The Making of “El Mariachi” – The Robert Rodriguez 10 Minute Film School (Video)

The Making of "El Mariachi" - The Robert Rodriguez 10 Minute Film School (Video) | Third Monk image 2

Robert Rodriguez has directed a bunch of cool movies, including the Mexico Trilogy, From Dusk Till Dawn, Once Upon a Time in Mexico and Sin City.

His creative approach to directing and penchant for shooting low-budget is unique. Without sacrificing quality, Rodriguez is able to routinely shoot under budget.

In the following video, Rodriguez takes us through his process, offering innovative strategies for cash-strapped Directors.

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The Making of “El Mariachi” – The Robert Rodriguez 10 Minute Film School

A behind the scenes look at the making of the Robert Rodriguez ultra low budget film “El Mariachi”. Rodriguez explains the tricks filmmakers can use when working with extremely limited budgets.

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Space Tour: Inside The International Space Station (Video)

Space Tour: Inside The International Space Station (Video) | Third Monk image 4

Astronaut Suni Williams gives an in-depth tour inside The International Space Station.

Suni does a great job taking us through the different modules. Showing off everything from the kitchen to the work stations, Suni even takes the time to show us the bathroom and viewing stations.

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NASA astronaut Rick Mastracchio, Expedition 38 flight engineer, equipped with a bungee harness, exercises on the Combined Operational Load Bearing External Resistance Treadmill (COLBERT) in the Tranquility node of the International Space Station, Nov. 9, 2013.

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NASA astronaut Michael Hopkins, Expedition 38 flight engineer, poses for a photo with his Thanksgiving meal in the Unity node of the International Space Station, Nov. 28, 2013.

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Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Soichi Noguchi, Expedition 23 flight engineer, adds potable water to a soft beverage container at the galley in the Zvezda Service Module of the International Space Station, May 26, 2010.

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NASA astronaut Catherine (Cady) Coleman assists cosmonaut Dmitry Kondratyev of Russia’s Federal Space Agency with a haircut in the Kibo laboratory on the International Space Station, Jan. 15, 2011. Kondratyev and Coleman used a vacuum cleaner to remove free-floating hair particles from the air.

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Psychedemia – Merging Psychedelics and Academics (Video)

Psychedemia - Merging Psychedelics and Academics (Video) | Third Monk image 1

From Neuroscience to Shamanic Healing and everything in between. This documentary film concisely illuminates the emerging interdisciplinary field of Psychedelic Studies in a way that is accessible, informative and inspiring.

Psychedemia” is the first academic conference funded by an American university to explicitly focus on the risks and benefits of psychedelic experience. Ph.D’s, M.D.’s, M.A’s, graduate students and lay folk from all walks of life convened at the University of Pennsylvania to present new research addressing the historical and potential influences of psychedelics on knowledge production, health, and creativity. The four day event brought together scientists, artists, journalists, historians and philosophers from more than 10 countries for an Ivy League convocation unprecedented not only in view of its controversial subject matter, but in its unparalleled inter-disciplinary scope.

Psychedemia, the film, concisely presents the varied complexity of the emerging field of Psychedelic Studies in a way that is accessible, informative and inspiring.

Directed and Edited by two-time Emmy Award winner Vann K. Weller and Drew Knight, the documentary is being dedicated to the Public Domain to be freely used for any non-commercial purpose as an intellectual and cultural artifact.

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Trippy Psychedelic Films (List)

Trippy Psychedelic Films (List) | Third Monk image 1

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Fear and Loathing has one of the best trip scenes of any drug involved movie. The entire movie is pretty much one long drug-fueled crazy adventure.

The film has become a true cult smash and is sampled over and over again in popular culture from music, to art to just about anywhere psychedelic drugs are involved.

 

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A film that screams “product of its time,” The Holy Mountain was Alejandro Jodorowsky’s dizzying elegy to the sex, drugs and spiritual awakening of the late 1960s and early 1970s.

