Episode 47 – Simon G. Powell

Simon G. Powell is Author of: The Psilocybin Solution (2011), Darwin’s Unfinished Business (2012) and Magic Mushroom Explorer

In this episode we briefly touch on the neurological benefits of psilocybin. We cover aspects of the global consciousness system, nature;  as an intelligence system and its role in our history and culture as a species. We talk about ways to reconnect with this intelligence and how we can further this re-connection by realigning with the “inner” part of ourselves.

Reviews of Simon’s Work:

“Simon G. Powell has crafted a magnificent, multifaceted argument for the reintegration of psychedelics into science, culture, psychotherapy, and religion to inspire our unbalanced species before we ‘push the biosphere into total decline.’ The Psilocybin Solutionpersuasively illuminates the profound social value of large numbers of people experiencing communion with and direct personal perception of Nature as a single system of self-organizing intelligence. A massive accomplishment!” (Rick Doblin, Ph.D., founder and president of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies)

“This book provides a clear and up-to-date picture of what goes on in the brain during the visionary psilocybin experience. The author’s intrepid speculations, centering on information as the fundamental stuff of the universe, are clearly signposted. The writing is lucid and a joy to behold, an important contribution.” (Jeremy Narby, anthropologist and author of The Cosmic Serpent, Intelligence in Nature, and The Psych)

“The profound experiences unlocked by the visionary psilocybin-containing mushrooms are more than a recreational holiday for the mind. They are, in fact, the key to understanding that consciousness is not an aspect of reality, it is reality itself.” (Dennis McKenna, Ph.D., ethnopharmacologist and coauthor of The Invisible Landscape)

“A worthy successor to Aldous Huxley’s The Doors of Perception, The Psilocybin Solution takes the reader behind the grand curtain of reality with a compelling hypothesis that approaches a unified field theory of human consciousness in an intelligent and interconnected universe.” (Bill Linton, CEO of Promega)

“In this fascinating and provocative book, Simon G. Powell speculates on the nature of reality. He posits that Nature is a deliberate and intelligently behaving system, and he pro

Click this image to purchase the book.

Click this image to purchase the book.

poses that psilocybin, by altering the neurochemistry of the brain in specific ways, enables novel patterns of information to emerge, allowing the psyche to become a sort of conduit to the Other. If in fact that is what actually happens, then entheogens (psychedelics) are much more important to the human species than has been realized.” (David E. Nichols, Ph.D.,  president and cofounder of the  Heffter Research Institute)

“It’s as if these fungi, which grow wild on most of the Earth’s land surface, beckon us to commune with them, Powell hints. And if we do have the chance, we’d do well to heed his advice on the “retuning” process. This communion offers a link with the intelligence of Nature. Opening the doors of perception and returning to entheogenic wisdom could ultimately create a more mystical, meaningful society.” (Nexus Magazine, Vol. 18, No. 6, October 2011)

“Read this book. Follow directions in the last chapter closely. Confirm or deny.” (Diana Reed Slattery, Reality Sandwich, October 2011)

“Overall, another adequate introduction to entheogenic thought but one that, interestingly, broaches questions about neurology more explicitly than others, in attempting to locate entheogenic thought in a wider metaphysics.” (Psychedelic Press, November 2011)

“All in all, this is a stimulating and revolutionary volume, whatever your take on “chemically induced theophany.”” (Mac Graham, Whole Life Times, December 2011)

click this image to purchase the book

Excerpt from Mushroom Explorer: “We hype up our own intelligence but deny intelligence, even unconscious intelligence, to the larger system of nature that engineered us. We may even rave over artificial intelligence (AI), yet we do not get excited about the natural intelligence that the AI community often attempts to mimic. Indeed, very few scientists are prepared to state that nature has intelligent characteristics. You could argue that scientists don’t want to risk getting mixed up with intelligent design or creationism or that they are still recoiling from centuries of unquestioned religious dogma and therefore are loathe to embrace metaphysically potent ideas, but I suspect something deeper is at work.

Over the years I have come to the conclusion that the persistent refusal to acknowledge natural intelligence is actually due to a conceptual blind spot. Not a metaphorical blind spot but a real one. Just as there is a blind spot in the visual system–the part of the retina where all the “wiring” goes through–there is also a blind spot in our conceptions of nature. Whereas we will get very excited over the concept of an advanced alien intelligence, we cannot sense that same kind of advanced intelligence in the laws and forces of nature that served to evoke life.”

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Find Simon’s Work here: www.simongpowell.com

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