Fucking aye EGA!! (from Tarnicus and El Duderino)

[tribalvision]

Hahaha Ok.. Well I will try to explain..

We are sitting in the main dome and the movie ends. The screen shuts off and we all sit there looking stupid waiting for something else to happen (well that's what Jess and I were doing anyway). Then from a distance we start to hear ambient music coming from somewhere near the cabins. After Jess suggesting multiple times that we should go and see where that music is coming from, and me coming to the conclusion that the night's programming must have come to an end, we head off towards the music.

After a long pitstop where Jess attempted to make herself a chai tea, we ventured around the side of the kitchen based cabin to an area we hadn't been before. The first thing we could see was patterns lighting up the tops of the trees. It looked like someone was using the trees as a screen for a tripped out film featuring moving patterns and fire like shapes. As we got closer we see to our left a weirdly lit up medieval styled slab with strange letters on flags and some weird electronic contraption which looked kind of like a stack of amplifiers, only very rustic, with tubes poking out of everywhere and various old fashioned gauges and dials.

Anyway, we are first drawn towards the source of the music. There is what is almost like a circle in the center where people are sitting around a fire. To get in this circle we have to duck around a large sheet hanging between two trees, which is revealed to be a black-lit Izwoz painting on the other side. Between the next two trees is a sheet which has a milkdrop styled visualisation plugin running, in what seems to be in sync with the music. At the head of this weird space is a structure that seems to be slightly below the ground. This structure looks like some kind of space ship and down inside of it I can see lighters flicking and what looks like sound equipment. This space ship is at the base of the massive gum trees which are being projected onto (this looked absolutely amazing!).

If anyone saw those metallic robotic insect things that were sitting around the place at EGA, these were all here on the ground lit up. The whole effect was really something else, like a living artwork. A representation of man and nature working together to create a psychedelic space and art work at the same time.

Whilst we are admiring all of this we notice people are flocking over to the Medieval slab like structure. When we head over we see a man dressed in a white lab coat doing very strange things to a dredlocked individual lying face down on the slab. Much like in a massage palor, only much weirder, and this isn't your average massage. The strange things this mad scientist seems to be doing are not what you would consider a massage. His equipment was all wired through the artistic electronics which I first referred to as a stack of amplifiers. This was like some strange form of 'life theater'. It was very confusing and hilarious at the same time. I remember a guy - 'tom' - saying 'do you have the slightest what is going on here?' hahaha 'Nope!'. It was awesome.. we loved it. it was a shame, because then the sun started coming up and we had to leave that day and hadn't slept, so we had to go and try to sleep (which we failed at).

To try and describe what was going on in the medieval massage parlor from the future is pretty difficult. There was a 'mad scientist' and a subject. The scientist at first was delivering what seemed to be electric shocks to the subject via a clear glass looking device which when making contact with the subjects back, made a strange sound like a cross between an electrical arc and a electric wood saw. A crackle and buzz at the same time. He rubs this device all over the subjects back whilst intermittently applying a liberal sprinkling of talcum powder. During this process the Mad Scientist tweaks and tamers with the dials on the unidentified (and essentially artistic) stack of electronics. This was followed with gentle caresses, the scientist running his hands lovingly over the subjects body.

Once this had gone on for some time, the subject arises, the scientist returning his missing clothes. The subject leaves, and the scientist propositions a bystander. The bystander seems to agree and removes his shirt and jumper. Then the scientist reaches behind the slab and produces a ye olde styled contract. The bystander reads the contract and then signs it, becoming the next subject.

At this point I should probably mention that Jess and I were smack bang in the middle of quite a powerful trip! So we may be totally off the mark and this may have been just an ordinary situation, but judging by the looks on everyone else's faces I think it was an intended experience and it worked amazingly well!

Sorry for the massive post!

That crazy scientist is the fabulous richard King...a man of many talents...the machine is Thor's forge..its based i do believe on tessla technology..it is electromagnetic and has various settings that mimic certain states of consciousness...this is a really crude explanation of his work..but having been successfully 'delightened' by richard...i can highly reconnmend the experience...he is a very knowledgeable man and has some amazing ideas...also many thanks to all who made the weekend such a blast..i talked myself horse...probably from yelling over the cicadas...met and hug a zillion people and generally left feeling like a zillion bucks..Love to all M

[Storm crow]

i was micing it with spit and rubbing it into my 3rd eye!!! lol (or where i rekon my 3rd eye would be situated)

i definately felt 'altered' or is that 'enhanced'?, though could be attributed to a placebo effect to end all placebo effects.

