How the $#!% did we get here?
This is going to be a history detour - past all the presidents, past all the wars, behind the scenes of what was happening abroad and in the media. Its a story of the subtle changes that got us to our current paradigm that some of us are desperately trying to get out of, while others are desperately trying to fall into. That of the oil-driven, consumerist society of capitalism.
In the early 1900's we're familiar that the automobile started to develop. It wasn't until the '20's that their popularity became wide spread, with the price reduction that followed Ford's invention of the Model T. But that isn't the whole story, certainly not. While Ford was pushing for lowering prices enough for most working families to afford his Model T, public transportation, which brought most people to work, were slowly losing business.
It quickly dawned on both the government and the automotive industry that this market of private transportation was untapped. Given the expense of a private vehicle, the constant upkeep, and fuel consumption it was apparent that a huge sum of money was about to be made, if only public infrastructure would support it.
During the '20s and ;30s something happened between private business and public government. The paper industry destroyed hemp, the chemical industry took hold of all publicly endorsed medicine, and most relevantly the "GM Streetcar Conspiracy" came to fruition. For reasons unknown to me, these all took place nearly simulataneously in a large change of power from government enforcing laws and regulation to taking an enormous part in private business, and ultimately, the structuring of American life.
By the 50's the street car was dead, and public transportation was for the down-trotted and poorer labor workers of America. Personal transportation was nearly synonymous with nationalism and endorsement of pride in the growing economy (and recovering from the depression). The personal automobile became a requirement for the american dream, and thus changed the identity of the population.
But this wasn't enough. There was still untapped potential for capitalism. The perfect picture of capitalism is for every single person to own all of their own stuff - their own house, their own car, and everything that fills those spaces and places. However, much of the working class lived where they worked. This necessarily meant they lived in cities, and in turn, compact buildings such as apartments and compact housing.
Drawing upon the idea of the antiquated royal elite living far out of the city, the real estate industry started an ingenious (in the context of capitalism) idea. They started using the tension of race to destroy neighborhoods and use class structure to drive forward a paradigm that would change America that still prevails to this day. The idea was ideal, it was suburbia - the idea of living far away from where you work. In newly deforested land, cheaply to build on, but until recently, untouched.
The freeway and interstate systems allowed this to be possible. Surprisingly (not!) it was the exact same time that the streetcar conspiracy had reached its end, in the mid 50's. It was because of this interstate system, the end of WWII, the increase of the middle class, and the racial tensions being played out in the media that allowed the next step to be possible.
What happened was neighborhoods that generally held white people were broken apart intentionally by the real estate industry via lowering the buy-in rate and overall the value of the houses in these neighborhoods and offering loans to African Americans at reduced rates. The process was called "Block Busting"; The intentional movement of minorities into these same neighborhoods, thus "breaking them apart". The social and racial tensions at the time caused enough discomfort which would only be remedied (in the eyes of the white, american public) by moving out. In fact, this is the very event that coined the term "there goes the neighborhood" - in reference to a black family moving in, thus "forcing" the neighborhood to a future of white emigration...
Suburbia was born. Deforestation of previously untouched land, or the conversion of inadequate farmland to newly built houses sometimes nearly an hour away from down-town became the normal interest of family housing. After all, who would want to live next to black people in the 50's... (sarcasm, please). As interest grew in the creation of suburban neighborhoods, it became almost a religious calling to move to a suburb. They were portrayed as heavenly, always green, and no crime. The children were happy, and the idea of our current "American Dream" was born.
There was one last cavity that the Capitalist movement had to occupy - exactly what would occupy all these newly built houses? Here enters the story of blatant consumerism, let me explain it in slightly a poetic way:
The man of the house takes his car to work.
A car built and devised on monopoly.
The roads built via a government shaking hands
With the conspiracy of suburbia
As the wife sits at home and tends the empty house,
The door-to-door salesmen rears his head
"Would you like a vacuum?"
"A sponge? A teapot? A turkey baster?"
