C-Realm Podcast

KMO welcomes Rev. Kevin L. Davis, PM, 32*, K.T., S:::I::: to the C-Realm to talk about magical rituals, and the transmission of esoteric knowledge and traditions from France, through Haiti, where it mixed with voodoo, and to the United States via the work of Michael Bertiaux. Kevin laments the conditioned expectation of instant gratification and the degradation it has wrought on the willingness of would-be adepts to do the work necessary to progress to advance ritual practice. The conversation ends with recommendations on meditative exercises designed to improve one's ability to visualize. Music by Sleepmakeswaves.   You can reach Kevin Davis via email at fraterii@yahoo.com.   Thanks to Stephen B. for digitizing and sharing the Terence McKenna talk, Vertigo at History's Edge.

KMO welcomes psychologist and psychedelics enthusiast, Dr. Neal Goldsmith, back to the C-Realm Podcast to discuss psycho-spiritual maturity, the prospects of maintaining prejudiced-based drug laws in the face of mounting scientific evidence, the likelihood of a human dieback and why quelling all psychological discomfort with drugs and distractions keeps people from maturing as they might if left to grapple with their troubles over time. Later, KMO talks with psychonaut, builder, ecovillager, novelist and physique model, Brian Love, about his experiences at the one-year anniversary commemoration of the start of the Occupy Wall Street protest. Finally, KMO explains how NBC's new post-collapse drama, Revolution, fails to engage with its own premise. Music by Stacco Troncoso.

Professor Sandra Steingraber, author or Raising Elijah, describes her experiences in the wake of the Nine Eleven attacks and why she, a frequent airline passenger, always opts for the intrusive pat-down rather than the full body scan. Later, BriAnna Olson describes how she held up a handmade sign that read “Unconditional Love is Global Security” at Ground Zero on the 5th anniversary of the Nine Eleven attacks and how an encounter with a self-righteous married couple (see video) eventually lead to her taking her sign to Tehran. Music by RIVKA courtesy of Monalloh Foundry.

KMO and the lovely Olga K pay a visit to the home of Sandra Steingraber to talk about fracking and the need to resist reckless despoilment of the environment. They start off with the linguistic battle over the meaning of the word "fracking." Energy companies want the word to mean just the moment when high volumes of water are pumped into the ground to fracture methane-containing shale, while activists use the term to include all of the activities around this style of gas drilling which poison water, assault the local economy with a boom and bust cycle, and do lasting damage to quality of life in the fracked region. Sandra likens the fight against fracking to the movement to abolish slavery. Americans who called for the wholesale abolition of slavery in the 18th Century were considered the lunatic fringe. The more popular and realistic position was that the institution of slavery should be reformed to make it more humane. Sandra asserts our moral responsibility to do the right thing even when it isn't realistic or seemingly feasible. Just as the only morally defensible position position in the 18th Century was the complete abolition of slavery, the morally correct position in the 21st Century is the rejection and replacement of the fossil fuel economy. She is not interested in hearing about the "realistic" options. In a David vs. Goliath fight, why not be David? You can read The Fracking of Rachel Carson: Silent Spring’s lost legacy, told in fifty parts by Sandra Steingraber in Orion Magazine with accompanying audio slideshow. Music by Sarah Underhill for Singing Clear.

KMO plays the second interview from his series with local anti-fracking activists in upstate New York. Chris and Bob Applegate describe how fracking impacts their local food shed. The dangers that fracking operations pose to local groundwater are well known, even though the industry, with help from government agencies, witholds information about which specific chemicals they pump into the ground and thus make it very difficult to pin instances of contaminated water with specific frack jobs. The Applegates expand on that story to describe how fracking degrades the agricultural and recreational value of rural land, puts enormous economic pressure on the most vulnerable residents by driving up rents, and subjects the local economy to the sort of boom and bust cycle which benefits a few and leaves most of the local residents worse off after the highly paid rig operators take their salaries to the next region to be fracked and the handful of landowners who scored a big payday take the money and run for a new place to live, one unspoiled by fracking. At the end of the podcast, Porno Jim Graham responds to Chris Hedges, who castigates liberals for not condemning pornography.

