Magic mushroom topic removed from server? Where have I gone?

[RonnySimulacrum]

Sorry for the long silence

Ben and I have been discussing for some time now how the hell to put together some 30 hours of footage in to 52 mins. In some areas we have got exactly what we thought we might and in others like the law we have got almost nothing. And there have been some interesting surprises along the way, eg like interviewing Trout.

I have said it before but we are now truly at the end of the filming stage of this thing and we think there is a little bit of the major blood and bones of this missing. How is this so you may say, well not many of you more educated people have come foreword for interviews and I understand? I read post on these two sites and think shit these people are really with it, they do not fit the stereotype of the stupid unemployed drug taker and then I think is the documentary truly going to convince people of this. I am left wondering when I truly shouldn’t be. I am not having a stab at the people I have interviewed (in fact I have barley done three camera interview with people from these sites), I am thankful but I would like to show the public that sacrament CAN-NOT DO but CAN change people for the better. Open people up, change lives for the better.

The true story about people that use these substances is that they have concord there prejudices and exhibit a true empathy towards all people and there natural environment, it is not all about the other places we visit it is about connecting and understanding, about utilizing the thing we have been taught on the other side in the real would (if there is such a thing). ‘We are on the edge of something’ I here people say around these parts, we are on the edge of all getting to truly communicate on a level that transcends all of the garbage that people/governments/religious bodies ect try to make important and brake on throw to what is real, I truly hope so. People say hay ‘I am hip with current times and stuff’, they say ‘it is all about tolerance, tolerance of everything and every body’, eg, gays, indigenise Australian. But tolerance is still a negative term, it should be about acceptance and understanding, and I think that is where we entheoheads leading the race, we are prepared to put all of that constructed ideology behind us and just say we are all people of equality, people that all mater. It is time to come forward, be counted and express our view. To quote a good friend Rak turning Leary words inside out; “there is no longer any time left to tune out”.

What has all of this got to do with the mushroom doco, well I thought it had a lot, in fact it is really why I personally started it, maybe I just mist the boat.

Thanks a lot for all the people that have come forward, thanks to all the people that have contributed in some way or other, thanks to all the people who say there time on camera is coming, I certainly hope it is. We are what me make our selves.

Maybe i am saying somthing that is not all to do with the doco as well

[gomaos]

Well interesting consideration there...whether entheogens change people for the better or worse.

I think it also depends on the view point.

Those who lead society, say predators like Howard and Bush, want people to do their job and shut up and be guided through their whole life for better or worse.

They can do their jobs, earn their fckin money, buy stupid techno toys and new cars and all that garbage, on the weekends get pissed or have sex or whatever and go on like that until they die.

The predators consider this as good.

Now I ould consider it good, if they dropped out of their jobs, stopped support the endless production-and-waste-society and worked against it.

Now the predators would call this "a stupid unemployed drug user".

What do YOU expect?

[spiders]

Sorry i archived your post there as it was more than a month since you posted there. Can't wait to see the doco!

[spiders]

Interesting view point there G! I suppose in the general middle class world-view the issue of ethnogens might be perceived as more acceptable if they see that middle-class chaps are going to their jobs and conforming on weekdays and then consumming mushrooms on weekends.

Remember how quickly someone who uses mushrooms and is unemployed can be marginalised by media/society.

Im not saying that i think in anyway along these lines, but in terms of the doc. making an impact on people who do think this way (possibly an unfortunate majority) demonstrating that people can coexist in the material society and be involved in ethnogens is important.

[RonnySimulacrum]

I am very sorry for anyone that has tried to contact me or Ben in the last two weeks; we have been moving and have not had the net.

I have just started the process of watching all the tapes; I think I am going to have to just shut myself in a room for about two weeks.

I now live in a home in the suburbs rather than the foot hills of Melbourne and are the forth single archaeologist in the house so you can understand that it is a bit of a wired place. If any media oriented people would like to come over and possible help edit then PM me.

I guess it is about time for them lovely things to start popping up around here anyway. Happy hunting.

[ 11 March 2003, 01:20: Message edited by: RonnySimulacrum ]

[RonnySimulacrum]

Ben and myself are thinking of heading out to collect some ambient footage to go in the doco, what kinds of images do people think would be appropriate?

