From a psychological point of view the invisible entities---lizard people, body thetans--are the disavowed feelings and emotions, fear, rage, anger, negativity, that are not considered acceptable to display in 'civilised' society.
The chemicals that give rise to the feelings are still produced in the body as a result of stress and fear but, being disavowed, have to be translated into external threats, hence the paranoia.

Human physiology has not substantially changed since we had to hunt down and catch our food when hungry. The chemicals that gave early warning of danger and produced the impetus to risk danger for reward are still present.

Now that a quick trip to the store takes care of lunch, the stressors of modern life are more likely to be a bully boss than an elusive wild boar for the pot.
Chasing down the pig would naturally provide an athletic release for the chemicals, but we cannot give the bully boss the punch on the nose that he so deserves. We find that we cannot even safely admit to ourselves that we wish for nothing more than to retaliate against those who oppress us so we look for external scapegoats.

Invisible external scapegoats really fit the bill as they are beyond our ability to engage with--a great get-out clause that really lets me off the hook.

By chance, an article in Psychology Today a few days ago that addresses this propensity to project suprahuman powers externally and the various ways that this projection translates in lay terms:

[www.psychologytoday.com]

Here is one article that has to do with flashbacks following use of psychedelics.

What is most interesting is the speculation that the basis of this is that use of psychedelics can sensitize the variety of visual receptors in the eye and brain.

So it is a serious matter if someone invites or encourages us to try a psychedelic. It can have long term effects even if one has a good trip.


[74.125.155.132]

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There is an excellent paper on LSD visual effects which includes a possible explanation for HPPD in the Rhodium archive.

According to this paper, the visual system in the brain has six different layers which detect different types of visual stimulus (horizontal bars excite one layer, vertical bars excite a different layer, for example). These different layers work together to process information from your eyes and pick out important details for your attention.

The amount of attention your brain pays to the signals from the various layers is based on the strength of the signal from those neurons. One theory of HPPD is that the neurons in some of these layers start overreacting to stimuli. The result is that HPPD subjects become very sensitive to things that they would normally not notice. The layers fail to filter out some of the 'noise' in the lower visual systems and the higher, more meaning- and pattern- oriented layers in the visual system interpret the incoming signals as useful data and send the signals on further into the brain and conscious mind.

For example, the edge detection systems may find too many edges resulting in halos around objects. Coordination problems between layers result in processing happening out of sync or time-delayed, resulting in tracers. Motion detection systems may cause things to look like they are moving when they are not. Face and pattern recognition area may see shapes that do not exist in complex backgrounds.



11. How long does HPPD last?
Many subjects report that their HPPD eventually gets better or completely disappears over the course of weeks, months, or years. Other subjects have had it for 10 years or longer. Generally, medically diagnosed HPPD seems to last at least a couple of years.

HPPD is a serious long-term illness and there is a chance it may not ever go away. Many subjects have no choice but to learn to live with it. If you have HPPD you should seriously consider joining an online community to discuss the medical issues and talk to others about their experiences in dealing with it. You may also want to consider medical help although results are mixed.



12. What aggravates HPPD?
Most subjects find that their symptoms vary. Generally distortions are made worse by:
Obsessing about HPPD symptoms (by looking at blank walls for example)
Fatigue
Alcohol, Cannabis, Psychedelics, or other drugs
Sudden entry into dark or light environments
Stress
Some antidepressants and other psychiatric medications (such as Risperidone)

Ive have never done recreational drugs of any sort, and have so sensitive an apparatus that there are many types of movies I have learned not to attend, because the images leak into my dreams too vividly for several successive nights.

If use of psychedelics can sensitize certain parts of the nervous system long after one has ceased taking the drug, it might possibly leave a person quite vulnerable to domineering persons.

I cannot now find the paper, but years ago, I read of a young man terrified by flashbacks. His psychiatrist had a sudden insight and read up on the subject of 'floaters'--medically termed 'scotoma'-those dark spots that float in the visual field. They are caused when bits of junk float around in the vitrious humor of the eye, like clouds in a summer sky. Most of us
dont notice them--or notice them and ignore them.

The psychiatrist returned from his research and quizzed his young patient about floaters and gave him information. The young man realized that yes, he had seen those spots prior to his LSD use and began to suspect that part of his flashbacks might be that he was hyper senstive to his own eye
floaters.

