I wanted to see if any other nexians share my affinity for the model created by Leary, RAW, and Antero Alli for organizing and causing brain change and consciousness increase, The 8 Circuits of Consciousness. The model breaks a person into 8 independently operating but interconnected "circuits or gears" that when completely activated operate as one cohesive conscious whole. Memory of reading about this model popped into my head during the comedown from my first breakthrough and I have been expanding my understanding and experience of it ever since. Most important to the understanding of this model is that it is only a model of reality, and like any map, can never actually "be" reality. This understanding is helpful so as not to confuse the "Menu for the meal." or "The map for the territory."
Here are some starter pages for the model

http://deoxy.org/8brains.htm

http://deoxy.org/8circuit.htm

What other mental maps do nexians employ in order to navigate the labyrinth we call reality?

I think some of the ideas he had are interesting, but they seem far to pseudo-scientific for me to really pay too much attention to.

I think his thoughts could be useful as a theory to compare/contrast others though.

One thing that bother's me though that's written in the 8circuit page.



I'm not sure if that's something Leary wrote, or something someone summarizing his theories wrote, either way our logic is definitely not binary.

We operate more on what's referred to as Fuzzy Logic.

An example of it is the definition of a heap of sand. If you remove one grain of sand from a heap of sand, you would still say you have a heap of sand. If you do this recursively, at what point is the heap of sand, no longer a heap?

A binary system, it is either a heap or not. This must be defined at some arbitrary value to arrive at a true or false result. Fuzzy logic allows for "could be" with kind of a probability attached, and the same value could be in two different states at the same time.

A given amount of sand could be a heap of sand, and a pile of sand. Remove some, and it could still be a heap of sand, but no longer a pile. Remove some more and it could be a heap of sand or a small heap of sand.

We sacrifice accuracy for time/energy efficiency. Since 100% accuracy is not worth the cost in survival terms, we evolved to guess with some range of certainty. Also are classification systems are more in tune with generalizations rather specifics. We don't refer to dogs by their species, we just call them dogs, it's close enough. Even when species specific traits might matter (size), we broke it down into Large/Medium/Small.

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Back to the original topic however. Another thing that peaks my interest, is his theories seem based on, or at least similar to the Chakras, but I know so little about both, that I can only go by the limited information I have on them.

I think theres a lot to it but i never really got around to reading much of leary..i ripped through everything robert anton wilson had to say on the subject after reading prometheus rising. And then some of Antero Alli's books. It wasn't until Tony Wrights book left in the dark though that i truly realized how the general ideas underpinning the whole left/right brain split in functioning proposed by the 8c model actually has a ton of scientific evidence supporting it

I used this metaphor for years. Always loved RAW, and really, spent a few years enjoying many of the New Falcon writers. Still reference the model from time to time.


Aetherius Rimor, I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss theory as psuedo-science....well, it sure aint hard science. A fine metaphor, that in the right hands never pretends to be more than a metaphor. Rob Wilson was much lucid on the topic. Can't vouche for what is said on any websites. I heartily agree with you however, that my mind does not run on either/or. Robert Anton Wilson wrote probably more on this subject than any other writer (including Lear) and RAW was quite non Aristotlean...FINE , I just glanced at the deoxy site. They reference binary logic only to the third circuit, the semantic/time bending circuit.


I'll give 'em a "perhaps" on that one.


The Antero Ali book is great too.


Still need to finish Writes book.

I reread the deoxy/wiki again to refresh my memory, and I suppose I agree with you actually. It just seems too much like an attempt to be scientific (usage of words like quantum), and in that manner I feel it leads to people espousing it as such, or believing it to be true on faith.

I do however love the idea as a metaphor, analogy, or a starting point for discussion of theories of consciousness.

The other page mentioned percentages of people who have only reached certain levels of consciousness, and honestly when put into that perspective, as an ambiguous classification, it makes sense.

If you were to take that supposition that 50% of the human race has not evolved fully into the 3rd state, it almost gives rationalization to the belief I'm sure many of us here have felt. The incapability of understanding how someone could only want to do the bare minimum to survive, all the while getting so drawn into drama/territorial/violent/animalistic behavior.

I'd honestly put it more closely a 60% under level 3, 30% at level 3, 5% level 4, and the remaining percentages dwindling down the ladder if we were to use it. But that's just my view of the world.

definitely non scientific, more philosophocal than anything
and the 8 shmircuits are actually quite similar to plato's 8 virtues. plato was a dick, leary wasn't so bad though.

