Experiment: Posture

For this experiment you will need a little notebook. Keep it with you at all times for the course of three days. Every time you notice a big shift in your emotional/mental state, record it in the notebook. Write down the time and describe the shift in your mood as well as any possible catalysts. When you feel very happy in the morning after a coworker makes a special effort to greet you, write it down. When you start to feel miserable around lunch time after missing a call from a friend, write it down. When an hour later you are on top of the world again for no apparent reason, write that down too. Pay attention to the myriad of little mood swings, however subtle, that you cycle through in one day.
On the fourth day, you will add a little detail to your record keeping. In addition to cataloging the time and emotional state, describe any particular physical postures, twitches, or ticks that accompany the various states. For example you might write-
1:00pm Happy = twirling hair. While walking to the drugstore in the sun.
1:30pm Angry = Hands thrust into pockets, chin lowered. After waiting in a long line.
2:30pm Lonely = Biting lower lip, shoulders hunched. While driving to post office.
And so on…
Try to recognize re-occurring postures so natural to you they will be hard to spot. Make an effort to observe yourself without judgement. Imagine that you are studying yourself as an actor would study a character in order to play that character more realistically. Keep notes this way for three more days. On the seventh day act out the postures you have recorded in your notebook.

Hidden Cities

You have been trained to miss all subtlety, to experience the world as this or that, unaware of everything that dwells in, around, and betwixt red and blue.
You know red or blue. Perhaps something is coming lose in you, your programming is getting buggy and other signals are seeping in.
Perhaps you’ve been infected by an intentional virus set in motion by reality hackers, idiots and jokers the lot of them, or have been damaged accidentally.
In either case you are likely to be having some problems with your red or blue program if you are snooping around this shady specter of a blog.
If not, you may experience some glitches afterward.
What tHe Hell aM I talking about?
Maybe you understand because the appropriate regions of your grey matter have been damaged.
Yes, let us be clear, if you are brain damaged you are likely to understand something that is passing between us,(you the reader, I the writer), right now.
If you think we are simply MAD then you are simply equipped with some incompatible software which could be compromised for the benefit of all creations through out the chaos machine by the application of heat, heat which might be generated through the consumption of certain unauthorized substances created in laboratories or hailing from the outer regions of space, or by engaging in sexual intercourse without orgasm for extended or even infinite periods of time, or by participating in group activities of a questionable and rather electrical nature.
There are in fact organizations dedicated to turning up the heat for just such a devious purpose.
They are in fact acting now.
Subtlety and Detail.
Yes, children, it is there, it is everywhere, very near to you now.
In the grit beneath your thumbnail if you see.
Override the red and blue program.
Be like Trader Joe and eliminate the middle man, get your reality directly.
See now.
AND WHEN YOU CAN PERCEIVE THEM, YOU WILL LEARN TO NAVIGATE THE HIDDEN CITIES, AND YOU WILL LEARN TO SPEAK THEIR COMPLEX COLORS.

Experiment: The Vase

Select for yourself a simple vase.
It may be one that you have around the house, or you can pick one up from a second hand store.
You will need a space in which you will be undisturbed for 5 min.
Sit in a straight backed chair with the vase on a table or another chair approximately three feet away from you and within your line of vision.
Set a timer for five minutes.
Your aim is to concentrate on the vase. Hold it with your attention. Do not analyze the different parts of the vase, or think a series of thoughts about the vase, or associate various ideas to the vase.
See the vase as it exists in itself, without any connections to other things. Let the perception of the vase fill your entire mind. Do not let other thoughts or feelings or sounds or body sensation distract you. When they arise, simply acknowledge that your attention as wandered and redirect it to the vase.
If you find that a particular noise or itch is extra annoying, expand into the irritation rather than attempting to retract or defend yourself from it. Expand into it and allow it to dissolve so that all of your awareness will return to the vase alone.
When the timer sounds the experiment has ended.
Repeat the experiment twice at five minutes, then try it for ten minutes three more times over the course of three to six weeks.

Deconstructing

This just in:
There is still nothing new under the sun.
Even we ourselves are a composite, both psychologically and physically, of things that came before us. Deconstruction involves using what is already in existence creatively, unnaturally, and consciously.
Yes, I said unnaturally.

