Generators of Imagination, The Historical Purpose of Human Beings – Terence McKenna (Video)

Generators of Imagination, The Historical Purpose of Human Beings - Terence McKenna (Video) | Third Monk

From a 1991 lecture entitled Where Does Reality Begin and End?, Terence McKenna talks about the role of human beings in nature and reality.

We can become a highly evolved and aware species that acts as the voice of nature but artificial conflicts are holding us back.

We are energy storage and release mechanisms, sanctioned by nature for some purpose which will be visible somewhere downstream in the flow of time but which is opaque to us now.

– Terence McKenna

Soundtrack: DJ Shadow – Transmission 2

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Eco Villages – The Neighborhoods of the Future

Eco Villages - The Neighborhoods of the Future | Third Monk image 1

Eco Villages offer people socially aware self-sustaining micro-communities.

This is a critical time in human history. Clearly we are destroying the natural environment and we are warming up the globe. We can be sure that our species will not going to be around very long if we don’t get our consumption habits under control. – Liz Walker, co-founder and executive director of Ecovillage at Ithaca (EVI), who also has written two books on sustainable development.

The eco village mission has two aspects: conservation and living in a sustainable way and having people live in harmony together. The eco village and the cohousing movement both started in the early 1990s in Denmark and has since spread across the world.

Unlike self-sufficient communities in the past, EVI members have their own homes and manage their own finances separately, but each pays a monthly fee for maintaining the common buildings, land, and to fund future projects. Eco villagers are actively involved in the governance of the community and make decisions through a consensus process during the board of directors meetings that include members of EVI.

It’s a chance to be with our neighbors, it’s a chance to have friends without having to drive across a big city. – Barbara Pease, EVI member, retired computer scientist

Three Groves EcoVillage (TGE) in West Grove, Pennsylvania, has a similar vision of building an ecologically sustainable neighborhood.

It’s not just the environmental sustainability, it’s social sustainability… you can share your resources, you can come together and accomplish so much more because by sharing resources with my neighbor, I have to consume less. – Janet Hesselberth, co founder of Three Groves Eco Village

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Risset Rhythm & Mutations by Jean-Claude Risset (Audio High)

Risset Rhythm & Mutations by Jean-Claude Risset (Audio High) | Third Monk

In this audio high, you will hear a looped sample of the Risset Rhythm. What’s weird is that this loop will sound as though it is constantly speeding up, yet it never actually increases in beat.

We know: that doesn’t make any sense.

How the Risset Rhythm Works

French electronic music experimenter Jean-Claude Risset based this audio high on Shepard Tones, the looped notes that sound as if they are constantly increasing or decreasing in pitch even though they are just repeating. Risset duplicated Shepard Tones in rhythmic form. The result is a drum-based track that sounds as though it gets faster and faster when, in actuality, it is playing the same steady beat.

The following is a detailed explanation only for the most dedicated of audio heads out there. You’ve been warned…….

To get an idea of how Risset Rhythm works we’ll need to review how our brains process sound. Consider the brain as a famously impulsive file clerk who can’t stand to have information just sitting around, clogging up its synapses. As such, when information comes in, the brain quickly places it in what it considers to be the most appropriate “file” to make room for new input. When the brain gets bits of information that don’t fit exactly into a prescribed file, it makes an assumption, throwing this information into a file that it considers “close enough.” Sometimes the brain misplaces information into the wrong file. These wrong assumptions, or “file” placements, are why we mistake visual, audio, or other sensory details: why we think a mirage in the desert is a watering hole, a prick of a needle on a couch is an insect bite, the voice on the other end of the phone line is your current girlfriend not your psycho ex.

The brain can make these same incorrect assumptions with rhythms.

