Here (or by clicking picture above) is a current report of the project of digitizing the Aquarius Moon/Napa AP materials. I recently compiled the inventory and will be updating this report as I go along.
I hope this whets your appetite.... The old timers have often also talked about assembing "vintage Steve" so that we can also see how he has changed, wouldn't that be cool?
GENEVA - Albert Hofmann, the discoverer of the mind-altering drug LSD has died. He was 102.
Hofmann died Tuesday, April 29, 2008 at his home in Burg im Leimental, said Doris Stuker, a municipal clerk in the village near Basel where Hofmann moved following his retirement in 1971.
Hofmann's hallucinogen inspired - and arguably corrupted - millions in the 1960s hippie generation. For decades after LSD was banned in the late 1960s, Hofmann defended his invention.
The Swiss chemist first synthesized lysergic acid diethylamide-25 on November 16, 1938 while studying the medicinal uses of a fungus found on wheat and other grains at the Sandoz pharmaceuticals firm in Basel.
Five years later, on April 16, 1943, he became the first human guinea pig of the drug when a tiny amount of the substance seeped onto his finger during a repeat of the laboratory experiment.
"I had to leave work for home because I was suddenly hit by a sudden feeling of unease and mild dizziness," he subsequently wrote in a memo to company bosses.
Hofmann sat down and began experiencing what he called "wonderful visions."
"What I was thinking appeared in colors and in pictures," he told Swiss television network SF DRS for a program marking his 100th birthday two years ago. "It lasted for a couple of hours and then it disappeared."
"Everything I saw was distorted as in a warped mirror," he wrote, describing his bicycle ride home. "I had the impression I was rooted to the spot. But my assistant told me we were actually going very fast."
"The substance which I wanted to experiment with took over me. I was filled with an overwhelming fear that I would go crazy. I was transported to a different world, a different time," he wrote.
Limited edition signed blotter, click to enlarge
Hofmann and his scientific colleagues hoped that LSD would make an important contribution to psychiatric research. The drug exaggerated inner problems and conflicts and thus it was hoped that it might be used to recognize and treat mental illness like schizophrenia.
For a time, Sandoz sold LSD 25 under the name Delysid, encouraging doctors to try it themselves. It was one of the strongest drugs in medicine - with just one gram enough to drug an estimated 10,000 to 20,000 people for 12 hours.
LSD was elevated to international fame in the late 1950s and 1960s thanks to Harvard professor Timothy Leary who embraced the drug under the slogan "turn on, tune in, drop out." The film star Cary Grant and numerous rock musicians extolled its virtues in achieving true self-discovery and enlightenment.
Timothy Leary
But away from the psychedelic trips and flower children, horror stories emerged about people going on murder sprees or jumping out of windows while hallucinating. Heavy users suffered permanent psychological damage.
Peter Oehen, a psychiatrist in the Swiss town of Biberist, says substances such as LSD and MDMA (also known as ecstasy) can produce results where conventional psychotherapies fail.
"They help overcome the wall of denial that some patients build up," said Oehen, who met Hofmann and has studied his work.
Hofmann welcomed a decision by Swiss authorities last December to allow LSD to be used in a psychotherapy research project.
"For me, this is a very big wish come true. I always wanted to see LSD get its proper place in medicine," he told Swiss TV at the time.
Hofmann himself took the drug - purportedly on an occasional basis and out of scientific interest - for several decades.
"LSD can help open your eyes," he once said. "But there are other ways - meditation, dance, music, fasting."
Even so, the self-described "father" of LSD readily agreed that the drug was dangerous if in the wrong hands. This was reflected by the title of his 1979 book: LSD: My Problem Child.
Dieter A. Hagenbach, a friend of 40 years, told The Associated Press that he last spoke to Hofmann on Saturday.
"He was in good spirits and enjoying the springtime," Hagenbach said, adding that Hofmann continued to go for walks in the small picturesque village where he lived in the Swiss Jura mountains, a stone's throw from the French border.
Hofmann's last public appearance was at a Basel ceremony honoring him on his 100th birthday.
