Silver Lining

Hemp farm linked from burnonewith.us

I’ve been thinking about the illegalization of marijuana. And I came to realize that there’s a great silver lining to the fact that it’s been illegal for so long. And that is this: it’s remained pure.

We know by now that the great illegalize movement came from big business. I will simplify, but if you want a full, detailed account try this link. That’s because marijuana – in the form of “hemp” – is about the most versatile plant in the world. In those days everything was made from hemp, from the clothes people wore to the ropes on the great ships. Look it up. The cotton and logging industries wanted the business so they began a campaign against “marijuana” and when they had people convinced they then stated that “marijuana” = “hemp”. Very clever. Bravo. In fact, it is the same plant, but I dare you to smoke those clothes – or even the hemp that was used to make it.

Anyway, since then it has been illegal – except for a small period during World War II that the U.S. government passed a law that all farmers must grow hemp for the war effort. Yes, that’s true. You can check it out. If that’s not showing your hand then I don’t know what is.

But I digress. Imagine big businesses being able to sell us our ganja. Phillip Morris, for example. They’ve made their careers out of selling people addictive substances. What do you suppose would be in our “marijuana cigarettes”? Look at the list of ingredients in tobacco that has nothing to do with tobacco. More addictive killers. Paper chemicals. Nastiness. And tons of it. Our ganja would be in the hands of the incompetent. Their interests aren’t – and wouldn’t be – the same as ours. They’re not out to make high quality tobacco and they wouldn’t be out to make high quality ganja. It would be about how to keep us hooked and not how to keep us high. It would be awful.

Now look at the state of ganja today.* You can clearly get it anywhere in the world. The quality is higher then it’s ever been. It has not been genetically engineered (as far as I know). It will still grow anywhere. Nobody tries to corner the market. It’s a beautiful business model made up of local growers, couriers and distributors. And it’s still what it has been all along. The “mainstream” world is just rediscovering all of the things that this plant does – medicine, food, textiles, plastics, etc. etc. etc. It’s a gift that our ancestors hid in the warehouse. And the gift of it sitting in the warehouse is that they, themselves, did not play with it and fuck it up.

It makes me realize that if vegetables were illegal nobody would go hungry.

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*As we move forward and marijuana is reintroduced into medicine and other industries, there are already patents on strains and companies whose sole purpose is profit from its sale. Hopefully we will remember that we can grow it on our own, as we seem to have forgotten about this with food.

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Rant 1

It’s a fucked up sucked up
meat sack of a place
that’s being torn down worn down
and is eroding into space

when you prefer buildings to trees
and poison to fleas
getting down on your knees
in an effort to please

some king some god some unworldly man
all the while brewing his in-articulated plan

you’ve been bushwackled, bamboozled
thought you were wide eyed just to end up a spectacle

now it’s all being laid bare
and with a last ditch effort to get you to stare
to some place far over there

there’ll be some droppings of bombs
maybe a few tons
and we’ll all look away while they continue their play

for our resources no one cares about your money
it’s all about the bees and their honey

because that’s what they’ve taken away
while they get our eyes always to stray

to each other – look at him, he’s gay
and she’s convinced that religion’s the way

the republicans, the democrats
the whites and the blacks
all a subterfuge for the real attack

but freud was mistaken in his final analyzation
for my father and mother were also forsaken
by a society that let them grow up in a situation
that pain is okay and punishment deserved

but you are society so I understand
you were unwittingly part of the plan
to get me to look at my mom and my dad
and never look farther to what’s really bad

the conflict within is caused from without
we are not born with a headful of doubts

and our parents and grandparents are not to blame
also being born into this intricate game

but as long as we can blame each other
we’ll never see beyond our own brother

to the guy with the gun at his head
poking and prodding him too into dread

what’s really going on may actually not matter
just that they’re wasting our time with jibber and jabber

once again diverting our eyes
from what’s been all along the one and only prize

while we run around for another dollar
they grab another forest by the collar

another river full of oil
a bit more poison in the soil

but keep looking at the president’s mistakes
and wars taking place between sovereign states

because all that’s important is our attention
while our world is raped of its regeneration

Miracles

 “Nor is it ever nor will it ever be for now it is all together” – Parmenides

We are limited to all events that are possible

 —

 —

If you ever do pick up a copy of After the End, you’ll see a page in the booklet – opposite an arrangement of the I Ching – titled, “An Introduction to Clearisms”. There is, however, no explanation there.

