Psychedelia, page 98
There are other familiar aspects to the psychedelic experience that emerge in a new light if seen through the prism of Winkelman's psychointegrative model. In comparison with Shanon's similar but more rudimentary suggestion, Winkelman offers explanations for distinct empirical observations from the DMT and ayahuasca realms that include: the objective similarity in symbolic images; the sense of having been in this experiential space before; the radical improvement of inner eye visualizations; the difference in mental effects between the major psychedelic drugs; and, the frequent attention towards questions of language and visual representation. One may speculate that the distinct levels of 'intoxication' notable on psychedelic drugs match distinct levels of psycho- integrative success in the triune brain; breaking through 'the veil' or Chrysanthemum of DMT is possibly to reach a maximum neurochemical access point. At the low threshold end, an experience that is limited to modest internal and external hallucinations of form and color do not reflect any activation of neurognostic structures or triune brain psychointegration at all, but a very slight neurochemical effect restricted to the cortex and its processing of entoptic and auditory noise. These hallucinations are merely noise and outbursts from the liberated, dopamined brain.
The present author has earlier suggested that the second discrete level of psychedelization is introduced by a CEV (closed eyes) transition from formless visuals like patterns and lines, into pictorial form hallucinations of beings and objects. Set against Winkelman's model, this change would signal initial access to the limbic and reptilian brains, an access which depth will vary depending on drug and dosage, and also on set and setting, since psychological mentation sustains ego processes and disturbs deep triune access. Already on this second psychedelic level the limbic and possibly reptilian brains are deployed, which is felt in an emotional tone that becomes increasingly complex, along with the marked improvement of inner visualizations. The third level of psychedelization, the High Plateau, is an extended phase of exceptional visual ideation of a predominantly impersonal character, and may give rise to rich hallucinations of alien cultures or encounters with seemingly minded entities; in psychointegrative terms it represents a highly exfoliated network engaged across the entire triune brain system.
The experience of ego-loss and the non-dualistic and formless states of the tentative fourth level do not necessarily emerge as the 'highest' level of cognitive activity according to this model, and except for speculating on ego-loss as a kind of primordial regression, Winkelman has little to say about peak experiences and soteriological events. One may be tempted to view these extreme states as a collapse of the triune brain integration, although the exceptional moods of euphoria and bliss reported to accompany the 'pseudo-nirvana' peak of a drug like LSD speaks against using negative terminology such as 'collapse'. For the time being, this special level, which is the signature of the long-acting psychedelics LSD, mescaline and Psilocybin more than DMT or ayahuasca, will be left as a subject for a total consciousness theory, rather than the experiential brain or mindstream theory that Winkelman's neurophenomenological approach yields. Similarly, while the elastic impression of time under psychedelics is easily understood due to the non-metronomic modalities of the lower brains, the experience of complete timelessness appears linked to nirvanic peak states, and belongs to separate, cosmological theories of consciousness.
That said, one is still left with a number of questions that are not addressed by the psychointegrative model but probably should be. To begin with, while it is possible to infer the ontological mechanisms behind the inner eye hallucination of a loving, radiant blue angel who shares profound advice on how to live life in accord with Mother Nature, theories of neurognostic structures and triune brains do not account for the seeming minded volition behind such an entity, nor its often exceptional intelligence and insistence upon communication. Even at moderate trypta- mine doses may the manifestation of something alien in the trip space be felt; a presence which seeks to establish dialogue, while also giving off an impression of controlling the 'production', like a master of ceremonies. This 'Overseer' is the source of the Mushroom Voice, the machine elfs of DMT and the healing 'doctores' of ayahuasca. Neo-shaman Jim DeKorne commented on this phenomena:
The conscious 'me' was but a portion of a greater reality which was unfolding itself from what I perceived as my own unconscious psyche. Somewhere within this undifferentiated 'unconscious' was a separate intelligence able to manipulate information superior to anything I knew here in spacetime.20
An ayahuasca user commented similarly via private communication, 'I don't know who produces this show, but it knows a lot more and it thinks a lot faster than I do'. The seemingly external source of the visions may be explained by the mind's temporary access to limbic and reptile brain processes which are never directly engaged otherwise, and therefore not recognized as internal by the cortical ego. However, if this is the reason, this sense ought to fade away with repeat experiences, and the explanation also seems to contradict the oft-reported feeling of 'having been there before' (a primordial memory?). As for the apparent transpersonal intelligence or psychedelic Overseer at play, it is vital to distinguish between the representational creativity which produces many of the striking visual metaphors of figures and objects, and the communicating creativity which puts insightful messages into the verbal output from these entities. It is the classic distinction between form and content. The former creativity falls entirely under the capabilities of the psychointegrated brain, while the latter is more difficult to explain.
