ESSAY by Simoné Esterhuizen / simoneesterhuizen_

Interview: Riham Bou Ghannam / rihamsbg

Lucid dreams. Metaphysics. Psilocybin. Covid-19. Hidden doors. The digital realm. 

Our conscious minds are as complex as it gets. Consciousness can be referred to as an expression of something we have experienced and our understanding of life and what reality is. The semi-unconscious state between sleep and wakefulness is when ideas often surface. The world becomes a little more abstract and hallucinatory in the brief moments when we lose consciousness. Lucid, abstract images that form within our minds with zero logical explanation. There is a presence of other worlds that proceed while we sleep. This all correlates with the Digital realm that we are living in as well as digital consciousness, which might just be key to surviving the apocalypse. 

Nine small mushroom-shaped stones were discovered at the Kaminaljuyu site in Guatemala. These sensational discoveries proved to be indicative of the fact that ancient mayan cultures were using psilocybin. Dated around 1000 BC, these terracotta men belong to the Verbena Phase of the Mayan culture and the number nine has been associated with the nine gods of the Maya pantheon. This is associated with the “mushroom-stone cult,” alluding to the fact that there is an association between the nine gods and the underworld, as well as an indication of a nine-day cycle. This also strengthens the possibility that hallucinatory mushrooms were used during ceremonial consumption. 

Ethnobotanist and psychedelic advocate Terrence McKenna conjured up the Stoned Ape Theory in 1992, believing that Homo Erectus were able to evolve into Homo sapiens through the consumption of magic mushrooms. While this theory has been dismissed as an oversimplification of the evolutionary process, modern scientists have realised some of its aspects remain true; psilocybin does alter consciousness and can trigger physical changes in the brain. The use of psilocybin in ancient society however dates back to several Aztec and Mayan cultures and specifically the Native American tribes who thrived across the americas. Historians believe that these tribes used several entheogens including fungi, poppies, peyote and mescal beans to open their minds, heighten their senses, become harmonic with nature and also to see God. When colonialism arised and western cultures infiltrated the sacred land of Native Peoples, these entheogens were subsequently banned, eradicated and criminalised. For centuries after, these plants and fungi were used under the radar, but in the 1940’s the scientific industry realised the positive effects that these natural plants could have on the mental and physical health of individuals. This boom in psychoactive plants and drugs lasted until the 1960’s when the US government associated these drugs with the anti war movement and subsequently banned it altogether.

The psychoanalysis by Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud, done in the early 1900’s completely changed the way we perceive our consciousness and gave a deeper understanding. While these two philosophers have differing options and approaches, a constant that remains is that our conscious minds are complex institutions. Freud divided the human psyche into three different categories; the id, ego and superego. He argues that the id is connected to the unconscious, while the ego is linked to our conscious experiences. The superego in return is the balance between the two and mediates the impulses between the id and ego. Jung on the other hand acknowledges the unconscious mind, but believes that individual experiences carry more weight. There is however a “little hidden door” to the secrets of the subconscious, as a means of accessing not only our individual realities, but a way of dealing with collective experiences and with the past. 

Through inner connection and understanding of our conscious, we are able to share experiences beyond the realm. Psilocybin and particularly mushrooms, are seeing a rise again. Our conscious minds together with metaphysics might be the key to carry us through the apocalypse. By using these entheogens we are able to further delve into our conscious minds and experience the world from a different perspective. Covid-19 has reaffirmed the notion that the dystopian nightmare is real and close. Two years ago not a single person in their conscious mind could have predicted where we would be today and yet, here we are. In life, contexts morph without us noticing and as the rules of the game change, our psyches somehow adapt.

Through decades of studies, scientists have recently been able to determine that when using psilocybin it induces a state of “unconstrained consciousness”. This in effect triggers an increase in activity in the area of the brain that correlates with emotional reactions and memory. When using psilocybin these areas of the brain become more harmonised and as a result resembles the brain's activity while sleeping and dreaming. Another effect that they have managed to identify is that the region of the brain that controls the higher-level thinking, or in the case of Freud; the ego, becomes chaotic, resulting in a loss of sense of self. This in effect creates the idea that individuals who are on psilocybin feel more a part of the world and less their own bodies - which is why several individuals report feeling like they’re standing outside their bodies and watching the world go by as an observer, the ultimate link between the subconscious and conscious.

When Terrence McKenna was asked about his Stoned Ape Theory, he stated that “It was like a software to program this neurologically modern hardware.” He indicated that the way the psilocybin affected the brains of Homo Erectus is the same way we look at digital software today. Have we reached another crucial stage of evolution? Digital consciousness is already here and already a part of our daily lives, but during the pandemic it became all that more evident how far we have actually progressed. The expansion of the subconscious and the world of the dream that we saw with the pandemic took place in virtual space. 

Society constantly constructs new forms of consciousness based on what is happening in the world. As a result it is foreseeable that digital consciousness is taking shape in different forms as we evolve into a more and more digitised world. Digital consciousness refers to the different layers of experience we have within the digital realm; art, science, philosophy, ideologies and a few others. As Covid-19 showed us, virtual interactions is something that is here and while we still crave in person touch, communication and experiences, the digitisation of our realities is here. Through this digitisation our conscious minds are imitating the grasps we have on reality in an alternative manner. when experiencing something our minds naturally react in a reality as well as pleasure principle. Through digital experiences we have a direct interaction with both these principles. Thus, we are more curious and the mind continues to seek more from the digital experience. While the mind is more affected than the body through digital experiences, both are affecting our conscious reaction towards new information. When we become digitally conscious, our perception and affinity for small details of life increase and as a result the mind struggles to comprehend the importance and relevance of what we have just experienced; whether it be something political, art, interests or dislikes. There is an overload of information happening in a very short period of time, resulting in a loss of comprehension of relevance and importance. Furthermore our judgement of space and time become altered. Our minds will either result in addiction or aggression, based on how we build a perspective surrounding digital experiences. If we can treat digital experience as normal as real experience, this layer of hyper reaction and ideological affinity can be controlled.

The dystopian future, and as a result the apocalypse; whether how we have always imagined it or a new distorted version of it, might be closer than we anticipate. The same way Homo Erectus supposedly evolved using the use of psilocybin, through increased digital consciousness it might be the only way for us to survive and evolve through the apocalypse.

Mushrooms perfectly encompass your interest in the human psyche, the natural, scientific, and fantasy. Is this the reason for the inclusion of it throughout your work?
Salvatore Arancio: Yes in a sense, even though I am also most attracted by their funny and imperfect shape. There is something so grotesque and at the same time so funny about them. I am always amazed by how they mysteriously appear overnight. Looking for mushrooms totally slows down and changes the way we look at nature, this way of observing it then ends up feeding in my work somehow.

Your work is an external rendition of deeper thoughts and ideas, in the hopes of motivating people to seek within and find their purest form. What does your work evoke in you?
Salvatore Arancio: Good question… kind of difficult to put it in words. I suppose it comes to my mind what the American artist Robert Smithson wrote in 1966, “To spend time in a movie house is to make a hole in one’s life.” Describing going to the cinema as an immersive experience, able to disconnect you from the outer world and to lose every sense of time. I suppose that kind of disconnection and mind travels is what I experience in the making.