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The Neuropharmacology of an Eight

Circuit Brain
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An Article by Antero Alli

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Someday, in the not too distant future, certain drugs will be made available to the
public claiming the effect of increasing intelligence. Given the opportunity to partake,
what would you do? Iʼd ask the pharmacist: "Just what kind of intelligence is your pill
going to increase?" Like many others schooled in the public education systems, I was
taught that intelligence and "I.Q." were synonymous with intellect and intellectual
achievement alone. How was I to know that "intellect" was one of the many functions
of Intelligence in constant interaction with other equally valid functions? In looking
back I now believe a fundamentalist virus somehow slipped into the public education
systems encouraging the belief and dogma of one, and only one, definition for
subjects such as history, religion, art, political science, language and even
mathematics. Whether this viral infiltration was a conspiracy or not (I think not) is not
nearly as important as getting down to the business of redefining Intelligence and
reclaiming our brains.

The Eight Circuit Brain is a term Dr. Timothy Leary coined, in his 1977 book
Exo-Psychology, for accessing multiple definitions and functions of human
intelligence. Dr. Leary did not invent this system, which probably originated in the Sufi
Mystery Schoolsʼ arcane study of the law of octaves, but revised it for modern times.
Since Learyʼs translation, two additional versions have surfaced in Robert Anton
Wilsonʼs Prometheus Rising and my own, Angel Tech. As a whole-brain model for
Intelligence, the Eight Circuit Brain yields an impressive catch of relevant information
about how intelligence acts when redefined by the user. Learyʼs "circuits" symbolize
eight interactive states of consciousness and the neurochemical transactions
constantly mingling between them. They are presented here not as a hierarchy - one
is no "better" than another - but as a web of simultaneous transmissions at various
degrees of cognition within each person. (Please refer to any combination of the three
books mentioned earlier for a more comprehensive study).

For the purpose of this article, Learyʼs eight circuits have been reframed as "trances"
or, states of consciousness, to be altered, bent or broken at will. "Break trance, make
trance, break trance". Trances can be instigated by engaging any of the many
catalysts that excite and maintain each circuit. Some catalysts are pharmaceutical but
many are not. Getting stuck inside any one trance, or circuit, happens when you
become addicted to one or more of the catalysts. New trances from other circuits can
be introduced to shift addictions, either in their linear sequence or at random. The
neuropharmacy of your own brain produces all the effects, even those involving
ingested drugs which depend on receptors in your brain to work. Proceed at your own

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risk. Assume complete responsibility for your actions. Your body / mind / spirit is yours
to do with as you will.

The Eight-Circuit Brain, like any psychological grid or map, is incomplete at describing
the totality of the territory it symbolizes. Imagine an organ as mysterious and powerful
as the human brain having only eight functions of intelligence!? Yet as a whole-brain
model for mapping functions and behaviors of various "brains within the brain" I
believe the Eight Circuit map is unprecedented. I do not recommend using it at the
exclusion of other equally valid systems, like the Enneagram or in some cases
Astrology, but as another tool in the "psychic archeologistʼs toolbox" for unearthing
hereto unknown relics of our past, present and future.

1 · 2 · 3 · 4 · 5 · 6 · 7 · 8

First Circuit: Biosurvival-Security Trance

Preoccupies itself with physical safety and biological survival. Revolves around basic
security needs and the warm, buzzy nodding sensations of infant bliss and being
taken care of at the most primary levels of existence: food, shelter and enough sleep.
When frustrated or over-emphasized the search for security intensifies, becomes an
obsession and finally an addiction. Security Addiction expresses the lowest energy
state of all trances. When the needs of this center are fulfilled, one lives with the
knowledge of being a "survivor" with some ability to stabilize and secure others.

SECURITY CATALYSTS: Food, water, shelter, sleep, maternal lactation, Valium,

3-6 hrs. of television, Prozac, all sedatives, nicotine, most pain-killers, PCP, morphine
and heroin. Any drug acting on the breathing mechanism of the brain stem by slowing
it down and, by overdose, stopping it entirely.

OVERDOSE SYMPTOMS: Survival anxiety. The fear of: dying, of living, of eating
(bolemia & anorexia), of chaos and of dirt. Obesity and malnutrition.

Second Circuit: Territorial-Emotional Trance

Emotions as territorial signals. The compulsion for self-expression and personal
freedom. Churns on the more aggressive emotional needs for dominance (political
force), status, and self-esteem. Flight-or-fight reflex producing adrenaline rushes
when confronting danger and personal triumph, as well as the depression and anxiety
attacks often associated with low self-worth, feelings of helplessness and
self-diminishment. When frustrated or over-emphasized, emotions inflate and/or
deflate yielding conditions of taking oneself too seriously and/or not seriously enough.
Mood swings. Emotional and Sexual Addictions. When emotional needs are satisfied,
ego-strength and autonomy develop with some ability to excite, motivate and provoke
others.