Massaging my third eye(pineal gland) before or after meditation and deep breathing gives me some very interesting effects. I notice a change in perception, and rather than the stars I usually see with my eyes closed, I see geometrical shapes, colours, movement.

[ThunderIdeal]

pretty much barging into this thread now.

i hear somebody named krusty gave a talk on trance dancing.

can somebody please describe the essence of this talk? or will it be available on cd some time?

secondary: somebody tried explaining the dennis mckenna talk to me, but english wasn't his first language, all i really got was that dennis attributed certain drug effects to some kind of frontal lobe syndrome or something along those lines. can anybody give me the name of the 'syndrome' or even a related website?

[obtuse]

I believe it was Frontal lobe Epilepsy to which he was referring.

Here is a link to a basic wiki article:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frontal_lobe_epilepsy

While I remember the basic essence of the talk i cannot go into any detail. There was so much info during that whole weekend, i was a bit overloaded.

I'm looking forward to the DVD, or mp3's from that weekend so i can jog my memory.

I'm sure some-one else here can go into more detail, or maybe they are like me and still assimilating all that info.

cheers, Obtuse.

[ThunderIdeal]

thanks a heap bloke, still interested in trance dancing too. had a bit of an epiphany about that after badly screwing up a sid dose heheh.

edit: what was caused by frontal lobe epilepsy? i thought maybe this guy was saying it caused the contact experience.

Edited December 23, 2007 by ThunderIdeal

[obtuse]

Again i think perhaps someone else can answer this question much better than me.

It may not have been frontal lobe epilepsy but instead acute temporal lobe epilepsy (can some one else please clarify). He was using it either as a comparison, or suggesting that entheogenic states induced similar types of effects within the brain.

He mentioned that people that suffer from this particular type of epilepsy experience religious or profound states of mind, and amongst other symptoms, sudden changes in mood. And that under the effects of entheogens similar experiences are quite common, i.e relgious / mystical experiences.

He may have been suggesting that it is quite common and it is in fact this that draws some people to entheogens, because they experience it so readily.

I am just summarising some of what i remember, and i too would like this clarified.

It was a pity that Dennis was on so late in the day. By that time i was really tired, and finding it hard to concentrate. I kept getting woken at sunrise!

I find this subject quite interesting, because in my own experience i went though some pretty weird mental states in my teens, and maybe i was experiencing some form of epilepsy. To then take psychedelics simply felt like an extension to that and was why it felt like such a natural thing to do. :D

So some-one fill in the gaps for us please,

cheers, Obtuse.

(edit: spelling)

Edited December 23, 2007 by obtuse

[The Dude]

Link

^^^ Interesting stuff on Temporal Lobe Epilepsy, and the invention of a "god helmet". I'm pretty sure I saw this on a tv program, this dude made a helmet that would emit electromagnetic waves of a particular frequency aimed at a specific part of the brain, I think the parietal was responsible for your own sense of self, or identity. Stimulating this region would give the impression of an alien or an 'other' presence (FROM MEMORY.. am a bit unsure). Conversely it was found that monks in states of deep meditation, right about that part where they've found nirvana, samandhi or oneness with god, at this moment have total de-activation of the parietal and therefore no sense of identity only total oneness with the all, no identity or id, or ego. I thought that was pretty interesting.

There were real life ghost busters that would investigate haunted houses and find, for example a clock radio set up next to a bed that would emit a certain frequency that induces the 'other presence' experience, so they would fix the electric disturbance. Sometimes it would be power lines or the like. Anyway I was thinking that although drugs, or altered brain chemistry (temporal lobe epilepsy) or in this case electro-magnetic wave stimulation of the brain can all repeatedly illicit experiences of the 'other' or of entities, is it enough to leave it at this scientific explanation of a physically caused hallucination, or could all these phenomenon with their cause/effects observable in empirical scientific terms, still have a spiritual reality? Are these methods of ghost induction actually more like keys to opening a higher perception of what really exists and is usually unseen?

-Bit of a tangent, I don't know if it has anything to do with Dennis's talk at EGA, I definitely need a copy of this DVD already!!! I caught some of Dennis's talk but was much too tired and in the wrong headspace to be able to concentrate well at all. ...a tiny suggestion, praps next time we should have the headlining acts at prime concentration time like midday or 5 in the arvo-ish.

[edit]

one more link on the god helmet

"The experiment is based on the recent finding that some sufferers from temporal lobe epilepsy, a neurological disorder caused by chaotic electrical discharges in the temporal lobes of the brain, seem to experience devout hallucinations that bear a striking resemblance to the mystical experiences of holy figures such as St Paul and Moses."