A Christ-like vagrant and thief wanders through a perverse and unfriendly land until he encounters an enlightened one, who gathers the thief and six of the world’s most powerful individuals for a spiritual pilgrimage. If you want to see the conquest of Mexico re-enacted by reptiles, soldiers shoot innocent people as birds fly from their wounds, and a wizard turn feces into gold, this is the movie for you.

The central members of the cast were said to have spent three months doing various spiritual exercises guided by Oscar Ichazo of the Arica Institute. The Arica training features Zen, Sufi and yoga exercises along with eclectic concepts drawn from the Kabbalah, the I Ching and the teachings of Gurdjieff.

After the training, the group lived for one month communally in Jodorowsky’s home before shooting began.

As far as trippy bizarre movies go – this takes the cake.

 

fantasia-1969 1940 – Over 7 decades ago, and still one of the top psychedelic animated films ever made. The third feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series, the film consists of eight animated segments set to pieces of classical music conducted by Leopold Stokowski, seven of which are performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra.

Fantasia and mind enhancing drugs go together like peanut butter and jelly. These days it is quite popular to discover what music synchs with Fantasia. Much like people do with Pink Floyds’ music synched to the Wizard Of Oz. Disney jumped on the 60’s hippy style and re-imaged the movie in the late 60s with a very different promotional poster, which included magic mushrooms.

 

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Another music based film, Yellow Submarine is a 1968 British animated feature film based on the music of The Beatles. It is also the title for the soundtrack album to the feature film, released as part of The Beatles’ music catalog.

The film received a widely positive reception from critics and audiences alike. It is also credited with bringing more interest in animation as a serious art form.

The animation of Yellow Submarine has sometimes falsely been attributed to the famous psychedelic pop art artist of the era, Peter Max, but the film’s art director was Heinz Edelmann.

As far as classic animation goes its one of the best movies ever.

 

2001_una_odisea_en_el_espacio_8 2001 contains one of the most memorable trippy scenes to ever hit cinema screens. Doubly impressive when considering it was made with 1968 technology.

As the film climaxes, the main character takes a trip through deep space that involves the innovative use of slit-scan photography to create the stunning visual effects. Known to staff as “Manhattan Project”, the shots of various nebula-like phenomena, including the expanding star field, were colored paints and chemicals swirling in a pool-like device known as a cloud tank, shot in slow-motion in a dark room.

Kubrick’s epic masterpiece remains a stoner favorite.

We’ll be back with another part of this series soon, I just have to watch some more psychedelic films!

Add your favorites to the comments below.

> Top Psychedelic Movies | Psy Amb

The Truth About LSD – 10 Profound Quotes From Great Minds About Dropping Acid

The Truth About LSD - 10 Profound Quotes From Great Minds About Dropping Acid | Third Monk image 2

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Taking LSD can often be a wonderfully mind-expanding journey, especially when taken in a healthy environment with a positive mental outlook.

Many great minds agree.

Steve Jobs

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Taking LSD was a profound experience, one of the most important things in my life. LSD shows you that there’s another side to the coin, and you can’t remember it when it wears off, but you know it. It reinforced my sense of what was important – creating great things instead of making money, putting things back into the stream of history and of human consciousness as much as I could.

Terence McKenna

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LSD burst over the dreary domain of the constipated bourgeoisie like the angelic herald of a new psychedelic millennium. We have never been the same since, nor will we ever be, for LSD demonstrated, even to skeptics, that the mansions of heaven and gardens of paradise lie within each and all of us.

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Steven Wright

If God dropped acid, would He see people?

Bill Hicks

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Always that same LSD story, you’ve all seen it.

‘Young man on acid, thought he could fly, jumped out of a building. What a tragedy.’ What a dick! Fuck him, he’s an idiot. If he thought he could fly, why didn’t he take off on the ground first?

