High Frontiers High Frontiers #3: Annual 1987

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SCIENCE AND FUN

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SOUNDTRACK FOR A WEIRD 87

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. . t iU patientS in their .

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,

sign, "Yes,

On a Combination L-dOpa/par ladel

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could ever safely have

t

gest drugstores in

Europe, Where they Were Working

D

solution— perhaps

in that

-

,

I

on

you just sell the material as a suosiance ana substance and don't make aon i maxe anv any claims c aims for tor it it, thev tney ran't can do a thin * DMS0 The wanted t0 et that OUt of the y SJ g & ne ' Cdn l DecdU » e people are selling it bl

had

thP the hrain brain vp™ very fa«t tast.

it

no problem.

it's

oninofnrfliKPlivprHamjicp

££'

BHT

your serum. Your liver would get wiped out

a property of dose, too. The doses that are required for canis

so left

it

make it burn, but the day. You have a vastly

high— than you

10,000 time as

pile of

will

gone the next

lesion will be

higher concentration of

in there

and you simply daub

The alcohol

a herpes lesion.

whole

concentrations. Probably everything

guess toxicity

BHT

absolute alcohol, pour plenty of

you have more than

SS: Not only

that,

having low levels of seratonin

in the

brain leads to a behavioral effect that has been studied

extensively now. flip

out and

against

It

causes people to be more likely to

do impulsive,

violent type actions, either

themselves, committing suicide, or attacking

other people. Flipping out in a car. Getting into a

fight.

DP: So

if

you're going to take magic mushrooms, the

moral of that story

is,

Medicine there

take a couple of grams of tryp-

Yohimbe

tophan before you go to sleep and that'll not only help you get to sleep, you'll be mellow the next day, when if you hadn't taken it, you might be a little edgy. HF: What would you say to people who are taking tryp-

We

HF: How do

think

it's

cause

is

causing premature aging

in us.

What

it

for the developmental clock to progress.

list.

but

must add

I

can order that

SS: Apparently,

HF: We were

DP: On

talking before about noradrenal deple-

When we were

tion.

was complaining

talking to

that the

Lean

day he

the other

negative

and

the aphrodisiac effects without the

on

effects.

DP: That's

HF:

years,

was wondering if vasopressin might be somethat would be similar to cocaine without the negaSS: But getting something like PRL-853 approved

tive effects.

DP:

don't think vasopressin produces a gross enough

I

would have

to

and approved for

cases you have to use a double blind placebo study for a

DP:

even though

We

it

it's

done anything

to their

can be quite dramatic.

It's

a terrific

enhancer. Normally you can memorize about 7

or 8 digits just by looking

them for a second. PRL-

at

853 gives the average person 21 to 22 digits. Think about

memory

a

span of around

doubles or

it

80% improvement

memory and

in his

he hadn't

it.

I

might add

was a fog

later she said there

in a

A

very severe

few seconds

from her

lifting

mind— "I

can remember things." With that one dose, she remem-

Now

bered everything. usual. Usually

you have

memory

to bring the

HF: Would that be DP: Oh,

yes.

report on,

is

One

that

this

is

a better response than

continue using

to

it

for awhile

effective for

alcohol. That's one of the very big reasons

why

discoordinates you and screws up your reaction time,

causes you to lose your memory.

One way you might

increase vasopressin release

activity,

you would,

DP: There used

to

be a

company

box you could build

little

machine for EEG. chine

It is

that

better than

unimpaired. visual

in

You

spatial

con-

are

capabilities,

coordination, and reaction time.

FDA

is

to find

had the alpha, beta and theta positions. I tell I wasn't

It

put the thing on in the theta position and

I

ended up with pictures in expecting much to happen. my head flashing one after another at the rate of a few I

per second. there with

It

my

was

incredible.

I

got hallucinations sitting

tunately, that

it

I

to get a

memory drug approved by

another use for

it.

Such

as, for

people

exam-

who have

diabetes insipitus. are

its

name because of

hasn't been approved by the

been

all

has

tried on,

100%

took their tab at the

is

in-

it's

But

it

lot

of the

has one big

his graduate students

of the class and for the next

start

had raging hard-ons. The dose is only about 15 micrograms a day, too. It should theoretically be cheaper to produce than Parladel. The structure is all

simpler. But the chances of

it

being approved are very

The biggest problem they've had with the FDA is persuading them that aphrodisiac side-effects were less

10,000 people in the

these people totally getting wiped out

SS:

and getting put

in old folks'

a deficiency of vasopressin.

can't prescribe that stuff for people with

am-

nesia? there's not

enough of them

worthwhile to get the thing approved. by

the fact

FDA) which

reversed a

some of

all

illustration

was

service, too.

It

DP:

increase the old folks'

damage

tors or the

dopamine nerves.

life

reset

that. First

normally requires 2 or 3 services

doesn't restore

It

We

be shipped out.

to

to get a

span, too?

dopamine recepsimply provides more

to the

It

nowhere near a complete correction

is

for the underlying

pathology.

SS: What looks like the sort of treatment coming

few years

is

plant the fetal tissue into the brain, bit

in a

the use of fetal brain tissue, implanting into

and recover a

lot

DP: There's due that technique to

you can

If

you im-

repair quite a

of function.

to

be a

lot

of problems with applying

humans because of federal laws

against

using aborted fetuses in experimentation.

SS:

It's

more

Denmark

liberal in other countries like

where they can do

fetal research.

use of fetal brain tissue will

Probably the eventual

come from some

foreign

country, rather than the United States.

DP: The

biggest dose

I

LSD

ever heard of with

was

was 12

real

chromosome breakage. SS: A study was done on Timothy Leary's blood to see if there was any increase in chromosome breakage. In fact,

he had perfectly normal chromosomes, which is inconsidering how much he smokes, because

credible

cigarette

smoking increases chromosome breakage.

HF: What do you know about co-enzyme Q? DP: Co-enzyme

Q

is

unshielded radical. So

used by a I

lot

of people.

would suggest

it's

It's

got an

only used

in

conjunction with other anti-oxidants.

HF: Do you DP:

think

it's

an

effective prolongevity

In conjunction with other anti-oxidants

it

agent? looks in-

small.

no more than

DP: No, because

that

aphrodisiac side effects.

dangerous than

HF: They

all right.

credibly effective against Parkinson's Disease. In the

United States with that condition. It's

mare

Sandoz LSD, a real exmilligrams, and periment when you could still do experiments blatantly. He went away. But he came back with no detectable

eyes closed.

can't mention

It

women.

destined for the glue factory. She'd been sterile for

that

SS: There's a drug that has been developed (unfor-

hour they

ple, with Diapid. It's prescribed for

DP: There

a biofeedback

you,

investigator and

the

was

a kit for

any professional ma-

thing.

DP: An

way

you

seen for under $1000. The plans are in

I've

It

SS: The only

sell

Popular Electronics from maybe 15 years ago or some-

problem.

You're high. You're euphoric, but

impaired

your

Berkeley called Ex-

in

would

You

If

part of the aging clock.

in half the

animal brains where they've been damaged.

it's

less

is

vasopressin activity.

the people have suffered.

siderably

increase

process,

the

in

damage

almost

most

wave activity. So that if you got a feedback device whereby you increase your theta wave

patients

is

the

associated with theta

you take alcohol

memory

it's

30

stimulation for the remaining structures and as such,

with vasopressin you get a remarkably different high.

your

believe

I

people who smoke pot?

of the effects of the pot that they

aren't drunk.

an exceedingly

is

SS: That sounds like vasopressin release

back.

suppresses the release of vasopressin.

it

LSD

that

in

reset the reproductive

it

reset the reproductive clock in a

mare pregnant.

$60, a

memory

We

that,

much

very

premenopause

HF: Did this

tended Digital Concepts that

about 6 months out of her

is

do

it

about 2 years and was about

very interesting. Noradrenalin can cause the

DP: When they handed him the test results, his eyes bugged out and his jaw dropped. Perfect. Sometimes when you have an amnesia victim, the results are spectacular. A nurse who worked for a doctor we know had auto accident. She was given PRL-853.

which

to

DP:

noticed a thing.

it

perfor-

can we nutritionally enhance vasopressin

release of

had a

had a period

ladies figure, "I haven't

pei forma nee in the body? It's

it

What happened is the litmen started fucking like

her clock and got a very nice colt as a result of

HF: How

SS: professor, he had been given the

this

PRL-853 and he was asked whether he had gotten the drug or the placebo. He said, "No. I'm sure I got the placebo. Nothing happened to my memory." Here you

So does

memory

powerful releaser known.

It isn't.

SS: This guy,

lost

triples

most people. That's not good enough.

powerful releasant of vasopressin.

this.

Where's this available?

have an

that

Parkinson's

don't have anything to worry about." Half of

I

clock,

approved.

it

old

little

horny. Not only did

went

saw a videotape of a college professor of

memory

DP:

in

it

that.

cured cystic acne, you could get

it

Never mind

mance

psychology who'd been given PRL-853.

HF:

memory,

If

—

be found effective against some disease

kick for most people to recognize anything. In most

person to realize that

The

on

L-dopa/parladel

them got pregnant. Fortunately, all of them had abortions because the delivery would've killed them, and I would guess the chances of birth defects would be somewhere up near 100%. The point is, it got them all

I

thing

good aphrodisiac.

and 80's, they found out

aphrodisiac side-effect.

fiends.

Automatic Category One.

recreational drugs.

a

the other hand, an L-dopa/parladel combination

old ladies and

tle

Category One. That's the category for

it!

it

only an aphrodisiac for males.

it's

combination

a

100%

Category One!

is.

not on the dangerous

from a chemical supply house,

didn't find

I

method

the time-honored

says you've got to stop or

in jail. It's

it

patients in their 70's

DP: They haven't been lax. They've been discouraged by the FDA. Because, you see, there is no category for recreational drugs in the FDA. SS: Yes there

in treating

works on females as well as males. What happens is, it stimulates the dopamine track in the brain. In a bunch of old folks' homes in Europe, where they were working

drug industry has been lax and

hasn't invented something like cocaine that can give you the euphoria

that

with that?

it's

FDA

you

to put

drug

I

suppose

I

until the

it

we're going

does

away

they get

DP: Unknown.

don't

I

doctors

tells

an aphrodisiac and could be used

is

of doing

take a couple of grams every night.

company which

sexual dysfunction.

tophan routinely?

DP:

an advertisement by a legitimate eth-

is

nopharmaceutical

to

make

it

HF: Does

homes with

Parkinson's.

work for sexual dysfunction? DP: Oh, yes. But I do not know of any drug which has it

been approved for SS: In the April

that purpose. 11,

1985

New

Adam Strom

England Journal of

teresting.

SS:

It

effects mitochondrial energy output so

also be of use to athletes, or people

it

who want

may

weight and increase the metabolic activity of their

to lose cells.

'< s» -»-»< *> .*

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i

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ly,

propagates

Long considered a stepchild in the cytobiology famiin the shadow of the more sexy and glamorous DNA, discoveries

recent

RNA

behavior of

the

in

and

rier

its

the

by

many

precursors shows that "self-splice," that

at

hexagonal, chicken-wire crystals. According to the best

Potential

current hypothesis, carbon-60

light), car-

of twelve pentagons and twenty hexagons and looks for

if

only one neutron

is

in

path the neutron takes by wrapping an

if either,

Proposed

of them have the ability to

in

The

be done

all

DNA)

existence of protein (nor, therefore, of

RNA is a rather simpler molecule, one that RNA appeared first, and that DNA

and evolve. Since

becoming a

all

know

true scientist,

it

such speculation

that

behooves us

RNA. is

un-

to stop here.

Rocks the December meeting of the Union contained persuasive

American

Geophysical

evidence that one of the important aspects of the current

model of It

the Earth's structure

may be

the Earth (that layer just under the crust) slides atop the

lower mantle

laminate, and that the rock tially

mixing

ever

without

with

lower mantle

in the

like

it,

is

a

essen-

unchanged since the Earth formed. This view has

been reinforced by the observed sharp increase in den-

650 km, and by the fact that earthquakes have never been measured below that depth. The report's data, based on measurements of the sity at

travel time of seismic

waves, indicates that earthquake

As

is

not a reliable indicator of the depth of a sub-

ducting crustal slab, and that

depths of 1000

km

many

slabs descend to

or more, deep into the lower mantle.

This shows significant mixing of crust and upper mantle rock

the

into

lower mantle,

leading

away from

how

far in that direction

geology needs to

Faster

The Hidden

Than

and certain special application tubes (such as high-

Variablists

seem

to refuse to give up.

Alain Aspect's experiments Paris

verified

Bell's

at

the

University of

Theorem (HF #2)

and,

thought, established that the Bell correlation

many

was im-

mediate and unmitigated. However, Jean-Pierre Vigier of the Henri Poincare Institute plans an experiment to test

the

nounced

existence at

of the

January's

meeting. The

Bohm

"Bohm

Potential,"

New York Academy Potential

is

TV

transmitters).

he an-

of Sciences

a theoretical

super-

inert.

idea that molecules could be shaped this

way

molecules (the Rice group found C-60 atoms surround-

however. Transistors are sensitive and, as "solid-state" devices, have temperatures to high limits on electron transit time due to collisions within wasn't

all

roses,

the semiconductor material. Ironically enough, the issue of transit time that

new

research, for these

micrometer

is

it is

now

encouraging vacuum tube

transporting and

Another tempting

line of

thought proposes examining and

of chemistry

field

manipulate

various

may be

comparable

device sizes

to

That'll

A

major steppingstone

its

application

is

a bit

down

road, but

the

useful in rocket and jet engine control,

geothermal energy production and, of course, nuclear

Have Buckminster Fuller Around Anymore, so. Kick these

is

a

at

the earliest manifestations that led to planetary

life).

organic

simplest

The hardness of diamond

of

graphite

its

is

is

in

highly

due to the

inter-

crystalline structure; the slip-

due

to

the

San Francisco. Measuring hemoglobin con-

at

artificial

fat,

UCSF

the

human

team has successfully

red blood cells, called neo-

complex molecules made from

fatty acids,

of

of six months. Since

artificial

sible.

it

is

synthetic, contamination

blood by hepatitis or

Immediate

transfusions, trauma

AIDS

applications treatment, local

is

impos-

virtully

interim

include

oxygenation of clot

and tissue irrigation during surgery. steps are an industrial scale immediate The next process and human clinical trials. Meanwhile, co-

and tumor

areas,

researcher C.

Anthony Hunt was quoted

in

Science

News that neo-hemocytes represent "one step along the road of constructing biological systems from scratch."

molecule,

atom surrounded by four hydrogen the axes of a tetrahedron. Benzene is

locking tetrahedra of periness

tendency to combine

a carbon

atoms arranged as a hexagon.

a

the

Hemoglobin was taken from outdated donor blood and encapsulated in double-layer lipid membranes

life"

days

molecule of carbon containing no fewer than sixty atoms in a stable structure. This new form of carbon was dis-

ways. The

at

hemocytes.

.

chemistry

area of blood disease

and are the major ingredients in cell membranes). Neo-hemocytes have no blood group antigens, so there is no blood-type problem, and they have a "shelf

We Don't

in

in the

half a micron across, and consisting of

(lipids are

and military technologies.

is

come

process synthesis, was attained by researchers

constructed

symmetrical

between

up with forms

treatment, as well as in the area of biological

damage.

methane,

chemists

Be Two Pints To Go, Please

tained in bubbles of

Carbon atoms have

as

crosses

which are not quite crystals; but more than just carbon chains, and which no one has ever encountered.

tage environments, and are less susceptible to radiation

among

new

in

tubes like high-temperature, high-vol-

thing

entirely

here,

like

Tinkertoys and Rubik's cubes and

University of California

hottest

arising

buckyballs

circuits useful in high-speed switching applications. In

The

at-

carbon clusters with, for ex-

to create similar

and

to

of

or otherwise difficult to handle conventionally.

down, tenfold improvements in transit time are theoretically possible. This would make vacuum tube integrated

VTICs may be

way

be a

handling substances that are too dense

tubes are on the order of one

in diameter,

vacuum

may

the behavior of the result. Buckyballs

modern integrated circuits. Since the electrons in a vacuum tube have nothing to bump into to slow them

addition,

way

which put various thing inside a buckyball and examine

ample, 40 or 80 or 120 carbon atoms. An

Rice University during experiments designed to study the interstellar formation of complex carbon chains (some speculate that interstellar carbon chains are

a Speeding Photon

chemically stable and relatively

is

the

C-60 molecule is hollow, with nothing (i.e., a true vacuum) inside. This inside space is 7 Angstroms across (an Angstrom is one ten-billonth of a meter), large enough to contain other atoms, or even small

ray tubes used in televisions and computer terminals,

covered

go-

to other carbons,

it

ing atoms of Lanthanum). Experiments are under

a

model of the Earth's internal structure towards one in which convection occurs almost from the crust to the core. Research into the nature of that 650 km boundary, and the differences in the rocks on either side, hopes determine

modern

and 60's, vacuum tubes were replaced by smaller, cooler-operating, cheaper transistor integrated circuits. Pretty soon the only vacuum tubes around were cathode

stratified

to

tube to the

electronic miniaturization proceeded in the 50's

Practical activity

a carbon

ple, the

world of electronics.

in trouble.

has long been presumed that the upper mantle of

vacuum

heralding the return of the

power radio and

Rot-kin' Rollin' report presented at

so Small!

Demonstrating once again that what goes around comes around, researchers at the Naval Research

It

A

is

Laboratory and the Los Alamos National Laboratory are

to replicate

derived from a reaction involving pre-existing

But the Picture

in the

complete absence of protein enzymes. This means that early RNA molecules didn't necessarily need the pre-

As

has inspired some truly innovative thinking. For exam-

These introns

quences.

This can, somewhat surprisingly,

single

molecule

quantum physics.

"soc-

include

atom with one double bond and

is

bonds connecting

reductionism and away from holism

enough,

reasonably

two

can then act as templates, enabling them to operate on nearby RNA molecules, lengthening or shortening se-

However, since we

a soccer ball or geodesic sphere.

like

names,

cerene," "buckminsterfullerene," and "buckyball."

connect the loose ends, and release the excised portion,

might speculate

world

the

all

apparatus at a time. Vigier hopes to determine

each vertex

lariat.

made up

ing, completely symmetrical, spherical surface

In a variation of the famous double-slit experiment,

of a deterministic path would be a step back towards

or "intron," in the shape of a loop or

shaped as an interlock-

is

electromagnetic field around the path. The measurement

to excise internal nucleotide chains,

is,

Bohm

about seven times the speed of

RNA

of

properties

catalytic

the

(the

Gili

of quantum information.

which,

ing only later on. into

instantaneous

neutron beams interfere even

chemical precursors lend some credence to the view that the first replicating molecule was RNA, with DNA com-

Research

not

but

luminal,

flatness

of

its

Jeff

-

-_-

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Mark

unLTD.

H/ff OLE IN

THE MIN

.Ml it

•W.

—

The following

AU:

originally

by the military

is excerpted from an interview printed by ReSearch Magazine in their third issue. ReSearch is a publication which should be of interest to all High Frontiers readers and can be contacted at 1529 Grant St., San Francisco, CA 94113. The interviewee is identified in the original piece as "an anonymous unit in corporate America."

That's

it

ANONYMOUS

UNIT: The human

50,000 years out

of date —

brain

evolved

it

more or

is

in a

less

ReSearch: What about the side

gathering, agriculture, etc. and

was

it

suited to that en-

vironment. But the increasing requirements of the In-

Age

dustrial

are finally taxing

ting overheated r

.

>

—

resources

its

requirements being put on

The

it.

spears or digging roots anymore,

brain's not throwing

it's

just taking data in

(through writing, voice and visuals) and emitting data

through

writing

More

and voice.

American work force

is

engaged

half of

than

the

in white-collar infor-

mation processing and the proportion

is

growing

the skin

— put

the receiver

How

can we rebuild the brain so

justing to these

it's

capable of ad-

new requirements? How can we

now because we're weren't really built

build a

We're going crazy

brain for the cybernetic age?

right

we

trying to deal with tasks that

From

for.

this point

of view, we're

kind of blank slates that can be printed with whatever kinds of neurocircuits

There are ways

on top of

let

a

little

and suture

for infection. call type

type

1,

2,

Type is just mild joy, relaxation. Type 2 is more intense, and type 3 is just orgasmic rushes,

and type

etc.

the skull

heal so there's no break in

it

They've mapped out areas they 3.

1

So, they're mechanizing that. In

one experiment

1968, a patient had each one

in

tuned to a different receptive frequency. So, by beaming radio energy at this implant, this person could "see" dif-

by stimulating certain electrodes

ferent pictures...

and combinations,

right patterns ters

and

in the

guy could "see"

this

hope

patterns. Eventually they

this

let-

can allow

blind people to experience vision.

Another recent implant by Dr. Dabelle (University

we need

to

in

order to keep up.

change the brain's functioning

—

which emerges more or subject just

tences.

ferent uses that can be put to. a

hole

in

the

skull,

What goes on

insert

the

is

electrode

into

whatever part of the brain you want, and then you can either fix the connecting plug directly over

under the skin

can repeat to

a

it

to

another place.

Once

it,

or loop

that's done,

it

you

— some humans have been implanted with

hundred,

in

deep brain

various

Depending on where you put

this electrode,

structures.

you get

dif-

ferent effects.

his ear.

The

(like a flap).

guy with

the flap got

blind and he

knew how

to read braille.

This guy got so he could read about 8 times faster than

he could read

They They put

— you

this

He was

with electrical stimulation of the brain, and

the dif-

above

less right

up

hooked up to a computer which automatically stimulated him with sen-

the

all

his hair

lifts

Anyway,

psychosurgery, psychopharmaceuticals. We're dealing

up

then

of Utah) featured 64 electrodes, with a connecting plug

time.

drill

it,

no route

the skin,

the

all

effects of implants?

implants can be left in for years without any damage. They can be implanted completely under

real

get-

it's

by the increasing information processing

actually funded

AU: These

non-tech-

nological world where the basic tasks were hunting,

is

one way or another.

in

up the skin over

A

a lot of this research

also

braille with his fingers.

hooked up a camera

camera image was being fed

room, gave him control of the he could make out the difference between

this

camera —

so that

in direct link

to the brain directly.

guy

in a

horizontal and vertical lines. That's about

it,

but

it's

a

crude beginning.

MC: With cameras

they

miniaturization

in the eyes...

AU: They're working on small enough to

fit

now

that

could just

implant

— building cameras — hooking up

into the ocular cavity

up whole new worlds of perceptual experience because we the muscles themselves to the camera. This opens

have cameras sensitive to regions of the electromagnetic

AU: The

pleasure center of the brain was discovered in

James Olds, who discovered that when a rat was implanted there and given a pedal with which it could stimulate itself, it would do it at the rat would just sit rates up to 5000 times an hour 1956 by a brain

scientist,

—

there doing practically a spastic reaction on this pedal,

it

The

sections of the

ultraviolet, for

brain that are

responsive to

producing joy are also

those parts of the brain that respond chemically

when

they're developing

AU: When you have

if you were to shift your perception to you could literally see emotions. All that's really holding us back is the will to go in there and do the technology. You could hook up your eyeball to telescopes, microscopes. Not only that, you could do the

rays,

super-aggressive. I

all

your senses.

You could

hear high noises like a dog, just by incorporating that your temporal lobe. You could feel minute

differences in a mirror.

read that they're trying to develop a battle helmet that

like

will turn you into a monster!

down

®

could

changes, so

circuitry into that.

now you

emotions, the heat on your body

same types of things with

The Army's researching

infrared or

actually have better eyesight.

you shoot up with heroin: the joy circuit. Other patients have been implanted into other areas that make them

MONTE CAZZAZA:

—

example.

MC: With cameras

gamma

got off on the electricity so much.

electrical stimulation in terms of

spectrum that our natural eyes aren't

an ocean tanker, to the range of

You

etc.

could actually weigh things

—

scale all that information

normal human perception.

Another

D'SEyr

would be

possibility

to link together

number of brains

a large

through multi-sensory

communication. AU: Now

that

we know

amount and

the

about technologies to increase

—

the other side of the coin

get

it

we can work on discovering new ways to

variety of data input,

Recent experimentation would indicate that

out.

motor cortex might be tapped for output data. The motor homonculus is just forward of the sensory part of the

motor area that's mouth, which makes

stead of saying the actual color green.

word "green," you can transmit the And if you have in mind a green car,

you can transmit a picture of a green for

car.

.

and the same

.

other sensory modalities. Instead of just having

all

words

linguistic/auditory

supposed

(signals) that are

these other sensations but really don't

recall

all

to

that

communicate in a multi-sensory form. Any type of art form can be made all-

avenues to continue that trend: stops growing

neurons

around quite a

to fiddle

devoted to the hand and to the

artistic

together a large

where most of our output

motor homonculus

discover a 'spike' (electrical peak registered on an oscil-

loscope

— would be

like a

beep

you hear

if

person moves a particular part of his body.

elbow, there'll be a

cells that trigger the

cord to the limb

Knowing

—

down

impulses that go

itself.

that

spike there

little

a

you were

If

from the elbow region and have somebody

to record their

when

it)

flex

those

it's

because once you've tapped into every

enveloping,

going.

is

possible to record and

it's

the spinal

single input that's

Michael D. Craggs

possibility,

(in

into the brain

from

reality,

more or less, reality itself can be controlled. And you can program interactive fantasies and high-quality 3-D computer simulations and multi-sensory modality inputs to the point where the dividing line between fantasy and reality would fade away. There would be no way to tell whether your experience was genuine or just then,

a high quality

.

coming

interactive

simulation:

"Is

a real

this

room?" And you could go around and kick

the walls,

England) implanted a large matrix of electrodes on the

make

motor cortex of a baboon. He trained this baboon to press a lever with his hand and also to make movements

would gather your motor fuctions, generate the required sensory difference and program back in such a high-

with his ankle and do

quality simulation that

all sorts

of things like that

—

just

body movements. They could,

general, but well-defined,

very accurately, record signals from the brain that could tell

them what movement was being performed.

It

yourself a cup of coffee, etc... and the computer

you wouldn't necessarily

know

whether what you were dealing with was simulation or reality.

etc.

lot

so

number of

makes

hard to

it

flexibility

is

force

ticular

way.

AU:

think right

I

anybody

now

in

part

that

without having to carry out the

movement

could be controlling mechanisms

at

itself.

a distance

You

10,000 and giving outputs to

with

average.

much greater effectiveness than you can do now. The human body is just not designed for doing things like

principle of signals

typing on computer keyboards or driving trucks. There's

10,000 sources

so

much

output bandwidth that's wasted in those tasks...

we

because

that type of

MC: ter

just haven't evolved our programming in

an environment.

we need

are a lot fas-

than can be actually generated.

We need to be speeded up, basically. The brain works by the interference of wave patterns you stimulate any one part of the brain and the waves spread

AU:

—

on a pond

makes

to other parts. It's

wave

inter-

Soon we'll be able to deal with those waves, change the way they move, guide them

ference that

with our

own

it.

electrical impulses, so that

with a digital world. Right

now

we can

deal

would go crazy if they had to stay in the Information World for as long as the cyberstate would have them there...

We may look

at

start to see

I

think people

ourselves the

way we

presently

machines... "Here's a machine with this

processing capability,

it's

much

effective for these types of

was invented in 1950 and maybe now it has to be reprogrammed or changed in some way to keep up with the change in tasks." These technologies are going situations.

web

tangled this

is.

works on the easily understandable coming into a neuron from all those

it

—

the neuron having

ment which says, time, FIRE!" And

many

"If so at the

same

threshhold ele-

its

signals

come

in per unit

time, as we're learning

all

making things smaller and smaller, asymptomatically moving to zero, so that the number of computer components we can fit on a given chip or in a given volume in a comthis

Also, the reaction times that

like ripples

Nevertheless,

10,000 others, on the

how

incredible

It's really

about the brain, our electronics revolution

puter

is

is

increasing exponentially. Following that curve

to a possible extension,

human

to put the

might

it

eventually be possible

diagram

brain, put the circuit

that

generates our consciousness, onto a silicon chip into a

computer? People equivalence

who

don't

really

understand

the

and

of biological-information-processing

inorganic-information-processing say, "Computers can't think." But that's

ponents

strung

Somehow data

this

all

a brain

is

—

basic electrical

com-

complex networks. massive superhighway interchange of

generates

together

our

in

very

subjective

experience

of "cons-

ultimately

—

it

figure

to allow vast

changes

in the

way we

relate to

each other,

because we'll evolve new multi-sensory languages.

can access each sensory modality independently. So,

We in-

AU: We've been developing social forms which allow many small brains to interact in a structured way so as to accomplish tasks

that

no single brain could

—

larger

and

larger civilizations, etc. All this allows us to synergize

our brains to accomplish bizarre things.

®

Two

possible

program dealing

break something

to

down. You've heard of Living Systems (by James Miller). That's a hierarchical breakdown of living systems cell to the nation.

There are certain functions

of each level that the system has to be able to perform itself.

basically

Now,

hierarchic homeostatic maintenance

what control

is

—

basis

the

is

of control

when you have

is

the time...

The Scientist, John Lilly describes this experiment Defense Department did with a mule. The wargamers in the DOD were trying to figure out a way to blow up towns that were in very rocky, hilly country, in In

that the

which cruise missiles would have had a very hard time making it over without hitting the radar screens, and without getting blown up by the anti-missile missiles. So, they had this idea of wiring up a mule

—

one

electrode in the pleasure center, another electrode in the

pain center, and to these wires they attached a sun

pass in such a

way

that

when

the

shadow was

com-

falling in

one direction (one small wedge of the sun compass), the mule's pleasure center would be stimulated, and

all

other sections of that compass would stimulate the pain

mule with a really ratty old pack, but inside the ratty old pack were two simulated nuclear warheads (they can make those things center.

Then they loaded up

small),

and took him out

And

country.

