The mind is a strange, unexplored place.
In fact - there are so many undiscovered mysteries about our own brain matter that you could
almost consider it to be the final frontier, a notion usually reserved for the deep, unexplored
cosmic infinities of the universe.
Here’s a thought to existentially spook you out - the brain named itself.
Yeah, trippy - right?
Because in many ways, we’re just meat bags being piloted by a highly advanced alien species
- but as the conduit of that unexplored world of psychedelia has expanded throughout the
ancestral history of our species, several things have become strangely familiar.
Namely, a series of entities known as the Clockwork Elves.
Yeah, hold onto your hats - because things are about to get a little bit … trippy.
Hello internet - and once again, welcome back to the most inquisitive channel on YouTube
- Life’s Biggest Questions - as per usual, I’ll be your disembodied floating voice
Jack Finch - as today, we curiously ask the question - What If The Clockwork Elves Were
Real?
Roll the clip.
For the curious amongst you, that clip was from the awesome 2009 experimental art film
- Enter the Void, directed by Gaspar Noe - which is one hell of a psychedelic road-trip.
As in - it’s absolutely insane.
But, also it poses an important hypothetical notion - what exactly is the endless expanse
that lies beyond human consciousness?
And more importantly, how do we get there?
And even more importantly - is there ever any coming back?
Let me introduce you to Dimethyltryptamine - otherwise known as DMT - a naturally occuring
chemical substance that occurs in many plants and animals, ourselves included - which is
both a derivative and a structural analog of tryptamine.
When processed in the correct way, a method which has been cultivated by ancient civilizations
in an incredibly uncanny method of innovation, DMT can be consumed as a psychedelic drug
- and has historically been used for ritualistic and cultural purposes, often pointing toward
shamanistic practices and transgressive prayer.
There is a very important reason then, that DMT is also often referred to as the spirit
molecule - a term coined by professor Rick Strassman in his book of the same name.
Throughout the 1990’s - Rick Strassman and his colleagues at the University of New Mexico,
conducted a five-year-long experimental study on DMT - with the intention of discovering
the inner mechanics of the subjective psychedelic experiences that it induces.
One thing became quickly apparent though.
After Strassman repeatedly experimented on numerous volunteers - they all reported a
frighteningly similar encounter.
And by all, I’m not talking 1 or 2 people - or even 10.
I’m talking ALL of the five-dozen human volunteers, reported meeting the exact same
Clockwork Elf-Like Creatures - in a completely isolated, controlled environment.
It was no doubt that DMT had been culturally used to produce hallucinogenic experiences
- inducing a state or feeling that the user could communicate with other seemingly intelligent
life-forms.
They all seemed to have the same, familiar appearance as well though - corporeal creatures,
or entities - that seemed to welcome the user into their hyperdimensional space with a warm,
excited embrace - willing the user not to panic, and to happily accept this bizarre
new psychedelic universe as a pioneer-psychonautic explorer.
In actual fact though, what these people were experiencing - had already been penned 30
years prior - by renowned philosopher and ethnobotanist, Terence McKenna.
He coined the term Machine Elves in several of his published texts - or more specifically,
self-transforming machine elves - which one could frequently make contact with in the
psychedelic universe.
In McKenna’s own words he claimed that - right here and now, one quanta away, there is raging
a universe of active intelligence that is transhuman, hyperdimensional, and extremely
alien.
Which is ultimately an earth-shatteringly colossal claim.
But - please, hold onto your hats - because things are about to get a little bit more
… uh.
Crazy, I guess.
Terence McKenna claimed that the entity encountered in the tryptamine realm was actually an interior
manifestation of, what he called, the Logos - the ultimate source of all knowledge.
These machine, clockwork elves - which appeared in various intangible, ever changing forms
- acted as ambassadors of the Logos - which he described as the Oversoul, or the Gaian
Mind.
Their intention was to inform us about a realm of consciousness that existed outside of our
comprehension - that remained separate from our own physical realm - that could only be
accessed through psychonautical means, and the harnessing of the naturally occuring DMT.
But - you might be thinking, hold up a minute, Jack - what the hell are you talking about?
Machine Elves?
Oversouls?
Hyperdimensional Brain Travel?
This is a load of hogwash mate, do you really expect us to get on board with this?
DMT is just a crazy plant that makes you trip balls.
Forget about the clockwork elves, they’re just a cultural phenomenon - everyone knows
that.
And yes - of course, that may be true.
In my opening statements I pointed to the fact that we know next to nothing about the
human mind or the nature of consciousness.
The best that we’ve managed to come up with is - I think, therefore I am.
Cogito, ergo sum.
But hold on a minute, because in actual fact, the man that penned that particular philosophical
proposition - Rene Descartes - also had a thing or two say about Dimethyltryptamine.
What?
You May Ask - you mean, Rene Descartes?
As in the 17th century French Philosopher, Scientist and Mathematician?
What’s he got to do with clockwork elves and psychedelic space travel?
Well, you see - Descartes had a thing for this little biological function known as the
pineal gland - a small node that occurs in the brains of animals with backbones.
As in you and I - as well as rats, rabbits and all the rest - which Descartes described
as being the principal seat of the soul - the connector between the spiritual and the physical
realm.
And you know what the pineal gland just so happens to naturally produce?
DMT, of course.
Dimethyltryptamine.
If that’s the case then, maybe these Clockwork Self-Replicating Machine Elves are a little
bit more real than we could possibly ever imagine.
Maybe we shouldn’t be asking whether these corporeal interdimensional entities are real
or not - maybe we should be asking the question - what the hell do they want?
Uh.
Jeez.
I think a need to take a lie down.
Alright - yeah, give me a minute.
While we process this cacophony of mind, body and soul - why don’t you let us know your
thoughts in the comment section down below.
I’m not really sure what to expect for this one.
Before we depart, let’s take a quick, comforting look at some of your most creative comments
from over the past few days.
DCO Nightingale says -- Jack Finch sounds like a superhero name.
-- Aw.
Cheers buddy.
That’s cheered me up from my brief existential crisis.
What would my superhero handle be?
Disembodied Man?
Floating … Man.
Yeah, that one kinda sucks.
Cheers though.
Yeah - I still need to take that lie down.
Well, unfortunately folks that’s all we’ve got time for in this video.
Cheers for sticking around all the way until the end.
If you were a fan of this video, make sure to hit that thumbs up button - as well as
that subscribe bell, and we’ll be seeing you in the next one.
As per usual, I’ve been your disembodied floating voice Jack Finch - you’ve been
watching Life’s Biggest Questions - and until next time, you take it easy.