It ain't easy being Green

...but it will be. The chief problem in our societal disconnect from the planet is not the crass materialism we see everywhere but rather our 'lost soul' status in regard to our evolutionary roots. The props of buildings, electricity and all the gadgets, financial markets and the like are coming down. They're going away. What will be left in the luckiest of scenarios is you and a rusty pitchfork. Now, I'm not talking about the end of the world necessarily, just the end of the world as you know it. Furthermore, we will be forced to join our neighbors in a collective struggle for survival or perish alone. Not too rosy a picture, but one steadfastly coming to the reality that is yours.

It must be nice to be able to dismiss things or situations as 'ridiculous' simply because they seem impossible. One's worldview gets shaped, and then reinforced with all the millions of others with a similar outlook, and voila! personal peace. If 20 people call you a horse you must be a horse, of course. This blog is not intended to convince you that what I see is the real truth, but rather to just have you entertain the idea that it's all possible and how a warped perspective gets from point A to B. Mine, in this case.

The Rise and Fall of it All

The American government, through its ill-advised and Constitutionally illegal Federal Reserve is simply printing money. There is no commodity backing our currency unless you consider an Uncle Sam I.O.U. to be worthy of anything. At one time the rest of the world flocked to American markets because of their stability, growth, and reliability. That landscape is changing today as inflation has gripped the once mighty dollar making it roughly worth .14 cents what is was worth at the Fed's inception in the beginning of the 20th century. As one's money sits in the bank, under the mattress, or in some CD its value slides continually. For all intents and purposes it's robbery. As of 2007 many nations are switching where their investments are due to the devalued and less stable dollar and finding better value in both the Yuan and the Euro. Just last week some two-bit actress refused payment in American dollars though this may be more of a political statement than economic observation. Oil producing nations are looking to form organizations that are not dollar-backed and China alone owns over a trillion dollars of our National notes. Couple this with the current lending collapse culminating in record-breaking home foreclosures and one can see the financial goose is already cooked, just not served. When's dinner you ask? My best guess is not one minute after December, 2012, providing we can stave off disaster for that long.

Bigger Issues

What some might call 'regression' is a return to pre-technoligical living and most importantly a harmonization with the planet and its creatures. The continued depletion of resources and ecological abuse is simply at its end while no manner of obfuscation can cloud what many individuals are seeing. Especially for those readers with children the very idea of an end point is anathema to their mental health. It matters not though that a majority of the society pose as ostrich because what's been forecast is already here, pounding on our doors and coming to fruition despite the psychological barriers we erect. What then is there to do? Well, this part gets a bit hairy but must be heeded if we're to emerge in tact both personally and as a civilization.

In order to continue we need a complete alteration in thinking (paradigm shift) and guidance from those who have lived in harmony with the planet for eons. Namely South American Shamans. Their home in and around the Amazon is home to the highest intensity biodiversity on the planet. There are plants, animals, and insects barely known to the outside world and some yet to be discovered. These are natures keys and answers to the human condition in readily understandable and speaking form. Hmm..do you mean to say that plants can speak? And that they can tell us what direction is needed for survival?

When this question is posed to Shaman (medicine men) living harmoniously in the jungle the answer is a resounding yes. They have chronicled and handed down information for physical and spiritual healing derived from otherworldly trips via entheogenic compounds such as Ayahuasca, peyote, mushrooms, and other plant messengers. During the ceremonies questions are posed to the physical manifestation of spirits right before your eyes with the utmost respect and personal sacrifice. The answers come directly from these messengers in visions, images and reportedly even voice commands with a forceful and all-knowing attitude. The Shamans say that they're informed as to which plant to grow or find in order to cure the many physical afflictions the tribe may encounter. They're led to see future challenges from incongruous practices and how to rectify behavior. Indeed, many skeptical scientists have participated in such ceremonies and come away not just simple believers, but new ardent promoters in the vast mystery of spiritual communication. While I know this sounds like something out of a sci-fi novel the evidence and support for this understanding is growing at exponential rates in the Western psyche.

