Shamanic Freedom Radio

In this episode Mr Lens starts by reading an article in Schnews about the possible cancellation of Strawberry Fare in Cambridge this year, and the over zealous police agenda concerning festivals since the Big Green Gathering issue last year. After this it’s over to Matthew Holbrook for his latest Spring Equinox poem, followed by a lot of drumming (and a digeridoo too) recorded on the eve of Equinox in West Kennet Longbarrow. Mr Lens uses the same venue for a bit of roam cast monologuing a few days later before it’s back to the studio. Music by David Bowie

In this episode, Mr Lens attempts to record himself on the same file opened in Mac OSX 10.6, Ubuntu Linux and Windows XP. Ubuntu and Mac are successful but Windows XP makes Mr Lens come out at twice the speed! This experiment is to demonstrate that we now live in a time where you can run 3 operating systems on one computer and manipulate the same file in each, though it is buggy and clunky and somewhat in its Beta stage. He talks about how much computers have advanced in the last 40 years and there are still things that are in their infancy stages on computers with lots of potential. As the show draws to a close Mr Lens talks about a squat party he recently visited. Music by The Damned and Julian Cope.

In this episode Mr Lens apologises for the computer problems which have delayed this episode and thinks of this time as a death and rebirth for both himself and his computer! In the time of hanging up the anthropomorphic personification of Opaquelens, Mr Lens had a bit of time to rediscover himself over the last three weeks. One of the themes of this podcast is Professor David Nutt. Mr Lens reads out an email from 10 Downing Street in response to an epetition to reinstate David Nutt. A bit later in the programme, Mr Lens plays a couple of interviews with Professor Nutt. During his break, Mr Lens guested on Carlita’s Sailing Beyond Knowledge podcast, where he spoke about his ‘second matrix in crowd’ gripe. He elaborates on this now to point out that back in the day when he knew nothing about the contemporary psychedelic community, he was having direct gnosis when it was legal to buy mushrooms in Camden, and if anything, the present psychedelic ‘in-crowd’ seem to be repeating a few usual human patterns rather than transcending them. Music by Harry Belafonte, The Levellers and Ozric Tentacles.

In this installment, Mr Lens plays the remaining 20 minutes of the questions and answers session with Andy Roberts. During this bit it’s clear that Andy does not think any entities you’d meet whilst tripping have any bearing in this reality, and seems to dismiss them as illusions. After that it’s the latest poem by Matthew Holbrook, celebrating Imbolc - the mid point between winter solstice and spring equinox. Mr Lens talks about Imbolc for a while, and what it means to him to feel the ‘pre spring’ hopefulness in the air. He wraps up by announcing that due to feeling a tad uninspired, the podcast will have a three week break, as he attempts to free himself from the ball and chain. Music by Ozric Tentacles and Weather Report.

In this installment, Mr Lens sounds happy and on form again, especially as he has been back to the October Gallery to record a talk by Andy Roberts of the Fortean times on 26/1/2010. According to the blurb Mr Lens received in an email: “Andy [Roberts]'s book, Albion Dreaming: A popular history of LSD in Britain (Marshall Cavendish, 2008) was born from a desire to chronicle the history of this intriguing drug. Andy's talk, illustrated by powerpoint and DVD takes you on a history picnic to sample everything from the drug's arrival on these shores in 1952, through the medical and military experiments, the counterculture, to the sad death of Albert Hofmann. It is probably the only talk on LSD in which you'll hear the words of the Reverend Ian Paisley.” Mr Lens cannot resist an impression of Ian Paisley which causes distortion on the microphone. It’s worth hearing this podcast for that alone! Music by Neil Young.  

In this episode which runs for the shorter time of three quarters of an hour, Mr Lens talks about how he saw Avatar 3D at the cinema, and perceives this film as a potential awakener despite its mainstream appeal. He analyses how the military industrial complex in this film is the villain against the shamanic tribal good guys. Also there have been reports of suicides going up as a result of this film, and depression increasing because people can’t go back to their old lives after being blown away by the beauty of that world. The conspiracist could view this as deliberately to disillusion you to death, but Mr Lens argues that dissilusionment is an important part of the journey, and that ‘awakeners’ such as this may be the NWO’s Achilles heel. Mr Lens also plugs a festival coming this summer. Phil Mainwaring, who was a guest on SFR episode 43 informed Mr Lens of the Workhouse Festival (click here), which takes place between July 9 & 11 later this year. All proceeds of this not for profit festival go to the Llanfyllin Workhouse Project (click here). Phil describes the festival as like the old school free festivals. Music by Ozric Tentacles and Gong.

