Ths pst nd nsng cmmnt thrd r clrly fr t lng 2 rd, bt hr gs nywy:

>Y mn, ndly nflncd by whtvr dvrtsrs r th src f th st's rvn? Dn't wrry bt t. Bng Bng's dtrl cntnt s nffctd by ts ds.

nd y'd btr blv t.

spps ths sttmnt s ncldd n pst n Md plcy fr gd rsn?

vd jnng n th dscssns n sm vry ntrstng tpcs hr n prncpl - bcs dsgr wth th mdrtn styl, nd fnd th mdrtr t b n pwr trp. rfs t ply ndr sch plcmn. plcwmn, whtvr.

nwlcm cmmnts shld b jst dltd, nd th cmmntr wrnd r bnnd f thy r prsstnt.

nythng ls pprs t b n-pmnshp, vndctvnss , knd f rghts vglntsm ll t cmmn n th S f , whr th chmpns f fr spch, pltcl crrctnss nd dmcrcy (prsmbly th "gd gys" th mdrtr mntnd n #483) r jst s scry s th bd gys thy r sppsd t b fghtng.

Th mdrtr's cmmnts tht 'v sn n th lst fw mnths ftn cm crss s ths f sm knd f slf-styld bnvlnt dcttr. Th tn s jst >ff. Why ds sh fl th nd t cm t n tp f vry sngl rsnbl-sndng crtcsm ? Lk smn ntd , "md-thrd smckdwn nthlgy psts" . Mch smll f PR xrcsng, f th knd tht rls n cnstnt nd lmst frcd rpttn f wht's wht - btryng sm srt f nscrty prhps.

Bls dwn t : "'m rght bcs sy s, nd y'r wrng , nd msnthrp, nd ths s r blg nywy, nd w mk mny ff y bng hr, hr hr, slbbr slbbr".

t dsn't fl lk dscssn wnt t jn n, whn t s vrsn by ppl hldng sch tttds. (nd prbbly crryng chps n thr shldrs). t s th "ffns s th bst dfns" mntlty ll vr gn.

>Frnkly, d t th pr mdrtn plcy hv nt flt lk cmmntng n Bng Bng rcntly, nd my pnn f th st hs bn lssnd smwht. wndr hw mny thr ppl hv bn dshrtnd ls?

ls, wht #12 , ntbly #28, qtd bv, #34 #35 #36 #216 #263 #328 (Tksh, thnk y) #251 #231 #165 #164 #142 #185 #183 #175 #174 #141 #140 #130 #109 #102 #84 #76 #64 #60 #49 #321 #369 #462 #469 - nd mny thrs wh gt dsmvwlld nd/r wh mssd- sd.

>dsmvwlng sms t m lk pttng th hds f yr nms n plls bth t dtr thrs nd t clbrt yr pwr.

Dsmvwllng, bnnng wtht wrnng r xplntn, nd bng snrky bcs y cn: ths bhvr s smlr t prvkng wld bsts t ttck y. Snr r ltr y wll prvk th wrng bst, wh jst hppns t hv td mr hxx0rng svvy thn yr grd dgs, nd strng, dltrs thngs cld hppn t yr glb.(Nt thrt, smply n bsrvtn f hmn/nt ntr).
Thr's lwys fstr gn thn y. T b hnst, thght ths s wht hppnd rcntly, whn cldn't ccss bb fr wk r tw. cldn't hlp wry sml nd "y skd fr t" typ f thght.

Dsclsr: d nt clck n lnks hr, jst rght-clck nd cpy & pst th RL n nw tb. Srry, bb, y r sld t t ths vry sm crprt jrks y prtnd t b bttr thn, nd sm f y r fr t snrky. . . Y mk mny ff s bng hr, nd d y knw wht y cn d wth yr n-yppy tttds ?

>'m trd f th frmntnd slf-cngrtltry stff -- ncldng Trs's mt-prmtnl psts; t's lk wtchng th scrs vry dy. Stmpnk s ncrdbly clch nw; t's nnyng-yt-msng t wtch ppl wh s thmslvs s s ncrdbly hp pstng vlms bt t. s n ggrgtr f thr tpcs 'm ntrstd n, BB ds n k jb bt 'm prtty cnfdnt tht cn fnd stbl rplcmnt.>

Bt nwhr wll w fnd sch n p-t-dt cvrg f ll thngs DSNY. Th tr bldn dg. Y knw th djctv "mcky ms"?

The DL is the gayest man around. Just watch that gootube video of him with Freddy Mercury and you WILL be enlightened.

Boycott the chinese olympics, and save yourselves for the London 2012 spectacle, conveniently coinciding with The End Of The World.

CAITYFTY (#23) wrote: A few years ago I registered a bunch of domains with godaddy.com. A year or so ago, I heard about the founder's support of torture and tried to move the domains to another registrar, but found the entire process so baffling I eventually gave up. Godaddy clearly wasn't aiming to make the process of transferring a domain away from them easy, and it wasn't helped by my lack of knowledge about how domain transfers work.

