from MEGABRAIN REPORT VOL. 2 NO. 1
Edited by Michael Hutchison


                      THE LAUGHING BUDDHA:
        TECHNO-SHAMANISM AND THE DEMOCRATIZATION OF BLISS

                      by Michael Hutchison


       WHO WANTS TO SLEEP (WHEN THERE'S A PARTY GOIN' ON)?

The neuroscientific breakthroughs of the last decade have
established beyond doubt that given the proper type of stimulation,
the ordinary human brain has extraordinary or exceptional powers,
that what we call "normal" consciousness is in fact a sort of sleep
from which we "awaken" when we enter peak or heightened states.
And, as the neuroscientific research has made clear, these
nonordinary or "metanormal" powers are not mysterious, but the
result of clear and quantifiable changes in the patterns of
neurological activity of the brain.

We've all had the experience of shifting into a heightened or
metanormal state--call it lucidity, insight, mastery, wisdom,
enlightenment, grace, bliss, satori, creativity, learning, waking
up--a state in which we know beyond doubt that our ordinary state
is a deep sleep compared to this rich awakening. And we know too,
this is how we should be all the time. After all, sleep is a fine
and restful state, but who among us would choose to spend our
entire lives in even the most comfortable bed? Most of us would
like to be in this high-gear, high-efficiency state as often as
possible.

In fact, it has become clear that humans are genetically programmed
to seek out these altered, awakened states. I believe, and recent
evidence supports my belief, that a key to human evolution, to our
species' rapid growth in brain size, and to our unique creative
capacities, has been our instinctive drive to experience these
metanormal or exceptional realms of consciousness and performance.
From kids who spin themselves into dizzy altered states and
euphorically roll down hills, to performers, surgeons, rock
climbers, chess players or creative artists who find that the most
vital and rewarding parts of their lives occur when they're in a
state of "flow," humans naturally crave the experience of being
awake.

Psychiatrist Stanislav Grof, M.D., who has spent his career
studying the effects of nonordinary states of consciousness,
observes that  "the transcendental impulse is the most vital and
powerful force in human beings."  This human impulse to connect
with the spiritual domain, Grof has found, is so powerful that "It
resembles, in its nature, sexuality, but is much more fundamental
and compelling."

Michael Murphy, founder of Esalen Institute, and author of The
Future of the Body, a massive compilation of examples of
exceptional human performance, has classified exceptional or peak
performance into a dozen different realms, among which are:

*Extraordinary perceptions of things outside ourselves, such as
        transcendent beauty in ordinary things;
*Exceptional somatic or body awareness, such as voluntary control
        of blood pressure or heart rate;
*Nonordinary communication abilities, such as the communication of
        thoughts and mental states;
*Phenomenonal vitality, as when we perform "superhuman" feats;
*Extraordinary movement abilities, such as uncanny athletic
        agility;
*Inexplicable abilities to influence events at a distance, such as
        spiritual healing;
*Exceptional abilities to alter pain and pleasure, such as delight
        that persists despite sickness or adversity;
*Extraordinary cognitions, such as creative insights, mystical
        experiences, and the works of genius; and
*Love that transcends personal wants and needs and manifests a
        fundamental unity with others.

All of us exhibit each of these attributes in an ordinary way.
But we can also manifest these attributes in an extraordinary or
metanormal way. In the right place, at the right time (when your
child is trapped under a car, when you're under extreme pressure,
when you suddenly fall in love, when you take a certain psychedelic
substance) and so on.

We all perceive external events, for example, to take the first
attribute on Murphy's list--we perceive the doorbell ringing, we
perceive the voice of a friend talking to us. But we've all had the
experience of perceiving external events in an entirely different
way--with a sudden cleansing of "the doors of perception," a seeing
of "ordinary" reality with extraordinary new sense of clarity,
significance and illumination.

We all have movement abilities, but many of us have experienced
times--often in sports--when we are suddenly playing "in the zone,"
when the baseball speeding at you seems so big and slow you can
count the stitches and see which way they're spinning, when you
effortlessly drive the golf ball 50 yards farther than you ever
have before, when you suddenly execute with ease a perfect and
seemingly impossible backhand.

In virtually every aspect of our lives, humans are capable of
performing exceptionally--in a peak state.