And so the house gets filled with nicks and knacks
And the "growth" in the economy is born
The consequences of this branch out far beyond what any one person can imagine. The absolute necessity in suburbia is oil and gas. Gas was the downfall of the electric street car inevitably, and inevitably the realization of the interstate system. Soon the houses are filled with the useful byproducts - plastics, paints, and so forth. So begins the legacy of America, fast forward 60 years and here we are.
Yeah... Thats America.
Saturday, January 26, 2013
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
The Mind and Body are One
Its a bit of a hippy statement, maybe beyond hippy, even. Maybe more like medicine man.
[If I had a dollar for every time I wanted to say Shaman or Medicine man in my posts...]
I hope you will begin to see a trend in my posts after reading this. I present a very simple title, followed by a concept that is fairly simple, but not usually the "accepted" perspective on a topic. The way we change societies is we come about paradigms shifts - we start thinking about what was once "common sense" as something a bit more complicated, or at least, different than we had treated it before.
Lets take a look at the mind & body.
We often think of the brain as the "us". Well, its doing the thinking, so if we think about who we are, its usually what is doing the thinking. This is so deeply rooted I can't even comprehend not thinking this way, but not everyone does. There are many cultures out there that are much different than mine, ours. They see "us" as the whole body. That may seem obvious, and you may agree, but lets go on to why I find this important!
[If I had a dollar for every time I wanted to say Shaman or Medicine man in my posts...]
I hope you will begin to see a trend in my posts after reading this. I present a very simple title, followed by a concept that is fairly simple, but not usually the "accepted" perspective on a topic. The way we change societies is we come about paradigms shifts - we start thinking about what was once "common sense" as something a bit more complicated, or at least, different than we had treated it before.
Lets take a look at the mind & body.
We often think of the brain as the "us". Well, its doing the thinking, so if we think about who we are, its usually what is doing the thinking. This is so deeply rooted I can't even comprehend not thinking this way, but not everyone does. There are many cultures out there that are much different than mine, ours. They see "us" as the whole body. That may seem obvious, and you may agree, but lets go on to why I find this important!
Saturday, January 5, 2013
Placebo - Regurgitated
Placebo is one of the most unrealized, most backwarded, under-rated phenomenon in modern medicine.
I can sum it up in a very short blunt phrase that you won't be able to deny:
Non-medicine can cure you of almost anything.
Wow! Tah-Dah. Its been under our nose for so long, and its been the thing to avoid in all clinical trials, rather than maximized. Placebo is possibly a gold-mine of untapped knowledge.
Why is it so demonized in modern medicine? Why is it that clinical health "Placebo" is treated like a fuck-up, something to get rid of? Why the hell aren't we USING placebo?
Well of course you can't sell placebo. Imagine the next company that comes out with pills named "placebo pills - take it for anything!". Oh wait thats homeopathy (ooooh! low blow).
The History of Placebo
Lets take a ride into the origins of placebo, and what placebo REALLY is, and how we need to get rid of (and relabel, or UNlabel placebo).
For as long as oral and written history can document, we have had medicine men (and recently women) who have treated every ailment of a tribe with their knowledge. Often a certain medicinal plant is employed, accompanied by a very long (depending on how sick the person is) ritual or custom. This was the very beginning of our modern "placebo" phenomenon. It is creating an energy and mind-set in the individual that something is happening, and the body is going to be healed.
Often, in fact, some medicines were only verbal, or the blowing of smoke on the face. A purely psychological expression - nothing internally taken, almost nothing physically to help the wounded. All that was being done was a change in the mindset to bring about healing.
How Can We Use Placebo?
Well - the first thing we must realize is that modern medicine has shown us the true extent of our own will-power, our own ability to heal our bodies. We are so good at it, we don't even need a ritual, we don't even need a shaman or even a doctor in some cases, all we need is a little white pill. You could argue that modern civilization has created a kind of life-long ritual of modern-medicine, in which we believe things are going to happen "Cause we saws it on the TV!".
Shamans were our brothers, fathers, and uncles. We don't have them anymore.
