I'm not a blogger. I consider myself to be a terrible writer. When I was in grade school, I was lucky if I could write more than two paragraphs at a time. Words seem to fail me.

No one's heard a single word I've said
They don't sound as good outside my head

~Nine Inch Nails

I'm worried about where we, human beings, are headed when it comes to living on this planet. We don't have anywhere to "move" to if our "environment" collapses around us. In the past, if we found that our immediate environment was no longer able to provide us with water, food and shelter, we would move to a more hospitable environment. This move may have occured seasonally, annually, generationally, etc. If, in the near future, we find that the entire planet has become inhospitable, where will we go? Where will we move to?

But now I'm not only concerned about my environment supplying water, food and shelter, I'm watching civilization as I've known it starting to collapse all around me.

Some of my friends tell me that technology will save us. "Just wait until nanotechnology gets going. That will solve all of our problems."

Other friends of mine tell me that we will save ourselves. "We will never allow civilization to collapse. That's impossible. Wow, collapse is such an extreme concept. We are too smart to let that happen. We will find plenty of ways to fix everything."

Another group tells me that I'm just paying too much attention to the information that tells me that things are collapsing. They seem to be saying that if I just pay attention to other things, more positive things that everything will be better. WTF?

Must be that LAW OF ATTRACTION thing. ;-)

Today I read Jim Kunstler's "Clusterfuck Nation" and I thought, "Here is someone putting what is in my awareness, putting my perspective into clear and concise words."

Words that sound as good outside my head.

Thanks Jim.

A REAL FREAK OUT

      Things are getting very weird very fast -- and will probably get even weirder, faster, as the train wreck of bad debt meets the Saint Paddy's Day Parade of bacchanalian excess at the grade-crossing of destiny. The train is carrying America's financial system, but the engine driving it is peak oil, because declining energy resources necessarily means declining capital wealth -- and declining value of all the institutions, instruments, and markers that denote that wealth or hope to profit by trading in it. The fiasco leads straight to the necessary reinvention of American life on other terms and by other means.

      I've maintained for a long time that, even among those who recognize we have a big problem, there are many impediments to imagining a credible outcome. One thing I've noticed is that in any given public meeting (or lecture hall) you can divide participants into two groups: those who believe we will 'high-tech' our way out of this predicament; and those who believe we'll organize our way out.

     I don't subscribe to either point of view, strictly speaking. Both POV's assume that there will be an orderly transition between where we're at now and where we're headed. They're tainted by the kindergarten ethos of entitled happy endings and outcomes, which has been the chief operating system for the Baby Boomers, a therapeutic bias for placing 'good feelings' ahead of reality -- which also has obliterated the tragic sense of life that acts as the only brake on humanity's inherent hubris.

     Ultimately, in my view, the issue of what happens next will be settled not by the fantasies of the algae-biodiesel geeks or the wishful thinking of the sustainable futures organizers, but by the natural, self-organizing properties of a society responding 'emergently' to new circumstances. One of the implications of destiny-as-emergence is the probability that we will try any damn fool thing besides the right things to keep the old game going for a while -- even in the face of obvious failure. 

     I'm sure our political leaders will mount a campaign to rescue the futureless infrastructure of suburbia. It will necessarily be an exercise in futility. But it has already started. That's what the swindle of ethanol has been all about. And the touting of hybrid cars, and the flimflam of "energy independence." Even the "environmental" crowd" squanders most of its attention these days on how to keep all the cars running on something other than gasoline. They don't question the assumption that we will remain a car-dependent society.

      As much as I loathe the suburbs in their grotesque late-stage efflorescence, I can understand why those stuck in them would wish to defend their misinvestments. I just hate to think of the political consequences when their disappointment catches up to the reality that the suburbs will not be rescued. And by that I mean not just the houses but the way-of-life associated with them and all its accessories, furnishings, and activities. Bewilderment will soon turn to rage out in the highway-strip-and-cul-de-sac empire.

