The Brain, Fractals, Mushrooms, Mycellium, 1111, & The Universe

I once had a dream that I was in this organic maze that was constantly changing shape, becoming more complex and overwhelming. There was a digital clock, illuminated and constantly in my view, counting down by the milli-second, representing time left that I was to get out of the maze. It stopped at 11:11:11, and a voice thunderously said that if I was to say “Awake (something something)” that I would be able to escape the maze. So I did, and then I began to float up and expand out to see that the maze looked a lot like this:

Shortly after coming out of the maze, I woke up in my bed.

Both photos are a micro-image of the mycellium structure of a mushroom.

I went to Will’s birthday party last night, and he had a book called “Cosmos” lying out in the open on the kitchen table. We talked about the images in there, real and computer-generated pictures of some of the billions of galaxies in our observable universe. I’ve seen this image before, but it always sparks something wild in me every time I look at it.

Will suggested the irony that the mycellium of a mushroom looks strangely similar to the interconnected web of galaxies in the universe. I’d never thought of that but have definitely considered that the image looked strangely similar to a membrane, or even neurons in the brain.

Lots of eastern thought and even advocates of psychedelics have nearly made it a cliché that the universe is contained within its parts, much like a fractal. It makes you wonder why so many people claim that they’ve had perceptions of one-ness or “awakening” after consuming psychedelic mushrooms.

Because of the parallel, I tried to find the rant Joe Rogan does in his stand-up about the possibility of the human experience looking like this: being within a galaxy of a universe inside the ball of a guy whos in a galaxy of a universe within the ball of a guy who’s in a universe…

…but instead, I found this.

Calea Zacatechichi – Dream Herb

I think my experience with 1111 has something to do with an answer to the question, what is reality? Here is something I wrote a couple of months ago, about something I experienced in 2008.

“Everything begins at the thought level. So, humans, for whatever reason, have developed a habitual thought stream that they allow to run wild. And I think we have the conscious choice to take hold of the reigns and steer that energy to a focused place. So, how to balance thinking with presence? I think at this point, it’s good to start by redirecting my thoughts so long as I am aware. And never let thoughts of what I don’t want to run their course, or “what if” scenarios. Like my calea dream, all background thought-noise is manipulating the form that makes up reality, even through time and space. That is something I could write about. I’ve thought about it. I’ve really thought about making an illustrative video of that, or writing a little bit about it. “Thought planes in the realm of time and space” or something. Ha ha. Think of what could be learned from that. The fact that the geometric planes were being manipulated through the space, also compared as time distance… these forms were already “set”, yet they were still being touched in the slightest by my inner conversation.  So, moving through space here was in fact exploring form in time, those further away from the center point (now) were manipulated at a lesser degree, yet still manipulated. I could explore the space with my consciousness. I was the observer of my thoughts and the forms. It was a lot moving into view, a lot of planes moved in and out of view that were highly manipulated by my thinking. A plane could bubble out into a deformed geometric shape or change completely by whatever I was thinking about. It was all moving, in and out of view. It was my consciousness in the present that could perform the highest degree of manipulation. The other forms continued with their initial “deforming”, to float in this time/space realm. And they continued to change to the degree at which they were placed in time. That’s how, I assume, the past could be manipulated with intention in that book I read, the intention experiment.  So whatever I think now, is going to change the shape of my past, or perceived past. That’s crazy to me. Yet, there is a drag on it, so there will be a sense of memory or “past” until our present completely washes clean whatever that memory was of past. It will slowly  pass, and then the construct of reality will be altered in a way where the more predominating thought impressed upon the forms throughout time/space will prevail.”

Whether a symbol, or something real, it can be acknowledged that all action and emotion are directly related to the core of what we are thinking, unconsciously, or consciously, and/or the energy we carry from moment to moment. Perception is altered by our thought, and therefore information that our brains receive will change as our energy and thinking changes. Thought is energy, matter is energy at a slower vibration than thought… It’s all energy. It will attract the like, like placing your attention on finding a number, or looking for synchronicities in general.

Dreaming Natalie Portman in the Wes Anderson Dimension

I seem to be having an excessive amount of celebrity-related dreams in the last week or five. I really should be writing them down more often, because supposedly that helps you become more lucid.

I recently dreamed hanging out with Queens of the Stoneage at their desert studio. I was trying to be cool with the bassist, Nick Oliveri, but was constantly trying to beat my own intimidation of him. And Weezer has come up again. I seem to dream Weezer a lot.

One dream that I thought was most significant and intricately developed was a dream where my entire life was a Wes Anderson movie. I don’t know how I know that, but everything in it was of the style of Wes, including dialogue, colors, and dramatic flavor. Basically, there was a knowing that I was experiencing a Wes Anderson movie from the first person.

I was with Natalie Portman. I had a playful Wes Anderson-style relationship with her that had not revealed much romance at that point. We both had vespa-style scooters, and we’d ride together around the city, a place that was clearly not Albuquerque. In fact, nothing from my life now was any part of my memory in the Wes Anderson dimension.

Natalie and I were merging onto the freeway on our scooters. She flashed a smile at me from her scooter and sped in front of me. She went ahead, and I soon saw her lying in wreckage on the side of the freeway.

The most vivid image was from my point of view, kneeling down to her as she lied in a pool of her own blood, looking up at me as I bent down in front of her. In the most Wes Anderson fashion, she confessed her love to me before her last breath.

As tragic as it was, it was going to be fine for me, because in all Wes movies, no matter the circumstance, you know everything will be okay, somehow.

Sometimes dreams are so vivid that you have to question whether you’ve been catapulted into another dimension for a new experience.

Sound crazy? There’s a chemical in our brains called DMT, a naturally occurring substance that can be harnessed in a crystalline form, smoked, and will send a person on the most intense psychedelic journey, one that appears more real than our reality, yet is quickly forgotten the same way your dreams fade from memory upon waking.

While dreaming, your pineal gland naturally pumps huge amounts of DMT into your brain. And the only other time that happens is when a person is experiencing death… a common time where people begin to encounter “the afterlife” and “heavenly beings,” or even “hellish fear”.

There is a book I’ve been meaning to read about it, written by a doctor named Rick Strassman who conducted tests at the University of New Mexico, called “DMT: The Spirit Molecule”. According to parts I’ve read, some people are launched into enlightening, beautiful, heavenly experiences, while others may find themselves in the midst of butt-raping alligator beings.

Oh, the tangents to be taken with such a topic. Maybe I’ll buy the book and write more when I’m better informed.