Re: Shamanism, faith healers and "plant wisdom"

From: Ben Goertzel (ben@goertzel.org)
Date: Sat Feb 11 2006 - 16:33:40 MST


> Not "within the Singularitarians", but distinct from the SIAI-breed(s)
> there are the fans of Terence McKenna, who used the term 'singularity'
> at some point for one of his ideas.

I tend to think the shamen and McKenna-ites do have some real insights
amidst all their lunacy, although unfortunately the psychedelic path
seems to combine deep insight with rampant nonsense (which is not
surprising given the somewhat indiscriminate effect of the psychedelic
substances on the human brain). McKenna tripped a bit too often for
my taste, but to each his own ;-)

The Singularity is about going beyond the narrow human ways of looking
at the world, and shamanism does tell you something about that, though
ultimately modern technology is going to give us far more powerful
methods...

-- Ben



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