Check it out. You don’t see ducks lined up to catch elevators to fly south – they fly from the ground, ya moron, quit ruining it for everybody. He’s a moron, he’s dead—good, we lost a moron, fuckin’ celebrate. Wow, I just felt the world get lighter. We lost a moron! I don’t mean to sound cold, or cruel, or vicious, but I am, so that’s the way it comes out.Professional help is being sought.

How about a positive LSD story? Wouldn’t that be news-worthy, just the once? To base your decision on information rather than scare tactics and superstition and lies? I think it would be news-worthy.

‘Today, a young man on acid realized that all matter is merely energy condensed to a slow vibration. That we are all one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively. There is no such thing as death, life is only a dream and we’re the imagination of ourselves’ . . . ‘Here’s Tom with the weather.’

Ken Kesey

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I believe that with the advent of acid, we discovered a new way to think, and it has to do with piecing together new thoughts in your mind. Why is it that people think it’s so evil? What is it about it that scares people so deeply, even the guy that invented it, what is it?

Because they’re afraid that there’s more to reality than they have confronted. That there are doors that they’re afraid to go in, and they don’t want us to go in there either, because if we go in we might learn something that they don’t know. And that makes us a little out of their control. – Quoted in the BBC documentary, ‘The Beyond Within: The Rise and Fall of LSD,’ 1987

Alexander Shulgin

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I don’t know if you realize this, but there are some researchers – doctors – who are giving this kind of drug to volunteers, to see what the effects are, and they’re doing it the proper scientific way, in clean white hospital rooms, away from trees and flowers and the wind, and they’re surprised at how many of the experiments turn sour.

They’ve never taken any sort of psychedelic themselves, needless to say.

Their volunteers – they’re called ‘subjects,’ of course – are given mescaline or LSD and they’re all opened up to their surroundings, very sensitive to color and light and other people’s emotions, and what are they given to react to? Metal bed-frames and plaster walls, and an occasional white coat carrying a clipboard. Sterility. Most of them say afterward that they’ll never do it again. – Pikhal: A Chemical Love Story, 1991

George Carlin

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Fuck the drug war. Dropping acid was a profound turning point for me, a seminal experience. I make no apologies for it. More people should do acid.

It should be sold over the counter.

Timothy Leary

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‘Turn on’ meant go within to activate your neural and genetic equipment. Become sensitive to the many and various levels of consciousness and the specific triggers that engage them. Drugs were one way to accomplish this end.

‘Tune in’ meant interact harmoniously with the world around you—externalize, materialize, express your new internal perspectives. Drop out suggested an elective, selective, graceful process of detachment from involuntary or unconscious commitments.

‘Drop Out’ meant self-reliance, a discovery of one’s singularity, a commitment to mobility, choice, and change. Unhappily my explanations of this sequence of personal development were often misinterpreted to mean ‘Get stoned and abandon all constructive activity.’ – Flashbacks, 1983

Hunter S. Thompson

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That was the fatal flaw in Tim Leary’s trip. He crashed around America selling ‘consicousness expansion’ without ever giving a thought to the grim meat-hook realities that were lying in wait for all the people who took him too seriously . . . All those pathetically eager acid freaks who thought they could buy Peace and Understanding for three bucks a hit. But their loss and failure is ours, too.

What Leary took down with him was the central illusion of a whole life-style that he helped to create . . . a generation of permanent cripples, failed seekers, who never understood the essential old mystic fallacy of the Acid Culture: the desperate assumption that somebody—or at least some force—is tending the Light at the end of the tunnel. – Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, 1971

Albert Hofmann

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Of greatest significance to me has been the insight that I attained as a fundamental understanding from all of my LSD experiments: what one commonly takes as ‘the reality,’ including the reality of one’s own individual person, by no means signifies something fixed, but rather something that is ambiguous—that there is not only one, but that there are many realities, each comprising also a different consciousness of the ego.

One can also arrive at this insight through scientific reflections. The problem of reality is and has been from time immemorial a central concern of philosophy. It is, however, a fundamental distinction, whether one approaches the problem of reality rationally, with the logical methods of philosophy, or if one obtrudes upon this problem emotionally, through an existential experience.

