TMK on Education

A very short, very poignant video by Terence on what education is in history, and, what it is for these days.

Experience in the Face of Impermanence.

This powerful clip from Blade Runner begs the question, does human experience really mean much in the face of impermanence?

If all the universe will one day be sucked into a black hole will even the grand achievements in humanity's future amount to anything in the mind of eternity?

All we really have is the power of infinity within the present moment.  Experience shared between peoples, even if it doesn't last, holds something tangible that exists in stark contrast to the endless emptiness of time.

The Dual-Edged Sword of Cannabis Use

Cannabis is becoming more and more normal to talk about and use these days.  It's legalization is a hot topic on TV and potheads nationwide are becoming more and more vocal on the widely published benefits of its use.

Since this kind of talk is so prevalent I won't go into it here, but rather, will be relating a few subjective aspects of cannabis use I noticed from when I was an all day everyday user.

Cannabis use makes even the most mundane tasks enjoyable, or atleast, bearable.  Pulling weeds, taking out the trash, doing dishes, working at a call-center, etc...all become more enjoyable after a few puffs of the pot.  It seems to help one notice the "fun" or interesting aspects of any activity by giving one interesting thoughts that stem from, but, may not be even closely related to the activity.  This non-linear thinking is enjoyable and intellectually stimulating, as many a pothead who had a million dollar idea while doing laundry will tell you.

While it makes these activities more enjoyable through the addition of the [more than usual] non-linear thoughts, this aspect of the high also takes one out of the moment and into the mind.  Which is surely OK to do once in awhile, but, when it occurs constantly, it can cause problems.  The self begins to retreat into an escape within the mind and away from reality, as this happens reality becomes more dreamlike, and a sort of low-level disassociation from life occurs.  One begins chasing thoughts rather than life.  Although some choose to live in this state, once one has left it for a period it is easier to see it as the escape it is.

The other detrimental aspect of constant weed smoking is, that it makes one complacent with where they are in life.  If someone is living at their parent's house or has a dead-end job this feels OK as long as one is high.  Feeling of, "Just go with it." or "Don't make waves." come to mind and one becomes satisfied with what is, rather than striving for something higher.  I and many other potheads believe this is some kind of enlightenment and that being free of the desire to achieve anything makes one "higher" spiritually.  Feelings of disgust at those stuck in "the achievement trip" or "ego trip" may arise and one distances themselves from those who have goals or visions of the future.  Soon one is surrounded by those "holy" folk who live only for the present and have no relations with a future.

What one finds after one chooses to, or is forced to leave the pothead world, is that achievements and goals is what makes life worth living.  One needn't strive after buying sports cars or becoming a CEO[material trips], but, finding what we desire, striving after it, and achieving is one of the most rewarding parts of life.  One can decide to build their body up to a picture of health, create art, travel the world, meet new people...etc.

Although I have met people who cannabis did not slow down from engaging reality or achieving goals, me and most other heavy users I knew had these two problems, stemming from cannabis use, that really slowed their life down.

Cannabis used more sparingly can become an ally but one must watch out for these warning signs of cannabis taking away from the rest of life.

Try to find your sweet spot.

I'm Baaaaack

Well I'm back and better than ever.  Don't worry untold millions of readers I have returned.

A Conversation on LSD

Timothy Leary has a bunch of counter-culture folk over to discuss LSD.

A Video on Avoiding the Pitfalls of Fear and Conspiracy Theory

Video made by a friend.  Generating conspiracy theories and fear gives MORE power to the elites...

Some More Dr. Shulgin

Awesome website with list of questions, and answers, to Dr. Shulgin on various topics.
Ask Doctor Shulgin

We Die to Remember What We Live to Forget

Awesome article on Nietzsche, death and rebirth, and tripping, check it out.

We Die to Remember What We Live to Forget

The Failed War on Drugs

The War on Drugs has cost us billions of dollars.  Many lives have been ruined.  Little, if any, good comes from this policy towards psychotropic substances.

My man Graham Hancock says it very well on his website.  Calling it, " The War on Consciousness".

Graham Hancock's The War on Consciousness

Culture in Decline (Video)

Cool Video by creator of Zeitgeist films, Peter Joseph

Has alot of poignant points.  I thought the bit about wants being engineered into desires to serve advertising and consumption was really interesting and obvious once one thinks about history.

It was the third in the series here are the first two.

Culture in Decline Episode 1

Culture in Decline Episode 2

The Pain of Separation and Duality

When one is involved in a spiritual practice, such as: hallucinogens, meditation, yoga, tantra, etc.  One will come to a difficult point in their practice where they begin to see wrong throughout all aspects of their normal life.

One may have trouble relating to friends, parents, teachers, romantic partners or neighbors.  It may feel like all of these people are against one's self and are hindering one from progressing spiritually.

One may find fault in their daily routine such as their job or usual pleasurable habits.

The desire to "renounce the world" and go practice in seclusion may begin to enter one's mind.

This part of the spiritual path is often referred to as, "The Dark Night of the Soul."  It can be a dark time indeed and can truly feel like all is wrong in one's life.  One may question their whole spiritual practice, as they believed spiritual practice would help them feel, "good".  At this point one may feel anything but good.

