I have always loved octopuses. No sci-fi alien is so startlingly strange. Here is someone who, even if she grows to one hundred pounds and stretches more than eight feet long, could still squeeze her body through an opening the size of an orange; an animal whose eight arms are covered with thousands of suckers that taste as well as feel; a mollusk with a beak like a parrot and venom like a snake and a tongue covered with teeth; a creature who can shape-shift, change color, and squirt ink. But most intriguing of all, recent research indicates that octopuses are remarkably intelligent.

Many times I have stood mesmerized by an aquarium tank, wondering, as I stared into the horizontal pupils of an octopus’s large, prominent eyes, if she was staring back at me—and if so, what was she thinking?

Not long ago, a question like this would have seemed foolish, if not crazy. How can an octopus know anything, much less form an opinion? Octopuses are, after all, “only” invertebrates—they don’t even belong with the insects, some of whom, like dragonflies and dung beetles, at least seem to show some smarts. Octopuses are classified within the invertebrates in the mollusk family, and many mollusks, like clams, have no brain.

But now, increasingly, researchers who study octopuses are convinced that these boneless, alien animals—creatures whose ancestors diverged from the lineage that would lead to ours roughly 500 to 700 million years ago—have developed intelligence, emotions, and individual personalities. Their findings are challenging our understanding of consciousness itself.

As we gazed into each other’s eyes, Athena encircled my arms with hers, latching on with first dozens, then hundreds of her sensitive, dexterous suckers. Each arm has more than two hundred of them. The famous naturalist and explorer William Beebe found the touch of the octopus repulsive. “I have always a struggle before I can make my hands do their duty and seize a tentacle,” he confessed. But to me, Athena’s suckers felt like an alien’s kiss—at once a probe and a caress. Although an octopus can taste with all of its skin, in the suckers both taste and touch are exquisitely developed. Athena was tasting me and feeling me at once, knowing my skin, and possibly the blood and bone beneath, in a way I could never fathom.

hen I stroked her soft head with my fingertips, she changed color beneath my touch, her ruby-flecked skin going white and smooth. This, I learned, is a sign of a relaxed octopus. An agitated giant Pacific octopus turns red, its skin gets pimply, and it erects two papillae over the eyes, which some divers say look like horns. One name for the species is “devil fish.” With sharp, parrotlike beaks, octopuses can bite, and most have neurotoxic, flesh-dissolving venom.

While Alexa Warburton was researching her senior thesis at Middlebury College’s newly created octopus lab, “every day,” she said, “was a disaster.”

It seemed to Warburton that some of the octopuses were purposely uncooperative. To run the T-maze, the pre-veterinary student had to scoop an animal from its tank with a net and transfer it to a bucket. With bucket firmly covered, octopus and researcher would take the elevator down to the room with the maze. Some octopuses did not like being removed from their tanks. They would hide. They would squeeze into a corner where they couldn’t be pried out. They would hold on to some object with their arms and not let go.

Some would let themselves be captured, only to use the net as a trampoline. They’d leap off the mesh and onto the floor—and then run for it. Yes, run. “You’d chase them under the tank, back and forth, like you were chasing a cat,” Warburton said. “It’s so weird!”

Octopuses in captivity actually escape their watery enclosures with alarming frequency. While on the move, they have been discovered on carpets, along bookshelves, in a teapot, and inside the aquarium tanks of other fish—upon whom they have usually been dining.

Read the rest at Orion

YOU

Now, a lot of people like to talk about “industrial musicK” like they know what they’re talking about. They only talk of machine drums, sequencers set on 16th-note patterns, barre cords, tedious vocal distortion and sound bites sampled from A Scanner Darkly. But if we peel back the layers of formulaic noise and cliched sentiments of alienation at the hands of a mechanical, dystopian society, we remember that in origin industrial musicK was as act of sorcery! “An alchemical musicKal laboratory.” The idea that one could alter his or her Consciousness and literally enter another dimension of reality by invoking certain frequencies of sound was a cornerstone in the foundation of what would become “Industrial musicK.”

No coincidence, then, one finds reoccurring occult/religious themes and symbolism in the efforts of genre’s enduring heavy hitters. And if it’s not overt occultism, then certainly the general notion of transcendence, transformation & transmutation is present. Then of course there’s the element of paranoia, the idea of being “watched” or “monitored,” but what else could this sensation indicate than the beginning of the loss of ego and the realization that there is no distinction between individuals; that ultimately, we are all one Consciousness experiencing itself. Certainly this feeling would be disconcerting if you were taught to believe that you only exist as a physical entity inherently separate from the other physical entities.

So what’s the Industrial egregore up to now? Well, like any good conspiracy it is planning to finish what was started — to tear down the imaginary limits of reality and push us through the other side. But you say this is ‘nonsense,’ a waste of time or even DANGEROUS to talk of these things in terms of objectiveness — metaphysical beliefs only distract people from the truth of reality — and Truth is the only thing that matters. Possibly. But if life is just the product of random chance and life ends when you die (as the materialists and rationalists demand), then what is the point of recognizing, or even caring about, the distinction between “fact” & “fiction”? If ‘everything must perish’ then nothing ultimately matters, including our life and speculations.

Ok, so you don’t buy that, you say life does have meaning. Then the goal of humanity must be to create peace between ourselves, right? Even still, why must there be consensus? BEHAVIOR is far more important than BELIEFS when it comes to creating PEACE. Don’t believe me? Are you going to punch me in the face over it? Yes or no, you’ve proved my point — it’s the PHYSICAL act of violence that is the problem. Nothing more, nothing less. The one exception to this rule is the belief everyone has to believe the same thing. It’s the general belief in conformity that causes people to ACT OUT in anti-social ways — either on on-line forums or in the real world. So you can believe in God, you can even believe your God is the one, true God, but only when you start calling people a bunch of mean, nasty names in the name of your infallible belief system are you the problem. Conversely, you can be an atheist, you can even believe your belief is the one, true belief, but only when you start calling people a bunch of mean, nasty names in the name of your infallible belief system are you the problem. Obviously, pointing this out won’t change the minds of fanatics who feel all must bow to their infallible belief system. Even worse are the “non-conformists” whose obnoxious cynicism derides any sincere attempt at promoting peace, love & liberty.

So to be clear, “conformity” in of itself is not the problem. No, conformity that arises organically; like a group of people who, by their nature, resonate with a particular æsthetic and create a framework to cultivate it — that is a positive aspect of conformity; its organizational aspect. But any organization can be corrupted by those who want to conform to it, who want to be led, because these ‘followers’ also desire to become ‘leaders’ who will then attempt to impose “their” organization over others, which inevitably leads to chaos (the undesirable kind). The domesticated primate knows there must be organization (”conformity”) for social cohesion — but they get correlation & causality confused — rather than allowing organization (which is the de facto nature of biological systems, i.e. us) to flow spontaneously — they attempt to artificially impose THEIR ORDER over others, thereby causing us (and them) disaster. But we can forgive them because they CLEARLY ‘know not what they do.’ But don’t kid yourself … there’s nothing you can do about it anyway. Keep reading.

Now with ‘industrial people,’ we know ‘industrial’ is not just a “style,” but a STATE OF MIND that is inexorably drawn foreword through the temporal dimension — BEYOND the event horizon — BEYOND the singularity — BEYOND the spaces in-between the spaces — BEYOND GOD. (Hint: SubGeniuses call it “Bulldada” — the way they describe it’s origin, ‘bursting from the chest of Dada’s corpse’, is the perfect analogy for the Industrial state of mind; “DEIFIED DADA.”) For the true adepts of Industrial we know there is an authentic prophecy encoded in its ‘ultra heavy beat’ — we know it by the symbols it leaves behind: The MACHINE, MONITOR, reptiles, sexual energy, tEEth; accompanied with themes of MEAT & Digestion all leading to, EVOLUTION, DNA; crystalized frequencies of electro-magnetic light spectra and electro-tonal sound patterns, PURE KOSMIC KONSCIOUSNESS. It is clear we were being prepared for an ‘Industrial Messiah,’ a “headhunter” who would make us all “rich & famous” who would lead the way and show us how to ‘live through ones own dementia.’ And now, at the beginning of this new decade (or new century, actually new millennium), where are we seeing the industrial state of mind being utilized to overwhelming critical and commercial success? Where else but with this new wave of pop-darlings? Lady Gaga (our first Industrial Princess), for example, makes ample use of experimental electronic aggro-beats and Her style can be accurately described as ‘cross-dressing occult degenerate weirdo’ (sound familiar?!) Naturally, this assertion will seem like heresy to myopic ‘purists’ (after all, they said the same thing about Nine Inch Nails at first), but the fact modern Industrial owes just as much to Pink Floyd as it does to Throbbing Gristle is the surest sign of the media organism’s flexibility. In fact, Industrial’s vitality is chiefly due to its ability to ‘blend the strengths.’

So I’m not saying there’s only ONE ‘messiah,’ quite the contrary, the industrial mutation is an intergenusnet affecting MULTIPLE carriers at “once” — like a drop of water, we, Industrial Adepts, all contain the same “seed,” but by ourselves we are not ‘in context’ thus we seem INANE, BUT! when enough drops of water accrue and are ‘housed’ in their proper “vessel” i.e. FAME, we suddenly become relevant. And that is the true prophecy — ‘the becoming’ of the Industrial state of mind; ‘my new Consciousness.’ To be sure ‘we are not romantics,’ we are here to serve you. Indeed, our Bible is called “How To Serve Man.” $HA!

And so before I leave you to contemplate all I have said, I offer one more suggestion. To celebrate the dawn of our reckoning we change the label of the Industrial genre to something more fitting to the challenges and promise our time represents: CyberpunK. From the oldest Skinny Puppy to the most recent Front Line Assembly, I find “CyberpunK” to be FAR more descriptive of the genre than “Industrial,” which invokes feelings of antiquity & obsoleteness. “CyberpunK” not only embraces the feelings we get from “Industrial” [that we like], but also propels them forward — which is exactly where Industrial intended to take us. Consider also the enormous amount of cross-pollination of themes between Cyberpunk, the literary genre, and Industrial. Finally, as we learn more about the nature of reality — that matter is made of energy — and energy is made of information — we must contemplate the possibility that by merely knowing this we are no longer human — we are machines (for the lack of a better term.) machine |məˈ sh ēn| noun. Any device that transfers or converts energy from one form to another.

In the case of the miraculous packet just mentioned, the engine allows us to consider a large number of alternate universes that might result as a consequence of the packet’s delivery, and to build insight into the specific mutations that its arrival induced. The operation of the difference engine involves The challenge of replaying network traffic dealing with non-determinism, both intentional and inherent. Greater the Chaos becometh; the major centre with all the seven circulating spheres rock with the echos of disintegration. The fumes of utter blackness mount upwards in dissipation. The noise discordant of the warring elements greets the oncoming rEvolution, and deters IT not. The strife and cries of the fourth great Hierarchy, blending with the softer note of the Builders of the fifth and sixth, meet ITs approach. Yet IT passeth on ITs way, sweeping the circle of the spheres on the face of the waters, and waging the WAR. The virus has reached critical mass. The lines are converging to the point of no return. The Process has a focal point. It can provide a form about which the function of the self can be wrapped; Love, self-expression and discipline. Intentional nondeterminism is caused through modifications (i.e. through reordering or otherwise altering the log of external events) to the replayed system in an attempt to guide the replaying instance to an alternate state. Inherent non-determinism results from within the system itself. Examples include both explicit calls to sources of entropy. Calling the Hamburger Lady: a mechanist woman living in information, fed on human emotion, Her “psychic metabolism” maintained by entangled, multiple personalities each projected through various cybernetic organisms, only vaguely aware of their interconnectivity. She watched through her telephone, her telephone. Their images synthesized by computer and fed into her brain through a nerve-crystal junction at the base of her skull. Her ears were the ultra heavy beat of radar, listening, listening, pounding. Music down your throat — music … nonstop.  At the end of the album, YOÜ & I appear to have become glamourous piles of glitzy garbage at the mercy of a postpop-hyperpunk Princess. In fact, the call was coming from inside the HOUSE — your entire life as you have known it was only an illusion. Now don’t you feel a whole lot better? So go ahead and sing the song, it goes like this: 1 … 2 … 3 … 4 … now i know — what this is all about. and now i know — exactly what i am. [x infinity].

Naomi Wolf. Photo: David Shankbone (CC)

Interesting take on Occupy by Naomi Wolf, at Alternet:

America’s politicians, it seems, have had their fill of democracy. Across the country, police, acting under orders from local officials, are breaking up protest encampments set up by supporters of the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement – sometimes with shocking and utterly gratuitous violence.

In the worst incident so far, hundreds of police, dressed in riot gear, surrounded Occupy Oakland’s encampment and fired rubber bullets (which can be fatal), flash grenades and tear-gas canisters – with some officers taking aim directly at demonstrators. The Occupy Oakland Twitter feed read like a report from Cairo’s Tahrir Square: “they are surrounding us”; “hundreds and hundreds of police”; “there are armoured vehicles and Hummers”. There were 170 arrests.

My own recent arrest, while obeying the terms of a permit and standing peacefully on a street in lower Manhattan, brought the reality of this crackdown close to home. America is waking up to what was built while it slept: Private companies have hired away its police (JPMorgan Chase gave $4.6m to the New York City Police Foundation); the federal Department of Homeland Security has given small municipal police forces military-grade weapons systems; citizens’ rights to freedom of speech and assembly have been stealthily undermined by opaque permit requirements.

