Elevate and Evolve | Cannabis & Psychedelic Culture Blog
Timothy Leary was a psychologist, author and pioneer of psychedelic drugs. While working as a professor at Harvard, he explored the potential benefits of psilocybin, the active ingredient in shrooms.
Learning from introspective trips with Ram Dass, Leary wrote about how the lessons of a psychedelic experience can alienate a person from a cold and systematic society.
Alan Watts was an English philosopher and writer who played a large part in popularising Zen Buddhism in the West. He gained a wide following after moving to the United States where he published numerous books on Zen and Eastern philosophy.
He is well known for his inquisitive nature and ability to cut through the bullshit of conventional thought to get to the meat of an issue.
In this comic strip penned by Zen Pencils, Watts delves deep into the eternal question:
What do you desire?
The answer may be more simple than you possibly imagined.
> What if money was no object? | Zen Pencils
Robert Anton Wilson was a philosopher and author of several books dealing with such themes as quantum mechanics, the future evolution of the human species, weird unexplained phenomena, conspiracy theories, synchronicity, the occult, altered states of consciousness, and the nature of belief systems.
His books explore the relationship between the brain and consciousness, and the link between science and mysticism, with wit, wisdom, and personal insights.
I have learned more from Robert Anton Wilson than I have from any other source. – George Carlin
Hermes also known as Thoth, lived in Atlantis and Egypt for over two thousand years. He was known at the time he lived throughout the world, as the Master of the Masters.
The Egyptians were so amazed by the profundity of this man and his teachings they deified him under the name Thoth, and he became one of their Gods. In later times, the civilization of Greece made him one of their Gods too, calling him, Hermes, the God of Wisdom. He was considered the Messenger of the Gods.
The Hermetic teachings are found in all lands and all religions, their appeal is universal. In early days there was a compilation of certain basic hermetic maxims, axioms, and precepts, which were passed from teacher to student, which is called the “Kyballion”.
The principles of truth are seven; He who knows these, understandingly, possesses the magic key before whose touch all the doors of the temple fly open. – The Kyballion
These seven Hermetic principles are the basis for the entire field of Hermetic philosophy.
The all is mind; the universe is mental. – The Kyballion
This principle embodies the understanding that everything in the universe is created by thought or mind. There is nothing that exists in the material universe where this is not the case.
The great Edgar Cayce, in his Universal Mind channelings, would over and over again say “thoughts are things”. The entire universe was created by the thought of God. We, as God’s sons and daughters, create our reality both metaphysically and physically by the power of our minds. The great law of spiritual psychology is that it is our thought that create our reality. Everything that exists is spirit. Matter is just densified spirit. Spirit is just refined matter. All is just energy.
As above so below: as below, so above. – The Kyballion
This famous aphorism was created by Hermes. What this law means is that the thoughts and images that we hold in our conscious and subconscious mind will manifest its mirror likeness in our external circumstance. The outer world is a mirror of our inner world. If we hold thoughts of poverty we will have no money. If we hold thoughts and images of lack of good health, this will manifest within our physical bodies.
The thoughts and images we hold in our mind will attract their physical likeness to us in our external circumstance. This law works unceasingly for the good or the bad. By understanding this law we can use it for our benefit instead of our detriment. The most profound application of this law is seen in the life of Sathya Sai Baba. Whatever he thinks instantly manifests, even on a material level. He creates physical objects with the wave of his hand, and he says he does this by just thinking and imaging upon what he wants to create. This is the same law just sped up. Earth is a school for practicing these laws of mind and spiritual control. Imagine what would happen if the average person on the street were manifesting his thoughts instantly as Sai Baba does. If he had a negative thought about someone at this level of vibration it might actually physically kill this person.
Imagine what all the negative thoughts and emotions would instantly do to one’s health. For most of us it is a good thing that things don’t manifest that quickly yet, or we would be in a lot of trouble. The higher we go in vibration and initiation, the quicker your manifestation of your thoughts will occur. That is why the spiritual path at these higher levels has been called the straight and narrow path, and is visualized like a pyramid that gets narrower as you move towards the apex.
Nothing rests; Everything moves; Everything vibrates. – The Kyballion
This principle explains the difference between the different manifestations of matter and spirit. From pure spirit all the way down to the grossest level of matter is a continuum of varying degrees of vibration. Every atom and molecule is vibrating in a certain motion, speed, vibration, and frequency. It is the combination of these frequencies that determine the form of any given object, be it of a physical or metaphysical nature. Everything is in motion, and is vibrating, and nothing is at rest. Even a physical object, as for example a chair, is really in a state of motion. The atom, and electrons are vibrating, and there is space between these atoms and molecules. This is true of the atom as it is true of the solar system, galaxy, universe, and super universes. For the omniverse is nothing more than a large atom. As above so below.
Sai Baba can take a physical object and transform it into a new object in a physical sense by just changing this motion. We do the same thing, for example, with our bodies by how we think. The entire universe is in a state of motion evolving about the great central sun.
Every atom is a mini-universe within every molecule of our physical bodies. How we think will manifest our feelings, emotions, action, health, and what we attract to ourselves because energy follows thought. The ideal is to create a motion that is determined by your Higher Self, rather than by the lower self, or negative ego. Each of the seven initiations is a higher level of vibration and motion.
Everything is dual; Everything has poles; Everything has its pair of opposites; Like and unlike are the same; Opposites are identical in nature, but different in degree; Extremes meet; All truths, are but half-truths; All paradoxes may be reconciled. – The Kyballion
This is a fascinating principle and law. Take, for example, heat and cold. Though they are opposites they are really the same thing. It is merely a matter of degree. The same could be said of spirit and matter. They are really the same thing. They could be likened to water. Freeze water and it becomes ice (matter). Boil water and it evaporates and becomes gaseous fumes (spirit). They are identical in nature, but different in degrees.
If you look at a thermometer where does heat terminate and cold begin? In actuality it is totally relative to one’s body type and individual preference. This same principle applies to all pairs of opposites, light and dark, large and small, hard and soft, positive and negative.
