Sunday, January 30, 2011
Poem: "Beannacht"
On the day when
the weight deadens
on your shoulders
and you stumble,
may the clay dance
to balance you.
And when your eyes
freeze behind
the grey window
and the ghost of loss
gets in to you,
may a flock of colours,
indigo, red, green,
and azure blue
come to awaken in you
a meadow of delight.
When the canvas frays
in the currach of thought
and a stain of ocean
blackens beneath you,
may there come across the waters
a path of yellow moonlight
to bring you safely home.
May the nourishment of the earth be yours,
may the clarity of light be yours,
may the fluency of the ocean be yours,
may the protection of the ancestors be yours.
And so may a slow
wind work these words
of love around you,
an invisible cloak
to mind your life.
John O’Donohue
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Friday, January 28, 2011
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Everybody's ego but yours
I have recently read a couple of 'articles' by one Martin Ball on the Reality Sandwich website and have reached the conclusion that he has pulled himself up into his Ivory Tower even further than he was last I had encountered him. His 'cultural walls' carefully embedded in his ego from academia show quite clearly now. Watching him 'dissect' Terence McKenna reminded me of the 'feud' between John Allegro and Gordon Wasson. Interesting reading - Martin is a very intelligent man - but ... he is enamored with his own view of the world. There was a commenter that said it best and this whole post is to present it ;-) ...
From 'Piled High & Deep'
"So the results of McKenna's personal explorations into himself, "using entheogenic tools," are only valid to the extent that they were Terence's experiences and so cannot be generalizable, BUT Dr. Ball's experiences using entheogenic tools are not merely a reflection of Ball's "ego" but are the "genuine truth"? Uh-huh. Sounds a lot like my fundamentalist Christian family's approach to other faiths: "They just have superstitions created by Satan, whereas we have the genuine truth.""
Remember folks ... question everything - including yourself.
From 'Piled High & Deep'
"So the results of McKenna's personal explorations into himself, "using entheogenic tools," are only valid to the extent that they were Terence's experiences and so cannot be generalizable, BUT Dr. Ball's experiences using entheogenic tools are not merely a reflection of Ball's "ego" but are the "genuine truth"? Uh-huh. Sounds a lot like my fundamentalist Christian family's approach to other faiths: "They just have superstitions created by Satan, whereas we have the genuine truth.""
Remember folks ... question everything - including yourself.
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
John Allegro's "The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross" - a Gnostic Media exc...
From Jewish Historian Lawrence Kushner's book: The Book of Words:
“According to the Hebrew Bible, God made the world with words. God just spoke and the world became reality. (The Aramaic for ‘I create as I speak’ is avara k’davara, or in magician’s language, abracadabra.) . . . This does not protect words from the numbing effects of overuse in any religious tradition. . . . We need to dust off the words, shake away the accretions, wonder again about what they originally might have meant and enable ourselves to live in the word.”
Unless we can get time machine to go back there - we will never know for certain the actual origin of the word ...
Hopi Prophecy
Handed down from ancient times, the Hopi Prophesy delineates the path of peace, and harmony with nature. Where we have deviated from that path, the prophecy has correctly predicted the results. Which path lies before us? What does the future hold? Hear a message of tribal elders for our modern world. Originally broadcast on New Mexico PBS station KNME.
Political Compass Printable Graph
Political Compass Printable Graph: "
Economic Left/Right: -8.12
"
The Political Compass
Economic Left/Right: -8.12
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -6.56
Monday, January 24, 2011
The Machine is (Changing) Us: YouTube and the Politics of Authenticity
It's things like this that give me hope ...
The Quantum Activist
The Quantum Activist : Dr. Amit Goswami Movie Trailer from BlueDot Productions on Vimeo.
?
I'm going to assume he is not well liked in the scientific circle ...
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Friday, January 21, 2011
TEDxMidAtlantic - Roland Griffiths - 11/5/09
Thanks for the post on this Charles ;-) ... (and the Joe Rogan one - he's awesome too)
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
The Deep Self: Consciousness Exploration in the Isolation Tank
Since I know you see some of my posts here Charles - a couple of things you might find interesting - I was heavy into John Lilly for awhile (long time ago) - started with an interest in his work with dolphins - ended up reading his stuff on floatation tanks and 'vitamin K' (what he called Ketamine)- it ended up destroying him ... I wouldn't mess with Ketamine myself because of it. John Lilly's stuff is really good - recommend checking him out if you haven't already.
First published more than 20 years ago and now with a new introduction by the author, this classic work presents the methods and conclusions of more than 25 years of experimentation with the isolation-tank meditative experience. Drawing on the personal testimony of many who tried it, including Burgess Meredith, Gregory Bateson, E. J. Gold, and Jerry Rubin, the evidence shows how, by eliminating the presence of shifting physical input patterns, the tank allows participants to dive deep into their subconscious and focus immediately on their inner perceptions. The different domains of reality and how various experiences with solitude affect different people are discussed along with practical details on the standards for isolation tank manufacture and use.
