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| 4/20 day at Cal |
Back when LSD was legal, traveling was really cheap!
I love to travel and visit new places -- but it's truly a sad
fact
of life that in order to go see the world, you really do need to have
money. And lots and lots of it too. Oligarchs have it http://billmoyers.com/episode/what-the-1-dont-want-you-to-know-2/ I don't.
For example, it's a whole lot easier to be a hot-shot war correspondent
if you actually
possess
the airfare necessary to arrive at said war. Syria? Ukraine?
Venezuela? Israel-Palestine? Somalia? The Congo? Or any one of the
other 134 places in this world where U.S. armed forces have bases and
another war might break out at any minute or the CIA might start another
"Color Revolution"? http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175794/tomgram%3A_nick_turse,_secret_wars_and_black_ops_blowback/
The only way that I can get to these places cheaply is to join the Marines!
But I've also figured out another way to travel safely and cheaply to exciting and exotic places: Just pack my bags and
travel to all those wondrous and profound places that exist inside of my own mind -- instead of
outside of it.
Back in 1965 when I was living on the infamous Lower East Side of New York City, LSD
was still legal -- and Sandoz pharmaceuticals in Switzerland was kind enough to
produce a laboratory-grade LSD that one could easily get one's hands on.
Taking trips back then was easy and cheap -- you simply took journeys
deep into the depths of your own mind. But that's not possible any more.
In the last 15 years, I have been all over the whole freaking world, been to every state in the Union
except Wisconsin, Oklahoma and Kentucky, set foot on all seven
continents, visited every important religious shrine I could think of
and toured every major war zone in the Middle East except Libya and
Syria. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QU961SGps8g&feature=youtu.be
But how far into the inside my own brain have I ever gone? Since LSD
became a controlled substance? And peyote, mescalin, ayahuasca and
magic mushrooms became so hard to get? Not very far.
Of course I have traveled short distances into the Outback of my brain with the
help of various hypnotists -- and that must count for something, right?
And I can always dream about traveling the world. Dreams are free. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-c9DY01Q2M
What if you knew that every single night of your life, you could look
forward to visiting, say, Tel Aviv and Tahiti? Or Paris and
Pakistan? Or Kandahar and Kentucky.... Life would suddenly become a
whole
lot more fun.
And speaking of
dreaming, there's another possibility of sneaking inside of our dream
worlds -- by practicing a technique called lucid dreaming. But I
haven't mastered it yet so far either. http://www.wikihow.com/Lucid-Dream
For several years during the infamous 1970s http://www.thomhartmann.com/blog/2014/04/middle-class-not-%E2%80%9Cnormal%E2%80%9D#sthash.QFqgQxf0.dpuf, I used to sit cross-legged and
listen to a Tibetan lama go on and on about what happens to us in the
Dream Bardo. So I made up a bumper-sticker for my car that read, "Lost
in the Bardo again!" And I think I'm still am lost in the Dream Bardo
-- but when I wake up, I can't remember a damn thing. And then there
was all that dream-training I went through in Subud. Not a clue what
good that did either.
Because who the freak knows what goes on in our dreams? By definition, we are all sound asleep.
So I ask you. Have I ever really gotten right down to it, packed my
suitcase, girded my loins and actually traveled very far into that scary
and unknown country of the
mind? Not so much -- at least not since the 1960s. So this is the
country where I want to go next.
Any suggestions on where I can buy a ticket to go there? Or how to reserve a few nights at the Neo-Cortex Hotel?
PS:
Most Americans really, really do not want to go there -- back inside of their
own brains. They seem to want to do anything that they can to avoid
it, in fact. They leave the TV on 24/7, let infomercials and talk-radio
hosts do their thinking for them, never take out their ear-buds,
and shop til they drop in malls designed to distract people from
thinking. Plus all too many Americans immediately attempt to get
stinking drunk at the very first sign that an inner journey might be
about to begin.
"Know thyself," Socrates once said.
Most Americans seem to shudder at the thought.
PPS:
The interior of our brains contains the good, the bad and the ugly --
not just Einstein-like thoughts. Sure, we might discover another
Theory of Relativity. But our brains are also the places where our
worst nightmares are stored. Are we ready for that as well? As well as
for
all the good stuff? Sure, why not.