The same principle also applies on the mental plane of reality. Take, for example, love and hate. They are the same thing but different degrees. The importance of this law comes in the understanding of one’s ability to transmute and change the vibrations from one extreme to another. This, in reality, is the study of alchemy.
The alchemists of the middle ages were preoccupied in changing base metals into gold. This is possible as Sai Baba demonstrates so clearly and instantly. However the real meaning of this comes in the understanding of changing one’s base thoughts and emotions into spiritual gold or soul realized energies.
Hate can be transformed by the power of your mind into love (gold). Your lower self can be transformed into your higher self. Your physical body can be transformed into your light body (ascension). Separation can be turned into oneness. Guidance by your negative ego can be turned into guidance by your soul, using the art of polarization. An empty bank account can be transformed in a full bank account. We just need to polarize our consciousness differently. A person who is run by the emotional body needs to become polarized in their mental body. A person who is identified with their mental body or intellectual self may need to become polarized to the soul. A person merged with soul will need to become polarized to the monad. A person merged in the monad will need to become polarized to God. All varying degrees of the same thing.
Everything flows, out and in; Everything has its tides; All things rise and fall; The pendulum swing manifests in everything; The measure of the swing to the right is the measure of the swing to the left; Rhythm compensates. – The Kyballion
This law stated above, we see manifesting in every aspect of our lives. We see it in the tides of the oceans. We see it in our need for sleep after a day of work. We see it in the creation of a star and sun and its eventual collapse. We see this law operating in the rise and fall of nations, and even in the operation of the omniuniverse. For every action there is an opposite and equal reaction.
We see this in our breathing, and we see it in the way God breathes. God breathes out creation and then He breathes in creation. We see this in the movement of stars and in the science of astrology. As the earth moves through the different signs of the zodiac. We also see this law operating in the mental states of man, where the Hermetic practitioner finds its greatest and most useful application. The Hermetists apply the mental law of neutralization.
The Hermetist cannot annul or cause this principle to cease operation, however, they have learned to escape its effects upon themselves to a certain degree. The degree to which this is obtained depends upon one’s application of this law and upon one’s level of initiation at later stages.
Hermetists have learned how to use this law instead of being used by it. The Hermetist’s understanding the previous law of polarity, polarizes himself at the point at which he desires to rest, and then neutralizes the rhythmic swing of the pendulum which would tend to carry him to the other pole. I am speaking of this now on the mental and emotional level.
The Master does this by the use of will and detachment to create a state of consciousness that is not swung backwards or forward like a pendulum. The masses of humanity live on a mental and emotional roller coaster. The ideal is to attain a state of consciousness of divine indifference, evenmindedness, equanimity, inner peace, joy, unceasing happiness and bliss.
This is best explained by Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita, which is the same teaching of the Hermetists. The idea is to stay even minded, whether you have profit or loss, pleasure or pain, sickness or health, victory or defeat, rejection or praise.
This is just a matter of where you polarize your mind and state of consciousness. There is a point of neutrality or objectivity, or divine detachment, that is not caught up in the pendulum swing between these rhythms and polarities.
There is a state of consciousness called God consciousness where you don’t have to have a bad day. At the highest application of the use of this principle of neutrality, it is even applied into the physical body as well, for example, Sai Baba never sleeps. He doesn’t need food. He never gets tired. He can bilocate and be at two places at the same time.
This is the Ascended state of consciousness, when the monad or spirit merges completely with the physical vehicle as well, and the physical body is turned into Light. The duality becomes transcended. Whether you are on an emotional roller coaster or evenminded and have unceasing equanimity and joy is determined by your attitude and the polarization of your mind. This is why the understanding of these principles are so important.
All suffering comes from one’s attachments, and wrong points of view.
Every cause has its effect; Every effect has its cause; Everything happens according to law’ Chance is but a name for law not recognized’ There are many planes of causation, but nothing escapes the law. – The Kyballion
There are no accidents in the universe. Everything in the universe is governed by laws. There are physical laws, emotional laws, mental laws, and spiritual laws. By understanding these laws we can learn to operate in grace instead of karma. Many times we don’t know the cause for the reason things happen to us. This is because there are seven dimensions of reality in which causation can occur. As Edgar Cayce said, over and over again in his Universal Mind readings, “Every jot and tittle of the law is fulfilled.” No one escapes anything, even though it may appear like some people are, in truth, they are not.
The Hermetists understand the art of rising above the ordinary plane of cause and effect, to a certain degree. They do this by rising to a high plane of consciousness and, hence, becoming masters instead of victims, and causes instead of effects.
The average person on the street is an effect, not a cause. They are an effect and victim of thoughts, moods, emotions, desire, appetites, lower self, other people, biorhythms, the physical body, past lives, subconscious programming, heredity, the weather, astrological influences, vital forces, disincarnate spirits, glamour, maya, illusion, and the environment, to name a few. The Master rises above and has a great deal of mastery over these things the higher one evolves.
By the time of the sixth initiation and ascension, all of them are transcended. The Masters obey the causation of the higher planes, but they help to rule them on their own plane. At each level of initiation one goes up another plane of consciousness, and hence, can even become a greater cause.
The key for most people of the earth plane is to gain mastery over your mind, which will lead to mastery over your emotions and desires, and also mastery over your physical body and appetites. Djwhal Khul has called this mastery over your three lower vehicles (physical, astral, mental bodies).
The basic cause of your life are the thoughts and images you hold in your conscious and subconscious mind. By learning to be absolutely vigilant and only allowing into your mind thoughts of God, love, perfection, perfect health, prosperity, joy, oneness, and equanimity, then this is all you will create both inwardly and outwardly. For your thoughts cause your reality.
Your thinking must be subservient to your soul and monad (spirit), instead of your lower self and negative ego. When these lessons are mastered then there really is no reason to attend this school called Earth life, except for service to our brothers and sisters who have not learned these lessons.
