Monthly Archives: March 2022

Mary, the West, and Russia’s Errors: A Defense of Archbishop Vigan – Crisis Magazine

Posted: March 29, 2022 at 1:19 pm

In his writings on Fatima and Russia, the Venerable Archbishop Fulton Sheen pointed out that the world has become so used to judging temporal events in terms of other events, that it has lost sight of that greater standard of judgment, namely, the Eternal. Michael Warren Davis, in an article forCrisis, has recently accused another archbishop, Carlo Maria Vigan, of having fallen into precisely this error, becoming so absorbed in worldly events, so swept away by trends in modern politics, that he has let the clamor of current events drown outthe voice of God, and blind him to the evils of the Russian government.

I strongly disagree. In fact, if we look at Vigans writings in the light of Sheens discussion of Fatima, we can see that just the opposite is true. Far from Vigan being the one drowning out the voice of God, it is actually the entire Western world that is guilty of drowning out not only the voice of God but even the very clear signs of His intervention in and movement through world events.

To understand this, we must step back and address what Mary meant when she spoke of Russias errors. The most common interpretation is that she was referring to the errors of communism. But there are several reasons to reject this interpretation. First, she spoke of these errors in her July appearance, months before the communists took over. The February Revolution had been a bourgeois democratic one that ended what had previously been seen as the divinely-appointed Tsarist monarchy. If Mary meant the errors of communism, why appear before the communists took over? Why appear when those at the time would have thought she was referring to the democratic revolution?

Further, communism was not newly spawned in Russia in 1917. By that time, it had been spreading its errors across Europe and the world for more than 70 years, and the Church had been sounding the alarm about it throughout those years. Neither it nor its spread were new to Russia. Third, if Mary meant communism, why not just say communism or communist errors? Why just errors?

Sheen points us in a different directionspecifically, to the year 1858. He asks us to look not only at the world events of that year but at the Eternal ones as well. Rejecting the commonly held view that the Modern Age started with the rise of science, something that is not at odds with Faith, he argues that it began instead with the writing of three seminal works: Darwins On the Origins of Species, Mills On Liberty, and Marxs A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy. In those three works, Man summarized the errors of the Modern Age and announced his independence from God: we were not divinely created but rather evolved from mere matter; there is no higher authority than man to which we must answer, freedom is license, the only laws are those we choose to make; and Man and history are driven by economics and politics not religion and certainly not anything spiritual.

These are not the errors of communism. They are the errors of modernism. They are errors that have to do with Modern Mans denial of God, of Creation, of Gods Authority over Man, of any obedience due to Him. Sheen points out that what was effectively said in those works, in that year of 1858, was that all men are immaculately conceived, all born without Original Sin. For if there was no Divine Creation, then there was no Fall. No Fall, no Original Sin. If there is no Original Sin, then all men are born immaculate and free to be whatever they want to be, answerable to and in need of no higher authority.

Those were the key human events of 1858 to which Sheen directs us. He then shifts our attention to Gods response, His Eternal judgment, that occurred that very same year: the Apparitions at Lourdes. Mary appeared from Heaven and announced: I am the Immaculate Conception. Sheen points out that at the very moment the world was denying original sin, our Blessed Mother claimed the prerogative solely as her ownshe alone and uniquely was immaculately conceivedeveryone else was born in original sin.

In the Blessed Mothers appearance at Lourdes, Sheen notes, God answered Mans arrogant claim of independence and provided proof of his errors. Her very appearance said yes, there is more than matter; yes, there is a God; yes, there is a Heaven; yes, Man was born in Original Sin; and yes, Man owes obedience to God and reparations for the sins committed against Him. Every error contained in those three seminal works was contradicted in that one announcement: I am the Immaculate Conception.

Thus, Sheen says, began the Modern Agenot with science and reason, but with the denial of Original Sin and Gods response.

But Man did not take notice of, nor heed, that Eternal pronouncement, that Eternal judgment.

Instead, the modernist errors continued to be spread throughout Europe, along with all the other errors that went hand in hand with them: rationalism, socialism, communism, and all the others Pope Pius IX listed in Quanta Cura and its attached Syllabus of Errors. But that was in 1864. By 1917, those errors had existed and been spreading for another 50-plus years before the Russian Revolution and Marys appearance at Fatima. They were unique neither to Russia nor to communism. So, what was different about Russia that Mary would single it out?

The answer can be found in the pages of Pope Leo XIIIs Rerum Novarum. In it, he gives the Churchs answer to communism: inequality and class conflict are not aberrations to be fixed, but rather they are a part of the human condition. Mankind lives in a fallen world, a world felled by mans disobedience to God. Only through God and with God, through His Church, will peace and harmony be possible. All the sects, organizations, societies, fraternities, all the governmental solutions that communists and socialists think able to fix the world are futile and delusional. No organization or State, apart from God, will ever be able to bring peace to the world. Social problems cannot be solved apart from God and His Church.

If we look to all the writings of the Church throughout this time, what we see is increasing concern not just over the errors themselves but over the increasing belief that man could fix the human condition through the creation of a godless State, through the implementation of mere economic and political change. And that is what was new in Russia, in the February Revolution and to be completed in the Bolshevik one: the successful creation of a political body that incorporated all those errorsa secular State that, apart from any reference at all to God, claimed to be able to solve the problems inherent in the human condition; a State that said no to God, no to any authority higher than itself, no to natural law; and a State that would be powerful enough to spread those errors across the world. As Sheen put it, Russia gave political form and social substance to the de-spiritualization of the Western world.

The danger in believing Mary was pointing specifically to communism and to Russia lay in believing the problem is Russia and the error communism, when in fact the error is believing that man is nothing more than a rational animal who can fix all his social problems through the political and economic policies enacted by a secular State.

When Mary appeared at Fatima, her first announcement was this: I am from Heaven. As God responded to Mankinds announcement of its separation from Him in 1858, so He responded in 1917 to its erection of a godless State as the new path to human happiness and freedom: Mary stepped into time and announced that Heaven exists. And if Heaven exists, then there is a higher authority. Salvation and redemption will not come from a man-made State but from God and only from God. And to prove this, to drive the message home, Mary would appear six times. And on the last one, she would bring direct proof from Heaven, a miracle that would prove the lie that man is the highest authority on earth and fully capable of fixing that earth as he alone wills it to be fixed.

But even with a miracle witnessed by tens of thousands, Modern Man again said no and did not heed the message.

And the Soviet State grew and did indeed spread its errors across the world. Not the errors of communism, but rather the modernist errors that man is independent and can create his own path to utopia by means of the secular State. Throughout the West, in country after country, man began to turn to the government, the State, to solve more and more of his social problems. Care of the poor shifted to the State. Mediation of class conflict shifted to the State. Alleviation of discrimination, racial conflicts, income inequality: all shifted to the State. Individual charity was replaced by State-run charity.

