Michael Hoffman, 9:24 pm Mar. 28, 2025

Contents:

Esotericism in Amsterdam:

• Q: Did You Study with Wouter Hanegraaff?
• Q: Do Academics at Amsterdam Go to Smartshops?

Science Explaining Religion:

• Q: How Broad Is Your Conception of “Science” and “Religion” (Mysticism, Esotericism): Can the Science approach, broadly, Explain that which Religion is trying to get at?
• Q: Underneath the Noise and Confusion that Is Religion, Mysticism, and Mythology, Is There Valuable Transcendent Knowledge, or Mental Model Transformation, Buried, and Indirectly Expressed?
• Q: Is there Some Type of Transcendent Knowledge or Enlightenment that Science Can and Should Explain?
• Q: Is there Treasure Buried under the Mess and Confusion that’s Religion, Mysticism, and Mythology?
• Q: Should Science and Engineering and Cognitive Science Strive to Explain the Transcendent Knowledge that’s Poorly Conveyed by Religion, Mysticism, Mythology, and Esotericism?
• Q: Is Transcendent Knowledge Worth the Attention of Science?
• Q: Are You Allergic to Religion? What Kind of Science Approach Fits with What Kind of Religion Approach?
• Q: Do You Contribute any Insight or Analysis on Any Sort of Religous Transcendent Revelation in Any Way?
• Q: What Can People Do to Overcome the Rift Between Psychedelic Scientists vs. Psychedelic Mystics?

Shipwreck Questions:

• Q: How Do We Avoid Shipwreck in a Storm of Control Instability in the Altered State?
• Q: Is the Pilot or Steersman of a Ship Have Stable, Autonomous Control of their Steering, in the Altered State?
• Q: Metal Songs Such as No One at the Bridge by Rush, Reports Stormy Risk of Shipwreck – What Is Your Solution to Shipwreck in a Storm of Control Instability in the Altered State?

Eternalism Questions:

• Q: Is Ramesh Balsekar Correct and Insightful that Enlightenment Is Knowledge of No-Free-Will?
• Q: Is the Experience of No-free-will a Mystical Revelation?
• Q: As a Scientist, Is Freewill the Case?
• Q: Is Personal Control Monolithic, Autonomous Control that Selects from Possibilities that Are Available? Or, Is Personal Control Limited, 2-Level, Dependent Control?
• Q: Is the future open, or closed? Do you hold to Possibilism (open future), or Eternalism (closed, pre-existing future)?

Control Stability Questions:

• Q: Does a Rational Psychonaut Have Stable Control by Controlling Their Own Source of Thoughts, as an Autonomous Agent?
• Q: Does a Person Control Their Own Source of Thoughts, and Create their Own Future?
• Q: What Is Your Technology and Advice for Someone Who Is Terrified to Look at Their Source of Control-Thoughts for Fear of Monstrous Threatening Unavoidable Thoughts? [todo: move up w/ control stability]

• Q: Do You Reject the Same Popular Ideas of Enlightenment as Tim Freke? (Emergent Evolutionary Spirituality)

Surrenderism:

• Q: Underneath the Idea of Surrenderism, Is There a Real and Important Dynamic?
• Q: Do You Have an Explanation of the Dynamics of Mystical Surrender?
• Q: Is Science and Engineering Able to form an Explanatory Model of the Dynamics of Mystical Surrender?
• Q: Why Doesn’t the Book Have a Section on Surrenderism, Given that That’s the Central Topic in Your Masters’ Dissertation and in your article The Psychonaut’s Ship?

