I was watching a video recently of the now-legendary psychonaut and visionary Terence McKenna explaining how we are each ‘fishermen on the dark ocean of mind’, casting our nets adrift to catch ideas and notions of a manageable size which can then be shared and used for the betterment of society and the positive evolution of mankind. This led me to think even more on the subject than usual, and it was during these deeper musings that a cosmic synchronicity occurred which almost blew me away and made me really focus my energy on the subject. Cosmic synchronicity, or what many call coincidence does not appear to be just some random occurrance that happens, which we then as pattern-recognising individuals attach subjective significance too - it seems intuitively far more complex than that. Synchronicity appears to be like a cosmic guide, and when someone is on the right track, or even the wrong one, something will happen in their lives that will either affirm or negate whatever is being considered or done. What happened in this case was, after listening to McKenna talk I was visualising this dark sea of mind as a colour-laden light-drenched energetic gloopy kind of informational recipe book (which could make the most beautiful universal soup if only we could get the ingedients and mixture right!) This bizarre seething ocean of novelty has depths almost beyond imagining (which I’ll come to later) and it was whilst thinking about that that I happened upon some information which was totally relevent to these musings - a cosmic synchronicity that is quite amusing and embarrasing at the same time so I’ll tell it… Many solar revolutions back, when very much younger and dafter, my best friend and I would go out on sunny days around town to do what we called ‘musking’, which was essentially watching the ladies go by and admiring their form. We came up with the term ‘musking’ from both being aware of the power of pheremones - which we then called human musk (I know, I know… Appalling. But we were young!) and the fact that ladies perfumes often used the secretions from the male musk deer as a fixative. At the same time as we came up with the word ‘musking’ we also came up with a name for something else, and this is the amusingly embarrasing bit… As the men amongst us will know, especially those in higher or lower latitudes, when the body gets cold the testicles retract slightly and the skin contracts to preserve heat. This gives them an amusing somewhat mouse-like appearance, and much to our hilarity at the time (and still now!) we thought they looked like little purses made from mice and we coined them “mouse’s purse’s”. A term we both still occassionally use, though never without much laughter afterwards… it seems you really can’t take the boy out of the man. And who would want to…? Here’s the synchronicity… Whilst deeply dwelling on McKenna’s ‘dark ocean of mind’ analogy a few nights ago I was less-deeply (but no-less aware) reading a passage in ‘The QI Book of Animal Ignorance’ regarding mice. I discovered that the ancient classical Sanskrit language of the Indian region has over forty words for ‘mouse’, one in particular being ‘Mushka’. ‘Mushka’ means ‘little mouse’, but also has another meaning, which is ‘testicle’. From ‘Mushka’ we also get the word ‘musk’. I nearly dropped the book when I read this! On reflection what appears to have happened is that somehow my friend and I had that day many years ago accessed information regarding the Sanskrit language without knowing it. It is as though an idea, once caught and brought back into society can then be accessed by anyone thinking on the right frequency. No need for books nor physical databases, ideas once formed become somehow ‘real’ things with an independent existence outside of the physical. Seeing as I was contemplating the ‘dark ocean of mind’ at the same time as recieving this new piece of jigsaw-like information seemed affirmation that McKenna (and many others throughout history) are on the right track and led me to think further on it. In keeping with McKenna’s analogy of a vast ocean filled with novelty in the forms of ideas, notions, art, music, and multitudes of other creative expressions, an ocean that is accessable to all via different personal methods, I have came to realise that what McKenna says about casting our nets to catch ideas of a manageable size, rather than ideas so small they slip our nets, or so large they are too formidable to handle, is essentially right on the mark. But to go further with the analogy, I feel that the different methods of accessing this ‘ocean of novelty’ are like riding different fishing boats, some more able to take the fisherman to new and exciting fishing grounds than others. Particularly important in this fleet of novelty trawlers are the entheogenic-powered hypervessels that are the Psilocybin mushrooms and the DMT-containing plants as used by shamans and indigenous people worldwide since pre-history (except for the true polar regions). Indeed humanity’s awareness, language, and complexity may actually have originally emerged from the use of these psychedelic plants. These shamans, after consuming the sacred plant/fungi molecules that unlock parts of the DNA (probably the parts science tells us are junk, a laughable idea in itself. Nature does not do ‘junk’ - that’s very much dumbed-down mankind’s domain) that will then allow consciousness to be ‘re-tuned’ to a much more bizarre station, that of the psychedelic, will then further tune themselves through the use of rhythm, acoustics, and breathing techniques to go deeper into this bewildering complex state - perhaps as deep as the human mind can actually go into this vast abyss of knowledge before collapsing in on itself in a cosmic overload! Once there they are able to access pure information - the monsterous catches of ideas and imagination that exist at the very heart of the ocean of novelty. This realm has depths and originality that can seem terrifying just like the physical oceans here on Earth, and it’s almost as though the plant/fungi interaction with the human DNA and consciousness acts as a cosmic deep-sea diving suit, allowing the shaman temporary access (as with a ‘real’ diver) to this most mysterious and powerful of places. Interestingly one of the more immediate effects of the DMT trip is a powerful sense of pressure, similar it is said to being at great depth under water. To sum up I feel that each and every one of us can fish this amazing ocean at different levels, some using tools such as meditation to access particular depths of awareness, others using rhythm and music to access depths unavailable to the meditator. Others still use techniques such as fasting to gain information from a different depth to both the meditator and the musician. The shamans and psychonauts across the globe use psychedelic plant-based techniques to further gain knowledge from this exquisite ocean, perhaps the most fundamental knowledge about who we are and what it’s all about. Through this sharing of ideas from all levels of the ‘ocean of novelty’ we can create the most beautiful place to live for everyone - a real ‘Eden’. Just as it should be.