Podcast 631 – “Tim Scully and Orange Sunshine”

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1. Book available for class adoption and book review. Author available for interview.
   Contact
   ashleyk@innertraditions.com

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   PSYCHEDELIC IDEAS — THE NEXT GENERATION

   MindApps: Multistate Theory and Tools for Mind Design
   Thomas B. Roberts, Ph.D. (2019)
   Park Street Press, Rochester, VT.

   “The psychotherapeutic uses of psychedelics are widely known, their biological functions are increasingly characterized, and their entheogenic uses are becoming recognized, but as generators of ideas — ideagens — they are largely unknown.” (page 23)

   What are some of these new psychedelic-informed ideas?

   KEY IDEA: Just as we can install digital apps in our electronic devices to add new functions and increase power, we can install bio-behavioral mindapps in our brain-mind complex to add new functions and increase power.

   Mindapps also introduces these concepts:

   ideagen
   single-state fallacy
   multistate theory
   mindbody state
   mindapp
   metaintelligence
   mind design
   mindbodyAI
   the central multistate research question
   aesthetic theory

   additional psychedelic insights into
   consilience
   emergence
   connectome and intelligence
   Grofian psychocriticism
   entheogen reformation
   experimental religion
   philosopher’s mind as a variable
   experimental consciousness studies
   the hard problem and the impossible problem
   and more in the sciences, humanities, religion, and policy

   author’s page:
   https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B00MD4IUXA

   publisher’s page:
   https://www.innertraditions.com/books/mindapps

   ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ concluding chapter +++++++++++++++++++++++

   Multistate Theory as a Vital Paradigm for the Future

   MindApps: Multistate Theory and Tools for Mind Design
   Thomas B. Roberts, Park Street Press, Rochester, VT. pages 127 – 130

   Multistate theory identifies areas ripe for systematic scholarly and scientific investigation and provides numerous ways to do so. Supported by psychedelic evidence, it meets seven of Kuhn’s eight requirements for a new paradigm.1

   A new paradigm includes previously excluded phenomena. Multistate theory includes observations about other mindbody states and their respective characteristics.
   A new paradigm posits new relationships both within observations and within theory and between observations and theory. Multistate theory hypothesizes: (1) the abilities of our usual awake state have analogs in other states; (2) additional abilities and cognitive processes exist in other states; and (3) relation- ships among neurocorrelates, subjective experiences, and behaviors will vary from mindbody state to mindbody state.
   A new paradigm introduces useful concepts. After getting rid of some of the ambiguity of the word consciousness, multistate theory introduces the concepts of singlestate fallacy, mindbody state, mindapps, residence, metaintelligence, mindappAI, and ideagen.
   A new paradigm accepts and helps explain anomalies. Multistate theory helps explain ego transcendence and provides a strategy to investigate other-state phenomena, including so-called impossible events. Some odd events may appear to be anomalies or rare simply because they reside in other mindbody states.
   A new paradigm stimulates new research questions and agendas (new normal science). Multistate theory questions: (1) “How do/does ____ vary from mindbody state to mindbody state?” about all current topics in philosophy, the cognitive sciences, social sciences, humanities, and practically all other academic fields. (2) “How will mindapps inform our knowledge about the human mind and brain?” (3) “How should the next generation of researchers be prepared?” (4) “What policy decisions need to be made at various levels of policy?” To be complete these studies should promote the full characterization, exploration, and development of all currently known mindbody states plus the construction of new ones.
   A new paradigm provides new variables, treatments, and methodologies. Multistate theory presents mindapps as research treatments and mindbody states as both independent and dependent variables. It proposes that scholars use mindapps to invent new forms of experimental disciplines. Multistate theory promotes the construction of new mindbody states and their exploration, refinement, and development.
   A new paradigm strengthens professional preparation. Multistate theory: (1) proposes to extend the professional preparation of humanists, scientists, artists, and other scholars to include the full range of mental processes; (2) proposes that graduate programs provide ways for young scholars to experience these states themselves; (3) by implication proposes founding disciplinary specialties such as the multistate philosophies of religion, science, law, and so on; and (4) proposes that specialized professional organizations, publications, and institutes be founded to screen, prepare, guide, and integrate multistate experiences and scholarship.
   To qualify as a paradigm, Kuhn says, a paradigm must include a group of professionals who intentionally use this paradigm. Multistate theory does not meet this criterion yet. However, although not explicitly using multistate theory, the work of researchers cited in this book and elsewhere—their interests, assumptions, concepts, models, independent and dependent variables, instruments, observations, and findings—fit snugly within the multistate theory.

   Considering the impacts of psychedelic and other mindapp ideas, in the arts, sciences, humanities, professions, and popular culture, on what it means to have a mind and develop it, there’s no argument about the breadth of mindapp influences.

   But, is multistate theory advancing toward meeting Kuhn’s eighth criterion, professionals who intentionally use a multistate paradigm?

   Though not explicitly using the multistate theory, the works of authors cited in this book illustrate a number of multistate perspectives:

   qualitative and/or quantitative,
   • empirical and/or theoretical,
   • independent and/or dependent variables,
   • observational and/or intuitive,
   • recreational and/or clinical,
   • sacred and/or secular,
   • subjective and/or objective,
   • professional and/or amateur,
   • intellectual and/or emotional,
   • formal and/or informal,
   • neuroscientific and/or social,
   • scientific and/or humanistic,
   • legal and/or illegal.

   Recognize it or not, like it or not, mindapps—both psychedelic and non-psychedelic—are informing many of our students, our colleagues, and ourselves. Mindapp seedlings are already sprouting along academic highways. Huxley was right, “This is an experience of inestimable value to everyone and especially to the intellectual.”2

2. Tim knows what he is talking about, and I agree completely.

3. met nick sands in georgetown, co 1965

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