Blog moved

Hello everyone,

I've had a problem moving my blog to my own server; which I am currently working on.

In the meantime, my old blog is still available here as an archive.

For all new blog entries, please visit my new website.

http://chedal.org

Thanks!

Understanding the economy

Here is an immensely insightful article on the (US) economy:

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=10697

And here is an article that explains why the oil prices are currently in grave fluctuation:

http://www.theoildrum.com/node/4672

Despite campaign promises to the contrary, promising a cabinet of non-lobbyists with regulations to prevent corporate ties to government, here is just one of many articles I have read recently that raise big questions as to the potential for 'change' in Obama that we were once hoping for:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/04/us/politics/04emanuel.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

recycled fashion show:

here is a nice photo reel of a recent recycled fashion show I went to a few weeks ago.

100% re-used materials! and some very pretty executions...
;)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/frankofotos/sets/72157609426997934/show

Sebastian

starting a new year...

Right, I've thought about where I am and where I want to go, and here is my plan for next year:

step1: do a vipassana 10 day silent-meditation course. I've been meaning to now for years and it's time I do it. I'm aiming for February 2009.

step2: follow a permaculture-teacher-training course. Even though I am not sure how this will help me in the short term; it is a vital component to all of my more recent developments. My goal is to find a course that starts in March, April or May 2009.

I already have a very exciting idea of where to go next after these two steps; but I need a little more time to review and confirm.

the venus project

"We're a crude form of life right now, in the evolutionary stages. Our civilization? Really we are not even civilized yet.

After the world joins together, and we are through with militarism, prisons, torture, hunger, poverty, deprivation; when that is gone, that will be the beginning of the civilized world."
-- Jacque Fresco

Some strong words; but he is so true. Very interesting ideas; solid.

Jacque Fresco is a Social Engineer and Industrial Designer who lays down the foundation for a more idealistic cultural community. So far it sounds like a mixture of Scientificism with 'gift economy' economic principles.

He describes the project thus:

"An attainable vision of what our world could be if we intelligently apply science and technology with environmental and human concern--a future where war, poverty and hunger could be but a distant memory."

His movie has sparked a deeper interest so I am going to pick up a book of his; as I am interested in seeing if I can resonate with his principles.

Highly recommended viewing:



Further information is available at his website:

http://thevenusproject.com/resource_eco.htm

political beard rubbing

Well,

After further perplexion into the whole Obama afair, I can only safely say right now that I'm not seeing much 'change' in the group of people being collected into his cabinet. There is still a rotating-door taking place, and honestly near 50%+ of his staff is either part of the Clinton era, Clinton staff, advisers on different company boards, past lobbyists, and/or already part of government.

This is not to say we won't see some positive changes, but the potential for radical changes is looking slim. As I read more and more of his policies listed on change.gov I can see that we still have a problem with the system itself; and until we can remodel that system, it will be dificult to make real progress.

the cruise

aaaah, this fabled classic. A movie which, if there were one I could recommend; it would surely be the Cruise by Bennet Miller.

You know those great moments when you feel that you can truly look upon your life; as if you looked upon it for the first time, and truly see the light?

Those are these

A tunnel, so long that all you see has no end? I can relate to the sentiments presented. And it is true art indeed when catalyst upon second seeing is doubly enfolded.

In each moment of life there seems to be this wave, arching between despair -- a weight which surveys no purpose, and salvation. Salvation always in a new form; a new idea, a separate slicing of thy clay.

That new block that comes upon the current one along your road and it settles.
A large thun.

A mold which breaks from the own patter of its feet. Running. As it looks behind her self.


Today, you re-recognize the undeniably truth that every moment, every smile, every tooth brushing, every heart broken, every plant watered has a purpose. And you feel that drop-drip like drip of remembering the importance of standing. Hoping, in this moment, that the feeling will not sway away beneath your feet, like the tide, faster that your mind looses loved one's at sea.

Open like a volcano, she tears a pain upon the side-side of my heart. So many possibilities; like your ancestors before you; like projections of physical flame you surround me with jets of energetic tumbling; like a school girl spinning in a tall bright summers day where your ears feel lifted to the tippy toes of blinding clouds and nothing could be wallower.

These testing times resting my physical strength seem unnecessarily cruel. Where is that radiant energy; that blossoming being? That beacon of hope, prosperity, of order in mind heart and function -- radiate reason, notre desire de vivre? (or too cliché to mention)

Fear

Like a mirror you challenge me to look even deeper into her eyes.

Diving head foot fool with my left leg I take you back to where your heart belongs. In that breath that knows no comprimise. With eyes shut, I remember: your name.

Like a warm form you breath spirals inside my body.

A whisp, a ghost like pulse that fills your heart from the inside; that you can't help but make the smallest smile.

In servitude to that sigh, I too pronounce only three words I know... :

I do not know

For those of you interested in "Cruising" and Speed Levitch, here is some nice further reading.

when the last oak leaves fall from the tree,

This week I had friends over to share my sauna, thanksgiving is coming up soon and there will be lots of nice yummy food soon. Went out to a few parties and was reminded at just how many people I know in Portland already! It's quite amazing. It's really nice to have a supporting circle of friends here.

The biggest news however is that I broke up with Chelsea and severed the friendship - something I don't usually do, but it was necessary this time given how things unfolded.

In parallel I've been having much trouble with my back. Some friends here have been a great help, offering herbs, meals and ointments. I've been finding it really-really hard though to just lie in bed and do nothing at all for a day!

The plantsoft grant proposal was completed and we didn't get to the second round. Thanks to all of you who helped us! I feel zero dissapointment; The process was really insightful in terms of learning more about what i takes to initiate a business; as well as what our real strengths are -- things have crystalized further. At this point though it has left me in a position where I feel like I need to re-evaluate my direction, primarily because there are other gardening applications already out there that, while not exactly the similar to ours, change the market from 'emerging' to 'saturated'. My main reason for wanting to re-evaluate is because I want to make sure that where I put my energy is truly meaningful. No sense re-inventing the wheel as it were.

I came to portland with the intention of finding a place that was: "supportive and conductive to my being" -- and this is exactly what I have found. My home in particular is such a great place to live; I am very thankful. What I am applying myself to though could still be refined. If PlantSoft does fall off of the plate, there will soon be a replacement. There is potential that this will be art; or some other venture, or maybe even a fixed-position job at a company: if it's green- and of the mind-set that I resonate with. Time will tell.

In just a few weeks I will be going back to Europe. Spending time in London, Amsterdam and Israel. These 5 weeks will give me a good new perspective on things, and I'll also be able to re-evaluate my goals, dreams and future expectations.

In a previous post I made some ambitious goals for 2008, those were:

* massage cert. (at least 50% completed)
* permaculture teach trainer cert.
* horticultural software alpha
* book/card book idea developed
* native american focus (for burning man 2008 and/or by visiting a retreat in oregon/washington)
* new music live set completed in 2008 for nez live performances in 2008/2009
* at least 1 gallery expo in 2008 of my artwork in parrallel to attempts in portland to situate my art as a parallel focus (music is no longer my #1 focus and now holds place in parallel with 'art')
* develop new art ideas relatd to expo (traditional, photographic, installations and multimedia [audio-video] interactive displays)
* get an eco job; or a job i beleive in (only do what you believe)
* develop my lecture topic for BM08; probably related to my deck/book idea.
* add lighting techniques to my photography skills/knowledge so i can start making my own photosessions for artwork (live model/fashion integration)
* save enough money in 2008 to meet my personal savings/year target so that i can eventually buy land (at an as yet unknown future sapce time-location)

Of these, I can say that I accomplised the following:

* horticultural software [grant proposal/biz plan]
* 2 gallery expos in portland
* develop new art ideas relatd to expo [but not completed]
* financially in 2008 I cut even, no savings -- and with all this talk of a US economic depression on the horizon; I'm not sure where I'll be in 2009.

There are various reasons why the other goals didn't materialize.