Naturally things fall, down
down
down.
Sending something back up the ladder would be a supernatural act.
WE could call it invocation or active worship, or hard motherfucking Work.
Deconstructionists sift through this wasteland, this garbage heap, this hell dimension and rearrange the elements that are present here to build a line of communication that courses in an unconventional direction, Up.
We use everything. We start from the bottom, from the most ordinary and accessible bits of rubbish, and instead of allowing them to rest and peacefully decompose, we bend them to a devious purpose. We reanimate death. Like the good Dr. Frankenstein we use electricity to raise the dead.
Raise it. Praise the Lord. Offer it Up.
Yes, yes, we use the most accessible materials, starting with our own human biological machine, this composite sketch of Chaos the Creator.
The ultimate in body modification is not detectable by the human eye.

Parting The Seas

Imagine your torso as a body of water. Visualize it, feel it.
Realize that ordinarily when you throw a stone into the water it will create ripples. If a stone should come hurtling at you it would disturb your waters, the impact would reverberate throughout the body.
Now imagine something that has recently disturbed you, an event or interaction that troubled you emotionally. Perceive that interaction or event as a stone that is being thrown at you.
As it approaches, you will part the seas. Maintain the sensation and visualization of the area from your chest to your navel as a body of water. Imagine that the water is parting, making way so that the stone will land in the seabed without creating ripples.
Hold this image and breath deeply, inhaling and exhaling to the count of six. Begin to make a small movement with part of your body.
As you do so mentally describe the motion to yourself. (i.e. the popcorn exercise). For example while moving your right index finger in small clockwise circles say to yourself mentally, "I am moving my right index finger in a small clockwise rotation."
After doing this for a few minutes allow the waters to close over the stone where it has settled.
Practice this experiment for ten minutes daily for one week. In ten minutes you should be able to run through the whole sequence approximately four times.
In addition, as you go through your day and find that something is eliciting an emotional response from you, apply the experiment to said stone in the moment.

Something Special

Fear is sister to Awakening.
There is a moment of terror before you throw open the forbidden door, a moment in which the part of you that sleeps will urge you to retreat in order to preserve the safety of slumber.
If you are indeed a mad dog fear will become an old friend.
Receive her with grace, stay the course and her sister will visit in turn.

From the time he was a small boy the traveler had dreamed of sleeping in the Great Pyramid. When at last his journeying led him into Egypt he seized the opportunity. During a guided tour he observed a large crack and hid himself in it until the Pyramid was closed up for the night. Alone he stole away to the Kings chamber and lie down upon the sarcophagus. In the darkness he became aware of strange noises, poundings that grew in volume. He was seized by terror, but remained in place within the chamber. Suddenly a wave of ecstatic energy, a burst of light and sound carried him into an altered state.

Many years later a woman reads a book that contains a single mentioning of an obscure Egyptian teaching. She is very troubled. Something about it compels her and at the same time she senses that it is alien, something that could be dangerous. For weeks she considers it, re-reads the same short passage again and again. At last she contacts the author and arranges to meet with her. The result is unmentionable.

Sometime later in a whole other world, she sits in a room of flickering candle light with a creature of unspeakable beauty. It’s skin, brilliantly colored and patterned, shifts and moves, thrills her and fills her with adoration. It’s visage changes. Suddenly she sits face to face with someone she distrusts: a human she once knew.

Now she can accept or reject the presence of something unavoidable. She can flee or remain. Reinforce the barrier or let it crack open and see what remains.

After all, what is there to protect? What will you protect it from? How long will you be able to keep the Other out? For Eternity?

Experiment: High Concept

Get your hands on a newspaper.

Use a pair of scissors to cut out 13 words from four different sections of the paper to give you a total of 52 words.
Next cut out 4 pictures from three different sections to give you a total of 12 images.

Paint an empty tissue or cereal box a solid color.
Place the newspaper clippings onto the box before the paint dries so that they will stick.
You can mix the words and images from the various sections of the newspaper into any order or arrangement.
Any words or images left over after the surface of the box is covered may be placed inside of the box. When it’s dry put it up on top of your refrigerator, or on another elevated surface.

