In this Shots of Awe episode, Jason Silva talks about the fundamentals of the cognitive ecstasy we experience from the chase of knowledge. Knowing provides closure, but the mystery of not knowing inspires curiosity, wonder and a shared quest for answers.

To entertain such ontologies is to re-contextualize one’s self as a marvelous conduit in a timeless whole, through which molecules and meaning flow, from nebulae to neurons and back again. – Tim Doody

The Ecstasy of Curiosity and Insatiable Drive for Knowledge – Jason Silva (Video)

Terence McKenna is one our favorite psychedelic luminaries. Here is a short interview of his where he talks about many ideas concerning drugs, legality, and love that are increasingly becoming commonplace among a larger and larger portion of our global populace.

Ideally, we’ll look back at this time in history and laugh at our collective foolishness and hubris.

My mind is made up, don’t confuse me with facts. – Terence McKenna

Terence McKenna at His Best: Drugs, Legality, and Love (Interview)

The Story of the Chinese Farmer is a parable about life and nature narrated by Alan Watts, animated by Steve Agnos, and with music by Chris Zabriskie.

The whole process of nature is a process of immense complexity and it is really impossible to tell whether something that happens in it is good or bad.

Because you never know the consequences of the misfortune. Or, you never know the consequences of good fortune. – Alan Watts

The Illusion of Good and Bad, Animated Short – Alan Watts (Video)

Your eyes are unique orbs of resplendent beauty that shine with the light of your soul. 

As above, so below. The ancient Hermetic maxim is correct.

The windows into our souls look reassuringly similar to the bigger windows of Planetary Nebulas. 

Wake up to find out that you are the eyes of the world. – Robert Hunter

Cat’s Eye Nebula

Eyes & Nebulas, together at last.

Eyes & Nebulas: Windows into our Souls

We last left Calvin and Hobbes as they contemplated the stars.

Now, they question existence itself.

Calvin and Hobbes Contemplate Existence.

Calvin: Let’s say life is this square of the sidewalk. We’re born at this crack and we die at that crack.

Calvin: Now we find ourselves somewhere inside the square, and in the process of walking out of it. Suddenly we realize our time in here is fleeting.

Calvin: Is our quick experience here pointless? Does anything we say or do in here really matter? Have we done anything important? Have we been happy? Have we made the most of these precious few footsteps?

Calvin and Hobbes – The Existential Buddhist (Comic Strip)

From a 1991 lecture entitled Where Does Reality Begin and End?, Terence McKenna talks about the role of human beings in nature and reality.

We can become a highly evolved and aware species that acts as the voice of nature but artificial conflicts are holding us back.

We are energy storage and release mechanisms, sanctioned by nature for some purpose which will be visible somewhere downstream in the flow of time but which is opaque to us now.

– Terence McKenna

Soundtrack: DJ Shadow – Transmission 2

Generators of Imagination, The Historical Purpose of Human Beings – Terence McKenna (Video)

Experience is real. This moment is real. How much of your own experience on this planet is tainted and perverted by different ideologies, looping thoughts, and enshrined beliefs?

Terence McKenna urges you to trust yourself. Question everything, and embrace the chaos of the world.

Claim your identity, your vision, your being, your intuition, and then act from that without regret.

Take responsibility for what you think and what you do.

Empower Experience…

What do YOU think when YOU face the waterfall?

What do YOU think when YOU have sex?

What do YOU think when YOU take psilocybin?

It’s a wonderful thing to learn to be able to stand up and yell “Bull Shit!”. I did it when I was about 18 years old and it was the meme of the hour and it did blow their minds. It was uncivil. It was rude and crude and correct. – Terence Mckenna

> Terence McKenna | Eco Hustler

Trust Yourself – Terence McKenna (Video)

Amy Poehler has been making people laugh since her days at SNL. Parks and Rec has been a huge success in large part to Amy’s fantastic attitude that helps bring the whole cast together as a cohesive unit.

Amy’s inspirational words have been given new life through the latest Zen Pencils installment.

Inspirational Words From Amy Poehler

Amy Poehler is one of my favorite funny people, known for her portrayal as Pawnee’s Leslie Knope in Parks and Recreation, which I’m a big fan of. She’s also a Saturday Night Live alum and co-founded the influential improv school, The Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre.

