C-Realm Podcast

KMO welcomes Susan Blackmore, author of The Meme Machine to the program to discuss minds and the memes that make them, Buddhist meditation, the value of psychedelics, and the fabricated reality of the self. Music by Z deScathach.   Musical interlude by Z deScathach: http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default.cfm?bandID=817450 Here's the Straight Dope on legislating the value of pi: http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/805/did-a-state-legislature-once-pass-a-law-saying-pi-equals-3 In my discussion with Sue,I mentioned Leonard Shlain's book The Alphabet Versus the Goddess. You can learn more about the idea that the transition from a pre-literate to a print-based culture involves a period of ideological mania and accompanying mayhem on the website devoted to the book: http://www.alphabetvsgoddess.com/

KMO welcomes Bruce Damer back the program to talk about what the pursuit of artificial life tells us about the possible nature and intentions of God. What limitations does the complexity of the human brain place on God's scope of action? Does God tinker with the universe to achieve a desired outcome, or did God establish the initial conditions and operational parameters of the universe, set it in motion and then let the process play out according to its own internal logic? Bruce Damer examined these issues in the chapter he wrote for the new book Divine Action and Natural Selection: Science, Faith, and Evolution. Music by Galen Brandt: http://www.dotolearn.com/happy_holidays/happy_holidays/holidays.htm Special thanks to the Two Zillion-Year-Old Hippie for his contribution to this episode: http://2zillionhippie.podomatic.com/  

"C" stands for consciousness KMO has another go at finding "the upside of down," this time with Jan Lundberg of CultureChange.org and the Sail Transport Network. Could petrocollapse be right around the corner? Jan Lundberg thinks that it might be, and what's more, that might not be such a bad thing. Topics include the plastic plague, pedal powered produce, and unearthing sustainable living by de-paving paradise. Music by the Depavers.   Mateo writes: I've been authorized by the Southern California Writer’s Conference, San Diego, which will be President’s Day Weekend, February 13th – 16th, to offer a $50 discount off the Full Conference registration for Psychedelic Salon, C-Realm, and BLITA Listeners. All they have to do is inform the conference that they heard it from Mateo on the podcasts. I’ve had a few great people come to my workshops and writer’s conferences who came via the podcasts. I’ll be teaching two late night "rogue" workshops at the conference as well as one-on-one manuscript consultations and there are lots of other workshops and speakers besides me. The Zombie Apocalypse thread on the C-Realm Grow Report Forum can be found here: http://www.thegrowreport.com/Forums/showthread.php?t=5752

"C" stands for consciousness 136: The Peer-Polity Peter Principle KMO welcomes energy infrastructure analyst Jeff Vail to the program to talk about how growth-oriented hierarchies start to come unglued when they run up against the energy and resource limitations that prohibit continued growth. Listen in to hear how this idea relates to Professor Laurence J. Peter's famous principle. Music by Float. There's a good discussion of Jeff Vail's ideas in postrodent's journal. You can hear the original, unedited version of my TalkShoe conversation with Jeff here: http://www.talkshoe.com/tc/33530

"C" stands for consciousness 135: '08 Wrap-up KMO looks back at the C-Realm Podcast's 2008 offerings, anticipates the challenges of the coming year, reads email from listeners and discusses the on-going C-Realm Project with guest Neil Kramer. This is a long one folks, so make yourself a hot drink, get comfortable, and settle in for 90 minutes of in-group preening and navel gazing. Music by Glöd. Links tomorrow. Happy New Year!

"C" stands for consciousness 134: Zombie Apocalypse Christmas Special   KMO welcomes Neil Kramer back to the program to praise the films of George A. Romero and to judge those who carried on and/or ripped off his life's work. What does an animated flesh eating corpse symbolize? What can we learn about our fears and our beliefs concerning the people around us by pondering the shuffling corpses of 70's cinema and their fleet footed counter-parts in the 21st Century zeitgeist? All this and a quick trip Down Under to mash Mad Max into the mix. More links to come, but for now here are five scientifically plausible scenarios leading to Zombie Apocalypse!    

