Friday, May 17, 2013

Grafgravers

My cousin Q is part of a hip hop group called Grafgravers (flemish for Gravediggaz) and it's a shame they only rap in the west-flemish dialect cause their lyrics are conscious and amazing. But if you speak dutch or flemish you'll be able to at least understand a little, even if you don't, give it a listen cause it's really good.






Robert Peterson on OBE's on Coast 2 Coast



The OBE stuff starts at 1:16:55, I haven't listened to the part before that because it's about fish oil and life is too short :p Robert Peterson talks about his OBE & Astral Projection experiences.

Daniel Pinchbeck interviews Joe Rogan






This is pre-2012 but great to see these 2 interesting guys together. 

I'm reading Daniel Pinchbeck's Breaking open the head and am amazed for some reason that's it's so well written. I mean it's spectacularly good.

Music, Myth, Cosmos - New Project by Steve Willner & Ezra Sandzer-Bell



Steve Willner of Labyrinth of the Psychonaut is back in collaboration with Ezra Sandzer-Bell for this new Music Myth Cosmos project. If you can please help them out.

Thursday, May 16, 2013

"The fear that drives our alien belief" by hack Caitlin Dewey, Washington Post

The Washington Post published an article not on the UFO phenomenon titled The fear that drives our alien belief (by Caitlin Dewey), but instead on the deluded people who believe in something so obviously silly. Well, that's my interpretation of her article. I am posting this because it comes on the heels of such an even-keeled article about John Mack (linked below), here's a quote:
Vanity Fair this month published a lengthy profile of Harvard psychiatrist John Edward Mack—a man who believed, implausibly, in alien abduction.
Then the author goes on to pose a question, and then answers it in a way that shows that she hadn't done any meaningful research:
What is it about UFOs that drive so many people to believe they exist despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary?
The idea that there is any evidence to the contrary, let alone overwhelming evidence to the contrary, is an assumption. Even a cursory glance at the literature reveals a superabundance of reports.

Anyway, this stuff really bothers me.
It bothers me too but at least the comments on this article also are overwhelmingly negative towards the ignorant author. Pretty soon all you'll see in the mainstream media is articles being ripped apart in the comments section until they start policing them or stop printing this bullshit. By the way, Caitlin Dewey covers social media, Internet culture, and other disparate topics for the Washington Post. What an expert on the topic then... lol. I hope she enjoyed that paycheck because I'm sure a few million people will remember her name.

Christopher Knowles from the Secret Sun sums it up perfectly:
This is exactly what I am talking about in my new essay. There are so many delusional people in the UFO field who think they can somehow make peace with the mainstream media, that somehow if they present enough evidence the media will see the light. They should know that the only people who get anywhere with alternative viewpoints are people who openly wage war on the media. That the public now holds the mainstream media to a slightly lower esteem than circus clowns and child molesters, though I realize that is a bit redundant. Bassett should have held a separate hearing kicking the the media's pointy heads in and holding particularly loathesome hacks up to ridicule and scorn. Stop trying to compromise with these idiots and set about putting them all out of business. 

See if you can wrap your head around this

(google translate - not optimal, "parket/parquet" just means something like district attorney or prosecution)

The authorities have confiscated blood samples of the people who lived close to the chemical train disaster in Wetteren "so they would not get lost." Everyone realizes this means the opposite. Again, never trust the government when something terrible happens. The media is just as guilty reporting this shit with a straight face. At least the comments on the article are near unanimous - this stinks to high heaven. Incredible.

Meditations - Dharana Meditation

Instead of focusing on a mantra, you can also focus on an image in meditation. This way you will be training your visual imagination but don't underestimate it cause it's quite difficult, but leads to a very interesting consciousness state when your  twenty minutes are up. You can again choose anything to focus on, but beginners may want to start with a simple shape. A triangle for instance, practice a minute before you start this meditation to see which color and shape you can hold easier than what else you can come up with. Note that it will be impossible to hold this shape fixed in your consciousness for a prolongued time, after months of training this everyday it will still be hard to maintain the image for more than a few seconds before the randomness of the mind disturbs it. But the goal is just to cultivate concentration. Whenever something comes up, just go back to visualising the triangle or whatever you have come up with.

What are we building towards? Dharana means concentration, it's fixating the attention of the mind one-pointedly on an object. When you're getting better at it it will lead to Dhyana, which is the steady uninterrupted stream of attention on that object. When you get good at Dhyana, it will lead to Samadhi which arises when the object  becomes the subject, and self-consciousness disappears and we merge with the object of meditation.

Simply put: Concentration on an object, leads to a steady stream of attention on that object, which leads to merging with object, becoming the subject, union.

Samādhi in Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism and yogic schools is just a higher level of concentrated meditation, or dhyāna. In the yoga tradition, it is the eighth and final limb identified in the Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali.

Samadhi is a non-dualistic state of consciousness in which the consciousness of the experiencing subject becomes one with the experienced object, and in which the mind becomes still, one-pointed or concentrated while the person remains conscious. In Buddhism, it can also refer to an abiding in which mind becomes very still but does not merge with the object of attention, and is thus able to observe and gain insight into the changing flow of experience.