• Q: How serious are you on page 10 “Don’t read this book if you used any existing approach to Psychedelics?” Are we supposed to read your book, or not?
• Q: When It’s Revealed that You Cannot Control Your Source of Control Thoughts, But Thoughts Arise Unstoppably and Are Unbound in the Psychedelic State, How Can The Personal Control System Avoid Panic Seizure and Restore Stable Control?
• Q: What Technology Discovery Are You Withholding in the Book, Page __?
• Q: How to package and deliver a psychedelic discovery, after the discovery? Do your writings only aim to get people started toward discovering, or is it aiming to cover end-to-end?
• Q: Have you made any Psychedelic discoveries, or will you focus on articulating an approach and mentality opposed to therapy?
• Q: Psychedelics focus awareness on inner workings of mind, so why does the book narrowly use model of ships exploring the external, physical world?
• Q: What are some specific useful, relevant technologies provided to give people stable control while on Psilocybin? A mindset?
• Commentary
• The Irony in this Page Title: “Psychedelic “Church” Concept Causes Allergic Seizure Reaction in Houot the “Naturalist, Rational Psychonaut” Who Is Against “Anyone Esoteric or Mystical or Spiritual or Religious or Transcendent or Woo”
• Corpse, Stable Building Protected by Cloth Washed Clean
• Why Creating a Page Focused on Formulating Questions for the Author
• Increase Your Control Agency Harder and Harder Until It Explodes in Climactic Control Transformation
• ⚖️💥☸️
• Metal Lyrics about Transformative Crisis of Control
• No One at the Bridge (Rush, 1975)
• S.A.T.O. (e.g. Sailing the Acid Trip Ocean) (Ozzy Osbourne, 1981)
• Heaven Can Wait (Iron Maiden, 1986)
• See Also
  • Toward a Philosophy of Psychedelic Technology: An Exploration of Fear, Otherness, and Control (Houot, 2019)
  • Phenomenology for Psychedelic Researchers: A Review of Current Methods & Practices (Houot, 2021)
  • The Psychonaut’s Ship: Pairing Technologies with Psychedelics to Augment User Agency (Houot, 2022)
  • Rise of the Psychonaut: Maps for Amateurs, Nonscientists and Explorers in the Psychedelic Age of Discovery (Houot, 2025)
• Dionysus, the Pilot Who Honors Dionysus and Lives, and the Captain Who Doesn’t Honor Dionysus and Dies

Q: Did You Study with Wouter Hanegraaff?

Q: Do Academics at Amsterdam Go to Smartshops?

Q: How Broad Is Your Conception of “Science” and “Religion” (Mysticism, Esotericism): Can the Science approach, broadly, Explain that which Religion is trying to get at?

Q: Underneath the Noise and Confusion that Is Religion, Mysticism, and Mythology, Is There Valuable Transcendent Knowledge, or Mental Model Transformation, Buried, and Indirectly Expressed?

Q: Is there Some Type of Transcendent Knowledge or Enlightenment that Science Can and Should Explain?

Q: Is there Treasure Buried under the Mess and Confusion that’s Religion, Mysticism, and Mythology?

We Agree on Pro-Science, Pro-Engineering.

We agree on Anti- the Mystical/ Mythical/ Religious Style of Expression.

Do We Disagree whether there Is Treasure of Enlightenment and Mental model transformation, Buried Underneath the Noise and Junk & Confusion Overlaid by Religion?

The Science and Engineering approach to forming an explanatory framework is the best approach to explaining anything, and is able to efficiently explain the Transcendent Knowledge “treasure” that is expressed in a confused, garbled way by religion, mysticism, mythology, esotericism, and medieval art motifs.

Q: Should Science and Engineering and Cognitive Science Strive to Explain the Transcendent Knowledge that’s Poorly Conveyed by Religion, Mysticism, Mythology, and Esotericism?

Q: Is Transcendent Knowledge Worth the Attention of Science?

Q: Does Alien Entity Contact Serve a Religious Function within the Rational Psychonaut Science Explorer Discoverer Approach?

Q: Is this an “Elite Evolutionary Spirituality” Approach, the “Rational Psychonaut Science Explorer Discoverer” Approach?

Requiring Explorers to be Fit and Atheist Rational, While Rejecting (in all senses) anything Religious, Mystical, Esoteric, Spiritual.

Rational, Scientific, Fit, Mature, Fit to be an explorer; vs.
Irrational, Immature, Mentally Ill

Elitist Eugenics-Like Prideful Evolutionism

Is Tim Freke’s attempt at “evolutionary spirituality / emergent spirituality” like this, or not?

Perhaps such evolutionary spirituality fans attach themselves to Tim Freke.

