Link to full set of paintings is at the bottom of the page.

http://ultraculture.org/...tings-man-pineal-cancer/

That is awesome!!! Thank ypu for posting this!!

Amazing paintings...VERY DMTesque..."Witch Doctors at the Eye of The Solar Epoch" is particularly cool, reminds me a lot of Pablo Amaringo's work and some other ayahuasca art I've seen.

amazing and very interesting. So are these things that he saw then for sure?

"Painting, for me, is largely an attempt to decrypt the mechanisms of illness through a disciplined medium. I feel, on some deep internal level, that through my painting practice I’m engaged in a psychic process to illuminate the intricate vessels and cogs of an insidious physic current that stems, in part, from having had a serious illness, and all the subtle and profound ways I was altered by this experience. All throughout my early adulthood, I struggled from the mental and physical effects of a slow growing tumor in my brain, the symptoms of which were repeatedly misdiagnosed by my doctors as purely psychological in origin, and it ultimately took over half a decade to get a proper diagnosis and treatment to shrink the tumor. I suffered immeasurably during this period from having repeatedly undergone a host of treatments meant to treat the symptoms of mental illness, and paradoxically, from a mental illness that ultimately could not be contained. The tumor was in the very center of my brain, in a small, mysterious organ at the top of the spinal column, the pineal gland. I didn’t have any prior reason to consider the actual material existence of the pineal before this. As for its spiritually ominous and physically precarious location at epicenter of my being, my ability to conceptualize these facts seemed utterly unreal, ethereal, like nothing short of a sordid space exploration, as it had been making its presence known to me for so long and now there were surgeons probing into my head – into my consciousness. As I further researched my illness directly after being released from the hospital, and after having had undergone emergency brain surgery a few days earlier, I quickly became very quizzical by what I was finding. What had been developing in my art, half unconsciously, over the previous several years in which I had been very ill and labored to keep painting, all of a sudden became very clear. Elements in the paintings seemed to correlate directly to the pineal gland and to many of its mystical and biological functions that have puzzled humankind for centuries. All throughout the history of human sciences, religions, and philosophies, of different civilizations and cultures all over the world, people have contemplated and researched the pineal because of its mysterious location at the center of our brain. For me, most notable, was its purposed role in the production of endogenous DMT in humans, and its proximity in our brains to the Ajna chakra, or third eye. I also found it intriguing that the pineal gland regulates biorhythms in humans through the production of the hormone melatonin. This brought to mind images of medical charts; of archetypal schematics and universal symbols."

His words, from:

http://greenlinecafe.com...-reopened-powelton-shop/

&, less than a day ago, on reddit:

"I suffered from a slow growing cancer in my pineal gland while I attended art school and during subsequent years while my paintings developed with an underlined mythology that alluded directly to the pineal years before I even know of its existence.

I think I'd work myself into a frenzy for a while and yes, when I would fall lie down in bed I'd have something like a manic episode that was very lucid and visionary. That still applies to this day, but I try to control it better so I don't get sick again.

I've had a lot of truly mystical and otherworldly experiences as a result of my history and battle with brain cancer and I'm really drawn to things that resonate with a certain powerful energy, and I'm always honing in on that more and more. whether consciously or subconsciously.

I treat depression with mushrooms. Haven't done DMT 'intentionally'. Man made chemicals are a thing of the past for me, as I'm really sensitive."

http://www.reddit.com/r/...chonaut/comments/2di4vi/

Think he'd be a very interesting guy to interview for the Nexian.

I think this should be added to the list of anecdotal evidence that DMT is indeed produced in the pineal gland, maybe not solely in the pineal, perhaps the pineal works in conjunction with other glands, but I'm a believer.

It definitely doesn't detract from that hypothesis, that's for sure. Also adds further intrigue to the pineal gland in general I think.

This is amazing.

Not so match the images themselves, but how they're presented in that manner, in certain aspects, the flow of them, reminds me and psychedelics/DMT.

Thank you for sharing this.

this guys artwork is very inspiring to me. Quickly became one of my favorites. I wonder what his art teachers thought about some of these amazing pieces of art.

yes, these are exquisite, especially upon close examination.
they appear mostly abstract at first, but are actually quite rich in content.

i love the aesthetic fusion happening - looks like a blend of traditional indigenous art (particularly Mayan/Mesoamerican, with a touch of Aborigine) with modern mappings of circuitry and bio-molecular processes.

'Brahamastra for A New Age' & 'Witch Doctors...' are the standout pieces.

