Occultural Anthropology

Via: http://www.viceland.com/int/v15n6/htdocs/bless-this-mess-120.php

There’s a city in Veracruz, Mexico, called Catemaco, wherein there dwell a multitude of warlocks. That is correct, nonbelievers: warlocks. Men who are wizardly practitioners of magick, mojo, and (if you get on their bad side) mayhem, and they all live in this one place. Some of them are in it for the money, and some of them are, we think, the real deal. Like, as in, yes, we believe they have weird powers. Hermano Blanco is a self-proclaimed cyber-warlock. He gets emails from all over the Spanish-speaking world, seeking out his help with issues of money, health, love, sex, and liberation from harmful spells cast by other, not-so-nice warlocks. We talked to him recently, and then we asked him to help us out by blessing this issue of Vice, which he did. So we’re basically all set.

Vice: Oh famed warlock Hermano Blanco, what is the source of thy sorcery?

Hermano Blanco: The origins of my practice are primarily of Olmec roots. I come from the Olmec Indians, who were characterized as a magic tribe. They worked with witchcraft and magic. Later, with the conversion to Christianity, Olmec warlocks started working with saints. Now the two cultures are mixed together. We use the elements of nature (earth, wind, fire, and water), Catholic saints, pre-Columbian beings, and—when more private work is being done—spiritual beings, such as people who have passed away.

And how did you personally get involved with the craft?

I’m a third-generation warlock. My grandfather, then my father, then me. It’s inherited. Ever since I was a child I would see how they performed their rituals. I had my official initiation when I was 13. That’s when you go from being a boy to an adolescent, and it is when you can start working.

What does warlock training involve?

You learn little by little how to cast spells, perform invocations and rituals, and use herbs. At the initiation, you completely open your spirit and mind. Soon, you develop certain senses—the ability to make predictions and have visions. But we also must have a cultural education—some psychology and pedagogy—so we can work with everyone who comes to us. We have to be ready for a professional life.

What do Mexicans think about witches and warlocks?

Witchcraft goes hand in hand with Mexican culture and the Catholic Church in Mexico. Most of the people who visit me come from Catholic backgrounds. It’s very common among Mexicans and Latin Americans to take it as a second belief system. Here in Mexico, even politicians and presidents acknowledge it. There have been candidates who have visited warlock friends in order to win the presidency.

Which services do people usually want?

Of every ten people who come to me, eight of them want something involving love—even though I don’t recommend it. People used to work for love, but now if it gets difficult, they come straight to the warlock. The real problem with love is that men need to learn to be gentlemen again. A lot of people also come to me to get rid of mysterious illnesses that the doctor can’t cure. Sometimes they believe spells have been cast on them.

Who curses them? Black warlocks? Is there even such a thing as white and black magic?

Witchcraft really has no color. People who work with magic, to use a general term, all work with spirits whether they’re positive or negative beings. If you want to ruin someone, you use a spiritual being at a low astral level, which is a negative being. If it needs to be a stronger job, we ask for permission to use a demonic being.

You can, however, use color to categorize. If you want to make someone sick, you use black magic. You use white if you want to help someone. If a person was cursed with black magic, you have to counterattack with black magic. Red magic is used to end someone. I don’t use that very often. I’m not one to eliminate people. When I do work with it, I analyze the case and I don’t eliminate them directly. I once helped a woman whose two-year-old daughter had been abused. It had been a very powerful person, and the law couldn’t do anything about it. So I consulted my spiritual beings and they authorized me to do the job. Soon after, that abuser crashed his car but did not die, because death is liberation. This person stayed in a vegetable state instead.

Why are so many witches and warlocks based in Catemaco?

Catemaco is surrounded by medicinal plants. The lagoon of Catemaco is a mystic point charged with energy. We have a cave where we do our stronger work. There’s a very strong energy here because of the ceremonial centers. There are pyramids, which are points of energy in every culture. The magical culture developed here because of both the natural and the man-made energy points. There are about 90 real warlocks here—people who really know what they’re doing and are ethical. But there are many outsiders who have come here who either don’t know what they’re doing or want to take advantage of our fame.

What do you make of modern-day Mexican culture?

People have lowered the level of their morals. Now a 12-year-old kid doesn’t think about playing or going to camp, he thinks about making love and doing drugs. We need more education, culture, and discipline.

Without revealing too many secrets, what will Vice’s blessing entail?

I’m going to use the candle of the Seven Powers. I’m going to invoke the four elements of nature to help you, to open the four paths—which are also north, south, east, and west—so that all of your energy reaches the four cardinal points. I am going to pray to various powerful beings—three positive and one negative. The positive ones are to open your paths so that you have many readers, no legal troubles, and so that money is never a problem. The negative one is to protect you from any other negative beings and energies. I am going to ensure that Vice becomes a household name, like Coca-Cola!

Excellent.

INTERVIEW BY GABI SIFRE
Schedule a blessing of your own at Hermano Blanco’s website: hermanoblanco.es.tl.

episode features four underground hip hop artists — Naada, Propaganda Anonymous, 2HL, and iLL SpoKKinN — and producer euphAmism in an animated music video packing lyrical and graphical punch in a call for global awakening.

Okay, there’s this dude, Goatman, who lives in a cave and gets teenagers to smoke up on menthols. Whoa. This is like vintage UMDS.

by Sam Michael

Via http://www.realitysandwich.com/kung_fu_preparation_armageddon

Suffering is the origin of consciousness. – Dostoyevsky

The future is war. According to scientists, think-tank predictions, and the 2003 Pentagon Report , abrupt climate changes and a severely depleted world will cause ever fiercer global resource wars over oil, water, timber, and arable land in the coming decades. This may either be a grim reality or a dangerous military legitimization by the U.S. army, but whether or not these wars are inevitable, if viewed optimistically they may be a key factor towards catalyzing the next phase of human consciousness and birthing a new global society.

This article will attempt to trace the history of Kung Fu from our hunter-gatherer past to the coming Space Wars and suggest how the martial art sciences could be an important antidote to the secular materialist traps of our age that in turn fuel the scarcities of the future. At the same time that modern artillery has rendered traditional hand-to-hand combat seemingly obsolete, martial arts and yoga attendance worldwide is skyrocketing. Perhaps by embracing, and not shunning, the warrior archetype we can ultimately reduce the need for mass armed conflict and survive this coming age where — as the conclusion of the above mentioned Pentagon report states — “disruption and conflict will be endemic features of life.”

Kung Fu, which, by definition is any skill or technique perfected to its highest level, is a slang or colloquialism that encompasses the prowess of soldier and chef, doctor and painter alike. Kung Fu is by itself an interesting phrase, paradoxically combining idealistic values, supreme skills, and invincible technique with pragmatic, back-breaking, and tireless hard work.

