A Beginner’s Guide to Brain Upgrades (for Space Newbies)
When Timothy Leary wasn’t busy terrifying the U.S. government with LSD and free thinking, he came up with something seriously cool - the 8-Circuit Model of Consciousness.
Think of it as the “Hero’s Journey,” but instead of dragons, you’ve got ego, the unconscious, and quantum weirdness.
And yeah… mushrooms. Obviously.
Introduction
You’re a human. Supposedly. Or at least that’s what you’ve been told.
You eat, you think, you watch YouTube, sometimes you cry under a blanket - basically, you live.
But then Timothy Leary, that wild-eyed hippie with galaxies for pupils, whispers to you: “Hey, buddy. That’s just a tiny fragment of who you are. Want to see what’s hidden deeper inside? Let’s go.”
Leary figured that consciousness isn’t just one big mush - it’s a skyscraper with eight floors.
He mapped out eight circuits of consciousness - not chakras, not chakras, don’t get them confused - these are more like game levels, except your weapons are neurons and mandalas in your retinas.
On the first floor, you’re screaming “Where’s mom?!” - and by the top floor, you’re chatting with eternity like it’s an old friend.
1. The Bio-Survival Circuit
Slogan: “Food! Warmth! Not eaten? Awesome!”
This is the base layer. It switches on at birth. Priority #1 - breathe, don’t fall, don’t die. Everything that scares or soothes you on a body level - from hot soup to a freezing toilet seat - lives here.
How it’s activated: You’re born - and off you go. Or maybe you went camping without a tent - and remembered.
What it looks like: An anxious cat trembling at the sound of a vacuum cleaner.
It’s primitive, but essential. Here, you care about food, warmth, sex, and not being eaten. If you’re fighting over the last meatball - you’re on the first floor, bro.
2. The Emotional–Territorial Circuit
This is where we start figuring out who’s the alpha in the house. Your inner wolf awakens. Territory, status, pecking order - it all comes from here.
Mission: Who’s in charge around here?
How it’s activated: A teenage fight over a chair, office politics, scrolling through social media comments.
What it looks like: A teenager arguing with their parents, or a cat clinging to a cardboard box like it’s a throne.
This is your inner monkey’s turf - dominance, jealousy, the pack, the pecking order. Sound familiar? Welcome to your Monday morning team meeting. If you’re constantly trying to prove you’re right - yep, still hanging out on the second floor.
3. The Symbolic–Semantic Circuit
Slogan: “I think, therefore I’m smart.”
Letters, numbers, metaphors, and “write an essay about autumn” - all of that lives here. This is the moment you learned to read and officially became smarter than a dog.
Mission: Learn to speak and lie.
How it’s activated: School, reading books, memes with hidden depth.
What it looks like: An owl in glasses arguing about Kant.
This circuit runs language, logical thinking, math, and 3 a.m. kitchen debates about philosophy. Here is where you start dropping lines like “Studies show…” and “According to Wikipedia…”
4. The Socio-Moral Circuit
Slogan: “Be like everyone else. Or else.”
This is where your head gets crowded - with Mom, Dad, your teacher, and even Grandma whispering “That’s not how we do things.” Here come guilt, shame, duty. And the deep desire to be “normal.”
Mission: “This is how it’s done.” How it’s activated: “Don’t sit on cold surfaces,” church, military service, corporate life.
What it looks like: An inner judge with very disapproving eyebrows.
This is the realm of rules, traditions, religions, and social norms. It’s the voice that hisses: “You can’t do that - what, do you want to go to jail?” You become a functioning member of society (but hey, no guarantee you’ll be happy about it).
And now - drumroll please - we enter the higher realms.
Time to put on your tinfoil hat.
5. The Neurosomatic Circuit
Slogan: “Wow, breathing feels amazing!”
For the first time, you really notice you have a body. And surprise - it can feel pure bliss just from being. Dancing, meditating, that one weird mushroom on a nature walk - suddenly the world becomes soft, warm, and even the pollen in the air whispers “I love you.”
How it’s activated: Spontaneous dance, tantra, breathwork, massage, a vacation without Wi-Fi. Psychedelics? Sure, sometimes. But even a warm bath might flip the switch.
