Looking at Yourself

When you look at yourself from a universal standpoint, something inside always reminds or informs you that there are bigger and better things to worry about.
- Albert Einstein

"Spiritual"

Study shows "Spiritual" effects of mushrooms last a year
Tue Jul 1, 2008 3:18pm EDT

By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The "spiritual" effects of psilocybin from so-called sacred mushrooms last for more than a year and may offer a way to help patients with fatal diseases or addictions, U.S. researchers reported on Tuesday.

The researchers also said their findings show there are safe ways to test psychoactive drugs on willing volunteers, if guidelines are followed.

In 2006, Roland Griffiths of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, and colleagues gave psilocybin to 36 volunteers and asked them how it felt. Most reported having a "mystical" or "spiritual" experience and rated it positively.

More than a year later, most still said the experience increased their sense of well-being or life satisfaction, Griffiths and colleagues report in the Journal of Psychopharmacology.

"This is a truly remarkable finding," Griffiths said in a statement. "Rarely in psychological research do we see such persistently positive reports from a single event in the laboratory."

The findings may offer a way to help treat extremely anxious and depressed patients, or people with addictions, said Griffiths, whose work was funded by the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse.

"This gives credence to the claims that the mystical-type experiences some people have during hallucinogen sessions may help patients suffering from cancer-related anxiety or depression and may serve as a potential treatment for drug dependence," Griffiths said.

WIDELY OUTLAWED

While psilocybin is widely outlawed, many U.S. states and some countries overlook its use by indigenous people in religious ceremonies.

Supervision of its use is key, the researchers noted.

"While some of our subjects reported strong fear or anxiety for a portion of their day-long psilocybin sessions, none reported any lingering harmful effects, and we didn't observe any clinical evidence of harm," Griffiths said.

Hallucinogens should not be given to people at risk for psychosis or certain other serious mental disorders, the researchers said.

But Griffiths stressed that even those who reported fear said a year later they had no permanent negative effects.

Of the volunteers who took the one-day test of psilocybin, 22 of the 36 had a "complete" mystical experience, based on a detailed questionnaire.

Griffiths said 21 continued to rate highly on this standardized scale 14 months later.

"Even at the 14-month follow-up, 58 percent of 36 volunteers rated the experience on the psilocybin session as among the five most personally meaningful experiences of their lives and 67 percent rated it among the five most spiritually significant experiences of their lives," the researchers said.

The report included some comments from the volunteers.

"Surrender is intensely powerful. To 'let go' and become enveloped in the beauty of -- in this case music -- was enormously spiritual," one volunteer said.

(Editing by Will Dunham and Vicki Allen)

Dr. Jill Taylor

drjilltaylor.com/

I know many of you saw this going around last week or so, but still, she's amazing.

Read her story. Watch her TED presentation (18 minutes). Be moved. Do it.

Breathing, Stretching, Being

Breath like you mean it. I mean, inhale with your belly and feel just how much air you can take it. Do it slowly, and with purpose.

Exhale with the same calm feeling and really pay attention to how you feel.

Do it again.

Now in your next breath, reach your hands up over head, inhale as you put your hands together. Follow the natural instinct to reach further and further up as your head falls slighty forward and you lean a little back. Feel the stretch in your shoulders and back.

Now as you exhale, release your hands and reach out wide, slowly opening up to the sky above. Follow the natural instinct to arch your back and let all of that air out.

Have a look around you...

... be where you're at, cause you're already there.



This moment has been brought to you by the universe and all it's inhabitants.

Universal Oddity

Not only is the universe stranger than we imagine, it is stranger than we CAN imagine.
- Sir Arthur Eddington

---o---

I fully embrace the concept that there is a ton of things in the universe that we have no idea about. Additionally, there are even more things that we have no idea we don't know about. From these places come infinite possibility, one of my favorite things ;)

I picked up a cold on the flight back from Malaysia. Totally kicked my ass for three straight days. Today is the first day that I am actually conscious enough to blog.

Not that I do it much anyway.

Spring is almost here. I feel up for it (aside from this illness). I look forward to smiling faces and reconnecting. I look forward to telling tales of what's been going on over the last year. I look forward to being out there again.

It's what I want.

I see lots of people gearing up for LIB... is there a carpool from the Bay forming? I could get into that idea.

Politics

The word 'politics' is derived from the word 'poly', meaning 'many', and the word 'ticks', meaning 'blood sucking parasites'.
- Larry Hardiman


That is all.

Taken From Jon Fox

The Illustrious Jon Fox pointed me towards the following, may his wisdom touch you as it touched me:

www.youtube.com/watch


Thou shalt not steal if there is direct victim.
Thou shalt not worship pop idols or follow lost prophets.
Thou shalt not take the names of Johnny Cash, Joe Strummer, Johnny Hartman, Desmond Decker, Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix or Syd Barret in vain.
Thou shalt not think that any male over the age of 30 that plays with a child that is not their own is a peadophile… Some people are just nice.
Thou shalt not read NME.
Thall shalt not stop liking a band just because they’ve become popular.
Thou shalt not question Stephen Fry.
Thou shalt not judge a book by it’s cover.
Thou shalt not judge Lethal Weapon by Danny Glover.
Thall shalt not buy Coca-Cola products. Thou shalt not buy Nestle products.
Thou shalt not go into the woods with your boyfriend’s best friend, take drugs and cheat on him.
Thou shalt not fall in love so easily.
Thou shalt not use poetry, art or music to get into girls’ pants. Use it to get into their heads.
Thou shalt not watch Hollyoakes.
Thou shalt not attend an open mic and leave as soon as you're done just because you’ve finished your shitty little poem or song you self-righteous prick.
Thou shalt not return to the same club or bar week in, week out just ’cause you once saw a girl there that you fancied but you’re never gonna fucking talk to.