Thanks for sharing !

This is really cool, but I'm reserving judgement. There are a number of other ways that the artist could have become interested in psychedelic and visionary art that are independent of the pineal cancer.

Maybe if we could do some kind of controlled study where artists get their pineal glands zapped or something and see if that changes their art.

Be careful of drawing conclusions from a sample size of 1, even if that conclusion is one you really want to make.

Blessings
~ND

How beautiful it is of what has come out of his unfortunate discovery.. good read. This plays an important role in the further functioning of the pineal gland and possibly other organs/glands via intracranial pressure.

I'm sorry, but I've been biting my tongue here...

This guy's pieces are really cool, regardless of whatever inspires them. Having said that... y'all be drinking the knucklehead kool-aid. It's the laziest of lazy thinking to draw any conclusions whatsoever about both brain function in general, and pineal production of DMT, specifically, based on the information in that article.

A little bit of critical thinking goes a long way.

I'd like to add:



Maybe someone should tell him:
1). DMT is extracted; doesn't have to be man made.
2). On the nexus, there are ways to extract using food-grade chemicals.

Cool art though.

Where do you see everyone here claiming 'this guy's pineal must be pumping tons of DMT!' or something along those lines? Or was that post just a response to Cognitive Heart?

In this thread I see people who merely find this intriguing, not any who are really drawing conclusions. But of course with the story going somewhat viral, that will happen among some readers of the article. But I haven't seen it in this thread.

I summarized in the comments to someone why this story was interesting to me, although my interest also ties into other mental health issues I've studied heavily (and the left/right hemisphere situation) that have at times partially resulted in releasing profound bursts of creative or mathematical genius, or just extremely psychedelic artwork (remember these hyperspace cat paintings as a persons alzheimers progressed?) But that's too much to get at here.

Anyways this was one of my comments:

'Nothing is certain but you have to admit it is peculiar that his art/visions became ever more tryptamine-esque, and even contained many allusions to the pineal gland/'third eye' even before he was aware of the tumor, or the pineal's historical/ancient significance, or DMT, or the idea that it might be produced there; an idea which is gaining evidence in recent times with the confirmation of DMT in rat pineals, not to mention many of us who have experienced DMT-states through techniques that we know stimulate the pineal, such as dark rooming, meditation, lucid dreaming and so on. (techniques often originally developed by ancient groups that reported essentially psychedelic states being reached, who happened to be very interested in the gland.)

I guess I'm sometimes confused about all the hostility against healthy speculation within reasonable bounds regarding the pineal gland since there is actually quite a bit of interesting information out there to ponder. I understand there is a lot of crapbrained thinking out there that revolves around Strassman's theories being wrongly interpreted as fact, but why let these instances of typical public ignorance frustrate us into refusing to even ponder the evidence and experiences we have at our disposal to try and figure out what is actually going on here, regardless of what other people claim as fact or not?

Why can't we freely speculate within reason so long as we avoid conclusions or get ahead of ourselves?

I guess I was reacting mostly to this:



and this:




I just think it's a crazy leap to assume anything about anything based on his story and work - and to make that jump suggests more than a bit of confirmation bias, don't you think? It seemed like several people were kinda leaning in that direction. I was just chiming in on behalf of the less starry eyed in attendance.

I do like his work though. Very much.

No real offense intended.

if an anecdote illustrates a desired conclusion rather than a logical conclusion, it is considered a faulty or hasty generalization


I understand the desire for the pineal to be proven as this magnificent dmt producing organ. I get where this could take things and the positive effect it would have on the psychedelic community. I also do not doubt the strong possibility that it may be true.

I also believe that it doesn't matter. Dmt is amazing in its own right. I also think there is a difference between speculating and making hasty generalizations.

I think the guy is lying. I think, for whatever reason, DID know the fairly common knowledge about the believed connection between the pineal and the soul and consciousness ect. I think the art is amazing, but it reeks too much of "heaven is for real" and the family that is capitalizing on it.

I should add that there is no conclusive evidence of what exactly happens in tumor development within the pineal gland, or any gland for that matter. I was just merely suggesting(due to his past history of psychoactives) that tumors respond to increased intracranial pressure. Seeing as how that is one of main ideas surrounding tumor growth/spread.

Observations.

Most psychedelics are vasoconstrictors, so intracranial pressure drops when under the influence.

Blessings
~ND

Ah, good point. My mistake..so in other words shrinkage. Also, it must mostly be peripheral vasoconstriction, no?