The best spiritual technologies:

Regenerative Culture Spiritual Technology
#1

I think the best spiritual technologies should be humbling. Not in the sense that they are awe-inspiring, but rather ones that force us to question the nature of reality, and show a true reverance for the delicate ecosystems that support our sentience. I don’t really want to turn this into an overly existential discussion, but I do believe that a respect for nature goes hand in hand with a gratitude toward reality. I think at one point in my life I was convinced that mother nature had put ethenogens on earth to help human beings relate to her on a spiritual level. Why else would the chemicals fit our receptors so perfectly? Sadly, the western society that condemned it now has turned it into an amusement park ride, rather than the humbling and enlightening journey that shamans of milennias past have taken to help their people. The awe is gone.

What contraptions or tools would you utilize to inspire respect for our existence and the things that allow us to ponder it?

#2

for whom?
I know more than a few animists and rewilders who’d beg to differ…

#3

[quote=“tsuchi akurei, post:2, topic:351”][quote author=grapefruit link=topic=374.msg3735#msg3735 date=1187363581]
The awe is gone.

[/quote]

for whom?
I know more than a few animists and rewilders who’d beg to differ…[/quote]

You see, but that is the “few”. There are always exceptions. But the society as a whole has destroyed the journey, and turned into a mindless joyride.

#4
What contraptions or tools would you utilize to inspire respect for our existence and the things that allow us to ponder it?

Gratitude.

Giving thanks. Quietly and out loud. Personally and formally. One of the most powerful tools in my experience is giving thanks … for the herbs, trees, waters, sun, moon, earth, birds, mammals, herps, invertebrates, clouds, wind, stars, and whatever else you feel thankful for. Everyday. Even several times a day.

An extension of that… Keep your mind on what you want more of in your world, and off of what you don’t want. To be specific, acknowledge when you see something that works, something that you admire, find beautiful, and that you want.

A daily sitspot.

A spot you have chosen in nature, whether in the city or suburbs or wilds that you can sit with, sit in and be part of for at least 30 minutes a day. If that’s not doable, do it for 5 days a week. Or as many times as possible.

Combine the two…

Powerful stuff…

Straight outta the Kamana Naturalist Training Program from Wilderness Awareness School.

I think at one point in my life I was convinced that mother nature had put ethenogens on earth to help human beings relate to her on a spiritual level. Why else would the chemicals fit our receptors so perfectly?

Have you since changed your mind?

I think it is a good theory, but is also often used as a great excuse by those who see them as you said as an amusement park ride for the mind.

Sadly, the western society that condemned it now has turned it into an amusement park ride, rather than the humbling and enlightening journey that shamans of milennias past have taken to help their people. The awe is gone.

Hmmm. The awe is gone… perhaps for many, it is. Yet, there are those who are conscious of the power plants that can help to re-connect us with the Spirit World. As with times in the past, the few carry the knowledge forward. Even in times of great oppression or indifference.

The best thing to do with the knowledge seems to be to master it and carry it on, as well as share it with those eager to learn. The trick is to share it with those who show respect and awareness of the power, not just as a tool for their amusement. Also, seek those who know and care and share with them, as well as learn from them. That seems to be in part what this website is all about…

;D

#5

I’m reluctant to use the word ‘best’, for as they say ones trash is another treasure and as I see it the numerous options for spirit tech (ritual?) are so diverse, boundless even, that what is most effective might change from day to day without any particular methods emerging as the best. I believe reverence respect and gratitude, as well as celebration and blessing, come with the territory, that they are an undeniably inclusive parts of the connection to the land, to put it a bit differntly - the sharing in the heartbeat of the cosmos and the sounding of our own melody within the symphonic harmony of the world around us, we’re all trying to make, or have made and are attempting to maintain.

I think at one point in my life I was convinced that mother nature had put ethenogens on earth to help human beings relate to her on a spiritual level. Why else would the chemicals fit our receptors so perfectly?

A quote from Terrence McKenna.

At still higher doses psilocybin triggers this activity in the language-forming capacity of the brain that manifests as song and vision. Psilocybin may have synergized the emergence of higher forms of psychic organization out of primitive protohuman animals. It can be seen as a kind of evolutionary enzyme, or evolutionary catalyst

Such ingestions are a journey, and like all journeys the safety of the trekker depends on their preparedness alertness and prudence. I knew this one guy who read The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test and came to the conclusion that psychedellics were going to help him break all his unwanted schizoid cycles and live his life again, this time with adventure!, and all his experiences with such things accomplished was a harsh nudge toward a life as an incomprehensible, reprehensible alcoholic.

No gifts received from such journeys are free. Forgetting that is a major mistake and could result in major catastrophe.

What contraptions or tools would you utilize to inspire respect for our existence and the things that allow us to ponder it?
Giving thanks... Everyday. Even several times a day.

Heck, all day. Live your life as a living prayer, not prayer as in petition but an expression your own highly individualized beauty and thus a participation in the beauty you perceive.

#6

[tt]What contraptions or tools would you utilize to inspire respect for our existence and the things that allow us to ponder it?[/tt]

Psilocybe Cubensis, 5g, dried. Try not to puke on the overwhelming reality of how shitty these things can taste to certain people :wink:

I would also try large amounts of sassafrass and calmus root tea. It’s the best legal trip I’ve taken.

If you’d like to contact interdimensional sentience, all one needs is to pull up a few DMT molecules to your sensory receptors, and a diaper in case you shit your pants.

#7
I would also try large amounts of sassafrass and calmus root tea. It's the best legal trip I've taken.

Do you mix them together, or are you talking about two separate and distinct teas that both work individually?

I have heard of folks tripping on sassafras before. I guess I’ve just never gotten it strong enough or drank enough of it. It does make my tongue a little numb, which I like. :slight_smile:

#8

The combination is something I thought of, considering the individual uses of the herbs. Sassafrass is the source plant for the safrole molecule. You’ll notice that most sassafrass extracts advertise ‘explicitly’ as ‘safrole-free’ this molecule, found at high concetrations in the root of the tree, is one chemical reaction away from MDA, and one chemical reaction away from MDMA. So that should give you an idea as to what realm the effect fall in.

There is also an extract of calamus root found in Shuglin’s ‘Tikal’ that leads to a visual stimulant alkaloid. It is know that the native uses of calamus was to be chewed on when long periods of work would be required, for strength and fortitude. It also make a great visionary incense.

there should be around everyone right now morning glory flowers that are starting to fade. these seeds contain a psychadelic lysrgic acid, the mother molecule for LSD…

I could go on… but these are what are seasonal right now in the early fall of the midwest.

#9

I’m definitely not opposed to entheogens. Were they legal, I would partake (society’s foot is larger than mine, and I don’t want to get kicked).

Meditation can also cause your brain to emit various entheogens. Remember: most of these things work because they are normal chemicals that our bodies produce all the time. So, figure out how to make your body produce them when you want, and you can have a free “trip”, anytime, anywhere.

I don’t like that word “trip”. Hmmm… You can have a free realization? A free understanding? A free experience of your real nature? Those are better.

#10

journey? not all guns are loaded…

Coleus, Salvia, Mimosa, Hens and Chickens(poppies), Datura, San Pedro are all legitimate landscaping plants free for you to grow (just donm’t put on your tax return that you harvested it, and you’ll be fine)