2008 was the the wish for:

"a productive year, where I would find a place that was supportive and condussive to my dreams and ambitions"

This fully came true. So far every year has not only come true, but there has also been a moral that came with it. This year unquestionably that lesson is: "sacrifice".

I've learned that in order to do what you want to do, you need to make some very dificult choices. I've also been learning to trust my intuition even more unquestionably; even though sometimes it can seem to take me days, weeks, months or even years to make up my mind about certain things.

As a human the unknown is often scary; and choosing for something that feels better that what you have/are presented with -- even though you have no idea what that will be, is daunting. It's like choosing 'emptiness' over 'something'.

To just arrive in Portland it required long thought out sacrifices, and many tough decisions, broken hearts and unchosen paths. It's made me learn yet more about love and relationships and really turned the table over twice further.

For next year, I am still not sure what the wish will be, I'm juggling between a wish that further enforces the productivity wish; or changing gears and going for something more growth/paradym/trancendental instead. I have this feeling that I want to take where I'm at, and move it up another 10 levels. Blow up into little sparkly bits as it were. So I want to keep on the thread of being ambitious. A vipassanan cource could end up being a good way to start January/February 2009.

Much love,

Sebastian.

Obama!!

Man I am exalted!!!

This is the first president elected in the USA I can honestly say I actually 'wanted' to be president! Instead of just a better choice between two worse-case scenarios.

The comments from around the world are really interesting, and heart touching. There is so much hope, so much potential in us - the humans - on this world.

How was it where you live? Here in Oregon it was a parade in the streets! Cars beeping, drum sets, fireworks -- everyone is in disbelief, including myslf... is this a dream? I never thought I'd see an African American president elected, especially not after such a strong abhorable right-regime!

How is it in your part of the world? Were people also celebrating?

I really hope things can now take positive steps.
I think the best thing that Barak can do is to **EDUCATE** the people. Not by pointing the finger, but by looking at the causes of our problems, by redeveloping compassion, cohesion. We can make it happen; but it's going to take action to make that difference. Educating people as to the purpose of why policy changes are taking place is a long-term commitment towards creating a more capable populous.

"Awareness breeds understanding fosters solidarity births compassion"

I'm close to getting to a place where I can apply myself fully towards a higher/common goal. If no other wishes for next year materialize to better this one, it will be my full unrelenting application towards a heart-felt ideology.

Best regards to you all,

Sebastian.

Tiddle tiddles

Hello folks, well hours away from final results of the new US president... and statistics would have it that Obama is set to win!!! Geesh, i can barely believe it! BUT, any weirdness can still happen [as past elections have shown] -- so I won't get too presumptuous...
:P

There is a big long term prediction I am making. If you look at all of the votes coming in, all the voters, even in heavily republican states, of voters aged 29 years of less: are democratic. From 30 to 59 its split and over 60 people tend to vote republican... So, what we are looking at is a surge of young voters who are more-and-more democratic. All other factors being equall, in the long term this can only lead to a gradual tidal-wave from the democratic party in years to come...

Nearly right after I made my past post regarding PlantSoft, Ken tipped us off on a potential grant application -- we were soooo busy for a week working on the proposal, and now its in:

http://tinyurl.com/6hnamf

Apparently the votes are important to the judges, though they probably look at a lot more than just that; we are hoping to get to the second round, so if you have the time to review our proposal and vote for us, we would be very thankful!

This intense week has made things more definite. Further research has made the proposal more solid, and Melissa has been a huge help in getting it all together [big thanks to Melissa!]. If anything, this has made me really evaluate things more deeply and, if anything, there will be good discussion as a result of all this.

It felt really good to focus so much energy on something I truely believed in. If anything, I hope to have that opportunity again soon; either on this project, or on another.

I've seen some pretty funny / cute videos lately.

Here is one about a Lion that was raised in captivity, then released into the wild and then 2 years later the original owners found him back with the help of a tracker! Quite an amazing story [assuming it is true!]



And here is a link to a really funny "what if" Sara Palin site:



http://www.palinaspresident.us/

Hugs!

Sebastian.

Psychic Dreams

--crater lake, OR, USA, 2008-10, S. Chedal
see all of Sebastian's new photos of crater lake

You know those mornings when you wake up and you just feel like you have been dreaming in a good place? Mine right now are full of psychic action, super powers and ambition.

(A siren stirs drifting questions)

Fall has properly come to us now. The trees are all lighting up in explosions of red, yellow, orange and gold. The air has a chill to it, its fresh and still very dry - despite what everyone tells me I should be experiencing, my face still does not bare any droplets of moisture. - sun beams brightly, in wooden textures of buttery gold. Rainbows scatter among our plants where I sip warm licorice.

From many waking-dreams: medical non-profit coverage, an art-game-collaborative idea with my friend Ullika, making art, making music and PlantSoft, things seem to be narrowing down further and further.

Every essence of me wants one of these to succeed more than any other; and that's PlantSoft [our gardening software project]. It's the only goal in my life right now where I can see the potential for my work to make a difference - but to get us to where we need to go, which is now clearly funding, this requires a new impetus of effort; and that is taking time, and sadly - though this is the way it is - my other projects are freezing like the first ice crystals of winter well before the ice caps of our beloved Mt. Hood extend their domain hither.

Writing a business plan is a new experience for me; and it's teaching me what marketing is really about: Not the "icky"-marketing I always associated with the term, but the good kind: knowing people's needs, projecting costs to expenditures, making market projections... all of these things so that your idea has the best chance of success and also to ensure that what you make is indeed something that people want.

Now I've never written a PHD, but writing a business plan feels like one! It's now 30 pages long and I still need to do a ton of research to support the ideas, claims, finances and financial projections I am proposing! And I'm sure it will at least double in size before it is done...

Ultimately I hope this work is fruitful. Nothing would please me more than to know that the work I am doing is fully towards something I am not only good at, but something I can believe in.

I need to keep two words in my mind:

* Passion *

* Perseverance *

The world, and friend's like Ada have shown me that's the only two things you really need.

This is where my vision is narrowed. All else seems to fall to the way side right now as I hone in on my purpose.

And a hawk picks off the swift.

Beyond this (to where the squirrels race past my windows every morning with a new batch of chestnuts) it is a newness for me to be in a stable relationship. It is a goodness, it feels nice to have that consistent love in my life.

Like the migrant geese who triangulate over our tall spaghetti city bridges, I just bought my plane tickets for December. I am flying to London, Amsterdam and Tel Aviv between the 19th of December and the 19th of January. I don't know what to expect from my journey but I do feel like it will be challenging, fun, trans-formative, educational, sad and joyous all at once - if not more.

My routine is getting better. It is a joy to be in a good home now, but I notice that I've reverted again to being a hermit. It is odd how I fluctuate through the years between the socially-minded-outdoor-adventure-traveler and then the introverted-computer-typing-creative; but perhaps this is just my nature.

My blessings go out to my mother, who is back in Amsterdam - but still strugling to find a place to live. I hope you can find a stable home soon, and root again into peace - as you deserve.

With kindness,

Sebastian.

--crater late, Oregon, USA, 2008-10, S. Chedal

September renditions

Hello everyone, time has been passing again and there has been little from me on this blog for some time. There has been much growth and many experiences lately, so let me try and recapture some of them...

Up until September the summer was packed with many festivals, lots of work, lots of socializing and a beautiful romantic development with a very special woman named Chelsea, whom I've been getting to know more since the last 2 or 3 months:






Then Burning man came up, but I had just gotten back from Shambala [festival in Canada] and I didn't feel like it made sense to go; even though I was doubting myself. The last two years I had spent the time making art projects for the event, and going empty handed felt really wrong; I also didn't feel like I had much personal growth space potential there this year. So I stayed in Portland.

September was a different story though, a difficult month for me; after months of being on high-energy, super-social, super-working and super-productive mode I kinda crashed out and burned a little...

