P.S. If anyone wants to contact Eminent B–an actual cultural etymologist-to offer their thoughts about the mantis phenomenon, the email is eminent_b@gmail.com/eminentb@gmail.com.

For me this time around, it was being hoisted onto a carpet of beetles that carried me in a certain direction, although the movement was not physically apparent. It was similar to how the ship sailed across the sand on the backs of crabs in the movie “Pirates of the Carribean.” (Please forgive the coarse pop culture reference).

I am starting to catalog these experiences, so please feel free to share whatever stories you might have - involved ceremony or not -about transcendental experiences with insects.

“And so began what can only be described as a yoga asana lesson taught to me by a startlingly large praying mantis-like creature during an ayahuasca ceremony in the Peruvian Amazon.”

http://www.realitysandwich.com/node/515

Again, large insectoids can be guides and teachers as well.

So, I would suggest that the insectoids are not demons, but rather creatures working in perfect order with the structure of the cosmos, beyond the trappings of human emotions.

What I would like to learn is if anyone has entered the altered states with the intent to communicate with the insectoids, rather than “bumping” into them. To ask specific questions, draw correlations with the Earth-bound insect world, discuss the intimate origins and co-evolution of plants and insects. Also, if anyone with any biological background has studied specifics about mantids or other insects, and then tried to address that information with the insectoid beings.

I am going into this space this weekend. I will report back anything apropos.

For now, tell us more. Tell us the “soooooo much more going on than we [realize or] expect.”

Inquiring minds are dying to know.

Type away. I just bought more disc space and bandwidth (on pace for between 100,000 and 250,000 unique visitors this year). You have no space limitations and you can feel free to be as technical and “in-depth” as you wish. I think the people who visit this site and post here are pretty bright.

In terms of arguing for this forum as the place to continue the conversation–you found it, didn’t you??? You’d be surprised how many people visit this particular page.

And I want to run my voyeuristic scopophiliac eyes over the textured nuances of all that is said about psychedelic, insects, demons, angels, and inter-dimensional beings. I want my piece of the information pie. Accountants, Lawyers, Realtors: This is a country run by middle-men. Try and cut us out and see what happens when you mess with us.

So for now, if you have something earth-shaking to say, say it here!

Everybody Else: If you have a question for an eminent cultural entomologist, ask it here!

And now for the weather.

“In each of these situations, experimental tryptamine psychosis and shamanic trance, what is involved are alterations and inhibitions of normal amine levels in the brain. The shaman manipulates this bizarre region for culturally valid reasons and with techniques of proven efficacy. The schizophrenic is an unwilling victim, a traveler through what, to him is a terrifying landscape. Using analytical premises and…operational constructs, we sought to carry ourselves, as modern humans, into the same numinous landscape and to offer a report of interest to empirical investigators.” ( p. 107)

Paul: Yeah, brother. Could be. Again, my thinking is that all of our terms, like “demons” fall short of really explaining who or what these beings are. One person’s “demon” is another’s “alien,” someone else’s “troll” or “goblin” and yet another person’s “archetype of the collective unconscious.” It’s hard to say which model is most accurate.

But if we adopt a New Testament lens, then yeah, I agree with you: the mantises I saw were demons.

Revelation 9:

And there came out of the smoke LOCUSTS upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power.

And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them.