Gone To Burning Man (Aug. 31-Sept. 7)

This week, much of the Reality Sandwich team has taken off for the annual Burning Man festival -- a remarkable opening of the astral portal in the midst of the Nevada desert. We'll be back after Labor Day. In the meantime, we offer links to some highlights from the past year of Reality Sandwich. Enjoy!


The Age of Uncertainty

Daniel Pinchbeck

Reality is becoming more improvisational and up-tempo. The ideas of Jose Arguelles, Terence McKenna and others about time going through ever-faster fractal spirals of historical pantomime seem increasingly on the mark.

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Wood, Metal, and the Story of the World

Charles Eisenstein

Everywhere I go, I meet people who express an irrational desire to grow some of their own food, to build their own houses, to get their hands back in the dirt. Now it is time to fall in love with the world.

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Playing Doctor: Herbal Medicine in A New World Economy

Jill Ettinger

Plants have been used for thousands of years to treat and cure illnesses, but in modern America, we're dissuaded from these proven methods by the interests of multi-billion-dollar pharmaceutical companies. Is all that about to change?

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Chaos, Collapse, and Synchronicity

Tony Vigorito

My relationship of eleven years abruptly ended. Then I was propelled into a six-month period of unparalleled and nearly nonstop synchronicity that continued to reverberate for another full year and upon which I'm still surfing the shockwave.

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I Am God
Douglas Rushkoff

The history of religion in the US from Puritanism to the present mirrors the evolution of capitalism. What we think of as "spirituality" today is not a departure from the narcissistic culture of consumption, but its truest expression.

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Meeting in the Dream World: Oneironauticum
Jennifer Dumpert

On the last Saturday of the month, Oneironauticum participants enter dream space together. We do this by sharing things that induce vivid dreams - often substances but sometimes practices or sensory triggers. Whether it's garlic, Galantamine, or Tibetan Buddhist lucid dream practices, if it promotes dreams and dream recall, we'll try it.

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Transformation of Consciousness as Messianic Age: A Kabbalistic View
Jay Michaelson

Imagine a world in which everyone understood that all of us are God. According to one interpretation of prophecy, the messianic age is already unfolding, and the gradual emergence and dissemination of nonduality is among its signal phenomena.

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Emerging from the Dark Age: The Revival of Psychedelic Medicine
Charles Shaw

After a forty-year moratorium on research driven by propaganda and political repression, treating some of life's most challenging illnesses with psychedelic compounds has made a miraculous comeback. A deeply personal story about some of these miracles.

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Fug Everything, Let's Dance
Steven Taylor

If you are a socially-conscious independent artist operating today, and you are not due for senior citizenship any time soon, then the Fugs are your daddy whether you know it or not.

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Community Is Not a Demographic
Antonio Lopez

If cool hunters are appropriating subcultures, than we need to reaffirm ourselves as ethical communities. If advertisers want to sell us products regardless of their social and environmental impact, perhaps we should exile them to a place where they will no longer hurt anyone. (more)

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The Secret Sacred Use of the Belly Button
Joanna Harcourt-Smith

I always thought my belly button was ugly, it sinks in deep. I wanted a belly button that was just a slight scar on my tummy, not a belly button you can sink your finger in. Well my belly button was to come in handy during the time I visited Timothy Leary in prison.

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The Mysterious O
Wendy Strgar

All bodies come equipped with the tools for orgasm, yet without the proper education and opportunity to practice, many people never successfully achieve the synergy of mind, body and spirit to release this unique and revelatory experience.

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Lucid Dreaming
Paul Levy

Lucid dreaming is one of the most empowering tools to transform us from passive witnesses to active collaborators in our own dreaming process. But dream work can lead us to wonder: who is dreaming and who is awake? Are most of us asleep?

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Evolving Toward Local Credits
Thomas H. Greco

The tidal wave of globalization smashes all but the biggest boats. Local communities can regain control over their own welfare by encouraging human solidarity and private, voluntary initiative and creativity. The first step is to organize regional mutual credit clearing associations.

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The Wounded Male Geek: My Vision of Terence McKenna
Adam Elenbaas

After a terrific and scary psychedelic journey, I realized that I needed a mentor. I found Terence McKenna. Several years later, during an Ayahuasca ceremony, a vision of Terence taught me to stop relying so heavily on my intellect and reach out from my heart.

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A Psychonaut License: The Psychedelic University
Ido Hartogsohn

Society has mechanisms for the handling of objects which it deems helpful but dangerous. In order to drive a car, for example, you need a license. What if there was a license for exploring your mind?

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Half Past Human
Troy Jones

Can we really prepare for the future by paying more attention to the Internet? The predictive linguistics pioneers at the Half Past Human project are cracking the code.

Image by lightmatter, courtesy of Creative Commons license.