In summary, be the cause, be the master, be the co-creator with God that you truly are, and then you are using this law and principle instead of allowing it to use you. If you are not a master, you are a victim. This is the law of polarity. Change your polarization with the power of mind and the power of your God given free choice.
Gender is in everything; Everything has its masculine and feminine principles; Gender manifests on all planes.” – The Kyballion
Everything has a yin and yang. On the physical plane each person has a male or female physical body, however psychologically each person is androgenous with male and female qualities. Each person has a left brain and right brain.
In Chinese philosophy, the physical foods a person eats are divided into yin foods and yang foods. This law not only applies on the physical plane, but also on the emotional, mental and spiritual planes. Father God and Mother Earth, Yin types of emotions and yang types of emotions. Yin types of thoughts and more yang type of thoughts.
The key point here is that the spiritual path is the path of balance and integration. Buddha called this the middle way. He demonstrated that the path to God was not the path of self indulgence or asceticism. It is the path of balancing the male and female aspects within self and also balancing the heavenly and earthly aspects within self. The spiritual path is also the balancing of the three minds, the four bodies, and the seven chakras. It is also the proper balance between the soul and the ego. This is done by transcending negative ego, and hence, keeping the ego in its proper balance and relationship to soul, which is to let it take care of the physical body, but not interpret your life.
As mastery is achieved this balanced state becomes more habitual and won’t take as much work, time, and energy to try and stay in balance. This is achieved by “knowing thyself”, and understanding these universal laws and balances that govern our being. To know God, we must understand God’s laws.
> Hermetic Teachings | I am University
The late Carl Sagan (1934-1996) was a hero in the scientific community and a role model for everyone around the world. Carl Sagan’s’ influences carry today because his words, hence his empirical point of view, seem to be ever more appropriate in our current economic and political climate.
The video does not advocate that Carl Sagan supported The Zeitgeist Movement as he passed long before its conception. Rather, using his own words, to simply show how Carl Sagan was in line with the thoughts and direction of this movement that concerns all of human kind.
For more information on the Zeitgeist movement, click here.
Our universe of interdependent systems is made up of many parts that build a whole. We see this principle over and over again. I walk around with a sense of being whole and I have the knowledge that numerous cells make up who I am physically.
It is beautiful that we can be diverse in so many ways and still be here together as one; living in harmony is acceptance of what separates us and acknowledgment of how we are knit together.
The Earth is not a big rock, infested with living organisms, any more than your skeleton is bones infested with cells.
The Earth is geological, yes, but this geological entity grows people. And our existence on the Earth is a symptom of the solar system and its balances as much as the solar system in turn is a symptom of our galaxy and our galaxy in its turn is a symptom of the whole company of galaxies; goodness only know what that’s in.
But you see, when as a scientist you describe the behavior of an living organism you try to say what a person does. Its the only way in which you can describe what a person is, describe what they do.
Then you find out in making this description you cannot confine yourself to what happens inside the skin. In other words you can’t talk about a person walking, unless you start describing the floor. Because when I walk i don’t just dangle my legs in empty space. I move in relationship to a room. So In order to describe what I’m doing when I’m walking I have to describe the room, I have to describe the territory.
So in describing my talking at the moment I can’t describe this just as a thing in itself because I’m talking to you. So what I’m doing at the moment is not completely described unless your being here is described also.
So if that is necessary if in other words in order to describe my behavior I have to describe your behavior and the behavior of the environment; it means that we really got one system of behavior. That what I am involves what you are. I don’t know who I am unless I know who you are and you don’t know who you are unless you know who I am.
There was a wise rabbi who once said “If I am I because you are you and you are you because I am I then I am not I and you are not you.” In other words we are not separate.
We define each other, we’re all backs and fronts to each other. We and our environment, and all of us and each other are interdependent systems. We know who we are in terms of other people.
We all love together and we are; I think, quite urgently, in need of coming to feel that we are the eternal universe each one of us.
Brave New World novelist Aldous Huxley was diagnosed with cancer in 1960, at which point his health slowly began to deteriorate.
On his deathbed in November of 1963, just as he was passing away, Aldous Huxley — a man who for many years had been fascinated with the effects of psychedelic drugs since being introduced to mescaline in 1953 — asked his wife Laura to administer him with LSD. She agreed.
The following letter — an incredibly moving, detailed account of Aldous’s last days — was written by Laura just days after her husband’s death and sent to his older brother Julian.
The scans of the letter are a little blurry, a full transcript follows below the images.
Transcript
6233 Mulholland Highway
Los Angeles 28, California
December 8, 1963
Dearest Julian and Juliette:
There is so much I want to tell you about the last week of Aldous’ life and particularly the last day. What happened is important not only for us close and loving but it is almost a conclusion, better, a continuation of his own work, and therefore it has importance for people in general.
First of all I must confirm to you with complete subjective certainty that Aldous had not consciously looked at the fact that he might die until the day he died. Subconsciously it was all there, and you will be able to see this for yourselves because beginning from November 15th until November 22nd I have much of Aldous’ remarks on tape, For these tapes I know we shall all be immensely grateful. Aldous was never quite willing to give up his writing and dictate or makes notes on a recorder. He used a Dictograph, only to read poetry or passages of literature; he would listen to these in his quite moments in the evening as he was going to sleep. I have had a tape recorder for years, and I tried to use it with him sometimes, but it was too bulky, and particularly now when we were always in the bedroom and the bed had so much hospital equipment around it. (We had spoken about buying a small one, but the market here is flooded with transister tape recorders, and most of them are very bad. I didn’t have time to look into it, and this remained just one of those things like many others that we were going to do.) In the beginning of November, when Aldous was in the hospital, my birthday occurred, so Jinny looked carefully into all the machines, and presented me with the best of them – a small thing, easy manageable and practically unnoticeable. After having practiced with it myself a few days, I showed it to Aldous, who was very pleased with it, and from the 15th on we used it a little every day recording his dreams and notes for future writing.
