The Divine Spark

As readers know, the nature of consciousness is a central concern of the Network. More than that, many of us believe that a transformation in our understanding of consciousness as fundamental rather than incidental is of critical importance. Readers of this volume on psychedelics, consciousness and the birth of civilisation would agree, with some going as far as to contend that the war on drugs is in fact a war on consciousness, keeping us within the left-hemisphere bounds of linear rational thought. Hancock himself characterises our technological civilisation as demonic in the sense that it switches us off from the wider mystery of being alive while 'bombarding our consciousness with sterile, soulless messages of production and consumption, of envy and greed, that never get to the fundamentals of anything.'

As one might expect, there is a huge variety of contributions in this volume, touching on the nature of consciousness, the expansion of the mind, the experience of psychedelics and the status of the supernatural. Shamanic cultures past and present have always used mind-altering substances to gain access to other realms of reality, which they do not regard simply as altered brain states. Among other essays, I was struck by one on the soul cluster – a tripartite division that one finds across cultures as a chart on page 254 indicates. The authors elaborate this with reference to the Kahuna philosophy of Hawaii. The last essay by Gregory Sams asking if psychedelics could save the world is particularly potent. The experience enables us to escape from a single channel reality as many of us realised in the 60s – opening us to a wider perception and connecting us with our inner selves and a world of spirit in a way that threatened to undermine the still prevalent focus on economic growth. Instead, we can throw off our mental straitjacket and realise that we can live fully and harmoniously in an interconnected world where we recognise the spirit in everything.