Step 20: Mythology Metal and Power Plants

"Follow the smoke toward the riff-filled land." -Sleep

“No other plant has been with humans as long as hemp. It is most certainly one of humanity's oldest cultural objects. Wherever it was known, it was considered a functional, healing, inebriating, and aphrodisiac plant. Through the centuries, myths have arisen about this mysterious plant and its divine powers. Entire generations revere it as sacred: the power of hemp has been praised in hymns and prayers.” -Christian Ratsch

"The Gates of Delirium" by Roger Dean

Ancient Usage of Bhang

In the Ancient world, ranging from Zoroastrianism in the Middle East (Bhang), Scythian (Haoma), Vedic (Bhang/Soma), Egyptian (Shemshemet) and Mesopotamian Religions, as well as Hebrew, Roman, Greek, and even very early Christianity, power plants were used to access indescribable states of being, glimpsing etheric realms and accessing other-worldly states of consciousness, administered by priests using secret recipes that has become a major topic of debate among modern scholars.  In Vedic religions, the power plants were mixed into a drink commonly called "Soma" or "Bhang". Gordon Wasson, later discovered as a close associate of banking conglomerate J.P. Morgan, was a major proponent during the 1970s that Soma was none other than the Fly Agaric mushroom, which led decades of scholars to focus on this misleading idea. However, recent excavations have revealed that secret rooms at the backs of temples were used for grinding cannabis with mortar and pestle, as Chris Bennett exhaustively proves in his epic 500-paged guidebook Cannabis and the Soma Solution. For example, in Greek cultures, smoke-diviners were called Kapnobatae, three types of which were:

Kapnobates: Smoke walker

Kapnomantis: Smoke diviner

Kapnoauges: Smoke-seer

Kapnomancy: Divination by smoke.

Bennett writes: "The kapnobatae were Thracian shamans who accessed their trance through the medium of an inspiring smoke and there can be little doubt that this was Cannabis and the other terms designate similar phenomena.” Another usage is known as fumigation, where Scythians were known to retreat to an area called High Altai to purify burials after the death of loved ones using smoke as the purifying element.

J. M. Campbell explains further uses of cannabis in On the Religion of Hemp:

“To the Hindu the hemp plant is holy. A guardian lives in the bhang leaf... the bhang leaf is the home of the great Yogi or brooding ascetic Shiva. To forbid or even seriously to restrict the use of so holy and gracious a herb as the hemp would cause widespread suffering and annoyance and to the large bands of worshipped ascetics deep-seated anger. It would rob the people of a solace in discomfort, of a cure in sickness, of a guardian whose gracious protection saves them from the attacks of evil influences, and whose mighty power makes the devotee of the Victorious, overcoming the demons of hunger and thirst, of panic fear, of the glamour of Maya [Sanskrit for "Illusion"] or matter, and of madness, able in rest to brood on the Eternal, till the Eternal, possessing him body and soul, frees him from the having of self and receives him into the ocean of Being. ”

Bernart Amygdalah Digital Art

Recipes for Bhang varied across time and cultures, but enough evidence has been found in recent years to pinpoint four major ingredients of Bhang, including Syrian Rue, Opium, Hashish, and Ephedra, and sometimes Wine. Recently, the oldest cookbook ever was found to contain a recipe for a cannabis beverage. Because the recipes were kept a secret among the priest class, there is no consensus on an official recipe. As author Lise Manniche points out,  “...For it was among the priests that the medicinal properties of plants was cultivated.”

Time-Altering Effects Through The Ages

Ancient uses of cannabis have unknowingly shaped many modern day traditions, including the grim reaper, who actually represents how the experience of time is radically altered when perceived while under its influence. Chris Bennett writes:

 “A common effect noticed by novice users of cannabis is a differentiation in the usual experience of time; i.e. “It seemed like an hour but it was only a minute,” or vice versa. Noticing a difference in the experience of linear time may have well played a role in the conception and formulation of the idea of time itself (Likewise, a deeper awareness of seasonal time may have developed alongside agricultural). Interestingly, both Father Time and the Grim Reaper hold a scythe, an ancient tool used for harvesting cannabis whose imagery and name go back to the Scythian cult of the Dead, who used hemp for ritual ecstasy. In the ancient world, such an effect on the experience of time [enhanced] cannabis' reputation for containing magical properties."

