Review: 'Psychedelic Information Theory' by James L. Kent

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Happily straddling the ground of alternative and mainstream culture, James Kent's 'Psychedelic Information Theory' is an attempt to add new scholarly rigour to psychedelia, by examining the creation of novel information in non-linear states of consciousness.

James Kent grounds Psychedelic Information Theory scientifically, which is to say, physiologically. He explicitly notes: "All states of consciousness are created by the act of neurons firing in a network." Building on this point of departure, he employs studies in neurology, consciousness and psychology and draws upon a number of sources like chaos theory and control theory in order to demonstrate the production of psychedelic information...

Psychedelic Information Theory will prove, no doubt, to be an important work primarily because it provides researchers, in both the sciences and humanities, with numerous new avenues down which to investigate. For example; the Frame Stacking Model the text employs in describing the change from linear to non-linear consciousness; or which methods, or media, have most successfully transmitted the psychedelic meme and whether they can demonstrate increased complexity. Underlying the theory, PIT provides us with a serious, and in many respects successful, recalibration of the different psychedelic knowledge bases. In great respect to the author, I believe PIT will attract both plaudits and criticism with equal fervour and, in doing so, help proliferate serious psychedelic research for some time to come.