Forfatter billede
2 Works 27 Members 1 Review 1 Favorited

Om forfatteren

Includes the name: Diana Slattery

Værker af Diana Reed Slattery

Satte nøgleord på

Almen Viden

Køn
female

Medlemmer

Anmeldelser

Tough cookie. This, clearly, is not for everyone. How to make sense of work based on a weird premise, well encapsulated in its title, of bridging such diverse themes as the use of psychedelics, the complex phenomenon of language and their possible link with the evolution of consciousness? Each of these is enough to occupy not just one book, but whole libraries on their complexities. At a first glance it almost seems a sure recipe for a disastrous outcome. But that is not the case.

The author, Diana Reed Slattery, has a most peculiar path. She’s a [talented] fiction writer, an educator, an artist of sorts (for she experiments with art and technology), a psychonaut and, of course, a xenolinguist. With such diverse interests, Reed’s book is a mixture of all that, in an exercise to provide some coherence to her long psychonautic exploration of her experiences with altered states of consciousness and the communication with an unknown other (thus the xeno of her language studies).

The first part of the book focus on that which comes to the fore when one thinks of studying psychedelics: how to approach this subject, if studying it in order to comprehend it fully if that demands that one experiences its effects? This is a methodoloical problem, and Reed starts to tackle it right away from the outset. For this she tries to justify a psychonautics approach as a meaningful method to explore, structure, and make sense of the oftentimes nonsensical resulting experience.
For this Reed analyzes possible protocols and techniques that may validate what’s perceived under such unorthodox circumstances. And she’s well aware of the many difficulties of proposing such a methodological approach; but given the inevitability of the inherent weirdness of such experiences, little can one do than to rely on whatever methods are available, given that the alteration of consciouness is a very hard to study subject, subjected to much social reproach and legal persecution in many cases.

After explaining how life changing were some of her own experiences, and her bizarre encounter with that often mentioned transdimensional other that appears under some altered states, Reed introduces us to her conception of a visual language she called Glide. This language opened her to the possibility of bridging the gap of having such profound, quasi-mystical, experiences and the unavoidable limitations of normal language to capture and reproduce the content of what was thus witnessed under such bizarre conditions.

Once she establishes the ground for a method, and showing us the tools she used in her psychedelic research, she proceeds to explore that recurring theme of The Other, that unknown voice that time and again speaks back to those brave enough to go deeper onto the psychedelic experience.

Then, on the second part of the book, Maps and Models, the discussion becomes more technical, more philosophical. Reed delves onto the ontological dilemma, the question of knowing what is real, how real reality is, especially when you’re faced with a huge shift in your perception under altered states of consciousness. Then you’re faced with the epistemological dychotomy: how to be scientific when your object of study is a shift on perception from the subjective point of view? How to put together the seemingly opposing views of looking at brain from the outside and upside-down worldview experienced by the subject? Then Reed goes on to summarize different theories and models of consciousness and how to approach this field of study.

Reed then goes on to explore the experience of extended perception (in its many multimodal varieties) and how this experience results in a radical shift on how time, space, and even dimensionality are conceived. For what Reed is to articulate a meaningful bridge between these undeniable recurring experiences and how pyschedelics alter one’s linguistic capabilities across a larger spectrum of our senses. For Reed needs to guide the discussion to the problem of language, one of the central themes of her work.

To achieve this, she then explores several neurophenomenological perspectives on language, again summarizing the views of different thinkers, shining some light on the somewhat fringy theoretical models provided by those authors.

Finally, on the third and last part of the book, Reed goes finally embrances the central theme of the book: xenolinguistics. She here examines the differences between natural and unnatural (sic) languages, going deeper onto the not sufficiently studied subject of the effects of psychedelics on language: the shifts in the listening and speaking, writing and reading, capabilities, resulting in non-ordinary modes of understanding and expression. In order to provide some data grounds demonstrating these shifts, she provides some examples taken from what she calls “The Guild of Xenolinguists” — fringy characters exploring non-ordinary languages and modes of expression.

From here on the discussion focus on the third subtheme of this book, that is “the evolution of language”. Reed here visits different authors and their theories on this subject — not of the mainstream sciency guys; but those who have speculated a strong link between the use of mind-altering substances and the historically difficult to explain phenomenon of language development and explosion. The weird, or at least the highly speculative, is at home here.

This leads to a discussion the topic of constructed languages, with Reed visiting the work of yet other fellow xenolinguists, thus providing mora data points on how this phenomenon manifests and takes shape.

She then dives on the idea that language is everywhere, that life is built upon language (DNA), exploring the views of anthropologists linking recent scientific discoveries (the double-helix code of life) and the mythological views and representations that seem to echo the same conclusion. This is also complemented with the thoughts and explorations of akin-minded xenolinguists, those who are confident that life is intelligent and nature expresses itself through language.

The book concludes with a call for the furthering of language exploration under altered states of consciousness, for this opens the door for a potential different way to structure reality, maybe offering us a different path to help us build a more healthy and sustainable future.

This review is already long enough; way too long, it seems. But since the subject matter is so out the ordinary, since it explores a complicated subject, so vast on its scope, unfolding its content was how I tried to make sense of what I got from reading this book. Aware of how little these things are known and studied, and even useful, for most people, this is a way too specific work to be of use for most readers. In spite of that, if you have some inkling in knowing more about psychedelics, psychonautics, language under altered states of consciousness, and if you like fringy stuff, this book will definitely please you.
… (mere)
 
Markeret
adsicuidade | Sep 8, 2018 |

Statistikker

Værker
2
Medlemmer
27
Popularitet
#483,027
Vurdering
4.0
Anmeldelser
1
ISBN
3
Udvalgt
1