Leary's 8-circuit consciousness

http://www.erowid.org/culture/characters/leary_timothy/leary_timothy_8-circuit.shtml

Interesting link that I found.

It describes Timothy Leary's 8-circuit model of consciousness. The first 4 are basic everyday things that everybody has, everybody develops. The second 4 are more advanced circuits that have much different effects. It's obviously heavily effected by Leary's psychedelic use.

edit/// another article describing it: http://www.realitysandwich.com/Eight_Circuit_Brain

I spent a year of my life in this mindfuck.

I'm not sure if I recommend it or not. I certainly don't use the model anymore, but it did inspire me to identify its flaws, move on to a perspective which synthesised what it aimed for and what it didn't recognise the necessity of, and, ultimately, to continue striving for something more.

I'd recommend ignoring Antero Alli. Or watching a video of him; judge this kind of author by their fruits. His fruits-- what kind of person he is, that is-- aren't ones that I'd want to taste. RAW (see below), unlike Ali, actually managed to stay a very likable, humorous and charismatic person throughout his time as an occult-author, which is a very good sign.

Robert Anton Wilson's Prometheus Rising, although riddled with deliberate and accidental misinfo, is the best book on the subject. It gives practical exercises designed to alter perspective, which is a definite plus. Hell, it is a practical exercise. Reading it with a lazy brain and unfulfilled desires is a dangerous combination, given all of the misconceptions it can implant and given all of the traps it sets.

If you do decide to undertake the exercises, please beware: the combination of vague mystical sentiments and practical investment of time and effort are often sufficient to brainwash oneself into... something you don't want to be.

Regular LSD use is a necessity, also. Most of what's been written about this was fueled by LSD, and trying to achieve the states described without using the tools the authors describing them did is a bad idea. I'm not sure if I'd recommend LSD generally, but if you're going to be working with the 8-circuit model, I strongly recommend its use in that specific context.

p.s. The personality change experimentation I wrote about under my 'XIII' account is basically an exercise designed to, in this model's terms, expand into metaprogramming (6th in Leary's model, 7th in RAW's) consciousness.

Mystically Transformed XIII. The name 'XIII' itself was a reference to the process of death/rebirth experienced in this kind of work.

I am now removed from any corpeal form, a 3rd party meta-programming center within XIII's psychophysiology. I am he who has no form but directs all forms. I have removed myself from my temporary incarnation as XIII version 1, and am now becoming XIII version 2.

I willed it, and thus it was. And he who I became was:

Click to expand...

This was an attempt to direct my embodiment in the 'lower circuits' in accordance with a 6th-circuit metaprogramming overarching-depth consciousness. To destroy my 1/2/3/4 identity by being multiple 1/2/3/4 people, thus catapulting my stable and continuous identity permanently into 5/6/7.

Two threads about the process. (1 , 2 ).

Note that these were conducted after I'd been working with the 8-circuit model for about a year, and that, at this point, I was trying to move away from it.

The strife surrounding the whole experiment is telling-- that type of experience is common to applied work of this kind.

If it's done right, it's messy. Delusion is devoured by practical reality, the mundane and unacknowledged desires intertwined with one's outwardly cerebral motives are brought into the light, and, by strife, a new pattern of being is born. If it's all fun and games, it's not true evolution of consciousness. It's not testing limits, discovering boundaries by crossing them, and striving beyond norms. If it is, it hurts.

'All that comes into being does so through strife necessarily'. - Heraclitus.

Yeah, I don't have a strong intention to work with it- I barely know anything about it- I just thought it was interesting.

I've done a bit of acid and I already feel weird & disconnected.

Currently one of my friends is getting sucked super hard into this. My concern for him has reached an all time high. His entire family seems to be getting sucked into new-age blaggedy bloo and things of this sort.

My distaste of mysticism taints my view of things like this though(I crossed the abyss, I'm done with that shit, no more, Atheism's much less harrowing and much more logical) but if you really want to change who you are you'd probably be better off with blunt will power. And just sort of...re-wiring yourself.

That's really unhelpful, sorry.

Random aside: The fact that you can't make the icon tag for your message FUTHARK makes me oddly sad.

The death of XIII:

Death implies change and individuality; if thou be THAT which hath no person, which is beyond the changing, even beyond changelesness, what have thou to do with death?
The birth of individuality is ecstasy; so also is its death.
In love individuality is slain; who loves not love?
Love death therefore, and long eagerly for it.
Die daily.

Click to expand...

As a youngster I spent about two years studying Altered States of Consciousness at the University of Chicago and I experimented with acid to verify my hypothesis derived from those studies. I have posted a few things on the (sub?)consciousnesses of humans, here on the forum and I also have posted one of the better sites for Consciousness investigations etc. in the 'Websites of Interest' subforum...

EDIT: Ken Wilburs's book "Up From Eden" can be an interesting read on this topic, however, from my POV he has bought into the old Eastern traditions a bit too much to be seriously considered as an authority on this topic...

Once you've immersed yourself with this for a while, I recommend you check out Wilson's Quantum Psychology, which takes upon the subject of Maybe Logic and other related fields, kind of an extension of the field of consciousness.


In the end you have to realize that it all becomes maps of reality, rather than reality.
The Count pretty much summed it up with "The Map is not the Territory".

That means that though the 8-circuit model may be useful as a model, it still remains a model, and it doesn't describe platforms or physical things, but stages which ultimately are impossible to pin down, or to prove. You slip and slide along all the factors which make up these different stages, but if you consider that the circuits can have decimals as well, you may be closer to truth. if there is any.


I also recommend you read Marvin Minsky. (I've started reading both the Emotion Machine and Society of Mind, and it seems they both traverse the same model, though Emotion Machine is more updated and might end up taking a few other turns. I don't know yet.... Just read one of those, dude. I'm not sure you'd need both.)

Hey, 8 circuits, it's that time again

Would make this into a new thread, but why not

Let's get rid of the MBTI, and replace it with the 8 gears

-----------------------------------

Ok, so

gear 1 = stimuli = SENSORY
gear 2 = dynamics = SOCIAL
gear 3 = concepts = THINKING
gear 4 = ethics = FEELING

--- gear 5 - 8 = InTuiTTIONNN LOL

each of the first 4 gears has an introverted and extroverted component (energy inward or outward), so for gear 1 it is avoidant vs pursuant, gear 2 it is submissive vs dominant, the other gears aren't outlined (use your iMaGiNaTiOn).

Now, so, people will have an I/E for each type but otherwise be divided mainly by or maybe by, how much they focus on each gear, how far up the ladder they've gone etc.

once you get over the DIVIDE of the DARK ABYSS there will be FURTHER LAYERS and you will TRANSCEND the previous layers i.e. layers 1-4 ->>> 5 67 89 ten twelve etc..

So, let's talk about intuition:

So there you have it folks.

Further notes:

descriptive vs prescriptive (T vs F)

like what who how why = where/when

What else... idk

Spirits and stuff.