The thing to do when one hits this wall is not to cut-off contact with all personal relationships, quit their job, or renounce the world.  But, rather, realize that the pain one is experiencing stems from their inner-realization of separateness and duality within their experience of reality.

One is actually just realizing how painful the false duality we impose on reality is, but, the mind tries to blame this intense feeling on aspects of our daily life.

The only remedy for this is trudge through the pain, not make any hasty decisions or lash out at others, but, to continue practicing and see through the false duality binding us to a world of pain.

KEEP PRACTICING and you will come out the other side.

The horror, the horror

 Sometimes thats life

Awesome Discussion between Two Mental Giants(Ram Dass and Terence McKenna)

This video shows Terence and Ram Dass discussing all manner of topics during a lunch in Prague.  The video exemplifies both men's mental and spiritual views and is a stunning example of two men meeting for the first time and communicating effortlessly.

Work or Struggle

Is it better to work 40+ hours a week at a job that is not rewarding and leaves little time for you to enjoy life yet, it provides wealth.  Or is it better to work a bullshit low-paying job 20-30hours a week and scrape by with less money???

The one option seems to take time and compensate this fact by giving you more money in the little leisure time you have.  While the second option leaves you with a lot of time but little money to spread around this free-time.

This is an internal struggle I am currently facing.

Living without Meaning

After realizing our self's inherent nature as the void or nothingness a gap begins to form between our mind full of desires, and our actual mystical experience.  Our whole life is spent chasing different desires down numerous paths that all eventually bring us back to our naked empty self.  Once one sees that meaning in life is self-created then we can begin to direct and star in an epic of our choice.  The despair that may occur once one realizes that there is no inherent meaning in life can be filled with self-created meaning that benefits both our self and others.

I know I've spent months paralyzed by the lack of meaning or direction in my life but these downs have slowly transformed into ups.  I no longer utilize effort to achieve my goals but rather, I get out of the way and life happens.  This new mode of living frees up willpower from its usual occupation as a controller of self and allows me to use the will for creative endeavors.

Rather than an all encompassing meaning overlaid over my life each moment presents its own unique meaning to my self.

A Neo-tribal Manifesto

How is it with the info-sphere bombarding our American minds at every opportunity that we can still all be so apathetic?  We all know America is using an unfair amount of world resources and seems to be creating history's largest military in order to defend this claim to rape and pillage the earth and its peoples.  It is also obvious that capitalism itself and our unsustainable farming practices are modes of life that are untenable.  With 7 billion people hurtling towards disaster isn't it time people walked away from this monstrosity?  The only thing keeping us eating McDonald's, working jobs we despise, and supporting a government that continues to build nuclear weapons is the paralyzing fear of the unknown.  Our imaginations have been so stunted by TV, video games, and the net that we cannot imagine anything other than this samsaric brave new world that we are all trapped in.  If people begin living on their own accord and waking up from their perpetual desire fulfillment games we may gain the imagination we need to surge through this hardship that awaits us.  If each person imagined at better world and tries to embody the world of their imagination the earth could be transformed.

To show that I am not just a rabble rouser I'll present my own idea for a whole new world system.  In this system people would live in traditionally sized groups of 50-100 people.  These people would live and work together in some kind of common building or parcel of land.  The difference between these groups and our present system or the communes of the 1960's would be that these groups would all have a stated goal and agenda.  The men and women in the groups(or "tribes") around the world would be sovereign to follow their group imaginations in order to fulfill the goal they had placed before them.  People of a certain age would be both matched and able to choose a "tribe" that suited their personal talents and aspirations.  Once in the tribe they would acclimate to its structure and make a decision to stay or not.  People would not be bound to one tribe but could move freely between tribes until they discover or found a tribe that encompasses their unique person.  Tribes would have all kinds of functions only chosen by their members.  An example would be a tribe that attempted to create the most sustainable agriculture.  Another, a tribe that attempted to study the human mind to its expansive limits/  The possibilities lay in the imaginations of the people the tribe is composed of.  With 50-100 people working for an obvious stated goal anything is attainable.  Now some may say that this would be a fragmentation of human society into competing groups that would resemble the very nation-states we are trying to escape from.  The difference would be that these tribes, different as they are, would all be in it together and would respect the sovereignty of the other tribes.  Also, the tribes would be in constant communication with each other through a worldwide internet that allowed the different tribes to share their breakthroughs with the rest of the world.  This system would give humans a purpose and focus but not bind them to  a mono-culture that stagnates with time.  It also would allow individuality of purpose while also encouraging a greater HUMAN purpose through the cooperation and mutual advancement of the tribes.  This kind of collective has the strength of the original human social form, the tribe, while also enfolding the technological advances we have made into a new system that embraces our past and future.    This kind of society resembles a collection of differentiated organs(tribes) created from inherently the same stem cells(humans)  What we have now resembles a  unbalanced coral reef of unrelated constituent parts at best, and a differentiated mass of cancerous single-cells at worst.  The hive system we are now trapped in has no interest in furthering humanity's or the planet's interests its only wish is to funnel more wealth and power to those already in power.  Imagine a new system and work yourself towards it.  More to come.