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Defines Your Reality Wilson sets the stage by making it clear that all fields of science should be properly prefaced with the term “neuro”; i.e. “neuro-physics,” “neuro-chemistry,” “neuro-astronomy,” etc. — because the human nervous system filters every sensory perception with a conceptual grid, and creates such a bias in the reception of every sensory signal, or measurement, that we can never know what the universe is like without it. Generally agreeing with the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum physics, Wilson maintains that it is impossible for us to ever directly experience “deep reality,” and that all we ever seem capable of knowing — from our senses or our technologies — is “existential reality,” or what we can experience of the world through our bodies or instruments. We can never even have a pure form of neuroscience — the study of the nervous system. Rather, we can only have “neuro-neuroscience” — the study of the nervous system as perceived by the nervous system! Wilson points out that “the study of brain science will prepare one for quantum theory better than the study of classical physics would.” In this way, Wilson unites quantum mechanics with neuroscience, Transactional Psychology, and the Eastern philosophies.

The Quantum Reality of Mind-Body Systems As Wilson makes abundantly clear, the careful study of both “matter” and “mind” ultimately lead us to question our normal notions of what we generally regard as “reality.”

One of the most important points that Wilson makes in this book, and several others, is about the importance of communicating in “E-prime,” or using precisely descriptive language without the words “is” or “are” of identity. This improves the accuracy of communication immensely because it avoids the fallacy of communicating an erroneous sense of certainty. Wilson claims that any sufficiently advanced analysis of reality must eventually abandon Aristotelian certitude and accept models that are based upon probabilities.

Joyce’s Ulysses mutated the novel by describing one ordinary day, not as an “objective reality” in the Aristotelian sense but as a labyrinth in which nearly a hundred narrators (or “narrative voices”) all report different versions of what happened. Different reality-tunnels. Modern philosophy and modern theology have arrived at such resonant conclusions as “There are no facts, only interpretations” (Nietzsche) or “There is no God and Mary is His mother” (Santayana) or even “God is a symbol of God” (Tillich).

The only “thing” (or process) precisely equal to the universe remains the universe itself. Every description, or model, or theory, or art-work, or map, or reality-tunnel, or gloss, etc., remains somewhat smaller than the universe and hence includes less than the universe.

Even if “meaningless” technically, the New Age bromide, “You create your own reality” has a kind of connection to the actual facts. Society seems to create a reality-tunnel, which each member modifies to some extent, and conflict grows out of the delusion that “I have the one correct reality-tunnel” when “I” have to deal with somebody who has another “one correct” reality-tunnel.

According to several careful double-blind studies cited by the invaluable Dr. Rossi (op. cit. pages 15-19): Placebos proved 56 per cent as effective as morphine in six double-blind studies; Placebos proved 54 per cent as effective as aspirin in nine double-blind studies; Placebos proved 56 per cent as effective as codeine in three double-blind studies. (“Effectiveness” rating in these studies indicates how much relief from pain the patient reported.) In other words, slightly more than half the time a patient obtains as much benefit from the belief that she or he received a pain-killer as they would obtain from actually receiving a pain-killer.

This means that a heavy dose of new neuropeptides in your brain, just like a dose of LSD or some other psychedelic, will cause you to perceive and “think” (organize and interpret perceptions) in new and original ways — to drop your familiar gloss and “see” through other glosses … to leave your rigid reality-tunnel and enter a multi-choice reality-labyrinth … to transcend modeltheism (dogma) and spontaneously feel-think in the manner of the “model agnosticism” of post-Copenhagen physics …

The neurosomatic healings and neurosomatic “highs” (yogic or chemical ecstasies) found intuitively or accidentally in the past will then give way to a precise technology of staying High and living Well.

6. The Metaprogramming System, based on yoga and scientific method, began to emerge in the West after the scientific revolution, among various “Hermetic” societies, c. 1500-1700 e.v. It accelerated in the 1960s when LSD showed the majority of psychologists and neuroscientists that rapid changes in human brain functioning could occur easily, given the right techniques. When the government banned LSD, the research moved into “legal” areas — other drugs (some of which the government then added to the Taboo list), isolation tanks, bio-feedback, etc.

AI Summary

Quantum Psychology by Robert Anton Wilson presents key insights from the contemplative tradition. The 10 passages above capture the essential teachings.

Core Themes:

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Key Passages: Highlights 1, 3, and 10 are particularly representative.

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