Graham Hancock - Psychedelics and Civilization, 2015 Lecture

“Any kind of consciousness that is not related to the production or consumption of material goods is stigmatized in our society today.” “If we are not sovereign over our own consciousness. If we are prepared to tolerate living in a society that will not allow the sovereignty of an adult over his or her own consciousness then we can not claim to be free in any way. It’s absolutely absurd and crazy for the Western Democracies to be going around the world imposing democracy by force on other cultures when we actually live in a consciousness tyranny where it is even dangerous to speak out about their issues. We live in an atmosphere of witch hunt around this. To realize that these plants are our allies and friends, they have co-evolved with us they are here to help us and my goodness there has never been a time when the human race has been more urgently in need of its plant allies than today.” What I want to show is that some of the most beautiful, some of the most deep-thinking, some of the most significant civilizations of the past have given an honored place to psychedelics and indeed psychedelics have been central to everything they did. I suspect the real breakthroughs in our understanding of consciousness are going to come from an entirely different direction. That direction, controversially, has to do with psychedelics.. Hancock has taken his downloads he received from first-hand experiences with psychedelics (ayahuasca, DMT, psilocybin) and cultivated a successful lecturing series. Such series reiterates many of the theories within his books. For instance, the theory that the evolution of ancient civilizations is directly connected to psychedelics’ sacred use. He makes a potent argument for said theory through the transformational evidence within ancient civilizations’ hieroglyphs and artwork. Less than 50,000 years ago mankind had no art, no religion, no sophisticated symbolism, no innovative thinking. Then, in a dramatic and electrifying change, described by scientists as “the greatest riddle in human history”, all the skills and qualities that we value most highly in ourselves appeared already fully formed, as though bestowed on us by hidden powers. In Supernatural Graham Hancock sets out to investigate this mysterious “before-and-after moment” and to discover the truth about the influences that gave birth to the modern human mind. Hancock sees the evolutionary patterns psychedelic plants have had alongside humanity. Just as the telescope is a tool to see the stars, these plants are tools to see the spirit world. Science is only concerned with quantifying material, that such theories are impractical and useless. In reality, most scientists against these theories have never personally investigated the realms of the unveiled dimensions. Instead of demonizing something science can’t fully grasp, Hancock fights to normalize our exploration of consciousness and our relationship with these plants. If we aren’t free to explore and creatively express our consciousness, then we aren’t free at all. – Graham Hancock https://grahamhancock.com