Psychedelic Israel
Ido Hartogsohn
What is the Geula Party? Is it a political statement? Art? A spiritual manifesto? The Geula party seeks to be all of the above, but it is first of all an attempt to transmit a radically different message to the Israeli people on the eve of the Israeli elections which will take place this Tuesday, on the 10th of February.
Like the Intergalactic Underground, the idea for the Geula Party came from voyages in the psychedelic realms. It was there, while traveling in inner space, that I confronted a voice which urged me: "In this chaotic reality in which you live, you have to raise your voice and say something that will break the wall of lies in which the people are caught, in which you yourself are caught."
"Israel," the voice said, "is in a psychotic state, and what it needs now is an holistic cure."
Psychedelically-induced voices tend to make some curious demands. This one called upon me to leave everything in my life in order to start a new party, one that will be radically different from everything Israeli politics has to offer, a psychedelic party which will bring a truly mind expanding message to the people. This was the Geula party.
"Geula" is the Hebrew biblical word for salvation or redemption, and it has an important part in Jewish thought about inner freedom and the end of time. The Geula Party uses both Israeli as well as Jewish symbols but plants them within a psychedelic context. It was designed to be an alien apparition in the field of Israeli politics, but all the while draw from the bank of the Jewish and Israeli collective unconscious.
So what is it? To put it briefly, I can call the Geula Party a consciousness expansion party. In contrast to the other parties that run for parliament, the Geula Party runs in the inner elections, i.e., the elections going on inside our consciousness (in Hebrew the word "elections" and the word "choices" are the same -- "B'chirot").
Who do we run against? Well, we run against various other inner parties and powers that compete for people's attention and state of mind. We run against carnivorous capitalism, the powers of nationalism, the powers of commercials and mass media, and also the powers of random choice, of just living your life with out making one truly aware choice.
During the past three weeks, since the end of the war in Gaza, we have been broadcasting campaign videos on the web, calling upon Israelis to wake up, to take active inner action and raise the voting turnout in their inner ballots. We have been arguing that while one can only vote every four years and while our influence on politics as individuals is rather limited, we are casting our inner votes at every moment, and our influence there is absolute. You can argue for hours in vain about the political situation, but spending a few minutes wisely exploring your consciousness can change your life. Maybe, we suggest, if people start making their inner choices/elections, then one day things will start getting better in the outer world too.
The Geula Party calls upon Israeli voters (And of course, on people wherever they are) to start taking responsibility for their lives, to drop out from the hoax of culturally defined reality and choose the good, choose the Geula.
The Medium is the Message, and the Message is You
Although I have been openly writing about psychedelics in Hebrew for the past few years, advertising an openly psychedelic party could have been highly unwise in the current Israeli context.
However, a program for psychedelic consciousness expansion for Israeli society was badly needed for the Geula Party to go anywhere. Some tools for our mind to grow needed to be developed. The nine-minute program, another transmission received from the other realms, became the main part of the political platform of the Geula Party.
The nine-minute program is a consciousness expansion program made up of nine one-minute, open-ended consciousness exercises designed to help people cope with life and to enhance abilities such as love, faith, gratitude, and connection with the cosmos, with the past, and with the future.
The idea of the nine-minute program was further developed into the Inner Product Market, a part of the Geula Party website which functions as a web 2.0 platform for consciousness expansion. The Inner Product Market enables people to upload consciousness exercises they developed, and enables others to download consciousness exercises from the site into their consciousness -- thus creating a community for collective consciousness expansion. The idea behind the IPM was to create a basis for a society which will not be based on polluting consumer products, but on consciousness "products," and in which we are not simply consumers but consumers and producers of consciousness.
What we say to people is that we have to assume responsibility for our consciousness. We advance this idea with the slogan: "The medium is the message and the message is you." Marshall McLuhan was of course the one who said that the medium is the message. Adding the statement that "The message is you" means that before all other media, the most primal medium is that of our bodies and consciousness, and these are the first media that need to be explored and taken as the base of our reality, rather than culturally defined identity.
Consecrating Dizingoff Center
On the 10th of February, election day, the Geula Party will meet in front of the Dizingoff Center Mall in the center of Tel Aviv to perform a special ceremony. The ceremony, which draws inspiration from biblical sources as well as from the actions of the Yippie movement in the sixties, is meant to consecrate the Dizingoff Center Mall which is a symbol of modern day Israeli society with all of its sickness but also with everything that is so beautiful about it.
During the ceremony we plan to encircle center mall seven times while blowing our horns, and then stage a special ceremony in which we will sing some songs, and perform twelve consciousness exercises, one of which will include trying to get inside the consciousness of the next prime minister, whoever they will be, purge them of everything that is evil, and make them into slaves and servants of justice for the rest of their life.
