Guest speaker: Bruce Damer
PROGRAM NOTES:
[NOTE: All quotes below are by Bruce Damer.]
“What Damasio is showing is that people who, in the lab, get a huge amount of cognitive stimulus all the time start to have no access to the emotional part [of themselves] at all. They can’t store to it, and they can’t retrieve from it. They become what he calls emotionally neutral.”
“So if ANY crisis arises you have the wrong people [in charge], probably, because the things that put them there, and the constituencies that wanted them there, create a person who is incapable of handling a real crisis.”
“If you want a future, you have to take charge of your own thoughts.”
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A Gigantic Unplanned Experiment … on You! by Bruce Damer
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Comments from original blog page: http://www.matrixmasters.net/blogs/?p=1212
adimeshort
Great photo!! was this that double rainbow in 07? Wasn’t that magic on the playa 🙂
adimeshort
oh i see the 07 title now 🙂
zuma
bruce’s comments on gognitive dissonance were particularly appreciated by me.
http://agonist.org/zuma/20090520/an_unprecedented…
amic
bruce looks like i imagine jesus would look if he attended murningman
amic
**Burningman…
Sean Audio
Lorenzo I just want to say I am 31 year old who has not experienced these sacred meds , I never try something without learning Alot about it, i was 21 before I tried pot and alcohol, now i feel I am soon ready to try some of the things you have had shows on. I want to thank you for a rich history and safe environment to learn and make up my mind. I am just so glad I never wanted or tried to take these meds before I heard your podcast, cause I would not have known what to want or expect, being able to have Mckenna and you teach is so much better then a friend of a friend when your a teen or young adult. I am mature and ready and willing to accept what these hallucinogens can offer. I also just want to say you are a cool dude, when I have been alone or lonely in my life your voice before and after a podcast makes me feel safe and not alone, you just give really good vibes out when people are down.
Lorenzo
There is no hurry to have these experiences, IMHO. I was over 40 years old before I even tried cannabis. … all in good time :-).
Andre3000
I am confused. I am no longer able to download the audio files. Just last week I was able and now it takes me to a quicktime plugin? Any ideas?
Lorenzo
@Andre3000 … I haven’t made any changes to the site. So I don’t know what could be causing your problem. Thus far no one else has reported this.
bill
A great podcast, thanks as always, plenty to think about in this one. Useful warnings from an expert about some of the challenging effects of this grand experiment we’re in (I hope I phrased that right!).
At the end of the second talk (conversation), Damer was talking about how our thoughts can affect the environment, and that we become what we think. I think there is definitely some wisdom to be found in these words, regarding how we might sometimes let negative imaginings overwhelm us (and others…)–maybe it’s like the flip-side of positive visualization. It might be particularly useful in the light of the increasing virtualization (cybersapciation? 🙂 ) of modern life. However, it is a ‘slogan’ that could maybe get misapplied, too.
As the information becomes more unreliably tied to reality, the ability to consider and develop our own opinions about what is happening to us would seem to be an important ability to retain. Being absolutely encouraged to believe that our recognition of abuse or injustice is actually the cause (or literal continuance) of it, would be to take Damer’s counsel too far, I think. Given enough time, such censorship of one’s thoughts could lead to complete acquiescence in unfavorable circumstances.
I guess the trick is to remember one’s best understanding of events, and be careful not to let one’s actions negatively impact others, or perpetuate negative situations. And to keep a look out for some thing(s) somewhere in life which can provide at least islands of reliable joy, and keep the mind positive and open to beauty, until more favorable winds are found. 🙂