Even the Church turned to the State to solve societys problems, mans human condition, and she shifted her focus to influencing public policy. Every social problem came to be seen as fixable through a new State policy, a new institutional or systemic change. It was only a matter of time until they were also seen as the result of poor government policy, not a wound in mans human nature. Everything was fixable through the State, not by healing hearts and souls through grace attained through the Church God created to heal mens souls.

Sheen drives home the point again and again that the errors were not specific to Russia or communism. They caught fire in capitalist countries as easily as they did in communist ones. He notes that there is a closer relation between communism and monopolistic capitalism than most minds suspect. They are agreed on the materialistic basis of civilization; they disagree only on who shall control that basis, capitalists or bureaucrats. And further, he says: Capitalistic economy is godless; communism makes economics God. Capitalism denies that economics is subject to a higher moral order. Communism says that economics is morality.

In fact, he highlights how the Church is as opposed to monopoly capitalism as it is to communism. The errors permeate both. Both reduce man to a mere economic animal. Both use the State to rule.

The issue isnt Vigan being blind to the evils of the Russian government. It is the West that is blind to the evils that have permeated its own existence to its very core. It is the modernist Church that is blind to the evils of thinking it right to replace sacraments with social action, taking government money to feed bellies at the expense of feeding souls.

Vigan looks at the WEF, the IMF, the UN, NATO, the EU, and all the other associations that have risen in the West and sees them not in terms of other worldly events but in terms of the Eternal. He sees them as Pope Leo XIII saw the secular associations of his day: efforts by man to fix the world apart from God and His Church.

He sees, too, that what they are trying to do is create a new, even more powerful State than the Russian one Mary warned us about, a Global State with the declared goal of creating a New World Order and a new transhuman creature. Modernism stripped man of his spiritual nature. Transhumanism seeks to strip him of his most basic human nature, reducing him to a mere machine, perfected by technology and microbiology.

Vigan has not become absorbed with politics. He has become absorbed with the Eternal, with seeing the Eternal in the affairs of the day, including both those things God seems to be moving as well as those things Satan seems to be moving. We dont know if the Consecration occurred as Mary asked, but Vigan asks us to look at world events not just in terms of other world events, but in terms of spiritual events. What we do know is that the Soviet State collapsed in 1989. And we know that since that time, Russia has been undergoing a Re-Christianization while the entire Western world has been experiencing its De-Christianization.

Vigan asks us to see that it isnt really Russia, or communism, or capitalism that we are battling but rather the Principalities, the Satanic forces that seek to enslave all men to a godless Global State. He asks us to consider that God is giving Russiare-Christianizing Russiathe chance to atone for its sins by being the very thing that prevents that Global State from being created.

And is that so hard to imagine? Is it not just like our God? To let Russia atone for its sins and be the means of saving many souls?

And is this not also just like Our God: To once again respond to mans rejection by guiding us to Him and Our Blessed Mother Mary? Is it not just like Him that, on the Marian feast day of the Annunciation of Gods Incarnation, the most modernist pope in the history of the Church got down on his knees and called the entire world, East and West, to likewise fall to its knees, every bishop, all people, on our knees, and not just recognize, finally, the Immaculate Conception, but moreto consecrate ourselves, and our entire world, to her Immaculate Heart, the Immaculate Heart of the Immaculate Conception, thereby saying, at last, after all these years, after all these appearances, finally: yes, there is a God; yes, there is a Heaven; yes, we are more than mere matter; yes, we are all sinners; and yes, we must obey God and make reparations for our sins.

In turning our eyes and our hearts to Mary, are we not finally conceding, agreeing with Pope Leo XIII, that apart from God, there will be no peace? Apart from God, no merely human institution, no godless Stateno matter how big, how globalis going to save us.

And is that not just like our God? The most modernist pope of all timeleading the world to renounce the most fundamental errors of modernism?

Is it not a fitting way for the Eternal to announce the end of the Modern Age?

At just that moment when man cant even define what a woman is, God reminds us that it is to a woman that He has given the power of overcoming evil, a woman who will crush the head of the Serpent. Modern Man lost Jesus. His Mother has returned to help us find Him. She has experience in that.

View original post here:
Mary, the West, and Russia's Errors: A Defense of Archbishop Vigan - Crisis Magazine

Posted in Transhuman | Comments Off on Mary, the West, and Russia’s Errors: A Defense of Archbishop Vigan – Crisis Magazine

10 Weekend Reads – The Big Picture – Barry Ritholtz

Posted: at 1:19 pm

The weekend is here! Pour yourself a mug of Danish Blend coffee, grab a seat in the sun, and get ready for our longer-form weekend reads:

How People Think 17 of the most common and influential aspects of how people think Many behaviors are universal across generations and geographies. Circumstances change, but peoples reactions dont. Technologies evolve, but insecurities, blind spots, and gullibility rarely does. (Collaborative Fund)

The Latecomers Guide to Crypto As its gone mainstream, crypto has inspired an unusually polarized discourse. Its biggest fans think its saving the world, while its biggest skeptics are convinced its all a scam an environment-killing speculative bubble orchestrated by grifters and sold to greedy dupes, which will probably crash the economy when it bursts.(New York Times)

The Art of Money: Turning financial success into a creative pursuit What do you consider the act of making money? Is it an act of accounting and measuring? Or, is it an act of imagining and contemplating? Our finances involve numbers and data, but theyre intractably tied to our personal ideas, experiences, feelings and behaviors intangible things you cant formulate in a spreadsheet. Therefore, to manage the human side of money, its better to think more like an artist than a scientist. (The Root of All)

Why Cant the West Admit That Ukraine Is Winning? America has become too accustomed to thinking of its side as stymied, ineffective, or incompetent. (The Atlantic)

Silicon Valleys Favorite Weird Philosophy Is Fundamentally Wrong: Where transhumanists err is in the disproportionate role assigned to genes in creating their favored traits. In contrast to clear-cut physical features, such as eye color, the relationship of genetic information to characteristics such as intelligence and kindness is nuanced and indirect. Today, developmental systems theory supersedes the dominant, unidirectional causality previously lodged with genes. (Slate)

Why Do We Die Without Sleep? The reasons why sleep is so vital often hide in unexpected parts of the body, as host Steven Strogatz discovers in conversations with researchers Dragana Rogulja and Alex Keene. (Quanta Magazine)

Heres how an algorithm guides a medical decision Artificial intelligence tools are complicated computer programs that suck in vast amounts of data, search for patterns or trajectories, and make a prediction or recommendation to help guide a decision. Sometimes, the way algorithms process all of the information theyre taking in is a black box inscrutable even to the people who designed the program. But even if a program isnt a black box, the math can be so complex that its difficult for anyone who isnt a data scientist to understand exactly whats going on inside of it. (The Verge)

In a World on Fire, Stop Burning Things: The truth is new and counterintuitive: we have the technology necessary to rapidly ditch fossil fuels. (New Yorker)

Love and Longing in the Seaweed Album: Combing across 19th-century shores, seaweed collectors would wander for hours, tucking specimens into pouches and jars, before pasting their finds into artful albums. Sasha Archibald explores the eros contained in the pressed and illustrated pages of notable algologists, including the most ambitious album of all by Charles F. Durant (Public Domain Review)

Demand for This Toads Psychedelic Venom Is Booming. Some Warn Thats Bad for the Toad. In a sign of unintended consequences of the psychedelic resurgence, scientists say that the Sonoran desert toad is at risk of population collapse. (New York Times)

Be sure to check out ourMasters in Businessinterview this weekend with Samara Cohen, BlackRocks Chief Investment Officer for ETFs & Index Investments. BlackRock manages over $10 trillion in assets, and Cohens Index / ETF group is responsible for $6 trillion of it.