The first planned LSD experiment was therefore so deeply moving and alarming, because everyday reality and the ego experiencing it, which I had until then considered to be the only reality, dissolved, and an unfamiliar ego experienced another, unfamiliar reality. The problem concerning the innermost self also appeared, which, itself unmoved, was able to record these external and internal transformations.

Reality is inconceivable without an experiencing subject, without an ego. It is the product of the exterior world, of the sender and of a receiver, an ego in whose deepest self the emanations of the exterior world, registered by the antennae of the sense organs, become conscious. If one of the two is lacking, no reality happens, no radio music plays, the picture screen remains blank. – LSD: My Problem Child, 1980

> Greatest Lysergic Acid Diethylamide Quotes | Alternative Reel

Dream Analysis: Common Dream Symbols and Their Meanings

Dream Analysis: Common Dream Symbols and Their Meanings | Third Monk image 8

Dreams are best interpreted by you and in the context of your particular dream.

Your recent mood and waking life experience can also play a part in your analysis.

Common Dream Symbols

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Animals

often represent the part of your psyche that feels connected to nature and survival. Being chased by a predator suggests you’re holding back repressed emotions like fear or aggression.

Babies

can symbolize a literal desire to produce offspring, or your own vulnerability or need to feel loved. They can also signify a new start.

Being chased

is one of the most common dream symbols in all cultures. It means you are feeling threatened, so reflect on who is chasing you (they may also be symbolic) and why they are a possible threat in real life.

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Clothes

make a statement about how we want other people to perceive us. If you dream symbol is shabby clothing, you may feel unattractive or worn out. Changing what you wear may reflect a lifestyle change.

Exams

can signify self-evaluation, with the content of the exam reflecting the part of your personality or life under inspection.

Death

of a friend or loved one represents change (endings and new beginnings) and is not a paranormal prediction of any kind. If you are recently bereaved, it may be an attempt to come to terms with the event.

Falling

is a common dream symbol that relates to our anxieties about letting go, losing control, or somehow failing after a success.

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Faulty Machinery

in dreams is often caused by your language centers being shut down while asleep, making it difficult to dial a phone, read the time, or search the internet. It can also represent performance anxiety in life.

Food

is said to symbolize knowledge, because it nourishes the body just as information nourishes the brain. Food for thought?

Demons

are sneaky evil entities which signify repressed emotions. You may secretly feel the need to change your own behaviors for the better.

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Hair

has significant ties with sexuality, according to Freud. Abundant hair may symbolize virility, while cutting hair off in a dream shows a loss of libido. Hair loss may also express a literal fear of going bald or becoming unattractive.

Hands

are always present in dreams but when they are tied up it may represent feelings of futility. Washing your hands may express guilt. Looking closely at your hands in a dream is a good way to become lucid.

Houses

can host many common dream symbols, but the building as a whole represents your inner psyche. Each room or floor can symbolize different emotions, memories and interpretations of meaningful events.

Killing

in your dreams does not make you a closet murderer; it represents your desire to “kill” part of your own personality. It can also symbolize hostility towards a particular person and the desire to see them suffer.

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Marriage

may be a literal desire to wed or a merging of the feminine and masculine parts of your psyche.

Missing a flight

or any other kind of transport is another popular dream, showing your frustration over possibly missing out on important opportunities in life. It’s most common when you’re struggling to make a big decision.

Money

can symbolize self worth. If you dream of exchanging money, it may show that you’re anticipating some changes in your life.

Mountains

are obstacles, so to dream of successfully climbing a mountain can reveal a true feeling of achievement. Viewing a landscape from atop a mountain can symbolize a life under review without conscious prejudice.

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Nudity

is one of the most common dream symbols, revealing your true self to others. You may feel vulnerable and exposed to others. Showing off your nudity may suggest sexual urges or a desire for recognition.