     Now, apparently, we'll also opt for a bail-out of all those who tried to become rich by getting something for nothing at both ends of the Ponzi scheme called the housing bubble -- the "little guys" who signed mortgage contracts they could never hope to pay off, and the Wall Street playerz who bundled these hopeless contracts into fraudulent securities (and their enablers in the ratings agencies, plus the hedge fund smoothies who tried to cash in by using recondite algorithms to dissolve the risk associated with imprudent lending.) The bail-out is likely to accomplish nothing except the more rapid bankruptcy of government at all levels and a second Great Depression at ground level (worse than the first one).

     Over the weekend, the Federal Reserve engineered a $30-billion dollar Saint Paddy's day present for the JP Morgan bank by handing them the corpse of Bear Stearns. The object of the game is to prevent the "assets" of Bear Stearns from going to the auction block, on which they would be discovered to be nearly worthless, which would instantly render all similar assets held by the other big banks to be similarly worthless, and would result in a universal margin call that would pretty much unwind the hallucinated "wealth" acquired the past ten years.

      Despite the heroics around the fate of Bear Stearns, it looks like the financial system is tottering anyway. Perhaps the last trick left in the rescue bag will be the 100-basis-point drop in the Fed rate rumored to be announced tomorrow. It won't help any of the big banks, since their problem is holding liabilities in excess of assets. Almost certainly it would crater the US Dollar.

     The next thing in store for America, in my opinion, will be a rather new surprise: oil-and-gasoline shortages. While frightened money pours into the oil futures markets, driving the price up, strange behavior will start brewing in the actual physical allocation process. Imports of oil and gas to the US may not be as reliable as it had been when America seemed to be a solvent nation. The exporters may be changing their terms of doing business with us -- and that's nearly two-thirds of all the oil we need. The public would probably suck up oil price increases indefinitely, but shortages are going to be something else. A real freak out.

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Read Jim Kunstler's original blog here.

Coinci-dance. The dance of coincidence and synchronicity.

The following was written six months after this explorer's first experience with Salvia…

" During those months the Salvia experiences were never far from my thoughts, the apparent ‘realness’ forcing me to question my entire belief structure, which has always been pretty shaky at best. Even though I consider myself a veteran drug user, Salvia shocked and shook me to the very soul of my being like no other substance has ever done. Indeed the Salvia experience was so ‘out there’ I was no longer sure where ‘here’ is. My new-found pre-occupation with trying to integrate the Salvia experiences into my worldview of what is possible took away worries from everyday trivial concerns, for as a human I was no longer stuck plant-like to the same spot, I had arms and legs and an opposable thumb! What gripe had I? 

I tried to explain to my friends what had happened, but how could I even begin? This rambling written report will give you some idea about that difficulty. After a while I decided to shut up, as harping on about it seemed to act as a barrier between normal interaction. My psychology degree-holding friends half-heartedly listened then belittled and branded the most profound experience of my life as hallucinations. They probably thought I was weirder than Prince Charles. This irritated me slightly, because, as friends, and particularly as educated psychologists, I would have expected more interest from them. Even if my experiences were hallucinations, what do those hallucinations tell us about the brain and chemical reactions, etc., and if the hallucinations seemed ‘true’ and realer than real, then how real is reality, and so on. I was just expecting more input and less ridicule, since it is their professional field. To me, this plant seemed to be a fascinating tool for exploring psychology - most importantly, states of consciousness and belief structures. However, my friends’ belief structures wouldn’t budge or consider anything beyond what they had first sponged from a textbook (darn conformist scholars!). I can’t blame them, though: even I couldn’t believe it, and it had happened to me! It was clear I needed to find other people who had experienced Salvia, to see what they made of it too. This is what brought me to do further research on the internet. 

Reading through other people’s Salvia reports I was taken aback - as they revealed that different people in different places were ‘hallucinating’ the same thing!!! "

I agree that the similarity in experience reports is astounding... amazing, unbelievable and sometimes frightening. What if each Salvia user is experiencing this same questioning of their belief structures? I like to think of Salvia as being the "The Red Pill" from the movie The Matrix. If there is a "Wake-Up" pill, Salvia could be it.

The full Salvia experience report can be found on Erowid.

