Voicecraft Dispatch | The Frontier of Psychonautic Exploration
E93| Beyond DMTx: Conscience & Hyperhumanism | with Carl Hayden Smith
Integrating the meaning and praxis of analysis and mysticism have been core to the telos of Voicecraft since inception.
In 2018, I remember handing out cards at the Beyond Psychedelics conference with the terms ‘meaning, society and psychedelics’ labelled on the back.
Many podcasts can be seen by the light of that interest and concern for how profoundly ‘non-ordinary’ states show up in psychology and culture, such as E78| Spirituality & Religion in Australian Festival Culture with the channeller Heath Myers and a great many others.
This dialogue with
, perhaps one of the most widely experienced psychonauts living, is true to that history. Carl is also Associate Professor of Media at the University of East London, and the core theorist behind the notion of Hyperhumanism.In my opinion this podcast is one of the most interesting pieces of philosophical media about DMT (one of the most potent known psychedelic compounds) and its employment in the context of DMTx (where an extended state experience of the usually short experience DMT is enabled in a lab.)
Carl was a participant in that study. We spoke the morning before his first dosing three years ago, but due to embargo never released that content (I may make this available for Patreon / Substack paid supporters. So if you would like to support this work, I encourage you to do so here.)
As for the recent release, it was filmed at the University of East London last month. And it explores the following themes and more:
- What is DMTx (Extended State DMT as Transhumanist Technology)?
- What is next for DMTx research?
- Questioning the Cultural Philosophy of DMTx as Sacrament / Ritual / Medicine
- The Creative Potentials of DMTx & Comparison to Neuralink
- Conscience and Ethics in the navigation, facilitation, usage and integration of Psychedelics / DMTx
- How much are we magnetised by the spell of our own projections?
- Questions of epistemic elitism
- The phenomenology of Death
- Individuation, integration and non-duality in the context of psychonautics, explored in relation to Carl’s exceptional history of exploration
- Hyperhumanism, transhumanism, meaning and suffering
- Holotechnica, dreaming, the mundane and the sacred
This podcast references the work of theorists and practitioners like
and whose readership may be interested in contemplating the relationship between transhumanism and hyperhumanism (a returning topic of exploration for Voicecraft.) Andrew, please consider this an invitation to join in upcoming dialogues. Should it be of interest, it would be an honour to have you join us.You can learn more about Carl Hayden Smith and access additional links to listen at the show notes here.
For others interested in an expansion of some of my thinking on psychedelics and culture, I invite you to check out this podcast in a recent post below.
Discernment on the Way,
Tim