People

(other dream characters) are reflections of your own psyche, and may demonstrate specific aspects of your own personality.

Radios and TVs

can symbolize communication channels between the conscious and subconscious minds. When lucid, ask them a question…

Roads

aside from being literal manifestations, convey your direction in life. This may be time to question your current “life path”.

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Schools

are common dream symbols in children and teenagers but what about dreaming of school in adulthood? It may display a need to know and understand yourself, fueled by life’s own lessons.

Sex

dreams can symbolize intimacy and a literal desire for sex. Or they may demonstrate the unification of unconscious emotions with conscious recognition, showing a new awareness and personal growth.

Teachers

aside from being literal manifestations of people, can represent authority figures with the power to enlighten you.

Teeth

are common dream symbols. Dreaming of losing your teeth may show a hidden fear of getting old and being unattractive to the opposite sex.

Being trapped

(physically) is a common nightmare theme, reflecting your real life inability to escape or make the right choice.

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Vehicles

may reflect how much control you feel you have over your life – for instance is the car out of control, or is someone else driving you?

Water

comes in many forms and can symbolize the subconscious mind. Calm pools of water reflect inner peace while a choppy ocean can suggest unease.

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> Common Dream Interpretations | World of Lucid Dreaming

Tibetan Sand Mandalas: Healing Through Sacred Art (Photo Gallery, Video)

Tibetan Sand Mandalas: Healing Through Sacred Art (Photo Gallery, Video) | Third Monk image 4

From all the artistic traditions of Tantric Buddhism, that of painting with colored sand ranks as one of the most unique and exquisite. Millions of grains of sand are painstakingly laid into place on a flat platform over a period of days or weeks to form the image of a mandala.

To date, the Drepung Loseling monks have created mandala sand paintings in more than 100 museums, art centers, and colleges and universities in the United States and Europe.

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Mandalas

The Tibetan mandala is a tool for gaining wisdom and compassion and generally is depicted as a tightly balanced, geometric composition wherein deities reside. The principal deity is housed in the center. The mandala serves as a tool for guiding individuals along the path to enlightenment.

Monks meditate upon the mandala, imagining it as a three-dimensional palace. The deities who reside in the palace embody philosophical views and serve as role models. The mandala’s purpose is to help transform ordinary minds into enlightened ones. Kalachakra-Sand-Mandala

The Sand Mandala

Mandalas constructed from sand are unique to Tibetan Buddhism and are believed to effect purification and healing. Typically, a great teacher chooses the specific mandala to be created. Monks then begin construction of the sand mandala by consecrating the site with sacred chants and music.

Next, they make a detailed drawing from memory. Over a number of days, they fill in the design with millions of grains of colored sand. At its completion, the mandala is consecrated. The monks then enact the impermanent nature of existence by sweeping up the colored grains and dispersing them in flowing water.

monks_05 Sand Mandala

How Mandalas Heal

According to Buddhist scripture, sand mandalas transmit positive energies to the environment and to the people who view them. While constructing a mandala, Buddhist monks chant and meditate to invoke the divine energies of the deities residing within the mandala. The monks then ask for the deities’ healing blessings. A mandala’s healing power extends to the whole world even before it is swept up and dispersed into flowing water—a further expression of sharing the mandala’s blessings with all.

The Tibetan mandalas are deceptively simple. They might look like they’re made up of basic patterns, but are extremely complex and might take weeks to complete. Buddhist monks undergo years of training before they can make a mandala. So before a mandala is made, a monk will spend time in philosophical and artistic study. Once a sufficient level of understanding has been reached, the mandala is created.

In the personal monastery of the Dalai Lama, the Nyamgal monastery, monks spend about three years studying before making the mandala.

