Surfing the Tao

We lost our special, darling boy today. Words cannot describe how wonderful and important this dog has been to our family, and he will be missed so intensely.

 

Everyone thinks their dog is the most special, and indeed that is how it should be. But let me just tell you a few short stories about Bodhi, what a uniquely blessed life he led, and how much he touched us all.

 

As a puppy, according to multiple witnesses, he used to talk in his sleep – clearly, and in English. After I knew him I heard him say, “I love you” - I could hardly believe my ears.

 

He never barked unless he was asked to speak, he never growled, and he never bit anyone, not even other dogs who bit him. That is truly amazing, particularly since many people think pit bulls are naturally aggressive.

 

The only other time he is known to have barked without command was when the house was on fire. He saved everyone, including the house.

 

He is the only dog ever allowed on Alcatraz. My husband put it in his contract when he worked on a movie there.

 

He was the only dog ever to be allowed out of his cage to play when he was in quarantine in Hawaii.

 

He is the only dog to be allowed to hang out behind the reception desk at the vet’s office.

 

He could climb trees, fetch the newspaper, pull us on rollerblades, and loved to chase kites high up in the air. He snuggled with kittens, bunnies, parakeets, and even our boa constrictor. They all adored him.

 

He was the center of our lives for so many years, the calm and gentle, happy spirit who only knew unconditional love and affection. He never left my husband’s side for many of them, traveling with him and snuggling with him every possible second.

 

We will miss you, Bodhi our friend, but we know you are now running, jumping and flying through green pastures with open blue skies, playing with our other old friends, with that big grin on your face again.

 

If ever there was an enlightened being in a dog’s body, it was Bodhi, whose name truly did justice to his loving and compassionate nature.

 

Save a place for us; heaven wouldn’t be heaven without you.

Tags: love by Angela
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There is a quiet place, within yourself, away from the storm. In the center of the whipping winds and stinging rain, there is sunlight, peace and tranquility.

 

This world, and often this blog, is often full of the terrible side of life – the things people should know about, don’t really want to know about, might want to think about and could benefit from being aware of…but also could suffer from, might be anguished by, become fearful of, or worry about.

 

In the center of all that, I want to remind myself and others, is a place of serenity. Of Knowing. Of a warm, all-encompassing and comforting love. It is there. At the center of all our atoms is the vacuum, that which binds and connects all things. But we must all participate in the act of finding it. At the very least we must recognize it is there and still the mind, to prepare our awareness. To create a place within ourselves for that quiet feather to land.

 

This can be very difficult, or it can be amazingly simple. We alone control our bodies, and our reactions towards the outer world. If we don’t – well, go back and read some of the things from my second paragraph. Yes, there are agendas, energies and devices being set against our peace of mind. But they are not our god. Our spirits have much, much greater powers than these.

 

Awareness is the first step. Then there are things we can do to foil them, to fight that battle. The armor is there. Find it and put it on. Go back and read the old masters. They knew this enemy. This type of struggle is exactly what they were referring to.

 

Enlightenment can come in a day; even in a minute, a second. Or it can come long and painfully, after much suffering. Just ask Buddha.

 

The Way can be lined with annoyances and unscrupulous people. But it is always there, ready to receive, ready to heal, ready to teach. Just ask Lao Tzu.

 

Love is our ultimate weapon. The energy we radiate back out into the world, even as we are bombarded with unimaginable atrocities and negativity, is what will change our reality. Just ask Jesus.

 

It’s only as hard as we think it is. We only have as much power as we allow ourselves to have. For that matter, the dark side only has as much power as we allow it to have.  Just ask Yoda.

 

We are all bubbles of energy that radiate far outside our physical bodies, and interact with our reality; a feedback loop of information going in and out. Which information will we choose to receive, which shall influence us? And which shall we choose to release back out into the world?