With time wriggled loose from its false and constricting grip, the Bhang-user becomes imbued with an overload of inspiring images and profound communion with the heavens. .Researcher Ahmet Karamustufa, author of God's Unruly Friends, writes:

"Hashish was a means to find respite from the unreal phenomena of time and space and to attain the hidden nature of reality."

When returning from their voyage to euphoric states, the Bhang user would be enraptured with uplifting sensations. According to John Porter:

  “The first intention of Hasheesh was evidently not as a stimulant. It was intended as a 'spiritual' soporific, producing that quiescence of a soul so dear to Orientals, and known throughout all the regions under Arabian influence by the name of “Kaif (Keef)” These found a higher power in the drug- that of raising the imagination until it attained to a beatified realization of the joys of a future world.”  

Initiation Using Cannabis

Worship of the Tree of Life dates back to early Babylonian, Mayan, and most likely pre-history civilizations. The Tree of Life refers to a state of immortality, which the effects of Bhang/Soma were known to induce, and cannabis was often secretly considered the Tree of Life. The experience was so profound that initiates had to reach this stage. Riane Elser writes that: “Like the tree of life the tree of knowledge was … a symbol of the goddess in earlier mythology … groves of sacred trees were an integral part of the old religions so were rites designed to induce worshippers a consciousness receptive to the revelation of divine or mystical truths-rites."

Oliver Bland writing in 1920 explains:

“In the mystery schools the initiate “died,” but the death was no mere formula, but an actually induced state of stupor or deep trance brought about by the fumes of keef.”

Bennett writes: “Like the temple gardens of the Assyrians, where the “Tree of Life” was reputed to grow, the Egyptians likely cultivated Shemshemet (Bhang) and other sacred plants.”

Mesopotamian Frieze of the Tree of Life

Of the nomadic Dervishes, Bennet writes: "The effects of the drug are produced much more rapidly when it is smoked than when it is eaten. Subjectively, it produces an extraordinary dislocation of the ideas of time, space and the personality. It seems that all those present in the assembly are in a reality animated by one spirit and that the barricades of personality and individuality are, in some inexplicable way, broken down. It is this sensation or illusion which is specially craved after the Dervishes, who found there is a foretaste for Nirvana, or absorption into the universal spirit."

In Latin American countries, herbsmen are referred to as Curanderos. Juan Flores Salazar speaks of his experience as a Curandero: "The spirits of plants move about the world talking with one another, and if you (meditate) sincerely with them they teach this art. For a curandero, plants sustain life....plants, with their roots in the soil and their branches spreading to the sky, act as bridges between the worlds."


Cynic's "Traced in Air" Inner Jacket by Robert Venosa

Persian shamans predicted much of later Christianity while on the effects of Bhang. Bennet writes: “In fact, many such Christian beliefs such as Heaven and Hell, a coming savior, the devil, all have their origins in ancient persian tradition. The ancient Persian shamans who have the visions in which these concepts originally occurred, were stoned out of their gourds on psychedelic doses of cannabis when they had them. In fact, the Persian Magi were so adept at use of magical plants that they have been referred to as the Great Drug Peddlers of the Ancient World.”

Filling the void left by the modern era's lack of Bhang, 1970s metal bands like Black Sabbath have tipped their hat to cannabis through songs such as Sweet Leaf, down-tuned and distorted in a stoned haze, have inspired generations afterwards to tap into the "stoner metal" resonance and create music in a ceremonial dirge. Twenty years later, Mythical stoner doom metal band Sleep (composed of members Al Cisneros, Chris Hakius, and Matt Pike) have churned out an epic 1-Hour and 3-minute long song entitled "Dopesmoker", telling in archaic words of a planet whose sole function is the cultivation and worship of hemp. The lyrics are incomplete, like a fractured relic or Rosetta stone. The lyrics that are decipherable, however, yield copious wisdom towards a peaceful world:

"Herb bails tied to the backs of beasts

Rides out believer with the spliff aflame

Marijuanaut escapes Earth to cultivate

Groundation soul finds trust upon smoking hose

Assembled creedsmen rises prayer-filled smoke."

