Stonehead

Haven't you heard that their other senses become heightened?

Isn't it funny how solutions are often designed to tackle a problem without taking a systems approach to things? For instance, energy conservation. Back in the 70's, energy conservation was pushed and homeowners were encouraged to add insulation to their homes to keep heat in. The problem was that essentially sealing up the house led to indoor air pollution problems. Or, consider automobiles. A lot of manufacturers increased fuel efficiency by building their cars lighter. Problem is, cars became easier to demolish when crashed. Politics too. Then President Carter decides to punish the Soviets for their invasion of Afghanistan by imposing a grain embargo. Uh, huh. Hurt our farmers more than it did the Soviets and some say this event led to the Farm Crisis during the 80's. Seems the short term solution to problems is the culprit most likely due to the need for immediate profit. I wonder, if people are willing to pay exorbitant prices for bottled water then they'd be willing to allow the now plentiful tap water to be raised in price to match the true cost of keeping potable water clean? When everything's said and done, is it just a mtter of convenience?

Gary Trudeau of Doonesbury fame welcomes a second Bush term. Says it's almost God-given to comedians and cartoonists. Sometimes humor is the only valid response to a grave situation.

I always thought that those guys who carried the longest ice screws were like those that drove the biggest trucks, compensatory behavior to make up for the lack thereof in other departments. Seems best to carry a variety of sizes rather than the longest size is best mentality (of course, I'd carry more of the longer sizes). Stubbies make sense in thin ice.

Ya, that opened up a synaptic memory trace to Three Dog Night, "An Old Fashioned Love Song"-- "Just an old fashioned love song Coming down in three part harmony."

wha? I thought calling them psychedelics was passe. "God (theos) within" The Greek word, ehtheos..."to describe the condition that follows when one is inspired and possessed by the god that has entered one's body." ... Pursuant to R. Gordon Wasson's wish for a vocabulary to describe divine inebriants, Carl A. P. Ruck, Danny Staples, Jeremy Bigwood and I, in collaboration with Wasson, proposed the neologism entheogen[ic] in 1979, as a term "appropriate for describing states of shamanic and ecstatic possession induced by ingestion of mind-altering drugs." Noting that shamanic inebriants did not provoke hallucinations or other psychiatric pathologies, we deemed hallucinogen[ic], psychotomimetic and its congeners to be pejorative, prejudcing "transcendent and beatific states of communion with deity" characteristic of traditional use of visionary drugs. We noted that, besides being pejorative outside of the counterculture, psychedelic was "so invested with connotations of the pop-culture of the 1960s that it is incongruous to speak of a shaman's taking a 'psychedelic' drug." Entheogen[ic] (literally 'becoming divine within') was derived from an obsolete Greek word describing religious communion with visionary drugs, prophetic seizures and erotic passion, and is cognate with the common word enthusiasm. Since the neologism is apposite to traditional contexts of use of shamanic inebriants, it has met with an enthusiastic reception by ethnographers and historians, and has appeared in print in all of the major European languages, plus Catalan. Entheogen[ic] has now become the primary term for shamanic inebriants in the Spanish-speaking world, and bids fair to become the predominant term for these drugs in the ethnographic and ethnopharmacognostical literature worldwide. (pages 66-67)

Arggh!!! But gaiters aplenty!

Isn't it somewhat representative of the cultish beginnings of a religion? Take a look at some of the gibberish that is sprinkled with what passes for eternal truth and other 'gems' of thought that comprise religions. "Humans bartered their mind to the perfection of death." --excerpt from above link So much meaning condensed into a single sentence, enough to write a sermon around, or perhaps a tract of religious belief.

The physician in charge of this investigative study is Dr. Charles Grob. A Google search of his name "Charles Grob" will turn up a number of hits regarding his research into the psychiatric uses of hallucinogens especially MDMA (Ecstasy). I'd guess that orthodox religions would not welcome this venture into their realm, the transition from living to dying. Personally, I don't see it as replacement of religion by chemicals rather it's the enhancement of the experience. I'd also imagine that governments wouldn't want widescale use of hallucinogens because the people might question the established structure of their society freed from the constraints of convention. As one person said, "They don't call it acid for nothing". Wasn't it Nixon that once called Dr. Timothy Leary the most dangerous man alive?

Ya, your article reminded me of medical research surrounding DMT. The book closes with an excerpt from a volunteer's high dose session in which "they" emerged from a raging psychedelic waterfall, asking him in a sing-song manner, "Now do you see? Now do you see?" This question, more than any, symbolized for me the most personally compelling factor motivating my performing the DMT research. --excerpt from the summary of the epilogue in Dr. Rick Strassman's book See also Terence McKenna Land Interesting ideas...

Yeah, yeah...I know it doesn't hold true for all cases but... Comedian Bill Hicks at the Dominion theatre, London, November 1992 It's comedy fer crist's sake. I like it fine right here. Don't take it so seriously.

