TEDxWhitechapel Talks

The Science Delusion: Rupert Sheldrake at

The science delusion is the belief that science already understands the nature of reality, in principle. The fundamental questions are answered, leaving only the details to be filled in. The impressive achievements of science seemed to support this confident attitude. But recent research has revealed unexpected problems at the heart of physics, cosmology, biology, medicine and psychology. Dr Rupert Sheldrake shows how the sciences are being constricted by assumptions that have hardened into dogmas. Should science be a belief-system, or a realm of enquiry? Sheldrake argues that science would be better off without its dogmas: freer, more interesting and more fun.

Rupert Sheldrake, Ph.D. is a biologist and author of more than 80 scientific papers and 10 books, including The Science Delusion. He was a Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge University, a Research Fellow of the Royal Society, Principal Plant Physiologist at ICRISAT (the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics) in Hyderabad, India, and from 2005-2010 the Director of the Perrott-Warrick Project, funded from Trinity College, Cambridge. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Noetic Sciences, Petaluma, California, and a visiting professor at the Graduate Institute in Connecticut. His website is www.sheldrake.org.

The War on Consciousness: Graham Hancock

Graham Hancock tells the story of his 24-year relationship with cannabis brought to an abrupt halt in 2011 after an encounter with Ayahuasca, the sacred visionary brew of the Amazon. Along the way he explores the mystery of death, the problem of consciousness, and the implications for the human future of a society that wages total war on true cognitive liberty.
Graham Hancock is the author of The Sign and the Seal, Fingerprints of the Gods, Keeper of Genesis, Heaven's Mirror, Supernatural and other bestselling investigations of historical mysteries.

His books have been translated into twenty-seven languages and have sold over five million copies worldwide. His public lectures and broadcasts, including two major TV series, Quest for the Lost Civilization, and Flooded Kingdoms of the Ice Age, have further established his reputation as an unconventional thinker who raises controversial questions about humanity's past. Hancock's first venture into fiction, Entangled, was published in 2010 and his second novel, War God, on the Spanish Conquest of Mexico, will be published on 30 May 2013. Hancock maintains an active Facebook presence: http://www.facebook.com/Author.Graham.... His website is: http://www.grahamhancock.com.

Jonathan Ott: Inebriating Potions from Agave

From our friend Lorenzo
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Podcast 269: Inebriating Potions from Agave” 
Download: Mp3 File

This is a talk that Jonathan Ott gave in September 2004 at the Mind States Conference in Oaxaca, Mexico.
From the program for Mind States 2004:
Jonathan Ott will give a talk titled “From Octli/Pulque and Xochioctli to Mezcal and Vino de Mezcal Tequila”.
The ethnopharmacognosy of inebriating pre-Columbian potions based on octli or pulque, wine of various species of Agave, with special reference to numerous inebriating additives; traditional foods and beverages made from mezcal Agaves; and colonial development of distilled mezcal from fermented, cooked mezcal Agaves. Finally, more recent development of Vino de Mezcal Tequila or Tequila, a regional type of mezcal brandy, from cooked hearts of Agave tequillense or blue agave.
See: The Spirits of Maguey Erowid Extracts NOV2004

Jonathan Ott: A Drug Enhancer Called Chocolate

The Psychedelic Salon Podcast: 256 “A Drug Enhancer Called Chocolate”

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PROGRAM NOTES:

[From Wikipedia] Jonathan Ott has written eight books, co-wrote five, and contributed to four others, and published many articles in the field of entheogens. He has collaborated with other researchers like Christian Rätsch, Jochen Gartz, and the late ethnomycologist R. Gordon Wasson. He translated Albert Hofmann‘s 1979 book LSD: My Problem Child (LSD: Mein Sorgekind), and On Aztec Botanical Names by Blas Pablo Reko, into English. His articles have appeared in many publications, including The Entheogen Review, The Entheogen Law Reporter, the Journal of Cognitive Liberties, the Journal of Psychoactive Drugs (AKA the Journal of Psychedelic Drugs), the MAPS Bulletin, Head, HighTimes, Curare, Eleusis, Integration, Lloydia, The Sacred Mushroom Seeker, and several Harvard Botanical Museum pamphlets. He is a co-editor of Eleusis: Journal of Psychoactive Plants & Compounds, along with Giorgio Samorini.

