Monthly Archives

June 2016

It's All Happening Podcast

IAH – Episode 46 – Elliot Mintz

Hollywood, the counter culture, media and rock and roll has produced many characters over the years. All of whom have formed the fabric of our culture. Elliot Mintz stands out as of one of those greats who, in my opinion, is one of the great cultural anthropologists of our time. This podcast was done in his living room as we waxed poetic about the early days of celebrity culture in 1963, the innocence that surrounded that time, spiritual integrity, John Lennon, Bob Dylan and so much more. I found this interview to be one of the most fascinating and engrossing I’ve ever done. Also, note that Elliot has one of the great voices and most articulate delivery systems ever. Enjoy.

NOTE – very long into rant about Brexit and the illusion of separation.

Elliot Mintz is an American media consultant and publicist. In the 1960s and early 1970s Mintz was an underground radio DJ and host. In the 1970s he became a spokesperson for John Lennon and Yoko Ono, and took on other musicians and actors as clients as a publicist ranging from Bob Dylan to Diana Ross.

www.elliotmintz.com

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Me

UPenn BioEthics Film Conference

This was from the BioEthics Film Conference that was at University of Penn back in April. After “Dying to Know: Ram Dass and Timothy Leary” played myself, Rick Doblin and Dominic Sisti conducted a panel on the implications the film made on bio-ethics, psychedelics and cultural influences.

It's All Happening Podcast

IAH – Episode 45 – Duncan Trussell

The genius of Duncan Trussell. Duncan comes by the kitchen table for the first time to do what only he can do. Many areas of the multi-verse were explored but what was most potent to me was getting Duncan’s personal revelations on why spiritual practice works in his life. His humor, intelligence and razor sharp insightfulness were a joy to play with.

Duncan Trussell is host of the wildly popular podcast, “The Duncan Trussell Family Hour.” Duncan is a comedian, podcaster, spiritual aspirant and all around genius of the 21st Century paradigm.

@duncantrussell

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Politics

#BernieOrBust is a Bust

In some ways it’s been hard to articulate why the Bernie or Bust (or the NeverHillary) movement is dangerous, uninformed and petty. Mainly because it’s also well intentioned, optimistic and coming from a place of wanting real change to seep into the well of our political system.

I get the latter half, I do.

It’s a wonderful thing to be so passionate about the movement that Bernie Sanders has put in motion that you aren’t willing to part with it’s inertia come hell or high water. Passion and conviction are usually the ingredients that make real social change. See Dr. King or Ghandi for examples.

The Sanders campaign has been amazing at bringing once fringe issues into the national spotlight while simultaneously highlighting the core systemic problems within American politics.

While we do know this to be true the glitch in the matrix of the BerenieOrBust/NeverHillary movement arrises in that viewing the problem through that lens and that lens only is not viewing the entire problem. It’s like turning on the zoom lens to zoom out on the subject of focus but then stopping mid way. The lens stops half way through and insists that there’s nothing more to see – however, there is more to see. Much more. One has to zoom out as much as possible to see the complete picture and to know that you are dealing with many variables that go far beyond the stump speeches that Bernie has pounded home.

Let’s agree that the first step is analyzing the process – the zoom out. That’s Step One. Pause that for a moment and move on to Step Two which is the examination of the Hilary Clinton campaign and the candidate herself. There are a handful of really problematic issues with HRC.

For me the big four are:

  • Fracking – no politician of her stature has done more to advance fracking in the US and around the world than HRC. As Secretary of State she sold fracking around the world in an official capacity. Check out the eye rubbing Mother Jones piece.
  • Gay rights – in my world view, not supporting same sex marriage until 2013 when the polls said it was safe to do so is cowardly, spineless and anti-gay. How my homo-sexual brothers and sisters look passed this is beyond me.
  • War in Iraq – we all know this one. Add to that her record on military expansion, etc.
  • Goldman-Sachs speaking fees – you can not simultaneously want to reform Wall St. while taking in $650k per speech from Goldman Sachs and then to make matters worse, refuse to release the content of said speeches. This makes no sense.

Those four issues are fact based, are not conspiracy theory led and have yet to be explained by the HRC campaign or otherwise.

However, I think it’s wise to calmly and rationally admit that the problems within Hilary Clinton are perhaps no more than any major candidate who’s been in the game this long. Does that make it right? No. But is it the truth? Yes.

