All Life on Earth - Aug 9 2025

 

All Life on Earth

Aug 9 2025



Peyote:

a small blue-green cactus,

found 

in the Chihuahua Desert

of southern Texas

and northern Mexico.

Peyote:

a sacred substance 

that alters consciousness.

How odd

that a molecule

from this scarce desert plant

would slot

like a key in its lock

and open human minds. 

As if the boundaries

with which we surround ourselves

were chimeras,

more porous than we think.

As if we only see the differences,

when life on earth has more 

in common than it seems.

A cactus

that somehow lost its spines.

Could this be why this soft succulent plant

is psychedelic?

That the pest-killing chemical 

with which it defends itself

incidentally fits,

so instead of dead

we’re disarmed?

Who’d have imagined

a chemistry lab

in the sun-baked desert 

of northern Mexico;

a small cactus

with a factory inside.

And what a brainless plant

that’s mostly water

can teach

if we’re open to receive. 

Perhaps spinelessness

is a good metaphor

for softening boundaries

and letting down your guard. 

For opening up 

to transcendence, wonder, and awe,

oneness

and visions of gods.

Or, for some

to nothingness

and a black abyss of fear.

And who’d have imagined

that across the great divide

between air-breathing animals and light-eating plants

this molecule

would cross the gap

that far enough back

we can all trace our ancestry

to a single cell

and that all living things

not only share this planet 

but the fundamental chemistry 

of life.

I’m a great admirer of Michael Pollan, so was excited to see a piece by him in a recent New Yorker. 

When I read his list of mind altering chemicals, I wondered what this substance called “peyote” — a word I’ve heard forever — really was. So I was somewhat surprised to find it was the name of an unremarkable cactus found one place in the world. But, of course, where else would it come from if not a plant:  those chemical factories, powered by the sun. Because if you can’t run away, what would be a better defence than chemistry?!!

I think a psychedelic experience would be very good for me:  the dissolution of boundaries, the softening of ego, the immersion in acceptance and love. That’s presuming a good “trip”, of course! On the other hand, not only does it feel too late in life, I also fear what I might find in there!

I’d like to see a similar experiment, but done on atheists. What would brains primed not by faith and religious imagery but by rationality and skepticism see? What would transcendence be like without some powerful sense of unity with a god-like being?

I suspect that these mind altering experiences tell us more about the human brain than the nature of consciousness or the ineffability of being. They may feel larger than life, but are still contained within the skull. The mind is not part of some universal consciousness; it resides in the soft squishy stuff of the brain. And when the brain is deprived of blood, dies along with it.

This Is Your Priest on Drugs
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/05/26/this-is-your-priest-on-drugs

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I think a psychedelic experience would be very good for me. On the other hand, not only does it feel too late in life, I also fear what I might find!