A sampling of books by Jonathan Ott

Pharmacophilia, or, The Natural Paradises

Pharmacotheon: Entheogenic Drugs, Their Plant Sources and History<

Persephone’s Quest: Entheogens and the Origins of Religion 

By R. Gordon Wasson, Stella Kramrisch,
Dr. Carl Ruck, Jonathan Ott

Shamanic Snuffs or Enthogenic Errhines

By Jonathan Ott

 

Ayahuasca Analogues Pangean Entheogens

By Jonathan Ott

2012 according to the Maya: The Maya Of Eternal Time Video

From: www.OneLotus.net

“THE MAYA OF ETERNAL TIME - 2012 will begin with the realization that everything our modern world knows of the Maya and their knowledge, including the most accurate calendar know to man, did not come from the Maya themselves, but from the modern world – archeologists, universities, governments, researching individuals. The Maya themselves find the interpretation of the Mayan evidence differently then the modern world. How do we know that to be fact?

Because Don Alejandro Cirilo, the living Dali Lama of the Maya, said so, and he is the head of the Mayan Council of Guatemala, which is represented by all 440 Mayan tribes in Mexico, Belize and Guatemala, the entire Mayan nation. According to Don Alejandro, a 13th generation Mayan shaman, the Maya have not spoken or written a single word with permission from the Mayan Council in 527 years.

To initiate a change in this silence, The Mayan Council brought a global assembly of people from all the continents of the world into sacred ceremony deep in the jungle of Guatemala in November of 2007, and in so doing, began to initiate the whole world into an amazing release of knowledge and wisdom to prepare the planet for a transformation into a new world of Light and realization.”

This video is in 14 segments. Which can be found: HERE

Download the complete series as a torrent.
The Maya of Eternal Time

Be advised some 2012 researchers have expressed that there are inaccuracies and exaggerations in this video. These are set out in detail and discussed on Reality Sandwich. As always, watch with critical thinking and determine your own conclusions as to what you believe.

www.OneLotus.net

Juan Enriquez: The big reboot is yet to come

Even as mega-banks topple, Juan Enriquez says the big reboot is yet to come. But don't look for it on your ballot -- or in the stock exchange. It'll come from science labs, and it promises keener bodies and minds. Our kids are going to be ... different.

Juan Enriquez is a broad thinker who studies the intersection of science, business and society. He has a talent for bridging disciplines to build a coherent look ahead. Enriquez was the founding director of the Harvard Business School Life Sciences Project, and has published widely on topics from the technical (global nucleotide data flow) to the sociological (gene research and national competitiveness), and was a member of Celera Genomics founder Craig Venter's marine-based team to collect genetic data from the world's oceans.

Formerly CEO of Mexico City's Urban Development Corporation and chief of staff for Mexico's secretary of state, Enriquez played a role in reforming Mexico's domestic policy and helped negotiate a cease-fire with Zapatista rebels. He is a Managing Director at Excel Medical Ventures, a life sciences venture capital firm, and the chair and CEO of Biotechonomy, a research and investment firm helping to fund new genomics firms. The Untied States of America, his latest book, looks at the forces threatening America's future as a unified country.

"Juan Enriquez will change your view of change itself." - Nicholas Negroponte

Link: TED Talks

Sacred plants of the Maya forest

Sacred plants of the Maya forest
Matt Walker, Editor
From: BBC Earth News

Art depicting life: a Mayan pot inspired by the trunk of a Ceiba tree

Some of the Central American rainforest's hidden treasures are being revealed by the Maya, more than a millennium after their passing.

A study of the giant trees and beautiful flowers depicted in Maya art has identified which they held sacred.

Created during the Maya Classic Period, the depictions are so accurate they could help researchers spot plants with hitherto unknown medicinal uses.

The research is published in the journal Economic Botany.

Plants played a significant role in the ecology, culture and rituals of the Maya people, whose artwork reflected the rich diversity of plant life around them.

But while numerous examples of such artwork exist, few have been studied to see exactly which plants they depict.

So natural historian and archaeologist Charles Zidar of Missouri Botanical Garden in St Louis, US, and botanist Wayne Elisens of the University of Oklahoma, Norman, US, decided to find out.

They hope to discover plants of importance to the Maya that are either unknown to modern people, or have since been forgotten.

The Maya have lived and used rainforest plants to heal themselves for thousands of years. We are just beginning to understand some of their secrets

Archaeologist Charles Zadir

The team's first analyses focused on artwork produced within the southern lowland region of the Maya, located in the modern countries of Belize, Guatemala and Mexico.

They examined more than 2,500 images of Maya ceramics created within the Maya Classical Period of AD 250 to 900.

The images are held within an image collection taken by Justin and Barbara Kerr, curated by the Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies, based in Crystal River, Florida, US.

In particular, the two men searched for depictions of bombacoids, a diverse lineage of trees in the Neotropics characterised by swollen or spiny trunks and big, colorful, conspicuous flowers with long folding petals.

Across different ceramics, Zidar and Elisens found depictions of five species.

