Bruce Eisner's Vision Thing

FutureHi Founder Paul Hughes New Site on the Web

Link: Paul Hughes' Site on the Web.

Paul Huges who started the lively FutureHi blog back in 2003, which was a MUST READ for those of us interested in psychedelics, altered states of consciousness and the future of humans, our planet and the universe has started and new and more personal blog which can be visited via the link at the top of this post.

Paul stopped posting to the FuturHi blog at the end of 2006 and most of the activity on that website has moved to their lively forum.

Here is a bit about what Paul does personally from his bio:

I'm a body psychotherapist, writer, yogi, teacher, philosopher, composer, artist and juggler. I'm currently working on my PhD in Clinical Somatic Psychology. I spend part of my year traveling and conducting intensives and workshops on personal transformation for individuals and groups. The tools of my trade include vivation, yoga, tantra, bodywork, reiki, aromatherapy, shamanic journeying, and dynamic meditation.

Here is how Paul describes his interests which are reflected in his blog and the collection of essays available on his new site:.

I'm fascinated with the history and evolution of human culture, consciousness, and our understanding of our place in the cosmos.  Comparative anthropology, psychology, philosophy, religion, alchemy, history, science, astronomy, biology, cosmology, physics, technology, culture, politics, language, economics, spirituality... I think that pretty much covers everything... How did we get here?  Where are we going?  What is the nature of self, of god, of consciousness?  Are we alone in the universe? Are there other universes?  Does it go on forever?  Is there life after death?   How can we fix the current mess we got ourselves into?   How can we survive our own adolescence?  How can we achieve immortality?   When my thinking cap is on, these questions are usually behind my inquiries.

I'm sure that readers of my blog who also followed FutureHi will be interested in Paul's new weblog.

 

Robert Anton Wilson's Prometheus Rising FREE eBook Download

Link for this Post:  Robert Anton Wilson's Prometheus Rising.

Robert Anton Wilson passed on last year but his ideas live on in large number of books, essays and interviews. Prometheus Risingwas one of his most influential books during his life and now has been made available to the public in an online version.

Prometheus Rising introduced Timothy Leary's  8 Circuit Model of Consciousness to a much wider audience than Leary himself in any of his books on the subject.

Much as Russian Philosopher P. D. Ouspensky explained in more simple words and thus popularized the work of his teacher mystic George Gurdjieff, Robert Anton Wilson does in this book with the ideas of Leary.

Here is how Wikipedia describes Prometheus Rising:

Prometheus Rising by Robert Anton Wilson is a guide book of "how to get from here to there", an amalgam of Timothy Leary's 8-circuit model of consciousness, Gurdjieff's self-observation exercises, Alfred Korzybski's general semantics, Aleister Crowley's magical theorems, Sociobiology, Yoga, Christian Science, relativity, and quantum mechanics amongst other approaches to understanding the world around us. It claims to be a short book (nearly 300 pages) about how the human mind works and how to get the most use from one. Wilson describes it as an "owner's manual for the human brain".

I first found the book in the public domain on Scribed which allows you to read the book on line or download it as a PDF with free registration at the link at the top of this post. It is also available with no registration via the Fans of Robert Anton Wilson webite as a PDF download (click here).

You Can't Make This Up - Mark Halperin on the Presidential Race in Time Magazine

Link for This Post: You Can't Make This Up -- Time Magazine Saturday May 3, 2008 by Mark Halperin

The last couple of months of the long grueling polical race has gotten me a bit down. This short little piece in Time Magazine managed to raise a smile however.  After the running of the Kentucky Derby, Halperin posted:

Hillary Clinton enthusiastically picked a filly named Eight Belles to win the Kentucky Derby and compared herself to the horse. Eight Belles finished second. The winner was the favorite, Big Brown.

Eight Belles collapsed immediately after crossing the finish line, and was euthanized shortly thereafter.

No matter with your for Hillary or Barack, you have to smile at that one.

LSD Inventor Albert Hofmann Leaves Lasting Albeit Controversial Legacy - CBC Sunday News Online Video

Links for this Post:

Psychedelic Pioneer Albert Hofmann Video on Canadian Broadcasting Company Sunday News

Watch Video with Windows Media (click here)

I taped a short statement  here in Vegas whch  was included as part of a collage of people including Rick Doblin and Stansislav Grof remembering Albert Hofmann.broadcast today on the Canadian Broadcasting Company's Sunday News program.

Here is a snip from the CBC website:

The Swiss chemist who discovered LSD, Albert Hofmann, died this week at 102. We examine the legacy of the man who became a hero to a rebellious generation, and look back at the history of this controversial drug - now in the midst of a research revival.

You can watch the video by visting this link.

Rest in Peace Old Friend -- Albert Hofmann the Father of LSD Dies at 102

Links for this Post:

Albert Hofmann Dies at 102 New York Tmes

I had some dental work done today and my dentist does not believe much in giving pain killers. Usually I concur but tonight I wish he had give me some. In the late evening I began receiving emails from many people telling me that Albert has passed awasy.

I met him in 1976 in Basel. When he visited Southern California in the Eighties, he gave me a copy of his book, LSD My Problem Child.  He signed the book for me. It said simply,

"Cordially,
Albert Hofmann."