This movie is based on the work that John Lilly did with the floatation tank ...
First published more than 20 years ago and now with a new introduction by the author, this classic work presents the methods and conclusions of more than 25 years of experimentation with the isolation-tank meditative experience. Drawing on the personal testimony of many who tried it, including Burgess Meredith, Gregory Bateson, E. J. Gold, and Jerry Rubin, the evidence shows how, by eliminating the presence of shifting physical input patterns, the tank allows participants to dive deep into their subconscious and focus immediately on their inner perceptions. The different domains of reality and how various experiences with solitude affect different people are discussed along with practical details on the standards for isolation tank manufacture and use.
This movie is based on the work that John Lilly did with the floatation tank ...
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Monday, January 17, 2011
Bubbles
I got into a heated discussion with a girl on Facebook who was complaining about people posting 'political and depressing' stuff on their feeds ... how nothings going to change anyway so why worry about it - she liked living in her 'bubble' ... her last response to me was this:
"Current events was never a passing class, because I just don't have it in me to worry about all the ugliness in the world, I stress enough as it is about the small things, I don't need to be consumed with the weight of world, nation, or even my local city. They've done fine without me, and will continue to do so into the future.
Right now, the only things I need to worry about are my immediate family and the pets. And making sure there's enough gas to get to work in the morning. That's it. I like it that way.
I have a job that I love, I don't work for the money, and I'm well taken care of. I like my life, I don't need it cluttered up with drama far away. Tragedy will always happen, same as joyful occasions, that's just how life is."
"Current events was never a passing class, because I just don't have it in me to worry about all the ugliness in the world, I stress enough as it is about the small things, I don't need to be consumed with the weight of world, nation, or even my local city. They've done fine without me, and will continue to do so into the future.
Right now, the only things I need to worry about are my immediate family and the pets. And making sure there's enough gas to get to work in the morning. That's it. I like it that way.
I have a job that I love, I don't work for the money, and I'm well taken care of. I like my life, I don't need it cluttered up with drama far away. Tragedy will always happen, same as joyful occasions, that's just how life is."
The Chalice or The Blade
The only think keeping you from being happy is the belief that you are alone ... chose partnership over domination ...
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Friday, January 14, 2011
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Erich From on the relationship between Church & State
"Society, though, is not made up of heroes. As long as the tables were set
for only a minority, and the majority had to serve the minority's purposes
and be satisfied with what was left over, the sense that disobedience is sin
had to be cultivated. Both state and church cultivated it, and both worked
together, because both had to protect their own hierarchies. The state
needed religion to have an ideology that fused disobedience and sin; the
church needed believers whom the state had trained in the virtues of
obedience. Both used the institution of the family, whose function it was
to train the child in obedience from the first moment it showed a will of its
own (usually, at the latest, with the beginning of toilet training). The self-
will of the child had to be broken in order to prepare it for its proper
functioning later on as a citizen.
Sin in the conventional theological and secular sense is a concept within
the authoritarian structure, and this structure belongs to the having mode
of existence. Our human center does not lie in ourselves, but in the
authority to which we submit. We do not arrive at well-being by our own
productive activity, but by passive obedience and the ensuing approval by
the authority. We have a leader (secular or spiritual, king/queen or God) in
whom we have faith; we have security . . . as long as we are—nobody. That
the submission is not necessarily conscious as such, that it can be mild or
severe, that the psychic and social structure need not be totally authoritarian, but may be only partially so, must not blind us to the fact that we
live in the mode of having to the degree that we internalize the authoritarian
structure of our society.:severe, that the psychic and social structure need not be totally authoritarian, but may be only partially so, must not blind us to the fact that we
live in the mode of having to the degree that we internalize the authoritarian
structure of our society."
for only a minority, and the majority had to serve the minority's purposes
and be satisfied with what was left over, the sense that disobedience is sin
had to be cultivated. Both state and church cultivated it, and both worked
together, because both had to protect their own hierarchies. The state
needed religion to have an ideology that fused disobedience and sin; the
church needed believers whom the state had trained in the virtues of
obedience. Both used the institution of the family, whose function it was
to train the child in obedience from the first moment it showed a will of its
own (usually, at the latest, with the beginning of toilet training). The self-
will of the child had to be broken in order to prepare it for its proper
functioning later on as a citizen.
Sin in the conventional theological and secular sense is a concept within
the authoritarian structure, and this structure belongs to the having mode
of existence. Our human center does not lie in ourselves, but in the
authority to which we submit. We do not arrive at well-being by our own
productive activity, but by passive obedience and the ensuing approval by
the authority. We have a leader (secular or spiritual, king/queen or God) in
whom we have faith; we have security . . . as long as we are—nobody. That
the submission is not necessarily conscious as such, that it can be mild or
severe, that the psychic and social structure need not be totally authoritarian, but may be only partially so, must not blind us to the fact that we
live in the mode of having to the degree that we internalize the authoritarian
structure of our society.:severe, that the psychic and social structure need not be totally authoritarian, but may be only partially so, must not blind us to the fact that we
live in the mode of having to the degree that we internalize the authoritarian
structure of our society."