So, we know there are problems with HRC. Big ones. With that said, I don’t think the summation of those problems equates to her being an evil, mad dictator, xenophobe or a bigot. She’s a career establishment politician who has succumb to the pressures of her time and is a product of her environment. There are many pitfalls with a life led in that theater. The other stuff belongs to the other guy she’s now running against. And it’s our job to distinguish between the two. That’s Step Three.

It’s a very different animal to be anti HRC policy than it is to put her in the same breath as being like Trump. They are not the same thing. The maniacal tone that some people in the Sanders campaign have illustrated has created this circus of viscous, uninformed and foam-at-the-mouth worthy attacks on HRC that have landed like a San Andreas fault division within the Democratic party. All of a sudden, the HRC campaign has become this demagaury of evil and corporate conspiracy that is made up of the most secret and profane of the inner workings of the Bilderberg led faction within the US Government. As if, the real Wizards of America are pulling the levers of decision that make up the reality for the rest of us. Even if that is true that is not why she won the election. Even if a part of that is true (which it probably is) I still take the position that there simply aren’t enough smart people in the US Government working together to create an ongoing well orchestrated conspiracy.

I think there are little faction groups within the US Government that at times do work together in secret and get away with things that would land them in prison if the public did actually find out the truth. But I don’t think there is a sub-government with a secret handshake that’s pre-defining the outcome of elections that imply the actual voting process is a waste of time. Again, there are simply too many dumb people involved to be able to pull that off.

How about we just take a deep breath, wake up and see that Bernie Sanders just lost. He didn’t have the minority vote for one. Example: HRC has won on average 66% of the Hispanic vote compared to Sanders 34 % (SOURCE). Add to that, Sanders main edge was the awakening of the beast of the 18-25 year olds who usually don’t vote. That’s where his strength in numbers were. He won 22 states but fell short of the popular vote by about 3.7 million votes (SOURCE)

That said, yes there were many alarming problems within the election process we must take a real look at – the outstanding California votes, what happened in Arizona and NY too.

The point of this piece is not to conduct an election recap but rather it’s to illustrate that one; HRC and Trump are not the same thing and two; the NeverHillary/BernieOrBust movement is childish and not a complete picture on how to achieve progress.

This piece on Quartz by Melissa Hillman isn’t even that new (March 26th) but I just came across and it. It’s worth reading because it illustrates many of the problems that are arising from the Never Hilary/Bernie Or Bust movements. Fast forward 2 months later and we see the problems amplified even more so. The basic take away from the piece is that the BernieOrBust/NeverHillary movement is born out of privilege and is fraught with problems mainly because it’s supporters can’t look out of their own very small eco-system.

How privileged do you need to be to imagine that it’s a good idea to risk the actual lives of vulnerable Americans because you “hate” Clinton?

Additionally, this other strange sound bite has been emerging from the NeverHillary faction. The average Facebook post goes something like this “I’m #stillwithsanders and won’t support the election of a criminal under indictment from the FBI. I choose to vote my conscious and won’t let the system put a gun to my head. I choose Bernie or nothing.”

While not an exact quote it’s a near facsimile of the drones of posts I’ve seen on the topic. The only reason I didn’t cut and paste someones post is because I didn’t want them coming after me with their tantrums. Ok, so what’s the problem with the above sentiment? At first glance, seems to be ok right? But then, let it settle and really think about it for a moment. A nagging itch starts to happen.

Ask yourself this – when in your lifetime have you ever voted with your conscious on a presidential level election? When has your major candidate ever been so squeaky clean that you’ve felt so amazing about pulling that lever? The answer? Never. Never in your lifetime (maybe Carter if you’re old enough) have you voted for a major candidate who isn’t ripe with a slew of problems. When did all of a sudden it become a valid point to say that you’re voting on your conscious this election? All that tells me is that you’ve never voted.

For me, the closest I came was Obama in 2008. In spite of his problems he inspired me with his intellect, oratory fervor and calming inspiration of hope. I got swept in it for sure. Did he let me down? Yes and no, but that’s another post.

The point is we must look at change happening on the federal level as going on with fits and starts. It comes in bits and pieces. Yes, I would have loved to see Bernie go all the way and I did what I could. I gave money and most importantly I gave my vote. But now that it’s over we must calm down and awaken to the idea that the main goal is to defeat Donald Trump. Additionally, I’m not enough of a cynic to think that the Sanders campaign didn’t effect the HRC campaign. The DNC has been moved inextricably to the left and many progressive issues are now on the table thanks to Sanders. Perhaps I’m naive in thinking that HRC really cares about this and that she’ll bring a couple of them to the table with sincerity, but I do. I think our voices have been heard and that alone is a victory. I never thought Sanders would win to be honest, I knew he was mainly a smart-white person candidate and that has it’s limitations.