The peak of our ceremony will be the forming of the alliance of the righteous. The alliance of the righteous is the alliance of all the people who are willing to proclaim that in 2009 --whomever the next prime minister will be, whatever our politicians do, and what other forces in the world do -- we choose to assume responsibility for our lives, to be good, and to be happy.
Is this politics? Is this art? Is this mysticism? Terrence McKenna said the first thing every activist must do is to become psychedelic. We like to think of the Geula Party as psychedelic activism, as a movement which advances "art that is politics, politics that are art. Mysticism which is politic, and politics which are mystical".
Israeli politics of consciousness
I realize that this text might raise a few eyebrows. Is it even possible to talk about consciousness given the current situation of Israel?
Since the last elections three years ago, Israel has engaged in two wars, the prime minister had to resign over suspicions of corruption, and the country's international position has radically deteriorated. Israel has polled a few times as one of the most hated or negative countries in the world, along with Iran.
I spent the whole of yesterday evening trying to write an introduction to Israel's current situation. I've decided to leave it out of this article because it was too tedious to read and too painful to write.
I realize with sorrow what the image of Israel and Israeli society is at the moment. I have seen some amazing people here react in totally different ways to the essential impossibility of the Israeli situation, either by becoming nationalistic or by becoming anti-Israeli or just by trying to distance themselves completely from the situation in Israel, sometimes by immigrating to other countries.
After 30 years of living the politics of this scarred country, the more I try to explore and to understand the political situation I live in, the less I feel I know. Both left and right ideologies seem to have crumbled. I personally can not believe anyone who thinks they have a sure solution for the situation. And by this I don't mean to say that we shouldn't look for one.
The only thing I can say about the situation in Israel is that it is not simple. Thinking about it in purely political terms has brought me nowhere. The only thing it made clear to me is the overwhelming pain and fear that people here experience on both sides. It is easy to hate Israelis and it is easy to hate Palestinians, it is easy to pronounce both as fools or fanatics. I prefer to think of them as humans in a really really cruel situation. What I am looking for is a way to feel compassion for all these people, regardless of the horrible mistakes we are all making.
It is difficult to engage in the politics of consciousness in the current situation in Israel. What is allowed for psychedelic activists in other parts of the world is liable to be called escapist in the bleak Israeli reality. But for me, psychedelic activism makes more sense than any other form of activism.
The Geula Party believes that the solution must start from within. And if we do offer a political solution in the conventional sense of the word, then it must be a totally different one, one that starts out from the psychedelic revelation that we are all first and foremost human beings and that the cultural definitions which have been forced upon us are a hoax.
If you ask me about a solution for the situation, I would have different proposals, but the only really good one I would have is: People should be people and live together. There is no other way. The thing that put us in this horrendous situation to begin with is culture. Without culturally-defined identity, there would be no reason for people here or elsewhere to fight in wars. What we must realize is that we are all under occupation, the occupation of false consciousness, the occupation of culture.
If we want to live in peace we must first let go of those cultural definitions that have been forced upon us and which prevent us from living together as human beings. People must realize that before everything else, we are humans, and that everything that hinders people from understanding that is destructive and should not be part of our identity.
Jacques Ellul said in The Technological Society: There are no political solutions, only technological ones, the rest is propaganda. The human race simply deserve a better political system, one in which all people are truly equal, one which brings people together and does not divide them by imaginary lines on a map, a political system in which the hellish wars we are currently experiencing would seem ludicrous since there would be no system to even make it possible.
Amen.
------------
Here are the links to the two elections broadcasts embedded above:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YLglFBYnEY&fmt=18
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUryJX1H6Hw&fmt=18
- Ido Hartogsohn's blog
- Login or register to post comments
- Printer-friendly version
- Tags:
- Elections
- Psychedelics
Delicious
Digg
StumbleUpon
Propeller
Reddit
Magnoliacom
Newsvine
Furl
Facebook
Google
Yahoo
Technorati
Icerocket
I love this,
awesome!
those are great! and a great idea, i look forward to more. go Geula party!!
~*~-~*~ 'Versal Free Agent ~*~-~*~
=======Memetic Komando======
======Khayos Ryzing Skwad=====
-Ehsewtearik Uhkullt Warfheir Devijon-
Consciousness
great article...............
but videos? hmmmm, not sure. I am not wanting churchy seriousness all the time, or any of the time actually. BUT the situation is so serious, and so complex, that in order to be taken seriously there has to be more gravity.