 

Follow your heart, not the programmed knee-jerk reactions of your world gone mad. Take back what is rightfully yours. Peace of mind. Harmony. Start with yourself. Many will follow; meanwhile, just stay strong. Stay fiercely focused. We are poised for the most incredible journey we can imagine. Yes, – amidst the chaos of these days, is a bright and wonderful future, hiding there in the center of it all. Waiting for us to see it.

 

These are not pipe dreams. It can and indeed will happen. The question only remains, who will join me on this Great Journey? Who will be there to guide me when I fall down?

Tags: knowledge, love, spiritual, Jesus, prophets, Buddha, masters, mind control, discernment, Lao Tzu, awakened, Great Path, consciousness, hurricane by Angela
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“I believe that the World Wide Web is, as a matter of fact, the noogenesis of the noosphere.” - Ralph Abraham, The Evolutionary Mind (1988)

 

Lawrence Hagerty wrote in The Spirit of the Internet,“…the Internet is not the noosphere. It is merely an infrastructure that is now available for the noosphere to use.” Hagerty goes on to profess, “I believe that the Internet is serving as just such an attractor, or basin of attraction, drawing the Earth’s most creative minds into a synergistic union out of which a new form of human consciousness can arise from the wells of chaos.“

 

The noosphere is a term created by Jesuit priest/radical thinker Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, whose ideas were frankly force-fed to me in college in the eighties (I happened to attend a Jesuit university where he was practically worshiped as a god). For that reason perhaps I wrongly assumed his teachings were more widespread than they actually were at the time. But I find no uncertain irony that his ideas continue to haunt my own delightfully synchronous journey towards Singularity.

 

Not the technological singularity of Ray Kurzweil; I’m talking more about what’s happening over at Reality Sandwich, and other important, alternative think tanks and blogs of our time. “New science” is termed thusly because, reminiscent of Capra’s intuitions of decades past, scientific discoveries are merged with new (and perhaps very old) interpretations of consciousness. This is how it should be; the Newtonian universe must ultimately be discarded in favor of the quantum discoveries that tickle our brains, easing us into new frontiers of existence, consciousness and human evolution. The homo cyber I find mentioned here and there, if left alone in the wilderness of pure artificial or mechanistic intelligence, would be the unfortunate result of not taking the final step of this process. Like refusing to take the red pill, our psyches would be left to rot inside the prison Matrix of third dimensional space-time. “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy,” reminds Shakespeare.

 

The Internet may be Noosphere 1.0, a precursor to an enlightened state of consciousness; or perhaps, Noosphere for Beginners, or Noosphere for Dummies. Though arguably a creation of Big Brother’s sinister and eavesdropping omnipresence, the Internet is also being used, perfectly a la Tao, as a vehicle to transmit thoughts and ideas in preparation for a purely telepathic noosphere. The next several years its role will be vastly influential in terms of the global progression of consciousness, and I urge all to participate as they can until then (or until the government curtails this freedom, much as it has done with suppressing entheogens); but at some point, perhaps soon, the circuits and transistors will go the way of the covered wagon. Many of us will leave our electronic devices abandoned on the beach as we eventually look up and realize the great sea of enlightenment and oneness is before us, and go in for a dip – never to return. The key to ridding ourselves of the shackles of this reality is love, pure and simple. Love is the thing no machine can transmit; love is the unique trait, or ability, that will catapult our transformation from homo sapiens not to homo cyber, but to homo luminus.

 

The minds at work on the great consciousness project at this moment are alive during this time not by accident. They are all Surfing the Tao though they may not be aware of it. We are all giving what we have, and taking what we need, in some kind of post-modern, spirit-driven, psychedelic communistic mind trip, hastened by our collective visions of 2012 and beyond. Hagerty calles it entheospace; I might describe the sensation as a sort of dreamstate, finding oneself floating down a river of consciousness, gently colliding with others riding down the same stream in a kind of synchronistic, fractal pattern of atunement, as we all slip closer to the great sea.

 

Daniel Pinchbeck’s first book was entitled, Breaking Open the Head – which I mention here not for its particular content, which is a mind-expanding examination of the entheogenic experience, but because it so aptly illustrates my own particular state of being.