Does anyone know of (or feel the urge to write) a clear, lay-language guide to transferring domains from godaddy to another registrar, so myself and others like me who are fed up with godaddy's repulsive politics can stop giving them money?

Exactly the same thing has happened to many many people. There are websites and forums about this issue, just do a search.
Apparently making a complaint with ICANN has helped people get out of GoDaddy's claws.

In my partner's case, he just gave up, he didn't know about ICANN at the time. GoDaddy locked his domain name and let it go after about 2 years. The name had zero commercial value. I am sure they would not have let it go otherwise.

GoDaddy are scumbags who have messed with thousands of people, and repeatedly violated ICANN agreements.

They will typically lock down domain names and make it very difficult for clients to switch to other less thuggish hosts.

Only noobs and downright suckers go to daddy. Certainly anyone hoping to set up a site with any kind of alternative (let alone subversive) content would be a LOSER if they signed up with these fascistic scum. argh.

Get a host that is not based in the US if you value free speech and human service. (Some european hosts are juts re-selling american server space, so look well).

Some excellent comments! I'm glad ....

Rucker makes this passing comment:

I might also ask why someone would passionately want to believe that we can be translated from flesh into bits? There’s something ascetic and life-hating about the notion. It’s a bit like a religious belief; one thinks of the old “work now, get rewarded in heaven” routine.

That's the crux of the matter, really (pun intended).

Religious conditioning runs deep. I argue that metaphysical beliefs inform "rational" beliefs and behaviour. Especially when the metaphysical beliefs are unexamined and unsconsciously held, often because they were imprinted early in life when people are the most vulnerable, before rationality and emotional independence can develop.

Christianity, Judaism and Islam , all of which apparently posit a heaven/promised land/divine immanence and some form of denial of mortality, teach similar metaphysics and generally get people to run in the direction of death instead of life.

Even people who are not consciously religious often hold the same metaphysics of transcendental rewards and the evils of matter and mortal, fleshy bodies.

Societies where such religion is or has been prominent in education and conditioning also happen to be full of people that are alienated from nature and their very bodies, and many who harm nature and their body, consciously or unconsciously.

I am not bashing all religious people here, i am commenting on what may be driving the beliefs and actions of people who are supposed to be well-meaning free thinkers. How open is your mind really?

Unlike apples, technology doesn't grow on trees. Technology is a product of market forces and some very very chilly and lethal economic real realities.

The concept of technological transcendence via a singularity appears to be a modern version of apocalypse obsession. People who believe computer networks and AI can model or surpass or even complement natural intelligence , or that it would be great to upload ourselves into some mainframe and live in an eternal simulation spend too much time on their computers ! (They are probably Mac users who never see the Blue Screen of Death)

They ignore that the juice won't just magically keep those computers running forever, and natural resources are (shock horror) finite !

The fantasy of exponential "progress" and infinite technological expansion is a teenage boy fantasy totally ignorant of ecological, social and psychological realities.

Every immortalist, if their fantasy was ever realised , would eventually have to escape madness by wiping out all their memories and their identity, and would have to re-invent death in order to live again.

What the techno VR fetishists are all missing is that reality is already virtual, this is all a quantum mega massive multidimensional multiplayer game, a simulation of a simulation ad infinitum.

We are already "inhabiting a simulation of reality rather than real reality". The task is not to attempt to create further puny VR simulations but to attempt to get closer to RR.

As if.

Just one more little tidbit: An ayahuasca church in France got busted a couple of years ago.

They played the religious freedom card in the courts and won, but the French government banned the plants shortly afterwards...

I'm glad to see some switched-on people here...

I agree that the enterpise featured in this article is EXTREMELY DODGY and I believe Mark Frauenfelder would have never posted this if he was aware of what ayahuasca entails, and what kind of people are attracted to this newage priesthood story. . . This kind of "psychedelic enterpreneurism" is harmful to the psychedelic underground and is just what the DEA is looking for as an excuse for even more ABSURD criminalisation of plants.

There is a powerful movement online to create a situation of dependency on priests, churches and mediators, and promote expensive and very questionable ayahuasca holidays and ceremonies , by exploiting people's fears, ignorance , and the growing need to experience the connectivity that ayahuasca can facilitate.

I don't believe this medicine will "change the world" - but it can certainly be of enormous, even life-saving, benefit for many people. I'd like to participate in an online counter-movement to expose the charlatans and exploiters and present the other side of the truth about ayahuasca and its potential. I believe the ayahuasca story has been infiltrated by wannabe priests, psychic vultures and other dangerous people on serious power trips.

Challenging the emerging status quo in this scene is hard work on the usual forums, as they are already quite full of people who are either directly involved in commercial operations or already brainwashed into believing the outright lies and misdirection promoted by the $hamans.