In my previous blog, “An Axiom”, I introduced you to Jeff Sollars and the conversation which led to, among other things, the statement “all things are mirrored on all levels”. Clearisms are another result of this conversation. In fact, they were pretty much sentences that actually came out of someone’s mouth at one point or another. Often with much humor. They were the bits that we just had to write down, so we did.

If forced to define them I would say that they are somewhat westernized koans. Meaning that they’re not riddles at all. They’re bits. Bits that we thought were funny or poignant. Or both. I present here our full list from our week together. Think you have some too? Why not stick them in the comments?

 —

If it’s not rich with paradox then it probably isn’t really just is.

On some level, somewhere, possibly.

You wouldn’t even want to if you couldn’t.

Fractaliscious.

I believe, I think, I’m not sure.

In one eye, out the other.

One step closer to the nuthouse and saner than I’ve ever been. Stark raving sane.

Rationality (logic) is beautiful and beauty is rational (logical).

All possibilities. All worlds.

By hurting ourselves we hurt the Earth. By strengthening ourselves we strengthen the Universe.

All matter is a manifestation of some “frequency” of energy.

Sometimes it’s necessary to use all of our senses to make sure something’s not real.

There’s a degree of trepidation in returning to a place you’ve never been before.

If it works really well it should just disappear.

Within our frame of reference everything that exists, exists.

We have to be a reflection, on every level, of something that we’re making up.

If you think the car might disappear, slow down.

It’s all you.

We can’t combine mind (science), body (art) and spirit (religion), they’re combined already. All we can do is separate them.

Well if you knew you were doing it you probably wouldn’t want to sometimes.

Life on Mars may not be on the same level that we see it.

All possibility and no possibility leave you with the same realm of possibilities.

If it doesn’t mean anything then it can mean anything.

Consciousness is conscious.

We are limited to all events that are possible.

Each level of consciousness causes the next level of consciousness.

If something happens that is perceived by no being on any level anywhere, did it really happen?

We are perceiving the lack of perception of something that is happening … that affects us.

Temporary reality never changes the eternal task at hand.

—

 Peace.

Raw

On the one hand there’s possession and on the other there’s religion

Both of them point to a world of distinction

Of mine and yours and us and them

There’s nationalism

And though you think the world is easier when the lines are clear

The world is easiest when they disappear

—

 But through all of our doing

All these years long

One thing we missed

Is getting along

[from All Has Been Done by Lunacidal Tendencies.

From a Tel Aviv bus: Israel Loves Iran and Iran Loves Israel

Well, it’s been a ride. Missiles firing, bombs dropping, a bus exploding, sirens, friends being called and some coming to get away for a bit. I can’t tell you what it does, but I imagine it’s different for all of us. What I can tell you is what I thought about and where it’s brought me to today.

This is my attempt at putting together a lot of writing during this time. I hope I both trimmed enough and left enough. Each section can almost be a full blog in itself and, indeed, responsibility would have been the focus of this blog had the events of last week been different. I hope it succeeds in shedding some light.

I. Propaganda

The propaganda in this situation is astonishing. The pictures I saw were from other places, incorrectly captioned and even outright faked. The articles were one-sided with made-up fallacies called truths. They were asking us to pick a side. Once, journalism was about a group of people trying to dig fact out of a world of opinion. Today it hides fact and makes up opinion. It’s to be read as fiction. Even facebook is a better place for facts, though it must definitely be weeded out. But, as opposed to today’s news networks, at least it’s there.

And the slogans! “Israel has the right to defend itself” and “Free Gaza”. I think we’re all lucky that the Unnamed Itself didn’t just throw up on all of humanity. Yuck.

II. Choosing Sides

Choosing a side in war is not like choosing a side at a baseball game or cricket match. Nor is it like routing for Messi to score a goal. Most of the people dying don’t want to be involved. Soldiers included. And the ones that want to be involved aren’t generally the ones dying. Which at least partially explains their determination to be involved.

The importance of choosing a side is in the control it brings. Our news is so slanted – in both directions – because nobody really cares what side you pick. Only that you pick. When you choose a sports team you’ll be willing to give up your money. When you choose a side in war you’ll give up your authority. Just look at the laws that have been passed in the U.S. in the name of “the war on terror”. If we’re finding out anything today it’s that our authority is a lot easier to give up then it is to get back.

If you want to take a side in war then take the side of the people with bombs falling on their heads. Feel for the soldiers who are asked to do these things. These are the people suffering. These are the casualties. None of them will ever be the same again and many of them will never heal. Pray for each and every one of them.