— had

to a really

literally

hilly

stretch of

they tracked that mule straight as an arrow

obstacles were, the

were

this

a film of the mule, and

mule kept

I

don't care what the

right

planning on sending hill

and

on course. They

this

mule with

into the village

live

—

mule into smithereens along with the village. So, you could do that with humans. MC: Train them right and they'll do anything! "Die for your country!" A lot of people have done it! blast the

It

how

out

nuclear warheads over the

ciousness."

that.

all

any par-

ganization control processes, systems theories? That's

homeostasis, and expansion

impulses

think

I

stuff, both in the Soviet Union and in America (SRI and all those guys). They're ten times ahead of what I could show you now. You're into or-

about 20,000 others or more, receiving inputs from

these

fast

with this brain

of your brain

generate

else to follow in

there's a secret

for

could

being explored.

is

key and the tabula rasa and

the

Nobody should

composed of about 100 billion neurons. It's an amazingly complex net because each neuron can connect to

You

entirely.

link

brains through multi-sensory

of this

all

actually

away with movement

still in

to

where you begin and another person

tell

leaves off. Well,

with a very dense array of these electrodes, and thus do

a biological information processor,

was

transmission of information from brain to brain

the

AU: The

is

the circuitry

all

Another possibility would be

2)

be possible to completely cover that part of the brain

brain

its

code

that genetic

communication: extending data back and forth so

from one

might

But we could change

at birth.

all

so that the brain continues to expand, though you'd have

phase,

this

could genetically

a certain age: the brain has

at

well, you'll be able to

On

We

engineer larger and larger brains. Right now, the brain

the brain. There's a large part of the

sense, because that's

1 )

MEGABRAIN THE BOOK The book is about ways of enhancing mental functionModern technological ways of achieving what

ing.

people have tried to achieve through being sealed in a

cave or through long years of meditative practice: intensifying awareness of internal states.

me

The Book Of Floating opened

to research in the

up

area of altering consciousness, not through the use of

chemicals, nutrition or altering behavior patterns, but by

means of

through technological devices,

controlling,

what types of stimulation enters in control

and how much

the brain

of that stimulation you are.

CHEMICALS VS. NEUROTEK The machines produce immediate effects. many

think that, in

cases, they are as powerful

don't

I

and notice-

able as the effects you might get from a chemical dose.

They

more

are probably

controllable in the sense that

once you have the experience, you can

alter

in inten-

it

same way that you can turn up and down the volume on a radio. You can tune in to certain brain states, find the ones that you like and eliminate the other sity the

ones.

Sometimes chemicals might be a little more intense than some people would care for, other times, not intense enough. With these devices, it is possible to amp it up

much

as

as

you want. Then,

where you are bored,

tired,

anymore, you can turn the

is

neurotek talk with author Michael

the important points with these devices

no

by

real possibility for control

are yours to

do with what you

that

is

They

others.

your con-

will, to alter

sciousness as you will, for as short a period as you

like.

now

say that the brain

Mark Rosenzweig and

were] trying to find a relationship between learning and

chemical activities

They had

in the brain.

rats that

were

genetically the same, but divided into three separate

groups.

One group was

placed

in a

vironment, one to a cage. Those is

called

grown to a

impoverished

much

cage and as

were grown

rats

Other

in

rats

brain responds by producing neural growth in that area.

shown

that intense stimulation

is

What we

can lead to

are finding

that

is

has a tremendous amount of plasticity.

brain

the

responds

by

simply

experience

to

changing.

It

The

stimulus takes place. Suddenly, the brain cells alter and

The

group of

last

dozen,

to a

rats

very large

in

new technology

to look at the

is

as a

were provided. By putting on one of these

that those rats

machines, you are able

provide your brain with an

to

they were analyzing the brains of these

rats,

they

discovered that the brains of their enriched experience

alter in

rats!

This

surprising

is

of the time said that brains

What you

response to experience.

born with, or what you have

in early age, is

stuck with in terms of brain size.

Some

showed a similar type of brain growth. As they went on, they said "Why should

who were

at the

been kept

in

rats?"

So they began

equivalent of

human

intense and

beneficial than

any experience

intense type of brain enrichment.

stimulating,

gles, this

be

to test rats

old age and had

glial cells are

pos-

These studies were continued with higher mammals, clear up to apes, and showed that these sible into old age.

The animals who showed growth also showed greater intel-

the

in

sense that

recognizable as stimulating.

the

each eye

They have found that monks who conthis amount of theta are the ones that amount of meditative experience.

same

machine

it

You

is

cause he was having what some people might

He

ted

call hal-

them out-of-body experiences. He that they all began with vibrations. He was interesin finding a way of producing vibrations that would called

induce this type of experience and found that putting

one sound wave a

in

one ear and a different sound wave

in

second ear would produce a kind of whole brain vibra-

tion.

When

waves

he combined a number of different sound

in their brains,

their

people

felt that their

minds were

mental make-up had benefited.

light.

At

time, you put on headphones that produce a

is

you

select

and the console of the

producing an electromagnetic

rhythm with the and intensity

sound beeps, you can

You can

turn

pulling yourself theta range.

It

at

lights

alter

field that pul-

and sound. By controlling

which the

lights flash

your brain

and the

a range that most people only pass

through when they are falling asleep or waking up.

physiological brain

There

ligence in a variety of tests.

place

The studies were stepped up and up. Finally they came to the realization that only about two minutes of enriched experience was enough to cause immediate and

Some

scientists

chine

is

in is

With

a tremendous burst of mental energy that takes

your mind when you go into

good the

at

that state.

The ma-

facilitating entry into the subconscious.

Synchro-Energizer, which puts you very

rapidly into a deep theta state, cally asleep, with your

you are able

Tens and Alpha-stim are actually sending electrical frequencies into the brain. Electrodes are hooked up to the earlobes, or in

some

cases, behind the ear.

By

send-

ing a very minute electrical current into the brain that

matches the operate on to their

electrical current that individual nerve cells

at

optimal levels, you cause them to boost up

optimal levels. In a sense, you are tuning the

brain.

state.

down the frequency of the machine, down through the alpha range into the

is

TENS AND ALPHA-STIM

very immediately

put on a pair of gog-

kinds of activities took place.

brain structure.

THE HEMI-SYNC Robert Monroe invented the hemi-sync process be-

expanded and

surrounded by a circle of small

is

variety of sounds that

the rate

in

in that

of people find the Synchro-Energizer the most

lot

responded with the same type of growth as youthful rats did. The evidence indicates that denser richer commun-

measurable alteration

words,

THE SYNCHRO-ENERGIZER A

sates in

between neurons and larger

more

you might have, haphazardly, through life. It is not a way of substituting the brain growth that results from living. It is a way of providing, for a few minutes, a very

impoverished environments. Their brains

ication

alerted, in other

that

of the results

rats

young

monks have

what you're

only a few minutes of stimulation per day, these

limited to just

an experience that can be more controlled,

is

It

are

were even more dramatic. Argentinian researchers put rats in superduper enriched environments and found that after

produce

have the greatest

felt

more

do not

theta state.

sistantly

in-

challenges.

dogma

same

lucinations.

brain.

because the scientific

studies of zen

they get into their deepest states of

and yet highly

asleep,

providing the type of superduper enriched environments

They were constantly faced with new experiences and

were heavier than the other

a very fascinating and highly

number of

meditation, they are physically deeply relaxed, almost

way of

tensely enriching experience directed specifically to the

rats

when

that

NEUROTEX One way

cages with multiple levels, swings, slides and ladders.

As

alert. It is

A

state.

never go back.

were

needed. These were

light as they

were placed with playmates, up

highly

what

environments, with a couple

called standard environments.

still

sensory-deprived en-

experience.

in typical laboratory

mind

productive

a very rapid brain growth.

Marian Diamond

Dr.

capable of providing us with

is

neurons on demand. Whatever the task demands, our

The implication

THE ROSENZWEIG-DIAMOND RATS [Dr.

unLTD

off.

One of there

to the point

or decide that you don't want

to deal with the experience

machine

you get

if

to

be physi-

body deeply relaxed and your

I

was

hancing

interested in

mental

Whenever minutes

it

what the

functioning

effects in

a

would be on en-

variety

of ways.

would put on the Alpha-stim, within five produced a deep physical relaxation com-

I

bined with mental clarity and acuity. The characteristic always was, "Oh, yes, I am home again... This is the

way that the brain is supposed to operate all the time." In some ways, we spend most of our lives operating at subnormal levels or capacities. These machines are ways of bringing brain activites up to optimal levels.

® T

THE FUTURE OF NEUROTEK The devices

that I described work in different ways. people are finding that when used in conjunction with each other, they seem to have a potentiating effect.

Now

'//\w//^

a\\\

One

goal for the future

is to find ways to combine these and make them more powerful. Another goal is to make them more widely acceptable as stress reduction

things

devices. These devices are not doing anything unnatural.

They

are not forcing the brain to

brain doesn't do already.

They

do something

think better, feel better, and to behave in

more

that the

are assisting people to

ways

that are

satisfying to them.

For more information:

New

MegaBrain, is

Tools

and Techniques for Mind Expansion

published by

William Morrow and Co.

Synchro-Energizer Synchro-Tech

4392

Road

State

OH

Cleveland,

44109

216-749-1133

Hemi-Sync Robert Monroe

Monroe

To

iay only

electronics

is

of Applied Sciences

Institute

Route l.Box 175

SUtldoo enjoys ^o avoid a. Joopor issuo ±ha4*

Faber,

VA

22938

804-361-1252

Tens Joseph Light

Biomedical Instruments Co..

THE TRANQUILITE The

Tranquilite

is

a goggle that

lighted inside.

As you gaze

brain turns off

its

at

it

for a

is

The inventor and pure blue and

few minutes, your

sense of vision so that you are no lon-

ger seeing that field of blue. In addition to the goggle,

has a white noise generator to cut out sound. Put

and within

five

minutes your sense of

it

on

it

sound, and

sight,

the surrounding environment disappears completely

users of this

machine have found

that there are certain characteristic

mental configurations

that are very similar to certain states of intense

ness.

aware-

There are a number of different configurations that

you can draw on paper to attain those on the states that you desire.

You can

as balanced patterns.

try

and produce the

visual readout

system

seems

and benefits Neuro Efficiency Quotients. to

work by

It

the spinning stimulating the nerve en-

dings that are suspended in liquid up the middle ear.

What

This has a kind of euphoria -producing effect. stimulates

is

Olds,

in

when he wired

Pleasure Center. The

good massage

by the

the fifties

up

rats

THE CAP-SCAN

Graham

Potentializer

is

giving a

which produces more crea-

of your brain that

circular island, but

THE MIND MIRROR EEGs

is

EEG. Most

an

are very simple in that

level of brain activity that

you

you

typical biofeedselect a certain

are seeking

chines are set to monitor that range. The

and the ma-

Mind

Mirror,

on the other hand, shows you an image of the full spectrum of your brain wave activity, from the high Beta

down

range

to the lowest Delta.

ing for both hemispheres.

regulatory

brain.

both

in

By choosing

alter the brain activity,

you

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J"

LEE FELSENSTEIN:

What's special about Community

Memory

is

which,

think, will define the difference

I

And

the interconnectedness.

that is a quality

between exis-

tence in both the preindustrial society and the industrial

and what might be called the post-industrial

society,

The technology now

society.

exists to allow for a

much

higher degree of interconnectedness without submitting oneself to the judgement of others. That, I think, defines a condition which ought to be considered revolutionary. I remember the Berkeley Tribe, the break-away paper from the Berkeley Barb, was sort of running in parallel with the San Francisco Express and Good Times. We got a letter from Marvin Garson, who was

Good Times,

running

brought

"Why

saying

up and someone

this

we merge?"

don't

"Oh

said,

I

no. They're

much more of a dope-cultural thing. They're not political like we are" ...all these meaningless excuses basically saying, "That's their bunch,

We've got our bunch and our bunch

other bunch.

where we want

to be." Well,

we want based on

We

ing.

we have

don't think

I

luxury of that kind of thinking.

of society

and I'm scared of any

We

is

the

can't build the kind

that kind of territorial think-

have to reduce the differences between their

bunch and our bunch. To make interconnections, overnorm,

laps, not just possible, but the

aim of Community Memory. You could have the

tural

same

The Technology of

effect

phones,

his thin lips

never

Community Memory by and a

filing cabinets,

how you might

that's

lot

have

what we

using

of zombies. Very enbe

to

also.

I

suppose

call

Memory

specifically

secondary communication, rather

met Ivan

I

Illich

was crazy

I

me

and he mocked

on the grounds

to try to replace face-to-face

commun-

ication with going "dee-dee-dee-dee-dee" through ter-

He

said "to talk to this person over here,

minals.

beneath the glasses and the animated passion of the hands gesturing

message over the terminal."

if

know

talk to,"

ligently

below the young 40-ish deadpan, he could be anything, a hero, a

zero, a father, a worker, an uncle, a killer, a nice,

middle-management-

dull-guy.

But

better than o.k. It's

Lee Felsenstein.

why

don't you just talk to the person instead of sending a I said "what was the person you wanted to him thinking about it a little more.

that

that set

HIGH FRONTIERS:

I

you didn't and

have an aquaintance who writes

for philosophy journals.

it's o.k. It's

to

than primary communication.

crack a smile. Well, hardly ever. Without the distant warmth of the eyes intel-

tele-

characterize a computer.

designed Community

facilitate

that

Hair pushed sideways, under the metal rimmed glasses

as

thusiastic zombies, they'd

We

Interconnectedness

the primary struc-

is

He

said that these days there

are so

many people

that if

someone were to come up with something utterly it would have a very small chance of ever acbeing discovered because of the sheer mass of in-

writing so

many

articles for journals

brilliant,

Designer of some of the earliest personal computers, including the

by engineering electronic electric

mousetrap,

engineer

he'll

scratch and then license

stuff with microprocessors

it

is

us, in that

no greed

fiend,

do

to

it

however.

I

Osborne, Felsenstein

wizardry,

all that

if

still

earns his burgers

you've got an idea

to sell the better

your specifications. He'd prefer to invent more of his

out after prototyping. Whatever.

make money, and we're going This

to

it

and

first

in a

As he

told

Microtimes

last

own

stuff, start

from

summer, "Yes, we're going

to

couple of ways."

told you, it's o.k., it's

Lee Felsenstein.

he looks toward a future beyond the end of his nose. So

to

I

mean

the

guy has

vision.

He's one of

express this passion, in recent years, he has

tur-

Community into those Community Memory terminals you Berkeleyites may have seen in a couple of locations around town. Were it not for his prestigious and prodigious electronics achievements, people might dismiss Felsenstein as an eccentric loon for this stuff. All kind of messages are on the Memory, from the ridiculous to the obscene. People walk by and say, "What is this, gimme a break." And it's not like these are the hotned

test

tually

it.

editor receives hundreds of submissions

and can't give enough thought to each particular one. Now, applying that idea to Community Memory, where you're not censoring information, when you get 5-1020,000 messages on a system

have

I

doesn't there

like this,

be some structure imposed on

to

The

a long-standing interest in

items since Guess Jeans. Far from

An

formation.

it?

grow and shouldn't be imposed. example you give of editors is good because

structure has to

think the

medium

they're working within a broadcast

That information radiates from

a central point.

or print. It

has to

the head of the editor, or a tiny group of and then out again. Sure enough, we've got a bottleneck. Usually, that's solved by decreeing what in-

go through editors,

But Felsenstein hopes these

community energy, from which

first

all

fledgling terminal seeds will

manner of

real

munity around a terminal, the larger community

communicating with other communities through

Whatever works. The point

And "Community" Well, not really. In civic-minded.

And

is

is

grow

into loci of

animated interaction, cusps of

human-to-human interchange can be

at the

facilitated.

abstract aggregate of terminals, the

other, independent

Community Memory

Each microcom-

community

as a

whole

projects.

fact,

don't

I

And

sive

know what his middle name is And genuinely smart

intellectual.

or even

if

he has one, but the dude

besides being intellectual. All in

at his

all,

is

certainly

a rather at-

spacious offices and workshops

most post-psychedlic-radical-chic upscale-nueve-Yuppie quasi-Yummie

otherwise-sadly-provincial Berkeley,

CA. There,

I,

Dr.

J,

officelike building in all of

accompanied by Lord Nose how good a photographer he

not far from a small handful of very relaxed and occasionally

bemused workers

is,

for Golemics, Felsenstein's corpora-

an office sporting gadgetry, oversize circuit diagrams, clutterful piles of printed paper products, and a giant

blowup poster of some short-haired (guess who, time capsulated),

we

We

not.

is

We

are fun-

are trying to

the telephone system. There's also the postal sys-

is

tem, transportation systems, and ultimately, face-to-face conversation.

The operation of

implies that you cannot

High Frontiers caught up with him (we made an appointment, actually)

tion, in

important and what

several in operation.

tractive conversational partner.

upstairs in the

is

up a non-broadcast operation, of which there are The most sophisticated and exten-

set

"Community."

Lee Felsenstein's middle name.

visionary.

formation

damentally opposed to that structure.

early '60s gangly nerd standing betwixt large

lumps of electronic equipment

accosted him with our audiophotographic armory to procure the following.

human

You can keep

medium

the information through

information

in

one non-

storage place.

The method we look toward problem

is

to use people

whom we

for

handling

generally

this

know

as

information freaks. These people take up interest areas. They snoop around within that area and narrow what they're looking there.

Dr. J

®

one human head.

filter

a non-broadcast

They

will

They will be up on what is going on become a kind of editor, but an editor

at.

without any control.

An

editor observer.

They can comment, react. Commentator might be a good phrase. They can make the benefits of their commentary available. People .

would be able to subscribe more commentators. But all system

own

of their

IBM

do so computer

will

design that was completely sealed

off,

completely proprietary. You're not told anything about

the information within the

was a tremendous failure because everyone said, very nice. It's IBM. But here I can get something

no way of fencing

it

off.

give me an example of an information area might. commentator that a Sure. The best example we have is basically what you'd call hackery. That was the outlaw database that

Can you

.

There was one guy

in 1973.

it

tried a personal

It

it.

"It's

50 times the software."

for a tenth of the price that's got

was developed

And

software, created wealth.

i.e.

again, given the chance.

one or

to the services of

public, so there's

is fully

tion,

The more software, the wider the range of the software, the more useful the equipment, the better off everybody is

for having

money to the person who some agent. There's an impor-

People want to send their wrote the software, not

don't have to get any permission from the operators in

not.

you have to do is agree on a key word or phrase. That data grew to be one of the biggest iden-

value to systems which otherwise could be replicated.

lot

of friends

the system. All

tant point.

Adam

It

cause there you have one person

who

important be-

really did put in

around and browsing and looking

his time nuzzling

what was going on and making

at

his connections... creat-

ing an order out of what was, to him, disorder.

your conventional

sort of flies in the face of

it,

no one

pay for

will

.

you don't have

"If

.

not true. People

it." It's

are paying for what they don't have to pay for and

Of course, most people are What this means is there is

they're paying voluntarily.

But many people

are.

come

me when

to

was Vice-Presi-

I

They're not going to be killed

society.

know how

don't

pleasure

out

for

agency of designers and people who support designs.

the

In the electronics field,

industrial super

the next thing out.

two years

structure decided

all

by your speed

We

don't

that kind of activity,

two years

out,

in putting

patent takes

Nobody could

in this field.

it

way,

that happening, in a certain

forms the way

imagine

I

would perform and means

it

great things to other people.

know how

don't really

technology. There's what

critics of

same

little

That

error.

those

is

build

it

because when

somebody's going

do something or for

somebody

I

useful

formation line?

it's

sold, it's

For

is

in-

Where do you draw the operating systems and programs to

gather information... should they also be freely available?

And should

beyond

there be no licensing?

that to copywrited

property

lectual

be

Would you go

books? Should laws on

redefined?

intel-

And maybe

even

hardware - that's information. Should that actually be free? Are you in a contradiction by selling electronic designs, which are, in a sense, a type of information? That's an excellent example! Because we have al-

honored." Well,

most no protection for

that

You can't copywrite that?

You

can only copywrite a piece of paper.

simply drew

it

differently,

then that's

it.

If

you

There's a

copywrite that they put on printed circuitboards, but that's only to prevent

cuitboard. If

you

photographic copying of the

cir-

re-lay the circuitboard, it's yours.

I'm setting up a project called "The Hacker's Mac,"

which

is to

generate a public domain, future-type Macin-

I'm publishing detailed specifications someone to build from as I do them. The adequate for

tosh

machine.

aim of it is to get an artifact into existence, the existence of which would otherwise be in jeopardy because the commercial system is not going to go about it that way. We know from our experience with the CPM open architecture machines, none of which is proprietary, that having that information available and having that be able to serve as a basis for a generation of

more informa-

doesn't

it

why

it's

and say, "You

little

widgits, but

I

don't give them the honor, because

I

I

been doing

whole area of microcomputers,

that in the

in the

that.

I

I

very scary for a

see

whole

area of computer

don't see that we're there yet.

I

number of contradictions, and

And

We've

still

more

It's

want

got

say thank god for

life

like they

critic,

to force,

and

I

think I've

want them

What do you suggest people do to follow their vision. What can they do when they need to earn a living and make it in the day-to-day world? I've been doing

recognize

is

it!

I

same

realized this

point,

maybe

"D" grade in high school. It was one of the elite high schools. One of the main focal points of the establishment. Everyone was competing for grade when

got

I

points

down

first

took a different approach.

So

had

I

I

We

do

to

me

at that point.

So

what

to figure out

I

flip-offs

ing

I

could find by Heinlein. Stranger

had

just

been published and

in

—

it

as well. Like

George

can't do, criticize."

I'm not getting into the grand philosophy... should all in-

formation be free?

I

kind of decided that was a

Does providing information technology to people without our industrial base make them much more dependent on outside sources for hardware and software maintenance?

Do

you see any

I'd refer in

you

to Ivan Illich's Tools for Conviviality,

which he sketched out what he learned about

the

technology to Central America.

He

agination.

pointed out that no more than two

helps a

am,

lot

at

if

you don't have to

present time,

of money, because

make

a lot of

making what you would I

eventually learned that

you can set the level of what you make, and that's kind of an independent variable in the definition of your daydreaming. people believe.

There I

are

fewer external

limits

hear people saying, "I wish

$

I

than

could do

benefits to this

type of activity?

of athlete of the imagination, in the sense of applied im-

call a lot

of

of technology unless

critics

spread of radio

I

that kind

a Strange Land

—

money.

do

got turned on, in a strange

I

to live inside a sci-fi novel. What I good way to live was after was some sort of quality of happiness that was grown in the imagination. I was a day-dreamer from a to small child. I learned how to daydream efficiently be able to conceptualize designs and implement those designs. The direction I took then was to become a kind

It

You

me, beyond me." I'm not going

pay that much attention to

said,

right."

very practical nature of his fantasy. That

me somehow. So

spoke to

it

you can imagine:

that kind of thing," "I could

Bernard Shaw

should do.

I

to the

Make

them, "Okay.

tell

see the most fatuous kinds of

basically got off the bus at

read a lot of science fiction at that point. Everyth-

way,

is

their

to the 3-decimal point region. Well, in a

way, a certain world closed down that point.

that

think the most important thing

the centrality and the importance of vi-

sion and imagination.

my

I

And

has been concentrated on what's wrong with

something.

"I don't

to be.

because their whole training,

to

kind of intellectual property

in electronics.

get

they don't do the work.

motivation, the direction, the force for the direction.

I

I

to criticize these things and therefore I'm

thing," or, "It's beneath

to

"Yeah, but

to take a superior attitude

that because the contradictions provide the vector, the

freely available.

instance,

that.

to

is

from a certain standpoint. But

replaceable. It's not like a piece offurniture that can be

progressive people the idea of a society where

don't believe

to say,

"Those who

many

that the

feel

other," or, "Here's the reason is

of

commit-

dream something up and

I

spend your time dreaming up these

know how

who

it's

mind can carry out

create a critique of something.

are

call the error

joke because

highest, best activity that the

it

I

who

people

to talk to

intangible. It's

produced and once

that

never would have existed otherwise. Something that per-

they can prove that they can do

gone. You share with

something

results in

things to be

things are free, information should be free.

all

software.

it's

and

it,

also enjoy

information be free? Well, yes. In an ideal society

quite a

be seen as a commodity because

I

fun.

the critics to get their hands dirty with actually changing

tempting to think about moving toward

You've talked about the idea that information can't

because

training.

of

out

much

very

I'm not getting into the grand philopophy... should

where

computers

A

patents.

file

to get. That's fast for a patent.

afford to wait

against personal

when you put something

are protected only

imagination,

some doing and some

that takes

don't

get a great deal of

All of a sudden, you've got to follow through on

not good." That

you basically

I

to things. It's all

put off by

room

my

of exercising

daydreaming a solution

the context of a design's use. It's in that relationship is

who

to deal with people

to use their imagination.

ting the

context that there

in a feudal

they don't do

if

They choose to do that. And it's that tension between what they choose to do and what they want to do that, I think, causes a fair amount of misery.

us an idea. I told them that we do not buy ideas. We buy implementations. The implementation can never be completely disconnected from the situation of usership,

its

don't you!"

that.

critiqueism. That's a nice

sell

is,

They're not living

forth.

dent of engineering for Osborne, and they would want to

between a design and

The

usual response

else.

and so

this,"

I

People would is

to

Smith economist philosophy.

pay for

to

tifiable databases.

The example of the outlaw database

do

I

who had all this information among themselves of how to cheat payphones, and how to cheat BART, and that sort of thing. They put this information on Community and used the index word "Outlaw." And by decreeing that word, and passing it around, he defined a database. You around and he had a

comes down to because I've chosen to do They couch it in phrases like "I have to

it

something

know how

who came

"why

and

Basically

around.

it

my

this or that,"

years after the intro-

duction of radio into remote areas there were people there who could fix radios. You can learn how to use

and how

to maintain

can do

this

and how to extend technology. You

on a non-traditional electronic constructions that go on

basis.

Most of

in this

the

country are

strictly informal.

continued pg. 57

CREATE YOUR OWN REALITY IN THE '80s

Nick Herbert

Magical Blend Magazine takes you on a transformative journey as it ex-

plores ancient and modern myths, magic \ and mysticism, chartov ing the development

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Contributors have included:

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i^^i a futurist whose three books, Optimism One, Upwingers, and Telespheres, published in the early 70s' never found a popular market. However, these works have had a tremendous influence on people F.

M. Esfandiary

is

,

working

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in the cutting

new books about

to

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UCLA

at

in

Los Angeles, California.

Government under Reagan does not and enough into the development of never mind. Other people

We're developing

invest intelligently solar energy, well,

other places will do that.

in

optimism

developments or breakthroughs

we

specifically the fact that

We're suddenly out

planet.

—

20th century,

from

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limitless energy,

time,

limitless

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from

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materials,

abundance,

limitless

limitless potentials, limitless future.

The other reason

my

for

So we're

ved.

moving in the direction of wind energy, opening up the

really

fusion,

is

that

we're also

breaking free of our organic, animal, primitive,

We are

bodies.

So

tal.

striving to reach out

time and of space as I

think

we become

enough reason

is

finite

and become immor-

twin effort to break out of the limitations of

this

universal and immortal,

High Frontiers: What about

the

preoccupied bureaucratized,

problem of people using

new technologies like genetics for genocide and war? How do you see us being able to evolve past that and create something of beauty and not of terror? There a

of public fear associated with genetics in par-

lot

lot

of people are mired in the past and can only

view things through

perspective of guilt, shame,

the

anxiety, doubt and fear. But these breakthroughs that

see

happening

around

all

us

circumventing

are

we or

precluding the need for conquest by exploitation and

We

manipulation.

organisms,

have been exploitative, manipulative

part

in

We're

creatures.

we have been

because

We know we

finite.

threatened, easily destroyed and injured.

pathetic

limitlessness

greedy, exploitive and so on.

can happen over night.

We

I

lions of years in ourselves.

transglobal, but trans-solar

caused us so

much

don't suggest that

But

all this

all

it'll

we

all

happen

in the

evolve into not only

and immortal beings.

finite

We

physiologies that have

much

pain, so

rendered us vulnerable to

reason to be

less

do carry the baggage of mil-

early part of the 21st century as

break out of these

and

less

is

suffering,

and have

kinds of limitations includ-

important decisions of our times. Seen

making

Twenty years ago when

a handful of us talked about

abundance, the ideas were viewed with a ticism, but today

I

I

this

is

becoming more and more

ac-

don't think people in decision-making areas or

make

abundance. But late in the

of skep-

think the prospect for opening up the

universe of abundance ceptable.

lot

it

decisions to accelerate the pace of

doesn't really matter because

game now. There

it's

too

are a whole lot of forces

loose in the world that are propelling us every day this

new abundance.

If

the

United

States

immortal beings,

the

long view

in the

of history, they are the ones whose influences are reced-

because their ways of thinking, their percep-

ing, in part

other

from another age. There are a whole

Thanks

are

that

lot

fashioning

creating,

of the

to global telecommunication, thanks

new abundance, the new affluence, the new new values, whole new generations grew

the

to

loose

forces

decisions.

mobility, the

up

relatively free of the old coercive environments, are

make

to

decisions on their own, are less

manipulating and manipulate.

Could you enumerate some of

the forces that are

propelling us? It's is

the

a fusion of software and hardware.

The software

values are changing. There are

that our

fact

open global environments. They

essentially permissive,

are not as

They

are

power oriented as people were in more oriented toward reciprocity,

the past.

sharing,

love. They're not as mistrustful or as paranoid as the old-

er generations were.

You

notice that I'm speaking in

comparative terms. I'm not suggesting that the young generation

is

free of all the glitches of the past.

But

an evolutionary and historical sense that there

is

I

a

So you have individuals, or whole generations, much more open to change, more trusting, more disposed to global interconnections, more disposed to bugs.

who

are

who also believe that things made to happen. They are not, in

pening

an

is

acceleration

away

change

of

from

nationalisms and tribalisms, essentially vestigal self terest, to a all

kind of globalization.

And

you see the emergence of

this,

Everything around us grows more

then, apart

in-

from

intelligent systems.

Our com-

intelligent.

grow more intelligent. And in time, we ourgrow more intelligent. Our manners of accessing information and accessing the abundance grow more intelligent. In addition to all this, we're opening up more and more resources. Again, if we played back muntities

selves will

we

these years from the vantage point of 2030,

will see

was moving massively from the world of monopolizable, controllable and polluting fossil fuels to solar enera whole universe of post-fossil abundance that our planet

—

gy, fusion, etc.,

etc. All of these resources are limitless,

abundant. They are potentially very inexpensive once

we develop

the technology.

