I'm about 3/4 of the way through the book Supernatural by Graham Hancock. Like every other of Hancock's books, this one is fascinating. It is well researched, extensively referenced and provocative in its ideas. I'm not sure I agree with everything the book says, but I recommend the book to anyone who is interested.
The basic gist of the book is that the human mind is essentially a receiver, in everyday life tuned to what Hancock calls 'Channel Normal'. In years of study of shamanic traditions - including considerable first hand experience with shamanic hallucinogenic ceremonies - he describes many experiences similar to other hallucinogen experiencers. He compares this to cave art going back about 40,000 years to what he describes as the human revolution in consciousness. At this point, he indicates that humanity discovered shamanic journeying, either through drugs, physical stress, deep meditation, or other means of altering consciousness.
He builds the case that trance states are means to access an expanded universe of experiences. Rather than brain generated artifices, states of altered consciousness actually open the mind/brain to receive expanded reality. This reality has many common aspects between experiencers, across cultures, times and locations.
Hancock states that many of the experiences have extensive correlates in fairy and folklore, UFO abduction literature, etc. He argues that this implies that, at least in part, UFO abduction can be seen as a metaphysical phenomenon, closely aligned with these other-cultural experiences. This accounts for several instances in which prehistoric art depicts grays and flying saucers along with shape-shifting animals, etc. He draws other parallels between UFO abduction and the shamanic experience, but I think you get the idea.
The biggest thing I have taken away from the book so far, is his argument that DMT is a naturally occurring molecule in the human endocrine system. In about two percent of the human population, there is enough DMT to provide spontaneous glimpses into other realities - i.e. spontaneous paranormal or metaphysical experiences. He draws a connection that this is roughly the percentage which the 1991 Roper poll of unexplained personal experiences cites as being possible experiencers.
Hancock also argues that the shamanic experience is wired deeply into our very DNA, and cites comments by Francis Crick that the DNA molecule seems to be designed from day-one to contain certain information. He speculates that perhaps this information was only intended to be accessible by a consciousness sufficiently advanced to access it - i.e. a collective process leading to mass psychic awakening.
While I found his DNA arguments really interesting, I wonder if/how they might relate to some of the research of Stuart Hameroff, of the University of Arizona Dept of Consciousness Studies, who has claimed that (all) hallucinogens act on the tubulin protein within the cellular cytoskeleton. According to the Penrose-Hameroff model, this is the site of quantum computing within within the cell, affording even a rudimentary degree of consciousness at any level down to even the simplest single-celled protozoan.
In his model, the tubulin molecule provides a superposition of quantum and classical behavior, alternating between the two by a process he and penrose call Orchestrated Objective Reduction. This allows for both quantum and classical functioning of a cell, providing non-locality , one of the requirements of consciousness. The primary function of anesthetics is to decrease quantum properties of the tubulin, allowing classical processes to continue, while hallucinogens such as DMT, LSD, etc. shift tubulins toward quantum behavior. Lots more could be said on this, but I will simply invite the reader to go to the site: www.consciousness.arizona.edu to read up on this material. It will be a fascinating read, indeed.
Hancock states that the primary component in many organic compounds, such as the bases within DMT, DNA, LSD, etc. all contain a similar component (which I don't recall at the moment). I don't know enough organic or physical chemistry to know if this has a similar quantum/classical superposition behavior such as the tubulin. But if so, it would go to great lengths to explain some of the current mysteries around how genes are expressed, how genetics and memetics appear to be somehow related, etc.
In short, while I don't necessarily agree with everything Graham Hancock says in Supernatural I think that he has some truly fascinating and deeply provocative ideas. Anyone looking for a great read and a new insight into the mysteries of consciousness and human prehistory needs to read this book.