The music literally resonates in a cannabis-induced trance - exactly how it was recorded. On the inside of the album, they give simple instructions to their fans: 'So get high, Crank it up, and Listen with open ears and open mind -Sleep.'

Step 19: 2001: A Space Odyssey and Cultural Transformation

"As long as the visionaries provide the slightest glow of enlightenment, the forces of darkness will be there to attempt to prevent and subdue this affront to their power. Visionary art has always manifested content that transcends the normal state of awareness. This assures that the inherent, somewhat cryptic message of the visionary's creation will in most cases only be translated by the consciousness of those of higher intellect and spirit, attuned to more universal values, who in turn implement those values on the Earthly plane."

 -Robert Venosa (1936- August 9, 2011)

A truncated pyramid with dormant capstone and enlightened base!

Continuing with the theme of Science Fiction offering solutions to problems of any era, we turn to the visual format of film. Words, which rely on metaphors to relate ambiguous experiences and images to the reader, films can transmit hidden ideas directly to the subconscious. Stanley Kubrick (1928-1999) is known for his complex and brilliant layers of communication. On the surface narrative, the theme of the movie deals with technological enslavement over humans. However, Kubrick is an unparalleled master of semiotics, or encoding subconscious plot lines, called symbolic narratives. These hidden narratives are employed through visual metaphors, emotionally-charged undercurrents or 'clues' which has challenged generations of audiences to piece together the hidden subconscious elements. This includes being asleep or in a dream-like state. Kubrick explains:

"Since your dreams can take you into areas which can never be a part of your conscious mind, I think a work of art can ‘operate’ on you in much the same way as a dream does."

n the post on Watchmen, ancient Egyptian mythology featured beings called "Neters" that represented an example for Egyptian inhabitants to go from one level of consciousness to a higher level. In Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey," the genius filmmaker provide us with a character who undergoes one of the most well-known sequences in cinema history: The Stargate sequence, also known as a consciousness shift (exactly like a Neter). This sequence is famous for taking cinema to a whole new level, and has never been adequately explained by a shared majority of viewers. One example of encryption from the IMDB link above is:

"The sun and the crescent moon aligned with each other (in the opening shot) was a symbol of Zoroastrianism, an ancient Persian religion that predated Buddhism and Christianity and was based on the teachings of the prophet Zoroaster. This particular alignment symbolized the eternal struggle between light and darkness."

In addition to Neters, Egyptian 'mystery' religions often performed rites, or ceremonies, into the initiation process needed to overcome worldly obstacles in order to teach others these ways. 

Manly Palmer Hall, who wrote the incredibly lengthy The Secret Teachings of All Ages at the mere age of 27, summarizes the purpose of ancient initiation rites:

"The Mysteries were organized for the purpose of assisting the struggling human

creature to reawaken the spiritual powers which lay asleep within his soul."

This encapsulates the symbolic "ape men" introduction of 2001.

The Dawn of Man

Kubrick begins the film with a barren landscape inhabited by primates, partially symbolizing primal man, who is not yet evolved either physically or spiritually. Suddenly, harrowing music indicates the arrival of a foreign object: a black rectangular prism known as The Monolith. The primates react in frenzied exclamations, surprised by the concept of form, shape, and perfect angles. Before decoding the symbolic narrative, it is important to know Kubrick's psychology background and expertise:

"I don't like to talk about 2001 too much because it's essentially a non-verbal experience. It attempts to communicate more to the subconscious and to the feelings than it does to the intellect. I think clearly there's a problem with people who are not paying attention with their eyes. They're listening. And they don't get much from listening to this film. If the film stirs the emotions and penetrates the subconscious of the viewer, if it stimulates his mythological and religious yearnings and impulses, then it has succeeded."

This frame of the film is of particular importance because it highlights a major theme of the 

symbolic narrative: the concept of dimensionality. What could be prompting the apes' excited behavior is not the perfection of the design, but the ideas of length, width, and height, meaning that Kubrick is suggesting that these primates were acknowledging their presence in a 2-dimensional environment (the movie itself), which has now become 3-dimensional to them. However, this still does not explain how the monolith appeared to begin with. In his interviews, in which Kubrick is known for purposely misleading the media and his audiences, he points to extra-terrestrial life deciding to advance their civilization. Instead, if these apes are recognizing their presence in a 2-dimensional film, it is possible that the monolith's appearance is the result of Kubrick himself.

