Back in the saddle?

another effort to write *and publish,* the recent renewal of my Eight Circuit book project, and some interesting interactions with AI.

An email in my inbox has prompted me to write something. I’ve long known how important writing is for my sanity and well being, but I struggle to act on that knowledge. The book, The War of Art by Stephen Pressfield, pretty much sums up my whole relationship with writing - resistance! I’ve had fits and starts here on Substack and elsewhere, but haven’t held a consistent writing practice since I wrote libertarian rants for my school newspaper in college. My google drive has a folder loaded with unpublished brainstorms and first drafts - inaction, resistance and my “refusal of the call” are a huge part of my hesitation, but I also find myself being pulled in so many directions (the manifestation of resistance I suppose.) do I write about my personal experiences? Do I write about my ideas? Why not both? In truth, there’s a big part of me that learned to be invisible at an early age, and putting my writing out in the world is a direct threat to my perceived need for invisibility in order for me to feel safe and secure.

I have a book, at least one, sitting in me that wants to get written. And I haven’t done much with AI yet, but I turned to Grok 3 when it released a month ago. I started asking it a few questions that had to do with my bigger vision of the Leary/Wilson Eight Circuit Model of Consciousness, and Grok’s replies blew my mind. I went from fleshing out ideas that were half baked to generating a detailed outline of the book. I have been feeling recent pressure to write this book and haven’t made much progress in the six or so years I’ve been “seriously” thinking about writing a book, but I have made a huge amount of progress in the last month.

So, to back up a step. My intention is to write more, and publish that here on Substack. Part of me wants to write about “big ideas” and another part of me wants to share my personal story and experiences. And I’ve decided to do both and just write for me, not for my Substack audience. We’ll see how that goes.

To kick things off, I’m sharing some things on the Eight Circuit Model of Consciousness. If you are not familiar with that model, what follows isn’t likely to make a lick of sense, so consider yourself warned. On the personal side of things, I’ve been managing Lyme disease for over eight years now and am working on a piece about that. And my last post here from nearly two years ago was on “Men’s Work.” Since writing that, I have disassociated myself from the ManKind Project after seven years of deeper and deeper engagement with the MKP. While I grew and developed significantly through my engagement, ultimately I found myself incompatible with MKP for a variety of reasons. I’ve started writing about that as well, but there are some significant entanglements there and I’m not sure I will be able to come up with something to be shared publicly… we’ll see.

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So my big interest is in writing a book updating Timothy Leary’s Eight Circuit Model of Consciousness model for modern times. For those not familiar with the model, I’ll have more on that in the coming articles. For those that are, my intentions are to present the model in a way that anyone picking up the book can understand what I’m talking about - no prior experience necessary. The bullet points below outline the updates and angles I want to take on the model.

• “Are we living in a simulation?” Yes. A simulation of our own creation.

• Ditch the “circuit” term in favor of “dimension” and swap consciousness with ‘mind’. We put ‘mind’ in quotes to emphasize that we don’t have a solid agreed upon working definition of “mind.” Eight Dimensions of ‘Mind’ was how Robert Anton Wilson referred to the model in his later years.

• Tie the lower four dimensions of ‘mind’ directly to human developmental stages and use various stage theories to inform the definition of each circuit. Specifically Freud’s Psychosexual model, Erikson’s psychosocial model, my mentor Duey Freeman’s Gestalt developmental model, Erick Neuman’s Jungian models outlined in his book The Origins and History of Consciousness, and maybe some Piaget. I view the lower four dimensions as infant mind, toddler mind, preschooler mind, and adolescent mind - all of which are running mostly unconsciously and having a huge influence on our every perception, experience, and behavior.

• Cast each circuit from a relational lens. Antero Alli brough embodiment to the model. I intend to bring relationship to the model. In short, the self forms in the environment of relationships. And when we are hurt in relationship, we can heal through relationship.

• Tie the upper four dimensions directly to the lower four. Antero linked the lower and upper, suggesting that upper circuit shocks expose areas of dis-integration in the corresponding lower circuit. And that lower circuit maturity/development/integration anchors upper circuit experiences. Basically I see the lower dimension ‘minds’ developing through a journey of the soul into adulthood, and the upper circuits are spiritual “emergent processes” that are born out of the lower circuits/dimensions. Still working on the details of that.