What it looks like: You, barefoot, dancing in your kitchen, hugging a tree and telling it, “You’re doing great.”
This is where body awareness lights up - pleasure, movement, softness, yoga, chocolate, and… euphoria. Joy that doesn’t need a reason. Pleasure without a plot. Not “wine and Netflix,” but “oh my god, the bird is singing, the grass is whispering, I love this tiny bug on my finger.” This is no longer a fight, no longer a belief system - just the embodied truth that being alive is beautiful. The body stops being a brain taxi and becomes a wise, joyful friend. This level is about feeling life, not just thinking about it.
6. The Neuroelectric (Metaprogramming) Circuit
Slogan: “Hmm... What if I made all this up?”
Welcome to the zone of consciousness hackers. Here, you suddenly realize: all your thoughts, beliefs, fears - even your sense of “self” - are just programs. And guess what? They can be changed.
How it’s activated: Observing your thoughts, intentional psychedelic experiences, reading books on neurophilosophy, or a sudden belief shift (like “I’m no longer a meat-eater - I’m a sun-lover now!”).
What it looks like: A person who’s rewriting their own mental software - like a mystic, but with wires plugged into their head.
You look at yourself and think, “Who wrote this code? Did I choose this?” At this level, you can change your habits, your beliefs, even your sense of “I.” Essentially, you become the programmer of your own reality. The visual reference for this level is Neo, going: “Wait… there is no spoon.”
7. The Neurogenetic Circuit
Slogan: “I am a descendant of stars. And a little bit of dinosaurs.”
Now things get interesting - you suddenly feel that it’s not just your mom and grandma living inside you, but the entire evolutionary chain: fish, monkeys, shamans with bones in their noses… and shamans with microphones on TikTok.
Mission: “I am part of something greater.”
How it’s activated: Working with ancestral stories, meditations like “who were my ancestors,” dreams about the past and future happening at once, hallucinations in which you talk to Homo habilis.
What it looks like: A sneaker-wearing shaman who remembers life on Mars and why they were burned at the stake for herbs back in 1432.
You begin to sense yourself not just as a personality, but as a descendant of ancestors, a participant in the entire human flow. You might feel things like “I can feel the pain of my great-great-grandmothers” or “we are one big organism.” A sense that you’re part of some grand cosmic plan. Or a cosmic sitcom. This can be experienced through shamanic practices, breathwork, hypnosis, or long conversations with trees.
8. The Quantum Circuit (Nonlocal, Cosmic Wi-Fi)
Slogan: “Everything is one. And even that ‘everything’ is an illusion.”
You are no longer a body, or thoughts, or emotions. You are the eternal, timeless, quiet “ahhh, so that’s what it is.” Here, all boundaries vanish - time dissolves - and even Leary himself seems a bit lost in the wires.
How it’s activated: Samadhi, enlightenment, breath so deep you’re no longer breathing - you’re dissolving. Or honestly, sometimes it happens at 4 a.m. after a cup of tea and the question: “What if I am the Universe… experiencing itself as a dumpling?”
What it looks like: You, melted into the carpet, staring at nothing, whispering: “I get it.”
At this level, you stop perceiving time as past–present–future. The world just is. No labels. Only love, stillness, and the faint chuckle of Buddha. There’s a sense of unity with the universe, leaps in intuition, and those moments when you “get everything” but can’t explain any of it. It’s not about the mind. It’s about the Beyond-Mind.
The End (or the Beginning?)
So, dear cosmic friend, you’ve just taken a tour through the levels of human consciousness - from instincts to stars, from “where’s my food?” to “I am the food.”
If you're thinking, “Okay, cool, but I just don’t want to burn out at work,” - understand this: This model shows you that there isn’t just one voice in your head. There’s a whole choir, and each voice has its own style. It’s a reminder that you are capable of being so much more than you were ever told. You can consciously switch on the circuit you need, when you need it.
And if one day you get tired of being just another cog in the system - this model gives you a map for how to get out of it (or at least take a good look from the outside).
So dance. Meditate. Read. Rewrite yourself. And don’t forget to laugh sometimes. Especially at yourself.