South American tribal members have a cultural respect for the planet and will pour out a sip of their drink or a bit of their meal directly back to the ground in a gesture of gratitude. Always aware their sustenance is provided for them they're humble, thankful, for the gifts of Gaia (Mother Earth). They giggle with amusement at the reports of outsiders seeing a double-headed snake during their Ayahuasca voyage as if no one else has seen such a thing. Not only is the 2 headed speaking snake a known presence but is so much so that he has different names depending on which tribe you ask. I often wonder how different people, at different times and locations participating in an entheogenic ceremony can all report seeing the same 'spirit'. The snake is not just any spirit but rather the conscience of the jungle, planet, and typically somewhat disturbing to encounter. He is reputed to forcefully inform the voyager that while we think we own the planet, we know little and are of little consequence in the grand scheme of nature. Also note how prominent the snake is in history--from the Bible to the Pyramids to Viracocha and South American ruins. Indeed, the snake-serpent is ubiquitous throughout the ancient world and it seems plausible that it's a real entity, well known by our ancestors and denied existence in 'modern' scientific understanding.

It is my contention that these plant elixirs engender a connection and appreciation for our planet on a spiritual level by providing access to realms unavailable in any other way. Furthermore, I believe the entheogens have been provided as a gift from the Gods, or a gift from God, for spiritual communion and answers. Certainly the Shamans have employed these tools and survived for thousands of years from their tutelage. Compare this to the effects of the Industrial and Technological Revolution and where we sit today, on the brink of collapse in many areas having diverged from the path of inclusion in a mere 200 years. The price is being paid daily by rates of depression brought on by a plethora of reasons not the least of which are the numerous stressors of fruitless work in modern society. Productivity needs a new definition and we all, as a society, need a new outlook. The use of entheogenic compounds under guidance to reconnect our civilization and change our thinking (thus behavior) is the only salvation I can see, or would want.

And that is how deranged thinking gets from A to B, right?

Inner Journey leads Outward

Hypnagogia describes vivid dreamlike auditory, visual, or tactile sensations, which are often accompanied by sleep paralysis and experienced when falling asleep or waking up. A lucid dream is a dream in which the person is aware that he or she is dreaming while the dream is in progress. During lucid dreams, it is often possible to exert conscious control over the dream characters and environment, as well as to perform otherwise physically impossible feats. Lucid dreams are known to be extremely real and vivid. I can attest to their power and freakishness as I just experienced my second one ever the other night after a span of 4 years since the first . What's troubling, outside the profoundly evil nature of the event, is its timing.




Open your mind to me

Aldous Huxley, mind expander extraordinaire and author of the book "Doors of Perception" shocked the world with his descriptions and experiments with Mescaline, now maligned and scheduled. My favorite band ever, the Doors, grabbed their name from this book's title helping to usher in a counterculture group substrate culminating in the free-love late 60's. What's potentially fascinating about entheogens, which is the proper name for the hallucinogenic family of alkaloids is their likely ability to 'remove' consciousness constraints. For anyone who has tried these little explanation here is needed but for those who haven't, let me attempt to make sense of it.

Atoms, and all the everything they formulate are at their very core 'informational'. They carry and carry out instructions in ordered form given from something thus far incomprehensible to physicists. The world is bombarded with information in visible and invisible forms at all times, in every location. There is so much information in fact that it would be overwhelming to try to deal with it all and thus the 'filter' comes into play. This filter allows us to function as a thinking species, able to attain food, make shelter, think, and act without having to contend with the impossible task of trying to deal with all the information. Entheogens temporarily negate this filter for the amount of time they're in your system. Suddenly, images, ideas, feelings and revelations are directly within your grasp and there's an element of 'reality' to it unlike any other you've experienced. Or can experience. It's one of the reasons the misnomer hallucinogen has been extinguished as it's just inaccurate.
Think of the experience more like being consciously asleep--where the craziness of your dreams are the sudden reality while your mind is hyper-alert, and your body completely at rest. Anyone rightly think they could function that way? How long would the human race last if we had to try to live with that amount of informational chaos?


