
Wednesday, 23 April 2008
Frank Tipler and the "Omega Point"

Must-see interactive optical illusion
Tuesday, 22 April 2008
Do We Exist In The Womb?
When does our ability to perceive begin. If a baby in the womb cannot perceive of itself then does it exist as a baby or as a waveform until observed, for example via a scan?
Or is it a subjective being because it is essentially part of it's mother's body who is a subjective consciousness within her own phaneron and therefore brings her baby into being?
And if the baby is perceived in the mother's subjective consciousness how can it be perceived by other subjective consciousnesses if it cannot be observed?
What do you all think?
Monday, 21 April 2008
Don’t Forget To Take Your Memory Pill !
In a study, revealed in the Journal of Psychiatric Research, psychiatrists at McGill University, in Montreal, and Harvard University, in Boston, used an amnesia drug (Propranolol) to ease the memories of trauma victims.
Researchers found they can use drugs to wipe away single, specific memories while leaving other memories intact. By injecting the drug at the right time, when a subject was recalling a particular thought, Neuroscientists discovered they could disrupt the way the memory is stored and even make it disappear.
Professor Karim Nader, of McGill University, said: "When you remember old memories they can become 'unstored' and then have to be 'restored’. As the memory is getting restored, we gave patients a drug that turns down the emotional part of the memory. It left the conscious part of the memory intact, so they could still remember all the details but without being overwhelmed by the memory."
This research was also recently discussed during an episode of the BBC’s “Horizon” series last month here in the UK entitled “How Does Your Memory Work?”
The program reported how Genevieve Smith-Courtois is taking medicine to “dampen” the memory of a sexual assault she suffered nine years ago. The pill she swallows looks like a beta blocker but has a side-effect of blocking not just adrenalin but also recall. After six weeks, when recollecting the assault under laboratory conditions, her symptoms had decreased by a third to below the post traumatic stress disorder threshold.
A question was put to Professor Alain Brunet, the clinical psychologist behind the research:
“What if a pill could be found to wipe out a bad memory altogether?”
Professor Brunet's reply strikes me as deeply ITLADic in content and philosophy:
“Our identities are based on our memories and there needs to be continuity in time between who we are and what experiences we have had. We are our memories.”
In the seminally ITLADic film The Matrix, Morpheus offers Neo a choice of two coloured pills, The red pill will answer the question "What is the Matrix?" and the blue pill will simply allow for life to carry on as before.
Morpheus (to Neo): "This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back. You take the blue pill - the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill - you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes."
Tony’s magnificent book, as he suggests in his lecture, is the literary equivalent of the red pill.
I don’t know what colour Propronalol is but I’m guessing, given what is suggested it does, that it should be absolutely clear !
(or somewhat cloudy)
*smile*
So, QUESTION: (amended to TWO questions after discussions in the comments section)
Question 1: Would you take a pill to suppress a memory ?????
Question 2: Would you take the "CTF" Pill ?????
...............(explained in comments section)
A Dark Philosopher
Karl L Le Marcs
Friday, 18 April 2008
Kerrang Radio: Episode three
For any Kerrang listeners that are venturing onto this blog for the first time, you a very welcome. Take your time. Work your way through the postings and you will understand exactly why the theory - known as Cheating The Ferryman may become the next paradigm changer. But please, do not take my word for it. Others that involve themselves on this site speak far more eloquently than I.
Just roam around and enjoy yourself. If you then wish to contact me personally just drop me an email - cheattheferryman@aol.com
Eternal Sunshine of the spotless mind

Blessed are the forgetful for they get the better even of their blunders - Frederich Nietzsche
Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet give their best performances to date in this beautiful story of a couple and their history. Depending on your criteria for what makes a good movie, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind could easily be argued as the best film of the past twenty or thirty years. Charlie Kaufman has written a screenplay that connects with memories you didn't even realised you had. Jim Carrey (Joel) has shed his cartoon character style persona and can act as well if not better than any of his peers. Kate Winslet (Clementine) has the versatility of any Oscar winning actress and has shown this to be true time and time again. All of these talented individuals combine for one of the greatest films you are likely to ever have the pleasure of watching. We all have memories, we all have dreams, we all have weird moments that defy explanation. No film has ever displayed these indescribable moments of lucid dreaming and the beautiful world of the mind in such a poetic manner. The movie defies words yet you get the feeling this is exactly what Kaufman had in his head while he was writing it.
Joel discovers that his ex girlfriend Clementine has undergone a procedure to have all memories of him erased, in a spiteful reaction to this he seeks to have the same procedure but changes his mind during the procedure while he's asleep. Trapped inside his mind, he must hide her in non related memories in order to evade the complete deletion of her memory. Due to the nature of the story, it is, at times, extremely sad. Like all great romances though, the couple defeat the odds and without knowledge are brought back together by an unknown force, a force some would define as fate, others, true love. The story may be surreal but the relationship between these two opposites is far more accurate that that of many others portrayed in film. When Elijah Wood's character Patrick tries to replicate a memory for the purpose of winning Clementine's heart, she becomes unnerved feeling that something isn't right. This goes to the very nature of life, our memories are our memories, they cannot be replicated, they cannot be substituted and more importantly they cannot be replaced.