There is now strong evidence that these experiences are essential.
Without our moments of being awake, in the zone, we become sick.
As Stanislav Grof observes, "human beings have a profound need for
transpersonal experiences and for states in which they transcend
their individual identities to feel their place in a larger whole
that is timeless.  This spiritual craving seems to be more basic
and compelling than the sexual drive, and if it is not satisfied
it can result in serious psychological disturbances."


                IN SEARCH OF TOOLS FOR WAKING UP

A central thread running through human history has been the quest
for effective and reliable techniques for entering these awakened
states--"spiritual technologies."  Humans have devoted an enormous
amount of ingenuity and effort to finding gateways to this realm
of lucidity. And in their compulsive pursuit of these
transcendental experiences, humans have always used the most
advanced technology available to them, from the earliest technology
of creating and manipulating fire and light, to the technology of
drums and chants, onward through human history. Technology, after
all, comes from the Greek words technos and logos, meaning, in
essence, an organized way of using reason, or the systematic
application of a body of knowledge. Using technology, then, has
much to do with what it means to be human.

One of the most ancient spiritual technologies is shamanism.  This
pragmatic system of mind-body techniques is, in the estimation of
anthropologist Michael Harner, at least 30,000 to 50,000 years old-
-probably far older--and surely emerges out of techniques developed
over the course of human evolution. Out of shamanism and
paralleling it have emerged a vast number of other spiritual
technologies, including the mind-body exercises of yoga, and a rich
variety of esoteric schools, mystery cults and technological
rituals, including gnosticism, Sufism, Kaballism, trantricism,
taoism, alchemy and meditation.

In exploring these spiritual technologies, humans have pounded on
drums, danced, chanted, fasted, tried different ways of breathing,
stood on their heads, spent years in dark caves, prayed, muttered
magic phrases, eaten wild herbs and plants, gazed into fires,
devised odd sexual practices, contemplated symbols, created
stirring rituals.

And the ingenuity and effort paid off.  Humans have devised a
variety of technologies for entering peak states that really do
work. One example is the vast array of meditative practices,
including types of chanting, dancing, breathing, sitting still,
moving, maintaining control over the mind.  They work. But a
problem is that for most people they only work imperfectly,
unpredictably. It's interesting to note, for example, that studies
of the brainwaves of many people who claim to be "experienced" or
"long term" meditators have revealed that a substantial number of
these individuals are actually only in a state of light alpha--a
relaxing, passive state, but quite different from the distinctive
brainwave patterns of true, deep meditative states.

And perhaps the most frustrating and discouraging aspect for many
about the various spiritual technologies is that they often require
enormous amounts of practice--hard, rigorous discipline--before
they really work powerfully and reliably. Studies of Zen monks, for
example, have shown that for the most part, virtually the only
monks who can get into the deepest state of Zen meditation quickly
and at will are those who have meditated for over 20 years.

So throughout human history, the awakened state--lucidity,
illumination, mastery, serenity, ecstasy, grace--has been for many
a tantalizing goal. Sometimes it emerges, out of nowhere,
spontaneously, and for a few moments we are there. And then, it is
gone again. As despite the wealth of spiritual technologies
available, most of us have discovered, it's no easy thing to enter
these peak performance domains at will.

          TECHNO-SHAMANISM AND TOOLS FOR TRANSCENDENCE

All that has changed forever as a result of recent breakthroughs
in neuroscience and technology.  First, scientists have begun to
discover what happens in our brain when we enter those nonordinary
states, and they have found that the brain undergoes a number of
clear and quantifiable changes, including changes in brainwave
activity and patterns of brain activation.

What's more, it's now clear that it doesn't require years of
training or mysterious meditative powers to produce these unique
patterns of brain activity associated with peak brain states. In
fact, the scientists have found that these changes can be actively
and quickly induced using external mechanical stimulations or
devices such as flickering lights, minute electrical current,
flotation tanks, precise combinations of pulsating sound waves, or
rhythmic physical movement.

Out of these discoveries have emerged a variety of high-tech gizmos
that hundreds of thousands of people are now using regularly to
experience altered, enjoyable and in many cases awakened or
transcendent states. In other words, science has now revealed that
mind machines can be seen as our own technological culture's
spiritual tools: techno-shamanism.

