Somewhere at Emergent Commons I saw someone post something about Game C and Ali Beiner. That aroused my curiosity. Yesterday, while Pat was shopping, I had time to read sections of The Bigger Picture: How Psychedelics Can Help Us Make Sense of the World by Alexander Beiner.

In my opinion, Ali is one of the rising stars in the SPACE. I trust him, particularly on matters related to psychedelic drugs, and it seems to me that he is wise beyond his years. I follow Ali on Substack, although I am not a paid subscriber.

As a co-founder of Rebel Wisdom, Ali is well-known and highly respected at EC. 

Game C is mentioned only twice in The Bigger Picture and one of those times is in the heading of a section, From Game A to Game C, which I read.

If Game B is an analogy for trying to change the social game we’re playing, then Game C would be a change that involves the recognition that any significant systems change must come from a re-conception of the role of consciousness in reality; a shift in how we view ourselves at the deepest level; an orientation toward the sacredness of our conscious experience that can be the soil from which we draw our values, ideas, and possibilities.

One of the pioneers of Game B is Jim Rutt, who is very much a pragmatist. He rarely speaks of the sacred. He is not a lover of philosophy and he made this statement on Twitter in 2022.

"When I hear the word 'metaphysics', I reach for my pistol"

It seems to me that if the Game C idea grows, there will be tension in the SPACE. There may be tension at EC. And I wonder whether EC is a container strong enough to hold that tension. I wonder how this might impact my own relationships at EC. Will I lose friends, make new friends, or both?

The metamodern idea of holding multiple perspectives is very insightful and something I aspire to. But it is very difficult, imo, to hold both a sacred and a secular perspective. However, I have lived both, having been a True Believer in the Sacred as a Christian for the first half of my adult life and as an Unbeliever, a secular humanist, for twenty years after I lost my faith.

The word sacred comes up 55 times in The Bigger Picture.

…we all experience the sacred differently.

I now view my experience with the sacred as a Christian as nothing more than a very powerful illusion. As a secular humanist, I had no experience of the sacred. Now in retirement, I neither seek to have nor seek to avoid encounters with the sacred.

A defining feature of the age we’re living in is that we make the sacred profane, and the profane sacred.

The divide between the sacred and the profane is one thing and the divide between the sacred and the secular is another.

Psychedelics can reliably elicit an encounter with the sacred, but that encounter is not what we expect… The sacred is there to shred us. It guides us to the depths of ourselves to find our own delusions and dispel them.

Perhaps psychedelics and the sacred are a way but not necessarily the way, and definitely not my way.

That is what the sacred is: the mystery beyond our current conceptions… What the psychedelic experience reveals to many is that outside of our own frame is a sacred unity – an aliveness, a purpose, an intensity of being that we have no choice but to surrender to.

I am skeptical of the idea that there is a sacred unity in reality. It is probably just another story, a myth, an illusion. This is not something that I aspire to surrender to and I will be cautious towards those who make this move.

An encounter with the sacred is essential in helping us get there.

Essential? This is beginning to feel like True Believer territory.

If we can connect to the fullness of our humanity, we can build a shared reality together that will allow us to meet our shared challenges.

Of late, I have become increasingly skeptical of humanity ever having a sense of a shared reality and see little movement towards meeting our shared challenges. Perhaps psychedelics and the sacred will make a difference. Perhaps not.

To do this collectively, we need to have a shared reality and shared stories…

There is a difference, imo, between a shared reality and a sense of a shared reality. Ultimate Reality is All That There Is, and beyond the grasp of finite human beings. Perhaps psychedelics will afford glimpses sufficient for a sense of shared reality to emerge. Perhaps not. But belief in this story, as with many stories, is a powerful thing.

I DO NOT KNOW what, if anything, is sacred but that is another essay at another time.