gwalchgwyn

I just wanted to make a notation - to address some of the above comments and inevitable future ones - that 'evolution' should be understood as adaptation, whether to physical or social aspects of a being's environment. Evolution does not mean progression in the sense of general improvement.

http://johnhawks.net/

As a kid I'd made "tea" - - really hot juice - - from our backyard edulis flavum fruit: wonderful aroma, both in smell and philosophy, the latter being in retrospect similar to esphand...

Plastikman Ex sequence

Limitless Starring Bradley Cooper. What happens when you take a pill that allows you to access 100% of your brain's power?

I'm a big fan of the nibble method, though I get that individual dosage is important. It's like surfing maybe - you don't want to get in over your head, but in the right way it can be quite a ride. oh, and healthy too.

we must be on the same wave, as I have germination on this in just the last week. mine responded to warm (not hot) daytime temps, fast-draining soil mix (i just winged it with compost, sand, and some small stones for good measure), a deep terra-cotta pot, and a heavy splosh of rainwater once a week for about a month. cheers

Mostly it is smoked more like an incense. Not inhaled, that is, but allowed to permeate the ambient air. I understand that catnip is similar (to cats) in that it is mostly a scent-sory experience.

Just one, I think: I'm a monkey. Well, technically, an ape, but I like the word monkey better & besides, that is a primate classification anyway. What I mean by this is that all of the terror and joy of this amazing existence (amazing, bc there is such a thing as existence) is part of the overall pattern. At moments in which one encounters the heavy stuff of existence, like love and death, I come to this comforting pulse, ironically feeling Cosmic, when I am most aware of my animal self! Cosmic Monkey: put me on a vedic tapestry. I'm Sagittarius, though I've always considered that due to my parents fucking on Valentines Day...

hey shonman, not much from my own experience, but thought I'd share this: www.rook.org/earl/bwca/nature/aquatics/acorus.html that has some information & makes the distinction as you did between americanus versus calamus, the former evidently lower in B-Asarone...

I did say something like that, didn't I - and not just because the symbolism of disturbia is as real and causal as the disturbia itself, even helping to chant the story that causes the selfsame gruesomeness, but also because it simultaneously recites a story that blinds the mindset of the purp that somehow they are not that wicked gruesome element. In a very serious way, a gruesome movie about say, zombies, informs its audience that there are real demons in their world - - and they look human! So in addition to my habit of looking at primary cultural elements that cause such terrible behavior, I am critical of an intonation that actively exempts its audience from perceiving themselves in that way.

I get the dilemma about where to put creative efforts, but possibly that has to do with an idea that the creative impulse is somehow divorced from or secondary to the somehow grander or more important interests in spirituality and philosophy. Just as I perceive that the creative impulse - and therefore perception, ways of seeing and knowing, voice and social constructs and grammar - are wholly part of a psyche's understanding and defining of the world, I also perceive that what is called spirituality and philosophy are themselves the result of creative effort, and are sometimes even called 'creation' stories. I believe that I've heard your music, mutant, ... and was inspired; that is, in the creative expression I understood a voice, a living spirit, relevant because existent, as real as rain, important in cultural musical motifs, but also subject to the engenuity of creative will. In a way, we are all creating our worldview even as we breath.

Horrible! And they think that they are doing good by you. There are some cultures that have a Mother-In-Law-Taboo; sounds like a good idea...

In some circles I've heard of the activity of gardening as "Nutrition for the Soul" - but with real chemical activity. Every day I love being in my garden; sure there are 'things' to do: I must transplant the Physalis so that it's roots have comfortable room; I must water; I must be aware of the heat of the sun in this upcoming dry spell. But the real joy is the hours of sitting walking appreciation within. When your companion (human or otherwise) looks at you that way, your body releases oxytocin; I have no doubt that we feel similar when our plant companions "look" at us...