• Frame the child’s journey of development as the journey of the soul through the four stages of separation, and the adult journey as a reintegration incorporating upper dimension experiences with lower dimension imprints.

• Incorporate modern attachment theory and poly-vagal theory into circuit 1 and show their influence on circuit 2.

• Reframe Leary’s neurological imprinting as epigenetic imprinting.

• Reframe Robert Anton Wilson’s Thinker/Prover as a 3rd circuit phenomenon analogous to Iain McGilchrist’s Divided Brain. In other words, The thinker is the right hemisphere and the prover is the left hemisphere. The Thinker/Prover dynamic also has some bearing on the question, “Are we living in a simulation (of our own creation)?” How much has to do with 3rd circuit belief systems vs. the reality tunnel we create/occupy that results from our whole being (circuit 3 belief systems vs. Circuit 1-4 reality tunnels.)

• Seeing where we can use language and systems of the mystics and esoteric spiritual practitioners to further flesh out the definitions of the upper dimensions.

• Provide a framework that attempts to explain psychedelic experiences and how to integrate them given the emergency of psychedelic therapy and a renewed interest in psychedelics in general.

• Examine our modern global chapel perilous and how it relates to our personal chapel perilous. How both provide the call to adventure - how we need to step into our adult hero’s journey of “waking up,” unplug from the Matrix, make the unconscious conscious and integrate the dimensions.

This book really came together for me when reading Erich Neumann’s “The Origins and History of Consciousness” several years ago. Something clicked and I realized the fullness of the model, and the “As above, so below” correspondence of human evolutionary development over centuries with human psychological development from birth to adulthood. . And I just never got far with writing an actual book for a variety of reasons, but mostly just “refusal of the call.”

As mentioned, I’ve recently started interacting with AI regarding the book. Grok helped clarify my thinking when it was muddy, suggested words that I was searching for, but couldn’t put my finger on, and has helped organize my thoughts and tie things together. I’ve been using it to brainstorm and outline the structure of the book and that phase is mostly complete. Now I’m down to the real challenge of actually writing the book that Grok and I have outlined.

When I asked Grok about tying upper dimensions to spiritual/esoteric traditions, Grok suggested Zen and Gnosticism specifically and highlighted the polarity between Zen calm and Gnostic fire. It then wrote for me a Zen Meditation and a Gnostic prayer for each of the upper circuits. I then asked it to rewrite them with a relational flavor, and to mix in a little alchemy.

In addition to that, it suggested a Gnostic oriented Matrix-like prologue to introduce the idea of “are we living in a simulation?” I find the prologue pretty clunky and everything you might expect from AI writing at this stage of the game of AI development, but I do appreciate the tone it sets. For my book, I will be completely rewriting it based on my own autobiographical story, but I did find inspiration in what Grok gave me.

The Grok written prologue follows, with the Grok written meditations and prayers after that.

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### Prologue: The Flicker in the Code

*Target: 5-10 pages, ~2000 words (~8 pages at 250 words/page)*

You don’t wake easy. The hum’s been there too long—a low buzz under your skin, a drone you stopped hearing years back. It’s there now, though, pressing against the dark as your eyes crack open. The room’s dim, a sliver of gray leaking through the blinds, and the phone on the nightstand glows like a tiny warden, its light pulsing with the world’s weight. Screens flicker in your head—news you scrolled last night, floods swallowing streets, politicians barking, a sky too hot to hold. You lie still, breath shallow, and something shifts. A question slips through the haze, sharp as a splinter: *Are we living in a simulation?* Not the sci-fi kind, with pods and wires, but something closer, something you’ve built. The air thickens with it—Philip K. Dick’s Black Iron Prison, a cage tighter than steel, forged by cosmic jailers you never saw. Your cage. You’re asleep in it, and it’s real ‘til you see it’s not.