Geopolitical events. The playbook worked (nearly) perfectlySource: Jim Reid, Deutsche Bank

Sign up for our reads-only mailing list here.

~~~

To learn how these reads are assembled each day,please see this.

See more here:
10 Weekend Reads - The Big Picture - Barry Ritholtz

Posted in Transhuman | Comments Off on 10 Weekend Reads – The Big Picture – Barry Ritholtz

Ion Storm Austin’s journey from Thief to Thief, by way of Deus Ex – PC Gamer

Posted: at 1:19 pm

DNA Tracing

This article first appeared in PC Gamer magazine issue 362 in October 2021, as part of our 'DNA Tracing' series, where every month we delve into the lineages behind iconic games and studios.

The life of a studio famed for big, difficult decisions began with a no-brainer. When John Romero approached Warren Spector with a blank cheque to make his dream game, Spector's team was unemployedshowing up to the defunct Looking Glass Austin office to pitch ideas unpaid. In their sketches and documents was a concept for a spy game called Shooter, in which an agent could hack devices and control nanotechnology. The year was 1997, and the air was thick with Hollywood actors in mirrored sunglasses tapping away at chunky keyboards.

Suddenly, with Romero's backing, anything Spector and his studio could imagine was fair game. The fundamentals were clear for a team that had coalesced around Thief: The Dark Projecta first-person world in which objects behaved as expected when subjected to gravity and the elements, and NPCs reacted with a nuance that enabled players to manipulate them.

Yet it wouldn't be true to say that Deus Ex was born from a unified creative vision. In fact, Spector encouraged discord by creating two design teams, each with a separate idea of what the game should be. One, headed up by future Arkane boss Harvey Smith, was determined to ground the adventure in a fashion that emphasised the 'near-' of near-future; the other had inherited the Ultima RPG sensibilities of Spector's alma mater, Origin Systems.

The results could have been disastrous, a game pulled apart by horses. Instead, Deus Ex was elevated by its whiplash variety. One level, which Smith fought to keep free of enemies, was a prototypical Gone Home in which you quietly explored the mansion of a dead Illuminati leader, listening to the wistful observations of the daughter she left behind. Another was a Matrix-esque hotel escape best handled with a flamethrower. A third, Hong Kong, was a massive city hub stuffed with engrossing dialoguea no-no in Looking Glass games, which had favoured abandoned or out-of-hours spaces in order to dodge uncanny NPCs. Forget Assassin's Creed, Deus Ex was the game in which everything was permitted, for player and developer both.

That exhilarating clash of contrasts was reflected in the story, too. Where later sequels homed in on transhumanism and the social issues it magnified, the original Deus Ex was an explosion of conflicting political ideas. Through likeable secondary characters, who condemned lethal methods in no uncertain terms, it endorsed a broadly liberal worldview. Yet its knotted storyline also warned against the potential of globalism to put power in the hands of a malevolent few, and hooked you up with a terrorist group dedicated to upholding the US right to bear arms. Thanks to the earnest socialist voice of lead writer Sheldon Pacotti, Deus Ex became a game in which a minor NPC in a bar could bend your ear with a radical interpretation of the Declaration of Independence. Like the environment it was produced in, Deus Ex was a smorgasbord of ideologies.

By the time it came to make Deus Ex: Invisible War, Ion Storm Austin had resolved its internal differences. Perhaps that was part of the problem. With Harvey Smith newly installed as creative director, the team set about streamlining, determined to focus Deus Ex's feature set. Some of the more notorious controversies now seem overblownthe universal ammo system is defensible, for instance, since it regularly drains your guns, encouraging creative solutions with an environmental or social dimension instead. But Invisible War's amalgamated factions decoupled the series from real-world concerns. What's more, a singular vision reduced Invisible War's capacity for surprise, even as it routinely matched its predecessor for thoughtful, non-linear level design.

The biggest issue, however, was the Xbox. It's important to note that, in 2021, the tribal fear of 'dumbing down' is outdated hogwash; practically every AAA game is now multi-platform, a trend which has multiplied game budgets, benefitting PC gamers just like everyone else. Invisible War, however, fell on the edge of that change. The Xbox's 64mb of RAM forced a dramatic reduction in the scale of Deus Ex's levels.

While not necessarily a dealbreaker for designimmersive sims have always favoured density over sprawlit was a compromise that hurt Invisible War's fiction. Lower Seattle, supposedly a sprawling slum, comprised a couple of tight streets, three apartments, one coffee shop and a deathly quiet barfar from the "vast cityscape" described in early interviews.

Ion Storm pursued a similar policy of parallel development on PC and Xbox for its third and final project, Thief: Deadly Shadows. And some of the same problems manifestedespecially in the cramped open world that connected missions, damaging the carefully curated sense of a larger city looming in the background of Garrett's heists. Yet it clearly benefitted from being second in the queue, behind Invisible Warbearing less of the brunt of the console's technological lessons.

In fact, with Deadly Shadows, it finally seemed as if advancing tech was catching up with the Looking Glass dream of a simulation that mimicked the world's natural forces. The Havok physics was rubbery but robust, and Ion Storm made fine use of dynamic shadowsmaking your safe space mercurial for the first time as torch-wielding patrols moved back and forth behind lampposts.

Most of all, Deadly Shadows felt like the completion of a circle for the studio that had first coalesced around Thief. Spector let former Looking Glass staff lead the way, who treated Deadly Shadows as the last part in a trilogytying off Garrett's journey from cynic and misanthrope to caretaker of the world. Rarely has an inherited series been honoured so carefully.

Ironically enough, it's a reverence Ion Storm would never have afforded its own series, Deus Ex, which it considered a platform for risk-taking. That impetus might have disappointed players of Invisible War, who found their beloved RPG-shooter too much changed. But without that same quality, they would never have cared about the name Deus Ex in the first place.

More:
Ion Storm Austin's journey from Thief to Thief, by way of Deus Ex - PC Gamer

Posted in Transhuman | Comments Off on Ion Storm Austin’s journey from Thief to Thief, by way of Deus Ex – PC Gamer

Aztec use of entheogens – Wikipedia

Posted: at 1:18 pm

Entheogenic use by ancient Aztecs

The ancient Aztecs employed a variety of entheogenic plants and animals within their society. The various species have been identified through their depiction on murals, vases, and other objects.

There are many pieces of archaeological evidence in reference to the use of entheogens early in the history of Mesoamerica. Olmec burial sites with remains of the Bufo toad (Bufo marinus), Maya mushroom effigies,[dubious discuss] and Spanish writings all point to a heavy involvement with psychoactive substances in the Aztec lifestyle.

The Florentine codex contains multiple references to the use of psychoactive plants among the Aztecs. The 11th book of the series contains identifications of five plant entheogens. R. Gordon Wasson, Richard Evans Schultes, and Albert Hofmann have suggested that the statue of Xochipilli, the Aztec 'Prince of Flowers,' contains effigies of a number of plant based entheogens.

