The audiobook version of Life in a Psychedelic Church is now on sale. Through the vivid voice of narrator Gary J. Chambers, Jr., you will hear what life was like in the Neo-American Church in the 1970s and how looking back at those times can point the way forward to a new understanding of life in a psychedelic church. Click here for details.
Listen to Mary Jo Call’s Sonata First Movement
Click here to listen to the first movement of Mary Jo’s Sonata. To listen to some of her other music, see the drop-down menu at the top right of the homepage: New music by Mary Jo Call. https://myiapc.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Sonata-First-Movement.mp3
Read a sample of Life in a Psychedelic Church
Mary Jo’s Invention in C
Listen to Mary Jo’s Invention in C.
https://myiapc.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Invention-in-C-Major.m4a
Nondualism and the supernatural
It is a very popular thought among psychedelic intellectuals that psychedelic experience reveals that nondualism is the truth about reality. The very word “nondualism” and it adjectival forms are supposed to somehow express in language that transcends language a concept that transcends conceptual thought. Rhetorically, this has the advantage of creating an automatic shield from any analytical criticism. Theoretically, nondualism is supposed to be distinct from monism, since monism is opposed to dualism or any kind of pluralism, leading to a dualism of monism vs nonmonism; but how does nondualism escape a duality of nondualism vs dualism? In practice, the term “nondualism” is supposed to imply a rejection of supernaturalism, since the supernatural is thought to presuppose the natural as the realm that it transcends. But naturalism equally presupposes the supernatural as the realm that it rejects. We can acknowledge that we need to understand the concept of the natural in order to understand the concept of the supernatural and vice-versa and yet believe that one is more fundamental than the other. The proponent of naturalism thinks that supernaturalism is just a faulty theory about nature. But an intelligent defender of supernaturalism can reply that the naturalist always promises but never delivers naturalistic explanations of things like love, freedom, and the meaning of life, and instead is forced by his own assumptions effectively to deny them. If it seems unacceptable to you, as it does to me, to deny the reality of those things, then you can instead accept that the supernatural realm is the fundamental reality of which the natural is a part.
Newly discovered video of Chief Boo Hoo Art Kleps
Here is a clip from a filmed documentary digitally converted and posted on YouTube of my former teacher, the Chief Boo Hoo of the Neo-American Church, talking about LSD and God. When I say it is “newly discovered,” I mean newly discovered to me. Art’s daughter, Kristen, sent me the link.
Sarabande by Mary Jo Call
Listen to another of Mary Jo’s beautiful compositions. https://myiapc.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Sarabande-1.0.mp3
Book Review: Timothy Leary and the Mad Men of Millbrook
Here is what I wrote to a friend recently about Timothy Leary and the Mad Men of Millbrook (edited slightly).
I just finished reading Ted Druch’s book. I enjoyed reading it and think you probably would too. It tells pretty much the same story that Art Kleps told in Millbrook but from someone else’s viewpoint. Early on while reading it, I was turned off by Druch’s anti-philosophy philosophy, where humor seems to be the highest and maybe only value. Have you watched Larry David’s Curb Your Enthusiasm? The way I felt about this book at first reminds me of how I feel about that. It is entertaining and wonderfully funny at times, but I still don’t like Larry David’s worldview. I feel the same way about Woody Allen. I guess it’s a secular Jewish worldview. Serious claims about the meaning of life are all bullshit. Just enjoy the pleasures of life while they last. It will all end in nothingness. But as I read on, I enjoyed more and more Ted Druch’s zest for life, and his descriptions of the personalities involved. Bill Haines and Art were allies more than I realized from Art’s version, with Tim Leary and Billy Hitchcock being very influential but less central to the day to day life of the place. Around fifty people in those early stages of wanting to drop acid at every opportunity, and in a place where everybody believed in the spiritual value of it, even Ted Druch, in spite of himself. By the end, I was wishing it would go on longer, not because it was too short or incomplete, but because it was describing a time and state of mind that were so much fun.
A neuroscientist discusses her DMT trip
I would like to share this YouTube clip where a neuroscientist discusses her DMT trip. It sounds like psychedelic Christianity to me!
Somebody likes Life in a Psychedelic Church
Somebody likes my new book, Life in a Psychedelic Church! Also, the audiobook version is coming soon! Check out this customer review: