Wednesday, December 20, 2006

conscious reality is the taking of and tracendation of form

so transcend it

we are HERE everything else is a bonus

we are HERE everything else is a bonus and should be looked at that way

be the creator it is you it has always been you duality is an illusion follow the dream follow your bliss

Friday, December 15, 2006

"What the thinker thinks, the Prover proves". At the beginning of Robert Anton Wilson's book Prometheus Rising he juxtaposes this idea with concepts derived from Alfred Korzybski's educational discipline of General Semantics ( " the map is not the territory " ) noting that by nature we are capable only of modeling reality and never of actually knowing it.. ever. Or knowing anything for that matter. All knowledge is not only arbitrary ( just think of the extreme chaos involved in your indoctrination with knowledge, the infinite web of possibilities, how easily what "they" told you could have been completely different ) but simply an abstraction. It is best to gauge things as possibilities and in percentages of truth; even things you believe "absolutely", that aliens exist or don't, evolution, the theory of gravity, classical mechanics, quantum mechanics, that gods live on the top of Mt. Olympus, that there is or is not something directing the chaos, that that thing is sentient, that the world exists when your not looking, can only truly be gauged in terms of chance.
I was thinking today though, that the universe may try to guide us, though our emotions and intuition, towards the more correct models of reality, ones that more closely approximate the ultimate unknowable truths and also perhaps to where "it" wants us. I've had ideas during meditative thought accompanied with inexplicable and incredible emotion, "aha" type moments; but one's that the bring joyous tears of revelation. It is the moment of visceral intuition, a mental breakthrough, where the models I've been contrasting lead to new paradigm, a new more accurate view of reality. Intuition happens all the time, we all are constantly having intuitive revelations with corresponding emotions, however when we are contemplating less significant matters, such as which album to put on or which tie to wear that intuitive emotional response is still there, if you can reach it ( i.e. think calm, rationally, feel good, imagine the possibilities pick the one that feels right and stay positive once you've had the moment of intuition, don't second guess, don't be afraid; this is a skill ) but the universally guided emotional response emitted by your mind and through your nervous system, is not the same ecstatic feeling as one gets when contemplating the mysteries of this reality, and diving it's truths, or at least more accurate abstractions of it. We should follow and pursue these revelations, always striving to refine, to tear down, to renew, to refine our concept of reality and therefore our concepts of our selves. Where are we? What?
I also noticed today a tendency that I have, and one which I assume may be common to other human beings, to feel an urge to believe or at least strongly consider what I fear, against the pull of my intuitive nature, simply because I fear it. Sometimes I want so bad to be empirical and rational, consider all possibilities that when considering a subject that I end up focusing on my fears, the answer I don't want and thinking that it might the answer. Because I fear the answer my intuition is telling me is correct, the one that makes me feel better, is only the one I'm inclined to believe because it makes be feel good. Fear begats fear. This is unreasonable. The universe wants us to feel good. The only reason life suffers is so that we are motivated to not. These negative emotions guide our actions to the sustation of life. We suffer when we are hungry so we eat, we feel alone so we bond. Fear has served humanity and life very well for many, many years. But it is an irrational primitive emotion and and it is out dated. The universe wants us to feel good, it wants us to eat, to love. Follow your bliss.

Now for.... the Plastic People of the Universe

One of the greatest bands in history (band of any kind in fact.. merry men, rock, swing, rubber.. ) and they were much, much more then a just band. This was literally revolution.
Formed in 1968 in Czechoslovakia shortly after the Soviet invasion, from the ashes of the Prague psychedelic band, the Primitives, the band stayed together until 1989 enduring constant pressure from the Soviet State and the Plastic People would make some of the greatest avant-garge, psych, rock I have ever heard. As the leading lights of Prague's non-conformist underground culture they were constanly persecuted as their very existence was a threat ( they could not legally press and distribute records or play gigs but managed to do all of these things through an underground group known as the Invisible Organization ) they would be imprisoned in 1976, this was a major factor in inspiring the Charter 77 ( a manifesto circulated within Czechoslovakia criticizing the government for it's lack of human rights ) and the subsequent movement it inspired would eventually lead to the Velvet Revolution in which the people of Czechoslovakia peacefully overthrew the communist government.
That.... and they made astonishing music. Skonking, sax infused, avant rock, like a marriage of blues, classical,rock, free jazz, and fuzz. Played by oppressed souls that gained freedom through electric shamanic ritual ( to bring back knowledge for the tribe ).
They have an awesome discography, everything, every single thing I've heard has been great.
I suppose a good place to start would be Egon Von Bondy's Happy Heart Club Banned. On Ebay I have found this LP, along with many bootlegged cdr's and also a 1985 album Midnight Mouse, their last before breaking up that I just listened to and it was absolutely awesome. Highly recommended. In the early 90's many of the Plastic People evolved... into the group Pulnoc who were also great. The Plastic People had a reunion in 1998 and apparently this year as well as I found a short video on Youtube of a performance at the Cutting Club in NYC on 11/11/2006
the Plastic People of the Universe on wikipedia, allmusic, official ( seems to be all in Czech though there is a english flag icon for english ) and a good article by Richie Unterberger



Also, I could not possibly reccomend highly enough Robert Anton Wilson's book Prometheus Rising. It has permanently altered my reality for the better. Far, far better. Containing a systhesis of " Timothy Leary's 8-circuit model of consciousness, Gurdjieff's self-observation exercises, Alfred Korzybski's general semantics, Aleister Crowley's magical theorems, Sociobiology, Yoga, Christian Science, relativity, and quantum mechanics amongst other approaches to understanding the world around us" Mr. Wilson continually impresses with his wit, humour, knowlede, intelligence and insight. It is the greatest book I have ever read, not for it's prose ( though he is an excellent writer ) but for it's effect on my mind and how I view my existence. Amazing.