"I was surprised that a variety of plants from this family were depicted," says Zidar.

The Maya clearly depicted the cebia tree (Ceiba pentandra) also known as the Silk Cotton or Kapok tree.

Trees of the Ceiba genus can grow up to 50m tall, with swollen trunks producing large buttresses.

White blooms on ceramic: Quararibea painted on a cup for drinking chocolate

To the Maya, the ceiba tree was sacred, mapping out the upper, middle and underworlds.

Considered the "first tree", or "world tree", the ceiba was thought to stand at the centre of the Earth. Modern indigenous people still often leave the tree alone out of respect when harvesting forest wood.

The thorny trunks of the ceiba tree are represented by ceramic pots used as burial urns or incense holders, which are designed in a strikingly similar fashion. Two other tree species, the Provision Tree (Pachira aquatica) and the Shaving Bush Tree (Pseudobombax ellipticum) are also copied into the designs of similar pots.

On cacao pots and a plate for holding tamales, made from dough, the Maya drew flowers of either P. ellipticum or P. aquatica. On the cacao pot, the flowers seem to form part of the headdress of a high ranging individual.

Smaller white-flowered blossoms of Quararibea funebris or Q. quatemalteca also appear to adorn another vessel used for cacao drinking. The Maya used this species to flavour and froth cacao beverages so it is appropriate for them to represent the plant on the vessel, says Zidar.

"It was previously thought that only the ceiba tree was of great importance," says Zidar.

A Pseudobombax flower inspires a headdress worn by the Maya elite

"It has amazed me that so many plants are depicted. These plants are not as stylized as previously though, and thus you can name the plant family, genus and even the species."

Zidar is continuing the work, expanding it further to find out which animals as well as plants were considered of high importance by the Maya people. He also hopes the research will unveil secrets known to the Maya that have become lost in time.

"The Maya have lived and used rainforest plants to heal themselves for thousands of years. We are just beginning to understand some of their secrets."

"By determining what plants were of importance to the ancient Maya, it is my hope that identified plants can be further studied for pharmaceutical, culinary, economic and ceremonial uses. More should be done to conserve large tracts of forest in order to properly study theses plants for their value to mankind," he continues.

"This research has already been of interest to pharmaceutical companies that are looking to extract alkaloids from plants that were important to the ancient Maya."

Jay Weidner @ the 2012 Conference

These videos are of author, filmmaker and hermetic scholar Jay Weidner's outstanding presentation at "2012 and the End of Time: a Meeting of Minds" held in San Francisco, California on November 11, 2008. Hundreds of people gathered near the Golden Gate Bridge over the weekend to ponder the enigmatic date of December 21, 2012. The final day of the ancient Maya calendar and the focus of many end-of-the-world or major transformation predictions and theories. Even during these times of economic distress, participants paid $300 each to attend. You can now see this excellent presentation for the unbeatable price of FREE.

Jay Weidner produced the documentary films: 2012: The Odyssey, Timewave 2013, directed Secrets of Alchemy: The Great Cross and the End of Time, and the Sacred Mysteries DVD Collection. He is the co-author of The Mysteries of the Great Cross of Hendaye; Alchemy and the End of Time (Destiny Books) and A Monument to the End of Time (with Vincent Bridges) as well as a contributing writer for the book The Mystery of 2012 (Sounds True). Jay was featured on the History Channel’s Documentary, The Lost Book of Nostradamus. In 1999, together with his wife, Sharron Rose, he founded Sacred Mysteries for which he has directed and produced ARTmind with Alex Grey, Healing the Luminous Body with Dr. Alberto Villoldo, Healing Sounds with Jonathan Goldman, Sound Yoga/Nada Yoga with Shanti Shivani, Alchemical Healing with Nicki Scully, Quantum Astrology with Rick Levine, Yoga of Light with Sharron Rose and Secrets of Alchemy, a documentary based upon his research into alchemy, the Cross of Hendaye and the End of Time.

Jay Weidner articles:

• Weidner in Wired!
• Alchemical Kubrick: 2001, The Great Work on Film
• Tolkien at the End of Time; Alchemical Secrets of The Lord of the Rings
• 2012 - The Topology of Time Part I: Hyperdimensional Space and the Unfolding of the four Ages
• The Topology of Time Part II: The Alchemy of Time, Understanding the Great Year and the Cycles of Existence
• Fulcanelli, Alchemy, the Great Cross at Hendaye and the Mystery of the Cathedrals:
  Network X interviews Jay Weidner
• Network X Interview: Mind Over Matters, NASA and DMT
• Rebellion of the Intelligent: Jeff Rense and the Internet
• There's Something Strange on the Moon
• Nostradamus and Fulcanelli:
  Are the Olympic Games the Beginning of the End?
• 2001 A Floyd Odyssey
• Prophecy, Spirit and the Dreamtime: The Last Frontier
• The Time River: Alchemy, Fulcanelli and
  The Great Cross at Hendaye.
• The Golden Age & The End Of The World - Extinction or Enlightenment?
• The Ka, the Ba and the Kabbala - The Science of the Afterlife
• The God Star

