divined and we come to directly experience a symbolic and unmuddied dialogue with the Other, where the Other is precisely the self-organizing property of the information embodied in the neuronal firing activity. In this sense the Other is a latent form of information that can potentially be brought to life through the processing mechanisms hard-wired within the brain. Neuronal information, by shaping itself in constrained ways, allows definite motifs to emerge, representative of the symbolic language of the transcendental Other. This language is activated and perceived during both the lucid dream state and the psilocybin-induced psychedelic state. Both states are natural and both derive from the capacity of the brain to coalesce and organize large amounts of information.
Reality Expansion
From what has been discussed thus far concerning the psilocybin experience, it might seem as if the eyes- shut visionary state is the prime effect, yet with eyes open one encounters equal perceptual wonders. The world appears as if new, bursting with a significance and beauty that literally brushes one’s soul. One sees more clearly than one could imagine, as if an occluding cloud had been graciously dispelled to reveal the sheer unadulterated “isness” of reality. Visual perception is experienced as though it were the finest grain cinematography able to pick up upon a luxury of detail previously hidden. Objects in the environment may appear to be interconnected and part of a fluid coherent pattern. Great thoughts occur to one, unbidden yet full of profound import, as if the very secrets of existence were suddenly in one’s grasp. This is the very least that can be stated. How can such phenomenology be accounted for in our information-integration model?
Regarding psilocybin’s radical enhancement of visual perception, it seems logical to surmise that a change in the functioning of serotonergic systems facilitates a greater “absorption” of the external information impinging upon the eyes. More information inherent in light flows through the visual system and into the brain, and this is experienced as breathtaking visual clarity. Since we humans are effectively embedded in an ocean of photic information, by subtly altering brain chemistry we can allow a tidal influx of this informational sea of light to sweep over the visual system, leaving us awash in perceptual data.
All objects, whether organic or inorganic, possess an intrinsic meaning or set of relations to other objects. They possess informational content, linked as they are to a network of relations with other objects. As discussed earlier, to see an object is not merely to apprehend its shape or color, but to access its meaning. After all, the retina of the eye only records an inverted two-dimensional pattern of light intensities, much as computer vision records arrays of light intensity values. This is not seeing. Real seeing, as we know it, involves the perception of what the object signifies. To see an object is to perceive, all at once, its role, function, and relations—that is, its meaning—within a vast network of objects.
Under the spell of psilocybin, I suggest that one is able to penetrate deeper into the informational content of objects, akin perhaps to accessing a higher dimension that is otherwise occluded. This is a bit like looking up a word in a dictionary and noting
Informative Dialogues
As to the wealth of revelatory thoughts and ideas that erupt into consciousness during psychedelic ecstasy, these would appear to be, as with visions, a manifestation of the Other, in that they represent the holistic patterning of neuron-mediated information. This may often be experienced as a kind of internal dialogue with a wise being. Profound thoughts take on a rapidly flowing life of their own, generating further thoughts and insights. It is impossible not to once more invoke language here as a conceptual explanatory tool, though this type of inner psychedelic language involving complex thoughts and ideation works far more efficiently than the language system of the spoken word. Everyday language appears sluggish and cumbersome in contrast to the language of psychedelic contemplation, which moves at a profoundly different pace. Indeed, the sheer fluency and dramatic insightfulness of psychedelic contemplation explains its emotional impact and ineffability.
If we conceive of language in whatever mode as a communicatory information system, we can see that its modes are many and varied, all operating at different speeds and with different properties. The principle however is the same. There is a flow of information and a natural progression that yields further information, just as with spoken dialogue. When we communicate with one another in conventional language, whether written or spoken, we initiate a dialogue in which information is exchanged. Regardless of whether this dialogue is one-sided or not, the process is dynamic in that information flows from one system to another, from one person to another, from one brain to another, from one mind to another.
With psychedelic contemplation, an internal dialogue ensues in which a flow of ideas takes place between the self and the Other, where the Other is a dissociated or higher-level informational source acting as one component in the dialogue process. Through psilocybin’s activating influence, the psyche becomes a conduit to the Other, facilitating a dialogue of thought in which radical knowledge is received. It’s an incredible idea to be sure, yet, as I hope I have made clear, the psilocybin experience demands these kinds of incredible explanation.
We are now equipped with a model that views consciousness as a particular pattern of information embodied in the rapidly flowing electrochemical state of the brain. And we also have an informational entity that we can call the Other that is activated and brought to life after the ingestion of psychedelic alkaloids like psilocybin. Both consciousness and the Other can be better understood as processes (or verbs) as opposed to things, moreover processes involving the patterning, or focusing, or coalescing, or orchestration, of vast amounts of information.
Now we must turn to the nature of information itself. In particular, we shall look at information outside of the brain and see if it too can be understood in the same way. Does an informational language underlie Nature itself? Can molecules and atoms be interpreted as informational elements in a molecular or physical language? Is everything made of information? If so, does the reality process ultimately consist of a flow of self-organizing language-like information? Did our man Einstein emerge out of, grow up in, become famous in, and eventually die in an essentially informational reality process? Read on, then, for my psilocybin mushroom tale has hardly even begun. Information, it seems, cannot be stopped.
SEVEN
A Universe of Information
Nature’s entheogenic agents have provided compelling evidence for the following two most interesting of propositions: first, that consciousness is a form of information substantiated within the brain’s neuronal firing activity and, second, that this kind of cerebral information has a tendency to organize and integrate itself. Evidence in support of the first proposition was provided by looking at the ways that consciousness becomes altered according to subtle changes in brain chemistry, especially changes occurring at synapses. Chemically induced changes to global states of neuronal firing are synonymous with changes in consciousness, and since global states of neuronal firing must be global states of information (what else could they be?) we can conclude that
