Gaia Community: Peter's Blog

Poem: Breathing

http://peterjcraig.gaia.com — Wed, 27 May 2009 00:15:51 GMT

Came across a great website which hopefully to later share and found this Rumi poem that I haven't come across before. Enjoy!

Breathing

There is a way of breathing
That's a shame and a suffocation
And there's another way of expiring,
A love breath,
That lets you open infinitely.

-- Rumi

Tags:

Hello Again - Biophotonic Update!

http://peterjcraig.gaia.com — Sat, 23 May 2009 20:35:58 GMT

Hello everyone, hopefully you all are well!

Haven't blogged in months, nor have I been on Gaia much this past year. Been putting most of my energy towards my job (consultant at Meltwater News and my girlfriend Jackie.

All of my old interests have remained- photography, guitar etc... but they have unfortunately taken a backseat.

However, I am reading an interesting book called Psycho-Kinesis: Moving Matter with the Mind by a NASA fellow from the 70s, Adrian V. Clark. It has got me thinking on a variety of fronts:

Adrian reference's Stewart White's 'The Unobstructed Universe' several times - I read it over 2 years ago and it gave me what I found to be the most intriguing introduction to what life after death may be like.

Photons photons photons. I believe one of the next scientific revolutions will be a pushing past the dogma of bio-chemical theory into coherence (bio-photonic) theory that realizes we (i.e. cells) communicate faster than chemical and even elelctric signals. That implies that we are comprised of fields of light, and our biochemistry reflects that; we do not originate from the mere 'collocation of atoms!' Much more on this down the line...

Psychic phemonena seem to be real. I have never witnessed anything 'paranormal', but I have experienced enough synchronicities to realize that we are arising from an intelligence far beyond our own that has natural laws we have yet to understand and abide by. Not aliens, not the word 'God', but from the light and life inside us that we have yet to unfurl.

As always, not enough time in the day...so much more I'd like to say! :)

-Still haven't written the Ken WIlber/Alex Jones thoughts. Or the Ken Wilber/integral politcs/terrorism/globaldemocracy/global slavery post either. Last may be the Ken Wilber/subtle enery/astral plane/biophotons one.

-Still trying to figure out how to live (read: pay the bills) in a world that's gone mad. I need to lead the world but I have yet to lead myself...that's where Jackie has helped me tremendously :)

-Sensuality reflects biophotonic coherence/wellness and aliveness and growth/challenging the boundaries (of the body/mind)/status quo. That's why sexuality is so regulated and perverted in our society. But such a fine line between throwing ourselves in the light and compromising our spirit...we have to find a way to grow in love!

Got to go! Take care everyone. Much love and peace

Tags: stewart white, the unobstructed universe, adrian v. clark, psycho-kinesis, moving matter with the mind, photon

Hello Again! Future Excitement and More to Mull Over...

http://peterjcraig.gaia.com — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 04:44:30 GMT

Hi Everyone!

Hopefully life is treating everyone well. As always, there's not enough time in the day...been working hard and focusing most of my energy on Meltwater News.

Going to Austin Social Innoator Network's first meeting tomorrow!

Camping at Enchanted Rock this saturday! It's supposed to be 80+ and not a cloud in the sky :)

Just watched Alex Jones' newest movie called 'the Obama Deception' this evening...still mulling things over in my head.

I hope to write a challenging post combining Wilber and Alex Jones...we'll see how that comes out.

In the mean time, peace and love!

Tags: austin, austin social innovator network, enchanted rock, alex jones, the obama deception, ken wilber

Aiming to follow the path that will deeply satisfy

http://peterjcraig.gaia.com — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 06:10:57 GMT

Hello again!

Here's a poem I've been going over recently:

DON'T DIE AGAIN

I am a man
Who knows the ten thousand positions of
Divine love.

I can tell by the light in your eyes
That you are still most familiar
With the few earthly ones,

But would not a good father
Instruct all his heirs
Toward that path that will someday
Deeply satisfy?

This world is a treacherous place
And will surely slay and drown the lazy.

The only life raft here is love
And the Name.

Say it brother,
O, say the divine Name, dear sister,
Silently as you walk.

Don't die again
With that holy ruby mine inside
Still unclaimed

When you could be swinging
A golden pick with
Each
Step.

Bravo Hafiz!

I have good news...

Tomorrow I take a flight from Houston to London, London to Istanbul!

My itinerary >
25. Fly Istanbul to Kayseri (Goreme) - gate to Cappadocia.
26. Bus to Konya, Rumi's resting place.
27. Bus to Antalya
29. Fly to Istanbul
Explore Istanbul until the morning of January 1st.

Hooray!!

I will upload pictures and hopefully have some things to share when I return.