This episode starts with three emails. Mr Lens reads a witty comedy email by Paulo, followed by two countercultural veterans Simon in Portugal and Ian from Scotland.After a song interlude it’s over to a chat Mr Lens had with listener Chris. Originally Chris had emailed to mention a talk by Chris Street at the London College of Psychic studies, where he and Mr Lens first met last year. Topics range from synchronicity to the English social class system to ‘non duality’. All in all this is one of the most interesting chats to have been on the podcast in a while.After that chat Mr Lens confirms that he is going to the Andy Roberts talk at the October Gallery in the hope that he will be able to record it for a future episode.Music by Hawkwind (requested by Simon in Portugal) & Sad Lover And Giants (requested by Chris).

In this weeks installment, Mr Lens interviews ‘wisewoman’ Susun Weed, who talks about the relationship to the energy in plants and foods. She starts by mentioning the scientific tradition, which is to measure a person and administer drugs to those who don’t ‘measure up’, stating that in modern medicine there is no positive context for health other than the absence of illness. Then there is the ‘heroic’ tradition, which is alternative medicine based, but in which the body is seen to be full of toxines, and how one must detox in order to feel good. Then there is what she calls the ‘wisewoman’ tradition, which is synonymous with the shamanic tradition, in which one would see the whole of nature as being greater than the sum of its parts. Amongst other things, elderberries, stinging nettles and doc leaves are spoken about. Susun even mentions that she a member of the 500 club - in other words she has taken LSD over 500 times, but avoids ayahuasca because she doesn’t want to experience vomiting and diarrhoea! Before the interview starts Mr Lens plays a clip from a well known British comedy series involving a wisewoman. Music by Eat Static.

In this last Shamanic Freedom Radio of the decade, Mr Lens looks back nostalgically at how many more rights he had 10 years ago, and focuses this episode on knowing your rights when dealing with police. What to say, what not to say and how not to consent to statute law, even if it gets you banged up in a cell. This leads onto playing a 20 minute talk by a man known as the Anti Terrorist, who appears in his You Tube videos as a man in a balaclava and sunglasses with a disguised voice, whilst talking about how to deal with police and discussing very eloquently how we have become constitutional illiterates when knowing our rights with authority figures, and that if we did know our rights we would be able to rein in the tyranny we're facing these days. After the talk Mr Lens mentions about how the criminal justice act was used to criminalise free festivals by making gatherings of people illegal a whole decade before the terrorism legislation came in, and how if we could all stand our ground in the future we may be able to hit 'the 20's' in a less tyrannical world. Music by Ozric Tentacles and The Levellers.

In this extended episode, Mr Lens starts off by reading out 2 emails, one from Jan in Portugal and the other from Ian in Scotland. After that it's straight over to Avebury. It all starts in the morning of Dec 20 just before sun rise, Mr Lens decides to go for a walk to West Kennet via Silbury Hill. During this time he rants about capitalism, commercialism and politicians and how happy he is to be away from all of that cheese - especially during silly "Christmas™" season. After an interlude Mr Lens chats with Marcus who does the Avebury Moot - Click here to find out more - and Sam, who is one of the locals Mr Lens often bumps into at seasonal gatherings, who talks amongst other things about an art station called Radio Joy - Click here for that too. Next day Mr Lens gets a recording of a celebration by the Sun Circle with a resonating gong and a circle of people in meditation. He finds an old veteran of the sixties called Ed, who couldn't be more appropriate for the podcast if he tried, and speaks about Leary and Ram Dass, and how they influenced the approach to LSD before pop culture turned it into recreational drug, and how the 60's was seen memetically as the dawn of the Age of Aquarius, and that maybe 2012 will be the sunrise! Music by Rage Against The Machine and Tchaikovsky