This was enough to help him normalize his flashbacks and realize he was not on the verge of going crazy. Eventually for him, this was enough and he was able to return to daily living and resume school.

This may not be the explanation for every single case of flashbacks, but its an example of how we do have random background noise in our own bodies, what with tinnitis, eustachian tube pressures that fluctuate, and eye floaters.

When someone is led down a path where they fear these as signals from demons or something else, thats the worst thing--to be led into a state where random and harmless background noise generated by your own
friendly, creaky human body is turned into something that terrorizes you.

One person hears the house creak in the night and its friendly familiar sound. Someone else, tutored in fear, might dread its ghosts or demons.

Came across an old Stuart Wilde book called MIRACLES.
Its listed as being published in 1983, and its content is basically standard New Age New Thought, affirmations, visualization...literally identical to what was said in The Secret, and a thousand other New Age books.

There is not much of a hint yet, of the Stuart Wilde weirdness that came later.
It says you can do "miracles", and hints that there are some people who can cross the ocean in a second using other "dimensions".
He also says to abstain from using alcohol and drugs...ironic. Perhaps Stuart Wilde was battling addiction at that time.

Most telling, the back of the book is selling a Stuart Wilde 5-day LGAT seminar called The Warriors Wisdom.
As well as a list of many books, a couple dozen cassette tape sets, and subliminal tapes, and videos.

Stuart Wilde was born in 1946 according to the book, so he was 37 when that book came out.
So way back in 1983, almost 30 years ago, Stuart Wilde was already a very aggressive and clever salesperson and entrepreneur conducting LGAT seminars, and with a knowledge of all the tactics of group persuasion and group hypnosis.

.

I have met SW myself in Brazil. And although I agree with most of what has been said about the man himself, my last post on the [www.godlikeproductions.com] (at the very bottom) shines a more discerning light on what happened to Stuie...

And for all the bad rep ayahuasca has been given on this thread, I would like to emphasise here that shamanism isn't necessarily a 'religion' as intimated by Nicole Bétrancourt. Shamanism actually originates from Siberia (the word shaman is derived from the Tungus language) and is the description by which the medicine man (healer) of the community worked for the well-being of the whole community in service and without charging money for his healing, knowledge of plants & herbs (much like the herbal women & medicine men that were burnt at the stake during the Spanish inquisition) and his visionary abilities.

John Dee was the first 'magician' of the Western world and was Queen Elizabeth of England's confidant, astrologer, as well as extremely knowledgeable in the occult (hidden) arts. He certifiably was the first secret agent for Her Majesty The Queen of England. [www.johndee.org]

The Voynich Manuscript which has not been deciphered to this day, contains drawings of completely unknown plants & very strange & peculiar drawings. [beinecke.library.yale.edu]

Why am I mentioning these apparently unrelated two subject matters?

Because it as mysterious & ill-understood as ayahuasca for the Western mechanical worldview that cancels out anything that cannot be 'logically' be put into a 'box'. The great Inquisition is the original trauma of Western man's inherent ability (having been destroyed by the Catholic church's dogmatic 'iron-fisted rulership') to connect with something beyond the mere dogmatic worldview of 'religion'.

In that respect then, shamanism isn't a religion at all - it is the true reverence of nature where everything in nature is infused with energy - or, if one were to borrow a scientific term - 'matter'. The original term for this is animism, not religion. It was wide-spread across the entire the globe and was part of man's original relationship with his environment. One of the best books that has been written from a more scientific p.o.v, and approached ayahuasca from a more discerning perspective is Jeremy Narby's "The Cosmic Serpent". The symbolism of the snake (or, 'reptiles', to relate to some of the posts here) which also tie in with the lack of understanding of the spiritual context of ayahuasca, is that the double helix in medicine (two snakes intertwining up a stave also known as the aescolap) resembles the root of the ayahuasca vine - also two twisted branches in tight twirl growing up a tree.

That said, ayahuasca & the whole neo-colonialism of Westerners' (ab-)using ayahuasca (Ayahuasca tourism) for a 'kick' or "going on a little ego trip" has brought down the true purpose & ayahuasca's genuine healing properties.

Ayahuasca Tourism: A Cautionary Tale
[www.maps.org]

Although the author here focuses mainly on Peru, it includes the whole Amazon basin from Colombia down to the farthest corners of Northern Brazil. In Brazil, the Santo Daime Church uses ayahuasca as their sacrament and is approved by the government as an indigenous healing plant brew.

