Practical Meditation Tips for Radicals
“Recording "Give Peace a Chance". Left to right: Rosemary Leary (face not visible), Tommy Smothers (with back to camera), John Lennon, Timothy Leary, Yoko Ono, Judy Marcioni and Paul Williams” (Wiki Commons)
There are many radical critiques of how human domestication (characterized by sedentary communities, agriculture, and language) and government impact our mental health and even mental function, but I'd like to explore some theoretical deprogramming and reprogramming techniques to combat the consciousness of being governed. To organize our approach, we'll use Timothy Leary's eight circuit model of consciousness, popularized by Timothy Leary and Robert Anton Wilson. Leary started constructing the model in the late '60s after receiving a PhD in psychology, eating lots of acid and undertaking years of mystical exploration. As Erik Davis puts it in his great book High Weirdness, Leary's major scientific heresy was his idea that our programming, or persona, can be reprogrammed.
“BNDD agents Don Strange (right) and Howard Safir (left) arrest Timothy Leary in 1972.’” (Wiki Commons)
The eight circuits are basic mental programs, imprinted at vulnerable moments in our development, on which our personalities are built. The model is a mix of classical psychoanalytical insight on human development and occult prometheanism. The imprinting of the eight circuits is based on the theories of Freud, in which a particularly significant experience at the right time in development writes a programmed response to environmental stimuli. The circuits operate and communicate on the principals of Jung’s subconscious archetypes and mythic imagery. The structure and order of the circuits is inspired by an eight-chakra model of the human spirit.
The first four circuits are terrestrial and deal with our day-to-day physical experiences. The second four circuits are extraterrestrial and deal with astral consciousness, exploration of our inner realms as well as literal space travel. The first four circuits operate commonly in day-to-day life, the first two dating far back into our evolutionary past, the second two being uniquely human. The last four circuits appear more rarely in particularly “enlightened” or inspired people and serve as sort of a blueprint for future spiritual evolution. For the purposes of terrestrial liberation of the environment and the human spirit we’ll be focusing on the first four circuits. The exercises below illustrate some of these basic principles.
1.
Turn on a fan or find some running water – a droning, repetitive sound that’s not going to drive you crazy. Sit cross-legged on the ground. It may be necessary to sit against a wall or a tree to keep your back straight. Put your hands on your knees and close your eyes. The goal here is to relax your body and quiet the constant voices in your head.
To turn off the inner voice you’re going to split your attention between the noise, your posture/tension and your breathing. The hardest part is going to be keeping your attention on the noise, so that will be your main focus. At first, you will only be able to focus on the noise for very short periods, and when your mind wanders just return your attention to the noise. With each exhale you want to relax as much of your body as you can while maintaining the best posture possible. This will help you become aware of your inner tension.
To start, take a deep breath and hold it for three seconds. Relax while you hold the breath, and while you exhale. Pull your stomach in and push all the air out of you. When you squeeze your diaphragm tight to push the air out you will start to feel your center. You can use this as a reference point for balancing your posture. Wait three seconds, or until uncomfortable, whichever comes first, and take a deep, slow breath in. Repeat for about two minutes and then relax to a comfortable breathing rate. Adjust the length and depth of breath to avoid lightheadedness or discomfort. Through this process thoughts will pop into your head. Let them pass and return your attention to the noise. Moments of actual mental silence are very short and very rare to begin with, but after 5-10 minutes things start to quiet down noticeably. With lots of focus and practice, moments of total no-mind can go on as long as desired.
Use this exercise for reprogramming the first circuit in Leary’s eight circuit model of consciousness, The Oral Bio-Survival Circuit. Robert Anton Wilson recommends asana, or holding a yoga posture as long as possible, for overriding this circuit. This forward-backward circuit is the oldest circuit, and sometimes called the reptilian brain. It relates to our attachment styles, theories first pioneered by Wilhelm Reich. Sigmund Freud referred to it as the 'oral stage' and Jung as 'sensation'. This circuit is associated with the moon and the mother goddess. Basic imprints on this circuit are of trust or suspicion. A flexible imprint on this circuit will allow you fluidly judge situations and stimuli individually instead of reacting with a program.
For most beginners, the level of relaxation achieved after just five minutes of intentional breathing hasn’t been experienced in a long time, if ever. This is the amount of stress modernity and domestication put on us all every day. After practicing this technique for a while, you will begin to notice when tension builds up, and what sort of environments and stimuli trigger it. Once you’re familiar with the tension and feeling of real relaxation, you can begin to regulate both much easier.
2.
For beginners, you will be in pain and your feet will fall asleep after about 10 minutes of sitting cross-legged. When that happens, start to stretch while continuing to monitor your breath and focus on the noise. Return to holding each deep breath for 3 seconds and relaxing through a full exhale then wait 3 seconds to inhale. Hold each stretch for at least a minute. Don't push too hard, just relax into these positions. Your mind may wander more during the stretching – that’s fine – when you notice it, return your attention to the noise. You may however find that some of the thoughts that arise during this particular quiet period are worth paying enough attention to remember later. Once the thought has concluded, return your attention to the noise.
This exercise is for reprogramming Leary’s second circuit, the Anal-Territorial Circuit, what is sometimes called the ‘mammalian brain’. Wilson recommends pranayama, or controlled breathing to override this circuit. This up-down circuit is associated with various war gods. It is concerned with domination and aggression on one end, with submission and cooperation on the other. Reich referred to imprints on this circuit as ‘muscular armature’ and it was the basis for his body work, which has evolved into somatic experience. Reich described a healthy human as having a jellyfish movement, a sort of gentle pulsing and floating that characterized internal peace. For Freud this was the 'anal stage' and Jung called it 'feeling'. A flexible imprint on this circuit will allow you to avoid the influence of hierarchy.