Things started to stress me out, as it felt like many aspects of my life were faltering. Like all my precious artwork that was sent in the mail from France to me, took forever to get here [leading me to think it might have been lost], dentist diagnosis's of 4,500$ {which led me to do second opinions form other dentists...}, lost a check which needed to get canceled, my mother's situation has been very difficult though still progressing positively overall [she is now back in Holland!], not getting much work in September meant that I was dipping back into savings to survive {though I didn't look for work either}

My current house was starting to get to me: hyper-dirty, meat eating and too much TV and, was also been concerned about my love life: wanting to do the right thing, for me and for others; while also wanting to give myself enough time to make decisions so that I know they are based on rational and not emotional factors: but this has proven to be difficult. And finally, to top it off I wanted to work in September on my own projects; like my horticultural software, but progress was slow.

In a string of fortune, like clouds that pass for sunshine when you just wait long enough, most of these things have turned around...

I've found an amazing new place to live, moving in between the 1st and 15th of October with beautiful people, vegetarians, out door bathtub, banana tress and veggie garden, shared sauna and beautiful hardwood floors + a private basement space I can use for office/art work! Youpie!

All my art finally arrived, intact, which means I can immediately work on getting gallery expositions whenever I want. Dentist diagnosis was sort-of resolved by getting a second opinion [which was the extreme opposite of: nothing to do for 6 months... go figure]. Work is coming back in full force with 3 or 4 new projects starting/continuing again; and I haven't even spent any effort looking for new work. Lastly concerning Chelsea and I, there has been good discussion, I've been learning, seeing things more clearly, opening up. There has been some good resolution, I'm very much in love.

This weekend a friend Ole and Chelsea and I are going camping in the desert for 3 days + 1 day at a hot spring/massage retreat in the mountains. The leaves are starting to turn colors, its a beautiful time, you can feel winter coming on, the days are colder, the sky more gray, there has been a trickle of rain here and there...

There is a possibility I will have an art show at a technology-arts exhibit; show casing this geometric 2 player game I am inventing/developing; but I am still unaware if it's realistic that I will be done in time, the amount of code I still need to write is daunting!

Got more art supplies recently too, like a nice drafting table and new technical pens. Also got a great 10$ large sliding door that will work perfectly as a canvas; I still plan on working on some larger pieces through out the winter to have ready for next year.

PlantSoft, my horticultural software project, has been moving forward again; we now officially have a lawyer on the team and she has been good at getting me/us organized enough to put together an official business plan - it's a monster of a task!!

Sorry to all of you I have not been in more contact, it's been a general thing and not at all specific.

There are a few new photo albums to see, album 2 was updated with new pictures.





Love,

Sebastian.

the Panama Deception

Hello,

this is a documentary from 1992; a little dated, perhaps? Well maybe, this documentary covers papa bush's invasion of Panama; and it does it in an extremely effective manner, one of the best documentaries of its type I have ever seen; and worthy of watching for sure - even if it does boil some hairs on your chest...



Furthermore, a friend just passed me a link to a website that stocks a large list of other documentaries; click "view movie" when seeing a trailer to watch it in full"

http://www.freedocumentaries.org

more from me soon, busy popping around all kinds of festivals at the moment!

hugs,

sebastian.

Global peace day

Coming up soon in September:

The Fluoride deception

Still using fluoride?

Part 1:



Part 2:



Part 3:

(re)using plastic containers?

Hi folks, some general information which is important to know:

On all plastic bottles / containers, you have a number. This number indicates the type of plastic that was used.

Some plastic is meant to be re-used safely, others are not. The two most common side-effects caused by plastic is hormonal disruption and cancer.

Here is a short guideline:

PET numbers 2, 4 and 5 are generally safe to wash and re-use.

PET 1 should only be used once and then recycled / trashed, if used again it will leach.

PET 3 and 6 contains study proven hormone disrupting chemicals (styrene) and carcinogens and should be avoided entirely [so don't even drink from it the first time around].

As a general guideline, if you can taste the plastic, you are eating it.
Always avoid having plastic containers in the sun as this increases the rate of leaching on all numbers.

{information courtesy of the AMPS Society}

reconnecting in the woods of music

Here I am, back from a week filled with camping at two different rivers in two different states and another 4 days at the Oregon Country Fair (OCF) festival.

It's been a very full week filled with beautiful nature-moments, skinny dipping in rivers, camp fires, hikes, beautiful waterfalls, trees, mountain views... getting back into the urban life is odd, but I've had such a good return-to-center experience : thanks to the Oregon Country Fair : that I am eager now to set things straight in my life.

Things have been so full-on lately that there has been little time between one experience and the next that there has been little time to really reflect on my actions and choices, I remember feeling a few days ago as well how it is interesting how on the one hand life could not be any better; with things in Portland materializing effortlessly, and yet simultaneously at the same time things for my mother could not be any more difficult. There have been other parallels in my life that echo this paradox. A few days ago in my journal I wrote:

"It is interesting that sometimes the most beautiful moments in our life can also be the most painful."

On a side note, 'pain' is an interesting experience in and of itself. While I am no where near an expert on "pain", as I know others can attest to its spiritual nature, the thought occurred to me lately that pain can perhaps also be seen, from the perspective of your body as it: "loving you so much, that it doesn't want you to leave it, so it makes you feel pain so that you [your soul] stay close to it [the living body], and healthy." Where the 'body' can also be extended to 'material-affection'; where 'material' means 'material-existence'.

While camping at the OCF, I found that my mind had a hard time to relax, it took quite a time to really wind down, but one technique I found that worked for me is:

"Listen to the zen of the body, and the mind will follow"

By this I mean, if the body wants to stretch, then stretch, if it wants to walk, then walk, if it wants to lie down on its belly, then do this too, when you walk, walk with the gracefulness that your feet would have you walk if you are fully present in just this task. Breath with purpose.

Other interesting thoughts I had include:

"All the life that you see in the world exists because it lives in harmony"

In regards to my own harmony, this was a good time to realize what changes I needed to make to re-achieve that harmony in my life. The mind ponders many possibilities, projecting what-if scenarios which rapidly form behavior altering fears. In response to this thread of thought, I wrote:

"The way I think the universe works: A continuous thread of choice you face at every present-moment, is whether to be true to yourself. Love, kindness, gratitude, generosity, happiness, contentment, peace... these, and more, all flow from here"

OCF was a really interesting place, I heard and saw so many special heart moving musical & theatrical moments. A mixture of burning man (BM) and the dutch elvish theme park: the eebeling. Every year the art that is present increases instead of being burned like it is at BM. And whereas at BM money is banned, here it is the money derived from the 3 'open days' that fuels the economy for the artists / community lovers who work to construct it. Its a totally different angle, with different values. A village built into a forest of trees that is submerged most of the year under water and then rebuilt every year again in time for the yearly summer festival. Its been going on since the 1980's; so its quite an old-school event for sure!

The forest it takes place in is very special, the bird song in the mornings was incredible, a growing chant which begins with a distant echoing chorus and mounts in numbers into the hundreds. At this point it also ocured to me that most birds on the planet sing at sunrise, and since there is always a sunrise somewhere, there is in fact a band of birdsong which follows the sun continuously around the planet all the time, 24h a day [yes, there are gaps in the song caused by oceans, but its still very pervasive].

The song had a deep mantra chanting sound to it, I listened carefully to the layers, it sounded like hundreds of birds, close and far, were singing a main phrase which consisted of 3 notes repeated in 4 steps and then a pause: Mid, low, mid, high, pause [repeat]. Between which some birds would launch little sparkles, phrases or spiral chirps, but overall, all the birds were uniting into this one over-arching chorus of unity.

This led me to reflect on the function of sight to sound. And how at some point in the past there was one living creature that felt the need when it "saw" light to utter "sound". The participation of the birds in the song felt like an acknowledgment to the one, to their species and to the world, one would say: a religious experience for them, as well as an acknowledgment to [between the birds] of their presence. I couldn't imagine that a bird could hold back from the chant without negatively affecting its place within the other birds. No song: no location. No location: no contact with others and no territory. No territory or no community: no sustenance.

