Echoes and Emanations

FDA Trying to Eliminate Alternative Medicine

GatesofPerception — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 12:34:17 GMT

Greetings everyone, its been a month since I posted and have been trying to get to my blog and post pics and news of trip to North Carolina, (one pic at top of this article of Smoky Mtns) but I just got the following news from a colleague and would like to share this disturbing news with everyone. As an aspiring ethnobotanist, and one who studies medicines alternative to what our Western culture provides I believe this topic applicable to those here, so please read the following articles carefully and if you disagree with what the FDA is doing(which I believe you all will) then please help me fight this and spread attention to this. http://maine.craigslist.org/pol/311509209.html http://www.newstarget.com/z021789.html

Myth-Making on Staten Island, NY

GatesofPerception — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 14:33:46 GMT

Is it that hard to believe? Staten Island and Myth-making? Perhaps for some, not for all. As one who was raised since 1983 on Staten Island, during the big development boom, which actually began earlier than 1983, but I have seen many forested regions cleared for development. But first before my rant, a little bit for those unfamiliar with Staten Island. Staten Island is one of the five boroughs of New York City, known primarily in the Guiness book of World records as hosting the largest landfill, which can be seen from space. It is to some the forgotten borough. About 10-15,000 years ago it was part of the New Jersey landmass and considered part of Lenapehoking (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenapehoking)"Land of the Lenape", showing the traditional homeland of the Munsee and Unami-speaking Indians. (http://www.lenapelifeways.org/map.htm) Since the 1960's when the Verrazano Narrows bridge was built connecting Brooklyn to Staten Island the island has been home to families migrating from one borough to another, which has partially caused the booming real estate market and loss of its natural resources to development. "According to some people, who have misunderstood the origin of this word, the Lenape called this territory "Lenapehoking", meaning "in the land of the Lenape." This assertion has gained widespread acceptance and is found widely in recent literature on the Lenape, including in the websites of purported Lenape people. Ray Whritenour, a philologist, says that the term does not appear in any sources from the 18th century, but is a modern name coined by Nora Thompson Dean ("Touching Leaves Woman") in 1984, in order to provide the archaeologist/author, Herbert C. Kraft, with a convenient term for the area once inhabited by ancestors of the Lenape people." (source-http://www.answers.com/topic/lenapehoking) Now many are unfamiliar with the rich history that lay behind Monacnong once this area was rich in woods, open fields, plentiful fruit groves etc. Since the late 19th century archeologists and anthropologists such as M.R. Harrington, George Pepper, Alanson Skinner, Jerome Jacobson, Herbert Kraft and others have studied numerous areas, such as Burial Ridge, Port Mobil, Wards Point, and such pre-historic and early archaic sites and provided us with enlightening data. With the incredible amount of artifacts and remains that have been found these honored researchers have carefully reconstructed Lenape life on Staten Island, from their seasonal migrations, agriculture, dress, hunting-gathering technique to spiritual beliefs, yet this alone does not constitute the people who once lived here. For sometime now as part of my own research into the early life of Native Americans of New York city, I have been very interested in knowing more of the natural spirit beings that the Lenape called manito, or manito’wak (spirits), which helped govern the earth. Many stories have been told of the little people that govern the forests and assist in hunting, in each natural element resided a spirit being, and of course Mahtantu (the evil one) was always persistent to raise up opposing forces to each good spirit, plant or element. These beings, as in many indigenous cultures, provided us with information about the land, and the natural interfaces with it (i.e. Algonquin utilized Datura, the Lenape inherited Peyote) these spirits would guide the growth of crops to the flow of the seasons. The data collected and stored at various academic foundations on Staten Island is impressive but most Staten Islanders I was told at one time would not care, and by the continuing development of the island this information is lost. I believe it still exists, as a matter of fact I know it exists, and that though hidden the natural spirits remain for us to reconnect to our archaic relationship with them, but development threatens it all. In the years since my family moved to Staten Island I have been off and on it traveling, whether on my own or during my time in the US Navy, I have returned to live here and though my wife and I will move one day I plan to write the lost tales of this island. Since my early childhood I have had a growing connection to the beliefs and culture of Native Americans and indigenous cultures worldwide. Perhaps it is due to my mixed ancestry that includes Cherokee and Iroquois. I do not know but in learning about the various methods of interfacing with the environment in the utilization of natural sacraments my creative mind has exploded with the writing of many tales that have echoed from the land. As an Independant Scholar I have published numerous comparative literature pieces concerning the works of Tolkien and others but have always returned to my love of myth-making. As one who fully believes that the land speaks to you, tells you its stories, and awakens to those with a creative spirit, legends and myths then come to life. So I set forth today on the Spring Equinox to continue full filling my goal of recording these messages and organizing them in a narrative that will hopefully awaken Staten Islanders to how this Paradise was undone, but to the lessons we can learn not only from early Lenape but also from their helpers and spirit guides...