Suddenly, the United States looks like the rest of the furious, protesting, not-completely-free world…

[continues at Alternet]

The confusion about the nature of God starts with the idea God is separate from Existence. Also, there seems to be a tendency to treat the Father as God itself and the Son & Holy Spirit as a part of, but not equal to the Father. From these simple misunderstandings comes the logical paradoxes we’re all familiar with.

So here’s where we begin to clear things up. God is the single thing, but there are three aspects that make up the totality of God. Here’s the analogy: we take a piece of cheese. The cheese is one thing; however, there are aspects to the cheese that make up the whole thing: we have the shape, color & taste of the cheese. So where does the cheese end and its aspects begin? Well obviously that’s an impossible question.

So now the issue is defining the Father, Son & Holy Spirit aspects and how they together define God.

• The Father aspect is Existence as a whole. All of Existence — the Alpha & Omega. The Totality of everything that ever was and ever will be; from a clump of dirt to the spaces in between the spaces. From Heaven to Earth.

• The Son aspect, Christ is the agency of Intelligence, or Consciousness.

• The Holy Spirit aspect is Energy itself.

Now we put these concepts together and learn that energy is intelligent and comprises Existence itself. Through science we have actually learned all of existence is energy vibrating at various densities. Everything you see, touch and think is energy in one form or another. And we can say energy is intelligent through simple observation; What makes a chair stay a chair? What makes a carpet continue on as a carpet? Why don’t all the molecules just separate into one big mush? Because of Consciousness. Energy is Consciousness. Also, energy cannot be created nor destroyed — in other words, the Alpha & Omega. But we possess our own personal Consciousness — we were ‘made in God’s image.’ It doesn’t mean God looks like a man, it means we possess Consciousness.

But does this apply to all people or some and how do we tell the difference?

The difference is like night and day. Mankind was created like any other animal — however our destiny was different than other animals — the plan was to become one with Christ and receive Consciousness, thus bringing Heaven to Earth. The old narrative tells us Christ saves us from a life of sin when we accept Him as our personal savior. But in this new context Christ redeems us from our life as an animal and we are born again with the knowledge we are one with God. These are very subtle but key distinctions being made here.

How do we bring about this change in ourselves? First, we have to take the question seriously. Specifically we have to realize it is a personal thing we are doing — we make the choice.

Second, we have to change the way we think. Because of this new revelation of the exact nature of Christ; that is, Christ as Consciousness, we can say the key to developing Consciousness is following your Highest Light (God within You). To change how we think, in order to develop Consciousness, we have to stop accepting beliefs and start creating ideas — ideas that make you feel good about your little corner of the universe.

But before I explain what that means I want to talk more about the differences between ripened souls and unripened souls; the difference between Man & animal. The animal has instincts, like the instinct to follow and the instinct to lead, we call this the instinct for social hierarchy. Big dog on top bites the little dog on the bottom, and this dynamic maintains order in the community — and this is essentially how human society works — which would be fine for all eternity if we weren’t created with the greater purpose of bringing Heaven to Earth. And when we think of this new world do we see cops and politicians ordering us around with their guns and tanks and bombs? No. Of course we don’t. What we see are people living in harmony because they know how to act in a civilized fashion without coercion. Domesticated Primates, collectively known as people, only follow certain rules because they’re afraid of the consequences of not following [the rules], however real peace is only possible if we understand the purpose of moral-based laws. And that means understanding the value of empathy. So where do we begin?

Simple — with the definition of morality: to treat others the way we want to be treated. On a collective level, this means a total reevaluation of all our values & laws is needed as it pertains to this perfect concept of morality. This means rethinking our attitude towards taboo subjects such as recreational drug use & even sex.

The beginning of the End: The Entity aka “God” reveals itself in Three stages [naturally] the first stage was that of the Father aspect, then Christ and now The Holy Spirit. The transitional phase between the Son aspect and the Holy Spirit is known as the Apocalypse, a Greek word literally meaning “Lifting the Veil.” The information the Holy Spirit will reveal will unite us in Union with God, creating peace on Earth or Heaven on Earth.

The symbolism inherent to this new age is the eye in the triangle, a coded reference to the 3rd EYE. Holy Spirit reveals the means to open the 3rd EYE as a gateway to the Collective Unconscious / Mind of God uniting us on a higher mental level, causing by reflex action, peace on Earth. We do this by creating energy with our bodies in the intention of opening the 3rd EYE -or- by focusing your attention to your forehead while engaged in strenuous physical activity. Such as dancing, et. al.

Other helpful hints the Holy Spirit reveals includes the mandate that you ‘follow your highest light.’ How does one follow your highest light? As you might suspect, it is a fairly autonomous process. The issue is one of inspiration rather than instruction. There are no leaders; only artists who inspire us through their art. We recognize our Consciousness, or “soul,” as the part of God that is a part of us. Our theology and our imagination are synonymous. So in practice, following your highest light means creating ART-MYTH as personal spirituality. Wanna see some examples …?

What happens when developing Consciousness and how it happens are potentially two different things. What happens is that developing Consciousness means you are one with “Christ” and are saved — but how it happens specifically varies wildly from individual to individual, although several people can have similar experiences. But in the past the assumption was that what was happening and how it was happening were the same thing — and so by that logic there was only one way to be saved; become “Christian.” However, this does not suffice because by virtue of the fact God speaks directly to us — following your highest Light is The Way, The Truth & The Life.

So now the burning question is: Who was Jesus?

Jesus was a Man who attained Consciousness in all its full-tilt bewildering mystery. The thing about Existence being a form of Consciousness is that by possessing a personal Consciousness —*— we have the potential to manipulate reality with our mind. This is confirmed in the Bible, book of Matthew Chapter 21, verse 21. Where Jesus says after the apostles witnessed Him wilting the fig tree: “Truly I say to YOU, If only YOU have faith and do not doubt, not only will YOU do what I did to the fig tree, but also if YOU say to this mountain,’Be lifted up and cast into the sea,’ it will happen.”

It is our goal to promote Consciousness not only within ourselves but to the world at large. Only when all of mankind receives Consciousness will the final battle between Good & Evil begin. Because Consciousness itself does not guarantee someone is Good; it does not guarantee they will act with empathy —all it means is they have the potential power of God. Don’t panic.

However, a group of Scandinavian scientists say they have evidence that hypnotic trances are a real and unique state of consciousness, which cannot be imitated or faked by the non-hypnotized, and which (at least some) hypnotists can activate and deactivate at will using a one-word cue. So be careful out there. Nano Patents and Innovations writes:

A multidisciplinary group of researchers from Finland and Sweden has found that strange stare may be a key that can eventually lead to a solution to this long debate about the existence of a hypnotic state.

One of the most widely known features of a hypnotized person in the popular culture is a glazed, wide-open look in the eyes. Paradoxically, this sign has not been considered to have any major importance among researchers and has never been studied in any detail, probably due to the fact that it can be seen in only some hypnotized people.

This study was done with a very highly hypnotizable participant who can be hypnotized and dehypnotized by just using a one-word cue. The change between hypnotic state and normal state can thus be varied in seconds.

The researchers used high-resolution eye-tracking methodology and presented a set of well-established oculomotor tasks that trigger automatic eye behavior. They found the glazed stare was accompanied by objectively measurable changes in automatic, reflexive eye behavior that could not be imitated by non-hypnotized participants.

In the field of hypnosis research this result means that hypnosis can no longer be regarded as mental imagery that takes place during a totally normal waking state of consciousness. On the other hand, the result may have wider consequences for psychology and cognitive neuroscience, since it provides the first evidence of the existence of a conscious state in humans that has previously not been scientifically confirmed.

This new paradigm, this new consensus that Christ is our personal Consciousness — is key to lifting the veil of ignorance that has kept us in fear of each other. Incidentally, Apocalypse literally means, ‘lifting the veil.‘ This revelation of God within us will unite us on higher mental levels causing, by reflex action, peace on earth.

The original purpose of government and religion was to create in a world where they were no longer needed. They taught us the proper ways to act towards one another: Thou shalt not kill, steal or lie; thou shalt love thy neighbor as theyself. The problem, however, is that these institutions became magnets for psychopaths who have no sympathy for you or your problems. Repeat this after me: Power does not corrupt — the corrupt seek power. But the joke is on them, because, like I said, these institutions were designed to be destroyed by the very powers that created them . . . us.

At some point the ruling class realized this beautiful irony — that a truly effective government would eventually render itself obsolete. And so it’s no coincidence that the very same people who tell us we need them to protect us from criminals are the same people who CREATE crime and poverty! They do it by making certain things illegal which in turn creates a criminal class. We the people learned the lesson of prohibition — and most of us are banging our head against the wall trying to figure why our politicians haven’t learned the same lesson. Well it’s easy to understand if you accept a simple but depressing truth: Power does not corrupt — the corrupt seek power. That’s it. Mystery solved: our elected officials are not stupid and they don’t mean well.

But this doesn’t have to be depressing if we accept responsibility for the situation we’re in. In fact, this all ties back into promoting Consciosuness. The issue with Consciousness is autonomy. Conversely, the issue with animals is hierarchy — domesticated primates follow certain rules just because they’re afraid of the consequences of not following them. Real peace is only possible if we understand the underlying value certain laws possess. And that means understanding the value of empathy — and you can only understand empathy if you possess Consciousness; I think, therefore I am; therefore, I can think about YOU.

Subsequently, with the realization that Christ is Consciousness comes the dictum that we follow our highest light — God within us. Our Imagination and theology are synonymous. To promote Consciousness you must Change how you think — stop accepting beliefs and start creating ideas – ideas that make you feel good about your little corner of the universe. I’m talking about creating ART-MYTH as personal spirituality. ART-MYTH is different from RELIGIOUS-BELIEF because we go into it knowing art-myth is meant to be a personal, subjective thing. At most it inspires others to create their own art-myth.

So to recap. . . Starting now — not only will the art we create be our primary mode of spirituality — but thanks to the creative-based economy, it will also ensure our financial independence.

This revelation is the basis of a spiritual awakening that disregards the animalistic instinct for social hierarchy and promotes autonomy — creating peace on earth — “As the individual become more collective, the collective becomes more individual.”

A truly effective government will eventually render itself obsolete.

This means morality comes from us — from our Consciousness and empathy.

But equally suggestive, is a quote from Steve Jobs to New York Times reporter John Markoff. Speaking about psychedelics, Jobs said, “Doing LSD was one of the two or three most important things I have done in my life.” He was hardly alone among computer scientists in his appreciation of hallucinogenics and their capacity to liberate human thought from the prison of the mind. Jobs even let drop that Microsoft’s Bill Gates would “be a broader guy if he had dropped acid once.” Apple’s mantra was”Think different.” Jobs did. And he credited his use of LSD as a major reason for his success.

Right. Most if not all mythologies include creatures resembling elves. Therefore the archetypal image must be based upon encounters with the Machine … Er … Clockwork Elves. As with all paranoid logic, this argument is easily felled by Occam’s Razor, which advocates that “entities must not be multiplied beyond necessity,” in short, that the “simplest answer is most likely the correct one.” It is much more plausible to propose that the entities encountered during the DMT-experience could very well bear some measure of resemblance to elves (elongated and angular shapes are common); that one comes to think “if they look like elves, they are elves” at least makes sense!

THERE ARE NO FUCKING MACHINE ELVES!

To be fair, Alex didn’t make this shit up. It’s not just conservatives, authoritarians, loons and republicans who make research concerning the nature and uses of psychedelics virtually impossible. In the years following the relatively methodical experiments of the first psychonauts — Albert Hoffman, Aldous Huxley and Ernst Jünger (the term “psychonaut” was coined by Jünger in his book Annäherungen [Approaches] (1970)] — A waves of naively uncritical and over-enthusiastic “researchers” provided untold amounts of ammunition to those wishing to delegitimize, halt and prohibit psychedelic research.

More on Modern Mythology

Everything we do is for the purpose of altering consciousness. We form friendships so that we can feel certain emotions, like love, and avoid others, like loneliness. We eat specific foods to enjoy their fleeting presence on our tongues. We read for the pleasure of thinking another person’s thoughts. Every waking moment — and even in our dreams — we struggle to direct the flow of sensation, emotion, and cognition toward states of consciousness that we value.

Drugs are another means toward this end. Some are illegal; some are stigmatized; some are dangerous — though, perversely, these sets only partially intersect. There are drugs of extraordinary power and utility, like psilocybin (the active compound in “magic mushrooms”) and lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), which pose no apparent risk of addiction and are physically well-tolerated, and yet one can still be sent to prison for their use—while drugs like tobacco and alcohol, which have ruined countless lives, are enjoyed ad libitum in almost every society on earth. There are other points on this continuum — 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA or “Ecstasy”) has remarkable therapeutic potential, but it is also susceptible to abuse, and it appears to be neurotoxic.

I have a daughter who will one day take drugs. Of course, I will do everything in my power to see that she chooses her drugs wisely, but a life without drugs is neither foreseeable, nor, I think, desirable. Someday, I hope she enjoys a morning cup of tea or coffee as much as I do. If my daughter drinks alcohol as an adult, as she probably will, I will encourage her to do it safely. Needless to say, if I knew my daughter would eventually develop a fondness for methamphetamine or crack cocaine, I might never sleep again. But if she does not try a psychedelic like psilocybin or LSD at least once in her adult life, I will worry that she may have missed one of the most important rites of passage a human being can experience …

Read the rest at SamHarris.org

With a click and a whirr, I am pulled into the scanner. My head is strapped down and I have been draped with a blanket so that I may touch my nether regions — my clitoris in particular — with a certain degree of modesty. I am here neither for a medical procedure nor an adult movie. Rather, I am about to stimulate myself to orgasm while an fMRI scanner tracks the blood flow in my brain.