Just view all that bad
stuff in our brains as a Oscar-quality horror movie and then just relax and enjoy
being scared out of our minds. Or into them, as it were.
Also, it seems like such a waste that most consciousness-expanding
substances are now labeled "controlled," and can't even be legally used
by mental-health professionals to further explore the human brain, or in
religious ceremonies to get ourselves nearer to spirituality, or by
cancer patients to help still their fears of impending death. But
cigarettes are legal. And so is booze. And Prozac. How come only the mind-numbing stuff gets legalized?
PPPS: Another reason why traveling inside of my brain is important to me: I am so badly frustrated that the world as we know it today will soon come to an end and yet nobody seems to care or to act in a responsible way to solve all our myriad problems. http://www.thenation.com/article/179458/why-thenationcom-today-all-about-climate
PPPS: Another reason why traveling inside of my brain is important to me: I am so badly frustrated that the world as we know it today will soon come to an end and yet nobody seems to care or to act in a responsible way to solve all our myriad problems. http://www.thenation.com/article/179458/why-thenationcom-today-all-about-climate
If only I could get inside of my own mind, tap into that incredible resource, find a goal or a plan that would work and then Just Do It, I wouldn't have to lie awake nights worrying so much about all the crazy-bad trouble that human beings have gotten themselves into so far.
PPPPS: Cattle-rustling is NOT patriotic. So what is? Stopping climate change and jailing sleazy banksters and un-electing corrupt politicians.
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Advertizements for myself: In these hard times of brutal (and illegal) corporatist ball-busting socialism-for-the-rich-only, I am doing whatever I can to make a spare dollar. Here are some of my current alternate-economy schemes that never seem to work -- but I keep hoping!
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If anyone ever wants to hire me on as a travel writer (or war correspondent), "Have laptop, will travel!" And I would really like to go back to Iraq to see how things are now. Or to Timbuktu. Never been there. Or Ukraine or Syria -- or Oklahoma, Hawaii or Milwaukee. Never been there either. But can't afford to go on my own. PS: Here's a great GX tour of Oklahoma on July 6 that I would love to go on: http://www.globalexchange.org/reality-tours#id=the-radical-tour-of-oklahoma
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Need someone to help you throw out stuff? I'm really good at deciding what needs to be thrown out (starting with all those corporate-owned bums in Washington!)
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Need an actor to play an older woman in your movie? Then I'm your man! I can portray all kinds of older women -- from judges, business execs and other insane zombies to bag ladies, cancer patients, kindly grandmothers and dying patients in rest homes. I've played them all. So send me a script and let's do this. Hollywood, here we come! Here's my new 2014 reel: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uad0XDU_cXg&feature=youtube_gdata
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Are you a plaintiffs' attorney who is tired of writing those pesky personal injury settlement briefs all the time? No problem! I can write them for you. Years of experience. And pay me only if you win the case.
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I recently got my Notary Public commission!
Need a Notary Public? Have seal, will travel. E-mail me at jpstillwater@yahoo.com and I'll stamp your document, make it official and only charge $10. Of course if you live outside of Berkeley, I may have to charge travel expenses -- but am well worth it!
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I also wrote a book about going on Hajj (also included as a chapter in "Bring Your Own Flak Jacket," but this book is cheaper -- but it's worth buying them both!) My book on the Hajj is so outstanding that I bet even Christian fundamentalists will love it! Please buy it here: http://www.amazon.com/Mecca-Hajj-Lessons-Islamic-School/dp/0978615700/ref=cm_rdp_product
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"Imagine a world where EVERY child is wanted, nurtured, protected and loved: World peace in one generation!"You can now buy T-shirts, coffee mugs, tote bags, truckers' caps, baby gear and/or teddy bears with this logo printed on them. They make great gifts, especially for parents and teachers. To purchase, just click here:http://www.cafepress.com/StillTWaters
"Life is a competition. The winners are the ones who do the most good deeds." You can also buy T-shirts, coffee mugs, tote bags, truckers' caps, baby gear and/or teddy bears with this logo printed on them. They make great gifts, especially for those of us who are still idealists in these troubled times. To purchase, just click here: http://www.cafepress.com/StillTWaters