The scene in which the final memory of the couple is being erased is one of the most saddest and surreal i have seen in any film. Ever had a dream about a dream? Ever woke up from a dream and realised you were still dreaming? If this kind of thing fascinates you, you may find this film to be the best film you've ever seen. You could compare it with Mullholland drive except it has much more of a concrete storyline, the dream sequences however, are equally impressive. Co Starring Kirsten Dunst, Mark Ruffalo Elijah Wood and Tom Wilkinson, this movie does more than simply offer something different, it makes us appreciate the beauty of memories, dreams and that which we have experienced. The strength of this film is not in the message, instead it's the way the message is delivered. Movies are all about the art of story telling and Charlie Kaufman can indeed tell a bizarre story and make it seem so familiar. The story is non-linear, this can be dangerous in the wrong hands, but because it is done so well it adds to the story beautifully The soundtrack plays a huge role in helping to create the right atmosphere for particular scenes, this film more than others, benefits from music as it transcends the bridge between dreams and reality. Romance is simultaneously a sad , beautiful and painful thing. All of the bad memories in our life are necessary signposts on the way to our happier times and they cannot be skipped, life is a journey and a short cut can leave us more lost than we ever imagined.
No moaning Karl, i know you've seen this one...
Kicking down the doors of perception….

and as some would say, we are spiritual beings having a physical experience…
New Yorkers say they are smarter than Hawaiians because they change the world by working long hours of slog and toil and achieve great things, whilst Hawaiians just sit about and have fun. Hawaiians believe themselves to be smarter for the same reason. *smile*
Tony asked me to post this because he is fascinated by the Hawaiian worldview and believes it holds important clues as to the nature of reality, which modern science has yet to catch up with.
He wanted you to know that as a lineage holder and teacher of Huna I will be offering a weekend of deep esoteric teachings in Chester, on 21-22nd June, : Discover the Power of Hawaiian Huna. (or you are welcome on 31st Aug-6th Sept for our retreat in Hawaii itself!)
Huna is by its own admission at least 30,000 years old, yet contains such ‘modern’ scientific concepts as the Big Bang, the Quantum Field, the observer affecting the observed, and a more advanced model of the human mind than modern psychology has yet come up with, although Jung got close.
Also, understanding the connection between our spiritual, mental, emotional and physical bodies, and how to manifest abundance, love, health or well, anything really is part of the Hawaiian ability to ‘walk in both worlds’.
In fact, as a shamanic practitioner, I am aware of and have experienced many many worlds, all of them as ‘real’ as that which you are experiencing right now.
So there is no need to kick down doors when neither the doors nor you exist.
Now I am a firm believer that the difference between theory and practice is that in theory there is no difference between theory and practice, but in practice there always is! *smile*
Which means that talk is easy but walking your talk and experiencing all of these things for yourself is a lot more important. It is only by physically experiencing your higher self that your inner beliefs and conscious mind will accept
Even my mentor Uncle George Naope once said: ‘when I realised we had changed the flow of the volcano lava and saved the city, I almost peed my pants!’
It is one thing to hypothesise, it is another to act and live in the real world of energy-source-spirit or whatever name you want to give the oneness of existence.
As another teacher regularly says, ‘and I know that you may think….and to know is something else’
Even within this deeply fascinating blog, we are only skimming the surface of the pond, as we know not how deep the pond truly it.
We are taught in western culture to believe we are separate from everything else, and even from our own nature. This is immensely disempowering. Once you connect with universal energy, there is nothing you cannot know, have or become.
If you would like more info about the workshop please email me on ctf@spiritofhawaii.co.uk please be aware that there are some things that I cannot answer in a public forum like this, although I will do my best to ‘hint’
*knowing wink as sashays to pub for birthday drinks*
Mass and Energy
As with many of us who ponder the nature of reality and consciouness (I suspect that this involves every active member of this blog) I found that last night I had a particulaly sleepless night (wracked with the pain of a frozen right shoulder ... I have never known pain like it, well not since my frozen left shoulder ten years ago. I recently had a steroid injection into the joint but this seems to have made it worse!).. I lay awake and to locate myself away from the agony I started to think about the mass and energy (as you do). Maybe it was the fact that my brain was very neurotransmitter-active but I came across a really weird thought.When does it all begin?
Since 1996 I've cared for childbearing women as an obstetrical nurse (the field of midwifery to some of you). Most of our patients enjoy happy outcomes but on occasion, tragedy strikes. Sometimes death occurs while still in the womb or shortly after arriving.
The question(s) I put forward is:
When does perception begin? When do we become observers?
It's an age-old ethical debate, nothing new about it! But in the light of CTF I am interested in what the group has to say.
(forgive me if this has been covered in an earlier post, I'm trying to get caught up but it's taking some time to read them all!)
Thursday, 17 April 2008
More International Editions of ITLAD
All very exciting ......
Daemonic Awareness and Schizophrenia (2)
I intend to place a more detailed posting on Henry's paper in due course. However for now Henry has agreed to me publishing on this blog his response to my email. I asked if the quote I had used in my previous posting was correct and did he still hold that position. He replied:
'The quote is accurate and was taken from a paper I wrote over 20 years ago to explain the Schneiderian delusions of schizophrenia in which afflicted individuals are convinced that someone is inserting thoughts into their heads or withdrawing thoughts or that their thoughts are broadcast to the whole world. They also have the delusion that their behavior, motility and will are controlled by “an outside force”.
I postulated that the verbally dominant left hemisphere [which is used for communications in right handed people ] in schizophrenia is actually describing the effects of the disinhibition of the right hemisphere resulting in DYSCONNECTION [not DISCONNECTION] with the left hemisphere. I postulate that a callosotomy would actually cure these symptoms because the two hemispheres would no longer communicate and the “intrusions” by the right hemisphere would no longer occur into the left hemispheric consciousness.'
Thanks Henry.