It's important to note that a variety of studies emerging over
recent years has suggested that the mechanically induced peak
states seem to be as "real" in their psychobiological effects as
the peak states attained through rigorous meditative practice.
Because, of course, being able to produce the physical brain
patterns of meditation in someone is interesting, but as we all
know, there's a big difference between someone who's mechanically
producing the patterns of a dance step, and actual dancing.

But repeated testing has made it clear that, for the subjects being
stimulated, this mechanical stimulation of the brain could produce
subjective experiences that seemed qualitatively identical to or
indistinguishable from the heightened states attained by
traditional techniques.  For example, it's now apparent that people
who use such brain-tech tools as light and sound (LS) devices,
flotation tanks, cranial electrostimulators (CES), acoustic field
systems (or "sound beds") and more, can undergo profound beneficial
personality transformations, experience life-altering spiritual
insights, and more.

                       POWER TO THE PEOPLE
Perhaps the most intriguing and important conflict throughout human
history has been the continuing struggle between the forces of
authority and those individuals seeking freedom to follow their
own exploratory impulses.  The forces of authority, aware that
their power over others rests on maintaining the status quo, have
throughout the ages attempted to restrict social change by
controlling or suppressing the flow of information. The seekers of
social change and individual freedom, on the other hand, have
always attempted to spread new information as widely as possible.
Compare, for example, the jealous guarding of information by
ancient rulers, emperors and church authorities with the command
of Jesus to his disciples to "go out into the world and spread the
Gospel."

In the area of spiritual wisdom and spiritual technologies, this
has meant that throughout history those in positions of spiritual
authority, those in control of the spiritual technologies, and who
seek to maintain power, have attempted to keep the spiritual
technologies secret.  Thus they have perpetuated the tradition of
spiritual "mysteries," known only to a small circle of initiates,
passed down to selected individuals who will perpetuate the
tradition and maintain the secrecy--and the authority--of the
spiritual technologies.

On the other hand, the seekers of change, wanting to spread
information as widely as possible, have always sought to tear away
the veil of secrecy that has hidden the spiritual mysteries. Thus,
one central impulse throughout history has been to find ways of
systematizing and simplifying spiritual technologies to make them
more easily taught, and to provide access to the core mystical
experience to as many people as possible. As an example: for
millennia, the mysteries of how to attain states of spiritual
ecstasy was kept secret, passed down in monasteries and mystery
schools from master to pupil. But then, as Dr. Herbert Benson
observes in The Relaxation Response,
By the twelfth century . . . it was realized that this
ecstasy could be induced in the ordinary man in a
relatively short time by rhythmic exercises, involving
posture, control of breath, coordinated movements, and
oral repetitions.


In many ways the western rationalist, materialist scientific
tradition of the last five hundred years can be seen as an attempt
to systematize and make accessible to all--that is, to democratize-
-these mystical experiences. Power to the people.

The development and explosive growth of printing, for example, made
it possible to pass along to an infinite number of potential
readers essential information about spiritual technologies that
had previously had to be laboriously handed down from teacher to
pupil, from generation to generation. Yet there have always been
those in authority--from the hierarchy of the medieval Catholic
Church, to dictators ruling large populations of "peasants"--who
have feared the spread of literacy, and attempted to keep books
out of the hands of the masses.

         HIGH PRIESTS OF SCIENCE AND THE NUCLEAR MYSTERY

The development of modern science was to a large degree an attempt
to reveal to human understanding--that is to the understanding of
anyone who was interested, not just to an inner circle of those in
power--the coherent, mystical order or organizing principle of the
universe.

However, even in science the conflict between those who desire to
maintain authority and power through secrecy, and those who seek
the free flow of information, has continued. Science has always had
its "mystery schools" of those who have tried to keep important
scientific information secret, out of the hands of those who might
use it to upset the power structure. Consider, for example, the
extraodinary security measures taken by the U.S. government to keep
the secret and maintain the "mystery" of making nuclear weapons,
from the Manhattan Project until the present.   On the other hand,
the seekers of change, the scientists who believe in the free flow
of information, that is the democratizers, have for many years
believed that the best way to keep nuclear weapons from being used
as tools of control by various power cliques or authoritarian power
structures, is to spread the information to all.

