Free Will, Entheogens and Conspiracy Theory

As i see it, we are caught between two very different realities... our western “scientific” thought and the spirit world entheogens have brought us. It isn’t as easy as it looks to blend the two together.

Most of us started out under the assumption that our thoughts and behavior are the result of our conscious choices. Lately research has shown that our behavior is the result of all kinds of external influences, like our peers, our place in the sibling order, advertising and such. Then there is the iron grip of our DNA, reptilian brain and other internal subconscious processes that play a role. Our understanding of what it means to have “free will” has taken a beating.

Likewise, our beliefs, those obvious truths that anchor us firmly in reality, have been shown to be almost arbitrary, certainly not the solid material we had before quantum physics.

So, this morning i’m reading, “You are what you eat”.
http://fuschmu.wordpress.com/2009/05/01/you-are-what-you-eat/

It is about a protozoan, Toxoplasma gondii. This is the parasite that alters the behavior of rodents so they have a better chance of being eaten by cats, the protozoan’s preferred host. It is very interesting stuff.

That led me to two articles that discuss the behavioral changes found in humans infected by same.
Can the common brain parasite, Toxoplasma gondii, influence human culture?
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1635495
Effects of Toxoplasma on Human Behavior
http://schizophreniabulletin.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/33/...

There are many examples from the nature where parasites, microbes and fungi alter the behavior of their hosts to gain some benefit. I have been pointing them out for years. Like the relationship between ants and the fungi they farm.

"When the young queen from one of these nests goes out to found a new colony, she has her infrabuccal pouch filled with the fungus on which the colony has lived for millions of years. After being fertilized, she seeks out a likely spot, grubs out a small chamber, and casts her wad of fungus out on the floor. As soon as the mold begins to grow from this pellet, she lays an egg or two, crushes these, and mixes them with the growing fungus. She also mixes her excrement with the compost... This is not done just casually and by chance, but deliberately and by intent.”

Then there’s the fungus that grows in the South American rain forests... When a spore lands on the insect, it bores through the "exoskeleton", and begins to grow in its new home. Once inside the victim, the fungus takes over the nervous system of the ant and causes it to "climb to locations favorable for the dispersal of the fungus spores!"

from, On the Right Hand of God
http://geocities.com/hot4guano/otrhog/sacrifice.html

In both of these cases fungi altered the behavior of their hosts in significant ways.

When we trace the history of human behavior we find the entheogens involved at every turn. Our earliest use of language, symbols, weapons, warfare, religion and everything else related to civilization is bound into our relationship with the “gods”; the big three being amanita muscaria, ergot and the psilocybians.

We are here because of our connection to entheogens. Not only the historic influence that has molded our cultures, but on an individual level, it was our connection to entheogens that pointed us in the direction of this transformation.

Entheogens change behavior. When use of an entheogen dominates a culture over time, unique behavioral patterns develop. Mixing cultures stirs those patterns into a complimentary stew. So we have the god of war(amanita), sharing in the spoils with the gods of agriculture(ergot) and animal husbandry(psilocybians), not to mention lesser gods like the mold that produces alcohol or maybe even Toxoplasma gondii.

Plants, protozoans and animals each have an MO, an agenda, a plan they follow to interact with their environment. Part of that plan is how to initiate and maintain symbiotic partnerships. Consciousness, altered and otherwise, is the medium of communication between symbiots.

My point is that the entheogens have had a greater influence on our civilization than our western trained minds want to accept. “Oh, that’s just chemicals in the brain...” Chemicals indeed, ones that carry messages from one species to another, ones that are used to negotiate symbiotic relationships. Chemicals that have altered our human consciousness and history.

So why do we believe/act the way we do? Certainly it is a combination of internal and external influences, but the role of one’s current and ancestral entheogenic practices may have more to do with it than we expect.

Why do some folks sense an underlying conspiracy that manages world events? Why do others sense the same as a benevolent force? And still others deny any force beyond “human nature”? Have we come by these feelings by any rational means or have they been laid on us by our plant teachers? Or is there a difference?

Until we really understand our relationship with these plants, we will continue to be confused.