As you familiarize yourself with this circuit, you will begin to notice what stimuli triggers your more complex social emotional responses and their physical mirrors. You will also learn what your natural posture is and how different it is from a healthy posture. Bad posture is not just a physical state, it is also often a mental one. You can see the same physical response in lots of mammals, a startled or threatened dog, for example. Modernity programs many people into a constant startled-dog response to life. These physical states directly affect our thinking. A fun illustration of this principle is the use of Botox as an anti-depressant. It’s been found that we have a harder time feeling emotions like sadness if our body, in this case the face, can’t properly express the emotion, thus paralyzing the muscles of your face makes you feel happier, or I guess just less sad.
3.
Once your back feels better, the feeling returns to your feet, and you’re all loose, return to your cross-legged position. Relax your breathing but keep it steady and full, sit up straight, and focus on the sound. Now we are going to add a mantra. Your goal here is not to focus on a meaningful phrase but to short-circuit your language imprints. If you say any word too many times it loses its meaning; do it long enough, and you lose all perspective on language itself. It's best to use a nonsense phrase. Robert Anton Wilson recommended "shamadi shawadi shamadi shawadi shamadi shamadi shamadi shawati", or something to that effect. Repeat for at least 20 minutes.
This third circuit is the Time Binding Semantic Circuit. This one is relatively young compared to the first two and can be thought of as the first circuit of domestication, developing only once humans started to communicate with language at the dawn of complex societies. Here, Zerzan has shown the correlation between language and domestication, as well as language and our time-sense. "Like ideology, language creates false separations and objectifications through its symbolizing power" he says in Elements of Refusal. Alfred Korzybski spent his whole life’s work critiquing the semantic spooks of this circuit, chiefly the “IS” of identity. After much reprogramming on this circuit, we advance beyond the “IS” of identity and binary true/false logic to see that, "We can't make meaningful statements about one reality. All we can do is talk about comparative realities as perceived by different instruments" as Wilson puts it. Hermes, Thoth, Papa Legba and other gods of communication are associated with this circuit. Freud called it the 'latency stage' and Jung called it 'reason'. A fluid imprint on this circuit will allow you to interact with and process information from your environment free of the structures and boundaries of language and linear reason. It is a conscious state we could associate with intuition.
4.
The fourth circuit is the Socio-Sexual Circuit. This is the last of the four “terrestrial” circuits and the youngest. All cultures have sexual taboos and your imprint on this circuit determines how divergent you are from sexual norms. This aspect of the circuit is thought to have evolved when we started living in tribes and plays a large role in domestication. In Mass Psychology of Fascism, Reich describes the connection between sexual repression and authoritarianism. Thunder and father gods, like Thor, are associated with this circuit. Freud called this the ‘genital stage’. A fluid imprint on this circuit will free you from the sexual taboos and constructs of society, the neurosis of one’s own repressed desires, and judgements about healthy sexual practices that may be misunderstood.
To reprogram this circuit, try either Tantra or abstinence. Or if you’re feeling really adventurous, eat some acid and watch a type of pornography you’ve never understood. Actually, you can add acid to any of your 8 circuit metaprogramming sessions with favorable results. For the most part.
I have structured these exercises myself using pieces of ancient traditions. They are meant to illustrate basic principles in a quick and accessible way. If you see interesting results, you’re encouraged to structure your own techniques that work for you and do further research. There are endless, interesting breathing techniques and yogic stretching methods. Familiarity with these principles can aid you during stressful commutes, heavy psychedelic trips, everyday aches and pains, as well as the daily soul crushing assault of governance and capital.
As much scientists as they were mystics, Leary and Wilson did not think of the eight-circuit model as “true” but as a useful tool for exploring and evolving human awareness. The exercises are “true” though, in the sense that they work. Do the exercises and you will get results, as Crowley used to say. Success in healthy reprogramming of these circuits should give us some insight into what we might start to call post-historical or post-domesticated consciousness. A healthy program on any of these circuits is one of flexibility, allowing a person to respond in the moment to the individual circumstance instead of mechanically relying on bad or outdated programming. If we want to create a beautiful and harmonious world together, we’ll have to move beyond the constraining boundaries of language, the programing of generational trauma and its associated resentments, and even mammalian imprinting to redefine our relationship to the world and to each other.
This essay is written with the assumption that anarchism and mysticism are one project. Anarchism approaches the question of liberty from a macro viewpoint, as large webs of relationships, and mysticism from a micro viewpoint, as the subjective relationships and experience of an individual nervous system. But both are concerned with the de-objectification of things toward an exuberant and intimate relationship with the other and the passionate, harmonious organization of life on planet Earth.
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For more on this subject, check out Prometheus Rising by Robert Anton Wilson from Hilaritas Press and Info-Psychology, Exo-psychology and Neurologic by Timothy Leary. For more on the little-known science of breathing check out Breath by James Nestor.
Ian Blumberg-Enge
Ian Blumberg-Enge is a model agnostic anarchist, writer, and utopian kook. His work is focused on the intersection of mysticism and anarchism. He is co-author, with Peter J. Carrol, of Interview with a Wizard, published by Mandrake of Oxford.