The Matrix of Oblivion

GatesofPerception — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 14:12:51 GMT

I cannot stifle myself any longer, I have been away from this reinvented blog of ours for a while, and need to vent. I have been planning a series of small posts about observations in my everyday life of this "culture" we live in. Well here it is, and what better fuel than the latest THE SALVIA DIVINORUM OBSERVER ************ ********* ********* * Wednesday, March 14, 2007 / volume 5 number 7 ************ ********* ********* * The Salvia divinorum Research and Information Center (SDRIC) http://sagewisdom. org A little back history into my being, thought process, spiritual life if you will, which I will divulge to you now. I personally believe in the use of natural sacraments in indigenous cultures for the purpose of human evolution, to attain a symbiotic relationship and interface with the earth. These items can be any number of items cited in books such as "Breaking Open the Head: A Psychedelic Journey into the Heart of Contemporary Shamanism", or Terence McKenna's "Food of the Gods: The Search for the Original Tree of Knowledge: A Radical History of Plants, Drugs and Human Evolution." Upon your own investigation of these beginning sources into indigenous cultures you get a glimpse into my own growing journey. These plants are an interface to a higher cosmic energy and consciousness which shows us the interconnectivity of all things and breaks down the boundaries we, as members of Western civilization have established-- mentally,socially and spiritually. As beings endowed with the ability to be creative artistically (no matter the medium) and to draw from the fields of energy that lay within our Mother Gaia and the cosmos beyond. One of these plants is Salvia Divinorum, or Diviner's Sage, Ska Pastora, etc known to the Mazatec Shamans of Oaxaca Mexico; this particular plant has been researched and has such honorable people such as Daniel Siebert fighting against the machine by presenting research, studies and material on its incredible benefits. Yet this country seeks to eliminate it from the public due to its "hallucinogenic effects." Yes indeed you do "hallucinate" but not merely seeing pretty lights or colors. With the right intent and setting, salvia is a powerful healing tool. Case in point, Kathleen Harrison (ethnobotanist) had "always had a heart murmur and the strain of recurrent anemia" (see http://www.sagewisdom.org/shepherdess.html) and went to visit the Mazatec Shamans after her doctor suggested medicine and surgery. After her sessions with Salvia and meeting the Shephardess, the spirit of the plant, her ailments were healed. Now after reading the disturbing news found in the Salvia Divinorum Observer that the "California State Committee on Public Safety will have a hearing on Assembly Bill 259. If enacted, this bill would make Salvia Divinorum a Schedule I substance in California" and knowing that the New York Assembly has met and is deciding on the same issue, I became not only full of rage at this, but at the same time sorrow not only for those who have true intentions with plant, but sorrow for those who are blind, blind and refuse to see the proverbial light about these indigenous medicines. As my beautiful wife observed this morning "Its not marketable to them." Anything that is not marketable and cannot be sustained and capitalized upon over and over again, continuously drained for monetary and material gain is uninteresting to the regime we have in power here. Forget thousands of years of use, and proof that these natural medicines work, this dominator culture seeks to supress anything that would return us to a focus upon ourselves and the world about us. It is all about distraction and suppression, they force feed ads for us to buy the latest clothes, perfumes, techo-gadgets and "reality" shows, and utilize television, the media, nicotine, alcohol to do this. It is all about turning us into batteries to feed the pigs in charge, for them to devour our abilities, for what? To work hard for them? To not change who we are as a people and look back to the Archaic lifestyle as an answer to human evolution? I was in the supermarket the other day purchasing a smoothie, when I glanced at the rack of magazines available, all full of celebrity gossip, underweight and malnourished models, reality television, the latest Britney Spears drama, and what celebrity is screwing the other---it is all designed to distract us, to get us into this deep cesspool of empty attraction to the glamour of celebrity lifestyle, or to sell us the latest "Postive thinking" tract, we are programmed as a people to lose ourselves in these falsehoods and not focus on our true human potential to not Be, and seek out our true natures through either the use of psychedelics, esoteric meditation, and other such methods. This machine wishes us to be uprooted from the earth, and be driftless cogs in the quagmire of their plasticity. As Terence McKenna said: "Culture is not your Friend" see his discussion on this video: http://www.heartoftheinitiate.com/library/audio-video/terence-mckenna/culture-is-not-your-friend How do we break out of this, well we begin as we are here, writing about it, giving food for thought to others, and begin the ball rolling, if you do not like to write per se, then find your medium, whether its paint, film, sculpture, music etc, find your voice and explode, rage against the machine. This system is set up to distract us from the connectedness with have with all things, the earth and cosmos, universal ideals, while they in turn rape and pillage our natural resources and drain them right under our noses, but we cannot smell the fires burning because our lives are fed by the images upon television, and the media. Hence my title "The Matrix of Oblivion" Wake up my brothers and sisters, I encourage one and all to act now.