Doctors were our neighbors - often we knew them and trusted them on a personal level.
Doctors used to come do house-calls. We don't have that anymore.
Now we have the Television, beaming us streams of heroic stories and miracle cures and healings all the time, we believe in modern medicine. Just look at the popularity of the new-age dramas like House.
The first thing we need to do is not label the phenomenon as placebo. Placebo has too much baggage and nobody wants to be the "victim" of placebo. When someone tries out a new herbal supplement and modern medicine labels it as a placebo, we feel ashamed - we feel tricked! This is NOT how we need to look at placebo.
In such a situation, you should take pride in the fact you are seeing results from your own self-awareness and will power. You need to realize you are the creator of this good energy and the healing is coming from within.
You can use herbs as your devices for healing, substrates on which you are acting on. Receivers of your own healing thoughts and energy. USE this phenomenon to your best advantage and health.
You aren't tricking yourself, you are mastering your body and mind, the connection between the two.
I can sum it up in a very short blunt phrase that you won't be able to deny:
Non-medicine can cure you of almost anything.
Wow! Tah-Dah. Its been under our nose for so long, and its been the thing to avoid in all clinical trials, rather than maximized. Placebo is possibly a gold-mine of untapped knowledge.
Why is it so demonized in modern medicine? Why is it that clinical health "Placebo" is treated like a fuck-up, something to get rid of? Why the hell aren't we USING placebo?
Well of course you can't sell placebo. Imagine the next company that comes out with pills named "placebo pills - take it for anything!". Oh wait thats homeopathy (ooooh! low blow).
The History of Placebo
Lets take a ride into the origins of placebo, and what placebo REALLY is, and how we need to get rid of (and relabel, or UNlabel placebo).
For as long as oral and written history can document, we have had medicine men (and recently women) who have treated every ailment of a tribe with their knowledge. Often a certain medicinal plant is employed, accompanied by a very long (depending on how sick the person is) ritual or custom. This was the very beginning of our modern "placebo" phenomenon. It is creating an energy and mind-set in the individual that something is happening, and the body is going to be healed.
Often, in fact, some medicines were only verbal, or the blowing of smoke on the face. A purely psychological expression - nothing internally taken, almost nothing physically to help the wounded. All that was being done was a change in the mindset to bring about healing.
How Can We Use Placebo?
Well - the first thing we must realize is that modern medicine has shown us the true extent of our own will-power, our own ability to heal our bodies. We are so good at it, we don't even need a ritual, we don't even need a shaman or even a doctor in some cases, all we need is a little white pill. You could argue that modern civilization has created a kind of life-long ritual of modern-medicine, in which we believe things are going to happen "Cause we saws it on the TV!".
Shamans were our brothers, fathers, and uncles. We don't have them anymore.
Doctors were our neighbors - often we knew them and trusted them on a personal level.
Doctors used to come do house-calls. We don't have that anymore.
Now we have the Television, beaming us streams of heroic stories and miracle cures and healings all the time, we believe in modern medicine. Just look at the popularity of the new-age dramas like House.
The first thing we need to do is not label the phenomenon as placebo. Placebo has too much baggage and nobody wants to be the "victim" of placebo. When someone tries out a new herbal supplement and modern medicine labels it as a placebo, we feel ashamed - we feel tricked! This is NOT how we need to look at placebo.
In such a situation, you should take pride in the fact you are seeing results from your own self-awareness and will power. You need to realize you are the creator of this good energy and the healing is coming from within.
You can use herbs as your devices for healing, substrates on which you are acting on. Receivers of your own healing thoughts and energy. USE this phenomenon to your best advantage and health.
You aren't tricking yourself, you are mastering your body and mind, the connection between the two.
Sunday, December 30, 2012
The Power of Good - Round 2
A second part to possibly the most important post on my blog;
http://learningasart.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-power-of-good.html
"Good" is all that makes us feel happy. It is the actions and thoughts and things that we don't and won't regret. That is the simplest way to know if you are doing good - "Could I possibly regret this?"
