Pearce (Foreword - Ch. 3)

Wow. This is first thing that came to my mind after (if I may say) trying to read this bombardment of "psycho-babble" and "scholarly jargon". First of all, if you're going to suggest that people "crack this cosmic egg", you might want to start with a more simple approach. In no way do I look down upon these readings, because I sure as hell couldn't have written this stuff, but I got lost in his wacky chronology and his obsession with quoting others and himself even.

Pearce is essentially telling us that something is wrong. The world we live in is NOT the real world. This kept visions of the movie "The Matrix" popping in and out of my head. He favors all of the great minds that we have begun to read already in this course and it shows in his quotes and in his personal accounts and reflections. I think the jist of this first set of readings is that we should start to "think differently". Like I have said previously, we have been conditioned, and to me and also according to Pearce, this is not a good thing. These "valves" and these "solvents" of our time are keeping us from seeing what is actually there. Oh yeah, don't tell Pearce to take some psychedelic either to see through these impedents - he's not diggin' it. Pearce seems to be about breaking down this conscious and subconscious barrier in order to gain the perception that is needed to start a "crack". I will say I completely agree with him on this one. I just wish he would've taken a more tranquil approach.

The best part of these readings was his obsession with "autism" and being "autistic". He doesn't seem to "rape" this concept like our mass media and mass culture does - using it for monetary gain and discrimination. He wants us to get into this state of mind. He wants us to think outside of the box - hopefully outside of the box there is an egg that is waiting for us to crack it. I have already pondered about this before having read it. I thought to myself many times, 'what if these people that we cast out as different (such as the autistic, mentally challenged, and schizophrenic) are the ones that are actually living life?'. What if these people aren't actually challenged? Maybe they hold some secret of the universe that can't be told? I guess it is up to us to break down our mental barriers and enter as many states of consciousness as we can in order to obtain new and useful ideas for a new paradigm.