When we hear any repeated pattern of sounds the brain will immediately try to place the pattern into a rhythm file, even if this pattern is random and doesn’t perfectly fit. In this rhythm file the brain will attempt to put the pattern in a logical sequence of beats. Risset Rhythm takes advantage of these incorrect assumptions. It subtly merges a loop of increasing beats and sounds over and over. The brain doesn’t notice these subtle transitions between the beginning and ending of the loop, it assumes that the rhythm is constantly speeding up. As a result, we hear the Risset Rhythm loop as a continuous pattern, one that is constantly getting faster and faster.

Risset Rhythm

For another one of Jean Claude Risset’s trippy audio specials take a listen to Mutations. Old school out of this world sound for all you trippy psychonauts.

Thank you – I mean, you’re welcome!

Mutations by Lillian F. Schwartz, Music by Jean-Claude Risset, 1973

> Audio High | Get High Now

Trust Yourself – Terence McKenna (Video)

Trust Yourself - Terence McKenna (Video) | Third Monk image 2

Experience is real. This moment is real. How much of your own experience on this planet is tainted and perverted by different ideologies, looping thoughts, and enshrined beliefs?

Terence McKenna urges you to trust yourself. Question everything, and embrace the chaos of the world.

Claim your identity, your vision, your being, your intuition, and then act from that without regret.

Take responsibility for what you think and what you do.

Trust Yourself Waterfall

Empower Experience…

What do YOU think when YOU face the waterfall?

What do YOU think when YOU have sex?

What do YOU think when YOU take psilocybin?

It’s a wonderful thing to learn to be able to stand up and yell “Bull Shit!”. I did it when I was about 18 years old and it was the meme of the hour and it did blow their minds. It was uncivil. It was rude and crude and correct. – Terence Mckenna

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> Terence McKenna | Eco Hustler

The Science and Politics of Mind Altering Drugs

The Science and Politics of Mind Altering Drugs | Third Monk image 1

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British psychiatrist David Nutt specializes in neuropsychopharmacology, the research of mind-altering drugs. In his interview with The Guardian’s Science Weekly Podcast, he discusses the science and politics of mind-altering substances. The neuroscience blog MindHacks refers to it as “essential listening” and…

Possibly one of the most sensible discussions of drugs and drug harms you are likely to hear in a long time.

Prof. Nutt is quite well-known in the UK – largely due to being fired by the Government from their drugs advisory panel for pointing out in a scientific paper that the health risks of taking ecstasy are about equivalent to going horse riding.

Rather than doing the usual dishonest apology required of government advisors where they ask forgiveness for ‘unintentionally misleading the public’ away from a convenient collective illusion, he decided to take the government to task about their disingenuous drug policy.

He is now a straight-talking, evidence-based, pain-in-the-arse to the government who doggedly stick to the ‘war on drugs’ rhetoric that not even they believe any more.

In the interview the discussion ranges from how psychedelics affect the brain to the scientific basis (or lack thereof) of drug policy. He also claims that ecstasy and LSD are less dangerous than alcohol, proposes research into the potential use of MDMA to treat post-traumatic stress disorder, and how he founded the Independent Scientific Committee on Drugs.

Give it a listen.

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The Science and Politics of Psychedelic Drugs | Dis Info

Psychonauts Library – 4 Essential Books About Psychedelics (KJ Book Rec)

Psychonauts Library - 4 Essential Books About Psychedelics (KJ Book Rec) | Third Monk image 4

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Psychedelic agents, when properly understood, are probably one of the most valuable, useful, and powerful tools available to humanity. Yet, their use is extremely complex, which means that they are widely misunderstood and often abused.

It is not psychedelics that are complex. In their most useful application, they play a rather straightforward role. In my observation one of the outstanding actions of psychedelics is permitting the dissolving of minds sets. One of the most powerful mind set humans employ is the hiding of undesirable material from consciousness. Thus, a very important function of psychedelic substances is to permit access to the unconscious mind.

The unconscious mind is enormously complex and possesses an extremely wide range of attributes, from repressed, painful material to the sublime realization of universal love. With such variance in experience, learning more about psychedelics is essential for safe, sustained benefit.

These 4 books about psychedelics are an amazing foundational base for Psychedelic Knowledge.