The

sun, 93 million miles

away, once we develop the technology to access energy, can

anywhere.

become

And we

that

anybody a few years away from that. I

available to everybody,

are just

do not see any force, any power, government, or administration however reactionary, however anti-future;

movements, however theological or religious, however authoritarian; which can really stop or slow no

down

accelerated change.

idealism or optimism, and

can happen, or can be

other words, black-holed in pessimism or negation or

who grew up

cynicism. These are kids

in

worlds where

things were possible, things could happen. sible for

them

to

make

It

was very suspect. Then there is a whole

until

And what

fact that we're able to

the planet in microseconds,

much

more telecommunications. The happening

im-

times,

is

helping

some of

progress

is

accelerating.

forty years at

one time

is

to

are right

smack

in the

middle of

not see

it.

But

if

it

shift,

or recontexting of our planet,

more and

because

we could

2020 or 2030, and 1980's, what we would see hap-

already

today! But because our expectations change also

fact is that everything

to

is

taking place, is already unfolding. It's not something that is going to happen; it's something that's happening

pect

of change, the rate of

We may

think

massive

our

The

Global transportation systems, again, are helping

we

taneously

in

are

What took twenty or thirty or now taking three or four years.

bring about global cohesion.

levels

reality, and almost instannew level we reach a of evolution. we are at that point right now. The sudden,

change

global

micromoments. Things

rate

new

sudden

are

thanks

evolve into

own

send information across

rapidly

who

was pos-

recent

of hardware that

lot

are enough people

I

lot

to recontext, refigure our world.

The

of people subscribe to the 100th monkey theoiy. The idea that there's going to reach a point where there

A

of intelligent functioning and at that point there will be a very

things happen in their

mediate environments. Optimism,

tion.

toward

power-hungry remnants are involved

these hardwares? For instance, global telecommunica-

ing death.

evolve into trans-solar and

centralized,

rapid diminuation, a rapid phase-out of a lot of these old

have been

and vastness and openness and immortality

and universalism, there

on

old

the

not very

We

of scarcity and finiteness, and evolve into, or break into

act

what

we

we move

really

feel in

and so

will

with

So I'm

part of the 21st century as

raw

can be easily

mercy of the constraints of this limited biosphere forth. But if we break out of limitations and out

at the

system.

solar

generations rising in the world that were brought up in

ticular.

A

solar

with. They're not the ones that are really

these

is

the

it,

more able

be optimistic.

to

across

tions, are

optimism

in the early

Other governments across the world are getting involenergy,

My

Esfandiary:

happen

are getting involved. Individuals are getting involved.

materials of this planet, the oceans, and as

F.M.

It'll all

Companies

solar energy every day.

planet

it

appears to us as

now enveloped

is

satellites

or

is

if

nothing

is

we

changing.

changing. The fact that the

embraced by

a multitiude of

has rendered the concept of distance totally

relevant. That, in itself,

is

ex-

ir-

a powerful propellant in the

direction of global cohesion.

And

the fact that

we have

over a billion people travelling voluntarily across the in the past,only a few thousand people would planet

—

see our world from the perspective of

travel, as a rule,

then flash back to the

cal pressures.

because of economic or social or

politi-

a>

J

.

something about the human psyche, at least now, that tends to obsessively and unilaterally

There

up

is

until

focus on problems. This kind of self-flagellation which has been with us for aeons, may, in fact, be part of our

may come from

self-image,

esteem

—

And

we keep

so

comes from lack of

certainly

it

from lack of

guilt,

self-

perspective.

To be

focusing on vestigial lingerings.

sure, they're here. They're real.

I

think of both families and tribes as intrinsically

Old

one time; they certainly made sure of the perpetuation of the species. But I see us now at a time when tribes and family systems of all

—

—

are really and nuclear families no longer effective in our new world. There are obviously many reasons, but the short answer is that family joint families

systems and

monopolizing individuals.

we grow up

If

imprinting our sense of survival on the figure

— my mother and my

grow

into

motherland,

People are ready

bomb

as the ultimate expression

— as

of what McLuhan was talking about medium which forces the global village itself

to

being the

acknowledge

as such. Everybody on the entire globe has to turn

child

my

—

and be killed

to kill

my

fatherland,

capacity

are

programmed

I

don't know.

like to think that the forces that are

I

helping to catalyze us from the world of limitations, privations, violence

and

territoriality to the

new world

of

abundance and immortality and universalism aren't so

much the negative forces. we keep pointing at them.

It's true

we

up and

set these

photonic implants.

be

will not

of non-chemical, electronic,

Remember

any

about

excitement

drugs.

we

beings,

transcend our chemical past. So

I

am

will

not one

psychoactive

the the

that

As we

a very primitive thing.

life is

immortal

and

universal

wave of

have

who

to

shares

psychedelic

or

see those as part of our past rather than part of

I

our future.

Much

of that would be a matter of implants creating,

precisely,

some of the same

states people are get-

ting from psychedelics.

Yeah, but you see, so long as we're dealing with

People

kill to

chemistry, chemicals and the chemical brain, which

what we have today, very fragile, that

whole

protect these ex-

is

is

of an intelligence that

in the grips

unhappily influenced by a

still

of environmental forces, a chemical brain that

lot

can be aborted

any time,

at

develop

into

we

aspire

to. It is

the chemical brain that

wonderous

truly

words, destroyed,

in other

not have the flexibility that

when we evolve beyond

clusivities, these

may

that

lot

see those, really, as the

I

chemical base of

more

territorial

But now, the very programming

creatures.

—

so forth

future, not drugs, not chemicals.

to protect these ex-

be very exclusivist

to

own emotions and

cycles and our

we do

We

have

words,

other

in

evolve to more complex organisms, toward truly trans-

people.

killed for love than for hate.

—

self-control

autonomy over our own mood swings and our own

is

these

clusivities,

for

forces change.

—

we

More people have been

tribalisms.

intelligent

chemicals, but a whole

mothering

too rapidly

all

more

us

and also better informed and more globally co-involved and more loving and more trusting individuals with a

continually re-

initial

make

think that what will help

I

around and pay attention to this particular medium and see what it means to them and see how it has to change the way human beings relate to each other. So it's a positive symbol in that it forces it's the crisis that

systems are essentially exclusivist,

tribal

my

—

looking at the hydrogen

their value at

World. They had

kinds

read something about the people who used to work they've recently been with McLuhan up in Toronto /

only

we

post-human

will

beings

have helped insure our survival, however clumsily and

capable of trans-living across the universe, capable of

however

violently,

reaching out not only across space, but across time. So

What we

really need, as

our very

survival.

an entirely

new code

threatening

is

I

see

is

it,

of networks or frameworks that dispose individuals from the very inception of life, the very beginning of

free of the tendency to fixate

on

a

We

need

to

of

We

be

many

people. For that,

which are highly

mobile transglobal

to relate to

people have been

very inception of

babies

life,

And, of course,

parents.

if this

you have individuals from

that

From the relate to many caring can be made global so

mothering figures will be phased

all

years from

now

they will be effortlessly, automatically,

Today you hear more and more about

global people.

networks and networking and although we do not use

words

like mobilia, nevertheless a lot

We

are like launching platforms.

and shared

living.

So

I

see us

of our

new homes

have shared housing

moving

in that direction,

breaking out of the old authoritarian, exclusivist, ritorial

kinds of enclaves that have so badly

Of course, One is the have a

damaged

ter-

us.

there are a lot of things contributing to that.

biological

of

lot

revolution —

the fact that

new ways of reproducing

life.

we now

out-of-the-womb

or

procreations

were

considered

science fiction: and yet, here they are, already happening.

So

impact

the biological revolution has had an incredible in

helping to dismantle a

lot

of the old exclusivist

social organization. In addition, the women's movement and the men's movement and the youth movement and

revolution

the cultural

mantle a

lot

all

In

munications —

addition

to

this,

global

telecom-

again, a powerful, powerful impact. So

of these things put together

new

these have helped dis-

of the old puritanisms and exclusivities and

familialisms.

all

—

fluidity, the

—

the

new

mobility, the

spread of affluence across our planet,

emergence of the new techof these have gone into creating a new enwhich the phase-out of family is accelerat-

be able

Let's talk about genetics.

I

know some people who

can only see genetics as a terrifying force which..

who

people

fear

ing and the phase-in of new, post-family, non-exclusive,

appear threatening. I'm not impelled by at

from

derment,

see a glorious opening up.

I

away from

world of

the

wonsee us moving

I

I

see

and

constraints

biological

I

biological closedness to a world of biological openness

and multiplicities bodies,

to

of options

determine our

by

really not impelled

for

own

fear.

I

us

our

recreate

to

biological

I'm

future.

see opportunities.

I

see

challenges.

Viewed from

all

perspective of the world 40, 50

the

years from now, we tury years

will play

and realize

back these

late

20th cen-

that genetics did not finally play

that pivotal a role in the evolution of us organisms.

To be

sure, it's

playing an important role, but there are

other forces even genetics.

These

more

radical,

even more powerful than

are, quickly; the evolution of intelligent

systems, intelligent machines; the interplay of fusion or interface of the organic

delicately as

I

be able

will

or

schizophrenia

lot

replicate

and post-organic,

to put

can so as not to frighten people

of influence

it's

the very

we develop

of

in

our

we will over our own brains with these

brain to brain, be

have access

of information quickly, to be able to

bits

memories,

to

be able to transform memories.

off.

it

the planet

I

— by

I

lived in about 10-12 countries, a couple of years in Belin India, a

we'll see that area

rapidly into the world of

move

us even

tommorrow. Genetics

more

a step-

is

in that direction.

—

to

.

reciprocal, all-invasing global kinds of networks are be-

which can actually make human beings globe smarter and more conscious?

«£>

all

.

over the

in

quo was always challenged. I never stayed long enough anywhere to remain content with any one area or era. And moving across the planet was like moving across time zones. I saw history unfolding. I saw evolution unfolding. I saw us as a species at different levels of history. I saw us when we were primitive. I saw us when we were in the so-called modern

me

for

age.

I

the status

saw us

at different levels

of history and this en-

gendered historical perspective. Whether

some of my optimism or it was genes. Maybe

contribute to

know. Maybe

wonderful genes from

my

not,

I

that I

helped

don't really

inherited

I

parents. But

some

imagine leading

a transglobal life as a child helped a lot.

Beyond to

me...

I'm a person that for reasons unknown mind is in continuous flash-forward. I

that,

my

work somewhere I be 20 years from be 50 years from now" It's an

automaticaly think

think that in the

couple of years

Afghanistan, North Africa, Switzerland, England, and so

implants and explants and fusions, and

I

I literally grew up around was 15 years of age I had

in that

the time

gium, a couple of years

as

But

was very fortunate

I

automatically flash-forward.

Are there going

implant them

in milliseconds,

see the incorporation of a lot of non-flesh, non-carbon

coming decades

to

way and

communicate with others

able to access information

may

When

fear.

genetics, the biological revolution,

coming

plausible.

people today

and are anxiety-ridden, obviously

it

everything has the potential for fear. Everything

look

to

to trillions

don't see anything frightening about genetics. For

I

not be actual external devices just intelligent machines, but everything from chemical things drugs to electric brain stimulation to whatever.

in

You have

a matter of time before

We

have a

to

and also

nology

vironment

suffer

brain in a very non-invasive

ping stone

all

who

It's just

part non-organic.

the opening of space, the

—

to post-organic.

individuals

beginning.

than for hate.

Twenty

years ago, the idea of frozen embryonics or actogenesis,

back

bio-chips, micro-electronic chips that are part organic,

ing in the sharing of parenting, obviously these kids

grow up as global, sharing people. Ten, twenty, thirty

still

see the very beginnings of this massive evolution

depression or diabetes and so on. But

killed for love

out.

over the planet help-

are in the grips of chemistry, we're

are beginning to implant electrodes in the brain to

help

our kids to grow up in where the program to fixate on specific

who

frameworks, environments for

fluid

we

from organic

mothering or parent-

I've suggested the creation of mobilias,

need

long as

there in the jungle.

We

ing figure, or a whole collection of mothering or parenting figures.

More

life, to

relate not to a specific individual or a specific series

individuals, but to relate to everybody.

tribalisms.

now? How

will

"How

this

When

I

will all this

automatic thing. I've always had a fascination with the future, and where this fascination came from, I don't really

know. But

forward.

And

I

I

do know

my mind

really feel that.

is

always racing

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in

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Mental Abilities, and Social Interaction.

Each

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Thus each

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Using the Mind Tools section, a person can define values as s/he

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Delving into Life Simulations will be an

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Leary has

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distilled the essence of role playing, through the adroit

use of Psychometrics, into a barrage of images, impressions,

and interactions that immerse you

totally.

In the ancient Eleusinian Mysteries, a specially con-

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The candidate was

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The bowl

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Are

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how well do we actually know our own system? To provide a framework for comparing those systems, Leary offers up four Mind Maps: Bio-Energy, Emo-

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is

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by Timothy Leary is published by Electronic Arts, 1820 Gateway Dr. San Mateo CA 94080

Mind

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Issue 2 - 1985 $6.50 ppd.

1984

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Jack Sarfatti Terence McKenna

Mirror

Please

make check payable

PO Box 40271

®

,

to

Berkeley,

High

Frontiers,

CA 94704 ~

— marijuana

persuaded him

JFK:

to try her

Mary smiled

9

White House!

in the

He

laughed.

new "wonder

Now

she'd

love drug".

Jack as he looked at her in wonderment. "You're feeling pretty high now, aren't you, Jack?"

AMERICA'S FIRST PSYCHEDELIC PRESIDENT?

The

at

"A

president nodded.

looked

He

bit thirsty, too."

little

her in expectation and she smiled again.

at

"How

about some orange juice?" "That's the absolutely

perfect

That sounds

thing.

Orange juice!"

great.

Mary

rose to her feet and padded into the kitchen.

Jack watched her body flow upwards and noticed how catlike she moved as she left the room. The kitchen light

was too

As she switched it on he flinched and The pain was gone but he kept his eyes

bright.

shut his eyes.

closed. "Technicolor," he thought.

Mary was back with

He opened

the juice. "Here

you go, Jack" and reached for the glass. "This

his eyes

juice tastes good..." Suddenly oranges

became

terribly

"My God,", he said. "The world's insane. We're contemplating madness." Mary put her arms around him. "Jack, you can change that. You have the power to manifest a vision of peace." They met each other's eyes. Jack felt great wisdom emanating from within Mary. He smiled. "You told me this was a great aphrodisiac." Mary nodded. significant.

Lisa and

Mary

got together again several weeks

later.

was early February, 1963. The weather was clear but cold. They stopped at a sunny bench and sat down. "How's it going with Bill?" Mary inquired almost It

immediately. Lisa grinned.

"Right to the point, aren't you Mary? Things are

going

with

great

How's

Ambassador.

the

the

President'?" cally,

reaction to the

in

lVOZ. The leader of the most powerful nation in the

Cuban

world smiled euphorically. The Cuban missile furrows

Asia. President

had been etched deeply

that

and melted

into his forehead relaxed

into laugh lines that crinkled as he regarded

Mary smiling before

the

fire.

She had dropped her mask

of sophistication and lay sprawled on her stomach on the rug, with her legs slowly flutter kicking in the air behind

Her face glowed luminously, complemented by

her.

snapping flames behind her. Jack laughed

What

a perfectly peaceful night.

the

in delight.

He contemplated

were squaring

was escalating

thing

He could make

feeling.

that

know

C &

was

As

Mary Pinchot

their afternoon strolls along

Georgetown. As they turned down the towpath, Lisa poked Mary kiddingly, "Well, what happened? What couldn't you tell me over the horn the

Canal

in

you with your cloak and dagger paranoia." Mary laughed. "I met with Dr. Leary. I don't think he has any idea what we're really up to... but he's willing to tum us on. And what's better... he'll supply us with what we need."

'

Lisa's eyes widened and she grabbed Mary's arm.

"Are we it!

really

God what

doing this? This

a story!

is

great!

Can you imagine

out? The network would shit can

me

met

after the

I

can't believe if

they found

circle of

garage apartment behind the house of Ben Brad-

in the

Newsweek

and friend of President Ken-

journalist

The garage apartment was

residence of Bradlee's sister-in-law

Eight

women were

sitting

the

art

Mary

studio and

Pinchot.

3

It was their fourth two meetings alternate halves of the group had taken LSD. Acting as each other's guides, they discussed and practiced what Mary had learned from Dr. Leary about the guidance of a psy4 chedelic session. This latest meeting was the second time the whole group had tripped together. They came out of the session weary, but energized. They felt prepared to take up their task. "Phase two," said Mary the following day in clipped CIA mimicry. 5 Several of the women laughed. The wives and lovers of America's top leaders were ready to

her.

psychedelic session. At the

turn their

men

women, were

But when

first

on. Lisa and Dorothy, another of the

the last to leave. At the door, Lisa turned at

Mary, before

starting

Jack waved away the concerns of the S.S. door. "I have a right to

The CIA had been

some

men

6

therapeutic and religious benefits of psychedelic drugs.

to visit.

the

of the 1960's.

test-

ing the potential incapacitating uses of psychedelics as tools of

The

failure of

MONGOOSE

in the

Bay of Pigs

inva-

sion and assassination attempts on Castro had embarras-

sed the intelligence operations of the presidency. cial

A

spe-

group for counter-insurgency was given the task of

rebuilding America's image by designing a war, basi-

good and well going

to get

it.

Although she would be

difficult to live with, as

he had remarked more than once

Ben

7 ,

Judith. still

to her brother-in-law

she was certainly dynamic.

She was hot x

And

couldn't

in

bed, too.

she had a believe

Up

€>

really liked her.

there with Marilyn and

way about she'd

He

her. Persuasive.

gotten

him

to

working?"

Things

wonderful

looked

for

He

smoke

feminist

the

co-

conspirators in early 1963. Quite a group had built up

with "...top people President visited

Washington turning on."

in

Mary

this period for further

at

peace a

I0

The

her art studio several times in

psychedelic sessions and together

new dream

of

reality.

But then,

still

early

in

the year,

Mary

suffered a

frightening set-back. Her brother-in-law's editor, Phil

Graham of Newsweek and The Washington

Post was

suffering from worsening manic-depression and the pain

of divorce proceedings.

A

long time friend of the Presi-

dent, he had in the past "...committed adultery in the

company of John Kennedy... often sharing women with him." As his mental condition worsened, he and the President became estranged. Finally, enraged and drunken, he mounted a podium at a news convention in '

'

Phoenix and announced screaming reporters that "...he

was going

to

a

roomful of

them exactly who

to tell

Washington was sleeping with whom, beginning with I2 President Kennedy." He went on to announce that the in

was currently seeing Mary Pinchot at clandestine meetings in her art studio behind Ben Bradlee's I3 house. What unnerved Mary was that the incident was completely covered up.

privacy, dammit, and I'm

more

laughed. "We're making a dent at any rate."

at the

war and espionage, and the Harvard Psychedelic Research Project was discovering the educational,

was

is

President

Now." As his chauffeur drove him away from the White House, Kennedy leaned back against the seat in relief. His thoughts wandered to the woman he was on his way

It

peace

down

the stairs.

a

More aware of the inter-connectedness know?" Lisa nodded. "Do you think our mad plot for world

they explored ways of making Kennedy's

and lying about on com-

emotional release of the laughter

they both sobered. Both of them were dead serious.

dawn

down on the "once useful" women came together

crack

to

in

of things, you

Mary

and flashed a victory sign

in orbit."

Mary laughed again and Lisa joined their eyes

CIA began

the

at things

holistic fashion.

fortable pillows in the living room.

happen.

Several months before this magic night,

met Lisa Howard for one of

as plan-

the peace he

at-

at the sky. "I think he's

changing. Rapidly. He's looking

off.

Harvard drug wizards, a

nedy.

Nam

carried out the

geared up for war. The forces of destruction and creation

serenity quietly. Tears pricked briefly behind his sensi-

The Viet

Kennedy announced and

Mary leaned back and looked

Keeping the

situation in mind, eyes turned towards Southeast

mospheric testing of nuclear weapons. The military

lee, a

ned, but the whole world should

2

fiasco.

decision of the United States to follow Russia in the

the

tive eyes.

Cuban

I4

In a meeting with Dr. Leary she voiced her concern

warning for him. "...You should be careful, Things are getting edgy in Washington. As we start

and had too.

a

loosening things up, there's bound to be a reaction.

Keep doing what you're doing, but

try to

keep

it

low

key. If you stir up too many waves, they'll shut you I5 down." She paused for effect, "or worse." Dr. Leary did not follow her advice. As the networks covered the firing of Harvard doctors Alpert and Leary

Mexican "Hotel Nirvana" psychesummer school, l6 Mary, Lisa, Dorothy and the

and publicized delic

their

of their group met for a pow-wow Things were going well for them.

at the art studio.

rest

spoke up. "You know, there's a chance I'll be going to Cuba myself soon. Che Guevara seems willing to meet of acting as an intermediary

peace terms.

in negotiating

I

might be able

wangle

to

somehow, and see Castro." "That would be great!" Mary grinned slyly. "You know, Lisa. I've heard Fidel likes pretty blondes. I wonder how he'd react to a good aphrodisiac?" The women laughed. "You know," said Lisa, "I think Ambassador Attwood wouldn't mind if we could myself a

25

Guevara.

"So we're all saying the same thing." Mary said. "We're seeing a definite move towards both a test-ban and detente." The women nodded in agreement. Lisa

to discuss the possibilities

ing a conference between

visa,

McGeorge Bundy, who was

looked out

at the

seniors at the

sea of intelligent young graduating

American University

Here were the future knights of and now famous

ful

Washington, D.C.

in

Camelot. In a power-

his

speech for peace he stated that

who

"...every thoughtful citizen

despairs of war and

wishes to bring peace, should begin by looking inwar17

d..."

War, he

said "...makes

no sense

trip to Dallas.'"

Three days

would be carried by wind and water and

was dead. On Novem-

disarmament,

and seed

help

but... will

Union and

reference to the Soviet

ig

achieve

us

its

allies

he stated,

we cannot end now our differences, at least we can make the world safe for diversity... We all breathe

27

They've covered everything

fast...

ing

it

The doctor replaced

2H

up.

I

gotta

come

see

Suddenly there was a

the

phone slowly, regard-

with concern.

The group met secretly one last time. It was agreed that there was no choice but to disband. It was a solemn

women were ready to accept The two newswomen met each other's eyes.

meeting and not failure.

"This

will

all

all

of the

come

out,

you know." Dorothy an-

20

same air." The women were

the

CIA—tied

the

As

elated.

to the

turns out, elements of

it

underworld and rabid anti-Castro

—were not so

2I

Unaware of

the ex-

tent of this right-wing displeasure, the Pinchot

Group

extremists

pleased.

continued with their plans.

By mid- 1963

these plans began to

Howard

of coming to fruition. Lisa with

Che Guevara and

show

definite signs

was the dawn of the

Succeeding

"wangling her visa," she spent about a month

in

The CIA had

wood

go

to

Cuba and conduct preliminary 23 meeting." Kennedy-Castro a

been testing the

potential incapacitating uses

preparatory to

September 1963. Things began

Mary met

Lisa and

to

go seriously awry.

for another talk.

Both were near

panic.

"We're

in trouble, Lisa."

Mary's voice shook.

a mistake to recruit the latest wife. She finked.

telephone

call.

"Have you

The

"It I

was

got a

"Yes. He's nervous, too.

He

"Did you discuss what "John says to keep on

should do?"

important right

now

I

cancelled a session."

—your work with Castro back from.

to pull

I

is

may have

to

Lay low for awhile. I don't know." "Where will you go?" "I was thinking of heading up to talk about that with Timothy. I'm not sure. Things are weird. Have you

disappear.

heard? Dorothy

tells

me

that

"Oh, God." Lisa looked are

all

Aldous Huxley's dying."

at

Mary

"Where

Late

Timothy

that

afternoon,

in Millbrook.

she asked

if

a

in

our faces."

Mary met

near hysterical

Informing him of her troubles,

he could hide her for a while

if

necessary.

agreed. She had another warning for him. "...You

must be very careful now, Timothy. Don't make any waves. No publicity. I'm afraid for you. I'm afraid for all

of us."

24

November. Lisa Howard was

in the

process of arrang-

assassination there have

Lisa Howard, and Dorothy Kilgallen. District Attorney

Kennedy

New

Orleans,

investigated the

in this

most inconvenient

the

at

London insurance

firm has prepared an ac-

on the likelihood of 20 of the people invol-

tuarial chart

ved

who

assassination said that "witnesses in this case

times... a

case dying within three years of the assas-

sination and found the odds 30 trillion to one."

There can be

33

doubt that the Kennedy assassina-

little

He had come

young President's dream of dream was pos-

to believe that his

and was killed because he took steps

to bring

it

After his murder, things quickly began to change.

Johnson's

foreign

policy

decisions

were

Kennedy and Mary

diametrically opposed to the plans fire.

was plunged deeper into cold war paranoia. The war in Southeast Asia worsened, and an

The

nation

reactionary depression ensued resulting in the

gerously unhealthy conservatism

".

.

.step

counter today.

way of peace."

-JFK, 1.

we must

back from the shadows of war

seek out the

search Project was discoverFlashbacks

p.

July 26, 1963

154-156 Timothy Leary

J.

P. Tarcher

Los Angeles 1983 2. Katherine The Great p. 159 Deborah Davis Harcourt Brace Jovanovich N.Y. and London 1979

ing the educational,

Inc.

therapeutic and religious

3. Ibid. p.

benefits of psychedelic drugs.

224 128-130, 154-156

A.

Flashbacks

5.

Conversations With Kennedy

p.

p.

34 Benjamin C.

W. W. Norton Eco. N.Y. 1975 (Mary would easily mimic CIA tones: her ex-husband was Cord Meyer, CIA official, also see Katherine The Great p. Bradley

Almost a year later Mary Pinchot walked the familiar towpath by the canal. It was early afternoon and Mary stopped to watch a bird wing overhead. There was a step not far behind her. She turned. A man regarded her silently. Her eyes widened and then narrowed. "You have no idea what you're facing. You can't change what we've

started."

He

shot her in the chest.

for a

moment

at

Mary

left

her assassin's side.

She

felt

sorry for

227-230)

JFK: The Man And The Myth p. 502 Victor Lasky The McMillan Co. N.Y., N.Y. 1963 7. Conversations With Kennedy p. 54 8. Conspiracy p. 277 Anthony Summers McGraw-Hill Book Co. N.Y. 1969 (The affair with Marilyn Monroe 6.

her

was documented in Goddess and elsewhere.) 9. SI. Chronicle 2-23-76 p.l, 16

He

10.

him

11.

and then followed the bird across the water. After her death, her apartment was searched and her diary removed for "disposal" by the CIA chief of counterintel29 Her murder "officially" has ligence, James Angleton. never been solved.

A

year

Flashbacks p.\54 Katherine The Great

12. Ibid. p.

163-164

13. Ibid. p.

164

later,

Lisa

Howard

died under suspicious

cir-

posedly she took one hundred phenobarbitols at mid-day in a parking lot where she was found wandering in a daze. She had been involved in a dispute with fired

ABC

and

because she had "chosen to participate

publicly in partisan political activity contrary to long-

established

ABC

news policy."

30

Suspicions about her

death "...if ever substantiated... would

second female news reporter

whom

(after

assassination critics suspect

make

her the

Dorothy Kilgallen)

was silenced because 31

of her knowledge of the assassination." Before her death, Lisa turned against Robert Kennedy, who was running for the U.S. Senate in New York. At a group meeting she organized with Gore

m

p.

150

U. Flashbacks p. 162 15. Ibid. p.

162-163

16. Ibid. p.

166

17.

cumstances. Her death was attributed to suicide. Sup-

had been

our plans now?"

"They just might be blowing up

He

in despair.

Kennedy

the

Jim Garrison, of

briefly,

too

Robert

interesting comparison.

wake of

In the

Harvard Psychedelic Re-

fired at her body's head twice.

talked to John?" Lisa inquired.

An

activity"

political

Kennedy that same... There was Cain

over

Pentagon and Watergate scandals and the current dan-

espionage, and the

war and

body and stood

proverbial shit's hitting the fan."

"partisan

been many more deaths than those of Mary Pinchot,

idiotic

of psychedelics as tools of

talks

to

32

and Abel."

discussed before the

Cuba

minute taped interview with her which aired on ABC. Also together, they set up "...the arrangements for Att-

her

debate

a

in

about.

1960's.

in

and met with Castro several times. He was indeed attracted to the lovely blonde woman and consented to a 45

continued

she

President

they discussed peace terms be-

-

her

sible

did meet secretly

tween the United States and Cuba.

said, "if you feel strongly about something you can't remain silent. You have to show courage and stand up and be counted." After ABC fired like this

peace.

It

dangerously

group she

tion occurred because of the

nounced. Lisa nodded. "I'm not finished yet!"

and

reactionary,

authoritarian." Explaining her reasons for forming the

do have a habit of dying

"...if

help

ruthless,

"the very antithesis of his

"Brothers are not necessarily the

the

In

it."

brother...

as

work of "elements in the U.S. opposed to His remarks were labeled as propaganda. peace." December 1st, 1963. Mary called Dr. Leary in almost unintelligible grief. She sobbed into the phone. "They couldn't control him anymore. He was changing too

was

to

he said, "...be a substitute for

not,

support of the incumbent Senator Keating,

in

remarking

himself to work for a test-ban

He committed

which would

treaty

soil

and to generations yet un-

the far corners of the globe

born."

later the President

Vidal

Bobby was described

ber 23rd, Fidel Castro said that Kennedy's assassination

poisons produced by a nuclear exchange

the deadly

I8

26

when

an age

in

acting as an intermediary in

Ambassador Attwood that the President wanted to discuss his plans for a CubanAmerican detente in depth with him right after 'a brief

dial tone.

1963. Face alight with hope, the President

10,

Presidential aide

19th,

the secret discussions, told

you. I'm afraid. Be careful."

negotiate the peace the President has been urging."

June

Bobby Kennedy and Che

On November

"...

June 10 Speech

in

Kennedy Reader,

David Bobbs Merrill Co. 18. Ibid. p. 122 19. Ibid. p.

Inc.

p.

123 Jay

1967

128

20. Ibid. p. 125-126

Playboy 10-67 vol.14 no.10 p.157 The Kennedy Conspiracy p. 255-256 23. Ibid. p. 258 1A. Flashbacks p. 191 21. 22.

25. Playboy p. 156 26. Ibid. p. 157 27. Ibid 2%.

Flashbacks

p.

194

29. S.F. Chronicle 2-23-76 p.l, 16 30.

The Kennedy Conspiracy p. 259 260 Ibid. p. 259

31. Ibid. p. 32.

n. Playboy p.