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Visions of jaguar, snake and wolf can be explained as visualized alarm signals from a primordial animacy detector in a triune brain overwhelmed by external and internal stimuli. Entities resem- bling aliens and large insects may be explained as modern Western equivalents to such predators (cf Ridley Scott's Alien or Paul Verhoeven's Starship Troopers, both of which portray an insect-reptile alien hybrid as the ultimate human enemy21), augmenting the older gallery of threats that put the central nervous system on high alert. Angels, glorious royalties and dignified 'doctors' visualize a readiness for inner healing and harmony, while the wide range of animals and peculiar hybrid creatures reflect a more ambiguous output from neurognostic structures. Other forms of auto- symbolic representation may be explicable in a similar way, yet there remains a large class of iconic entities which is less easy to understand: the machine elfs, pixies, banshees, mushroom children, fairies, or which label one prefers. As evident from the trip reports quoted here, along with a legion of anecdotal data available in the literature, the 'little people' is one of the most common entity types encountered in Innerspace. They bring with them a set of attributes that recurs with about the same frequency and variance as their appearances, and this combined cluster of Innerspace vision seems much too distinct to fall under the banner of coincidence.
As they present themselves in the psychedelic realm, the little people are youthful, dwarf-like hominids of an androgynous nature. They almost always appear in multiples, rarely less than three, but remain few enough to retain individual presences rather than forming a crowd. Expressed in terms of hierarchy, they never represent the ultimate power in any visionary realm, but seem more as trickster 'sidekicks' with their own agenda. They tend to operate in unison like a team, somewhat like a troupe of circus dwarves, yet their actions remain unpredictable and not necessarily benign. One trip report compared their presence to the children who hang around lively train stations and offer tourists help to find transport and lodging, a friendly extroversion whose und erlying agenda is unclear. An interesting example from Gracie & Zarkov (op.cit.) displays the hierarchical relationship between the little people and the alien-insect type presence:
Zarkov's first vision was a stadium full of hostile giant insect creatures that he was familiar with from previous mushroom trips. However, immediately the DMT 'banshee' creatures floated in and sang this message, 'ARenét they a dull and pompous bunch! But don't worry, they can't get at you because we are here.' These 'banshee' creatures were a common occurrence in Zarkov's DMT trips. The next series of visions were of various aliens that seemed to be trying to sell Zarkov various visions. The banshees continued to accompany the visions and offer comment. […] The banshees formed a gate next to an alien selling visions indicating that Zarkov should 'buy into' this vision. By 'going' through the gate, Zarkov found himself someplace else. This some place else was another world. It no longer seemed like a psychedelic vision, but rather it seemed like a real world…
The term 'banshee' is well-found as it carries with it the auditory aspect often accompanying the little people. Under Psilocybin mushrooms their presence may be more felt than visually impressed, and their voices are appropriately light and mischievous, in contrast to the mature and controlled 'Logos' or Mushroom Voice discussed in Chapter IX. The excerpt above shows the little people assisting in navigating through the trip space, helping the subject to select the most rewar ding vision of those 'sold' by the insectile aliens. The scenario suggests that the little people and the insect aliens are both subordinate to an Overseer power who often remains unseen, but who sets the ramifications for the development of the vision journey. For all their trickstery and games, the little people are ultimately working towards the goal set by the controlling power, whereas the alien - insect type entities cannot always be trusted to have a benign objective. In particular, the alien - insect archetype will feed off fear and defense responses, and use this to expand the negative aspect of their appearance. At the same time, there is an impression (exemplified above) that the mental process expressed via the alien-insect entity may possess keys to higher realms and deeper insights than the process underlying the little people apparitions. A typology such as this is by its nature extremely hypothetical, yet it has a certain anecdotal basis in a number of Psilocybin and dimethyltryptamine trip reports. The causal mechanisms shaping such a hierarchy of entities and vision-imparted knowledge may well be explained by the neurognostic structures and integrated brain capacity of Winkelman's theory, although this is a speculative tangent.
And yet, the fundamental mystery remains unexplained. Visualizations of loving angels or eerie aliens are intuitively easy to understand, but what should one make of the visualization of elfs and gnomes? Why, of all the possible iconic representations, does the imagetic function in the brain choose the little people archetype, and a few closely related variants? The mystery thickens as one examines the trip reports more closely. As an example, Terence McKenna in his generalized DMT trip report speaks of the machine elfs as occasionally jumping out of his chest. Precisely the same phenomena is described in the literature, but not with reference to a modern-day psychedelicist smoking DMT, but with Amazonian tribesmen snorting 5-MeO-DMT. Ethnologist Henry Wassén witnessed a ritual among the Yanomami tribe where the intoxicated tribesmen pushed and shoved each other while trying to kill small 'demons' jumping out of each other's chest; the precise same phenomena, under closely related drugs, across a gigantic cultural chasm. The ayahuasca and parica lore among South American tribes contains numerous references to little people, and the pheno - mena appears to be specifically linked to the entheogenic vision realm, rather than part of overall tribal mythologies. The accounts go back to pre-Columbian times, as evident from 'little gnome-like creatures' mentioned in 16th Century Spanish chronicles of Aztec hallucinogen use22; the drug is implied as either mushrooms or ololiuqui. The typical description has the shaman and the elders get high on the DMT brew or snuff in order to communicate with 'little men' and gain knowledge from them. The little people appear as agents of guidance and information, rather than healing or power.
