National governments are under paid, under staffed, and under talented.

And what is shamanism but philosophy with a hands-on attitude. Philosophy not made around the camp fire, but philosophy based on the acquisition of extreme experience. That's how you figure out what the world is, not by bicycling around in the burbs, but by forcing extreme experience.

A singularity is a place where the rules are broken. A miracle is a singularity.

I mean everybody knows there's something wrong with the world and if you read left wing politicians or deconstructionists or thoughtful historians they will offer thoughtful critiques of our situation. But the question is, you know, the Tolstoyian question; 'What is to be done?'

Although whenever you have intelligent life in the presence of large explosions, a safe bet is that the intelligent life is responsible for the large explosion.

Shamanism is essentially a living tradition of alchemy that is not seeking the stone but has found the stone.

The terror of drugs is a terror of giving up control. This is what people are most alarmed about by psychedelics, is the giving up control.