Much love and peace to all.

Tags: hafiz, don't die again, istanbul, turkey, travel, cappadocia

Let's Play "ECONOMIC REALITY CHECK"

http://peterjcraig.gaia.com — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 05:38:49 GMT

Let's Play "WALLSTREET BAILOUT" The Rules Are... Rep Kapture

Interesting and rousing speech from Rep. Marcy Kapture.

Now on to Amy Goodman.

ARMY UNIT DEPLOYS IN AMERICA 1 OCTOBER 2008 MARTIAL LAW SOON

"Civil unrest and crowd control...nonlethal weapons designed to subdue unruly or dangerous crowds."

This potential move by the U.S. government would indicate a step towards martial law, and unfortunately this does not surprise me. I'm holding my breath and am not going to make any political statements on this issue until it actually happens.

In light of how corporatized and mediasized the current presidential race is, I am fearful that martial law creeping in will go relatively unnoticed and unchecked.

Good night and good luck.

Tags: economics, economic reality check, wallstreet, wallstreet bailout, marcy kapture, amy goodman, democracy now

Meltwater Mornings

http://peterjcraig.gaia.com — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 02:50:05 GMT

Ah, the working life. What a strange world it is. You never know where the world will take you, but you wake up each day and off you go.

With that being said, blessings and good luck to C4Chaos, who now no longer works for Gaia. He introduced me to this website back when it was Zaadz.

Today was my 11th day of work. It's fun, challenging, and still new. Without boring you with details, Meltwater News is a forward thinking company as it offers tools that track 'business critical information' (think google search engine for media analysis) for essentially anyone who finds the service valuable. Our clients range from the biggest companies in the world to the smallest, from non-profits to actual people. After graduating and deciding not to pursue a Doctorate in Psychology, I hoped to find a company that aligned with my values. Not easy. However, I get to decide which companies I go after (aka cold call!). It seems like a harsh business but I have genuine interest in helping alternative energy/health companies, nanotech, etc..So I hope to do well learning how to help businesses I believe in. If you have any companies that you think could use our services, please let me know, I would love to see if I can help!

I now live in southwest Austin and so I'm 15 - 35 minutes away (depending on traffic) from work and my girlfriend. Bummer. However, my girlfriend's place (co-op I used to live at) is less than 10 minutes away from work, so I often find myself sleeping there. I am certainly now in another transition phase, as I am in the process of selling my mom's expedition and purchasing a civic of my own. I am also in the process of finding an apartment closer to my office downtown.

My life is strange...I am juggling the new 'young professional mentality' while still living out the 'college co-op crazy' dream...doing fine so far but probably not getting enough sleep!

I haven't been pursuing any integral practice as of late, only decently healthy eating and weightlifting 3x a week. I find myself very satisfied physically and emotionally with my girlfriend, but I have not been focusing on intellectually or spiritually growing as of late.

Some fun stuff though:

- Rockclimbing at the Greenbelt
- Free nutrition presentation and one on one follow up with Whole Food's In-house nutrionist Carly.
- Jamming around the co-op, sometimes with the drums.

I also received a gift certificate from amazon, so I bought 3 books:

Walden by Thoreau

Think on These Things by Jiddu Krishnamurti

Awareness Through Movement: Easy to Do Health Exercises to Improve Posture, Vision, Imagination, and Personal Awareness by Feldenkrais

I haven't received them yet, and I'm still not finished with Spiral Dynamics by Beck and Cohen. Almost though...

Anyways, I am finished with my fairly convoluted personal update. Say hello if you like.

Much love and peace...

Tags: work, meltwater news, austin, walden, think on these things, awareness through movement, update

Transitory Times Before Work Begins

http://peterjcraig.gaia.com — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 16:49:57 GMT

I find myself surrounded by a lot of excitement these transitory days. I picked up my girlfriend Jackie from Houston on Saturday and I helped her move back in to 21st St. Co-op, where we met and lived last school year. With moving came swimming in the next door co-op's (and co-owned) pool, a trip to the annual Austin Hot Sauce Festival, and a sort of family reunion of the 50ish people I know who still live there.

For the past few days, I have been hanging out with Jackie and staying around the co-op while I am also looking to trade cars (Mom's expedition-bleh for a civic). Fun activities have included a raucous costume party to welcome the new members, free bouldering (for the first week of school) at the UT Gregory gym, playing classical guitar (Jackie's roommate has one), and general revelry and reunion.

Job starts this Tuesday.

Before then I plan to have a shiny newish civic and go camping with Jackie. I bought a REI Halfdome 2 HC tent (it was backordered so I hope it arrives by tomorrow), and Jackie just received her Z2 Chacos and a pocket rocket!

Much love and peace to all in this mad world.

