I love a little bit of subversive urban wall art.
It is easy just to brush by thinking, oh that’s cool graffiti, but as with all good art there is a deeper story.

This mural is by Lawrence Tan. He is a Canberra based Artist, Graphic Designer and Dancer. His website is here.

–ooOoo–

I am currently reading the book Death By Astonishment, written by Andrew R Gallimore. It is a deep dive into the fascinating history and ‘technology’ of the psychedelic drug DMT (Dimethyltryptamine). From the blurb:

DMT is the world’s strangest and most mysterious drug, inducing one of the most remarkable and yet least understood of all states of consciousness. This common plant molecule has, from ancient times to the modern day, been used as a tool to gain access to a bizarre alien reality of inordinate complexity and unimaginable strangeness, populated by a panoply of highly advanced, intelligent, and communicative beings entirely not of this world.

The question that Andrew unpacks throughout the book is this: are the rich, fantastical, and thematically consistant experiences of DMT users simply ‘hallucinations’, emergent properties of a brain high on drugs….OR, does this chemical somehow unlock access to another reality.

This book is not for everyone, to be sure. But for me, I am finding it a rigorous and non-woo exploration of consciousness, psychedelics and this thing we call consensus reality. 4.8 out of 5 stars.