I bought this little FlipVideo camera before Thanksgiving, it's the coolest thing, I love it. It takes up to an hour of digital video and is super easy to use.
I am now learning how to convert the video files to Flash so that they can run on my websites. And I got over a hump today, yay! Below is what I filmed on New Years Eve in Pacific Grove. The abundance of the scene was mesmerizing.
The FlipVideo does record audio, but in the scene above it was mainly wind. So now I need to learn to learn the next step of video editing to put a music track onto the files.
I hope you enjoy what you see, and stay tuned for more!
Our bi-annual Northern California Steven Forrest Apprenticeship Program (AP) is taking place once again at Mountain Home Ranch in Calistoga, California.
The dates are March 7-11, 2008. It is a residential retreat program beginning on Friday evening with dinner served at 7 pm. The retreat ends Tuesday at 5pm (no dinner is served).
The cost of the retreat for a shared room, including three excellent meals per day, lodging, and Steven's incredible teachings, is $775. There are also private rooms available (these are more expensive). Please contact Barbara directly if interested.
The topic is "The Grand Synthesis: The Psychological Interpretation of the Birthchart" Those of you who join us will have the chance to throw your name into the "sorting hat" and have your chart used by Steven as an example in class. (Retreat Prerequisite: Please read "The Changing Sky" by Steven Forrest and "The Inner Sky.")
To reserve your space, a deposit of $150 is required. Please send your checks or money order made out to Open Heart Astrology to
Barbara King, P. O. Box 15081, Santa Rosa, CA 95402. She also accepts
PayPal payments (with a surcharge).
If you have questions, please feel free to contact Barbara via email or phone 707-889-0460. You can also contact Joyce via email or phone 415-441-4776.
This is an incredible, tribal experience, and unique in that it is
residential. There is a feeling of community that carries well beyond the classroom experience, as you have the chance to mingle with other astrologers before and after hours. We have great times and great talks.
I think about what it would be like for me to deeply trust the road of my life.
I don't take the long view often enough. Along with everyone else, I can be so easily swept up in the traditions and events of the moment, all of which are heightened at this season leading up to Christmas. House lights are strung earlier each year, and on my own street seasonal displays fill many yards before Thanksgiving. Last year a professional lighting company left a flyer in my door handle offering their services to outline my dark roof. But our traditions, though beautiful, also have the power to distract us from reaching into the heart of the world. Bushmen storytellers speak of our great hunger for meaning. There is something so much greater than the decorations and gaily wrapped gifts, if I'll let myself know it.
The truth is you cannot stay the same, stay busy and overcommitted, and be walking toward that Bethlehem stable in a way that will change you. The manger makes a fierce demand: Will you allow something extraordinary to materialize in your life? Will you take full responsibility for your life? Will you look around you and reach into the world, willing to love more deeply?
I don't want my arms to be so full, my attention so distracted, that I cannot hear that fierce demand. In my better moments, I know the final work of every life is love. All we have is this moment. Right now. The journey to Bethlehem beckons.
For these days of Advent I will slow down, not speed up. I will take more care with people, not less. I will be aware of my own personhood. What am I creating with this life I've been given?
Join me in the meditations of Advent, in anticipation of the coming of the Light, and the birth of the Prince of Peace. I will be posting a new meditation daily.
May your blessings be plentiful!
"God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen"
by Gypsy Soul, from their album Sacred.
You all will like this. I especially liked Jung's quote -- he says that ecstatic experience is sought, by humans, as a natural course in our existence -- some more than others obviously. And that contact with the ecstatic is diminished in modern day man's experience. The subsequent 'spirito-cultural' lack (I'm coining a new word here), in our case is producing (among other things):
"....disorders in the brains of politicians and journalists, who unwittingly let loose psychic epidemics on the world..."
Bravo Jung!
I hope you enjoy this.
Jung, Alcoholics Anonymous, And Drug Seeking Behaviour
By now, most of you have heard of Masaru Emoto. His work on how attitude and thought affects molecular structure was introduced in the film What The Bleep Do We Know?, and is further detailed in his book Hidden Messages In Water. The film below is a visual tour of his research - beautiful, and straight to the heart.