With its appearance, the Monolith signals a culture-wide shift of the primates, who learn to fashion tools for murdering a preying jaguar, thereby ending their starvation and entering higher-order awareness. The murder weapon, a bone, is released into the air, and upon landing, cuts to what appears to be a spaceship drifting in the depths of space. However, it is not a spaceship, but instead a floating nuclear satellite, signaling to audiences that the bone is the first weapon and the nuke is the ultimate weapon!

Immediately, we are to relate the Ape's experience to our own. The next main character of the movie is introduced in the Torus space station, Heywood Floyd. The dialogue in these scenes are either suspicious-sounding, or misleading and irrelevant. A press conference is called to address a suspicious discovery on the moon, while only vague details are given. Heywood Floyd speaks of the need to maintain secrecy, and mislead the public on the findings. He says in front of the council:

"The grave potential for social shock and cultural disorientation contained in this present situation ... if the facts were made public without proper preparation and conditioning." Using altered-color monolith symbolism, the meeting is flanked by three monoliths (also positioned like the three projectors of the 2001 70mm Cinerama experience in 1968) and a fourth: his podium. It is also shot at an angle which forms the inside of a truncated pyramid.

The council represents the elite of the world, confiding to each other the best methods of which to manipulate the public. The idea of a secretive inner governing council is a Kubrick norm, ever since his controversial 1964 film "Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb."

The Symbolic Narrative of the Monolith
These scenes are a precursor to the introduction of HAL 9000, an artificial intelligence computer which has been programmed to manipulate the space crew of the pilot of the Discovery (sent to check out the moon), Dave Bowman. When the crew arrives on the moon, the monolith is what is being "covered up". During these scenes, certain shots are flipped in a way only produced by film, also called continuity errors (commonly mistakes of props in between frames) indicating that whatever the Monolith is, it must be accessing a parallel universe. At a later scene, the Monolith is shown floating in space during a planetary alignment sequence. Mysteriously, it retreats into the distance and exits the screen. This seemingly random detail is another key to the meaning of the Monolith. Consider if it would have come toward the screen instead:

The clue would be too obvious! The side-turned Monolith would completely identical the cinema screen. The monolith represents the ability of cinema to transcend normal communication and offer a communal unconscious learning experience. Visionary Artist Alex Grey explains his view of art's ability:
"Syzygy, meaning alignment or conjunction, is frequently used to describe relations of one celestial body with another. A Divine Syzygy would be a mystical religious experience."
Kubrick's cinematic genius is 'what' decides to place the monolith in the film, and just as he is the movie's God figure, so is he our creative mastermind to guide our cultural leap. Using film to communicate to the unconscious, Kubrick declares film as a solution to psychologically re-orienting an entire species. Terence McKenna defines this type of communication as Alchemy:
"There is a place, not quite sleeping, not quite waking, and there flows this river of alchemical mercury where you can project the contents of the unconscious and you can read it back to yourself." Taking the alchemy of cinema into account, it is no surprise that Kubrick went to painstaking lengths to preserve the same soundtrack sequence during live orchestrations of the movie so that the monolith appears to the primates exactly during the silent black screen during the intermission.
Because the apes are aware of their 2-dimensional presence, some of the human characters are also aware that they are in a film and that the monolith is a metaphorical gateway to the subconscious movie screen. In one scene, the stewardess notices the rectangular shape of a tray, just like a monolith, and tells the other stewardess. They look directly at the camera in ingeniously deliberate-yet subtle acknowledgment:

This is Kubrick's message to those in control of society: the masses are telling each other of enlightenment! These are the types of meticulous clues left behind by the great cinematographer. Shout it from the rooftops: The monolith is a screen! The Screen is a metaphor for subconscious communication by the audience and the cast members!

