Wednesday, July 29, 2015

Psychedelics, Music, and Meditation - The Spark Needed For A Revolution


            The 1960's are well-known as an era, sometimes a failed era, of a psychedelic renaissance which was nicely accompanied by protests, a sense of revolution, and an anti-war/government agenda. Psychedelics, with their mind-bending, eerie clarity made people think about things in a different light, specifically their own culture which was and is continually being fueled by war. They broke down barriers and made people question things left unquestioned. Like, why are we going to war? Why am I being forced to go kill people who are apart of my own species, my family? Music, being a psychedelic in its own form, was a central part in this outbreak of societal change. Music rippled throughout the land, showing things left unseen, even without the use of any psychotropic substance. Music can rip through to the core of individuals and help spark societal change. One song that helped spark that change and continues to today is "For What It's Worth" by Buffalo Springfield.



            "There's something happening here. What it is ain't exactly clear. There's a man with a gun over there, telling me I got to beware..." This line shows the relationship between the police and the citizens for whom they are supposed to serve and protect. Police are there to keep us in line, and as they shows us, violently. Sure, they are here to protect us from those pesky vigilantes and even ourselves from when we cross over to the wrong side of the law, but laws in place today are not inherently moral, nor did I or you have much say in making most of them. 

            It is completely legal to march a few thousand men and women to another side of the globe, kill thousands of people, and all for the sake of power. However, if you are outside the few States that has legalized it, it is completely illegal to smoke a plant. Or, if you live anywhere on this Earth besides Spain, it is illegal to consume the eye-opening, soul shifting, psilocybin mushroom. But if you want to drink or smoke tobacco until you die, go right ahead. No one is stopping you. In fact, they encourage you.

            Growing up in a world where there is war, famine, innocent women and children being bombed by United States' drones, people starving to death while others have enough to buy a private jet, and homeless people filling our streets, the youth are usually the first to speak out about such atrocities. Those of us that have been here longer than most have either given up or are used to it, and those younger than, say sixteen, are most likely unaware of the problems at hand. Springfield illustrates this beautifully with: "Young people speaking their minds. Getting so much resistance from behind." The youth speaking out has been a fairly common theme throughout history, but there are definite leaps here and there. The 1960's was one of them. And, mainly due to the internet and the rising psychedelic culture today,  it is happening again.


            Some believe we are going through a psychedelic revolution and this time with science on our side. There have been countless studies done on LSD, psilocybin mushrooms, and MDMA (to name a few) that have shown to work incredibly well for treating depression, alcoholism, anxiety, PTSD (specifically for veterans), and even with helping terminally-ill cancer patients with helping ease their anxiety with their impending death. 

            If a long-haired 23 year-old with oozing hippy vibes told you that psychedelics are going to change the world, you probably would write them off immediately. But when you have a sincere, touching video of someone dealing with cancer and depression telling you how psilocybin mushrooms has helped their lives immensely, you might just have to believe them... and possibly cry. Not only that, but there are more and more studies coming out everyday showing the healing powers of psychedelics.

             Through recent research, psychedelics are now shown to help with many psychological issues millions of people face with today. Not only that, but psychedelics can open up ideas to new ways of thinking and living. It is obvious the current track we are going down is not working. Scientists say if we continue down this same path, we will lose our wildlife and eventually our own species. We have already lost half of our wildlife in the past 40 years thanks to human consumption, the main fuel to our beloved free market, capitalistic economy. Psychedelics open your eyes to ideas like perhaps there is no democracy and we are being played on a mass scale. Or how can there even be a true democracy if we do not vote for the real things that matter like war, bail-outs, etc.? Why do I have to go work? Why do I have to pay to live and in addition pay for tuition? How can there be a democracy if there are things going on behind closed doors that we know nothing about (the NSA scandal and many others)? And this is just touching the surface with a psychedelic trip. Psychedelics make you feel connected with everything and everyone around you, especially nature. And what do we need more than to feel a sincere, deep connection with nature? Take enough, and you become one with the universe. You see that everyone is connected all the time and separation is only an illusion made through the filtration of the mind. You see perfectly that we are all one consciousness, experiencing itself one at a time through you.


             If you are hesitant of using any sort of "drug" (although, if you think about it, you are drugs) to achieve this experience and state of being, there are many natural ways to do so; meditation, yoga, holotropic breathing, and sensory deprivation to name a few. If you are confused on what to do with meditation, you can check out my previous blog post on How To Meditate.  Psychedelics and meditation put together are an incredibly powerful tool and can allow the experience to go deeper and deeper. I recommend meditation before, during, and after the ingestion of any psychedelic, but of course, the use of psychedelic is not "needed". 