Wednesday, 16 April 2008
Free will.
Do we really have free will? Arguments have been made either side of the argument in recent posts. I'm not too sure either way but i know that when i write a post like this, im unsure if it's coming from me, or somewhere else that i just have access to in my head. Why is it that certain people live the same routine throughout their life, while there are others, that through free will, make drastic changes to their lives and achieve great things?
I like to think of it as the rebellious dna within certain people. If a person makes a decision to change everything about themself, ignore an addiction or change a strongly imposed life style that has been the case for several years, are they making that decision based on free will, or are they merely predisposed to such a rebellious act? Are some people stronger mentally than others at making positive decisions or are they merely enjoying the advantage of being a particular type of person?
Tuesday, 15 April 2008
Second Life chat
OK guys, let's see how deep the rabbit hole really is... Let's meet up at Flanagan's Apple for a chat! Those of you logging in from the 'first life' pub bring a camera so you can capture this mirror within a mirror moment! I'll be in the 'second life' pub on Thursday starting at 9am my time. That's 3pm (-6 GMT) for those of you in the UK.Second Life is voice enabled but the function is full of bugs so we plan to use Skype as an alternative.
Daemonic Awareness and Schizophrenia
In the course of some general reading on consciousness I came across some very itladian comments by Henry Nasrallah, Professor of Psychiatry, Neurology and Neuroscience at the University of Cincinnati.Professor Nasrallah (image left) specialises in schizophrenia and psychotic disorders. He proposes that during normal communication between the right and left hemispheres that the normal component of interhemispheric integration is:'inhibition of any awareness by the verbally expressive hemispheric consciousness (usually the left) that actually receeives and sends thoughts, intentions and feelings from and to another (the right) consciousness'.
He considers that in schizophrenia this function is disturbed with the result that the left hemispheric consciousness (Eidolon in our terminology) becomes aware of an influence from an 'external force', which, in fact, is the right (Daemonic) hemisphere. In this way, Nasrallah argues, the schizophrenic person becomes confused and open to delusions.
Is this not what I argue with regard to 'leakage' from the Daemonic to Eidolonic consciousness? I suggest that this 'communication' is similar to Blake's "Doors of Perception". When slightly open we have migraine, slightly more and we have TLE, wider again we see bi-polar and open wide we have schizophrenia.Any thoughts or observations?
Announcement - Third KERRANG Interview
It seems that my second (recorded) interview was broadcast by Kerrang Radio last week. It seems that it proved very popular with lots of listener interest (that would also explain why 'hits' on my website went through the roof for three days last week). Indeed so pleased were they with my "great interview" (their words) they have asked me back to be interviewed on one of their prime-time shows this coming Friday evening (18th April 2008) at 2230 (UK time). The person who will be interviewing me is Yvette Fielding. Yvette used to be a presenter of the popular BBC TV children's programme Blue Peter and, in recent years has been the main presenter on a very popular TV programme called Most Haunted. I will be 'on air' for about twenty minutes. I am sure that the phone lines and email will be open so please feel free to phone in or email your comments or questions.http://www.kerrangradio.co.uk/.
If you have friends who are interested in exactly what you mean when you talk to them about ITLAD and CTF this is the chance for them to appreciate exactly what we mean by these terms.
Monday, 14 April 2008
Types of death...
So, people that die in other ways; die in their sleep, get shot in the back of the head, ect ect you get the picture. Are you saying that the process you have described still occurs for them? I mean, realistically if it applies to one death it wil apply to all but am i silly for thinking that some deaths make it seem a lot more unlikely?
The Time Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
Any way I would love feedback from those of you that have read it and for those of you who haven't I think you would enjoy this work of fiction simply because of it's parallels to Tony's theories.
Henry is able to literally fall out of time and visit different parts of his timeline and also end up in other random places. It therefore suggests that all time is now as Henry meets himself on many occasions. It is made clear that any visits he makes to the past cannot be changed so whilst he may know in his own memory he fell and scraped his knee when he was six, he can go back to that moment but not alter it. His visits to doctors result in them diagnosing schizophrenia and/or a weird form of epilepsy! Eventually he meets a doctor who deals with gene therapy and so starts their work on discovering 'what' Henry is in terms of evolution and gene mutation. It is an amazingly interwoven book, taken at face value a nice fantasy love story but the deeper connotations are mind blowing.
It is quite funny in that from the age of 36 Henry travels back in time and meets 6 year old Clare and continues to visit her as she grows up. However when Clare is twenty and meets Henry(28) in the 'real' world she knows him intimately but he has no idea who she is because he hasn't met her in the past until he's 36. Takes a bit of working out but I loved this book and will read it again one day. It resonated with me profoundly and I am just pleased I read Tony's book first as my new knowledge has added so many layers to this book.
We make decisions before we know it

We Make Decision Before We Know It!
There is an interesting study coming out in Nature Neuroscience.
Basically, the study asked participants to make a decision as to whether to press a button with the right hand or the left hand. They then had to report when they felt that they had made the decision. The research, using computer programmes, examined what happened within the brain before the felt decision had been made, and it showed that it was possible to predict the decision that the participants would later make, meaning therefore that the decisions are being made by something other than the conscious mind!
Here are a couple of links to the news report:
http://www.idw-online.de/pages/de/news254676
http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2008/04/mind_decision
http://www.boston.com/news/science/articles/2008/04/14/free_will_not_as_much_as_you_think/
Interesting stuff indeed.