The Matrix Trilogy is for me high on the list of disturbing films because it fronts a narrative of the humble good (real) humans in their quest to defend themselves from the seemingly inhuman Other. Though it is not at all uncommon nor unnatural in the human psyche to perceive the other unfamiliar culture as wicked, childish and inhuman (most people's word for themselves is "real people" or just "the people") - we ought to be aware enough in our time to comprehend the beautiful variability of human cultures without feeling threatened by our difference. The Matrix, in my opinion expresses this bigotry in its presentation of the Bad Mr. Smith in multitudes (all those Other people with their wicked ways out to get us, etc; similar to the droll zombie fascination of late) - whereas the Good people are depicted as humble humans, a plurality of people from all backgrounds; virile, sweaty (the slo-mo Rave scene is particularly relevant to the humanization of themselves), doing the hard work of coming together to defend themselves against the inhuman droves of the Other, who of course all look the same. White Male = Bad. The colorful humble multitudes = Good. Such flipping of racism suggests that in this narrative one can only be good if she is wearing an identity that is perceived as less than, which then inspires the story of the struggle to overcome. The narrative puts forth an ethic much like the rapist's who requires obedience, peace, love, positivity and humility. So one may turn to graphic depictions of rape, slavery, disenfranchisement, demonizing, mutilation, decapitation, etc, as examples of disturbia, but I opt in my choice for primary cultural premises that form the foundation for such behavior, while simultaneously giving the assurance and identity of fighting the good fight against the evil other.

Thank You Drugo for your integrity on this subject. I have read all of your essays and in my experience your criticisms of this relatively nascent intersect of Aya into Western Cosmology are rare and will hopefully inspire a more critical segment in this story. I'm not trying to hijack this thread, but I have been ruminating on the general subjects of Aya and Shamanism, their popularity, and how they are used, in the West, since your original post on the subject last year. So I offer what I've worked out, with the hope that the big picture I present is not off-topic. The basic issue is the differences in which markedly, profoundly, different cosmologies see a particular subject - in this case Aya. The cultural phenomenon in which one dominant culture takes items (land, material and cultural goods, and even DNA) from another seems to be a regular occurrence whenever two cultures intersect. The dominant justifies this co-option in a number of ways - religious, social, and cosmological. We've heard the orthodox mantra "God's Country," which justifies its Believers in the taking-over of the social, economics, and geography of the Other, with the duty of instruction/punishment/taming, ie inclusion of the Other. The offspring of this orthodoxy expresses the same basic social takeover in terms of "social justice," "non-racism," and other same-boatisms that altogether reflect this cultural genocide. Often the very concept of Culture in a respectful way is diminished to superficial symbols to which the dominant falsely postures an arse-forward prostration, with the precise purpose of equivocating the essential elements of the Other's culture - that is, the other is merely translatable. Put another way, the social grammar of the Judeo-Christian, among other sky-god cultures, is firmly cemented in the tokenized Noble Savage reduction of the identities that it ultimately perceives as less-than. The meek shall inherit the earth, the lamb becomes the lion. The Other is thus recruited to the Western Story. As I've said elsewhere, a perfect comparison is the use of the word ayahuasca - a qechuan word - to define a drink that in not originally Andean. In short, one culture will take and use items, material and cultural and cosmological, from another culture to fit its own story. Were anyone to ask me of my favorite thinkers I would include Pendell and Davis, among others (Dickinson, anyone?), but I perceive in this question an unspoken presumption - especially in the sky-god mind in which information is passed down as opposed to experienced anew - and that presumption is that I am a follower of that thinker. In contrast, I tend to assume, just as I don't have another's face, that I wouldn't have another's thoughts and voice, and that does not diminish my respect for the other. That brings me to the infamous characterization of the Western worldview as individualistic, and here I respectfully differ from many Western critics of Western Culture. I believe the individualism of Western culture masks and protects what is actually an inclusive homogenizing cultural force, and therefore not individualistic. I date this mindset, in the Judeo-Christian leg, to the breakdown of affluence towards the end of the Bronze Age in the world of the