Also check out the excellent dvd on Robert Anton Wilson, Maybe Logic. It's a well edited selection of lectures interviews and was also very touching and transformative

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Belief is Reality, this is a starting point. Many dream their entire lives, never to realize, it's a dream.
I just listened to Murahachibu, an absolutely amazing Japanese garage-psych band from the 70's that just about nobody ( the Crimewave didn't even know these guys ) knows about and it is just so damned wrong, I'm about to listen some more and finish off the end of a compilation from the Bridge Psychedelic Conference that took place at Stanford in 1991.
The dvd features an amazing array of lectures from psychedelic thinkers, psychologists, physicists chemists seemingly edited by stoned Stanford video engineer's who attempt enhance the viewing experience by adding what I assume seemed to, at the time, have been, state of the art computer graphics over the footage. This being 1991 many of the pioneer's of the psychedlic movement were still present including Timothy Leary, Terrence Mckenna and John C. Lilly. I was especially impressed, and am always with John C. Lilly: "In the province of the mind, what one believes to be true is true or becomes true, within certain limits to be found experientially and experimentally. These limits are further beliefs to be transcended. In the mind, there are no limits " this is coming from a mind that knows this from experience. I've also become a fan of Charles Tart, he eloquently explained that this reality experientially is a dream, just one with more restrictions. I used to think of it as a dream that we were unconsciously manifesting. What I am coming to realize now is that it's not completely unconscious. Through our thoughts, and our will and most precisely our beliefs we can interact with the universe, shape the unfolding of our lives and alter momentary reality. The soul does not exist in the body, the body exists within the soul ( the mind ). Fred Alan Wolf is a theoretical physicist who has been featured in two dvd's which I've recently viewed, What the Bleep Do We Know?! ( which is great, I watched it on mushrooms, amazing... ) and the Secret ( covers some of the same scientific issues but with a focus on the "law of attraction" ( ssshh...) and with a far smaller budget produced by some Australian new age chick, I did really enjoy it) his charismatic explanations have been instrumental to my acceptance that this way of thinking is based not only on my or others coming to the conclusion simply through empirical thought but that it is also an idea inherent to modern quantum physics. The double-slit experiments ( the link is a good video explanation of the experiment, it's 5 minutes ) have exibited, the priciple of nonlocality where matter exists ( literally exists ) in multiple places at once as a wave , and that only when the mind focuses on and observes something is the universe forced to actualize a reality. Our minds are creating the reality we inhabit. By willfully exerting control over our emotions, thoughts and our beliefs we can influence our unconscious mind, and alter reality; consciously. Be happy and believe and anything is possible.
So back to Murahachibu for a second, these guys are awesome. Their guitarist is named Fujio Yamagutchi, and he's incredible. The guy is psychedelic blues god, he plays with awesome emotion. He was in another obscure Japanese group named the Dynamites that played more in a R&B popish vain, but still psychy and good but... not as good as Murahachibu, not many bands are, trust me. Their vocalist is this insane Japanese Mick Jagger type guy whose vocals I find really enjoyable; he like the rest of the group, really feels it. It is always amazing and interesting the Japanese take on "western" rock. Being of such a different ( and in many respects more sensitive ) culture, I don't think their experiences and their interpretations of the noise being imported from the West began from the same emotional context as that of "Western" people. I believe the reality suggested by this music had a significant effect on the Japanese. Whatever emotions the music was intended to elicit in Western cultures seemed to be exaggerated when subjected to the Japanese psyche. Which is, in my opinion, why their music often seems to be exaggerated and psyched out renditions ( re imaginations?) of Western musical forms. Some excellent examples would be the Jacks, Les Rallizes Denudes, the Boredoms, Acid Mothers Temple etc. Many people are aware of those groups. Relatively few know Murahachibu and in my opinion they're just as good as those bands if not far better. Fujio Yamagutchi has very quickly become one of my favorite guitarists and from my reality tunnel the whole band just sounds awesome. Believe me... or just check out the video below or some of their albums ( info is scarce on the web but, Good Lovin' Production seems to be somewhat official although it's in Japanese and their stuff has come up on ebay, I've found a double lp and a 6 cd 1 dvd set, both are amazing )

Muruhachibu: video starts after 18 seconds

wacky Dr.Quantum explain's the Double-Slit Experiment

statement of intent

welcome...

The aim of this blog is to alter realty, to heighten awareness; to expand consciousness