Jay Weidner interviews:

• The lost interview with William Henry
• Conscious Media Network TV Interview with Jay Weidner
• Coast to Coast on You Tube
• The Red Ice Interview
• Good Vibrations Interview with Jay and Sharron Weidner
• L.A Weekly Write-up on "UFO's Magic and Mysticism in Hollywood"

www.jayweidner.com

Was Jesus a Mushroom?

Since the Shamanic origins of Christmas was so popular, lets take it take this a little further and think about the entheogenic origins of Christianity. Below are links to download a fascinating discussion by Martin Ball and Jan Irvin entitled "Was Jesus a Mushroom?"

Available for free Mp3 download as a two episode podcast from the Entheogenic Evolution.

Was Jesus a Mushroom: Part 1
Was Jesus a Mushroom: Part 2

Right click, save target as.

 

This interview focuses on John Allegro's research with the Dead Sea Scrolls along with other evidence indicating that Jesus was not an actual person but rather a psychedelic experience. Many of the biblical stories were derived from pagan fertility cults who used the sacred mushroom as a sacrament.

John Marco Allegro was one of the worlds leading philologists, putting his neck on the line when he wrote, "The Sacred Mushroom And The Cross" which made numerous connections from sacred doctrinal enigmas and sacraments to the Amanita muscaria. He fearlessly attempted to expose the reality of the mushroom symbolism throughout the Bible, Apocryphal writings, and The Dead Sea Scrolls. He was fully aware of the criticism his book would draw, yet as a true scholar, knowing the importance of the information, he put self aside for the good of all. Most criticism surrounding Allegro is a remnant of the fundamentalist bashing he took for exposing the Jesus Myth. Jesus IS the mushroom Anthropomorphized just like Santa, Mithra, Chrishna, Rudra etc.

Jan Irvin is the co-author of the book Astrotheology and Shamanism, the co-producer of The Pharmacratic Inquisition, host of The Gnostic Media Podcast and the author of his recently released book The Holy Mushroom.

Bolivian president, "US encouraged drug trafficking" + Cele Castillo Videos

LA PAZ (AFP) — Bolivian leader Evo Morales on Thursday accused the US government of encouraging drug-trafficking as he explained his decision to banish the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

Morales, a staunch opponent of the Washington government, said the staff from the US agency had three months to prepare to leave the country, because "the DEA did not respect the police, or even the (Bolivian) armed forces."

"The worst thing is, it did not fight drug trafficking; It encouraged it," the Bolivian leader said, adding that he had "quite a bit of evidence" backing up his charges.

Presidential Minister Juan Ramon Quintana presented a series of documents and press clippings at a news conference, which he described as "object data" that had influenced Morales' decision to suspend DEA activities last week.

Quintana said Morales was ready to present the evidence to incoming US president Barack Obama "to prove the illegality, abuse and arrogance of the DEA in Bolivia."

Throughout the 1990s, the DEA in Bolivia "bribed police officers, violated human rights, covered up murders, destroyed bridges and roads," said Quintana.

Morales earlier Thursday said that after a 1986 operation in Huanchaca National Park, it was determined that the largest cocaine processing plant "was under DEA protection."

He also charged that the DEA had investigated political and union leaders opposed to neoliberal economic policies, which he said amounted to political persecution.

On Wednesday, he had accused the DEA of shooting and killing Bolivians during their anti-drug operations, including members of the coca farmers' movement.

Morales, Bolivia's first indigenous president, has served as the leader of the Bolivian coca-growers union. The coca plant, from which cocaine is derived, has many uses in traditional Andean culture.

The Bolivian leader announced last Saturday he was suspending the work of the DEA in the impoverished Andean nation, and accused it of having encouraged political unrest that killed 19 people in September.

"From today all the activities of the US DEA are suspended indefinitely," the Bolivian leader had said in the coca-growing region of Chimore, in the central province of Chapare, where he was evaluating efforts to combat drug trafficking.

The DEA has denied Morales' accusations.

US President George W. Bush, in a finding released in September, added Bolivia to a list of countries that have "failed demonstrably" in anti-drugs cooperation.

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Retired-DEA agent Celerino Castillo exposes the atrocities and drug smuggling involvement of the US government.

MORE CELE CASTILLO VIDEO'S