Saturday, January 24, 2009

Fraser Clark has left this reality

Fraser Clark

It is with sadness that I share with you this news. Fraser Clark, a great friend to the world has passed away. His lifes work was making the world a better place. I have know Fraser since the mid 90's. Although I lost touch with him for several years, we had reconnect online and had been sharing correspondence over the past few years. When I first met Fraser, he along with Leary really opened my eyes to the deep significance of Rave Culture when previously I thought it was only about money, music and pharmacology. It was something much more special and important and I hope that a new movement will emerge again soon.

When I left Los Angeles and sold out to become a corporate slave. There was a period in which I become a bit depressed and that's around the time that Fraser and I had re-connected on the internet. Fraser encouraged me not to forget the lessons that I learned from my more enlightened days and recomended that I returned to the community that I loved. I had expressed to him why I left the rave scene. Below was his reply to me:

"E.

i've never seen the movement die out. it's spread widely thru the culture, far more people planet-wide are raving than EVER; if we're talking just the music it's now become the background theme of our world. it's like the hippy thing really, it didn't die, it was forced underground. a lotta people dropped back in but i always saw them pretty much as u describe yourself now. If there was ever a REAL chance of changing the culture you'd be there in a shot. i know that. and they're each spreading their attitude out locally and these waves do connect ultimately. Why don't you take some initiative and help kick off another wave."
-Fraser Clark

It was with these emails that I began seeking out long lost friends, made new ones, began reaching out on the internet with my homepage, blog and eventually opened Gaian Botanicals. A way that I could try and help kick off another wave. Network with others, share ideas, philosophy, news and ethnbotanicals. As Fraser wrote in Monkey's Trip:

"First, as the present growing alternative community (in its widest sense) and eventually as a Global Society (or federation of Societies) we must reconnect with the Cultural Cluster of ideals, visions, longings, utopian ideas, spirituality, and longings for Unity, Peace and Community which were almost certainly first stirred in their purest forms in archaic times, guided humankind until the Christian Fiasco, and could guide us again.

Put it another way. every one of the burgeoning plethora of idealistic movements and ideas today, which almost compete to focus our activity towards Change, are details within the overall Vision (as in Seeing It As It Is) which, when it is activated once more within each individual, will effortlessly and inevitably bring them all about, by general agreement. the Live 8 type of mega events and gigantic peace & eco marches express a new feeling for the planet and Life where many many people experience a sort of GroupMind, of being part of a Community, of fighting for ourselves and our planet.

here's my slogan for the next decade - make HIStory HERstory!

How right the Greeks were to hedge about this Mystery, this imbibing of the potion, with secrecy and surveillance. Perhaps with all our modern knowledge we do not need the divine mushroom any more. Or do we need them more than ever? Gordon Wasson: The Road to Eleusis.."

With Fraser joining the realm of the ancestor spirits such as Terence McKenna, Timothy Leary, Albert Hofmann. I am certain it will be a great place to experiance, when all our time's come.

Thanks you Fraser, may your contributions to this world live on forever. You will be missed here on earth.

Link: Opaque Lens's tribute to Fraser on Shamanic Freedom Radio

Thursday, January 22, 2009

WTBDWK!? Down the rabbit hole!

What the BLEEP Do We Know aka WTBDWK!? is part documentary, part story, and part elaborate and inspiring visual effects and animations. The protagonist Amanda, finds herself in a fantastic Alice in Wonderland experience when her daily, uninspired life literally begins to unravel, revealing the uncertain world of the quantum field hidden behind what we consider to be our normal, waking reality.

The film employs animation to realize the radical knowledge that modern science has unearthed in recent years. Powerful cinematic sequences explore the inner-workings of the human brain. Quirky animation introduces us to the smallest form of consciousness in the body – the cell. Dazzling visuals reinforce the film’s message in an exciting, powerful way.

WTBDWK!? Is one of the most successful documentaries of all time. Now distributed in over 30 countries, it has stunned audiences with its revolutionary cinematic blend of dramatic film, documentary, animation and comedy, while serving up a mind-jarring blend of Quantum Physics, spirituality, neurology and evolutionary thought. Its success has spanned a massive extended DVD set ("Down the Rabbit Hole") a companion book, study groups, a resource outlet (BLEEP Store), and a host of transformational films that continue to appear around the world.