The bird thus is the epitamy of the exemplification of the throat chakra. Highly expressive, communicating over vast distances, with acute sight and the freedom of flight. I sat and listened and tried to imagine that day when the first creature on the earth spoke in reverence to the morning light... that simple daily miracle of the returning sun.

July 4th: Flower-works

I've just uploaded some nice photos of flowers from my camping trip to the hood river.
:)

Delicious bookmarks: by the people for the people

many years ago i thought it would be great if you could meta tag and rate your bookmarks and then share those bookmarks with others on the internet publicly.

Now someone has finally done just that very thing, I just found this site and immediately I found far better search results with it than with Google. The problem with Google is that if you are looking for things you often just find sites that want to sell you things. For example: if I type in 'free textures' I get sites where I get 'free previews of textures', and rarely are they actually any good when they are in fact free... and then I have to pay to see it...

Since http://del.icio.us/ lists bookmarks by people who thought that the textures were free, they probably really are. The first 10 hits were all exactly what I was looking for...

So, maybe you will also find this site useful. Combined with my RSS netvibes, I now have two really good sites now for general information collecting and sorting...
:P

Seb.

A Moments Reflection

So, it's been a while, it's been a hurricane. There hasn't been a proper blog report from me in ages. I'm sorry.

Life has been chalk-full of engaging experience. I've been applying myself to manifest my world the way I want it to unfold, and this has taken a lot of my focus.

Portland feels like a warm welcoming human-home. Or a human-womb. That loving comfortable feeling you get in the woods or in your favorite nature spot: except here it's a human-equivalent. An ethereal sanctuary. I've got a balance of exceptional nature, great friends in an ever growing circle of wonderful people, a very active romantic life and absolutely no shortage of fun work.

For the past month or two I've been trying to strike the balance between art-work and play. These coming months are going to be intense as I focus primarily on work and some well placed shorter trips around Oregon and Washington to go hiking, camping, river swimming and festival-loungin-n-dancin.

Portland is a crazy place in many ways, just in the last few weeks I've gone strawberry picking, riding firetrucks through the city, swimming in crystal cool rivers, made a 7 course meal dinner for friends, went to a coconut party, saw more than 2,000 naked cyclists riding in the city center, watched an amazing dual-occurrence sunrise-moonrise and lot's more I can't remember right now.

I'm working on one person's astrology chart right now, which is fun to get back into. Work is going well, I'm busy with about 9 projects all at the same time. Art was really a big part of my life in the first month I was here, but now I've put it on hold again. I think for the summer between my programming+design work and outdoor plans I have very little time left over to do much else.



Recently I learned that according to this system called: Humand Design System I'm classified as a Reflector. Apparently only 0.9% of the population are Reflectors and it's been interesting hearing what the advocates of this system think I am all about... when I hear their description and then review what kind of life I have had, it does seem to make sense, although often the short passages I do find about it on the net either seem to not describe me well, or only one little aspect of it. I got a far better explanation that I found fitting when I talked with a few of the main practitioners of the system here in Portland. I hesitate to post it, cause it is self-praise positioned in a different melon, but perhaps it has value to share what I was told so here you go:

"As a Reflector none of your energy / chakra centers are active, so you are highly mutable and automatically modify yourself to suit your situation. The people you meet activate you with their energies, you become them. You are like an open channel that all life can pass through. A Reflector's life, if free to do so, will have continual bounces, twists and changes in their life. More so than most people, your experience is more of one of an observer, looking onto varied human life as all experience washes over without ever really affecting you. Thus in a way, you are invisible. You can become any of the other types [Manifestors, Generators, Projectors] based on different needs and situations but be aware of the risk of influence, for your adaptability can also mean you can be led astray from your path as you lack inherent self-manifestation. Your lack of self manifestation can also lead to failure because your power is often externally generated rather than internal, so be aware of the risk of disappointment. If a Reflector can reach awareness, they are able to see that all the different beliefs and ideas that surround us are just the current fashion, they see the underlying truths. Reflectors are either lost in the wave of it all, unable to take hold of their lives or they are like the forward scouts of humanity, experiencing and detecting our future and sampling from all of broad human existence. A part of human life, and yet somehow separate, those who meet a reflector will often see only themselves: a mirror."

In some way all this information has made me more aware of myself, and its made me that much more aware of the importance there is to listen to my inner-voice, the one that seems to always know what is right for you - AND - the other/group all at the same time; like everyone, it's a daily challenge, it's something I feel I'm getting much better at, but still not perfect at following.

Other than a few talks though, I'm not really that into this system, primarily because it all seems very complicated, so I would need time to understand and abstract it (aka grok it), and I am content at the moment focusing on other things.

Next week is a lot of work deadlines and then I'm going to a river-lodge with about 10 friends for the weekend and then [hopefully] I'll be off camping for a week until the 11th when it will be time to go to the Oregon Country Fair - supposedly the 'Burning Man' of Oregon. Day-night passes are very hard to come by, some call them 'gold-cards', as most people have to leave at night and its at night that supposedly all the fun begins... my dearest friend Ulika seems to have worked some magic for me though and apparently I'm going to have full play access.
:D

Meanwhile my mother in France is struggling, she is now back at home and walking again with only one crutch, but financially her situation is not balancing out - the French system simply doesn't accommodate to my mother's earnings [cause they look back to 2006 instead of at her present situation when awarding aid + other reasons]. Christen feels like she should return back to the Netherlands, and now she is working on finding transportation and a place to go to again... how strange! I would have never expected such a turn of events. She is going through quite a challenging time right now, I hope things are only going to get better for her.

Much love to you all,

Sebastian.

Gas, Trash and Bicyles

Did you know that in the middle of the Pacific there is a big huge ball of plastic & garbage that is spinning, ever growing in size and currently the size of Texas??

I sure didn't, how horrible! You can see where it is spinning via this link:

spinning garbage pile in the pacific ocean

In parallel I just found out that in order to generate 1 gallon of gasoline it would take you cycling on your bike non-stop for 1,800 hours! That's the equivalent of working 8h a day [riding your bike!] for 12 months!!

That same gallon of gasoline takes about 98 tons of plant material to produce, which is the equivalent of loading several dozen logging trucks!

If you think this is bad, the energy efficiency between car and bike is further reinforced by comparing the most ecological-compact car on the market to date with the bicycle. In order to pull that eco car at its cruise speed, it would take 3,000 bicycles all in tow! That's the equivalent to 15 rows of bicycles pulling the car fender-to-fender for 10 city US blocks!

... geesh

So really what we need is more bike paths... and a total ban on any non bio-degradable or non bio-edible plastics. petitions and boycotts anyone?

future scenarios

speaking of which, here is a website that goes into future scenarios. Interesting for anyone thinking about that vague land called tomorrow...
;)

future scenarios

In the future...

In the not so distant future, people will be marketing devices, and especially electronic/computer related ones for entirely different qualities than they do today.

A typical computer will be something that you buy for its craftsmanship, something that you know was built to last 20 to 50 years or more, even if you throw it around or drop it. Where every part in it is proudly replaceable and independently upgradeable. A device that requires a low amount of energy to run.

This might seem like fantasy, but its actually inevitable. As resources slowly run out and power prices increase, "natural forces" will impose themselves upon our human systems just like they do on all other (natural) systems on the planet.

We soon won't be able to afford a product if we know it won't last longer than a few years, and we certainly won't buy something if the parts aren't replaceable, that would be just plain silly! As for power, well slowly but surely there will be far less of it around, so necessity is, without a doubt the mother of invention.

Our work today, both in the realm of actual forefront construction or passive idea dissemination [like this post] is the equivalent to collective-conscious-foresight. Seeds of awareness to a shift in paradigm that is open to us because it has been imagined. And once you can imagine something, it's as solid as life can be.

Spinning energetic spheres

Where will the spinning stop when it has begun?
A concoction of stress and joy, the thrill of the dive.

Spinning 4 plates or more, pauses to consider, no room to falter - the ship flies too fast to spare a moment carefree - or can we still see?

The blind are busy fixing our key.