Smiling begets happiness, and vice versa. The two are intimately connected - you can try it:
Relax, breathe a little, clear the mind, and make a big, huge smile.
It grows on you doesn't it? I'm sitting here, nose stuffed up, head throbbing, dizzy as a kid who rolled down a hill, but if I smile it picks me right back up. Warm (imaginary) sunshine hitting my face, embracing the good.
I wanted to get a little deeper, and something I touched on in my previous post. When I said
"When you are happy, the world is happy."
It doesn't seem always true, but it makes a big difference. I wanted to play a little mental exercise though. What if all the bad in the world, all the negative, is only there because it always has been. Since the beginning of life its been kill or be killed. We've had predators as long as we've had mouths. As we grew more conscious and more aware, we became empathetic - another being's suffering is our own.
There are those that dismiss this empathy and embrace of all life as beautiful as something silly, foolish - something science easily dismisses. But science certainly does not, in fact science says nothing of morality at all!
Back to the point - what if all the negativity we experience in todays world - all the suffering, has just been carried over from our years of un-empathetical behavior? What would happen if all people smiled just an hour more a day? What would happen if all people began to be charitable in just a few more actions a day?
Since the greater use of "happy" parts of the brain begets more and stronger uses of "happy" parts of the brain (giving, smiling, and loving), the world would exponentially get happier.
What if by simply being nicer, the world changed? Literally. Since our perception of the universe is dramatically altered in various ways depending on our mood - to have a global shift in the direction of good and happiness could literally change how the world is seen. I'm not just saying that people would seem nicer, and the day would be a bit brighter - but literally things would become more valuable, time would become more fulfilling, life would be richer.
Before you go all skeptic on me, what have you got to lose?
http://learningasart.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-power-of-good.html
"Good" is all that makes us feel happy. It is the actions and thoughts and things that we don't and won't regret. That is the simplest way to know if you are doing good - "Could I possibly regret this?"
Smiling begets happiness, and vice versa. The two are intimately connected - you can try it:
Relax, breathe a little, clear the mind, and make a big, huge smile.
It grows on you doesn't it? I'm sitting here, nose stuffed up, head throbbing, dizzy as a kid who rolled down a hill, but if I smile it picks me right back up. Warm (imaginary) sunshine hitting my face, embracing the good.
I wanted to get a little deeper, and something I touched on in my previous post. When I said
"When you are happy, the world is happy."
It doesn't seem always true, but it makes a big difference. I wanted to play a little mental exercise though. What if all the bad in the world, all the negative, is only there because it always has been. Since the beginning of life its been kill or be killed. We've had predators as long as we've had mouths. As we grew more conscious and more aware, we became empathetic - another being's suffering is our own.
There are those that dismiss this empathy and embrace of all life as beautiful as something silly, foolish - something science easily dismisses. But science certainly does not, in fact science says nothing of morality at all!
Back to the point - what if all the negativity we experience in todays world - all the suffering, has just been carried over from our years of un-empathetical behavior? What would happen if all people smiled just an hour more a day? What would happen if all people began to be charitable in just a few more actions a day?
Since the greater use of "happy" parts of the brain begets more and stronger uses of "happy" parts of the brain (giving, smiling, and loving), the world would exponentially get happier.
What if by simply being nicer, the world changed? Literally. Since our perception of the universe is dramatically altered in various ways depending on our mood - to have a global shift in the direction of good and happiness could literally change how the world is seen. I'm not just saying that people would seem nicer, and the day would be a bit brighter - but literally things would become more valuable, time would become more fulfilling, life would be richer.
Before you go all skeptic on me, what have you got to lose?
Monday, December 24, 2012
Nine things I've learned in the past year.
Nine things I've learned in the past year.
1) Be confident in who you are, love yourself for the same reason, and USE that to get to where you want to be.
2) Where you want to be isn’t really where you want to be… It is getting there that brings the most joy.
