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Messages - kosmo

#1
The Mountain / Re: The Present
February 25, 2009, 09:52:25 AM
lw, a public library will likely give you access to this site and the paper.
#2
The Mountain / Re: The Present
February 24, 2009, 02:29:32 PM
I consider all postings that purport to teach the truth as thought experiments. It is impossible, practically speaking, to know the intent and even the veracity of those who create such sweeping explorations that I don't even try.

The words speak for themselves, the ideas have a momentum, and we can discuss it in good faith that it is meant to be taken seriously.

I will probably have some comments at some point, and hopefully, so will others.
#3
The Cave / Re: Banned at the Lycaeum
February 24, 2009, 08:19:28 AM
Not much more to say about it, except you failed to mention your offer of free spores when you complained about the ban, which is the gist of the reason for it.

Personally, I pay little or no attention to such things but I am supportive of the mods who do, and who attempt to keep law enforcement from shutting us down or targeting individuals. The ban is for ten days, so you should be able to log in any day now.

As for the perception of some of moderators that you spam, I think the reason is that you seldom, if ever, engage in forum discussions beyond the threads you make about your trips and publications. From that perspective, your presence is self-promotion. If you check into it, very few Lycaeum members, if any, enjoy the same "status", for want of a better word.

It's truely your decision when it comes to membership in Lyc. If you are not gaining anything by it commercially or personally, then why bother? On the other hand, your have admirers and customers (I assume) who would like to see your threads continue, so simply be more careful in the future and put the situation behind you.
#4
The Mountain / Re: The Present
February 23, 2009, 11:32:00 AM
"New choice: This book offers a third option for the first time. It is new revelations of the truth that are a combination of science, religion, art, philosophy, past and present, common sense and everything else that reveals the truth. With the new truth, you do not have to be the hammer or the nail; you can be something much more and get rid of the hammer and nail altogether."

...for the first time? C'mon now, there is nothing new in "The Present" that hasn't been "said" by many, in many ways, over a long period of time. Calling it revelatory is your personal view, unless you can point out to me what part of it is.
#5
The Mountain / Re: The Present
February 23, 2009, 10:13:42 AM
I think that "the Present", as a personal statement of the individual who wrote it, was a worthwhile effort for that individual; but only if it was recognized as a beginning place for a search for truth that never ends. It might also be a starting place for other people of a similar type; especially those looking for someone to give them a clue or two that they haven't discovered elsewhere.

Discursively, we may only approximate what is the Truth. I tried to put that idea in a haiku:

"Truth is in silence!"
Please ignore what I just said
(Truth is in silence)

Another problem I have with someone writing to expound "the truth" is the whole notion that one person can "tell" another person what it is. Truth must be assimilated holistically - mind, body (feeling), spirit; and in finite beings, there are limits to how much can be assimilated.

A true teacher of Truth will never say he has it. He or she will lead the seeker to the essential attitude of knowing he doesn't know, and then shining a light on ways and means that lead out of not knowing. But the work has to be done by the seeker. And this work is never finished.

What seems to be missing from "The Present" are hints that it is a shabby cloth covering a crown of many jewels. What's missing is nuance, humor, poetry!

Truth is not relative. It is perfect, and it is infinite. We only approach it relatively, and all our finite notions about it are incomplete and partial. Yet, we must have it, some of us, and so onward to infinity!
#6
The Cave / Re: Banned at the Lycaeum
February 23, 2009, 08:34:21 AM
boomer2
God of the Mycosphere
Forum Spammer

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Posts: 867

mycophile


      Wish to trade for ebook software creator
« on: February 19, 2009, 06:15:28 AM » Quote  

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wasn't sure where to post this?

Hey, I want to publish several new, as well as some old books in an ebook format and need certain software to create such a book.

I would be willing to trade a nice assortment of psilocybian mushroom spore prints for a software program I can use to create an ebook with.

I will also throw in copies of 2 of my out of print books "Wasson''s First Voyage" and "Magic Mushrooms of the Hawaiian Islands," plus one copy of my cd-rom, "Psilocybian Mushroom Cultivation" which has over 300 photographs of cultivated cubes from around the world

boomer2

Boomer, respectfully, the above post was what got you temporarily banned, for ten days. Please be more careful in the future. You post in other boards where this may not be a problem, but you know Lycaeum is tight about this, and you have had issues like this in the past. I'm afraid another transgression will have the administrators talking about a permanent ban, which many of your fans would not like to see.
#7
The World / Re: Global Physics Question: click here
February 19, 2009, 04:13:37 PM
I saw a cool animated demonstration of this on PBS about a year ago. Dr. Nye the Science Guy, or something like that.

The object takes on enormous speed the farther it drops, and begins decreasing as it arrives at the opposite side. There is math behind this, for those who know the formula; and unless stopped, it will fall again and repeat the cycel. In reality, nothing we have now would prevent the falling object from heat perhaps more than the surface of the sun.
#8
The Mountain / Re: The Present
February 19, 2009, 12:48:59 PM
Hi Jethro. Very ambitious project there, and I applaud the effort and time it must have taken. Now, do you invite honest feedback?