162

XT

Nan

n ~

.

,

C. Druid

LOOKING FOR SOLUTIONS IN THE SOLUTION BOX

The root of the word reactionary is "to react." All you ever see from the left is reaction. Protest

medium

You

for reaction.

ness or bad person.

The

that is

a

react against a percieved bad-

left

press

is

99%

dedicated to

uncovering perceived badness; reacting against oppression or repression.

When was

the last time

you heard an

coming from the left? Probably before Chicago 1968. The left has been reacting to perupbeat, visionary idea

ceived badness ever since.

The

Major Problems With The

Six

Left

Ken Kesey

Any philosophy which equates success out is axiomatically doomed for failure.

1)

ing

Americans

2)

are

confused

messages which are put out by the old-line protestant

is

for our

own

pleasure;

we

by

with

sell-

was strong

two contradictory The first

society-at-large.

Good

bliss.

The American

left

dying. Let

is

gearing up to challenge the

new

into the future and defining

as possible.

The

it

right

as flexibly and

fearful,

Nader-types and

Reagan and The Hoover technology

flexibility

at

abundance and

Jeremy Rifkin/Ralph

dumb yahoo cowboys Institute.

we can

deserve

The

humanely

over-protective, morally

priggish, self-righteous, matronly

are

at that

was "looking

time)

for solutions in the

problem box."

"We

shouldn't go

into

space

until

we

solve

our

visions have to a starving peasant with rickets in East

is

defined by selflessness and

pleasure and

for

when he

problems here." "What relevance do your psychedelic

we

that

the newer, consumer-oriented

is

here

70's

where

new

In reality, of course, the solutions are out there

free intelligence

and free imagination can uncover

resources; whether "there" be

in inner space, outer

that

space, or in pragmatic day-to-day earth reality where

"You

practical inventiveness can create technologies to access

message

self-indulgence.

Timor?"

it!

battle to define the future is not a battle

between a bunch of

courage and

Upwingers are by moving bravely

we

in the early

are not here

message

self-denial, sacrifice for the general good. The second

message

back

it

are not here to indulge oursel-

ves, to feel good, have fun. experience sexual ecstasy

and somatic

nailed

expressed feelings that the radical movement (which

like

Ronald

Through imagination,

sieze the extraordinary

our fingertips and construct a reality of leisure, self-fulfillment, play, adventure,

limitless space, limitless time, limitless pleasure.

Go

it!

left

for

it!

lines

sacrifice for the general good. ("It

sume

that

we

Poverty

is

is

because

we

con-

create wickedness throughout the world.")

Self-indulgence at.

and distribute greater wealth.

Indulge! Only the best!"

up on the side of selflessness and

is

bourgeois. Yuppies are to be sneered

honorable.

"You

don't deserve

it.

You

deserve to feel guilty for having when others have not." Is this

the

message

to capture the desire

and imagination

of the future? 3)

The

left is

4)

The

moderates,

left

(and the

etc.)

pro-capitalist. Progressive

mean

does not mean pro-socialist.

®

neo-liberals, Carterite

embracing a philosophy of entropy,

to the far-right

by

the "era of limit-

Muddling Towards Frugality, Small Is Beautiful. No wonder Ronald Reagan captured the youth vote with his message of optimism, abundance over scarcity, feeling good about yourself and getting the government ations".

off of our backs. (Let reactionary. Reactionary does not

liberals,

handed America over

against

Reagan

in

me make

it

clear that

I

voted

both elections and consider him a

dangerous pawn of the military/industrial shakedown of

Once you

perceiving things this way, you begin

start

opening up new

into

new

allowing these

to delight in

energies to force you

When you

possibilities.

of constructively channeling a

new

way

find a

energy, you create

wealth and novelty for everybody.

Upwingers

5)

abundance, brains,

are

We

themselves!

for

it

want

freedom, better sex, better

more novelty, more fun, space more beautiful and astounding en-

highs,

better

time travel,

travel,

in

leisure, personal

vironments, more pleasure, funnier and happier daily

We

lives, for ourselves!

abhor piety, self-righteousness,

martyrdom, denial and all other forms of psychological masochism handed down to us self-sacrifice,

guilt,

from the patriarchal dark ages of Christianity

Marxism

Mohammedism

-

Hinduism

-

-

Judaism

Buddhism

-

-

-

ad

nauseum.

You want

human being can

periements

fly at

and

biosphere

earth's

this particular

knows and what

of information the

what

to see

and

carry

out

technological

ex-

an instrument capable of seeing to the beginning of the

DNA

universe, can decode and begin to manipulate the

can construct elegant mathematical structures

life-code,

which are simulations of our universe, can comprehend and manipulate another

talk to

atomic and sub-atomic

at the

human being anywhere

can

level,

on the planet

else

and the

It is

precisely the fact that the

allowed Reagan

liberals

to capture the

left

"upwin-

ger" message which so angers me.) Relatedly, the

left

on neo-Luddism. This

is

the

source of the "era of limitations" philosophy. Without

new technologies, we new wealth. What we

uncover

the creation of

will never

and/or create

are left with

redistribution

is

the

of a frighteningly diminishing resource

bank.

here.

closely and look at the typical represen-

in

and comprehensions. (I'm not being

the average

bara

American doesn't comprehend

and suspicion

towards our national media, the

left handed over the namythology and image-making to the Rambo al-

tional

Hierarchy will not

come

can

the

dividual

Yes, de-centralized community organizing

we

portant problem-solving tool. But

is

an im-

Mc-

also live in

fact

is,

the basic un-

access

knowledge, capabilities and

currently

available

human

the

to

done

by acknowledging that the single technology which can best be used to bring about a human (or post-

together to solve problems under the agreement that they will not

the inner technology; the brain, the

is

the only

stupidity

way and

to

slow down the

militarism.

I'm

not

saying that progressives can manipulate or subvert the

we can compete

media; only that

Experiments with

ligently

6) In

socialism

failing is

to

a holier-than-thou attitude.

acknowledge

or

recognize

We

vous system.

must learn how

capitalism,

the

able to access levels of contel-

brightest representative. All other issues are

subsumed

America.

Admittedly, yours

about

be

to

dynamic, dangerous, unpredictable, uncontrollable,

which asocial experimentation,

The

synechdoche

We make

flexibility.

politics

few assumptions as

as

The only way is

Upwinger

of

solve

to

a

is

humanly

is

pragmatic

real

and then

to take in relevant information

dis-

passionately choose action which will get you the result

you want as precisely as you possibly can. that, you must have no ideological axe belief system.

wants

to solve

Nobody

In order to

do no

grind;

to

with a rigid belief system really

What

problems.

they want

is

have

to

Socialism's legitimate

appeal

is

in

its

safety

and

predictability; the nurturing aspect, a society seeing to

everybody

that

is

taken care of and that everything

it

is

o.k.

3)

not

While we

nihilists.

all

maximum

maximum

beings, and b) to

flexibility,

essential goals.

we

These

are are:

material abundance for

all

new

discoveries

and

developments as new energies which have some valid purpose.

PART 2

As an example, atomic

safe to use

The 1

)

Six

Major Points Of The Upwingers

Intelligence or contelligence-increase

is

the

on

propel vehicles

main

issue.

Step outside your local reality and check out your species from a dispassionate evolutionary perspective.

earth. In space, at

in

a

threat

is

not

to

the

the near future.

and evolution are

it.

The baby boom

its

Although they

desires.

the liberalism of the 70's. they have not

become en-

Most have remained independ-

thusiastic Republicans.

tendency being towards economic conservatism

and cultural liberalism. The Reagan administration beginning

to scare these

strains

fascist

closet.

is

people as more virulent border-

of

the

right

The country

emerge

from

the

clearly unenthusiastic

is

about the recent saber-rattling directed

Libya and

at

Nicaragua, the bombing of abortion clinics, the apologia for lian

pro-western fascists by Jerry Falwell, and the Orwelurinalysis being proposed to test all

workers for drug

The bottom

government

use. line

is

Reagan administration wealth that

so-called

the

that

recovery we've been hearing so

much

economic

about under the

crumbs compared to the currently exists and which we is

table

strategy of the sort proposed by Buckminster Fuller

it

fission

may

never be

can be safely used

rapid speeds across the galaxy.

basic alchemical principle that any

new energy

It is

to

a

received

must be integrated into the whole system or the system itself must be changed or expanded to allow the integration.

%

and

others.

The

maximize individual freedom.

accept

as

politics of flexibility

collective experience and

reflect

Upwingers

R.U.Sirius

truly,

beginning to emerge. Let's face

all

of this and more... 4)

of

could begin to access by adopting an all-win economic

do have two

a) to bring about

human

Upwingers believe we can have which brings us to part 2.

strive for

We

charge

taking

seriously

too

their

belief system proven correct.

thrives.

about

Republican Party (thank goddess!)

However, the

potential

and individual mutation

risk,

taken

by contelligence-increase. 2)

serious

are

are disillusioned with the radicalism of the late 60's and

even the

problem

in

acceeding to desires.

the ner-

to

more conservative philosophy left has obscured some of its

Let's recognize the fact that western capitalism offers

anarchic environment

new resources and new eco-niches and thereby creating new desires and new possibilities for

to operate this tech-

which are currently unavailable

ligence

possible.

legitimate points.

the

most people and striving for solutions which are satisfactory to everyone while at the same

ents, the

human beings being

that

essentially a

by acknowledging the legitimacy of

the desires of

Republican

within the information environment and gain

more than we can by copping

than

intel-

have been extraordinarily suc-

this

actually believe that world peace can be

attained, in time,

line

consciously and

they can reach a conclusion, or a

until

cessful.

its

mind and

novelty and pleasure that will result from billions of

of

emerge

of conclusions, which are satisfactory for everybody.

set

is

progressive and visionary images out into the informa-

environment

individ-

generation has not been offered a politics which reflects

society of abundance, freedom and novelty

nology! Imagine the wealth that will be created, the

glamourization

whereby

in-

Luhan's global village and putting exciting, captivating,

tion

a process

uals of widely varying viewpoints and interest group get

Upwingers

human

an end until the

to

species as a whole. Upwingers believe that this can be

human)

liance.

is

a day-to-day basis.

comprehensions

5) In manifesting an attitude of fear

Marx Hubbard. This

elitist

derlying principals behind the technology which he uses

on

support the concept of "syncon" or synergis-

time creating

The

don't have these capacities either.)

I

everyone's

to

conferencing, originated by futurist visionary Bar-

Upwingers

of the species. She doesn't have any of these

tative

capabilities

has manifested an anti-technologi-

bias often bordering

cal

Now, draw

We

be met.

within moments... ad infinitum.

American resources.

acceeding

in

believe that behind every political belief

system and every individual point of view, there are underlying desires which are legitimate and can and should

store

can build

silicon chip,

We

desires.

tic

phenomena, can

affect natural

amounts of information on a

vast

Well,

of.

can use natural and invisible forces

in space,

to heal diseases

capable

is

it

25,000 m.p.h., can escape the

Upwingers believe

6)

decoder and carrier

nation desperately needs a politics to capture and

imaginations

the

generations.

I

of

the

invite all readers to help

post-Hiroshima

form an Upwin-

gers organization/think tank which will allow individuals to begin communicating Upwinger ideas to the American people. If you are interested contact: R.U. Sirius c/o

High Frontiers Magazine.

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tftfaf Hesmith:

AMonkees

DKkkm a state of disarray at High Frontiers headquarters since we received the news over the AP has been

/4//

in

wire—the Monkees, minus Michael Ne smith, have reunited for a summer concert tour. When one retrospects on those fabulous

sixties,

one naturally remembers the protests, the

and of course, THE MONKEES! Nancy Druid and Matt Amphetamine were in the front office furiously fighting over who would get the comps to the August 31 concert at Great America in Santa Clara, a long drugs,

of the High Frontiers staff. R.U. Sirius was on the phone, Meanwhile, Editor-in-Chief time favorite recreation

hot on the trail of the real

money

site

Why no Ne smith'/ What was

Ne smith.

smut behind the absence of Ne smith? Was it the Was it the billing Enquiring minds wanted to know.

Nesmith wasn't

However, we did aquire the fol-

talking.

lowing from Eric Lefkowitz, author tf/The Monkee's Tale, a

biography of The Monkees.

ON THE MONKEES: No Bad There

is

a

common

Feelings

misconception out there

that

I

have some

sort of a bad feeling about the Monkees. The only bad feeling I have about the Monkees is the stupid questions I get asked about it,

questions that are gross misinformation, questions that are un-

and don't have any concept of what the Monkees were all about. But as far as the Monkees experience in my life, I had a good time. As far as Monkees' fans, I like 'em quite a bit. There's sort of a deference there, kind of a memory that was fun for them original

when

they were nine. "Hey,

I

remember you. Thanks

you did during those times and 1 know and all that, but who cares. It was fun

a

lot for

what

you had a hard time with the

press,

Tina across the faces on 'em and It's

street

we

because

giggled, so

for

me and

it

was fun

for

both had coathangers with Monkees

we we had

a

good time." That's a nice

kind of a tender and benevolent part of everyone's childhood.

thing.

ON HEAD: We Were On A Head was Monkees'

most bona

the

collective thinking, because

Bob and Jack and

became

tape recorder, and that ultimately sat there

want

whose

to say

son's. Jack

He

thinking it

was

is

was Bert and

it

and wrote Head.

vision

it

was,

if

now we're up

Right

it.

from the 78

mass

video image

was. Essentially

The amount of storage

storage.

bigger

is

now

than

of usage. But that's one of the

And when

out of just

LP

to the

of the night.

It

was an

essentially, a storage bin that will hold

it

was

We

intense soul-searching weekend.

over. That's not

all

were

it

We

at all.

were on a

the

movie

that

CD or laserdisk.

we'll

tion of the future.

instead of a series of television that notion.

ON THE T.V. SHOW: always maintained from the beginning

I

have

to

do

is sit

down and

sit

record

is

record

is flat

down and

listen to a

breathtaking

and uninteresting. But you combine

the result of

you

all

and

and the Monkees

music with a visual image of some inspiration

was

— which

whole

just turned into a

different

There was a type of seed

that

was planted

beyond

the obvious

beyond

"let's exploit the Beatles

beyond

"let's put the Beatles

it

had

the time.

to

a marriage of

it.

When you

that.

that

was

phenomenon,"

the future people will

together in a

about the Beatles, you

about a sociological phenomenon. With the Beatles,

you

talk

about a sort of magic coming together plugged

Vietnam War, had

had

to

that

had

to

do with

had

do with

the death of

that all

had

to

do with

utterly

Kennedy, that

the concept of

artistic

hidden by those times, where

anybody except

the

these other ideas that were new.

The Monkees came together around an

to

to

do with a disenfranchised generation,

to

do with dope,

omnipotent love and

was

right

here. This

spelling

I

the people that

were

electronic library

in

it

base that

was

it.

invisible

The

some

happening

I

like

I

tools

It

seems

don't think of myself as having wrought the

tail.

And

that

whole distribution end

the

tail,

of course,

is is

think about

makes

F—

is

perfect sense.

watching the dog wag the the distribution end.

will

now

And

begin to change

a dramatic and remarkable and really fun

next ten years.

it

way over

pull

can't store

it

in

the

it

Nesmith recently produced a 13-week mini-series for

NBC called Television home

Parts and has

video Television Parts

someplace

is I

coming

is

we're getting

tools,

and you have

fall into this

notion of

downloading and

as being a

individual

like, the

machine

become

just

is

becoming

as

it

grows, what

my

terrified

fall

But a

it

does

off that are lot

of people

and they go, "God,

house out on

that

I

branch and

unless you attach yourself it

to

so strongly, which,

you do, you miss whole point of

continuously

be

com-

the

which they're

larger

is self-

now I've found that it doesn't work." You can always climb back in. You won't hang out to dry to

all

in fact

biotechnical tree of

vestigial. That's ok.

put

to

made

available for

Home Companion. As

well

as working on numerous video art projects, Nesmith distributes alternative

home

Pacific Arts Video in

video art through his

The Monkees' Tale by Eric Lefkowit: Last Gasp Publishing, SF. Originally printed in

company

Los Angeles.

Monkee

up, check

would have something. The

big technological juggernaut

prune, self-edit, things

forward.

What's gonna be interesting

types of

which enhance our own powers. So the

moving

I

all

can,

where we're going.

new vocabulary

humanity

is

What

up and

it

rhythms we must reconcile ourself, but

ON THE NEW TECHNOLOGY:

just

download

I

no

treasures of humankind. That's not happening. What's

The Biotechnical Tree Self-Prunes

It

speak.

is

through and running roughshod over the values and

changing,

that it's a natural evolution.

is

into

it

mutually interdependent, harmonious, interactive.

if

phenomena.

video revolution, number one.

I

can see an orderly evolutionary progress that

I

technology, which

I

it,

is

the

Well,

want.

I

now and have

right

and music, were coming together quite independent of the other attendant

line,

can just grab

where

potency of the synergy of those two mediums, of film

all

going on as

is

and larger and more enhanced.

came

talk

that

Asimov

now, with a telephone

power of the

film of

It

into a spot in the consciousness that

which

into a database

won't be very expensive. This

It

Isaac

bizarre

was

that

in

talk

satellites,

electronic library, and that will be the distribu-

puters and electronics and

on commercial television,"

unique and wonderful way, and look back on

was

that

do with contemporary music and

was

It

manufactured image,

and interactive.

that

is

your video record and download

fee,

very careful that you don't

ballgame.

and

own

your

don't see

that

Jim Frawley and Bob Rafelson... they

became supercharged,

down, for a

my

the

mean,

I

pendent, harmonious,

We'll have

carrier.

dedicated essentially to entertainment, and you will pull

record, and the Beatles

in its inspiration

Big storage

and you'll go

fiber optics,

encyclopedia.

that the

listen to a Beatles record

Monkees

huge amounts of

that is mutually interde

with a big computer to work out a problem for me, to an

Monkees phenomenon was

show, period, pure and simple.

television

your home,

in

information, from a huge record library, to interfacing

A Synergy Of Film And Music

evolutionary progress

wireless, or through land lines, hard-wired bits of the

Monkees movies

driver of that whole

have

hook up, whether through microwave

new

set us apart,

shows." That was the foundation for

to

that

already have one in the disk right

make us a valid member of the community. "We know where it's at and we also know how to make films, so if you'll come and let us boogie across the silver screen, we'll just make a series of would

any kind

things that are bigger than that. What' 11 happen

show cooking, and

would be

a motion picture deal. This

We

information.

now...

roll.

top of our form, the height of our

at the

popularity, had a network television

now

goodbye,

suicide,

can see an orderly

things that'll change.

means

you are gonna be able

I

takes to digitize a

practical for

is

little

Ojai and driving golf carts in the middle

Monkees' swan song,

has to do with

system gets into place

that storage

that

it

it

in

the

some

you

hanging out

Head wasn't

against

hardware technology problems, but not big problems.

has always had a remarkably creative, astute

came

electronic

all

They're about the same magnitude of the problem going

mechanism and impeccable sense of taste. But

a fabulously creative idea that

gonna be

is

The

He's one of the

class.

move

You're not gonna buy a record, you're

distribution.

gonna download

was Jack Nichol-

it

beyond world

gifted,

the script.

Essentially,

we're gonna

is

system unlike anything anybody has

into a distribution

ever suspected before, which

the four of us in Ojai talking into a

seven of us

greats.

Roll

example of the

fide

what's gonna happen

In video,

A

Business.

is

published by

a„

interview

with Jelio

f

f

®

^ ^BB

"

"

you've never heard of Eric and the Flying Tarantulas?"

What,

Harold, a Flying Tarantula, sounded properly scornful.

had to confess, shamefacedly, that I was not up on the local rock Too many misspent hours in mouldering library stacks. I was a

I

scene.

medical anthropologist,

explained

I

— looking

at

animal medicines. No,

not veterinary medicines, but medicines derived from the faunal realm.

"At the moment, I'm working on sting-ray venom and the

its ritual

use by

Maya. 'Byegone Trygons Of The Ancient Maya, I'm going

to call

it."

Harold looked unimpressed. "We're into tarantula venom ourselves," he said jadedly.

"Really?!"

suddenly rapt with fascination.

said,

I

—

—

It

was

a blue

moon the second full moon in September and had just worked my way backstage at the Nina Hagen concert, narrowly escaping an ata paraplegic

tempted rape by

the lobby, and

in

believe anything. "Are you really?"

do

I

I

I

was prepared

pressed for details.

to

"How do you

it?"

They smoked

it,

transpired.

it

On joints.

Just before they performed.

Harold expanded with gusto on his favorite theme while Eric looked detatched and slightly supercilious. Eric,

venom.

tula

was "Erie and

It

He

pedantically.

appeared, did not do taran-

cultivated an air of precocious world weariness and

terminal ennui.

The

went,

or cycles.

shifts

in

it

the Flying Tarantulas", he pointed out

it was explained to me, came and They had periods of dormancy where

Tarantulas,

presumably they recharged

their shattered

nervous systems but even-

tually resurfaced as dithyrambic as ever. I

peered

at

who looked normal enough, though ever-soHe had about him an aging whiz-kid quality. Zooey

Harold,

slightly bug-eyed.

One of the Smart Patrol. "What about Latrodectus mactans?" I asked, thinking to score a point or two. Black widow poison was one knew. "Oh, that's a complete bummer," he said. "Don't even try it." Harold was a bio-chem student and worked in the lab. Tarantula venom was definitely an exotic. It was not in the Sigma catalog, though they had everything from Bufo Marinus to Naja naja. They

Glass.

I

were heavy on the snake venoms but spider venoms are

still

terra incognita even for the practicing venomologist. "But

how do you

get it?"

I

pressed. Here they hedged uncomfortably and exchanged

sidelong glances. "Well, for

largely

if

you're a bona fide researcher they can get

you as an 'accommodation'." Harold allowed. "But they're going

it

to

scrutinize you..." Just then R. U. Sirius

and Lord Nose emerged from La Hagen 's

dressingroom. "Boy, she's really out there," said Lord Nose.

"I liked

Space Brothers and the Music of the Spheres" said "Guess what?!" I exclaimed breathlessly. "This is Eric and one

the bit about the

R.U.

.

of the Flying Tarantulas to write

them up

"Shhhh! Don't the other

— they're

venom and I'm going

into tarantula

for the next issue!" tell

boardroom

anyone!" said Harold, looking nervously over table full of reporters

at

and photographers covering

Nina's "Ecstasy Drive '85" (next stop Rio).

"It's

extremely

illegal

and

we'll get into trouble."

"But how

am

real slumbler,

I

going

to get

the vulgar herd,

you

all this

great publicity?" That

was a

mooted over what could be revealed to Harold suddenly interjected "Ever done any cow-tip-

and as Eric and

I

ping?"

"What's cow-tipping?" we Minnesota, where

it

was

all

asked

great sport.

in unison. Harold came from "You know how cows sleep

standing up?" he said. "Well you go out in a pasture where they're standing around sleeping and give 'em a

and they

fall

little

nudge (he demonstrated)

He

chortled wickedly. R.U.

over. Just like dominoes."

and Lord Nose exchanged one long

AN!

telling glance.

We

argued about whether they were authentic venom-heads

libleson," said

Lord Nose, who tended

to patronize

me,

"that

all

way home. "Look, Gul-

the

whole thing was a monumental put-

Have you lost every shred of critical intelligence?" retorted hotly. "I remember tarantula venom from "It was not!"

on.

I

the

produced chorea or jerking and twitching of the limbs." "Sounds grand," said Lord Nose, dripping with irony. "And what about the cow-tipping?" "Oh, that was just to throw us off the scent." Lord Nose could be absolutely maddening

medica.

think

I

it

As soon

times.

as

we

got back,

homeopath, looking rather

I

like a

my

dashed for

medica— Boencke's,

materia

text with

much-thumbed devotional

its

at

the bible of the

it

is!"

I

civiousness mounting almost to insanity."

"Hey, "

let's

He made

see that!"

a grab for the

'Extreme sensitivity to music' That's

portant—like 'moral relaxation'." also in black letter!

that's

I

book while

black

in

letter,"

danced back three

I

I

said,

"That means

inflected this heavily lowering

'Must keep

in

constant

my

steps. it's

especially im-

voice an octave. "See,

motion. Extraordinary contractions and

movements. Jerking and twitching.' And here under female symptoms: 'vulva hot and quent erotic spasms. Pruritis vulvae. Nymphomania.'"

grabbed Kent's Materia Medica from the canon.

"Look— 'great

down.'

fantastic dancing,'

As

shelf. Kent, the

it

says. 'Desire to

they poured over this

dry. Fre-

last entry,

I

dean of American homeopaths, was run about, to dance and jump up and

"

"Hey, where do "Look,

it

I

get

some of

isn't all positive."

I

this stuff?"

cautioned. "Listen to these symptoms: 'excessive hyperesthesia,

burning sensations, fox-like cunning and destructiveness, violence with anger, precordial an"

guish, sensation as

"Well,

is

if

at

"Well

is.

what Kent says

used except

and turned around.'

there an antidote?"

"I'm not sure there

Look

the heart twisted

I

think

you have

right here at the

to

dance

it

off— that's what

beginning—quote:

the tarantella

was

all

such a terrible poison,

how can

they

smoke

it

about.

'This terrible poison should never be

in attenuations.'

if it's

ROCKS

marbled end-papers and

—

exclaimed with triumph. "Oh j?orf listen! This sounds absolutely tailor-made for the would-be rock magician! 'Remarkable nervous phenomena'," I intoned por" (He pricked up his ears.) " 'Las" 'Intense sexual excitement.' tentously. (Lord Nose smirked.) gold stamping. "There

MODE

homeopathic materia

before every performance?"

Alisor

"I don't

know. They're young. They're

Anyway, smoking

Maybe

resilient...

you could calibrate

it,

the

rarified rock milieux for years. Listen to

dosage

better.

what they

the pyrolytic products are less toxic. I

bet this stuff's been used in certain

'physiognomy': 'the face shows a pale earthy hue. Eyes are wide, shining and staring, with a look almost of terror. Inflamed parts are dark red or purplish and swollen. Throbbing carotids are seen in the neck.' You know. I bet Keith Richard was into

"You mean

his

Or— hey!— remember

it.

call the

Dylan's Tarantula?"

novel?"

"Prose poem."

"Whatever."

"Do you suppose?..." "Come on, Queen Mu!" "No really* Remember, Dylan took in

back

it

was

it

galley proof stage with MacMillan back in '66

at the

after his so-called

motorcycle accident'."

when

traced elaborate quotation

I

marks

the air festooning 'motorcycle accident'.

"Where do you get all this?" "Oh, it was in all the papers— he got an injunction and they fought it out in the courts until '71 when they finally succeeded in publishing it but not without— rumor had it deleting certain

—

You know, we never heard about

'sensitive material.' six

months

after the fact.

"But didn't he break

bet

I

it

was

that accident at the

time—

it

was

all

about

a colossal cover-up."

back?"

his

"Supposedly— in three places. His neck, too. But he could have done that on tarantula venom. Gone into clonic spasm. Opisthotonus, they call it. You can flip your back out. arch back so far that..."

"Alison, you're quite quite

head

in

mock

mad you know!

But we love you anyway." R.U. was shaking his

concern; Lord Nose was moving to leave. The hour was going on three.

"You know, Weberman never believed in his motorcycle accident. He thought it was a cover some drug overdose. He just didn't know what it was!" called after them— but they were already out the door, elaborately miming my galloping dementia as they disappeared down the for

I

steps.

few weeks,

In the next

I

threw myself into the tarantula

lowed another. There were the studies of choreomanias

Guy's Dance

St.

known

— more

—

often the disease

was

tagion" or mass hysteria. Sometimes

ground

Some

it.

centuries.

for

One

fascinating account fol-

John's Dance.

St.

Vitus' Dance,

with overlapping symptoms, the precise clinical entity or pathology un-

all

as Paracelsus called

literature.

like St.

thought

Checking

down

put

it

it

first

(by

was viewed a

modem

authorities) to "sympathetic con-

as a festival of license, the "chorea lascivia"

recrudescence of bacchantic that

in

treasury

of occult

rites that

lore

had gone under-

and

learning,

Lynn

Thomdike's History of Magic and Experimental Science, found at least a dozen references in volume 8 it was all the rage in the seventeenth century. As a subject for learned discourse, I

—

I

mean. Everyone who was anyone pronounced on Athanasius Kircher

— why Kircher even wrote

it

—Cardano,

Borrichius, Campanella, Baglivi.

three entirely different accounts of

in

it.

Phonur-

giu Nova, Musurgia Universalis, and Magnes, sive Ars Magnetica. He. like the others, was fascinated by

bi/arre

its

music and healing

—

symptomatology and

its

implications for the understanding of magnetism,

the preoccupations of both the Pythagorean and Orphic schools.

Augustus Hare described tarantism as he found

An

it

in the

epidemic of melancholy madness, which pervaded the of hydrophobia and frequently

like those

in

death,

boot of

was believed

tarantula, chiefly because the disease appeared at the season

summer citing

The

life.

them

was believed

It

to

that

to

to

to

this spider

in perspiration.

and the musicians in attendance would play the air of the tarantella, which the "taranwould follow, only leaving one partner after another until she finally fell down exhausted, when a pail of cold water was thrown on her, and she was put to bed. The epidemic of Apulia, and the belief in the tarantula bite, spread over the whole of Italy, till regular fetes were appointed for the cure, which received the

DTHE

That redoubtable Englishwoman, Janet Ross,

late Victorian aristocratic eccentric

led throughout Sicily and Otranto querying after local folklore,

count of the phenomenon as she found stitutionalized

who

tended

and was seen as

to get bitten

it

left

who

travel-

us a marvelously vivid ac-

1880's. Tarantism had long since

in the

a peculiarly

female syndrome, probably because

it

become inwas women

while picking grapes or harvesting grain. Men. too, however are recor-

ded as having been accidently poisoned while greedily eating grapes (tarantulas hide in bunches of grapes to build up their internal heat which strengthens the poison) or bitten in the earlobe while sleeping on the ground.

many, emphasizes

Janet Ross's account, like so

ked Don Eugenio also about the famous cases.

There are various species of the

ten,

because they wear so

little

the particular susceptibility of

tarantola...