I figured that I better talk about salvia divinorum now while it is still legal in most states in this country and also legal in most countries on the planet.

The Basics

Salvia divinorum is a plant used for its psychoactive effects. Given the right dose, individual, set and setting, it produces a unique state of  'divine inebriation' which has been traditionally used by Mazatec healers. This inebriation is quite different from that of alcohol. Salvia divinorum is both similar to, and different from, other drugs that affect the brain and behavior. In many ways Salvia divinorum is a unique 'magical' herb. Salvia (and the salvinorin it contains) is very difficult to categorize pharmacologically. It does not fit well into any existing pharmacological class.

What is a Salvia divinorum experience like? It is almost certainly not like what you expect. Even if you have considerable experience with other psychoactive drugs, you will find that salvia is significantly different from what you may have encountered before. Salvia is unique, and it is best understood on its own terms, and not by analogy with other substances. Salvia is not a recreational drug, rather, it is best used by those wishing to explore deep meditative states, spiritual realms, mysticism, the nature of consciousness and reality, or the possibilities of shamanistic healing. Experiences vary with the individual, set, and setting as well as with dose and route of administration. It produces a short-lived inebriation that is very different from that of alcohol. However, like alcohol it interferes with the ability to drive, produces incoordination (ataxia), and may produce slurred speech.

The inebriation, at low doses, can facilitate aesthetic and sensual appreciation. However, the experience is not marijuana-like, and salvia is not a marijuana substitute. At somewhat higher doses, visionary trances occur. The lowest level visions consist mainly of closed-eye imagery somewhat similar to the hypnagogic phenomena that many people experience when falling asleep. These tend to be two dimensional faint images. The term "eye candy" is an appropriate description of the interesting closed eye visuals that are not confused with reality. At this level communication with others is still easy and one can move about although clumsiness will occur. With a higher dose vivid visual images occur even with eyes open, and with eyes closed one may completely enter the visionary world, and it will seem quite real, but upon opening ones eyes one will reestablish contact with ones surroundings. Speech patterns may be interfered with and communication is difficult. At still higher doses, one remains conscious but completely enters an inner realm and loses all contact with ones actual surroundings. Some people may move around in this deep trance state and for this reason a sitter is required for anyone seeking to explore such deep levels. With very high dosage a brief period of unconsciousness or at least the inability to subsequently remember the experience will occur.

Further information can be found in this FAQ.

The Expert

Daniel Siebert is an independent researcher, pharmacognosist, ethnobotanist, educator, and author. He has been studying Salvia divinorum for over twenty years and was the first person to work on the human pharmacology of salvinorin A and to clearly identify this compound as the psychoactive principal of the plant. He has studied Salvia divinorum in its native habitat and has worked with it under the guidance of Mazatec shamans.

The Experience

Erowid is a member-supported organization providing access to reliable, non-judgmental information about psychoactive plants and chemicals and related issues. They work with academic, medical, and experiential experts to develop and publish new resources, as well as to improve and increase access to already existing resources. They also strive to ensure that these resources are maintained and preserved as a historical record for the future. [Somebody has to preserve all of this seemingly wild and crazy stuff]  ;-)

Words fail to describe the salvia experience but you can read others attempts at putting it into words here. Be prepared for some mind-blowing recollections.

For a good video introduction to salvia, check out this short student documentary on Salvia Divinorum:

Finally, if you have time, check out Alex. The video is a little long but captures a full salvia experience. Alex’s experience resonates very deeply with me. During the salvia experience, everything happens so quickly that words fail to convey what is being witnessed moment to moment.

“It feels like my mind is a camera and it’s taking pictures and every time there’s a flash my mind is thinking and while there’s not a flash my mind is not thinking.” ~ Alex

Alex is only one of several hundred “younger” persons that have posted their salvia experiences on YouTube. Unfortunately most of these “young” people have little or no framework to understand or comprehend the experience. So what are we to do? Make salvia illegal and sweep it under the rug with marijuana, LSD and MDMA?

When are we going to stop, wake up and pay attention to what is being revealed to us?

“Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain” ~ Wizard of Oz