Edited December 24, 2007 by El Duderino

[Hyphal]

-Bit of a tangent, I don't know if it has anything to do with Dennis's talk at EGA, I definitely need a copy of this DVD already!!! I caught some of Dennis's talk but was much too tired and in the wrong headspace to be able to concentrate well at all. ...a tiny suggestion, praps next time we should have the headlining acts at prime concentration time like midday or 5 in the arvo-ish.

I heard he was supposed to be on a bit earlier, but because of the light you couldn't see his slides therefore he requested to speak a bit later. when it got darker.

[RonnySimulacrum]

I heard he was supposed to be on a bit earlier, but because of the light you couldn't see his slides therefore he requested to speak a bit later. when it got darker.

Hey Guys

Something like that Hyphalknot, we learn a load more each time we do this event, but having to go to different venues every year is one of the major problem. Now that we seem (cross fingers now) to have found a home for this fantastic community event we can set about smoothing out the small bugs and improving the event as a hole.

In many ways having a decent gap between events and the same venue will allow us to do theses changes with grater effect and efficiency.

I am happy to hear there is good solid work going in to an upcoming plant gathering next year. I personally wish it was a bit later in to next year as that kind of still leves a big gap till the next ‘EGA gathering’ in 09. Though we are not planning anything big next year, you can assume at this point we will do a Min EGA on the same weekend as we did this year. Basic set up will be to the old Melbourne Mini EB set up but we will hire a lecture hall for the day and get in one inter state speaker.

We are so happy that most of you got a lot out of the event, and would certainly appreciate your feed back and criticism to help us strengthen the event. EGA grow out of this forum and its associated gatherings, so it is to you we wish to have the biggest say in how it is structured in the future. So please take 5 minutes out to email us at ega[AT]triptamind.com and let us know your thoughts.

For the organizers it was such a pleasure to see the flower we had been manipulating for well over 6 months bust in to bloom and also see it was more magnificent than we had even envision. An event like this take much work and energy from over 50 people, too all that put in there time Energy and $ I tip my hat to you all.

It is good to see the plant community in Australia buzzing light it is right now, let keep it up and respect both the plants and our fellow man at the same time.

In plants we trust

Edited December 24, 2007 by RonnySimulacrum

[ThunderIdeal]

"Anyway I was thinking that although drugs, or altered brain chemistry (temporal lobe epilepsy) or in this case electro-magnetic wave stimulation of the brain can all repeatedly illicit experiences of the 'other' or of entities, is it enough to leave it at this scientific explanation of a physically caused hallucination, or could all these phenomenon with their cause/effects observable in empirical scientific terms, still have a spiritual reality? Are these methods of ghost induction actually more like keys to opening a higher perception of what really exists and is usually unseen?"

yeah. which is why richard dawkins is kind of annoying, although i guess he's doing what he thinks is right. look at this quote though.

"He distinguishes this from the spread of scientific ideas, which, he suggests, is constrained by the requirement to conform with certain virtues of standard methodology: "testability, evidential support, precision, quantifiability, consistency, intersubjectivity, repeatability, universality, progressiveness, independence of cultural milieu, and so on." He adds, "Faith spreads despite a total lack of every single one of these virtues.""

i think reality is waaaaaaay too intricate for that kind of thinking, but that's why i'm not a scientist (although i love science). whenever the illusion weakens all that is left is total awareness, therefore, the universe (illusion) must be supremely potent and intricate to prolong itself. the mystery can't be cracked by advanced apes playing with electronic toys! if it could, what's the fun? that's roughly my take on it. i will whinge when science is screwing things up for everybody, and i'm happy for dawkins to whinge when religion is screwing things up for everybody, but i don't see the point in a personal crusade when these two factions actually make good partners and will probably be combined one day.

[incognito]

speakers? VOTE 1 Hebrew. ritual use of cacti and the mesa.

[Amulte]

speakers? VOTE 1 Hebrew. ritual use of cacti and the mesa.

ill second that

[hebrew]

ahh thanks fullas.

on that note i have just started a blog about the subject which i will slowly build up over time looking at the mesa and its adaption to ones bioregion, i plan to write about the curanderismo practices of south america and how they can be adapted.

i hope to write about bioregional animism in relation to this as well.

at the moment i am gathering information that lays the foundation of this work.

i dont have a great deal of time so i most likely will have to go back and edit the information i have put up already.

so if you are interested here it is

Curanderismo Adaption

Edited December 27, 2007 by hebrew

[incognito]

ive said it b4 and ill say it again, Hebrew i love u.

that is a fantastic read hebie my friend, thankyou.

awesome work man.

now THIS is an urban shaman!!