The plants were primarily used by the priests, or tlamacazqui, other nobility, and visiting dignitaries. They would use them for divination much as the indigenous groups of central Mexico do today. The priests would also ingest the entheogens to engage in prophecy, interpret visions, and heal.

Ololiuqui (Coatl xoxouhqui) was identified as Rivea corymbosa in 1941 by Richard Evans Schultes. The name Ololiuqui refers to the brown seeds of the Rivea corymbosa (Morning Glory) plant.Tlitliltzin was identified later as being Ipomoea violacea by R. Gordon Wasson. This variation contains black seeds and usually has bluish hued flowers.

The seeds of these plants contain the psychoactive d-lysergic acid amide, or LSA. The preparation of the seeds involved grinding them on a metate, then filtering them with water to extract the alkaloids. The resulting brew was then drunk to bring forth visions.

The Florentine Codex Book 11 describes the Ololiuqui intoxication:

It makes one besotted; it deranges one, troubles one, maddens one, makes one possessed. He who eats it, who drinks it, sees many things which greatly terrify him. He is really frightened [by the] poisonous serpent which he sees for that reason.

The morning glory was also utilized in healing rituals by the ticitl. The ticitl would often take ololiuqui to determine the cause of diseases and illness. It was also used as an anesthetic to ease pain by creating a paste from the seeds and tobacco leaf, then rubbing it on the affected body part.

Called "Teonancatl" in Nahuatl (literally "god mushroom"compound of the words teo(tl) (god) and nancatl (mushroom))the mushroom genus Psilocybe has a long history of use within Mesoamerica.[1] The members of the Aztec upper class would often take teonancatl at festivals and other large gatherings. According to Fernando Alvarado Tezozomoc, it was often a difficult task to procure mushrooms. They were quite costly as well as very difficult to locate, requiring all-night searches.

Both Fray Bernardino de Sahagn and Fray Toribio de Benavente Motolinia describe the use of the mushrooms.[2] The Aztecs would drink chocolate and eat the mushrooms with honey. Those partaking in the mushroom ceremonies would fast before ingesting the sacrament. The act of taking mushrooms is known as monanacahuia, meaning to "mushroom oneself".

Some written observations under the influence of the doctrine of Catholicism account the use of the mushroom among the Montezumanic people. Allegedly, during the emperor's coronation ceremony, many prisoners were sacrificed, had their flesh eaten, and their hearts removed. Those who were invited guests to the feast ate mushrooms, which Diego Durn describes as causing those who ate them to go insane. After the defeat of the Aztecs, the Spanish forbade traditional religious practices and rituals that they considered "pagan idolatry", including ceremonial mushroom use.

Not much is known of the use of sinicuichi (alternate spelling sinicuiche) among the Aztecs. R. Gordon Wasson identified the flower on the statue of Xochipilli and suggested from its placement with other entheogens that it was probably used in a ritualistic context. Multiple alkaloids have been isolated from the plant; with cryogenine, lythrine, and nesodine being the most important.

Sinicuichi could be the plant tonatiuh yxiuh "the herb of the sun" from the Aztec Herbal of 1552. tonatiuh means sun. This is interesting because today in Central and South America, sinicuichi is often called abre-o-sol, or the "sun opener." Tonatiuh yxiuh is described as being a summer blooming plant, as is Heimia.

The Herbal also includes a recipe for a potion to conquer fear. It reads:

Let one who is fear-burdened take as a drink a potion made of the herb tonatiuh yxiuh which throws out the brightness of gold.

One of the effects of sinicuichi is that it adds a golden halo or tinge to objects when ingested.[citation needed]

Tlapatl and mixitl are both Datura species, Datura stramonium and Datura innoxia, with strong hallucinogenic (deliriant) properties. The plants typically have large, white or purplish, trumpet-shaped flowers and spiny seed capsules, that of D. stramonium being held erect and dehisceing by four valves and that of D. innoxia nodding downward and breaking up irregularly. The active principles are the tropane alkaloids atropine, scopolamine, and hyoscyamine.

The use of datura spans millennia. It has been employed by both many indigenous groups in North, Central, and South America for a variety of uses. Called toloache today in Mexico, datura species were used among the Aztec for medicine, divination, and malevolent purposes.

For healing, tlapatl was made into an ointment which was spread over infected areas to cure gout, as well as applied as a local anesthetic. The plants were also utilized to cause harm to others. For example, it was believed that mixitl would cause a being to become paralyzed and mute, while tlapatl will cause those who take it to be disturbed and go mad.

The cactus known as peyotl, or more commonly peyote (Lophophora williamsii), has a rich history of use in Mesoamerica. Its use in northern Mexico among the Huichol has been written about extensively. It is thought that since peyote only grows in certain regions of Mexico, the Aztecs would receive dried buttons through long-distance trade. Peyote was viewed as being a protective plant by the Aztec. Sahagn suggested that the plant is what allowed the Aztec warriors to fight as they did.

R. Gordon Wasson has posited that the plant known as pipiltzintzintli is in fact Salvia divinorum. It is not entirely known whether or not this plant was used by the Aztecs as a psychotropic, but Jonathan Ott (1996) argues that although there are competing species for the identification of pipiltzintzintli, Salvia divinorum is probably the "best bet." There are references to use of pipiltzintzintli in Spanish arrest records from the conquest, as well as a reference to the mixing of ololiuqui with pipiltzintzintli.

Contemporaneously, the Mazatec, meaning "people of the deer" in Nahuatl, from the Oaxaca region of Mexico utilize Salvia divinorum when Psilocybe spp. mushrooms are not readily available. They chew and swallow the leaves of fresh salvia to enter into a shamanic state of consciousness. The Mazatec use the plant in both divination and healing ceremonies, perhaps as the Aztecs did 500 years ago. Modern users of Salvia have adapted the traditional method, forgoing the swallowing of juices due to Salvinorin A being readily absorbed by the mucous membranes of the mouth.

toloatzin (Datura spp.).

Aztecs combined cacao with psilocybin mushrooms, a polysubstance combination referred to as "cacahua-xochitl", which literally means "chocolate-mushrooms".[3]

At the very first, mushrooms had been served...They ate no more food; they only drank chocolate during the night. And they ate the mushrooms with honey. When the mushrooms took effect on them, then they danced, then they wept. But some, while still in command of their senses, entered and sat there by the house on their seats; they did no more, but only sat there nodding.

Read more:

Aztec use of entheogens - Wikipedia

Posted in Entheogens | Comments Off on Aztec use of entheogens – Wikipedia

NASA to make announcement Wednesday regarding Hubble Telescope – The Edwardsville Intelligencer

Posted: at 1:17 pm

Shepard Price,Digital reporter

March 28, 2022

The Hubble Telescope depicted in an artist's rendering with Earth in the background

NASA will make an announcement Wednesday regarding a new observation from the Hubble Telescope the agency says is "one for the record books."

The Hubble Telescope, launched almost 32 years ago, has worked for decades to "reshape our understanding of the universe," NASA wrote in a press statement. Hubble's work stretches from exploring exoplanets to galaxies to measuring the expansion of the universe, which has won the multi-observatory team a Nobel Prize.