We had a long correspondence and saw each other several times since our first meeting. In 2002, he sent me another copy of the original Hardcover edition of his book. This time it was inscribed,,

Cordially, In Old Friendship,
Albert Hofmann."

Hofmann has been the wise old man in many of my dreams His invention LSD was the catalyst for my mystical view of life. My mystical view of life is not that LSD taught me all of the truths and now I have all the answers

Rather it showed me how little I know and the rest of us humans know about the deepest questions we can ask about life. Much is unknown including the nature of  human consciousness itself.

We have much to learn. Albert Hoffman's discovery. He has opened us all  up and put us on quicker  journey toward wisdom. Rest in Peace old friend, you will be missed.

The Search for A Female Aphrodesiac Continues

Link for this Post: The hunt for '"pink" Viagra -- in the St. Peters Times.

Sigmund Freud once said,

The great question that has never been answered, and which I have not yet been able to answer, despite my thirty years of research into the feminine soul, is "What does a woman want?"

While psychology has not yet come up with an answer for that, pschopharmacologists have been hunting for a pill that they hope might provide a partial answer for Freud's question.

The article linked at the top, while containing mostly philosophical musings, the mention of PT-141  which I posted about in  Will The Soon-To-Hit-The-Market Uber-Aphrodisiac PT-141 Become the Biggest 'Club-Drug' Ever? back in October 2006.

When I wrote that post PT-141, a drug patented by  Palatin Technologies was in development. According to the article, the FDA has raised concerns about some instances of blood pressure increases in male subjects. This got me to updating my file about the drug.

When I looked at the Palatin site, they discuss the problems with the FDA allowing them to go beyond Phase II clinical trials..

It also turns out that they PT-141 now has a name, Bremelanotide which is now on Wikipedia

In the clinical trials, there are several quotes by subjects. Here is one of the male patients"

"On the five point scale, I’d score the erection I had as a six.”  - Patient 41

So while there is no evidence that Bremelanotide is what women want, it may turn out to be what quite a few men want.

Note: Image at the top of from the Washington Post via the St. Petersburg Times.

Obama Favored 10% over Hillary Nationally -- Bush Breaks Record Highest Negative Ever -- Gallup Polls

Links for this Post:

Disapproval Of Bush Breaks Record -- USA Today

Obama Maintains National Lead -- Gallup Daily

Two stories about the ratings of three polticians in the Gallup Poll caught my eye today. The stories might seem somewhat unconnected yet a freeze frame in the trajectory of each of these individuals.

The first, George Bush has been President for the past 7 and a half years. The electorate is feeling more than a little buyers remorse. From the USA Today Story:

President Bush has set a record he'd presumably prefer to avoid: the highest disapproval rating of any president in the 70-year history of the Gallup Poll.  —  In a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll taken Friday through Sunday, 28% of Americans approve of the job Bush is doing; 69% disapprove.

The second story is about two people who hope replace Bush. Here is a bit from the Gallup Daily:

Obama has held a statistically significant lead the last two days after Clinton enjoyed a temporary increase in support following last Wednesday's Philadelphia debate, which brought the race back into a statistical dead heat. Prior to that, Obama led Clinton for 11 consecutive days, with margins ranging from seven to 11 points . . .

Clinton is expected to prevail in Pennsylvania, according to the pre-election polls, but the pundits are focusing speculation on the size of the margin. A big win could give her campaign a boost and make a comeback seem more possible. A close win would probably not alter the dynamics of the race, and make her campaign's arguments that she can overcome Obama's delegate lead less persuasive. An Obama win could lead to heavy pressure from Democratic Party leaders for Clinton to drop out of the race. Gallup Poll Daily tracking data will begin to show any national impact of the Pennsylvania results on Thursday, since tonight's polling will involve a mixture of interviewing conducted before and after the winner of that contest is known.

Neither Democrat can claim stronger positioning against John McCain at this point. Among registered voters nationwide, McCain and Obama are even at 45%, while McCain outpolls Clinton by a single point, 46% to 45%.

As readers of Vision Thing know, my hopes are with Barack Obama. No matter who wins, most people agree the new President would have a hard time of matching Bush's Guiness Book of Record Gallup Poll low approval rating.

The Dream Machine Online

Link for this Post: The Dream Machine Online  Note; Be sure to close your eyes when you view the dream machine.

Three years ago, I wrote Remembering Brion Gysin Among Gysin's works was the concept of the Dream Machine.

The main link at the top of this post is to a website the attempts to render the Dream Machine concept as an online web application.

A Dream Machine according to Wikipedia:

The dreamachine (or dream machine) is a stroboscopic flicker device that produces visual stimuli. Artist Brion Gysin and scientist Ian Sommerville created the dreamachine after reading William Grey Walter's book, The Living Brain.

In its original form, a dreamachine is made from a cylinder with slits cut in the sides. The cylinder is placed on a record turntable and rotated at 78 or 45 revolutions per minute. A light bulb is suspended in the center of the cylinder and the rotation speed allows the light to come out from the holes at a constant frequency, situated between 8 and 13 pulses per second. This frequency range corresponds to alpha waves, electrical oscillations normally present in the human brain while relaxing.