The human mind can not only change how things seem, it alone can change how things are. We can even become physically addicted to emotions - to our own detriment. A new documentary film brings science to bear on some spiritual and philosophical mind/body issues.
Mark Vicente is one of the directors of the film What The Bleep Do We Know?. He sees current developments in quantum physics and neurology pushing us very close towards theology, mysticism and ancient texts about oneness.
Our guest gives an example of Buddhist monks who can demonstrably alter the structure of frozen water crystals - using just the mind. This was featured in the book Messages From Water by Dr. Masaru Emoto.
In the example, polluted water was frozen and then photographed. Buddhist monks then focused a particular emotion (love, gratitude, etc.) on the sample. After this, the water crystals were re-photographed and found to be free of impurities.
"How do you teach 21st century people about these ideas when they think they're silly?, asks Mark Vicente rhetorically. "You have to start showing them a science..." is his solution.
Mr. Vicente reckons there are scientific explanations for many of our seemingly illogical perceptions: "We're processing 400 million bits of information per second, and we're only 'aware' of 2000 bits, so there's enormous amounts of information," he explains.
Our filmmaker also explains how we can be innocent victims of our own negative emotions. He talks of neuropeptides released in the brain: "Specific emotions release certain neuropeptides," he says, "...if you're a person who gets angry all the time, you release a certain kind of neuropeptide which then docks with your cells which then produces the chemistry of anger. Now if you keep on doing that, again and again, the cell starts to realise, 'this is my form of nutrition'.
Mark sees this as similar to being addicted to drugs or junk food - you need more and more and end up with a emotional bio-chemical addiction.
There's even a personal anecdote: "My mum wakes up in the morning and she finds something to complain about," volunteers our guest, "...some of us are addicted to victimisation, some are addicted to sorrow... it's almost like you get off on it somehow," says Mark Vicente.
The film director suggests that science is now starting to close in on some of these things that we may have previously considered to be beyond the rational. He suggests that we may be able to slowly break down some of our emotional dependencies and unhelpful behaviour patterns. Unfortunately he doesn't say it'll be easy.
What lies behind us and what lies before us are small matters
compared to what lies within us.
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson
There was a fascinating article in the New York Times today about how self-talk, in particular the personal narrative of a life story, "creates" our personality. Since astrologers tell stories, and know that by shifting a story even slightly healing can occur, I thought I would share this cool piece. I hope it inspires you!
New York Times, May 22, 2007
THIS IS YOUR LIFE (AND HOW YOU TELL IT)
By Benedict Carey
(click to enlarge)
For more than a century, researchers have been trying to work out the raw ingredients that account for personality, the sweetness and neuroses that make Anna Anna, the sluggishness and sensitivity that make Andrew Andrew. They have largely ignored the first-person explanation — the life story that people themselves tell about who they are, and why.
Stories are stories, after all. The attractive stranger at the airport bar hears one version, the parole officer another, and the P.T.A. board gets something entirely different. Moreover, the tone, the lessons, even the facts in a life story can all shift in the changing light of a person's mood, its major notes turning minor, its depths appearing shallow.
Yet in the past decade or so a handful of psychologists have argued that the quicksilver elements of personal narrative belong in any three-dimensional picture of personality. And a burst of new findings are now helping them make the case. Generous, civic-minded adults from diverse backgrounds tell life stories with very similar and telling features, studies find; so likewise do people who have overcome mental distress through psychotherapy.
Every American may be working on a screenplay, but we are also continually updating a treatment of our own life — and the way in which we visualize each scene not only shapes how we think about ourselves, but how we behave, new studies find. By better understanding how life stories are built, this work suggests, people may be able to alter their own narrative, in small ways and perhaps large ones. (continued....)
"When we first started studying life stories, people thought it was just idle curiosity — stories, isn’t that cool?" said Dan P. McAdams, a professor of psychology at Northwestern and author of the 2006 book, "The Redemptive Self." "Well, we find that these narratives guide behavior in every moment, and frame not only how we see the past but how we see ourselves in the future."
