Maps (UCSC Version) - Yeah Yeah Yeahs

"Fantastically Creepy" is one way it has been described. How would you describe it? Video for "Maps" by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Go UCSC (University of California at Santa Cruz).






Terence Mckenna, Sheldrake and Abraham

A discussion with Rupert Sheldrake, Terence McK... (more) Added: December 03, 2007 A discussion with Rupert Sheldrake, Terence McKenna and Ralph Abraham from Metamorphosis recorded at Esalen. Terence McKenna (1946-2000) has been studying the ontological foundations of Shamanism and the Ethnopharmacology of spiritual transformation for the past quarter century. An innovative theoretician and spellbinding orator, Terence has emerged as a powerful voice for the psychedelic movement and the emergent societal tendency he calls The Archaic Revival. Poetically dispensing enlightened social criticism and new theories of the fractal dynamics of time, Terence deobfuscates many aspects of the visionary lexicon, and then some. As Artist Alex Grey suggests, "In the twilight of human history, McKenna's prescription for salvation is just so crazy it might work." Rupert Sheldrake is a biologist and author. He studied natural sciences at Cambridge and philosophy at Harvard, where he was a Frank Knox Fellow. He took a Ph.D. in biochemistry at Cambridge in 1967 and was a Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge, where he was Director of Studies in biochemistry and cell biology until 1973. As a Research Fellow of the Royal Society, he carried out research at Cambridge on the development of plants and the aging of cells. In addition to his numerous books, he is the author of more than fifty papers in scientific journals. His experiments into unusual and unexplained perceptiveness in humans make a compelling case that intuition, precognition, and telepathy are not paranormal, but are, in fact, normal functions drawn from our biological past. RALPH H. ABRAHAM has been Professor of Mathematics at the University of California at Santa Cruz since 1968. He received the Ph.D. in Mathematics at the University of Michigan in 1960, and taught at Berkeley, Columbia, and Princeton before moving to Santa Cruz. He has held visiting positions in Amsterdam, Paris, Warwick, Barcelona, Basel, and Florence, and is the author of more than 20 texts, including eight books currently in print. He has been active on the research frontier of dynamics -- in mathematics since 1960, and in applications and experiments since 1973. He has been a consultant on chaos theory and its applications in numerous fields (medical physiology, ecology, mathematical economics, psychotherapy, etc.) and is an active editor for the technical journals World Futures, and the International Journal of Bifurcations and Chaos. In 1975, he founded the Visual Mathematics Project at the University of California at Santa Cruz, which became the Visual Math Institute in 1990, with its popular World Wide Web site since early 1994. He has performed works of visual and aural mathematics and music (with Ami Radunskaya and Peter Broadwell) since 1992. http://deoxy.org/t_ppp.htm http://www.sheldrake.org http://www.ralph-abraham.org/

PsychoTropics

I always thought the PsychoTropics were South Beach and Nassau.

A psychoactive drug or psychotropic substance is a chemical substance that acts primarily upon the central nervous system where it alters brain function, resulting in temporary changes in perception, mood, consciousness and behavior. These drugs may be used recreationally to purposefully alter one's consciousness, as entheogens for ritual or spiritual purposes, as a tool for studying or augmenting the mind, or therapeutically as medication.

Because psychoactive substances bring about subjective changes in consciousness and mood that the user may find pleasant (e.g. euphoria) or advantageous (e.g. increased alertness), many psychoactive substances are abused, that is, used excessively, despite risks or negative consequences. With sustained use of some substances, physical dependence may develop, making the cycle of abuse even more difficult to interrupt. Drug rehabilitation can involve a combination of psychotherapy, support groups and even other psychoactive substances to break the cycle of dependency.

In part because of this potential for abuse and dependency, the ethics of drug use are the subject of a continuing philosophical debate. Many governments worldwide have placed restrictions on drug production and sales in an attempt to decrease drug abuse.

Foster Children Medicated Without Consent

Agency Review Finds One in Six on Mind-Altering Drugs without Authorization

(May 28, 2009)

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by Jamaal Abdul-Alim, John Kelly

Nearly one in six children in the Florida foster care system who had been prescribed psychotropic medication were given the drugs without parental consent or authorization from a judge, despite the state's increased scrutiny of the drugs' use.

That is among the preliminary findings of a review released today by the Florida Department of Children and Family Services (DCF). The review was ordered following the apparent suicide on April 16 of 7-year-old Gabriel Myers, who had been prescribed psychotropic drugs without informed parental consent or a judge's order while in the foster care system. Gabriel reportedly hung himself on a shower rod.