Watch a Fabulously artistic video about a white animated man who moves across the city walls using motion capture still repeat frame photography.

Primary manifestiations

Man, it's been excellent these last days, but also really intense. I'm managing to do a lot of good things, though there is also a great deal of learning and growth that is ocurring simultaneously.

I've managed to get kicked out of a party for being rude when I was trying to be funny, learned a great deal more again about myself, seen people who "wrestle" as a way to get to know each other, drummed like mad in a cave with a dozen other drummers, relaxed in my most favorite place in the world deep in the forest by trees, a lake & waterfall in warm thermal pools, put some of my art up at a local recycled art gallery, arranged some freelance work for a talented artist, friend and future-art collaborator: Joseph Mross, read the most amazing poem of my life, seen the most beautiful unicorn and peacock painting, arranged one new business venture with an utterly generous great new friend with an attic studio she is offering I can use - and much much more...

Every day is like a whole new story is being told.

Things are still difficult in other areas of life though, my mother is only now just back from the re-education center to her new home, so I really hope she is doing well and that she is able to now begin her new life in France.

So many more whippets twirl the essence of life to detail, and yet so limitless are these words to describe...

left-right brain video

here is an interesting video about a brain scientist who has a stroke and then gives her person story on how those effects translate to her life and study.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyyjU8fzEYU

20 min long, heart touching.

I love it

Hi Folks,

Just a short update to let you all know that I am in Portland now. I've been here just over a week and already in this time much has happened.

I've re-built an old speed bike to my taste, re-kindled my old friendships and made many new ones. My housemates are very sweet and I've been to a farm, hiking in the gorge, seen some of my local waterfalls, helped with kitchen work, done yoga, been very busy gardening, learned about the different types of mushrooms there are, met with local artists, been interviewed on the Oregon public radio station on my thoughts concerning politics, bought basic furniture, registered to vote, surveyed the job market, ordered a new laptop, delighted in the plethora of flowering trees [many-many sakura - cherry blossom trees!], watched a wonderful movie called "the cruise" which I would highly recommend, sat around many camp fires [its legal here to have a camp fire in your backyard!], done a 6 mile bike ride up a very steep road, received 2 massages and exchanged numbers with a third person interested in exchanges, visited a local democratic party rally, developed my plan for what art work I want to produce, bought a new book on computer programming/SE engineering, seen children and friends stilt walking, flaming fire whips and fire spinners for the first time and much-much-much more...

It's strange, living in Portland feels like living permanently at burning man...

I REALLY love it here, and I am so incredibly happy to be in Portland! I'm only just starting to realize that I live here, I think things will become much more concrete once I get a job [or any source of income for that mater]; but I am confident this will come with time...
:)

It looks as if there are also good opportunities to make an income from art here as no one needs a license to sell at the bi monthly art-fairs.

For the most part I am focussed on making the right choices that will manifest the best outcome. One's initial reactions, actions, choices are SO important when you start anything. And like any relationship, how one interacts with a new country/city is most vital in the initial stages because it is from this initial base that all roots will be sown.

This is a very exciting time to be in, more from me soon!

Seb.

p.s. here is a photo of my new speed bike! This picture was taken before I added new fenders, bike rack, changed a break cable and did some other minor tweaks like adding a nice bell...
:)

personal: Unexpected deviations

Well, I had many other things to post about. Personal developments, leaving Amsterdam and how that felt, further thoughts from the last posts about "Patterns" etc.

But instead I have bad news to tell.

My mother fell this weekend, breaking her her femur above the knee. Hospitalized, minimum recovery time 1.5 months, operation was yesterday and that went well. Hopefully she will regain well, especially her mobility and knee flexibility.

I'm left to deal with all her paper work to enter the French system, sort out medical costs, take care of cats/fishes while she is in re-education, receive/arrange all her household boxes from Amsterdam etc.

My flight to the states is in question and I may loose the room I have found there, really not sure.

Staying here long enough to sort my mother' situation will imply sorting myself out here too, as I have no income, no med. insurance either etc.

It was never my plan to be in France, and I really wanted to get to the states well before the summer [festival] season.

This whole situation puts everything back in question [again] and has left me frustrated. It's already been 5 months that I have been helping my mother to move from Amsterdam to France and I thought I was at the end of that. Before that I was traveling since August 2006 - so it's been a very long time since I have been rooted, productive, working - and I really wanted to get my roots going somewhere again! But not here.

This also brings up a longstanding balancing issue:

on the one side: my sense of responsibility, integrity. And on the other: my sense of autonomy, personal freedom. At the moment this exact issue is being pressured to the very hilt! I'm close to breaking point.

Hope things are all good for you,

Much love,

Sebastian.

Awareness power pack

The stimulation of awareness is, in my belief, the single most fundamentally important aspect of ourselves we need to develop.

Through awareness we ask questions, we learn, we develop our own thoughts, we become educated - wise even. The lack of awareness is the root from which all problems arise. War, environmental problems, disease, suffering, fear... all of these negative aspects of our existence can all be solved, resolved or at least understood [and thus accepted and healed] through the knowledge that awareness implies.

In 2005 when I mapped out all the things I could possibly work towards accomplishing, all of it had awareness at its core. This left me in a dual condition. On the one hand: happy, cause I found a single common core-pattern in all of my life's ambitions which implied a single [higher] goal, but also confused because I had no idea how to really stimulate "general" awareness in others.

Awareness is so abstract a thing, I was left thinking "how does one make others become more generally aware?". What I thought I knew, was that the desire to be aware must come from within, you can't make someone aware - or can you?

Some things you can learn, call them "building blocks", or "guiding principles". With these guiding principles you then can filter and extract new information. In terms of awareness this implies:

following your own path

keep asking questions

keep learning

evaluate all sides

pay attention

With these building blocks, further knowledge can be obtained. Clearly parallel sets of building blocks would make sense in many other areas such as ethics, truth, rights etc.

Awareness also intimately dances with general wisdom, as the two are intertwined. At some point I will cover wisdom [in a post], when it has matured sufficiently.

After these thoughts I had on purpose I went on my trip around the world, and again later I was once more confronted with purpose. I thought a lot about having a higher purpose, and was back to trying to pick a single focus [something I've really never been a specialist at].

Not having "anything" to do for months except traveling, meeting people, seeing beautiful places and enjoying life leaves you just desperate to get a shovel in your hand, and have that feeling again like you are productive, useful, active, creative... after 6 months of doing nothing I was so eager to "work" I can't understand why anyone would think that we even need to have laws that say people "have" to work - unless of course the reason you have those laws is because you want to have people do things they don't want to do... hmmmmm...

Anyways, back in the present here in 2008, a year which I have resolved to make into a year focussed especially on this very thing: "productivity" the year is turning in ways I had not expected - and this is keeping things rather interesting.

Since the beginning of this year I have been striving to improve my blog by focusing more on the sharing of knowledge and information, and less on my own personal daily activities and psychology.

While this shift has been very beneficial to me [and hopefully for you too], I feel now that an insight into this process is now necessary for fruit.

In a few weeks time I shall be returning to the U.S. of A. - and if you were surprised to hear this was my decision, I can also tell you that I myself am still surprised I am going back there. Initially I felt an intuitive pulse, something that told me "this is where you need to go next" - and I followed that voice, primarily because I felt that there was "something" which I was going to learn/grow or become from this next phase that could only be found in this place - though at the time this internal message was conveyed to you [and myself on the conscious level] as simply "intuition" or a "hunch".

Recently though I felt a need to rationally map out the reasons why it makes sense to go there, and at that moment I really felt the power of "post rationalization", so to speak.

Let me just say that my opinion on the subject of "rational thinking" has been maturing to quite a degree over the last time since I wrote my previous blog entry on the subject: a primer in rational thinking. We make decisions based on what we think we should do; either because of a choice [or "lack of choice"] in our patterns, or because of a choice that breaks those patterns.

So a list that objectively states all the pros and cons for why you should choose A over B is never going to be objective if you write it [and meaningless if anyone does it for you] because you already know what choice you want to take before you make the list... in other words, you will [unconsciously] skew the list purposefully to match your pre-made decision.