 

My own head cracked in college, during several misguided entheogenic experiences. I discovered Terence McKenna, but as far as spirituality goes, I was definitely a seeker who didn’t really want to spend any time looking.

 

This all changed in 1999. The previous fracture, which had begun to scar over, was rent asunder, and a torrent of new knowledge and higher frequencies began to stream in. I will only say: the true masters are truly hidden. And it is meant to stay that way, for now, perhaps because actual participants can often teach each other more in the beginning. But I was urged to continue meditating, and before long I had what Neil Kramer over at The Cleaver might call a fourth dimensional experience.

 

Without any entheogenic aid, I crossed over into the void. Suddenly, I Knew.

 

There are no further words for what I experienced. The language simply doesn’t exist. But it changed everything I knew, all that I was. What followed was years of reading, researching, listening, loving, meditating and change. Many of the books that appeared as if by magic I have listed here. My intellectual side was frustrated, but my spirit was at peace for the first time I can remember in my adult life. The end result of that was, I wrote a book, which was really just a cathartic expression of my overwhelmed psyche.

 

My own path is still guided by amazing synchronicity and coincidence. I find it startling how often I find articles written about the very subject I had been ruminating about. How I discover brilliant minds have already found answers to the questions I have been asking. How so many of our paths are beginning to converge on the Great Path. Spirituality, Taoism, 2012, eschatology, Planet X, the Matrix, conspiracy, sinister agendas, alien technology, symbology, synchromysticism, mind control, electromagnetism, alternative energy, quantum physics, plasma physics, torsion physics, entheogenic-inspired thought and conscious enlightenment, ecocentric living, — the puzzle pieces are coming together rapidly. I cannot explain how I know what I Know, yet I will say; the quickening is upon us. The noosphere is coalescing. The Puzzle of Being, and the question of consciousness, is in the process of being realized by a vast cadre of psycho-cryptographers.

 

The great irony is, I sense, that this enlightened, super-charged, noospheric state of being is and has always has been, here and now. This ancient Way that has been lost during our fall, over perhaps hundreds of thousands of years, is now being quickly rediscovered, picked up and dusted off as some kind of primordial reflex to protect ourselves from what we subconsciously know is coming. We are remembering, so that we will survive.

 

I remember Y2K. Regarding expectations for 2012, the intensity of thought, intellect, spirit, and energy now in 2008 is somewhat on par with what happened the months previous to Y2K. And we have nearly five years left. What incredible postulations, theories, discoveries, transitions, realizations, opportunities, manifestations, creations and expectations will surface between now and then?

 

And what will happen on December 21, 2012 at 11:11 universal time? That remains to be seen; but to prepare for either global catastrophe, psychedelic wormholes or simply more life as we know it – the only answer is, and always will be: love, peace and harmony.

 

Sometimes I wonder how I find what I do here online – and when I do, I wonder what else I’m missing. I’m only one person. Only one computer. Only so many hours in the day.

 

If you’ve made it this far, please consider leaving a comment here regarding what author, what religion, what spiritual path, what thinker, what scientist, what discovery, what issue, what website, what experience – what ANYTHING that has made a difference for you on your journey.

 

Give what you have. Take what you need.

 

As it acts in the world, the Tao

is like the bending of a bow.

The top if bent downward;

the bottom is bent up.

It adjusts excess and deficiency

so that there is perfect balance.

It takes from what is too much

and gives to what isn’t enough.

– Tao Te Ching #77

Tags: technology, aliens, knowledge, love, spiritual, conspiracy, masters, 2012, synchronicity, mind control, discernment, Tao, coincidence, 11:11, Mayan calendar, Tao Te Ching, awakened, quickening, Surfing the Tao, Great Path, consciousness, fractals, alternative, Planet X, astronomy, psychedelic, metaphysics, plasma, noosphere, entheogens by Angela
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“Every pearl has its oyster.” - Randall Jarrell

 

I don’t believe in coincidence. I’ve gotten myself into quite a few prolonged conversations on that point; but the fact remains, for myself, there is only synchronicity and wisdom hidden amongst the layers of daily experience. It’s only up to us to look for them.