Although Kung Fu is a Chinese term in China its use extends comprehensively to Karate, Tae Kwon Do, and the indigenous martial arts of any country or culture. Kung Fu is a powerful philosophy and psychophysical technology forged in the crucible of humankind’s struggle for survival. Kung Fu is by its very nature an antidote to materialistic misconceptions about the nature of reality.

Let’s take a moment to clear up some of the differences between three popular spiritual techniques- Shamanism, Yoga, and Kung fu. According to legend, Kung Fu was founded by the famous Yogi Bodhidharma, who stopped by Shaolin Temple after spreading Buddhism from India into China. He noticed the monks there were too weak to meditate and practice his teachings. After many years of solitary meditation in a cave Bodhidharma returned to teach the monks his Yoga or Qi Gung, which became foundational in Shaolin Kung Fu. Kung Fu, Yoga, or Qi Gung are a part of a system in which martial arts and dance all share similar animistic, zoomorphic, and magical-scientific ontologies. Through complex physical and verbal languages Shamanism, Yoga, and Kung Fu all express and substantiate their results through trial- proof of a physical universe wholly different than the one which our language claims exists.

Kung fu has a history of fortifying the underdogs against imperial powers out to enslave them. For centuries the Han people of China were unified by Kung Fu in their resistance against foreign invaders. Revolutionaries hid on boats in opera troops and in temples secretly honing their forbidden fighting skills. In the history of African slavery it was Batuque, a family of African martial arts, which gave the slaves strength in their plight and revolts and gave birth to the martial art of Capoeira and other similar new world fighting arts. These are not merely systems of combat but the concretization of all the higher ideals of a people such as freedom, bravery, maturity, wisdom, discipline and self-rule. As it is sometime said, “Without Zen there would be no Kung Fu, and without Kung Fu, Zen could not be seen.”

The most extensive surviving variety of styles and forms arrive to us from China, including a bewildering assortment of long and short range tactics, soft and hard energetic principles, and panoply of weapons from hidden sleeve darts to cavalry weapons for battlefield decapitation. Thanks to a turbulent history and such infamous epochs as the warring states period (5th century B.C. to 221 B.C.), wherein Sun Tzu wrote The Art of War, China’s legacy of martial arts and sciences is unparalleled and has given rise to the false sinocentric view that all martial arts originated in China.

On the contrary, the whole world seems to have been rich in martial arts. We are only now discovering the diverse traditions of Africa, India, Indonesia, Russia, Mongolia and elsewhere. From prehistoric hunting and tribal conflicts to the ancient Olympic games where the best Greek fighters boxed, wrestled, and sparred in the nude in an effort to be awarded the coveted olive branch and a permanent front row seat at the theater, the natural defensive and offensive movements of humans made long strides early on towards codification and study.

Unfortunately much of the world’s martial arts were lost since the development of the gun, especially in the West (although efforts are underway to recreate them), so much so that they still possess an aura of exoticism and the mystique of something foreign, although nothing could be farther than the truth. Since the U.S. military occupations in China, Japan, and Korea, and popularized by movie stars like Bruce Lee, a more complete vision of the martial arts were reintroduced to the West. Currently martial arts are growing more popular every day, with Afro-Brazilian arts like Capoeira challenging the notion of the Asiatic origins of martial arts, and syncretic martial arts Jeet Kune Do and MMA attempting to blend the best of all styles. In Hollywood, Hong Kong veteran Yuen Woo Ping has become the gold standard for post-Matrix action sequences, and this summer’s releases are buzzing with Kung fu: Kung Fu Panda, Forbidden Kingdom, Mummy 3, and many more are filling box offices with Kung Fu fever.

As a science, Kung Fu is the product of a long line of human warrior traditions. Warrior traditions usually are founded in religious rites or visionary experiences, and include medicinal as well as fighting knowledge and dances. In India and China it is recorded how the greatest warriors became doctors and charted the points of the body that allowed entry to harm or heal the body’s energy. The martial arts in their most enlightened form have the capacity to channel the aggressive, violent impulses of humans into a sublime and beautiful spiritual aesthetic that can maintain health and mobility well into old age.

When a traditional kung fu master or yogi works out, most likely it will involve several hours of prayer, meditation, and intense exercises and purifications that challenge the mind as intensely as the body, and tune the practitioner in to the vibrations of the spirit world, making he or she whole again. As in dance and Yoga, Kung Fu is rooted in animal and elemental mimicry. A skilled martial artist moves with the grace and relaxed power of the animals and there are styles devoted to every kind from praying mantis to monkey and elephant. The martial artist trains themselves day and night to embody the explosiveness of fire or fluidity and water. Martial artists even incorporate and emulate the different states of intoxication and enlightenment as in Drunken Kung Fu, or Kung Fu which imitates the way arhats, bodhisattvas, and immortals would fight. In order to shuffle off our Cartesian dualism we must realize that the mind is as instrumental in shaping the body as is the body in shaping the mind.

In its ability to make the spirit world palpable and judging by its popularity, Kung fu is here to stay. We should not be fooled into thinking that firearms have rendered martial arts obsolete forever. A new equilibrium may arrive in a post-technological state or when technologies such as advanced armor, anti-projectile defenses, new weaponry or augmented human physical abilities—such as those showcased in the movie, The Iron Man, will level the playing field between man and machine-based projectiles and promote a new practical martial arts applicable to the coming global conflicts, some of which may take place in urban environments where guerilla tactics and a lack of clear sight lines upsets the benefits of firearms in favor of the hand-to-hand close combat skills of the individual warrior. In other words, one person with technology and skill could come to equal an army in might.

A revaluation and re-envisioning of war to take into account the positive potentials would benefit us. Enabling a whole range of extreme experiences, war cascades the brain with adrenalin and other powerful mind altering substances and produces long lasting psychic changes. War is a close cultural relative of the hunt–many cultures envision the afterlife as a Great Hunt. Everyday in the Norse heaven Valhalla, one wages the apocalyptic Ragnarok against the Jotuns giants and monsters. Every night the shaman Odin, and Freya the shamaness, and their valkyries resurrect the souls of the slain in the hall of Odin where they drink the mead of the gods.

There are some profound philosophical questions that need to be answered in this time of detested military and corporate warfare: on the one hand most people seem to envision an enlightened being pacifistic like the Christ in the Gospels, with a spirituality like that of Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. On the other hand people persistently pursue warlike measures, and aristeia, the virtue of the agon or conflict, is extolled in songs and epic traditions immortalizing the violent and heroic labors of humans and gods. During the civil rights movement in America Malcolm X came to realize that even though his rhetoric of self-defense by “any means necessary” was diametrically opposed to the ahimsa gospel of Martin Luther King, Jr., their ideals were still aligned and their activist strategies worked complementarily.

