The Wisdom of Moo

A risk that is not taken has infinitely less chance of success than one that is taken
NICKY MOO COW

From My Window

From My Window
Originally uploaded by Crystal Skull.

Myouin Temple

Myouin Temple
Originally uploaded by Crystal Skull.

Genius Loci

Most of us are becoming aware of the fact that we live in a realm which is only partially evident to our senses. We are realizing the glorious paradox that even though the substance of matter has proven to be little more than nothing, our reality is interwoven with many more than the three or four dimensions we are usually aware of. Those of you who are familiar with the Mayan Calendar will know that our planet travels through a complex yet distinct perfusion of ambient energies in its dance across spacetime. This cyclic phase-shift holds a pattern of manifestation that thousands have begun to discover for themselves, either through time maps like the Haab, or through a direct experience of self-attunement. As far as we know, our course through this field of cosmic radiation is predetermined, but it is up to us to decide how to respond to it. It also teaches us about Genius Loci - the Power of Place.

Every part of the Universe has its own frequency and corresponding thought field which is in constant flux, and the fluctuations range from fractions of nanoseconds to aeons. In other words, every single thing has its own energy signature which is constantly evolving. Planet Earth (Gaia) has her own fluctuating energy system, the study of which is known as geomancy. Many of humanity's sacred sites, like Stonehenge and Glastonbury Tor, lie on the points or lines of this geoidal network. In fact, most of the sacred sites belonging to the temples and cathedrals of the various world religions were selected for their auspicious geomantic signatures. Many of these sites have disproportionate concentrations of negative ions, known for their healing properties, as well as peculiar absences of background radiation.

Two of the most important parameters in the Harvard Psychedelic Drug Research Project were 'Set' and 'Setting'. Dr. Timothy Leary and Dr. Richard Alpert (a.k.a. Baba Ram Das) emphasised these variables, which stood for mindset and place, respectively, as the crucial determinants of the quality of a psychedelic experience. Consciousness is a necessarily psychedelic experience. Drugs such as LSD and Mescaline merely serve as accellerators for certain natural psychocerebral processes like neural disinhibition and cerebral convection, leading to the spiritual euphoria of what has been called 'religious experience' or its dark antitheseis, the cataclysmic terror of a bad trip. Whichever part of the spectrum the psychonaut finds themselves is a result of the interplay between Set and Setting: Consciousness and Space. We are transponsive with space. In other words, where we are affects who we are, and who we are in turn affects where we are. Chemically enhanced psychedelic experience serves to open what Aldous Huxley called the doors of perception in a shortcut to what can also be achieved through the more disciplined practice of meditation. I prefer to refer to these doors as an aperture that lets in as much light as we choose or as much as we can bear. The hippie arguing with a potplant (you know who you are) therefore might not be such a rediculous concept if we accept that consciousness is inherent within every aspect of existence, from the quantum particle to the universe at large; and that our experience depends on how much information we are willing or able to share with our environment.

Zero-Point physicists have pointed out that there is a vast quantity of energy stored in every cubic inch of space, and the same is true of information. Phrases like "getting a feel for the place" or "picking up good vibes" are linguistic evidence of our experience of the mind/space (mindscape) interplay. Geomancy and Feng Shui are established disciplines for utilizing and harmonizing it. The only thing we have to pay for it is attention.

Onomichi

Onomichi
Originally uploaded by Crystal Skull.

Sunset in the Land of the Rising Sun

Bucky on Bucks:

Those who make money out of money deliberately keep it scarce. Money is not wealth. Wealth is the accomplished technological ability to protect, nurture, support and accommodate all growful needs of life. R. BUCKMINSTER FULLER

What's With The Name?

You're probably wondering why this blog is called 'Fractal Mindscape' and what on earth 'res cogitans est res extensa' means. Well, I'm sure you're at least faintly aware that the mystery of our conscious awareness has been hopelessly explained by organized religion and scientific investigations seems to yeild more questions than answers. Not only do we exist within an apparent mystery, but it gets more mysterious as it goes along.

It has been my experience that the best way to navigate this puzzle is by inventing one's own explanation, and this is what I am in the process of doing. It has also been my experience that entire classloads of students at one of the best medical schools in the world have no idea what a fractal is, so dont despair if you don't either. The fractal has been a useful tool which I have used to create my cosmology, for it is an infinitely recursive pattern that is different at every level, yet somehow also the same. Any segment will hint at the nature of the whole, and any piece will contain elements of or relationships with all of the other pieces. You can zoom into it forever and zoom out of it forevermore. Such is the universe. We have got as far as neutrinos on the in-zoom and hypergalaxies on the out-zoom and the main thing we have realized is that there seems to be more space here than anything else. Quantum physicists operating the most sophisticated and expensive scientific instruments ever built have fled to India to smoke hashish and grow dreadlocks because of what they saw when they were permitted a glimpse through the veil of what we assume to be real.

The core of our being is our consciousness, which does not stop at the boundaries of our bodies. We have all experienced information that has filtered through to us from a medium other than the senses we are familiar with. We are intermingling fields of consciousness, our bodies the epicentres of these fields, as much mind as they are physical.

Unfortunately, we have been led to believe otherwise by a man called Renee Descartes, whose insistence that mind (res cogitans) is separate from body (res extensa) has shaped the scientific paradigm for centuries. It has also removed us from nature, giving us dominion over it and the propensity to pick it to pieces to see how it works, as if it were a machine. Science is coming full circle with discoveries in most disciplines that are unravelling systems of thought that took centuries to construct, and systems theory is demolishing the walls we have built to compartmentalize what we think we know. Our increasing familiarity with the atom (still derived from our tendency to smash it to bits) and the universe is leading many on the forefront (no longer just the fringes) of science to conclude that what we once thought of as physical, may indeed be just thoughts in a mind and our minds in its thought, part of an infinitely recursive pattern that is different on every level, yet somehow the same.