I had a psychedelic shrooms Trip a few years ago, and a big part of it was watching --by chance--on the TV a fly-on-the-wall documentary about the Israeli, and Palestinian conflict!
At the time I was laughing SO much, tears came from eyes, and I just couldn't stop, but through these laughing wet eyes I felt i was ALSO seeing extraordinarily deeply. And this insight really made me see that you can be both serious and full of joy and laughter.
What did I see? I saw a lot of people praying, in Jersualem, praying praying, and that kind of praying you do there where you like nod?
But what I really saw was what I am calling the Folly of Man . And this means I saw that no matter what, IF groups hold fast to divisive beliefs that have them in confict with groups they believe are different from them, that the inevitability will be never-ending strife.
And in this very documentary there was scenes of war, violence,injured, and dead bodies, and crumbled buildings, chaos, and much misery. And I could see it very directly that this will go on as long as we do not see our connection as human beings and our connections with nature and all other species. It was as clear as glass!!! Direct
I saw some Orthodox Jews celebrating, the men were dancing in a circle all whooping with joy, and at a distance the women and kids were looking. I wondered why they weren't invited to dance in the circle with the males...?!
And I also wondered that if they, and 'Palestinian' peoples were feeling like me, bemushroomed, full of joy, and laughter, and seeing clearly through the matrix of it all, then wouldn't that break down the illusionary barriers dividing the 'Israelis' and 'Palestinians' from each other? Their scripts, the past violence, resentment, bitterness, fear, anxiety, all gone with the power of the shrooms,,, now joy and dancing, and exploring nature, and talking, and chanting, singing, making music. Looking into each others jeweled eyes, full of meaning and soul and connection.
The complexity is realizing the limitations of the very Judeo-Christian-Islamic mythic scripts, but also the 'secular' culture which, as you say in your article, creates this false identity. It does!! It tries to de-humanise us into corporate products. And uses legalize lingo to do this--the script of corporatized culture .
So on one level I love that FUN of those introductory videos, and there is a place for that surrealistic anarchic spirit, but ALSO very intensive analysis of the situation which is very broadly looking at all aspects of the current situation, and the past, and how that influences the present and future.
It would be cool if you could make your site also accessable to English speaking people?
Intergalactic Underground
to zezt
Thank you for your comment. The videos are that way because I think part of the psychedelic message is the interrelatedness of things grave and important with things that are funny and just plain crazy.
Apart from the fact that broadcasting these messages in a more serious way would probably prevent them from ever grasping people's attention, I am really happy with the different reactions. Not everybody gets the message, of course. But even those who see it as a joke, or those who are just plain confused get something else. I personally believe confusing people a bit from their worldview about reality is also important.
I hope very much to create an English version of the site in the future. The Geula Party's message is universal, so it totally makes sense. It is only a matter of having the time and the means. Peace, Ido
revolution of rediculous
I was once in a classroom that had a horribly rude teacher, that would pick on a particular student because of his race... I watched as the teacher slammed his hands on the desk, and nose to nose would shout at him for moving his desk slightly (to account for his long legs), I thought about what to do.... and realized, that he could be defused, with an action too strange, and far out to quantify... so I stood up on my desk and danced "wooo wooo woogy woogy" and sat back down...
The teacher turned, and looked at me... and I smiled, as he walked in a daze back to the blackboard.
Compelling, courageous
Compelling, courageous work, Ido
This essay caught my eye as I recently learned that my first novel was translated into Hebrew for the Israeli market. My voice is so very small, but it nevertheless felt good to know that I might have a minute's worth of influence in such a beautiful cauldron. Keep up the courageous work, and let me know if you'd like me to send you a copy of the Hebrew edition of Just a Couple of Days. Here's the link.
May your days dare delight with your dreams~
Tony V
Tony Vigorito
www.tonyvigorito.com
Geula Forever
Post Traumatic Stress
Please excuse my naivete. I don't want to offend anyone, but I've got a little story to tell.
I was shocked to encounter a group of young Israelis at a major trance festival in Australia in January. This rag-tag bunch were so badly wasted on a cocktail of chemical substances, they couldn't get their heads around the fact that the young man they'd cornered wasn't a Palestinian after all- he was an Australian of Greek descent. I found out later that most of these young Israelis ( mere boys and girls really ) were either former or current soldiers on leave after serving in Gaza. They loudly hurled the most awful abuse at anyone who tried to intervene to calm the situation.
Despite their frightening threats and incomprehensible hatred for non-Jews I came away feeling as much compassion for these poor souls as I did for their hapless victims. I don't think anyone would argue that war is devastatingly traumatic for soldiers- young or old. And the state of Israel has been at war since the U.N. created it in the 1940's. I contend that nations and communities can suffer post traumatic stress disorder as much as their citizens.
