It's been a year now since I began my own quest for knowledge and in that time I've looked into a great many issues and read a number of fascinating books. Thus far, these have been the most relevant for me:

• The Perennial Philosophy by Aldous Huxley
• DNA, The Secret of Life by James Watson
• True Hallucinations by Terrence McKenna
• Dancing in the Streets (A History of Collective Joy) by Barbara Ehrenreich
• The Universe in a Single Atom by The Dalai Lama
• Liberation Upon Hearing in the Between (The Tibetan Book of the Dead) by Robert Thurman
• The Gnostic Gospels by Elaine Pagels
• Breaking Open the Head: A Psychedelic Journey into the Heart of Contemporary Shamanism by Daniel Pinchbeck
• DMT, The Spirit Molecule by Rick Strassman
• The Way of the Shaman by Michael Harner
• The Cosmic Serpent by Jeremy Narby
• Dreamtime and Inner Space by Holger Kalweit.

What I've found so fascinating is that throughout this wide variety of topics all but one have a spiritual thread running through them. The only non-spiritual book among them is James Watson's book about DNA.

As a true scientific materialist, Watson allows no concept of the spiritual or metaphysical to enter into his thorough discussion of DNA research and its implications to society and the future of humanity. Yet the connection between DNA, quantum physics and the idea of alternate realities proposed in The Cosmic Serpent leads one with a less scientific focus to conclude that there is a great deal left for science to discover about reality.

The leap that these other books make is that these other realities have been thoroughly explored by the mystics, shamans, magicians and seers of humanity for tens of thousands of years and that it is the revolt against dogmatic beliefs by Western science that has prevented it from exploring that domain.

In the last 50 years, however, another branch of knowledge--anthropology--has begun to view the altered states described by these exceptional people not as the ravings of simple storytellers, charlatans or worse, madmen, but as legitimate psychic journeys where those who make these journeys return with exceptional and un-natural knowledge of the natural world we are a part of.

As I distill much of what I have learned into a foundation of my own beliefs, there is something both psychologically and intellectually compelling about shamanism itself.

Regardless of where "shamanism" is found with the indigenous peoples of our current time or throughout history and prehistory, there are consistent elements that run through each manifestation; as well as through most worldwide religions--with the unfortunate exception of the most destructive religion, the adulterated version of Christianity derived from the 4th Century politicization of the Church and self-selected "Gospels" which enforced male-oriented and paternalistic hierarchical structure of the burgeoning institution.

I have found that thanks largely to Michael Harner and his Foundation for Shamanic Studies, there are many, many Western shamans using the knowledge acquired by Harner from living with and studing with Jivaro shamans for many years in Peru.

As a person devoted to the study of history and the development of world cultures as a result of that history, it seems to me that a great deal of the knowledge gained by humanity has come from extraordinary means. The South American indigenous peoples' knowledge of plants and their healing powers itself is a phenomenon that can't be explained easily by a rationalist approach. And when one realizes that throughout the world, these same kinds of "discoveries" have occurred independently; yet as I said, with common elements that lead me to believe that there is an independent reality beyond the one we are all a part of.

And so my quest continues. I plan to become more involved with "shamanism", perhaps by attending "drumming circles" in the area, or going on a "vision quest", which are given both in my area and in many areas throughout the United States.

Active participation would be the next logical step in my journey, although there are questions I have about my personal ability to attain the brain chemistry required for accessing the more subtle realities due to my current modifications to that chemistry by way of seratonin uptake inhibitors I've been taking for nearly ten years.

Based on some of the reading I've done, these substances make it more difficult to achieve altered states using hallucinogenic drugs. And since some of these drugs, like DMT, are reputed to reach those other dimensions, I wonder if reaching those dimensions are even possible for me.

So I must decide whether to return to the world I inhabited before I began taking Paxil, or to try to alter my lifestyle and psychology before I do that.