My thoughts on this:
If decisions are made before the conscious mind is aware of them, the obvious question arises 'Who or what is making the decisions?' Also, this study is being reported as suggesting that we do not really have free will, but that is because most people are unaware of, or reject the notion of the daemon, if indeed it is the daemon that is in some way running the show in our brains. But if it is, how come so many of us are so screwed up? :)
Perception lagging behind time
Daemonic Contact
I had considered placing this post as a simple 'comment' but I decided that it was too important to be lost as a comment. It has a degree of relevance to Ken's question with regard to Daemonic communication with other eidolons.
About a year ago a young man emailed me from out of the blue. He had read ITLAD and, like many others, the ideas and theories of CTF fizzed around in his mind, particularly the daemonic aspects because they helped explain a very strange series of events. For a few weeks before his girlfriend's Daemon started manifesting itself - but to him, not her. It would wait until his girlfriend's attention was elsewhere, or she was asleep, and it would talk to him. This had become such a regular occurance that he felt motivated to write to me. Now it is crucially important to note that his girlfriend has TLE . He told me that the Daemon was, at that time (March 2007) time, talking to him every night. However, and this is of absolute importance, all these communications involved predictions - all of which subsequently came true! In his email he told me of predicted car crashes, about a lady collapsing at a funeral they attended, and even how many people would send her valentine gifts. Now for those of you who have seen my lectures you will know that like J W Dunne I focus in on the mundane, and intensely personal nature of daemonic precognitions. But he also told me that this Daemon READS HIS MIND! He added that this was constant, not a one-off. Even when the couple lose things the Daemon will tell them where they are!
But there was more, much more - all of which not only supports ITLAD but positively vindicates in detail all of my theory including precognitive events that changed the future, and an absolutely stunning Daemonic response with regard to my book and its contents!
I would love to share this with you on this blog - via a direct quote from the email (and have used all of this material in my last book - he has supplied me with some incredible detail) - but he specifically requested that I did not, and I honour that request. Indeed he is thinking of writing a book about his experiences with the Daemon. Unfortunately soon afterwards the Daemon said that he should stop contact with me for a while.
Now the great news is that the Daemon has not only given him permission to re-open contact, but also wishes for us to meet. It seems that it may wish to open up communication with me! This has now been agreed for a date in May. I suspect that this may be an even bigger event in my life than the meeting with the TLE lady in the hotel (cited in detail in my next book and discussed in my talks) and my recent meeting with TLEr, Dazza Vu. This initial meeting, as I understand it, will just be the two of us, but it is possible that his girlfriend may attend. I am hoping that he (they) will be willing to contribute to this blog. Believe me, if they do what they say will really blow your minds!
It is events like this that really make me realise that it is far more than a theory that we have here ... it is something of profound significance. What we need is a way to have it better known.
Sunday, 13 April 2008
Does the Daemon ever make physical contact with the Eidelon?
Psychotic episodes of the illusion of reality
So, here goes ...
About a week before I started the Prednisone, I was having trouble falling asleep one night. I felt feverish but I did not take my temperature so I have no clue how high a fever I had. How much of what follows is dream, lucid dream, or for how much of it I was awake is unknown to me. Here is the "dream":
In order to fall asleep I had to arrange these energy packets in the correct order. The packets were all different shapes and colors and they pulsated with color. But I did not know what the correct order was. It had something to do with the anatomy of an animal and I thought it unfair that I should have to know this type of information. I could see my energy packets arranged but they stopped pulsating and went dark. I kept thinking that it really shouldn't matter what order they were in and that I shouldn't be punished for not knowing. All I wanted was to go to sleep but I couldn't and was very frustrated. I then began looking for what could not get to sleep. I probed the dark energy packets and the space around them searching for "me", the "I" that could not sleep. But I came up empty. The energy packets were there but nothing else. This probing was an intense scrutiny, very deliberate, very directed. It was as if I was turning everything around looking at from all angles to find "me" but nothing was found. I then turned this fact over and over in my mind trying to find out what it meant.
I've been doing some meditation off and on and sometimes fairly regularly for several years. I recently went to a hypnotherapist and she showed me a technique for putting myself in a trance which I've used recently in addition to the other meditation. The following are brief excerpts from three days of going into trance on my own -- which I've been doing a LOT more while on the Prednisone. There is a whole lot more to my experiences on these days (and others) but I'm not ready to share all of it.
I'm looking at what appears to be a normal, everyday scene. A man stands up on the right side of my field of view as if he wants to leave. Then it was as if a strip was torn out of a picture. The scene froze and a strip was torn from the middle and it went right through the man. Then another strip from behind that was torn. It was as if the scene which I considered to be real was made up of later upon later of images.
Another time I had the sensation that something akin to camouflage was responsible for creating reality. There were all these bubbles on a flat surface but if you moved your head slightly, a shape would appear to emerge. The sensation was that the shape was taken for reality but it wasn't really there.
Another time I felt like I was flying through layer upon layer of a paper mache sculpture and on each layer there was a picture that was taken for reality. Then I seemed to get to the last layer and it was all dark but around the edges I saw some green (I think) light and I felt that there were beings back there watching but I could not see them. They were not really human and seemed to be either in control of "the show" or the audience for "the show." "The show" being our everyday reality. I then started trying to figure out if ken is just an actor who doesn't know he's an actor? What would it mean for ken to be an actor and who is the audience?
Another time I felt an immense, wide-open, empty space. It was so empty immense that it was scary
Another time I was looking at a hole in the ground and it was a whorl pattern. I was then instantly transported to space where I was viewing a galaxy of the same shape. (This one really has me interested in fractals now as that was the feeling -- same shape, different scale.)
