Messages

YAY!!!

Kemp - the effort is as always, much appreciated.
What others think about doing, you actually do.  

Looking forward to the chat, thanks for making this happen.

First Timer - very psyched with only 104 days to go!

would  love to meet up at some point with any SPFers in attendance.

any advice/planning suggestions for a newbie?

I think a Sunday night round table discussion would be a really good way to up attendance and see new faces.  Saturday nights might be tough due to other social obligations  - Sunday being the day of rest seems more suited...  Alternatively, you could coordinate with the moon phases for less frequent gatherings.

Good idea Kemp and nice to see you kickin around.
peace,
areyu

Wow, good work kemp!

How refreshing to see the guest chat idea revived some 4 years later.
Please give a definitive date/time when you have it so that those of us who are less permanent fixtures in chat can mark our calendars!

Also, I remember last time the word was spread far and wide via other entheogen sites and we ended up with like 60 or 70 someodd (actually, mostly odd ) people in attendance.

Moderation of questions was done via a private message queue to keep the main chat window free of noise and almost no one had to be asked to keep their voices down and respect that the honored guest had the floor. I'm sure Dr. Strassman's return will bring a similar decorum to the place.

Look forward to hearing updates since the publication of his riveting book:
DMT: The Spirit Molecule.  If anyone wants my copy to bone up on prior to the chat, PM me and I'll send media mail asap.
Peace,
atreyu

Don't get me wrong- it is great to see psilocybin/psilocyn gaining legitimacy in the mainstream scientific community and getting research approval from the US government.  However, that being said, the institutional setting and 'necessary' constraints of any such an experiment are enough to largely invalidate its conclusions .

It  really doesn't matter what percentage of the participants had 'mystical' experiences - any religious experience is by its nature subjective, and a scientific study of its merit is irrelevant - the believer needs no confirmation of faith and the nonbeliever will find no evidence compelling (enough) without direct experience.  Essentially, all that  money and time was spent to say "Hey look, mushrooms work". To my mind, the experiment was very safe: "Lets take a phenomenon that thousands of years of human experience have shown to be a reliable trigger for momentary encounters with the divine, and recreate it with predictable results in a laboratory setting."  Understandably, you've got to start somewhere and I applaud the efforts of the researchers, but the  press coverage  read with an appropriately sardonic to the tune of "so, those hippies were on to something all along...well du."

The bottom line is that the experiment only brought  the illusion of validation to a phenomenon that shamans, anthropologists and psychonauts have known irrrefutably with the confidence of direct experience.  The catholic preacher does not consult the physicist, the buddhist monk does not compare notes with the biologist, and in the same vein, it seems unnecessary for the bemushroomed to subject their entheogenic exeriences to the scrutiny of objectivist science in this fashion.  

I'm not opposed to psychedlic research, particularly that which could lead to a better understanding of consciousness and the neurochemical basis for spiritual experiences, but I'm underwhelmed by all the research that I've encountered.    After reading Strassmann's book, I suffered  similar disspointment.  I learned about the (absurd ) hoops that one must jump through to conduct psychedelic research in our free country, and gleaned some insight from the manner in which he framed his experiment.  But on the whole it seemed like the only thng that came out of the process (besides a book deal) was a very general wishy-washy deconstruction of major DMT trends and motifs that could just as easily have been summarized from erowid trip reports.  Was this just a dry run to help pave the way for more interesting possibilities ahead, or is the subjective entheogenic experience doomed to be scientifically understood only by means of post-experiment evaluation questionaires that rank sustances by the qualities they engender on a scale from one to ten?

One last rant - It really got my goat the way Nichols says with false authority from the high pillars of science, "I would be very disappointed if in any sense these results were used to encourage recreational use of these compounds. I wouldn't want to take responsibility for anyone under unmonitored conditions coming up with those feelings.."

Oh please, we can only have a spiritual encounter when supervised by the high priests of science?  Don't presume any exertise about the conditions by which anyone should be altering their own consciousness, for reasons of recreation or otherwise...  Do you tell the Catholics how to take communion or the Shakers how to sing and dance?   I'd take the environs of the shaman's hut over your whitewashed, fluorescent cell any day of the week...  How can an individual involved in psychedelic research discount our inalienable right and responsibility to pursuing cognitive liberty?


By the way, in case you can't tell I couldn't agree with you more StrikinglyKontroversial - and well put indeed.

peace,
atreyu

IO Pan,

I've seen the pictures of your amazing huasca vines over at erowid, and if MycoGrow can do anything remotely like that for my struggling little caapi, I'll be a very happy camper.

However, I also think the CFL and MH lights in my closet can not quite compete with the sunlight and moisture of the southern climate...

peace,
atreyu

[Mycelium Running]

I'm trying out the MycoGrow spores from fungiperfecti and wondered if anyone had any experience with this or similar products?  I'd post this in TFF, but it really has more to do with gardening...

I'm dipping a number of seeds into sporulated water and will be sowing them this week.  I'm not sure if I should do a control group planting as well to test the efficacy, but I'm curious to hear what results others have encountered, if any.

For those who may be unfamiliar, here is a photo from Paul Stamets, one showing some california poppies - one with the endo/ectomycorrhizal fungi, and the other without. I'll let you guess which one is which...
.  

Can anyone comment on their own experiences and offer any tricks/tools that improved their yields?  There wasn't much in the way of supporting literature with the package of spores.