Threats, sliming and psychic attacks are part of the territory and myself and others on a similar tip don't bother with sites like ayahuasca tribe and ayahuasca forums , where a neurotic defensiveness prevails.

Pinchbeck appears to have failed to use his considerable influence in the American scene to speak about these issues and seems , in fact, to be mostly full of youknowhat . Another site beginning with E and ending with d is not even worth mentioning here.

FLIP , i' don't see how i can contact you through this site. I'd like to invite you and all others on a similar wavelength to check out a new , ad-free , unsponsored, psychoactive, collaborative blog starting up, where the space for people to write and post links/media about these and any other against-the-grain issues is available.
Registration is by invite only.... check my user profile for the URL...
FLIP: if you'd like an account in the blog i mention, create a temporary email address and post it here, and i'll do the same...then i'll contact you and we'll take it from there. I can't think of any other way to get in touch .

Thanks and take care everybody...

Burroughs was freaking out.

I agree with Flip's comments- in fact , in a typical ayahausca synchronicity, s/he posted the first comment at the same time as i was writing this, and pretty much said what I wanted to say.

I have taken ayahuasca around 100 times, over the last 10 years or so. I am not going to detail here what these experiences were "like" or "about"- but :

It is not really like Salvia divinorum at all, but very similar to top-quality psilocybin mushrooms, in some ways. It does go a lot deeper, and is actually a clearer experience. After a full-on session , most drinkers feel rejuvenated the following day.

The doorways it opens are not so much about great insights or things of the mind, but emotional catharsis, heart-opening , healing of relations, psychic/biospheric/cosmic/spiritual connections etc.
It also appears to work on the physical part of the drinker, toning the immune system, and possibly works as an adaptogen. This is no internal home cinema. The visions that are so talked about are just the icing on the cake.

It contains DMT as its visionary ingredient, and reversible (short duration) MAO inhibitors which enhance the effects. It does not break your brain, unless you want an excuse to break it - and straight ayahuasca without any admixtures has never killed anyone-

But it is certainly not something to do or take lightly , and cannot be recommended to all and sundry. Nausea is quite an insignificant part of it, when it works. If one is not prepared, and not open , one can expect 2-3 VERY hard hours. This is not something to dabble with, it is something for those who are willing to do some serious work.

It is true that its effects may not become apparent from a single exposure.

Whether one will benefit from it depends on many things and the circumstances under which it is taken are quite important.

There is a rising wave of people out to exploit this latest new age fad , and basically advertising and selling experiences they could never possibly gurantee.
In many cases these people are not even in any position to be doing this, in terms of their being in touch with what it is that they're doing, IMO.
In many cases they're just getting off on being priests and their communications on ayahuasca are more to do with the establishment of their priesthood than with your needs.

Beware of psychic vultures, they're all human, all too human!

If you are a beginner, ayahuasca -if it works- will make you VERY vulnerable and suggestible. The phenomenon descibed by Jungians as "transference" is relevant here. It will be very easy to believe the magic shaman is doing the tricks, whereas in fact the director of this movie is you .

The actual cost of the tea is minimal, it would cost about $20 to prepare a dose in Europe or the US. Preparation is no special science, there is no hocus pocus, it is basically a concentrated water extract of two plants. All one needs to know is how much of each plant, which is easy to find online. (most sources err on the side of caution)- Not that I recommend to anyone reading this to actually do this- the internets really isn't the place!

In the Amazon, different medicine men add various other plants in the mix for specific medicinal effects, as the basic blend seems to enhance the effects of many other healing plants, or makes it easier for the medicine man/woman to understand their effects.

For those determined to experience ayahuasca, my advice is DON'T BELIEVE THE HYPE, and Don't Be A Tourist. Believe me, you are much better off doing it in familar environs with people you know and fully trust and who are informed. The info on safety parameters is out there and many people safely use ayahuasca in their communities without having to be a tourist or spend hundrends.

Get informed. Keep it under the radar!

There is a lot of hype on this at the moment , and it is about the promotion of expensive shamanic holidays and retreats, via the preying on people's ignorance and fear.

The meme being propagated is "Go see the experts". Id say , use your mind and listen to your heart. The true teacher is within you. Nobody will do your work for you , no matter how much you payed them. Of course it is dangerous, the world is a dangerous place, especially near the outer limits.

Sorry if this is toolongtoread, or sounds like hippy crap. I would like to warn people that things aren't always quite what they seem in the ayahuasca world.

There was a recent incident in which a ceremony for tourists in Peru was raided by armed bandits who proceeded to rob everyone and rape at least one of the women present. I could look for a source for this freaky story if people doubt it.

The talk in the following video link highlights the negative effects on traditional cultures that "shamanic" tourism has been causing since the days of Castaneda (trickster). Everyone thinking of going to Peru to "do the shaman thing" please watch this:

http://video.google.es/videoplay?docid=1471567783918794440