And that's all for now. Thanks for letting me share.
Does the Daemon have a gender?
I recall some brief discussion of this in the comments to a post or two but I cannot quickly find them. So, can we discuss it here or will someone provide links to the relevant past discussions?
Thank you.
Saturday, 12 April 2008
Birthday Stuff
I would like to thank everybody who has been involved in the massive surprise I had when opening the blogsite. I was ready for something because the enigmatic Dark Philosopher had left a cryptic text message on my mobile. Organising such a pulling together of all the International Association of Itladian Philosophers (IAIP) was a task of huge proportions. Thanks Karl, it really is appreciated.Covert Operation Codename: Peake-a-boo!!


(The day that rocked the world)
Bill Haley & His Comets record
"Rock Around the Clock"
Happy Birthday Tony !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Jesamyn as Kylie (in Moulin Rouge):
Susan Marie as Marilyn Monroe:
HurlyBurly as Morrissey:
Ken, Ra from Ca, It’s Cool To Care and Aloha Gary (with Hawaiian attire) all join in with a chorus of all fellow ITLADians like Johar, Dreamer and Athamandia for a repeat performance and presentation of the oversized cake, which I have been reliably informed contains both Jesamyn and Susan Marie, crouched and ready to spring !
(Their words, not mine !)
ALL who post and comment or simply those who just enjoy reading what has become an intensely stimulating, thought-process forming and fascinatingly diverse blog are very very welcome to add their comments, even if you have never done so previously: simply click on the word comments below.
Many Happy Eternal-Returns, Tony
*blows one of them extendable twirly efforts that makes that trumpety noise*
A Dark Philosopher
Karl L Le Marcs
Friday, 11 April 2008
Second Life - Episode 3
I managed to make my way to a place called 'Publisher's Island' and found that my publisher (Arcturus) have a location there. 'Cool' and I also found a lecture theatre on a rooftop in that location. This would be an ideal location for a cyber presentation on ITLAD and CTF. I will discuss this with Arcturus next time I am in contact with them.
I am going to be very busy over the weekend but I will probably be back in SL on Monday. Maybe see you then.
Thursday, 10 April 2008
Second Life - Dummy Run 1.
I note that there is now a voice facility on SL. I have not used it but I will have my microphone and speakers on just in case we can make direct contact.
Wednesday, 9 April 2008
Extraordinary People: The Human Camera
Channel 5 9pm tonight, looks really interesting.
Tuesday, 8 April 2008
Jacob's Ladder, Post Jungian map of Global Cinema
I was also fascinated to learn from Whitlarks that the screenplay began with a nightmare Rubin had about being condemned to Hell, appearing in the image of the New York subway.
The direct link to this Jacob's Ladder web page is http://human-threshold-systems.whitlarks.com/bpchp6p5.html. HurlyBurly you might like this work as a good number of films are discussed, and Anthony, perhaps you know all this? I'd be interested in your thoughts.
Monday, 7 April 2008
HurlyBurly

Why do i love Hurlyburly so much?? Hurlyburly was originally a dark comedy play by David Rabe. More than three hours long, it focuses on the intersecting lives of several low to mid-level Hollywood players in the 1980s. Fueled by massive amounts of drugs, they attempt to find some meaning in their isolated, empty lives by engaging in endless discussions laced with misogyny. The central character Eddie's oft-repeated apathetic question "How does it pertain to me?," sums up his spiritual agony as he heads for catharsis. Rabe wrote the screenplay for a 1998 film version directed by Anthony Drazan. He condensed the action into two hours and updated the setting from the mid-1980s to the late 1990s. The cast included Sean Penn, Kevin Spacey, Chazz Palminteri, Robin Wright Penn, Garry Shandling, Anna Paquin, and Meg Ryan. Penn's performance won him the Volpi Cup and Drazan was nominated for the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. Penn also was nominated Best Male Lead at the Independent Spirit Awards.

Sean Penn, who is arguabley the greatest actor of our generation (i'll let pacino & De Niro Compete with him though!), gives such a great performance as do the many other variety of brilliant actors in this film. I always described this film as a "Catcher in the rye - for grown ups.......with a sheeeet load of drugs and alcohol!" It's hedonism enjoyed and over analysed basically! The dialogue is without a doubt the greatest thing about this film, Sean Penn and Kevin Spacey have undeniable chemistry as they constantly lock horns over women and ego:
Mickey: You don't know what you're saying. You don't.
Eddie: I do.
Mickey: No. I know you think you know what you're saying, but you're not saying it.
Eddie: No, I know what I'm saying. I don't know what I mean, but I know what I'm saying. Is that what you mean?
Mickey: Yeah.
Eddie: Right. But it's not like anybody knows what anything means, right? It's not like anybody knows that. So at least I know I don't know what I mean, which is better than most people. They probably think they know what they mean, not just what they think they mean.
Eddie: I lie to myself. I'm a really great liar. And I'm very gullible.
Eddie: In the Middle Ages everyone really had to worry about witches and goblins, but what we have is stuff eating at us. We've got stuff we don't even... I mean, why do you think that all the warlords of the world are so anxious to get their own personal little stash of chemical weapons. They call them weapons of mass destruction, but they're not. They're very *very* selective about what they destroy. They annihilate people and preserve things. They love things. You and I would be dead, gas... puke... gone. Whereas, you know, other earlier older people - the ancients - could look to the heavens, which in their minds was inhabited by this thoughtful, meditative, you know, maybe a trifle unpredictable and wrathful, but nevertheless up there - this divine onlooker. We've got anchorpersons and talking heads. We've got politicians who decide life and death issues on the basis of their media concerns. That's what we've got.