My actions are helping Barry Komisaruk at Rutgers University in Newark, New Jersey, and colleagues to tease apart the mechanisms underlying sexual arousal. In doing so, not only have they discovered that there is more than one route to orgasm, but they may also have revealed a novel type of consciousness — an understanding of which could lead to new treatments for pain.

Despite orgasm being a near-universal human phenomenon…

Read More: New Scientist

Via Technoccult:

Klint Finley: What possessed you to undertake this process of creating a collage painting for every line of Bill’s original Dream Manual?

Michael Skrtic: The Dream Manual appeared first in 1984 or 1985 in a magazine called The Negentropy Express, which was an APA (an amateur press association) by the Society for Creative Thought. I was one of the founding members of the Society for Creative Thought and I was immediately taken with Bill’s original text and the original short little collage things that he did to accompany the text. It sort of followed me around since then. In the early 90s, I had just moved to Stockholm and I was looking for a project. I thought, ah, I know what I’ll do, I’ll colorize Bill’s original collages, so I blew them up and I colorized a couple of pages, and then I got involved with something else. Fast forward to 2003. I had a new studio and I’d just finished painting strange diagrams on the floor to get the mojo right, so I started thinking about the Dream Manual as a possible thing to do. I started looking at it and realized that I actually could – that’s basically it.

I started thinking about all the places I’ve been, collecting collage material. I’ve been collecting collage material for many, many years. Each of the Dream Manual images has touchstones to everywhere I’ve been and all the other images I’ve gathered, so I started putting them together to see where I’d end up. That’s how it started. It took seven years of work from the second time I started. I started painting and spent about six years painting and another year with Megalithica Press getting the book ready for publication. That’s the physical story of the Dream Manual.

Read More on Technoccult

Mandelbrot Islands of Consciousness. Image: David R. Ingham (CC)

Site editor’s note: This article was originally published as part of the Russ Kick-edited Disinformation anthology, You Are STILL Being Lied To. Hancock’s latest book is a novel dealing with some of the issues presented below titled ENTANGLED: The Eater of Souls.

We are told that the “War on Drugs” is being waged, on our behalf, by our governments and their armed bureaucracies and police forces, to save us from ourselves. “Potential for abuse and harm” are supposed to be the criteria by which the use of drugs is suppressed—the greater a drug’s potential for abuse and harm, the greater and more vigorous the degree of suppression, and the more draconian the penalties applied against its users.

In line with this scheme drugs are typically ranked into a hierarchy: Schedules I, II, and III in the US, Classes A, B, and C in the UK, and so on and so forth all around the world. Thus, to be arrested for possession of a Schedule I or Class A drug results in heavier penalties than possession of a Schedule III or Class C drug. Generally if a drug is deemed to have some currently accepted medical use it is likely to be placed in a lower schedule than if it has none, notwithstanding the fact that it may have potential for abuse or harm. In the absence of any recognized therapeutic effects, drugs that are highly addictive, such as heroin or crack cocaine, or drugs that are profoundly psychotropic, including hallucinogens such as LSD, psilocybin, or DMT, are almost universally placed in the highest schedules and their use attracts the heaviest penalties.

The notable exceptions to this system of ranking according to perceived “harms” are, of course, alcohol and tobacco, both highly addictive and harmful drugs—far more so than cannabis or psilocybin, for example—but yet socially accepted on the grounds of long customary use and thus not placed in any schedule at all.

The Failed War

When we look at the history of the “War on Drugs” over approximately the last 40 years, it must be asked whether the criminalization of the use of any of the prohibited substances has in any way been effective in terms of the stated goals that this “war” was supposedly mounted to achieve. Specifically, has there been a marked reduction in the use of illegal drugs over the past 40 years—as one would expect with billions of dollars of taxpayers’ money having been spent over such a long period on their suppression—and has there been a reduction in the harms that these drugs supposedly cause to the individual and to society?

It is unnecessary here to set down screeds of statistics, facts, and figures readily available from published sources to assert that in terms of its own stated objectives the “War on Drugs” has been an abject failure and a shameful and scandalous waste of public money. Indeed, it is well known, and not disputed, that the very societies that attempt most vigorously to suppress various drugs, and in which users are subject to the most stringent penalties, have seen a vast and continuous increase in the per capita consumption of these drugs. This is tacitly admitted by the vast armed bureaucracies set up to persecute drug users in our societies, which every year demand more and more public money to fund their suppressive activities; if the suppression were working, one would expect their budgets to go down, not up.

Meanwhile the social harms caused by the “War on Drugs” itself are manifest and everywhere evident. In the United States, for example, there have been more than 20 million arrests for the possession of the Schedule I drug marijuana since 1965 and 11 million since 1990. The pace of arrests is increasing year on year, bringing us to the astonishing situation where, today, a marijuana smoker is arrested every 38 seconds.¹ The result, as Rob Kampia, executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project, recently observed, is that marijuana arrests outnumber arrests for “all violent crimes combined,” meaning police are spending inordinate amounts of time chasing nonviolent criminals.² And it goes without saying that those who are arrested for the use of marijuana and other illegal drugs do suffer immense harm as a result of the punishments inflicted on them—including, but not limited to, personal trauma, loss of freedom, loss of reputation, loss of employment prospects, and serious, long-lasting financial damage.

Inventory of Harm

Such matters are only the beginning of the long inventory of harm caused by the “War on Drugs.”

Western industrial societies, and all those cultures around the globe that increasingly seek to emulate them, teach us to venerate above all else the alert, problem-solving state of consciousness that is particularly appropriate to the conduct of science, business, war, and logical inquiry, and to such activities as driving cars, operating machinery, performing surgery, doing accounts, drawing up plans, accumulating wealth, etc., etc., etc. But there are many other states of consciousness that the amazing and mysterious human brain is capable of embracing, and it appears to be a natural human urge, as deep-rooted as our urges for food, sex, and nurturing relationships, to seek out and explore such “altered states of consciousness.” A surprisingly wide range of methods and techniques (from breathing exercises, to meditation, to fasting, to hypnosis, to rhythmic music, to extended periods of vigorous dancing, etc.) is available to help us to achieve this goal, but there is no doubt that the consumption of those plants and substances called “drugs” in our societies is amongst the most effective and efficient means available to mankind to explore these profoundly altered states of consciousness.

The result is that people naturally seek out drugs and the temporary alterations in consciousness that they produce. Not all people in every society will do this, perhaps not even a majority, but certainly a very substantial minority—for example the 2 million Britons who are known to take illegal drugs each month³ or those 20 million people in the US who have been arrested for marijuana possession since 1965. And these of course are only the tip of the iceberg of the much larger population of American marijuana users, running into many more tens of millions, who have, by luck or care, not yet fallen foul of the law and are thus not reflected in the arrest statistics.

Needless to say, it is of course exactly the same urge to alter consciousness that also impels even larger numbers of people to use legal (and often extremely harmful) drugs such as alcohol and tobacco—which, though they may not alter consciousness as dramatically as, say, LSD, are nevertheless undoubtedly used and sought out for the limited alterations of consciousness that they do produce.

For the hundreds of millions of people around the world whose need to experience altered states is not and cannot be satisfied by drunken oblivion or the stimulant effects of tobacco, it is therefore completely natural to turn to “drugs”—and, since the “War on Drugs” means that there is no legal source of supply of these substances, the inevitable result is that those who wish to use them must resort to illegal sources of supply.

Herein lies great and enduring harm. For it is obvious, and we may all see the effects everywhere, that the criminalization of drug use has empowered and enriched a vast and truly horrible global criminal underworld by guaranteeing that it is the only source of supply of these drugs. We have, in effect, delivered our youth—the sector within our societies that most strongly feels the need to experience altered states of consciousness— into the hands of the very worst mobsters and sleazeballs on the planet. To buy drugs our sons and daughters have no choice but to approach and associate with violent and greedy criminals. And because the proceeds from illegal drug sales are so enormous, we are all caught up in the inevitable consequences of turf wars and murders amongst the gangs and cartels competing in this blackest of black markets.

It should be completely obvious to our governments, after more than 40 years of dismal failure to suppress illegal drug use, that their policies in this area do not work and will never work. It should be completely obvious, a simple logical step, to realize that by decriminalizing drug use, and making the supply of all drugs available to those adults who wish to use them through legal and properly regulated channels, we could, at a stroke, put out of business the vast criminal enterprise that presently flourishes on the supply of illegal drugs.

It ought to be obvious, but somehow it is not.

Instead the powers that be continue to pursue the same harsh and cruel policies that they have been wedded to from the outset, ever seeking to strengthen and reinforce them rather than to replace them with something better. Indeed the only “change” that the large, armed bureaucracies that enforce these policies has ever sought since the “War on Drugs” began has, year on year, been to demand even more money, even more arms, and even more draconian legislative powers to break into homes, to confiscate property, and to deprive otherwise law-abiding citizens of liberty and wreck their lives. In the process we have seen our once free and upstanding societies— which used to respect individual choice and freedom of conscience above all else—slide remorselessly down the slippery slope that leads to the police state. And all this is being done in our name, with our money, by our own governments, to “save us from ourselves”!

Winners and Losers

Who benefits from this colossal stupidity and systematic wickedness? And who loses?

The beneficiaries are easy to spot.

First, the large and ever-expanding armed bureaucracies, funded with large and ever-growing sums of public money to suppress the use of drugs, have benefited enormously. Everyone who works for them, including the PR people and spin merchants who concoct the propaganda used to sell their policies to us, including their subcontractors both public and private, and including the (often privately run) prisons stuffed to bursting point with their victims, are the beneficiaries of this catastrophic failure on the part of our governments to think laterally, generously, and creatively. Whether you are a Drug Enforcement Administration agent or a prison guard, you naturally have a deeply vested interest in maintaining the miserable status quo, justified by the “War on Drugs,” that keeps you in your job, that ensures your monthly paychecks continue to come in, and that continuously expands your budgets.

The second main category of beneficiaries is—of course!—the criminal gangs and cartels that the present misguided official policies have empowered as the sole source of drugs in our societies. Over the past 40-plus years they have earned countless billions of dollars from the sale of illegal drugs which, had they only been legal, would not have earned them a single penny.

Who are the losers? First and most directly those millions upon millions of good, nonviolent people in our societies who have been jailed or otherwise punished for the possession and use of drugs. And second (regardless of whether or not they use illegal drugs themselves), virtually everyone else in our societies as well. For the quality of life of all of us has been diminished by the growth of the police state and by the murderous activities of the criminal gangs enfranchised, and kept in business, by the blind and mindless perpetuation of this failed and bankrupt “War on Drugs.”

So, in summary, the criminalization of drug use has brought no positive effects, only negative ones, and it has not stopped or even reduced the use of dangerous and harmful drugs. On the contrary, we have been so little “saved from ourselves” by this phony war that the use of almost all illegal drugs, far from decreasing, has dramatically increased during the past 40 years.

Learning from Tobacco

A contrary example, but one that is most instructive, concerns the use of tobacco in our societies.

Tobacco has never been illegal; far from that, its use has been actively encouraged by clever advertising campaigns mounted by the multibillion-dollar tobacco industry. But the use of tobacco does undoubtedly lead to great harms, both for the health of the individual and the health of society at large, and facts about these harms have been widely and successfully disseminated without a single tobacco user ever being arrested or persecuted.

It’s interesting in this connection to compare the success of public information campaigns about the dangers of tobacco use with the utter failure of public information campaigns about the dangers of marijuana use. The reason the anti-marijuana campaigns have failed is that millions of users know from their own direct, long-term experience that marijuana does not do them any great harm and (with reference to the most recent anti- marijuana propaganda) most definitely does not drive them mad. It may well be true that very small numbers of fragile teenagers whose mental health was already compromised have had their latent schizophrenia or other similar conditions worsened by the use of marijuana—but the vast majority of marijuana users are not at all affected in this way. Likewise efforts by government agencies to persuade us that new, stronger strains of marijuana presently available on the market (e.g., “skunk”) are more dangerous to our health than traditional strains of marijuana because they deliver much more of the active ingredient THC to our systems, have not persuaded anyone. Regular marijuana users presented with a stronger strain simply adjust their consumption, consuming far less of it than they would of a weaker strain in order to achieve the same effect, and feel intuitively that smoking less of any substance has got to be better for their lungs and general health than smoking more.

The consequence of this disconnect between personal experience and “facts” purveyed by official public information campaigns is that huge numbers of people no longer believe anything that our governments have to say to us about drugs. There is an increasingly widespread recognition that tainted, unreliable, and tendentious information is being passed on—information that cannot be trusted. And this distrust of official sources of information is, of course, only worsened by the propagandistic character, witch hunts, and scare tactics of the “War on Drugs” and by the realization that the health information purveyed in anti-drug campaigns is not underwritten by caring and nurturing official policies but instead by draconian criminal sanctions and punitive authoritarian attitudes.

Where the health hazards of tobacco use are concerned, on the other hand, since there are no criminal sanctions against tobacco users, no large, armed bureaucracies to enforce them, and no special interests to serve by the dissemination of misleading information, the evidence has been accepted and believed by most rational adults freely making up their own minds, precisely as one would expect.

The result? While the use of illegal drugs has everywhere skyrocketed over the past 40 years, regardless of the violent persecution of the users of these drugs, the use of tobacco, in a climate of free choice and reliable information, has plummeted to an all-time low. The consumption of tobacco, once seen as a socially approved, even desirable, and, indeed, “stylish” habit, has come to be regarded as a pariah-creating activity that only idiots would indulge themselves in. Although there are, of course, still many tobacco users—because nicotine is intensely addictive—their numbers continue to fall dramatically year on year as more and more of us make the free choice to give up the habit for the sake of our health.