III. Celebrating Death

I remember when Saddam Hussein was hung and Osama Bin Laden was announced dead. The television was sprawled with images of people celebrating. I remember in 1991, when Iraq launched missiles to Israel, the scenes of people cheering. In the current outburst as well, and even at its end, people cheer and claim victory to their people. This is something I cannot reconcile and I will never join with people that celebrate death. I can’t express myself better than chapter 31 of Lao Tzu’s Tao Te Ching as translated by S. Mitchell (his full translation is here):

Weapons are the tools of violence;
all decent men detest them.

Weapons are the tools of fear;
a decent man will avoid them
except in the direst necessity
and, if compelled, will use them
only with the utmost restraint.
Peace is his highest value.
If the peace has been shattered,
how can he be content?
His enemies are not demons,
but human beings like himself.
He doesn’t wish them personal harm.
Nor does he rejoice in victory.
How could he rejoice in victory
and delight in the slaughter of men?

He enters a battle gravely,
with sorrow and with great compassion,
as if he were attending a funeral.

IV. Responsibility

In war it always seem to be the dead that are responsible for their dying. As if the missile was fired from their own hand. In this conflict it is the same. I don’t hear Egyptian leaders taking responsibility for the flow of weapons. I don’t hear Gazan officials saying they regret that they need to take life, quite the opposite. And I don’t hear Israeli officials taking responsibility for keeping a barricade on Gaza. Every party is justified. Their circles are closed. Israel can say that the barricade on Gaza is obviously deserved and here’s the proof. Egypt can either deny all involvement or say that without the weapons nobody would listen to the plight of Gaza (a plight which, they themselves, don’t listen to). And the Gaza leaders can say that they’ve been barricaded and what choice do they have. Perhaps they should ask Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.; perhaps they should ask Gandhi. But whoever they’ve been asking has been giving them the wrong answers. Likewise for all the other players involved.

It is time for parties to take responsibility for their actions. It is time to stop saying that “our hands were forced”. It is time to start thinking about the interests of the people living in the Middle East and not the people that have a vision of a particular Middle East. The everyday people here – Palestinians and Israelis – are the ones suffering for those visions. It is what it is right now. Stop thinking about how to make it something else and deal with it.

This total lack of responsibility is a worldwide phenomena right now. For war, death and destruction. For the environment and cancer and autism. For the economies. Which is another thing I think a lot about, so I’d like to take an aside into this “Global Economic Crisis” if I may. It is not entirely disconnected.

V. Just what is a global economic crisis?

Have you thought about the phrase “global economic crisis”? I mean really thought about it? It makes no sense. We made money up! It doesn’t exist! And now we’re all living in hardship because we have a money crisis? Tell me there’s a global water crisis, food crisis or a thousand other things that are really out there. But global money crisis? Really? Something we made up is now in scarce supply? Really? I can’t ask that enough here. Really? It stuns me every time I think about it. One day we’ll all laugh at ourselves for being so serious about a global economic crisis. And then we’ll all die because there’ll be no food or water.

Here’s an idea: tomorrow, depending on total net worth, everyone in the world’s amount of money gets multiplied by something between 50 and 1. All debts are fixed and do not change. Prices are multiplied by, at most, something like 20 for all goods and services. Now, I haven’t considered the ramifications of this, but who really cares? We made it up in the first place. That’s the point. Obviously after the modification we’ll eventually get back to the same place we are today, but maybe by then we’ll realize just how ridiculous it is to live our lives around some idea that we made up instead of something that actually exists – like each other, for example.

VI. Voices of sanity

Despite all of the noise from around the world there are groups of people in the Middle East that still see each other. That reach out to each other from across the borders, wish each other well and help each other deal with the events around them. The people suffering on both sides that think about the suffering of the “other” side. That prove that, in fact, there are no sides here. And if there are then they are not what they seem. Some of the best outreach I’ve seen is and was from the following facebook pages: Turning a new page for peace, Israel Loves Palestine, Palestine Loves Israel, Iran Loves Israel and Israel Loves Iran. This is, of course, not a full list but it’s a nice start. Make your voice heard for sanity. War is not sane. These communities were a beacon during this past week. And they are a beacon for our future.

VII. Closing

Both in Israel and in Gaza, the minority tends to have a powerful voice. It’s a fact all over the world that the more fanatic the person the louder his voice. Truth is silent. It does not need to force itself on anybody nor does it need to convince you of anything. Force is used to push the false and loudness to deceive.

I ask you to hear the voice that is not being heard. I ask you to put aside what you’ve learned. I ask you to remember that, if you must pick a side, pick the side of the people in between. Choose the third option. The first two are means of control. The third is your humanity.