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Sand Mandala Gallery

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final sand mandala destruction

> Tibetan Healing Mandalas | Prafulla

Psychedelic Hand Made Mixed Media Collages – Joe Webb (Photo Gallery)

Psychedelic Hand Made Mixed Media Collages - Joe Webb (Photo Gallery) | Third Monk image 25

Joe Webb’s work eschews the neo-traditional standard of digital manipulation, opting to meticulously craft his psychedelic work by hand.

Sourcing two to three images at a time, Webb’s finished collages probe the unreality of modern-life, with an emphasis on his disdain for technology.

I started making these simple hand-made collages as a sort of luddite reaction to working as a graphic artist on computers for many years. I like the limitations of collage…using found imagery and a pair of scissors, there are no Photoshop options to resize, adjust colours or undo.

I suppose I’ve become fairly anti-technology… although I now promote my art on websites, own an iPhone and use Facebook…It’s confusing, I wish I had been born 100 years ago. – Joe Webb

Joe Webb – Surreal Hand Made Mixed Media Collages Gallery

 Thirst

Thirst

Thirst II

Thirst II

Storm in a Tea Cup

Storm in a Tea Cup

Room with a View

Room with a View

International Response

International Response

Armageddon

Armageddon

What a Lovely Day

What a lovely day

Twelve O’Clock

Twelve O'Clock

The Chill

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Juxtapose

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Infatuated

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Star Dust

Antares and Love II

Star Dust II

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Sunny Side Up

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Playing God

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Small Steps

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Seaside

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Calm and Chaos

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Comfort

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Star Dust III

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Star Dust IV

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Star Dust V

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Wonder Basket

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Sunny Day

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Plough

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Harvest

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Spoiled View

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Everything is Fine

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Art School

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Distraction

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Cuts

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Time Storage

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Joe Webb Collages

A selection of work from UK based collage artist Joe Webb.

Take a Shamanic Journey with Yucatecan Trance Induction Beats (Video)

Take a Shamanic Journey with Yucatecan Trance Induction Beats (Video) | Third Monk image 2

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Music and sound can cause different reactions depending on the person.

We’ve all experienced how that special song can make us feel a certain way. Music can drum up long forgotten memories, or even increase our level of motivation.

To illustrate the point, the soothing voice of Christopher Wallace (aka Biggie Smalls) and his East Coast style was enough to stop the tears of this crying baby.

Notorious B.I.G. Calms Down Crying Baby

But just in case you weren’t recently born, considering a different approach may be helpful.

Binaural beats (and their varying frequencies) are one option for brain entrainment. Binaurals are wonderful because they create a constant frequency in your brain causing you to resonate in tune with the preferred beat.

Hacking your brain with Binaural beats can be great, but that isn’t why we are here.

yucatecan trance induction

Yucatecan Trance Induction Beats

In the late 1960s, anthropologist Dr. Felicitas Goodman was hired by the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health to help investigate the religious trace states of 486 societies around the world. Her most revelatory findings weren’t in the drug-induced voodoo séances of Haiti or weeks-long meditation ceremonies of India, but in “conservative” Catholic churches throughout the Yucatan of southern Mexico. There, indigenous people had hybridized pagan beliefs with those of Christianity to create a weekly mass service unlike any other.

Part of the mass included Trance Induction Beats, in which a drummer would tap out a pulsing rhythm at 210 beats per minute on a hollow gourd for about a half hour. (A similar tempo was later discovered by scientists in the 1960s to induce the deeply relaxing Theta waves in the brain.) Goodman discovered the pulsing drum rhythm was effective in lulling not a few, but all members of the church congregation into a deep trance, usually within the first ten minutes.

Wondering if the indigenous Yucatecs were just easily coaxed by Trance Induction Beats, Goodman tested the rhythm on a group of western students, many of whom were not prone to entering trances through other methods. Within fifteen minutes of Yucatecan Trance Induction Beats, every one of the students entered a hypnotic, trance-like state that lasted until the experiment was over.