Tags: transition, jackie, 21st st co-op, co-op, austin hot sauce festival, civic, camping, rei

Full Moon Bike Ride

http://peterjcraig.gaia.com — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 02:43:49 GMT

Saturday was the full moon midnight bike ride in Austin. I arrived a few minutes late, but we didn't take off until a little after 12:30. What a blast! The hills in Austin are challenging, especially when your back tire keeps deflating (luckily one of my friends had a portable pump), but the overall experience was great! We started off with probably 100 - 125 riders, and ended up around 3 45 am (after 3 or 4 10ish minute stops) at someone's house. After a little deliberation, we headed over to Kerby Lane, an Austin 24-hr classic diner. I didn't get home until a little after 5 am, but since my job doesn't start until September 2, I'm okay.

I also just bought a domain and web hosting service, so I'll be rolling out a photography website, hopefully in the next month or so. Stay tuned!

Much peace and love.

Tags: full moon, bike ride, austin, kerby lane, website

The Chameleon: The Many Live of Frédéric Bourdin

http://peterjcraig.gaia.com — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 03:08:07 GMT

[from the New Yorker]

Check out this amazing story I found on Digg.com:

The Chameleon

The many lives of Frédéric Bourdin.

From the article

...At police headquarters, he admitted that he was Frédéric Bourdin, and that in the past decade and a half he had invented scores of identities, in more than fifteen countries and five languages. His aliases included Benjamin Kent, Jimmy Morins, Alex Dole, Sladjan Raskovic, Arnaud Orions, Giovanni Petrullo, and Michelangelo Martini. News reports claimed that he had even impersonated a tiger tamer and a priest, but, in truth, he had nearly always played a similar character: an abused or abandoned child. He was unusually adept at transforming his appearance—his facial hair, his weight, his walk, his mannerisms. “I can become whatever I want,” he liked to say. In 2004, when he pretended to be a fourteen-year-old French boy in the town of Grenoble, a doctor who examined him at the request of authorities concluded that he was, indeed, a teen-ager. A police captain in Pau noted, “When he talked in Spanish, he became a Spaniard. When he talked in English, he was an Englishman.” Chadourne said of him, “Of course, he lied, but what an actor!”

Over the years, Bourdin had insinuated himself into youth shelters, orphanages, foster homes, junior high schools, and children’s hospitals. His trail of cons extended to, among other places, Spain, Germany, Belgium, England, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Bosnia, Portugal, Austria, Slovakia, France, Sweden, Denmark, and America. The U.S. State Department warned that he was an “exceedingly clever” man who posed as a desperate child in order to “win sympathy,” and a French prosecutor called him “an incredible illusionist whose perversity is matched only by his intelligence.” Bourdin himself has said, “I am a manipulator. . . . My job is to manipulate.”

In Pau, the authorities launched an investigation to determine why a thirty-year-old man would pose as a teen-age orphan. They found no evidence of sexual deviance or pedophilia; they did not uncover any financial motive, either. “In my twenty-two years on the job, I’ve never seen a case like it,” Eric Maurel, the prosecutor, told me. “Usually people con for money. His profit seems to have been purely emotional.”

On his right forearm, police discovered a tattoo. It said “caméléon nantais”—“Chameleon from Nantes.”

Incredible...the well written article offers an exciting and stunning read so check out the rest.

Tags: chameleon, frederic bourdin, identity theft, multiple identities

My First Personal Development Meetup

http://peterjcraig.gaia.com — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 06:24:49 GMT

This evening I attended my first personal development group meetup in Austin. As I mentioned last post, James Norris hosts the meetup and facilitates activities and discussion. He did a great job. I'd like to share with you the basic format of the event and my thoughts.

18th Meetup: Passion and Achievement

First things first - last meeting they assigned a 'homework' task, which was to "create something physical that highlights your life's passions/loves and/or achievements." Well that was perfect timing because I just produced and received in the mail my first DIY book of poetry, entitled Mirror of Fire. You're welcome to purchase it from wordclay's website if you feel so inclined ;) It needs editing and further work but it's online! The next part of the homework I identified my major passions/loves. I made it quite simple, and the categories overlap significantly:

Nature - camping/hiking/etc, being outdoors

Sport - soccer, tennis, etc > competition and self/team motivation

Science (upper left and upper right quadrants)
Inner > contemplation/introspection, the nature of being
Outer > different contours of reality, integration of knowledge in "broad orienting generalizations",

Exploration - life consists of unending new-ness, inherent mysteriousness, and adventure, which is very cool

Art - self-expression, creativity

After introductions, we did an optional group sharing event where we share a recent accomplishment. I said that I graduated college! I got a few laughs and claps for that (I believe I was 2nd youngest of the 10 of us).