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
The Visionary Podcast - July 19 2007
Caroline welcomes back two long-time allies, political participants, Jamie Yeager (writer for the Texas Observer, Press Secretary to Eugene McCarthy) and Pat Ewing (Chief of staff for Al Gore) who have both been on this show many times, but never together- until now. May we examine all that we know about the Constitution, that we may all put our hands back on the tiller of this country. Yea! impeachment.
Passage read by a caller from Erich Fromm's 'To Have or To Be':
"Society, though, is not made up of heroes. As long as the tables were set
for only a minority, and the majority had to serve the minority's purposes
and be satisfied with what was left over, the sense that disobedience is sin
had to be cultivated. Both state and church cultivated it, and both worked
together, because both had to protect their own hierarchies. The state
needed religion to have an ideology that fused disobedience and sin; the
church needed believers whom the state had trained in the virtues of
obedience. Both used the institution of the family, whose function it was
to train the child in obedience from the first moment it showed a will of its
own (usually, at the latest, with the beginning of toilet training). The self-
will of the child had to be broken in order to prepare it for its proper
functioning later on as a citizen.
Passage read by a caller from Erich Fromm's 'To Have or To Be':
"Society, though, is not made up of heroes. As long as the tables were set
for only a minority, and the majority had to serve the minority's purposes
and be satisfied with what was left over, the sense that disobedience is sin
had to be cultivated. Both state and church cultivated it, and both worked
together, because both had to protect their own hierarchies. The state
needed religion to have an ideology that fused disobedience and sin; the
church needed believers whom the state had trained in the virtues of
obedience. Both used the institution of the family, whose function it was
to train the child in obedience from the first moment it showed a will of its
own (usually, at the latest, with the beginning of toilet training). The self-
will of the child had to be broken in order to prepare it for its proper
functioning later on as a citizen.
America Is F*cked.......(Graphically at least)
America Is F*cked.......(Graphically at least) from Jess Gibson on Vimeo.
There is an underlying message of the attitude that is at fault here ... shortcuts and cheating have become the norm - there is no pride in anything done yet there is an almost violent reaction if that is questioned. From top to bottom ... as the saying goes - "Everybody's doing it" ... my response: "that doesn't make it right".
Frontline - The Suicide Tourist
Running across the You Don't Know Jack movie information reminded me of this Frontline from last spring ... something I feel is an important issue - suffering is almost exalted in this country - the harder the better (shows what you're made of) or it shows your devotion to some kind of sadistic creator somehow. These brave people take this issue head on and decided to share it with the rest of the world ..
Monday, January 10, 2011
Dr Thomas Szasz on Psychiatry
Would say I'd take this with a grain of salt - not in disbelief - rather interesting but possibly inflammatory (from the comments on YouTube it's already quite 'heated') ... I agree to a point - but then we should never hand over our mind to someone who claims they 'know better' out of hand.
Question everything - including yourself
Question everything - including yourself
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Saturday, January 8, 2011
Friday, January 7, 2011
Thursday, January 6, 2011
George Carlin ~ The American Dream
They own you. They own everything. They own all the important land, they own and control the corporations, they've long since bought and paid for the senate, the congress, the state houses, the city halls, they got the judges in their back pockets, and they own all the big media companies so they control just about all the news and information you get to hear.
They got you by the balls. They spend billions of dollars every year lobbying. Lobbying to get what they want. Well we know what they want. They want more for themselves and less for everybody else.
But I'll tell you what they don't want. They don't want a population of citizens capable of critical thinking. They don't want well-informed, well-educated people capable of critical thinking. They're not interested in that. That doesn't help them. That's against their interests. They don't want people who are smart enough to sit around the kitchen table and figure out how badly they're getting f*cked by a system that threw them overboard 30 f*ckin' years ago. They don't want that.
You know what they want? They want obedient workers - obedient workers - people who are just smart enough to run the machines and do the paper work, and just dumb enough to passively accept all these increasingly shittier jobs with the lower pay, the longer hours, the reduced benefits, the end of overtime, and the vanishing pension that disappears the minute you go to collect it.
And now they're coming for your social security money.
They want your f*ckin' retirement money. They want it back. So they can give it to their criminal friends on Wall Street.
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Monday, January 3, 2011
Sunday, January 2, 2011
Saturday, January 1, 2011
"The Menaissance" by Brett McKay - Ignite Tulsa
I'm not sure what to make of this ... I'm skeptical - I've seen this used as an excuse to return to being an asshole so - yeah ... we shall see ;-)
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