In this episode Mr Lens starts by giving a plug to Carlita who has launched a new podcast of her own called Sailing Beyond Knowledge (click here to listen) and reads an email from Raymond Soulard Jr. Then it's over to the roamcast. Mr Lens walks to three peaks of South East London - Hilly Fields, Blythe Hill Fields and One Tree Hill. On the final stop he 'does a Dopefiend' by vaporizing in a nice forest setting on One Tree Hill, and during the walk, muses on ideas such as Neil Kramer's Field Uplink and Gates of Awakening models, advocating a walk on the hill - or a pilgrimage - as a field uplinking tool to clear out the negative and stressful stuff of modern Western living, hoping that his experience comes over as an analogue for the vibe rather than 'the self indulgent ravings of a space cadet'! Music by The Cure, David Bowie and Ozric Tentacles.

In this episode, Mr Lens takes Shamanic Freedom Radio out of Britain for the first time by visiting Amsterdam. It all starts in Abraxas Coffeeshop on Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal where Mr Lens chats to some English and French people. This is followed by Mr Lens going for a walk along the Damrak commenting on what he sees and capturing the sounds before going to another coffeeshop called The Rockery where he has a chat with probably the world’s most chilled out man, namely an Enlishman called Pearson. After the distinctive sound of a Dutch police siren, Mr Lens fails to get Anna to say anything in the mic, but doggedly continues by monologging from Damrak one more time. Finally he gets lucky when a Dutch man named Michael agrees to chat into the mic, thus giving this weeks podcast an authentic feel of the Netherlands. Back in the studio (back in London) Mr Lens is still sounding blown away by his experience in Amsterdam and it shows! He gives Neil Kramer a plug before announcing that it will be 2 weeks before there will be another podcast. Music by Moloko, Carl Cox and Bob Marley

In this first anniversary episode of Shamanic Freedom Radio, Mr Lens visits the UK Hemp Expo in Brick Lane, east London on 15/11/2009. He talks to Paul from Yorkshire Hemp, who specialise in hemp food to get you 'not high but highly healthy' and even tries out a hemp beer! He then speaks to the people at the 'Smuggling Vacation' stall, which is a comic book stall run by the editors of Weedworld magazine. Next he talks to Kieron from the Iolite stall who explains how the Iolite hand held vaporiser works. After a brief song interlude, the show is stolen by Emma and Jim 'Pinky' Starr from www.protestlondon.co.uk, a political activist couple campaigning for medical marijuana users in the UK so that people with certain conditions don't need to be prescribed drugs like morphine and other 'junky' inducing opiates or other toxic pharmaceuticals. Pinky has protested outside Downing Street and comments on this by saying "They can't say I haven't asked them nicely"! He then explains eloquently and in great detail his legal battles and previous problems and obstacles with the law, doctors, officials etc. After that, Mr Lens drifts over to Tom from seedsman.com who explains the legal ambiguity of seeds in Britain. Finally Mr Lens bumps into Max Freakout who makes a brief cameo appearance (small world!). Back in the studio Mr Lens hints at next weeks surprise roamcast and tells people to tune in because it will be a good one. Music by Ozric Tentacles, Steve Miller Band and the Incredible String Band.

In this milestone installment of Shamanic Freedom Radio, Mr Lens interviews Raymond Soulard Jr from SpiritPlants Radio (http://spfradio.yage.net), which is currently celebrating its 6 anniversary on episode 50, and Shamanic Freedom Radio itself is nearing its 1st anniversary at the same time. The conversation focuses on the evolution of pirate radio from the 1960’s onwards and how it inspired the more underground internet radio stations of the present time, and the gulf between the ‘Simon Cowell vs John Peel' approaches to music and media. Raymond explains how SpiritPlants Radio came into being and evolved into the station it is these days. Also Mr Lens plugs DJ Mikey J, whose DJ mixes can be found at www.djmikeyj.co.uk, and plays a mix at the end of the show entitled David Nutt! Mr Lens also hints that the first anniversary of the podcast will feature the UK Hemp Expo with a cameo appearance by Max Freakout. Music by DJ Mikey J (see above!).