Now without experience it's not easy to imagine what Samadhi is, but it's really simple, Samadhi is just the union of the thinking mind with its deepest, most silent level, the unified field of consciousness, the Self. There is no seeing or hearing, there is no physical or mental conciousness, only spiritual consciousness, only existence. If this still doesn't help to imagine it, don't worry because it's irrelevant. These are just words, the map is not the territory. You will know when you experience it.

Dharana: concentration - Dhyana: stream of attention - Samadhi: union

These three together form Samyama, which is the ability to go in one fluent movement from Dharana to Dhyana and Samadhi, and through conquering Samyama we become enlightened. These are the three inner parts of the Eightfold path of Buddhism.

It's not important what the object is, it could be breathing, a mantra, a visualisation, an emotional state, a posture, etc. What is important is the process, and vital to the process, is not to lust after results. As a sort of meta-practice, you just do the practice and that will be it's reward, if you have any attachments to results you will quickly realize it will hurt your progress more than if you don't, so even if you do, you will learn the hard way quickly that just accepting the practice as it evolves naturally is the best and only way.

According to Buddhism, Dhyana or Samadhi, alone is not enough to attain liberation. According to the Theravada tradition it must be combined with Vipassana Mindfulness meditation, which gives insight into the three marks of existence (Impermanence, suffering and non-self) and leads to detachment and "the manifestation of the path".

For the absolute beginner the theory is not that important, if you just combine mindfulness meditation with concentration meditation you will keep growing emotionally, psychologically, spiritually and physically and when you have questions about that growth or you feel that you're stagnating in your progress after a few months you can look up the theory.

Making a Killing: The Untold Story of Psychotropic Drugging - Full Documentary

"Before these drugs were introduced in the market, people who had these conditions would not have been given any drugs at all. So it is the branding of a disease and it is the branding of a drug for a treament of a disease that did not exist before the industry made the disease."

Psychotropic drugs. It's the story of big money-drugs that fuel a $330 billion psychiatric industry, without a single cure. The cost in human terms is even greater-these drugs now kill an estimated 42,000 people every year. And the death count keeps rising. Containing more than 175 interviews with lawyers, mental health experts, the families of victims and the survivors themselves, this riveting documentary rips the mask off psychotropic drugging and exposes a brutal but well-entrenched money-making machine. (Excerpt from website)

Please visit the official website for more information:
http://www.cchr.org

Recent News


We now live in a world where public servants informing the public about government behavior or wrongdoing must practice the tradecraft of drug dealers and spies. Otherwise, these informants could get caught in the web of administrations that view George Orwell’s 1984 as an operations manual.
With the recent revelation that the Department of Justice under the Obama administration secretly obtained phone records for Associated Press journalists — and previous subpoenas by the Bush administration targeting the Washington Post and New York Times — it is clear that whether Democrat or Republican, we now live in a surveillance dystopia beyond Orwell’s Big Brother vision. Even privately collected data isn’t immune, and some highly sensitive data is particularly vulnerable thanks to the Third Party Doctrine.
So how can one safely leak information to the press?


The manhunt for the Boston Marathon bombing suspects offered the nation a window into the stunning military-style capabilities of our local law enforcement agencies.
For the past 30 years, police departments throughout the United States have benefitted from the government’s largesse in the form of military weaponry and training, incentives offered in the ongoing “War on Drugs.” For the average citizen watching events such as the intense pursuit of the Tsarnaev brothers on television, it would be difficult to discern between fully outfitted police SWAT teams and the military.
The lines blurred even further Monday as a new dynamic was introduced to the militarization of domestic law enforcement. By making a few subtle changes to a regulation in the U.S. Code titled“Defense Support of Civilian Law Enforcement Agencies” the military has quietly granted itself the ability to police the streets without obtaining prior local or state consent, upending a precedent that has been in place for more than two centuries.
The most objectionable aspect of the regulatory change is the inclusion of vague language that permits military intervention in the event of “civil disturbances.” According to the rule:
Federal military commanders have the authority, in extraordinary emergency circumstances where prior authorization by the President is impossible and duly constituted local authorities are unable to control the situation, to engage temporarily in activities that are necessary to quell large-scale, unexpected civil disturbances.



Skype with care – Microsoft is reading everything you write - just generalize this to everything you do online.



 

Do the people in these next articles not have mothers or sisters?!

Copwatch:


Bill Maher shredded by Glenn Greenwald on US intervention in Muslim countries



"Last night I was on Bill Maher's HBO show "Real Time". There have always been numerous views of Maher's with which I agree. But he has become one of the most vocal and extreme advocates of the view that - while religion generally should be criticized - Islam is a uniquely threatening and destructive force and that Muslims are uniquely oppressive and violent...  hen I was scheduled to do the show, I was hoping that the opportunity would arise to debate these views (or that I could create the opportunity), and last night it did." Glenn Greenwald