Yucatecan Trance Induction (Theta state frequency)

For thousands of years humans have induced hypnotic trance states, usually as part of a religious or spiritual ceremony. This Theta trance induction track is taken from the indigenous people of the Yucatan peninsula who practice a hybridized version of Catholicism combined with pagan beliefs. As part of their mass ceremony a drummer performs a simple rhythm at 210 beats per minute on a hollow guard for about a half hour. This track is purely instrumental with no vocals so it can be used for self-hypnosis towards any goal, desired outcome or as a relaxation tool to combat stress.

For best results listen with headphones in a relaxed position, allow a few minutes for the trance to take hold.

> Yucatecan Induction | Get High Now

Plato’s Allegory of the Cave Animation and Analysis (Video)

Plato's Allegory of the Cave Animation and Analysis (Video) | Third Monk image 2

Animation based on ‘The Allegory of the Cave’ by Greek philosopher Plato, in his work The Republic.

Speaking are Socrates and Glaucon. Socrates begins.

Behold! human beings living in an underground den, which has a mouth open towards the light and reaching all along the den; here they have been from their childhood, and have their legs and necks chained so that they cannot move, and can only see before them, being prevented by the chains from turning round their heads. Above and behind them a fire is blazing at a distance, and between the fire and the prisoners there is a raised way; and you will see, if you look, a low wall built along the way, like the screen which marionette players have in front of them, over which they show the puppets.
I see.

And do you see, I said, men passing along the wall carrying all sorts of vessels, and statues and figures of animals made of wood and stone and various materials, which appear over the wall? Some of them are talking, others silent.

You have shown me a strange image, and they are strange prisoners.

Like ourselves, I replied; and they see only their own shadows, or the shadows of one another, which the fire throws on the opposite wall of the cave?

True, he said; how could they see anything but the shadows if they were never allowed to move their heads?

And of the objects which are being carried in like manner they would only see the shadows?

Yes, he said.

And if they were able to converse with one another, would they not suppose that they were naming what was actually before them?

Very true.

And suppose further that the prison had an echo which came from the other side, would they not be sure to fancy when one of the passers-by spoke that the voice which they heard came from the passing shadow?

No question, he replied.

To them, I said, the truth would be literally nothing but the shadows of the images.

That is certain.

And now look again, and see what will naturally follow if the prisoners are released and disabused of their error. At first, when any of them is liberated and compelled suddenly to stand up and turn his neck round and walk and look towards the light, he will suffer sharp pains; the glare will distress him, and he will be unable to see the realities of which in his former state he had seen the shadows; and then conceive some one saying to him, that what he saw before was an illusion, but that now, when he is approaching nearer to being and his eye is turned towards more real existence, he has a clearer vision,–what will be his reply? And you may further imagine that his instructor is pointing to the objects as they pass and requiring him to name them,–will he not be perplexed? Will he not fancy that the shadows which he formerly saw are truer than the objects which are now shown to him?

Far truer.

And if he is compelled to look straight at the light, will he not have a pain in his eyes which will make him turn away to take refuge in the objects of vision which he can see, and which he will conceive to be in reality clearer than the things which are now being shown to him?

True, he said.

And suppose once more, that he is reluctantly dragged up a steep and rugged ascent, and held fast until he is forced into the presence of the sun himself, is he not likely to be pained and irritated? When he approaches the light his eyes will be dazzled, and he will not be able to see anything at all of what are now called realities.

Not all in a moment, he said.

He will require to grow accustomed to the sight of the upper world. And first he will see the shadows best, next the reflections of men and other objects in the water, and then the objects themselves; then he will gaze upon the light of the moon and the stars and the spangled heaven; and he will see the sky and the stars by night better than the sun or the light of the sun by day?

Certainly.

Last of all he will be able to see the sun, and not mere reflections of him in the water, but he will see him in his own proper place, and not in another; and he will contemplate him as he is.

Certainly.

He will then proceed to argue that this is he who gives the season and the years, and is the guardian of all that is in the visible world, and in a certain way the cause of all things which he and his fellows have been accustomed to behold?

