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This week I welcome back psychedelic film-maker and culture-cultivator Mitch Schultz, Director of the legendary documentary DMT: The Spirit Molecule, alongside our mutual co-conspirator, experience design consultant and psychedelic provocateur Shanta Stevens. The two of them have formed a nucleus at Uniphi Studio around which a new transmedia documentary project is emerging — The Conscious Molecule — which will reflect on the decade-plus since Schultz’s groundbreaking documentary on the science and philosophy of DMT to look at these themes through a MUCH wider aperture. The three of us go deep and broad on a very far-ranging constellation of topics:
(0:00:01) - AI, Psychonautics, Digital Media, Language Models, and The Third Western Psychedelic Revolution
(0:17:25) - The Future of AI-Human Cooperation
(0:26:42) - Consciousness, Complexity, and Panpsychism
(0:31:28) - Randomness, Entanglement, Decentralization, and The Conscious Molecule
(0:38:46) - Exploring Consciousness and Futures
(0:42:23) - The Future of Journalism and The Role of Independent Documentaries
(0:47:55) - Psychedelic Therapy and The Overview Effect
(0:51:43) - Transcension Hypothesis, UFOs, and Quantum Physics
(0:57:43) - Altered States, Self-Reprogramming, Initiations, and Integration
(1:03:32) - Technology's Impact on Consciousness and Humanity
(1:13:08) - DataViz, Hyperdimensional Passports, The Future of Identity, and The Role of Community
If that sounds like a whirlwind, it is! Find a cozy recliner — and maybe an eye mask — and book an appointment with your favorite peer support/integration counselor, because this is going to be a ride…
NOTE: I’m delighted to drop this episode in the midst of a smoking hot debate about what does and does not qualify as “pseudoscience” in the research of consciousness (see coverage by Flora Graham and Erik Hoel). LOL
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✨ Special thanks to my friends at Noonautics.org for supporting both the show and pioneering research!
✨ Mentions:
“Cognition All The Way Down” by Daniel Dennett and Michael Levin
James Oroc
Seth Lloyd
David Chalmers
DMT: The Spirit Molecule by Rick Strassman
Infoboros: Recursion Across Mind, Matter, and Information by Vidur Mishra
Darwin’s Pharmacy: Sex, Plants, and The Evolution of The Noosphere by Richard Doyle
Alfred North Whitehead
Gregory Bateson
John Conway
Bruce Damer
Reggie Watts
Melissa Etheridge
Tommy Pallotta
Klee Irwin
ESPD ’55
Wade Davis
Dennis McKenna
Psychedelic Science 2023
“Corporate Metabolism” by Paco Xander-Nathan
William Shatner
Mark Nelson
Alien Information Theory: Psychedelic Drug Technologies and the Cosmic Game by Andrew Gallimore
“The transcension hypothesis: Sufficiently advanced civilizations invariably leave our universe, and implications for METI and SETI” by John Smart
Ramana Maharshi
Ken Wilber
The Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep by Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche
In Over Our Heads: The Mental Demands of Modern Life by Robert Kegan
Michael Persinger
Luminarium by Alex Shakar
“Why Ibogaine Is Not The Answer To The Opioid Crisis” by Jonathan Dickinson and Dimitri Mugianis
R. Buckminster Fuller
Liv Boeree
Meditation Death Match
✨ Keywords:
AI, Artificial Intelligence, Consciousness, Reality, Panpsychic Perspective, Materialist Neurobiological Model, Daniel Dennett, Michael Levin, Cognition All the Way Down, Ethical Implications, Human Development, Information Bombs, Digital Media, Psychonauts, Cyber Culture, Third Western Psychedelic Revolution, Kickstarter, Future Fossils, Album, AI Music Videos, Patreon, Substack, Evolution of Human Beings, Data Streams, Complexity of Systems, Empathy, Life System, Documentaries, Journalism, Hollywood Strike, Unions, Documentary Funding, International Multi-Billion Dollar Psychedelic Industry, UFO Phenomenon, Altered States, Self-Reprogramming, Technology Impact, Humanity, Hyperdimensional Passport, Metaphysical Stamps, Media Ecosystem, Visualizing Data Structures, Neurological Alignment, Spirit Taking Form
👁️🧠🎧 210 - Mitch Schultz & Shanta Stevens on Documenting The Next Psychedelic Revolution