Meditation, Intoxication, & Fire

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The problem of consciousness is not understanding how it evolved or how amazing it is that we can all imagine each other’s minds. The problem of consciousness is knowing all the problems happening in the world, in our own families, in our lives, and having very little impact on those problems. Is the world really going to hell in a handbasket? Or are we more aware than ever of issues we cannot resolve, that we cannot fathom, and that hurt our souls?

What does a firepit in your backyard, dancing, gaming, drugs and alcohol, experiential religion, 12-Step programs, and meditation all have in common? In one shape or form, they help us get out of our heads and de-escalate the stress of too much knowing. We call the capacity dissociation, and we have so many psychological and cultural practices that purposely amplify dissociation that it begs us to ask why consciousness evolved without a check and balance system. Or did it? Dissociation is a fundamental aspect of consciousness. Dissociation is psychological concept that appears as a trance state and has real neurological analogs in the brain.

In this discourse, we’ll start with hypnotizing chickens, talk about the wrong Holy Ghost, explore an evolutionary study of fundamentalist Christianity, outline how fire might have driven the development of human language, and finish with some spirits and a (metaphorical) spliff. And that’s all part of the talk. How you spend it while we hang out is another story.

Dr. Christopher Lynn is a Professor of Anthropology at the University of Alabama. He specializes in cultural impacts on health, with an emphasis an tattooing, immune function, and the South Pacific. He conducts tattoo research in the United States and Pacific Island countries with support from crowdfunding, the National Science Foundation, and Wenner Gren Foundation and cohosts a peer-to-peer tattoo research podcast called Inking of Immunity.