Is it not obvious that the “tobacco model” could be applied with equal success to all illegal drugs? In other words, is it not obvious, if our governments really wish us to stop using drugs, that immediate legalization of adult personal use must follow, that the giant, armed bureaucracies that persecute drug users must be closed down, and that the whole matter must be thrown open, in the way that tobacco use has been thrown open, to the effects of good, reliable information and the sound commonsense of the vast majority of the population? If that happens then we can be certain that drugs that are genuinely harmful to health and wellbeing (in the way that tobacco certainly is) will fall out of favor with their users in exactly the way that tobacco has done. And if it turns out that some of these drugs are in fact not so harmful, then it should not concern us at all if some adults make the free choice to continue to use them.

Of course, even against a backdrop of legalization and good information, some adults will make the free choice to continue to use genuinely harmful drugs as well, just as some adults today do continue to make the free choice to continue to use tobacco. But that, too, is as it should be in a truly free society. Democratic Congressman Barney Frank was spot on the truth of what a free society really means when he announced a proposal in August 2008 to end federal penalties for Americans carrying fewer than 100 grams (almost a quarter of a pound) of marijuana. “The vast amount of human activity ought to be none of the government’s business,” Frank said on Capitol Hill. “I don’t think it is the government’s business to tell you how to spend your leisure time.”

It goes without saying that Frank’s proposal is unlikely to succeed in the hysterical climate of disinformation that presently surrounds this subject, and we must ask ourselves why this should be so. Why are commonsense proposals for the legalization of drugs never adopted, or even seriously considered by our governments? Why, on the contrary, are such proposals dogmatically opposed with even more propaganda and tainted information emanating from the big, armed anti-drug bureaucracies?

That legalization of drugs would shrink the budgets of those selfsame bureaucracies, and ultimately put them out of business, is part of the answer. But to find the real engine that perpetuates the “War on Drugs” we need to look deeper and ask fundamental questions about the relationship between the individual and the state in modern Western democracies.

Freedom of Consciousness

What is Western civilization all about? What are its greatest achievements and highest aspirations?

It’s my guess that most people’s replies to these questions would touch—before all the other splendid achievements of science, literature, technology, and the economy—on the nurture and growth of freedom.

Individual freedom.

Including, but not limited to freedom from the unruly power of monarchs, freedom from the unwarranted intrusions of the state and its agents into our personal lives, freedom from the tyranny of the Church and its Inquisition, freedom from hunger and want, freedom from slavery and servitude, freedom of conscience, freedom of religion, freedom of thought and speech, freedom of assembly, freedom to elect our own leaders, freedom to be homosexual—and so on and so forth.

The list of freedoms we enjoy today that were not enjoyed by our ancestors is indeed a long and impressive one. It is therefore exceedingly strange that Western civilization in the twenty- first century enjoys no real freedom of consciousness.

There can be no more intimate and elemental part of the individual than his or her own consciousness. At the deepest level, our consciousness is what we are—to the extent that if we are not sovereign over our own consciousness then we cannot in any meaningful sense be sovereign over anything else either. So it has to be highly significant that, far from encouraging freedom of consciousness, our societies in fact violently deny our right to sovereignty in this intensely personal area, and have effectively outlawed all states of consciousness other than those on a very narrowly defined and officially approved list. The “War on Drugs” has thus unexpectedly succeeded in engineering a stark reversal of the true direction of Western history by empowering faceless bureaucratic authorities to send armed agents to break into our homes, arrest us, throw us into prison, and deprive us of our income and reputation simply because we wish to explore the sometimes radical, though always temporary, alterations in our own consciousness that drugs facilitate.

Other than being against arbitrary rules that the state has imposed on us, personal drug use by adults is not a “crime” in any true moral or ethical sense and usually takes place in the privacy of our own homes, where it cannot possibly do any harm to others. For some it is a simple lifestyle choice. For others, particularly where the hallucinogens such as LSD, psilocybin, and DMT are concerned, it is a means to make contact with alternate realms and parallel dimensions, and perhaps even with the divine. For some, drugs are an aid to creativity and focussed mental effort. For others they are a means to tune out for a while from everyday cares and worries. But in all cases it seems probable that the drive to alter consciousness, from which all drug use stems, has deep genetic roots.

Other adult lifestyle choices with deep genetic roots also used to be violently persecuted by our societies.

A notable example is homosexuality, once punishable by death or long periods of imprisonment, which is now entirely legal between consenting adults—and fully recognized as being none of the state’s business—in all Western cultures. (Although approximately thirteen US states have “anti-sodomy” laws outlawing homosexuality, these statutes have rarely been enforced in recent years, and in 2003 the US Supreme Court invalidated those laws.) The legalization of homosexuality lifted a huge burden of human misery, secretiveness, paranoia, and genuine fear from our societies, and at the same time not a single one of the homophobic lobby’s fire-and-brimstone predictions about the end of Western civilization came true.

Likewise, it was not so long ago that natural seers, mediums, and healers who felt the calling to become “witches” were burned at the stake for “crimes” that we now look back on as harmless eccentricities at worst.

Perhaps it will be the same with drugs? Perhaps in a century or two, if we have not destroyed human civilization by then, our descendants will look back with disgust on the barbaric laws of our time that punished a minority so harshly (with imprisonment, financial ruin, and worse) for responsibly, quietly, and in the privacy of their own homes seeking alterations in their own consciousness through the use of drugs. Perhaps we will even end up looking back on the persecution of drug users with the same sense of shame and horror that we now view the persecution of gays and lesbians, the burning of “witches,” and the imposition of slavery on others.

Meanwhile it’s no accident that the “War on Drugs” has been accompanied by an unprecedented expansion of governmental power into the previously inviolable inner sanctum of individual consciousness. On the contrary, it seems to me that the state’s urge to power has all along been the real reason for this “war”—not an honest desire on the part of the authorities to rescue society and the individual from the harms caused by drugs, but the thin of a wedge intended to legitimize increasing bureaucratic control and intervention in almost every other area of our lives as well.

This is the way freedom is hijacked—not all at once, out in the open, but stealthily, little by little, behind closed doors, and with our own agreement. How will we be able to resist when so many of us have already willingly handed over the keys to our own consciousness to the state and accepted without protest that it is OK to be told what we may and may not do, what we may and may not explore, even what we may and may not experience, with this most precious, sapient, unique, and individual part of ourselves?

If we are willing to accept that then we can be persuaded to accept anything.

1. Legislators aim to snuff out penalties for pot use. CNN, 30 July 2008.
2. Ibid.
3. Independent, London, 15 August 2008, page 1, citing Department of Health research.

Outsider Art • Discordia • SubGenius
The Occult • Satanism • Conspiracy Analysis
Life Extension • Intelligence Enhancement
Space Migration • Psychedelic Futurism
Consciousness Expansion • R/evolutionary Living
Renegade Metaphysics • Radical Psychotherapy
Aliens • Neo-Shamanism • Temporary Autonomous Zones
Body Modification • Alternative Sexuality • Fringe Culture
Human-Dolphin Communication • DIY Media
Cybernetics and Systems Theory • Pranks
Atheism • Zen • Martial Arts • Recession Hacking

There will also be performances by artists such as Cult of Zir and Ogo Eion and Psychetect in the evenings.

If you enjoyed my other work, I hope you will take the plunge and pre-order this new book before its official release on October 14. Apparently, in today’s anxious publishing climate, pre-orders from Amazon and other sites determine how much attention the publisher’s sales and marketing departments will give to a book. If you plan to pick up a copy of this book in any case, please pre-order it now so that Tarcher/Penguin, my publisher, gets behind it and gives it a push, thereby helping the ideas and initiatives I explore — the subjects we cover daily on Reality Sandwich and Evolver.net – to creep and slither deeper into the mainstream.

While the book is a collection of essays, organized chronologically, I believe that, taken in total, it makes a coherent argument. The antidote to the suicide system we have unleashed requires a systemic, whole systems approach, along with a new underlying paradigm on which to base our individual and collective actions. As the back cover quote states, “If our consumer-based, materialism-driven model of society is dissolving, what can we offer in its place? Why not begin with the most elevated intentions? Why not offer the most imaginatively fabulous systemic redesign?”

Notes from the Edge Times proposes that the new paradigm for the next epoch includes a reinvented financial system. We will reject the domination by one single form of money, controlled by a cabal of private banking interests, and adopt a range of currency instruments that support collaboration over competition. In many areas, we will take a design science approach to solve our current problems. We will also integrate a new understanding of the psyche and accept the existence of paranormal capabilities. I offer the thesis that our evolution as a species has shifted from the physical to the psychic level, and we could transition rapidly from a post-everything culture of information overload to a “Wisdom Age” where art has replaced money as the ruling value.

While scanning many indicators that our post-industrial civilization is hitting the skids and could collapse as resources become scarce, Notes from the Edge Times remains optimistic about the transformation. The book proposes that we can overcome cynicism and defeatism — forms of cultural programming — in order to participate creatively in our rapidly changing world.

Advance readers tell me that Notes from the Edge Times is my most accessible work, with the potential to reach both old and new audiences. I know, as well as anyone, how distracting our current culture is, and how difficult it is to separate out signal from noise. I believe my little book contains crucial new ideas and nuggets of information that will help people grasp our situation and prepare for what may soon come. I hope that you feel inspired to join me on this modest foray into the fringes of thought and the edge-realms of possibility.

[cross posted from Reality Sandwich]

Taking place in one of the most beautiful spots in the American Southwest, we’ll explore topics ranging from sacred art to new paradigms of partnership, alien Christology to the secrets of lost civilizations, bioremediation of the Gulf to gift culture dynamics, Gaian technology to galactic alignments, psychedelic revivals to spiritual activism. Activities include pictograph explorations, energy medicine workshops, interactive sacred geometry, slot canyon adventures, open source rituals, kundalini yoga, music, meditation, and more. Horse-riding and massage is available at an additional cost.

Join us on this heart-opening odyssey as we ignite, awaken, and inspire dimensional shifts within the world, each other, and ourselves.

Oct 12-17, Boulder, UTAH

Last year we held two Reality Sandwich retreats at the Boulder Mountain Guest Ranch, and they are already legendary. These were truly transformative events for many who joined us for several days of mind-expanding discussions and workshops in the stunning desert landscape. Don’t miss this year’s retreat. It’s an event you’ll remember for the rest of your life. (Proceeds will go to the Evolver Social Movement & Cosm).

About the Boulder Mountain Guest Ranch

The Boulder Mountain Guest Ranch is co-owned and interdependently operated by two Evolver directors (Ron Johnson and Brandie Hardman Johnson) who have held many amazing and successful retreats on site over the last year. The ranch is located on 166 acres of breathtaking views overlooking the Grand Staircase-Escalante. The property is surrounded by two million acres of Dixie National Forest giving you all the serenity and beauty the area has to offer. Hiking (to a waterfall), observing nature and exploring an indigenous ecosystem can be done right from the property or you can take advantage of the wonders of the surrounding area. Access to Boulder Mountain Swells (highest peak 11,328 ft.) and the famous Boulder Mountain Hells Backbone Bridge is just a few minutes away.

Boulder Mountain with a 50,000 acre summit makes up half of the Aquarius Plateau, a heavily forested area that descends upon slick rock, slot canyons and desert grottos. You can experience five of the planet’s seven “life zones” in a 15 mile decent to 4,800 ft. elevation, as well as the largest biomass on the planet (an Aspen grove). National Geographic ranked this area as the third healthiest ecosystem on Earth. The ranch is one mile from the Northeast border of the Escalante-Grand Staircase National Monument which consists of 1.9 million acres of waterfalls, slick rock, sandstone and slot canyons, unique rock formations, palentology and cliff terraces. Anasazi and Freemont Indian dwellings, petroglyphs and pictographs scatter this wonderland that is chock-full of adventure, pristine landscapes and abundant wildlife.

Lodging, Dining & Reservations

Pricing below includes workshop fee, guided hikes, activities, all your healthy delicious meals and snacks. Our new world class kitchen provides local and organic beef, pork, chicken, eggs and produce. All bread and pastry items are made fresh and baked daily. Menu available upon request. Delicious vegetarian, non vegetarian and vegan meal choices will be available.

To make a reservation or for more information please contact David info@bouldermountainguestranch.com or Brandie at brandie@bouldermountainguestranch.com or call the Ranch at 435-335-7480. Limited space available. Please call or write for accommodation details.

We are offering a variety of accommodations during the Dimensional Shift retreat at the Boulder Mountain Guest Ranch from camping to private cabins. We only have accommodations for 50 people so tickets really are limited. Make sure to reserve soon.

Below you will find descriptions of different lodging options. Please don’t hesitate to call or write with questions or for further clarification…that’s what we’re here for.

Please refer to the descriptions and photos for more information…the photos may paint a better picture (soon to come). Prices below do not include tax.

Evolvers Social Movement members receive a $100 discount.

Private Cabin: Queen bed with additional bunk bed (sleeps 4). Private bath and deck. Dinette with mini-fridge, microwave and coffeemaker. $1500 per person based on double occupancy. Additional guests are $400 per person. Basically if you and your 3 other of your companions you can rent a private cabin for $950 per person or $158 per day.

Private room: Queen Bed with private bath inside main lodge. (sleeps 1-2) $1300 single occupancy/$1800 double occupancy or $216 per day single occupancy or $150 per day double occupancy.

Semi-private room: Queen bed in private room and a full bed in additional room. There is a shared bathroom for the two rooms. Private deck. $1000 per person or $166 per day (not a co-ed room)

We have found that people have made great friends when opting to share space and room with others.