While ayahuasca certainly is not a recreational 'drug' as some allude to it here, and while it has to be approached with caution, utmost respect, the right intention, mindset & in the right context, it is still an extremely challenging experience that takes one to a whole different way of looking at oneself or one's past.

That the west has no ability to access a different kind of consciousness (which is neither here nor there, just different), has much to do with the fact that the Western mindset is stuck in the mechanical Cartesian ('Descartes') manner of looking through a very restricted prism of 'healing' in a very specific manner (i.e, real drugs - such as pills, dependency inducing antidepressants, addictive syrups containing codeine, amphetamines and a whole array of 'medication' that the pharmaceutical mafia is intent on keeping people hooked on). In contrast to what somebody wrote here that when one has done deep meditations, ayahuasca can enhance a sotive experience and is not counter-indicative to medtiation practices, quite the opposite, as a matter of fact.

Whereas antideperessants burn one's synapses, and end up destroying one's braincells for good, ayahuasca, when taken with deliberation (not! on a regular basis) and with the right (spiritually clean) shaman can be extremely beneficial, deeply healing and truly life-enhancing.

Certainly, most Westerners approach ayahuasca as if it were LSD, which is chemically based & has no healing properties, whereas the ayahuasca vine is the root bark. DMT is a naturally produced chemical by the human brain. The root bark of the vine is most often cooked with Chacruna leaves (which induce the visions). Solely because it is not understood & put in its proper context, it is then demonised into a 'drug' whereas the pills in one's home cabinet are 'perceived' as "good" - which is peculiar, to say the least.

Stuart Wilde has corrupted & hijacked the true nature of ayahuasca as a healing plant & has become attached to drugs in general - especially alcohol & 'E'. That he therefore disrespects what ayahuasca can truly do for those who are genuinely intent on healing themselves has gone lost in this whole thread - which is just more proof that he is debasing that which could be used in a much more positive & life-affirming fashion.

He's not alone in this for those that do not know & have not experienced it first hand are eager to 'label' it merely as "substance abuse" when nothing could be further from the truth. It has been extremely helpful in my own healing (getting off medication for good) and being freed from physical ailments that the doctors weren't able to heal. I've been free of these conditions since & I've been able to get off the medication to alleviate the ailments I was suffering from.

I am not intent on 'pomoting' ayahuasca. But I do not appreciate that it is being demonised without really understanding what is behind it (fear of the unknown) and immediately considering it as a 'no-no' and why so many Westerners, after having drunk the brew only once, just think of it as 'bad' or "crazy" or 'dangerous'.

That Stuart Wilde is a dangerous, ill-begotten individual who has a very sinister agenda is, however, undisputed.

Of course one should always separate out the Guru's abuses, from the thing they are abusing and misusing.

For example, James Arthur Ray [forum.culteducation.com] called what he was doing a "sweatlodge' but of course it literally had nothing whatsoever to do with a sweatlodge, in fact what James Ray was doing was the opposite to a sweatlodge.
And the tragedies ended up with four deaths, and many other serious injuries to many people.

Stuart Wilde and James Arthur Ray operate in a very similar manner.

To those who would like more information on plastic shamans and new age scam artists mixing native indigenous teachnings with their own 'brand' of "clap trap", this might be a forum worth looking into - i.e., James Ray.

As we are approaching the hyped up 2012 nonsense (fear trigger or trigger, anyway), sects & cults and false $haman$ trying to lure in the gullible will 'explode' (I fear).

This link concentrates on James Ray [www.newagefraud.org] but the entire forum & its website are an excellent reference if one wants to be 'fore'-warned rather than only hear about it when it's either too late (someone you know is in the trap of a new found 'group') or they've been hurt or seriously damaged.

NAFPS Forum - Native American Frauds & Plastic Shamans. This section takes you immediately to the 'Frauds' all listed with their names & their "practices"). [www.newagefraud.org]

SW died on May 1st, 2013.

Some discussion on another thread and an article written by someone who claims to have been a friend and who witnessed the entire trajectory of SW's career.

[forum.culteducation.com]

THANK GOD HE IS DEAD AND GONE .....IS MADNESS WAS CONFUSING MORE PEOPLE THAN HELPING ANY