A Prophetic Vision of the Near Future
LSD and the Mind of the Universe
As I witness the ongoing, slow-motion collapse of global civilization, my thoughts keep turning to a relatively obscure contemporary prophet and psychedelic visionary: Christopher Bache. Bache is a Professor of Religious Studies at Youngstown State University. His books include Dark Night, Early Dawn, LSD and the Mind of the Universe, and Lifecycles: Reincarnation and the Web of Life. A remarkable facet of Bache’s career is that he put himself through 75 sessions of high-dose LSD, working with a therapist over a number of years. During these sessions, he went through cycles of individual as well as collective, species-wide death-and-rebirth, which he chronicles in his books.
What Bache discovered as a result of these deep dives into the personal and archetypal unconscious is fascinating and hopeful. He describes prophetic visions of the near-future. In his journeys, he experienced humanity as a whole confronting the ecological crisis, undergoing shamanic dissolution and reintegration, and finally emerging out of it in a transformed state. “The ecological crisis will precipitate a death-rebirth confrontation that will shatter our psycho-spiritual isolation, both individually and societally, and bring forward an awakening of common ground within us,” he writes in LSD and the Mind of the Universe.
In his immersive model of the near-future, Bache foresaw, “The speed with which new formations were emerging in the collective psyche reflected the superconductivity of nonlinear systems. These new forms were not just temporary fluctuations but became permanent psychological structures marking the next stage in humanity’s long journey of self-activated awareness.”
There will be tremendous pain, but redemptive potential will emerge through this agony:
“While the suffering that is coming will be terrible to endure… humanity will come through this crisis, not intact but changed for the better. … Through this ordeal we are giving birth not just to a new period of history but to a new form of human being. …Without a vision of where nature is taking us, without understanding the higher good that our collective suffering is bringing forward in history, we might drown in the sorrow that lies ahead. And we must not drown.”
A year ago, Bache presented some of his ideas as part of our seminar, Building Our Regenerative Future. After his presentation, I interviewed him. What he had to say remains very poignant and, I think, deeply relevant for us today. Therefore I am making his presentation free to watch, for a limited time, via this link. Bache conveys a clarity of moral vision. Listening to him, one gets a sense of something very rare and lacking in our contemporary world: wisdom.
Bache is also a proponent of reincarnation and the afterlife. We will explore his ideas on these topics as part of next month’s seminar, Crossing the Threshold: Realms of Consciousness Beyond Physical Death. “When we begin to understand the cycle of rebirth and observe the learning curves generated across history by the choices we make, our frame of reference expands,” he writes. “The stage of learning opens, responsibilities deepen, and the timeline of the Soul emerges. Only once we have made this transition can we begin to comprehend the true scale of our participation in the universe.”
Along with Bache’s talk, there are many amazing gems in Building Our Regenerative Future, which includes 24 hours of material from over twenty thinkers and visionaries. I feel this material deserves to be better known and explored. Therefore, I am making the archive of Building Our Regenerative Future available for those who join my next seminar, Crossing the Threshold, this week, as well as for those who have already joined it. Crossing the Threshold will broadcast live for four Sundays, starting September 5th at noon EST.
Crossing the Threshold: Realms of Consciousness Beyond Physical Death
4 live 3-hour Seminars; Sundays, starting Sept 5, 2021
Noon EST / 9 am PST / 6 pm CET
In this month-long seminar, we explore arguments for and against any kind of afterlife, survey the evidence for the continuity of consciousness and personality after death, and reach a coherent understanding of the new scientific and philosophical paradigm destined to transform our world for the better. Certificates of completion available. Sign up here.