KMO and the Lovely Olga K traveled to Cincinnatus, New York to talk with anti-fracking activists, Jim Weiss and Joe Heath of GDACC (Gass Drilling Awareness of Cortland County). The conversation focuses on the intricacies of gas drilling leases and the difficulties that land-owners experience in getting out of those leases even after the scheduled termination date specified in the lease has passed. They describe why natural gas fracking as conducted by corporations like Cheseapeake Energy is neither clean nor affordable and how the practice of bundling those leases and selling them to foreign powers invalidates the industry propaganda about freeing America from dependence on foreign sources of energy. Later in the episode KMO talks with musician Float23 about the new C-Realm theme music.   Musical interlude from the benefit album Singing Clear: Clean Earth, Air, Water 'round Here.

This program is a recording of part of a live event at the Esalen Institute near Big Sur, California. The workshop, titled "Terence McKenna: Beyond 2012", was led by Dr. Bruce Damer and Lorenzo Hagerty. This specific recording took place on Saturday morning, June 16th 2012, and consists of Dr. Bruce's "deep dive" into the mind of Terence McKenna. It includes unique recordings of Terence McKenna's recounting of his youth, commentary from Dennis McKenna, Bruce's "Ode to Terence", then an analysis of the resulting unraveling of Terence's life and world view in the 1990s, an appreciation of Terence, and concludes with portions Erik Davis' last interview with Terence in 1999. Note: this is an edited version of the original Psychedelic Salon Podcast #316 which was posted and then removed in July 2012.

KMO talks with James Howard Kunstler, author of The Long Emergency and Too Much Magic, about race, racism, black separatism, the drug war, and the need for a common culture with universally accepted standards of behavior for all members of that culture. This conversation makes explicit reference to C-Realm podcast episodes 279: Overvaluing Genius and 313: Peak Oil and the White "We." KMO concludes the episode by reading a post from the Friends the C-Realm Group on Facebook about how obsessing over 9/11 conspiracy theories directs attention away from much greater crimes. Music by Hobotech.

KMO welcomes James Howard Kunstler back to the program to talk about the themes in his new book, Too Much Magic: Wishful Thinking, Technology, and the Fate of the Nation. Jim describes himself as being allergic to conspiracy theories, and KMO explores the space of ideas looking for the place where Jim draws the line between credible speculation about malfeasance in the corridors of power and the paranoid fantasies of ultra-right-wing lunatics as exemplified by the John Birch Society. Could anybody ever be elected to high office by promising to manage economic contraction intelligently, or will promises of American exceptionalism and continued expansion mark the winner in every electoral contest? Jim says that the chronic trafficking in dishonesty in the realms of politics and finance is destroying necessary public institutions and eroding the legitimacy of government. In the second segment, KMO and Olga talk about student debt with Beth and Karl Klein and concludes with a few words about the soon-to-be-launched C-Realm Vault Podcast.   Music by Mistle Thrush.   Again, here's that Chris Hedges interview that folks are raving about.  

KMO welcomes Melanie Gold, educator and activist, to the podcast to discuss Occupy Wall Street as well as a broad range of social justice issues. KMO starts the podcast by explaining why he prefers Riane Eisler's Dominator/Partnership terminology over talk of "Patriarchy" with it's accompanying implication that fatherhood is an inherently violent and repressive institution. Melanie relates this idea to her chosen language in her OWS work in which she emphasizes the concept of achieving power WITH people rather than power OVER people. Melanie invokes the concept of restorative justice as a way of looking for and addressing the unmet need that motivated a desperate act rather than seeking retribution against a wrong-doer. KMO voices his frustration with his oldest son's experience in public school, and Melanie describes why being a teacher bound by a rigid curriculum is to be oppressed. The conversation touches on the Drug War, NYC's "stop and frisk" policy which targets young black men, and how the experience of being arrested redoubled her conviction to continue protesting. KMO concludes the podcast with clips of Chris Hedges and Webster Tarpley voice Yin and Yang views on the effectiveness of Occupy Wall Street. Music by The Weal and the Woe.

