Blog 1

Blog 1
9/1/09
Chapters 1-3

I am probably not alone in saying that my initial reaction was one of confounding dizziness. This dizziness was not only in trying to piece together all of the technical ideas and theories outlined in the first few chapters, but also (initially) to glean the overall idea of the book as it relates to altered states of consciousness and this class in general. I did not expect to lead off with a book based on scientific discoveries in the areas of science that range from quantum physics to microbiology, but this is the overall thought I am having to the reading… thus far.

I am getting that the underlying theme of the book is connection, in all its wonderfully connective forms. The story is trying to show that there are connections occurring in various and often incompatible areas of science, as well as connections to centuries old eastern spiritual believes and even right down to the connection of all life in all of space and time to one another.

The first time reading through these chapters, I must admit, I felt a little overwhelmed and that the material was way out of my realm of understanding, but if you read the preface (which I decided to do after the fact) I found that my murky assumptions of what I thought was being said were in the most part, true. The author outlines in simple laymen’s terms what she later goes into great technical detail about and says that the connections are what matter… (This is my liberally paraphrasing).

This led me to start thinking about how this book and idea of connectedness can be tied into the idea of altered states of consciousness and their effects on people’s minds, perspectives and creative functions. I found a passage in the preface on pg. XIX where the author says that, “The remarkable discoveries of these scientists suggested to me that modern man was viewing the world through a blurred lens, and that applying these new discoveries to our lives would require nothing less than making our world anew.”

This makes a lot of sense to me. The idea that what is it that shapes our consciousness, our methods; our ways… is all based on what we have been learning from previous generations. This knowledge gives us a basis or foundation for building our realities. When something new and groundbreaking comes along that we are taught or hear or experience, this knowledge has a very real way of altering our state of minds and our perceptions of the world around us. For instance, if all you knew your entire life was that the world was flat and that if you traveled too far away, that you would just fall off the edge… and then one day some guy sails away and manages to comeback from the opposite direction from which he came…. PROVING to you that the world is in fact round…. That would blow your mind. Your very construction of how you view the world and the geography, let alone the new and infinite possibilities to explore with this new found knowledge… I firmly believe that this would change you for good. I think that, if you had to identify what substance it is in this particular book that is the catalyst, or mind-altering factor in an individual’s perceptions, it would have to be knowledge. Not a drug, or a state of being per-say, but cold hard facts, presented to you for a first time. This kind of knowledge has the power to transform not only your views on science, but on the entirety of your whole existence.

Hannah