Eddie: Flip is sarcastic.
Mickey: No, it's not. That's crazy. Sarcastic is mean, it's heavy - it's funny, sure, but it's mean. I do both, but this was flip
As irrelevant as this may seem!! I value the opinion of you guys more than anyone else. You're all intelligent, humourous and complex people and this is why i know if you havn't seen this film before, you will absolutely love it! Saying that, there is a lot in this film that will make you think about other things. As Sean's character quite accurately asks:
Eddie: Do you ever have that experience where your thoughts are like these totally separate, totally self-sustaining phone booths and there's like this vast uninhabited shopping mall in your head? Do you ever have that experience?
We know what he meant, right? I have nagged both Anthony and Karl several times but i thought i'd be a bit louder this time! Please allow this one off (yeah right) film review from me, i've been here over half a year and it's my Birthday tomorrow!! It's a great film, go watch it now!!! You can pick it up on ebay for either £1.00 or $1.50 depending where you are, you are magnificiant people and you deserve this film (looks for buckett), ok i'm done!! Normal posting will resume when i'm 27.
Sunday, 6 April 2008
Talk at Leasowe Library

Second Life: Flanagan's Apple Meeting
The more I think about this plan the more the wonderful post-modernist themes strike me. I am sure that we could get a considerable amount of media interest in this idea - particularly if each of us, in our own geographic locations, mention this to our local radio stations or TV stations.
Friday, 4 April 2008
PARALLEL LIVES?
SON, AND THE POET SAMUEL
MENASHE NYC 1990

We came to know each other, both joined Anthony's blog, and communicated by E mail.These facts emerged:
Both of us had spent our teens and twenties brooding in libraries, and came to love the works of Kierkegaard,Jaspers, Jung and Havelock Ellis;also Byron, Shelley, Keats and Bronte,both of us had aunts who were our mothers' older sisters, and with whom we had closer relationships than with our mothers, and who we lost to cancer in our 20's (SM was 29, I was 26) both of us had spent time in Paris at age 25, for unusual reasons;both worked briefly as reporters covering political events in our early 30's;both of us,together with our respective husbands. were close to a former mentor/Professor, who functioned like Uncles to both couples;both had tumultuous relationships with fathers who abandoned their daughters in girlhood. Both gave birth to one child only, a son born on Christmas Eve.And, at last, both of us were drawn to a Grief Forum in which neither of us felt we belonged,and became friends through writing each other about Anthony's book and theories.
Both became Blog members on Cheating the Ferryman, and both became rabidly envious of Anthony, Karl, and Hurly Burly!!!
Jesamyn.
Thursday, 3 April 2008
Second Life Meeting
Karl has rightly pointed out that not all of you will know about Second Life. I have posted on this before (many months ago) but I will explain again. SL is a virtual on-line world with literally millions of people involved. in this world you create your own 'avatar'. You can decide how you wish to look. You then can interface with others in this cyberworld as you would with people in 'First Life'. It is really very strange at first, particularly as now whole sections of First Life cities have been created on SL and look so real. The picture opposite is my avatar (Daemon Bohm) sitting in Flanagan's Apple in SL's version of Matthew Street in Liverpool (see posting below). This is the location I am suggesting for our cyber-meeting. As you can see this pub has a poster of my book on the wall. Believe me this had nothing to do with me. This is the position I left Daemon when I logged off at 0945 BST today.Now this is where things can get really interesting. For example as you may be able to just make out my avatar, Daemon Bohm (get it?!) wears a tee-shirt with the book cover on the back and a link to my website on the front. Clothing can be designed for you. Should any of you create your own avatar in can send you the tee-shirt that it can wear. This will help identify ourselves to each other in SL. Indeed in SL one can also set up groups. Indeed a thought that has just dawned on me is that when naming your avatar you can decide upon your first name. If we all have a first name of "Daemon" we can always identify each other. What do you think?
One of the members of this blog (Robin) I actually met on SL. I know that she is a regular there so maybe she will be able to act as our guide. I know that there have been some new developments - like actual voice communication so 'chatting' is even easier. Indeed I have found that if you use Skype whilst also on SL you can communicate as if by ESP.
Indeed you may be interested to know that my publisher is very SL savvy and I know that they have suggested many times that we use SL as a marketing and publicity tool.
Second Life can be checked out by following this hyperlink: http://secondlife.com/
I have not been on SL for a few months but I plan to go back today to have a look round. If you wish to find me just do a search on 'Daemon Bohm' and come and say hi.
Wednesday, 2 April 2008
Proposed Second Life Meeting
Over the last few months we have developed from a handful of individuals to a fascinating and ever extending group of like-minded souls spread across the globe. In many ways this adds to the buzz of the blog but in other ways it is a major restriction. By this I mean that a meeting of all of us would be impossible in the 'real world' . However after meeting up with Karl L Le Marcs, Hurly Burly, Its Cool To Care and Aloha Gary recently we all agreed that a meeting in Cyberspace should be arranged.A Prophet or simply a self fulfilling prophecy?

Tupac Shakur was an incredibley talented and versitaile artist. Perhaps the greatest thing about him was his honesty as a human being, he was good bad, creative, destructive, he personified the entire human spectrum. Many people didn't not see this talent due to the gangsta rap image he went out of his way to create in order to hide his entirely intense female side.
