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Oh me please. I've been to every EGA since the one in the Grampians. I applied to volunteer but didn't hear back I'm low income and will be very strapped for cash after returning from the Eclipse and Burning Man. There's NO WAY I'm not going to EGA but any help with the ticket would be massively appreciated. Thanks Torsten! Meg/Delldint. (ps, how can I change my name on this forum?)

ah, so that's why I couldn't send pm's

having talked to friends who worked in the hospital nearest that event, their opinion was that the medicos at that event were inexperienced in dealing with large numbers of drug affected young people. the hospital was clogged up with people who were ok and just needed a bit of time to get back to normal- not actually overdoses needing medical attention. newspapers got the 26 people were sent to hospital bit. only about 2 were anything serious from what I heard from behind the scenes.

I got one and clicked on it but realised that was a stupid thing to have done so closed it immediately

maybe; I'll come if I can and bring a coupla friends too

The first time I ate mushrooms I was changed by it. Things I hadn't understood before were suddenly clear. It was a very gentle but long-lasting "aha" that went for some weeks. I felt like I'd ben given the missing piece of my life's puzzle. And that the cobwebs were blown out of my brain by a fresh breeze. And that I now had a very healthy appreciation for the straight normal workings of my everyday mind.

thanks for the warning. I'm not handy with tools so I don't make things, and I think the people I've seen with that kind of burns weren't good at making things either but were just keen to crack into a bulb and didn't have a good cracker. I feel pretty safe with my bought one cos it's pretty new, but yeah, when you put it like that, it does make balloons seem the safest option. I just don't like the taste of rubber...

Soda siphons work as well as cream dispensers. Buying a new one is better than second hand opshop ones which may have mould spores in them!- pretty bad for lungs. Home made crackers I would be wary of. The compressed gas coming out is extremely cold and can burn... as nitrous oxide has an anaesthetic effect you might not feel it at the time but afterwards you would. It's possible to fit more than one bulb in a bulbinator, just be very careful of the pressure as you release the trigger. If you and a friend are journeying together, you might like to try rebreathing. Kind of like a kiss but you breathe the gas back to your friend. In the right circumstances it can be mind-blowingly, hilariously, special. Nangs are best enjoyed sitting or lying down as you may suddenly lie down or keel over, so be safe, have some cushions around and avoid small tables with sharp corners etc. Nangs on their own are not so special, but piggyback them off something else for a very different effect. Hint, every kind of something else, gives a different effect- it accelerates from where you're taking off from.

I'd be happy with either, but don't know if I can make it there as I may be away. I'll come if I can.

Is that the same sassafras oil my friend rubs on his legs before dancing?

Yeah I've given up caffeine a few times. Headache is a really common response to caffeine withdrawal. Another one is constipation. If you're giving up caffeine, you can taper back gradually. When you feel uncomfortable from missing it, you can still have some but not as often, or not as strong. Then when you finally quit it totally the headache is much milder. Still, expect to be a bit twitchy or angsty for about 4 days!

actually yes... this was in Brisbane, the house was very clean, but it's Brisbane, cockies are everywhere. Mice lived in the garden so they could steal chook food. I was staying there with friends. Another visitor came to stay and his hair was not clean. First a cockroach was seen on his pillow when he was asleep, the next night he was woken by a mouse gnawing his hair... after that he washed his hair pretty quick.

1 no food scraps, and rinse the washing up if you can't do it immediately after eating, and keep food locked up or in fridge 2 sprinkle salt in their favourite hang outs. they really don't like it, maybe it dries them out or something 3 make friends with harry hairy8legs 4 wash your hair every week at least... like mice they will gnaw greasy hair if their is nothing tastier around

Fowlers Vacola are still going, their shop is kind of between Royal Park and where the Western Link goes over the road. I can't remember the name of the roag arggh sorry. In Melbourne, when you drive on Flemington Road past the childrens hospital, and then turn left onto the road that comes out of Royal Park and the zoo. Um yeah. Phone book. Duh. it's late I should be in bed, brain slowdown...

Forget where I read this, could have been Erowid. Maybe from Finland? There was an old composer who heard mushrooms singing. He would walk in the forest and could find where different fungi were growing from their song. He would walk towards the song until they were at his feet. Some were tiny and hard to see but he could hear them and find them. Occasionally he would hear a new song he'd never heard before and it would be an undiscoverered species, unknown to science. He wrote down the music he heard and put it in some of his works, and is thought of as a living national treasure in his country.

Moomintroll books by Tove Jansson. I'm still hoping to meet Snufkin and run away with him, but I think I'm turning into Moominmamma The book of changes and the unchanging truth (I Ching), by Ni Hua Ching. All big decisions in my life say hello to this wonderful book. There are many versions of the I Ching but this has to be the clearest and most deeply simple. Many books I love. But not time to list them here. You can find a few of them in the Nerdatorium at Rainbow Serpent Festival.