Thou shalt not put musicians and recording artists on ridiculous pedestals no matter how great they are or were.

The Beatles - Were just a band.
Led Zepplin - Just a band.
The Beach Boys - Just a band.
The Sex Pistols - Just a band.
The Clash - Just a band.
Crass - Just a band.
Minor Threat - Just a band.
The Cure - Just a band.
The Smiths - Just a band.
Nirvana - Just a band.
The Pixies - Just a band.
Oasis - Just a band.
Radiohead - Just a band.
Bloc Party - Just a band.
The Arctic Monkeys - Just a band.
The next big thing - JUST A BAND.

Thou shalt give equal worth to tragedies that occur in non-English speaking countries as to those that occur in English speaking countries.
Thou shalt remember that guns, bitches and bling were never part of the four elements and never will be.

Thou shalt not make repetitive generic music

Thou shalt not make repetitive generic music

Thou shalt not make repetitive generic music

Thou shalt not make repetitive generic music

Thou shalt not pimp my ride.
Thou shalt not scream if you wanna go faster.
Thou shalt not move to the sound of the wickedness.
Thou shalt not make some noise for Detroit.
When I say “Hey” thou shalt not say “Ho”.
When I say “Hip” thou shalt not say “Hop”.
When I say "he say, she say, we say, make some noise" - kill me.
Thou shalt not quote me happy.
Thou shalt not shake it like a polaroid picture.
Thou shalt not wish your girlfriend was a freak like me.
Thou shalt spell the word “Pheonix” P-H-E-O-N-I-X not P-H-O-E-N-I-X, regardless of what the Oxford English Dictionary tells you.
Thou shalt not express your shock at the fact that Sharon got off with Bradley at the club last night by saying “Is it”.
Thou shalt think for yourselves.

And thou shalt always kill.

Speak Danish?

I need an interpreter in a big way.

Does anyone out there in Tribe-landia speak fluent Danish? I mean, really speak it. Capable of getting across some fairly abstract concepts. Things like the difference between subjectivity and objectivity. What it means to have a measurable result as opposed to just an evocative experience.

I know, a challenge, but I'll pay a generous fee for someone that can sit in on a couple conference calls with me over the next couple weeks.

Thanks!

Breakdancing

In the 3rd grade I was a part of a social experiment put on the Los Angeles School District where they took kids from predominately white schools (I was living in West LA/Brentwood area) and bussed them to predominately black and hispanic schools. I was sent to 54th Street Elementary (off Slauson, down by Fox Hills Mall for those taking notes). There I was, wearing my corduroy pants and Hush Puppy shoes walking into a classroom of 45 black children. I was one of 3 white kids.

The school year wasn't all that traumatic. Sure it would be a great story if there was racial tension and I got jumped or something and some open minded black kid saved me and we formed a lifelong bond... blah blah blah. But nope, it was pretty tame compared to Hollywood feel good stories. I made a couple friends, went about my school year like any other for the most part. I did walk away with a cultural experience I wouldn't have gotten otherwise, and for the most part it was a positive influence on my life. The LAUSD got sued on the grounds that the entire program was flawed because while it's intention was good (integration) the execution was poorly handled (everyone was counted by racial lines first, creating division before the program even got off the ground. My family and friends and parents even staged a protest back in the day, lobbying for random busing and integration, treating all the kids the same instead of dividing them first. Yay mom. There is a picture of me at the protest somewhere, with face paint on and a shirt that says "count me purple!" that even made it into the LA Times. At the time I didn't really know *why* I wore the face paint... but it was fun.

One thing that I did walk away from being shipped off to 54th Street Elementary was music. I was exposed to rap/hip hop of the late 70's and early 80's in a manner that few people from my area did (especially a hard core white kid like myself). I listened to it on the playground at recess on a friends boom box, playing though a cassette tape. Run DMC. The Fat Boys. I heard for the first time Kool Herc and the Herculoids, Sugar Hill Gang and Rappers Delight was a standard by then and the Grandmaster Flash and the Furious 4 was there... before it became the Furious 5. Even Kool Moe Dee... I could go on forever.

A few years later I was break dancing. Yes, I really was. I was good, too. At one point I was considered the number 2 break dancer in our whole school, and I was the undisputed champ at backspins and windmills. The only reason I wasn't the best was because of this kid Khai, a Vietnamese kid that was truly amazing. He was good at everything.

Anyhow... nowadays I listen to break beats and occasionally at a club I've seen circles form and someone has the balls to go out and try some stuff. Nothing like what it used to be, I'm in a much different social circle and we would rather have a glass of wine and drive our Prius to the organic farmers market than be associated with a break dance circle. But I'm drawn to it like a moth to a flame, and sometimes I come across a video on line that makes me want to break out the fat laces on some Adidas low tops. A video like this:

www.metacafe.com/watch/139...reakdance/

... that makes me want to turn my baseball cap to the side and walk with that ghetto limp. Not because I'm gangster, or that I'm even remotely close to being a b-boy at 35 years old. But because it's fun. The music makes you move. The dancing is amazing and if you look at without judgment of any kind it can be a celebration of vitality and youth. The styles are loud and outspoken and the moves are mind blowing. Even more, it has no racial lines. In those circles, if you get out there and bring it (like it's already been broughten!), everyone cheers. I've seen skinny white kids go out there and tear it up and right next to them is an asian b-boy that can't wait to one up him...not kick is ass with fists, but with moves.

So when I come across a video like this I can't help but thing back to my childhood and revel in the expression and joy that is break dancing, and what it was for me. Many, many years ago.