Gaian Mind and DMT - Does this ring true?

[Chadaev]

James Kent, author of Psychedelic Information Theory, had a stab at what is common to most 'messages' received on DMT: ‘when you get to the heart of what the typical DMT message is, it is usually something about the environment or living systems or the vast plant consciousness that penetrates our world. The "Gaia consciousness" that infuses the experience is undeniable, and what to make of that I don't know, other than to entertain the possibility that this ancient plant consciousness actually exists and is attempting to make itself known through the DMT-enlightened mammal brain.’

I'm wondering how widespread this message is. Thoughts?

 

[universecannon]

Mostly due to my experiences I can definitely resonate with the possibility of plant/earth/collective consciousness... and I think that moments of profound experiential oneness with anything/everything on various levels and realizations of previously unseen patterns/connections is a common theme in dedicated psychedelic use, by degrees... but I don't know if there is a 'most common message' when it comes to DMT. And earthly/gaia experiences resonate a bit more with my ayahuasca and mushroom experiences than vaped DMT.

After this thread though I honestly put very little weight in what Kent says The Mechanics of Hallucination - James Kent - Welcome discussion - Welcome to the DMT-Nexus

 

[Cognitive Heart]

It is clear within the entheogenic state that all psychedelics seem to point to one 'Gaian' realm of connectedness. With DMT, we are talking about the hyper-realm. Surely there are some 'Gaian'-like visions with DMT.

--

:thumb_up:

 

[○]

I always thought the term "gaian mind" was kind of limiting in its approach, as I feel when your fully dissolved - there - your just not dissolving within the bounds of the 'collective gaian mind' but are experiencing a type of boundary dissolution that extends much much farther and deeper than strictly within the limits of earth.

 

[cubeananda]

I always thought the term "gaian mind" was kind of limiting in its approach, as I feel when your fully dissolved - there - your just not dissolving within the bounds of the 'collective gaian mind' but are experiencing a type of boundary dissolution that extends much much farther and deeper than strictly within the limits of earth.

I fully respect the views you chose to present tat, I was considering responding with something in the same vein but then I saw this video

Genius photographer tells a story through pictures.

And it occurred to me that the spirit this man demonstrates is very similar to the "Gaian mind" (a term that we've miraculously managed to put together) and in fact what he is doing is similar to what ayahuasca and other "entheogens" (a word that spellcheck isn't even aware of) seem to be doing to us. Showing us beautiful images to capture our attention... Because that's what works.

 

[○]

I always thought the term "gaian mind" was kind of limiting in its approach, as I feel when your fully dissolved - there - your just not dissolving within the bounds of the 'collective gaian mind' but are experiencing a type of boundary dissolution that extends much much farther and deeper than strictly within the limits of earth.

I fully respect the views you chose to present tat, I was considering responding with something in the same vein but then I saw this video

Genius photographer tells a story through pictures.

And it occurred to me that the spirit this man demonstrates is very similar to the "Gaian mind" (a term that we've miraculously managed to put together) and in fact what he is doing is similar to what ayahuasca and other "entheogens" (a word that spellcheck isn't even aware of) seem to be doing to us. Showing us beautiful images to capture our attention... Because that's what works.

Awesome video. Those koalas were making my heart bend. But that whole video was beautiful, and I agree. The dmt experience shows us through symbols, scenes, etc, which those in turn are riddled with multiple lessons/meanings/etc per symbol/scene.

To elaborate more on what I said above. No matter whether it's another star system, planet, solar system, whatever - alls essentially made of 'matter', so imho, whether we take DMT on the confines of this planet, mars, the spacestation - i feel we would experience the same thing - more or less. Alls one - not just the 'gaian mind collectivity' as some suggest here, but the whole collectivity of the universe/physical reality, and in that 'collectivity' we transcend the physical confines of this reality, whether its here or 1,000,000 miles away on a far away world.

 

[Global]

To elaborate more on what I said above. No matter whether it's another star system, planet, solar system, whatever - alls essentially made of 'matter', so imho, whether we take DMT on the confines of this planet, mars, the spacestation - i feel we would experience the same thing - more or less. Alls one - not just the 'gaian mind collectivity' as some suggest here, but the whole collectivity of the universe/physical reality, and in that 'collectivity' we transcend the physical confines of this reality, whether its here or 1,000,000 miles away on a far away world.