Eastern Mediterranean/ Egypt/ Levant/ Mesopotamia. The importance here of this ongoing cultural manner is that any potential expression of affluence - in language and in behavior - is severely punished, using words as weapons, and that translates to personal social and economic failure for anyone who might be perceived as a threat. Apes are not born dumb. Stupidity is a learned behavior. One is to strive to be a dumb, gross, Jack-Ass like prankster, for the specific purpose of appearing not-threatening and therefore dominating the world. I was stalled for a few years, by the assertion of a thinker who I respect, that this superstitious, paranoid and wary manner was actually a tool that effectively created/is creating a 'New World' in which all people are equal and no one is king. Anything you say, they say. Anything you do, they do too - you're not better than them. I appreciate this stalling because otherwise I wouldn't have been prompted to formulate a critical response, which is in 2 parts: First, this social grammar was itself invented by a royal court, and one that was extremely affluent and abusive to its enemies. I am of course speaking of the royal courts of that Mobutu-esque figure King David and his Idiot Son. We're talking hundreds of 'wives,' what we would call POWs today, and since the age of marriage at that time and place was much younger than today, and since they wouldn't touch a woman who had been polluted by Goyim dick (evidently women in this misogynist culture didn't matter, ie Goyim didn't really refer to them), we are talking about very young women. This hyper-defensive mindset, then, was not really about challenging the idea of kingship, but rather about protecting their own king. The second part of my critique is more practicable: this social grammar of stupidity effectively privileges its own practitioners! This is expressed as a turning-of-the-tables, but the reality is they are in charge. The next time you are around David you will see it go down. If you obey, you are chosen. Again with the dismal tautology of Judeo-Christian Western culture. The premises of this David & Goliath social weaponry are varied: I Fart Loudly, I Shit, Amazonians Have Flood Stories, You Use Such Big Words, I'm Insecure About My Looks (Age, Intelligence), I Am In Solidarity With All the Common Folk of the World, I'm Down-To-Earth, etc. But the conclusion is always the same: Therefore I Am Humble and In Charge. The bible tells me so. People are trained to be dumb, and since this is a racist and misogynist and really misanthropic (Original Sin) culture, any identity that appears non-threatening, including female and ethnic, is therefore raised. I don't mean to be obscure! The Humble Judeo-Christian often perceives itself as savior and protector of the very peoples that it conquers or demeans. That Other's cultural items, therefore, are parcel to a system of affirming Western Hegemony, and as such, Aya is used as yet another tool in the Messianic quest to 'save' the world. In my own observations of a local Aya group, the memes that pop-up again and again are: the feminization of Aya (Earth is female in sky-god cultures, so Earth essences are female, and in this regard the female Aya is characterized as a domestic subduing of its evidently thunderous male imbibers); the 'healing' of Aya is equivocated with the healing of the Humble Judeo-Christian worldview in its purpose of establishing peace (sic) and equality (sic) in the world; participants express a feeling of having an open-heart (what was it before, you sinner); and upon return to town, imbibers are "vulnerable to attacks" from the wicked children that Aya has apparently chosen the imbibers to subdue. The "Shaman" who, like its counterpart the "Native American Sweat Lodge Leader," is usually a white Judeo-Christian, though sometimes they pay for an honored guest who is an "genuine (sic) Traditional (sic) Shaman (sic)." The reality is that this whole fiasco is a co-option of yet another item in the other that ultimately serves the Judeo-Christian Western messianic purpose. Of course we Westerners love bashing Western culture, which is perhaps itself a Western tradition for such a renunciate world-view - so I am left with another thought of drugo's from another essay in which these criticisms that may be all-too easy (?) don't address the deeper malaise that causes Western Judeo-Christian flagellant culture to scramble in such panic and with such consequence for solutions for its own dismal identity. Though Patience speaks in terms of 'transitional' and 'progressive,' I prefer a rather quick sloughing-off of what has become a dead useless skin of an idea to which purposes have become obsolete. Existence is actually awesome. To observe a grammar gleaned from Aya, these points of light and identity do form a grouping pattern, but that edifice is not static, and often quickly dissipates in ones and twos to form an altogether new structure in that constant pulsing dynamical system. Additionally, there are always lights that do not participate in the pattern at all.