[btw I don't believe in a subconscious beyond your conscious anymore, but that's another post]

Psychological manipulation through "addiction methods", "priming" and "loss mechanisms" are real - and I agree with that - but only awareness will help you to break out of that cycle, awareness and conviction to break a pattern, break the hypnotism - which, I do admit, does require strength, as well as continual questioning...

So I am still confused as to why I am repeating my past pattern of bouncing between the States and Europe... is it itchy feet? an unbreakable pattern? or a higher mission? or some other reason? I disagree with the political state of the country so strongly - why on earth am i going there?

I do have faith that my personal path is leading me the way it is meant to go, but sometimes I really gotta wonder...

Thom Hartmann was right when he said in his book: the last hours of ancient sunlight that we need to adopt the culture of civilizations that have already existed sustainably for the last 200,000 years on earth - just as Steve McIntosh is right when he said in his book: integral consciousness and the future of evolution that we need to adopt all the positives of all levels of previous cultures. But more important than looking for pieces of culture in the history books, more essential than all of that is: knowledge.

I believe that a simple, universal "human" quality exists. When it comes to fundamental truths, words are here to divide as we define, not to unify. A universal "integrity of being" that is "spiritual" to the "spiritual", "logical" to the "mechanist", and "divine" to the "religious" etc.

Discovering this universal truth is a two step process - with both feet stepping - we need to unravel the false alternatives while refining the commonalities of this common essence we call "existence".

We live in an amazing time, a time where there is both amazing potential, and incredible danger. The world is facing serious problems, and the possibility of massive wars, famines and social-regression is very-very real. But there is also a growing wave of amazing consciousnesses-awareness here, we also are living at a point where true fundamental improvements can revolutionize how we live on this earth. The 'problems' we face are also 'opertunities' for us to change, to grow, to learn. And for that, the human psyche has one important tool at its disposal that can guide our future away from danger, something as simple as: education.

If oil prices went up and then your government said it was "some other countries fault" you would probably believe them - that is, unless you knew for a fact that oil prices were going up because there is simply less oil around... in which case they can't dupe you. This simple piece of knowledge would could then potentially shift public opinion to support green technologies and oil reduction instead of war and oil conquest [yes, it is more complicated than this, but every storm starts with a drop, see below].

This was an awfully long preface to a single link I wish you share with you. But every word I have spoken here tonight was within me for some time.

Without further ado, here is a link to a rather controversial documentary titled: zeitgeist*. There are three strong parts to this video plus a final conclusion which ties all three together very effectively.

Please watch and pass it on to those you know. Even if this whole video discusses facts which are fake [which I am nearly 100% certain it is not], the scenario it outlines in the end as our future needs to be publicly discussed precisely to make sure it never happens! If after watching this video you suddenly hear of such a plan... are you honestly going to volunteer?

No, you are not.

"Awareness", case in point.

* zeitgeist = "the general intellectual, moral, and cultural climate of an era"

Animal lore: an introduction to the Birds of Paradise

Not sure how many of you know, but in pau pau new guinea, there are a group of birds which have had a very easy going time for quite an eon. They are called the birds of paradise [wiki reference] for a reason. They live with an excess of food options in a perfect climate and they have no predators to speak of. They live in what we would call "Paradise".

So, what happens to a species when they reach the peak, live in 'paradise' and don't even have to spend any time looking for food?

simple, they develop lavish, excessive, complicated culture.
;)

[sound familiar?]



The birds of paradise are perhaps some of the most bizarre creatures on the planet [well, next to the shaved monkeys that is]. Some of them are fanatic cleaners who scrub branches with sticks and fabricate brooms to "sweep" the floors, and remove all the leaves from their homes. Other's have evolved vastly complicated and flamboyant plumage which looks more like the 60s clashing with the 80s in a circus tent than a bird.



Others developed dances, complete with performance publics, some moon walk, most do pre-preparations, curtsying, and head plumage which they move by rotating their heads round and round...

Video of the birds of paradise that do dance choreography [notice he gets a little excited at the end and can't help but help himself to one of the girls in the audience...]

some of them also form their wings into the image of a black mask and prance around, while others push their heads into their shoulders and their heads vertical to form long cones of brushes... this may all sound crazy, cause it really is. You can also view a short excerpt of a program that was all about them on the BBC:

Here is a video of many of the birds of paradise, but especially the ones that form the amazing black masks

Dancing doesn't stop there though, cause here is a video of another species of birds of paradise that do "moon walks" [complete with Michael Jackson music]

We also have the worlds most amazing mimic, the lyre bird [wiki reference].



The lyre bird is so good at imitating sounds, that it can imitate camera shutters, camera zoom, chainsaws, car alarms, saws + all the other birds around it so completely that human and other animal alike are all fooled by its calls. Disturbingly though, the sounds of chainsaws and saws are actually the sounds of its eminent destruction as poor local populations are lured by the export profits of wood and chop down their own national treasure + these birds homes for short term profits...

watch a video of the lyre bird.

It's little glimpses of other worlds like these that help to remind us to be humble.

Some more photos I found for your pleasure:

online art expo, links & updates

hello everyone!

Well, in 3 weeks I'll be moving out of Amsterdam, moving my mother to the south of France - and I will be in Portland Oregon at or around the 15th of April! So now I'm also in a total vortex of rapidly moving water, so much to organize! Crazy times.

In parallel to all this, a good friend of mine [Cory] has organized a showing of my art work at a festival in Canada! You can view the information on the festival here:

Kognitive festival

And you can also secretly view the slide show presentation I will be displaying at the festival, online, from this link:

view slide show presentation

On a more practical note, you may already have a great RSS/news reader, but if not, I just discovered www.netvibes.com, and I'm sold on their system, it's made collecting and reading up on news and updates to different websites a lot easier!

That's all from me for now, more again soon!

Sebastian.

book review: Integral Consciousnes and the future of evolution by Steve McIntosh

For quite some time I have been interested in theories that discuss the balancing between right and left brain thinking, and the translation of ideas from one field to another.

Ken Wilber's book [my review] opened up a new domain of philosophical thinking. Through this interest I have heard a great deal mentioned recently about Steve McIntosh's model of cultural evolution - so I ordered a copy and sat down for a good read.

Overall the content to page ration in this book is low, and I have a lot of criticism regarding the presentation and content of the material.

All is not lost however, because with some filtering, these good topics emerge:

1. Stages of cultural consciousness
2. Global governance
3. Structures of the human mind
4. Directions of evolution
5. Artifacts as extensions of the mind

1. Stages of cultural consciousness

In a fashion similar to K. Wilber, Mr. McIntosh divides human cultural evolution into layers:

A) Tribal
B) Warrior
C) Traditional
D) Modern
E) Postmodern
F) Integral

Steve Argues that each developmental stage coincides with external pressures and internal development. In his model, cultures evolve in reaction to the negative aspects [the pathologies] of the previous stage's development. Furthermore, according to McIntosh each stage oscillates between a focus on the collective, or on the individual.

Steve illustrates this visually using a spiral, where items on the left of the spiral are collective-focussed, and items on the right are individual-focussed:



The properties and historical events he links between each of these stages is best illustrated in a table*:

stage	Tribal	Warrior	Traditional	Modern	Postmodern
positive values	Family, community	Freedom, personal autonomy	Decency, honesty, morality, respect for traditions	Progress, prosperity, economic development	multiculturalism, environmentalism, egalitarian
negative values	Limitation	Egocentric	Dogmatic, intolerance, fundamentalism	Materialism, greed, selfishness	Regression, denial of relative worth, excessive plurality
technological / economic level	Foraging	Horticultural	Agrarian	Industrial	Informational
guiding ideology	Mysticism	Power	Religion	Science	Plurality
organizational level	tribes	villages	empires	nation powers	global powers
current percentage of world population	5%	20%	55%	15%	<5%

According to S. McIntosh, as each stage of cultural consciousness develops, it is in reaction to the preceding stage's negative values [pathologies]. As the new stage unfolds, it eventually creates its own negative which in turn implies a need for a new cultural consciousness, and the cycle perpetuates:

-> positive: Family -> negative: Limitation -> positive: Personal autonomy -> negative: egocentric -> positive: respect -> negative: intolerance -> positive: prosperity -> negative: greed -> positive: egalitarian -> negative: excessive pluraility -> ...