3) Every perspective has an equal and opposite, and every variant in between. We all choose some paths, and butt heads with others once in a while. Taking everything you know yourself and everyone else knows with a grain of salt is powerful.
4) The world is a blank canvas. You have the paint brush of emotions, thoughts, and realizations. YOU paint this picture, no one else – so choose your colors carefully.
5) Caring about anything up to a point of sadness, anger, or negativity means you evaluated something wrong.
6) Being able to admit you're wrong is far more rewarding than being correct.
7) For every “I love you all” there is a “But love is just an emotion” person.
8) Spreading paranoia, fear, and conspiracy theories is retrogressive
9) Spreading genuine kindness is beautiful.
From here on out, I want to embody these 9 concepts as much as I can.
I've always had this advice to others, but never gave it to myself. I could learn a thing or two.
See you.
1) Be confident in who you are, love yourself for the same reason, and USE that to get to where you want to be.
2) Where you want to be isn’t really where you want to be… It is getting there that brings the most joy.
3) Every perspective has an equal and opposite, and every variant in between. We all choose some paths, and butt heads with others once in a while. Taking everything you know yourself and everyone else knows with a grain of salt is powerful.
4) The world is a blank canvas. You have the paint brush of emotions, thoughts, and realizations. YOU paint this picture, no one else – so choose your colors carefully.
5) Caring about anything up to a point of sadness, anger, or negativity means you evaluated something wrong.
6) Being able to admit you're wrong is far more rewarding than being correct.
7) For every “I love you all” there is a “But love is just an emotion” person.
8) Spreading paranoia, fear, and conspiracy theories is retrogressive
9) Spreading genuine kindness is beautiful.
From here on out, I want to embody these 9 concepts as much as I can.
I've always had this advice to others, but never gave it to myself. I could learn a thing or two.
See you.
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
Thoughts on Consciousness
The Conscious Mind...
We're all conscious right? You think you're conscious, I think I'm conscious, I even think monkeys are conscious.
First mental exercise - Where do you draw the line on consciousness?
In order to believe we are conscious, we must understand that something allows us to be conscious. •Whether it be a soul, or some spiritual element - or be it some physical part of the brain that somehow creates our experiences.
If you believe we have souls, then you obviously must believe that there is definite "line" in which you draw and give things souls or not souls. Does your pet dog have a soul? How about a snail? A fish? A plant? You must define a line, somehow to classify "souled" or soulless, or else accept that everything or nothing has souls (or some spiritual element).
If you believe that consciousness is directly attributed to the brain, then, again, you must draw a line where consciousness arises. You may draw the line at people, you may draw it at primates, maybe animals, maybe all living things, maybe everything. But you have to define it.
As neurology and psychology become more advanced and we are able to probe the brain deeper and deeper, we continually come up with results that show the brain is attributed to consciousness. Removing or damaging parts of the brain result in people unable to form coherent pictures of reality, thus probably meaning consciousness is affected.
Interestingly as well, we are conscious that we are conscious, which has real implications on how we perceive and act. Hence I am writing this article - I know I am consciousness, and that is directly tied to the brain, meaning consciousness (where ever it is) communicates directly to our neurons.
Although this may be obvious, this falsifies the idea that maybe consciousness is simply an observatory mechanism - unable to have any input on the brain.
However this interaction between consciousness and the brain does not mean that consciousness is in control of our body's actions. That is, we believe we have control, the "we" or "me" being the conscious experience. But within the past decade, studies are continually showing that this is incorrect - our brains make decisions before we are conscious of them!
(See: http://www.nature.com/news/2008/080411/full/news.2008.751.html)
So what can we extrapolate from this? Well it would seem that our consciousness is some kind of illusion that "we" are in control - for example the illusion that we have free-will and "we" decide things consciously for our body to act out. In fact, it seems our unconscious brain makes decisions, followed by a conscious interpretation of this action - and reinforces that consciousness was in control the whole time.
What we experience in consciousness, almost seems to be a lag time or delay after our actual decisions are made... but also seems to correlate exactly with our actual actions, which seem to be odd as well. Its almost as if our brain makes decisions, orders them, categorizes and evaluates them, then, all at once, sends out the actions and the conscious experience of the decision at the same time.