The period from the 15th to the 22nd marked, it seems to me, a period of intense mental activity for Aldous. We had diminished little by little the tranquillizers he had been taking four times a day a drug called Sperine which is akin, I understand, to Thorazin. We diminished it practically to nothing only used painkillers like Percodon a little Amitol , and something for nausea. He took also a few injections of 1/2 cc of Dilaudid, which is a derivative of morphine, and which gave him many dreams, some of which you will hear on the tape. The doctor says this is a small intake of morphine.
Now to pick up my point again, in these dreams as well as sometimes in his conversation, it seemed obvious and transparent that subconsciously he knew that he was going to die. But not once consciously did he speak of it. This had nothing to do with the idea that some of his friends put forward, that he wanted to spare me. It wasn’t this, because Aldous had never been able to play a part, to say a single lie; he was constitutionall unable to lie, and if he wanted to spare me, he could certainly have spoken to Jinny.
During the last two months I gave him almost daily an opportunity, an opening for speaking about death, but of course this opening was always one that could have been taken in two ways – either towards life or towards death, and he always took it towards life. We read the entire manual of Dr. Leary extracted from The Book of the Dead. He could have, even jokingly said don’t forget to remind me his comment instead was only directed to the way Dr. Leary conducted his LSD sessions, and how he would bring people, who were not dead, back here to this life after the session. It is true he said sometimes phrases like, “If I get out of this,” in connection to his new ideas for writing, and wondered when and if he would have the strength to work. His mind was very active and it seems that this Dilaudid had stirred some new layer which had not often been stirred in him.
The night before he died, (Thursday night) about eight o’clock, suddenly an idea occurred to him. “Darling,” he said, “it just occurs to me that I am imposing on Jinny having somebody as sick as this in the house with the two children, this is really an imposition.” Jinny was out of the house at the moment, and so I said, “Good, when she comes back I will tell her this. It will be a nice laugh.” “No,” he said with unusual insistence, “we should do something about it.” “Well,” I replied, keeping it light, “all right, get up. Let’s go on a trip.” “No”, he said, “It is serious. We must think about it. All these nurses in the house. What we could do, we could take an apartment for this period. Just for this period.” It was very clear what he meant. It was unmistakeably clear. He thought he might be so sick for another three of four weeks, and then he could come back and start his normal life again. This fact of starting his normal life occurred quite often. In the last three or four weeks he was several times appalled by his weakness, when he realized how much he had lost, and how long it would take to be normal again. Now this Thursday night he had remarked about taking an apartment with an unusual energy, but a few minutes later and all that evening I felt that he was going down, he was losing ground quickly. Eating was almost out of the question. He had just taken a few spoonsful of liquid and puree, in fact every time that he took something, this would start the cough. Thursday night I called Dr. Bernstein, and told him the pulse was very high – 140, he had a little bit of fever and whole feeling was one of immanence of death. But both the nurse and the doctor said they didn’t think this was the case, but that if I wanted him the doctor would come up to see him that night. Then I returned to Aldous’ room and we decided to give him an injection of Dilaudid. It was about nine o’clock, and he went to sleep and I told the doctor to come the next morning. Aldous slept until about two a.m. and then he got another shot, and I saw him again at six-thirty. Again I felt that life was leaving, something was more wrong than usual, although I didn’t know exactly what, and a little later I sent you and Matthew and Ellen and my sister a wire. Then about nine a.m. Aldous began to be so agitated, so uncomfortable, so desperate really. He wanted to be moved all the time. Nothing was right. Dr. Bernstein came about that time and decided to give him a shot which he had given him once before, something that you give intravenously, very slowly – it takes five minutes to give the shot, and it is a drug that dilates the bronchial tubes, so that respiration is easier.
This drug made him uncomfortable the time before, it must have been three Fridays before, when he had that crisis I wrote you about. But then it helped him. This time it was quite terrible. He couldn’t express himself but he was feeling dreadul, nothing was right, no position was right. I tried to ask him what was occurring. He had difficulty in speaking, but he managed to say, “Just trying to tell you makes it worse.” He wanted to be moved all the time – “Move me.” “Move my legs.” “Move my arms.” “Move my bed.” I had one of those push-button beds, which moved up and down both from the head and the feet, and incessantly, at times, I would have him go up and down, up and down by pushing buttons. We did this again, and somehow it seemed to give him a little relief. but it was very, very little.
All of a sudden, it must have been then ten o’clock, he could hardly speak, and he said he wanted a tablet to write on, and for the first time he wrote – “If I die,” and gave a direction for his will. I knew what he meant. He had signed his will as I told you about a week before, and in this will there was a transfer of a life insurance policy from me to Matthew. We had spoken of getting these papers of transfer, which the insurance company had just sent, and that actually arrived special delivery just a few minutes before. Writing was very, very difficult for him. Rosalind and Dr. Bernstein were there trying also to understand what he wanted. I said to him, “Do you mean that you want to make sure that the life insurance is transferred from me to Matthew?” He said, “Yes.” I said, “The papers for the transfer have just arrived, if you want to sign them you can sign them, but it is not necessary because you already made it legal in your will. He heaved a sigh of relief in not having to sign. I had asked him the day before even, to sign some important papers, and he had said, “Let’s wait a little while,” this, by the way, was his way now, for him to say that he couldn’t do something. If he was asked to eat, he would say, “Let’s wait a little while,” and when I asked him to do some signing that was rather important on Thursday he said, “Let’s wait a little while” He wanted to write you a letter – “and especially about Juliette’s book, is lovely,” he had said several times. And when I proposed to do it, he would say, “Yes, just in a little while” in such a tired voice, so totally different from his normal way of being. So when I told him that the signing was not necessary and that all was in order, he had a sigh of relief.