 

Maybe it’s all just loony-bin material. But I can’t speak for the skeptical side of this tendency. I can only wonder at the lack of imagination, the lack of desire for discernment and greater truths; the lack of stunned amazement of life and its diversity. I also wonder at the admirable height of arrogance that makes one believe the only reality is the one we can see. It’s not about right or wrong; to me, it’s just a decision one makes. True or not, I believe one can either choose to pay attention and look for opportunities towards growth and wisdom, or settle into the mindset that it’s all random, and solely based on our own intellectual or emotional chemical synapses, thereby perhaps missing messages and pathways that might otherwise speak to us on levels of consciousness untried.

 

That said, it’s not always easy to discern one’s own particular path. There are a multitude of subtle layers to this sensibility, and it’s takes practice to recognize them. The world and all its daemons continues to tempt one into false promises, illusions and mixed messages. So it’s not always immediately apparent, of course, where one is headed or exactly how things will play out. That’s why in Surfing the Tao one must rely on the strength and power of the wave to carry us over. There’s a certain amount of trust involved; at least we know we have the wave to ride. Unlike true ocean waves, the Tao is always perfectly available and present.

 

My own path has recently led me across literally heaps and heaps of pearls. Pearls of every shape, color and variety. Huge black Tahitian pearls; strands and strands of them. Perfectly round ones, and astonishing circled and baroque ones. Gorgeous white, gold, silver and pink South Sea pearls, bigger than gum balls, which virtually emit their own light. Miles and miles of freshwater pearls, from the tiniest to the largest they come, in nearly every shade of the rainbow. Mabe pearls. Blister pearls. Teardrop pearls, coin pearls, petal pearls, tile pearls and keshi pearls. I’ve learned to string them, pushing tiny knots of thread tightly between each precious gem for safety, with your choice of clasp.

 

The irony is, I’ve never been much of a jewelry person myself. My husband laughs because he says I am the only wife who says, please don’t buy me any more jewelry. It’s too expensive, and I won’t wear it. The only exceptions are pieces my own father has lovingly and expertly crafted over the years – and my wedding ring of course, though there are no big diamonds on my fingers. I also have one particular amulet I can’t live without so no matter how dressed up I get, it stays around my neck. I don’t care much about fashion, to the amusement of my mom and stepdaughters. I’m more a creature of habit. So it’s particularly noteworthy when these luminescent, dazzling orbs begin to enter my consciousness so fully, so unexpectedly.

 

Pearls are found in nearly every religious tradition, with many various symbologies and parables. The “pearl of great price” was a metaphor used by Jesus to describe the Kingdom of Heaven. Bits of wisdom are inevitably referred to as “pearls.” We are reminded not to “cast pearls before swine.” There are the Pearly Gates. Also the Hymn of the Pearl. Pearls are often mentioned in the Koran. Hindus relate to the Nine Pearls. New Age and metaphysical references are many and varied. I was tickled to find out the largest pearl in the world is claimed to be the Pearl of Lao Tzu, which comes replete with its own legend and controversy.

 

The spiritual significance of this opportunity that fell out of the sky recently is not lost on me. The very reason I am swimming in pearls is because of necessity, a situation I know many share during these unusually challenging economic times. And of course such situations also often bring emotional turmoil; such is the way of the fallible human spirit, unless already greatly trained against outside tension. But I realize, through this perhaps ponderously obvious example which has been laid in my path, that I must allow the relatively tiny irritants to enter in, so that with love, I may also build up the layers and layers of lustrous nacre to protect against future challenges. As in the case of so many delicate sea pearls, with their giant Maxima shells the size of dinner plates, many baby pearls are lost. It may take several tries to get a good one, and it’s why they are so rare and highly valued. But eventually, after several years of persistence, the perfect, glistening sphere is born.