THE SCIENTISTS

PHYSICISTS
William Tiller, Ph.D.
Amit Goswami, Ph.D.
John Hagelin, Ph.D.
Fred Alan Wolf, Ph.D.
Dr. David Albert

NEUROLOGISTS, ANESTHESIOLOGISTS & PHYSICIANS
Dr. Masaru Emoto
Stuart Hameroff M.D.
Dr. Jeffrey Satinover
Andrew B. Newberg, M.D.
Dr. Daniel Monti
Dr. Joseph Dispenza

MOLECULAR BIOLOGY
Dr. Candace Pert

SPIRITUAL TEACHERS, MYSTICS AND SCHOLARS
Ramtha
Miceal Ledwith, Ph.D.

www.whatthebleep.com

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

John Lamb Lash on the Gnostics

Gnostic Media Podcast #011 - On the Gnostics: An interview with John Lamb Lash

Download:  FREE MP3 (Right click, save target as)

notinhisimageThis episode of The Gnostic Media podcast focuses on the Gnostics. Who were the Gnostics and what did they believe? I’ll be interviewing John Lamb Lash, the author of Not In His Image – Gnostic Vision, Sacred Ecology, And the Future of Belief.

Comparative mythologist, author and teacher John Lash is one of the foremost exponents of the power of myth to direct and shape an individual’s life, as well as history itself. Described as the true successor of Joseph Campbell, John is a teacher of world mythology, Tantra, Buddhism, Gnosticism, the pre-Christian Mysteries, alchemy, astrology, and naked-eye astronomy. He had traveled widely throughout the world and lived in Japan, the UK, Greece, Norway, France, Spain and Belgium. He lives in Europe.

For over 35 years, Lash has specialized in studies of sidereal mythology -- myths found in all cultures around the world relating to the patterns in the skies. He has a unique technique of observation, combined with as original method of reading those patterns and relating them to the way we live and view the world. He is recognized as a leading scholar on ancient astronomy, the Zodiac, and precession of the equinoxes (World Ages).

Links:
Metahistory
John Lamb Lash BLOG
John Lash on EROCx1 BLOG

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Barry Schwartz Ph.D.: The Paradox of Choice

Professor Schwartz assembles his argument from a variety of fields of modern psychology that study how happiness is affected by success or failure of goal achievement. As Americans, we assume that more choice means better options and greater satisfaction. But beware of excessive choice: choice overload can make you question the decisions you make before you even make them, it can set you up for unrealistically high expectations, and it can make you blame yourself for any and all failures. In the long run, this can lead to decision-making paralysis. And in a culture that tells us that there is no excuse for falling short of perfection when your options are limitless, too much choice can lead to clinical depression.

"Autonomy and Freedom of choice are critical to our well being, and choice is critical to freedom and autonomy. Nonetheless, though modern Americans have more choice than any group of people ever has before, and thus, presumably, more freedom and autonomy, we don't seem to be benefiting from it psychologically." —quoted from Ch.5, "The Paradox of Choice", 2004

Wikipedia.org/The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less

Thursday, January 8, 2009

Dr. Timothy Leary: Evolution of Intelligence

Dr. Timothy Leary

From: The Psychedelic Salon
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Guest speaker: Dr. Timothy Leary

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MP3
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PROGRAM NOTES:

[NOTE: All quotations below are by Timothy Leary.]

"The evolution of intelligence: Now this is a very interesting idea. It means that the way not just to survive but to evolve is to get smarter.

"I think it’s time to dust off the word pagan again. The word pagan seems to mean one who loves life. A pagan is someone who loves humanity and would never dream of oppressing humanity with Original Sins and other life sentences, which distract from self-esteem and courage and self-confidence."

"We were not descended from chimpanzees or apes, we are teenage, juvenile chimps or apes that didn’t grow up and develop tails and swing around in trees. . . . In many aspects, the human species is an immature species. We haven’t committed ourselves to a final form, and therein, perhaps, lies our great usefulness to the DNA code and the biological wisdom."

"If you want to increase your intelligence, if you want to evolve, and grow, and go through the changes, the many changes that are possible, at all costs avoid terminal adulthood."