Just as there's good science and bad science, there's good psuedoscience and bad psuedoscience. A lot of psuedoscience is derogatorily categorized as such based on the limitations that science places upon itself. Just because something is contemporarily viewed as non scientific doesn't make it untrue. The two are not mutually exclusive, so a higher level of critical thought is required in such terrain than lazily and dogmatically chalking it up to "pseudoscience". In many cases, the pseudoscience of yesterday is the science of today as more and more concrete evidence comes to light.

there's no chalking this up as modern science, any way you twist it. how are you going to show tangible evidence to support this theory, especially since it's so ambiguous? this is just more metaphysical psychobabble, you can't create physical models for that

haha, next you guys are gonna call psychokinesis and astral projection, science.

don't get me wrong, they're interesting philosophical musings to ponder, at best... but it's not science at all. file under philosophy or spiritual/metaphysical

The whole thing about these circuits lying dormant waiting for us to wake up and enter space or whatever seems to fly in the face of the evolutionary paradigm and suggest a kind of teleology or design and so I reject it, but I also reject everything Robert Anton Wilson says about quantum mechanics, don't take him too seriously.

i think if your entirely basing the level of validity this model holds soley on hard scientific evidence your somewhat missing the point (not saying there isn't evidence though). RAW never claimed to scientifically prove the 8c model and just saw it as a useful way to classify the types of functioning he saw displayed by humans. If you don't think those different levels of functioning are possible, or that the ideas don't have any basis, then of course that's fine. But i think to completely throw away a very useful model of understanding human functioning, which obviously does explain a lot about how people get stuck in certain reality tunnels, just because it doesn't fit your definition of legitimate -when in reality it never claimed to do so in the first place- is sort of silly. ( and jesus benzyme, breakthrough already ya big chicken shit )

truthseeker42- as i said, there is now a ton of scientific evidence that the left brain is a dysfunctional version of the right brain and that it is, paradoxically, dominant. And that the right holds abilities far beyond what most consider normal. And, especially if you give these psychedelic and other altered states any credibility, this could mean a lot in regards to what wilson and leary were intuiting. Think of that what you will but at least look into it a bit before calling me nuts

Most of the people here do not seem to understand the 8 circuit model for shit. Come on people! Its primarily a model for navigating the psychedelic experience. You're totally missing the point! And as far as models go this one is not particularly suited to DMT. What the frack people!?

I remember reading that Leary et al.'s eight circuit model was based loosely on the chakra system. I have to say there's something to this. I once had a (hallucinogen) experience where I felt a series of "energy nodes" throughout my body: The genitals, the chest, the throat, and the eyes were what I came up with. This experience inspired me to do some reading, and it turns out where these nodes are located and, more importantly, what I perceived them to do correspond closely with four of the traditional chakras. At least one of the other chakras, the stomach one, also made sense to me from the frame of mind of my trip after doing the reading. I think the general concept of energy nodes or layered consciousness functions could be scientifically validated using at least people's qualitative experiences: Compile a series of trip reports that describe energy nodes or the like and check for congruences between the reports. Figure out how to filter out people who had previous knowledge of chakras, qi centers, Leary's eight circuits, etc., and you have yourself a decent little qualitative experiment.

Recently stumbled upon Prometheus Rising, RAW got me intrigued, though his book seemed more of a vaguely structured brainstorming output to me (but very inspirational and thought provoking). I really liked, how this model is able to integrate all(or alot) levels of possible human experience into it.
It also can help as a tool in ditching dogmas imo.

So in my further reasearch I came upon the book "The Shamanic Path to Quantum Consciousness: The Eight Circuits of Creative Power" by Laurent Huguelit.

It offers a more refined approach and thought out version of the model. With an emphasis on "shamanic" realms and abilities.
He also writes about specific psychoactive substances and their interplay with the circuits.
For me it helped as well, to put in relation, shaman work and samadhi experiences, as I always had trouble with putting these different approaches on the spiritual path into one for me coherent (non-dogmatic) model.

I would be happier though, if he would have left out quantum physics in this book...
Thats also the reason why I have some problems with his definition of the eight circuit.

If some one read this, Id be interested to discuss the book a bit further.
To those who like RAW´s Prometheus, I can also recommend giving this one a try!

Hey. I navigate my reality through the rainbow. 7 levels of reality, and the background. Or the template? I can connect anything I see with the color, and put it in a certain level of the rainbow. Ape goes from the sky to the roots, and climbs back to the sky again. Life would no be without the shades.