 

“Errors, like straws, upon the surface flow; he who would search for pearls must dive below. “ -John Dryden

 

Tags: knowledge, love, spiritual, synchronicity, discernment, Tao, Surfing the Tao, consciousness by Angela
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My surfboard is woven of millions of tiny threads of wisdom, cemented by the love with which I am gratefully surrounded. Without it I could not withstand the endless pounding of the waves – ultra-strangeness in the world, as well as in my own life. My toes grab hold, the wax which is my faith keeps them from slipping…and yet, the sharp edges of the reef beckon, and these shores are rocky. Surfer’s hell, they call it. An apt phrase, some days.

 

The focus it takes to stay upright and balanced is not easy, especially as the noose tightens. And the sharks are circling. (thanks for the warning, Cadeveo) But what choice do we have? We must remain, trapped in this physical drama, until the ending unfolds. And yet there is no reason for fear, at all. For those hungry for more insight, check out this great discussion between two of my favorite thinkers, William Henry and Daniel Pinchbeck, at YouTube. Or how about an article on the New Pyramid Age by Phillip Coppens? Perhaps a thoughtful entry on 2012 at The Cleaver, or an insightful word on humans as transmitters by Kingsley. One thing these many minds seem to agree on: the coming transformation will be fully realized only as a result of the work we do within ourselves. It’s an inner revolution, perhaps aided by galactic alignment, cosmic rays and/or altered states – but it won’t be televised. This is a very difficult realization for many people – there can be no excuses, and no shifting the workload. We all must take responsibility, and it starts today, with love and being true to yourself; I know for myself, it can be very, very difficult indeed. And yet in the depths of my spirit, I know it is a task I can’t put off. Our future depends on it.

 

Our planet is shouting out hints as to our present state with dire emphasis. Must we cry hurriquake, again and again? Typhoons lay waste to the Philippines, while earthquakes rattle there as well as Chile and Indonesia, but it seems to be much more than that now. Freak tides and floods are swamping many areas of the globe, including Indonesia, Algeria, Vietnam, England, Brazil, and Oregon, while heat waves and droughts threaten water supplies and infrastructure in Tennessee, Australia, Chile, North Carolina and Georgia. While it may be part of a much larger catastrophic cycle, in our recent history it is not considered par for the course; Reuters reported that weather-related disasters have quadrupled in the past 20 years. Take heed, Planet X scoffers. I recently reread Stalking Wolf’s prophecies about the Night of the Red Sky; take note one of his Second Sign in terms of this shocking garbage news. (And don’t forget the oil spills recently in Russia, San Francisco, the Gulf of Mexico, and Long Island.)

 

Our financial and economic crises are certainly no fun to contemplate either. Tired of hearing about the North American Union? And yet, Asia is moving towards its own unification too. Remember, political boundaries are irrelevant; economics holds all the power. The Amero is coming. Our dollar is doomed. Again, Cadeveo points out even rappers are flashing Euros in their videos now, as if to say, better get hip and move with the times. There is no escape in entertainment – there’s so much propaganda, so many inside jokes, it only passes for entertainment for ignorant minds. Synchromystics, you know this path. Fantasy worlds, fantasy treasures and fantasy futures; superpowers, superbugs, and superinanity. One to keep us entranced, one to dull our brains – and don’t forget the really far-fetched one to keep us firmly convinced they are only Stories. Somewhere, something evil laughs softly.

 

The list goes on. Cell phone towers hidden inside religious symbols. (thanks, Through The Looking Glass) Or how about Comet Holmes merely hiding another object? Yellowstone going to blow? Secret fairy tales coming out? In many ways, we are already prisoners of our co-opted reality. The only respite we have is within ourselves. And who are we? Ask Puppetji.

 

Yet there too, the Powers-that-be seek to control. Mandatory vaccinations, here and there; our food supply is polluted and re-engineered to what end we cannot even imagine. And don’t forget the water, or the air – They haven’t. What enters our being is contaminated from here, there and everywhere.

