This downloadable PDF claims to house all of Nikola Tesla’s articles from his time. Although impossible to verify, it houses a wealth of information about the man’s work.
Compiled over the course of months by devoted researcher Derek Worthington and made available to all for free.
The tiny, pea sized pineal gland located in the center of the human brain has for ages been thought to be the seat of the soul. Prone to calcification from fluoridated water and other toxins in our food supply, many people are actively interested indetoxifyingand de-calcifying their pineal gland. The rush of cosmic energy that is available when the mind’s eye is wide open, there is no other spiritual experience that compares to it.
What happens to a person who loses this gland to disease or some kind of accident?
Shawn Thorton, who, while studying art in school developed an illuminated painting style that baffles the rational mind. Experiencing severe illness, and often having manic and visionary episodes which revealed the contents of his extraordinary paintings, Shawn was learning to paint while, yet unbeknownst to him, he was suffering from brain cancer and had a tumor forming right where his pineal gland sits.
The over-arching style is reminiscent of an alien technology, laden with intricacies, schematics, and winding connections, a sort of motherboard of madness. Much like the human brain, his paintings show a complexity that is not easily understood.
Was his pineal gland releasing DMT, the spirit molecule in elevated levels while battling cancer?
I suffered from a slow growing cancer in my pineal gland while I attended art school and during subsequent years while my paintings developed with an underlined mythology that alluded directly to the pineal years before I even know of its existence.
I think I’d work myself into a frenzy for a while and yes, when I would fall lie down in bed I’d have something like a manic episode that was very lucid and visionary. That still applies to this day, but I try to control it better so I don’t get sick again.
I’ve had a lot of truly mystical and otherworldly experiences as a result of my history and battle with brain cancer and I’m really drawn to things that resonate with a certain powerful energy, and I’m always honing in on that more and more. whether consciously or subconsciously.
I treat depression with mushrooms. Haven’t done DMT ‘intentionally’. Man made chemicals are a thing of the past for me, as I’m really sensitive. –Reddit
Painting, for me, is largely an attempt to decrypt the mechanisms of illness through a disciplined medium. I feel, on some deep internal level, that through my painting practice I’m engaged in a psychic process to illuminate the intricate vessels and cogs of an insidious physic current that stems, in part, from having had a serious illness, and all the subtle and profound ways I was altered by this experience.
All throughout my early adulthood, I struggled from the mental and physical effects of a slow growing tumor in my brain, the symptoms of which were repeatedly misdiagnosed by my doctors as purely psychological in origin, and it ultimately took over half a decade to get a proper diagnosis and treatment to shrink the tumor. I suffered immeasurably during this period from having repeatedly undergone a host of treatments meant to treat the symptoms of mental illness, and paradoxically, from a mental illness that ultimately could not be contained. The tumor was in the very center of my brain, in a small, mysterious organ at the top of the spinal column, the pineal gland. I didn’t have any prior reason to consider the actual material existence of the pineal before this.
As for its spiritually ominous and physically precarious location at epicenter of my being, my ability to conceptualize these facts seemed utterly unreal, ethereal, like nothing short of a sordid space exploration, as it had been making its presence known to me for so long and now there were surgeons probing into my head – into my consciousness. As I further researched my illness directly after being released from the hospital, and after having had undergone emergency brain surgery a few days earlier, I quickly became very quizzical by what I was finding. What had been developing in my art, half unconsciously, over the previous several years in which I had been very ill and labored to keep painting, all of a sudden became very clear. Elements in the paintings seemed to correlate directly to the pineal gland and to many of its mystical and biological functions that have puzzled humankind for centuries.
All throughout the history of human sciences, religions, and philosophies, of different civilizations and cultures all over the world, people have contemplated and researched the pineal because of its mysterious location at the center of our brain. For me, most notable, was its purposed role in the production of endogenous DMT in humans, and its proximity in our brains to the Ajna chakra, or third eye. I also found it intriguing that the pineal gland regulates biorhythms in humans through the production of the hormone melatonin. This brought to mind images of medical charts; of archetypal schematics and universal symbols.-Shawn Thornton
Before incorporating the knowledge of advanced plant medicines, properly attuning one’s body and mind through diet and exercise is essential.
What goes into the body determines what the body will be composed of physically, mentally, and spiritually. The vessel must be adequately equipped to handle whatever may occur while in the spiritual realms. Body and mind exist in a symbiotic relationship, where the effects on one reflects on the other. Depending on which plant medicine you use, the intensity and length of body preparation varies accordingly.
Many traditional diets share common similarities, but each initiate will know what they need to abstain from to gain the greatest knowledge possible from the experience.