(He) told

me

women

women:

"I as-

he had witnessed hundreds of

insect' (he said) 'of different colors

kinds of "tarantismo", the wet and the dry; the

Kennedy

to its

be led out into the garden by her

tolata"

NTISMO

mi

woke up

relief to the larantulali, in-

friend,

fcRN-DAY MAGICIAN

"...

in frenzies

proceed from the bite of the

when

throw off the poison of the tarantola

and crowned with flowers, used

century:

of Apulia, ending

music was the best means of giving

dance and causing them

patient, dressed in white

Italy, early in this

women

in the fields are the

clothing on account of the intense heat.

and two different

most

A

liable to be bit-

violent fever

is

the

beginning of the disease. The person bitten sways backwards and forwards, moaning violently. Musicians are called, and if the tune does not strike the fancy of the "tarantata" (the person who has been bitten), she moans louder, crying "No! No! Basta! Not changes, and the tambourine beats

fast

and furious

approves of the tempo, and springing up, begins

Her

to

to indicate the

dance

that air."

The

tempo. At

tiddler instantly

last

the "tarantata"

frantically.

friends try to lind out the colour of the "tarantola" thai has bitten her, and adorn her dress

and her wrists with ribbons of the same

tint

as the insect: blue, green or red. If no one can indi-

decked with streamers of every hue which flutter wildly about her as she dances and tosses her arms in the air. They generally begin the ceremony indoors, but it often ends in the street, on account of the heat and the concourse of people. When the "tarantata" is quite worn out she is put into a warm bed and sleeps, sometimes for eighteen hours at a stretch.

cate the proper color, she

If

it

is

a case of wet tarantismo. the musicians

tably attracted.

While

she'is dancing, relays

Don Eugenio went on would have

it,

to describe

sit

near a well, to which the "tarantata"

is

irresis-

of friends deluge her with water.'

an autocratic master-mason

who vehemently

rejected the

female malingering or hysteria. As luck or San Cataldo he himself was bitten and in his frenzy tore down his doors and was soon seen

reality ol tarantismo

and put

it

down

to

crying "Hanno ragion' la femmine! Hanno ragion' la femmine!" The women are right!) (The Land of Manfred, London. 1889) Extract from the book Tarantismo to be published by High Frontiers, continued on page 39 Summer 987

jumping about (The

is

women

in the streets

are right!

1

name

of 'camaveletti delle donne'."

PAUL KANTNER .

V.W.v*»,

S'.VA*,',

.._,,:^r-'^->--:.-.^.,,,,...

Kantner arrives at Cynthia Bowman's (former beau and personal manager; current personal manager) about a ha If-hour

late for the interview.

Cynthia has

some promo spots for him to do. One requires a two hour drive to be on a campus radio station for one minute. Understandably unenthusiastic Kantner agrees ,

to

do

(albeit with

it

a voice dripping with controlled ex-

asperation and irony). Cynthia grows irritable. Next, Bruce Springsteen

is

ing Stone wants a blurb from it

transpires, finds

quoted

coming to town and RollPaul on "The Boss." Paul,

Bruce boring. Cynthia thinks being

Rolling Stone is important for Paul's re-entry music scene with the Kantner -Balin-Cassady

in

into the

I'm going to go

Band and say.

that he ought to think of something nice to Understandably unenthusiastic, Kantner agrees

{albeit with

tion

and

a voice dripping with controlled exaspera-

irony).

Cynthia grows more

Next, Paul wants to

know

in

office. This, it transpires, he knows is not allowed as it may arouse the ire of the people in the other offices; most particularly the rent-a-cop security agency

Cynthia's

Was that a realistic prediction or a fantasy? Something you perceive as possible. .

don't

I

It

know

agrees (albeit with a voice dripping with controlled ex-

I

irony).

Cynthia leaves. The interview

be involved

we might conquer

don't know, really.

in

It

that

There doesn't seem

to

be the oc-

curence of any psychedelic acid around.

HIGH FRONTIERS;

Oh, there's a

lot

of good clean acid

Who makes

that idea

/

don't

Sure.

know who makes

it.

There are other, legal things

die.

by the time we're

old.

litera-

still

excite

you? like to

go out

there.

I

get

L5

literature all the time.

NASA

literature.

your science fiction book a similar type projection?

I've played

it?

we

How far out there is another question. Do you follow developments in space, L5... Is

around.

die, if

was speculative escapist

Oh, yeah. Lots of people would

PAUL KANTNER:

space migration.

ture, really.

Does

begins.

if I'll

might not be around by the time we

Actually,

and

your first solo album, Blows

tasy, or possibly a real projection of industry or government or whomever building a star ship...

next door. Understandably unenthusiastic, Kantner

asperation

to

Free physicists and free pharmacists. Escapist literature.

irritable.

if he can smoke a joint

way back

Against The Empire. That was based on an idea, or fan-

it

to a

new

era... it's escapist again,

bunch of people go out and establish

a

where a

new colony

in

being made, like 2CB. Are you interested?

Australia in the desert, eventually getting off the planet.

No.

Did you study

I

sort of filled

Have you No.

I

up

a long time ago.

don't want

to.

I

feel

the actual physics

building a starship

tried Ecstasy?

wonderful already.

I

and that

and mathematics of

sort of thing?

subverted the idea of building a starship by creating an

energy

field

around a 20 mile square

strip

of Australia...

whole thing out of the ground. the energy field created psychically?No< atomically.

just rip the Is

Just create a positive application of nuclear physics,

nuclear power. the

powers

It

does get a

that exist

The process

is

little

into psychic powers,

around Mt. Shasta, things

like that.

the actual hero of the story, rather than

any one person.

EST SUBJECT .--

'•"-.^"WC^

?>2 *

:•::

.'.v. v.-. v,

Xvv

WV

^^AJ

,'^.'

yow

//flve

/w his

someone who does °me SOrt of

we ird

j,

working on a particular

start

idea. But there's so the process of working on

work within

detai

1

Cre S

r

/°

Ch.° f

Let

s face

is

"

evolutio " of afound ' to kind of a corporeal product on of the essence of the work

other sounds, that the music that

it's

m order to stand

it,

much

Edea

ted, self-referential

iT

up there with a lanre

kind of improvisation because

would project (only) about thmg hat leaves them-I

this far.

it

have to do omedon't mean like Las VeSf 1

but „ has to be the best choices all the time ThatfwlTy a lot of new music that is written with the context of university support really bothers me

have

were probably doing Coliseum perforyou were great they let you live, and if you

greatest performers

mances.

If

weren't you were nixed. So

it's

kind of

maximizes concentration. I'm not

like that.

When

that happens.

mance... it's

High

I

say

obscene to perform,

I

mean

it is!

Priestess

Yes.

It's

funny how Liszt was defamed by a

people, and Paganini also...

I

lot

to

wouldn't want

note,

thought-out artistry. could, but I'd have to listen detail

certain

work, I'd have to

for myself

and follow a

to

it

a

There's so

lot.

listen to

it...

yeah,

inasmuch as each section

Timbre elements, and relative pitch

I

will

could

have

certain linguistic things,

spectrum here, processing

the spatial manipulation. Each section has a certain tegrity, so there's no arbitrary improvisation. When

improvisation

Ava ntGarde

now

in these pieces, it's

in-

do

I

only kind of or-

must be there. namentation We were arguing on the way over whether some of your ornamentation was melisma or true polyphony where you try to, in effect, have a vertical line that of certain givens that

goes

all

the

way through

the texture.

Both. In the case of multiphonics there really is that sense. These are tones with more than one resonance center.

I

do

try to

do

that.

I

used to have these concepts,

of like subtractive synthesis of a huge shape, take a huge bunch of physical noise, and shape it so you could

go

to

that

is. I

to be interested

It's

a really

mean,

I

wend

think the 60s in te rest-

I'm

off.

Because what does

this

^^

DMT?

.

something clean, relatively speaking,

like a sine

the interference pattern

which cancels out certain things so what's

left is

s

quite interesting.

singer, also.

As

sings to you.

It

As

a

a singer?

DMT has vocal phenomena. In terms

of hearing singing or

hearing sounds.

And what vou

see can be driven by what you sing. If you sing while you re on it, the image will shift as you sing.

Why

do you think people are so drug reactionary now? They have been for awhile. You know, if you're an artist and you say you do any kind of drug, you immediately get shit on. I did this interview where I talked about drugs, and someone said, "Boy you're really in for ,t now." I was talking about minimal music. I said if you want minimal music, go take some quaaludes and take a bath."

With the Baudelaire

Litanies of Satan, are

you acas an underlying structure in terms of the size and shape of the form or do vou just go from there? Well, I did use the text, obviously, and kept its integrity, but the text can only give you so much informatually using the

tion

and after

chose

poem

you have to decide why it is you and that puts you into another structure.

that

that text

You have

wave.

The shaping comes from

it

interesting for precisely those reasons

to.

is

it

interesting than perfor-

No one has ever! "Speaking of information theory have you ever done DMT?" (Laughs). No. In fact, I've

heard

how you The question is, do it. This question is backing into how much of your performance is improvisation versus how much

notate

my ass

.'

mean

It's

I

that's

.

Could you recreate your performances note for day after day, or is it...

much

Erotic

going to laugh

.

"could you?" In terms of

New

know how

don't

book

should people go to perfor-

supposed

I

™^

said in this

So what s going to happen is that people are going say, Oh, my god. She's a fucking hippie." And

E

don't understand what

tradition.

I

"Why

I

Speaking of information theory, the idea of subtractmake Sh3PeS h3Ve y ° U ever

of

that's all about, that logic... but definitely, yes, that

of the

'"I" T ultimately?

have thought they were

performance? The Liszt tradition, or

the Paganini tradition...

,

ing.

only that other people can't do but things that are so difficult that there's a chance that you might not be in

°, .

reaction to the 60s or something. are interesting, always

about both making a mistake and creating You your music. Would you consider yourself an updated version of the virtuoso—creating things not

it

H° do

out recently,

n drugs.

talk

able to do

Whl Why

^'

mances when drugs are more mances are?" Artists are not

an obscene sort of perfor-

it's

'

come

ber of the audience, but there's a weird implicit thing

hey e JUSt S° nna "ListenTan / W3tCh l C3 a Char,es B

K

l

nZ Mm

mem-

afraid of each

I

because yo people that won't leave, but if you try to get 8 h

1 T

do

Fear

thirty

to create

your own structure. That was a

really hard thing to do.

I

haven't worked with

many

outlined texts like that.

clean. Right.

Have you ever heard

the Tibetan

monks who do

multi-tones? only heard one minute once, and I was very impressed by that one minute. I'd like to hear them again. I really would like to hear them again. It's

strange,

If

you were great they

let

I

Because I've been using the voice, thing and then do

been— I'll go

it.

My

I

don't notate some-

rehearsal procedure has always

into a studio with the lights off

$

and

I'll

you

live,

and you weren't

you were nixed.

t seducing

As a dominatrix,

I

stipulation

young

the

all

scene— I had

was

that there

my

material. my

In

position,

I

"Why

ways

get flack because I'm

I

you insisting on being flamboyant in wrong?" What is this colorless aesthetic?!

don't understand

my

that

Callas.

it.

get a lot of shit because

I

New York me

New York

before

I

The High

Priestess of the

New

did this

was

Erotic Psy-

doing didn't have anything

awareness

on

do with

to

wasn't academic. But

all. It

the music

I

was

the university at

because those people wouldn't leave, and so that was kind of interesting, but when I would do this stuff in front of the art people. I remember the stitution circuit

.

Because people were doing

for

dry shit that

my

I

saw, and

them, they really hated

was doing. So

was

I

it,

told

I

stuff really

so

I

it

was

do

was

really doesn't like

very

this

if

I

kind so

I

someone

to

fluences. This should be fun.

influences at

all.

When

You walk down

no

no

I

So

didn't have any

direct influences

would

sit

and

and write

people down that I like. I like Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix and Roger Corman.

I

like

me

*

all this shit

send

this

gown

to a

woman

that

made

flames and burn her

it's

created in a very non-verbal way.

to articulate that

S4-.-6

If

?'

would kind've be

a

lie.

And

got so

Why

,s it

I'm

was able

was

them

But

the funny thing.

much

from them. Some

shit

my

performances to be

it— by giving

And

wanted

really

in-

my work—cor-

really corrupting

I

One scene

attacked by insects, covered

subversive splatter slant.

this

except for

set up.

to

agree. That's

I

do

it.

her again. The dark Goddess. I've been there too, and yeah, there's a lot more juice out of that. It's

lot more juice out of Cassandra than out of Helen of Troy as far as I'm concerned. She's a piece of something darker. The pieces that're missing right now are all those dark pieces. And so

There's a

they've got this

enormous shadow of power back

there with no one paying attention to

And

it.

there's

a tremendous kick to bringing it out into the open again and rubbing people's noses in it. Yeah,

hadn't even thought of

it in that way. As you becoming more present. That's a little frightening once they become present, people will want to grab them and commercialize them. It would be I

suggested,

it is

—

bad for people

power

to

that kept

cheapen in the

it

kind've a delicate issue.

Then

it.

lose the

background for awhile. That's I

get a

my work becoming

little

teeters

it

worried about the

popular before people un-

derstand the work. Because in that

image becomes popular,

would

it

become unpopular, and

moment when

because

the

music

it

will,

the

of

become

will

unpopular, because the image saturates. I

flesh. This isn't a nice girl here that a painter like Pollock or somebody could

and said

read something about it

some woman

New

in

York,

"more pure Diamanda Galas." They because she has no vocal technique, and

said she's a

it's

eventually get support, people paying huge amounts of for one of their paintings, whereas

therefore her screams are real. Well, that's great. But

Aenakis or Stockhausen, they do a record and thev y get anything for it? Why is it that people are

go on stage and scream and be interesting. It gets beyond ten minutes, and if you don't have technique, you're not a good artist, you're not a good painter,

someone

like

of competence

able

in the visual

the thing

that for ten

is

minutes you can get someone to

and people can deal with that? They'll buv a painting but not listen to a bizarre record

you're not able to manipulate these variables to show

1Cal 3nSWer t0 th3t and ,n the to Rockefellers and the Museum

mind being possessed, but

arts

world

JS'V ?J m

jt

'

of

the 20s or 30s.

You can speculate on

They made

it

8° eS b3ck

Modern Art

a commodity.

that piece of art,

and vou can't

speculate on music. Unless you could get people to buy scores the same way they buy paintings, and they don t because the score's not the piece, the

s not the performance. You can't get them bidding the price up. It's a purely financial sort of tn.ng. You can t get people to do that with music because every time it's performed it's gone. So I was joking with some friends of mine in New York and said I was going

Art

Forum

I

t0

t0p erformin and only P perform for g u three people. Once a year. And they'd sup-

Sfffif? U5.000 for port

so

I

The only

at all,

rupting the vision other people had of

to

her burst into

to advertise in

talked a lot about the form of how you do things and the setting. What is the content? That would be a hard thing to answer, because it's

music and

I

got so

I

terrupted by this

course,

children and she

You

for

as a psychopath.

was

score

and hear

the street

things you like. But there were direct precursors, really.

I

Medea

tell

beautiful, lyrical... sad love affair." just saying, she killed her

back

what you're doing the only choice

do more of it. Then I came to San Francisco after New York and people suddenly said that this was new work, and blah blah, and what were my inis

can't

woman becomes

image of

you. The music people sai/ dare you portray her as a psychopath. She I

to attain a certain stature

And

pointless.

off with an idea seven years ago that

you have

all

how vou

hard

had no context for what

it, it

How

shit.

money

embarrassed

really shouldn't

of stuff, shouldn't continue

came

because

in

to

did this piece with

much

why?"

stuff like taking rope with a

me

I

.

clothespin and putting it on this side of the room and over there and someone would stand there with their clothes off and smile at you and that was the piece. It

was just kind of funny

composition and, for example,

?Zw?^S

punk movement and all this stuff. It was as if you create in isolation. Then when I did my first performances some friends of mine from the Living Theatre saw some stuff and they said I should do the mental in-

time, they just sat there like "Oh, no, what?

of ex

different, and em> 3nd then someone does something completely different in a dialectical way. Music just moves one step here, one step there

at the

in the

first

to use a full palette

I

work in electronics. It's not like art where movements were broken very severely-let's say someone does something completely

same time I had no during those years of what was going

at all

choose

why

is

tion, but in

in the university,

just

really old-fashioned. There's a concept of historical precedent, not just in the performance tradi-

choose

I

I

manipulations.

Music

chedelic Avant-Garde.

Although

the non-

have the operatic technique. It's the only reason I developed it. That's why I use all these vocal sounds and words and digital signal procesP ses, spatial *

Philharmonic thing, some person had adver-

as

because you cominsist on no words then one way, but if you use it is

you

-

pression. That's

say

Hendrix and Maria "God! What do those two have in common?" that in

levels. If

^

'

verbal work.

favorite performers are Jimi

You should know tised

I

people said that by allowing

Zt

working with

are

that are

That's a good question. Part of

you re communicating in this words every once in awhile, you can work on two S e a rsonhears s P eci fic words " that make Pf sense-lets say five, six words together that addresses you in one way, and then you can subvert that with non-verbal work. Then you can in turn subvert

an operatic voice and an operatic technique, so people say,

choose pieces of words as opposed to F purely moanings?

where a

municate on two

cuts to a castration

had them

I

Why do you

with tarantulas.

it

men

be no

the victim in that one, and

prefer to control

Then

girls.

these really great films.

all

me But

—

thought if that's what it is if the idea's paying for a piece of art so that no one else can get itit s kind ve tunny. With a painting you can look at it and ook away from it and then you sort of see the whole thing and the rest of your concentration is discovering pieces. Whereas with music you have to continue the concentration over a period of time to sort out-you have to really sit there for 25 minutes, and it's not getting an overview, it's listening moment to moment and then getting an overview. It's kind of a micro and macro structure. It's harder in terms of demands on concentration. sell.

Between

I

So

that

would make

my

it

much harder

You

-

the first one, Veil of kind of vampire lesbian dominatrix thing have these women dancing, and these evil women

Blood,

control

my

that

you are possessed. as a dominatrix,

I

don't

I

prefer to

material.

There's a big difference between being a medium,

where the possession comes through you and you're a blank, and being a shaman where the possession is something you evoke and vou control with your technique. That's right.

You have

It

takes

skill.

You have

to be a craftsman.

have a kind of entropy, of chaos, things getting weirder and weirder, and you have to have a dialectic

to

between

that

and things getting very ordered

so that you can control the material. So that things are created from a chaotic sensibility, but you

have

still

to

organize them.

you have made of the woman who was is an expression of the difference between art and raw emotion. Nobody wants to just go and see somebody cry.

The

criticism

described as "more pure"

No,

if

you want

stitutions.

the wall

this

You can

you can

see

just

go

into mental in-

someone bang her head against will not only do that for ten for ten days. If you want to sit

and scream. She

minutes, she'll do that

there and listen to that for ten days, cool. But

I

per-

sonally would find that to be just like watching a wall after awhile.

It

would become obnoxious. Also,

for

purely hedonistic reasons, I've been interested in max-

imum change

to

two pieces at the I-Beam, I also organized a series of splatter films which were not all splatter films, but real sick

something other than

to

over time. So

I

tend to think that in order

achieve that end you have to have a

so you can really

move

things quickly,

lot

of discipline

move

objects

around quickly.

is this

illustrations

by Gordon Henderson

continued from page 33

High Frontiers interviewed Alison Kennedy (alias Alison Wonder-

Mu)

land or Queen

her aerie in the Berkeley

The room was full of divine clutter: stacks of xeroxes, pylons of hooks bristling with multicolored markers. She seemed somewhat less manic than when

we'd

in

hills.

seen her. She had sedated herself she confided, for the or-

last

we wondered. Tryptophane'' Valerian

deal. Brandy''

root with tincture

of glow worm?

High Frontiers: Great opening!

from a

use a

-

bit

fact,

Orphic gold mine

cations.

High Frontiers.

for

the vastness of

"What

just thought:

I

a great

knock

I'll

whole thing unfolded.

the

was dealing with when

I

—

Work

— which was

H.F.:

And that was a year ago?

stumbled on

first

I

In

extraordinary ramifi-

it's

it,

would make

bagatelle this

little

off in a

it

week and go back

my

to

Great

Just over

the

first

not

cologists

hot

trail

an-

into this

richly

the

in

La Terra del Rimorso

the

link

its

rites that

fully

fact

in

I've

that fascinated

ecstatic rites

in

did a magnificent job collecting

the history

all

and folklore which he integrated with documentary coverage of present-day survivals

Apulia

in

—

the heel of the boot of Italy.

orcistic ritual associated with the bite

day of

feast

M

I.

the libertine spider

who

the Serpents

who

H.F.: Weird

stuff!

AK: to

Actually,

"macabre

this

cultural construct"

"My Saint Paul my Saint Paul of

the saint with the invocation

pricks the girls in their vaginas,

suggest that this

The women saved

was

rite

1795 appears to have been the

in

first

a survival of ancient Bacchantic orgies.

money

their pocket

made white gowns

year and

all

were perfect replicas of ancient Greek off-the-shoulder maenad

that

gowns, wore coloured streamers

upper arms which

tied to their

flut-

tered wildly as they danced, their hair streaming loose and their heads

thrown back

ecstasy

in

—

gown

he

destroyed

is

in his ecstatic

Supreme

invalid, the great

So what

Scientist!...

through things unheard

flight

horizons where the H.F.:

It

initiate, is

if

of, un-

the

at

has fallen!"

first

money

doesn't sound particularly recreational!

what

thought

I

known

—

I

But then again,

the phenethylamines should

all

They

muelos, the

call

how

cious of

toxic

he wrote.

sible,"

marrow

drain your

— what

the

was cons—"I'm crapping myself Rimbaud up much posthe vital flame.

life stuff,

was

it

be used with the

as

as

one must be a seer, one must make oneself

"I say that

a seer, through a long, immense, and calculated disordering of all the senses.

H.F.: Sounds rugged!

AK:

It

is

— but

the

circum-Mediterannean area and near

—

spiders

mygale

the

Galeodes, the Arza all

for

in

—and personal

sion

Orphic notion of the poet's mis-

central to the

calvary.

was thought

It

that the soul

had

the

crowned

as the "nigredo"

There's a great quote

also.

how

"Learn how to suffer and learn

and such

to die

History of Magic,

in his

— such

are the gymnastics of

the immortal novitiate."

is

"The gymnastics of eternity" the saltimbanque in the

The poet was

view of the

cult of

work of many Orphic poets

—Rimbaud,

Rilke.

seen,

—as being

French Romantic

the

in

tradition, as taking

a high-wire artist, as narrowly escaping the

jaws

old Corn-

in the

Arte days of Theophile Gautier. The surrealists, Picasso,

dell'

produce similar syndromes nervous

of the

exaltation

dithyrambs, possession

nervous system

in

horsefly.

It's all

strict

to

caused

—

work. "Let's be

them!" cried Rilke. "Let's never

like

dying!" This whole notion of the poet as daredevil

their

without

fall

artist is alien to

us

English-speaking world bred on the pablum of the poet as effete,

in the

depic-

limp wristed and phthisical.

number of

critters.

the

word

"tarantula"

The phenomenon

—

been

in-

different names, different

know smoked on hemp in is

as "Tigretier" or "Tigretismo" and the secret cultic rites

— by

women,

wedding

was used hoda gitana or Gypsy

love philtres; in the

consumed by bride and groom; and the blood of consumed by Flamenco dancers and musicians to invoke

wedding cake

to

be

up through

the "duende" or powerful tellurian energy that wells soles of the feet inspiring the virtuosity

it

as an ingredient along with menstrual blood in the

fiesta,

the tarantula

in

is

the Zars, certain

orgiastic Sufi orders. In Andalusia, in Southern Spain,

clandestinely by gypsies

venom

the

most impassioned displays of technical

and "soul".

greater detail in the hook, but what does

TV. produce

besides intense

sexual excitation?

AK: Oh, Kundalini

It's

fire.

You might

syndrome

special senses

to the nth

— sound, music,

heightening

phenethylamine

of the tribe

color, odor

releases the

produces a manic-depres-

—

as well as synaesthesia.

the chakras, producing a really

It

amaz-

emotions reminiscent of "Adam" or the

—only with —anguish

agony and the ecstasy

It

it

stimulant— like

degree and an extraordinary excitation of the

moves up successively through ing

say that

a powerful spinal nervous system

strychnine, aconite or panther gall bladder. sive

Do you

H.F.:

AK: No,

tarantula

venom you've

and rapture,

a

little

got both the

hell to

eye

to the

in the heart in certain

harrow

blood-

of Athanasius Kir-

'

at

Count of Miraflores de

the

is

Gongora

the

a fairly futile

is

He seems

Festival in Seville.

was

and Allumbrado. But

poet,

transmission

possibility

with the tradition of older gay Orphic poets turning on

he met

hypnotist,

Or another

his "black torso of the Pharaoh."

in

fits

prerequisites for a T.V. habitue: he

all

loving

have any actual evidence that the gypsies turned him on it's all wild surmise. Ii might have been Manuel

Tones, with

which

heart

the

is

quite frankly

(if

los

Angeles

to

have had

a magician, theosophist, tracing

really

chain of

the

entertaining) exercize.

—

a

it

use was closely related to the cante jondo tradition

the soleares

famous

and siguiriyas and the

cult of the

—"Deep

duende. Lorca,

on "The Theory and Function of the Duende"

lecture

few of the poets who had a "duende"

map

"To help

—

that is a

daemon or earthy

glass, that

it

exhausts, that

it

compels Goya

that

is

bums

it

that

his fists horrible

bitumen blacks. Or

daguer naked

the cold air of the Pyrenees... that

in

fish

to paint with his

that

it

an acrobat's green

in

on Count Lautreamont

in

leaves

knees and with

it

dresses the deliputs the eyes

it

morning Boulevard."

the early

Didn't you say that Lautreamont was another initiate? Well,

the time

it

was

I

I

actually this very quote from Lorca that alerted

me

realists.

stumbled on

So

meticulously :

do you think acrobats also used tarantula venom.'

Well,

It's

occured to me.

I

wonder just how

Certainly from the descriptions of the

superhuman grace, timing and

it— would commend

this reference,

and

had always wondered why

I

its

secret use has spread.

on the nervous system—

Edward

with

Topsell, for example,

"History of the Four Footed Beasts..." says that those bitten by the tarantula "dance so well, with such good grace and in his classic

reports always mention "contortionistic

symptom along with H.F.: Well.

it

hard to

would make for some dazzling stage

know how many

rock performers have been into the

it.

who hung

Any

rock

out in Marrakech might conceivably have run

Smith definitely was

Patti

it.

into

one

at

it

point.

On Radio

Ethiopia she writes "the drug that surrounds the heart, the pipe that

on

its

side

still

bums" and

"Oh,

sings:

ing up there/ up through the center of

and

free the hurricane

oh

i

go

pumping"

toxication,

(Ethiopium)

— almost

with is

its

my

see your stare/

brain/ baby

to the center

beat in the center of the ring/ and are

my

I

the drug... an animal

the

spiral-

come/ baby go/

pumping/ and

is

a clinical description of tarantula

emphasis on

it's

of the airplane/ baby got a

heart

heart

howl says

it

symptoms. all,"

sur-

fairly

in the fifth chant,

my

venom

fists

in-

"Release

she writes on the

is

considered the mas-

AK: And mortality! H.F And dark humor. AK: And revolt! It's gratuitously grotesque— like grand .

.

.

guignol, he's

trying to "gross out" the reader. It

was embraced by

the Surrealists

and

kind of martyr.

AK: Actually, a swan. Lorca was also called a swan. H.F: A swan? AK: Swan, cisne, was one of the epithets for Orpheus. Orpheus, you Lesbos prophesying

all

as a

the

swan— after

way

—

his severed

a favorite decadent

art

head sailed to theme. Breton

called Lautreamont "the swan of Montevideo" and boasted,

"I

have

access to him as a convulsionary."

H.F.: So I suppose Breton

AK:

I

was getting

to

is

another T.V.

initiate.

\hai\—Poisson Soluble

is,

of course, a play on

"Poison soluble" and it's packed with venom references. H.F : But back to Lautreamont!

AK: You know he composed

all

these

poems

late at night

declaiming

loudly to the accompaniment of a piano, quite Pierrot Lunaire.

have been constitutionally melancholic, but

his

He may

work more than any

other exemplifies the "depraved fancy" sometimes associated with tarantula

venom. Baglivi says "many have sought the sepulchre and

back of the album, and takes as the leitmotif for the whole album Breton's "Beauty will be convulsive or not at all."

lonely places, and even extended themselves upon the bier. Desperate

H.F.: Did her venom use

sigh deeply, howl,

start with Ethiopia?

©

I

terpiece offin-de-siecle morbidity.

Lautreamont seen as some

Harold thought Jimi Hendrix might have used

musicians into

H.F.: Perhaps we should mention that Maldoror

know, was reincarnated

It's

work

major

his

Les Chants de Maldoror, and there

course, the homeopathic

body movements" as a prime

magic.

AK:

through

going

H.F.: But funny as hell!

all their

"great fantastic dancing."

can see how

I

began

lives in

measure, and sing so sweetly as though they had spent

some dancing and singing school!" And, of

I

hit paydirt.

flexibility that are associated

to the performer.

it

far

effects

its

to

already had plenty of evidence for Rimbaud's use by

Lautreamont had been taken up and practically divinized by the

H.F AK:

is

Mossen Cinto Ver-

or that

suit;

there

the blood like

sweet geometry

rejects all the

it

one has learned,

body of Rimbaud

duende

us seek the

nor discipline. All one knows

the possibility.

lies

that's just the beginning.

hand comer. The central icon

left

cosmograms or in Sufi emblems. It seems to symbolize compassion or the wisdom of the heart bom of soul suffering.

of a dead

stuff.

H.F.: Before we go any further, maybe you could recapitulate the effects of tarantula venom for our readers I know you go into much

Festival of

first

cher's

cate

in

was applied

Falla organize the

goblin that courses through them producing what's called the furor

Tabanus or

has

itself

lower

the

in

lists

The

same

to "turn

transfixed by swords with an eye in the center crying tears of

poeticus. Listen to this quote:

madness"

as a kind of

it

stitutionalized differently in each culture

it

tula

in his

be the gadfly or gadbee of "rutting

let in

one of them

led

though, normally, no paxo would

Cante Jondo only a few years later— the woodcut emblazoned on the program cover features, among other emblems of cante jondo, a taran-

AK:

the

—

it

These

spider venom.

drawn from

H.F Sometimes these things aren't passed on in a linear way at all... AK: Precisely! Did Dali get from Lorca or did he get from the Allumbrados and Lorca through the gypsies? All we know is, in Spain at

sal-

cures, different functionalist explanations. In Ethiopia or Abyssinia for

example,

have been

HF

in

for himself

the age of 17. His extraordinary

at

may have

venom even on it. He helped de

to tarantula

whom

in

through

the ancients didn't think in the

taxonomic categories as we and

any

him on"

emotional

ATP

to

have identified

very confusing

Sacro Monte outside Granada

personal charm and seductiveness

promising younger poets,

and immortalized them

the outskirts of Paris

rat

great accursed."