NASA promises that the latest result "creates an exciting area of research for Hubble's future work with NASA's newly-launched James Webb Space Telescope," which launched on Dec. 25. The Webb telescope is scheduled to begin observation in June.

Hubble is expected to remain operational at least well into the 2020's, NASA has stated. Hubble used to be serviced every few years, but that ended in 2011 when the space shuttle program was retired. The last servicing mission to Hubble was in 2009.

Shepard Price has a Master's degree in Journalism from the University of Texas and lives in St. Louis. They have been in journalism for more than four years.

Originally posted here:
NASA to make announcement Wednesday regarding Hubble Telescope - The Edwardsville Intelligencer

Posted in Hubble Telescope | Comments Off on NASA to make announcement Wednesday regarding Hubble Telescope – The Edwardsville Intelligencer

Chess Games – Play Chess Games on CrazyGames

Posted: at 1:16 pm

Online Chess Games

In this games collection, you'll find a variety of fun chess games to play. If you're looking to play against other chess players online, the most popular online chess game is Master Chess. Another popular chess game with a multiplayer game mode is Spark Chess.

Chess is a skill game where practice directly improves gameplay. Practice chess for free in the game Chess Challenges. There are many situational challenges to work through that test your ability to make the optimal play and get your opponent in checkmate (while avoiding it yourself!).

There are many variations of chess, with some clever games making their own mark on this classic game. For games based on chess or with elements of chess, check out Chess Mazes and Pawnbarian.

Unlike most regular games where the AI is as dumb as a rock, computers have been destroying the best players at chess since Deep Blue beat the world champion, Garry Kasparov, in 1997. Since then, chess engines have dominated the world's greatest players, leading to the rapid advancement of chess game theory.

Chess is a skill-based board game played between two players. It's a game that's induced both frustration and success in many of the world's top players, from Magnus Carlsen to Hikaru Nakamura. It has long been seen as an intellectual game, but anyone can learn and improve with practice!

We collected 15 of the best free online chess games. These games include browser games for both your computer and mobile devices, as well as apps for your Android and iOS phones and tablets. They include new chess games such as and top chess games such as Master Chess, Chess Arena, and Spark Chess.

Read the original post:

Chess Games - Play Chess Games on CrazyGames

Posted in Chess Engines | Comments Off on Chess Games – Play Chess Games on CrazyGames

Beats by Beat: FROCKUP shares an exclusive 90s German techno, prog and trance mix – Beat Magazine

Posted: at 1:15 pm

Words by Sam Howard

By taking part in FROCKUP events, listening to their streams, or just exploring the homepage, you can see some of the most humble and talented artists showcasing moments held in time as they convey their experiences via a range of compelling creative executions.

From art, to mixes and poems FROCKUP is about providing people with a place to share their creations in a form most aligned to them. The result is now a community network of creators, who are writing, painting or storytelling by day, then dancing and interacting at night.

We had an opportunity to interview James and Josh for our latest Beats by Beat series who also shared an epic mix fuelled by explorative downtempo tracks, followed by some 90s German prog, trance and techno sounds.

Get to know the best emerging Melbourne DJ talent through our Beats by Beat series here.

FROCKUP has all kinds of creative executions, from art to mixes and poems. How exactly did the platform come together?

Josh: FROCKUP was cooked up deep in the second big lockdown by myself and James along with our two very good friends, Sean and Ivy. The birth of FROCKUP can be traced back to us having a hell of a lot more time on our hands but legally couldnt spend any of it together. Around this time, a few of us dipped our toes into various creative pursuits, whether that be DJing, productions or writing.

So FROCKUP seemed like a great way to stay connected with each other while also providing a platform for people to share their art and creations.

James: Yes exactly what Josh said, its been such an incredible journey. And since weve launched FROCKUP in June 2020, weve met so many lovely people and formed some truly special relationships with them. Everytime I go out its great to see the same familiar faces, we chat about music and what were working on amongst other little things and its always a wholesome experience. I truly value these interactions and seeing how not only talented but genuine people are in the Naarm scene.

Who have been your favourite people youve interviewed or types of art youve had on the platform?

James: One of my favourite interviews was with Signal, a local crew run by Claddy, HipHopHoe and Indicia. Ive really admired them individually as artists as well as collective for a while now and was beyond excited when they asked for an interview.

I originally came across Claddy back in 2017 when I picked up a copy of the GlamouRatz EP on Public Possession from Skydiver Records, which is still one of my fave records to this day. In the interview, Niveen (HipHopHoe) offered some really interesting commentary on the scene and Signals holistic approach to improving accessibility, and working to dismantle the long-standing systemic barriers that continue to work against the inclusion and elevation of queer, POC and femme folk in the music industry.

Niveen expanded on these ideas through discussion on how the approach must go beyond lineup diversity quotas and instead encompass everything that goes into creating nightlife and nightlife spaces, from management, ticket prices, security and beyond.

Josh: For me personally, interviewing Cale Sexton ahead of the release of his SUSTAIN album late last year was a bit of a milestone. Hes one of the first artists I started vibing with when I eventually moved on from my old Melbourne bounce days and dipped into exploring our local house and techno scene.

Beyond that, hes an incredibly talented musician, so it was undoubtedly very interesting to pick his brain in that respect.

Even though youre quite locally focused, youve interviewed artists like Jail Time Records in Cameroon can you tell us about some of the international features?

James: Its been so humbling interviewing people overseas and sharing our experiences in our respective cities. One of my favourite international features was when I interviewed Victor Kubin, a talented DJ and Producer based in Berlin and member of the Riot Collective alongside fellow residents Ady Toledano, Borusiade, Charlotte Bendiks and Mauro Feola.

I was lucky enough to see him play at Renate back in 2018 and was simply blown away by his unique take on New Beat. However, although its been great interviewing international artists and labels, theres also soooo much talent right here in Naarm so were trying to focus on that at the moment.

Josh: Yeah, I feel like the ramifications of the lockdowns caused everyone to look inward a lot more, so in terms of our little dance music scene, it put more emphasis on what was happening locally. This renewed focus on the wealth of talent within our own scene was absolutely a great thing. At the same time though, I feel like a city as small and isolated as Naarm does benefit from the rotation of fresh ideas and energy that international travel brings.

You have a spinoff project called New Neighbours interviewing migrant English students in Victoria, with an intention of celebrating the talented work of students from around the world who now call Melbourne home some of it being presented in their own language. How did that series come about? And is it something youll be continuing with in the future?