Steve McIntosh also makes the parallel between human psychology and cultural-conscious levels, stating that an individual may relate more closely to one or more levels than another. Countries also have general weights at one or more levels of consciousness and he refers to an extensive test done on the American population some time in the late last century which showed that 50% of the American people fit the Traditional, 25% the Modernist and 25% fit the Postmodernist archetype descriptions above.

One of the main purposes of this book is to present Steve McIntosh's idea for 'The next cultural-consciousness level'. From the get-go Steve is certain it is what he coins: 'Integral Consciousness'. Which he defines as a [cultural] consciousness which does not deny but rather includes the 'best of' of all previous levels of cultural consciousness:

Values of: family/community, autonomy/freedom, tradition/respect, prosperity/wealth and equality/relative value.

My feelings on this are divided.

One the one hand, I believe that wisdom is the synthesis of all positive aspects from different life-perspectives. It is this drive to understand and then include as many diverse perspectives of life/the world which assists the increase in individual [and thus collective] consciousness. This is a drive which has been present for at least as long as humans have been able to contemplate consciousness itself, and is thus in no way a new ideal of the 21st century.

The idea that our entire culture may be moving towards an integral view is very heart warming, but it is to me not as predestined as it is presented. First of all, human development is as much an internal process of will as it is an external process of adaption. Rapidly changing factors, most of which are unpredictable, will result in a totally different set of conditions which require a different set of cultural-ethics for survival. Steve's model for cultural evolution may indeed be correct in the sand-box, but it is only correct because it is a model of the path that our culture has taken - not because it is the path that all culture must follow.

Our future may be the gradual shift from post modern views to integrated world-thinking, but it could also involve a momentary anarchic period where known cultural systems collapse/revert to previous stages before re-organizing themselves into new [a] model[s] which no one had previously anticipated [or which had laid dormant/suppressed in the present].

Post modernism may coalesce and converge into one world view, a new 'belief' system may sweep across the world, or a new technological advance/discovery may usher in new thinking which seeds new philosophy and beliefs. Conversely, energy shortage could lead to further polarities in modernism... the potential divergences are staggering.

Drawing conclusions from the observation of patterns is what humans love to do, we are good at that. but in this case I think the focus should be on spreading the values of integration in and of itself, not the advocacy of integration being the next phase of human development; it is too early for that. Integral thinking is just another fancy word for being 'wise'. Knowing that every story has two sides to it, realizing the intrinsic value of all things. Respecting one's self, others and the earth and so forth. These are values that are present in all levels of cultural consciousness: tribal, traditional and beyond - and these are not unique features of a as-yet-unprecedented-age.

Personally, integral psychology/consciousness is a fascinating field because it expands my understanding of universal patterns/laws. This greater understanding assists my rational capacity to grasp paradoxical/fundamental concepts.

2. Global government

To my surprise S. McIntosh expands the discussion further to include his ideas for a global government, an entity which would help to uphold laws that restrict/monitor/control the negative aspects of our modernist culture by providing a structure for executing the values of the postmodernist.

Unfortunately not many details are covered here except for arguments on why this would be a good thing.

While I myself am for the idea of the globalization of human rights [a subject I've been wanting to blog/document properly for at least 2 years], my preference is to do this in concert with a bill of international rights which would extend far further than we currently afford an individual their basic rights of self and responsibility.

3. Structures of the human mind

Various studies of the mind are discussed which support the idea of distinct separate lines of intelligence, and McIntosh's proposition that the individual is divided into three main domains: Will, Thought and Feeling. Where these 3 intercept, he calls this the 'self':



This model to me makes sense if I interpret it to be that thought is 'left' brain functioning and 'emotion' is 'right' side functioning since in evolutionary terms 'emotional' functions were present before 'cognitive' functions arose in the neocortex:

Left brain functions	Right brain functions
sequential	simultaneous
analytical	holistic
verbal	imagistic
logical	intuitive
linear algorithmic processing	holistic algorithmic processing
mathematics: perception of counting/measurement	mathematics: perception of shapes/motions
present and past	present and future
language: grammar/vocabulary, literal	language: intonation/accentuation, prosody, pragmatic, contextual

{ref: WikiPedia}

In evolutionary terms 'intellect' [neocortex] came after 'emotional' [lymbic-system]:



4. Directions of evolution

In and of itself, this evolution of cultural layering is only "interesting" until S. McIntosh adds material relating the evolution's perpetual pattern.

If one analyzes the lineage of evolution we see three forces at play:

* the drive to diversify = increased complexity
* the drive to unify = increased unity
* increasing consciousness

We can see this pattern in all forms of life, the more complex an organism, the more unity it also expresses, and the more conscious faculty it possess.

A multi-celled organism is more complex than a single one, because it involves a cooperation of cells that each become specialists in a different domain [some cells become propellers to move the group, others become sensors to see etc.], but it also creates unity because the entire group functions as a whole. A rat is even more complex because it involves staggering quantities of these multi-celled cooperations which are themselves also grouped into even larger units and eventually into the mouse itself. Each part of the mouse, each organ, has one specific unified purpose which sums up to the mouse itself as its own individual self. A mouse is also more 'aware' than a multi celled organism as it expresses a greater degree of consciousness.

Steve then makes the parallel between individual sphere's, and those of the collective. Pointing out that the same evolutionary drives of unity, complexity and consciousness are also present on the cultural level:


(col-self = "collective identity")

This parallel implies that more recent cultural expressions, which are unarguably more complex and more unified, also embody greater 'consciousness', since the three are linked at the hip. McIntosh backs this idea by giving cognitive difference examples between people from Tribal and other cultural back grounds to modern groups.

The taboo topic of talking about some people as being 'more evolved than others' is open for discussion here, and Steve is quick to refer to the need for all levels of consciousness to exist because all individuals go through all phases of consciousness development as they reach their potentials.

New born humans go through all previous phases of life that have occurred in order to 'catch up' to current human levels of evolution. This is true for all life forms [that don't employ cloning]. As a new human, we go from embryo to single celled to multi-celled, to simple organism, to reptilian, to mammal to baby human. And then as a child we develop in clearly definable stages of consciousness which Ken Wilber identified as:

Level	Undifferentiated	Sensiophysical	Phantasmic	Representational mind	Cognitive operational	Formal reflectivisim
Age	0 months	4 months	15-24 months	7 months - 7 years	7 - 11 years	11 - 15 years
Facility	Fused physical, unexpressed identity	Differentiated physical	Differentiated emotions	conceptual self	Concrete operations	Thought on thought

Ken Wilber then discusses higher levels of psychological development which move from Centauric [existential] on up to more and more spiritual levels.

What S. McIntosh's does, is he places his cultural levels next to K. Wilber's by stating that as an individual progresses psychologically internally, they also develop cultural psychological levels externally and move through phases of tribal [mom is my world] to warrior [rejection of family], to traditional [disciplined structure] up to modern [career focussed] and post modern [philosophical] and beyond.

5. Artifacts as extensions of the mind

One of the last appendixes discusses human artifacts. Human artifacts are all the objects we make, or use. Real one's and abstract ones like words, tools, trains, books and computers.

Steve argues that human artifacts are literally extensions of the mind, external manifestations of cultural-consciousness evolution that fulfill what traditionally was done in life in biological terms. New words in a language capture new ideas. New blueprints for a durable construction replace previous biological durability adaptation. These external evolutionary extensions thus allow the human race to evolve at a rate which is no longer limited by biological evolutionary terms. S. McIntosh also goes one step further by stating that these external extensions of culture actually function directly to facilitate our individual evolution of consciousness. Take away our artifacts, and you remove a significant advancement of our faculties! A daring conclusion to draw, but I share his views and think he is right.