H.F. Didn't you say Garcia Lorca was into the stuff' AK: Well, there is a great deal of internal evidence in his poetry that he was. He began studying flamenco guitar with two old gypsy masters

prostration followed by an

dancing,

whole host of epithets

a

the

the natural history realm.

Medrano on

poisons profoundly affect the

the

North Africa seems

which

And Lautreamont had

powdered

ant, Mutilla calva.

lascivious

states. All spider

— oestros women — though others the

—profound

system,

— possibly because of

Galeodes found antiquity

and even an

Rimbaud— a nigger— "the

Apollinaire and Rilke. hung out with the trapeze artists of the Cirque

There are also other

East.

said to be hermaphroditic); in other words, the

or after

art)

markedly similar

a telling phrase in

is

of death. Poets consorted with jugglers and acrobats

media

was

heart transpierced by swords. Eliphas Levi places great

on the idea

eternity

known

for the alchemical stage

be tem-

A commonly

pered or perfected through extreme states of suffering.

occurmg emblem

to

example, or the spiderlike arachnid known as

Sardinia,

its'

(anagram of

in the

was

that

— narbonenall

(eating

He was cons-

being polluting as well as sacred, as being totally beyond beyond the understanding of petit bourgeois society. He calhimself "the hyena" (the hyena eats shit as well as carrion and, for

neither

and these are found

"merde"

as

in letters to Verlaine.)

most glorious taboo breaker of them all. His friends were called "oestros," and "the toad's friend." Patti Smith called the artist a

:

radiata, hispanica, infemalis, etc.

T.V.

effectively burnt out his poetic daemon.

it

the female ecstatic rites, the

sis,

for

on

believe that there

H.F It sounds like this spider is found all over the place. AK: Well, there are many sub-species of Lycosa tarentula

venom

referred to tarantula

code word

the

led himself

"Deep Song" or flamenco.

as

cious of

led

timbanques, and the Gypsy love magic and "cante jondo" tradition popularly

Rimbaud. Rimbaud

merde was

Song"

now

us about the artist as outcast, as pariah.'

tell

course, that's a favorite theme of Patti Smith's taken from

good measure, was

they'd saved for festivals

But

at first.

in like excitement... a woman alone in a tube of sound, resounding, a long low whine moving through the spine."

is

incredibly toxic stuff. Lautreamont kil-

venom is and Rimbaud

Greek

connected with both seership and the

tradition,

resound

least, it's

are three separate strands of tradition

gay Orphic poetic

moving

gas

tarantula

as "camaveletti delle donne."

that's

she writes: "The long animal cry/

AK: Well,

H.F.: So this was a peculiarly female institution?

AK: Well,

"Neo Boy"

In

blessed, the perfect merging of beauty and beast, the green

the pale,

pages of Bahel. They hired

the

in

musicians to play with the

itinerant

are depicted on

one tarantula venom

vases. Incidentally Patti Smith,

known

mamads

exactly as

ted wearing just such a

where he becomes the great

strength,

criminal, the great accursed, and the

Lorca.

Gmelin, back

is

AK: Of

great risks

goes hack to Dionysus?

this

initiation.

woman

H.F.: What can you

And you

say

venom

it.

superhuman

stress

where

the

all

many allusions in her book Babel—at least by "The Stream" and "Saba the Bird" are about

no. There are

she was using

poisons. Unspeakable torments, where he will need the greatest faith, a

pricks the boys in their testicles."

F.

J.

attended by

is

identified with the ascetic apostle in Ecstatic

is

They summon

of the Tarantists

The ex-

especially adolescent boys and girls.

Lewis has described

Religion.

its

performed annually on the

is

Paul under Church auspices and

St.

men and women,

hundreds of

—

of love, of suffering, of madness... he exhausts within himself

Greeks

31,

since.

cient

73

greatest circumspection as well.

sting-rays.

—September 1985, and been on ever At aspect me was with female — have survived century and have been and documented by ethnomusi—though English language. Ernesto de Martino AK:

AK: Oh,

What are the gales of horn' AK: The gates of hom gave one access to viridical dreams, prophetic knowledge. But, as Rimbaud said in one of his Voyant letters, "Les souffrances son! enormes" The sufferings are immense— "All forms

nameable: other horrible workers will come; they will begin

how

That's precisely

at all!

had no idea what

I

it

literary licence?

little

Alison: Not

this

expected something turgid and dry

I

those stacks of xeroxes you've amassed. But didn't you doctor

before you enter into the gates of horn.

H.F.:

they court dissolution...

The

make

restraints of

modesty being loosed, they

indecent gestures, expose their sexual or-

continued on page 42

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continued from page 39 gans... others like to strike whips on the buttocks, heels, feet, back,

Also strange fancies

etc..

Anyway,

regard to colours are observed..."

in

for

the fifth "chant," about the slaying of the eidolon or

in

or quenched ("trempee") in a sharp poison.

me

AK:

cerebro-spinal nervous system going on nearly two lustra (or ten years)

from the

how can

Ph.D.

all these

AK: Ah, but they lack angelic guidance! Once you have the key... you know Rimbaud was always boasting about having the key. "Only I

have the key

am an invenmay be the key

savage parade!" he cried. And: "I

to this

who has found something that Une Saison en Enfer that he gives the most susblow-by-blow description of tarantula venom intoxication, "To musician, even,

tor... a

to love." But

tained

is in

it

"My

drink strong drink, as strong as molten ore," he cries.

been stabbed by grace. Ah!

My

temples roar!

my

heart...

give myself up!

I'll

my

die of earthly love, die of devotion... Ah!

may

horses' hooves! Ah!...

arms and

had consciously undertaken

this ordeal, that

Orphic "investigations"

series of

where

the old granary

his

This

it."

word)

(his

mother and

was

this

Roche

in

pressed their ears

sister Vitalie

—

against the doors to hear the passionate cries within

a

poetomachia

—

He

it's in Vitalie's journal.

A Season

for weeks, writing

Hell and

in

up

shut himself

goes on

—"I've

"My

twists

my

thirst,

I

arms and

suffocate,

the fire rises! is

cannot cry. This

I

bum

I

"My

Then:

as

isn't

And

he?"

life

moment

slopped but a

Theology heaven

it

ago.

certainly accurate;

is

I

in

me. then;

—even

the

make

comforts,

faith

the

will

I

—

me

let

eighty and

tangible

a rusty pin because rust

and

is it

probably

dish

the

had occult

referred

to

down below

is

— and

of flames...

a nest

religion or of na-

is

mine!... Shall

vanish, Shall

I

I

I

Lake Eden

—

could say for sure. He's

Residencia

at the

his family cabin.

Madrid

in

now

He's

over

just

And though I talked to him yesterday on somehow to broach the subject of spider

this

ly

recognized the utter authenticity of

acid,

I

Alchimie du Verhe to describe quite methodically,

went about forging a new poetic language of as an investigation. unutterable,

written at that period were clearly written under the

AK: The poems

venom. Look

Danza de

Cielo Vivo or

at

la

among

the ferns

my

found a distaff covered with spiders... Cognac

I

for he writes,

"The mask! Lo,

venom over New York's pared Lorca's Poet

Crow

in

New

mode

describes his

mask! Spitting wilderness

the

imperfect despair!"

New

ur-

is

poor heart." He must have taken a supply back to

Many

people have com-

York with Rimbaud's Saison en Enfer. John of working in those months

"When

ingly reminiscent of Lautreamont:

he settled

New York

poetry in the early morning hours of

— and

I

made

venom

tula

wouldn't

"With an A and an E and an

sight."

am

after the

wounded

a

was

it

(I'araignee romantique) substituted

And

my

knifing into

/

was no

the picture

salutory

throat" cried Lor-

prostration of the

the

"He died

And

the night, whether spent in love-making or

paroxysms of

at

Dawn"

dawn

—"the

slumber of

in the

desires of

or Rimbaud's Matinee d'lvresse

(ritual) virginity!"

and mole's hearts eaten were said prophecy. "It

He goes on

affected

my

damage

to his

loomed ahead.

health. Terror

neuro-endrocine depletion where he's

"Longing of

as

left

immobile as a statue (see

a Statue").

How Daliesque!

up

my

I

continued with the same sad dreams:

weakness led

me down

dangerous roads

at

was

I

And

to the

he mourns the loss of that animating force H.F.: Ah, Desire.

AK:

Precisely!

It

/

imagine is,

this brings us

in

human

back

to

clearly

venom. The album cover features Dylan

dressed in the manner of a young

Rom

—the

gypsy look he favored

during The Rolling Thunder Tour. In the liner notes he himself wrote

he says "Where do

I

on the heels of Rimbaud moving

begin...

dancing bullet through the hot

New

Jersey night

filled

with

like a

venom and

wonder."

AK:

of hubris, but he ^oesn't really want to give H.F.: But

still,

I haven't

it

lot

heard anything really unambiguous.

AK: Oh, you want something unambiguous? Well,

then there's

Rim-

baud's Poison Perdu ("Forgotten Poison") published and authenticated

by Verlaine

in

La Cravache

in

1

888

but, strangely, left out

of almost

every edition of his work since.

The opening stanzas describe

"The poetic phenomenon

me

before

AK:

I

mit

to

think that's inevitable

an exogenous

most about Virginia," H.F.:

in

raw' presented

fires

of darkness and subterranean

—though of course

am

of

would never ad-

Dali

inspiration.

don't

"I

all

take

is

sweeter than

incident from The Secret Life; the painting

—

that's

what

1941

most

refers repeatedly to a pin: "the

"On

my

a pin's point

hemolymph would The hemolymph of

fresh oxidizing to

love

is

secret use of an old

spinning!"

I

think they were

most often

AK: Yes, Poet

in

but

New

reached a crescendo

it

York". He must have

in the

tried

it

savage surrealism of

by 1920

at least

for

"A

he writes

—something he had

And

cockroaches!

who exploded he cries "Let his lecture

in

who were weaned on

Lautreamont

in it

common

Dr.

with

Chenu's

Rimbaud and

"Encyclopedic

play The Butterfly's Evil Spell was

first

the cicada

was a

favorite

heavenly sound and

die, singing slowly,

light.

metaphor

my

"Let

wounded by

on "Cante Jondo" he writes of

all

about

for those artists

heart be a cicada,"

the blue heaven." In

the great cantaores burning

identified with

is

now

among

is

cicadas." So the fascination was phenomenology of the soul, states of poetic all

Almost

the storms of feeling.

they exploded like enor-

Lorca

—blueish green when hemocyanin molecule

mammals. The meaning of

—and I

—

want you green"

—

probably what did Jim Morrison

AK: No,

that's just a wild

My

rumor!

wild rumor. But he's fairly Or-

phic and a great admirer of Rimbaud's.

H.F.: You keep using the word Orphic and though

game, could you explain what you mean by

AK: Ah, orphism. This could

it's

be never-ending. John

given the will and ingenuity, anything can be shown it

Warden to

beloved, the

last

venom

in

the descent into Hades, the loss of the

whole

incensed rampaging females (like Pentheus), the decapitated oracular head, the power to charm beasts and cure the bites and stings of

there

with

"the

it

is

the

venomous animals: aspect

the stellio, the adder

surrealistic film

about

den

to participate in

around

trips.

New

York. Lorca had been devastated by Bunuel

was

has

that

not

dressed himself solely to

venom.

made a

in Dali's affections (that

As a who can

minute breaking of a taboo, the dismemberment by

his

the crise

de coeur

in

story

men

Orphic

shrine.

could

he met

supplanting him

says that

be Orphic.

contains dozens of sub-motifs: the magician-poet

been

and the tarantula.

In

(like

rites

sufficiently

Robert Bly).

halt

the

five

fact that

Women

inter-

is

the

he ad-

were forbid-

or even enter into the sacred precinct

Ovid's Metamorphoses, Orpheus advocates

still

the

most important aspect of the Orpheus

his ability to cure through the

is

One

emphasized

mysogynist character of Orpheus (post-Eurydice). the

get with tarantula

pretty late in the

it?

madness, prophetic madness and the madness of love and

we

It's

H.F.: Really"

esting

that

heart.

in.

speaks of the four forms of divine madness: poetic madness, Bacchic

whole panoply

in the

patently obvious.

rapture, extreme states of

associated with insects. Plato in Phaedrus

H.F.: In the book, you say that Lorca

the

yet puzzlingly cryptic

And you've got the patent on hemolymph extraction? AK: Oh, I'd never do it! It's simply too toxic to the

tame the forces of nature,

hearts,

in

the

H.F.:

who

own

green

—"Green how

myth,

destroyed their

is

—because

quiero verde"

themselves out: "They were immense interpreters of the popular heart,

of them died a death of the heart, that

spiders

brownish green

Somnambular Ballad

then of "spider of silence, spider of oblivion" and was early fascinated

by the insect world

te

—and

spurt out without permanently injuring

based on copper instead of iron as

"Verde que

H.F.: But you said he began taking tarantula venom years before—

Dali

argue to the contrary.

the blood or

line

the

in

fascinates

puncturing the dorsum of the spiders' abdomen lightly with a pin

is

hal-

a hallucinogen!" But his surreal universe;

How did they take it?

whom

tempered

"in the

the Afternoon"; an article that appeared in

"Pricked into the edge of the blue curtain shines a pin with a head of is

and

entirety

Richmond Times-Dispatch, "Spiders

taking tea on the balcony under the moonlight. Stanza three says:

point of the pin

a

Alhambra.

la

innately extravagant

Les Chants de Maldoror, the "blood

pederastic love. But

The

was

course, he

in its

source

Communion

AK: Yes, he wrote the silent film scenario called "Trip to the Moon". He teamed up with a young Mexican film maker, Emilio Amero,

gold, like a large insect that sleeps.

Maria de

and bone, confused, blood-red, viscous and

in flesh

his paintings for

his tarantula a typical Pierrot Lunaire scene of

when he joined

spring of 1929

always "on", but Dali describes another side of Lor-

gentle, sympatico,

lucinogens!" he cried. "I

passion and madness

away.

was This

biology together?

mous

That's what Dylan's counting on us assuming. Dylan's got a

— he

retrogressive.

H.F.: So you think they were exploring this world of subterranean

all

H.F.: But surely that's figurative?

work

his

biology."

Naturelle." Lorca's

album on which Dylan most

in fact, the

spells out his use of tarantula

Of

sublime, quivering with a thousand

Datura

Dylan.

calling in the

(laughs) No, but close.

in

all,

Dali's

H.F.: Holy Toledo!

itself

it

existence: Desire.

and he plunged into a deep depression

stung by

Holy Week he actually headed the procession of penitents

In

"Spider

and of Cimmeria, home of whirlwinds and darkness." And worst of

They spent

the beach.

1928 Bunuel usurped him

Granada, wearing a hooded penitential robe and carrying the cross!

he

edge of the world,

at

in

religious brotherhood, the Confradia de Santa

how

and

Cadaques but

at

depression reached a climax

first

a time, and get-

them

here's a picture of

in Dali's affections

particularly

honey"

ripe for death

Where'd you get that?

summers together

his

again and

fall

link.

Explosion of the Swan, an interview published by Black Spar-

several

ca:

"Happy

is

reading them.

first

laconically. "I burned them."

and manic-depressive. Most people remember him as a charmer,

I

nervous system:

would

I

again into a heavy sleep, which lasted several days ting

taupe

they contained because he destroyed

AK:

return to our former disharmony") and the physical exhaustion and

Pliny to confer the gift of

in

to describe the

la

know what

and beautiful, and he's crazy about me! Crazy! Crazy! Crazy!" H.F.:

the spider.

L'Herhe a

—

we

that he

he cries.

la virginite!"

Amero's posses-

is still

—

("This poison will stay in our veins even when, as the fanfares depart,

published form.

sommeil de toute

la taupe,

the

is

—

Press.

was

it

Romantic spider"

had originally written but

that he

"morning glory"

"Heureuse the mole,

—

had, by that time,

AK: Well, of course Dali knows all. If only Vanity Fair had asked about tarantula venom instead of the Rape of Europa. Lorca was madly in love with Dali from their student days at the Residencia. As Dali said in a recent interview: "Lorca was in love with me you know this? He had this tremendous love of only men and Dali is very young,

row

to

published hrouillon or rough

a spider, in fact "the

who

as Dali's great love. Frustrated love

H.F.: What a crime. But surely there's some other

rusty pin" or

that

name

the

—

us

We'll never

safe.

AK: Lorca

found

(he repor-

this period).

in

manuscripts Lorca entrusted him with the admonition to keep them

write

down

midnight

after

pulse probing what lies on the other side."

composition,

—see

the

know wherever he is about Lorca's taranCummings must have known but we can bet he not the man who destroyed the packet of

habit.

gay venom." Significantly, I

him

probably

tell

In

with the strained voice, the high key, the midnight fervours of nostalgia burning deep in the darkness.

ca. "I

moon" And

his "trip to the

people have. The Spanish original

He would

sion.

the section "Faim," he speaks of the "bindweed's (morning glory's)

draft,

The protagonist,

dominant theme.

AK:

the whirling world stand still." In

in the recently

—

moon"

six "trips to the

definitively supplanted

it's strik-

What was

turned silences and nights into words.

I

wrote down.

I

made

tedly

parts.

with veins painted on his body, must have been

Lorca himself on tarantula venom

in

began

the senses. "I

all

man

thunderstruck

"They were dreadful," he said

immediate-

Rimbaud goes on

ups of male and female sexual

frogs, close

tears of

a skull, fish palpitating in agony,

H.F.: What makes you think he would know?

gamut of emotions

2CB, and

Gypsy spook Roelejunda crying

suit, the

moon emerging from

blood, the

Lorca themes are here: the boy

better. All the favorite

saltimbanque

them as soon as he heard of the poet's death— after

the messianizing, the gran-

it.

He had seen "Un chien An-

York.)

venom!

Come unto me all of let me pour out my

fearful

go them one

in the

AK: Few

Cummings

dive after

I

New

his trip to

H.F.: Fascinating! I'd never heard of this film.

true?

Philip

hesitated

I

prompted

surely refer to Helena Diakonoff, or "Gala" it's

divination through gazing at a basin of water.

at

that

"Elena, Helena" that flashes on the screen and fades into screams must

going strong

still

the telephone,

death"

heals.

it

myself, on a combination of adam,

of

II:

in the

sweeping cosmic dioramas. Having experienced something

diosity, the

Delires

most secret use of an

console you,

intoxication

tarantula

cries:

gold, and medicines... Put your faith

— my miraculous heartl" This venom of —

typical

all.

cosmogony and nothingness.

guides and

it

children

little

the

in-

of yawnings and

wide open eyes

young American poet Lorca had met

longer within the world.

— mysteries of

you

heart for is

—

and was visiting

poetic

sleep,

give you Afric chants, belly dancers? Shall the ring?... Shall I?

wood

know

I

the horror of

gypsies,

the

to

iecanomancy

— the clock

Oh God

master of phantasmagoria. Listen! Every talent

a

you

the richest one of

certainly

is

ture, death, birth, the future, the past,

am

am

I

am no

hell

from every mystery

will tear the veils

See how

no more about

shall say

I

like the sea.

up on high. Ecstasy, nightmare,

is

I

he goes on ranting and expostulat-

hoard

will

to the ground.

die of

wants to mutilate himself

hallucinations are endless...

I

venom

Hell, eternal torment!

is

A man who

must...

I

a thousand times, and

of

me

poets and visionaries would be jealous.

this;

—and

the

The violence of

fire.

deforms me, drives

legs,

damned,

certainly

ing.

meaning

York City

Night

mouthful of poison"

terrific

on

entrails are

an old rusty pin

"Double Poem of Lake Eden" he

AK: The duende of course, and

"A

In

meticulously the physical and psychological effects

to record

of the venom.

swallowed a

just

it's

H.F.: Who's the horned dwarf?

gent for

Hell" he actually opens by saying "J'ai avale une fameuse gorgee

de poison"

similarly only

draw blood

to

surface of the dish."

him were

they heard of

all

granary

in the

"moans, sobs, cries of rage, oaths, blasphemies and jeers." in

know

I

was used

it

Muerte. Also, Lorca wrote Angel del Rio from Eden Mills: "Hidden

H.F.: Is that recorded somewhere?

AK: Yes

think

I

and exhilarated jumps. For

old rusty pin and

influence of tarantula

of one!

to

at all.

it

1928

dalou" which Bunuel and Dali collaborated on and must have decided

pass through to the

AK: Well, probably only

of a

first

at

stretchings

me

let

my

me! Here!

the

summer

that

dwarf,

H.F.: Most ingenious. But

suggests that he

last

Lorca uses

I

throw myself beneath the

I'll

get used to

I'll

lungs burn,

legs... Fire! Fire at

myself!

kill

I'll

heart has

hadn't thought this would happen...

1

symbolic

it's

tarantula.

"Homed

types have missed this?

crit.

lit.

don't think

I

stead of a gold-headed pin. In

refers to this spider specifically as a tarantula.

and twice he

prepared

H.F. What does the pin symbolize?

double, he refers explicitly to the spider's magnetic spell over his

H.F.: But

you— be

take

I

hours of the desires of death."

at the

archetypal

power of music and sound. 'He

tortures

(Tantalus,

Ixion,

Tityos,

Danaides, Sisyphus) and counteract the madness caused by the siren's

song with

his

more potent music.

They're into catharsis, they're into release—release from

H.F.: So Orpheus represents the musician as Healer?

AK:

who

draw down

to

the different planetary in-

double— a

chanalian celebration... J agger, Patti Smith, Jim Morrison all made

powers. Ha!

direct references to Dionysianism at

an end

one time or another. I'd say most

—

languages.

have

I

thought that

my

bury

to

go

vast to

The

into here.

the art of divina-

etc. is a vast sub-

between the

vibrational affinities

Gnostic incantations

to

the music of the

initiate to intensify the incantation

or

enigmatic Voyelles, combined the

in his

vowels with colours, alchemical symbolism and tarantula imagery

AK: Oh H.F.:

Hounds of Love.

loved Kate Bush's

I

heard that she incorporated a

I

was

recently

new double album by This

the

tinctly

me

record that impressed

Orphic elements to

really quite ecstatic.

of Gurdjieffs musical

on Orphic notions

theories in that album. They might be based

AK: One

It's

lot

—

in

Mortal Coil.

some

got

It's

said

it.

to

U,

rage;

the tarantula's habitat;

1

—

up your thymus glands!

—

divine

green

0,

peace;

violet

—

crimson-

I,

angelic

the

Dylan. His

or

venom

kinds of tarantula

Rimbaud was

trips).

preternaturally cons-

science que

after

The Im-

in

led

AK:

was thought

of Orpheus

Homer. Pythagoras, Ennius, then

successively incarnate

to

who wrote The Book of Life,

silio Ficino. Ficino,

1600 years)

(after a lapse of

a

manual of

in

a picture of

Orpheus and sang

self-cul-

that

the ancient Or-

delian mist and

sob

at

my

much my own, singing the same to Mohammed, and to Pan. For a lyre have my I

my

piano and, instead of ink, the sweat of yearning, yellow pollen of

my

and

great love." In the Renaissance,

humanitas

as the capacity for love, and the effect of Orpheus' song

Love

to love.

Love

power

the

is

Double natured,

And Orpheus, having

is

endowed with

the furor

AK:

suffered to such an ex-

amatorius which can lead

man

to a

cover

come

bed

Rock music.

We

new

the

bootleg Dylan album.

It's

title.

dead of night and

called Filigree

and

—

the shining staring eyes,

numbness or

initial

prostration, the

—"another person

living in a parallel reality"

is

"Je est un autre" were

it,

the

way Harold

of

Rimbaud's words,

verse runs:

first

intel-

my

in

it

know who

don't

ticularly

malign significance

of Thoih.

to the ten

by the sun

ruled

is

it

I

Gemini: (Dylan's sign) and

and even of I

all

mental and moral qualities."

don't see any evidence of ruined intellect.

AK: Look, I'm pierced heart

just

quoting. The card

stretched to in his

meus": Dylan has written

me away

—

On

the

but he's

still

on the edge. Both he and

Jerry Garcia professed themselves to be essentially is

The

It

re-

I

many ways

(his in

But I

H.F.: Are you suggesting that rock musicians start hitting the books'

manuscripts, housed

was

just telling

when

but

me

at the

about

there

is

a fantastic treasury of ancient

University of Texas it.

He delved into

he was writing a score for a

at

it

Austin. J*° n

a bit

L««~

a few years ago

him on Kepler's "Music of

the

H.F.: What does

it

contain'.'

Incantations on old

AK: Lots of Renaissance musical tematizations of Pythagorean lore. He

mummy

wrappings,

treatises

—

survivals

and

sys-

-

1 - 1

mouth" of

he says

—

know

"I

'What Can

in

I

E-1- E-

1 -

E-

1

-

E-

-

-

of tarantismo, or of possession

mask of tragedy,

Greek

the

the

-

-

is

fought with

AK:

often described

states.

The "squared

"bouche carree" of

Lautreamont; the characteristic animal howls, and eeriest of

—

"the stylized cry of the tarantulees, the

...

cry', an ahiii uttered with various modulations, that

dog than

lyrics'?...

textual exegesis! But

about poison.

all

Do

my

twin, thai

enemy

For You?"

know all about "Where Are You

I

In

a

human

all,

a

crisis

sounds more

like

cry." (Gilbert Rouget, DeMartino).

Darwin has an illuminating discussion of

(he

paroxysms of

rage, grief.

me

'til

to

was

truth

explode" and

both of us

fell

by the

by degrees while the law

—but disease

Well, in the same period he wrote "Legionnaire's Disease" which

clearly describes tarantismo

—

the

title

slyly referring to

"Some say microphone, some say

via the French Foreign Legion. there

you had

il

within,

killing

is

looks the other way."

This kind of sudden, quirky, animal-like violence in clinical reports

dolor sicut dolor

was

acid on the

hearts to stone. But whatever

Legionnaire's disease./

1

wish

was.

il

I

had

it

it

a

was

North Africa

radiation,

some say

combination turned

drove them

a dollar for

their

to their knees.

everyone

thai

Oh,

died ihai

year" (Edie Sedgewick? Jim Morrison? Jinn Hendnx?) "Got 'em hot

by the

collar, plenty

an old maid's shed a

sure put on a squeeze.

Oh

tear:

Now

within

my

heart,

it

thai Legionnaire's disease."

and snarling"

H F.: pin c'.'

quartan idealism of the Psychedelic Movement AK: Yes. He called him "that Old Testament Masochism Bob," but he

were

really bizarre

charts, anatomical drawings showing different

in ventricles: five floors it

in

of the

stuff;

by the railroad carload. Somebody should

who now

has a holistic health clinic

where he's working with sonic resonances in healing. He claims that musical vibrations and vowel sounds produce standing waves in the tion of neuro-

in the ventricles that actually

mediate the produc-

hormones.

Are there any rock

artists

who are implementing

these dis-

me. You know the rock scene far better than consciously using musical energies in an Orphic way? It's

that the

tell

Well, at

is

fascinating,

it's

and

clearly relevant, but

is

such music or-

probably pre-Orphic. Not having looked

Austin,

don't really

I

at

those

in-

know what Orphic means. The music

death bed and played on a hand organ was

his

probably Orphic. H.F.: Oh.' What's this? I've never heard of Rimbaud composing

AK: was

Well, none of like

—except

it

survives unfortunately

that

it

was described

—

we'll never

mush know what il

as "supernal fugues of essences

and quintessences." He probably played it to heal himself in those weeks in Marseilles after they amputated his leg. Anyone who has even contemplated taking tarantula venom should read his sister (he hellish sufferings, "the Isabelle's description of those last days

—

coveries in their music?

AK: You

AK:

This

Rimbaud composed on

Frivolously, even. Also, there's a semi-reformed cranial surgeon

cerebrospinal fluid

terror

cunabula

Or frivolously!

in Santa Rosa, Joel Alter,

H.F.

-

est

especially in his born-

— noi minute

H.F. Horseplay must be about heroin

0"

a

they plundered Europe

—

said there

really begin looking seriously at the musical material.

H.F

me

for

in

or musical tones streaming through nerve fibers and plexi or

after the war, brought

up

1

10 swords

H.F.: Leant

resonating

AK:

-

1

The

and joy and how they produce strange involuntary sounds depending on the different muscle groups powerfully contracted.

fantastic things there

H.F.:

-

grand synthesis

way, Horseplay and disease

much

the pressure gets too

the yelping of a

that sort of thing ?

"I

bite!

peculiar "yelp"

Spheres"

modes

I

when

into

obscure, too profound and too pure, to live

(grass) clouds

dis-

are physi-

The 78 Degrees of Wisdom.

Tonight (Journey Through Dark Heat)" he says: "The

world's under a sentence of death

was born under

practice.

necessarily,

fiery darts"

verse ends rather abruptly:

last

quires soul-suffering and transcendence, then deep study and ritual

AK: Not

me

—anguish,

"You

lyrics.

(here are a few things

the thunder breaks

breaks for you and

"My

mediums. Orphism

the next stage beyond Dionysiac possession, beyond catharsis.

in...

Tarantula, tarantula"

I

Edge of Magic,

again

it.

ear suggest hysteria and (he idea 'no

AK: Look, I'm

it

reminiscent of the

is

outer limit...

its

things closing

when

itself

alchemical and cante jondo symbolism

in

and Rapture: From Dionysus to the Grateful Dead" sponsored by U.C Berkeley featured mythologist Joseph Campbell and Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart.) thought that was remarkable! Mickey Hart's writing a AK: know

But

bit strong'.'

one has ever suffered as much as me'." "Non

me

got

represents "the culmination of unmitigated energy... the ruin of the In-

man's body including one

am

it

the only time dylan

it's

of swords. In Crowley's Book

in

H.F.: Oh. have you found evidence in his

"Ritual

a

Isn't that

I've noticed in other eyes

I

have a

eye."