The meat of the meetup focused on discussing passion and achievement. We shared our creations (book of poetry, etc) and spent time discussing our homework. At this time the diversity of age and experience really came through. One person wanted to design a geriatric living solution that doesn't compromise a person's autonomy. Another wanted to overcome shyness and guilt.

The highlight for me was exchanging info on upcoming interesting events.

On August 30th, the "Badass Adventures" meetup is receiving a tour/consulting session of Whole Foods (downtown Austin) from in-house nutritionist Carly Pollack. Sounds interesting huh?

A member of the Austin Neuro Lingustic Programming (NLP) meetup also attends this development group, and they are hosting Tom Best in a talk entitled 'Shamanism, NLP and the Alchemy of Energy' on the 26th of August. That's an enticing headline!

I can't say that I'll go to both (or either) of these events, but anyone in the Austin area is welcome to go - check out meetup.com to learn more. If I do go, I will blog about it and let y'all know how it went!

That's all for now. Much love and peace.

Tags: meetup, personal development, tom best, nlp, mirror of fire, wordclay

A New Home - Settling Back Into Austin

http://peterjcraig.gaia.com — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 04:56:33 GMT

[Sailing to a new world. Lake Pontchartrain, LA]

Hey everybody,

I hope you are doing well. For the past several months I haven't posted much original content except for poems or songs. While that's okay, my favorite part about blogging has been sharing original thoughts or analyzing an article or book or anything and offering my views. For the first (6 out of) 7 months, I posted at least 12 times a month. For the last 16 months, I haven't blogged more than 6 times a month. Why oh why is that? I suppose that my level of introversion in those first months was higher...?

As I type this post, I am sitting in bed in my new home. I moved back to Austin (I spent the previous two and a half months in Palm Coast, Portland, and Lafayette, LA) two weeks ago in order to find a job and settle back in.

Today, 8/8/08, I got my first job offer that I'm legitimately excited about with Meltwater News. While they are not a social business or NGO, they are a company spreading web 2.0 technology - software that analyzes media trends relating to a business or specific issue with a business. I am well aware that this product can be used with good and bad intent, like most things. While this is not my ideal job, it will be a means to an end. If I can learn enough business skills thoroughly and rapidly, I plan to join part of a social business venture in the coming 5 years or so. I recently finished a book which captivated and inspired me, and many of you are familiar with: A World Without Poverty by Muhammad Yunus. I do hope that social businesses will begin to thrive and challenge the amorality of capitalism. While I have not started to talk to organizations or people to join such a venture, I will do so after gaining some business insight. Like most of you, I must struggle to integrate my personal values with my professional values and goals. I do not want to become another money-hungry monkey in a suit!

So as I begin my first 'career job' in a few weeks, I will focus on maintaining interest in activism (online and Austin-area). Here are some resources which will enable me to do so - check them out if you're in Austin!:

Austin Eco Network - Receive (usually) multiple emails a day about opportunities for volunteering, activism, education, etc on a wide spectrum of environmental issues

Mini-Austin Activist Guide - Great resource, includes info for bicyclers and vegetarians too.

Worldchanging.com: Austin - no updates in 6 months though :(

OxfamUT - Local chapter of Oxfam I was involved with for over 2 years before graduating.

Austin is a great place to live! I'm lucky to have gotten a decent job here out of college.

While activism of differing kinds is certainly important, personal development is equally or moreso important. In all honesty, my dedication to self-improvent has fluctuated. However, in this phase of new beginnings comes growth. Now that I am on my own, I am more conscious of how I spend my time and money. Being at home allowed me to excuse myself to a 10th oreo and/or a lethargic evening.

Since I have been continuously inspired by my girlfriend's frugality and selflessness, and by my guru's (James Norris, fellow zaadzster-err Gaia member, and founder of an Austin personal development group) drive and mind-boggling organizational skills, I know that I can manifest the ideals I desire. For example, I started putting everything into excel sheets...all expenditures, short medium and long term goals, tasks, lists, etc. The first step in change is to be aware of the problem or goal. I also began the hundred pushup challenge, which is a fun idea but not necessarily the best workout. However, I've stuck to it and I'm on week 5 of 6. From that checklist evolved a broader personal dev. excel-sheet list. It includes running/biking, protein shakes, meditation, yoga, and inebriation. While I do not do all of these things every day (inebriation is a negative! I rarely indulge in inebriation these days), I am at about 3 - 6 x a week for most. This is a prototype ILP - integral life practice which I will start after I get into the groove with my future work schedule. I am also eating very healthily - the only meat I've eaten in the past 2 weeks has been lean turkey meat - it's as cheap as beef and tastes basically as good- and I don't buy dessert! I will start a separate ILP blog when I begin a body-mind-spirit-shadow routine. For now I am doing less, but still improving.