The review by the Florida DCF, using data from its Florida Safe Families Network (FSFN), found that of the 2,669 children in Florida's foster care system who were prescribed psychotropic drugs, there was no record of consent or a judicial order in 433 cases. The statistics did not specify the ages of the children for whom there was no consent on record.

"It's inconceivable to me, with all the attention focused on psychotropics, that the system doesn't have this right yet," Florida DCF Secretary George Sheldon said today when asked how so many children in foster care could be prescribed the drugs without proper authorization.

A 2005 law requires an agency to obtain the consent of a parent or judge before giving mind-altering medications to foster children. Consent is necessary for each prescription.

"I don't think there's any excuse," Sheldon said.

He vowed to take swift action on the 433 cases in which there is no record of parental consent or a judicial order, explaining that there are plans to bring all of the cases into compliance with the law and to get the cases reviewed by a judge by June 5.

Number Disputes

The majority of youths without consent for their prescriptions were served by private agencies that have carried out most child welfare services in the state since the officials began privatizing the system in the early 2000s.

Sheldon conceded during today's telephone news conference that the private agencies managing the cases where youth may have been prescribed the drugs illegally could face contract reviews or termination, and the caseworkers involved could face disciplinary action..

"Stay tuned," Sheldon said, explaining that for the time being, he is more concerned with getting agencies and caseworkers to cooperate and produce reliable information on the extent of the problem of wrongful use of psychotropic drugs for children in state care.

A number of providers said that at least some of the 433 cases simply lack a paper trail; consent was given, but it was not properly documented.

Officials for Miami-based Our Kids, which the report stated had 62 youths prescribed medication with proper authorization, told Youth Today that notification of a change in prescription sometimes makes it into the state database before consent has been sought. In some cases, when youth run away from care or initially refuse to take medication, the agency stops seeking consent since the drug is not being administered, said clinical services director Michelle Montero.

Eckerd Youth Alternatives, a lead agency in Florida's Suncoast Region, had 78 no-consent cases according to the report. A spokeswoman for the agency said that over the past two weeks when it reviewed every single child in its care, it identified 25 children that fit into the no-consent category.

Eckerd spokeswoman Karen Bonsignori believes the discrepancy of 53 cases likely is due to incomplete reporting of consensual prescriptions on the part of the group Eckerd subcontracts with to provide case management. Eckerd will be entering information into FSFN from now on, Bonsignori said.

Sheldon conceded that the review's findings may be flawed and there are efforts under way to validate the findings.

"We have to get the database in better shape," Sheldon said.

Causes and Solutions

How did the actual no-consent cases happen? A primary cause cited by lead agencies is that mental health developments in a child's life can occur more frequently than visits with lead agency staff do.

"A kid can see one doctor, then move to another doctor," said Hillsborough Kids CEO Jeff Rainey, whose organization did not have consent for 52 of the psychotropically medicated youths in its care. "Sometimes the medications get changed. There's a catch-up factor."

Foster parents are supposed to let agencies know if a child is prescribed psychotropic medication as part of the bilateral agreement they have with lead agencies, said Gregory Kurth, executive director of Family Services of Metro Orlando (FSMO), which the DCF report said had 63 children on prescribed medication without consent. "That may not necessarily happen every time."

Rainey concedes that none of these factors is an excuse. "It's a complex process," he said, "but at the end of day it's our responsibility."

The Gainesville-based Partnership for Strong Families (PSF) had only one child with a non-consent prescription. PSF President Shawn Salamida said his organization has been diligent about monitoring for changes in medication for children in its care.

PSF pulls reports directly from a the Florida Safe Families Network's statewide database and cross checks it with its own records. "That tells us which kids are on psychotropics. We review that list...to make sure we're in compliance."

Salamida said the organization also holds frequent "staffings," regular reviews of cases that bring together caseworkers, quality management staff, attorneys and parents in some situations.

The lead agency that managed Myers case, ChildNet, said it "is one of the few Community Based Care lead agencies throughout the state that has internal policies and procedures in place to document and monitor use of psychotropic medications. Our policy and procedures were in place since our inception in 2005."

Sheldon stressed that it's important for parental consent to be actual informed consent rather than on paper only. In the case of Gabriel Myers, for instance, Gabriel's mother signed a blank consent form when she was high on drugs, Sheldon said.

"It's not just enough to get a signed parental consent form," Sheldon said. "It must clearly be informed. That means the parent is clearly explained the use of psychotropics."

Gabriel, who had been diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) had been prescribed Vyvanse in December 2008. In the weeks leading up to his death, he had also been prescribed Lexapro, which was later discontinued and replaced with Symbyax.

Asked for his own views on the use of psychotropic drugs, Sheldon said: "I'm not a psychiatrist, and I'm not anti-medication. But I have serious questions when it comes to the administration of psychotropic drugs to children. I think it should be done as a last resort" and then only when reviewed by medical professionals.

