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You will be greatly missed Will you would be better served by paying closer attention to what your Mother tells you Mr Pink

Given my time with the psychedelic folk-religion of Aus and the UK, where ecstatic 'mind-blowing' experiences and 'chasing visions' is often the name of the game, I've found some of the ideas by mystic and philosopher Jorge Ferrer (see below) quite liberating and grounding. Excerpts taken from Revisioning Transpersonal Theory-- A Participatory Vision of Human Spirituality (2002) Suny Press 'Mystical ecstasies, trances, and absorptions are neither the final goal of the contemplative traditions [buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, Sufism] nor should they be equated with final liberation... most traditions warn that these mystical states are not to be sought for their own sake, but are usually a psycho-spiritual preparation to participate in certain special states of discernment' (p.128) -- in other words, to participate in special ways of knowing the world ('knowing' that includes transrational forms such as emotional, perceptual, erotic, and intuitive knowing etc). According to Ferrer, the trance-ecstasy states relative to each contemplative tradition do not equate to, or are not synonymous with, each tradition's doctrine of liberation. For example, 'The trance of cessation, culmination of the four formless Jhanas in Theravada Buddhism' should not be equated to 'nirvana'(p.129). 'Nirvana is objectless discernment free from the mind constructing activities and defilements (lust, hatred, and delusion) that is, the double knowledge of the destruction of the fluxes... and their absolute future nonarising' (p.129) 'The ultimate goal of most contemplative traditions, then, is not realised by entering any type of altered state, ecstasy, or trance, but by the overcoming of delusion and ignorance' (p.127). Ferrer is an adept of certain Buddhist schools, so there is perhaps some bias towards Buddhism in his arguments, nonetheless, I think his main point is clear. Trance-ecstasy ain't the name of the game, according to many historically developed spiritual traditions, but is one important part of the game -- and when taken on its own, trance-ecstasy doesn't appear to amount to much. Rick Strassman's famous studies, where he dished-up 400 IV doses of DMT each to 60 participants over five years, supports this claim, given that the participants showed no real life changes in the years following the study. People sometimes like to talk about 'integrating' revelatory psychedelic/entheogenic experiences (which I think is great), but, generally speaking, the moral and underlying assumption appears to be slightly wonky and missing the point. The world and mindset that psychedelic revelation is being integrated into is not considered strongly enough -- the relationship is lopsided -- and is therefore subtly tending towards (personal and social) dissociation or world escapism (Hence the warning from the contemplative traditions to not seek mystical states for their own sake). What do you think>?

RIP Will Thanks for the generosity and sharing your love of plants

Got my tickets for the Tivoli show today. Fuck YEEAAAHH!!!

My Condolences to family and Friends. this is officially a mouring week for this community. yes the plant and energy will live on

They've messed up somewhere. These kind of things appear from time to time, but the results are never independently repeated. Also, the source is Herald-Sun, so they've probably gotten the story wrong or just made it up.

I'm hoping for scantily clad alien lesbian vampire biker chicks from nippleiru, or the internet to become self aware and declare war for the survival of the host planet. But i'd settle for zombies

the bible... i mean really? a book compiled and voted on as truth, edited and re-translated it is about as hard to take seriously as Scientology but then that is tin foil hat stuff, sorry to take the thread off course 2012, that would be great if something different happened, at least a change of pace

maybe he has some kinda negative perspectives on things, but i get the feeling he's just being facetious.. i just saw this, haha

One of the last things he said to me just yesterday was “all I want to do is be looking over a mountain playing my didgeridoo and i will be happy” Hope your there right now brother.