A new life will soon emerge for me. I'm gonna be a workin man! With that will come the struggles of pursuing a life of adventure and contemplation around the demands of each workday. I began my Day One post saying that this blog will be about just that. [After checking to see how long I've been blogging, today, 080808, is exactly my 2 year anniversary! This post seems so fitting ;) ] I look forward to hopefully entertaining, enlightening, and engaging you all a little bit more than I have before. To use Rumi's masterful metaphors from Coleman Bark's The Essential Rumi...I dedicate myself to nourishing my "thirst equipment," prodding myself to learn and grow. Do not forget, no never forget -

"your boundaries are your quest."

And so one chapter closes, and another begins. Good luck to all of us in this mad world.

Tags: austin, palm coast, portland, lafayette, 080808, meltwater news, a world without poverty, muhammad yunus, the essential rumi, coleman barks

1 4 06 In the Flames

http://peterjcraig.gaia.com — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 01:11:05 GMT

I now know why the lights still glow

When we have

Shaken off our sins

When we have

Shuffled off our mortal coil

Fire burning bright

Don’t know what kept me in the flames

Charcoal hearts take the blame

When we are the sparks

Try to remember again

Tags: poem, poetry, in the flames, we are the sparks

Kucinich to Discuss Impeachment Before Judiciary Committee Friday

http://peterjcraig.gaia.com — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 21:54:40 GMT

I've been following Dennis Kucinich's moves to bring up the impeachment of George W. Bush since he initially brought it up in March. If he can eloquently and powerfully make the case for impeachment, and 'we the people' can pressure the tepid and corrupt congressmen thoroughly enough, I believe we can impeach Bush and Cheney and start a dramatic reformation in American government. I am optimistic but I am realistic. His words may be met with silence. However, you can listen to his eminently rational appeal and add support to Kucinich's efforts.

Kucinich2008 added this video today, July 22.

Thanks to you, impeachment will be heard Friday

Let's see what happens Friday...

Tags: dennis kucinich, kucinich, impeachment, george w. bush, george bush, judiciary committee, democracy, corruption, constitution

The Woes of Being Misaligned

http://peterjcraig.gaia.com — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 08:13:49 GMT

Here's most of a song I wrote a few years ago.

4 29 5 The Woes of Being Misaligned

Oh the woes of being unaligned
Oh the woes of being misaligned
Missing everything that falls in between
The message lost in deep ravines

Our voices lost
Over the monstrous roar
And what you needed
Could not take form

Oh the woes of being misaligned
Missing everything that falls in between
The message lost in deep ravines

But when we look to find
What has fallen behind
Our paths are clearly seen
Knowing which way you go
I will help you stroll
Hit your stride, yeah

Oh the woes I have I known I knock down
Oh the woes you have known you knock down
Oh the woes we know we knock down

Tags: woes of being misaligned, song, poem

(Nearly) Impossible Challenge of Creating a Sustainable Economy

http://peterjcraig.gaia.com — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 05:48:42 GMT

Dave Pollard is a brilliant KnowledgeManagement expert as well as philosopher and environmentalist. I have linked to some of his posts before, and will probably continue to do so for some time to come. He wrote another incredibly insightful and important to read article about how the American (and International) economy is a scam that is on the brink of collapse.

From his website How to Save the World: The (Nearly) Impossible Challenge of Creating a Sustainable Economy (Part One)

There is something happening here, and it's been going on for a long time, driven by greed, political expediency, and a sustained and sophisticated campaign of misinformation about how a healthy economy is created and measured. It is quickly coming unglued, and the consequences of this deception are going to wreak havoc on us all for decades. It is possibly the greatest fraud and theft in the history of civilization. Here's how it works:

The government has to lie about the real increase in the cost of living, and the real levels of unemployment and misery among its citizens. This is in its interest, since admitting bad economic news is hazardous to politicians' health.
The government then has to artificially suppress interest rates, so that they, and corporations, can borrow money virtually free. As a consequence, since borrowing has no cost, there is no need to repay it; it can be refinanced indefinitely, and left for future generations to worry about.
To keep money supply high enough that it is freely available to all borrowers, the government needs to print masses of new money. To conceal this, it needs to stop reporting the true money supply, as the US government has done.
To lock in foreign suppliers of cheap goods and services in struggling nations, the affluent nations need to develop co-dependent relationships with these countries, such that they are forced to accept payment in an essentially worthless currency.
To lock in citizens, the government and large corporations need to work together to enable the large corporations to generate staggering profits, increasing by double-digits every year. So-called 'free' trade agreements, massive subsidies and tax breaks, the continued availability of essentially free money, deregulation, liability indemnification, allowing price-fixing oligopolies, union-busting and massive offshoring etc. all allow this. As a result, stock markets soar, and citizens (unable to obtain any return on risk-free investments while the real cost of living is rising by 7% or more per year) are forced to pump all their investments into these stocks, including their pensions.