"Your mind has been

wear a mask so closely now I

in the

him,

to

il

cally ruined by the intensity," she writes in

stare

This poison wells inside of

just a matter of time before

you

you speak of

eroding

book:

to

Babel writes "Have you seen dylans dog?

in

if

solution. Rachel Pollack has (he best discussion of

"I'm living but I'm feeling numb,

are

fly,

Orpheus' soul incarnates again.

(

wondered

I

AK: Well, he said in Tarantula that he'd made a Fauslian pact with the devil to get away from Middle America. The gypsies atttach a par-

tellect

son

can

H.F.: There was no mention at all of Orpheus at that "Ritual and Rapture" Conference last month.

meanings

the

on Tarantula Records. Dylan seems

H.F.: But damnation of the soul?

H.F'.:

and

is

in the

Smith

Patti it

can't look

mask, the double, the thunder (Rimbaud's tempete. Lautreamont's

nology, the resources of the Rock Industry, and the surprising it

the

it'.'

the refrain "Taran-

tourbillon, Patti Smith's hurricane), the sense that one's another per-

I

it.

with Tarantula on

a reference to Moorish architecture. The lyrics

on the cover), the

healer and purifier. With the incredible sophistication of acoustic tech-

the people within

me about

He'd heard

the basic leitmotifs of tarantismo

all

you can see

some of

down

write

to

—doubtless

(in fact, they're

The

out of the ranks of

telling

a copy.

Tarantula" coming over the airwaves

tula...

so close to an understanding of music and affective states, music as

ligence of

one you were

that the

leapt out of

our Orpheus today?

is

suspect that he'll

I

is

AK: Yes, someone gave me

the Flying Tarantulas put

Where

..

H.F.: Oh,

Shadow

state of joy.

H.F

wings,

to lead

sacred and profane Venus, like the two musics of

like

Urania and Polyhymnia.

Significantly, out

unto a temple of

like

is

soul— some of

"Ten of Swords."

to the

name of came from.

that

knows.

defined

things

even the core of one's being

until

whole body

the

very loyal and protective entourage, but clearly somebody out there

is

in all

concert tour was cal-

secret'.'

have been attached

AK:

was

"inventive, double-natured, holding the keys to everything."

is

treme,

produces harmony

that

thought he might

I

Well, those were actually Henry Miller's words describing Rim-

where

piano dreaming of the Han-

create verses very

I

Christ as to Buddha, to

might be

it

the "hydre intime" of taran-

summer

heard his 19X6

I

H.F.: That's the

hymns with incredible sweetness. Cosimo de' Medici invited him to come down to the villa for the weekend and added "And don't forget to bring your lyre when you come." Lorca must certainly have incarnated the soul of Orpheus in this century. He wrote: "In a century of 1

—

desolation." Desolation, damnation of the

phic

zeppelins and stupid deaths

— when

becomes sawdust and

and was patronized by Lorenzo de' Medici, played an Orphic

emblazoned with

use

baud: "The hydre intime eats away

Mar-

in

kind of thought

I

"True Confessions."

H.F.: Gnawing

in his Poesies.

soul

venom

tula

poesie," said

la

sixties.

follows the typical Orphic pattern— the descent into

life

be about to reveal his "gnawing secret"

Train yourself!" "La

salvation.

entreprends est une science distincte de

j'

Lautreamont

madly

rush

candidates for Orpheus out there?

ing after the long Rip van Winkle-like hibernation.

—and conscious of

mind." he writes

the grueling discipline involved. "Careful,

possible. "Don't

Orpheus—any

to

Hades, the loss of his wife Sarah, the retirement into (he wilds of Thrace (read upper New York State), and finally this year his resurfac-

transcendent. (The last three referring to the qualitatively different

cious of his orphic calling from the age of fourteen

urn

all

try tarantula

much belter things out there AK: Or on the drafting boards or the computer simulation modelling screens. Anyway, psycho-nutrition is where it's at! And be sure to tone

Well, being a child of the

white— sand,

do not

—

H.F.: There are

dis-

For

clear yet?

repeat,

I

permanently imprints the nervous system with a manic-depresand it's probably carcinogenic.

It

syndrome

So back

of the tarantula: E,

and

suffu ienlly loud

it

Radioland—Don't.

AK:

man

called

I

venom!

AK: sive

more ways than one

we

H.F.

lily

I!

arms!"

marking on the ventral side

the black belt referring to the characteristic

inner

memories! What

storyteller!

in

my

create a real tour-de-force. "A, black belt, hairy with bursting flies"—

lyre

and

artist

kids out there in

used as amulets. Rimbaud,

tivation,

an

planets,

H.F.: So, have

spheres and were uttered by the

The

my

imagination and

to a splendid career as

new

flowers,

had acquired supernatural

I

Kate Bush...

Lydian, Dorian,

The seven Greek vowels were magical symbols of

blood,

new

tried to invent

I

I

for Orphic elements... Peter Gabriel, Van Morrison, Todd Rundgren,

modes— Phrygian.

the

described in Empedocles' Purifications and Plato's Charmides.

is

new

flesh,

higher-octave Narcissus. The psychosomatic effects of the

—

vowels, colours, tones and planets goes back

and

new

encounter with the

was master of

as a seer or prophet he

eight different

—too

every triumph, every drama.

myself a magician, an angel, free from all moral constraint!... I am sent back to the soil to seek some obligation, to wrap gnarled reality

through mirrors or basins of water

tion

stress,

they're into bac-

of the poweiful peiformers these days are post-modern ironists like David Byrne, Bowie, Laurie Anderson—not particularly Orphic. But I can think of several people whose works I would check, if I were you,

And

fluences.

or channel; he's a rigorously

uses his mastery of musical tones, modes,

vowel sounds and colours

ject

medium

Yes, but not merely a

trained thaumaturge

And

sexual frustration, social tensions, whatever.

I.

Is

anyone

hard to saw You were probably right earlier when you said primary impulse of most rock has been more Dionysian.

incessant wails and indescribable despair."

pathos

I

have ever read once

his

terrible, exquisiie

earlier:

youth that was lovely, heroic, fabulous— something

"Hadn't

I

to write

down on pages of

a

The most

damnation foreshadowed years

gold?...

I

was

the creator of every feast.

slammed Dylan for

NeuroPolitics

also said he

his

"sniveling

in

said that he almost single-handedly undermined the A-

was mutating

rapidly. But Allen

Ginsberg said

it

best of

all in the liner notes for Desire (which by the way. was subtitled Songs every seeker in of Redemption): "loved like a thin terrified guru by America who heard that long-vowelled voice in heroic ecstatic trium-

phant 'how does

it

feel'...

And behind it all the vast lone space... of Enough Person revealed to make

mindful conscious compassion.

Whitman's whole nation weep."

KATE BUSH'S PSYCHEDELIC PRAYERS As name ten?),

the neo-psychedelic

I

am becoming more and more

mean, where bands?

movement continues

And

is it

new

written

if it is

you study your

somewhere, since when did worthwhile musicians give a

One

who

artist

way

it is

made

all

will see that the death of

those bands exciting

New Wave was

Though produced

I

think her

first

were using as a launchpad.

that totally

album (The Kick Inside)

it is

new.

is

last

love to program yourselves into really

its

get deepened.

of the sound on is

How

God)"— "Is

there so

were mining

go anywhere with

my money, though, her music is appearances. No twelve-strings or jangly

my

it

isn't style that

makes me think Kate

Of Love

is

certainly

more mature, and perhaps more im-

made on

all

the

album {The Dreaming) completely dispensable (except

bummer

albums subsequent

for those of

you who

realities).

in

if

you

listen to

them, you

Adam. And what does she

spaces that usually require meditation or

Up

That Hill (A Deal With

hate for the ones

clouds taking shape, Ireland,

God

telling

Noah

to build

that

the

A Book Of Dreams,

closes out side one with a

the societal forces that destroy that particular relationship.

Side two, subtitled "The Ninth Wave," utilizes a

Where

to

an Ark...

"Cloudbusting", based on Peter Reich's (I'm Wilhelm Reich's son)

moving account of father/son love and

the

body.

about the non-spiteful twist on "Positively Fourth Street" in "Running

much

about what some-

that they

we love?.. .If only I could/I'd make a deal with God/And I'd get him swap our places/ Be running up that road." "Hounds Of Love" chronicles fear of love, while the singer in "The Big Sky" spends all of her time watching;

ferent effect.

I

most holy-ecstatic profoundly brain-changing album

the

album, Hounds

The rhythms and tones put you

sing about?

shit

was

inability to

poppy. Songs that work taken from the context of the album. But then again,

is

in.

Kate Bush. For

also the culmination of the efforts she has

It is

and side two makes her

Side one

American top

psychedelia going to be content to do the

Is

goes beyond surface aural

alive. It's the effect

in the last fifteen years, her latest

portantly in this society, first,

" into the

using? Just wondering.

no Nico or Mouse vocals, and (My God!) she writes on a piano. But

most psychedelic pop musician

to the

that

that

never linked with the psychedelic resurgence

is

organically psychedelic in a guitars,

that they

67-69 sound

the

you

history,

the 64-66 Beatles/Mersey sound

same thing with

A Northern

that a British trio with a

Town

written that an eighties psychedelic band has to utilize the conventions of the sixties psychedelic

of course,

vein. If

like "Life In

troubled by the relatively small boxes these bands have constructed to live

one else thought they should sound like? Like, the thing a

steam (who would have thought

to gather

The Dream Academy could push an enigmatic song

like

lot

album was simply a season

of aural patterns and tones of The Dreaming, but to a

in hell,

what we've got here

is

much

dif-

a descent into, and subsequent as-

seem determined to control us and make life as ugly as Dreaming The seemed merely something any sane individual would want to

cent out of, those particular spaces in our consciousness that possible.

And where

avoid, the effect of

the experience of

"The Ninth Wave"

is

an understanding of the importance of utilizing

unpleasant alike, as opportunities for self-knowledge trip for

knowledge holds out

that possibility.

now." And then she's wrapping them."

And who

it

(is

there any other kind?).

"Do you know what?"

up. "Til tell

my

mother/ Til

tell

It is

all

experience, pleasant and

a bit harrowing at times, but any

she asks in "The Morning Fog","/ love you better

my father/.. .Til tell my

but the most disaffected wouldn't want to be able to

do

brothers/ How

much

I

love

that?

Charles Faris

®

—

•

ECHMOLOG E5 I

Outre' Sensibilities, The Healing Heart, and Psychoactivity for Moderns

^

•w

basking robbins "Me and Jim went with

begun

and

joy,

pieces

to

all

shout

to

DR. MA's

ber.

show

credentials

-

Huck

down! He has recently returned from the Ecstatic Adams Family Celebration held

Tom Sawyer Abroad Mark Twain

in

—

Present were editors

together.

Unlikely,

Haile

figure

our

and

Queen Mu, who

astrologer

R.U. Sinus, religious

incidentally

the

is

who went on

the curative

to

do post-graduate

as

(V.C.R.-

work on

field

powers of crossing tarantula venom with a

on the rocks. This healing concoction has been successfully tested and endorsed by Shamanics Anonymous as the drink of wonders prefertwist of toadstool drops

red for

its

hyperactive members.

why Queen

readers,

Mu

you can

see,

dear

has been gainfully employed

around the High Frontiers

my

Now

R.U. Vedic?

office.

I

want

M.T.E.!

So

we undermany outlaws convened. The event was in honor

stand,

of the outlawing (July

semblage of our

how

nutmeg and

to

whose novel

on

staff

the juicy digestive tract, this as-

came

together with the proposed

meet up with the famed beet writer most

literary style

behaves

Quantum-

like the

Inseparability-Principle of Heisenberg's Greatest Uncer-

We

are speaking of course about author

Robbins. High Frontiers , "like ted in raising

pens

when

Tom

Robbins,

cult

the

writer,

magazine,

or

underground mushrooms up?

among tion

us?

is

Tom

interes-

eyebrows out of complacency. What hap-

popular enough to reach the best seller the

Tom

lists?

there

Is

becomes Or when a

fungus

Robbins, whose remarkable imagina-

and storytelling has Mark Twained our culture

about the inner meaning of outlaws, red heads from Ar-

kings

you could

Whoopjamboreehoo! Anyway, we

whistle Dixie and

now

MA said that the

faster than

Tom

present you with the

Robbins interview.

you always wanted

be a

to

writer?

TOM is

what

Your

wanted

I

Since

was

I

five years old

seems

style is dazzling. It

writing,

My

same

like to

I

model of

the universe

be lucid.

to

way

the

be consistent with

you do have

time,

that

you are composing

like

some kind of lucid orchestra or Dead are known to jam.

Oh, thank you!

knew

I

So people

uses visual imagery.

from visual

is

non-linear. In

model. At the

that

If

the Grate-

you can't be

lucid,

because they are not messing around

artists,

non-linear approach,

is to

work

series in the plot

in a state

compromise of still

his

unique

style.

He keeps

to his

own

exercises his funny bone too.

High Frontiers' own "DR.

MA"

a.k.a.

Lawrence

choice on being selected to interview

Tom

last

Novem-

was given betel nut to chew on, and I got stoned and danced all day around these skulls and bones with the natives. At one point. just the eye sockets

I

structure plot

on

a

in

these

work

at

pretty

along.

and there are a

anti-

try

I

series of ef-

the reader's psyche already. That's

in

much where I begin. I try to make it up It's a scary way to work. Not at all secure.

as

go

I

So you experiment without rehearsing.

me "How

People ask

don't know."

When

again.

my

next one,

know?" Then

know

really don't

I

be

I'll

over

starting all

supposed

is

to be.

The beginning of a book

feel

I

an experience inside, like a spiraling sensation, a

like

little

were

to

wings, real vague, definitely a presence.

down and

sit

probably take form, but

So

I

marinating in

see

where

it

wouldn't want

first

to write

would it

then.

my is

it

it

I

think the ideal ap-

imagination.

to sit

down and

The hardest

what voice

simple as the it

I

it,

If

out like toothpaste and leave the

gets you. At times,

taking charge. find

really think about

lot

it

squeeze

try to

proach to writing

is

don't

say, "I

I

don't even have any prescribed notions of what

I

a novel

And

d'ya write a novel?"

"Whaddya meant you begin

I

it

since they

way. The way

in a linear

one of those old-fashioned

like

light-

A

lamp would come would eventually the whole thing

electricity.

on somewhere else

until

Someone

illuminated.

is

seeing

from a distance

it

it's

being

filled in

by

all

little lights.

In Jitterbug Perfume,

is

going

person...

you

I

write a sentence and just feel the

part, in the

to is

be told

rhythm

beginning, in;

is to

could be as

the narrator omnipotent or

limited?

Sometimes you play yourself as stance, the therapist to Sissy in

Tom

Wiggs Dan-

the character Dr.

is

ny boy based on Timothy Leary?

was 10% to 15% was made up from the pioneer biologist Rupert Sheldrake, noted for his theories on resonating morphogenetic fields, and Leonard Orr, Actually, Tim,

who

is

that character.

The

rest

a friend of mine,

founder of Rebirthing.

How did Still

.

and part of

.

it's

myself too.

Woodpecker come about?

Life with

Robbins. For

in-

Even Cowgirls Get The

that

What

was

I

Before

jects.

life

originally interested in

I

began

way

that has

on a symbolic function of

that

I

I

was

to write

something

that

thought, wouldn't

write a novel about what takes place in an It

would have one

con-

the idea of ob-

wanted

I

to

like outlaws.

about

never been written before. Not

level, but

own.

its

book,

wanted

I

vey, such as outlaw types and criminals.

just

to create to affect the reader

fects

is

development

cubicle of the lighthouse and another

little

climax/anti-climax. There are certain feelings that

rest

I

of people have trouble reading

lot

are expecting plot

objects in a

of

Gerald, our traveling correspondent, was our taster's

Well, a

difficul-

beginning.

ties in the

climactic and continue to build or ascend in a spiral of

how.

Global Village without

have heard from other readers of yours similar

of multi-layers.

which are climactic and

they say, "You've written four!"

that cuts across all levels of the

it. But if you continue to do something like that it becomes a technique or a crutch. I want to stay clear from that and continue to explore for novelty. Sometimes when Tm too much in awe of good writing, I need to read less and assimilate more before going on. I

doing

There were important distinctions

artist.

I've tried to do, having seen the limitations of a

There are

reasons for

more

are willing to accept

with their world as does a language

What

artistic

to do.

with ful

had some serious

I

wouldn't necessarily notice that

ROBBINS:

Jitterbugging as Einstein's janitor

enjoy a vast readership

enjoyed that and

turn

HIGH FRONTIERS: Have

who end up

now

I

houses before there was

Ma

Dr.

Sissy with protracted thumbs, ex-

a thousand years later, can

beet and

down

named

gon, hitchikers iled

sassafras. Dr.

loaded drinks were going

accused of writing "like the way Dolly Parton looks,"

tainty.

1985) of the active molecular

1,

what's the point? Everyone uses language. Not everyone

getting back

idea of

all

only

unknown

Vedantic-Culinary-Research-Made-To-Elixir

M.T.E.)

of

in,

botanist-

colorful

graduate of that pedantic bartenders school

annual

first

places, Calaveras County, Louisiana, where,

derivative of

In the beginning... high above the hills of Berkeley, the High Frontiers staff were summoned

Vedantic-

Culinary-Research-Made-To-Elixir (V.C.R.-M.T.E.) and get

whoopjamboreehoo,"

a

also

he's

that

graduate from that same bartenders school

it

had a

real

be great to

empty room?

character, three objects and no leav-

ing of the room. That was the main idea. So that character being Leigh-Cheri, the redheaded anti-nuker princess, is driven to hold a vigil up in her attic and to meditate on a Camel pack's imagery of palm trees,

Yes.

I

pyramids, and the word

had

to

"CHOICE."

reduce the original three objects to one that

contained a few images. At the same time

work, Aries

began

I

was

I

started the

getting over a relationship with a redheaded

woman and

needed

part of the narration

and realized

work having just one person pack came to mind because everyone sees and

it

about that, too. Then I "To Make Love Stay" as

to write

to dovetail all this into

has so

You reveal some unusual

that

in a it

much

wasn't going to

love story.

The Camel

common

object that

a

is

it

lore.

yet true historical research

that leads to greater curiosity. (At this point

pointing out, on the

Camel pack

den inside the camel image

and a

is

I

Tom

is

have handy, that hid-

the outline of a

woman

lion.)

Robert Anton Wilson has mentioned to me that he thinks the Illuminati were behind the scenes in Still Life with Woodpecker.

He

thinks that the Illuminati has his-

.

Blues, or the narrator discussing

were

visible.

therapist.

Tom

Robbins, the

torically

been engaged

in

maintaining and circulating the

pyramid symbol through both

the dollar bill

and the

an interview with Tom Bobbins Is the trip

lithographer were two redheads selected in carrying out

Well, the

the tasks.

tremely hot.

,

design.

Thomas

,

.

,

,

When

Yes.

I

was

a teenager,

^9#5)

No.

That

Julian

s

looRi

You have

wiM

gutans jn the

fa

One

piece he did

in

love mayonnaise!

I

eat so

much

g^

it

is

So we can add on to the list, perhaps, that mayonnaise is one of the mysteries that can make love stay. You could be spreading a new tradition. That's right! recipes in

"Woodpecker"

you

are going out to Juniors Deli on Flatbush Ave., in Brooklyn, to pick up a cheesecake. You write that if love back. stays, it can have the cheesecake when you get have you Perfume, Jitterbug in Love will stay. Then, taco. glorified the beet while in search of the perfect Perhaps your Cinco de Mayo celebration will lead you

opening of your own specialty food store. Hmm. Marinates my imagination. You could franchise a chain of 'em. Maybe naming

to the

" Basking It's

v

r

,

8

LlSwtft^ £ my

was

=

I

neck was

stiff,

my

rear

my

end sore

a half years, and is

myself

at

a trip up the

eyes.

in I

after sitI

said to

Amazon."

asked the universe to provide. Three days later I received in the mail a letter from the director of InterBar Expeditions. It said that I could have any trip in the

So

by

Amazing

,

know a

j

whjle used

t0

Maugham

m

m

I

book free if I would write about it. My first choice was have had to the Amazon, but with the schedule I would symbolic wait much longer. I chose Africa because it's place gets in your blood.

of a rustic experience. The so immediate Pri mal. It's where

human

life

began.

'

sta yed there.

look

u was

[n{0 the best

room

Joseph Conrad

Somerset

and

found

was

I

hotel clerk finds out you're a -

How

if

To

treatment for being a writ er.

me

Kipling

time that

first

w here

When I checked in, they gave me a 2 q% discount. as

at

the

s

[t

Rudyard

and

ve

{

love to research

t0 the Raffles Hotel

went

\

'

,

m

who would

Singaporei

was a wfiter and amazed Normally when a '

j

top

hotd

jn the

you gonna pay t he ever rece ived good it

It

off,

they switched

turned out t0 be the

Hesse stayed there in 1912. bronze plaque on the door with photographs of suite.

'

hjm

suite

is

not for everyone. Are

eoin a to write about any of your experiences

It's

"an S

£

in In-

episode which

I

will

There were seven skulls that were laid out ,n view, were honored guests and the only outsiders to visit.

sion.

Musicians played ancient selected to get dressed probably because skull ring

Sounds

on

my

like the

I

flutes.

It

one of

in

was wearing a

finger

(laughter)

Actually, what I'm interested in right

now

is

the idea

of having some kind of moratorium on the belief in an afterlife. Much of the world believing in an afterlife leads to much of the world's primary ills. An ending to

would increase

this belief

we

life

already

know we

any of the ideas

an

f

the quality

have.

and sanctity

in the

Nobody has proven that No one knows

afterlife are true.

for sure. Therefore, as long as

you believe

in

an

afterlife,

you'll be willing to accept suppression, repression in this jjfe i t wou i d be much quicker to press the red butI

think that's one of the problems...

all

these old

doesn't matter disaster

is

if

im-

developed. There was a pre-historic time that, on some historical level, can still exist today. The notion of transcendence

.

_

skull .

was given

,,,,,„ m,™ chew

betel nut to

cap and had a .

„„ and an H on,

of

parallels

time

I 1

ant got

the

arrival

of

the

Phoenician alphabet, too. The beginning of history and arrow the experience of time has been like an imaginary shot into an imaginary future.

of Chink, The Keeper of Cosmic time, and the nature of the clock people, that you write about quality of those in "Cowgirls." It's transformational, the This reminds

me

of it, you have the cultural and your individual assumptions of time being challenged by characters in just about eveiy novel. Well it's important to realize how our mythos, espe-

dialogues.

Come

to think

distracts us daily the Judeo-Christian idea, devalues and never going to true liberation. I believe that we are

from

war

as long as

we have

continued belief

m *M this

in

suspending

fn afterhfe. Surest Jay to stop war will be u. . c this myth. That, and people ,olence v to he"i cung healthy way, instead of ubj are my which is an acquired behavior later in life. These in

I

Uta

ultimate ideal goals for now.

=^^=^^=^== Of UCgllllllllg Ul 1 I1C beginning

costumes,

heir

Al h par, in Jute rbugJerfome jten Aloba

tea I

the

Well, I'd like to take Vanessa Williams into outer space!

was

turned out that

prepared meets the shaman and partakes of a specially Yes. So,

is

ultimate goal?

set rid of

be writing about. It is be called "King of the Cannibals.^ In one vil,s rare lage, we got invited to an excavation ceremony. It occafor white people to be a part of such an auspicious

We

Robbins,

resulted in that tower of babel called the atomic bomb. There was no history, as we know it, until this alphabet

{

wrjter „

for

Johannesberg.

in

Tom

botanist

for a f

ij

(\augnter)

her

dine

this point,

minent and the end of the world is coming, We can trace the Phoenician alphabet to being directly related to the maintaining of history which has

ew day s

and stayed

and

wine

what, at

five

1

was

j

Hams and

it

ht

at

Hunter Thompson said that he wanted to be the first journalist in space. He also wanted to take Vanessa Wil-

ton.

U-n?

a-

"

looked

list

•

tQ read

wu

,u

e were big circles under

down for ftrellnd mvself "Tom what you need

tint

t

visible.

men running our country who think we use up all our natural resources since

Ah ) he Herman n Hesse

IZ^iZitSmJ mirror and th

- st

from

fiut

There's a it

Robbins!" (laughter)

,

are

dung Were they psychoactive?

Hermann Hesse

a deal!

me

tasty

tnose dingers

is to tell love

They

tQ tmst people

cemer nQt

.

of these mus h r0 oms that I had C0 ij ected they were emitting enought light in my room

Nq

the one product that's better than

every year, (laughter)

One of your

it's

to this center

j

at thjs

e j ephant

Soun(is

an unsolicited testimonial. I always thought Cinco de Mayo was for mayonnaise. I celebrate

homemade. This

They

them back

take

ed as an endangered species. Jn Sumatrai j found these mushrooms that actually jn the darR They were 16 inches ta n and grew

Whip. They don't know what they're missing. Actually, people ought to be aware that Miracle Whip, which isn't real mayonnaise at all, is a crutch for people who aren't strong enough to handle the real is

them

teach

Mayo clinic. I think it's definitely People who don't go for it are des-

tined for a Miracle

Mayonnaise

symbol

Indonesia t0 have a n orangutan as a pet, but

they're

to the

a watershed food.

we

ne day

.

t0 an oran g Utan rehab center. It's a status

j

thing.

Quite extraordinary

did see oran

j

^

me

We

them

t0 cure

artist in the theater

1957 is called Romeo & Juliet. It depicts a Buddha-faced image next to a mayonnaise jar. Kindofapre-Warhol. gonna send

see

t

.

them of their human habits. We say "Get the monk off our back » For the orangutans, it's "Get the human off theif back r They are very a ffect ionate and develop strong bonds w t h humans. Because of this, their Qwn surv va as a spe cies is in jeopardy. They

that.

was not only a revolutionary

I

is

the sensation of a lot of eyes

can

but

against the law now.

wonderful!

"The magic

theater

Indonesia has extreme, thick, vast jungles

at

went

but also a prolific painter.

Oh

cloth to cover the skulls so that just the eye sockets were

*

that Julian died recently (September 15,

know

people were miserable. Like Her-

It's

rafts.

recently rafting in Indonesia.

and wildlife

?

didn't

I

-^

',

too.

Did you know

with the natives. At one point they took a long piece of

said in Steppenwolf, »

And yQU mre

from Virginia up to the Theatre on 6th Ave. and 14th St. I remember meeting this beautiful girl during interimssion who was playing a courtesan. Her last name was Robbins

day around these skulls and bones

not for everyone

hitchhiked one weekend

I

Some

all

ex-

was hard work, paddling

trip

mann Hesse

,

Getting back to revolutionary outlaw types, have you ever heard of Julian Beck and the Living Theatre?

stoned and danced

something you recommend?

Jefferson and a nameless

Camel pack

..

and « histOrV maiui j

Of tittle haS been PXDerienCe K .x . Shot arrOW aginary ai , fe J » -.„. .

"^

11110

m

.

,

.

IUlUre. an imaginary J_

»

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7:

Something of your own choosing. (Must be

legal!)

It

the fourth day of the William Burroughs

is

Con-

Ginsberg and Gregory Corso have given a freewheeling seminar on his life and times.

ference at the Naropa Institute in Boulder, Colorado.

The sun

out, the humidity

zero percent and

it's

another postcard-perfect afternoon. Sixty people are

sit-

is

ting in the

is

main room of the Kappa Sigma

house, a Tudor-style building usually

and

players

lacrosse

Colorado. This month tending Naropa's

attending it

England

of at-

Inscrutable as an aztec

session.

Eric Mottram, a jovial elf in

who was

to hold a chair in

from the Walkman

headphone hooked around his neck. Ginsberg finally managed to get him into his seat behind the speaker's table. Ginsberg would begin a reminiscence about New

fraternity

University

the

the room, classical music blaring

of engineers

of poets and dancers

is full

summer

full

Digression on "freewheeling"; Corso stalked around

the

American

professor

first

lectured on Burroughs from the academic viewpoint.

Anne Waldman, poet and longtime

porkpie hat, Burroughs

friend of Burroughs,

has discussed his "cut-up method" of writing. Allen

William Burroughs

him perform eccentric sex

acts. Ginsberg would appeal Burroughs as the authority, and Burroughs would dryly remark that he didn't remember it being that way

to

y

"a—tall." None of the

stories ever

some

a single version;

Corso

breath.

later

wound up being

stories

table.

never survived their

first

made up most of

of Ginsberg.

Now it is Ted Morgan's turn to talk about Burroughs from a biographer's point of view. Inscrutable as an Aztec mummy in a brown 1940's suit and porkpie hat, Bur-

Cat Lover

-

resolved into

admitted, while shopping the dairy

his stories to try to get a rise out

sits off to

one side of the speakers'

Paris; Corso would escalate the stakes by claiming obscure individuals offered improbable sums to have

section of Alfalfa's Market, that he had

a brown 1940's suit and

in

has

literature,

mummy

York or

on top of next page

cont.

Books Of The Dead: An Interview HIGH FRONTIERS: What

do you think is the direction of mind technologies in terms of drugs and surgical implants, external technologies and techniques? WILLIAM BURROUGHS: There is no limit to control of thought, feeling and apparent sensory perceptions. Professor Delgado stopped a charging bull. He had an electrode implanted in the bull's brain, just pressed a

button and the bull stopped.

tle

thing with people.

They can

They can do

the

elicit rage, fear, joy,

emphasizing the dichotomy instead of trying

the separation of male

...

Andrews,

and female

into separate

beings with divergent and

lit-

same

sexual

some

in

positively, to

help humanity get to a higher level of functioning

cases contradictory

was a mistake.

interests

you

"Who

talking

is

and

Columbians

minorities

in

ghetto?

a

an

in

Ethiopians in a famine, Americans ethnic

As Korzybski

doing what, where and when." Are

about

in a

The

earthquake,

country club,

punctuationalist

theory of evolution seems to point to the fact that changes occur in small isolated groups

and the tendency

is

moment

that they

free world." This

was

York.

He

lion

and

that's, biologically

speaking, very good odds.

is

said that the

the feesna virus

always

fatal.

except that

in a mil-

think

AIDS was

created in a laboratory as a

group-specific disease? And, did you predict

of the Red Night, and also in

Ah Pook

is

Here

it

in Cities

known London doctor who

AIDS virus

has one more gene.

it

feesna virus.

it

Continuing in the biology frame, as a biological mistake

ago. Dr.

