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Drugs of the Dreaming

Tue, 21 May 2013 19:33:35 -0400

VISIONARY PLANTS / DREAMS “Gianluca Toro and Benjamin Thomas have made an invaluable contribution to the literature on psychoactive substances with their rigorously researched and fascinating survey of the planet’s oneirogens. This book marks a giant step forward in an exciting new front of humanity’s exploration of heightened states of consciousness. No one with a serious interest in the rich lore of psychotropic substances should be without this book.”—(J. P. Harpignies, editor of _Visionary Plant Consciousness_) Oneirogens are plant and animal substances that have long been used to facilitate powerful and productive dreaming. From the beginning of civilization, dreams have guided the inner and outer life of human beings both in relation to each other and to the divine. For centuries shamans have employed oneirogens in finding meaning and healing in their dreams. _Drugs of the Dreaming_ details the properties and actions of these dream allies, establishing ethnobotanical profiles for thirty-five oneirogens, including those extracted from organic sources—such as _Calea zacatechichi_ (dream herb or “leaf of the god”), _Salvia divinorum_, and a variety of plants used in shamanic practices—as well as synthetically derived oneirogens. They explain the historical use of each oneirogen, its method of action, and what light it sheds on the scientific mechanism of dreaming. They conclude that oneirogens enhance the comprehensibility and facility of the dream/dreamer relationship and hold a powerful key for discerning the psychological needs and destinies of dreamers today. GIANLUCA TORO, an environmental chemist, is the author in Italian of _Animali Psicoattivi_ [Psychoactive Animals] and numerous articles about naturally occurring and synthetic dream-enhancing agents. He lives in Italy. Benjamin Thomas is an independent researcher specializing in the effects of drugs and plant extracts on humans, particularly in Papua New Guinea. He lives in Australia.

"Begin each day by telling yourself: Today I shall be meeting with interference, ingratitude,..."

Sat, 06 Apr 2013 10:48:15 -0400

“Begin each day by telling yourself: Today I shall be meeting with interference, ingratitude, insolence, disloyalty, ill-will, and selfishness—all of them due to the offenders’ ignorance of what is good or evil. But for my part I have long perceived the nature of good and its nobility, the nature of evil and its meanness, and also the nature of the culprit himself, who is my brother (not in the physical sense, but as a fellow-creature similarly endowed with reason and a share of the divine); therefore none of those things can injure me, for nobody can implicate me in what is degrading. Neither can I be angry with my brother or fall foul of him; for he and I were born to work together, like a man’s two hands, feet, or eyelids, or like the upper and lower rows of his teeth. To obstruct each other is against Nature’s law—and what is irritation or aversion but a form of obstruction?”

- ~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

The Mystery of the Binary

Sat, 30 Mar 2013 21:43:17 -0400

The Mystery of the Binary:

The subcultures of computing are very young.

There are no legends nor values that come from the distant past. No ancient
mysticism, no generations-old symbols that have deep emotional effects. Even
the old and classical things tend to be quite recent.

Fortunately, even the past is not static.

I've written this article to give an impression of the antiquity and
mysticism that lies behind a very essential concept of computing - the
binary numerals.

Enjoy.

Vajra

Sun, 24 Mar 2013 14:40:24 -0400

Vajra:

Symbolism

The vajra is made up of several parts. In the center is a sphere which represents Sunyata,^[13] the primordial nature of the universe, the underlying unity of all things. Emerging from the sphere are two eight petaled lotus flowers.^[3] One represents the phenomenal world (or in Buddhist terms Samsara), the other represents the noumenal world (or Nirvana). This is one of the fundamental dichotomies which are perceived by the unenlightened.

Arranged equally around the mouth of the lotus are two, four, or eight creatures which are called makaras. These are mythological half-fish, half-crocodile creatures^[4] made up of two or more animals, often representing the union of opposites, (or a harmonisation of qualities that transcend our usual experience). From the mouths of the makaras come tongues which come together in a point.^[4]

The five pronged vajra (with four makaras, plus a central prong) is the most commonly seen vajra. There is an elaborate system of correspondences between the five elements of the noumenal side of the vajra, and the phenomenal side. One important correspondence is between the five “poisons” with the five wisdoms. The five poisons are the mental states that obscure the original purity of a being’s mind, while the five wisdoms are the five most important aspects of the enlightened mind. Each of the five wisdoms is also associated with a Buddha figure. (see also Five Wisdom Buddhas)

O Fortuna

Sun, 24 Mar 2013 03:43:51 -0400

O Fortuna:

O Fortune,
like the moon
you are changeable,
always increasing
or decreasing;
hateful life
first oppresses
and then soothes
as game takes it;
poverty
and power
it melts them like ice.

Fate – monstrous
and empty,
you whirling wheel,
you are malevolent,
well-being is vain
and always fades to nothing,
shadowed
and veiled
you plague me too;
now through the game
I bring my bare back
to your villainy.

