Dale Pendell: Magical Practice

 

Magical practice

A discussion with Dale Pendell

World Psychedelic Forum

Basel, Switzerland

March 23, 2008



Recording and transcription by Gyrus of Dreamflesh.com

Download: MP3 right click, save target as.

READ: complete transcript

This is a transcript of a small discussion with botanist-poet Dale Pendell, a long-time practitioner of Zen Buddhism and the occult, a student of the legendary intellectual Norman O. Brown, and—as they say—a graduate of Dr. Hofmann. It took place at the World Psychedelic Forum in Basel, Switzerland, on 23rd March 2008 (read my review). A small group of people who’d just attended Dale’s talk on Zen and psychedelics gathered round a table in the busy foyer, and Dale created a focused bubble of attentiveness with his measured, colorful discourse.

MP3s of the formal talks that Dale delivered at the Forum can also be found on the web: ‘Plant Teachers and the Path of Eve‘ and ‘Psychedelics and Zen Buddhism‘.

Thanks Gyrus!

You may also enjoy:

Dale Pendell Bibliography

Dale Pendell Homepage

The Magic of Corporate Personhood

William Burroughs: Thanksgiving Prayer

THANKSGIVING PRAYER

William S. Burroughs

 Hear Burroughs Read His Poem: Mp3 Download

Thanksgiving Prayer (QuickTime 7.6 MB)

For John Dillinger
In hope he is still alive
Thanks for the wild turkey and the Passenger Pigeons, destined to be shit out through wholesome American guts —
thanks for a Continent to despoil and poison —
thanks for Indians to provide a modicum of challenge and danger —
thanks for vast herds of bison to kill and skin, leaving the carcass to rot —
thanks for bounties on wolves and coyotes —
thanks for the AMERICAN DREAM to vulgarize and falsify until the bare lies shine through —
thanks for the KKK, for nigger-killing lawmen feeling their notches, for decent church-going women with their mean, pinched, bitter, evil faces —
thanks for “Kill a Queer for Christ” stickers —
thanks for laboratory AIDS —
thanks for Prohibition and the War Against Drugs —
thanks for a country where nobody is allowed to mind his own business —
thanks for a nation of finks — yes,
thanks for all the memories… all right, let’s see your arms… you always were a headache and you always were a bore —
thanks for the last and greatest betrayal of the last and greatest of human dreams.

“Thanksgiving Day” first appeared in the chapbook Tornado Alley, with illustrations by S. Clay Wilson. Director Gus Van Sant then put together the above montage whose power derives almost solely from Burroughs’ reading and, perhaps, the strange sad-old-man expression of his staring eyes at the end. There are numerous variants of “Thanksgiving Day” floating around the internet, but this entry is from RealityStudio.org who copied this directly from the original printed text.