Doors of Perception - Books About Psychedelics

The Doors of Perception PDF

If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things through narrow chinks of his cavern. – William Blake from the poem The Marriage of Heaven and Hell

Beyond essential reading, Huxley’s recount of his afternoon trip with mescaline tops many psychonauts list for psychedelic themed reading. Aldous is well known for his love of psychedelics, and his narrative ability is undeniable.

To pierce the veil and gain insight into reality and ourselves, yet still bring back a semblance of those insights once rigid mind sets again solidify is the hope of many psychedelic users.

That within sameness there is difference, although that difference is not different from sameness. – Aldous Huxley

The Doors of Perception Audiobook

The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test - Books About Psychedelics

The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test PDF

What do you mean, blindly? That baby is a very sentient creature… That baby sees the world with a completeness that you and I will never know again. His doors of perception have not yet been closed. He still experiences the moment he lives in. – Tom Wolfe

The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test is known as the quintessential book that first documented the rise and growth of the burgeoning hippie movement.

Wolfe’s account of Ken Kesey and his band of Merry Pranksters brought psychedelic use to the mainstream. This was a time before it was perverted by hedonistic tendencies, but more importantly, before both sides of the coin knew the other even existed.

The world was simply and sheerly divided into ‘the aware’, those who had the experience of being vessels of the divine, and a great mass of ‘the unaware’, ‘the unmusical’, the unattuned. – Tom Wolfe

TIME Interviews Author Tom Wolfe

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Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid PDF

A metaphorical fugue on minds and machines in the spirit of Lewis Carroll.

On the surface Hofstadter’s book may seem like it is about mathematics, art, and music, but it is actually about how cognition, thinking, and meaning itself arise from well-hidden neurological mechanisms.

Through analogies between mathematics (Godel), art (Escher), and music (Bach), Hofstadter explains how self-referential loops – ‘strange loops‘ – are the foundation for all meaning. Basically how meaning actually comes about from complex interactions between parts which when taken individually, possess none.

It is a wonderful book that will have you reevaluating the way you perceive and interact with your reality. 

Meaning lies as much
in the mind of the reader
as in the Haiku.
– Douglas R. Hofstadter

PiHKAL - Books About Psychedelics

PiHKAL: A Chemical Love Story PDF (2nd Part only)

How long will this last, this delicious feeling of being alive, of having penetrated the veil which hides beauty and the wonders of celestial vistas? It doesn’t matter, as there can be nothing but gratitude for even a glimpse of what exists for those who can become open to it. – Alexander Shulgin

PiHKAL: A Chemical Love Story is a book by Dr. Alexander Shulgin and Ann Shulgin. The main title is an acronym that stands for Phenethylamines I Have Known and Loved.

Arranged in two parts, the book is considered the Bible of Phenethylamines (a class of chemicals known for their psychoactive and stimulant effects):

1st Part: A fictionalized autobiography of the couple.

2nd Part: Detailed synthesis instructions for 179 different psychedelic compounds, including bioassays, dosages, and commentary.

How he could be a good user of LSD,” I asked, “And know about the spiritual dimension – all that sort of thing – and still be a crook? I don’t understand.”
“Then it’s time you did. Psychedelic drugs don’t change you – they don’t change you character – unless you want to be changed. They enable change; they can’t impose it… – Alexander Shulgin

Ann and Sasha Shulgin – PiHKAL and TiHKAL: A Chemical Love Story

What other psychedelic books have you enjoyed reading?

Flower of Life GIF - Books About Psychedelics

> Are Psychedelics Useful in Buddhist Practice? | College of Liberal Arts, National Taiwan University

This is What Happens When an Artist Suffers Cancer of the Pineal Gland

This is What Happens When an Artist Suffers Cancer of the Pineal Gland | Third Monk image 7

pineal-gland

The tiny, pea sized pineal gland located in the center of the human brain has for ages been thought to be the seat of the soul. Prone to calcification from fluoridated water and other toxins in our food supply, many people are actively interested in detoxifying and de-calcifying their pineal glandThe rush of cosmic energy that is available when the mind’s eye is wide open, there is no other spiritual experience that compares to it.