EMOTIONAL CATALYSTS: Alcoholic beverages. Amyl nitrate. Temper tantrums.

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Shouting matches. Military marches. Martial arts. High volume rock ʻnʼ roll.
Slamdancing. Reichian therapy. Any "drug" relaxing emotional inhibitions or catalyzing
catharsis.

OVERDOSE SYMPTOMS: Anxiety. Hypertension. Hysteria. Emotional dissipation

and debilitation. Emotional numbness and vacancy.

Third Circuit: Conceptual-Semantic Trance

Learning intellectual and linguistic skills for grasping and communicating ideas. Spins
off conceptual needs for solving problems, defining terms, making maps, and
articulating meaning. The central nervous system buzz of stimulating conversation,
thinking, writing, reading and other symbolic and mathematical acts. When
over-emphasized, one feels "locked inside oneʼs head" with the angst of conceptual
redundancy. Word Trance. Symbolic Addictions. When frustrated, psychological fears
of becoming "stupid" or "insane" or "misinformed" or "meaningless" confuse thought
processes. When satisfied, intellect and language develop coherency to support
meaningful communication with others; one can "say what one means and mean what
one says".

SEMANTIC CATALYSTS: Reading, writing, arithmetic, speech, speaking on the

telephone, nicotine, caffeine, sugar, chocolate, diet pills, amphetamines, cocaine.
Consistent exposure to computer monitors, Internet and other on-line virtual
communication systems. Any "drugs" acting on the various nervous systems as a
stimulant to quicken thinking, speech patterns and symbolic associations.

OVERDOSE SYMPTOMS: Nervousness. Thinking or talking too much. Mental

exhaustion. "Neurosis".

Fourth Circuit: Moralistic-Social Trance

Development of personality in context to society. Social needs for belonging, getting
along with people, developing friendships, romance, courtships, partnerships,
marriages, domestication, family, and those morals and ethics maintaining community
interest. The push and pull of attracting and repulsing forces—estrogen, testosterone
& other growth hormones—influencing likes, dislikes, procreative love, mating rituals,
domestic and community structures, and the morals and beliefs surrounding relations
with others. When over-emphasized, personal identity homogenizes, or blends, into
herd or tribal mentality. Social and Moral Addictions. When frustrated, the individual
experiences alienation, marginalization and degrees of abandonment by the tribe,
sometimes resulting in "psychopathic criminal retribution". As social needs are
satisfied, a well-adjusted personality finds "its people" while defining and claiming its
unique behavioral and ethical code amidst a society far too complex to always
condone them.

SOCIAL CATALYSTS: Social rituals, parties and gatherings. Cultural events and
concerts. Church. Any "drugs" delivering social or community acceptance or sexual
approval in exchange for submission to externally-imposed behavioral standards and
moralities. Most television programs. Organized Religion. Mass Media. Corporate
Advertising. The Welfare State. Social Security. Fascism.

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OVERDOSE SYMPTOMS: Loss of personality, autonomy and self as individual

identity. Guilt complex, i.e. confusion between the morality of others and oneʼs own
ethics.

Fifth Circuit: Somatic-Hedonic Trance

Disconnected from previous goals and survival concerns of Circuits 1-4, this first of
four "post-survival" centers opens the five senses as the chief source of all life and
relevant information. Being Here Now. The natural sensory rhythms and impulses of
the body uncensored by mental, emotional or moral intervention. The hedonic needs
for rapture, bliss and ecstatic experience. The post-survival quest for nirvana. When
frustrated, the despair and spiritual discontent of "entrapment in the corporeal world of
survival issues." When over-emphasized, excessive hedonism becomes debauch,
dispersion and disintegration of personal integrity of concentration, i.e., "spaced out
bliss ninnies." Ecstasy Junkies. When hedonic needs are met, a state of charismatic
magnetism infuses the personality, as seen with some rock stars, film celebrities and
performing artists.

HEDONIC CATALYSTS: Empathogens (MDMA, etc.), cannabis, opium, hashish,

lower doses of psilocybin. Tantric and Hatha yoga, listening to music (subjective
assessment), sex magick, performing live dance and live theatre, Sufi whirling
dervishes, ecstatic pagan rituals, falling in love, endorphin rushes from "second wind"
states (long distance running and working out), verbal fasting (mandatory silence),
zen meditation.