I read a chunk of the material, scanned a lot, and I decided to not go further today. It's very didactic, don't you agree?

I assume you know what to expect from a forum as diverse, opinionated, passionate, and unconventional as this one, right?  :e_wink:

Btw, have you thought about posting in Lycaeum?
#9
The Groove / Re: Annie De-Franco
February 11, 2009, 04:57:09 PM
She's got the good stuff - songwriter, distinctive percussive guitar style, passionate singing. Check her out and let us know.

Subject her to a stereotype? Feminist, activist, self-published, independent, singer-songwriter folk/rock musical artist with a haard-core female audience that adore her (and some sensitive guys, like me). Or not.
#10
The Groove / Re: You got jazz?
February 08, 2009, 10:12:52 AM
QuoteQuestion: Why here? This music page is a sleepy backwater around here, my interests and opinions pretty much unpopular. I guess I am just old and in the way.
Spiritplants radio was the lure that brought me over here, but I like this forum from the time I participated briefly a few years ago. Cenacle is an inspiration with his commitment to his poetry and the radio project, and I am looking for ideas from other non-commercial, community based, web programs in order for me to be of help "behind the scenes".

Over the last two years I met and befriended a group of musicians and artists in my part of Florida who are tinkering with both radio and visual podcasts. I am not a musician myself, and my "knowledge" of music is emotional/intuitive, yet I have managerial and creative skills that are helpful to the performers.

In other words, I am a fan of every sort of music that moves my feet, lifts my heart, but I can't play a lick!

With the Rodriguez project (which is not associated with the Florida artist project), I don't need to know how to play jazz, or even how to listen to it technically. My part is to convert audio cds to word documents, to help edit both visual and audio content into a coherent form for mass distribution, and then to help manage and promote the completed project. Wish me well!!
#11
The Groove / You got jazz?
February 07, 2009, 03:38:23 PM
Any Jazz lovers here? You might find this more than interesting: http://www.straightjazz.com.

John Goldman is an old friend of mine, a trumpeter, a music teacher, and still a student of his music mentor Nicholas Rodriquez, a pioneering jazz pianist who played with Monk, Dizzy, and others, who died in the 80's.

He also created a unique style of jazz that no one really could ever get a good handle on. He didn't score his music, relying on improvisation, but within a unique structure. Fingering was very important, and other aspects of it, that always kept his music out of  reach of even his closest students.

John saw somethng coming, that Nic would die before his music could be understood, scored, and played by other musicians. So he began to record Nic's lessons, some purely audio, some audio/visual, a few years before Nic became incapable of continuing.

Since that time, John has made efforts at putting it all together. You can see how far he has gotten by checking out his site. And this is where I come in.

I visited with John this past summer: "Hey John, how's the Maestro Project coming?" Well it had gotten stalled like many things do - the work of transcribing hours upon hours of audio tapes and dvr's, and then putting it all in some kind of order; of editing and making decisions about what to discard and what to save - these things are daunting and it's a lonely business. So now I'm involved.

John purchased a transcription system, software, earphones, for me. He sent the first mp3s that need transcribing. I have never done any of this before, but I know what is happening. I will help John finish this task he took on over twenty years ago, and Nic's beautiful, intricate music will one day - maybe in a year of two - be known and played by afficianados throughout the world.

Lord, may it be! :e_wink:
#12
The Library / "The Baroque Cycle"
February 07, 2009, 03:10:03 PM
Anyone else read Neal Stephenson's three volume epic? If so, whadya think?

Published about 6 years ago, this is an amazing adventure story on the level of history, science, religon and philosophy as it happened through the lives of Daniel Waterhouse, Isaac Newton, Leibnitz, King William of Orange, other Kings, Dutchesses, Tramps and Vagabonds during the middle and end of the Seventeenth Century.

The writing is brilliant, erudite, compared to Pynchon, but its own kind of genius. It has a great woman heroine, a wonderful and terrible love strory, or rather several. And you will learn something of the ideas that were born in those times that changed everthing for mankind, and helps explain something about how we think and behave now.
#13
The Mountain / Re: What makes an experience "spiritual?"
February 07, 2009, 02:54:21 PM
The more I live attentively, the more everything I encounter has a spiritual aspect to it. So a "spiritual experience" occurs whenever I am simply aware of that.

Earlier in my life I paid little attention to my ordinary situations and relationships, never even imagining how they could be spiritual. I sought  spiritual experiences of the kind I had read about - mystical, rhapsodical, transforming. I did find these, or rather I felt I did, in powerful hallucinogens, a near-death experience, and the occasional, out-of-the-blue hyper-perception of something meaningful enshrouding a moment of existence.

But add them all up, and they account for very little in terms of the number of seconds, minutes, hours... I have lived my life. Gradually, in my case, I come to the realization that every experience is spiritual when it is recognized and nurtured by the only thing I can give it - awareness that it is.