ASC, Australian Shiatsu College. Beliefs, yes i have some. I believe that what we do matters. That big life is made up of small details. That there's mystery in everything. That boredom comes from the mind. That we are capable of far more than we know. That wisdom comes with life experience rather than simply age, as not everyone continues to experience the moments that they live, some of us are not fully awake and alive. That television is not generally used in a way that is beneficial to society. That plants have awareness but not in the same way as people, their consciousness is utterly different. That the I Ching is useful and good. That compost and mulch are essential in good gardening. That love is not something to give up on. That doofing taught me manners, culture, community, responsibility, fun, love, and self-awareness. That old friends become even more treasured over time, and that new friends are exciting and wonderful because you have years ahead to discover them more and more. That children are wondrous beings, reflecting their circumstances and inheritance no matter what, yet each one filtering this through their own individual character and consciousness so that all are uniquely amazing. That any religion that seeks to make people feel bad about themself so they will need that religion to make them good again is best avoided. That food is good and chewing it properly helps. That meditation and good body-work can be as good as any drug. That I can never hope to understand everything but if I can get the simple things in my life going well I'll be as blessed as I need to be. That I am grateful for all I have and have been shown, for all the friendships, teachers, relationships I have had, and for my mind, my health, my body, my heart, my adventuring spirit, my family and for living in a country where in most ways I'm free to do and be as I choose. If I have to give a label to my belief system or give myself a framework I'd say I'm a Taoist.

Yes I did it twice when I was pregnant with my first child. It was interesting, how unboring it is to sit for so many hours a day. It was good actually but what put me off it as a regular practice was how much pressure they put on me to give up other spiritual things that I enjoyed, like yoga and aikido. Well aikido is my great love, I would never give it up. But they were telling me that vipassana is such a powerful technique and so subtle that other practices of a spiritula nature would mess it up in some way. So you could stretch your body just to stretch it, but you couldn't do yoga or any other type of meditation. Then my partner of that time went hardcore vipassana, sitting for hours every day, took the best room of the house for his meditation room and I was not allowed in there because I would spoil the vibrations, he gave up aikido so we couldn't do that together any more, it did not make me want to go into it more. Yes it's a good mediatation technique, and it can certainly be beneficial doing the retreat, the whole silence and no eye contact thing can be pretty special. But there are so many good meditations, and i don't think it's neccessary to rigidly commit to 2 hours a day. If you can do 5 minutes of good zen that's going to have a profound effect. Doing aikido is like a meditation of focused alert calm unconcentrating relaxedness, and it suits me much more as well as being social and keeping me fit.

If anyone has any white sage, the one for smudging, I would really like a cutting or a plant. So hoping that someone who is coming has some spare, I can trade for a shiatsu massage or I'll see if I have anything I could swap. Thanks, Meg.

St Andrews is great, got my first cactus there. Hooray for the hippy market. If you want to have any money left leave some at home cos there are so many good things to buy...

One of my friends studies circus. He told me I HAD to go, if it meant selling one of mychildren to get money for a ticket. So I went (didn't have to sell anyone) and LOVED it. The advertisements never attracted me in the slightest. When I saw it I was in awe. The tent ahs a really intimate feel, although we were up the back we still had such a clear view. To me it was all about what it is to be human. The potentials, the possibilities, the poetry. I was on the edge of my seat the whole time with my mouth open. It made me cry, gasp, laugh, shout, and want to run down on stage to play with the performers. All the music was live, music an performers from all over the world. Such an atmosphere of carnival, light and darkness, mystery, pleasure, excitement, suspense, bafflement. The artistry and simplicity of some of the acts held me like a spell. That was Quidam. I couldn't even follow the story but I loved it. Last year I was lucky enough to see Varekai twice. Quidam was more poetic and oh I can't think of the word, it's way too late at night and I shouldn't even be on the computer. Introspective is the word I was looking for. Varekai was way more dynamic and colourful and psychedelic. The final act, the music was pretty darn close to live psytrance. Powerful, intense, and just as much a crazyily beautiful blend of humanity and artistry, and the costumes! there's a scene I'd love to describe but I don't think I can. Fantastic, fantastic fantastic.

it has another name I've heard... Creeping Jesus It'll be happy you're putting a pond there. It LOVES moist soil. Good luck getting rid of it. Try chooks, fence them in the area and don't let them run anywhere else. After 6 weeks the area will be bare bare dirt they;ll have tractored it thoroughly. Tha mandarine tree will liek the poo too.

I've had agwa once. It made me very hyped up and happy and I talked lots of shit for quite awhile. An enjoyable experience but not quite my usual style. Interesting to see there's guarana in it, I hadn't known that. Guarana doesn't usully affect me like that, even with alcohol- although stimulating in a keep me awake kind of way, I find it considerably more peaceful than my agwa experience. perhaps it is not the coca as such, but that is how the plant spirit manifests itself, that its character comes through anyway?