At Family Services of Metro Orlando, Kurth is considering using a medical consultant to review any prescription for psychotropics made for one of its children. He does not intend to become a final say on the drugs, but thinks a consultant can make sure doctors have considered every option and asked every question before resorting to serious medication.

More info on the Myers case: www.dcf.state.fl.us/admin/GMWorkgroup/index.shtml

Come Up the Ladder to the Roof

Jacobs Ladder. These girls are church all the way.



I'm a Motown baby. I was 13 when MLK and Bobby were killed. 1968. Snipers on the roof and tanks in the streets.



I was doing acid by then so I thought it was cool. Just a child who thought the world worked that way because it did. My father drank and did pills. So did my mother. So did I. Home sweet home.



So I went up on the roof, tripping my ass off. I saw heaven and hell.

RE: We did a lot of emails‏

Pattern Recognition is a novel by science fiction writer William Gibson published in 2003. Set in August and September 2002, the story follows Cayce Pollard, a 32-year-old marketing consultant who has a psychological sensitivity to corporate symbols.

The novel's central theme involves the examination of the human desire to detect patterns or meaning and the risks of finding patterns in meaningless data. Other themes include methods of interpretation of history, cultural familiarity with brand names, and tensions between art and commercialization.

Have you read it? I deal in religious themes and commercial populism. More raw and transparent than one might think. Particularly music. Think Who and Hendrix. Sex which is why I relate to Gay people. Drugs which is my BoyPuppy and medical marijuana advocacy become thematic. Commercialization is mass fiction and so many people have become characters to iconography.

I am sorting out fiction from fact but it comes from facing questions of mortality and not morality. I also learned in the past week that the situation was so "Kafkaesque" (The term, which is quite fluid in definition, has also been described as "marked by a senseless, disorienting, often menacing complexity.) that I have blended my experiences and time sequences. I had never been to a hospital and suddenly I'm narcotized and hooked to machines that kept screeching and no one responded. And released! Three times. It reminded me of things in a previous time capsule which I had no emotional connection to the experiences that I was involved. My reality stream became like mixing paint together until there is no swirl and only new color. BZ. I know about mind control for some reason.



BoyPuppy was a code name for the Armenian Codex. Complex relationships. Destiny and identity. Then it changed. The people and time capsules are all real. I was there. Does that make it true? Depends on the definition of true. For me my reality has incorporated all these stories. They happened. Like light through a prism, I am separating out the hues. They are there where they were not before. It has taught me about re identification, false memories, imprint plasticity and event association and how you can redistribute the content of your brain. Mind is more will than truth. Will is more imposition than improvisational. What happened to me changed the formula. I have transitioned from subconscious to participation in the process because I have a feeling I will need this new tool for survival.

So look at my dates. 1977-the LSD conference and Hoffmann's first trip to America. By 1980, LSD has disappeared for the most part. The experiment failed. But are you looking at the new lists of psychotropics. I want to hook you into emails I have with XXX and XXX who know the new chemists and financiers. They are a bit alarmed by my candid portrayal of events. Big pharma has always payed a part but we are becoming more prescribed including with children. More controllable psychotropics.

So the story has to include my latest escapades. As scary as it has been at times, I have learned how to trigger and restructure my own memory boxes or pattern recognition. Lifewave. What a trip! Now my patch princess is Marilyn Monroe doing Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz. (Remember Grandmother's OZ books).



I'm watching "The Life and Times of Harvey Milk". You should. It's on the blog. Won an Oscar in 1984. I used to blow weed with the guys that put that together. They all had AIDS and died not much thereafter. Take a look a this link. That's where I lived in the City. Right off the Castro if you notice. I watched 7500 young men, boys really at our age now, die with very little compassion from anyone including a lot of their gay friends. Scared and lonely. In my neighborhood. So my thematic structures are warped by that experience of several years. That's why my experience with the City is very personal. Like cutting yourself with razorblades. The fascination becomes the compulsion.



I had a lousy day. I'm scared about Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Truth is such a malleable subject for me and I have a lot of brain tests. Like Dad, if I am going, there must be something wrong. Anything but a hypochondriac. But I can't just live on seizure medication without a diagnosis. Very weird thing happened with marijuana. I can't smoke it at all now. Just like that. Makes my heart hurt physically. So my whole physiology is altered. I am pretty much on a liquid diet but actually gaining not losing. I make some great smoothies with coconut milk (high caloric) soybean isolate, greens with probiotic, oat bran and chocolate. Not bad actually and it keeps my nourishment up. Oh and nutritional yeast which is not only high in B but has 8 grams of protein in each half teaspoon and I do like six tablespoons in there. I am using fish oil because of my cardio issues. I have fresh lemons and ginger for blood thinning. And carrot juice. I make my own black beans and do a bean and rice burrito at night.