Shared Cabin: King bed with four additional twins in upper loft (sleeps 5-6). Private bath and deck. Dinette with mini-fridge, microwave and coffeemaker. $750 per person or $125 per day. (not a co-ed cabin)

Shared bunk rooms: There are 3 bunk rooms in the upper level of our main lodge. The three bunk rooms share two main bathrooms adjacent to the rooms. There is a common sitting area and deck on the upper level as well. Each room has a different bed configuration. Descriptions are below. $650 per person or $108 per day.

• Twin over full bunk bed with additional bunk bed (sleeps 4-5).

• Two sets of bunk beds (sleeps 4)

• Full futon fold out with coil/cotton spring mattress additional bunk bed (sleeps 3-4)

Showers are available for all accommodations below.

Geodesic domes: A 16 ft diameter dome with a queen bed, water basin, pellet stove and small sitting area with adjacent port-a-john. Linens and towels supplied. Linens and towels supplied. (sleeps 1-2) $900 single occupancy/ $700 double occupancy or $150 per day single occupancy/$116 double occupancy

Wall Tents: Queen bed (not an air mattress) or two twins beds (also not an air mattress) in a 10×10 space with water basin, sitting area, pot-belly stove and adjacent port-a-john .Linens and towels supplied (sleeps 1-2) $800 single occupancy/$650 double occupancy or $133 per day single occupancy/$108 per day double occupancy

RV: Bring your camper, trailer or pop up. We have water and electrical outlets but no dumping stations although there is one in the town of Boulder. $600 per person/ $100 per day

Camping: B.Y.O.T Bring your own tent. Port-a-johns adjacent to group camping site $500 per person. We only have 15 camping spots available. $83 per day

Pets: We LOVE pets but not everyone does. We discourage bringing your pet but if you have to just know that pets must be kept on a leash and will not be allowed in main lodge, cabins nor in any common area.

Read an article about the last Utah retreat.

Testimonials From Previous Utah Retreats

“The retreat in Utah was an amazing opportunity to listen, hang, and generally probe several seminal psychedelic thinkers all while unplugging from the airwaves and intranet transmissions of our daily lives (there was nothing on the radio!). The land was beautiful, epic, and surprisingly potent. But the best aspect was the opportunity to practice what we preach and live in the Gift, soaking in each simple moment with ease, grace, and excitement in an environment of joyous support—the trip was truly a special opportunity in this eternal present we call life.”

— Trevor

“I have to say, I am not the same since I came back from our R.S. retreat! I no longer feel like I am alone in the way I think about life on this planet. From first introductions at the reception, to in-depth inquiry into our purpose here on earth, there was a connection with every person at the retreat. It’s good to know there are others out there committed to serving humanity, and we are doing it together, no matter where we reside. Thank you so much R.S. — together we are making a difference.” — With much gratitude, Souci Pype

“I have gained a new perspective in the matters of our earth situation, and the mess we have made for ourselves, in not being involved in the choices made for us. Where there was fear, I now have hope for us all. You can count on me to be there! That was an amazing retreat!!”— Thank you so much, Jack Pyper

“Like many who showed up, I felt called to came to this retreat unsure of what would happen, but with a hunch that something magical would come of it… and it did! Connecting intimately with such inspiring thinkers on such gorgeous land got me inspired, fired up, and connected to a movement that I was able to take back home with me.”— Regina

“I walked away wondering how I could get more involved in my community to make a positive impact and with many questions about just what “consciousness” is. I also realize I miss the connection within the group–people who understand on an energetic level what needs to be accomplished.”— Kathy

“Being a fifty-something year old guy and pretty caught up in raising a family and making a living most of my life, I didn’t know what to expect from the Toward 2012 Retreat at Boulder Mountain Guest Ranch. What I found there was much more than I hoped for. The participants, initially strangers to one another, quickly formed bonds of friendship and shared the various paths that had led them to the retreat. Daniel Pinchbeck, Charles Eisenstein, Jonathan Phillips and the entire Reality Sandwich crew could not have been more personable and were often available for one-on-one conversation. There was not one moment of negativity, not one. As I write this paragraph my heart longs for the experience of those four days. That is why if at all possible I will be returning to Boulder Mountain in October… Thank you Ron and Brandie for helping to create this opportunity for conscious growth and change.” — Alex

DIMENSIONAL SHIFT SCHEDULE

Oct 12 – Tues:

Arrive by 5:00pm

6:00pm: Meet and Mingle

7:00pm- 9:30pm: Dinner

sweatlodge available

Oct 13 – Weds:

8:00am – 9:15am: Easing Into Awakening: Yoga & Meditation by Regina Gelfo

9:30am – 10:30am: Breakfast (sign up in advance to bless the food with your unique ritual)

11:00am – 1:00pm: Opening the Circle – opening ceremony facilitated by RS team etc

1:00pm – 2:30pm: Lunch

2:30pm – 4:30pm: A Species with Amnesia – Graham Hancock followed by Q&A

5:00pm – 6:30pm: Dinner

7:00pm- 9:00pm: Better Religion through Science and Art- Alex Grey

sweatlodge available after workshop – sign up in advance to lead a ritual

Oct 14 – Thurs:

8:00am – 9:15am: Easing Into Awakening: Yoga & Meditation by Regina Gelfo

9:30am – 10:30 am: Breakfast

11:00am – 5:30pm: Anasazi Petroglyph Tours & Shamanic History Lesson with Graham Hancock ( w/ box lunch)

6:00pm – 7:30pm: Dinner

7:30pm – 9:00pm: Sacred Mirrors: Divine Partnership in the New Story with Alex & Allyson Grey, Graham Hancock & Santha Faiia, fac. by Regina Gelfo

sweatlodge available after workshop – sign up in advance to lead a ritual

Oct 15 – Fri:

8:00am – 9:15am: Easing Into Awakening: open activity (yoga, tai chi, etc) by signup

9:30am – 10:30am: Breakfast

11:00am – 5:00pm: Recreational Hiking choose from 3 amazing hikes in the area

6:00pm – 7:30pm: Dinner

8:00pm – 9:00 pm: Alien Christology with Alex Grey & Jonathan Talat Phillips

9:15pm- 11:00pm: Elves, Aliens, Angels and Ayahuasca: Parallel Realms and the Mysteries of the Vine of the Dead with Graham Hancock

Oct 16 – Sat

8:30am – 10:00am: Breakfast

10:30am – 11:30am: Energy Medicine with Jonathan Talat Phillips

12:00pm – 1:00pm: Lunch

1:30pm- 3:00pm: New Paradigm ToolKit: Evolver Roundtable with Ken Jordan, Jonathan Phillips, Michael Robinson, Regina Gelfo, and Baza Novic

3:30-5:00pm Shamanic Cave/Rock Art Painting drawing by Alex and Allyson Grey, natural dyes created magically by Baza Novic, group/sound facilitation by Regina Gelfo

5:30-6:30pm: Chaos, Order and Secret Writing: The Art of Allyson Grey

7:00pm – 8:00pm: Dinner

8:30pm – 9:30pm: Contemporary Visionary Art and Culture-Alex and Allyson Grey

9:30pm- 11:30pm : Panel: Multidimensional Mediumship: Tales from Beyond the Beyond (panel / circle / conversation)

with Alex & Allyson Grey, Graham Hancock, sharing firsthand experiences

11:30pm-?? Dancing, music and celebration

Oct 17 – Sun

8:00am – 9:15am: Easing Into Awakening: Yoga & Meditation by Regina

9:30am – 11:00am: Happy Healthy Breakfast

11:00am – 1pm: Closing the Circle

you can spend the rest of the day relaxing and hiking in the area if desired, please pack off the

premises by (what time?)7pm

Schedule subject to change

Click here to read talks and workshop descriptions.

Travel tips for the Dimensional Shift Retreat at the Boulder Mountain Guest Ranch in Boulder

Utah

Airports to Fly into:

1)Salt Lake City International Airport (4 ½-5 hour drive)

2)Las Vegas International Airport (6-6 ½ hour drive) You will pass through two very scenic parks

on this route …Zions National Park and Bryce Canyon

3)Page Arizona Airport (4-4 ½ hours) You will pass through Bryce Canyon

Directions:

Go to Mapquest.com for directions from the airports to the Boulder Utah. We are located on Hell’s Backbone Road. We are located 3 miles SOUTH of the town of Boulder on Highway 12 (close to mile marker 83) Turn WEST (right if you are coming from SLC and left if you are coming from LAS or PGA) on the Hell’s Backbone Road/Salt Gulch (there is a green highway sign indicting the turn off). You will see our sign go 3.3 miles to our “driveway”. You will see another sign turn left SOUTH in to the Ranch.

Ride share:

There is no public transportation to the Ranch. We encourage people attending the retreat to share a ride with others it saves money and Planet earth. Plus you get to spend time with others attending the retreat. Go to www.realitysandwich.comdimensional_shift to make the connection. The BMGR staff can also help you connect with others.

Car rental:

If you are renting a car we recommend getting one with a GPS unit. The rural roads sometimes can be cumbersome. Our GPS coordinates are N 37 degrees 54.322’ W 111 degrees 30.369’

Website • iTunes • Direct Download • RSS

Jeremy Vaeni joins Stacy from The Black Fridays to discuss religion, consciousness, and self.

In part 2 of Stacy’s series looking at religions and faiths of all types, he explores Jeremy’s experiences and how they have helped formed his world view.

Check out Jeremy here!

Here’s the complete schedule of Atlanta-based events, please RSVP on Facebook if you can make it. Hope to see you there!

EYEDRUM ATLANTA More info at www.eyedrum.org.
Date: Friday 9/3 Time: 8 PM

Graham Hancock, bestselling author of Fingerprints of the Gods and Supernatural, will be appearing at Eyedrum on Friday, September 3 in support of his new book, Entangled. Randall Carlson from Sacred Geometry Atlanta will be the opening speaker. Admission is $5.

If you can invite fifty over more people in Atlanta over Facebook to this event over Facebook your admission is free. Please contact programs [at] disinfo.com for more info.

FIVE DRAGON*CON 2010 EVENTS!!! Full schedule at www.DragonCon.org.

Panel: Hollywood vs. History History doesn’t always translate well to the silver screen — or does it? Participants discuss films in a fast-paced, round-robin format. Panelists: K. Hinds, E. Flint, S. M. Stirling, A. J. Hartley, G. D. Falksen, G. Hancock Date/Time: Friday, 9/3 5:30 PM Location: Westin International C

Panel: Far Be It From Me… A rousing debate on revisionist vs. ‘traditional’ history and the evolution of historical presentation.. Panelists: B. Linaweaver, E. Flint, S. M. Stirling, A. J. Hartley, G. Hancock Date/Time: Saturday, 9/4 4:00 PM Location: Westin International C

Panel: 2012 Theories and myths surrounding 2012 from various cultures. Is there hope? Is it real? Are we doomed? Panelists: E. Donald, E. Dunin, M. B. Weston, G. Hancock, K. Brewer, G. Baddeley, R. Carlson Date/Time: Sunday, 9/5 4:00 PM Location: Marriott L508

Presentation: Aliens, Angels and Ayahuasca Graham Hancock will take you on a mind-trip through history showing evidence that alien encounters & UFO’s are nothing new… ? Location: Westin International C

Autograph Session: Come meet Graham in person! Date/Time: Monday, 9/6 11:30 AM Location: Marriott 301–304

We will be listing more events here on disinfo.com and Facebook and look for Entangled: The Eater of Souls this fall in a bookstore near you.

Bavsa: binaural beat visual analysis tool

An interview with Jim Peters, developer of SbaGen, who’s source code was used without permission for the notorious I-Doser. Via Technoccult:

Technoccult: Do you believe that I-Doser can actually deliver on their promise of providing a variety of discrete recreational psychoactive experiences? My own experience working with SbaGen, Brainwave Generator, and sound and light machines is that it does feel like “something happens,” but I haven’t found that the specific experience each one is aiming for (“relaxation,” “creativity,” “stimulation,” etc.) In fact, I actually conducted some controlled experiments with classmates as a research project in college. We investigated whether the “intelligence enhancement” setting of a particular sound and light machine was effective at improving MENSA test exam scores. We didn’t get statistically significant results.

Peters: No, I don’t believe that I-Doser can deliver on their promise. If I hit you over the head with a mallet you will see stars, but that doesn’t mean that you’ve had a marvellous journey through the universe. However with a good enough sales pitch maybe I can make you believe that you have.

I-Doser uses quite high-amplitude binaural beats, much higher than is recommended by organizations such as The Monroe Institute or CenterPointe, where the beats are generally only just audible under the soundtrack. [...]

The applications of binaural beats are varied, but they will never be a ‘silver bullet’ to instantly give you high MENSA scores or whatever.

I’ve heard from Buddhist monks who found that binaural beats took them to places in consciousness that required years of meditation to reach by normal means. But again this sounds better than it is — they were
practiced meditators, so they could follow the guide provided by the beats to reach those places. Someone who is not practiced in meditation would fall asleep or pop out of entrainment under the same conditions. Meditation takes time to learn, but binaural beats can be used as a guide for practice.

The late Robert Monroe used binaural beats, sometimes combined with flotation chambers and sensory deprivation, to guide people to places he knew from his journeys out-of-body. This could be seen as another
form of meditation.

