Click here to go to the next issue.

Sunday, July 1

GARY MERRILL

Does Acid have a life outside of the all night Rave? Tune in
tomorrow, folks, to see if our young friends will avoid our
mistakes and >enter directly into Nirvana without benefit of
a chemical propulsion system. Curiously, Eric

Wondering too...so keep on trukin' and postin'

Interesting. As you know mind altering chemicals have been
used in shamanic initiation since before history. The 'acid
test' I suppose was an updated version for our times. See
'Electric Kool Aid Acid Test' and 'Island' books, I expect
you already have.

From the point of view of initiation, then it is only
necessary when moving out of one's present identity. Of
course we don't have a coherent cultural form to support
this, no tradition of holy men on the street. Also there is
the trap of being, of identifying with this altered
consciousness, objectifying it etc, which is trying to hold
on to what only arises as a result of letting go.

The weight of thick conditioning and identification tends to
suggest that chemical initiation may be the only way that
most brothers and sisters will get a taste. Non-dual logic
would be either missed or become part of the game of
identity.

I'm not that familiar with the rave scene though I understand
it has its own comradeship. In so far as its based on
experiences its probably as 'spiritual' as any other religion
:-) 'Liberation' for want of a better word, perhaps requires
intelligence, insight etc if its not to degenerate into self
indulgence, the fate of the sixties revolution. Of course,
there was never any 'hippies' 'sixities' etc that was the
media trying to get hold of something. The underground
continues to exist by not existing :-)

_______________________________________________________________________

JERRY

My observation is that one thing we all have in common is a
natural attentiveness to consciousness itself. One can have a
spouse, best friend, child, or other loved one, that has no
interest in consciousness itself. Because of our common
natural attentiveness, we might feel closer to each other
than to family or our children. This inclination isn't the
result of having an interest in consciousness, as such. If we
were all naturally inclined toward an interest in the
varieties of dry cleaning, the same tendency would hold.

martinizingly, jerry

*martinizing: a form of one-hour dry cleaning that every dry
cleaner can provide, but that no human being has actually
ever used. I'm not sure what the parallel is in
spiritual-practice circles.

MATTHEW

for sure, and this is noted by the profoundly humorous critic
of the human condition, kurt vonnegut as being a Gran
Falloon, which is the assumption we make that since we have
something in common with a complete stranger like being from
indiana, or belonging to the elks club, or having the same
alma mater, or in this case being on the same list, that
there is an automatic connection, a bond of sorts. Yes it
could even be dry cleaning.

after referencing Kurt Vonnegut i piqued my own curiosity and
dug up some fun stuff from various sites:

One of the basic concepts of Bokononism, the secretive island
religion of Kurt Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle, is that of a
granfalloon. A granfalloon is a recognized grouping of people
that, underneath it all, has no real meaning. The
prototypical granfaloon in Vonnegut's book is Hoosiers: the
main character of the book finds himself journeying to an
island nation in the company of fellow Indianans, but other
than the fact that they hale from the same state they have no
significance in each other's lives.

The opposite of a granfalloon, or at least one alternative,
is the karass. These are the people whose lives are entwined
in yours in mysterious yet profound ways. Often they are not
part of any of your more obvious granfalloons, but in the end
it is their presence on this earth that has great influence
of the direction of your own life. Recognizing members of
your karass is not an easy thing and some you may never
identify, but part of the spiritual mission of Bokononists is
to celebrate their karass.
___________________________________________________________________________


JAN:

Now 'how', that's correct: the question is irrelevant, or
less mildly put, from a perspective of avidya. Because, the
discovery is: how could "it" have been overlooked (all those
years)? What is recognized is one's having been looking "away
from it " unknowingly :)) So the $.001 question is "how could
that (the forgetting) have happened? Irrelevant too - seeker
history can't be undone - only good for a novel :))

DAN:

Hi Jan!

Indeed ...

And the movement away from "now" is a
self-contradictory occurrence "now" ...

It only seems to be "grounded in the past" ...

In fact, it is this attempted movement to somehow
exist apart from "now" that gives any sense of
credence to the thought/impression/way of being:
"my reality is grounded in the past" ...

Nevermind that our whole "human history", ways
of "doing culture and society", organization
of relationships, religions and careers,
"traditions" and "transmission of knowledge" --
all involve this bias that
there is an existence grounded in the past ...

top of page