            I think we need to take the advice from the band Buffalo Springfield and "...stop. Hey, what's that sound? Everybody look - what's going down?" Indeed we do need to take a second and stop. Stop everything and really take a fresh look at ourselves and the world around us (which in-turn is us). Things are getting out of hand, yes, but this Earth is still in our hands. Right now, scientists around the globe would argue we are at a pinnacle moment in history. Either we go the easy way out and do nothing, leaving behind a world uninhabitable for humans and most living creatures, or we change our ways drastically and use science and reason to our advantage, not to our destruction. This requires a sort of inner-revolution, a revolution of the psyche. To expand our consciousness to the entirety of experience, rather than a small blip of it, our inner narrative. It is time to step out of our minds and into reality through a simple act of surrender. Fear is what is stopping us from saving the world. It is time to face it. With the help of controversial psychedelics (used in a respectful, safe, professional, ritualistic manner), the art of meditation, timeless music like "For What It's Worth" by Buffalo Springfield, and many other songs that are coming out today (although they may be hard to find in this trashed culture), together we can change the world. This is our time, in fact, it is the only time. And it starts now.

Wednesday, April 1, 2015

The Impending Shift In Global Consciousness - The Dissolution of the Ego

Nothing can ever hold you down. Once it comes, it goes. This is the fundamental truth of reality: impermanence. And that which is Watching the Happening is the Happening. And what is the Happening? Well.. it is happening right now, no? This is all there is and you are it. This is the eternal reality. What you are is that, this, now. There is no ego keeping you from enlightenment.

In order to have what is you must have what is not. Black implies white. Something implies nothing. Nothing keeps something alive, new, fresh. Something is constantly changing, moving, disappearing into the void of Nothing and spawning from the void of Nothing. And so it all comes from Nothing and returns to Nothing. 

And yet, we hold onto this idea of ourselves as a self talking to itself, located somewhere in the head, somewhere right behind the eyes, watching this is all go by; forming this image, this memory of experience, a conversation. But with who are you talking to? If you are the one talking then who is the one listening? Which one are you? Who are you? 


 The skin is not a barrier to the "outside" world. It is a bridge with who you are. 

Each The moment is fresh, new. Each The moment we are forgiven, liberated. Every thought that comes immediately goes. Every moment that comes immediately goes. This is the true nature of reality. If you see this, which you do unknowingly or not, you are free. You are always and already free. This is so.


If you are caught in a mental loop of thought; struggling, frustratingly trying to clear your mind, you are only caught in the memory of it. How do you let go of a memory? It has already passed. 

And so we create this image of ourselves and the reality we confront. The Watcher (I) and the Watched (the "outside" world). But if you really, truly watch, the Watcher is being Watched, no? See for yourself. The next thought that pops in your mind, listen to it, watch it. Do you see how hard this is? Once it comes, it goes. You cannot be with thought. You can only watch its arrival and its inevitable departure. Be with that.

Nothing stays, there is only the echo. And when you look, the echo has already passed. So be in a state of constant change, a void. Move with it all.

Because of the impermanent nature of reality, we hold onto this image, this echo of ourselves, therefore distancing ourselves from reality. The image (who you think you are) is but a delay, an echo of the Whole, Nothingness. And so we hold on to the echo for in order to have what is we must include what is not.  


What has been is being echoed now from the now always now. 

For centuries this illusory notion of our identity has been implanted in us. A meme spread to the masses. And we are at a critical tipping point right now, both individually and socially, we are at a dead-end. What happens when you are at a dead-end? You have to stop. And when you stop trying to control the uncontrollable, you are free. You see, we spend so much energy on trying to make everything a certain way, when all there is the Way. 

You are but one distinct ripple in an infinitely rippling pond of consciousness. Like all ripples, you will return to your original state, our inherent Buddha Nature, the fundamental nature of all Beings. The fundamental nature of you. The fundamental nature of me. This is the impending shift in consciousness. And it starts now.




























Friday, February 13, 2015

The Scientific Power of Meditation

Meditation has been used in spiritual and religious circles for centuries while the benefits have been unseen to the planet at large. However, the blindfold has since been taken off and with the help of modern day scientific research and the internet, we now know the studiable benefits of meditation.

The video below does a quick 3-minute rundown on the benefits. I don't know about you, but after watching this I immediately started meditating.

Enjoy!




Wednesday, February 4, 2015

8 Mind-Bending Terrence McKenna Videos


Terence McKenna was one of the greatest minds of the last century. He was a philosopher, a psychonaut, and an all around mind-bending, hilarious individual that apparently would talk to "machine elves" on high does of magic mushrooms. 

McKenna is no longer with us physically, but if anything, he is more with us than ever before. Terence is spreading like wild fire across the internet and for good reason. Here are 8 videos of the great Terence Mckenna!



Enjoy!



1. The Message




2. Culture Is Not Your Friend



3. Nature Loves Courage



4. Schizophrenic or Shamanic?



5. Trust Yourself



6. You Must Have A Plan



7. Anthropology and Modern Anxiety



8. The Universe Inside





Monday, January 19, 2015

How To Meditate - A Simple Guide To Your Natural State



 Photo courtesy of www.reallifeglobal.com



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Tuesday, January 13, 2015

A 15 Minute Life Saving TED Talk: How To Make Stress Your Friend

In merely 15 minutes, this could save yours or a loved one's life. For so long stress has been seen as the enemy and is bad for your health. What if our very belief towards stress is what causes these health issues? So please, take a moment, and watch this compassionate, insightful, and inspiring TED talk that could help shift the planet to a more loving place.






