Sorry, but that material alludes to a method which seems almost diametrically opposed to objective research and verifiable/falsifiable theory.
Examples:
With this drug research they explored all three brains and all four sides, delving deep into the collective unconscious.
First, and most obviously, each human being has only one brain. The phrase "three brains and four sides" is pretty obviously derivative of phrases found in Buddhist texts, wherein mystical concepts are lent an artificial air of credibility by virtue of being described in arbitrary numbers.
Second, although there are some amusing findings out there (I seem to recall reading of devices which randomly display 1s or 0s being placed at various universities around the world and registering large, anomalous non-randomizations just before major catastrophes) a "collective unconscious" in our species remains firmly planted in the realm of fantasy.
Next:
Their discoveries were astounding.
They gave people acid. Those people got high. While high, those people couldn't tie their own shoelaces anymore, but thought they had become geniuses. No, that's not really astounding at all.
When used properly they found that LSD would awaken most anyone from the consensus trance, greatly expanding their consciousness and awakening previously-unsuspected potentials.
We might benefit from asking what research this couple had done into
non-altered consciousness before administering this study. Because without a control group comparable to the experimental group, or -- at the very least -- a baseline state for the experimental group, they would simply have no way to know what these peoples' consciousness had been "expanded"
from, or what potentials had been achieved which were
not achievable in a baseline state.
Many of their subjects, and they themselves, had profound positive experiences of transcendence.
This is just about as obvious as I should think anyone would need it to be in order to realize that these people were not conducting anything resembling scientific research. But in case it's not, let's proceed, with:
Jean Houston and Robert Masters developed very powerful procedures using LSD which allowed them to explore the brain and invoke religious experiences of union with the infinite.
Yeah. Question: Where are these two brilliant researchers now?
Finally,
"An emphasis on myth and story began to be essential to my work since about 1980. I discovered that one could go further and deeper with human capacities development work if it was encoded in myth. This is because the Great Story inherent in many myths provides the template for transformation. However ancient, myths carry the coded matrices of the next steps in human development and evolution."
Snake oil. Ladies and gentlemen,
Jean Houston and Robert Masters plainly and simply peddle snake oil.
PBM, I appreciate that you've found the need for clearer thinking -- but hallucinogens and/or mysticism are going to lead you
away from clearer thinking, not
to it. Logic and objectivity will lead you to it.
).