“If I die.” This was the first time that he had said that with reference to NOW. He wrote it. I knew and felt that for the first time he was looking at this. About a half an hour before I had called up Sidney Cohen, a psychiatrist who has been one of the leaders in the use of LSD. I had asked him if he had ever given LSD to a man in this condition. He said he had only done it twice actually, and in one case it had brought up a sort of reconciliation with Death, and in the other case it did not make any difference. I asked him if he would advise me to give it to Aldous in his condition. I told him how I had offered it several times during the last two months, but he always said that he would wait until he was better. Then Dr. Cohen said, “I don’t know. I don’t think so. What do you think?” I said, “I don’t know. Shall I offer it to him?” He said, “I would offer it to him in a very oblique way, just say ‘what do you think about taking LSD [sometime again]?'” This vague response had been common to the few workers in this field to whom I had asked, “Do you give LSD in extremes?” ISLAND is the only definite reference that I know of. I must have spoken to Sidney Cohen about nine-thirty. Aldous’ condition had become so physically painful and obscure, and he was so agitated he couldn’t say what he wanted, and I couldn’t understand. At a certain point he said something which no one here has been able to explain to me, he said, “Who is eating out of my bowl?” And I didn’t know what this meant and I yet don’t know. And I asked him. He managed a faint whimsical smile and said, “Oh, never mind, it is only a joke.” And later on, feeling my need to know a little so I could do something, he said in an agonizing way, “At this point there is so little to share.” Then I knew that he knew that he was going. However, this inability to express himself was only muscular – his brain was clear and in fact, I feel, at a pitch of activity.
Then I don’t know exactly what time it was, he asked for his tablet and wrote, “Try LSD 100 intramuscular.” Although as you see from this photostatic copy it is not very clear, I know that this is what he meant. I asked him to confirm it. Suddenly something became very clear to me. I knew that we were together again after this torturous talking of the last two months. I knew then, I knew what was to be done. I went quickly into the cupboard in the other room where Dr. Bernstein was, and the TV which had just announced the shooting of Kennedy. I took the LSD and said, “I am going to give him a shot of LSD, he asked for it.” The doctor had a moment of agitation because you know very well the uneasiness about this drug in the medical mind. Then he said, “All right, at this point what is the difference.” Whatever he had said, no “authority,” not even an army of authorities could have stopped me then. I went into Aldous’ room with the vial of LSD and prepared a syringe. The doctor asked me if I wanted him to give him the shot – maybe because he saw that my hands were trembling. His asking me that made me conscious of my hands, and I said, “No I must do this.” I quieted myself, and when I gave him the shot my hands were very firm. Then, somehow, a great relief came to us both. I believe it was 11:20 when I gave him his first shot of 100 microgrammes. I sat near his bed and I said, “Darling, maybe in a little while I will take it with you. Would you like me to take it also in a little while?” I said a little while because I had no idea of when I should or could take it, in fact I have not been able to take it to this writing because of the condition around me. And he indicated “yes.” We must keep in mind that by now he was speaking very, very little. Then I said, “Would you like Matthew to take it with you also? And he said, “Yes.” “What about Ellen?” He said, “Yes.” Then I mentioned two or three people who had been working with LSD and he said, “No, no, basta, basta.” Then I said, “What about Jinny?” And he said, “Yes,” with emphasis. Then we were quiet. I just sat there without speaking for a while. Aldous was not so agitated physically. He seemed – somehow I felt he knew, we both knew what we were doing, and this has always been a great relief to Aldous. I have seen him at times during his illness very upset until he knew what he was going to do, then even if it was an operation or X-ray, he would make a total change. This enormous feeling of relief would come to him, and he wouldn’t be worried at all about it, he would say let’s do it, and we would go to it and he was like a liberated man. And now I had the same feeling – a decision had been made, he made the decision again very quickly. Suddenly he had accepted the fact of death; he had taken this moksha medicine in which he believed. He was doing what he had written in ISLAND, and I had the feeling that he was interested and relieved and quiet.
After half an hour, the expression on his face began to change a little, and I asked him if he felt the effect of LSD, and he indicated no. Yet, I think that a something had taken place already. This was one of Aldous’ characteristics. He would always delay acknowledging the effect of any medicine, even when the effect was quite certainly there, unless the effect was very, very stong he would say no. Now, the expression of his face was beginning to look as it did every time that he had the moksha medicine, when this immense expression of complete bliss and love would come over him. This was not the case now, but there was a change in comparison to what his face had been two hours ago. I let another half hour pass, and then I decided to give him another 100 mg. I told him I was going to do it, and he acquiesced. I gave him another shot, and then I began to talk to him. He was very quiet now; he was very quiet and his legs were getting colder; higher and higher I could see purple areas of cynosis. Then I began to talk to him, saying, “Light and free,” Some of these thing I told him at night in these last few weeks before he would go to sleep, and now I said it more convincingly, more intensely – “go, go, let go, darling; forward and up. You are going forward and up; you are going towards the light. Willing and consciously you are going, willingly and consciously, and you are doing this beautifully; you are doing this so beautifully – you are going towards the light; you are going towards a greater love; you are going forward and up. It is so easy; it is so beautiful. You are doing it so beautifully, so easily. Light and free. Forward and up. You are going towards Maria’s love with my love. You are going towards a greater love than you have ever known. You are going towards the best, the greatest love, and it is easy, it is so easy, and you are doing it so beautifully.” I believe I started to talk to him – it must have been about one or two o’clock. It was very difficult for me to keep track of time. The nurse was in the room and Rosalind and Jinny and two doctors – Dr. Knight and Dr. Cutler. They were sort of far away from the bed. I was very, very near his ears, and I hope I spoke clearly and understandingly. Once I asked him, “Do you hear me?” He squeezed my hand. He was hearing me. I was tempted to ask more questions, but in the morning he had begged me not to ask any more question, and the entire feeling was that things were right. I didn’t dare to inquire, to disturb, and that was the only question that I asked, “Do you hear me?” Maybe I should have asked more questions, but I didn’t.