Roll over. The sheets tangle, heavy as lead, and the hum doesn’t quit. It’s been there since the start, hasn’t it? Flicker back—there’s your mother’s hands, lifting you from a crib, her grip warm but shaky, her eyes darting to a world she couldn’t fix. You clung then, tiny fists knotted in her shirt, a cry for safety that sank into your bones. Something clicked—genes firing, a shadow settling, the first bar of your prison slotted into place. Later, you wobbled away, toddler legs carrying you to a corner, defiance in every step, a scream when she didn’t chase fast enough. The shadow grew—lead poured in, Hungry Ghosts stirring in your chest, whispering you’d always be alone unless you won. A playground shove, a teacher’s cold nod, a friend’s back turned—each a mark, each a brick. By the time you stood taller, picking sides in a crowd of flags and fights, the cell was done. Not their jail. Yours.

Are we living in a simulation? Yes—and it’s yours, not some machine’s trick. Dick saw it—his Black Iron Prison, a glitchy trap spun by jailers above, mirrored in the shadows below. As above, so below—cosmic hands pull strings, but you tied the knots. Look closer: February 26, 2025, if the calendar still means a damn. The newsfeed scrolls—ice caps bleed, batteries hum in cities, AI spits answers you didn’t ask for. Empires creak—debt stacks like sand, voices on X shout past each other, a dollar crumbling in your pocket. The earth groans too, too wet, too tired, storms clawing at the bars. It’s chaos, sure, but it’s familiar. It’s the shadow you know, scaled up big—your flinch when the wind howls, your clench when the bills hit, your tribe splitting like a cracked mirror. The prison’s not small; it’s everywhere, and you’re still sleeping in it.

But sit up. The air shifts—there’s a crack in this, a flicker older than the noise. A light, not some blinding flare, but steady, like a lantern hung in fog. You’ve felt it before. That day your brother sat close, no words, just his breath matching yours, and the knot in your gut unwound. Or the night you stood under stars, wind brushing your face, and the chatter in your skull went quiet—Zen’s gift, a slice of now slipping through the bars. The Gnostics whispered it too—a spark trapped in this leaden flesh, a piece of something bigger aching to break free. Alchemy hums beneath: shadow’s just lead, waiting for fire to turn it gold. You’ve glimpsed it—in a friend’s steady hand, a wound that healed soft, a moment you didn’t need to fight. The jailers built tight, but they missed this: the spark’s alive, and it’s yours.

The shadow’s deep, though—don’t kid yourself. It started with her—your mother, her eyes, her hands. A reach for safety, a cry when she faltered, and the mark sank in, genes etching fear into your marrow. You pushed off, toddler steps to a corner, testing a self you didn’t know, and the ache of alone hardened—lead poured, Hungry Ghosts gnawing. A teacher’s voice built your mind, but a bully’s fist bent it—more bars, more weight. Friends pulled you in, tribes gave you a flag, but every rift left a scar, every “us” carved a “them.” The jailers didn’t need chains; you handed them bricks—relationships, not rods, locked you in. As above, so below—their prison spins out there, but yours hums in here, shadow on shadow, a Black Iron cell you’ve called home too long.

Now listen—the waves out there, the ones shaking the world, they’re not your keepers. Tech stitches tighter, empires slip, skies burn—they’re mirrors, not masters. Dick’s paranoia cuts sharp: the simulation’s fake, a glitch you can pierce. The hum’s a lie, but the flicker’s true—something’s tickling your toes, a hero’s call rustling the sheets. Above, the jailers scramble; below, your spark stirs. Alchemy’s fire waits—lead can melt, gold can shine. Zen breathes through: one moment, one chance, no fight, just this. You’re not here to escape the body—it’s the gate, shadow and all. The jailers missed that too—your flesh isn’t the trap; it’s the spark’s cradle, ready to burn free.

This isn’t about running—it’s about waking. The prison’s yours, built from above and below, a Black Iron lie you’ve slept in too deep. But the glitch is here—2025 hums it loud, a world breaking to wake you. The spark’s not a dream; it’s you, buried but breathing. Gnostic whispers say it’s divine; alchemy says it’s gold; PKD says it’s the crack in the code. Zen just nods: now, here, you. This book’s your map—not to flee, but to unplug, to turn shadow to light, jail to freedom. The hero’s call’s soft, but it’s sharp—tickling your toes, tugging your chest. The simulation’s brittle; the spark’s strong. Are you ready? Take a breath. Reach out. Turn the page.