There are many conspiracey theories regarding 2pac's death. For those of you that aren't familiar with his work, 2pac predicted his own death in his lyrics on a very regular occasion, he even acted it out in an extremely eiree music video "I ain't mad at cha". This is why he spent so much time in the studio and that over 10 years after his death he still has material being released. A year or two before he died, Tupac changed his name to Makaveli. It is a common misconception that Machiavelli faked his own death. There is no historical evidence that he did, despite this the connections were made and motives were established for this change of identity.
Are people that predict these kind of things tuned into the future, or are they simply creating it out of the need for attention or creative frustration? I'm not sure how much Anthony knows about the late, great Mr Shakur but i think it may be worth looking onto as there is another link between creative writing and an ability to predict the future events?
In the event of my Demise
when my heart can beat no more
I Hope I Die For A Principle
or A Belief that I had Lived 4
I will die Before My Time
Because I feel the shadow's Depth
so much I wanted 2 accomplish
before I reached my Death
I have come 2 grips with the possibility
and wiped the last tear from My eyes
I Loved All who were Positive
In the event of my Demise
I recommend you check out a film called Gridlock'd starring Tim Roth and Tupac, he was an extremely talented actor who was just reaching his peake when he died! Tupac had an incredible talent for poetry, obviously as he wrote rap lyrics for a career. He has had several books of poems published that would surprise many, some dedicated to his mother, one dedicated to Marilyn Monroe. Is there a strong link between communication with the Daemon and an abilty to write such poetry?
If in my quest 2 achieve my goals
I stumble or crumble and lose my soul
Those that knew me would easily co-sign
There was never life as hard as mine
No father-no money-no chance and no guide
I only follow my voice inside
if it guides me wrong and I do not win
I'll learn from mistakes and try 2 achieve again.
Karl would disagree, but he's one of those virgin lifers!! Here's a link to some more poetry.
http://seadeeper.com/poems/tupac.html
Tuesday, 1 April 2008
Hyperthymesty (1)
Those of you who have read ITLAD and others who have attended my lectures will know that crucial to CTF is the suggestion the human brain records every sensation, event, image etc that it perceives. I suggest that the experiments of Wilder Penfield support such a supposition. However these re-experiences were stimulated under extreme conditions within an operating theatre. In order for the theory to work there has to be evidence of events taking place under 'normal' circumstances. In the book (and in the lectures) I discuss the case of Solomon Shereshevski (this name has been transliterated into many different spellings), a patient of the great Soviet psychiatrist Alexandr Romanovich Luria. This man seemed to remember every event of his life in absolute detail. Indeed as a very important aside he was also a temporal lobe epileptic. However this was a very unusual case. However recently there has been a spate of cases of a new psychological state called Hyperthymestic Syndrome.Sunday, 30 March 2008
DMT
Jesamyn .
Friday, 28 March 2008
Polynesian Huna
The book is: The Power Of Aloha: The Hawaiian Guide To Love, Health And Wealth by Kala H. Hos and John Selby.
Until recently, the mysterious practices of Polynesian Huna masters have been considered by the outside world to be highly esoteric, caught up in occult superstitions and existing entirely beyond our contemporary scientific notions of reality. This attitude was finally shattered during the last decade, as highly respected scientific research - described in popular science books such as Dean Radin's excellent The Conscious Universe: The Scientific Truth of Psychic Phenomena - demonstrated beyond professional question that the awesome power of consciousness, through which the ancient Huna masters generated their apparent miracles, does in fact exist and furthermore, can readily be employed by all of us, once we learn how.
The Huna teachings and techniques have emerged from the heart of the extensive Polynesian culture over several thousands of years. As with all ancient cultures, there exist numerous myths about the origins of this society's spiritual wisdom.
When we look closely at the two short Polynesian words that make up the word Huna, we gain instant insight into the deeper nature of the Huna wisdom tradition. First of all, in this ancient language, hu refers to all things "masculine" while na refers to all things "feminine". Thus the word Huna is a verbal expression of the primary creative act of merging the world's energy poles into one living whole, just as the Chinese express it through the yin-yang symbol. Depending on the context, we also find that hu refers to action, movement, chaos, change, or power ... while na refers to the qualities of order, calm, peace, and endurance.
The underlying nature of hu-na is the practice, in all dimensions, of bringing our different aspects into a greater harmony and balance so that we become whole spiritual beings, capable of potent material manifestation and compassionate relating. The Polynesian understanding of hu-na runs exactly parallel to the new scientific models of quantum reality in the field of wave mechanics, where two seemingly opposed principles or qualities (objective/subjective, cognitive/intuitive, male/female, doing/being, space/time, self/other, wave/particle etc) exist only through their quality of being in complementary relationship to each other. Recently added to this list of complementary pairs in science (and known thousands of years ago in Huna) is what scientists now call the "consciousness/environment dialogue", where external reality continually and intimately influences internal consciousness, and vice versa.
The key notion here regarding these linked pairs is that we can't have one without the other. As the Huna masters knew long ago, consciousness and the outer world are parts of a greater whole - they're not distinct entities, as classic Cartesian science and our general Western worldview have led us to believe.
The Huna tradition stands as one of the primary guides to harmonizing our inner and outer experience purposefully so that, instead of feeling we're victims of the outside world, we begin to employ our conscious powers actively to influence the outer world for our increased wellbeing and enjoyment.At deep levels of human awakening, the attainment of Huna wisdom and empowerment emerges through the direct encounter of our human consciousness with the primal workings of the universe as an infinite whole. As we purposefully expand our awareness of life to experience the union of the inner and outer, we naturally become more and more attuned to the underlying principles of life - the hu-na secrets.