As we enter a pan or trans-cultural era, the re-proliferation of yoga and martial arts across nations and cultures is a powerful liberating and defensive force against oppression and disempowerment. The global martial arts and yoga phenomenon is a movement of tremendous potential for human advancement, cultural restoration, and an important anti-totalitarian institution. With improvement in social networking and virtual reality there is no limit for the inception of virtual training halls, where like the ancient kalaris and mo gwoons of yore, warriors, teachers, and healers can exchange techniques, philosophies, and train some Kung Fu.

I have been wanting to learn more about the Zodiac for a long time. Fortunately I have met Michael Ax, the creator of http://zodiacdegrees.com/, late this Spring. We had spoken here and there before, but not about the Zodiac and related topics. One evening we were talking and he showed me how to use his site. I still don’t know exactly how it works due to my lack of knowledge in Astrology, but I at least know now how to look up the illustrations corresponding to my chart. I think that if one has some background knowledge of the Zodiac, this site will be easy to use. Unfortunately for me Michael left town for a spell and I am left to my own devices on further understanding his site and the Zodiac in general. I will post more on my progress as I figure stuff out.

For practice and for sharing my progress in this process, I may do a popular persons chart and illustrations. I would like to hear your ideas on who to use for this process. I think it should be someone relevant and who we all know. Also, send any comments or help or suggestions that you feel may help out this process.

Michael said that these illustrations can be put together to tell your story. I am sure that there is a correct sequence that one should look at these, but since I am just learning, I will find all mine and the popular persons that I choose, and move them around at random to see what I come up with. This should be a good way to learn this system.

I am drawn to this system because it sticks in my head, unlike past attempts at learning things like the Zodiac. It sticks due to the fact that it creates multiple pathways of ones chart in the brain. Left and right hemispheres are used by the charts, diagrams, symbols, math, illustrations and stories. These all go together to make memorable interpretations and understandings of your birth chart.

Check out http://zodiacdegrees.com/ and let them know what you think too, it is a work in progress

Capricorn 24.. 25
Cardinal Female Linear Winter Earth reporting to Saturn:
newcomer’s surprise

decan of idealism, span of dependence & group-performance

Virgo 24.. 25
Mutable Female Linear Summer Earth reporting to Mercury:
one good man

decan of renunciation, span of experimentation & education

To check out the illustrations for your chart visit http://zodiacdegrees.com/

The Cryptic Cosmology of Synchromysticism

From http://www.realitysandwich.com/the_cryptic_cosmology_synchromysticism

Reid Mukai

Synchromysticism is an emerging field of study and subculture existing on the fringe of areas already considered fringe – primarily mysticism and Jungian psychology. The word was coined by Jake Kotze in August of 2006 for an article posted on his website Brave New World Order, who defined it as: “The art of realizing meaningful coincidence in the seemingly mundane with mystical or esoteric significance.” As Kotze recalled in an email:

“I needed something to explain a way of investigating subjects with synchronicities and the word seemed to fit… My biggest inspiration for this kind of thinking and investigating came from Goro Adachi at Etemenanki. Goro calls his research multi-contextual.”

The synchromysticism research Jake Kotze publishes on his websites include information-dense videos, artwork and articles punctuated by images illustrating various mystic/pop culture linkages. His articles and videos usually focus on esoteric symbols or memes (possibly stemming from a collective unconscious mind) reoccurring throughout a wide range of sources, especially mass media. Such symbols include numbers, words, archetypes, shapes and various visual motifs or patterns such as portals and checkerboards. The total effect is a mind-blowing labyrinthine reality mash-up linked by a type of dream logic. Kotze described his approach towards synchronicities in an October 20, 2006 post on Brave New World Order:

“My idea about the significance of meaningful coincidences in movies with mystical connotation is not that it points towards real truths, but that they point towards possible realities that might emerge from the collective psyche into consensus reality. We vie and jostle for acceptable limits of consensus reality through our art and philosophy. Our ideas and concepts about reality are the very fabric of reality itself. We try to sell each other beliefs in a creative effort to allow new ‘things’ to emerge into the accepted matrix of the now. I don’t fundamentally fret about what ‘is’ real; I care about checking the zeitgeists’ temperature in order to project future possibilities of acceptable norms and find hidden pockets of knowledge embedded in the pattern of ‘AUM’.”

Recurring themes Kotze has been tracking include “stargate” symbols and imagery that was most powerfully expressed in the events of 9/11. He argues that in the language of esoteric symbolism the Twin Towers are analogous to Solomon’s Temple, Mecca and the pyramids of Egypt – structures intended to be, in a sense, vortexes to higher dimensions. Kotze has linked imagery from an astounding amount and variety of pop culture sources, including cartoons, mainstream Hollywood films, cult classics, posters, websites and even videogames of the stargate concept.

Interestingly, Jake’s research sometimes finds specific individuals, who he calls resonators, associated with certain reoccurring esoteric symbols and patterns. An example would be his observation of synchronistic connections between actor Hugh Jackman and the stargate motifs. This line of thought sounds preposterous on the surface, but Kotze often provides a surprisingly large and detailed collection of evidence to explain the rationale for his conclusions. Using an expansive knowledge of esoteric symbolism and example after example of sometimes striking data and imagery, it’s enough to make even a hardened cynic raise an eyebrow.

To skeptics, such synchronistic patterns involving pop culture celebrities might seem uncomfortably close to fixation or clinical obsession (e.g., Hinckley’s obsession with Jodie Foster, or Chapman’s with John Lennon). Though it’s common for most people who regularly experience synchronicities to become obsessed by the idea of synchronicity, Kotze is less concerned with celebrities than the symbols or archetypes they might represent. He has no interest in deifying or meeting any of the individuals associated with synchronistic patterns, and he communicates in a lucid and well-referenced manner why he believes the connections exist, with no illusion that the people involved are consciously aware of it. As Kotze explained in a March 20, 2008 post on his The Blob website, regarding the Hugh Jackman-Stargate connection:

“This suggests, in my view, a non-local intelligence guiding the affairs of the universe rather than conscious tomfoolery on the part of a human agencies such as conspiring Hollywood magickians. The embedding of symbolism is too well orchestrated, subtle and concise. The noisy plotting and scheming of the human mind doesn’t directly create the phenomena charted by synchromysticism. The patterns found emanate from the same force that organizes uncountable numbers of snowflakes into unique (all being appreciably different) but certainly not individual (all comprising six way geometry) forms. The same force that animates this very moment you read this sentence, the moment of present awareness that is inseparable from who you are.”