Researchers have found that the human brain has a natural affinity for narrative construction. People tend to remember facts more accurately if they encounter them in a story rather than in a list, studies find; and they rate legal arguments as more convincing when built into narrative tales rather than on legal precedent.
YouTube routines notwithstanding, most people do not begin to see themselves in the midst of a tale with a beginning, middle and eventual end until they are teenagers. "Younger kids see themselves in terms of broad, stable traits: 'I like baseball but not soccer,' " said Kate McLean, a psychologist at the University of Toronto in Mississauga. "This meaning-making capability — to talk about growth, to explain what something says about who I am — develops across adolescence."
Psychologists know what life stories look like when they are fully hatched, at least for some Americans. Over the years, Dr. McAdams and others have interviewed hundreds of men and women, most in their 30s and older.
During a standard life-story interview, people describe phases of their lives as if they were outlining chapters, from the sandlot years through adolescence and middle age. They also describe several crucial scenes in detail, including high points (the graduation speech, complete with verbal drum roll); low points (the college nervous breakdown, complete with the list of witnesses); and turning points. The entire two-hour session is recorded and transcribed.
In analyzing the texts, the researchers found strong correlations between the content of people’s current lives and the stories they tell. Those with mood problems have many good memories, but these scenes are usually tainted by some dark detail. The pride of college graduation is spoiled when a friend makes a cutting remark. The wedding party was wonderful until the best man collapsed from drink. A note of disappointment seems to close each narrative phrase.
By contrast, so-called generative adults — those who score highly on tests measuring civic-mindedness, and who are likely to be energetic and involved — tend to see many of the events in their life in the reverse order, as linked by themes of redemption. They flunked sixth grade but met a wonderful counselor and made honor roll in seventh. They were laid low by divorce, only to meet a wonderful new partner. Often, too, they say they felt singled out from very early in life — protected, even as others nearby suffered.
In broad outline, the researchers report, such tales express distinctly American cultural narratives, of emancipation or atonement, of Horatio Alger advancement, of epiphany and second chances. Depending on the person, the story itself might be nuanced or simplistic, powerfully dramatic or cloyingly pious. But the point is that the narrative themes are, as much as any other trait, driving factors in people’s behavior, the researchers say.
"We find that when it comes to the big choices people make — should I marry this person? should I take this job? should I move across the country? — they draw on these stories implicitly, whether they know they are working from them or not," Dr. McAdams said.
Any life story is by definition a retrospective reconstruction, at least in part an outgrowth of native temperament. Yet the research so far suggests that people's life stories are neither rigid nor wildly variable, but rather change gradually over time, in close tandem with meaningful life events.
Jonathan Adler, a researcher at Northwestern, has found that people's accounts of their experiences in psychotherapy provide clues about the nature of their recovery. In a recent study presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology in January, Mr. Adler reported on 180 adults from the Chicago area who had recently completed a course of talk therapy. They sought treatment for things like depression, anxiety, marital problems and fear of flying, and spent months to years in therapy.
At some level, talk therapy has always been an exercise in replaying and reinterpreting each person’s unique life story. Yet Mr. Adler found that in fact those former patients who scored highest on measures of well-being — who had recovered, by standard measures — told very similar tales about their experiences.
They described their problem, whether depression or an eating disorder, as coming on suddenly, as if out of nowhere. They characterized their difficulty as if it were an outside enemy, often giving it a name (the black dog, the walk of shame). And eventually they conquered it.
"The story is one of victorious battle: 'I ended therapy because I could overcome this on my own,' " Mr. Adler said. Those in the study who scored lower on measures of psychological well-being were more likely to see their moods and behavior problems as a part of their own character, rather than as a villain to be defeated. To them, therapy was part of a continuing adaptation, not a decisive battle.
The findings suggest that psychotherapy, when it is effective, gives people who are feeling helpless a sense of their own power, in effect altering their life story even as they work to disarm their own demons, Mr. Adler said.