I don’t care for Freke’s focus in Soul Story on survival of the soul after literal bodily death.

I embrace the potential of Science, WITHOUT scorched-earth dismissal of religion, sprituality, mysticism, mythology – I just think that the Sceiecne & esp. Engineering approach to explanatory useful framework to produce a useful technology for everyone, to contribute to the collective shared knowleddge base. I WANT EVERYONE TO UNDERSTAND WHAT RELIGIOUS MYTH IS ACTUALLY REFLECTING.

I cringe at the tone or framing that Houot uses, that only “fit” people are suitable to do Rational Science Discovery Exploration.

I agree that this approach is superior:

• Rational Science discovery exploration <– superior approach, to figure out…
• Religion, sprituality, mysticism, mythology <– the referent to be figured out.

Jan 1988: Ken Wilber says that the nature of ego transcendence is X. But I say, the scientifically clear and engineering-useful explanatory framework is, instead,

• Block-universe eternalism
• Psychedelic loose cognition; loose cognitive association binding
• Mental model transformation per the Way of Zen by Alan Watts: instant, quick, binary switch of mental models.
• To have non-dysfunctional cross-time control. So that one can “plan and do” as expected, NOTHING MORE THAN THAT – not super-respecting enlightenment; rather, I never put enlightenment on a pedestal; instead, I had a disrespectful but PRAGMATIC AND MODEST valuation of enlightenment, Transcendent Knowledge.

Jules Evans – Evolutionary spirituality as a frame for psychedelic experiences

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMGzEWLZHTQ –

Video title:
Jules Evans – Evolutionary spirituality as a frame for psychedelic experiences
ch: Exeter Psychedelics Group
Nov. 1, 2023
Talk and Q+A with Exeter Research Psychedelic Colloquium.

Desc. of video:

“One of the dominant cultural frames for psychedelics in western culture over last 130 years has been evolutionary spirituality.

“This tradition suggests human evolution is not finished and can be guided towards the creation of higher beings through such techniques as psychedelics and eugenics or genetic modification.

“But is everyone evolving into a new species, or just an elite? Jules will discuss the tradition of evolutionary spirituality, raise the ethical implications of this tradition – its tendency to spiritual narcissism, contempt for the less-evolved masses, Social Darwinism and Malthusianism, spiritual eugenics, and illiberal utopian politics—and suggest responses to these limitations.”

Comments about Video

Jan Irvin warned about this, with Huxley as Dr. Evil, contempt for the masses.

I’m too autistic to use this approach. In 1985 I was just a buggy person trying to repair their malfunctioning personal control system, and then give that explanation to everyone.

That’s it. No other narrative. I’m not a narrative guy, other than that.

In 1985, my father instructed me on leading edge human potential, self-help, transpersonal psychology.

After my block-universe eternalism breakthrough in Jan 1988, my friends had books by Leary, which I found had no appeal and no relevance.

I didn’t cross the street at Stanford in 1991 to bother going to the big psychedelics Bridge conference – that approach was not relevant enough to my project of writing-up my explanatory model of what ego transcendence is really about AND WHY WE CANNOT HAVE POSI-CONTROL ACROSS TIME.

My discovery of eternalism and its 100% total ego death cancellation of a certain sense of monolithic, autonomous control, was the opposite of personal grandiosity.

I am personally grand as an explainer of why 2-level, dependent control is the case, humbling-to-death King Ego.

When I intended to learn what ego transcendence is really about, in order to repair my dysfunctional cross-time control.

dysfunctional cross-time control
dctc

Q: Are You Allergic to Religion? What Kind of Science Approach Fits with What Kind of Religion Approach?

Q: Do You Contribute any Insight or Analysis on Any Sort of Religous Transcendent Revelation in Any Way?

Q: What Can People Do to Overcome the Rift Between Psychedelic Scientists vs. Psychedelic Mystics?

Q: How Do We Avoid Shipwreck in a Storm of Control Instability in the Altered State?

Q: Is the Pilot or Steersman of a Ship Have Stable, Autonomous Control of their Steering, in the Altered State?