In the development from single-celled to multi-celled organisms natural selection has rooted out the inefficient, and kept the pragmatic. Nature detests waste. It has seen fit through trial and error on a mountainous scale to adapt brilliantly with changing physical surroundings and the changing, evolving differences in all the other species simultaneously. In fact, with little scientific effort it is clear that there's not a substance, animal, plant or physical manifestation on our planet without purpose. All are inextricably linked in a giant ecological matrix of symbiotic interaction. Minus the water shipped into outer space for experiment, there is just the same amount of H20 now as there was 10,000 years ago. It may be found in different forms, concentrations and locations but it's all still here. Naturally, there's a reason. There's also a reason for entheogenic compounds. Read on.

Don't Bogart The Beetle

In cumulative study there is not any known animal or insect that does not partake in consciousness altering substances. Please reread that line. Whether it's your common housecat rolling around in cat-nip, or a herd of cattle consuming locoweed, human beings are just one more entity requiring mental or physical alteration, and it's all provided in nature. Ant colonies will kidnap a certain type of beetle that secretes liver enzymes making the entire colony 'high' from its ingestion. Frogs will stand near a 'toad stool' awaiting the flies that land on the mushroom, get high, then fall to the ground for easy amphibian dinner. Whatever the creature, some form of reality enhancer has been provided for its use in its immediate surroundings. Remember, everything here on our planet has a purpose.

With the advent of the internet we have the ability for the first time in recorded history to compile vast amounts of information, from the remotest of locations, in mere minutes. In the study of entheogens many commonalities persist despite the differences in type of alkaloids inherent within each. The American Indians revered Peyote for its communication and link with their ancestors. South American peoples lead by shamans respected and sought out Ayahuasca for the information it provided in healing and dimensional understanding. African tribes to this day still use Ibogaine (Iboga) as their conduit to the past, exposure to the present, and a quasi-crystal ball for events yet to come. Global Inhabitants historically have been drawn to Amanita Muscaria, a potent form of psychedelic mushroom religiously regarded as their direct route to divinity. While I haven't studied each continental preference, locating its form of consciousness-altering enlightenment would certainly not be difficult task. What's amazing is how heavily each society depended upon these plant elixirs to navigate their way through life. It has been only recently that we in civilized society have diverged from, and made mockery of their importance.

Pope meets Presidents

If one had a direct route, a fungal based telephone of sorts to speak with God, of what use might a church be? The spiritual component of human existence clearly has had a need for understanding the things it could not see, but felt intrinsically were just as real as the ones they could see. I view the church as a middle-man, an entity that has historically marked-up the normally cost-free communication our species has had with 'the other' for reasons oh-so human in nature. I believe an asserted effort to squelch this information, particularly its presence in the Bible, has been ongoing and relentless. The threat of individual communion outside the confines of the church, it's cash proceeds, and it's power is a threat too great to be left alone. (In an effort not turn this blog into a mini-book I'll leave these many examples for another time)

Using the American government as the example I know they too have been clearly threatened by the use of mind-expanding substances as evidenced during the 60's. Turning itself into a God-on-Earth entity providing cradle to grave control, the U.S. government realized a great movement with free-thinking citizens would stifle its efforts toward, well, what we see today. The systemic command and control of all of our lives, what we're allowed and not allowed to do, the taking by force of our earnings which equate to our modern day life's blood, and so on. Leary's Tune In, Turn On, Drop Out had to be dealt with swiftly and surely. We have seen a complete and organized assault on all entheogenic compounds with long prison sentences, controlled substances acts, and the most effective tool of all: linking once culturally worshiped substances with drugs. For accompaniment there's also the link with the war on these drugs and propaganda so far detached from reality as to borderline the preposterous. From a freedom perspective alone shouldn't someone who owns themselves be allowed to pursue their happiness in any form, so long as others are not being harmed in the process?

Although many times throughout history the Kings and Church have been at odds, in regards to the shamanic and cultural use of entheogens never before has a power brokerage of this strength been aligned toward a common goal. I think the results of this partnership are clear, dire, and in many ways will prove to be what is dooming our race to a footnote of galactic history, having lost our connection and understanding to our planet, nay, to ourselves.