In health
and virtue,
fate is against me.
driven on
and weighted down,
always enslaved.
So at this hour
without delay
pluck the vibrating strings;
since Fate
strikes down the strong man,
everyone weep with me!^[3]

Photo

Tue, 26 Feb 2013 14:58:46 -0500

A Discourse of Mind to Hermes

Sun, 24 Feb 2013 18:16:40 -0500

Think that for you too nothing is impossible; deem that you too are immortal, and that you are able to grasp all things in your thought, to know every craft and every science; find your home in the haunts of every living creature; make yourself higher than all heights, and lower than all depths; being together in yourself all opposites of quality, heat and cold, dryness and fluidity; think that you are everywhere at once, on land, at sea, in heaven; think that you are not yet begotten, that you are in the womb, that you are young, that you are old, that you have died, that you are in the world beyond the grave; grasp in your thought all this at once, all times and places, all substances and qualities and magnitudes together; then you can apprehend God

Photo

Sun, 24 Feb 2013 16:57:46 -0500

Photo

Fri, 15 Feb 2013 18:44:45 -0500

Photo

Sat, 26 Jan 2013 20:00:23 -0500

The Society of the Spectacle

Sat, 26 Jan 2013 19:44:24 -0500

The Society of the Spectacle:

The Society of the Spectacle (La Société du spectacle [published in Paris, 1967]) is a book by Guy Debord, which developed concepts relating to the “gaze” of modern culture and commodity fetishism. The book also contains sharp criticism of Leninism in all its variants and presents a direct democratic alternative. It continues to influence a variety of philosophical and political movements, notably anarchism and anti-capitalism. — Excerpted from The Society of the Spectacle on Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Translated on February 2002 by Ken Knabb.

RATIONALITY IS ANTI-ENTROPIC

Sat, 26 Jan 2013 19:04:58 -0500

RATIONALITY IS ANTI-ENTROPIC :

Amitai ETZIONI

The article explores the fruitfulness of assuming all economic behavior to be non-rational unless special factors intervene to make it rational. The definition of rationality applied is that of intentional or calculative rationality.. This is deemed to be a variable, not a trait of a species. The association of rationality with three kinds of investment is indicated. Prior research on information costs, learning curves, habit and impulse buying are shown to be compatible with the article’s core thesis. So is the evidence about rational behavior being ‘cool’.

Buddha under the Bodhi Tree

Sat, 26 Jan 2013 13:01:16 -0500

Buddha under the Bodhi Tree

Albion

Sat, 26 Jan 2013 12:06:24 -0500

Albion:

Albion, by William Blake

Gris-gris (talisman)

Sat, 12 Jan 2013 19:44:14 -0500

Gris-gris (talisman):

Gris-gris, also spelled grigri, is a voodoo amulet originating in Africa which is believed to protect the wearer from evil or brings luck,^[1] and in some West African countries is used as a method of birth control. It consists of a small cloth bag, usually inscribed with verses from the Qur’an and containing a ritual number of small objects, worn on the person.

Although the exact origins of the word are unknown, some historians trace the word back to the African word juju meaning fetish.^[2] An alternative theory is that the word originates with the Frenchjoujou meaning doll or play-thing.^[2]

Cognitive Authority

Mon, 07 Jan 2013 20:49:13 -0500

Cognitive Authority:

Patrick Wilson (1983) developed the cognitive authority theory from social epistemology in his book, Second-hand Knowledge: An Inquiry into Cognitive Authority. The fundamental concept of Wilson’s cognitive authority is that people construct knowledge in two different ways: based on their first-hand experience or on what they have learned second-hand from others. What people learn first-hand depends on the stock of ideas they bring to the interpretation and understanding of their encounters with the world. People primarily depend on others for ideas as well as for information outside the range of direct experience. Much of what they think of the world is what they have gained second-hand.

Wilson (1983) argues that all that people know of the world beyond the narrow range of their own lives is what others have told them. However, people do not count all hearsay as equally reliable; only those who are deemed to “know what they are talking about” become cognitive authorities. Wilson coined the term cognitive authority to explain the kind of authority that influences thoughts that people would consciously recognize being proper. Cognitive authority differs from administrative authority or the authority vented in a hierarchical position.” (Rieh, 2005).

Toynbee tiles

Sat, 05 Jan 2013 15:27:44 -0500

Toynbee tiles:

The Toynbee tiles(also called Toynbee plaques) are messages of unknown origin found embedded in asphalt of streets in about two dozen major cities in theUnited States and fourSouth Americancapitals.^[1]^[2] Since the 1980s, several hundred tiles have been discovered. They are generally about the size of an American license plate (roughly 30 cm by 15 cm), but sometimes considerably larger. They contain some variation on the following inscription:

TOYNBEE IDEA
IN MOViE `2001
RESURRECT DEAD
ON PLANET JUPITER.

Photo

Wed, 02 Jan 2013 12:12:35 -0500

"From childhood on, I sought solitude. And I felt best when I could give myself over to myself,..."

Wed, 02 Jan 2013 11:23:36 -0500

“From childhood on, I sought solitude. And I felt best when I could give myself over to myself, undisturbed.”

- Nietzsche.

Photo

Wed, 02 Jan 2013 11:13:10 -0500