Common themes include abstinence from alcohol, sugar, salt, oils, meat and certain spices. Consumption of raw foods is also highly recommended as processing diminishes the nutritional content of the food. It is also common in some locales for initiates of ayahuasca to stop sexual thoughts and activities during the course of the diet and experience. There are reasons for this abstinence that are highlighted in greater detail here. For plant teachers such as Peyote and Psilocybin, a similar diet should be applied.
Exercises Before Consumption
A short fast before engaging in any plant medicine is recommended, aim for anywhere from 8-24 hours. Attempting to digest a plant teacher with other foods in the stomach can cause the initiate to undergo physical stress.
It is recommended that initiates disengage from the integration of meat and animal products into their bodies for weeks before, during and after the spiritual journey. It is also recommended that initiates let go of whatever it is they may be struggling with in their lives.
Temporary separation from those attachments which we feel we cannot live without will serve to enlighten us. If one struggles with addictive behavior, one should surrender that behavior before encountering the plant medicine if they wish to maximize their knowledge from the plant.
Anything one can do to purify and cleanse both thoughts and action – before and after the experience – will serve to increase penetration and understanding.
Psychedelic Spirituality Podcast – Proper Diet and Exercise for Spiritual Experience
Still trying to finish that old copy of Lord of the Rings you found wedged beneath the stairs? Who could have known it was keeping up the entire house? Eh, c’est la vie, this too shall pass (or shan’t in the case of Durin’s Bane – don’t worry you’ll get there).
Take your mind off your troubles with any one of these five short novels (alright, alright… a few are novellas), and don’t worry, they’re all a quick read (unlike this introduction).
Find them at your local library (they still exist), or your local book store (read: amazon).
I’ve added the audiobook versions and PDF’s where I could.
01 THE SON OF THE BRAHMAN – 00:20:59
02 WITH THE SAMANAS – 00:27:05
03 GOTAMA – 00:23:54
04 AWAKENING – 00:12:24
05 KAMALA – 00:36:32
06 WITH THE CHILDLIKE PEOPLE – 00:22:14
07 SANSARA – 00:24:57
08 BY THE RIVER – 00:30:52
09 THE FERRYMAN – 00:35:07
10 THE SON – 00:24:27
11 OM – 00:18:30
12 GOVINDA – 00:29:07
Translated into more than 250 languages and dialects, The Little Prince is a literary masterpiece.
Antoine De Saint-Exupery wrote the short novel in the midst of personal upheavals and failing health, it is a tender tale of loneliness, friendship, love and loss, in the form of a young prince fallen to Earth.
The Little Prince – Antoine De Saint-Exupery (Audiobook)
The Strangeris a great book byAlbert Camus published in 1942. Its theme and outlook are often cited as exemplars of Camus’s philosophy of the absurd and existentialism, though Camus personally rejected the latter label.
An allegorical novel, The Alchemistfollows a young Andalusian shepherd named Santiago in his journey to Egypt, after having a recurring dream of finding treasure there.
Writing pseudonymously as “A Square”, the book used the fictional two-dimensional world of Flatland to offer pointed observations on the social hierarchy of Victorian culture. However, the novella’s more enduring contribution is its examination of dimensions.
Aldous Huxley interviewed for The Paris Review (1960), reprinted in Moksha: Aldous Huxley’s Classic Writings on Psychedelics and the Visionary Experience, edited by Michael Horowitz and Cynthia Palmer (Park Street Press, 1999)
Interviewers: Do you see any relation between the creative process and the use of such drugs as lysergic acid [diethylamide]?
Huxley: I don’t think there is any generalization one can make on this. Experience has shown that there’s an enormous variation in the way people respond to lysergic acid. Some people probably could get direct aesthetic inspiration for painting or poetry out of it. Others I don’t think could. For most people it’s an extremely significant experience, and I suppose in an indirect way it could help the creative process. But I don’t think one can sit down and say, “I want to write a magnificent poem, and so I’m going to take lysergic acid [diethylamide].” I don’t think it’s by any means certain that you would get the result you wanted — you might get almost any result.
Interviewers: Would the drug give more help to the lyric poet than the novelist?
Huxley: Well, the poet would certainly get an extraordinary view of life which he wouldn’t have had in any other way, and this might help him a great deal. But you see (and this is the most significant thing about the experience), during the experience you’re really not interested in doing anything practical — even writing lyric poetry. If you were having a love affair with a woman, would you be interested in writing about it? Of course not. And during the experience you’re not particularly in words, because the experience transcends words and is quite inexpressible in terms of words. So the whole notion of conceptualizing what is happening seems very silly. After the event, it seems to me quite possible that it might be of great assistance: people would see the universe around them in a very different way and would be inspired, possibly, to write about it.
Interviewers: But is there much carry-over from the experience?