James: Working on this project was truly special to me and I still feel so honored to be involved in it. It was led by myself and one of the other FROCKUP members, Sean, where we teamed up with AMEP (Adult Migrant English Program). We were given the opportunity to collaborate with their students and were invited to their classes, where we could hear all their wonderful ideas, talk about their experience in Australia and see their artwork. All of the students were so talented, with classes including a mix of musicians, producers, poets and artists.

In between lockdowns last year, we were able to physically meet all the students at their Croydon Campus and interview them about their favorite music and hopes for the future. It was such a special experience and I would love to continue doing it moving forward.

Across lockdowns youve been putting on live radio nights can you tell us a bit about that?

Josh: Radio has been a core element of FROCKUP since the very beginning. Most of our major milestones were commemorated with radio broadcasts, and weve been keeping it going in various formats throughout our operation.

As both a listener and presenter, something about the radio is just so special. I think the interactive element of it through the live chat, made it particularly valuable during lockdown times. Additionally, the more relaxed, casual affair that it offers as a presenter makes it a lot of fun to put together and play.

The radio was a great way for us to connect with like-minded people, which was great when we were just starting out and didnt really know anyone. For me personally, the ongoing nature of radio broadcasts is particularly important to how rewarding it is to be involved.

It was really touching to see the same presenters and listeners returning month after month to tune into our little radio station.

Whats your thoughts on the dance floor revival since the last lockdown? New and improved? Do we need more venues? Whats your general thoughts on the electronic scene right now in Naarm?

James: Its always good to see the scene popping off, especially after countless lockdowns and an ongoing lack of support from the government. But I think since we came out of the most recent lockdown weve seen so many new and upcoming crews and more raves than ever, with an abundance of events in new and exciting locations.

Miscellania has been an unreal spot and has really gotten it right, even amidst countless postponed and canceled events and unfair liquor license changes. Its definitely my favourite venue right now and I always feel safe and comfortable inside the security, staff, events and bookings are all so well considered.

Some crews/labels Ive really admired at the moment are Daisy Records, Resonance, Her, Luna Blessings, Signal and High Ground.

Josh: Yeah what James said! And to answer your other question, I think we could always use some more venues! I think in particular, we could benefit from more mid-sized venues with generous licensing agreements in place. But thats probably the issue with it all, seeing new venues open up and struggle to reckon with our draconian licensing regulators is certainly going to be a bit of a turn off to anyone thinking of opening up a new venue.

Its a bit ridiculous to force a club to close at 1am on a friday night, meanwhile, the pokies venue 400 meters away is allowed to crack on into the wee hours.

Can you tell us about this mix youve prepared?

James: We made this mix in July, 2021 and it features a lot of trance and techno sounds from the mid 90s. We started things pretty slow exploring some downtempo tracks we were digging at the time before taking the mix in a slightly heavier direction. The first track is an all time favorite of mine, one which Ive always wanted to open a mix with. Its IRM, The Actori, and features a deranged inner monologue of an actor about to take stage, before being slowly consumed by his own hubris.

The final track is an absolute classic Nurse with wound, Landed at Grandmas, another experimental track unpacking the struggles of excessive thoughts. These two tracks act as a nice bookend for the mix and help guide its overall progression.

Another track we absolutely love in there is unreleased by local artist Al Dente (Neurocrank), which features the perfect intersection of dark proggy sounds and psy. Al Dente has had a huge 2021, both with his work for Neurocrank and as one half of Nebula definitely keen for more releases from him over the coming year.

What are three things you cant live without?

Josh: Batch brew, olives, really soft pillows

Window or aisle seat?

James: Perhaps aisle as I usually do little walks around the plane.

Josh: Window so then its easier to just conk out.

Whats inspiring you in life right now?

James: All the great parties happening in Naarm right now. Its been difficult managing FROCKUP with my full time job, so any excuse to blow off some steam is always greatly appreciated.

Whats the best piece of advice youve ever received?

James: Never trust an electrician without eyebrows!

Josh: A falling knife has no handle.

Who would be your dream B2B?

James: I would love to play alongside Tamo Sumo & Lakuti. I saw them play Christmas Night overseas and it was one of my favourite sets of all time! A back-to-back with a local artist would have to be Lizzynice as (like everyone here) Im obsessed with her selections.

Josh: Although it likely would be a deeply humiliating experience for me, itd have to be the late, great Andy Weatherall.

Check out FROCKUP here or follow them on Insta here.

Read the original:

Beats by Beat: FROCKUP shares an exclusive 90s German techno, prog and trance mix - Beat Magazine

Posted in Trance | Comments Off on Beats by Beat: FROCKUP shares an exclusive 90s German techno, prog and trance mix – Beat Magazine

Above & Beyond Announce Two-Day Group Therapy 500 Event In Los Angeles – EDM.com

Posted: at 1:15 pm

Planning is already underway for one of the biggest career milestones in the Above & Beyondsaga.

One of dance music's most tenured and dependable mix shows,Group Therapy Radio is surpassing 500 episodes this year. To celebrate, the iconic trio is planning a massive show set to take place in Los Angeles.

Launched in 2012, Group Therapy Radio was the spiritual successor to the group's former program, Trance Around the World. Since the launch, Above & Beyond have celebrated each 50-episode milestone with a performance in a different city. Most recently, Group Therapy 450 celebrations took place in London late last year.

Scroll to Continue

The two-day celebration in Los Angeles will feature two Above & Beyond performances on the opening day, October 15th. The legendary trio are sure to curate a lineup that meets the moment with the most exciting names in trance in attendance. On Sunday, October 16th, Anjunadeep takes the reigns with a full day of programming that'll most likely feature the latest and greatest from the melodic house imprint.

The first shot at tickets to Group Therapy 500 will be on Tuesday, April 26th at 10AM PT. To register for the pre-sale and to stay up to date, visit the official ABGT500 website.

Facebook: facebook.com/aboveandbeyondInstagram: instagram.com/aboveandbeyondTwitter: twitter.com/aboveandbeyondSpotify: spoti.fi/3fHhX1z

More:

Above & Beyond Announce Two-Day Group Therapy 500 Event In Los Angeles - EDM.com

Posted in Trance | Comments Off on Above & Beyond Announce Two-Day Group Therapy 500 Event In Los Angeles – EDM.com

USA: Wins Trance Girl Swimming Tournament – Recognized as US Governor – Socialpost

Posted: at 1:15 pm

03/23/2022, 1:10 p.m.2 minutes reading time

Leah Thomas wins historic victory as swimmer at the American College Championships in Atlanta. But no one wanted to recognize her.