Hancock’s evidence for a great lost civilisation wiped out in a global cataclysm 12,500 years ago is explored in depth together with his suggestion that the survivors of that civilisation may have sought to pass down a message to the future and indeed specifically to us in the twenty-first century — a warning that the next great lost civilisation may be our own. From the geology of the Sphinx and the Pyramids of Egypt to the mysteries of the Ark of the Covenant, from ancient maps showing the world as it looked during the last Ice Age to out-of-place artefacts indicative of high technology in ancient times, the discussion ranges widely across some of the most intriguing evidence for an immense forgotten episode in human history, and moves on to consider the spiritual crisis of the modern age. Could a new paradigm emerge from our present state of chaos? Hancock and Pinchbeck see hope in efforts by people all around the planet to reclaim sovereignty over their own consciousness, and identify a powerful role for shamanistic visionary plants such as Ayahuasca and Psilocybin in ushering in a gentler, less toxic, more nurturing state of mind. “It does seem like when you ingest them,” says Pinchbeck, “you get a lot of messages about how to reintegrate into the larger community of life.” For further information see http://www.realitysandwich.com/, and http://www.grahamhancock.com/. For Graham’s latest book see http://www.entangledthebook.com/.

The Infinite and the Beyond — Podcast: Episode #014 — Magick with Dr. Dean Radin

Website • iTunes • Direct Download • RSS

In the latest episode of The Infinite and the Beyond, we learn about the legendary 14th century French alchemist Nicolas Flamel in “A Corner in the Occult.”

Rumors say that Nicholas and his wife were able to turn mercury into gold and as a result of their experiments possibly even created the mystical Elixir of Life providing them both with immortality.

We talk with author and parapsychologist Dr. Dean Radin, senior scientist at the Institute of Noetic Sciences and author of Entangled Minds, Extrasensory Experiences in a Quantum Reality.

During the course of the interview we talk about the Global Consciousness Project and touch upon what this could mean for the world. We also discuss his experiences as a research scientist and finally how his findings and current understandings relate to the art and practice of magick.

I also read some of the listener messages that I received since the last episode via the show website, podcast alley, and the show network. I even announced a new show contest where one lucky listener will win a copy of Dr. Radin’s most recent book Entangled Minds.

The drawing for this contest will occur in the next episode and if you are interested in participating be sure to enter by going here. All this and more in this great episode, blessed be and 93! Check the show notes for all links mentioned.

To message the show please go here.

Dickey Eason

I cannot find the author of the following quotation so I extend my apologies to him or her, but it is too valuable to be left unsaid: “The assumptions that are the most pernicious are the ones we don’t know we are making because they appear so intrinsically obvious.”

What assumptions are we making that may be preventing us from seeing a more realistic reality? Remember the flat-earth assumption? The earth is the center of the universe assumption? How about that some races or groups are superior to others? Incorrect assumptions distort reality, limit potential, and maintain the status quo. More accurate knowledge of the foundational dynamics involved in the world and the universe can help free human beings in many ways.

Plato thought there were two realities, the everyday world and the “ideal” world which existed in an unknown realm. I think there are two as well–the everyday world that we have come to know, and the world where the true dynamics are at work. They are of course the same worlds but most of us do not know that another model exists that may be far more accurate than the one that has been painted for us.

I would like to introduce a new way of looking at how the world and universe work. I call it the IMPACTS concept, named after the group I discovered ten years ago that has a powerful effect on the world in every conceivable category. The discovery of the group introduced a new variable into the study of human behavior and human society, and the subsequent study led me to the belief that there is a true dynamic operating across the universe. This dynamic I believe is manifested among human beings through the IMPACTS.

Let’s define what we mean by a dynamic. I think it is useful to look at its use as an adjective and a noun in order to fully grasp its importance.

From the American Heritage Dictionary:

Adjective:
Of or relating to energy or to objects in motion.

Characterized by continuous change, activity, or progress.

Marked by intensity and vigor; forceful.
Noun:

An interactive system or process, especially one involving competing or conflicting forces.

A force, especially political, social, or psychological.
From Collins Essential English Dictionary:

Adjective:
Describing a person—full of energy, ambition, or new ideas.

Relating to a force of society, history, or the mind that produces a change.

Physics—relating to energy or forces that produce motion.
From Encarta—MSN:

Adjective:
Full of energy, enthusiasm, and a sense of purpose and able to get things going and to get things done.

Characterized by vigorous activity and producing or undergoing change and development.
Sorry for the “dynamic” overload, but I want you to get a solid grasp of what the word means because it is integral to our discussion. You can see that a dynamic is about energy, motion, intensity, change, and competition with another force. That will be the essence of our analysis.

If you are familiar with a wolf pack, then you know that there are different roles within the group, and these roles appear to be etched into the genome. There are the leaders of the pack, the alpha male and female, a beta male or female which is second in command and is the glue that holds the pack together, an omega which suffers abuse from the rest of the pack as a way to help the pack relieve stress, and the remainder of the pack which vie for position.

The beta wolf performs multiple roles: patrolling the territory, taking care of the pups, settling disputes and trying to maintain peace and order, and generally attempting to answer needs that are not answered by the others. The beta wolf may or may not become the alpha but if the alpha is away, the beta is in charge.

The IMPACTS’ role in human society follows the same basic template as that of the beta in wolf society with a few additions. They hold society and human civilization together because they respond to needs that others do not see. They are the problem-solvers, and if you are a problem-solver, then you must be innovative, inventive, alert, flexible, persistent, passionate, precise, tenacious, focused, and empathic. In effect, like the beta wolf, if a problem-solver, you must be able to “remove yourself” from the predominant energy field in order to assess needs and draft solutions. You cannot allow yourself to get carried along by the “tide” of events.

I have found that the IMPACTS cut across all socioeconomic levels, and are usually the quiet leaders everywhere in society. Again, like the beta wolf, occasionally they will “rise” to the “alpha” ranks of society politically, but generally their representation in national politics is not what it is in other fields. They are also not found extensively in the military, except in the Navy, as most IMPACTS prefer to work for harmony and conflict resolution. But still, there will be IMPACTS everywhere though they will cluster in certain industries, such as healthcare, information technology, business in general, volunteerism, nonprofits, the arts, and science, just to mention a few. They are creative and productive—unless they are stymied. They are Democrats, Republicans, Independents, Iranians, Swedes, Turks, Ethiopians, Israelis, Palestinians—Muslims, Christians, Jews, Unitarians—anybody anywhere in the world. IMPACTS are the real Movers and Shakers, not the ones who usually get the credit for being so.

Traditional science will say that my work is not science because it cannot be tested. But how could you test a dynamic? To science, it doesn’t exist unless it can be measured, often putting science way behind the times because of its dependence on instrumentation. Science is from the Latin scientia meaning knowledge, but is today’s science really helping us get closer to a more correct description of true reality and the forces that shape it?

If science were in charge of reporting on a basketball game, there would be no heart, no desire, no overcoming adversity, no momentum—none of the intangibles—because they cannot be measured. So science would say the most important variables don’t exist. For reasons such as these, science can sometimes be a poor choice when looking for the “truth”.

Obviously something is amiss in all of this. I think what is needed is a new field called dynamic science which uses the measuring capabilities of science but adds a dynamic when one clearly exists. Of course, many would say that a dynamic and its strength are subjective and therefore useless, but in my opinion there is something deeper at work—quickly the dynamic could possibly be applied to the study of human behavior, and then a much clearer view of what is really happening in the world might emerge, something that could be extremely dangerous for all. So we go through the motions of “trying to figure out” the world while making sure that our foundational template prevents us from doing so. Not seeing a dynamic, or not allowing one to be seen, clearly aids those in charge of the paradigm. The world is what “they” say it is, and “they” are the protectors of the paradigm. Let’s see if we can identify a more accurate template of how the world and universe work. If we can, things may start making a lot more sense.

To get the template right, we are going to have to put ourselves back into nature and remove ourselves from the exclusive, exalted position we have constructed for human beings. The story of humanity that is being written—is it an accurate representation or is it closer to historical fiction? And who is in charge of writing the narrative?

I think the following 7 points are a good starting point in helping us understand the IMPACTS concept, including the role in human society and civilization of the group that I call the IMPACTS. Plus, I believe these points will also give us a much better idea of how the world and universe actually work. All of the 7 are distinctly related. The first one is the most important—it is the 2^nd Law of Thermodynamics. All of the others follow from it. Most of us are familiar with the 1^st Law of Thermodynamics which says that energy cannot be created or destroyed.

1) The 2^nd Law of Thermodynamics rules the universe and explains, in my view, the whole workings of humankind and the universe. And it is very simple: concentrated energy will disperse, or break down and dissipate, if not hindered from doing so. From our viewpoint, the 2^nd Law means movement away from order (concentrated energy) toward disorder, or entropy. But from the “viewpoint” of the 2^nd Law, the reverse is the case—our order is its disorder and our disorder is its order. That is not as crazy as it sounds because within human society we have similar opposing viewpoints.

So we have order and we have entropy and the 2^nd Law. Obviously we see much order when we look around—the earth, clouds, people, animals, buildings, the sun and stars, and much more—so some force is obviously keeping at least some things together.

To understand the 2^nd Law let’s use the example of a tire that is properly inflated. The pressure inside the tire is significantly greater than the pressure outside the tire. But if someone sticks a nail in the tire, within seconds the pressure inside and outside the tire will be the same. The concentrated energy is dispersed quickly—unless hindered from doing so. The rubber was “hindering dispersal” but when it was punctured, there was nothing left to prevent the equalization of forces on the inside and the outside.

We need to keep in mind that the forces acting on human beings are the same forces operating throughout the universe. Just because we are on earth doesn’t mean we are free from universal forces. The 2^nd Law is pushing humans apart in a psychological sense but an opposite force is trying to hold humanity together. The IMPACTS are the representation of that force just as the beta wolf is in the wolf pack. Both the IMPACTS and the beta wolf appear to not be as affected by the predominant alpha energy field as are the others.

So the basic foundation of the universe is that it tends toward a breakdown of concentrated energy, and there is a force that tries to overcome this tendency. If you understand the 2^nd Law, you will be well on your way to understanding who the IMPACTS are and how the world and universe work.

Reminders from point #1:

There is a force in the universe that is pulling and pushing things apart and there is a force that is trying to hold them together. So strong bonding and attraction are obviously present.

2) The second item is the hydrogen atom with its one proton and one electron, two distinct forms of energy. This appears to be the basic template for the universe, which makes sense because it was the first atom, or the first structure where the two opposing forces were locked in an “embrace”. The proton, massive and dense, is pulling inward while the almost mass-less electron is reaching outward. It appears to me that the electron is actually captured—beyond the opposite-charge attraction between the proton and electron. And an imbalance exists—an asymmetry—even though the charges are equal. Electrons prefer to be paired, and the energy level closest to the nucleus can accommodate 2 electrons. Therefore the lone electron of the hydrogen atom is a valence electron, meaning that it is available to bond with the valence electron of another atom. When it does, balance is attained and a new structure, a molecule, is formed.

Life is built around carbon-based molecules. Carbon is a powerful bonding agent as it has 2 electrons in the first energy level and 4 electrons in the second energy level. This energy level needs 8 electrons to be full. So carbon makes a strong bonder for life because it is partially stable and partially reactive. It will often bond, through its valence electrons, with other carbon atoms as it seeks balance. So the bonding actions of the valence electrons enable life and hinder dispersal. Robert Piccioni, author of Everyone’s Guide to Atoms, Einstein, and the Universe and Can Life Be Merely An Accident? says that, “Any entity that can consistently overcome the 2^nd Law is Alive.”

The valence electron is obviously an essential part of the life process. This is important as it relates to the IMPACTS. The IMPACTS are the valence electrons of society—they are the ones who are reaching out, bonding, trying to restore balance, and creating the NEW in the process.

Another important point to emphasize is the peripheral location of the valence electron. That is where change occurs to the structure (atom). The same happens in human society—the IMPACTS often reside near the periphery psychologically and sometimes physically as well.

I believe that the rest of the universe follows this model precisely. What do you see when you look at a galaxy? You see the exact same thing—a massive, dense core (black hole) and a “cloud” of stars. You see the same template as well when you look at human organizations, such as companies, countries, even families. That is why I believe you can look at the hydrogen atom and see the universe, including human civilization. Energy behaves the same wherever it is, and there appear to be two major forms of it, male energy (proton) and female energy (electron), throughout the universe. The IMPACTS people tend toward androgyny but lean significantly toward more female energy.

Reminders from point #2:

Valence electrons create the new through their bonding actions. IMPACTS  behave similarly in society.

Valence electrons are on the periphery seeking balance. A large percentage of the IMPACTS are positioned on the periphery as well, psychologically and sometimes physically.

Bonding is a very important word as it relates to the IMPACTS, and to anything that is trying to overcome the 2^nd Law, thus preventing dispersal and keeping things together.

3) The third point is photosynthesis which is the production of glucose utilizing carbon dioxide, water, and energy from the sun. The process of photosynthesis is opposite from the 2^nd Law—photosynthesis is going against the grain, creating concentrated energy which can be used as fuel for life.

After the formation of the solar system over 4.5 billion years ago, it is believed that life started emerging early, 3.5 to 3.9 billion years ago. Early life was simple, mostly bacteria and archaea, both of which are prokaryotes, one-celled organisms which have no clearly-defined nucleus. Archaea are often characterized as extremophiles because they can survive in extreme environments such as volcanic hot springs. But they also live in our guts too, as do bacteria.

It is believed that cyanobacteria were the first photosynthesizers on earth. Oxygen, released as a waste product, started clearing the atmosphere of its toxicity and oxygenizing the oceans. But it took 2 billion years of this process to produce the beautiful blue planet we have today. Oxygen became the primary vehicle for breaking up glucose, in the process releasing the stored energy. Glucose became the foundational fuel for living things, and an important part of the infrastructure of life. Our brain utilizes glucose predominantly as its fuel. So the first fuel is still the primary fuel. We will see the same dynamic below when we discuss the San tribe.