 

And if you think our minds and spirits are free – think again. Generations of rigid belief; tradition; complete and total lack of awareness and training and ignorance of our true history, coupled with stubborn egos: for many, there will be no truth. There will be no release, no final answers. Millions – billions, even – are already trapped in Their webs – both spiritual and physical.

 

Only by disconnecting will we finally heal. Only by giving everything up will we be fulfilled. It seems, only in the loss of all we know will we finally be shown the truth.

 

And still, I Surf.

 

The Master’s power is like this.

He lets all things come and go

effortlessly, without desire,

He never expects results,

thus he is never disappointed.

He is never disappointed;

thus his spirit never grows old. -Tao Te Ching #55

 

 

 

 

Tags: surfing, knowledge, love, spiritual, climate, conspiracy, prophets, global warming, 2012, chemtrails, end of the world, UFO, discernment, Apocalypse, genetically modified, Mayan calendar, Tao Te Ching, sea level, quickening, Surfing the Tao, consciousness, Last Days, End Times, news, Planet X, astronomy, deep integration, North American Union, prophecy, earthquake, hurricane, Amero by Angela
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Journalist Daniel Pinchbeck, self-proclaimed cynic and son of Beatnik parents, transversed the realms of the psychic and the psychedelic, as well as his own personal drama, to bring us his version of the Eschaton in his book 2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl. His scholarly prose is punctuated with radical, apocalyptic refrains which underscore his own revelations as to the immanent arrival of something both terrifying and wonderful. If he is correct, our near future contains the potential for both catastrophe and conscious enlightenment, a view I happen to share to some extent.

 

Whether this transformation will occur in one simultaneous event on December 21, 2012 remains to be seen. However Mr. Pinchbeck threw himself to the wolves in this book, revealing not just his own relationship issues, self-doubt and twisted shamanic journeys, but a full-on prophetic experience of Quetzalcoatl himself and a vision of our future perhaps only a very small handful of people are willing to consider.

 

He calls this book an “extravagant thought experiment”, explaining his dual lines of investigation from philosophical groundwork to his own “process of discovery”, which led us from psychedelic trips all over the world, to crop circles, alien abduction, occult manifestations, time vs. consciousness theory, global environmental and economic collapse, and back to his own frustrating and comparatively two-dimensional Manhattan habitat. Through these various means, he points out our general unwillingness as a species, in these post-modern times, to recognize the ever-increasing void of spiritual awareness; our cultural blinders have rendered us more or less incapable of recognizing the signs of our own imminent demise, which come to us through journeys into a level of consciousness few seem prepared to take.

 

While his writings and experiences differ greatly in style, organization, and attitude, I found the skeletal framework somehow reminiscent of my own, as if there were some great field of knowledge to be tapped into whose messages are passed on through one’s own particular experience, research, circumstances, filters, lexicon, allegory, etc. – the flesh, as it were. Granted, the subject matter stems from the same genre, though our intentions are arguably dissimilar; however I couldn’t help but notice how much of this work resonated with my own in Surfing the Tao. After much agonizing over whether to share what I found to be synchronous lines of thought, I have decided to note some here humbly, knowing my own self-published, obscure volume will likely only make it into a handful of minds. I ask the reader not to misinterpret the following as any folly of ego; I recognize my own small work can never be compared to Pinchbeck’s literary talent, however critiqued he may be. I do this only in the spirit of noticing how similarly the Tao can touch the thought patterns of an open mind and heart, and that the synchronicity of it all could raise a few eyebrows as to what may or may not be truer than we realize…

 

DP: “Throughout my early life and into my thirties, I lacked a metaphysical view of any sort.” (p. 19) AVM: “For the first thirty-odd years of my life, I wandered in ignorance.” (p. vii)

 

DP: “…I concluded, sadly, that our current civilization is not a machine built to last. (p.8) AVM: “As time and technology progresses, general knowledge is actually regressing…A system based on money instead of love will eventually falter.” (p.7)

 

DP: “…the modern materialist sees myth as antiquated and simpleminded – at best, metaphoric or symbolic.” (pp. 9-11) AVM: “..we have been taught to think of the ‘gods’ as mythological or symbolic…”(p. 31)