OVERDOSE SYMPTOMS: "Spaciness." Loss of meaningful connection with

"consensus reality" sometimes showing poor time management and an oblivion to the
emotions, thoughts and ethics of others. Time/spatial disorientation and distortions.
Difficulty articulating, i.e. "Like, wow, man…"

Sixth Circuit: Neuro-Psychic Trance

Brain pleasure; the subjective absorption of intense light. Opening of the "third eye",
clairvoyance, telepathy and other supersensual, or psychic, abilities. Incoming signals
are registered at light speed and translated by an active intuition, unencumbered by
empirical demands of linear ideation. The Self-Aware Brain. Future-oriented vision;
premonitions, precognitions and prophecy. The psychic need for seeing and knowing
things as they are, beyond the illusions, dreams and fantasies projected by previous
states. When frustrated, the "sixth sense" atrophies and psychic, or soul, death
ensues. When over-emphasized nervous disorders, hallucinations and mental
illnesses develop in the struggle to act and respond to the influx of overwhelming
impressions. Vision, or Truth, Addiction. When psychic needs are met, lucidity
stabilizes perception to accept things as they are while seeing through the scams, the
lies, and the illusions often shrouding them. This lucidity can also illuminate the truth
of things to the world and in others.

PSYCHIC CATALYSTS: Kundalini and Raja yogas, Rajneeshʼs chaotic

meditations, surviving the loss of a loved one, higher doses of psilocybin, mescaline,
peyote, LSD, "Heavenly Blue" morning glory seeds, near-death experiences, sense-

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deprivation, isolation tanks, solitary confinement, intensive Buddhist retreats, Antero

Alliʼs paratheatrical ritual technology, video/filmmaking and editing processes.

OVERDOSE SYMPTOMS: Paranoia. Schizophrenic fragmentation. Loss of

emotions and meaningful connection with the feelings of others. Psychotic breaks.
Physical and psychic violence.

Seventh Circuit: Genetic-Mythopoetic Trance

The Central Nervous System receives signals from DNA; when this centre opens, the
signals become conscious. Racial and species memory (reincarnation and past lives)
enters present-time awareness. Overwhelming sense of unity with all living things.
Realization of the complex, interconnecting mandalic consciousness of DNA-RNA,
synchronicity and what Jung called the universal archetypes. When frustrated, bigotry,
racial prejudice, nationalist and religious tunnel vision often leading to species
self-persecution, genocide and war. When over-emphasized, pervasive disorientation
erupts as previously invisible archetypes cross over to waking consciousness,
shocking the ego and disrupting survival routines. Fears of insanity and socio-political
and religious persecution. God Addiction. When mythopoetic needs are met, sanity is
redefined through the imaginal realm and given mythological and poetic expression in
poetry, inspirational verse, classic mythology, certain music and film, etc.

MYTHOPOETIC CATALYSTS: Childbirth, religious conversion experiences,

mystical revelations, higher doses of LSD, kundalini awakenings (via the crown
chakra), the chaos magick of Peter Carroll and Aleister Crowley, Stanislav Grofʼs LSD
rebirthing therapy, datura, DMT, near-death experiences.

OVERDOSE SYMPTOMS: Dysfunctional messianic complexes, delusions of

grandeur, paranoia, mental incapacitation, psychosis.

Eighth Circuit: Quantum-Dreambody Trance

Consciousness at the level of unpredictable subatomic behaviour. This center opens
after consciousness leaves the physical body while functioning independently in
nonlocal "cyberspace." Shamanic initiation into Castanedaʼs dreaming and "the
Nagual" as a conscious visiting spirit, or dreambody. Consciousness leaves the body.
The body is left behind, unconscious; comatose and/or sleeping. Where does
consciousness go? What happens there? Who shows up on "the other side"?
Questions for the dreambody. Dr. Leary suggests the ultra-gravitational "singularity"
physicists theorize at the heart of the atomic nucleus to be the stuff of black holes.
Fusion with Black Holes as Ultimate Destiny?! Out-of-Body Addiction to
Formlessness.

DREAMBODY CATALYSTS: Heavy doses of Nitrous Oxide, DMT, Ketamine,

Jimson Weed, Sonora desert toad (Bufo alvarius) venom, Near-death and
Out-of-Body experiences, Eckankar astral travel techniques, lucid dreaming,
Malaysian Senoi tribal dreamwork, Australian aboriginal dreamtime walkabouts,
advanced virtual reality "immersion technologies", and any "drugs" that simulate
near-death OR death experience with producing the actual experience of physical
death itself, i.e. Haitan voodoo zombie powder extracted from certain species of puffer

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fish.

OVERDOSE SYMPTOMS: Partial to complete loss of bodily functions. Comatose.

Death without discernible cause.

Credits and Further Reading

Towards 2012 The Journal of Millenial Mutation Part II: Psychedelica (1996)
The entire journal is available online

More Antero Alli links:

Antero Alli discusses the 8 circuit model MP3

ParaTheatrical ReSearch
Filmography
Literature Map

Other interpretations of the 8 circuit model on deoxy.org:

The Eightfold Model of Human Intelligence

CyberCraft

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