What happens to a person who loses this gland to disease or some kind of accident?

Shawn Thorton, who, while studying art in school developed an illuminated painting style that baffles the rational mind. Experiencing severe illness, and often having manic and visionary episodes which revealed the contents of his extraordinary paintings, Shawn was learning to paint while, yet unbeknownst to him, he was suffering from brain cancer and had a tumor forming right where his pineal gland sits.

The over-arching style is reminiscent of an alien technology, laden with intricacies, schematics, and winding connections, a sort of motherboard of madness. Much like the human brain, his paintings show a complexity that is not easily understood.

Was his pineal gland releasing DMT, the spirit molecule in elevated levels while battling cancer?

I suffered from a slow growing cancer in my pineal gland while I attended art school and during subsequent years while my paintings developed with an underlined mythology that alluded directly to the pineal years before I even know of its existence.

I think I’d work myself into a frenzy for a while and yes, when I would fall lie down in bed I’d have something like a manic episode that was very lucid and visionary. That still applies to this day, but I try to control it better so I don’t get sick again.

I’ve had a lot of truly mystical and otherworldly experiences as a result of my history and battle with brain cancer and I’m really drawn to things that resonate with a certain powerful energy, and I’m always honing in on that more and more. whether consciously or subconsciously.

I treat depression with mushrooms. Haven’t done DMT ‘intentionally’. Man made chemicals are a thing of the past for me, as I’m really sensitive. –Reddit

Shawn Thornton Art Gallery

Semiotics of the Alchemical Forest

Semiotics of the Alchemical Forest

Black Pyramid Meditation

Black Pyramid Meditation

Mother Brain Decoding the Psychonautical Device

Mother-Brain Decoding the Psychonautical Device

Deaths Head Seals

Death's Head Seals

The Beast in the Solar Disc

The Beast in the Solar Disc

The Serpent’s Egg in the Seat of Consciousness

The Serpent’s Egg in the Seat of Consciousness

ShawnThornton

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Click here for more of Shawn’s amazing art.

Painting, for me, is largely an attempt to decrypt the mechanisms of illness through a disciplined medium. I feel, on some deep internal level, that through my painting practice I’m engaged in a psychic process to illuminate the intricate vessels and cogs of an insidious physic current that stems, in part, from having had a serious illness, and all the subtle and profound ways I was altered by this experience.

All throughout my early adulthood, I struggled from the mental and physical effects of a slow growing tumor in my brain, the symptoms of which were repeatedly misdiagnosed by my doctors as purely psychological in origin, and it ultimately took over half a decade to get a proper diagnosis and treatment to shrink the tumor. I suffered immeasurably during this period from having repeatedly undergone a host of treatments meant to treat the symptoms of mental illness, and paradoxically, from a mental illness that ultimately could not be contained. The tumor was in the very center of my brain, in a small, mysterious organ at the top of the spinal column, the pineal gland. I didn’t have any prior reason to consider the actual material existence of the pineal before this.

As for its spiritually ominous and physically precarious location at epicenter of my being, my ability to conceptualize these facts seemed utterly unreal, ethereal, like nothing short of a sordid space exploration, as it had been making its presence known to me for so long and now there were surgeons probing into my head – into my consciousness. As I further researched my illness directly after being released from the hospital, and after having had undergone emergency brain surgery a few days earlier, I quickly became very quizzical by what I was finding. What had been developing in my art, half unconsciously, over the previous several years in which I had been very ill and labored to keep painting, all of a sudden became very clear. Elements in the paintings seemed to correlate directly to the pineal gland and to many of its mystical and biological functions that have puzzled humankind for centuries.

