Halloween may come but once a year for some of us, but, for the rest of us, a subtle sense of horror runs through our daily lives like background noise; the essence of Halloween is on our menu 365 days a year.
But, this is not always a bad thing. Think of the Essence of Halloween as an aerosol that comes in a can, a sort of air freshener. But, it's odor is not one of dead mammalian flesh as much as it the smell of dying leaves and burning candles in the cool night air. It has hints of sugar & spices mixed with church incense and the odd scent of a funeral parlor.
Halloween then bleeds into the Day of the Dead. Everyone knows, at least, one of those people. But, none of us can comprehend that most altered state of all... death itself.
And, so, we threw a party! 👻
Halloween, which likely originated from the old Celtic holiday of Samhain , is the culmination of a year of spookiness we can finally give a name to. "Oh, that explains it, it's officially Halloween!" Witches, demons, gremlins, ghouls, phantoms, zombies, psychopaths, haunted houses, memes of death, magic, fascination & horror - officially have free reign on this day... provided there is that certain element of humor... or satire. The irony of death is all around us. Let's dance!
For instance, my day was considerably brightened recently by a .gif starring the one and only Death Fairy (inset right), a wonderful, satirical character found here. Invented by the artist, Kiszkiloszki, the Death Fairy is quite possibly the best Halloween character ever!
But, all this talk of apparitions, fortune-telling, hallucinations, premonitions, trances, spell-casting and dreams of the living dead can be interpreted as being elements of our collective unconsciousness which have recently fallen under more serious scientific scrutiny: the altered states of consciousness (ACS).
"Although classical psychoanalysis has tended to regard altered states of consciousness (ASCs) as symptoms of regressive states, other schools of thought, such as Jungian, humanistic, and transpersonal psychology, regard them as higher states of consciousness and, often, as indicative of a more profound level of personal and spiritual evolution."
- A quote sourced from the APA Dictionary entry for altered state of consciousness.
"According to the Wiley-Blackwell Handbook of Transpersonal Psychology, excessive dancing, meditation, and mind-altering plants were used in ancient civilizations to modulate the activity of the mind. Terence McKenna, an American ethnobotanist, even thought that the use of psychedelic mushrooms had led to the 'evolution of human language and symbol use.'
The production and use of substances that alter perception, change consciousness, and create illusion and hallucination seems to be embedded throughout the natural world, as a thread somehow woven into the fabric of life itself,' writes Dr Peter Brace from Swinburne University."
- Via the article: Altered states of consciousness: the elusiveness of the mind.
“I’m being greeted by these beings, they’rle not human but they’re oddly familiar. I know them as if they are family. They’re telling me how happy they are to see me, and that I’ve found this technology to communicate with them again.”
“Yesterday, I finally broke through and met a male and female entity in the place where we exist before birth, and after death. I was in complete shock about what happened, it seemed so real, and it honestly felt like a very familiar place. They were welcoming me and it felt like I was home.”
- Quotes from participants in a DMT study via the Big Think article: “I’ve been here before”: DMT study explores a strange memory phenomenon.
DMT is a chemical naturally found in numerous plants and some mammals, including humans. It is the hallucinogenic ingredient in Ayahuasca.
I was particularly impressed by the line: "They’re telling me how happy they are to see me, and that I’ve found this technology to communicate with them again.” Technology is an odd word to describe what is essentially the effects of a plant product.
As it happens, humans have been deliberately attempting to alter and enhance their conscious states - for quite some time... somewhere around 30,000 years, if not more! While psychotropic plants have often played a part in this process, the true altered state is not dependent upon them. Alcohol (another plant product) consumption, meditation, orgasm, music, dancing, ceremonial rituals, lucid dreaming - and, to this I add, the processes used to create many forms of art - are among the many activities that may produce an altered state. *
(Inset left above is an example of the Geometry of DMT.)
(More below the jump...)
(Source: Digital Arts. Great soundtrack.)
But, let's concentrate on the psychotropic plant chemicals for a moment. There are plenty of them to choose from. Mescaline, served up by a cactus plant, the Psilocybin mushroom, which might actually cure depression (also see), DMT, which is growing in popularity, and more. For instance, apparently, anesthesia can create an altered state, and, long ago, psychedelic beer!
But to really understand the connection between Halloween and altered states we need look no further than black cats and witches on broomsticks. Ever wonder why witches were said to fly around on broomsticks? Seems like what they were really doing was getting high on some wicked botanicals like the one inset right, the famous "deadly nightshade" or Atropic Belladonna, which, when combined with other ingredients produced the flying ointments.
From the Wiki article: "Magic ointments...produced effects which the subjects themselves believed in, even stating that they had intercourse with evil spirits, had been at the Sabbat and danced on the Brocken with their lovers...The peculiar hallucinations evoked by the drug had been so powerfully transmitted from the subconscious mind to consciousness that mentally uncultivated persons...believed them to be reality."
As you might imagine, the flying ointments also produced the sensations and/or dreams of flying... which, if synthesized today into pill form, would be on everybody's wish list! Sadly, in those days, "witches" died for their transgressions.
That being said, October 31st is also the Eve of the old Celtic New Year, and this makes a certain amount of sense. It feels like the end of the year, for one thing. In essence, the past year is already slipping into history... as we all are.
And, with (or without) that thought in mind, have Happy Halloween! 🎃
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* Not to be confused with the Altered States of America... made graceless again by Petty Emperor, Dictator Don.
A lovely ode to mortality, altered states and Halloween! The triad of escape, in one way or a other, from the trials of life. Halloween offers, if only for a night, a thin veil drawn back upon the darkness between the world of life and death.
ReplyDeleteThanks, BG! :-) 💀
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