Jungle John

I concur ! A very good season , finally !

I hope you're not referring to me , I wouldn't know how to delete anyone's post ......

Birds are wonderful..... It was Xmas morning , coincidentally , early , I'd just finished my morning Qigong routine on the back verandah , sitting having a cup of tea , when our local Magpie family fly's in , baby and two adults . One of the adults , looking straight at me comes walking up on to the verandah , on to my practice rug and drops a big black juicy beetle , still looking at me , it then backs away. I pick it up and pretend to eat it ( I didnt want to offend it ) then it heads off . We got them a bird bath , they love it.

Bring it on , pleeeease . Its been a long dry season. By the way , still on topic , SE Qld . Does anyone know how far north Subs have been sited ? I heard they are growing Truffles under Oaks in the granite belt , near Stanthorpe ? Seems to be cool enough

Embrace Of The Serpent . New release movie. Just picked this up in the paper today. Saw the trailer , looks pretty genuine . Has anyone seen it yet ?

I can vouch for the effectiveness of bay leaves for repelling pantry moths and grubs . I had them in my pantry , in Sydney for at least a decade , then my mother said , oh bay leaves are good for that , and I said , come on , "bay leaves " ? So , I put some open in a bowl in the pantry, and some in the lids of the various containers and bags , they were gone in a week and never came back . Worth a try

Ahhh , good to put a name to them , you'll note they smell pretty bad when they go off , so don't keep them too long !

Ahhhh , I see .......... its " strange matter " that explains it . I'm not good with my maths , but a 12 mile diameter sphere , has a circumference of aprox 69 kms times 24,000 rev per second 1,658,760 kms per second , isnt speed of light 300,000 km per second ? Any way strange matter explains it , right

This is a good discussion ,. What I would like to ask ,out there is A. Do you feel that these dark beings , entities, are real , in the sense that they themselves are self aware , are sentient , have their own agenda , volition , maybe they have mothers?? ( I know there are plenty of malevolent , manipulating people out there , I've made plenty of mistakes in that department too. ) B.Are they like a physical/spiritual inanimate process , a vortex roaming the realms looking for completion, like an electron might "seek " out a proton . Or C. Are they unconscious/ subconscious aspects of our selves that through the use of entheogens , we "dangerously" allow to become subject to our awareness. Personally I lean towards C. Although I'm open to A. being the way it is , its just I haven't met any malevolent beings with plant medicine yet..... I love entheogens , because they are boundary dissolvers . Our existence is defined by constructs , mental , emotional , cultural , religious , family , gender , nationality . These constructs are our shelter and haven , but then they also are our prison at times . Entheogens , (and I include Teacher plants , Qigong , meditation , fasting , Kirtan etc) have the ability to dissolve boundary. What are we when we are without boundary ? Courages option 3 , original being , or self , open ,free flow ,without center or circumference For instance , the cult of Catholicism is cosy , be nice , go to church and when you die you get to go to heaven forever , but there are rules, you are not allowed to go out side that construct , you couldnt ask ,I imagine , that, if God is a bloke does he then have a penis , and if has one , what does he do with it ? I imagine that is a no go question . Entheogens kick the shit out of constructs , well actually , more simply they just show that they are constructs , they are artifice . I'm not against constructs , they work , its just good to have the freedom to step outside from time to time

I really loved the Casteneda phenomenon .It came for me at a time when I was deeply disillusioned with the western description of how " things " are , and " should be ". I regard Carlos as a threshold personality . You can have a threshold person , or text , or teaching ,or place ,or substance , for that matter , that somehow appears at just the right moment , and opens a door that dramatically expands ones view of the universe , for real . So whether it was totally made up , or completely true never fussed me , some how it instilled an awakening for me , and wisdom definitely permeates the stories , and tales of power , and humor too. And if you consider the Art of Stalking , erasing personal history etc , some portions of it are about misdirection , changing names becoming indefinable . His animal was a Coyote , or trickster...which Don Juan said was not ideal . I think what probably happened , was that Carlos went the way that too many Yogis , spiritual aspirants go , when they awaken along the path , and they become seduced by the power , fame , and money , instead of ditching self-importance, became more entrenched ... At any rate , I'm a total sucker for stories of wandering up in remote mountains , collecting and preparing sacred medicines , observing nature , omens , having the shit scared out of me , because I've gone tooo far , again ..... A long time ago , I had one incident of " real dreaming " the changed my view of the world forever , using " finding your hands in your dream technique" . Now whether Carlos lifted that technique from some other teaching or not, who knows , but it was profound . If anyone liked the stories , true or not , I found the books written by Merilyn Tunneshende very engaging . She was a student of Don Juan , and Don Genaro , whom is called Chon in her books . Also ,for Brumangsia sorcery you can't go past The Flying Witches of Veracruz , by James Endredy . True or not , who cares

PM'D thanks

Thankyou Change ! Thats pretty much what I was thinking of...I studied organic chem , a long time ago , and was always facinated with these units , next I'll have to go to a Uni openday and get a looksee at one in operation . I thought it would be good to have an operating machine within the community for testing . i knew they were qualatative , but I wasnt sure if they were quantatative , the MS half of the unit must cover the elements and salts present . Good for enviromental testing too !

These seem to come up occasionally at Grays Online Auctions ,and I wanted to ask , if anyone out there on the forum knows what it takes to use one of these baby's ? Do you need a PHD to understand the results , graphes etc , or is it push a button and there it is ? I'd love to do assays of various plant materials , fungi , bark to see what's present , proportions etc http://www.graysonline.com/lot/0111-5015589/laboratory-and-bio-tech/gc-ms-with-cp-3800-gc-8200-auto-sampler-software-manuals-240v-varian-sa Also this nice Laminar flow hood be there too ! http://www.graysonline.com/lot/0041-5015589/laboratory-and-bio-tech/laminar-flow-cabinet-with-uv-fluorescent-lighting-240v-720-x-420mm-work I used to live just near Artarmon too....

I just picked up this thread , I think Obtuse may be on to it with Cortinarius , maybe " rotundisporus ". I found a lot of these around Middle Harbor in Sydney , and up at Mt Wilson , in the Blue Mountains , directly behind the CFA ....I found them in dryish Sheoak habitat growing out of the Sheoak " needles " covering the ground , sometimes close to , but not on wombat poo....always after some good rain....

Thanks for for that Yeti 101, I hadn't picked up that thread….. That article is excellent . Wow , neural networks , fractals , feed back loops , flocks of birds seeming to make cohesive decisions to fly around towers , as if they are a single being…spectacular patterns emerge . Sometimes I think that our sacred medicines allow us to view our flock from outside…we see our part , but at the same time the immensity of what we are in !!!