Extracultural

Cultures are boundary-defining engines; that’s what they do. They teach you: “We do it this way. Don’t go there—in your mind, in your heart. Follow the rules! Follow the rules!” Cultures are like operating systems. You know, at Ur and at—well, Ur will do—they set up a stele in the center of the marketplace, and on the stele they carved the laws.... See more

Culture is more and more reflecting what we are. We are going to be the horrified witnesses of the revelation of the true nature of the human soul. We are going to find out what everybody else only wondered about, which is: who are we really? What will we do with ourselves when we are freed from the constraints of gravity, energy—and, yes, morality... See more

Culture is a closed system of thinking and values, of the sort I am denouncing. And the greatest barrier to your enlightenment, your education, and your decency, is your culture. And I realize with joy that here I skirt the bounds of political correctness, because everyone is running around saying, you know, “Recapture your roots, get in touch with... See more

it’s no surprise to me that society is very nervous around this issue, because society’s eggs are all in one basket and the psychedelically inspired citizen, or the psychedelically inspired shaman, is a dangerous force. Even in traditional societies, the shaman is central to the social functioning, and the health, and so forth, but is never allowed... See more

culture and ideology are not your friends. They are not your friends. This is a hard thing to come to terms with, because a certain kind of alienation lies at the end of this thought process. On the other hand, you can’t live in the cradle forever. You can’t be clueless forever. So somebody might as well just lay it out for you and say culture is... See more

But when Gertrude Stein declined to label her desire as lesbian, she was, as I understand it, saying something like this: thinking in categories would interfere with my ability to freely pattern-match for the particular type of individual I resonate with.

Some people think Stein was lying when she said she wasn’t lesbian. And they are disappointed... See more