KMO welcomes journalist and author Doug Fine back to the C-Realm to talk about his new book, Too High to Fail: Cannabis and the New Green Economic Revolution. Doug spent a year talking with cannabis farmers, local citizens, and law enforcement in Mendocino County, California, where medical growers who want to comply with that state's medical marijuana law can obtain permission from the Sheriff's Department to grow up to 99 cannabis plants without fear of arrest or harassment by local law enforcement. The program has been enormously successful, and Doug describes it as a glimpse at the coming Drug Peace and a preview of how cannabis can move from the underground into the legitimate economy. Doug thinks that the market for cannabis as a psychoactive agent may end up a niche market compared to the potential of hemp for use as a biofuel feedstock. Still, the economic implications of removing the artificial price support for marijuana that prohibition provides are complex, and KMO and Doug try to tease them out for clear-headed analysis.   At the end of the podcast, KMO encourages listeners to check out the Joe Bageant interveiw transcript that he recently made available for the Kindle.   Music by Camo Cowboys.

KMO welcomes Neil Kramer back to the C-Realm Podcast to discuss his new book, The Unfoldment: The Organic Path to Clarity, Power, and Transformation. Neil describes the 7 densities of being, and KMO focuses in the 4th density and relates it to J.R.R. Tolkien's description of the Valar in The Silmarillion. In the second half of the program, Neil details how to find locations where the energetic process of unfoldment occur more easily than in the places we normally inhabit, and he warns against an over-reliance on entheogens in spiritual practice. Music by Southside.

KMO welcomes C. Derek Varn to the C-Realm Podcast to discuss topics related to Neopaganism, magick, the Enlightenment, technology, and Object-Oriented Ontology. Derick has published print interviews with both KMO and Keith418, the guest on C-Realm Podcast episode 317: Bind Nothing! Derek asks why anyone who enjoys the comforts and benefits of 21st Century life in the First World would feel the need to re-invent and practice ancient religions, and this leads into a discussion of familiar C-Realm themes involving technology, energy, resources limits, and the potential lure of the Peak Oil narrative as a palliative for cubicle-induced alienation. KMO ends the episode with a reading from an essay by Bodhi Paul Chefurka on the need to reduce the human population by voluntary means before Malthusian forces make the cuts for us.   Music by The Weal and the Woe.

KMO welcomes Keith418 to discuss the need for critical thinking and consistency in the contemporary occult scene and in society at large. Keith, a self-identified Thelemite refuses to summarize and spoon feed the thinking of Aleister Crowley to those unwilling or, because of an impoverished education, unable to access Crowley's thoughts in his own words. Later, KMO talks with Michael Pope, a straight man who took a job at a gay phone sex line to fund the making of his first film. Michael has a stage show in which he tells the story of that period in his life and the lessons he took from it.   Music by Yuki Tanoguchi. See pictures of Yuki and Shen's three wedding ceremonies here.

KMO welcomes Mark Robinowitz of OilEmpire.us back to the C-Realm Podcast to discuss why both the mainstream political left as well as the right in the United States cannot address the demands of Peak Oil in a realistic way. Republicans have rebuked Navy Secretary Ray Mabus for attempting to ween the Navy off of fossil fuels because they see finding alternatives to petroleum as a Democratic partisan issue. Established environmental and social justice organizations are still holding onto unrealistic Green Technology and Green Capitalism paradigms and have yet to come to terms with the fact that the project of the 21st Century will be figuring out how to equitably distribute a shrinking pie. One thing unlikely to be in short supply as the realities of diminishing fossil fuel reserves make themselves unmistakable: blame. Mark hopes that we can achieve Peak Blame sooner rather than later and get on with the grown-up work of figuring out how best to deploy our remaining energy resources. Music by Mistle Thrush.