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### **Abstract**
This dissertation examines the intersection of psilocybin, artificial intelligence (AI), and the occult as tools for creative expression in the postmodern era. By employing postmodern frameworks from Jean Baudrillard, Gilles Deleuze, and Donna Haraway, it explores how these seemingly disparate elements destabilize traditional notions of authorship, originality, and artistic process. The study investigates how altered states of consciousness, algorithmic creativity, and esoteric traditions converge to produce new forms of artistic meaning in a fragmented, hyperreal cultural landscape. Ultimately, it argues that these practices challenge the boundaries of human and non-human collaboration, offering a transformative approach to creativity in the 21st century.
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### **I. Introduction**
- The resurgence of psilocybin as a tool for creative insight, coupled with the rise of generative AI and the re-emergence of occult practices, reflects a shift in how artists approach creative expression.
- This dissertation situates these practices within the postmodern condition, characterized by fragmentation, hybridity, and a rejection of linear progress.
- Key questions: How do psilocybin, AI, and the occult destabilize traditional artistic hierarchies? What does their convergence reveal about the postmodern understanding of creativity and meaning?
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### **II. Theoretical Framework**
#### **1. Jean Baudrillard and Hyperreality**
- Baudrillard’s concept of hyperreality is key to understanding how AI-generated art and altered states of consciousness blur the lines between reality and simulation.
- Example: AI art generators, like DALL-E or MidJourney, create hyperreal images that exist without clear ties to material reality, reflecting the dissolution of the “real” in postmodernity.
#### **2. Gilles Deleuze and the Rhizomatic Process**
- Deleuze’s concept of the rhizome, a non-hierarchical and interconnected system, parallels the networked nature of AI and the fluid, boundary-dissolving experiences induced by psilocybin.
- Example: Psilocybin use often results in non-linear, associative thinking, which aligns with the decentralized creativity of AI algorithms.
#### **3. Donna Haraway and the Cyborg Metaphor**
- Haraway’s *Cyborg Manifesto* provides a lens for analyzing the integration of human creativity, AI, and the occult, challenging binaries like human/machine and rational/mystical.
- Example: The artist working with AI while under the influence of psilocybin embodies the cyborg ethos—a hybrid entity transcending traditional categories.
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### **III. Psilocybin and Altered States in Creative Expression**
#### **1. Psilocybin as a Tool for Non-Linear Thinking**
- Psilocybin induces altered states of consciousness that enhance divergent thinking, pattern recognition, and emotional resonance.
- Example: Artists like Alex Grey have described psychedelic experiences as key to their creative processes, producing works that visually explore altered perceptions.
#### **2. Dissolution of Ego and Authorship**
- Psilocybin’s ability to dissolve ego aligns with postmodern critiques of the “genius artist.” Instead, creativity becomes a collaborative process between the individual and the unconscious.
- Example: During a psilocybin journey, artists may feel they are channeling ideas rather than generating them, reflecting a decentralized notion of creativity.
#### **3. Psychedelics and Intertextuality**
- The visions and insights gained from psilocybin often reference a collage of cultural, mythological, and personal symbols, embodying postmodern intertextuality.
- Example: A painter under psilocybin might combine motifs from quantum physics, ancient myths, and digital aesthetics into a single, hybrid composition.
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### **IV. Artificial Intelligence as a Creative Collaborator**
#### **1. Generative AI and the Subversion of Authorship**
- AI tools like ChatGPT or Stable Diffusion generate creative outputs that question the human-centric notion of artistic originality.
- Example: AI-produced poems or visual art pieces, guided by prompts but independently synthesized, create a collaborative tension between human intention and machine agency.
#### **2. Algorithmic Creativity and Hyperreality**
- AI’s capacity to remix vast datasets reflects postmodern pastiche, producing works that are simultaneously familiar and alien.
- Example: AI-generated surrealist landscapes often evoke the hyperreal, blending historical art styles with futuristic aesthetics in ways unattainable by human hands alone.
#### **3. The Aesthetic of the Machine**
- AI-generated art introduces new forms of beauty rooted in algorithmic complexity, reshaping the aesthetics of creative expression.
- Example: Neural networks’ visualization of “latent spaces” mirrors the fractal patterns seen in psychedelic art, linking digital creativity to altered states.
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### **V. The Occult and Esoteric Traditions in Creative Practice**
#### **1. The Occult as a Framework for Meaning-Making**
- Occult practices, such as tarot, astrology, and ceremonial magic, offer symbolic systems that inform creative processes.
- Example: Artists like Leonora Carrington incorporated esoteric symbolism into their work, blending the mystical with the material.
#### **2. Ritual and Intention in Creativity**
- The occult’s emphasis on ritual mirrors the structured yet flexible processes of both psilocybin journeys and AI art generation.
- Example: An artist might use divination tools to guide their creative prompts for AI, merging mystical intuition with algorithmic logic.
#### **3. Postmodern Syncretism in the Occult**
- The postmodern revival of the occult is inherently syncretic, drawing from disparate traditions to create personalized spiritual practices.
- Example: Contemporary artists might combine chaos magic with AI-generated sigils or use psilocybin to explore archetypes in Jungian psychology.
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### **VI. Convergence: Psilocybin, AI, and the Occult**
#### **1. Dissolving Boundaries Between Human, Machine, and Spirit**
- The combined use of psilocybin, AI, and occult practices represents a holistic, postmodern approach to creativity that transcends traditional boundaries.
- Example: A digital artist under psilocybin might use an AI program to generate visual interpretations of esoteric symbols, blending biological, technological, and spiritual inputs.
#### **2. Collaborative Creativity and Decentralization**
- These tools decentralize creativity, framing the artist not as a solitary genius but as a participant in a larger network of influences, technologies, and mystical insights.
- Example: AI-generated art influenced by psilocybin visions could be seen as a collaborative act between human intention, machine computation, and cosmic inspiration.
#### **3. Subversion of Linear Progress**
- The convergence of these practices reflects postmodern rejection of linear progress, instead embracing circularity, multiplicity, and hybridity.
- Example: The creative process becomes a recursive loop, with AI outputs inspiring psychedelic insights, which in turn inform esoteric rituals, feeding back into AI prompts.
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### **VII. Challenges and Critiques**
#### **1. Ethical Concerns in AI and Psychedelics**
- The use of AI in creative processes raises questions about authorship, intellectual property, and authenticity.
- Similarly, the commodification of psilocybin and the occult risks reducing these practices to superficial trends.
- Example: Commercialized “psychedelic aesthetics” in AI-generated art may undermine the deeper, transformative potential of these tools.
#### **2. Accessibility and Elitism**
- The convergence of psilocybin, AI, and the occult may be inaccessible to marginalized communities due to technological, legal, and cultural barriers.
- Example: High-end AI tools and legal psilocybin retreats are often priced beyond the reach of average creators.
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### **VIII. Conclusion**
The integration of psilocybin, AI, and the occult represents a transformative frontier in postmodern creativity. By dissolving traditional boundaries between human and machine, rational and mystical, these practices challenge entrenched ideas about authorship, originality, and artistic process. This convergence reflects the postmodern condition of hybridity, multiplicity, and decentralization, offering new possibilities for creative expression in an increasingly fragmented world.
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This dissertation positions the digital-psychedelic-occult nexus as a powerful lens for understanding the future of art, creativity, and human-machine collaboration, bridging ancient traditions and cutting-edge technologies in the pursuit of meaning and beauty.
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