The dude who posted this thread has an agenda, why the hypocrisy regarding using sex or the promise of sex to attain your motives? So why not do away with the hypocrisy and live life without duplicity? Me, I don't see it as simple as that. But yeah, it's interesting that there is a double standard with regard to sexuality. Consider the Superbowl fiasco. The inadvertent exposure of a tit caused an outrage yet it's ok if Viagra commercials are run because it's in the name of consumerism. Same with the other sexually suggestive activities, e.g., cheerleaders--what other purpose is there to having cheerleaders? So the female expression of sexuality is prohibited unless it’s part of a something larger that’s officially sanctioned, in this case, selling a product or a lifestyle of consumerism. But, c'mon, the female breast? Those of us breast-fed have seen breasts as children. And, what about the double standard regarding upper body nudity among females and males? Also, what about white women's breasts and those shown in pictorials of pygmies in the Bushveld? Uh yeah, who'd get aroused seeing a floppy pygmy breast? The reality is that airbrushing, makeup, and other photographic tricks make what seems arousing less so if viewed as it really is, warts and all. Comedian Bill Hicks at the Vic theatre, Chicago, November 1990

I'll tell ya where that analogy falls short. In climbing, I have found that it's much simpler even if there are unknowns. With the exception of weather, the feedback is more immediate and I can gauge what responses I need to do to correct the course. Plus, I don't have to deal with the unpredictableness that's characteristic of making it in the career world. In climbing, the goal is mutual. I don't have to work with competing interests such as all the others around me clambering for the top spot, using whatever deceptive means to attain it. Yeah, fortune favors the bold. Seems though it's all about knowing when to fold.

Easy for you to say. You're an evangelist because you're one of the successful exceptions to the rule. For you to succeed, others were displaced. I believe in trying as opposed to not trying but, damn it, sometimes that's not enough. Hard work, in itself, is not enough. Sometimes the winners are those who are clever enough to work the system.

You gotta stop this gratuitous posting of these photos. It's too much to bear. Oh God, stop the madness!

Feeling disgruntled. The sun is shining but I can't climb today. Got other pressing matters to deal with.

I suppose a libertarian society would be ideal given that most of us were mature adults but we're not. I think it's important to protect young people from things that may harm their ability to function as socially responsible adults. On the other hand, it seems we have a double standard as a society when sex or the image of sex is used to push commercial products through advertising. Even if the message is unspoken existing on a subliminal level, the message is consistent that your possession of a particular product will enhance your appeal to the other sex. Need I say more?

You, sir, are the eternal optimist. You've swallowed the rhetoric propagated by Hollywood--hook, line & sinker. Funny that you use a sports metaphor too. Like all the kids who dream of hitting it big, the fact is that the stars are one in a million. When middle age hits, the kids find themselves driving forklifts in a warehouse with a mortgage and three kids to support, indebted to a life of servitude where the dreams are only displaced to the next generation to continue in the hopes of striking it big. Kind of like hitting the jackpot on the lottery. Do you keep playing that game knowing full well that you're chances of losing are greater than you're chances of winning? Not talking about life itself, but of going for those impossible dreams that the majority of us will never attain. You see it on the commercials, like that Nike commercial with Ali promoting 'keep trying' (variation on 'just do it'). It's a pipe dream, I'm telling ya. A commercial message packaged as a philosophy of life propagated by nearly all of the movies put forth by Hollywood, that is, things work out for the better if you keep trying. Bullshit.

So I read something in one of the threads where someone mentioned that hard work pays off. Right... another lie. The truth of the matter is that we have to have substitute 'pain relievers' to obscure the harsh reality of life. Even if you're not living a hard life, you have eyes to see someone that is. There's no escaping it. So, give me 350 channels of tv, fm radio, sports, alcohol, and other things to blunt the edges. And, to feel really good, give me some days of sunshine for some stellar climbing so I can lose myself in the moment.

Yeah, supposedly, deriving income without labor is morally corrosive. Anyway, that's the story for the majority of us. I think the dream of a morally perfect society (as some conservatives see it) is as much wishful thinking as a socially just one (as some liberals see it). Just a variation on your basic utopia (no-place) or Eden (exists only in myth). Don't know if we should keep striving for that pie-in-the-sky or just resign to fate. Sometimes life seems as expressed by Pangloss in Voltaire's Candide, i.e., "the best of all possible worlds", but I know it's not.

Uh, yeah, spoken word (link to official Rollins tour date page) I've only read a couple of his books (See a Grown Man Cry, Now Watch Him Die; Eye Scream). Comes across as a violent, angst-ridden, cop-hating (but literate) misogynist misfit. Contrasts sharply with his spoken word work where he expresses his ability to articulate thoughtful perceptive commentary on the world. Calls himself an 'aging alternative icon'. I believe a lot of his books serve as catharsis or self-therapy to release frustration at a seemingly senseless world. Surprisingly, the man maintains a sense of humor throughout it all despite having the ability to see the 'skeleton' beneath the skin.

Good one! Can't top that. Here's one with a catchy tune.

Hype Cheesus

Spoken Word March 14 - Seattle, WA - Moore Theatre March 15 - Spokane, WA - Met Theatre March 17 - Portland, OR - Schnitzer Concert Hall ticketing