http://www.blakeclan.org/jon/greenoasis/feed/atom/ 2011-04-06T21:25:15Z Green Oasis One Mormon boy's iconoclastic quest to remix and rectify his notions of truth, mind, myth, love, life, and transcendence. Copyright 2011 WordPress http://www.blakeclan.org/jon/greenoasis/?p=846 <![CDATA[RjDj]]> 2008-10-28T16:16:33Z 2008-10-28T16:16:33Z Jonathan jonathan@blakeclan.org http://www.blakeclan.org/jon/greenoasis/ RjDj seems to be able to transform the normal soundscape of your life into a trippy aural pastiche.

Listen to a creator of RjDj explain how it is a digital drug. Of all the applications for the iPhone that I’ve come across, this is the one that makes me want to lay down my money.

(via kottke.org)

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http://www.blakeclan.org/jon/greenoasis/2008/05/08/my-problem-child/ <![CDATA[My Problem Child]]> 2008-05-08T21:42:13Z 2008-05-08T21:42:13Z Jonathan jonathan@blakeclan.org http://www.blakeclan.org/jon/greenoasis/ LSD: My Problem Child by Albert Hofmann

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http://www.blakeclan.org/jon/greenoasis/2008/04/30/albert-hofmann-died-tuesday/ <![CDATA[Albert Hofmann Died Tuesday]]> 2008-04-30T16:49:49Z 2008-04-30T16:49:49Z Jonathan jonathan@blakeclan.org http://www.blakeclan.org/jon/greenoasis/ Albert Hofmann, the first synthesizer of LSD, died yesterday aged 102. Lest anyone imagine Hofmann to be a stoned-out hippie, the obituary noted that in “retirement, Hofmann served as a member of the Nobel Prize Committee. He was a Fellow of the World Academy of Sciences, and a Member of the International Society of Plant Research and of the American Society of Pharmacognosy.”

He leaves a large legacy to humanity. May his memory be a blessing.

“Through my LSD experience and my new picture of reality, I became aware of the wonder of creation, the magnificence of nature and of the animal and plant kingdom. I became very sensitive to what will happen to all this and all of us.” (Albert Hofmann)

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http://www.blakeclan.org/jon/greenoasis/2007/10/05/dna-discovered-while-on-lsd/ <![CDATA[DNA Discovered while on LSD]]> 2007-10-05T23:58:17Z 2007-10-05T23:58:17Z Jonathan jonathan@blakeclan.org http://www.blakeclan.org/jon/greenoasis/ Francis Crick discovered the secret structure of DNA while on LSD. He was accustomed to using low doses of the drug to increase mental function which reminds me of the juice of Sapho from the David Lynch film based on Frank Herbert‘s Dune. Mentats were human computers.

Unlike computers, however, Mentats are not simply human calculators writ large. Instead, the exceptional cognitive abilities of memory and perception are the foundations for supra-logical hypothesizing. Mentats are able to sift large volumes of data and devise concise analyses in a process that goes far beyond logical deduction: Mentats cultivate “the naïve mind”, the mind without preconception or prejudice, that can extract the essential patterns or logic of data, and deliver useful conclusions with varying degrees of certainty. (Mentat)

In the imaginary world of Dune, Mentats used the juice of Sapho to increase their considerable abilities even further. Perhaps LSD was Crick’s juice of Sapho allowing him to see the essential pattern of the DNA molecule by laying aside preconceptions and self-critical thoughts.

It is by will alone I set my mind in motion.
It is by the juice of sapho that thoughts acquire speed,
the lips acquire stains, the stains become a warning.
It is by will alone I set my mind in motion.
(Mentat Mantra)

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http://www.blakeclan.org/jon/greenoasis/2007/09/17/the-doors/ <![CDATA[The Doors]]> 2007-09-17T23:00:15Z 2007-09-17T23:00:15Z Jonathan jonathan@blakeclan.org http://www.blakeclan.org/jon/greenoasis/ What if I told you that there was a medicine which could alleviate the fear of death in terminally ill patients? A medicine which could put us in touch with the transcendent?

It was like I traveled into myself and broke through to the other side, and I was in the presence of God. I was in communion with all that ever could be, and experienced love beyond measure. I experienced a person loving me. Being love. Being all. Total peace. The end of all fear. Eternal joy. I was in union with an infinite person who had nothing but perfect love for me and in whom I was in union and it was ALL, capital A, double L…

The man who had that experience later became a Catholic priest in part because of that experience. He wrote that letter describing his experience to Huston Smith, author of Cleansing the Doors of Perception. This man had taken a dose of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD).

Trust the Canadians to produce an even-keeled documentary about this demonized drug. The documentary includes interviews of many of the early players in LSD’s history.