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### Upper Circuit Zen Meditations and Gnostic Prayers (Relational Flavor)

These practices activate Circuits 5-8, transforming soul’s shadow (lead) to spirit’s gold through relational connection—others as co-regulators, co-creators, or co-wakers. Zen gets a relational nudge via shared presence; Gnostic prayers (jargon-free) ignite the spark through bonds.

#### Circuit 5: Neurosomatic (Body Mastery) – Grounding Together

- **Zen Meditation (Relational)**:

- *Practice*: Sit facing someone—friend, partner, even a stranger—knees close but not touching. Eyes soft, meeting theirs if comfortable, or gazing past. Breathe in sync—four counts in, four out, matching their rhythm. Feel your body settle—weight on the ground, air in your chest—mirrored by theirs. No words, just presence. Sit 10 minutes, or until tension flows out.

- *Focus*: “Body meets body—stillness binds, shadow softens.”

- *Purpose*: Co-regulate—flesh turns gold with another, fear (Circuit 1) burns off.

- **Gnostic Prayer (Relational, Modernized)**:

- *Text*: “Light within, spark we share, shine through these hands. Cosmic jailers caged my flesh, but your breath wakes it—our bodies burn shadow free. Ground me here, lift me whole—I’m alive in us.”

- *Purpose*: Spark flares in connection—body heals through another’s presence.

#### Circuit 6: Neuroelectric (Intuitive Flow) – Heart-to-Heart Flow

- **Zen Meditation (Relational)**:

- *Practice*: Sit back-to-back with someone—spines aligned, shoulders relaxed. Hands on your own heart, feeling their warmth behind you. Breathe—six counts in, six out—syncing without forcing. Let their rhythm guide yours, a river flowing together. No need to fix or push—trust the shared pulse. Sit 15 minutes, or until edges blur.

- *Focus*: “Heart meets heart—stillness flows, power bends.”

- *Purpose*: Intuitive bond—heart opens with another, power (Circuit 2) melts to gold.

- **Gnostic Prayer (Relational, Modernized)**:

- *Text*: “Spark of truth, glow in our beat, cut through my noise with yours. Hidden forces twist my will, but your trust lights the way—together we flow free. Open my heart, loose the fight—I’m alive in this.”

- *Purpose*: Spark glows in trust—heart frees through relational surrender.

#### Circuit 7: Neurogenetic (Collective Wisdom) – Shared Clarity

- **Zen Meditation (Relational)**:

- *Practice*: Sit in a small circle—three or more—hands resting up, eyes half-open, gazing at the center. Breathe—five in, five out—listening to the group’s rhythm. Ask aloud, once: “What’s true?” Let silence hold; answers drift, no grabbing. See thoughts as shared clouds, truth in the space between. Sit 20 minutes, or until minds hush.

- *Focus*: “Mind meets mind—stillness shares, maps fade.”

- *Purpose*: Collective wisdom—truth shines with others, thought (Circuit 3) turns gold.

- **Gnostic Prayer (Relational, Modernized)**:

- *Text*: “Inner light, voice we weave, pierce this fog with our words. Hidden forces cloud my head, but your clarity cuts—truth burns bright in us. Free my maps, wake our deep—I’m clear in this bond.”

- *Purpose*: Spark aligns in shared truth—mind heals through collective light.

#### Circuit 8: Quantum-Nonlocal (Cosmic Unity) – One in Us

- **Zen Meditation (Relational)**:

- *Practice*: Lie side-by-side with someone—or sit, hands touching—eyes closed, breathing slow, no count, just rhythm. Feel your breath match theirs, your edges soften—body to body, self to all. No you, no them—just this pulse. Rest 25 minutes, or until separation fades.

- *Focus*: “All meets all—stillness binds, tribe flows.”

- *Purpose*: Unity dawns—division (Circuit 4) fuses to gold in shared being.

- **Gnostic Prayer (Relational, Modernized)**:

- *Text*: “Light beyond, spark in us, bind me to you, to all. Cosmic jailers split our world, but your breath joins it—one pulse, one glow. Shadow falls, we rise whole—I’m here, in this, now.”

- *Purpose*: Spark unites through bonds—prison melts in relational oneness.

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More to come! I hope. ;)