About the Book
• Includes contributions from the late Ralph Metzner, Chris Bache, Whitley Strieber, Jeffrey Kripal, Angela Voss, Bill Richards, Chris Timmermann, Michael Winkelman, Luis Eduardo Luna, Anton Bilton, Bernard Carr, Daniel Pinchbeck, Dennis McKenna, Ede Frecska, and David Luke
• Explores DMT beings, alien abduction, plant sentience, neuroscientific DMT research, the connections between LSD and DMT entities, and the nature of mind and reality
Found throughout the plant and animal kingdom, DMT (dimethyltryptamine) is also naturally occurring in humans, and may be released during near-death and actual death experiences, earning it the title “the spirit molecule.” When taken as a psychedelic, either via ayahuasca or in pure form, DMT is experientially considered to be one of the strongest and strangest of all entheogens. The majority of high-dose users report visions of unknown yet curiously familiar alien worlds and encounters with sentient nonhuman presences.
At a four-day symposium at Tyringham Hall in England in 2017, twenty of the world’s psychedelic luminaries gathered to discuss entheogenic entity encounters, consciousness expansion, visionary experiences, and the future of research in this field. Contributors to the talks and discussions include many leading thinkers, including the late Ralph Metzner, Chris Bache, Whitley Strieber, Je rey Kripal, Angela Voss, Bill Richards, Chris Timmermann, Michael Winkelman, Luis Eduardo Luna, Anton Bilton, Bernard Carr, Daniel Pinchbeck, Dennis McKenna, Ede Frecska, and David Luke.
This book distills the potent exchange of ideas that occurred at Tyringham Hall, including discussions about DMT beings, encounter experiences, alien abduction, plant sentience, the shamanic use of ayahuasca, neuroscientifi c DMT research, the connections between LSD and DMT entities, and the nature of mind and reality.
Table of Contents:
Foreword
About the Exploring Entheogenic Entity Encounters Symposium
Rory Spowers and David Luke
Preface Symposium Objectives
David Luke
Introduction
The Marrying of Science and Spirituality
Anton Bilton
Chapter 1
On Encounters with Entities in the Ayahuasca Realm
A Phenomenological View
Luis Eduardo Luna
DISCUSSION
Chapter 2
Visionary Experiences, Entities, and Alien Worlds
A Natural Evolved Psychology
Michael Winkelman
DISCUSSION
Chapter 3
Entheogens, Radical Empiricism, and the Nature of Reality
Ralph Metzner
DISCUSSION
Chapter 4
Subjective Experiences and Sensed Presence Phenomenon in Human Research with DMT Chris Timmermann
DISCUSSION
Chapter 5
Ineffability and Revelation on the Frontiers of Knowledge
William Richards
DISCUSSION
Chapter 6
Stories from a Life
A Lifetime of Anomalous and Unexplained Experiences
Whitley Strieber
DISCUSSION
Chapter 7
What Is the Daimon?
An Exploration of the Oracular Intelligence
Angela Voss
DISCUSSION
Chapter 8
Making Space and Time for Mind and Psychedelia
Bernard Carr
DISCUSSION
Chapter 9
LSD and DMT Entity Relation Chris M. Bache
DISCUSSION
Chapter 10
Biological Gods Science (Fiction) and Some Emergent Mythologies Jeffrey J. Kripal
DISCUSSION
Chapter 11
Initiation, Spiritual Science, and the Limits of Reason
Daniel Pinchbeck
DISCUSSION
Chapter 12
Summary of Divine Molecule Talks
Exploring Entheogenic Entity Encounters
David Luke
Speaker Citations
Speaker Biographies
Discussant Biographies
Editor and Symposium Curator Biographies
Index
About the Author :
David Luke, Ph.D., is associate lecturer of psychology at the University of Greenwich and honorary senior lecturer at the Centre for Psychedelic Research, Imperial College. He has published more than 100 academic papers on transpersonal experiences and altered states of consciousness and regularly gives public lectures and conference presentations. A cofounder and director of Breaking Convention, a biennial international conference on psychedelic research, he lives in East Sussex, England. Rory Spowers is an ecological writer, fi lmmaker, and author. He is the founder of the Web of Hope, a UK charity and ecological education resource, and the creative director for the Tyringham Initiative. He lives in Ibiza, Spain.
Review :
"A stellar collection of scholars digs deep and wide into the remarkably common encounter with 'beings' in the DMT state. Viewpoints cover this phenomenon from every possible perspective, including neuroscience; psychology and parapsychology; anthropology and shamanism; philosophy, theology, and religious history; quantum physics and cosmology; and self-experimentation and alien abduction. The definitive, and most thorough and exciting, treatment of this extraordinary experience."
"An invaluable contribution to the growing library of information concerning Medical Psychopharmacology; Popular Psychology Psychopharmacology; and ESP, DMT Entity Encounters: Dialogues on the Spirit Molecule with Ralph Metzner, Chris Bache, Jeffrey Kripal, Whitley Strieber, Angela Voss, and Others is an important and unreservedly recommended addition to personal, professional, community, college, and university library collections. For the personal reading lists of students, academia, DMT researchers, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject, it should be noted that DMT Entity Encounters: Dialogues on the Spirit Molecule with Ralph Metzner, Chris Bache, Jeffrey Kripal, Whitley Strieber, Angela Voss, and Others is also readily available in a digital book format (Kindle, $12.99)."