Peace.

An Axiom

We cannot combine mind (science), body (art) and spirit (religion), they are combined already. All we can do is separate them.

from wallpapersbuzz.com

Back in 1999, I sat with a friend of mine, “Captain” Jeff Sollars, for a conversation about the universe. We had come to understand that our educations were lacking in this field. At the time I was in graduate school and he was in the throes of exploration. We’re both well read and had come across plenty of literature – east and west – on these subjects, from material to spiritual to all things in between. Our problem wasn’t meaning or purpose, it was more a question of structure. Of understanding how it’s put together.

I guess it’s worth mentioning what we felt were some of the shortcomings of our modern look at the universe. First, our universal models are all based on logic. Always remember that logic is in the philosophy department of university. And, while our universal models seem to go a long way to express and predict things that happen, much of what happens in life is simply not logical. There are no if-then statements that are going to get you there. More, logical systems are flawed [Godel], so we had that going for us, which was nice.

Second, we felt that, as a whole, we just weren’t wholistic enough. There are times we could look at a tree with a leaf disease and study the branches for 10 years never realizing that the problem is in the soil. It took us a long time to see things like the effects of emotion, or the air we breathe, on health, because when someone is sick we focus so hard on the place that “it hurts”. How many of our treatments for one disease cause another problem somewhere else? And this attitude tends to run throughout our exploration. For us, it seemed like we were lacking a context. And this turned a lot of what we knew into what we termed unprocessed knowledge. The kinds of things that we know how to do, but still don’t appreciate their effects even on our selves.

So this is what we tried to do. Understand the context. And our conversation turned into days. And eventually over a week. And throughout, we tried to come up with our starting point. What I later came to call our axiom. Many things dawned on us during this conversation and, just through the sheer force of openness, we came to many understandings. Yet, each starting point eventually came to a place that caused us to go back to the beginning. Which is what we did each time we hit a wall.

The first transformative understanding I experienced – it must have been several days into our conversation – was the foundation of the connectedness of things. The one thing all life must do, I realized, was to share. Water must flow. Man must breathe. But more, water must evaporate and rain, man must inhale and exhale. It’s less a sharing and more a relationship. Our bodies don’t simply decrease in energy, get refilled and move on. They are not only constantly being refilled, but they are constantly transforming and returning their intake. To put it bluntly, we must eat, but then we also must shit. And while our excrement may have no energy value to us, it certainly has one to nature. In other words, just because we don’t use it doesn’t mean the dung beetle wouldn’t be happy to have it. At least until it’s soil. Which would mean plants and trees. And so our conversation began to move into these relationships.

We began to consider the relationship between the plant and animal kingdoms and something very interesting came out. First, as we all tend to know, plants and trees provide us with oxygen while we provide them with carbon dioxide. That is, while we inhale oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide, they do the opposite. But let’s consider our relationship on another level. Chlorophyll – the stuff cruising around plants – is green. This means that when light energy (like sunlight) hits a tree, it reflects the blue and yellow frequencies, but absorbs the red frequencies. Well, again, we are the opposite. The hemoglobin being carried around in our blood is red, which means that it absorbs the blue and yellow spectrums and reflects the red. So, again, in light energy, our relationship remains consistent. So how about the physical? Well, as stated above, doesn’t our waste become plant fodder? And aren’t fruits, nuts and vegetables the released products of their intake? No wonder we wash it before we eat it!

Looking at this system, we began to see the complete relationship between plant and animal. One in which energy – air, light, physical – is shared. And that’s just the parts of it that we’re aware of! It dawned on us that this is the measuring stick we were looking for. That our starting point, our axiom if you will, would be summed up by the statement: All things are mirrored on all levels.

google image illustrations of phi, the golden mean

First, truth is repetitious. For, if something is true it must be true everywhere. As if the truth is the relationship itself and the rest of it is the reflection of that truth. As if!

Second, repetitive patterns have a context. They are a reflection – a mirror – of a relationship. They are, perhaps, also the relationships themselves. As breathing next to a tree is both the illustration and the reflection of the relationship.

And thirdly, there is no such thing as a truth anomaly. If a pattern can be shown to be false in one instance of a relationship then that can not be the truth, on any level, of that relationship. Which I think is a little bit like saying that if the laws of gravity fail even once then physicists will have a lot of revamping to do.

These ideas began to guide our exploration and open our understanding of the world around us. It is not math but, then again, math is not perfect. And while we can perhaps experience something as contradictory, to the universe itself there is no contradiction.