Jupiter and Beyond the Infinite
The surface narrative proceeds by exhibiting the struggle between a machine attempting to 'out-human' the crew and Bowman's ability to catch on to HAL's deception and give it an incalculable taste of his own medicine. On the surface narrative, Kubrick targets the control of corporations and their use of technology. After dismantling HAL's brain, Bowman is swung off course in a space pod into a streaming joyride of color light rivulets, eventually to technicolored terrain and finally a "renaissance room" (meaningrebirth) with Louis-XVI style decor, where he ages into an old man. In turn, the invisible higher-order intelligence (Kubrick) allows a re-appearance by the monolith and he is reborn a starchild.
Just as the Apes discover dimensionality, so does Kubrick allow Bowman to discover a step beyond the third dimension: the infinite. This is what is considered the state of enlightenment, symbolically represented by the lighting up of something. Consider this rare symbolic poster of the movie:

Robert Venosa says of the visionary experience: "Art, at relative levels, is an emotional experience, and, if it’s not extruding detritus from our subconscious, 

then, hopefully, it’s opening up the channel of our superconscious and letting 

in some of the cosmic light."

As mentioned before, ancient mystery religions required an intense initiation process. Ancient Researcher Drunvalo Malchizedek writes of the steps undertaken in Egypt:

"Because of the placement of the Great Pyramid on the Earth connecting into the Earth's huge geometrical field, the white-light energy field spirals upwards and becomes extremely strong, stretching all the way out to the center of the galaxy. In this way, the Great Pyramid connects the center of the Earth to the center of our Galaxy.

Getting to this point in the Egyptian experience took twelve years of training in the Left Eye of Horus school and twelve years in the Right Eye of Horus. At the right time they would place you in that sarcophagus, put the lid on and leave you between two and a half to four days. You would lie down in the sarcaphagus, connect with that white-energy beam with your pineal gland... After you'd been out in the cosmos for a few days, you would return." 

More Esoteric Symbolism

When 2001: A Space Odyssey and sacred art are viewed with the purpose of discovering what makes it a "how-to" tool for cultural shifts, we can learn to broadcast our own intentions to unite and expand our own awareness and the awareness of those around us with out empathy, love, and creativity. It is the natural reaction to something as profound as the monolith: flabbergasted followed by enlightenment! For more information on cultural transformation, visit Awakening As One and related Kubrick posts of the blog Sacred Sun. 

Robert Venosa carries the spirit of transcendental art beyond his time on Earth:

"The artist has always been the catalyst for change. So the real question might be:

What sort of world would we exist in if it weren't for the visionary? As an artist I have this sense of being an explorer- sailing into unknown territory to bring back maps to share of lands we are not yet in, or aware of.  ...And so the battle to shed the light goes on – through music, art and all the other universal creative energies – until it becomes a blinding force against the powers of darkness, and an uplifting, liberating source of inspiration to all truth-seekers. This is a powerful space to work from in any and all events...

and it sure beats a day job."

                                                                      

Step 18: Asimov and Unity

"Nothing is more powerful than idea whose time has come." -Victor Hugo

The Foundation
Spanning incredible ranges of topics such as Shakespeare, Chemistry, Astronomy, Religion, and Physics, Isaac Asimov wrote over 500 books and became considered a grand master of science fiction. Using this vast amount of material allowed Asimov to create stories specifically designed to guide and inspire current and future generations after his death, saying that "Individual science fiction stories may seem as trivial as ever to the blinder critics and philosophers of today - but the core of science fiction, its essence has become crucial to our salvation if we are to be saved at all." Philosopher Michael Butor writes "Science Fiction represents the normal form of mythology in our time; a form which is not only capable of revealing profoundly new themes, but capable of integrating all the themes of old literature."

                         Hari Seldon                                             Isaac Asimov                                                                      

Arguably his most epic saga, The Foundation series answers the question on an unbelievably large scale: "How can the future of civilization be protected from corruption?" Using a combination of sociology, psychology, history, statistics, and imagination, Asimov delivers his the answers over a span of seven novels, two of which were preludes to the series written last in order. The saga begins with Foundation, set in the Galactic Era (year 12,035), a galaxy inhabited by quadrillions of humans, in which mathematician Hari Seldon is told by the Emperor's adviser, Demerzel, that their civilization is headed for catastrophe. Asimov relates Seldon's plan to bygone eras like Rome and the imperialism of America. Demerzel enlists Hari Seldon to develop his plan that he had lectured about: psychohistory, or the study of mass-scale sociology. To put his plan to action, they organize a commonwealth on the planet Terminus at "one end of the galaxy" called The Foundation. They are told to compile a massive amount of information about the galaxy into their Encyclopedia Galactica to ensure that knowledge survives the empire's collapse. 