From what I understand, the 2012 theory is just a bit of fiction, created by a few completely different ancient beliefs mixed together with the incorrect theory about an undiscovered planet (planet X) and a nearly straight alinement of the planets which occurs in 2012. Anyone of these stories on there own don't particularly indicate some impending apocalypse, It's only when these stories are combined that they start to indicate the 2012 impending doom. Having said that, I do truly believe that our modern day civilization is hastily coming to a point in it's history that will either make or break it. It's not a natural disaster that will take us down either, it's the human mind itself that will do that job. The problem is the human mind is discovering the secrets of it's environment at a incredible rate, but we probably still have far to much primitive aspects of our way of life to be able to handle the power of knowledge. The whole world economy is completely reliant on constant growth, but the structure of our economy has peaked and can't handle more growth. Besides constant growth is creating constant poverty, since the majority of wealth goes to the minority. Billions of hungry people will eventually get desperate, desperate people get angry and then you have billions of people creating anarchy. On top of our flawed economy our staple energy source is running extremely low and people who have the power to deploy nuclear weapons on each other are inevitably going to have to go head to head in the very near future. The US peaked in the 60's there green back is fucked and fairly soon there only measurable wealth will be in 'bombs'. Personally I doubt the US is going to just let china take over as the world power quietly! Ironically I think the biblical saying of (paraphrasing) the last being first and the first being last is exactly what will happen. The people of the 3rd world know how to live in constant fear in a war torn environment with no reliable food source. Most westerners would fall apart without electricity and running water. We are lucky in Australia because we have such a massive land mass with a relatively small population and we produce far more food than we actually need. I always have my backpack in the back of my car, which can hold everything I need to survive in the bush, I also have a decent supply of can foods, grains and 3 day water supply and shit. But it's more incase my car breaks down in the middle of no where more than preparing for the apocalypse. imho, the best way to prepare for the collapse of society is to get out there and get used to having only a bucket and rag to wash with for weeks at a time, only a hole in the ground to shit in and also teach your body and mind how to hold it together well going hard all day but consuming very little calories and spending long periods completely alone. Basically learn how to handle having nothing. Peace

No offence intended here, but do you guys seriously get a kick out this? I just googled minecraft to see what this was all about, saw that 16 million people and counting are using this program and watched a vid on what it's about. Am I wrong, or is it a very time consuming way of building digital 3D models? If I've judged it correctly, I'd have trouble even imagining a bigger waste of time. Please enlighten me.

To me, the psychedelic experience has been more cathartic, intensifying and exposing pre-constructed viewpoints on life and sometimes shattering them. To dwell on mysticism ultimately opens gates to more elaborate metaphysical constructions that endanger overwhelming the potency of the phenomenological experience and cognitive processing of the trip. If you have a spiritual system that you think can help you then go for it, but to only ever seek spirituality from the psychedelic process seems to me to be missing the psychological power of so profoundly altering your consciousness. For me, the most tangible benefit to come out of psychedelics has been a de-fragmentation of my head space and an assertion of goals and direction. Conversely, the most pleasurable things are to have been pulled into completely different realms of what seems to be lived experience (i.e. trance states) and also euphoria. What really has meaning to my personal life and has given ultimately the most joy is that internal processing and deep probing of real-life stuff that goes on, not usually all that pleasurable at the time but good food for thought later on. The temporary immersion into what truly feels like 'spirituality' can be very interesting and feel wonderful, but that not what I work on in the days and months afterwards.

LOL. Neighbourhood Watch used to work really well in my community out the back of Taree. As soon as a cop car headed down the access dirt road of the neighbouring valley, the rest of my valley was warned . Quite often they were the most crucial 10 minutes in people's lives.

I regret to inform you all that Will Rekowski otherwise known to us as Gomaos has passed away. At this point i have very little details, except that he passed away on 14/09/2011. All we have to go on at the moment is from here: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Helping-hand-funeral/149836718443297?sk=wall All my condelences to his family. He will be sadly missed. Rest in Peace Gom, Cheers, Obtuse.

RIP Gom The world is a poorer place with your passing.

Furrrrrrrk mann What a fucking horrible thing. Such a nice friendly man, every time i gave away plants at meets and he would take one, it would make me smile to know such a guy would want one of my plants, MY PLANTS! Was never anything but generous and friendly to me, gave me so many seedlings and cuttings - All of which i still have today and will continue to treasure. So freaking sad, Will miss you

Holy crap! Met the guy once by chance at a market a couple of years back and obtained some plants that I have never come across in my travels since. A sad loss for sure. RIP Gom, I'm glad we got the chance to meet. Condolences to your loved ones.

Rip Gom A very help full bloke that I got very my first cacti from. May his plants live on and keep him in our thoughts. Got

RIP dude. Every plant you ever sent me is still going strong. I even sent out some cuttings from one of the psychotrias on Monday. Your efforts have had a very positive & lasting impact. Ciao

Just got some plants off him a few months ago, fuck. RIP brother.

Wow that is a shock, very sorry to hear He was quite a character, I didn't know him well but did some trades and was always good to me too. As Bush Turkey said, your plants will live on. My condolences to his family and those close to him. 2 plantheads in the space of a week, very sad indeed.

RIP gomaos To his friends and family my thoughts are with you @ Mr pink unless I've misinterpreted what you ment maybe you shouldn't have said ANYTHING at all, uncalled for!

wow what a shock!!! RIP man. Your plants will live on. he was always a nice helpful guy to me may you be at peace

condelences to his family firstly my mother said if you dont have anything nice to say you shouldnt say anything at all so i wont