Leah Thomas victory at the American College Championships in Atlanta is currently the subject of controversy. The reason: Thomas is a transgender, thus becoming the first transgender athlete to win the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) title in the highest category in the 500-yard freestyle. But this victory should not be recognized by a US government.

Florida Gov. Ron Desantis has signed a statement recognizing the success of another woman from his home state. This was reported by Der Spiegel, among others. DeSantis accused the NCAA of destroying opportunities for women: Now the NCAA is trying to destroy the game of women, they are trying to undermine the integrity of the competition, and they are crowning someone else the womens champion, and we think its wrong.

Florida Athlete Fastest Woman

Several media outlets reported that Desantis had denied Leah Thomas success. Instead, Governor Sarasota conferred the title on Emma Wyand of Florida, who was defeated by Leah Thomas in 1.75 seconds in the same match. According to him, the winner of the event is a newcomer to the University of Virginia and an Olympic silver medalist.

She had the fastest time of any woman in college athletics, Desantis said of Wyandot at a news conference. Ron DeSantis, considered a close ally of former President Donald Trump, is still being touted as the 2024 presidential candidate.

Gender debate in the United States

Three years ago, Leah Thomas still competed as a man in swimming competitions. The University of Pennsylvania team questioned his eligibility, saying they had an unfair physiological advantage over Thomas. Prior to the match, a small group of protesters with banners complained about transgender swimming participation. After his victory, Thomas received only a round of applause.

Gender X

Transgender in Pakistan

A transgender man begs for money during a traffic jam in Lahore, Pakistans second largest city. Every night she was sent by her guru to raise money for the Hijra community where she lived. Many Hijras live in well-defined and organized life and economic communities under the leadership of Guru-Thai. He must take care of the material and spiritual needs of his students, i.e. transgender people, in return for the right to faith and a portion of his income.

Further

In February 2022, the US Swimming Association issued new guidelines for USA Swimming. In the future, testosterone limits should also be offered here, but it is not yet used.

Source: Glass

Yak

See the original post here:

USA: Wins Trance Girl Swimming Tournament - Recognized as US Governor - Socialpost

Posted in Trance | Comments Off on USA: Wins Trance Girl Swimming Tournament – Recognized as US Governor – Socialpost

The Parapsychology Foundation Fights for Its Future – The New York Times

Posted: at 1:15 pm

Lisette Coly and Anastasia Damalas are at a crossroads.

But, on a recent late-winter morning, they were also in the book-filled storefront of their foundation in the Greenport section of Long Island, when someone knocked at the door.

Ms. Coly, 71, and her daughter, Ms. Damalas, 32, were leery. Their family nonprofit is appointment-only, and no appointments were scheduled.

In walked a woman who said she had driven from Eatons Neck because she was interested in buying the building. She requested a tour, but Ms. Coly told her the foundation was closed for the day.

Still, the woman made her way into the quiet and pristine space, toward the back archive where Ms. Coly had just unveiled 90-year-old photos of her grandmother that had never been shown to the public. The photos feature Eileen J. Garrett, the celebrity medium of the 20th century, deep in trance.

The uninvited visitor surveyed the room and left in a huff.

That was highly irregular, Ms. Coly said afterward. But it was not the only bizarre occurrence that day: lights flicked on when their switches were in the off position, and loud, electrical buzz sounds intermittently came on and off.

Could such events be paranormal related to the appearance of the rare photos? Some might think so. Others might correlate them to the ordinary problems of this mundane world: an aging, 87-year-old building and a cutthroat real estate market.

Because after 17 years in this location, and with a business thats a little over 70 years old, the mother-daughter proprietors of the Parapsychology Foundation are about to lose their lease.

At risk is the enormous, one-of-a-kind Eileen J. Garrett Library, a staggering archive of books, scholarly papers, photographs, letters and some 600 videos documenting the broad and complicated field of parapsychology in the 20th century.

My grandmother used to say, Monday, Wednesday and Friday I believe in the paranormal. Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday I dont. And Sunday I dont give a damn, Ms. Coly said, relating to the weariness that comes with steering a precarious nonprofit. After all these years, I feel the same way.

Ms. Coly and Ms. Damalass financial predicament their landlord is selling the building in Greenport and they cannot afford to buy it highlights a fork both in their livelihood and the cultural trajectory of the discipline itself.

Parapsychology, a term coined in 1889 by the German psychologist and philosopher Max Dessoir for the scientific investigation of psychic or paranormal phenomena, often refers to the experimental approach to the field. It pursued many of the questions now studied by hard sciences like physics and neuroscience, yet today is wildly misunderstood by the general public. New science and research are either lost in academic echo chambers or reduced to haunted house explorations on TV.

But Ms. Coly and Ms. Damalas believe the foundation and its library can still help people if the study of the paranormal can be reframed in a contemporary light.

Ive been a good soldier. Ive played within the rules of academia. But everything is morphing. We need to move with the times, Ms. Coly said. She wants to save, grow and digitize the library and find a good home for it. I refuse to see it broken up.

Eileen J. Garrett did not have an easy start. She was born in Meath, Ireland, in 1893 and was orphaned over the next couple of months when both parents died by suicide. She was then adopted and raised in Meath by her aunt and uncle.

As a young girl, Ms. Garrett said she started seeing apparitions, hearing voices and predicting future events. When she moved to London at age 15, she found a mentor, the spiritualist James Hewat McKenzie, and attended the school he founded the British College of Psychic Studies in London in the 1920s.

She and Mr. McKenzie determined that she was a trance medium as opposed to a more run-of-the-mill psychic when she began channeling an entity named Uvani, whom she called her control. From that point forward, Uvani performed the role of communications director between the entranced Ms. Garrett and the various entities who wanted to speak through her.

Ms. Garrett and Uvani fit in with the religious trend of the day: Spiritualism. But Ms. Garrett did not subscribe to the Spiritualist doctrine, openly admitting her own disbelief in survival of consciousness.

A skeptic herself, she worried that her psychic sensitivities, as theyre called, were early signs of madness. But after multiple visits to psychiatrists who gave odd diagnoses that her behavior was a stress response to her husbands sexual inadequacy, for example (she was married three times total) she committed to managing her experiences and finding answers on her own.

My grandmother refused to think everything mysterious was a ghost, Ms. Coly said. She thought just as likely that she had multiple personalities, or was using telepathy, or some other phenomenon that wasnt yet understood.