"If you stay in the same place, you tend, obviously, to not be exposed to new challenges, and you’re not going to be under pressure to grow. Although, it is well known though, that if you migrate, if you want to change, if you want to grow, if you want to develop, if you want to reach a higher level, a standard genetic tactic, and a standard human tactic, is to migrate to a new frontier where you have a chance to develop and grow."

"People born in the same generation share an unspoken sense of reality throughout the world."

"DNA uses juvenilization, mutation and change in the young, only when there’s a challenge that the old way can’t face."

"The last fifty years of the twentieth century in this country are simply the history of the baby boom moving like a pig through a python through American culture."

"If you find yourself in a generation that is pretty stuffy, migrate! A generation is an island in time. … You’re as old as the people you hang out with."

"The intelligent evolutionary tradition has always been intelligent skepticism of authority."

"Throughout human history, those in power have been wrong 99% of the time."



More about Mary Pinchot Meyer

The Psychedelic Salon

Sunday, January 4, 2009

Terence McKenna: Dream Awake - the complete version

terence_mckenna

Many of us have heard an online 35 minute mp3 of Terence McKenna's popular lecture entitled "Dream Awake" given in San Francisco on December 13, 1998. Last week I was pleasantly surprised to hear that an additional 90 minutes of this awesome talk is now available thanks to a friend of the Psychedelic Salon in Portugal named Miguel. He recently converted this complete two hour mp3 from a video of the lecture and Q&A. This complete version is one of his best talks ever. A real treat for both McKenn-ites and McKenn-noobs alike. In fact if I had to recommend only one of Terence's talks, this would be this one.

Download this Mp3: HERE

Some of the highlights are:

  • The world is made of language

  • Cultures are like operating systems

What culture provides is a bunch of rules, so you don't have to think and a bunch of myths, so you don't have to think again. Culture has all the answers. Want to know where people came from? Well when the sky god got out of his canoe at first waterfall and took a leak then we the true people appeared like ants and we have been living here ever since...

Now technology throws a curve. And the curve is that we live so long, that we figure out what a scam this is. We figure out what what were supposed to work for isn't worth having, we figure out that our politicians are buffoons, we figure out that professional scientist are reputation building grab tailing weasels. We discover that all organizations are corrupted by ambition. You get the picture, "we figure it out". Well then as intellectuals and any one who figures it out is an intellectual believe me because their slinging the programming to push you the other way. So then intellectuals defined as people who figured it out, discover that you are alienated. That's what figuring it out means. It means you understand that the BMW, the Harvard degree and what ever, that this is all baloney and manipulated and hyped and that most are clueless people figuring out which fork they should use...

By dissolving boundaries they are exposing the cultural operating system for what it is. Which is just a bunch of hacked together rules that evolved over time. They weren't sent from god or from Mt. Sinai, its just a bunch of hacked together rules.

  • How the LD50 helps determine which drugs are are safe

A good drug is drug where the LD50 is 200x the effective dose.

In the case of LSD the LD50 for man has never been determined. That's how safe LSD is.

The LD50 of pyslicibyn is also very impressive. You can take 100x the effective dose an expect to live.

Mescaline as an amphetamine if you took 20x the effective dose of mescaline you would probably die. Of course an effective dose is nearly a gram of pure material, 700mg. If you took 20 x 700mg you would be taking nearly 2/3rds of an ounce of Mescaline why should you survive? After all stupidity does have consequences.

  • One of his best descriptions of the Datura experience
  • How science is different then religion

Science for all its flaws is the only tool for understanding the nature of reality that has any sort of track record what so ever. The others just have a story to tell. The Buddha story, the Jesus story, fine stories but that's all they have is a rap...

Science is the only the only explanatory system where you get points for proving your wrong. You form a hypothesis, you publish a paper, then you do further experiments. You discover your conclusions in Paper A were completely wrong. You retract Paper A and issue Paper B and your fellow scientist say this guy does very good work. These are careful thinkers, you can bank on these people. Their not flaky.

What religion operates like that? Could imagine coming out of the Ashram and having the Guru say to his students well we managed to reduce that hypothesis to rubble in morning wake meditation didn't we?

  • One of his best descriptions of the DMT experience
  • 2012 and the end of a cosmic cycle

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www.GaianBotanicals.com