About 1.5 to 2 billion years ago, life took a gigantic step. A cell formed with a nucleus though the exact way it happened is unclear. Nucleated cells are called eukaryotes. A virus could have taken over a cell, becoming the nucleus, and then capturing bacteria to be its energy producer. Or an archaeon could have combined with a form of bacteria in a process known as endosymbiosis. Or it could have happened another way. No matter—the important thing is that a nucleus was formed, capturing bacteria as its source of energy. These bacteria morphed into what we call mitochondria, which are found in most living cells. Not only do mitochondria produce energy, they also regulate cellular metabolism and perform a host of other functions. IMPACTS are the mitochondria of the human race. The template was set billions of years ago.

The same utilization of an existing energy source occurred with plants. The chloroplasts that enable photosynthesis within plants are “captured” cyanobacteria, which started the whole photosynthetic process.

Mitochondria had to produce energy for the cell, and the nucleus was dependent on a
peripheral agent to supply its energy needs. They were locked together, much more than
are the nucleus and electron of an atom. An electron can “escape” if it receives the right amount of energy. Mitochondria are not going anywhere. Life forces replicate the model of the atom, but life forms “structuralize” the forces, making change difficult.

When eukaryotic cells formed, the nucleus and mitochondria basically kept their own
DNA. There are now far fewer genes in the mitochondrial genome than are seen in its bacterial cousins because some genes have been lost and others have been absorbed by the DNA of the nucleus of the cell. That absorption increases the control of the nucleus over the mitochondria and entwines their activities more tightly. They are joined as one. We will see below that the exact same thing has occurred in the human world.

Bacterial remnants, chloroplasts and mitochondria, are still performing the two critical functions that are so necessary to life on earth: photosynthesis and energy-production for the cell. It is part of the great recycling, frugality, and efficiency of life in its utilization of energy. Life does not reinvent the wheel—it uses what is already on the shelf, efficiently conserving energy.

Bacteria help us digest our food and fend off bad bacteria. We could not survive a day
without them. Amazingly, there are more bacterial cells on us and within us than there
are human cells. Is it possible for this inter-species dynamic to be operating within the
human species—two very different elements working together, almost like two different
human species? Yes!

If you have ever watched water filling up an aquarium, searching out and covering every little crack and crevice, wrapping itself around all the rocks and stones, that is a good picture of the attitude of the IMPACTS, making sure nothing is missed and everything is covered. That also appears to be the attitude of life itself, finding a way to survive and thrive, to optimize potential in almost any environment, even extreme ones like bacteria living in sulfuric acid or in oil beneath the earth’s surface. Life may actually have started in such conditions and evolved as environmental conditions changed.

It appears that this is the way the universe works—a creative-productive female force lays the foundation, and then a male force captures the female force and the creative-production. We see the same thing occurring around the world among human beings. “Civilized” societies try to equalize the two forces.

Reminders from point # 3.

Nature doesn’t reinvent the wheel. Glucose became the first fuel and remained the predominant fuel for all of life. Plus, it became an important part of the infrastructure; e.g., as the foundation for cellulose in plants and critical to the production of proteins.

Fuel for life forms by going against the grain—or overcoming the 2^nd Law.

IMPACTS are very similar as they often go against the grain in society—and likewise they are the fuel for the human race.

Capture remains a very important word in our discussion.

4) The fourth point is the nomadic, “borderless” San tribe of Africa with the shaman at the center. I think it is essential to have a basic knowledge of the San if we are to understand human civilization. The San as a group consisted of many different tribes, all very independent. The shamans were the problem-solvers and artists of the tribe though art was usually part of a story.  Often the blood of an eland, a type of antelope, was used in the painting because the eland was deemed to be sacred and powerful. By laying one’s hands on the painting, one could derive strength. All such activities were, in effect, attempts to defeat the dispersal forces of life.

Another such activity was the shaman’s journey during a trance to the Spirit World, another example of separation from the predominant energy field. These ceremonies were attended by all the members of the tribe as people danced, sang, and clapped their hands around the campfire. In the Spirit World, animal guides would help the shaman as he searched for answers to individual and tribal problems. Then he would return to everyday reality with the answers.

Shamans made it all work—they were the glue (concentrated energy) that held the tribe together and the fuel (concentrated energy) that enabled survival. They would periodically meet with shamans from other San tribes where they would exchange information and ideas about how to deal with everyday problems and situations, again more evidence of the importance of bonding in order to keep things together as much as possible.

San-shamans were also the healers; their primary role was “to make well” and to keep individuals and the tribe safe and healthy. There were usually more male shamans than female shamans but the tribe overall was very androgynous and distinctly female-oriented. There was very little “maleness” and much “femaleness”.

DNA studies suggest that the San, often called the Bushmen, are the oldest modern humans. The San may be perhaps 130,000 years old, or more. Most of the surviving San people today, numbering between 50,000 to 100,000, live in southwestern Africa in the Kalahari Desert, which is located in parts of Namibia, Botswana, and South Africa. San behavior appears to have changed very little over the past 100,000 years, and when different San tribes encounter each other today, even after living tens of thousands of years apart, their behavior is almost identical.
In an ironic twist, the basic human and gender rights we battle for on a daily basis in the modern world have been the foundation of San society for over 100,000 years.

The San have always been a hunter-gatherer society, with 80% of the food gathered by women. Women were very autonomous and were treated as equals, but the San would not have understood a concept of inequality just as they did not understand the concept of property.
The nuclear family was the primary social unit. Hunter-gatherer bands would be formed of different families, each band comprising 20 to 50 people. Some of these mobile groups followed game, water, and food around the countryside, living in harmony with nature and the seasons, having no domesticated animals or crops and only minimal possessions. Other groups lived along the coast, dining on seals, shellfish, crayfish, birds, and even an occasional beached whale.

There was no hierarchy and no leadership position based on heredity. The male head of the main family or another elderly man with respected qualities would most likely lead the discussions where a group decision was required. Lengthy discussions would accompany the resolution of disputes. Everyone would be encouraged to offer their thoughts and opinions until a consensus was reached. True democracy was a way of life. If a consensus could not be reached, the families would simply divide up and go their separate ways. Among San tribes, there was no formal military system; there was no need for one with San generally being pacifists.

Male behavior extolled in today’s society would not have been tolerated in San society.
Alpha-like behavior would have been a threat to harmony and therefore to survival. Even with the kill of a large animal, the hunter’s achievement was downplayed while sharing was
promoted.

Gender roles were minimal, but women did assume the principal duties of child-rearing
and cooking. But those responsibilities were coupled with the major decision-making
that developed around the children and their eventual marriages.

Children were adored by the entire San tribe and lavished with love and attention. San
fathers were affectionate and devoted, though most of the children’s time was spent with the mother. Relationships between parents and children were usually emotionally and physically close, and non-authoritarian.

Most of us are familiar with the belief that there was an out-of-Africa group or groups. From all of my research, the clear deduction is that it could only have been one group and that was the San tribe. That is why cultures around the globe were so similar for many thousands of years, and why paintings and artifacts found around the world were often almost identical to those of the San. I have never read where anyone has come to the conclusion that the San were the group that colonized the world. Why not? It is so obvious that there must be a powerful reason. The fifth point below will reveal why. What else are we missing that is totally obvious, and is it as important as the knowledge that the San were the out-of-Africa group? Our assumptions can totally distort reality. That is why it is so important to go as far back as possible when researching any topic.

The San and their descendants were the pre-agricultural humans—cooperative, community-oriented, sharing, egalitarian, innovative, independent, nature-centered, and helpful to one another. Borders and boundaries did not exist for them. The San tribe’s structure and approach to life became the “glucose”, foundation, and infrastructure for modern humans. The same basic San traits and attitudes reside today within the IMPACTS. And just as the beta wolf and the rest of the wolf pack are part of the wolf genome, I believe that the IMPACTS profile is part of the human genome. There is too much evidence for it to be ignored.

Reminders from point # 4:

The San were the out-of-Africa group.

The San were a tightly-bonded community with the problem-solving shamans at the center.

Relations were marked by egalitarianism, and there was no hierarchy.

The tribe was basically androgynous.

The San’s world was borderless and almost devoid of possessions.

The statements above apply significantly to the IMPACTS of today—they travel for opportunity; they bond easily with others and organizations; they generally favor egalitarianism and equality across the board; they are androgynous; they usually have an openness to other peoples and cultures; and they are more concerned with the “important” things in life rather than status and possessions.

5) The fifth important point is the emergence of agriculture about 10,000 years ago which changed the structure and functioning of human society dramatically. These changes have become especially prevalent over the past 6,000 years as nation-states have emerged and seized control of territory and people, something that would have been inconceivable to the San. Whereas humans had been nomadic in search of food, agriculture meant that now dietary needs could be met in a short period of time by relatively few workers, freeing energy for other pursuits. This enabled the development of a structural nucleus of society, or what I call the SN. Though small in number, this was and is the power-control center of society. Whereas the San and other pre-agricultural groups had been female-oriented, the development of agriculture allowed for the emergence of a male force which quickly gained control of human societies and the energy (fuel) needed to run them. That fuel was the IMPACTS group.

It was the exact same dynamic that we saw as prokaryotes “progressed” to eukaryotes—the San and San-like people laid the foundation for modern society and then a nucleus developed that utilized the San-like people as the energy-producers and the infrastructure-builders for the nucleated structure. The SN captured the IMPACTS (the San-like people) and used them for its fuel just as the hydrogen nucleus (the proton) captured the electron, the nucleus of the eukaryotic cell captured prokaryotic bacteria which became energy-producing mitochondria, and plants captured cyanobacteria to become chloroplasts.

IMPACTS, like mitochondria, appear to have “different” DNA from the DNA of the SN, metaphorically-speaking. The SN tries to continually pull its energy source, the IMPACTS, inward, tightening its control over its domain—“transferring IMPACTS DNA over to the nucleus”. The result is the group I call the SN-IMPACTS who seem to reside comfortably within the structure of society. They are effectively captured by the SN machine. All nuclei appear to behave the same way, grabbing productive energy when possible—from the black hole of a galaxy to the nucleus of a cell to the head of a company.

A significant percentage of IMPACTS resides on the periphery of society—I call them the P-IMPACTS. These consist of much of the art and culture crowd and other IMPACTS who just do not fit in the mainstream. The P-IMPACTS largely retain the original IMPACTS ‘DNA’. The SN-IMPACTS will be a much more significant part of the economy because they are closer to the mainstream than are the P-IMPACTS, the peripheral IMPACTS. But both groups want to learn, improve the world, and serve in their own unique ways. Plus IMPACTS in general enjoy interacting with other cultures, often traveling to foreign lands and frequently intermarrying with other cultures and races.

Just because an IMPACTS-person resides on the periphery does not mean that he or she has little influence. Quite the opposite really. Just as a comet or meteor can have a dramatic influence on earth, so too can the P-IMPACTS—sometimes what we might call positive and sometimes what we might call negative.

Today, the SN is the power-control center of the edifice, whatever that edifice may be. It could be a country, a company, a political party, or anything else. For example, a country’s SN would generally be the politicians, career bureaucrats, military leaders, and influential business people—and the traditional structure. The SN depends on the IMPACTS for its survival—a small number of IMPACTS means little creative-production and therefore little influence for the SN leadership. So it wants all of the IMPACTS, or San-like people, it can get in its domain just as a galaxy wants all of the stars and other galaxies it can grab. That’s why nation-states have always wanted to gobble up other cultures—to gather resources, both human and natural, in order to be able to exert more power and control.

Another quote from Robert Piccioni: “Life has a very unique relationship to the 2^nd Law of Thermodynamics. That law makes a statistical statement–it is vastly more likely than not that in any closed system particle energies will equalize and disorder will increase. Life seems uniquely able to consistently overcome the 2^nd Law, not by violating that law, but by systematically taking in more ordered matter and expelling less ordered matter. Life decreases its disorder at the expense of its surrounding. This is allowed by the 2^nd Law, and is essential to any living organism.”

The same dynamic seems to apply everywhere, even among cultures and countries, as one will try to gain advantage and authority over others “. . . by systematically taking in more ordered matter and expelling less ordered matter.” In effect, on a societal level, this means taking in the skillful and “concentrated” IMPACTS because that means more order, more creative-production, and more power and control.

Reminders from point #5:

The emergence of agriculture changed everything. The San-like IMPACTS were gradually captured and became the mitochondria and infrastructure for the evolving nucleated societies, empires, and cultures. The more IMPACTS a society had, the better its chances of “success”, which was now measured through male eyes and values instead of the female lens that existed before agriculture.

Wars and battles and competition between male SNs effectively became “my IMPACTS versus your IMPACTS”. It is the same today—my fuel versus your fuel.

6) The story of the universe and everything else is really the story of a machine and what is required to enable it to operate—fuel. The shaman was the primary fuel for the San tribe; glucose is the fundamental fuel for life; the prokaryotic cell became the fuel for the eukaryotic cell; the valence electron is the fuel for the atom; stars provide the fuel for the galaxy; and the IMPACTS are the fuel for the human machine. Whatever develops first by overcoming the 2^nd Law appears to become the fuel for the structures that follow.

Let’s look at an example from the natural world of the machine-fuel process at work.

In the Malaysian rainforests, a symbiotic relationship has been going on for millions of years between herdsman ants and mealybugs. The mealybugs chew on the leaves of certain plants and willfully share their honeydew with the ants. The ants in turn protect and care for the mealybugs, picking them up and carrying them to other leaves and trees when new sources of food are needed. The herdsman ants also accept the mealybugs into their nest, aiding them in the reproduction and care of their young. The mealybugs have been assimilated into the ant colony. Two different species have combined in a process of survival though it is obvious that the mealybugs are providing the fuel for the relationship.

