language vs reality
It is language that enables us to not merely experience reality, but to participate in its creation.
Terence McKenna • Food of the Gods
Because we have such a linear existence within the human experience, it is hard to imagine what not living in relation to time and space is like. Our linearity is baked into our language which favors expressing cause and effect). This makes our words a poor tool to convey the non-linear experience.
Story Waters • You are a God dreaming of time and space.
Dreams are real experiences in another dimension, but like all real experiences they are the effects of belief structures or habit patterns. In that way they are like languages, which are based on structures and patterns. Even with the most flexible grammatical structure and abundant vocabulary, a language can only express what the mind that
... See moreSerge Kahili King • Urban Shaman
‘Language is not merely a device for communicating ideas about the world, but rather a tool for bringing the world into existence … Reality is not simply ‘experienced’ or ‘reflected’ in language, but instead is actually produced by language.’
Terence McKenna • Food of the Gods
In post-structuralist literary theory, meaning is a central concern. By meaning, I am not referring to some grand purpose for an individual or for humanity, but rather the simpler and more prosaic concept discussed by linguist Ferdinand de Saussure. The connection between a signifier and its signified, between a word and its referent, is the issue.
... See moreGeorge P. Hansen • The Trickster and the Paranormal
Psilocybin’s main synergistic effect seems ultimately to be in the domain of language. It excites vocalization; it empowers articulation; it transmutes language into something that is visibly beheld. It could have had an impact on the sudden emergence of consciousness and language use in early humans.
Terence McKenna • Food of the Gods
If hallucinogens function as interspecies chemical messengers, then the dynamic of the close relationship between primate and hallucinogenic plant is one of information transfer from one species to the other.