I have almost finished reading Cliff Pickover's demiurgic reality-guidebook 'Sex, Drugs Einstein & Elves: Sushi, Psychedelics, Parallel Universes and the Quest for Transcendence'. It's been a ride I'd recommend to anyone interested in destroying this semblance of truth we call 'reality'.

(Another example of Pickover's mental-manipulation was published in The Huge Entity's infamous Reasons Why 'You' Don't Exist feature. Go refresh your memory...)

Amongst other things 'Sex, Drugs Einstein and Elves' attempts to draw back our shared illusionary veil and peer elflike into the worlds which exist beyond. Compulsory hallucinations should have compulsory antidotes:

Terence McKenna in Archaic Revival thought that we should... have a "deputized minority - a shamanistic professional class - whose job is to bring ideas out of the deep, black water and show them off to the rest of us. Such people would perform for our culture some of the cultural functions that shamans performed in preliterate cultures." In short he believed we need to cultivate a sense of mystery...

Pickover extends this idea further:

If I had to manage a foundation that gives money to scientists, I would also consider high-quality 'generalists' as recipients. Experts have become very specialized, and science popularizers are often frowned upon by their more 'serious' colleagues. Sometimes specialists develop blind spots after years of intense focus on a single topic. Thus, I would devote a portion of my money to training generalists who traverse several fields and then bring together ideas in a way that specialists may be unable to do. They will also look for overlaps between different domains of research and try to solve shared problems with a single approach. As our rate of technological progress skyrockets in the 21^st century, these Facilitators will study the multidisciplinary implications of this acceleration and work on technologies or new ways of seeing that help humanity assimilate advances that outstrip our comprehension and the restrictions of our intuition...

The mystery makers of time past have varied enormously in their designated societal roles. From Einstein the scientist and Socrates the street philosopher to Mary Shelley the writer and spiritual leaders such as The Dalai Lama. These 'facilitators', on their rare emergence into our universe, appear to work their magic alone, yet the truth is that their revolutions in perception are fuelled by the force of an entire civilisation of minds. In conjunction with these idea-shamans, the collective capacities of the human seem to shine out from our homosapien shells.

Perhaps the rituals and chanted verse of Shamanistic cultures symbolise an aspect of human progress we tend to ignore. It is one thing to alter our surroundings (with technology and our fragile dominance over nature), yet another to mould our collective opinions (the emergence of women's rights or the acceptance of homosexuality for instance), and another still to inch us closer to the very edge of reality. These Facilitating Generalists, these Erudite Mysterions must be uncovered, created and encouraged if we are ever to fully realise our innate, collective potential; if we are ever to transform the base metals of our intellects into nuggets of perceptual gold.

So, in order that many more of these enormous entities are recognised, I propose a new role title for these overseers of existence, these soothsayers of worlds. A word borrowed is a world transformed and every transformation needs a new beginning... Perhaps a coinage of psyche and alchemy would suffice. For in the hands of these great thought-shamans, entire transmutations between parallel worlds of thought have taken place:

Enter : The Psycho-Alchemists!
As the inspiration behind Psycho-Alchemy, and for all the manner of reality carnivals he has hosted, Cliff Pickover himself must be one of the first to be knighted with the title. Other malleable minds I would include in my list would be:

1. V.S. Ramachandran - For his neurological journeys through the whirlpool of the human...
2. Jean Baudrillard - For his broadening of the copy of the sign of the simulacra...
3. Bjork - For her innate ability to turn musical notes into a portal beyond the real...

May the Psycho-Alchemists collectively transmute us all:

• Who would your candidates for the role of modern psycho-alchemist be?
• How do they refashion your perceptions out of chaos?

The comments section awaits your thoughts...

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