 

DP: “…a text can only act as a scaffolding of concepts, a ladder for others to climb.” (p. 15) AVM: ““Though some texts can be used to help guide us, no one ever entered the actual ascended state through the pages of a book.” (p. 210)

 

DP: “Real knowledge of what I am saying must be earned, and lived, by each individual, in his or her own way.” (p. 15) AVM: “This is a highly personal experience…little things will pop up in everyday life that will start to ‘prove’ it to each person in their own way.” (p. 14)

 

DP: “Few of us have time to make our own investigation of such abstruse realms as psychic research – and why would be bother, when our ‘experts’ assure us they have the situation wrapped up?” (p. 38) AVM: “…those who control the leading educational and intellectual institutions of our day have settled on the general public view of non-supernatural evolution…Many would rather accept the lives they have been taught…and not bother with anything more.” (p. 5)

 

DP: “…modern physicists…were surprised…[to find] that matter was largely composed of empty space. At this quantum level, physicists discovered that their attempts to measure the phenomena they were studying affected that phenomena…” (p. 47-8) AVM: “…inside an atom, there really isn’t any substance at all; just tiny sparks of energy…physicists are surprised to discover you can’t measure sub-atomic activity without influencing it.” (p. 15)

 

DP: “I found that attuning myself to synchronicities…required the development of a kind of intuitive skill…some of these synchronicities involved conjunctions between personal episodes and world events that seemed to me both numinous and inexplicable.” (p. 55) AVM: “My life became filled with so many bizarre synchronicities and small daily miracles that few people would even believe them.” (p. vii)

 

DP: “It is only as a fully self-reflective individual consciousness that one can make the choice, out of free will, to reconcile with the Divine, through sacrifice, or supercession, of the ego.” (p. 117) AVM: “Choose love: use your free will to seek His will, and soon it will coincide with your own and your life will be truly blessed.” (p. 20)

 

DP: “In the popular culture of our secular age, the gods, demigods, fairies and gnomes of the old mythic realm have returned as extraterrestrials.” (p. 121) AVM: “Author John A. Keel wrote in his work Operation Trojan horse, “The UFO manifestations seem to be, by and large merely minor variations of the age-old demonological phenomenon.” (p. 50)

 

DP: “According to this hypothesis, Christ ‘redeems’ us only when we follow his lead. We still have to save our own souls.” (p. 117) AVM: “It is a bit of a paradox – we must first save ourselves, by refusing to be fearful, and maintaining a positive state of mind.” (p. 199)

 

DP: “Our conventional notion of history, like our conventional understanding of space and time, supports a linear, evolutionary and causally deterministic view of events.” (p. 189) AVM: “Most people alive today probably think our world is just the result of natural evolution…” (p. 1)

 

DP: “As represented in the Tai Chi symbol, one pole does not negate its antipode, but reflects and includes it.” (p.209) AVM: “Yin and yang are not opposites – yinyang is the essence of the oneness of all things.” (p. 28)

 

DP: “The superstrings, quantum jumps, and wormholes through space-time described by contemporary physicists might prove the basis for shamanic techniques of visiting other realms…” (p. 245) AVM: “The passageways between [black and/or white holes] are referred to as wormholes, gateways through space/time…This concept mirrors our ancients’ views about our reality [re. origins of ‘the gods’.]” (p.42)

 

DP: “’EVERYTHING IS SAFE IN GOD’S HANDS.’ This telegraphed answer [to a question regarding the fate of humanity] was startling – and reassuring…It has liberated me from fear and anxiety.” (p. 259) AVM: “God’s plan is great but complicated…only know that He loves us and everything will be ok in the end…Stop worrying…never give in to fear.” (pp. 250-1)

 

DP: “As it says in the Tao Te Ching, ‘Non-Tao is short-lived.” (p. 375) AVM: “’That which goes against the Tao comes to an early end.’ - Lao Tzu” (p. 14)

 