Keep it up high.

What is so “wicked” about playing records backwards?

Good and Evil are subject to the opinion of the majority.
Anything that moves against the current will be perceived as evil, as sinister.
The Sinister or Left Hand path is a movement against the tide of automatic organic life.

If the mechanical organic human creation is the equivalent of the Shakti current, then we would say it is positively charged. The otherworldly immortal presence would then be the Shiva current and would be negatively charged.

Positive and negative describe the way the electrical current flows from one polarity to the other, whether it is coming or going, attracting or repelling.
The use of these two terms must not be confused with morality of any kind.
Positive is not in this case a synonym for good, negative is not a synonym for evil.

You could say then that the Sinister way involves reversing the flow of electricity so that Shakti adores Shiva rather than letting him rain down upon her.

Experiment: Beautiful Debris

Clean your workspace.
As you do this, set aside any objects that could be trash, or definitely are destined for the garbage or recycling bin. Also set aside those objects that you have been saving, with and without rhyme or reason: those summer movie tickets, the zipper from your broken jacket, a stick, a flier to an event long expired. When the space is tidy you should hopefully have a box or bag full of odds and ends.
If not then I commend you on your general neatness and lack of clutter, but you need a box of riff raff and refuse. Scour your space until you have a fine assortment.
Now it’s time to break out the glue gun, floral wire, string, tape, and wire hangers, whatever you have.
Use what is in your box of riff raff and make something: a mobile, a collage, a sculpture, or, better yet, an indefinable object.
Apply you attention to the creation of something out of these useless bits of debris.
Do it as if you are an artist.
Do it as if you are working with the finest, most desirable materials obtainable.
Do it as if this riff raff is inherently beautiful and you are just enjoying arranging and manipulating it.
Make it irrelevant, lean to the abstract.
Make it an art piece from another dimension.

Pure Love

When the world is turned upside down only those motivated by pure love will stay the course.
If your motives have been false, originating from the mechanical human creation, you will retreat.
Pure love endures; sentimentality fades alongside knowledge and biological mechanisms.
There is only one relationship.
It takes shape in whatever’s handy.
The only real relationship is between you and you, the drop and the sea, the dreamed and the dreamer.
If your heart is open, you are willing to loose stability for the benefit of the Other, your eternal beloved.
You are willing to watch the dream in which you arose lose integrity, to be reunited with that which gave you the scene for your arising.

Experiment: The Wizard, the Princess, and the Little Devil

This is an experiment for 3 people.
To do this experiment you will need music and a player, preferably something with a remote control.
One person will dance the part of the Wizard, another will dance the part of the Princess, and the third will dance the part of the Little Devil.
The Wizard maintains possession of the remote control. He will start the music and all three will begin to dance their part.
The Wizard has the ability to pause the music at any point. When he does, the other two dancers must freeze. The Wizard may then reposition the Princess anywhere he chooses or leave her where she stands. The pauses should be only brief, then the Wizard should start the music again.
The Little Devil will try to touch the other two as they all dance. The Princess and the Wizard must do everything they can to avoid being touched by the Little Devil.
The Wizard can use his power over the music to escape and reposition the Princess. If they are touched by the Little Devil they must freeze.
If the Princess is frozen the Wizard must touch her to set her free, and if the Wizard is frozen the Princess must touch him to undo the Devil’s spell.
All three characters should funnel attention into their movements and interactions during the dance. They should avoid trying to win a game of freeze tag.

Experiment: Popcorn 1

Select a space where you will be free to move about without being disturbed.
Set a timer for ten minutes.

Begin to slowly move through the space.
As you move, vocally illustrate the movements.
For example, as you walk, say aloud:
"I place my right foot forward, I place my left foot forward, I place my right foot forward, I place my left foot forward…"
Describe every move that you make as you are making it. Lead with the body and occupy the mind with the narration.
Be careful not to think of a move to make and vocalize it before moving the body.
If you have the space to think about anything else other than moving and describing it, you need to move more, perhaps increase the pace.

Stop when the timer sounds.