So is there any room for "magic" here - that is, is consciousness really special? Does it have some kind of spiritual connection or meaning? How the hell can this actually work? If consciousness is in fact, just some by-product of evolution, and some nearly pointless ability to experience life (in a biological context) where the fuck is the color red located?
That is all.
See you!
We're all conscious right? You think you're conscious, I think I'm conscious, I even think monkeys are conscious.
First mental exercise - Where do you draw the line on consciousness?
In order to believe we are conscious, we must understand that something allows us to be conscious. •Whether it be a soul, or some spiritual element - or be it some physical part of the brain that somehow creates our experiences.
If you believe we have souls, then you obviously must believe that there is definite "line" in which you draw and give things souls or not souls. Does your pet dog have a soul? How about a snail? A fish? A plant? You must define a line, somehow to classify "souled" or soulless, or else accept that everything or nothing has souls (or some spiritual element).
If you believe that consciousness is directly attributed to the brain, then, again, you must draw a line where consciousness arises. You may draw the line at people, you may draw it at primates, maybe animals, maybe all living things, maybe everything. But you have to define it.
As neurology and psychology become more advanced and we are able to probe the brain deeper and deeper, we continually come up with results that show the brain is attributed to consciousness. Removing or damaging parts of the brain result in people unable to form coherent pictures of reality, thus probably meaning consciousness is affected.
Interestingly as well, we are conscious that we are conscious, which has real implications on how we perceive and act. Hence I am writing this article - I know I am consciousness, and that is directly tied to the brain, meaning consciousness (where ever it is) communicates directly to our neurons.
Although this may be obvious, this falsifies the idea that maybe consciousness is simply an observatory mechanism - unable to have any input on the brain.
However this interaction between consciousness and the brain does not mean that consciousness is in control of our body's actions. That is, we believe we have control, the "we" or "me" being the conscious experience. But within the past decade, studies are continually showing that this is incorrect - our brains make decisions before we are conscious of them!
(See: http://www.nature.com/news/2008/080411/full/news.2008.751.html)
So what can we extrapolate from this? Well it would seem that our consciousness is some kind of illusion that "we" are in control - for example the illusion that we have free-will and "we" decide things consciously for our body to act out. In fact, it seems our unconscious brain makes decisions, followed by a conscious interpretation of this action - and reinforces that consciousness was in control the whole time.
What we experience in consciousness, almost seems to be a lag time or delay after our actual decisions are made... but also seems to correlate exactly with our actual actions, which seem to be odd as well. Its almost as if our brain makes decisions, orders them, categorizes and evaluates them, then, all at once, sends out the actions and the conscious experience of the decision at the same time.
So is there any room for "magic" here - that is, is consciousness really special? Does it have some kind of spiritual connection or meaning? How the hell can this actually work? If consciousness is in fact, just some by-product of evolution, and some nearly pointless ability to experience life (in a biological context) where the fuck is the color red located?
That is all.
See you!
Tuesday, November 27, 2012
A Verified Mind-Blowing Astral-Projection-Like Experience
To partake in this experience the best results are going to be with people who
1) Smoke weed and are comfortable with being very high
and
2) Have some enjoyment in electronic music that has a loud bass line
This is a solid technique to completely forget you're in your body, experience full synesthesia, and experience what some would call astral projection.
The following things are highly, highly recommended. The choice of music is not strict, but I've never heard any better examples, and these are perfectly formulated to produce the most heart-pounding, mind-blowing, synesthesia-wielding, astral projections to the beyond:
•Enough marijuana to smoke in one sitting to make yourself very high. When you are done smoking you should be barely able to remember why you started smoking.
•An MP3 player with good quality headphones, or the most fabulous stereo system on the planet.