Jake Kotze’s work got a boost in exposure after Henrik Palmgren’s Red Ice Creations site began featuring articles and videos from Brave New World Order. Henrik also recorded a series of podcast interviews with Jake throughout 2007. In addition, Kotze was the guest for the premiere edition of the “Occult of Personality” podcast in October of 2006 and was interviewed on Kent Bentkowski’s “The Kentroversy Tapes” podcast in October of 2007.

Ben Fairhall, creator of the Battling the Behemoth website, was an early supporter of the idea of synchromysticism; Fairhall’s blog was quickly followed by Todd Campbell’s Peering Through the Looking Glass. Over a brief period of time, a rapidly increasing number of websites have adopted the word and supported the principles of synchromysticism. Though the online synchromystic community is a recent phenomenon, the fundamental concepts that synchromysticism draws upon have connections to mystic traditions as old as shamanism. Seeing esoteric and mystical significance in the seemingly mundane is characteristic of varied metaphysical philosophies around the world such as Hermeticism, Taoism, Sufism, Kabbalah and teachings of the Pythagorean mystery schools.

In the modern age, ideas behind synchromysticism have influenced in varying degrees works of pioneers as diverse as Helena P. Blavatsky, William S. Burroughs, Aleister Crowley, James Joyce, Carl Jung, Stanley Kubrick, Timothy Leary, John Lilly, Terence McKenna, and Grant Morrison – most of whom have been referenced in Kotze’s research. A feature that makes synchromysticism unique from other forms of synchronicity is its focus on esoteric mystical symbolism and the use of communications technology to document, share and compare synchronicities related to such symbols from ancient traditions throughout the mass media landscape. Besides its obvious connection to media, Jungian psychology and the occult, from what I’ve gathered through articles, interviews, videos and other sources related to synchromysticism, the field also has strong associations with the psychedelic experience and conspiracy theory.

A relatively well-known example of proto-synchromystic writing is James Shelby Downard’s essay on the Kennedy assassination, “King-Kill 33″ [1] (popularized by the Marilyn Manson song of the same name). In it, he collects a vast array of symbolic clues and associations that leads him to speculate that Kennedy’s assassination was part of a Masonic ritual. Masonic aspects of synchromystic symbology have also been the subject of lectures and articles by Jordan Maxwell, Richard C. Hoagland and Jay Weidner. Kotze has made references to all of these writers and they likely influenced his thoughts on synchronicity. In his interview on “The Kentroversy Tapes” podcast, Jake specifically cites Robert Anton Wilson as one of his primary sources of synchromystic inspiration, which shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone familiar with Wilson’s writings. In much of his work, most notably Cosmic Trigger: The Final Secret of the Illuminati, Wilson wrote extensively on the subjects of synchronicity, conspiracy, psychedelics and magick.

Synchronistically, in Cosmic Trigger Wilson relates how shortly after he published Illuminatus in 1975, William Grimstad (a.k.a. Jim Brandon) corresponded with him to share channeled information from people allegedly contacted by extraterrestrial intelligences. The information corresponded in detail to esoteric topics Wilson and Timothy Leary had been confidentially discussing at the time. Later, Grimstad sent Wilson a tape called “Sirius Rising” that he and close friend and collaborator James Shelby Downard recorded that contained some of the same information featured in Downard’s “King-Kill 33″ essay. Wilson called the Grimstad-Downard theory “…the most absurd, the most incredible, the most ridiculous Illuminati theory of them all.” But he added, “The only trouble is that, after the weird data we have already surveyed, the Grimstad-Downard theory may not sound totally unbelievable to us.” [2]

In the same book Wilson disclosed his distant link to Lee Harvey Oswald (Oswald’s ex-wife lived with the sister of Wilson’s family doctor). Wilson was also a friend of Kerry Thornley (co-founder of Discordianism, the only religion Wilson embraced) who befriended Oswald when they served together in the marines. Their mutual friend Greg Hill (a.k.a. Malaclypse the Younger, the other co-founder of Discordianism) had a girlfriend who served as district attorney Jim Garrison’s secretary in the summer of 1963. She used his Xerox machine after-hours to print the earliest Discordian text, “Principia Discordia or How the West Was Lost“. In the fall of 1966 Garrison began his investigation into the JFK assassination, later dramatized in the Oliver Stone film JFK (1991) which itself has been a subject of synchromystic analysis by Dean Grace. [3]

The connection between Kerry Thornley, Lee Harvey Oswald and Jim Garrison was further documented by countercultural and Fortean historian Adam Gorightly in his book The Prankster and the Conspiracy. [4] Though it was briefly mentioned in Cosmic Trigger, Gorightly’s book covered in greater detail a falling out between Kerry Thornley and Robert Anton Wilson due to a disagreement in the interpretation of coincidences surrounding Kerry’s connection to the JFK assassination and Kerry’s increasing sense of paranoia. Kerry began to suspect the coincidences were an intentional manipulation possibly involving the CIA, Mafia and/or Naval Intelligence, and even went so far as to accuse close friends of being a part of a plot. Wilson remained agnostic on his views on the causes of those and other coincidences but entertained ideas ranging from subjective perception, the collective unconscious, parapsychology, quantum physics and a holographic universe. This open-ended view of synchronicity is more in alignment with the synchromystic view, while Kerry’s approach (minus delusional paranoia) is closer to those of relatively conventional conspiracy researchers such as Alex Constantine, John Judge, Michael C. Ruppert, and Webster Griffin Tarpley.

For synchromystics such as Kotze, the causes of synchronicities are not as important as their possible meaning (though he has considered theories similar to Wilson’s, such as communication from a conscious universe and the notion that we may be unconsciously drawn to certain symbols due to genetic memory embedded in our DNA). Similar to ongoing arguments about whether the origins of crop circles are man-made or cosmic, their existence and questions about what they might possibly mean are what’s truly fascinating to those who study them closely. Not surprisingly, Kotze is also interested in crop circles because he has found that some share the same reoccurring esoteric symbols as ones found in his own research. In the summer of 2007, he investigated crop circles up close while visiting friends in the UK, including fellow synchromystic Ben Fairhall.