DP: “Such a shift would not be the ‘end of the world,’ but the end of a world, and the opening of the next.” (p. 15) AVM: “Far from being the end of everything, this event could trigger our ascension into a higher realm…” (p. 249)

 

But whereas many of my own thoughts seem mirrored in his book, I found it interesting how his own particular circumstances, and journey towards this consciousness, manifested in such different ways. While I’m no stranger to psychedelics and have indeed had some prophetic experiences thereby, my most profound revelations were actually not drug-induced but rather brought about during moments of startling clarity during deep meditation. What truth I believe I stumbled upon comes from within; our own atoms already contain the necessary ingredients for wisdom, transcendence and enlightenment. Mr. Pinchbeck does not hesitate to tell of his terrifying psychedelic foray into the realm of the trickster daimon and the occult; he does indeed admit the inherent dangers therein, “The initial visions had been seductively Luciferic.” (p. 72) While he does admit the inherent dangers of the “daimonic reality”, I might suggest the best protection there, as anywhere, is love. And love is something he seems to have struggled with, on a personal level, throughout – though he does recognize the necessity and power of positive thinking, something he was not afraid to comment on during a recent and much-discussed argument with Whitley Strieber on his radio show.

 

But he is on a very different journey than I am; for many, psychedelics offer a way to, in Pinchbeck’s own words, ‘break open the head’ in a way they might not otherwise be able to, in a world that seeks to keep this kind of knowledge hidden. Certainly one cannot help but be mystified by the profound and strikingly similar types of inferences made by the likes of McKenna, Burroughs, Narby, Pinchbeck himself and others in these altered states. To seek knowledge of another realm, consciousness or dimension, you have to somehow travel there.

 

Towards the end, Pinchbeck shares the transmission he received from Quetzalcoatl. I read it umpteen times, my sense of discernment on high alert, as if searching for a way to Know…I am left with the overwhelming sense that he did intuit truth and wisdom, the sort of truth one gleans from Knowing with the Spirit; in the intellectual world, nothing like this could ever be proven. I suffer the same dilemma. Somehow I find solace knowing that if these revelations indicate mental illness according to western psychiatric theory, at least I would be in good company in the psych ward. So, knowing how difficult it is to write about these things in a secular materialist culture, he does win my respect and admiration for even coming out with this material. As I said before – the wolves are eager to tear it apart, and he has laid bare his jugular, “Even if it required isolation from the mainstream, I preferred to sacrifice my beliefs and preconceptions, along with the comforts and status they afforded, rather than cling to a set of inherited values that I increasingly suspected to be false.” (p. 40) At the risk of repeating myself, again I find evidence that our many diverse paths have the potential to converge onto the Great Path – that singular Truth of Being which seems to so deftly escape our waking consciousness.

 

2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl was published in hardback in 2006 and paperback in 2007. Mr. Pinchbeck can be found online at Breaking Open the Head, Reality Sandwich, Whole Life Times, featured in a video at Postmodern Times, his Amazon blog and MySpace among others.

Tags: surfing, aliens, knowledge, love, spiritual, ancient, prophets, Free will, 2012, end of the world, synchronicity, discernment, Apocalypse, Mayan calendar, Surfing the Tao, Great Path, consciousness, Last Days, End Times, prophecy, psychedelic by Angela
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Yes, things have been crazy around here. I am working on a few ideas right now but for whatever reason the Tao has me surfing other breaks at the moment. I’ll be here soon…It’s All Good …

 

There is a time for being ahead,

a time for being behind;

a time for being in motion,

a time for being at rest,

a time for being vigorous,

a time for being exhausted;

a time for being safe,

a time for being in danger.

 

The Master sees things as they are,

without trying to control them.

She lets things go their own way,

and resides in the center of the circle.

 

TTC #29

Tags: surfing, love, Tao, Tao Te Ching, Surfing the Tao, Great Path by Angela
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When life hits you hard

hit back harder

 

 

Will the struggle to make ends meet

and keep loved ones near when an ocean divides,

and health is threatened