All in all I'd recommend someone skip S. McIntosh's book unless they already are familiar with much of K. Wilber's work, and are looking for further depth to K. Wilber's ideas. There are great passages here, and parts really worth reading, its just that too much of S. McIntosh's book reads like a memo intended for K. Wilber or a tedious history lesson, a book written to himself, and too little of it discusses new or varied concepts - it literally feels like half the book is just empty space. The writing style is also to be desired... I prefer it when authors stick to valuable content and limit their enthusiasm of their own opinions to their conclusions [or better yet, their reader's own conclusions].

These short comings aside though, I benefited from my reading, a good book is also one that triggers one to extend an authors ideas or to ingrain your own. I hope this synopsis has been interesting. If I do keep reading up on integral theories, I feel that it will either be a pick from S. McIntosh's bibliography, or another one of K. Wilber's books; but at the moment my focus in on proto-biology.

With kindness,

Sebastian.

* some terms added, removed and/or modified by Sebastian Chedal to fit space and/or concepts above as written.

A primer in rational thought

Just watched an interesting BBC Horizon program on rational thought.

Highlights of the program include:

* Loss complex
* Post-decision rationalization
* Priming
* Precognition

* Loss complex:

Apparently if you take the same situation, but present it as a loss, time-and-time again you can prove that humans will choose more risky, daring [often irrational] choices than if you present the same situation as a potential gain.

The example they give is with gambling. If you give someone 20€ and then tell them they can gamble that money to win 50€ most people will take the 20€ and leave.

But if you give someone 50€ and then take 30€ out of their hand and say that to keep that 30€ they are going to have to gamble to get it, most people will gamble.

This well studied effect, called "the loss complex" is stimulated by our emotional brain centers. People who are able to resist the gambling effect are shown under cat scans to have frontal lobe activity which controls the emotional centers of our brain.

Advise?

If you are faced with a loss situation, and need to make a decision, be aware that we [humans] tend to over react when choosing what is the best course of action. Conversely, if things are going well, we tend to under-react when making decisions that would further our current situation.

Rationalization of the situation [as opposed to reacting from the feeling of loss, gain] will help to make better decisions.

* Post-decision rationalization

Another well studied effect is that we tend to post-rationalize our decisions. So it doesn't matter whether you make a good or a bad decision, once you've made your decision, you justify it, even if its wrong, and even if reality contradicts the result you anticipated. The effect is so strong that memory itself can be altered.

Being aware of this common psychological disposition that we all have is important when analyzing the results of our choices, especially in the identification of wrong ones.

* Priming

Amazingly, another well studied effect is called 'priming'. If you are stimulated by something positive or negative prior to making a decision, your choice is strongly affected by that prior experience.

The example they give is disturbing. People are asked to hold a hot or cold beverage 6 to 8 minutes before they need to make a decision; unaware that its the fact that they were asked to hold a beverage in their hands that is being measured [they don't drink it, just hold it]. In this example warmth is associated with warm positive feelings, and cold with negative feelings.

The results are consistent, people who hold the warm drink react far more positively than those who cold the cold drink. The task at hand was to decide if someone interviewed should be hired, and in all 6 cases they showed, the 3 people who held the warm drink thought the person should be hired, and the 3 people who held the cold drink thought he shouldn't.

The same works if you prime someone with concepts like 'heroism', 'fear' etc. countless studies have been done, and the effect is very measurable...

Advice?

Realize that how you make decisions is often determined by how you 'feel' rather than what you 'think'. How you feel is unfortunately not rational but environmental. So if you are experiencing something negative, any choices you would then need to make in the ensuing time period after such an event would seem negative even if they were not. We make automatic internal-external associations which are not context dependent.

* Precognition

Another well studied effect is pre-cognition. You may have heard of this test, because the first time I heard of it was in the 80s. If you study the emotional response of someone who sees random images on the screen, people will somehow 'know' what image is going to appear before it arrives because their emotional response always begins before the image is on the screen. The images shown have been internationally recognized as good images for psychological studies and each image has an associated emotional response to it that is common through out most people, so the pre-responce of a person to the image also fits a pattern between all studies.

This precognition is approximately 3 seconds in duration, meaning that we know what will happen [at least] 3 seconds before it does, on some level.

How this pre-cognition can be used is debatable and open to much speculation. Proponents on the multi-dimensional space/time theories would state that this is bleed in effect from the fact that time is not linear. Or that decisions are not only made based on the past but also are influenced by the future.

* Random gratification

This effect was not in this program, but another I had seen years back but I include it here because it is relevant.

Random gratification is an effect that is well documented in humans, rats and other animals. Random gratification is the source of many addictions, or patterns in our [illogical] behavior.

If you give a rat a button which they have to press to get food, they only press it when they are hungry. If you make the button work only when it is pressed 10 times, the rat will press it 10 times exactly when its hungry and still be healthy and of normal weight.

But if you change it so that the button gives the rat food randomly, meaning after a random number of presses, then the rat will spend its entire day, pressing the button continually and it will eat excessively and become fat.

This is how gambling [slot machines] work, but in more subtle ways this is also present in all our lives.

For example I realized a few years ago that I was infatuated to women who would perpetually remain uncertain [with moments of gratification and then followed by rejection] as to whether they liked/loved me in return, but if they person either did or did not like me then the situation would resolve itself far more quickly, rationally and less emotionally.

Knowing the allure of random-gratification is vital to avoiding another aspect of the emotional center over-ruling cognitive abilities.

Rational thinking advice:

The program also went into effective tools for rational thinking:

* the 5 why's
* pros cons with 1-10 weighting
* abstracting and structuring of options
* look for past patterns to make estimates instead of current contexts
* consider the opposite

* the 5 why's

When faced with a decision, asking yourself 'why?' 5 times in a row is usually sufficient to get to the root of why you want to make a certain choice.

For example:

"i want to leave my job"
"why?"
"because I am not happy there"
"why?"
"because i am not challenged enough"
"why?"
"because i want to do something important in my life"
"why?"
"because life is too short and I want to give something back to the world"

Knowing this 5th deeper motivation will then assist you in deciding what to do 'when you leave the job' - where as if you just 'left your job' but didn't bring the reason to the 'conscious' level, you might not take the decision you really wanted to.

* pros cons with 1-10 weighting

Most of us know about this, to make good decisions one method is to list all the pros and cons about this choice, and to then weight each pro and con with a value from 1-10. When you are done, just add up all the pros and cons, the side with the highest number is the decision you should take.

* abstracting and structuring of options

Another common fact about human's is that we are very good at making choices between two things, but bad at making complex choices. To resolve this short-coming of our minds, one solution is to use abstraction. If you are faced with lots of choices, try and group them into categories of choices, and then decide first on the group that is better than the other [using pros cons for example] and then on the members of each group afterwards in multiple steps.

for example, if you are faced with an illness and dozens of different treatments, you might first group them into two groups: "surgery" or "drug-based medication" or "medical" vs "holistic" and then decide first between these two poles as you break the choice down into smaller and smaller one vs. another

* look for past patterns to make estimates instead of current contexts

another phenomena is that our predictions about outcome are far more accurate if we evaluate things out-of context than in context.

The example they give is that if we try and make a prediction on how well we will do on a test our estimates will be very inaccurate if we just base it on current factors: how much i think i know, how much time i can study etc.

If instead we look at all past tests, people's average scores and also our past behavior and scores, our predictions will be far more accurate.

Basically my interpretation here is to do sufficient research into the patterns so that you know where the 'weight' of the outcome is tilting. Knowing this can help you to place more 'counter effort' to break the pattern [if you want the opposite effect]

* consider the opposite

This is related to the post-rationalization, but basically we tend to filter information so that it fits with our beliefs. If you think someone is a criminal, everything they do will seem to confirm that belief. Considering the opposite in all important decisions will allow you to weigh the pros/cons of a decision much more effectively.