One of the many writers, bloggers and artists connected to the growing online synchromystic community is Peter Joseph, whose film Zeitgeist (2007) (which used material from Jordan Maxwell) became an Internet sensation. Other prominent personalities within this group include Adam Star, Afferismoon, Christopher Knowles, Jeff Wells, and Steve Willner. Andras Jones is the creator and host of “Radio 8 Ball”, a cross between a music program and talk show in which callers ask questions for which Jones interprets a synchronistic response using a random shuffle mode on a CD player. Though his analysis leans more towards the psychological than the esoteric, some of his interpretations of symbols contained in lyrics delve into synchromysticism. In March of 2008, Henrik Lemon, a DJ from Sweden put The Synchromystic Forum online which expanded and solidified the community and accelerated the exchange of pertinent ideas.

As an indication of the growing popularity of the synchronicity meme, in 2007 there was a Hollywood take on it called The Number 23. The film tackled the subject in a relatively unimaginative, simplistic, unsubtle and moralistic manner typical of the average contemporary Hollywood product, however the filmmakers seem to be connected to synchromystic patterns Jake Kotze has written about. The protagonist is played by Jim Carrey who, according to Kotze, is a resonator for the Green Man archetype. The director Joel Schumacher is a co-writer for the screenplay of The Wiz (1978), a film linked to a pattern Kotze calls “The 911 Stargate”. The film’s cinematographer, Matthew Libatique also worked on Darren Aronofsky’s The Fountain (2006), which was featured in a December 7, 2006 post on the Brave New World Order site. Libatique first collaborated with Aronofsky for the movie Pi (1998), a much better film about a man obsessed by the mystical significance of numbers and how they fit into synchronistic patterns.

Two other films with a more sophisticated view of synchronicity are Richard Linklater’s Waking Life (2001) (which also covered a number of related philosophical and metaphysical issues), and Laurent Firode’s Happenstance (2000), starring Audrey Tautou, who is better known as the protagonist of Amelie (2001). Happenstance and Amelie share in common a theme of synchronicity as a potentially beneficial karmic force. In contrast to The Number 23, which depicted the phenomenon as a source of fear and paranoia, these films (and, sometimes, actual experience) show how if used with intuition, synchronicities can guide one towards happiness and fulfillment.

Some conspiracy researchers have a cynical view towards synchromysticism because they consider it too “new-agey” – a diversion or escape from more important issues. Such arguments may be missing the point because synchromysticism is not a substitute for para-political investigation, but rather a fascinating aspect of it. The objective of such research is to seek the truth no matter where it leads. If one discovers obvious, conspicuous synchronistic patterns, those facts shouldn’t be ignored or dismissed simply because they have no standard rational explanations. Synchromysticism doesn’t necessarily rule out the possibility of manipulations by secret societies or criminal elites, but it offers a glimmer of hope because it implies that even conspirators themselves might not have complete understanding of, and control over, situations or their outcomes. It can be beautiful and comforting to realize the universe might be conscious, as opposed to a lifeless mechanistic construct, at a time when the reductive materialist paradigm seems to be leading us into a dead end.

A more common critique of synchromysticism is that anyone can connect anything to anything, making it meaningless. From a synchromystic point of view, this could be a supporting argument, because they view synchronicities as being ever-present and able to be seen by anyone, not just experts. Synchromysticism can be viewed as a new art form that encourages creation of meaning and associations with the entirety of one’s reality. In a sense, it’s no surprise that synchromysticism has links to conspiracy theory, psychedelics and occult traditions because all three are methods to deprogram oneself from cultural conditioning, a means to connect a diverse range of information and ideas, as well as a way to see the world from a more open perspective. It’s an alchemical technique to create meaning out of the chaos of current events and seemingly vapid commercial detritus that bombards us on a daily basis, and to add new layers of meaning to more enduring and celebrated works of art.

Whether one believes in the occult aspect of synchromysticism or not, it’s a fascinating new field from a psychological, philosophical, aesthetic, anthropological, and/or quantum point of view. Synchromysticism reinforces the interconnectivity of everyone and everything, and empowers us to reinterpret social reality to in a sense “decode” the universe and ourselves. Using synchromysticism as a new language or tool can help us forecast and respond to trends developing in the collective unconscious, noosphere, morphogenetic field etc. – to reclaim culture and steer it in a more positive direction or, at the very least, provide a fun and interesting new application for mass media. We can’t create a better world if we can’t control the way we perceive the world, or stretch our imagination to envision something better. New art forms such as Kotze’s, which are independent, democratized, relevant and visionary, can effect change by enabling us to co-create new maps of reality, an essential precursor to conscious evolution.

Notes:

1. Parfrey, Adam, ed. “Apocalypse Culture” New York: Amok Press, 1987.

2. Wilson, Robert Anton. “The Cosmic Trigger: The Final Secret of the Illuminati” Berkely, CA: Pocket Books, 1977. Pp 170-173.

3. Grace, Dean. “Subliminal Images in Oliver Stone’s JFK.” “Secret and Suppressed” ed. Keith, Jim. Los Angeles, CA: Feral House, 1993. Pp 93-96.

4. Gorightly, Adam. “The Prankster and the Conspiracy” New York: Paraview Press, 2003.

Images by Jake Kotze, used by permission of artist.

Jake Kotze’s Websites:

http://thebravenewworldorder.blogspot.com/

http://rundonotwalk.blogspot.com/

http://youtube.com/user/Seallion

http://dilluminati.blogspot.com/

http://trickytimetimes.blogspot.com/

http://mushroom-atlantis.blogspot.com/

I am collecting links to free dharma teaching for those who can’t afford the $10.00 to $20.00 that many centers ask for a class. I am sure it is worth it and I understand the need to pay bills and rent, but I barely have enough to pay my bills and rent. This doesn’t negate the need or importance of hearing or learning the Dharma. I think it is important and there are sources that offer it for free or cheap to those who can’t afford it. If you know of any more sources to add to the list please let me know.

v A great source to begin with is http://www.youtube.com/ simply type in Buddhism along with any specific topic you would like to learn about, there is endless teaching on this site.

v Another great source are podcasts, search your favorite podcast sites for the Dharma.

v Some sites that offer audio teaching . . .