Terence McKenna took an interest in this recurring hallucinatory phenomena and found W Y Evans-Wentz' The Fairy-Faith In Celtic Countries (1911) a useful source. What one will find (p 281- 282) is that folklore belief in 'little people' occurs all over the world, much like classic shamanism, and in 1911 it was still a living belief in Ireland. The Celtic people possess one of the more elaborate worlds of fairy mythology, from which Evans-Wentz presents a rich catalog of Irish myth and legend. He observes that the little people are usually given attributes that make them resemble the ordinary humans who believe in them, and concludes that ultimately the fairies represent an animistic belief with strong ancestor elements. In other words, the fairies are found to be spirits of the dead rather than truly corporeal beings. Much like the visions of psychedelic drugs, they can only be seen by some people. Interestingly, modern anthropological inquires in Amazonia also yielded the response that this type of 'little men' spirits are souls of the deceased, and as shown in an ea rlier chapter, the Iboga cult in Western Africa has a strong current of ancestor belief.
The small size which is a defining characteristic of the fairies (and comparable beings) is traced by Evans-Wentz to a few possible sources. Speculation of folk memories of an ancient European human pygmy race leaves him unconvinced, probably for good reason. A more useful and historically validated point concerns the fact that prehistoric hominids were much smaller than humans; suggesting a evolutionary-epigenetic trace memory rather than any cultural legacy. However, Evans-Wentz finds the cosmology of antique and medieval alchemy the most important source for the littleness property. In this belief system the little people represented one of four types of beings, with a set of attributes clearly reminiscent of fairy faith. Evans-Wentz admits to the philological problem of proving influences from Mediterranean alchemy in Ireland, and vice versa, but stands by this view. Of course, for the theory to hold, an influence from Mediterranean alchemy would have to be proven not just for Ireland but for Thailand, Eastern North America, Scandinavia and other places where little people beliefs exist. But due to his attention to specifically Irish mythology, Evans-Wentz neglects to address this substantial problem with his theory. In summary, a few theories explaining the widespread little people phenomena exist, but none of them convince.
Of immediate interest for the psychedelicist are a few other details regarding the little people, particularly of the Irish variety.23 The fairies are associated with mushrooms via the expression 'fairy rings', which denote the circular traces of subterranean mycelia on the surface ground: 'In certain grass fields, mushrooms growing in a circle might be seen of a morning, and the old folks pointing to the mushrooms would say to the children, 'Oh, the pixies have been dancing there last night' (Evans-Wentz, p173). Shakespeare, who was well versed in both alchemy and occult beliefs, included a fairy ring reference in The Tempest, and was also credited by Evans-Wentz for presenting one of the most accurate images of classic fairies via Ariel's class of spirits. It's worth noting that the British Isles possess a local Psilocybin mushroom in the 'Liberty Cap'. Another fact that caught Terence McKenna's attention was that the fairies, it was believed, lived under ground, either in caves or inside hills. An interesting parallel thereby surfaces between the DMT space inside the Dome, where McKenna says that you are aware of a massive weight overhead, and the subterranean spaces where the fairies are reported to live. According to McKenna's description (and other trip reports of feeling 'underground' or 'in a cave'), the 'machine elfs' are encountered inside the DMT veil, under the Dome; a structural parallel to the old fairy faith.
Although McKenna didn't mention it, the parallel goes even further if one considers some of the mysterious megalith structures of the British Isles. Stonehenge is the most famous of the megaliths, but another form exists which was built in a way that closely resembles the classic fairy hill and cavern. Constructed from stone bricks somewhat like a flattened pyramid covered by growing grass, the Celtic or pre-Celtic 'fairy mound' was said to be where the fairies go, as well as a passage to the underworld of the dead. The awe-inspiring, 5000 year-old megalith mound at Newgrange displays carvings of the classic hallucinogenic spirals, dots and patterns known from shamanic petroglyphs around the world, and even more intriguingly, a long narrow corridor through which the visitor must go to reach the central hall. McKenna's notion of a Dome with little people inside can thereby be expanded with yet another detail from psychedelic Innerspace map: the long passage or corridors one travels through at the beginning of the journey.
Not all psychedelicists believe there to be any substantial meaning in the little people or the information they impart. Former editor of TRiP magazine James Kent expressed a skeptical viewpoint after analyzing a sequence of his own DMT trips.24 It seemed to him that the machine elfs had little to offer in terms of substantial messages. When he tried to engage in a dialogue that reached beyond the on-going communication, such as their specific origins, he received no meaning- ful feedback. He also felt able to summon up and dismiss the elfs at will, a claim rarely heard in other trip reports. As to their outer appearance, Kent suggested that the brain will transform indistinct or amorphous visual data into something known and anthropomorphic. This seems reasonable, but it still fails to address why the human-like form should turn out be like that of a fairy or a dwarf, usually come in small groups, and act in a specific manner that suggests volition and intent. The unlikeliness and specificity of this hallucination – and Kent agrees that it really looks like elfs – requires an equally specific explanation, which so far is lacking. Somewhat like Benny Shanon, Kent's overall critique seems to lean too much on his private experiences, yet his mechanistic- reductionist view of psychedelic visions is a good remedy against overly fanciful speculation.25