All throughout the history of human sciences, religions, and philosophies, of different civilizations and cultures all over the world, people have contemplated and researched the pineal because of its mysterious location at the center of our brain. For me, most notable, was its purposed role in the production of endogenous DMT in humans, and its proximity in our brains to the Ajna chakra, or third eye. I also found it intriguing that the pineal gland regulates biorhythms in humans through the production of the hormone melatonin. This brought to mind images of medical charts; of archetypal schematics and universal symbols.-Shawn Thornton

> Strange Story Artist Pineal Cancer | Waking Times

Properly Attune Your Body & Mind Before Using Psychedelic Plant Medicines

Properly Attune Your Body & Mind Before Using Psychedelic Plant Medicines | Third Monk image 1

Before incorporating the knowledge of advanced plant medicines, properly attuning one’s body and mind through diet and exercise is essential.

What goes into the body determines what the body will be composed of physically, mentally, and spiritually. The vessel must be adequately equipped to handle whatever may occur while in the spiritual realms. Body and mind exist in a symbiotic relationship, where the effects on one reflects on the other. Depending on which plant medicine you use, the intensity and length of body preparation varies accordingly.

Click here for our article on Shroom Consumption.

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Ayahuasca

Many traditional diets share common similarities, but each initiate will know what they need to abstain from to gain the greatest knowledge possible from the experience.

Common themes include abstinence from alcohol, sugar, salt, oils, meat and certain spices. Consumption of raw foods is also highly recommended as processing diminishes the nutritional content of the food. It is also common in some locales for initiates of ayahuasca to stop sexual thoughts and activities during the course of the diet and experience. There are reasons for this abstinence that are highlighted in greater detail here. For plant teachers such as Peyote and Psilocybin, a similar diet should be applied.

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Exercises Before Consumption

A short fast before engaging in any plant medicine is recommended, aim for anywhere from 8-24 hours. Attempting to digest a plant teacher with other foods in the stomach can cause the initiate to undergo physical stress.

It is recommended that initiates disengage from the integration of meat and animal products into their bodies for weeks before, during and after the spiritual journey. It is also recommended that initiates let go of whatever it is they may be struggling with in their lives.

Temporary separation from those attachments which we feel we cannot live without will serve to enlighten us. If one struggles with addictive behavior, one should surrender that behavior before encountering the plant medicine if they wish to maximize their knowledge from the plant.

Anything one can do to purify and cleanse both thoughts and action – before and after the experience – will serve to increase penetration and understanding.

Psychedelic Spirituality Podcast – Proper Diet and Exercise for Spiritual Experience

With Kundalini Yoga Teacher Mehtab Benton

> Ways to Spiritually Cleanse Before Using | Time Wheel Net

Legal Marijuana is Making Streets Safer

Legal Marijuana is Making Streets Safer | Third Monk image 4

Legal Marijuana GIF

During debates over whether or not marijuana should be legalized, safety was one of the biggest talking points on both sides.

From a pro-legalization perspective, advocates noted that full legalization would bring transactions off the streets — often dangerous for many reasons — and into safe, responsibly run retail environments.

From an anti-legalization view, some of the major concerns regarding cannabis included the actual effect of the plant on people’s health, the prospect of people driving under the influence, and of course, what would happen to the children if legislation was allowed to pass.

Won't somebody please think of the children - Legal Marijuana

Well, nearly a year since Colorado initiated legal marijuana sales to the general public, it appears that legalization has indeed made the streets safer. In fact, marijuana use among teenagers has actually dropped in Colorado.

Survey results released by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment indicate that kids of high school age are less likely to view marijuana as risky than they were before, and that overall, the number of teens who have used it has dropped.

One in five high school kids used cannabis within the past 30 days, the survey found. Thirty-day use rates took a drop from 22 percent in 2011 to 20 percent last year, while over the same time lifetime use — which measures how many teens had actually tried marijuana at some point in their lives — dropped from 39 percent to 37 percent. While not a significant shift, it is indeed a drop, instead of the supposed increased many assumed.

Medicinally-Stoned

What About Driving…

One of the other chief concerns about legalization would be that it would encourage drivers to get behind the wheel while under the influence. A worthy concern, yet traffic data from Colorado has proven that traffic fatalities have actually declined since prohibition was ended in Colorado.