"C" stands for consciousness Episode 133: Jaguar & Pilgrim KMO welcomes Robert Tindall to discuss the experiences that inform his new book, The Jaguar that Roams the Mind: An Amazonian Plant Spirit Odyssey. Topics discussed include the nature of addiction, the role (helpful or harmful) of so-called "Ayahuasca tourism," and the relationship between entheogenic exploration and psychedelic recreation. Music by EthnoSuperLounge.

"C" stands for consciousness 132: Transcendental Dependent Arising KMO talks with meditation instructor James Baraz about his Awakening Joy course which combines the traditional wisdom of the Buddhist meditative tradition with up to the minute neuroscientific perspectives to encourage "wholesome" states like generosity, gratitude and joy. On the program I read part of an email interview published at the Diet Soap website. You can find the full text of that interview here: http://www.dietsoap.org/2008/12/06/interview-with-kmo-of-the-c-realm/ Music by Eve Decker: http://www.evedecker.com

M. King Hubbert's peak is a perfect mathematical abstraction, and gliding over the top at speed might leave one with a giddy feeling of momentary weightlessness, but according to Albert K. Bates, the reality described by the mathematical object is more of a rocky mountaintop than a glassy smooth parabola, and moving over it's jagged topology won't (doesn't) feel much like gliding. Read Albert's thoughts on bio-char or learn more about the upcoming permaculture design course in Belize. The musical interlude in this episode features a track from Tibet2Timbuk2. You can find the Michael Pollan for Agriculture Secretary petition here: http://www.petitiononline.com/MPoll4Ag/petition.html

"C" stands for consciousness 130: Gravity Check KMO welcomes Professor Howard Margolis to the program. The idea was to talk about human cognition, but try as he might, KMO can't keep the C-Realm airship in the metashpere, and the conversation relentlessly spirals in on the topic of Peak Oil and the potential of nuclear energy as a means of avoiding the Malthusian Correction. Later, Albert K. Bates reminds us why we should not view nuclear fission as a panacea for our energy woes. Music by Dr. Richard Grossman: www.soundjourney.com Albert Bates links: http://www.thefarm.org/etc http://www.gaiauniversity.org http://ena.ecovillage.org http://www.i4at.org/ http://www.peaceroots.org/ http://www.thegreatchange.com

"C" stands for consciousness 129: An Affirmation of Your Own Sanity Here are a couple of messages that I received concerning Michael Tsarion. The first comes from Neil Kramer of The Cleaver: KMO, For me, Michael Tsarion is, what we in England call, a diamond geezer. One of the good guys. The difficulty is, his work is so esoteric, so off the radar, that unless you have a grounding in the arcane and mystery-cult texts on Atlantis, Catastrophism, revisionist history, ET's, Secret Societies and the like, it is unduly hard to follow his thinking. Personally, I have done most of the homework and so have no issue with most of his theories. For him to constantly evidence and reference his theories during a brief radio interview would leave no time for the broader visions he is outlining. If people need to see the data, go read his scholarly and voluminous books. And the works of Comyns Beaumont, Conor MacDari, Graham Hancock, Zecharia Sitchin, Michael Cremo etc. Tsarion himself is perhaps somewhat of a modern day Ignatius Donnelly or Immanuel Velikovsky. The core of his work is solid. He is positively incapable of inauthentic behaviour, which is more than can be said for most alternative researchers. Personally, I like his energy and dogged no-compromise approach. If you were going into battle, Lord Of The Rings style, you'd want him at your side. With the dark forces loose in the world today, such considerations may not be altogether fantastical. I think it was a bold and creative choice on your part to include him on the guest roster. Conscious diversity is good. If his words open one more mind to the crucial importance of ancient history in today's current events - including the US elections - it's been worth it. Great work as ever, keep it coming. NK And from a happy C-Realm listener: KMO, Sorry to send this comment to you through direct email but unfortunately, I refuse to join another site where I have to get an account like livejournal, etc. I know this refusal to join anymore "gated" communities will limit my access to certain neighborhoods but I'm at peace with that. With that said, I'd like to say the following: I really, really like Michael Tsarion, always have and probably always will. I also realize that there are those who don't--kinda obvious don't you think. And honestly, I'm fine with that, each person should be able to decide what/who moves them and what/who doesn't. My concern is when these "dissenters" alter the way a guest is handled or portrayed. What I am trying to say is, I think you may have cut the session with Tsarion short last week to appease the naysayers and am afraid you might do the same this week. This would personally be very disappointing. I looked forward to the 3 weeks of Tsarion even if others can't take 5 minutes of him. I try to listen to the guest on yours and other shows with an open ear regardless of my personal opinions about them. Each speaker usually has a well thought out point and has backed up their efforts by authoring books (like Tsarion) and other venues for getting their ideas out (like podcasts and conferences, etc.) and though this doesn't make them someone to be in awe of or blindly followed they do deserve credit for their work, efforts and scholarship. At least they have the courage to put themselves out there for criticism. Instead of catering to people who don't like a certain guest, how about suggesting they write a few books, speak at several conferences, maybe make a good youtube video or DVD for sale and then you can have them on as a guest--better yet accept their displeasure with a guest selection but move on as you decided. The publishing/entertainment/education industries don't eat people up because they actually have a large creature that "eats" people, instead people slowly conform to the wishes of others till there original vision is lost. Maybe, I'm jumping the gun here a little, and if so, please accept my apologies.