Later on I asked the same question, but the hand didn’t move any more. Now from two o’clock until the time he died, which was five-twenty, there was complete peace except for once. That must have been about three-thirty or four, when I saw the beginning of struggle in his lower lip. His lower lip began to move as if it were going to be a struggle for air. Then I gave the direction even more forcefully. “It is easy, and you are doing this beautifully and willingly and consciously, in full awareness, in full awareness, darling, you are going towards the light.” I repeated these or similar words for the last three or four hours. Once in a while my own emotion would overcome me, but if it did I immediately would leave the bed for two or three minutes, and would come back only when I could dismiss my emotion. The twitching of the lower lip lasted only a little bit, and it seemed to respond completely to what I was saying. “Easy, easy, and you are doing this willingly and consciously and beautifully – going forward and up, light anf free, forward and up towards the light, into the light, into complete love.” The twitching stopped, the breating became slower and slower, and there was absolutely not the slightest indication of contraction, of struggle. it was just that the breathing became slower – and slower – and slower, and at five-twenty the breathing stopped.
I had been warned in the morning that there might be some up-setting convulsions towards the end, or some sort of contraction of the lungs, and noises. People had been trying to prepare me for some horrible physical reaction that would probably occur. None of this happened, actually the ceasing of the breathing was not a drama at all, because it was done so slowly, so gently, like a piece of music just finishing in a sempre piu piano dolcemente. I had the feeling actually that the last hour of breathing was only the conditioned reflex of the body that had been used to doing this for 69 years, millions and millions of times. There was not the feeling that with the last breath, the spirit left. It had just been gently leaving for the last four hours. In the room the last four hours were two doctors, Jinny, the nurse, Rosalind Roger Gopal – you know she is the great friend of Krishnamurti, and the directress of the school in Ojai for which Aldous did so much. They didn’t seem to hear what I was saying. I thought I was speaking loud enough, but they said they didn’t hear it. Rosalind and Jinny once in a while came near the bed and held Aldous’ hand. These five people all said that this was the most serene, the most beautiful death. Both doctors and nurse said they had never seen a person in similar physical condition going off so completely without pain and without struggle.
We will never know if all this is only our wishful thinking, or if it is real, but certainly all outward signs and the inner feeling gave indication that it was beautiful and peaceful and easy.
And now, after I have been alone these few days, and less bombarded by other people’s feelings, the meaning of this last day becomes clearer and clearer to me and more and more important. Aldous was, I think (and certainly I am) appalled at the fact that what he wrote in ISLAND was not taken seriously. It was treated as a work of science fiction, when it was not fiction because each one of the ways of living he described in ISLAND was not a product of his fantasy, but something that had been tried in one place or another and some of them in our own everyday life. If the way Aldous died were known, it might awaken people to the awareness that not only this, but many other facts described in ISLAND are possible here and now. Aldous’asking for moksha medicine while dying is a confirmation of his work, and as such is of importance not only to us, but to the world. It is true we will have some people saying that he was a drug addict all his life and that he ended as one, but it is history that Huxleys stop ignorance before ignorance can stop Huxleys.
Even after our correspondence on the subject, I had many doubts about keeping Aldous in the dark regarding his condition. It seemed not just that, after all he had written and spoken about death, he should be let to go into it unaware. And he had such complete confidence in me – he might have taken it for granted that had death been near I certainly would have told him and helped him. So my relief at his sudden awakening at his quick adjusting is immense. Don’t you feel this also.
Now, is his way of dying to remain our, and only our relief and consolation, or should others also benefit from it? What do you feel?
> Most Beautiful Death | Letter of Note
The Pale Blue Dot quote by Carl Sagan is given a new visual spin by Gavin Aung Than in this beautifully illustrated comic strip.
Our pale blue dot in this universe is what we all have in common, lets share in good times.
I couldn’t think of a better quote to celebrate Zen Pencils 100th comic. I’ve been wanting to adapt it since I started the website, but I knew I needed a decent amount of time to do it justice.– Gavin Aung, Zen Pencils
Alan Watts shares his thoughts on life’s inherent transiency. Explaining how our own thoughts and feelings may hinder or aid us in our pursuit of discovering who we are; Watts poignantly expands our minds to allow more of ourselves to be remembered.
Why don’t you really know what you want?
Two reasons that you don’t really know what you want:
#1 You have it.
#2 You don’t know yourself, because you never can.
The Godhead is never an object of it’s own knowledge. Just as a knife doesn’t cut itself, fire doesn’t burn itself, light doesn’t illumine itself. It’s always an endless mystery to itself. I don’t know…
And this I don’t know uttered in the infinite interior of the spirit. This I don’t know, is the same thing as, I love. I let go. I don’t try to force or control. It’s the same thing as humility. If you think that you understand Brahman, you do not understand. And you have yet to be instructed further. If you know that you do not understand, then you truly understand. For the Brahman is unknown to those who know it, and known to those who know it not.
And the principle is that anytime you as it were, voluntarily let up control, in other words cease to cling to yourself. You have an access of power. Cause you’re wasting energy all the time in self-defense. Trying to manage things, trying to enforce things to conform to your will. Why don’t you stop doing that?
That wasted energy is available. Therefore, you are in that sense having that energy available, you are one with the divine principle, you have the energy. When you are trying, however to act as if you are God, that is to say you don’t trust anybody, and you are the Dictator, and you try to keep everybody in line. You lose the divine energy, cause what you are doing is simply defending yourself. So then, the principle is the more you give it away, the more it comes back.
Now, you say “I don’t have the courage to give it away – I’m afraid.” And you can only overcome that by realizing you better give it away because there’s no way of holding on to it. The meaning of the fact, you see, that everything is dissolving constantly, that we’re all falling apart. We’re all in the process of constant death, and that the worldly hope that men set their heart upon – turns ashes or it prospers anon like snow upon the desert’s dusty face lighting a little hour or two – is gone and all that Omar Khayyam jazz.
The cloud-capp’d towers, the gorgeous palaces, the great globe itself. Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve, and, like this insubstantial pageant faded, leave not a rack behind.
All falling apart. Everything is. That’s the great assistance to you. That fact that everything is in decay is your help. That is allowing you, that you don’t have to let go, because there is nothing to hold on to. It’s achieved for you, in other words, by the process of nature.