At heart, Huna is a pragmatic approach for using the power of your own mind to influence events and developments in the outer world.
The premise of Huna is that everyday human consciousness does carry the power to broadcast thoughts and images (mana'o) into an interconnecting "pre-matter" or "ether" or, as the Hawaiians call it, "aka substance". Furthermore, this broadcast of energized information has the power to effect directly not only physical matter, but also the thoughts of others.
If this primary Polynesian spiritual premise is correct, then our entire material approach to life in Western culture has been sadly off the mark, rendering us relatively impotent through our belief that our thoughts don't directly impact the outside world.
Throughout history, many of our wisest scholars and scientists have openly claimed that they could sense the presence of an invisible yet almost palpable power of manifestation that exists within their own minds. Isaac Newton, the patriarch of classic Western science, stated clearly that, for him, the primary force of change in the world would prove to be "the mystery by which mind could control matter." Francis Bacon, father of the experimental method, was highly interested in studying such "mind over matter" phenomena as telepathic dreams, psychic healing, transmission of spirits and the power of the mind on the casting of dice. Most great names in contemporary physics, such as Max Planck, Neils Bohr, Albert Einstein, Werner Heisenberg, Erwin Schroedinger and David Bohm, have written about the still-mysterious influence of consciousness on external matter and events.
And we can add to that list the name of Anthony Peake, and maybe one-day my own.
[The above was written and composed usng extracts from "The Power of Aloha: The Hawaiian Guide to Love, Health and Wealth" by Kala H. Kos & John Selby]
A Dark Philosopher
Karl L Le Marcs
Jill Bolte Taylor discovers her Daemonic Consciousness
I would like to thank Dr. Art Funkhouser, Ed Gilchrist and Gary Plunkett who all contacted me at almost exactly the same time with regard to this wonderful piece of itladian science.Julian Jaynes - "The Origin of Consciousness and the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind"
A huge influence upon me and my writing is a book entitled “The Origin of Consciousness and the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind” written by American psychologist Julian Jaynes. I first read this book in the early 1980's and its concepts fizzed around in my head for many years. In early 2000 when ITLAD began to formulate in my mind one of the first books I went back to re-read was this great work. Jaynes was stimulated to write his book by an absolutely classic Daemonic communication that took place when he was a post-graduate student. He describes it thus:Mysterious America
Brent Raynes runs a wonderful website and magazine called Mysterious America. Brent interviewed me last year and we are in regular contact with regard to areas of mutual interest. In this month's edition he references me and my new book together with a link to my YouTube lecture. Knowing the subjects that interest you guys I am sure that a swift look at Brent's site will reward you with some fascinating reading material - some of which may find its way back to this site. Thursday, 27 March 2008
Pulfrich Pendulum Effect
"Make a pendulum out of approximately one metre of string and a bob (any reasonably heavy object will do). Find an old pair of sunglasses and take out one of the lenses. Put the sunglasses on then swing the pendulum in a straight arc at right angles to your line of sight. Now look at the bob. You will be surprised to see that the bob does not appear to swing in a straight line but describes an ellipse. What is happening is that the dark eyeglass is delaying the signal from that eye because it is reducing the amount of light being received. The receptors in your eye are therefore taking longer to respond and as such your brain is receiving the signal from this eye later than that from the uncovered eye. As the bob speeds up so the delay becomes greater and the eye with the filter lens ‘sees’ the bob further and further behind that seen by the unoccluded eye – in effect the past being perceived as the present. To accommodate this, and to continue with stereo vision, the brain mixes the two signals and in doing so you causes you to perceive an effective horizontal shift of the moving object. By perceiving two differing sections of movement-time you ‘see’ a totally inwardly created adaptation of ‘reality’.
This is known as the Pulfrich Pendulum Effect and was first described by Carl Pulfrich (1858-1927) in 1922.
In the mid 1970’s it was discovered that this Pulfrich Effect can be observed with objects lit by a stroboscope and even when viewing an ‘electric snowstorm’ on a de-tuned television set.
In one of those peculiar ironies Pulfrich himself was incapable of seeing the effect named after him because he was blind in his left eye. (See page 664 of The Oxford Companion to the Mind (1998) and M J Morgan & P Thompson “Apparent motion and the Pulfrich Effect – Perception, 4, 3-18 (1975)."
Greetings All!
I've just joined this blog, at the invitation of Mr. Peake. We met on the Institute of Noetic Science community website Shift in Action. It is what I call a "renaissance fellowship" of forward thinkers and futurists in the area where science, theosophy, and philosophy can be seen as one great thought. It is truly a league of extraordinary human beings. Come join us at - www.shiftinaction.org
I am pleased to meet you all. I have reviewed some of the most recent posts, and a related You Tube video or two. Rich nutrients for the brain here indeed.. I currently write from North Pole, Alaska, as I listen to Lemurian Sunrise and Tears over Fujiama by Da Wo's: Shanawo & Renee-Wo, from the album Ancient Wave. Intriguing music.
I believe I was supposed to come here now. As I read (and saw) Anthony's discussions on the Matrix, and other related topics, I perceive we (all of us) have been entangled. I have thought much on the Matrix related to our lives. The Star Wars concept of "the force" comes to mind as well. Remember "Back to the Future?" There are others I am sure. I believe the writers are picking up, (as are we) the reverberations from a future where the quantum interaction of aware minds and realized physicality will be the the energetic reality of day to day life for everyone in this experience. Wow. What a time to be here!
Peace and joy to you fellow travelers, and well met!,
Jon