o http://www.aci-la.org/teach_marut.html

o http://www.lamamarut.org/?page_id=44

o http://diydharma.org/DIY-audio

o http://www.upaya.org/teachings/podcasts.php

o http://www.fpmt.org/media/buddhism_audio_teachings.asp

o http://www.shambhala.org/teachings/

o http://www.unfetteredmind.com/audio/

o http://www.hardlight.org/podcast/archive01.html

o http://www.theidproject.com/podcast.htm

o http://www.dharmaocean.org/ProgramsandCourses/OnlineAudio/tabid/190/Default.aspx

o http://www.bswa.org/modules/mydownloads/viewcat.php?cid=4&orderby=dateD&PHPSESSID=28f1095b5ce5c4aa8be290642bd277c7

o http://www.freebuddhistaudio.com/

o http://www.dhammaweb.net/videodb/viewpage.php

o Naropa Poetics Audio Archives - http://www-tracey.archive.org/details/naropa#forum

o www.lamrim.org (all sorts of talks you can download & listen to from HHDL & other lamas)

o www.lywa.org

o www.buddhanet.net

o www.accesstoinsight.org

o www.dharmatalks.org

o www.kunkyab.org

o www.sacred-texts.org

o www.lime.com/meditation_

o www.lime.com/meditaion_room

o www.fpmt.org/

o http://arobuddhism.org/

“See the whole thing is a world full of rucksack wanderers, Dharma Bums refusing to subscribe to the general demand that they consume production and therefore have to work for the privilege of consuming, all that crap they didn’t really want anyway such as refrigerators, TV sets, cars, and general junk you finally always see a week later in the garbage anyway, all of them imprisoned in a system of work, produce, consume, work, produce, consume, I see a vision of a great rucksack revolution thousands or even millions of young Americans wandering around with rucksacks, going up to mountains to pray, making children laugh and old men glad, making young girls happy and old girls happier, all of ‘em Zen Lunatics who go about writing poems that happen to appear in their heads for no reason and also by being kind and also by strange unexpected acts keep giving visions of eternal freedom to everybody and to all living creatures.” –Jack Kerouac

“All television is educational television.  The question is:  what is it teaching?”
Nicholas Johnson

“The Toxicity of TV” by Lama Marut   http://www.lamamarut.org/?page_id=103 The last few issues we’ve been talking about the importance of “fighting the power” of consumer capitalism in order to cultivate contentment – the opposite of the dissatisfaction engendered in us by advertising and the beginning of the true happiness we seek.  A spiritual life requires a renunciation of its antithesis, the values of secularism, and for us this means rejecting the ideology of shopping mall culture which is entirely designed to keep us discontented and unhappy.
	The all-pervasive and thoroughly corrosive worldview of consumer capitalism is principally disseminated through the mass media, and most especially through television.
In his classical cautionary tale, 1984 (originally published in 1949, long before my family had its first TV), George Orwell imagined a future where everyone would have a television that was on pretty much all the time, broadcasting mindless pap or violence and propaganda designed to keep the populace in a constant state of unhappiness.  That time has come.  We are living the nightmare Orwell foresaw. 99% of all American households now possess at least one TV, while 66% have three or more.  The TV is on in the average home 6 hours and 47 minutes a day.  The typical person now watches over four hours per day, or 28 hours a week.
	That’s two months of non-stop television viewing a year.   By the time the average person is 65, he or she will have spent nine years watching TV.
These numbers are staggering.  And they go on.  According to statistics, parents spend all of 3.5 minutes per week in “meaningful conversation” with their children, compared to the 1,680 minutes per week the average kid spends in front of the TV.  While a child typically spends 900 hours per year in school, he or she spends 1500 hours per year glued to the TV set.  Children spend more time watching television than in any other activity except sleep.
It’s not just the sheer number of hours of our precious and finite human life we waste staring at the TV.   What, exactly, are we and our children spending huge parts of our lives passively watching? First of all, a whole lot of commercials cleverly designed to instill over and over again the idea that we should never be satisfied, that we should always “need” more, and that our happiness lies outside ourselves – in money, acquisitions, status, or entertaining experiences.  The average kid sees 20,000 commercials a year.
	By the time the typical American watcher is 65, he or she has seen 2,000,000 TV ads.  Two million.
And then there is the violence. The average child has witnessed 8,000 murders on TV by the time he or she finishes elementary school.  By age 18, that same kid has seen 200,000 violent acts. In case you were wondering if watching hundreds of thousands of violent acts on TV has any effect on people, 2,888 out of 3,000 studies show that TV violence is a causal factor in the real life version. According to a report issued by the American Psychological Association, children often behave differently after they’ve been watching violent programs on television.  Kids who watched violent shows were more likely to argue and strike out at their playmates. TV inures us all to violence (making possible, for example, mass support of wars waged in our name) by depending on it so heavily for what supposedly is “entertainment.”  Watching other people harming and killing each other for our amusement calluses us to the suffering of our fellow human beings.
	Kurt Vonnegut cynically remarked that it is “One of the few good things about modern times: If you die horribly on television, you will not have died in vain. You will have entertained us.”
And its only getting worse.  As the tolerance level for TV violence goes up, the producers of such “drama” shows just amp things up accordingly. “Violence is like the nicotine in cigarettes,” says one observer.  “The reason why the media has to pump ever more violence into us is because we’ve built up a tolerance.  In order to get the same high, we need ever-higher levels. . . . The television industry has gained its market share through an addictive and toxic ingredient.” Toxic indeed.  And, apparently, highly addictive.
	If you are serious about your spiritual life, you can start by turning the TV off.  Get your time and sanity back.  Not watching television is an easy way to recover a bit of peace in one’s daily life.
Having weaned yourself from the addiction, eventually just get rid of your TV.  You won’t miss it.  In fact, you’ll be suddenly aware of how much more time you have for things that matter and how much more peace of mind you have automatically by just not exposing your consciousness over and over again to what is being broadcast. In Orwell’s book, the protagonist is astonished to discover that in the homes of the elite the television can actually be turned off.  Be a real individual.  Be part of the 1% of the population who isn’t willingly allowing themselves to be mentally poisoned over and over again, for hours and hours every day. We become what we repeatedly put in front of our consciousness.  Try to remember that the next time you’re tempted to turn on the TV.

Episode 61: Buddhist Magic: What is Possible with the Powers?

http://www.fallingfruit.tv/episodes/buddhist-magic-what-possible-powers

Posted March 3, 2008 Have you ever considered what it would be like to cultivate, what in the Buddhist tradition are called the siddhis or magical powers? Buddhist magic is an endlessly fascinating topic, and in this episode we speak with Daniel Ingram, one of our favorite guests here on Buddhist Geeks, about the powers.

We cover their historical treatment by some of the major traditions, including the Zen, Tibetan, and Theravada. Daniel also gives us his first-hand experience having explored the powers, and considers the implications of doing public magic, and whether or not this kind of magic is “objectively real”. We also discuss the ethical issues involved in using magic and issues of reproducibility.

Finally, we take a look at the ancient text, The Fruits of the Homeless Life, and explore what was said in that text about the powers, especially about the greatest power of all, the power of insight.