I feel really conflicted about this. Physical location is an ambiguous topic when it comes to hyperspace IME. On one hand, there is evidence to suggest that you can be taken to the same places and see the same things despite one's physical locations. I've smoked DMT in multiple residences of mine hundreds of miles apart, and yet I've still managed to end up in the same dimensions, mansions, rooms, etc...

On the other hand, it should seem that my immediate physical environment can and typically has had an effect on the way I experience DMT, whether it be with eyes opened or closed - it makes no difference. If I am within the confines of a small room, the hyperspacial environment and imagery will tend to be very up close and in my face. Hyperspace fills the room I'm in like a fluid, fitting the physical container it's in. When I've done it outdoors which was far less often, hyperspace would balloon out away from me. Everything would become quite megalithic as it would expand outward, and then bob around and about me.

I'd like to think if I were in the space station under zero gravity conditions, that the experience of hyperspace would be somewhat different. Even when I've relaxed in a shallow tub of water after smoking DMT, the holograms bobbed before me in a very watery way. Whether or not this would change the content is harder to say. I am reluctant to call hyperspace the Gaian Mind because I've had experiences that were the antithesis of an earthly experience where I perceived myself as floating out in the vastness of space amongst colorful nebulae. There's a lot there that has nothing to do with anything seen on Earth. Hyperspace definitely can be a nexus of ancient cultures and what seems to be a cross cultural phenomenon, replete with various plants, animals from around the world and cellular/biological themes, but it's all held in stark contrast to all the completely unworldly things to be found in hyperspace.

Perhaps we can say that the Gain Mind is a component to hyperspace, but there is a grand sense of balance there. You can see the mathematically precise; the "logical" geometrical systems; the workings of a fully harmonious system...If one were to only note down these qualities of hyperspace, then one might have missed out on or neglected the antithetical experiences in which DMT reveals its goofy, asymmetrical, nonsensical geometries that can come across as comically irrational. DMT does not discriminate in these regards. To try and pin it down as any one thing is so tricky because it embodies just so much of the universe.

 

[Chadaev]

Thanks people for these considered replies.

The gist seems to be, as Global put it, that 'the Gaian mind is a component of hyperspace', but it aint the whole biscuit. And as Tatt suggests, or implies, these other experiences can relativise Gaia, from, for eg, a cosmic angle, or from the mystical angle of egoic dissolution. Or other angles, no doubt. Gaian consciousness is also, as Universecannon pointed out, a subset of unitive experiences generally, which emerge from psychedelics generally.

The way I see it modern western culture has been accompanied by this archetype ever since the German Romantic reaction to French rationalism. 1960s psychedelic use gave it a boost. But now aya in particular is seeding powerful experiences of this ancient but revamped God-image, ie, Mother Earth, into the general culture, exactly at the same time Mother Earth is suffering and is feared to be dying. She returns to consciousness, then, when she can no longer be taken for granted and when she begins to impose herself as objectively sacred, that is, as the existential background for a kind of ecological categorical imperative: act so as to defend the conditions for life!

DMT may well do the same, but DMT is less likely to generate heroes bent on defending Mother Earth, because DMT journeys are somewhat more likely to relativise her.

To my mind this is something of a pity - if it is accurate. I'd be love to see DMT supercharging the environmental movement.

 

[cubeananda]

End Ecocide

 

[Elpo]

From my experiences I feel you can't pinpoint one type of experience to one type of entheogen. In general I can say that mushrooms bring me closer to earth than dmt and manifest the Gaian mind much more clearly than dmt.

But then again I have had experiences on mushrooms where I have been in places that had nothing to do with earth. Everything just dissolved into this thick liquid where it all felt like one. This went from the internal world of thoughts to the external material world. They were both melting together.

In conclusion I think the title of the thread sounds true, but is not the absolute truth.

I remember something I read by Ken Wilber where he defined Nature and nature as two different things. When we say nature we mean trees, water, sand etc. But Nature is something bigger that encompasses all of this and all of us and well just all