I swear I'm not holding on to my youth, but my head was blownapart by this techno track when Alice & I were living in a loft inside of a church: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pCd4b1KGys

Usually. Only no if I notice a certain fungus that tends to take over the soil and effectively kills a plant, or if I notice those puny glassy nonbeneficial nematodes that feed on roots. The pluses of recycling is that not all seeds usually germinate, and so I've been amazed that even after several years a seemingly used up pot of soil can with just a little disturbance result in new germinations as once buried seeds see the light. Of course that results in a few mystery plants from time to time, but I love it

ESC actually represents a global trend that we've observed over the past 10-20 years, with regard especially to Ayahuasca, but broadened to include any 'ethnobotanical' use of plants. True the sky-god tendency toward labeling is relevant to the discussion, but more so the patriarchal Judeo-Christian tendency to privilege any label that (to them) represents the underdog - one can only be good in this xenophobic, misogynist world if one wears an identity that needs fixing (aka 'healing'), and in that acceptance, one gets power. Look, I'm not against the ESC's intentions - they are addressing real problems that have arisen only recently because of the massive increase in the use of Caapi. My issue that I share here is with the source of that massive increase. Like nothing else, Ayahuasca has during this time grown to messianic proportions in this Aya-cult's resolve to fix the world. As psychotic as trichophiles are, they don't sound like the aya cult. Why not Esphand? I recall an interaction with a man that may enlighten the issue: He was from a fundamentalist Christian background with a modern lean towards what he called "the roots" - as such he was one of a multitude just like him who grew dreads and was really turned on by the rastafarian fashion. Any connection to King David gives license to a person simultaneously of humility creds and authority. So imagine my surprise when the subject of incense came up and I, not a Davidian, mentioned my appreciation for frankincense. Nah, he says with a wave of his hand, and then Palo Santo, with extra enunciation (because evidently to him Spanish automatically gives humility creds as well.) I munched on this for awhile before coming to the realization that South American to him was pioneer ground for a worldview that requires its people to seek out, engage, and ultimately subdue the known world. Frankincense, for all his squawk of "the roots," was passe. I believe that the relatively young awareness of Caapi has stirred the imagination of this cult. This is not the first time that something or someone has come along that might just save the world. What if one does not accept Original Sin, what then? I don't know if there is anything to be done about the hordes in the new Aya-cult. Was there any stopping the abusive Inca in their intention to dominate their known world? That only happened when a bigger enemy arrived. All we can do is let it play out. Discuss, sure, but the real solution to the issues addressed by the ESC (overharvesting, charlatanism, etc) will - I predict - only occur when the enthusiasm wanes which will be when the Dennises and the Dianes realize that they are not saving anyone by spreading their Aya-cult.

To be fair to the discussion, here is both a response by ESC Joshua Wickerham as well as a recent essay on messianic colonialism as it pertains to the subject: http://culturaladmixtures.wordpress.com/2015/01/26/amazonian-ayahuasca-tourism-and-millenarian-imperialism-the-story-of-the-ethnobotanical-stewardship-council/ ESC-ayahuasca-dialogues-open-letter.pdf

Incarvillea delavyi second pic is backlit by the sun

Holy Guacamole! All that lettuce will be appreciated when we send Stephen Hawking, et al, in search of habitable planets

Glad it's on the table. I've always had a problem with the concept of the 'Traditionalist' dichotomy: The one classification of a people who are defined by their tradition and the other classification (unspoken) who are the definers. Reminds me of a clip from the Odyssian story in which Odysseus refers to himself as 'Outis' ("no-one" or "nobody") as a defensive measure, famously in his fight with the Cyclops whose cries for help ("Nobody is killing me!") were ignored by the other cyclopes. Everybody has cultural context, so to what purpose is this persistent non-identity movement of Abramic and Aryas, among other traditions, aimed? One moniker of one of the above groups is "those from beyond." 'Beyond' what? In my observations, correct me if I am wrong, this averting of attention is a social adaptation that gives power to the Looker, the Definer, the Approver whilst maintaining the appearance of invisibility. Even when it is, and clumsily and inaccurately, called 'Western' or 'White' or 'European' it evades definition. Yet it has a clearly recognizable pattern of behavior and a cultural context: It is the Culture of Nobody. The more Nobody tries to be accurately traditional, particularly with Caapi, the further removed Nobody becomes. Nobody is always imitating Somebody. When Nobody acts what it calls 'native' (ie not itself), it does so with the false assertion of open-mindedness and honoring. When Nobody seeks to recover its lost identity, it solemnly sings Icaros, or goes on Walkabout, or chants a Lakota story in a phony accent. Nobody seems to have a clue that Nobody is being good and that Somebody will thank Nobody someday when Nobody manages to achieve the disappearance of Everybody. This isn't my trope, it's been used many times before, but you get the picture. While it does make decent sense to appreciate another culture's voice and experience (famously with Caapi is the ongoing talk of diet), the blind following of many traditionalists seems to me not just rude towards the people they claim to honor, and evasive of their own identity, but also blatantly ignorant of direct experience, which could be described as a primary point of Caapi! As far as the psychonautical approach, I perceive this as an honest relationship to any plant in question, and much closer to the shamanic process. One must know herself and the plant for a long and ongoing period of awareness before, in a shamanic society, the experience becomes a group thing. A Caapi culture may commune for the purpose of tribal identity (both living and dead), whereas the Nobody of the Abramite session, in my experience, only emboldens their resolve to save (aka mollify, aka erase) me. It's about healing (imploringly.) Why don't I just obey and be greatful (dead)?

"certifying ayahuasca retreat centers and shamans" eek "a bunch of culturally ignorant self-seving white wanna be do-gooders going into a foreign country & messing everything up under the misguided pretext of fixing a 'problem'" interesting paraphrase of "the bible" - paradox - that is exactly the point of this culture (where I come from they were all 'black' however) - David's slingshot, the Giant, the Humble Little Lamb - it's all there. The unspoken premise is that the certifier decides the story & thereby affirms its authority.