More, this gave us the ability to really get a picture of a universal structure. One built upon relationship, repetition and growth. As structures become more complex, relationships evolve and patterns increase in complexity, but always follow the guideline of the relationship. So the context is always there. Patterns lead us to relationships and relationships identify patterns. Isolated patterns become vehicles of self growth when considering that your experience is somehow not in line with a relationship.

And since, as I’ve stated before, the questions are somehow more significant than the answers. And in the interest of allowing your journey to be your own, here are some of the places we were led by these ideas. Maybe I’ll tackle some of our thoughts about them in future blogs. Maybe you’ll take some on in the comments. Or maybe introduce some of your own. 

What do the evolution of governments and social structures have to do with evolution of galaxies and star formations? What patterns exist throughout nature and, if they reflect a truth, where do we see them reflected? If everything is a mirror of something else then what are our mirrors? And what are we mirroring?

When we talk about “levels” what do we mean? If – referring to plants and animals – air, light and physical energy are shared in the same way, then are we sharing three different things or are we sharing one thing and experiencing it three different ways? Can we also talk about, say, microscopic, man-size, galactic as levels that follow the same patterns? What about planetary and universal? How would these physical levels themselves be defined?

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After the End part 1 by Jeff Sollars aka rainydaysaint

For more of Jeff’s work visit his deviantart site here.

Peace.

A Lunacidal Introduction

“The beginning of this story cannot be told …”

—–

Before getting into the nitty gritty of blog writing, I thought that introductions would be in order. At the very least, perhaps I can save you the trouble of reading my future blogs. On the other hand, maybe we can begin a blogiful relationship.

So, why a “Lunacidal Blog”? And what the heck does that mean anyway? Well, Lunacidal Tendencies is the name I use for a cast of musicians that joined me in creating an album titled After the End, and I suppose that it is as good a way as any to introduce myself. Hi, among other things I am a lyricist and co-producer of this just-released album: lunacide.bandcamp.com.

This would be the time to point out that while this is titled “The Lunacidal Blog”, it does not mean that any of the musicians would agree with anything I write here. Of course, it doesn’t mean they wouldn’t either. Be that as it may, the responsibility for these words – or at least the way they’re put together – is mine and mine alone.

One more shameless promo before moving on:

Okay, hope you enjoyed that. For more videos you can visit our channel: youtube.com/lunacidaltendencies or visit us on facebook: facebook.com/lunacide. All right, all right. Sorry. Moving on…

I guess the real question here is what will my future blogs be about and why do I think you’ll want to subscribe. Answering that question is a bitch, of course, but if I’m writing a blog I guess it means I want people to tune in so it’s one that I think deserves an answer. To begin, I will point you in the direction of my lyrics. Not for the promo this time really, just because they’ll give you an idea of what I think about the things I think about. As in “Our sixth sense is common / Close all your windows, bar all your doors / Look only inside and that sense is yours” or “On the ladder of success all you see is your boss’ ass” or “You first choose to fight / Then find the reason / First is the sentence / Then the crime that agrees”.

Mostly I would say that I am a fun loving explorer of Truth with a capital T. And more, that I don’t really believe in answers except on a personal level. Meaning that I see my place as asking questions and maybe pointing out different ways of looking at things. Questions open doors and give us the opportunity to explore. Answers close doors, which is no less important, but something that each person must do for his or her self. I do, however, enjoy shedding light on the doors in our lives and the perspectives we gain and lose by opening and closing those doors. Here’s something that was once told to me in a dream: “A man is defined by the questions that he asks. And the way he goes about finding the answers to those questions is the way he goes through life.” [Aside: if you think this quote can be attributed to somebody and that I had heard it before my dream, I would love to know. Someone once told me it was an Edgar Cayce quote, but I couldn’t find it.]

Another thing I would say about myself is that I love collaboration. 35 musicians were included in the recordings of After the End and Lunacidal Tendencies is a group of 15. The project spawned from weekly jams we hosted in a rehearsal room – more or less a playground for musicians – that lasted for almost two years. It’s a project that almost came of itself and I consider myself lucky that it scooped me up along the way.

And then came the blog. Yes, I’ll be writing about the way I think, feel and experience. No, I probably won’t write much about music, but will try to write musically on many occasions. Which leaves the collaboration…

Hopefully, I’ve peeked your interest a bit, but in any case thanks for taking the time. Please always feel free to comment, question and even request. I look forward to growing this into a shared exploratory space.

Peace.