So, once you see that you just don’t have a prayer, and that’s it’s all washed up and that you’ll vanish and leave no rack behind. And you really get with that. Suddenly, you find that you have the power, this enormous access of energy. But it’s not power that came to you because you grabbed it, it came in entirely the opposite way. Power that comes to you in the opposite way, is power with which you can be trust.
The Universe is the game of self. Which plays hide and seek forever and ever. – Alan Watts
Illustration by Stephen Collins
The Maharishi Effect is a phase transition to a more orderly and harmonious state of life in society as measured by decreased crime, violence, accidents, and illness, and improvements in economic conditions and other sociological indicators. Named in honor of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who predicted it thirty years ago.
Maharishi had predicted that when a critical sub-population of individuals – 1% – experienced and stimulated the field of pure consciousness through the Transcendental Meditation Program, a type of macroscopic field effect of coherence would occur in the society and the quality of life would improve. This would manifest in more orderly and harmonious individual behaviour and a measurable improvement in the various social indices which characterise the quality of life in society.
During the past 25 years over 500 scientific studies have been conducted on Transcendental Meditation and Yogic Flying showing the wide-ranging benefits for all aspects of life. 42 of these studies have shown that when 1% of the population of any town or country practises Transcendental Meditation, or when the square root of 1% practise TM-Sidhi Yogic Flying in a group, there are dramatic positive improvements in the entire society.
One such study was held in June-July 1993 in Washington D.C.
This National Demonstration Project to Reduce Violent Crime and Improve Governmental Effectiveness brought approximately 4,000 participants in the Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi programs to the United States national capital from June 7 to July 30, 1993. A 27-member independent Project Review Board consisting of sociologists and criminologists from leading universities, representatives from the police department and government of the District of Columbia, and civic leaders approved in advance the research protocol for the project and monitored its progress.
The dependent variable in the research was weekly violent crime, as measured by the Uniform Crime Report program of the Federal Bureau of Investigation; violent crimes include homicide, rape, aggravated assault, and robbery. This data was obtained from the District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Department for 1993 as well as for the preceding five years (1988-1992). Additional data used for control purposes included weather variables (temperature, precipitation, humidity), daylight hours, changes in police and community anti-crime activities, prior crime trends in the District of Columbia, and concurrent crime trends in neighboring cities. Average weekly temperature was significantly correlated with homicides, rapes and assaults (HRA crimes), as has also been found in previous research; therefore temperature was used as a control variable in the main analysis of HRA crimes. Using time series analysis, violent crimes were analyzed separately in terms of HRA crimes (crimes against the person) and robbery (monetary crimes), as well as together.
Analysis of 1993 data, controlling for temperature, revealed that there was a highly significant decrease in HRA crimes associated with increases in the size of the group during the Demonstration Project. The maximum decrease was 23.3% when the size of the group was largest during the final week of the project. The statistical probability that this result could reflect chance variation in crime levels was less than 2 in 1 billion (p < .000000002). When a longer baseline is used (1988-1993 data), the maximum decrease was 24.6% during this period (p < .00003). When analyzed as a separate variable, robberies did not decrease significantly, but a joint analysis of both HRA crimes and robberies indicated that violent crimes as a whole decreased significantly to a maximum amount of 15.6% during the final week of the project (p = .0008).
Analysis of 1993 data, controlling for temperature, revealed that there was a highly significant decrease in HRA crimes associated with increases in the size of the group during the Demonstration Project.
Based on the results of the study, the steady state gain (long-term effect) associated with a permanent group of 4,000 participants in the Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi programs was calculated as a 48% reduction in HRA crimes in the District of Columbia.
Given the strength of these results, their consistency with the positive results of previous research, the grave human and financial costs of violent crime, and the lack of other effective and scientific methods to reduce crime, policy makers are urged to apply this approach on a large scale for the benefit of society.
Scientific proof of meditations far-reaching beneficial effects are wonderful to read about, I have no doubt we will reach that 1% threshold soon.
thirdmonk certainly wants to help, if you’re interested in joining a weekly meditation with us, please email us or leave a comment below and we’ll send you the details.
> Maharishi Effect | Dubrovnik Peace Project
> Crime Prevention | ISTPP.org
The I Ching is one of the oldest of the Chinese Classical Texts. Traditionally it is used as a tool for divination – the art of foretelling future events. It is essentially a means of obtaining spiritual guidance, inspirational insight and Universal wisdom. It can help with personal development or provide encouragement in finding authentic understanding and solutions to the questions or decisions that are of importance to you at any given time or situation.
The book acts not only as a spiritual compass but also offers a wealth of beautiful poetry and Chinese philosophy that stretches back 5000 years into the origins of ancient Chinese customs and values. Its wisdom has the potential to stimulate your sensitivity, creativity and resourcefulness, even whilst experiencing the most challenging and demanding emotional periods of your life.
In this regard the I Ching can also be helpful as a meditation support, providing comfort and guidance. The text and subsequent visualisations that flow from its words have the power to stimulate a deep-seated personal authentic vibration.
Luckily there’s no need to study or even understand Taoist philosophy to appreciate or benefit from the teachings of the I Ching. All that’s necessary is the sincerity and aptitude to explore the concept of aligning with natural and Universal laws and the energetic polarities of Yin and Yang.
The purpose of consulting the Oracle, as the I Ching is often called, is to gain mastery over one’s circumstances and thereby live a successful, spiritual life which may or may not include wealth and high position.
The 64 hexagrams represent archetypal behaviours to aspire to on a practical level. Since Nature, waxes and wanes, is in constant motion and is cyclical, whatever situation you find yourself in, has been and will come again. In depth study of the I Ching’s commentaries gives the student clues to be able to recognize any situation and guidelines on how to act in it. It is in this way, that it is said the I Ching can predict the future. It does not actually predict the future, it simply suggests that due to the cycles of nature, what has been will be again.