Q: Metal Songs Such as No One at the Bridge by Rush, Reports Stormy Risk of Shipwreck – What Is Your Solution to Shipwreck in a Storm of Control Instability in the Altered State?

See appendix below:
Metal Lyrics about Transformative Crisis of Control

Q: Is Ramesh Balsekar Correct and Insightful that Enlightenment Is Knowledge of No-Free-Will?

Q: Is the Experience of No-free-will a Mystical Revelation?

Q: As a Scientist, Is Freewill the Case?

Q: Is Personal Control Monolithic, Autonomous Control that Selects from Possibilities that Are Available? Or, Is Personal Control Limited, 2-Level, Dependent Control?

Q: Is the future open, or closed? Do you hold to Possibilism (open future), or Eternalism (closed, pre-existing future)?

Q: Does a Rational Psychonaut Have Stable Control by Controlling Their Own Source of Thoughts, as an Autonomous Agent?

Q: Does a Person Control Their Own Source of Thoughts, and Create their Own Future?

Q: What Is Your Technology and Advice for Someone Who Is Terrified to Look at Their Source of Control-Thoughts for Fear of Monstrous Threatening Unavoidable Thoughts?

Q: Do You Reject the Same Popular Ideas of Enlightenment as Tim Freke? (Emergent Evolutionary Spirituality)

Tim Freke recently is trying to reject pop spirituality concepts such as

• Nonduality; unity; oneness.
• Ego is illusion. The self doesn’t exist.
• Separate self is an illusion.
• The goal of enlightenment is to get rid of the ego.

Q: Underneath the Idea of Surrenderism, Is There a Real and Important Dynamic?

Q: Do You Have an Explanation of the Dynamics of Mystical Surrender?

Q: Is Science and Engineering Able to form an Explanatory Model of the Dynamics of Mystical Surrender?

Q: Why Doesn’t the Book Have a Section on Surrenderism, Given that That’s the Central Topic in Your Masters’ Dissertation and in your article The Psychonaut’s Ship?

Q: How serious are you on page 10 “Don’t read this book if you used any existing approach to Psychedelics?” Are we supposed to read your book, or not?

Please put this book down if you’ve never ingested psychedelics or if you take them for therapeutic, recreational, religious, spiritual growth, personal growth, cognitive enhancement, creativity-inspirational, or self-actualizing purposes. It’s not for you … With that said, my message will not resonate with everyone.

p. 10, Rise of the Psychonaut: Maps for Amateurs, Nonscientists and Explorers in the Psychedelic Age of Discovery (Houot, 2025)

Rise of the Psychonaut: Maps for Amateurs, Nonscientists and Explorers in the Psychedelic Age of Discovery (Houot, 2025) https://egodeaththeory.org/2024/12/24/rise-of-the-psychonaut-houot-2025/ & https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DPSJGMFR

Q: When It’s Revealed that You Cannot Control Your Source of Control Thoughts, But Thoughts Arise Unstoppably and Are Unbound in the Psychedelic State, How Can The Personal Control System Avoid Panic Seizure and Restore Stable Control?

Q: What Technology Discovery Are You Withholding in the Book, Page __?

todo: figure out the p. #

Q: How to package and deliver a psychedelic discovery, after the discovery? Do your writings only aim to get people started toward discovering, or is it aiming to cover end-to-end?

Q: Have you made any Psychedelic discoveries, or will you focus on articulating an approach and mentality opposed to therapy?

Q: Psychedelics focus awareness on inner workings of mind, so why does the book narrowly use model of ships exploring the external, physical world?

Q: What are some specific useful, relevant technologies provided to give people stable control while on Psilocybin? A mindset?

Commentary

The Irony in this Page Title: “Psychedelic “Church” Concept Causes Allergic Seizure Reaction in Houot the “Naturalist, Rational Psychonaut” Who Is Against “Anyone Esoteric or Mystical or Spiritual or Religious or Transcendent or Woo”

 Corpse, Stable Building Protected by Cloth Washed Clean

Why Creating a Page Focused on Formulating Questions for the Author

Thanks to RL for asking me the question of me asking Ooh-Oh questions.

A. M. Houot (Ooh-Oh)

• My questions and this page are not just about the book. I treat Houot’s entire corpus: diss + 2 articles + book.