To whine on about BernieOrBust is putting women, minorities, muslims and gays in great danger. It’s putting that pot you’re smoking back into the bong of criminality. It’s creating a world stage that will be ten times more dangerous and volatile than it currently is. It’s creating an atmosphere of tension and division many times greater than already exists. And it’s assuring that SCOTUS be in a position of we-are-compltely-fucked for a generation to come. That’s why I now support Hilary Clinton for president.

Wake up, be rational, sane and be thankful for the step forward we’ve made. Capitalize on the gains we did make and don’t blow it by letting Trump get elected.

Uncategorized

Some new Amazon picks!

Book, music and life hack lovers! I picked out some new stuff that I think you might like. If you enjoy the podcast, you’ll enjoy these books, albums and gadgets.

In particular, I am blown away by the Illumi Smart Light Bulb. I’m a little late into the smart-home system game but for $60 it’s a great way in to see if a wired home is for you. Controlling the room moods and setting presets from the iOS app makes it so groovy. A life hack worth checking out.

And of course using this Amazon a-store supports the podcast so much! Thank you and love – zl

CLICK HERE TO VISIT THE STORE

God and Yoga Me

Indigenous Intelligence LiB Panel covered by the OC Weekly

The entire piece can be found here

My quote was as follows “I don’t believe there is a disembodied plant intelligence that lives outside of us, outside of our own consciousness or outside of our own hearts,” says Leary. “I believe psychedelic mysticism and psychedelic practices really just pierce the veil. They lift the veil and allow you to merge into the one and allow clear vision to see everything that’s around us, everything that’s possible and every screaming electron that’s flying around throughout the Universe right now that makes up our collective consciousness; which is really a disembodied collective consciousness. Psychedelics allow you to jump into that disembodied experience, where the one can be realized and you can feel it in your own heart.”

It's All Happening Podcast

IAH – Episode 44 – Sharon Salzberg

Have you ever wondered it’s like to be completely content, wise and truly happy? Spending an hour with Sharon Salzberg will give you a glimpse into that reality. On this episode we explore the nature of self inquiry, how to start a practice and integration into the material world. I’m truly grateful that Sharon stopped by the IAH kitchen table to do this podcast. What a gift.

Born in New York City in 1952, Sharon Salzberg experienced a childhood involving considerable loss and turmoil. An early realization of the power of meditation to overcome personal suffering determined her life direction. Her teaching and writing now communicates that power to a worldwide audience of practitioners. She offers non-sectarian retreat and study opportunities for participants from widely diverse backgrounds. Sharon first encountered Buddhism in 1969, in an Asian philosophy course at the State University of New York, Buffalo.

@sharonsalzberg

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It's All Happening Podcast

IAH – Episode 43 – Amanda Sage (Live from LiB)

Episode 43 is brought to you live from the Lightening in a Bottle festival in Bradley, CA! I stepped into the vortex of Amanda’s 72 Winnebago to do the podcast and slide into the world of art, consciousness, viewing the world around us and how to keep communities vibrant and productive. This was one of the most fun episodes I’ve ever done, it was such a joy to surf the waves of bliss with Amanda at LiB. Her amazing partner Joe Bob Merritt sat in too!

Amanda Sage is at the forefront of a new breed of visionary/interdimensional artists using art as a tool for personal, spiritual, planetary growth and transformation.

Amanda was born April 19, 1978 in Denver, Colorado to her mother YOU and father Jackson, with two brothers still to come. Her childhood was filled with healthy, tropical, media-free, creative freedom in Florida without the distraction of formal schooling until she entered 4th grade in Colorado.

She has exhibited Solo and in Group Shows in Galleries, Salons and in various projects/events worldwide since 1999, including London, Vienna, Munich, Berlin, Bali, Colorado, Seattle, San Francisco, Moscow, Australia, Colombia and most exotically at Burning Man , hanging next to renowned visionary artists and friends such as Alex Grey & Allyson Grey, Martina Hoffmann, Robert Venosa, & many amazing artists involved in the growing movement of Visionary Art.

http://amandasage.com

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