April 13, 2008

• Metaprogramming and Self-Creation – Recommended Reading List

  Programming and Metaprogramming in the Human Biocomputer (1967) by John C. Lilly, MD was my introduction to metaprogramming.  I had never heard nor read the word before that, and to the best of my knowledge, he coined the term.  When I saw that title in a bookstore, I knew what it was about and I knew I had to have it.  It was just the beginning for me, though.  It told me that consciously altering my own programming was possible.  I had a long path ahead of me before I would develop any skill for doing it, or gain any ease at it.

  In the province of the mind, what one believes to be true is true
  or becomes true, within certain limits to be found experientially and experimentally.
  These limits are further beliefs to be transcended. In the mind there are
  no limits. (Lilly, from his 1972 autobiography, Center of the Cyclone) -quoted at Leri.org
  

  Lilly’s original “Programming and Metaprogramming,” has apparently become a rare book, judging by prices on Amazon.  Less expensive is “Programming the Human Biocomputer,” attributed to Lilly, but with another writer as “translator” or “channel”.  That one was published in 2004.  Lilly died in 2001.  I don’t know, but until I find out, I’m not recommending it.  “The Steersman” is another such book bearing Lilly’s name but not copyrighted by him or his estate.  An overview of his work, The Quiet Center:  Isolation and Spirit, was written/co-written by his adoptive son Philip Bailey Lilly, with an introduction by Tom Robbins.

  I have not heard John Lilly’s audio CD Superspace, Space, and States, but I would like to, and I have to assume that it is worth a listen, especially for anyone, like me, who is more aural than visual.

  web resources:
  From Here to Alternity and Beyond – an interview with John Lilly
  Metaprogramming with LSD25 – Excerpts at Future-Hi

  John Lilly’s metaprogramming method involved flotation tanks,
  isolation chambers, sensory deprivation, and psychedelic drugs.  All
  those things are interesting, fun and effective, but none of them is
  necessary.  No one of them or combination of them will inevitably
  enable a person to metaprogram himself, but for most people they will
  probably help.  There are also other ways to go about it.

  Several works by Robert Anton Wilson have been useful to me and my family and friends, in a metaprogramming way.  They include:
  Cosmic Trigger I and Cosmic Trigger II
  Prometheus Rising
  Quantum Psychology:  How Brain Software Programs You and Your World

  Antero Alli’s book, Angel Tech: A Modern Shaman’s Guide to Reality Selection, came to Greyfox and me as a review copy from the publisher while we were publishing The Shaman Papers.  I read it.  He skimmed it.  I grokked it and dug it.  He went “WTF” and put it down.  I corresponded briefly with Antero and had some reciprocal ads going with him until we stopped doing TSP.  He is not for everyone, and you can get some idea of his POV and methods from his website.  He has also published an oracle, The Vertical Oracle.  I have used it, not abused it, and learned from it.

  website:  Paratheatrical ReSearch
  Selections from The Akashic Record Player by Antero Alli

  Christopher Hyatt (AKA Allan Ronald Miller, the late occult writer) collaborated with Antero on A Modern Shaman’s Guide to a Pregnant Universe.  He also wrote:
  Undoing Yourself with Energized Meditation and Other Devices
  Undoing Yourself Too
  Techniques for Undoing Yourself Volume 1
  Techniques for Undoing Yourself Volume 2
  Energized Hypnosis: A Non-Book for Self Change
  
  James Kent’s book, Psychedelic Information Theory:  Shamanism in the Age of Reason hasn’t been published yet.   You can find a preview and what looks to me like a lot of authoritative brain/mind info at tripzine.com.  Get with the Metaprogram, Kent’s argument for the importance of metaprogramming, is at erowid.org.

  Timothy Leary’s Info-Psychology:  A Revision of Exo-Psychology is a “Manual on the Use of the Human Nervous System According to the Instructions of the Manufacturers.”

  “The Info-Worlds our species will discover, create, explore and inhabit
  in the immediate future will not be reached from launch pads alone, but
  also through our personal computer screens.”  -Timothy Leary

  For many people, just reading some of these books will initiate them into metaprogramming.  Some other people, with imbalances in brain chemistry, might need to balance their neurotransmitters before they can effectively meditate and metaprogram.  Michael Hutchison, publisher of the now defunct and much missed newsletter, Mega-Brain Report, has written Mega Brain Power:  Transform Your Life with Mind Machines and Brain Nutrients.

  Smart Drugs and Nutrients and Smart Drugs II by Ward Dean and John Morgenthaler were seminal works in that field.  Cognitive Enhancing Drugs (Milestones in Drug Therapy), edited by Jerry J. Buccafusco, is a much more recent (2004), comprehensive text.  I have read the first two, and intend to read the last as soon as I can get it.

  I have left my metaprogramming favorite for last:

  How to Believe in Nothing and Set Yourself Free by Michael Misita, may not be the ultimate metaprogramming book, but once I had read it, I had no further need for the others.  Granted, yes, I had read quite a few others beforehand, but this one clears the decks, opens the windows and removes all the obstacles to conscious metaprogramming and self-creation.

  As in my first recommended reading list, on metaphysics and personal transformation, italicized book titles are links to Amazon and they pay me a small percentage of the price, although it costs you nothing extra.  If you decide to buy any of these books, please buy them this way so that I may help my hardworking ArmsMerchant pay my medical bills.

  • 10:18 pm
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