Voice hearing exists on a continuum, said Philip Corlett, a clinical researcher who is leading an N.I.M.H.-funded study of clinical and nonclinical voice hearers with James Gold at the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center and Connecticut Mental Health Center in New Haven. So clairaudience or receiving auditory messages in ones head is not necessarily a sign of mental illness.

In a previous study in Connecticut, Dr. Corlett and his colleagues found, after testing patients and nonclinical voice hearers, that psychics did not meet diagnostic criteria for a psychotic illness. The psychics in the study were in fact hearing voices, but well have to agree to disagree on the provenance of those experiences meaning the data doesnt show they have mental illness, but he also doesnt believe they are talking to the dead.

Ms. Garretts own skepticism about her psychic abilities captivated Harry Price, a Spiritualist debunker and psychical researcher known today as the first ghost hunter. In 1930, Mr. Price arranged a sance of Ms. Garretts in which she was asked to contact Arthur Conan Doyle, the recently deceased creator of Sherlock Holmes.

Instead, Uvani brought through the deceased pilot of a crashed blimp, the R-101, that had fallen in France two days earlier. The seemingly sensitive information she channeled that the engines were too heavy; it was flying at too low of an altitude; an oil pipe was plugged caught the attention of reporters in attendance.

Though dismayed by her sudden fame, Ms. Garrett moved to the United States the next year and went on a lecture tour for the American Society for Psychical Research.

In New York, Ms. Garrett worked as a 9 to 5 psychic, as she herself put it, establishing offices at 29 West 57th Street, and attracting high-profile clients and friends, including Aldous Huxley, Salvador Dal, Henry Miller and Anais Nin.

As a teenager, Ms. Coly started helping out around her grandmothers office, getting dispatched to do things like tell Mr. Dal that Ms. Garrett was busy when he came though the door: Hes such a bore, Ms. Coly recalled her grandmother saying.

Ms. Garrett was not your conventional granny: At one point she implored her young granddaughter to take LSD with her and Mr. Huxley. Ms. Coly refused. She didnt exactly say I was a wuss, Ms. Coly said, but she tried to persuade me, saying, Whats the worst that can happen? We cant guarantee you an easy time, but we can certainly get you out of it eventually.

But Ms. Garrett attracted plenty of willing acolytes. Her young administrative assistant, Edward Everett Tanner III, wrote the novel Auntie Mame under the pseudonym Patrick Dennis, and told Ms. Garrett he had based his title character partly on her.

The Parapsychology Foundation, which today is the largest collection of parapsychological research in the United States and one of the largest in the world, was started in 1951 by Ms. Garrett and her close friend Frances P. Bolton, a Republican congresswoman from Ohio.

Their mission was to widely fund the study of consciousness, particularly the aspects known as paranormal or psi. The two women supported decades of scientific and academic research with Ms. Boltons inherited oil money (her uncle was a partner of John D. Rockefeller).

They funded research internationally, including Joseph Banks Rhines early ESP studies and Ian Stevensons examination of reincarnation; the exploration of religious miracles at Lourdes, France; and the United States governments early interest in remote viewing, the now famous declassified psychic spy program.

The foundation has been strictly matrilineal: Ms. Colys mother, Eileen Coly the only survivor of Ms. Garretts three children; two sons had died young assumed the role of president of the foundation upon Ms. Garretts death in 1970. Lisette Coly took over the presidency in 2012.

Over the course of Ms. Colys tenure, she has maintained the library, continued providing grants, brought back the Helix Press imprint and served as the editor in chief of the International Journal of Parapsychology. She has also published proceedings of all of the foundations 41 international conferences, many of which she helped coordinate over the years, featuring experts in neurobiology, dream research, ceremonial magic and areas of pharmacology that included psychedelics.

My grandmother always wanted to bring together various disciplines to look at the phenomena, Ms. Coly said. She didnt want parapsychology talking to itself as a field.

These days, without Ms. Boltons generous check writing, which ended with her death in 1977, the foundation leads a quieter existence for a few dozen visitors a month: students, researchers and laypeople who seek answers to what they think may be paranormal questions. Since 1977, the foundation has subsisted from a modest endowment left by Ms. Bolton and the occasional bequest, but those are few and far between.

The library, perhaps the foundations most valuable physical asset, is a gold mine. Its really an information clearinghouse of vetted, peer-reviewed, quality information and rare primary source materials, Ms. Coly said. You wont find any books on werewolves.

The foundation has moved two times before: First, in 1984, from the 57th street address to a brownstone on East 71st street between Second and Third Avenues Ms. Colys home a move that lasted until 2004, when the collection went into storage. In 2005, the storefront rental in sleepy Greenport came along.

People who are searching in this realm, no matter what level, should have a physical place to go, Ms. Coly said. You dont have to be a card-carrying believer to be curious. The phenomena should be discussed in normal parlance, and information should be available.

Ms. Coly and Ms. Damalas are re-evaluating how to best guide the foundation into the future. The old model was only sustainable with a rainmaker like Ms. Bolton. Conferences and research require money and dont bring in enough revenue alone.

For reasons of quality and reputation, Ms. Coly and Ms. Damalas are reluctant to use the flashier, income-driving models from the spiritual marketplace, like recreational ghost hunting or expensive sessions with mediums.

I dont want to play games with the phenomena on the foundations time, Ms. Coly said. This is not about seeing if there are ghosts in an old building.

Ms. Damalas is busy digitizing materials, building a social media presence, creating YouTube videos and listening in on daily calls about the librarys future location. The foundation has always aimed to serve two audiences: academia and the general public.

Ms. Coly remembered some of the calls she has handled.

Parents call wanting to help their children who they worry might be possessed. Or after 9/11, someone called wanting to know if souls could be trapped on a plane. People need help getting through the experience, whether or not it is paranormal. And that does not mean sending them to a random psychic on the street.

Ms. Damalas, perhaps because of her proximity to the family vocation, has had difficulty handling paranormal questions in her own life. While a new area of research is exploring psychic sensitivity as a genetic inheritance, Ms. Damalas hesitates to embrace trance mediumship, even though shes had incidents her whole life.

When I asked for an example, an amused Ms. Damalas shared a series of stories, one about her childhood realization that a restaurant her family frequented on Long Island didnt actually have a haunted theme.

Upon understanding that no one else saw the macabre atmosphere, Ms. Damalas became perpetually guarded. Like her great-grandmother, she sleeps with the lights on.

In general, I think our materials can really help people find comfort. I could imagine a building in the city, with membership, and a Soho House-like atmosphere, she said of the business model shed like to follow. But do I want spirits in my face? No. I do not.

Link:

The Parapsychology Foundation Fights for Its Future - The New York Times

Posted in Trance | Comments Off on The Parapsychology Foundation Fights for Its Future – The New York Times