Xenolinguistics: Psychedelics, Language, and the Evolution of Consciousness PDF
Preview Xenolinguistics: Psychedelics, Language, and the Evolution of Consciousness
Praise for Xenolinguistics “Xenolinguistics is one of the most compelling and interesting books that I’ve ever read in my life; I found it truly difficult to put down. Part frontier science, part mystery adventure, part alien language manual, and part interdisciplinary philosophy, this uniquely envisioned book is impossible to categorize in any traditional form. Slattery breaks new ground, bravely exploring the fascinating relationship between symbolic representation, psychonaut ‘downloads,’ consciousness, and reality. Future generations will surely recognize this cutting-edge book for helping to establish the foundation of humanity’s post-larval entry into the extraterrestrial and inter-dimensional arenas of interspecies communication. Masterfully crafted, alchemically blending a wide range of perspectives, and overflowing with fascinating details about secret languages, rare treasures composed of unusual information, and profound insights elegantly expressed. Psychedelic explorers, science fiction lovers, and students of the unexplained will savor every sentence in this brilliant and thought-provoking book. You can bet that the aliens are certainly paying attention!” —David Jay Brown, author of The New Science of Psychedelics and Mavericks of the Mind “Diana Reed Slattery’s Xenolinguistics is an extraordinary work: at once a heroic and breathtaking psychonaut’s tale, a highly original philosophical treatise concerning what happens at the edge of language and beyond, and a neurophenomenological meditation that beckons us towards sciences of the future.” —Marcus Boon, author of The Road of Excess: A History of Writers on Drugs “Seen through the lens of her perspectives on language, Slattery’s Xenolinguistics provides a comprehensive introduction to the possibilities of disciplined exploration of non-ordinary states of consciousness. Her work catalogues the ways that transdimensional reality may be accessed and explicates its utility as a kind of cosmic search engine from which information on individual self-transformation and collective human ventures may be gathered in a systematic and expedient way.” —Hidden Mountain, Women’s Visionary Congress “The ineffable Other has a faithful scribe, and it is Diana Reed Slattery. Slattery has crafted the first codex of languages reaching back to us from the unspeakable. Magic was always incanted into being through alien languages. Slattery has reopened the linguistic doorway for our return to magic. She bravely glided behind the mesh of the cosmos and returned with the news: it’s all built of language!” —Bruce Damer, PhD, author of Avatars!: Exploring and Building Virtual Worlds on the Internet “The intersection of human language and the psychedelic experience was initially brought to light through the work of Terence McKenna. Since his death in 2000, however, there has been far too little work in this field. In fact, I know of only one person who is qualified to take it to the next level. That person is Diana Reed Slattery. Her scholarly background, coupled with a deep understanding of psychedelic culture, places Diana in a perfect position to help us explore one of the central features of our lives, language. Whether you are an experienced psychonaut or budding linguist, Xenolinguistics: Psychedelics, Language, and the Evolution of Consciousness is a book that belongs in your personal library.” —Lorenzo Hagerty, host of Psychedelic Salon podcasts, and author of The Genesis Generation and The Spirit of the Internet “Slattery provides us with a first-person ethnographic account of the psychonautic landscape where a first-person science— phenomenological methods and self-reflexivity—organizes her encounters in entheogenic realms. She places psychedelic experiences within a discourse on the phenomenology of knowledge and epistemology and other psychonautic accounts. Her analyses provide a transdisciplinary scope for analyzing the nature of entheogenic worlds. Slattery illustrates how psychedelic technologies extend perception and the senses and permit a reorganization of reality within which the psychonaut functions as an ontological engineer of the entheogenic landscape. The book examines psychedelics in terms of their effects in enhancing certain aspects of extended perception and the increased focus on the mechanics of the formation of perception and reality. A combination of phenomenological description and neurological analysis leads us to a glimpse of a neurophenomenological understanding of the neurognostic landscape of crystal vision, extended perception, hyperconnectivity, hyperconductivity, and multilayered realities and consciousness. Xenolinguistics’ engagement with entheogenic realities through dialogue with the alien other and emergent xenolinguistic systems instills a zest for the exploration of the further realms of consciousness.” —Michael Winkelman, MPH, PhD, co-editor of Psychedelic Medicine and Altering Consciousness “Effing the ineffable—how to communicate the wordless unspeakable, think the preconceptual, visualize the invisible, symbolize the powerful-vague—psychedelicists and other travelers to other realms of consciousness have been stumped by these topics for millennia. By collecting current and historical examples, Slattery’s Xenolinguistics tackles these conundrums, applies current consciousness theories, and sheds light into these esoteric corners of human communication. Xenolinguistics challenges its readers to wrestle with these topics and to pursue further explorations. The result? A sort of psychedelic psycholinguistics plus an ineffable more.” —Thomas Roberts, PhD, author of The Psychedelic Future of the Mind Copyright © 2015 by Diana Reed Slattery. All rights reserved. No portion of this book, except for brief review, may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means— electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise—without written permission of the publisher. For information contact Evolver Editions c/o North Atlantic Books. Published by Evolver Editions, an imprint of North Atlantic Books P.O. Box 12327 Berkeley, California 94712 Cover art by Diana Reed Slattery Cover design by Mary Ann Casler, Michael Robinson, and Awake Media Interior design by Brad Greene Printed in the United States of America Xenolinguistics: Psychedelics, Language, and the Evolution of Consciousness is sponsored and published by the Society for the Study of Native Arts and Sciences (dba North Atlantic Books), an educational nonprofit based in Berkeley, California, that collaborates with partners to develop cross-cultural perspectives, nurture holistic views of art, science, the humanities, and healing, and seed personal and global transformation by publishing work on the relationship of body, spirit, and nature. DISCLAIMER: The following information is intended for general information purposes only. The publisher does not advocate illegal activities but does believe in the right of individuals to have free access to information and ideas. Any application of the material set forth in the following pages is at the reader’s discretion and is his or her sole responsibility. North Atlantic Books’ publications are available through most bookstores. For further information, visit our website at www.northatlanticbooks.com or call 800-733-3000. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Slattery, Diana Reed. Xenolinguistics : psychedelics, language, and the evolution of consciousness / Diana Reed Slattery. pages cm Includes bibliographical references. Summary: “Explores the premise that language and consciousness co-evolve in the highly plastic human brain as features of both our biological and social evolution. Author Diana Reed Slattery shares how psychedelic states of consciousness can produce novel forms of language and healing”—Provided by publisher. ISBN 978-1-58394-599-5 eBook ISBN: 978-1-58394734-0 1. Psycholinguistics. 2. Psychonautics. 3. Altered states of consciousness. I. Title. P37.S516 2015 401’.9—dc 3 2013045339 v3.1 to the principle of cognitive liberty Acknowledgments I thank Roy Ascott of the Planetary Collegium for academic support for my “outsider” doctoral work. Without his help, this book would not be. And I thank Dennis McKenna and Tom Ray for answering so many of my questions so patiently. Most of the others I would like to thank are my fellow psychonauts who gave so generously of their materials, tips, tricks, and cautionary tales. For obvious reasons, they shall not be named.
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