Download this episode: download mp3
Related Resources:

- InteractiveBuddha.com - Daniel’s website
- The Dharma Overground - A community-wiki run by Daniel
- Pa Auk Sayadaw
- Mahasi Sayadaw
- Other Talks with Daniel Ingram on Buddhist Geeks
- The Fruits of the Homeless Life | The Samaññaphala Sutta

Interview by Sarah L. Myers

http://www.staythirstymedia.com/1106stm/HTML/1106doze.html 

Your last exhibit, The Left Hand Path (Jonathan LeVine Gallery) in New York focused on your roots in graffiti as well as metaphysical and ethereal ideologies. Tell me a little about your exhibition and the pieces included.

These were basically all new paintings, all new works that have not been previously exhibited except for one, and they were based on, and enveloped from previous studies and sketches of metaphysical theories that I have been studying over the years, about chaos magic theories. H.P. Lovecraft was an inspiration, people who have theories about time and space, and I’ve just been really inspired by that recently so I just wanted to touch on darkness and shadows and refracted light and spirits more than usual.

You represent dimensions and material planes in your paintings through unfinished, incomplete characters. How does this relate to your stream-of-consciousness method of painting?

Incomplete characters who are fragmented, who look like they’re kind of ascending and descending are basically just a metaphor for my life and experiences I’ve gone through, people in my life I’ve engaged with, people who have been fractured or basically have holes in their characters - they’re windows to the soul. They say the eyes are the windows to the soul but I wanted to show their frame, their essence exuding from their insides, from their shell. I want to show the different modes. They’re incomplete because they’re still evolving.

My characters represent the past, present, and future, and they kind of come into existence by themselves. When I draw, and when I paint, I don’t dictate to the characters. I don’t do many studies. I kind of like basically let them come through the painting, through little nuances and little things that come, that peek out through the paint little anomalies in the paint and it could be something as subtle as that. At any given moment my eye might catch something and I’ll say I’ve had enough of this character. That’s where he is in his evolution, I’ve got to move on to the next thing. So when I do a painting I look in all directions It’s kind of like I have a mental picture of the painting as a whole and things pop into the void of the canvas or the void of the wall or whatever I’m working, or whatever medium I’m working on. They kind of come into existence through these little portals or windows in my head, or through sight, or just through feeling. So that’s the stream of consciousness in the painting. It’s definitely free flow and it definitely develops on its own. It’s like I’m the vehicle, I’m not the essence of it. I don’t dictate to the painting, the painting pretty much drives me through it.

Read More . . . 

Related Links:

http://www.dozegreen.com/ 

http://www.dexigner.com/design_news/7282.html 

from undergrowth

. . . “Sometimes it can feel quite strange, like you’re not yourself, you’re possessed or whatever,” Orryelle explains. “But a lot of the time I feel like it’s all something within me anyway, something within us all. Even scientists acknowledge this now with the whole DNA thing, that everything we’ve all experienced is within us as a potential, it’s just a matter of accessing it. If it was completely outside us then how could we experience or know it? [So] invoking different deities or archetypes is like expressing different parts of us that we might not normally acknowledge or tap into, a more complete awareness.” . . .

It makes sense then, that he called his magickal group the ‘Hermaphroditic Order of the Silver Dusk’, both as a counterpoint to the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and his own mutational experiments. Orryelle describes it as “an art movement [in which] we totally immerse ourselves in magick. We plunge ourselves into the abyss if need be and see what’s really there in the deeper recesses of the subconscious. We use art to do that and to explore the deep self. We don’t just explore a bit of magick symbolism in our artwork. We actually use art to fully explore magick and the untapped and unknown – that’s the true meaning of the occult, the hidden.” . . .

. . . Wow. Heavy. Duty. Shit. What strikes me most about Orryelle is the sheer audacity of what he’s doing, of the magickal life he’s living, beyond the realms of everyday perception. He’s brought his magickal self to the internet via his extensive ‘Mutation Parlour’ site and now his myspace page, which he uses to network the global magickal community for future ritual performances, and is the editor of a printed magickal journal, SilKMilK MagiZain. He’s also a prolific visual and sonic artist, and has recently launched the second edition of his BOOK of KAOS Tarot Deck. His artwork on the tarot cards revels in a raw, elemental energy that captures the images of the Gods and spirits he works with on the astral level and grounds them with ink and paper, often with erotic imagery. “A lot of erotic art touches upon the realms of esoterica, since ‘occult’ means ‘hidden’ and there are many realms of sexuality still taboo.” Orryelle calls his art ‘Esoterotica’, as it “displays the inner kundalini energy which propels eroticism, rather than just the exoteric or outer play of forms.”

Orryelle’s ultimate goal with the global chakra workings is to culminate the work at the crown chakra (in Tibet) by Solstice, 2012, because there’s a large collective vision that there’s going to be some kind of mass transformation in or by that year. And transformation is what he thrives on. “It feels like the planet’s kundalini, her fire, her collective energy as an organism is transforming and awakening as a natural progression, perhaps as a response to what’s going on in the world,” Orryelle muses. And as she wakes, the magick is returning, or maybe it’s just that more of us are able to see it once again.
read more . . . http://undergrowth.org/magick_man_by_rak_razam

From http://www.hermetic.com/spare/auto_drawing.html

ut of the flesh of our mothers come dreams and memories of the Gods. Of other kind than the normal inducement of interest and increasing skill, there exists a continual pressure upon the artist of which he is sometimes partially conscious but rarely entirely aware. he learns early or late in his career that power of literal reproduction (such as that of the photographic apparatus) is not more than slightly useful to him. He is compelled to find out from his artist predecessors the existence, in representation of real form, of supersessions of immediate accuracies; he discovers within himself a selective conscience and he is satisfied, normally, in large measure by the extensive field afforded by this broadened and simplified consciousness. Yet beyond this is a region and that a much greater one, for exploration. The objective understanding, as we see, has to be attacked by the artist and a subconscious method, for correction of conscious visual accuracy, must be used. No amount of visual skill and consciousness of error will produce a good drawing. A recent book on drawing by a well-known painter is a case in point; there the examples of masters of draughtsmanship may be compared with the painter-author’s own, side by side, and the futility of mere skill and interest examined. Therefore to proceed further, it is neccesary to dispose of the “subject” in art also (that is to say the subject in the illustrative or complex sense). Thus to clear the mind of inessentials permits through a clear and transparent medium, without prepossessions of any kind, the most definite and simple forms and ideas to attain expression.

Notes on Automatic Drawing

An “automatic” scribble of twisting and interlacing lines permits the germ of an idea in the subconscious mind to express, or at least suggest itself to the consciousness. From this mass of procreative shapes, full of fallacy, a feeble embryo of idea may be selected and trained by the artist to full growth and power. By these means, may the profoundest depths of memory be drawn upon and the springs of instinct tapped.