Besides being an incredibly talented and hilarious performer, Poehler has started projects to promote women’s rights and empower young girls. Her website Amy Poehler’s Smart Girls is a hub for young women to learn and be part of a community, and in her YouTube series Ask Amy, Poehler gives advice and answers questions from fans.

– Gavin Aung Than, Zen Pencils

Amy Poehler as Ruth from Deuce Bigalow

Failure is a Gift – Amy Poehler, Zen Pencils (Comic Strip)

Robert Anton Wilson shares his view on belief systems and offers us a glimpse into the framework of his own.

A must see for anyone who is having trouble harmonizing their expanding beliefs (many of which may be contradictory).

If one can only see things according to one’s own belief system, one is destined to become virtually deaf, dumb, and blind. – Robert Anton Wilson

Omega Point created this video, his youtube page has a number of similarly themed works, featuring luminaries Alan Watts, Terence Mckenna, & Carl Sagan.

Don’t Believe in Anybody Else’s BS – Robert Anton Wilson (Video)

Rak Razam is an Australian journalist whose gonzo-style coverage of ayahuasca tourism explores how the ancient Amazonian spiritual healing tradition is impacting the lives of more and more Westerners—and vice versa.

Q: What are the healing benefits of psychedelics, and ayahuasca in particular?

Rak Razam: This is the thing, which has been missing on a core level: trying to look at the root causes of issues, not just the symptoms. The entire world is, at the moment, out of balance.

Our relationship with the planet is out of balance. The ecology is out of balance. The politics are out of balance. The monetary system is out of balance. You name it. It seems to be unsustainable “isms” that we’re living in that are not in right relationship with the planet.…

It’s very strategic and very serendipitous, really, that many, many tribal peoples all across the world still are caretakers for, and have the knowledge and the heritage of, ayahuasca and this entheogenic revival of looking at what the planet gives us with these plants and their substances.

They have held the flame, while, basically western culture—the dominating culture, which has subjugated so many of these cultures—is now getting ready again to come back into balance. Ayahuasca is going out into the world.

Q: What makes it important to you to educate people about these substances? What drives you to talk about and to share what you’ve experienced with other people?

Rak Razam: I’m a writer and I’m a journalist and I’m communicating and documenting what used to be called the counter culture and I call the alter culture now: this multiplicity of communities which are engaging in archaic practices or ways of being which bring them closer back to the planet and its rhythms—whether that’s altered states or counter culture or sovereignty movements or using technology.

I guess ultimately I’m more of a mystic, or as much a mystic as I am a writer. … Things like ayahuasca or psychedelics, they’re only the tip of the iceberg. They’re the finger which points at the moon; they’re not the moon itself. What these things have revealed to me is that there’s a deeper pattern and a deeper game afoot, I guess. I really feel that in the planetary organism of the Earth itself, and then the larger, deeper cosmic ecology, there are rhythms within rhythms. We’re one species among many on the planet and we’ve thrown the world out of balance.

I feel with these psychoactives or these entheogens, which the planet itself secretes—which basically only the higher mammals get high off—there’s a reason. There’s a synergy between the planet and these creations and there’s a larger pattern unfolding, despite all the war and heartache and seeming evil in the world. … Things are changing. There’s a new cycle beginning and I can really feel that. I think many people around the world feel that. I’m hoping to help give language to that and give perspective to that. It’s deeper than ayahuasca. It’s deeper than the psychedelics. It’s a return to I guess what Terrence McKenna called this archaic revival….

It’s like John Lennon [said]. Peace is there if you want it. Utopia is there if we want it, but it’s all about consciousness. I’m not pushing my agenda here, or saying that we should all elevate our consciousness.

What I’m saying is I think the Earth is in cahoots with with our subconscious here. It’s bringing us back into the garden, into this sustainable frequency of being with it, and that is elevating our consciousness.

> Life-Altering Lessons of the Psychedelic Ayahuasca Plant | AlterNet

Ayahuasca Is Helping Western Minds Align with the Earth’s Vibrations