Click here to read the rest of Part 1.

And click here to read Part 2, equally intriguing.

This kind of stuff makes me think very hard about what the next steps for a recent graduate should be...

Tags: dave pollard, how to save the world, The (Nearly) Impossible Challenge of Creating a Su, economics, sustainability, government, economy

Rankin Photography: Eyescapes

http://peterjcraig.gaia.com — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 02:07:37 GMT

I was stumbling today and I came across an art 'special project' called Eyescapes.

It was quite surprising considering that the image I used yesterday for my poem With Jaded Eyes looked almost exactly the same as the eyes in this project. Definitely quite beautiful to behold the gateways to the soul.

If you want to see other work by the same artist click here to go to their website[NSFW].

Here are my two favorite eyes:

Eye Scapes - 01

Eye Scapes - 09

Tags: eyescapes, rankin photography, eyes, stumble upon

With Jaded Eyes

http://peterjcraig.gaia.com — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 05:55:12 GMT

[link]

I wrote this poem today...wanted to share it.

6 22 08 With Jaded Eyes

There is only one trend
One heart ache
And one beating

There is only one time
One thank you
And one meeting

…

I am no poet
But I hear of what they speak

Certainly I am no poet
But I smell of what they reek -

The shattered sighs of love in life

…

Every pulse a chance
Every glimpse a dance
With this sacred science

But the veils so thick
And the change so quick
That something darts away

And yet that something always to stay

The blind leading the blind
And yet only buried treasure can be mined
Unearthed within, we discover the only thing –

Love sifted into light.
Love lifted into sight.

Love beats between streets and heights
Love breathes between wrongs and rights
Love casts stones as it unearths new tones

To be sung by love’s choir
Which is all beings only hire.

…

So here we meet with jaded eyes
Full of someone else’s ties,
Begging softly to be undone.

The story of love is as the sun –
Burning away all but one

Thank you.

Tags: poem, jaded eyes

Some Max Ehrmann Poems and My Last Song as an Undergrad

http://peterjcraig.gaia.com — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 05:12:02 GMT

[Sunrise in Palm Coast, FL]

The title gives it away quite plainly...

I was checking my inbox, which was looong overdue (sorry about that!), and one of my new gaia friends Niamh recommended two poems by Max Ehrmann, Life and I Go My Way. Here they are, with two more of his poems.

Life

I sat with the stars on the hill of life

And looked at the world below.

I ran with the winds where winds begin

And followed them where they blow.

I lay by the sea on the beaten rock

And rode on the farthest wave,

I watched by a child on its night of birth

And followed it to its grave.

And love in the still of the star-flecked night,

When earth was all strewn with gold,

Has lifted my heart like the chords of song

Oft sung in the world of old.

And though I have not understood all this,

Made up a laugh and a wail,

I think that the God of the world knows all,

And someday will tell the tale.

I Go My Way

All round is haste, confusion, noise.

For power and wealth men stretch the day

From dawn till dusk.

But quietly I go my way.

For glitter, show, to taunt the crowd,

Desire-tossed in wild dismay,

Men sell their souls.

But quietly I go my way.

The green of all the fields is mine;

The stars, the night, the wind at play,

A peaceful heart, while quietly

I go my way.

A Still Soul

Maybe you have a still soul that

goes murmurless like water

in the deep of rivers;

And perchance you wander

silent amid the din of the world's

grinding barter like one journeying

in strange lands.

You, too, with the still soul,

have your mission, for beneath the dashing,

noisy waves must ever run the silent waters

that give the tide its course.

The Human Heart

I journeyed from university to university, and I saw everywhere the past rebuilt before the eyes of young men and young women - Egypt, Greece, Rome; language, architecture, laws - saw the earth and sky explained, and the habits of the body -

Everywhere chairs of this and that, largely endowed.

But nowhere saw I a chair of the human heart.

- Max Ehrmann

(Thanks for the poems.)

--------------------------------------

And now, the only song I wrote my last semester of college. I wrote a couple of poems, so perhaps I will post them in the future. I hope you enoy it.

2 22 08 Mystery Surrounds

I find it hard to learn who you are
But our eyes have danced from afar

And maybe I’ll see you again
It’s not a race but I want to win!

I’ve spent too many hours alone
And you’ve spent too long unknown

Unravel the smile you hide
I want you to feel alive!

Who knows what is next?
Life is beyond complex
Mystery is surrounding me!