Mental resilience relies in part on exactly this kind of autobiographical storytelling, moment to moment, when navigating life's stings and sorrows. To better understand how stories are built in real time, researchers have recently studied how people recall vivid scenes from recent memory. They find that one important factor is the perspective people take when they revisit the scene — whether in the first person, or in the third person, as if they were watching themselves in a movie.
In a 2005 study reported in the journal Psychological Science, researchers at Columbia University measured how student participants reacted to a bad memory, whether an argument or failed exam, when it was recalled in the third person. They tested levels of conscious and unconscious hostility after the recollections, using both standard questionnaires and students' essays. The investigators found that the third-person scenes were significantly less upsetting, compared with bad memories recalled in the first person.
"What our experiment showed is that this shift in perspective, having this distance from yourself, allows you to relive the experience and focus on why you’re feeling upset," instead of being immersed in it, said Ethan Kross, the study's lead author. The emotional content of the memory is still felt, he said, but its sting is blunted as the brain frames its meaning, as it builds the story.
Taken together, these findings suggest a kind of give and take between life stories and individual memories, between the larger screenplay and the individual scenes. The way people replay and recast memories, day by day, deepens and reshapes their larger life story. And as it evolves, that larger story in turn colors the interpretation of the scenes.
Nic Weststrate, 23, a student living in Toronto, said he was able to reinterpret many of his most painful memories with more compassion after having come out as a gay man. He was very hard on himself, for instance, when at age 20 he misjudged a relationship with a friend who turned out to be straight.
He now sees the end of that relationship as both a painful lesson and part of a larger narrative. "I really had no meaningful story for my life then," he said, "and I think if I had been open about being gay I might not have put myself in that position, and he probably wouldn’t have either."
After coming out, he said: "I saw that there were other possibilities. I would be presenting myself openly to a gay audience, and just having a coherent story about who I am made a big difference. It affects how you see the past, but it also really affects your future."
Psychologists have shown just how interpretations of memories can alter future behavior. In an experiment published in 2005, researchers had college students who described themselves as socially awkward in high school recall one of their most embarrassing moments. Half of the students reimagined the humiliation in the first person, and the other half pictured it in the third person.
Two clear differences emerged. Those who replayed the scene in the third person rated themselves as having changed significantly since high school — much more so than the first-person group did. The third-person perspective allowed people to reflect on the meaning of their social miscues, the authors suggest, and thus to perceive more psychological growth.
And their behavior changed, too. After completing the psychological questionnaires, each study participant spent time in a waiting room with another student, someone the research subject thought was taking part in the study. In fact the person was working for the research team, and secretly recorded the conversation between the pair, if any. This double agent had no idea which study participants had just relived a high school horror, and which had viewed theirs as a movie scene.
The recordings showed that members of the third-person group were much more sociable than the others. "They were more likely to initiate a conversation, after having perceived themselves as more changed," said Lisa Libby, the lead author and a psychologist at Ohio State University. She added, "We think that feeling you have changed frees you up to behave as if you have; you think, 'Wow, I've really made some progress' and it gives you some real momentum."
Dr. Libby and others have found that projecting future actions in the third person may also affect what people later do, as well. In another study, students who pictured themselves voting for president in the 2004 election, from a third-person perspective, were more likely to actually go to the polls than those imagining themselves casting votes in the first person.
The implications of these results for self-improvement, whether sticking to a diet or finishing a degree or a novel, are still unknown. Likewise, experts say, it is unclear whether such scene-making is more functional for some people, and some memories, than for others. And no one yet knows how fundamental personality factors, like neuroticism or extraversion, shape the content of life stories or their component scenes.
But the new research is giving narrative psychologists something they did not have before: a coherent story to tell. Seeing oneself as acting in a movie or a play is not merely fantasy or indulgence; it is fundamental to how people work out who it is they are, and may become.
"The idea that whoever appeared onstage would play not me but a character was central to imagining how to make the narrative: I would need to see myself from outside," the writer Joan Didion has said of "The Year of Magical Thinking," her autobiographical play about mourning the death of her husband and her daughter. "I would need to locate the dissonance between the person I thought I was and the person other people saw."