Reinvention of Self

GatesofPerception — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 15:35:31 GMT

Greetings all, It has been sometime since we have been active within the Tribe.net community and have decided to reinvent our profile and goals of being a member here. With the course of our lives, growth of creativity, evolution of awareness, expansion of consciousness and concern for issues that Western Culture (the Machine) cares nothing for, combined with a need to speak out, gripe, bitch and raise awareness here we are. Who are we? We are both scholars, academics, writers and activists, a loving couple with aspirations and goals for our own lives and a need to see change in our world. Perhaps our small contributions to scholarship, fiction and activism will inspire others to get involved, to realize the growing concerns facing our planet, and what we can do to help. We also hope to meet many others who seek to take part in an Archaic Revival, (as spoken about by Terence McKenna) a return to the sacred and break on through the boundaries set by modernity. If we are to survive as a people, as a race, we must evolve beyond the culture we live in, to know that this system is set up for us to serve and be suppressed creatively, once we realize this it is only then for us to learn the tools of awareness and connect to the universal spirit, the heartbeat of the world. Where mundane culture finds value in the empty appreciation of new cars, cell phones, MTV, designer drugs, fast food and pop culture, we must turn inward for answers, the beauty of all things is in first connecting to your true self, the light within, and be: "...human beings hold a particular place in the cosmic scheme of things. We are meant to be the gardeners of the planet, weavers of myth, explorers and journeyers into sacred realms. Part of our exploration requires developing technologies that are both spiritual and material, but right now we have become perverse in our essence. Hypnotized by materialist greed, we are polluting and destroying wantonly, and this mindless destruction will haunt future generations for thousands of years. According to every spiritual tradition, there is only one thing you take with you after death, and that is the level of development of your consciousness and your soul. Nothing else matters."---Daniel Pinchbeck, (http://www.breakingopenthehead.com/read_the_book_phantasticum.htm) More tomorrow, must run, but rest assured this is only the beginnning.... "A Creative Life is a Sacred Life" Diana Reyna Taos Pueblo 1998