A dreamachine is "viewed" with the eyes closed: the pulsating light stimulates the optical nerve and alters the brain's electrical oscillations. The "viewer" experiences increasingly bright, complex patterns of color behind their closed eyelids. The patterns become shapes and symbols, swirling around, until the "viewer" feels surrounded by colors. It is claimed that viewing a dreamachine allows one to enter a hypnagogic state. This experience may sometimes be quite intense, but to escape from it, one needs only to open one's eyes.

A dreamachine may be dangerous for people with photosensitive epilepsy or other nervous disorders. It is thought that one out of 10,000 adults will experience a seizure while viewing the device; about twice as many children will have a similar ill effect.

Who is Brion Gyson?

Brion Gysin (1916-1986) was a multimedia artist and mystic most famous in his lifetime for inventing a system called The Cut Ups, often credited to his best friend and soul mate the Beat writer William S. Burroughs. Traversing many nationalities, Gysin was a Sufi initiate, Secret knowledge. Dream Machine 1960 at the Beat Hotel after experiencing flicker near Marseilles tried everything to market and sell his ticket.

This description of him comes the makers of a  2008 feature documentary 'FLicKeR' by Nik Sheehan. about Brion Gysin and the dream machine  . This is the Flicker website and here is some more info about the film (and an image I used).

Below and completely unrelated is The Dream Machine film on YouTube which says that it is, "based on Dave Arnold's design copy of artist and alchemist Brion Gysin's DREAMACHINE developed in the 1950s from an original design of the 'Flicker Machine' invented by the mathematician Ian Sommerville, a close friend of William Burroughs."

Note: Image at top from painting by Paul O'Donovan on the Interzone Site, Western Lands. Title: "The rebirth of Ra-Atum-Khepri, occurring during an Interzone Coffee-break T.V. commercial, causing a partial eclipse over the Westernlands"

Millennials: Tipping the Scales Toward Change on Future Blogger

Link for this post:Millennials: Tipping the Scales Toward Change on Future Blogger.

I have been hearing about the new Millennial Generation but did not know that much about it until I found this post on a weblog called FutureBlogger. Complete with two web videos, the post got me up and running on the Millennial Generation concept.
The post also got me interested in a new book, Millennial Makeover: YouTube, MySpace and the Future of American Politics by Mike Hais and Morley Winograd. I clipped an interview with them from the Future Blogger post and embedded it below along with a snip from the beginning of the post.

A new generation of Americans, born in 1980-2000, is making a grab for the reins of culture, business and politics.  This Millennial Generation, dubbed a Civic generation by scholars who study generational patterns, is irreverent and highly pro-active, in contrast to the vocal Baby Boomer generation that was not given the tools to accomplish the widespread change they sought to effect.

Note: I found future blogger by way of Hedweb

The Longevity Meme -- Ideas and Actions for Longer, Healthier Lives

Link:for this Post The Longevity Meme -- Ideas and Actions for Longer, Healthier Lives.

Having just headed into a decade of my life, the idea of slowing the aging process becomes increasingly more interesting. Here is a log with a variety of topics and resources around this theme. Here is how the blog describes itself:

Aging is an enemy. It saps our strength, cripples and eventually kills us. The lack of information, advocacy and awareness of anti-aging and healthy life extension research is a terrible thing. Much of the general public thinks of aging as inevitable and natural, rather than as a medical condition that may one day be curable.

Comparatively few people know that the effects of aging can be slowed with diet and lifestyle choices, just as for many other medical conditions. Presently ongoing research aimed at repairing known types of age-related cellular damage - aimed at true rejuvenation, in other words - does not receive the widespread publicity and support it deserves.

Visit the longevity meme at the link at the top of this post.

World Psychedelic Forum Videos on YouTube

Links for this post: Series of World Psychedelic Forum Videos on YouTube

As I mentioned, I wanted to go to the World Psychedelic Forum in Basel but I guess two visits to Basel in one lifetime is probably enough.

The link above are some videos I found via Psychonaut.Com on YouTube. The overview of the entire conference as one short video is embedded below.

Remembering Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy

Links for this Post: In the text

My memory of what I was doing on the day Martin Luther King was murdered  forty years ago today is vivid. I was going to college at California State University Northridge, back then known as Valley State College.

I was a member of the Students for a Democratic Society, an organization opposed to racism, the Vietnam War and the for what we called Participatory Democracy. I have been involved in progressive movements throughout my life and for a long time, was not the one who gave the speeches. I did the grass-roots PR work and logistical organization for the events I was involved with.

The outrage that was felt when Martin Luther King was killed is hard to describe for those who did not live in that era. People these days are relatively jaded compared to the raw innocence of the  young movement that I was a part of in the Sixties.

I stayed up late and got up early putting together a public memorial to Dr. King that was held in the open forum area of our school. Over 4000 showed up at the memorial.

Later that Spring of 1968, Bobby Kennedy came to speak at the same forum. It was not long that he was gone too.

Note: Photo is San Fernando Valley State College from the Ovaett Library Digital collections