The first step in consulting the I Ching is to formulate a question and create a hexagram, typically though the process of throwing coins. There are several other ways to consult the I Ching – one traditional method uses grains of rice, another uses yarrow sticks (allegedly because Yarrow grows on the grave of Confucius), but the main method used in the West is throwing coins, usually Chinese, although any coins will do the job.
After gathering your 3 coins, meditate on the question you are seeking guidance on. Some silent focus on your question will ensure that you have a clear connection when you are throwing your coins.
In throwing the coins the intention is to create a hexagram. Each hexagram is built up from a series of six lines, either broken or unbroken, which are considered to be a reflection of the energetic qualities of the situation at hand.
A straight line ‘_______’ represents Yang energy or young Yang, and a broken line ‘____ ____’ represents Yin energy or young Yin. There is also another energetic quality which reflects the fact that the Yin or Yang energy of any situation is dynamic and thus may be at the point of transformation, either from Yin to Yang or vice versa. These lines are called ‘moving’ or ‘changing’ lines and a can be Yin moving/changing (old Yin) or Yang moving/changing (old Yang).
If you use the coin method, every time you throw your three coins the outcome can be translated into an energetic line. By throwing the coins six times you then create the six lines that become the whole hexagram.
Once you have formulated your question you should select three coins which have an identifiable ‘head’ and ‘tail’ or two easily distinguishable sides that you can assign the following numerical values to:
Heads = 3
Tails = 2
By throwing the three coins their combined total value will fall between 6 and 9. For example, two heads and one tail would total 8, two tails and a head would total 7, three tails would total 6, etc.
These values can then be translated their energetic lines:
3 tails thrown = value of 6, represented as a Yin broken line which becomes a moving/changing line (old Yin), because the coins are identical:
2 tails and 1 head thrown = value of 7, represented as a Yang straight line (young Yang):
2 heads and 1 tail thrown = value of 8, represented as a Yin broken line (young Yin):
3 heads thrown = value of 9, represented as a Yang straight line, which becomes a moving/changing line (old Yang) because the coins are identical:
*Note that moving/changing lines within the hexagram are often represented with a ‘x’ or ‘o’ in the middle of the line to indicate that the lines are changing from Yin to Yang, or Yang to Yin, respectively.
The value and energetic line type of the first throw corresponds to the first or bottom line of the hexagram, the value and energetic line type of the second throw corresponds to the second from the bottom line, etc. Repeating this throwing action six times then builds the hexagram from the bottom up.
The bottom three lines of the hexagram are referred to as the lower trigram, and the top three lines are referred to as the upper trigram, together they make up the whole hexagram.
An example would be:
Each hexagram chapter is divided into two sections. The main opening text gives a broad overview of the message and should always be read. There’s also a series of six supplementary passages, each relating to one of the six lines of the hexagram. If you throw values of 6 or 9 and therefore have moving/changing lines within your hexagram you should also read the additional line passages that these correspond to for further guidance or insight.
With the hexagram example above, the second and fifth lines are moving/changing and so the line passages two and five should also be read alongside the main opening text.
Where moving/changing lines are present within your hexagram this can mean that the situation or question presented is in an extreme state of flux, unbalanced or due for immediate change and attention. In addition to reading the supplementary line passages within your primary hexagram chapter, the moving/changing lines can also be ‘allowed to change’: every old Yin (6) becomes a young Yang (7), and every old Yang (9) becomes a young Yin (8), and so a second extension (or relating) hexagram is created.
Your two hexagrams can then be read together (the main body text and relevant line passages of the primary hexagram and the main body text of the extension hexagram) to disclose the full meaning of the guidance being offered.
Using the example above, the following second extension hexagram would be created by allowing the moving/changing lines to transform:
The upper and lower trigrams of this extension hexagram are called ‘Ken’ and ‘Ch’ien’ respectively. Together they make up hexagram 26, called ‘Ta Ch’u, translated as ‘The Taming Power of The Great’.
This whole process can seem a little mechanical and cumbersome at first but don’t let it prevent your authentic consultation. The methodical and mindful nature of the practice is actually very important as it slows down your highly stimulated human-centred mind allowing you to access your more meditative, creative Tao mind, enabling a true reflection of the current situation or issue to manifest.
After you are done throwing your coins and you have noted down your 6 lines (starting from the bottom up) you can move on to reading about the hexagram you received.
Just in case you don’t have a copy of the I Ching at home, below are some of the websites I use to look up hexagrams:
I Ching Calculator (This is a calculator which can be used instead of coins, but it’s accuracy isn’t unknown in comparison to throwing the coins yourself)
It is no accident that, of the early Jesuit scholars who were pioneers in making China’s culture known in Europe, those who concerned themselves with the Book of Changes were all later declared to be insane or heretic.
Indeed, to the Chinese themselves the study of the I Ching is not to be taken lightly. By an unwritten law, only those advanced in years regard themselves as ready to learn from it. Confucius is said to have been seventy years old when he first took up the Book of Changes. – Hellmut Wilhelm from Understanding the I Ching: The Wilhelm Lectures on the Book of Changes
> I Ching | Truth Theory
> Book of Changes | Compassionate Dragon
Terence Mckenna provides encouraging advice on walking lightly through life as you pursue your passion.
Terence McKenna was a psychedelic warrior – a writer, lecturer and expert on ecology, botany, shamanism and spiritual transformation. McKenna’s books discuss the benefits and mind-altering effects of LSD, psilocybin and other hallucinogens, and the role they’ve played in human history and culture.
I had an impossible dream (become a web cartoonist) and I made the commitment and hurled myself into the abyss (quit my job and sold my house to fund the dream) and so far, it’s worked out better than I could have imagined.
Now I don’t want to give people a false sense of hope – that all you have to do is take the leap and everything will work out peachy. For me, ‘making the commitment’ means working my ass off, drawing these comics 6-7 days a week. But the work is satisfying and meaningful to me. So I would say that hard work, planning, skill, commitment and grit make up 90% of the equation, but maybe that last 10% is just deciding to hurl yourself into the abyss. – Gavin Aung, Zen Pencils