The book lacks – incongruously – Houot’s fav topic, disparagement of mystics’ ‘surrenderism”.

See Michelle Janikian’s book for crude folk surrenderism writeup, her book is good.

Your Psilocybin Mushroom Companion: An Informative, Easy-to-Use Guide to Understanding Magic Mushrooms—From Tips and Trips to Microdosing and Psychedelic Therapy
(Guides to Psychedelics & More)
Michelle Janikian, September 23, 2021
https://www.amazon.com/Psilocybin-Mushroom-Companion-Easy-Mushrooms/dp/1646043901/ —

Blurb:

“Learn. Prepare. Trip. Transform!

“Discover the transformational power of psilocybin mushroom with this all-encompassing guide to harnessing magic mushrooms safely and effectively.

“With so much misinformation surrounding magic mushrooms out there, it can be hard to separate fact from fiction.

“This is where Your Psilocybin Mushroom Companion comes in to help.

“In this book, you’ll find a comprehensive yet friendly guide to everything there is to know about magic mushrooms.

“Learn how to plan safe, effective trips with easy-to-follow step-by-step advice.

“Discover how to train a guide to take care of those on psychedelic voyages, as well as how to access the transformative nature of these experiences.

“Even learn how microdosing can improve your mood, cognitive functioning, creativity, physical stamina, and more.

“With the most up-to-date research, Your Psilocybin Mushroom Companion will put magic mushrooms into perspective, dispel myths and urban legends, and open your mind to the benefits of psychedelic tripping.”

/ end blurb Janikian book

Increase Your Control Agency Harder and Harder Until It Explodes in Climactic Control Transformation

⚖️💥☸️

…. i wonder…. Houot in book says he’s withholding something.

LOL there’s my Q1: WHAT ARE YOU WITHHOLDING FROM US?

I bet something about surrenderism and WE MUST INCREASE OUR EGOIC SELF CONTROL POWER:

STAND ON LEFT FOOT HARDER!

UNTIL BLOW UP TO SMITHEREENS IN A FIRE PIT OF CYBERNETIC CONTROL SEIZURE DEATH FAILURE revealing there is no power there at all.

Metal Lyrics about Transformative Crisis of Control

No One at the Bridge (Rush, 1975)

No One at the Bridge (Rush, 1975)
channel: Wraxtiorre’s Mess
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70BgSKTBh9s —

https://www.rush.com/songs/the-fountain-of-lamneth/

Lyrics by Neil Peart:

III. No One At the Bridge 

Crying back to consciousness
The coldness grips my skin
The sky is pitching violently
Drawn by shrieking winds
Seaspray blurs my vision
Waves roll by so fast
Save my ship of freedom
I’m lashed helpless to the mast

Call out for direction
And there’s no one there to steer
Shout out for salvation
But there’s no one there to hear
Cry out supplication
For the maelstrom is near
Scream out desperation
But no one cares to hear

Remembering when first I held
The wheel in my own hands
I took the helm so eagerly
And sailed for distant lands

But now the sea’s too heavy
And I just don’t understand
Why must my crew desert me
When I need a guiding hand

— Rush

S.A.T.O. (e.g. Sailing the Acid Trip Ocean) (Ozzy Osbourne, 1981)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGoQ6AZYfMc —

https://www.google.com/search?q=s.a.t.o.+lyrics
http://egodeath.com/sablyrics.htm#xtocid229130 — Egodeath interpretation

Sailing the Acid-Trip Ocean
Lyrics by Bob Daisley —

Heaven Can Wait (Iron Maiden, 1986)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKiwU6l6cUY —

Lyrics – Improved Transcription by Michael Hoffman April 12, 2025, for scholarly study.

Can’t understand what is happening to me
This isn’t real, this is only a dream
But I never have felt, no, I never have felt this way before

I’m looking down on my body below
I lie asleep in the midst of a dream
Is it now, could it be, the – Angel of Death has come for me?