Clearly, he said, he would first see the sun and then reason about him.

And when he remembered his old habitation, and the wisdom of the den and his fellow-prisoners, do you not suppose that he would felicitate himself on the change, and pity them?

Certainly, he would.

And if they were in the habit of conferring honors among themselves on those who were quickest to observe the passing shadows and to remark which of them went before, and which followed after, and which were together; and who were therefore best able to draw conclusions as to the future, do you think that he would care for such honors and glories, or envy the possessors of them? Would he not say with Homer,

Better to be the poor servant of a poor master, and to endure anything, rather than think as they do and live after their manner? (1)

Yes, he said, I think that he would rather suffer anything than entertain these false notions and live in this miserable manner.

Imagine once more, I said, such a one coming suddenly out of the sun to be replaced in his old situation; would he not be certain to have his eyes full of darkness?

To be sure, he said.

And if there were a contest, and he had to compete in measuring the shadows with the prisoners who had never moved out of the den, while his sight was still weak, and before his eyes had become steady (and the time which would be needed to acquire this new habit of sight might be very considerable), would he not be ridiculous? Men would say of him that up he went and down he came without his eyes; (2)and that it was better not even to think of ascending; and if any one tried to loose another and lead him up to the light, let them only catch the offender, and they would put him to death. (3)

No question, he said.

This entire allegory, I said, you may now append, dear Glaucon, to the previous argument; the prison-house is the world of sight, the light of the fire is the sun, and you will not misapprehend me if you interpret the journey upwards to be the ascent of the soul into the intellectual world according to my poor belief, which, at your desire, I have expressed–whether rightly or wrongly God knows. But whether true or false, my opinion is that in the world of knowledge the idea of good appears last of all, and is seen only with an effort; and, when seen, is also inferred to be the universal author of all things beautiful and right, parent of light and of the lord of light in this visible world, Here Plato describes his notion of God in a way that was influence profoundly Christian theologians. and the immediate source of reason and truth in the intellectual; and that this is the power upon which he would act rationally either in public or private life must have his eye fixed.

I agree, he said, as far as I am able to understand you.

Moreover, I said, you must not wonder that those who attain to this beatific vision are unwilling to descend to human affairs; for their souls are ever hastening into the upper world where they desire to dwell; which desire of theirs is very natural, if our allegory may be trusted.

Yes, very natural.

And is there anything surprising in one who passes from divine contemplations to the evil state of man, misbehaving himself in a ridiculous manner; if, while his eyes are blinking and before he has become accustomed to the surrounding darkness, he is compelled to fight in courts of law, or in other places, about the images or the shadows of images of justice, and is endeavoring to meet the conception of those who have never yet seen absolute justice?

Anything but surprising, he replied.

Any one who has common sense will remember that the bewilderments of the eyes are of two kinds, and arise from two causes, either from coming out of the light or from going into the light, which is true of the mind’s eye; and he who remembers this when he sees any one whose vision is perplexed and weak, will not be too ready to laugh; he will first ask whether that soul of man has come out of the brighter life, and is unable to see because unaccustomed to the dark, or having turned from darkness to the day is dazzled by excess of light. And he will count the one happy in his condition and state of being, and he will pity the other; or, if he have a mind to laugh at the soul which comes from below into the light, there will be more reason in this than in the laugh which greets him who returns from above out of the light into the den.

That, he said, is a very just distinction.

But then, if I am right, certain professors of education must be wrong when they say that they can put a knowledge into the soul which was not there before, like sight into blind eyes.

They undoubtedly say this, he replied.

Whereas our argument shows that the power and capacity of learning exists in the soul already; and that just as the eye was unable to turn from darkness to light without the whole body, so too the instrument of knowledge can only by the movement of the whole soul be turned from the world of becoming into that of being, and learn by degrees to endure the sight of being and of the brightest and best of being, or in other words, of the good.

Translated by Benjamin Jowett (Source: Oswego)

Our nature in its education and want of education. – Plato

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