Eg, trees swaying in the wind, water moving down stream, sounds all a bit Twin Peaks, any ideas?

[Shorza]

Good ideas. Also how about clouds? I love clouds. Maybe, some time lapse footage? Sprouting seedings, mushrooms, the moving sun/moon, etc. Thats if you can get your hands on some... Good luck.

[spiraleyes]

water drops on leaves.

rainbow

theres deffinetly gold at the end of the rainbow

[coin]

full moon at the moment, and some fairly unusual atmospheric conditions...could get lucky

streams, sounds good

[spiders]

Full moon drapped with fast-moving clouds. The star filled sky peaking through the pre-dawn glow. The thick dense forest at night.

These are what capture the essense of the mushrooms.

[RonnySimulacrum]

Here is some exerts from a letter I thought may be of some interest to people following the progress of the doco. or maybe just a laugh.

"Well the story goes something like this.

About 4 years a go Ben Lee and myself (Jonathan Carmichael) went on the mystical pursuit of the forbidden fruit, and after an intensive 5 week study and about 2 weeks in the field we managed to hospitalize one of us, and send the other into a state of madness and paranoia. Luckily we where both going to Monash Uni at time studying arts so, basically we where just normal students experimenting with things.

Ben stopped playing with plant drugs at that point because every time he had mull he ended up in a simular head space as the mushrooms and weirded out. I stopped eating much of anything but embarked on a 2 year study mission of plant drugs and

Ethnobotany.

We both continued to work on Low-Fi DV student films and the decided it was about time we made our own documentary. Knowing that we only had a low budget and more theoretical experience than practical in the field of documentary, we decided to embark on a documentary topic we thought was very different and unexplored.

We have shot the all the footage so far on a Mini DV 3CCD Camera with a 16:9 anamorphic lens (we are reliably informed that this will scrape into the all exclusive “broadcast quality” club), and all the audio has been recorded on Mini disc. So the amount of fun we are to have syncing all that up in Post will be beyond joy!!

And here we are about a year later with 30 hours of footage, only about 10 of it really usable. During that time we have picked up other people on the way to assist us. Including one person that has left the doco to pursue other things after experiencing an ontological breakdown because of the subject matter. But we still have two other people Andrew and Troy who help out with camera and sound. And Damon and Jeremy that help out in some round-about fashion. We often received helpful much assistance (not-economic) from people I will not name, who are in the field of Ethnobotany community themselves.

The ‘Time Becomes a Loop’ Rave was started partly as a way to try to raise some money to keep the project moving, after we were unable to obtain any funding from any other parties without having to sacrifice content and form of any sort. The Event is the combined work of Dj GroovyBoots and Myself, with help from other really good and down to earth people that keep the event alive and running. This event has gone on to take on a life of its own but essentially continues to have an ethnogenic core philosophy. Not many people who come to the event are familiar with its beginnings or of the interests of the people involved, they just come to have a good time.

The highlight of the whole project has been getting involved with people who utilize sacraments and have revealed to us a very different way that they conceive the world, plants and the cosmos.

A large amount of the project is preoccupied around safe usage of sacrament; this is going to be a very difficult task to balance personal stories, scientific and medical information with legality.

What is left to do???

We have a potential 5-10 interviews left to do (depending on headspace and physical movements of interviewees)

We need to write a voiceover script, and then send it to the UK where the Channel 4 voiceover man is going to read it to DAT.

We need to shoot about 5 hours of ambient footage for trip cutaways and background visual narrative

Collect psychedelic art

And edit the fucker

Negotiate Distribution and film festivals showing and then hopefully SBS.

Probably other shit as well????

That is the simplified story of `Forbidden fruit a documentary’, so far. We are hoping to get it finished by the end of the year.

Thanks for your interest in the project.

Kind Regards

Jonathan Carmichael"

[Thelema]

JS- please don't forget the political angle in your doco...a few quotes from John Stuart Mill on the right to liberty would fit nicely in there, maybe just a still at the start with a single quote.

It would contrast quite nicely with a neo-shamanic quote some seconds after underneath.

An informal interview with a public officer of the law would be interesting too...throw a bit of controversy into the works.