Those who have read my book know that in one part of it, I described in detail the experience of my first three Ayahuasca shamanic ceremonies and other events of my first expedition to the Peruvian Amazon. Since then, I’ve had over a thousand shamanic ceremonies with various plants and the best shamans of Latin America, and I’ve conducted more than a hundred expeditions, as this has become my professional occupation.
But after my second expedition, in which I participated in several more Ayahuasca ceremonies, I decided that I would no longer describe my personal experience of shamanic journeys. I realized that it’s impossible to accurately describe it. Any words and sentences would severely diminish what I encounter and see there. Moreover, I understood that the experience is highly individual, and I chose not to program other expedition participants by describing my personal experience.
A couple of years ago, during a Peyote ceremony in Mexico led by my friend and excellent shaman, I had an interesting and unexpected vision. I partially shared this experience with close friends. I didn’t plan to describe this experience for the public. But recently, a series of fateful events compelled me to change my mind.
The vision was about the possible future of humanity. Why «possible»? My philosophical view of life is linked to the acknowledgment of free will for all living beings in the world, which means that for me, the future cannot be entirely predetermined or accurately predicted. However, we can certainly see trends and the most likely projections of our personal or collective future.
First of all, I should say that I now only remember some of the most vivid fragments of the vision. In this sense, deep ceremonies can sometimes resemble a dream—when we wake up, we don’t remember everything. But in most cases, we carry much more from ceremonies than from dreams. And this knowledge is extremely practical for us personally. However, it seems that this ceremony in Mexico was a revelation worth sharing with others.
In this journey, I saw the world through the eyes of a person who was part of a selected group whose lives were extended through scientific advancements. I saw that many parts of this person’s body had already been replaced with artificial ones. Looking back at this person’s past, I saw how worn-out limbs and diseased organs were gradually replaced.
I viewed the world through this person’s eyes, where differences in people’s actual capabilities had reached such a scale that wealth and power determined not only the level of luxury consumption but also the ability to stay alive. The lives of some people were extended through the latest technologies they could afford.
However, in my personal emotional perception of this vision, there was nothing unequivocally positive about this life extension. It was quite a questionable choice, as the person was effectively left as a brain without a fully functional body. And this brain was connected to a network. All of his communication with the world was through the internet.
This person also saw that, for many people in that future, virtual reality had become a prison. People lacking sufficient will and awareness literally forgot themselves and got lost in realities created by others. It became a new form of punishment, where not only the body was imprisoned but also the consciousness was trapped in artificial worlds from which it couldn’t escape.
Remembering oneself and one’s true life story under certain conditions became extremely difficult. It’s hard for us to imagine this now. But we are at the early stages of technological development. It’s hard for us to imagine our future level of integration with gadgets and artificial intelligence. For now, we can still easily distinguish artificial reality from our ordinary life. In my vision of a possible future, this had already become unattainable for many.
Observant people are already noting clear trends. Even now, significant information about each person is being collected online by artificial intelligence. For now, it’s used for more effective advertising. But there have already been cases where it was used in politics. This can be done even more effectively on social media.
A psychological profile is formed from a person’s behavior on Facebook, their Google searches, and their YouTube preferences. To make a person’s traits more pronounced, controversial topics are thrown in. Sometimes life throws them in itself. But they are deliberately amplified. For example, the topic of protests and riots in the Western world.
From a user’s reaction to these events—what materials they share, what posts they like—it’s possible to determine whether the person has more conservative or liberal views. Politicians, of course, would pay a lot to know their potential audience. Moreover, at a more advanced stage of development, artificial intelligence will easily determine which words and images will prompt each specific person to make a certain choice.
Another level of integration with the network will emerge when gadgets can track our physiological processes. As you can imagine, there’s a psychological barrier that will have to be overcome. A person in their right mind would be wary of giving away such personal information. They need to be enticed or scared—carrot or stick. Or better yet, both!
The stick in this case is clearly the fear for one’s health from an invisible threat. We’ve had a chance to get acquainted with that over the past few months! And what could be the carrot? Probably the very promise of longevity, the prospect of almost eternal life. For the younger generation, it might be new possibilities for virtual sex. For children, a new level of immersion in games.
I don’t want to create a horror story. Any technology humanity masters can work for both good and ill. But with each new stage of development, both the positives and negatives can become much more significant. Over the twentieth century, we incredibly advanced industry. But at the same time, we destroyed a significant portion of wild nature. On average, people became freer and more humane, but also more neurotic.
It’s clear that the twenty-first century is preparing new challenges for us, a small part of which we’ve already begun to face. I believe that preventing the darkest scenarios depends on the development of society and its recognition of its basic rights. And societal development will be shaped by the individual development of all its conscious units. This is the only chance I see.