I will probably be blogging much more in the near future...maybe the next month or so. Until then,

Much love and peace.

Tags: Max Ehrmann, poem, poems, life, i go my way, the human heart, a still soul, mystery surrounds

Albert Hofmann Dies at 102

http://peterjcraig.gaia.com — Thu, 01 May 2008 01:18:05 GMT

(thanks to Shakexy)

As some of you may know, Albert Hofmann died yesterday.

MAPS (Multidisiciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies) provided a list of different news coverage and this interesting obituary.

----------

Albert Hofmann, 11 January 1006 – 29 April 2008

An Obituary by Dieter A. Hagenbach and Lucius Werthmüller

At the age of 102 years, Albert Hofmann died peacefully last Tuesday morning, 29th April, in his home near Basel, Switzerland. Still last weekend we talked to him, and he expressed his great joy about the blooming plants and the fresh green of the meadows and trees around his house. His vitality and his open mind conducted him until his last breath.

He is reputed to be one of the most important chemists of our times. He is the discoverer of LSD, which he considers, up to date, as both a "wonder drug" and a "problem child". In addition he did pioneering work as a researcher of other psychoactive substances as well as active agents of important medicinal plants and mushrooms. Under the spell of the consciousness-expanding potential of LSD the scientist turned increasingly into a philosopher of nature and a visionary critical of contemporary culture.

Until his death Albert Hofmann remained active. He communicated with colleagues and experts from all over the world, gave interviews, and showed great interest in the world's affairs, although he decided to retire from public life already a few years ago. Nevertheless he welcomed visitors at his home on the Rittimatte, and opened the door for late in the evening.

He managed to keep his almost childlike curiosity for the wonders of nature and creation. In his "paradise," as he would call his home, he enjoyed being close to nature, especially to plants. During one of our last visits he said to us with luminous eyes: "The Rittimatte is my second most important discovery." It was always a unique experience to stroll with him over his meadows and to share his enjoying the living nature all around.
Gratefully and lovingly we grieve for an outstanding scientist, an important philosopher, a dear and true friend, and our member of the board.

Albert Hofmann was born on January 1906 in the quiet small town of Baden, Switzerland, as the eldest one of four children. His father is a toolmaker in a factory where he meets Albert’s mother-to-be; when he falls seriously ill, Albert has to support the family. That’s why he decides for a commercial apprenticeship. At the same time he starts studying Latin and other languages, since he wants to take his A-levels, which he succeeds in at a private school, paid for by a godfather.

In 1926, at the age of twenty, Albert Hofmann begins to study chemistry at the University of Zurich. Four years later he does his doctorate with distinction. Subsequently he works at the Sandoz pharmaceutical-chemical research laboratory in Basel, a company to which he proves his loyalty for more than four uninterrupted decades. (In 1996 Sandoz and Ciba-Geigy merged to become Novartis.) That’s where he mainly works with medicinal plants and mushrooms. He's specifically interested in alkaloids (nitrogen compounds) of ergot, a cereal fungus. In 1938 he isolates the basic component of all therapeutically essential ergot alkaloids, lysergic acid; he mixes it with a series of chemicals. He then tests the effects of the thus derived lysergic acid derivatives as circulatory and respiratory stimulant – among others LSD-25 (Lysergic acid diethylamide). Because the effects observed fell short of expectations, however, the pharmacologists at Sandoz quickly lose interest in it.

Five years later, following a "peculiar presentiment," Albert Hofmann devotes himself again to LSD-25. On 16 April 1943, while synthesizing, he is overcome by unusual sensations – "a remarkable restlessness, combined with a slight dizziness," – which prompt him to interrupt his laboratory work. "At home I lay down and sank into a not unpleasant intoxication like condition, characterized by an extremely stimulated imagination. In a dreamlike state, with eyes closed (I found the daylight too unpleasantly glaring), I perceived an uninterrupted stream of fantastic pictures, extraordinary shapes with intense, kaleidoscopic play of colors. After some two hours this condition faded away."

Three days later, on 19 April 1943, Hofmann sets out for the first voluntary LSD trip in the history of man. Because he cannot yet judge the enormous efficacy of the drug, he takes, at 4:20 pm, with 250 microgram a relatively high dose – and gets to know the hallucinogenic power of the substance with all its intensity.
With his discovery of LSD Albert Hofmann has caused a snowball effect, which turns into an avalanche in no time. It influences the late second millennium – at least in the Western world – to an extent, comparable only to the "pill". Consciousness researchers respectfully spoke of an "atom bomb of the mind."