Fatalities in Colorado peaked in 2002, one year after Colorado’s medical marijuana law went into effect, and has since dropped by more than a third. Also, since legal sales began in January, traffic fatalities for the year are down as compared to 2013.

While there really can’t ever be anything directly linking legal cannabis to safer roads, the data does show marked improvement. Some experts believe that fewer fatalities and legal cannabis can be linked, as some people may decide to substitute the act of marijuana use in place of drinking.

Legal Marijuana Bong Rip

Ultimately…

For the majority, legal marijuana doesn’t necessarily change their behavior. If they smoked before, they still do. And if the law was the only thing holding them back, chances are they still aren’t smoking now.

For now, it appears that the streets, at least in Colorado, are a bit safer. At the very least, people no longer need to be worried about engaging in sketchy black market drug deals in parking lots, and can instead engage in commerce like adults in retail stores.

Larry David Buys Weed

> Is Legalized Marijuana Making Steets Safer? It Appears So | Wall St. Cheat Sheet

5 Great Books Under 200 Pages (Quick Reads)

5 Great Books Under 200 Pages (Quick Reads) | Third Monk image 4

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Still trying to finish that old copy of Lord of the Rings you found wedged beneath the stairs? Who could have known it was keeping up the entire house? Eh, c’est la vie, this too shall pass (or shan’t in the case of Durin’s Bane – don’t worry you’ll get there).

Take your mind off your troubles with any one of these five short novels (alright, alright… a few are novellas), and don’t worry, they’re all a quick read (unlike this introduction).

Find them at your local library (they still exist), or your local book store (read: amazon).

I’ve added the audiobook versions and PDF’s where I could.

Enjoy!

hermann Hesse Siddhartha- great book

Siddhartha is a 1922 novel by Hermann Hesse that deals with the spiritual journey of self-discovery of a man named Siddhartha during the time of the Gautama Buddha.

It’s a wonderful short read for anyone in need of a little perspective – don’t worry it’s not too much perspective.

Siddhartha PDF

Siddhartha – Herman Hesse (Audiobook)

01 THE SON OF THE BRAHMAN – 00:20:59
02 WITH THE SAMANAS – 00:27:05
03 GOTAMA – 00:23:54
04 AWAKENING – 00:12:24
05 KAMALA – 00:36:32
06 WITH THE CHILDLIKE PEOPLE – 00:22:14
07 SANSARA – 00:24:57
08 BY THE RIVER – 00:30:52
09 THE FERRYMAN – 00:35:07
10 THE SON – 00:24:27
11 OM – 00:18:30
12 GOVINDA – 00:29:07

Little-Prince-great-book

Translated into more than 250 languages and dialects, The Little Prince is a literary masterpiece.

Antoine De Saint-Exupery wrote the short novel in the midst of personal upheavals and failing health, it is a tender tale of loneliness, friendship, love and loss, in the form of a young prince fallen to Earth.

The Little Prince PDF

The Little Prince – Antoine De Saint-Exupery (Audiobook)

Albert-CAMUS-The-Stranger

The Stranger is a great book by Albert Camus published in 1942. Its theme and outlook are often cited as exemplars of Camus’s philosophy of the absurd and existentialism, though Camus personally rejected the latter label.

The Stranger PDF

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An allegorical novel, The Alchemist follows a young Andalusian shepherd named Santiago in his journey to Egypt, after having a recurring dream of finding treasure there.

The Alchemist PDF

The Alchemist – Paolo Coehlo (Audiobook)

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Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions is an 1884 satirical novella by Edwin A. Abbott. 

Writing pseudonymously as “A Square”, the book used the fictional two-dimensional world of Flatland to offer pointed observations on the social hierarchy of Victorian culture. However, the novella’s more enduring contribution is its examination of dimensions.

Flatland PDF

Flatland – Edwin A. Abbott (Audiobook)