•A room with little light and no other distractions
•Being very tired helps, but isn't always necessary
•These two albums. I suggest these two for a number of reasons, but the main being they are very progressive which allows the mind to truly expand and create incredible imagery:
Infected Mushroom - Converting Vegetarians
Infected Mushroom - Viscious Delicious
Or classical mushroom, or IM Supervisor... they are all ok but not the 2 newer albums. Viscious delicious is a must.
Effects will be the greatest if you've never heard these albums before! But don't fret if you're an I.M. fan, you can download any of the 1200 mic albums as well, but they are a second best.
On With the Experiment!
Keep up with how other people are doing here: http://www.highexistence.com/topic/i-want-participants-for-an-astral-projection-expt/
Smoke your herb, or however you want to do it. The goal is to be high to a point that you are not usually, a high where that almost pushes the zone of comfort, but still easy to relax.
Go lay in bed and get very comfortable, imagine how comfy you are, and put in your head phones. Put the music on at a very low volume, just enough to hear every beat and sound - as the song progresses turn up the music, little by little until it, too, is just under the threshold of comfortableness - but you still can listen with ease. Do this slowly, all the while having your eyes closed and preferably under the covers.
As the song peaks, so should your volume (to the loudest comfortable level).
At this point, colors and visions should be everywhere. You should be imagining yourself flying through space, visions of objects and great plains and buildings dancing everywhere. You may forget you are in your body. Your eyes may begin to vibrate and roll back - a normal thing. Pure euphoria and bliss may start to pulse through you.
Have fun. If it gets too intense for you, of course take the headphones off and take a breather. Not everyone enjoys this type of music, but you should try this first, as it is one of the most progressive mind-blowing music genres (artists) out there.
If it doesn't work, put something softer in like Pink Floyd or one of the classics. Again, this is to expand your mind, bring some feelings you've never had before, and to have fun.
Don't do it too much or you'll end up like me.
So You Want to Know "Why"?
As I evolved in this new perception, I started to wonder what was the cause, and what was really going on with me (I felt quite crazy, actually). Five years later I think this may have been a contributing part to the larger story. What I wanted to see:
1) Firstly it appeared to me that maybe this was a masculine-only phenomenon. No females I had ever talked to ever expressed experiencing something similar. I also had a feeling this music and being high combination was innately male. I have since completely proven this wrong, and won't be so foolish again.
2) I wanted to see if other people would have similar experiences of extreme senses of euphoria, fear, or like wise emotions. When I would do this, I would be in such a state of "awe" I could hardly breath for the emotions were so powerful - to see if anyone could have similar experiences would, at the very least, comfort me. Seeing that others have the same experience is indeed comforting.
3) I wanted to see if this experience was capable of being manifested outside of the music, outside of being high, or both, simply by trying to get to that state again. Again, seeing that others have had similar experiences... comforting, and I'm glad people are able to access this perception at will.
4) I wanted to see if this actually had some daily-life changes, even with no attempts to change perceptions. This is the ultimate test of this experiment - do these experiences actually effect how we perceive reality forever after? On some level I have gotten confirmation that this experience, does in fact have this effect.
This is, I believe, one of the closest experiences to psychedelics or entheogens one person can have without actually doing them, but doing them after fulfilling this experiment, would be quite the experience indeed.
Again - Check out the participants of the project HERE:
http://www.highexistence.com/topic/i-want-participants-for-an-astral-projection-expt/
Have fun with this, and don't worry - some people experience a "cloaked" figure, this is just a fabrication of the imagination, do not fear it. ;)
1) Smoke weed and are comfortable with being very high
and
2) Have some enjoyment in electronic music that has a loud bass line
This is a solid technique to completely forget you're in your body, experience full synesthesia, and experience what some would call astral projection.
The following things are highly, highly recommended. The choice of music is not strict, but I've never heard any better examples, and these are perfectly formulated to produce the most heart-pounding, mind-blowing, synesthesia-wielding, astral projections to the beyond:
•Enough marijuana to smoke in one sitting to make yourself very high. When you are done smoking you should be barely able to remember why you started smoking.
•An MP3 player with good quality headphones, or the most fabulous stereo system on the planet.