I hope the current rules permit discussion of such products if not mentioned in an advertising context.  Stamets is such an amazing guy that he should be exempted from any such policies anyway.  I highly recommend his new book, Mycelium Running: "How mushrooms can help save the world" for those who are interested in learning more about mycology, growing mushrooms and th various environmental applications for fungi.

peace,
atreyu

Just wanted to report that tickets have gone on sale as of the 17th and are already sold out up to the $250 mark.  Got mine today and would urge anyone else who is going to buy early and save themselves a little dough.

Any other SPFers out there headed to the burn this year?  This will be my first trip to black rock city and I'm absolutely pissing my pants with excitement.

peace,
atreyu

In a room full of freaks at a freak event, the truly freaky would be the ones who don't seem freaky at all.

freaky.

I think that you are confusing several problems to come to a faulty conclusion.  The fact that our transportation system relies on fossil fuels and depletes natural resources does not mean we should stop transporting recyclables within that system. It just means we should also pursue research into new sustainable, environmentally friendly fuel sources.  

In the meantime, we still ought to recycle every bloody thing we can to prevent the further destruction of our children's planet.  It would seem to take just as much fuel to transport garbage to a landfill as recycleables to a processing plant.  And if not, then we need to devote more resources to recycling plants and less to destroying old growth forests.

And, if people truly recycled everything that was recycleable, the garbage men would all be out of work, and the recycling plant would be bursting with materials for re-use. I recycle ALL paper, plastic, aluminum, glass, etc. that comes into my home and compost the organic matter, and honestly, at the end each month, I have maybe 1/2 a trash bag of non-recycleable matter to take out to the curb.  Most people just don't think about it, or are too lazy to break down all the product packaging  and put it in the appropriate pile.   Personal apathy probably contributes more to the problem than organized crime, lack of infrastructure, and all other problems combined that would preclude the effective re-use of these maerials.  

- If you want to cut down on your junk mail, go to http://opt-out.cdt.org/ and write yourself off the mailing lists.

- Buy, find or make a set of reusable shopping bags to avoid wasting plastic and paper.  I got mine at www.ecobags.com.  Most stores give you a few cents per-bag discount for your effort.

- Join a co-op in your area or find out about Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) opportunities at Local Harvest - http://www.localharvest.org/csa/.  Buy your produce from a farmers market or try the 100 mile diet on for size - http://100milediet.org/

- We compost in a spare closet using red worms to both recycle scrap paper and turn all my fruit/vegetable leftovers into high quality potting soil for my plants.    Learn more about vermiculture at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vermicompost or get a system like these:  http://www.abundantearth.com/store/comp ... rrels.html

- Most major energy utilities now offer "green power" for a per-kW-hour surcharge of about 6-8 cents.   Although this increases your energy expenditure, you can sleep with a clear conscience knowing that your power came from hydro, solar or wind sources.

- Offset your carbon! Try going carbon neutral by buying credits for carbon intensive activities like airplane travel.

- Use compact fluorescent light bulbs in your household lamps.  They are lower wattage and lower maintenance, last up to 5 times as long and will save you money on your utility bills as well.

- Visit sites like http://www.treehugger.com and http://www.worldchanging.org/  to keep up to date on how you help save the planet.

Even if the recycling industry has its problems, we can't throw in the towel and doom future generations because of a few obstacles.

Keep the ideas rolling.
peace,
atreyu

Winder,
Thanks for the detailed trip report! It was nice to get such a comprehensive narrative of the experience.  Glad to hear that they got the equipment up and running despite setbacks.  How many people would you estimate were in attendance?

I would also say you shouldn't self-impose the obstacles of your age, appearance or career on your degree of worth in a room.  I think that anyone who paid the price of admission to support their work was equally welcome and entitled to enjoy themselves.  Anyway, I think I'd be highly inclined to go to one of the future meditations/full moon ceremonies.  I'm sure it would be an enjoyable opportunity to interact with like-minded folks, however, I'm not much of a dancer (yet) so I wonder how much dancing is necessary at the ceremony, and if it is voluntary...

On a side note, I'm quite astonished that Alex Grey had any knowledge of Spiritplants!  Hell, I didn't even know there were tee-shirts made up...

Thanks for the report Winder, maybe I'll see you at the next one!

if I didn't already have plans for this evening, I would absolutely go...

For anyone who is in the NYC area and hasn't been to CoSM, its a trip in and of itself - I can't recommend it highly enough.

Just out of curiousity, has anyone on the board attended their full/new moon drum & dance gatherings?  I've often wondered what the atmosphere/crowd is like at these events but have never attended.

I've travelled far and wide, and somewhere along the way I lost my 'a' but when it came down to it, I couldn't stay away from spiritpants.  After a quick perusal of the board, I see a lot of old familiar faces -  friends who I'm glad to see have also found their way back.  I've missed many of you dearly, and forgotten only a few of you altogether.

I just wanted to say my quick "Hello" and how nice it is to see so many people checking back in after extended absences.   Life is good on my end - hope all of you are doing well.  PM me and let me know what you are up to. I'm living near NYC and if anyone wants to catch up, grab a few drinks - whatever, message me.  Glad to see the community is still alive and kicking.  And now that I've registered for a new account, I guess I have to visit the forums and post messages?

Peace,
(a)treyu

PS- what is with this horrible white background!? Long live green on black!  (or for the truly old school, blue on blue back at yack...)