I can’t believe that really my time has come
I don’t feel ready, there’s so much left undone
And it’s my soul, and I’m not gonna let it get away [loose cognitive experience of soul (egoic control agency) vanishing]

Heaven can wait
Heaven can wait
Heaven can wait
Heaven can wait ’til another day

I have a lust for the Earth below
And Hell itself is my only foe
‘Cause I’ve no fear of dying; I’ll –
Go when I’m good and ready

I snatch a glimpse of the lights eternal rays
I see a tunnel, I stand amazed
At all of the people standing there in front of me

Into the paths of rightness I’ll be led
Is this the place where the living join the dead?
I wish I knew this was only just a nightmare [not just a temporary Mystery Religion terror trip initiation awe; produces mental model maturation: permanent modification of conscious foundation of source of control thoughts]

Take my hand, I’ll lead you to the promised land
Take my hand, I’ll give you immortality
Eternal youth, I’ll take you to the other side
To see the truth, the path for you is decided [non-branching worldline in block universe 4D spacetime per eternalism and Minkowski; {snake frozen in rock}]

My body tingles, I feel so strange [acid effect]
I feel so tired, I feel so drained
And I’m wondering if I’ll ever be the same again [yes and no, after the foundation of control-thought source is re-conceived]

Is this in limbo or Heaven or Hell?
Maybe I’m going down there as well
I can’t accept my soul will drift forever

I feel myself floating back down to Earth
So could this be the hour of my rebirth
Or have I died or will I wake from dreaming?

Source: LyricFind

Songwriters: Stephen/ Percy/ Harris

Heaven Can Wait lyrics © BMG Rights Management

Key Lyrics about Psychedelic Eternalism

https://egodeathyahoogroup.wordpress.com/2021/01/09/egodeath-yahoo-group-digest-105/#message5359 — lists several songs:

Destiny planned out
Speculation of the wise
— Blizzard of Ozz, “Believer”

To see the truth:
The path for you is decided
— Iron Maiden, “Heaven Can Wait”

All preordained, a prisoner in chains
A victim of venomous fate
— Rush, “Freewill”

I’ve been stricken by fate
Wrapped up tight, cannot move, can’t break free
Hand of doom has a tight grip on me
— Metallica, “Trapped Under Ice”

/ end of lyric

See Also

I even already have a Site Map section for Houot b/c there’s some overlap between the Egodeath theory & Houot’s topics.

Toward a Philosophy of Psychedelic Technology: An Exploration of Fear, Otherness, and Control (Houot, 2019)

Dissert:
Toward a Philosophy of Psychedelic Technology: An Exploration of Fear, Otherness, and Control (Houot, 2019)

Phenomenology for Psychedelic Researchers: A Review of Current Methods & Practices (Houot, 2021)

As always, the title is good to project your wishes onto – the actual content might be disappointing, not useful. Imagine how awesome this article! Do not look at actual article.

Phenomenology for Psychedelic Researchers: A Review of Current Methods & Practices
A. M. Houot, 2021
Journal of Consciousness Exploration & Research
18 Pages
https://www.academia.edu/58774354/Phenomenology_for_Psychedelic_Researchers_A_Review_of_Current_Methods_and_Practices
todo: create a new page real quick, seems a GREAT technique

The Psychonaut’s Ship: Pairing Technologies with Psychedelics to Augment User Agency (Houot, 2022)

Article:
The Psychonaut’s Ship: Pairing Technologies with Psychedelics to Augment User Agency (Houot, 2022)
I used Siri Voice 4 (b/c quite smooth) to robo-read aloud to me this article several times.

Rise of the Psychonaut: Maps for Amateurs, Nonscientists and Explorers in the Psychedelic Age of Discovery (Houot, 2025)

Book:
Rise of the Psychonaut: Maps for Amateurs, Nonscientists and Explorers in the Psychedelic Age of Discovery (Houot, 2025)

Search this site for “Houot”:
https://egodeaththeory.org/?s=houot

Site Map > Houot:
https://egodeaththeory.org/nav/#Alan-Houot

Dionysus, the Pilot Who Honors Dionysus and Lives, and the Captain Who Doesn’t Honor Dionysus and Dies

image Search: Dionysus and the Pirates
https://www.google.com/search?q=dionysus+pirates&udm=2