Xenolinguistics

Tough cookie. This, clearly, is not for everyone. How to make sense of work based on a weird premise, well encapsulated in its title, of bridging such diverse themes as the use of psychedelics, the complex phenomenon of language and their possible link with the evolution of consciousness? Each of these is enough to occupy not just one book, but whole libraries on their complexities. At a first glance it almost seems a sure recipe for a disastrous outcome. But that is not the case.

The author, Diana Reed Slattery, has a most peculiar path. She’s a [talented] fiction writer, an educator, an artist of sorts (for she experiments with art and technology), a psychonaut and, of course, a xenolinguist. With such diverse interests, Reed’s book is a mixture of all that, in an exercise to provide some coherence to her long psychonautic exploration of her experiences with altered states of consciousness and the communication with an unknown other (thus the xeno of her language studies).

The first part of the book focus on that which comes to the fore when one thinks of studying psychedelics: how to approach this subject, if studying it in order to comprehend it fully demands that one experiences its effects? This is a methodological problem, and Reed starts to tackle it right away from the outset. In order to accomplish this, she tries to justify a psychonautics approach as a meaningful method to explore, structure, and make sense of the oftentimes nonsensical resulting experience. What's then her approach?

Reed starts by analyzing possible protocols and techniques that may validate what’s perceived under such unorthodox circumstances. In spite of this, being no stranger to the strange, she’s well aware of the many difficulties she faces. But given the inherent weirdness of such experiences, there isn't much she can do. She has to rely on whatever methods are available, for consciousness' alteration is in itself hard to study: highly frowned upon as a morally reprehensible subject, which leads to much social reproach and even legal persecution.

After explaining how life changing were some of her own experiences, and her bizarre encounter with that often mentioned transdimensional other that appears under some altered states, Reed introduces us to her conception of a visual language she called Glide. This language, through its discovery, opened her to the possibility of bridging the gap of having such profound, quasi-mystical, experiences and the unavoidable limitations of normal language to capture and reproduce the content of what was thus witnessed under such extremely bizarre conditions.

Once she establishes the method and the tools she used in her psychedelic research, she proceeds to explore that recurring theme of The Other, that unknown voice that time and again speaks back to those brave enough to go deeper onto the psychedelic experience. With this we end the first part of the book.

Then, on the second part, Maps and Models, the discussion becomes more technical, more philosophical. Reed delves onto the ontological dilemma: the question of knowing what is real. How real reality is, especially when faced with such huge shifts in your perception under altered states of consciousness? From the ontological she tackles the subsequent epistemological dichotomy: how to be scientific when your object of study requires a shift from the standard subjective point of view? How to tie together the seemingly opposing views of looking at a brain from the outside (objectivity) and the topsy-turvy worldview experienced by the subject under the influence? From this Reed goes on to summarize different theories and models of consciousness, and how to approach this field of study.

Reed then goes on to explore the experience of extended perception (in its many multimodal varieties) and how this experience results in a radical shift on how time, space, and even dimensionality are conceived. For what Reed really wants to do is to bridge between these undeniable recurring experiences of shifts in perception and how psychedelics alter one’s linguistic capabilities across a larger spectrum of our senses.

And for this Reed leads the discussion to and through the problem of language, one of the main themes of her work. She then goes on to explore several neurophenomenological perspectives on language, summarizing the views of different thinkers, trying to shine some light on the somewhat fringy theoretical models provided by those authors.

Finally, on the third and last part of the book, Reed finally gets to tackle the central theme of the book: xenolinguistics. She here examines the differences between natural and unnatural (sic) languages, delving deeper onto the not sufficiently studied subject of the effects of psychedelics on language: the shifts that do occur on the listening-speaking and reading-writing capabilities, which then leads to non-ordinary modes of understanding and expression.

In order to provide some data grounds to demonstrate these shifts, she provides some examples taken from what she calls “The Guild of Xenolinguists”: a collection of fringy characters exploring non-ordinary languages and modes of expression.

From here on the discussion focus on the third subtheme of this book: that of “the evolution of language”. Reed here visits different authors and their theories on this subject, but on a roundabout way. For she chooses not the mainstream theorists, but those who have speculated a strong link between the use of mind-altering substances and the historically hard to explain phenomenon of language development and dissemination. The weird is at home here.

This leads to a discussion the topic of constructed languages, with Reed visiting the work of yet other fellow xenolinguists, thus providing more data points on how this phenomenon manifests and takes shape.

She then dives on the idea that language is everywhere, that life is built upon language (DNA), exploring the views of anthropologists linking recent scientific discoveries (the double-helix code of life) and the mythological views and representations that seem to echo the same findings. This is also complemented with the thoughts and explorations of akin-minded xenolinguists, who also take life to intelligent and that nature expresses itself through language.

The book concludes with a call for the furthering of language exploration under altered states of consciousness, for this, she hopes, will open the door for a potential different ways to structure reality, possibly offering us a different path to help us build a more healthy and sustainable future.

Having summarized the book, it’s now time to wrap this up. Since the subject matter here studied is so out the ordinary, exploring such complicated themes, so vast on their scope, I tried to make sense of what I got from reading this book by a straightforward description of its contents.

This is a way too specific work to be of use for most readers. There’s no way around this: we are here talking about the weird, the bizarre, the out of the ordinary. These themes are, for the most part, little know and, in most cases, not even recognized as worthy subjects of study.

Nonetheless, if you are still here, reading this, you are already one of the self-selected few with an inkling in knowing more about psychedelics, psychonautics, and even language under altered states of consciousness. And since you like knowing about fringy stuff, and you probably want to explore your own mind by altering it, this book, though long, will probably please you.


Probably. Worst case scenario and at least you’ll find out that you are not crazy, or at least that you are not alone in being as crazy as. In any case, there’s something there that will resonate with you.