Yes, the relationship is symbiotic, and each side is very content with its specific role. But this relationship developed over a very long time. We can be sure that there was a struggle for quite some time, many mealybugs not wanting to be subservient and share their food with ants. But natural selection prevailed and produced today’s relationship. Those mealybugs who did not share their food gradually died out as the ants became the ruling SN of their domain. This domain grew bigger and stronger over time with the help of the mealybugs who were subservient.

As mentioned, the same dynamic has been at work clearly and visibly in human civilization over the past 6,000 years or so. The IMPACTS have become the captured mealybugs to a very large degree though the process is still underway. And yes, it has been a struggle too and continues to be because all of the IMPACTS have not gone quietly. If we ever reach that state, there is little hope for the current human species. Why? Because the IMPACTS enable humanity to adapt to new conditions of any sort, and for this role they must possess an anti-status quo nature. The SN of humanity tries to control the expression of this nature, using it in measured ways—much as a car uses fuel.

The herdsman ants appear to understand their situation far better than we do ours, even though an ant’s brain is 1/40,000 the size of ours. How does one account for that? The ants know that the mealybugs are their sole source of energy, and they respond accordingly. The SN that leads human society still does not know the origin of its energy, though it generally believes it is propagating it with its “enlightened policies”.

The herdsman ants and mealybugs have been living like this for millions of years because each understands its role. Principally the ants know instinctively that they must care for their supply of energy, the mealybugs, in a careful, efficient manner–and they do this for each and every one.

Now compare that with human beings. Our culture lets the “market” dictate who receives what. You can see why the ants and mealybugs have lasted for so long and why we will certainly not–unless we become more like the ants and start caring for our supply of energy–people and the earth.

The IMPACTS concept shows that everything is following the exact same model, and that is the model of a machine and fuel. Businesses, countries, art and culture, human beings, the human brain, the hydrogen atom, galaxies, plants—all are machines and all need fuel in order to grow and function.

Reminders from point #6:

The basis of the universe is that of a machine and fuel. It appears that what develops first by overcoming the 2^nd Law then becomes the fuel for what comes afterward.

7) The seventh point is the mother-child relationship, the ultimate “dispersal-hindering” human relationship. The IMPACTS profile is mostly a female-oriented profile as was the San tribe. So when considering the IMPACTS, think of the attitude a mother would have toward the safety, well-being, and future of her child or children. This is the basic attitude that IMPACTS have toward the world and whatever they are doing.

Some examples of that attitude of the mother and IMPACTS: a sense of urgency, hope for the future, the attempt to be efficient, immense love and caring, alert for needs, wanting “the best they can be”, innovative in search of solutions, wanting constant improvement, and the indefinable. What is at the heart of all of the above? They all aid in overcoming the 2^nd Law and its dispersal tendencies.

I believe that love is the strongest known force within and among human beings because more than anything else, it fights to defeat the 2^nd Law of Thermodynamics. That’s what a mother has for her child—and that’s what an IMPACTS-person usually has for other people, humanity at large, animals, and the earth. The survival of the human race depends on those two elements—mothers and IMPACTS. Not only are they both responsible for “new beginnings”, but they are also the solid support system and infrastructure—the mother for children, the IMPACTS for society.

Let me give you an example of the mother-child relationship that really signifies the IMPACTS profile and attitude.

Dmitri Mendeleev, the Russian who gave the world the Periodic Table of the Elements in 1869, was born in western Siberia in 1834, the last of 14-17 children. The actual total is in dispute. His father was an educator and teacher but early in Dmitri’s childhood, he went blind and later died of tuberculosis when Dmitri was in his early teens.

Dmitri’s mother, Maria, was from an entrepreneurial family. Her grandfather had started a glass-making business and a newspaper business. Upon the death of her husband, she took over management of the glass factory owned by her brother. Soon it burned to the ground, putting her, Dmitri, and her daughter in a desperate situation. The other children had already left the home.

Maria had been saving for years in the expectation of sending Dmitri to a university, as those around him perceived him to have an outstanding intellect. So now faced with few options and at age 57, she took the two children and hitchhiked 4,000 miles from Siberia to Moscow in an effort to enroll Dmitri in a university. Turned down in Moscow, they proceeded another 400 miles on to St. Petersburg to the school that his father had attended. A family friend was in charge and allowed Dmitri to take the exams. After passing them, he was given a full scholarship. But soon, his mother and sister both died of tuberculosis.

Dmitri said of his mother: “She instructed by example, corrected with love, and in order to devote me to science, left Siberia, spending her last resources and strength.”

Dmitri’s mother illustrates vividly the attitude of a large portion of the IMPACTS, and we see it in the mother-child relationship. This is no surprise because this is the foundation of human life—this is the dispersal-hindering agent—mother and child. This is IMPACTS energy and attitude. IMPACTS generally take this attitude out into the world, IMPACTS men and women alike. The world has to have this attitude or it would not last, just as the mother has to have this attitude or the human race would not last.

Let’s keep in mind the IMPACTS traits and characteristics that we see in the Mendeleev family:

Mother’s tenacious love

Strong family bonds

Education emphasis

Travel for opportunities

Recovery from adversity

Entrepreneurial leanings

Coming from the periphery

The effort to actualize potential—to use all of that concentrated energy for good

Refusal to accept defeat

Discovery and invention.

Summary

IMPACTS are all different with varying degrees of IMPACTS energy. Some are more contemplative, like the San-shaman, while others are more interested in delivering the solutions. IMPACTS follow the makeup of the San tribe—some members were shamans, some were part of the supporting cast.

The periphery is an important component of the IMPACTS concept, and it starts with the valence electron and its asymmetry. Change comes from the periphery because the forces close to the nucleus and the SN generally inhibit innovation.

One aspect of the 2^nd Law is that the environment must be continually re-infused with energy because of entropy (dispersal). The IMPACTS generally have significant concentrated energy and they infuse the environment with it wherever they go, often relocating to other environs when they see opportunities.

The model appears to be the same everywhere in the universe: two distinct forms of energy—a stronger male energy that actually appears to be an ally of the 2^nd Law, and a creative, connecting, bonding, innovative female energy that tries to overcome dispersal. You can see it everywhere you look.

Throughout history since the dawn of agriculture, the narrative has been written as cultures against cultures. But actually it is really only PART of one culture against another. The IMPACTS, the fuel for every culture, are not generally against anyone. It is the SN which takes the fuel of the IMPACTS and creates adversaries. Tragically, the peaceful and borderless IMPACTS are often used as the fuel for war and territorial expansion.

Paradigms are set up to benefit those in control. We need a new one, one that encompasses all of the variables, not just the ones the SN favors. What we now have is crafted by those who have the power to serve those who have the power. The IMPACTS dynamic and concept is really about the “little guy” force in the universe, and there appears to be one throughout, one which is struggling mightily to keep everything together.

I think a few quotes are appropriate as we conclude.

“It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare, it is because we do not dare that they are difficult.”

Seneca, Roman philosopher and statesman.

And from T.S. Eliot:

“Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.”

”Do I dare disturb the universe?”

It is up to each of us–do we blindly follow along or do we dare disturb the present universe and create a better way?

Dickey Eason is the author of The IMPACTS Dynamic—Working Against Dispersal in Human Society and Across the Universe, available at Amazon.com. More info at http://www.theimpacts.com.

Andrew Harvey

At the end of his life, the great Indian mystic Aurobindo is said to have said, “If there is to be a future, it will wear the crown of feminine design.” Unless we awaken to the mystery of the sacred feminine, of the feminine as sacred, and allow it to glow into, irradiate, illumine, and penetrate every area of our activity and to create in them all harmony, justice, peace, love, ecstasy, and balance, we will die out and take nature, or a large part of it, with us. Unless we come to know what the sacred feminine really is—its subtlety and flexibility, but also its extraordinarily ruthless, radical power of dissolving all structures and dogmas, all prisons in which we have sought so passionately to imprison ourselves—we will be taken in by patriarchal projections of it. The Divine Mother, the fullness of the revolution that she is preparing, will be lost to us. We must understand that comprehending the sacred feminine is a crucial part of surviving the next terrible stage of humanity….

I have often said that I think we are in the last twenty or so years (originally written 1996) of this civilization and quite possibly of the planet itself. If we don’t make major decisions—economic, political, and environmental, we will simply create an uninhabitable world and go on feeding those powers of destruction that are already threatening to ravage nature. We are certainly at the end of so-called “civilization,” and we are possibly at the end of the world. The facts of our global crisis, a crisis at once political and economic, psychological and environmental, show us clearly that the human race has no hope of survival unless it chooses to undergo a total transformation, a total change of heart. What is required is a massive and quite unprecedented spiritual transformation. There is no precedent for what we are being asked to do. Only the leap into a new consciousness can engender the vision, the moral passion, the joy and energy necessary to effect change on the scale and with the self-sacrifice that is essential to save the planet in the time we have left.

The message we are being sent by history can be summed up in four words: Transform or die out… Teilhard de Chardin wrote, “Humanity is being taken to the point where it will have to choose between suicide or adoration.” I have no doubt that we are now at that point. Human survival depends on whether we are brave enough to face the full desolation of what we have done to our psyches and the planet, and wise and humble enough to turn to the divine insight inside us to learn what we need to go forward. This is not an apocalyptic scenario—not a scenario at all, in fact. It is fact. This is where we are, this is what is happening, and it is terrifying. Anyone not in a trance of denial knows it. No amount of wishful thinking or sophisticated pseudo-historical parallels can make this agony go away.

It is hard enough for a human being to face the facts of his or her own mortality. What we have to face now is not merely our own death, but the possible death of everything and everyone we love, the holocaust of nature herself, the mother we have ignored and betrayed for so long. If we do not face up to our present danger, in all its horror, without consolation and without illusion, in the full glare of Kali’s terrifying mirror, if we don’t gaze deeply into the mirror of the goddess and see our faces, we will never find in ourselves the passion and courage necessary to change. Catastrophe can become grace, and disaster possibility, only if we transform their energy by accepting what they have to teach us and acting with complete sincerity to transform ourselves.

Andrew Harvey, Oxford scholar and visionary, believes that our survival depends on Sacred Activism, a fusion of profound mystical awareness, passion, clarity and sacred practice with wise, dedicated, radical action. This fusion, he warns, may be the sole key to preservation of man and nature.

Andrew will be a keynote speaker at the 2012 Tipping Point Vancouver Prophets Conference taking place the weekend of 23-25 July 2010 at Simon Fraser University, Burnaby Campus. He will be joined by Jose Arguelles, Barbara Marx Hubbard, Flordemayo, John Major Jenkins, John Kimmey, John Perkins, Llyn Roberts, Daniel Pinchbeck, Richard Tarnas, and Miguel Angel Vergara. They will be exploring a radically different, more optimistic interpretation of the Mayan prophecy.  Information is available online at www.greatmystery.org or by calling (1) 505 796 4023.

Using EEG (brain-wave sensing) and MRI measurements, researchers found evidence for the “global workspace theory” that pre-conscious perceptions are then broadcast into the brain’s neural network. Researchers correlated activity there with known levels of brain functioning observed in both healthy volunteers and those with brain damage. Among other applications, this research could eventually be used to predict who will recover from a coma.

Daniel Pinchbeck has written two books (Breaking Open the Head, 2012 Return of Quetzalcoatl) and helped start both Reality Sandwich (the leading online magazine in consciousness culture) and Evolver.net. Evolver has now started to focus on building an actual social movement to produce real change in the world.

Joao Amorim has done a number of short animation films, such as the award winning short Don’t Get Charged Up. He also worked as the animation director on Chicago 10. 2012 Time For a Change is his first venture as director of a full length feature film.

The theatrical premiere of 2012 Time for a Change is going to be in San Francisco April 9–11 at the Lumiere Landmark Theatre, the same weekend as Greenfest. If you’re in the area, please do attend.

This week we delve back into the realm of reality hacking with our guest Antero Alli.

Antero has been involved in the study of the 8 circuit model of consciousness for many years now, and has authored several books on the subject.

Antero is also involved in a unique consciousness experiment called ‘Paratheatre’, in which initiates and researchers experiment, and more importantly, experience consciousness change.

We discuss: The 8 circuit model of consciousness, Timothy Leary, Paratheatre, the difference between reading about a ritual and actually experiencing it, and much more.

About Antero Alli:

Born 11/11/1952 in Helsinki Finland, Antero Alli is the author of ANGEL TECH, TOWARDS AN ARCHEOLOGY OF THE SOUL, ASTROLOGIK, THE VERTICAL ORACLE, and THE AKASHIC RECORD PLAYER.

Antero’s deep background in theatre and paratheatre have resulted in numerous original performance works since 1977 and he is currently artistic director of ParaTheatrical ReSearch, a Berkeley-based group of trained physical performers exploring asocial ritual dynamics.

Since 1991 Antero has been writing, directing and producing his own films, which include six feature fictions, three paratheatre video documents and about twenty short works. Between 1991–95 he was editor and publisher of Talking Raven Quarterly, an iconoclastic literary journal in Seattle which featured the writings of Robert Anton Wilson, Hakim Bey, and Rob Brezsny among others. Between 1992 and 2002 Antero curated the successful Nomad VideoFilm Festival, a west coast touring venue dedicated to showing experimental short films and videos. In 1996 Antero teamed up with his future wife, Sylvi to form Vertical Pool as an intermedia film, music and publishing company. He is also a world renown astrologer and currently resides in Berkeley, California.