So I don't have a great need to tell my younger siblings all my stories. They know them like they imagine them and I am OK with that. I think XXX grapples with her son's sexual identity so I am quite candid with her. I think his issues are more relative to a high rate of social anxiety which causes displacement and these kinds of boys are ripe for sexual conflict as I know. But I truly don't follow the model that sexuality is imprinted at birth. I was my experience to not self identify until I was about thirty. I had a complex sexual life until then. Oddly enough, those issues became resolved when I had a relationship with a bisexual psych nurse who spoke french.



We had a relationship in 2002 (12 years later) as well but she was uncomfortable with the fact that I did not self identify as bisexual anymore. I think she felt that follows the trend of becoming more gay if you will but that was not the case with me. I make a lousy gay person anyway. Way to unPC and I get into all kinds of conflicts with gay people about the politics of marriage and monogamy. Goes under my heading of resolving social anxiety psychosis. And I have found the most homophobic people are gay. A good friend of mine is a female Jewish gay psychotherapist and she thinks I'm gay and subconsciously homophobic because I tell her things like all married gays that were grandfathered into law without the benefit being transferred to others is hypocritical and they should all annul until equal protection. She's married to another female psychotherapist. They are younger than me and I tell them about the AIDS days when the community got divided between positive and negative and the separation causes classicism which is rampant in the gay community. That and I can't stand older (my age) male gays that cross dress out of the goodwill. Disgusting! Now XXX is a preop transsexual, which is becoming more common because they want to keep their dicks and I call them the third sex. Young gays a pretty cool because they don't have many brick wall but I do worry about their cloud control because they are so open and are not aware of the transitions they will experience with their sexuality possibly.

I fight for human rights which includes religion and sexuality and drugs. Or, as I have learned faith, intimacy and consciousness. I learned the hard way.

Happy Fathers Day!. You have been a great brother in this. I am more open to treatment now because you took an interest. Sorry I am rattling but I got nervous about all this testing. Mortality is easier to grasp than psychosis and that is how I stayed alive. I like your phrases like pattern recognition. I heard Obama talk about we just can't tilt into windmills and I like your phrase better.

It all made me more compassionate. I can accept that as the end point of this experience. I didn't hate, feel cheated or lose my zest for life. I just see people deeper.

As for the picture, Mimi wondered what I looked without the layers so I showed her! That's 135. I was looking at 30 in waist jeans but I just couldn't do it. My wardrobe is basically 34. So I'm wearing silk and sweats and I go out during the day. I don't care. In a nice way! Just and FYI, they called me while I was writing a rescheduled my cat scan for Tues. No problem. Then I will see my doctor later in the afternoon which works for me because she listens to my fears. Neurologist on Thursday. Strange thing is I don't have any idea what to expect and I thrive on expectation.

Love you
Subject: RE: We did a lot of emails
Date: Sun, 21 Jun 2009 09:38:59 -0400
From:
To:

I was just thinking this morning that I want to stay in regular email communication with you. Even if they are short messages. But yes, some really interesting stuff did come out and I will be happily sorting it all out over the next couple of months.



When you started writing, I don’t know what kind of “pattern recognition” was at play, but I knew that we needed to do what we did. I don’t know if I told you this already, but as you wrote, there would be sentences of clarity in which you would discuss what was happening to you or answers to questions that I asked. But I had to really read everything in order to find these. At one point, I culled through the emails to date and pulled out all of these and they told the story of what was happening to you.







From:
Sent: Saturday, June 20, 2009 12:52 AM
To:
Subject: We did a lot of emails



Did you do a search. Lot of conversation. Thanks. It kept me glued. Some interesting stuff. Amazing what you learn when your mind explodes on the internet. You have to understand, it was like a form a torture. I would seize, go by ambulance to the hospital, get pumped with drugs, lay there catatonic, get discharged and know it would all happen again for about eleven days. Sometimes I couldn't even take the ride and sometimes I would seize when I got home. It was like really bad psychotropics. That's why I used the term "Jacobs Ladder'.

I didn't know how else to stay in my mind. Pretty cool brother of you. Probably saved my life or further deterioration. I needed to be hospitalized obviously. That remains the mystery to me. It was rather cruel.

Music to blow by-Just because

Go to folder - FileFactory.com

Black Magic Woman 1970-I've known a few

Suzie. She dated Carlos. Actually red magic. Fire. Barbara. Black. Deadly. Kim. Blue. Cold. Caribbean. Rainbow. Red, Black, Blue. Hot.