The Mule
The Second Foundation
As predicted, the Empire crumbles. Seldon sets up his Foundation on Terminus, and records holographic footage of himself for after his death. Every 75 or so years, during a "crisis" in the plan, Seldon's recording emerges from a golden cylinder to explain the stage of the plan.  Little do the Encyclopedists know: their entire foundation colony is only one of two foundations- the second foundation being on the opposite end of the galaxy, and ran by a small collective of telepathic researchers (psychohistorians). The first foundation is for physical sciences, and the second foundation is for mental sciences. However, when a genetic mutation creates a mutant named the Mule, Seldon's psychohistory plan couldn't have possibly predicted it, and the "plan" is thrown off by his mentalist abilities, including reading and manipulating minds. Declaring himself emperor, The Mule gains control of many followers and begins imperializing. So, it begins to appear that Seldon's idea in actuality flawed and not immaculate after all. 


Foundation and Earth
After 400 years of Seldon's plan, we meet Trevize, who is asked to leave his position in governance, and takes the opportunity to borrow a special spaceship for locating the lost planet: Earth. In the galactic library on Trantor, all data has been removed about the planet, forcing him to enlist his friend Pelorat, a mythologist, to help him piece together the clues of Earth's location. When Pelorat and Trevize land on Gaia, they encounter Bliss, who explains to them that she is Gaia, the planet, and everything, even the rocks, are Gaia, and may have access to collective emotion, memory, and knowledge at any given time. The name Gaia hearkens back to the personification of Mother Earth, who connects all things, from Ancient Greek Mythology, as the single idea or archetype for our planet to strive toward. As Author Dave Pendell writes, "The greenness is all, the link between microcosm and macrocosm."

Bliss explains that Gaia has selected Trevize as the being in the galaxy with the best judgment and skillfully brought him there (through removing Earth records on the archive) so that he would observe an alternative to Hari Seldon's plan: Galaxia. He takes Bliss onboard in search of the real Earth, because he feels that it is the key to understanding the decision he must make. On their way, they discover entirely new races of creatures, one of which are humans with head implants called "lobes" used to control electricity. Each alien planet ends in a hostile situation that they must escape, and they finally find out that Earth has been radioactive for 15,000 years. Trevize reflects on meeting the new species on his journey that Seldon's plan could never have possibly predicted. He weighs the options between Hari Seldon's Plan and the vision of Galaxia: 

“The galaxy is not the Universe. There are other galaxies. ... Just outside the Galaxy are the Magellanic Clouds, where no human ship has ever penetrated ... and not very far away is the giant Andromeda Galaxy, larger than our own. Beyond that are galaxies by the billions. ...What if, in some galaxy, one species gains domination over the rest and then has time to consider the possibility of penetrating other galaxies. ...An invader that finds us divided against ourselves will dominate us all, or destroy us all. The only true defense is to produce GALAXIA, which cannot be turned against itself and which can meet invaders with maximum power. Will we have time to form Galaxia?”

In the end, Asimov sacrifices his idea of Seldon's creative problem solving in favor of an ancient concept he can claim no credit to, which as an author reveals Asimov's humanitarian spirit. Interestingly enough, the Atari arcade game Galaxia flashes the introduction words:

We are all Galaxians.

Asimov never decided how to continue the series with Galaxia, so he wrote two Prequels: Prelude to Foundation and Forward The Foundation, where Hari Seldon uses the Empire's main planet Trantor and its many subsections as a microcosm for the galaxy to develop psychohistory with his special telepathic Granddaughter, Wanda. Deciphering the series as a whole, which connects with his 'Robots' and 'Empire' series also, I realized that Asimov is not simply asking us to form Galaxia. He is asking for people to interpret these books and other prophetic texts as The Second Foundation would Seldon's Plan, and develop non-verbal communication by beginning symbolically. From there, the growing idea and awareness of unity will take root into an even greater structure. A combination of both groups (The Second Foundation) and 'Ideaspace' (Gaia- see below) are what I believe Asimov would advise through his books.
Beginning with Luminaries, each post has described different levels of humanity's connection to one another, with knowledge of this almost entirely from The Swamp Thing and The Foundation. The idea (whose time has come more than ever!) is the singular consciousness vision of Asimov's Gaia. The plot of The Foundation is not unlike the Ancient Chinese prediction system called the I Ching. However, in our modern era there are a number of different entities that predict behavior of populations:

• Google can use search results and dates of searches to determine future trends and events referred to as "predictive programming"
• Facebook can collect information, and use events, groups and data for long-term projections of the future as well.
• Terrence McKenna has expanded a model of the I Ching to a prediction system based on the appearance of new ideas called Novelty. The new model is charted on a graph of time and novelty called "Time Wave Zero."

Gaia and Ideaspace
The collective conscious or unconscious includes emotional instincts, mythologies, symbols, and archetypes. The symbol for the collective unconscious is a mandala made up of smaller  parts that each relate to the whole, and can serve as a personal meditation tool. On a wider scale, many artistic mediums may allow ideas to become collective spaces of new reality, or Ideaspace. The process of sharing collective ideas are what seasoned artists specialize in best. Artist Arik "Moonhawk" Roper's project encapsulates this process: "Shadowscapes is an image series based on pure imagination and inner visions. The project is inspired by my interest in the idea that every creative concept is a new reality. Initially, this new reality may be limited to only one mind but the more the concept is articulated and illustrated, the more sentience it acquires. As other minds participate in the imagining of this idea it grows to potentially infinite horizons until we are all creative collaborators in a vast reality that started as a dream, not unlike the one in which you are reading these words. These images are merely seeds of creation, water them if you wish."

Graphic Novelist Alan Moore shares his thesis of Ideas creating a collective reality.

"An Idea may be a pebble, a rock, a mountain, or a whole continent in terms of its stature, but the important thing is that it exists, at least metaphysically, as a solid object in this mutually-accessible terrain of mind that I'm describing. Thus, numerous different people, all "wandering" in their minds, might conceivably stumble across the same idea almost at once, like separate hill-walkers all having happened upon the same distinctive landmark.

This means that navigation in Ideaspace, are more like the navigational rules of the Internet, with one idea hot-linked to another, than the navigational rueles that are employed on an average car journey. It would also seem that Time, as a phenomoneon, doesn't apply in the same way to the realm of the mind as it does in our time-locked material realm. 

Everyday ideas could be seen as common minnows that swarm around the coastal waters of our ocean of Idea Space, easily reached for and caught by anyone. Ideas that are more uncommon are rarer, further out, require a bit more wading or possibly even snorkelling to locate them. Artists and writers and other creators, therefore, tend to be judged upon how far they have travelled in persuit of their catch."

Using art as Ideaspace is one method of creating unity with others. The other method is physically doing so. Manly P. Hall concluded his book Mysteries of the Mandala with a crystal clear message for the survival of the human race:

"When all work together for common survival, realizing that the failure of one part must finally end in disaster for all, we might be able to establish a philosophical commonwealth. The first step is the reorganization of society through the realization of the universal purpose." In other words, if universal ideals like art and music, which create shared space, infuse love and other emotions, and unite an unlimited number of people are considered most important when making decisions, every step of the way will increase our unity.

Rhonda Byrne suggests the best method for eradicating self consciousness: "When we shift our awareness or 'frequency' from self-consciousness -- where fear, impossibility or feelings of separation reside -- to Cosmic Consciousness, which is in total HARMONY with the Universe and where none of those feelings exist, then anything is possible."

It is my hope that Asimov, and other amazing prophets, will rekindle a sense of collectivism that ancient cultures had with mythology, symbols, and abstract thinking based in the right hemisphere of the brain that supplies understanding of infinite unity. Visionary Artist Alex Grey captures this incredible state of mind in his Collective Vision: "The many faces of Collective Vision united by the mandalic eye-field suggest both expansion of consciousness and sharing of consciousness with other beings. The painting was based on a profoundly ego dissolving entheogenic mystical trance where I heard the words "Infinite Oneness... The Oneness should never forget the Infinitude and the Infinitude should never forget the Oneness...

Alex Grey's "Collective Vision"
www.alexgrey.com