Tuesday, January 6, 2015

5 Mind Blowing Alan Watts Quotes - 100th Birthday Edition

In light of Alan Watt's 100th Birthday (were he still alive) today, I thought I would share some of his wisdom with the world. This is my second Alan Watts Quotes post, so feel free to check out the previous article if you are still yearning for more. Enjoy!



1. "By replacing fear of the unknown with curiosity we open ourselves up to an infinite stream of possibility. We can let fear rule our lives or we can become childlike with curiosity, pushing our boundaries, leaping out of our comfort zones, and accepting what life puts before us."

2. "It is essential to understand this point thoroughly: that the thing-in-itself, whether animal, vegetable, or mineral, is not only unknowable--it does not exist. This is important not only for sanity and peace of mind, but also for the most "practical" reasons of economics, politics, and technology.. This is not to say only that things exist in relation to one another, but that what we call "things" are no more than glimpses of a unified process. Certainly, this process has distinct features which catch our attention, but we must remember that distinction is not separation."

3. "The Godhead is never an object of its own knowledge. Just as a knife doesn't cut itself, fire doesn't burn itself, light doesn't illuminate itself. It's always an endless mystery to itself."

4. "Everything is standing right out in the open, it's just a question of how you look at it. So you do discover when you realize this, the most extraordinary thing that I never cease to be flabbergasted at whenever it happens to me. Some people will use a symbolism of the relationship of God to the universe, wherein God is a brilliant light, only somehow veiled, hiding underneath all these forms as you look around you. So far so good. But the truth is funnier than that. It is that you are look right at the brilliant light now, that the experience you are having that you call ordinary everyday consciousness--pretending you're not it--that experience is exactly the same thing as IT. There's no difference at all. And when you find that out, you laugh yourself silly. That's the great discovery. In other words, when you really start to see things, and you look at an old paper cup, and you go into the nature of what it is to see, what vision is, or what smell is, or what touch is, you realize that that vision of the paper cup is the brilliant light of the cosmos. Nothing could be brighter. Ten thousand suns couldn't be brighter. Only they're hidden in the sense that all points of the infinite light are so tiny when you see them in the cup they don't blow your eyes out. See, the source of all light is in the eye. If there were no eyes in this world, the sun would not be light. So if I hit as hard as I can on a drum which has no skin, it makes no noise. So if a sun shines on a world with no eyes, it's like a hand beating a skinless drum, no light. YOU evoke light out of the universe, in the same way you, by nature of having soft skin, evoke hardness out of wood. Wood is only hard in relation to a soft skin. It's your eardrum that evokes noise out of the air. You, by being this organism, call into being this whole universe of light and color and hardness and heaviness and everything."

5. "Everybody is I, you all know you are you. And wheresoever's beings exist throughout all galaxies it doesn't any difference. You are all of them, and when they come into being that's you coming into being, you know that very well. Only you don't have to remember the past in the same way you don't have to think about how you work your thyroid gland. You don't have to know how to shine the sun, you just do it, like you breathe. Doesn't it really astonish you that you are this fantastically complex thing, and that you're doing all of this and you never had any education on how to do it."

Rest in peace :)

Sunday, January 4, 2015

One Cosmic Dance

Experience, the universe, is a unified process seen through a fragmented consciousness filter (ego). Each sense, each object, each person, each moment is put into a mental box. This labeling, however useful it may be, has put us under self-hypnosis creating a split world with separate objects. In reality, no one thing in and of itself exists. It is all relative. It is all one. 

Ten thousand things, one Tathata, one Suchness. 

And so there is the Observer and the Observed. We identify with the Observer and in-turn disconnect with the Observed. Without the Observed, there can be no Observer. The two are one. You are one. It is one. See the split, see the divided as one. Look. 

Every morning, 
before you begin the day, 
bring yourself back to the unity of experience. 

Every sentence needs a subject. The universe does not. This is why the Truth cannot be uttered. And too the Truth is always new, always fresh with the spontaneity of the moment. If something is thought, if something is said, like each word of a sentence, it goes on. Once thought, once said, it is now old. The Truth is always new.

All of experience is connected through awareness
Bring your awareness to the breath.
Let your awareness expand with each inhale and
sink in with each exhale.
Let it all fall in your breath.

Let each seemingly separate part of existence return to its origin: the Now. Not the abstract concept you have built up about the Now, but of what is. Time is not stacked vertically nor does it move forward or backward. What we call time is nothing but a memory (the reflection of yourself), and the mental conception of future events, all happening right now. What appears to be the movement of time is, in reality, direct felt experience morphing and shifting. Like a kaleidoscope spontaneously changing pattern. Creating a song, a dance. No matter how "awakened" or "asleep" one may appear to be, we are all apart of One Cosmic Dance.