Huxley: Well, there’s always a complete memory of the experience. You remember something extraordinary having happened. And to some extent you can relive the experience, particularly the transformation of the outside world. You get hints of this, you see the world in this transfigured way now and then — not to the same pitch of intensity, but something of the kind. It does help you to look at the world in a new way. And you come to understand very clearly the way that certain specially gifted people have seen the world. You are actually introduced into the kind of world that Van Gogh lived in, or the kind of world that Blake lived in. You begin to have a direct experience of this kind of world while you’re under the drug, and afterwards you can remember and to some slight extent recapture this kind of world, which certain privileged people have moved in and out of, as Blake obviously did all the time.
Interviewers: But the artist’s talents won’t be any different from what they were before he took the drug?
Huxley: I don’t see why they should be different. Some experiments have been made to see what painters can do under the influence of the drug, but most of the examples I have seen are very uninteresting. You could never hope to reproduce to the full extent the quite incredible intensity of color that you get under the influence of the drug. Most of the things I have seen are just rather tiresome bits of expressionism, which correspond hardly at all, I would think, to the actual experience. Maybe an immensely gifted artist — someone like Odilon Redon (who probably saw the world like this all the time anyhow) — maybe such a man could profit by the lysergic acid [diethylamide] experience, could use his visions as models, could reproduce on canvas the external world as it is transfigured by the drug.
Interviewers: Here this afternoon, as in your book, The Doors of Perception, you’ve been talking chiefly about the visual experience under the drug, and about painting. Is there any similar gain in psychological insight?
Huxley: Yes, I think there is. While one is under the drug one has penetrating insights into the people around one, and also into one’s own life. Many people get tremendous recalls of buried material. A process which may take six years of psychoanalysis happens in an hour — and considerably cheaper! And the experience can be very liberating and widening in other ways. It shows that the world one habitually lives in is merely a creation of this conventional, closely conditioned being which one is, and that there are quite other kinds of worlds outside. It’s a very salutary thing to realize that the rather dull universe in which most of us spend most of our time is not the only universe there is. I think it’s healthy that people should have this experience.
Vinchen’sstreet art offers simple insights into supposed complex social issues. It causes us to question the notion of their complexity altogether, leaving you to wonder why we are plagued by social inequities at all.
Asking questions incidently leads to answers, and Vinchen’s street art places the onus back on those looking back.
Though noise is defined as a random signal, it is often classified into areas: environmental noise, industrial noise, occupational noise, etc. It is also further classified into colors.
Engineers originally developed colored noises to use as guides for electric, acoustic, and audio equipment experiments. Each noise was named after the color it most closely resembled in frequency. Different colors vibrate at a different frequencies, which is how the human eye distinguishes them. Interestingly. in the early 1970s, colored noises were used to test for extrasensory perception.
Dr. Charles Honorton, among other parapsychologists, believed white and pink noise played through headphones could mute out the senses and make a person more amenable to subconscious thought. In Ganzfeld Anomalous Information Transfer experiments, extended exposure to white or pink noise was often successful in inducing in subjects hypnagogic and other altered states of consciousness. At a minimum, a few minutes of white or pink noise placed people into a deep state of meditation.
It’s never too late to change directions in life and fulfill your dreams instead of just your obligations.
Estonian Photographer Kylli Sparre is a perfect example – she discovered she wanted to be a photographer only after completing professional ballet school.
When the studies were over, I realized it wasn’t the path for me. I have been searching for an outlet for my creativity ever since. [A few] years ago I found it in photography and never looked back. – Kylli Sparre
Her ballet background seems to influence her surreal photography, as the models in her dream-like pictures are filled with grace, poise, and elegance.
Hopefully, her passion and courage will inspire others to follow their dreams.
Surreal Photography by Dancer Kylli Sparre
I had no idea what it is that I should or could be doing. I had this very strong feeling that I need to go and find what it is that I love. – Kylli Sparre
It took me years to finally find what truly inspires me. The feeling I get, when a picture turns out the way I imagine… I get so much energy and I love to be alive! – Kylli Sparre
– A Nationwide Solar Roadway System could produce more clean renewable energy than a country uses as a whole
– Heating elements to keep roads snow and ice free
– LEDs to make road lines and signage
– Attached cable corridor to store and treat stormwater & provide a “home” for power and data cables
– Electric Vehicles will be able to charge from parking lots and driveways after roadway is in place, mutual induction technology allowing for charging while driving.
They also claim roads will be smarter and safer as a whole.
Safer Roads with Solar Roadways
It sounds too good to be true, and perhaps it is.
I’m a fan of hearing both sides of a story, and the video below takes a critical view of Solar Roadways and its claims.
Solar Roadways, an Expensive Joke?
I’m not sure if Solar Roadways are the answer to the many questions being asked of humanity, but there are a few things we know for sure.
We need new systems that are stable-state, self-sustaining and will work in concert with the Earth to sustain and enrich its vast web of life.
It’s not too late, and ideas like this, if not perfect, are at least moving us in the right general direction.