It concerns me that so many of the Israelis I met at the festival were self-medicated to the eyeballs. The chemicals they'd chosen obviously weren't helping their situations- perhaps because they had no one to guide them on their healing journeys. I suppose you could call their behaviour, escapism. Perhaps it's the only outlet for their frustration, guilt and anger. I applaud any attempt to reach out to these frightened children whose lives have been turned upside-down by war. It's so important that these young people and, by extension, your country, finds a way to heal. Hopefully that healing will then spread to your neighbours and eventually bring peace. Yes- I admit it- I'm a sentimental idealist who's probably out of place in the twenty-first century. Thank you for an inspiring article and for your wonderful work. It must be very difficult to bring a message of hope to such a traumatized society. Your courage is an example for all of us. Even in a peaceful place like Australia we desperately need guides who are experienced and willing to bring the message that Sacred Medicines can be powerful healers but aren't always appropriate for partying.
Aftermath
Amazingly, elections day was maybe the stormiest day of the year here in Israel. I say amazingly, because on the weeks before it we had completely beautiful weather (too beautiful, considering the water shortage) and then, in one day it turned completely stormy. It stayed that way for 24 hours during elections day, and a few hours latter, until the results became known. And then it immediately became beautiful again.
It must have been ominous in some way. Anyway, the weather did affect the turnout for the consecration. Maybe 50-60 people turned up in the bad weather conditions, 30 stuck around for the whole event which was mostly held under the pouring rain for about 3 hours. Interestingly, I think that the rain was the best thing that happened to us, because those who stayed were entirely committed to the idea, to assuming responsibility of their consciousness, to choosing good. So everybody who were there in these conditions was serious about it. Moreover, having this sort of crazy weather, and having to withstand the difficult physical and psychological conditions made this into a real psychoactive experience. It was not something that you watch from the side. One experienced this with the entire body, and one had to struggle, and work. After this I felt as if I went through some kind of purging process, and heard the same idea from several other people who have been there.
We encircled the Dizingoff Center mall one time blowing our horn, playing music, singing and blessing it with incense. Then after the rain got really bad, we tried to get inside and were blocked by security. We told them: Hey, we're not against you, we're with you. We want to consecrate your mall. That didn't convince them. Security was pretty shocked and distressed by our behavior. A few of us were holding flowers and the security men were saying "hey don't point that at us", which made me laugh and remember the Yippies sticking their flowers into the rifles of the soldiers near the pentagon in 1968. But since we couldn't get inside we then divided into several groups which entered the building in an unsuspicious way from several different gates and met in a meeting place we set beforehand.
Wandering through the apocapitalistic atmosphere of the Center, we were singing a Hasidic song by Rabbi Nachman. Some of the people who were there shopping, joined us in singing these beautiful Hasidic words about always remembering to never be afraid. Others were plain curious what about the strange apparition and asked what the Geula party is, and what it wants.
But the most amazing part for me was the consecration ceremony which took place outside the Dizingoff center mall. At the end of the ceremony, when we were performing 12 consciousness exercises for 12 minutes in the pouring rain, and I looked at all those people who came there in the middle of the day, standing in the rain and in the wind, performing meditations in the middle of the street, – in order to say that they are taking responsibility for their mind. Well, I found that really moving and it filled me with hope.
Our elections campaign is now over. Each of us goes home to continue making his inner elections and get better at living, at being a human being, at working for a better world. The results of the elections for parliament were rather disappointing. But I believe that whatever happens, the Geula party will continue to act, react and just be around, in order to keep a psychedelic alternative in the difficult times ahead of us.
I'm curious to know what the
To ada
Here is the list of the themes of the exercises. There is more information and specific suggestions on how one could do them on the Geula party website (Regrettably only in Hebrew)
These are out of the 9 minutes program:
1. looking into the inner universe.
2. saying thanks for things that we've got.
3. connecting to some point in your past (individual or collective)
4. relating to your future (individual or collective)
5. feeling the feel of being alive
6. feeling the love
7. feeling the faith
8. doing whatever you'd like
9. calibrating your frequency (usually relates to the former 8 minutes)
The last 3 were special exercises designed especially for the ceremony on that day.
10. Looking around you, realizing this beautiful moment. (and it was beautiful with all those people, standing in the middle of the street, showing their beautiful consciousness for all to see)
11. Trying to penetrate the consciousness of the next prime minister and to purge it of all ego and evil - to make him/her a slave and servant of good for eternity.
12. Opening a new reality gate from which we gazed at the new consecrated Dizingoff Center, and at a new consecrated reality.
Peace,
Ido
abolish the EGO?