The History Channel has also done a documentary on LSD:

I’ve never dropped acid, but I’m left with the impression that it has tremendous potential that isn’t tapped by its current casual use.

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http://www.blakeclan.org/jon/greenoasis/2007/06/20/altered-states-of-consciousness/ <![CDATA[Altered States of Consciousness]]> 2008-08-01T19:24:21Z 2007-06-21T00:00:05Z Jonathan jonathan@blakeclan.org http://www.blakeclan.org/jon/greenoasis/ When I regained consciousness, I was playing a Gameboy. The orthodontic surgeon had removed all four of my wisdom teeth earlier that day. This was my first and only experience with general anesthesia. I remember a nurse pushing a dose of something into my arm. Then I thought to myself I wonder when this is going to start wor—. I never finished that thought. The anesthesia brought my thoughts to an abrupt halt mid-word. I hazily remember a nurse helping me to my mother’s car. The next thing I know, I’m playing Tetris.

I was OK at Tetris. The highest I had ever reached was level 9 or 10. The blocks start dropping much faster at level 9. I could never last very long after reaching those levels. But I reached level 12 on the game I was playing when I regained consciousness!

I played a lot over the next few days. I soon reached level 18 which is wicked fast. It’s only a theory, but playing Tetris while unconscious must have somehow rerouted my neural pathways to be more optimal for Tetris.

 

When I was in the third grade, a kid knocked me down on the playground. I hit my head on the asphalt. At least I think I remember it that way. That’s the story my teacher told my parents when they took me home from school. My mom said that I asked something like “Where are we going?” She answered me. Only a minute later I asked the same question again. Repeat ad nauseum. I didn’t regain full consciousness until that night when we were picking up my little sister from an ice show at the university arena.

When I was older, I asked my mother about this incident. She told me that I was never the same after that. I read less after that day. This was a shocking thing to hear, especially since I still believed in a spirit which directed the physical body. My spirit was still the same, so how could my personality change? Who was I before? Would I be smarter, sexier, happier if my head had never hit the asphalt that day?

My mother now denies ever having said what she said.

 

I have no idea how my next lapse of consciousness happened. All I remember is regaining consciousness flat on my back, staring at the ceiling above the living room couch. I remembered staring at the ceiling for what seemed like a very long time.

While I was staring, no thoughts crossed my mind. Zero. Zip. Nada. I didn’t realize that I was staring. I had no concept of my self. I didn’t interpret what I saw. The word “ceiling” never entered my awareness. I was simply aware of my sensory experience as raw input. I had no desires, no emotions, no self-awareness. You could say that I was a merely sentient being.

It wasn’t until higher brain function returned that I began to interpret my experience and remember that what I had been doing. The experience can only be described as peculiar. I imagine it was similar to what it’s like to be a camcorder.

 

I had a dream years ago. I saw the mountains which surround the valley I grew up in. I was flying in the middle of the valley. I turned and saw a mile-wide tornado come from behind the mountains in the east. It moved deliberately closer to me. Dirt and debris orbited its center. The debris coursed through the air, but took ages to make a single circuit. The sound of it filled my ears with the terrifying roar of a lion and the menacing rumble of an earthquake. Its terrible power shook me. Nothing withstood its passing. As the dark tornado towered over me, I felt ultimately small and vulnerable. I knew that the tornado concealed a being of alien mind and unimaginable power, that my very soul was in peril. I averted my eyes from the awesome power of the Other concealed in this pillar of cloud. For the first time in my life, I knew what it was to Fear the LORD.

 

In another dream, I found myself floating in the middle of utter darkness. I heard a far away hiss. The hiss got louder gradually becoming a buzz. The buzz became a yell. The yell became a scream. The scream became a demonic shriek that overwhelmed my dreamtime ears and filled my mind. On the brink of being overwhelmed, I awoke. The shriek ceased, but I was still surrounded in the complete darkness of midnight. For a few heart-pounding moments, my sleep addled mind wasn’t sure which world I was in. I feared that at any moment the source of that terrible sound would leap at me from the darkness.

 

I fell asleep in a chair. I was a missionary visiting another missionary companionship’s apartment. I woke up and felt and heard a dark, malicious presence skulking around the apartment, threatening the lives of the three other missionaries. I heard it come through the door and dart from one hiding place to another. I realized that I had to warn the others. But I couldn’t move. I couldn’t yell a warning to them. I was paralyzed and powerless where I lay. My sense of dread was unbearable. I struggled to do something. I finally woke up completely and the malevolent presence vanished.

 

Consciousness is an curious thing. I’ve never done any entheogenic drugs, but normal life has still been pretty trippy all the same if I think about it.

What odd experiences have you had in the borderlands of consciousness?

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