Dietmar Voorwold, a German artist based in Scotland, creates beautiful and temporary works of natural land art by arranging rocks, leaves and other natural materials into simple, but beautiful geometric shapes and patterns.
Most of his art is created with materials found on-site, so almost anyone can try their hand at land art.
Voorwold leaves his geometric artworks behind, so all that’s eventually left of them are photographs and his memories.
It is just for the moment. This is a very therapeutic aspect of my way of creating art. – Voorwold
A strong believer in the therapeutic value of art, Voorwold also holds art therapy classes for people, teaching them to create their own land art.
Wild Child’s indie-pop folk sound is a wonderful addition to a relaxing time.
Their chill vibe blends smoothly with any laid-back session, and their attention to detail and creativity in their trippy music videos is the proverbial cap on the stem.
Chill out with Wild Child… let us know what you think of their sound and visual style below.
I’ll wait around for days
this porch on which I pace
I need you mine I need me yours
You stole my breath away
You swore to me you’d stay
I’ve found something that I adore
Oh how
How we supposed to go on
Not knowing if you
bleed the way I do
I do (well I did)
are your eyes traveling elsewhere
You need to know I got the bones rolling hard against the floor
And if you left i’d break until the little pieces felt no more
Whisper the things we’d scream
now kid let’s not get mean
I need you mine I need me yours
Four walls and fancy friends
Don’t need me none of them
Because I’ve got you know and that’s enough (Well I’m glad)(Well so am I)
Let’s take good from our past
Patch holes with things that last
Let’s tear it up here you and I
Oh how
How we supposed to go on
Not knowing if you
bleed the way I do
I do (well I did)
are your eyes traveling elsewhere
You need to know I got the bones rolling hard against the floor
And if you left I’d break until the little pieces felt no more
Well these fights sure do take a lot out of me
but the secret I can tell you is I still do believe
I can’t promise that I’ll always be careful with things
But just know that I’ll expect it if you ever do leave
Sweet Marie
I love your name
Oh babe
can you turn your heart this way
Oh how
How we supposed to go on
Not knowing if you
bleed the way I do
I do (well I did)
are your bags traveling elsewhere
You need to know I got the bones rolling hard against the floor
And if you left I’d break until the little pieces felt no more
Based on the idea that their citizens will have more time to devote to things they are intrinsically interested in, instead of spending the majority of their time worrying about how they are going to survive; as many individuals with entry-level positions find it hard to meet their needs.
The 2,500 francs would work out to be an income of 30,000 Swiss francs per year. Statistics released by the European Union in 2002 showed that Switzerland was the third most expensive country in Europe, after Norway and Iceland, to live in.
Switzerland currently has a population of 8.02 million people, equivalent to that of large cities such as the San Francisco Bay Area which has a population of 7.15 million. The Swiss pay particularly high prices for meat, cooking oil, fish and vegetables. Basic utilities (electricity, heating, water, garbage) are around 200 francs per month, and the average rent of a one bedroom apartment in the city center runs about 1,400 francs.
Imagine you are being born and society tells you ‘Welcome, you will be cared for, and asks you what you want to do with your life, what is your calling? Imagine that feeling, that’s a whole different atmosphere. – Daniel Straub, Co-founder, Basic Income Initiative
Parliament was presented with a petition signed by over 100,000 people, proposing to afford every citizen, regardless if they are working or not, a monthly paycheck of 2,500 Swiss francs.
To mark the day, a truck full of 8 million five-cent coins was deposited on the square and spread out in front of the Swiss Parliament in Bern, supporters gathered around and spread the coins out using shovels. A typical fast-food worker in the US earns roughly $1,500 per month. Anything less than that specified amount of 2,500 francs, would be deemed illegal, even for people working in one of the lowest paid jobs.
A date for the vote itself is yet to be confirmed, however, it could take place before the end of 2014.
The money to fund the measure would likely be supplied by the Swiss social insurance system, so in other words it would be taken from taxpayers. We know that the government has no money itself, everything that it gives to others it must first take from others or print it out of thin air.
This new system will force business owners to pay their workers a certain wage, regardless if their labor is considered worth less than the stipulated amount. This idea aims to set the minimum standard of living higher, but this might prompt business owners to take their company elsewhere, where they have more freedom over wage decisions. Of course, this would also mean they get no cut whatsoever of the Swiss market.
On the other hand, the new income may also lure new business owners to the country in looks of attracting those new consumers. One prominent CEO in Switzerland has stated that if the measure passes, he would seriously contemplate moving his company out of the country:
I can’t believe that Switzerland would cause such great harm to its economy. – Glencore CEO Ivan Glasenberg told the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation.
Will this measure make more money flow, by putting liquidity in the hands of those more prone to putting it back in the economy, or will it drive investors away and cause the Swiss economy to stumble?