"C" stands for consciousness 128: Irish Origins & the Roots of Tyranny KMO welcomes Michael Tsarion back to the program to explore the extent of the Irish influence not only on so-called "Western Culture" but on the ancient world as well. Lots of feedback on last week's political discussion, music from Peter Kilbryde, and a visit from Ayasmina. Entheogenesis Australis When I sent Peter Kilbryde the clip from our interview that I was going to play, he wrote back to say: Hi, KMO. Well, I dont know why you would want to broadcast the drunken egotistic and more importantly....out of tune....ramblings of mine. They seem of little value to me...but do proceed if you see fit. You might say that I gave a presentation concerning Irish Icaros at the Conference and would relish the opportunity to give it to any interested groups and you can pass out this e mail address. You can find recordings of all of the presentations given at the 4th Annual International Shamanism Conference here: http://erocx1.blogspot.com/2008/08/4th-amazonian-shamanism-conference-mp3.html You can reach Peter Micheal Kilbryde at.

"C" stands for consciousness 127: The Cube Remains the Cube KMO explores the middle ground between techno-utopianism and and Peak Oil collapse fetishism with Digital Crusader, Eric Boyd, who attended the recent Singularity Summit. The Michael Tsarion provides his perspective on the mechanisms of political power and the significance of the Obama electoral victory. Micheal Tsarion: http://www.michaeltsarion.com/ Eric Boyd: http://xprizecars.com/   Eric recommended some essays that can be found on Marshall Brain's webpage: http://www.marshallbrain.com/

"C" stands for consciousness 126: Horticultural Consciousness What is Thinkism? And what does it have in common with Peak Oil Doomerism? Was agriculture a good idea? What are the prosepects for giving it up? KMO discusses these and other burning questions with Toby Hemenway and Eric Boyd in this week's installment of the C-Realm Podcast. Musical interlude by Tibet2Timbuk2: http://www.ethnosuperlounge.com/tibet2timbuk2/index.html C-Realm Amazon Store: http://astore.amazon.com/crealm Please, vote for the C-Realm Podcast in the Culture / Arts category at http://www.podcastawards.com . You can hear Cody's McKenna/Kramer mash-up here: http://blacklightattic.podomatic.com/entry/2008-10-28T10_35_25-07_00

"C" stands for consciousness 125: Apocalypse, Not! KMO welcomes Toby Hemenway to the program to talk about the virtues of rural and urban living. Does living in the boonies do Gaia any favors, or are rural homesteads basically just suburban McMansions with bigger yards and longer commutes? Listener email, music from Andy Warren, and a preview of a talk given by Fred Alan Wolf at the Coalessence Festival. Links tomorrow.