To worldwide setting-in research Albert Hofmann makes essential contributions. So he is, in 1958, the first one to succeed in isolating the psychoactive substances psilocybin and psilocin from Mexican magic mushrooms (Psilocybe mexicana); in Ololiuqui, the seeds of a climbing plant, he finds substances related to LSD. He isolates and synthesizes substances of important medicinal plants in order to study their effects. His basic research blesses Sandoz with several successful remedies: Hydergine, an effective one in geriatrics, Dihydergot, a circulation- and blood-pressure stabilizing medicament, and Methergine, an active agent applied in gynecology. Hofmann stays with Sandoz until his retirement in 1971, last as head of the research department for natural medicines. From then on he devotes more and more of his time to writing and lecturing. He increasingly wins recognition for his scientific pioneering ventures: he is given honorary doctorates by the ETH Zurich, the Stockholm university, and the Berlin Free University; and he is called into the Nobel Prize Committee.

Here, outstanding contributions to research were honored – but Albert Hofmann's life's work comprises much more. From the start he took a favorable view of efforts by physicians and psychotherapists to include LSD into new approaches for the treatment of manifold chronic diseases. But LSD isn't only useful with special diagnoses – it's Hofmann's firm belief that the "psychedelic" potential of this "wonder drug" could be beneficial to all of us. In LSD-induced altered states of consciousness its discoverer doesn’t only see psychotic delusions of a chemically manipulated mind, but windows to a higher reality – true spiritual experiences during which a normally deeply buried potential of our mind, the heavenly element of creation, our unity with it reveals itself. "The one-sided belief in the scientific view of life is based on a far-reaching misunderstanding," Hofmann says in his book Insight – Outlook. "Certainly, everything it contains is real – but this represents just one half of reality; only its material, quantifiable part. It lacks all those spiritual dimensions which cannot be described in physical or chemical terms; and it’s exactly these which include the most important characteristics of all life."

It’s not the single consumer alone who profits from chemicals which help to understand these aspects of the world; for Hofmann it could help to heal deficits the Western world chronically suffers from: "Materialism, estrangement from nature (...), lack of professional fulfillment in a mechanized, lifeless world of employment, boredom and aimlessness in a rich, saturated society, the missing of a sense-making philosophical fundamentalness of life." Starting from experiences as LSD conveys them, we could "develop a new awareness of reality" which "could become the basis of a spirituality that's not founded on the dogmas of existing religions, but on insights into a higher and profounder sense" – on that we recognize, read, and understand "the revelations of the book which God's finger wrote." When such insights "become established in our collective consciousness, it could arise from that, that scientific research and the previous destroyers of nature – technology and industry – will serve the purpose of changing back our world into what it formerly was: into an earthly Garden of Eden."

With this message the genius chemist turns into a profound philosopher of nature and visionary critical of contemporary culture. The critical distance from the LSD euphoria of the hippie- and flower power-driven ones Albert Hofmann has never given up, however; that he has fathered a "problem child" he already emphasizes with the title of one of his most known works. He always underlines the risks of an uncontrolled intake. On the other hand he never tires of emphasizing what's the basic difference between LSD and most of the other drugs: even if used repeatedly, it doesn't make addictive; it doesn't reduce one's awareness; taken in a normal dose it’s absolutely non-toxic. The total demonizing of psychedelics, as pursued by the mass media, conservative politicians, and governments from the sixties onward, he never could understand; for him, there is no reason why mentally stable persons in the right set and setting shouldn't enjoy LSD. All the more disappointed Albert Hofmann was when, in the late sixties, he had to see it happen that the use of LSD was worldwide criminalized and prohibited – even for therapeutic and research purposes

The impetus for a change emanating from the impact of the international Symposium "LSD – Problem Child and Wonder Drug" in 2006 in Basel, at the occasion of his 100th birthday, quickened him to say that "after this conference my problem child has definitely turned into a wonder child," and he regarded this development as his most beautiful birthday present.

And after just shortly before his 102nd birthday, he enjoyed taking notice that the first LSD study with humans has received the permission from the Federal Office of Public Health in Bern, which he called the "fulfillment of my heart's desire."

His life has become an ideal for many for how we can reach a great age in mental and physical vigor by retaining a childlike curiosity.

Albert Hofmann repeatedly expressed his conviction, that his mystical experiences and his trips into other worlds of consciousness, which he experienced first spontaneously as a child and later during his experiments with psychedelic substances would be the best preparations for the last journey which everybody has to go on at the end of her or his life. He has retained his curiosity for himself for his last journey.

--------

May we all promote his words and wisdom in these interesting times on planet Earth.

Tags: albert hofmann, 102, acid, lsd, obituary, maps

Gaia Quote: Rumi

http://peterjcraig.gaia.com — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 19:22:38 GMT

"Wisdom is like the rain. Its source is limitless, but it comes down according to the season."

Tags: gaia quote, rumi, wisdom