Have been on the road working 6 days a week for most of this month. It has been a serious blur, with not much time for most other stuff. Though it has been a fascinating learning process in lots of ways, and I have been thinking a lot in the background.

As far as I know my contract ends at the end of this week. No idea what next, but am open to most things, so if anyone hears of anything, do let me know

Today I got my first ever passport.

I blogged one of his TED talks a while back, and since then have explored further. Last year he gave the 2009 Massey Lectures in Canada. They are fucking awesome, and if you snoop around you will probably find the audio available somewhere online (Not sure if it is legit, so not linking; his SALT talk on the same themes is here.) The lectures are collected into the book The Wayfinders.

His fundamental message – that the diversity of world-views adds to the collective wonder of humanity, and that each of these world-views has astonishing depth and richness and makes a unique contribution to that collective – comes at an incredibly relevant moment in time.

We are facing a cultural mass extinction, and a corresponding impoverishment of the human collective. We face a linguistic catastrophe – around half the languages spoken in the world are going to be dead in a generation. With each language we lose a world-view, a way of understanding and being, a unique set of answers to the questions posed by humans – who are we? what are we? why are we? how do we survive? what does our existence mean?

His grasp of diverse cultures and ability to express them is second to none. His talks are a hell of a ride. Appreciating what is at stake through his examples is literally mind-blowing. The diversity of human belief and behaviour is staggering.

I find it flat out inspiring. There is a massive convergence with my own work on consciousness, belief, and world-views, though from a really different point of entry; and I can see potentials that excite the heck out of me. There is something hugely important here.

Don’t Sleep, there are snakes! – Daniel Everett
Missionary/linguist went to the Amazon, discovered the tribe he was with were a) unconvertable due to their language/consciousness and b) their language has features which defy Chomskyian grammatical theory.

Hands on Chaos Magic – Andrieh Vitimus.
Best practical book on magic I’ve ever encountered. By miles. To the point that I’d recommend reading some more theory oriented stuff first, just to have more grounding.

The Eight Circuit Brain: Navigational Strategies for the Energetic Body – Antero Alli

20 years on, Alli updates his take on Timothy Leary/Robert Anton Wilson’s 8CB model. The bulk of the book is a practical course dedicated to gaining experiential understanding of the circuits. His key notion of development of the lower circuits being necessary to anchor energetic shocks/experiences on the higher circuits rings true, and accords with my experience. Good shit.

Daemonomania – John Crowley

I am in utter awe at what he is doing. Dude is an absolute master. With this he is now elevated to my pantheon of favourite authors ever, and the Aegypt Quartet (of which this is book 3 (books one and two reviewed back here)) seems like a defining literary event of the age. Of course, it feels like he wrote this just for me…

The Aegypt Quartet is a novel of staggering ambition, split over four novels, that has taken about 24 years to complete (despite the action so far taking up less than a calendar year.) The characterisation and quality of the prose is simply astounding.

This book has given me chills, blown me away intellectually, and scared the crap out of me. For starters. I don’t really have the words to express how impressed I am with what he has achieved; I suspect that will wait until after the final book is read, and I have let it all settle in. But ultimately, what it deals with is the fundamental nature of the mystery of existence, how we create meaning, and the stories we tell ourselves. And it does these things better than anything else I have encountered; uncannily well.

I have the final volume lying around, but am a little afraid to start it.

The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch – Philip K Dick

Felt an urge to read a PKD novel. It happens every now and again. Fun but sort of a let down. Easily one of the weakest of his I’ve read, along with Radio Free Albemuth. The ideas are pretty wild/interesting, and he is using them to explore his usual post-Valis themes, but it somehow didn’t work so well as a narrative – a bit half assed and disinterested.

So yeah. Maybe in a month or so I will be looking again, so keeping your ears open is much appreciated…

Be aware though that this was written of as a sign of the end of all things.

Also, the All Whites went undefeated at the World Cup.

Gotta say I missed instant access to information, but I didn’t  miss Facebook.

Each year twice as many men are raped in jail in America than women who are raped on the outside.   [Found this in Antero Alli's new book. He cites Jim Hogshire (1994) You are going to prison.]

Now there are issues with reporting of rape of women, but hell, I imagine there are also issues with reporting of rape in prison, and I haven’t read the original, so let’s take the numbers at face value for the moment.

I guess what strikes me about them is that rape of females is regarded as a Big Deal, a thing that is Wrong and a bit Fucked. And that is fine. But, in contrast, male rape, and particularly prison rape, is pretty much a punchline. However, I wonder if it is any less damaging as an experience.

(Hmm… maybe the context of prison matters? Being in prison is already a  separate reality, whereas being not safe in real life is more messed up? OTOH, in prison you are trapped, and may have less ability to protect yourself. And some idiots would probably start muttering that they deserve what they get.)

The sheer numbers are surprising to me, and I would guess not widely known. If they were, perhaps it would be perceived more as a problem rather than a sick joke? Also, the ratios involved are alarming – the male prison population, even in prison-loving America, must be a fraction of the female population outside jail…

And also, since prisons don’t seem to work in any useful way, a systemic clusterfuck of that scale seems another argument for finding a different way to deal with our social issues… especially since we are looking into US style privatisation of prisons in NZ at the moment…

- Timothy Leary

Getting funded to do awesome positive things hasn’t worked out so far, and pragmatism and my travel plans now require that I get anything, now, to hit the savings goals in time.

I can read and write real good. I can do monkey work, or complex analysis. I can drive and carry heavy things. I can use computers pretty good. I learn new things real fast. I can organise large complex projects, and figure out hard stuff. Etc. I can probably do most things if given a shot, and am not that fussed what I do.

So yeah. If anyone knows of or hears of anything going… let me know.