•A room with little light and no other distractions
•Being very tired helps, but isn't always necessary
•These two albums. I suggest these two for a number of reasons, but the main being they are very progressive which allows the mind to truly expand and create incredible imagery:
Infected Mushroom - Converting Vegetarians
Infected Mushroom - Viscious Delicious
Or classical mushroom, or IM Supervisor... they are all ok but not the 2 newer albums. Viscious delicious is a must.
Effects will be the greatest if you've never heard these albums before! But don't fret if you're an I.M. fan, you can download any of the 1200 mic albums as well, but they are a second best.
On With the Experiment!
Keep up with how other people are doing here: http://www.highexistence.com/topic/i-want-participants-for-an-astral-projection-expt/
Smoke your herb, or however you want to do it. The goal is to be high to a point that you are not usually, a high where that almost pushes the zone of comfort, but still easy to relax.
Go lay in bed and get very comfortable, imagine how comfy you are, and put in your head phones. Put the music on at a very low volume, just enough to hear every beat and sound - as the song progresses turn up the music, little by little until it, too, is just under the threshold of comfortableness - but you still can listen with ease. Do this slowly, all the while having your eyes closed and preferably under the covers.
As the song peaks, so should your volume (to the loudest comfortable level).
At this point, colors and visions should be everywhere. You should be imagining yourself flying through space, visions of objects and great plains and buildings dancing everywhere. You may forget you are in your body. Your eyes may begin to vibrate and roll back - a normal thing. Pure euphoria and bliss may start to pulse through you.
Have fun. If it gets too intense for you, of course take the headphones off and take a breather. Not everyone enjoys this type of music, but you should try this first, as it is one of the most progressive mind-blowing music genres (artists) out there.
If it doesn't work, put something softer in like Pink Floyd or one of the classics. Again, this is to expand your mind, bring some feelings you've never had before, and to have fun.
Don't do it too much or you'll end up like me.
So You Want to Know "Why"?
Spoiler! Do not read if you have not done it!
You've done the experiment? Really? Ok... go ahead.
The reason I ask you to do this is actually not for astral projection at all. The real reason I did this is because it was about the time that I started doing this in High School that I started to find extreme changes in my perceptions of reality - to great degrees. I found that at the same time I was picking up this "hobby" so to speak, of getting high and listening to this music before bed, I started a new awakening. Reality was literally shifting before my eyes.As I evolved in this new perception, I started to wonder what was the cause, and what was really going on with me (I felt quite crazy, actually). Five years later I think this may have been a contributing part to the larger story. What I wanted to see:
1) Firstly it appeared to me that maybe this was a masculine-only phenomenon. No females I had ever talked to ever expressed experiencing something similar. I also had a feeling this music and being high combination was innately male. I have since completely proven this wrong, and won't be so foolish again.
2) I wanted to see if other people would have similar experiences of extreme senses of euphoria, fear, or like wise emotions. When I would do this, I would be in such a state of "awe" I could hardly breath for the emotions were so powerful - to see if anyone could have similar experiences would, at the very least, comfort me. Seeing that others have the same experience is indeed comforting.
3) I wanted to see if this experience was capable of being manifested outside of the music, outside of being high, or both, simply by trying to get to that state again. Again, seeing that others have had similar experiences... comforting, and I'm glad people are able to access this perception at will.
4) I wanted to see if this actually had some daily-life changes, even with no attempts to change perceptions. This is the ultimate test of this experiment - do these experiences actually effect how we perceive reality forever after? On some level I have gotten confirmation that this experience, does in fact have this effect.
This is, I believe, one of the closest experiences to psychedelics or entheogens one person can have without actually doing them, but doing them after fulfilling this experiment, would be quite the experience indeed.
Again - Check out the participants of the project HERE:
http://www.highexistence.com/topic/i-want-participants-for-an-astral-projection-expt/
Have fun with this, and don't worry - some people experience a "cloaked" figure, this is just a fabrication of the imagination, do not fear it. ;)
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