However, despite its stated goal of understanding and revealing to
all the essential mystery, the coherent order of the universe,
modern academic and materialist science, with its emphasis on a
limited definition of reality, has generally denied and repressed
the transcendental impulse.  As Grof notes, "Within the present
century, academic psychology and psychiatry dismissed spirituality
as a product of superstition, primitive magical thinking, and
outright pathology."

But the spiritual drive is so powerful that orthodox science has
been unable to suppress it. It now seems clear that this
transcendental impulse is rooted in our genes, an instinctive and
essential component of our human nature. Abraham Maslow pointed out
that virtually all humans report having a profound sense of
"unitive consciousness" at some point in their lives. Even in this
most secular and materialistic era, a recent survey of Americans
found that nearly 90 percent of them described themselves as
strongly "religious" or "spiritual."

More astonishing is the substantial number of Americans who report
having what can only be called mystical experiences. A 1989 survey
found that fully a third of them answered a resounding yes to the
statement "You felt as though you were very close to a powerful
spiritual force that seemed to lift you out of your self."  And a
full 12 percent claimed that they had experienced this transcendent
feeling "often" or on numerous occasions.

                 NEUROSCIENCE AS SPIRITUAL QUEST

Says Arnold Scheibel, professor of medicine at UCLA, speaking of
himself and his wife, Marian Diamond, neuroanatomist at UC
Berkeley, "We like to think that somehow the brain in a sense will
become the religion of the future. . . ."

In many ways it makes most sense to see the Brain Revolution as a
spiritual quest: a sudden blossoming of scientists driven by a
compulsion to understand the mystery of the universe by
understanding the workings of the "last frontier," the most complex
system in the universe. Spiritual seekers using all their
sophisticated technology to uncover what happens in this mysterious
human brain when it is going through the ineffable experience known
as illumination or transcendence.

As neuroscientists have learned in recent years, these experiences
of awakening are linked to certain clear physiological changes in
the brain, including alterations in the chemistry of the brain, and
changes in the electrical activity of the brain.

It has been established beyond doubt that mind machines, can
produce the very same dramatic alterations in brain chemistry and
in patterns of brainwave activity that are found in individuals
spontaneously undergoing transcendent, metanormal or transpersonal
experiences.  It makes sense to assume that by reproducing the same
patterns or fluctuations in brain chemistry and electricity, the
mind tools can actually induce these extraordinary experiences.
There is a wealth of evidence, in the form of scientific research,
clinical evidence and reports by thousands of individuals, that the
mind tools not only can but do produce spiritual experiences for
many of their users.

                    ARE YOU A BUDDHA CHEATER?
The possibility of technologically induced peak performance states
is breathtaking in its implications.  But it's essential to
emphasize that while it's clear that the mind machines allow users
to experience these heightened states, they don't guarantee it.

A recent article about mind machines in Yoga Journal condemned
them, claiming that "Plugging yourself into a machine is not
automatically going to make you a deeper or finer person."

The writer, a long time meditator, said he feared that to use them
would mean that he had to "write off the last 20 years of
[meditative] practice as a waste of time."  In his opinion, they
did not automatically produce a state that was identical to
meditation, and therefore were attempts to "cheat the Buddha."

If such cranky nonsense were not so dangerous it would be humorous.
Condemning mind machines because they do not automatically make you
a better person is like condemning airplanes because flying in one
does not automatically turn you into a saint. Like airplanes, mind
machines are simply tools: modern technology applied to expanding
human powers and capabilities.

Humans have always wanted to get from one place to another.  The
technology of movement has evolved from walking through riding
animals, riding in carts, ships, steamships, trains and so on. So
today, there are a lot of ways to get from New York to Los Angeles.
You can walk, ride a horse, bicycle, drive a car, etc.  If you
walk, you'll definitely spend many weeks, meet a lot of people
along the way and have a whole bunch of interesting and life-
altering experiences. Or you can fly.

But whether you walk for three months or fly for six hours, you
reach the exact same place: Los Angeles.  You will definitely
arrive a different person if you walk than if you fly, but you're
still at the same place.  What you do there is up to you: you can
seek God, go surfing, get high, or buy a gun and go shoot up a
fast-food outlet.

Mind technology, like airplanes, can get you places very quickly,
and very reliably.  Just because many of us choose to fly doesn't
mean we don't choose to walk sometimes, or condemn those who choose
to walk all the time.  Just because I generally choose to fly
between Los Angeles to New York doesn't mean, as the Yoga Journal
writer would suggest, that "I have to write off 20 years of walking
as a waste of time."

