Xenolinguistics

Zusatztext 100139341 Informationen zum Autor Diana Reed Slattery Klappentext Are language and consciousness co-evolving? Can psychedelic experience cast light on this topic? In the Western world, we stand at the dawn of the psychedelic age with advances in neuroscience; a proliferation of new psychoactive substances, both legal and illegal; the anthropology of ayahuasca use; and new discoveries in ethnobotany. From scientific papers to the individual trip reports on the Vaults of Erowid and the life work of Terence McKenna, Alexander and Ann Shulgin, and Stanislav Grof, we are converging on new knowledge of the mind and how to shift its functioning for therapeutic, spiritual, problem-solving, artistic and/or recreational purposes. In our culture, pychonautics, the practices of individuals and small groups using techniques such as meditation, shamanic ritual, ecstatic dance and substances such as LSD and psilocybin for personal exploration, is a field of action and thought in its infancy. The use of psychonautic practice as a site of research and a method of knowledge production is central to this work, the first in-depth book focusing on psychedelics, consciousness, and language. Xenolinguistics documents the author's eleven-year adventure of psychonautic exploration and scholarly research; her original intent was to understand a symbolic language system, Glide, she acquired in an altered state of consciousness. What began as a deeply personal search, led to the discovery of others, dubbed xenolinguists, with their own unique linguistic objects and ideas about language from the psychedelic sphere. The search expanded, sifting through fields of knowledge such as anthropology and neurophenomenology to build maps and models to contextualize these experiences. The book presents a collection of these linguistic artifacts, from glossolalia to alien scripts, washed ashore like messages in bottles, signals from Psyche and the alien Others who populate her hyperdimensional landscapes. With an entire chapter dedicated to Terence and Dennis McKenna and sections dedicated to numerous other xenolinguists, this book will appeal to those interested in language/linguistics and the benefits of psychedelic self-exploration, and to readers of science fiction. Zusammenfassung Are language and consciousness co-evolving? Can psychedelic experience cast light on this topic? In the Western world! we stand at the dawn of the psychedelic age with advances in neuroscience; a proliferation of new psychoactive substances! both legal and illegal; the anthropology of ayahuasca use; and new discoveries in ethnobotany. From scientific papers to the individual trip reports on the Vaults of Erowid and the life work of Terence McKenna! Alexander and Ann Shulgin! and Stanislav Grof! we are converging on new knowledge of the mind and how to shift its functioning for therapeutic! spiritual! problem-solving! artistic and/or recreational purposes. In our culture! pychonautics! the practices of individuals and small groups using techniques such as meditation! shamanic ritual! ecstatic dance and substances such as LSD and psilocybin for personal exploration! is a field of action and thought in its infancy. The use of psychonautic practice as a site of research and a method of knowledge production is central to this work! the first in-depth book focusing on psychedelics! consciousness! and language. Xenolinguistics documents the author's eleven-year adventure of psychonautic exploration and scholarly research; her original intent was to understand a symbolic language system! Glide! she acquired in an altered state of consciousness. What began as a deeply personal search! led to the discovery of others! dubbed xenolinguists! with their own unique linguistic objects and ideas about language from the psychedelic sphere. The search expanded! sifting through fields of knowledge such as anth...

“Diana Reed Slattery, the author and also the inventor (or perhaps discoverer is the better term) of Xenolinguistics, her chosen field, has been exploring the far fringes of the entheosphere for some fifteen years now, mostly with the help of her fungal friends and an occasional assist from MDMA. She is a psychonaut’s psychonaut, boldly pushing off into the numinous oceans of mind in complete solitude, in darkness, often in isolated and remote locations, no copilot off the left wing for this pioneer. Equipped with nothing more than a journal, pen, and of course the key instrument, her discerning and penetrating intellect, she has established contact with an alien Logos, and not just contacted it, but wrested its secrets from the very heart of the Weird. She has returned from her expeditions to the Outer Mongolias of the mind with that rarest of gifts, an alien artifact, Glide, the sinuous, elegant and enigmatic metalanguage that she shares with us in this book. Anyone with serious interest in the cartography of the psychedelic cosmos and the wonders encountered there will find fertile ground for astonishment, appreciation, and puzzlement within these pages.”
—Dennis McKenna
 
“Weaving together a wide range of scientific, artistic, and experiential voices, Diana Reed Slattery plunges into one of the outstanding enigmas of psychedelia: the place of language. Picking up where Terence McKenna left off, she probes the altered states of language, from shamanic eloquence to ‘downloaded’ symbols to the Other's alien speech. Bringing extraordinary experiences into sparkling dialogue with critical theoretical issues, Slattery has created a marvelous and insightful exemplar of psychonautics in the 21st century.”
—Erik Davis, author of Techgnosis
 
“In Xenolinguistics: Psychedelics, Language, and the Evolution of Consciousness, Diana Reed Slattery provides an intriguing and far-reaching non-fictional investigation of the linguistic and symbolic constructions of alien languages, such as the visual language Glide on which she based her fascinating novel, The Maze Game. Combining first-hand experience, accounts from other ‘psychonauts’ who use psychedelics to explore unknown territories in altered states of consciousness, and scientific research on the entwinement of language and consciousness, Slattery’s book is highly synthetic and provocative, an exhilarating voyage into what it means to encounter the linguistic alien within and without the self.”
—N. Katherine Hayles, professor of literature, Duke University and author of *Cognition Everywhere: The Rise of the Cognitive Nonconscious

• “The investigation of language systems presented in Xenolinguistics: Psychedelics, Language, and the Evolution of Consciousness is a bold step forward into the documented but seldom discussed use of psychonautic practices by scientists and philosophers. As people from ancient times onward have used psychoactive substances to deepen their understanding of the world, this research into the construction of alien linguistics applies these venerable tools with focus and discipline. Diana Reed Slattery's courageous immersion into expanded consciousness for the purpose of knowledge creation is part of an exciting new era of exploration and discovery that will continue to inspire future generations of researchers.”
  —Annie Oak, founder, Women's Visionary Congress
   
  “Xenolinguistics is one of the most compelling and interesting books that I've ever read in my life; I found it truly difficult to put down. Part frontier science, part mystery adventure, part alien language manual, and part interdisciplinary philosophy, this uniquely envisioned book is impossible to categorize in any traditional form. Slattery breaks new ground, bravely exploring the fascinating relationship between symbolic representation, psychonaut ‘downloads,’ consciousness, and …