perhaps wouldn't have to be afraid of losing anything. ;) )

Here is one great insight from the "Limits of Human Perception" chapter:

The sensation of hallucinogenic frame stacking indicates that psychedelics may create a temporary frame decay buffer that allows for simultaneous multi-frame analysis and increased complexity of visual comprehension.
Click to expand...

What he means is those experiences when the past moments are laid out in front of us as a series of "nows", and we can somehow get an understanding of what is happening to us "from above" (as if from outside of time). Opening up along the perpendicular axis anyone? :)
 
Another good one:

Psychedelics destabilize linear perceptions of space and time to produce fractal states of frame layering, bifurcation, and infinite frame recursion.
Click to expand...

Which is the basis of those pesky "loops". Returning to a moment that had happened 30 seconds ago and then branching into another version of the reality that was happening since then. :)
 
Hm, has James Kent "dropped" some of his chapters? I remember the table of contents being bigger and having chapters like "the messiah syndrome", "paranoid ideation" and others as if detailing also where the psychedelic experience can go sour, devoting a chapter/subchapter to each. It seems to me as if he shortened the book for it to be published quicker or after decideng that he would not write some chapters.


The original table of contents was more along this : Table of Contents : James Kent
 
^^ because this is an E-book "review" version.

there is a space in the information at the bottom of the page that says:
Buy Hardcopy: Release Date TBA

And a link where they are requesting reviews.


This is full of interesting ideas for sure!!

Thanks for posting it Ice House!!
(there was a rave club in phoenix called the Ice House, it was in an huge, old abandon....ice house!)


WS
 
Awesome to hear that! He touched on a lot of things in the interview that aren't in the review version - I thought I had read poorly and missed the fantastical aspects.
 
I havent gotten far into this book but it brings up some good points.
At the same time i remember reading somewhere (spirit molecule?) of some experiment being done where a person was given a complex math equation far outside their ability and then given some DMT, the person asked the entities to solve the equation and they did correctly. Now maybe DMT accesses some part of the sub conscious that is really good at math, which can also access other information stored by the unconscious, who can say but it is interesting. It should also be kept in mind that other people in the world may of done experiments which were not legal and so not published in some scientific journal or written about anywhere, in fact i am willing to bet the craziest trips go unreported regularly. The question of whether or not psychedelics can give a person new information is an important one, but i think its important not to be to sure of either perspective, especially while doing an experiment.
Another experiment with psychedelics to determine whether or not the "spirits" exist outside the mind was done by this guy http://www.pot.tv/archive/shows/pottvshowse-1781.html some of you may of heard of him if you are into ethnobotany his name is Chris Bennett. The relevant part starts at just around 13 min into the video. (theres lots of interesting videos on that site, i suggest other burning shiva vids, some much more proffessional then this particular one) He asks questions in what he calls "the wheel of anthropos" a circle of people and each person (all of them on shrooms) can only say one word to answer it, none of them know before hand what will be asked, some of it very obscure questions, as the circle goes around an answer is gained which is intersting, i suggest you watch.

Who can say what will really prove whether or not psychedelics provide information from outside the individual mind, if you believe as many ancient psychedelic religions do that reality is all a product of the mind then its kind of a moot question. This may sound crazy but then you should remember that none of us actually experience reality, we experience our consciousness of what we call reality, there is a big difference. If DMT is a major factor in creating consciousness then it really brings up all kinds of other questions as well.

That said the book is interesting and needed to be written, lets just hope lots more scientific testing is done, but lets try and do some experiments ourselves.
 
What are James L. Kent's credentials? I can't seem to find any info on the guy at all. He says he studied psychedelics for 20 years, but he doesn't really say much else other than that he is an amateur. It would be so cool if he either had credentials to back up the big words, or didn't use big words at all, because it all comes off as kinda ass backwards for an amateur to try to explain things to laypeople using expert terminology.
 
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