In the realm of human spiritual growth, nothing is ever wasted.
And choosing flying instead of walking in no way "cheats the
Buddha." As the Buddha said, "Everything arises and passes away.
. . . When you see this, you are above sorrow.  This is the shining
way."  I believe the shining way is a path that can be hiked just
as well on a 747 as on the Interstate highways of America.

    THE LAUGHING BUDDHA: ON THE EVOLUTIONARY VALUES OF SEX,
               FUN, INFORMATION AND MIND MACHINES

Such criticisms as those of the Yoga Journal would be comical, like
some old codger in 1920 yelling at people whizzing by in cars to
"get a horse!" Except in this case, such ignorance can lead to the
suppression of important technology, and the suppression of
information that can lead to crucial social change and evolution.

The writer of the article, after first claiming mind machines can't
be of any value because they're too easy and too much fun ("True
meditation . . . isn't blissing out in a chaise longue, but barely
surviving in a house on fire"), then paradoxically claims they're
too dangerous to be made available to the general public (they're
so powerful they expose people to dangerous things hidden within
their subconscious), and suggests that the FDA may soon move to
regulate or control access to mind technology.

Such a move would, in essence, make mind machines available only
by prescription, or illegal, and have a disastrous effect on the
serious scientific research into brain technology that is now
underway and advancing at an accelerating pace. The FDA has already
shown its willingness and eagerness to suppress "dangerous"
performance-boosting technology in the form of cognition enhancing
"smart drugs," despite an enormous body of evidence that such smart
drugs are both safe and effective. It is now attempting the same
sort of suppression of vitamins and nutrients. (see "The Problem
with the FDA" elsewhere in this issue). Those who scoff at the
possibility of the FDA making mind machines illegal should remember
the fate of Wilhelm Reich, psychedelic drugs and other such dangers
to the American people.

I believe that the flow of information should be unimpeded.
Information, by one scientific definition, is inversely related to
predictability: i.e. anything that's 100 percent predictable
contains no information. Another way of saying this is that
information is related to novelty and unpredictability. And
information makes people behave in unpredictable ways.

Information is also fun--neuroscientists have documented how the
learning centers and the pleasure centers of the brain are
virtually one and the same: having a new idea causes a rush of
euphoria-producing neurochemicals, such as dopamine and endorphins.
Evolution has given us a chemical reward system for behaviors that
enhance our survival: this includes eating, sex and having new
ideas. Wisdom (illumination, waking up) and mind machines are both
also fun. Both can make us behave in unpredictable ways. The Buddha
was a Laughing Buddha, who taught that wisdom emerged
unpredictably.


          WHY AUTHORITARIAN SYSTEMS HATE WHATEVER'S NEW

As I pointed out at the beginning of this article, throughout
history authoritarian systems or power structures have by necessity
attempted to restrict the free flow of information. Why? Because
information, or novelty, by creating unpredictability, threatens
their stability and authority. Authoritarian systems depend on
people acting in predictable ways. For similar reasons such power
structures also suppress fun. And sex: throughout history all
authoritarian systems, from religions to armies, have attempted to
control and suppress human sexual energies in one way or another.

There's no doubt that mind technology can be a powerful source of
new information in the world. And while mind machines, as the Yoga
Journal writer observed, may not automatically make you into a
finer person, what the hell--neither does sex. But I'm not going
to give it up on that account.  Simply by plugging us in--to our
selves and to others--they can provide us with an infinite amount
of information. Sounds like fun to me.

So obviously, mind machines (like fun and sex) constitute a threat
to some in positions of power, who would like people to behave in
predictable ways, and who would like to maintain the status quo.
They also are a threat to individuals who have invested much of
themselves and their lives in following authoritarian doctrines,
dogma or ideologies. Such as fundamentalists--Christian, Muslim,
Marxist.  Such as those who must follow a Politically Correct
agenda that automatically condemns the unexpected, the
unpredictable, the novel and the unprecedented, since by their very
nature they cannot come bearing the stamp of Political Correctness.


And such as "enlightened" New Age folks like the writer at Yoga
Journal who've apparently spent 20 years of meditative practice
learning only what they have been taught to learn, fearing to
experience first hand the laughing Buddha's unpredictable shining
path.