Yet, let it not be thought that a person not an artist may by these means not become one: but those artists who are hampered in expression, who feel limited by the hard conventions of the day and wish for freedom but have not attained to it, these may find in it a power and a liberty elsewhere undiscoverable. thus writes Leonardo da Vinci:-”Among other things, I shall not scruple to discover a new method of assisting the invention; which though trifling in appearance, may yet be of considerable service in opening the mind and putting it upon the scent of new thoughts, and it is this: if you look at some old wall covered with dirt, or the odd appearance of some streaked stones, you may discover several things like landskips (sic), battles, clouds, uncommon attitude, draperies, etc. Out of this confused mass of objects the mind will be furnished with abundance of designs and subjects, perfectly new.”

From another, a mystical writer, “Renounce thine own will that the law of God may be within thee.”

The curious expression of character given by handwriting is due to the automatic or subconscious nature that it acquires by habit. So Automatic drawing, one of the simplest of psychic phenomena, is a means of characteristic expression, and if used with courage and honesty, of recording supconscious activities in the mind. The mental mechanisms used are those common in dreams, which create quick perception of relations in the unexpected, as wit, and psycho-neurotic symptoms. Hence it appears that single or non-consciousness is an essential condition and as in all inspiration the product of involution not invention.

Automatism being the manifestation of latent desires (or wishes) the significance of the forms (the ideas) obtained represent the previously unrecorded obsessions.

Art becomes, by this illuminism or ecstatic power, a functional activity expressing in a symbolical language the desire towards joy unmodified-the sense of the Mother of all things-not of experience.

This means of vital expression releases the fundamental static truths which are repressed by education and customary habit and lie dormant in the mind. It is the means of becoming courageously individual; it implies spontaneity and disperses the cause of unrest and ennui.

The dangers of this form of expression come from prejudice and personal bias of such nature as fixed intellectual conviction or personal religion (intolerance). These produce ideas of threat, displeasure or fear, and become obsessions.

In the ecstatic condition of revelation from the subconscious, the mind elevates the sexual or inherited powers (this has no reference to moral theory or practise) and depresses the intellectual qualities. So a new atavistic responsibility is attained by daring to believe-to possess one’s own beliefs-without attempting to rationalize spurious ideas from prejudiced and tainted intellectual sources.

Automatic drawings can be obtained by such methods as concentrating on a *Sigil-by any means of exhausting mind and body pleasantly in order to obtain a condition of non-consciousness-by wishing in opposition to the real desire after acquiring an organic impulse towards drawing.
The Hand must be trained to work freely and without control, by practise in making simple forms with a continuous involved line without afterthought, i.e. its intention should just escape consciousness.

Drawings should be made by allowing the hand to run freely with the least possible deliberation. In time shapes will be found to evolve, suggesting conceptions, forms and ultimately having personal or individual style.

the mind in a state of oblivion, without desire towards reflection or pursuit of materialistic intellectual suggestions, is in a condition to produce successful drawings of one’s personal ideas, symbolic in meaning and wisdom.

By this means sensation may be visualized.

first published in FORM MAGAZINE Vol. 1 No. 1, April 1916

Related post http://0uterspace.wordpress.com/2008/01/27/drawings-and-images-feed-the-writing-process/#comment-14

 From http://www.kung-fu.se/orginalshaolin2.htm

The key points of practicing are about the”void” (also know as Emptiness). Which are”the emptiness of heart”,the Emptiness of body , “the Emptiness of eyes” .

The emptiness of heart (Xin Kong) enable you to purify your heart calm your mind, which can make the practitioner thoughtless and fearless.

The emptiness of the body (Sheng Kong) makes you release any tightness of your body so you can move fluently and smoothly.

The emptiness of the eyes ( Mu Kong) makes you consider everybody and everything beneath one’s notice, so that you can be supercilious, and show no fear when facing your enemy.

So when you practice gong-fu, first you must understand the theory behind the method. Also you have to understand every part of your body within the movements and what it is used for. Only when you understand these, your practice will be effective and efficient. The theories we have explained above are only a part of the requirements of the practice of Xin Yi Ba. There are much more theories which can not be put into words, but the practitioner must experience personally through training.

Xin Yi Ba is known as the highest level of Shaolin gong-fu, there are some certain postures and movements to practice with the requirements we explained above, by this practice you body can generate the most power and you can be proficient in the fighting strategy. And the practice can improve your gong-fu to the unlimited state. If one can reach the peak of the practice of Xin Yi Ba, then any movements performed can be called Xin Yi Ba.

http://www.realitysandwich.com/node/920 

Erin Shaw

Jeff Warren’s recent book The Head Trip: Adventures on the Wheel of Consciousness samples different states of consciousness like lucid dreams, daydreams, parasomnias, trance, “the zone,” and even meditative states like the “pure conscious event.”

Although there is a wealth of interesting and pertinent information about the various states of consciousness, it all points to a pretty broad conclusion: only collective consciousness can solve collective problems. This means that the analytic consciousness that has helped us survive as individuals is not suitable to solve the collective problems facing us now, such as exhausted resources, disappearing species, and nuclear war.

Whereas survival called for an “every man for himself” attitude before, our new collective problems require “a consciousness of the interconnectedness of life.” It is possible that a better understanding of consciousness, especially trance, neurofeedback, and meditative states, can help us in the effort to solve our collective problems. In the meantime, The Head Trip is a good introduction to the few states of consciousness we understand now.

What the Hell?

In China, the word Hell doesn’t carry the same negative connotation as western Hell. The popular story has it that zealous Christian missionaries warned all non-Christian Chinese they’d “go to Hell” upon death. True or not, it sounds plausible.

In a classic case of misinterpretation, the Chinese believed Hell was the English term for the Afterlife. The word was incorporated and printed on the traditional Chinese Afterlife Monetary Offerings, otherwise known as Hell Bank Notes. Some refer to the notes as Spirit Money.

I love the denominations. This first set shows the highest dollar amount I’ve found yet: $8 billion.

More . . .

I came across this article while developing a short essay where in I discuss the meta model of chaos magick and how it can serve as a model of everything. It is interesting that this Ken Wilbur has developed a model of everything and now magickians are using it to fit magick into. Now I am going to have to look into this AQAL to see if I am reinventing the wheel or not. I suspect not. I think that from where I am coming from, the AQAL will fit into the Chaos Magick Meta Model rather that the other way around. I am interested in this AQAL medicine wheel diagram thing though. All these diagrams and charts that I am coming across in this integral approach just seem like more of the personal and group thinking tools that I come across at school, of which I will post soon, linking them all under the meta paradigm of chaos magick.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Written by Alan
Thursday, 26 April 2007

Via: http://www.thebaptistshead.co.uk/