Now

out. That's

20 years

was created in the laboratory, John Seale of London says, "I do not doubt for a as to

whether

it

I

meant

rate

it

Lynn

particular sphere of interest... the

common.

great deal in

human

future promises a liberation

from human control systems? Do you

The

trouble with this question

it

would

think

we can

to

How

that the separation of

male and female in

some cases

ac-

would be able from

quite interesting

when

the water,

they have

think about the re-emergence of the

God-

now?

had a very nice correspon-

dence with Lynn Andrews. We get along very well, at least by mail. In a way, I feel that either way is sort of

few individuals

to liberate themsel-

outside, there

is

an

gills.

up onto the land, they develop

start in

Then, when they come

air breathing lungs.

When

they go back to the water, they never get the gills back.

You

one way.

see, evolution is

Any

evolutionary step

which involves a biological alteration is irreversible. That's the law, though no one knows why. Well, this one salamander never came out of the water and that's

So some of some

salamander.

zoatl

the

salamander

injections

the

scientists

kind

promised

is

another question.

would

nitely be necessary in order to inhabit space.

it's

this

hormone

its gills and climbed up Whether people could be

land.

think that certain biologic mutations

already that

gave

of

the salamander shed

if

you don't use

skeleton doesn't have

What do you

I

believe

instance of that in the xoatl

transformed by a single injection

tory interests

I

salamanders of Mexico. Normally, salamanders

do you

was a mistake.

incidentally,

that

onto

into sepa-

the "we." (laughs)

certainly be a very, very

women

contradic-

is

terrific variation.

for direct intervention

whereupon

you referred ago.

As

actual

I

beings with divergent and

yes... I...

look-

now?

Oh

fiction

Any government

many years

immune system had been knocked

don't know.

New

isn't in this article.

dess-oriented cosmologies right

I

some science

in

weapon of war would definitely look As to any evidence that the Russians

It's an old idea which I read in book over 20 years ago. People were suddenly dying of colds and measles and things and they didn't know what they were dealing with. Then they finally found the common denominator was that the

(Sighs)

conference

was developed from

which occurs naturally in sheep and is all of a sudden there is an outbreak of

ing for a biological at the

AIDS

lethal virus that is identical to the feesna virus

feel about that

?

lethal virus outside

Then

are doing this, well,

Do you

a well

invited to take part in an

probably only a very small fraction would be involved

Maybe about one

have released the

the Iron Curtain to systematically wipe out the whole

AIDS, a

evolutionary alterations.

think the

and small groups

towards standardization. In any case, take a species,

in

So we have a

Do you

ves.

a meaningless abstraction.

is

to solve

course, with

whole matter of shamanism, magic, the magical universe, etc.

that

self-government, self-control?

Humanity

my

that is

mean... when you're talking

Could some of these techniques be used

Of

sort of synthesis.

tually get free of that?

excitement, just pushing buttons.

always says,

and make some

much

it,

you

that the

it.

I

mean, a

function in space. In fact,

an encumbrance where weight

And we know

lose

defi-

We know

is

an essential factor.

calcium tends to go.

If

people

space for a year, they might lose all their teeth, be subject to spontaneous fractures, and over a period of

were

in

cont.

on bottom of next page

a

roughs

has finally stopped talking about Somerset

and

Morgan

small, unblinking eyes in that impassive

maintain the distance across which communication can

Maugham

face forbid approach. If he were to purse his lips at you,

take place. Contact involves identification with the crea-

Joan Bur-

you'd shrivel up and blow away. The subject of Joan Burroughs came up again towards

ture

off to one side of the speaker's table.

sits

on an anecdote about the

has started

late

roughs.

He

says

as a cat.

it's

He

eyes.

that

Joan said she'd come back

says he's noticed that

a cat, he takes its

rumored

He

head

its

in his

when

Burroughs sees

hands and looks deep into

speculates that Burroughs

is

looking for a

trace of his wife there.

Morgan looks over confirmation.

shoulder

his

purses

Burroughs

his

makes no comment. It seems somewhat blasphemous Bull

Lee has a sentimental

at

Burroughs for

The

directly.

the

end of the week when Ginsberg read from Burnew preface to Queer. Queer was written over

20 years ago, shortly after Junky, but never found a publisher. Burroughs has prepared a new edition, which should be coming out soon. In the preface, Burroughs says he has come to believe

to suggest that

the

guy

wrote Naked Lunch. The guy whose books are

Old

if

that

word.

full

He

thinks there

is

this

is

knowledge,

War III." You should know that when Burroughs and Norman Mailer debated on the state of the American soul at Naropa in the summer of 1984, Mailer

death. (Burroughs shot Joan in

interstellar

that

You can

feel

comfortable calling Ginsberg, Allen;

You can exchange

Corso, Gregory.

small

talk

with

them. Most people shrink from addressing Burroughs

"William Tell stunt" when they were living

tact

He does

though:

length,

at

his

in

Mexico.)

He

not communication.

contact,

can be very painful.

contact.

Communication

designed to avoid contact,

is

also reveals that he believes

would be something

INCREDIBLY STRANGE FILMS

in-depth interviews and reference on gore and sexploitation films. Featuring directors such as Herschell Gordon Lewis, Russ Meyer, Larry Cohen and others. 8' ?xl I", 170 photos, 224 pages $15

out into space.

But the

cats

seem

to

when Burroughs

end,

them

progress, one of

be the key. At the conference's

gives a reading from his works in is

book called The Cat

a

some of

although

the

selections

righteous animals... a dog

Burroughs

is

the only animal that will

in the

supermarket, comparing cat food with

an old lady shopper; or Burroughs'

though Burroughs doesn't

It's true,

He's a nice old man.

result

one was supposed

There were no drums,

to talk.

Gysin talks of collaboration with W. S. Burroughs, the Beat Hotel and Morocco. Texts and intro by Burroughs. 80 rare photos, 304 pp. $12

8' ?x5'

?' ,

RE/SEARCH #6/7: THE INDUSTRIAL CULTURE HANDBOOK.

Interviews with

"industrial" performance artists and musicians: Throbbing Gristle, Cabaret Voltaire. Mark Pauline, SPK. Non, Monte Cazaiia. Johanna Went, and others. 120 photos, BVixll", 136 pgs. $10

RE/SEARCH H8/9

J.

C.

BALLARD, o"/?xl1", 176

I

don't hunt. I'm pro-gun.

I

own

and what I'm

WRITE FOR OUR COMPLETE CATALOG

San Francisco

CA 94133

not a hunter.

couldn't

kill a

a cat. I'm

kill

essen-

I

have never doubted the existence of of an

sibility

by believing to

work and

afterlife.

in

But

it

something.

isn't

God

something

It's

or the pos-

something you get just

you have

that

fight for like everything else in this life or

another, and not

many people make

it.

writing are books of the dead. think that language

still

space? If so, how does All you can say is that copies of

itself.

it fit it

a virus from outer

is

into the biological

acts like a virus.

So does

a word.

A

much

A word

scheme?

is

alive

by

it's

—

DMT and ayahuasca

have on your

work?

DMT

Well,

it's

thetic

drugs unpleasant. Ayahuasca, I've only had those

just input.

very few experiences. But

Did you have Minimally.

who makes

I

I

it

don't

like.

was very

I

find

most syn-

interesting input.

terms of a shamanic experience? mean the medicine man is just the one it

Book of

the

Book of the

Dead, but

in

the ayahuasca in the town.

I

think

they're both antiquated at the present time and what I'm

writing essentially are books of the dead.

Are you working on something

right

now?

Yes. I've got a novel that's almost finished.

We're always talking about the difference between humans and other animals. Well, no other animal is right or left handed. Now that, to me, is one of the really striking differences, to have two brain hemispheres dominant verbal hemisphere and a non-dominant hemisphere which is spacial, intuitive, etc. So there you have a split. Possibly a fusing of those two hemispheres, or at least a functioning smoothly together would be a tremendous forward step. Most mental illness can be traced to this discrepancy between the hemispheres. influence does

influenced by the Egyptian

the Tibetan

virus repeats

nature and function.

What

am

influenced by the

Egyptian and Tibetan Book(s) of the Dead, but I think they're both an-

you

I

I

a gun. I'd never

a big cat lover.

much

pp.. $11

MAIL TO: RE SEARCH 20 Romolo #B

just

complete silence. Everyone was just enjoying whatever visions they were having.

like a jellyfish.

—

Brion Oysin Interviews.

it.

Who likes cats.

There's one thing I'd like to clear up.

Do

HERE TO CO:

admit

like to

Mary Mazocco

Dead and

,

"Calico Joan"

cat,

entrusting her kittens to his care.

I've been

undiluted punk magazine others copied. A set of 8 of the original 11, 1977-78 issues that remain. Incendiary interviews, passionate photographs, art brutal. 8 tabloid issues, 18"xll' $15

Inside.

diatribes

fuck your leg"), other sections are weirdly domestic:

Well, you couldn't phone home.

tially

original, that the

are

against dogs in the classic Burroughs style ("smug, self-

standpoint.

tiquated...

SEARCH & DESTROY: The

be

newts that haven't shed our gills and climbed onto land. Burroughs believes the next stage is to move

No The end

to

That would be considered unattractive from the earth

I've been #10: Incredibly Strange

human beings

to

from bottom of previous page all.

Commun-

cannot force

to feel."

deer. Squirrels are just like cats.

RE/SEARCH

You

sort of

about interspecies con-

talk

this

"There's a basic difference between communication and

cont.

GRISTLE. Strikingly designed, with scarce photographs, rare interviews, loaded with ideas, provocation. It is already an underground classic. 8V>xll" $f

to

Burroughs doesn't follow up on Ginsberg's lead. The issue of whether Joan is now occupying some calico cat

time wouldn't have any skeleton at

RE/SEARCH W4/5: WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS, BRION CYSIN, AND THROBBING

time,

first

Burroughs has ever discussed his wife's what has been called a

remains unresolved.

tough guy.

the

and

contact,

stuck at an incomplete stage of biological development,

And

"addicts of drugs not yet synthesized, black marketeers

came off as the pansy and Burroughs as the

a strong possibility that

she hadn't been killed, he would have never written a

Ginsberg adds that

of

of World

anyone

writing has been an attempt to exorcise his

his

that

you

ication can be forced. Contact cannot.

roughs'

wife's ghost.

You know,

side.

but

briefly

lips

.

He had

his

man own

It's

called

The Western Lands. You have

to go through the lands of

the pilgrims, the souls have to

go through

the land of the

dead, to reach the Western Lands, and very few It's

the

most dangerous of

all

make

it.

worlds.

Well, we'll look forward to that.

...

the souls have to go through the

land of the dead, to reach the Wes-

make

tern Lands, and very few

the

It's

most dangerous

of

it.

all

worlds. How

would you like to be thought of there some sort of capsule.

now? Is One of

the greatest

Beckett.

He

say,

50 years from

.

compliments

said, grudgingly,

I

ever got was from

"He's a writer."

formula. But the ceremonial aspects were minimal.

How

NAME ADDRESS

about

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PLEASE ADD $6 TO PRICE FOR AIRMAIL OVERSEAS

both

to

DMT

and

This interview

was conducted by Faustan Bray of Sound

Photosynthesis. (For a catalog of tapes write: 533 Char-

component with Ayahuasca at more than sound. Many shamans use drums or Ayahuasca songs. In this group that I went to in Tecalpa, there were both men and women just sitting around. They all drank their

Lane, Mill Valley, CA. 94941.) Some of the questions were suggested by R.U. Sirius and Terence McKenna.

I

_

connected

ayahuasca. They're said to have a sound component. didn't notice any audio

all. It's

ENCLOSED

sound

a feeling of silence

portion after the medicine

man sang

a

After that, there was complete silence.

little

song over

Nobody

talked.

it.

les

g^^gwLj:

Lucumi Magic:

an interview with Luisah Teish

n/?iji n syncretic CX'll/'ratl/' \nr\rlri i-n/ininii lil/iu/finn a new world religion blending elements of Native American, European Spiritualism I mill Lucumi

1C is

//,

and African (primarily Yoruba) traditions. Lucumi is the comparable to Macumba in form it takes in Cuba Brazil or Voodoo in Haiti. Luisah Teish, Lucumi Priestess and author of Jambalaya, was interviewed by Carol O'Connell.

—

LUISAH TEISH:

All over the world, in the evolution of

human consciousness,

there

eminence of the feminine thousand years or

a re-emergence of the

is

For the

principle.

now

suffering under the rise and (I'm happy to say) fall

two

last

•

almost everywhere, we've been

so,

the

of the dominant patriarchal culture. In the case of

what we have

Africa,

to understand

we have had

various people

among

that

is

—

matraliniality

the

that

"

is

belonging to the mother, and matrifocality, where the structure of the society has centered on the

children

We

importance of the mother.

women

of importance for

have always had positions

within these traditions.

Then

you get a situation where, through contact with other namely with Moslem culture, and with Chris-

cultures,

around

this

was given

the African

tian culture,

shame

a sense of

business of the importance of the Mother.

can remember being

an anthropology class

in

I

college

in

where we were discussing what constitutes a primitive

What

marks of a civilized society? Well, the people use tobacco and sugar. We now know that tobacco and sugar are to be left alone. or civilized society.

We

know

also

are the

that society

cannot exist without paying

some real attention to the feminine principle. Within Lucumi tradition, there are positions of authority that not determined by gender.

It is

if

a male priest who's

ten years old and a female walks in

is

who's 15 years

are

determined by age... how

long you have been a priest. So,

running things

the

And

she's his elder.

old,

he has to

respond to what she has to say. The typical male fears of the female, like the fear of menstrual blood,

something it

is

real, in that

menstrual blood

is

based on

is

see that, because everything in their world,

could die. Yet the

woman

doesn't.

responded to the mystery of

if

you examine our

all, if

woman

folklore,

to

bleeds,

it

So patriarchy has with fear.

you see

First

our god-

that

desses are very strong characters. Those characters were

made up temperament of the forces of nature and of women who

not

in the abstract.

existed I

am

at

They were based on

emphasizing the female

my

my

in

among

tradition,

we

start to

adopt ways that are

want us to stop being ashamed of the fact we have strong goddesses - to stop trying to deny

not healthy. that

I

and matrifocality, and take

matriliniality

further

and be

critical

of our

own

it

problems

it

that

we always have Most people

is

revitalize

One

at

hindsight, foresight and

the nature of

being, and what changes

now

is

all

it

what has come

that

pression,

it

survives because

When we

religion

Catholic.

was

We

into

has gone through to get there,

thing that African religion has demonstrated

survival. In spite of the stranglehold of slavery

time.

it

of the

every going to be. But when we study history,

take a look

One

to

sitting in presentsight tend to

think that whatever they're doing right is

and

and then

continues to be a thriving religion.

presentsight.

there

another step

culture,

take that which no longer works out of

so that

it

it

is

its

and op-

always adapts to the

came over here and our traditional

illegal,

kept

it

we adapted by appearing alive.

kept the essence because

it

It

changed

slightly.

patriarchal attitude

to be

But we

remained relevant and func-

air.

Man

is

man

people have to

come

slaves to nature. Let's take what

weave a

what

is

good from

culture that supports

to

my own

If left to

now.

right

I'd

do

to rest,

life

good from

the

on

From

earth.

me

within

mas-

inside,

do

to

There's no glamour

me

in

the planet

this,

in this,

When

in

my

head

is,

I

see

I

lay

"Look

af-

look after the children, consider what's

to the soil."

important for a

to tight the forces

and her people.

what's happening

women,

happening

are not

be a movie star or something. But there's

working against

ter the

this.

is

we

so

devices, I'd be collecting an Oscar

an organic compulsion

down

now

lot

There

is

of people to

speaking boldly, or see

me

no

rest

know

from

book

not written in a

is

men. And a

sive to

lot

of

way

that is offen-

men have come up

to

me and

know you wrote this book for women, but it's to me too." There's no one ritual in there that a man cannot perform. And every man needs to know that notion that he is some kind of unfeeling, said, "I

brutal

rock

is

something

was fabricated

that

Hol-

in

lywood, based on an image that got really popular

Nobody can live at war every day without being looney. So man needs to get in during slavery, during wartime.

touch with the Mother within. That will solve a

lot

of the

problems.

We

have two problems

now, among Black youth.

in the

We

pregnant and on welfare, State.

Black community right

have teenage

literally

girls

being

being brides of the

And we have young Black men committing

Now

you

Black

that.

It's

suicide in incredible numbers.

see

me

people, most of us say suicide really ain't our thing,

— they

being clear about

here. But the

been very helpful

the feminine, and start to

there's an organic compulsion

Oshun pushes me

not a matristic at-

is

out of that one.

got enough technology

culine, take

Man exploitMan dirtying the

against nature.

polluting the water.

poisoning the food. This

titude. All

this or that

We're not

into killing ourselves.

Number

we

if

talk to

There are two things

know that there are nights know what's going on. All I can do is meditate and ask for guidance. And when I ask for guidance, the answer that always comes is "Go and confront that." There are times when I'm scared to

had a situation where everybody was the mother of every child and everybody was the father of every child,

death, but one of the things that this tradition teaches

In fact, at

or the other thing; they should

going on here.

when I'm so confused

restructuring the family that

I

don't

is

the cultivation of courage, standing up in the face of fear.

I

What I am saying now is that we are in another time where we have to do something else in order to survive. And that something else is to em-

and

phasize the feminine. Because the negative side of the

We've

tional for the time.

Man

ing the forest.

We've

tradition, in an attempt to stop cancer,

In trying to acculturate,

we

the

a time before the influx of patriarchy.

the people in

^

am

I

pushing the African goddesses for several reasons. of

And

powerful.

somebody who doesn't menstruate

frightening to

do

call

that in order to

be able to look

in the

mirror

myself a priestess of Oshun. Throughout the

book {Jambalaya), I'm speaking primarily to women, because women need to be made aware of their power, got a bunch of sleeping giants running around

®

In Africa,

one,

was

we had an extended

one point

didn't even have a

in

word

are about the business of torn apart

by slavery,

family. At one point

human

we

history certain people

for father because the

man was

not associated with the business of creation, I

fully believe that

again,

so

that

we have

got to restructure society,

extended families exist and children

belong to a number of mothers and a number ot fathers, We have to figure out a way to do poly fidelity within the illustration

by Karen Duthie

.

All over the world,

the book.

They

Do

Read safe.

No harm

you

tell

with your ancestors and then do

I'm just here

to do.

political is

am

day

to

day long.

all

level.

If

can

I

To

members of an extended born can be raised

in a

family, so the children

The young men have

to take

Does

tested.

hold

it

to a tree

to

what

and the resources

The

New

all

them people have

and get some pure sap and

We've

reality is."

made

women you

to

suicides

of

right.

there's

going to be

That has never been a true defini-

manhood. So we've got a

tion of lot

and

left

pregnant,

get

lot

of ghosts to

kill

and

save. At this point, in this situation, there's

life to

no room for mutual oppression. People have to combat a mentality that allows us

to

White people think Black people ain't human. You start looking at tribalism, and you find that this tribe doesn't is

human. People

in

hemisphere

this

think people in that hemisphere aren't human. That can-

We

not be anymore.

live in too close proximity,

technology has made that ridiculous.

anywhere

in

the

world

Now

our

you can get

And now you can

a day.

in

destroy any part of the world in a day. So that we're like

who have

children

created

dangerous toys

minds cannot match. While we're over our

little

"Who shot J.R.?", madman in there who

money?"... got a

make will

We

in three

shit

I

the

— you've

can press one button and

minutes

if

...

all

of that

shit

he pushes the wrong

cannot tolerate that mentality anymore. So

pushing for

all

people

start

I

— man or woman, Black or

White, no matter where you are or where you from, to

our

haggling

"Who's got

kind of

obsolete... race, class, sex

meltdown

button.

am

all

it

that

that

sitting here

pieces of bullshit...

come

of taking care of she

who

taking care of each other.

life is

about outside

else

we

did.

keep some order, but the

We

We

call law.

did

truth of

some

we

always going

thrown

to or things get all

to get

women who

think

we

things to try

that

it is

into a universe full of natural law. That's what

pay attention

you

tell

are

bom

we have

off.

You're

are going to violate the

is

there?

I

norm and you're always going to get men who into the norm. Instead of making the norm rigid, and trying to make people fit into the norm, we need to be carefully re-examining, and let the norm be an open-

And from what

it happened. Man was devasI can understand how tated by the miracle of a human being coming out of women's bodies. You can understand why, among early

it's

God was

considered a great mother. Because

work

incredible, the

that

comes with

it.

to feed a child, the incredible patience, the fertility, all that is

her and say that's

wonderful. all

cause you're wasting to say that a

of him.

We

and say

to

man

human

ability

whole idea of

is

really insane be-

resources there. Similarly, is

to

deny

who we

a great part

and join hands

to stop this battle are.

Let us evolve

more whole." But wherever a real kind of So courage who's-behindknock-down, drag-out,

that

is

—

there's power, there's fear.

courage, not the

The

then put a clamp on

she must do

nature,"Show us

something

into

To

cannot nurture

need

just

what was

gumbo.

in the

zombie material

recent

You have

of you and look for solutions to them. That's what

we

was

interesting about

Marie

And

that's real

amazing

to

me. First of all, I'm

in-

know what's in the gumbo.. LT: Yeah, right. You and me both. HF: And beyond that, what was her sense of doing an act of compassion for these people and doing it with that terested to

particular element of spirituality, which involves the use

of magical substances? LT: The way I see Mademoiselle, she was a

was doing

woman who

the best she could to deal with the terror of

makes me

out

keep

to

mind

in

men-

that in the African

person has more power when they are on the

tality a

other side of the veil, as an ancestor. So a good deed

done for somebody on

their

way

out

remembered.

is

On we

among old Black people in the South, knew when one of our old people was going to pass. Not because of how sick they were or anything, but we the other side,

noticed a tendency

grandmother used she'd find out

would go

reading

like

who was

used

to

going

do

homage

as

to. It's

you're

colleges

several

an attempt to approach

amazing speculations on

it

But

Honestly, she could be

her.

studied for a long time and you could

like

to go. It's

in an earth-centered way.

possible

HF: She sounds

in St.

they are studying

where they're about

much about

so

woman

another

that. It's as if

to

thinking about applying

much

My

be buried when, and she

to

know

I

catalogs to

the

of funerals.

lot

go through the newspaper and

to the funeral.

who

a

attend

to

to

come up

still

with

woman.

that

she was a real source of inspiration

for you.

LT: Absolutely.

HF: And you're

talking about her circumstances being

extreme, I can't help but think that you face that same

because

issue,

from everything

clearly

you've

else

described, you are addressing a real awareness of a

planetaiy

movie

crisis.

star,

has to play

LT: That's

right. It's a

was applying

actress, the otherwise -would-be

So the

for

all

her roles.

kind of pressure. Because

was an Oscar and

wouldn't be catastrophic. But

need

to study

more,

I

need

to

life

that are in front

come

think about those possibilities.

understand more... because

bo.

worked with

that she

that has

courage where you really face the issues

things that

both those

I've never heard any of the

any of the people

stories about

you-that-you-can-kick kind of courage, but the kind of

HF: One of the

and the mini-

I can gather and what was highly versatile, highly adapI can feel of her she table, quick-witted, and beautiful. And she did what needed to be done at every turn. So much information is coming out now about the herbs and the medicines and the poisons of the African diaspora. I wonder myself

as

thing.

compassion. Because she brought the psychedelic gum-

contact with one's ancestors of primary importance.

traordinary times.

there's

peoples,

life

What about when

by one person. She lived during ex-

roles are played

Louis

ended and evolving

if

"Well the midwife

think,

leads the person into

person out."

death. Paying

fit

don't

High Frontiers: Can you direct the reader to any practices illuminated in Jambalaya that help open them up to the Mother, help them work the Mother into their lives? LT: Yes, there's two things there in the book that I consider most important. One of the things that I hope came through clearly in the book is that I consider making

somebody who

ster takes the

don't

LaVeaulle was her curious combination of/ntigic with

know.

is

we

in specialization that

defined

and

sustains you... the planet,

What

think

Go

to say.

the tree

let

need.

creating a matristic nurturing society.

honestly don't understand what

We

be

human. Maybe

see each other as something other than

think that tribe

law.

to

got a serious problem because

manhood is defined by how many cars you have, how much money you got in your pocket, how many clothes you can buy, who you can beat and how many can

that

how you

Orleans used to say, "Don't listen to

change the society and change the definition of man. As

to

is

your head, need

in

we've constructed these things we

long as

spiritual

But imagine

roles.

minute how many different people you would be

you were allowed to be all the people you could. Imagine also what you would become if you were in a position where survival demanded that you developed every person that you could possibly be. We live so

up? As Mother Catherine, the

what Peter and Paul and

upon themselves

it

that process

us through birth. Perhaps she

being seen again after they were dead. But reading the

been constructed

fed, that've

who

healthy environment.

to you.

politics,

is.

become are

white, then

is

and simple. That's

willing to consider that the notions you have been

spiritualist in

or to

extinction,

to

Be

to

not have them, which taken to

extreme could lead

the

dog when you walk

like a

relate to other people

relate to everything that

only two alternatives.

your principles out

live

through the door simply because your skin ain't shit. It's that plain

I

here and talk anti-racism

sit

you

treat

I

are trying to run things.

how you

mother nature has given

are

That's another something con-

lie.

for a

much

no contradiction between what Chapter 8 is all

that there is

defining political as

on a day

prin-

since the beginning.

life

some people who

structed by

same

to run into the

human

and the

You're going to run

is real.

You're going

about. That's another

how you

The young women who

land of the ancestors and

in the

Because reincarnation

the spiritual

do co-parenting. having the children have

somebody nursed

just as

being pushed into one-dimensional

I

way

and attendants who can nurse them through

of spiritual independence, you have to have connections

into yourself.

feminine principle.

to figure out a

most

will evolve into,

looks so unusual to us because we're accustomed to

ciples that have ruled

immanence of the

have

that's the

work out your problems with them. And if you dig deep ain't going to do nothing but run into your-

emergence of the

We

started.

more ideal setting, which I when the time comes for a body, we will have midwives

a traditional culture, or in a

important interaction. For every person to have a means

Understanding

family.

you

to get

enough, you

a re-

her times, with the resources at her disposal. Perhaps in

person to pass from the

self.

is

are

you from

Make your connection

Once you make connections with them,

conscious-

ness, there

to

hope we

with the intelligences

human

come

can

doing them. But get your ancestor shrine constructed.

what they

in the evolution of

They

the rituals that are in there.

are sound.

I

I

sometimes

feel

experience more,

this

if all

didn't get

role,

I

it,

that

need

I

it I

to

blown, means

if

or death.

At times, I feel overwhelmed. We all do, no matter what it is we're doing. But I feel fairly confident, because I'm not the only one saying it. I'm the only one saying

in this language,

it

maybe. But

daily, people are

being drafted by The Goddess. Daily, revelations are coming. I think that overall, nature herself wants us to survive.

And

direction.

so she touches us and changes us in that

Ultimately,

wake up and

still

the

planet. Ultimately,

I

I

believe that

hand do have a

we

are going to

that threatens to

vision.

which incarnation I'm going to live

it

in.

I

blow up the don't

But

I

know

do have a

vision of people being able to relate to each other as

human beings. make it.

I

have

to

keep

that vision or

I

wouldn't

I'm glad

now.

I live

of the experience of the substance with another, what took him eight years to learn.

It's like living

Heaven and Hell simultaneously. It's the cloud of total unknowing.

in

alkaloids in peyote are synergistic, highly subtle,

own

highly variable, depending on your

biochemistry.

abstinence from

Between

Worlds Joan Halifax

talk with

a

much

very

frequently there's not even taking

salt,

water...

So

beforehand.

there's

you're

biochemical signature

physical

i

l: -

rnmrntt

II:

@

and

where

situation

memory

lateral

experience

sonal

ego boundaries are dissolved engaged. That is this transper-

is

of

clairvoyance,

When

psychological link-up.

Joan Halifax

LSD

in

So

I

is

shamanism and Bud-

hallucinogens

primarily with people

are

became involved

no

it

was very

Western

in

low people

go

to

experiences which

initiatic

And

contemporary

our

LSD work

Therefore, the

ful, in

of

part

a

most cultures

own

experience.

cultural

was, in

my

interpretation, a

of passage which seemed very help-

rite

most instances,

who were

for people

facing im-

where

that logos

Western

mixed about hallucinogens in Shamans have been using halof thousands of years to examine the

definitely

is

culture.

lucinogens for tens

human mind. They've worked with biochemistry of hallucinogens ticated and subtle ways.

I

the chemistry and

in extraordinarily sophis-

think that

it's

know

to

you're taken to that domain.

anything,

other

than

a

superficial,

lucinogens

is

the disaster of pride and ignorance.

you come here

to

do an interview with me,

as

And

someone

who you

consider to potentially be an advocate, and

wouldn't

call

ly,

I

myself an advocate of anything particular-

synthesized.

An

that's rather

aquaintance worked with

new.

It's

this for eight

years in order to get the basic logos, the signature of that substance, and

and

this

of peyote I

think that

many Westerners have

person can teach,

tasted

it.

in

one

can only say that the quality and depth of an ex-

shaman

is

mushroom people that arise mushrooms. But when you're working little

when you take with somebody where and

—

the logos is set,

And when

directly.

it's

you get there

fast,

you're trying to find your

like re-inventing the wheel. It's like Icarus

we want

putting feathers on his arms with wax. Sure,

reach the sun. Sure

we

we want

wax

And

the spirit world.

the reality of a

my

of us.

interpreta-

To me,

this

microphone and a recording machine,

and even of our voices talking. it's

gone.

to attribute too

It's

It's

a reality that as soon

already changed.

amount of

fire.

much weight

It's al-

The

not a hallucinogen.

It's

most no hallucinogenic

makes you

It

feel

good.

insight, intuition.

Look, when you get

to

It's

be speaking from right now. They provide a

world are

be

much

dificult for the

my

we

neo-shamanism technology, a very

is

use as

much

anthropology,

skillful

as

we can

psychology

of

I

of the past, including the tradition of en-

obstructed awareness. That

is,

the recognition of the

of the visionary world and our illusionary

The goal

is

being able to be in relative con-

don't want to deny the beauty, richness and danger of

the world we're living in

now.

It's

the source of the life

of our bodies and our minds, our emotional experience. the

same token, deep shamanism

gets to an ex-