Dr. Bruce Damer's Levity Zone

The Merry Pranksters return to Santa Cruz to mark the 50th anniversary of the first Acid Test! Hear George Walker, Mountain Girl Carolyn Garcia and Ken Babbs on stage at Don Quixote's hold forth on deep counter-cultural history. Hosted by County Supervisor John Leopold, this important historical event, which back in 1965 spawned the Grateful Dead, is commemorated by a proclamation, and a historic marker... a bus stop! Santa Cruz honors its Psychedelic history and Dr. Bruce was there to capture it for you here the Levity Zone. Credits: John Leopold, George Walker, Jami Cassady, Carolyn Garcia, Ken Babbs (presenters), Dr. Bruce Damer (recorder and editor), Rob Menzies and Galen Brandt (cameo appearances), Slugs N' Roses (closing music). [released 17 December 2015]

Returning from the Deep 90s back to the future in 2015 Dr. Bruce joins Allan Lundell and his mythic friend Peter Fae for a hot tub confab high on the mountaintop of Future Peak in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Not only is Al a true bon homme but he is also a keen observer of the cyber-culture and developing trends in tech and the social landscape, chronicling all of this in his KSCO Santa Cruz radio show, Dr. Future. Realizing a twenty year dream of networking hot tub conversations, Dr. Bruce, Al and Peter present their first ever TubCast for the Levity Zone. Dip in as the three tubsters ply the waters of topics as diverse as the veracity of spiritual teachers, the interplay between science and Gaia, an upcoming schmooze cruise with the billionaire set, recent insights on a new theory of the origin of life, and living within the avatars of our mythic selves. Emerging from the epic soak Al piloted his brand new high-def drone on its maiden voyage high off Future Peak to a fate uncertain. Credits: Allan Lundell (TubCast host and recorder), Dr. Bruce Damer (Tubster) and Peter Fae (Mythic Threader and Documenter), Jim Matus (theme music). [released 28 November 2015]

In the next "Deep 90s" episode in the Levity Zone we roll the clock to January of 1998 when Bruce Damer appeared on National Public Radio's TechNation program with host Dr. Moira Gunn. By this time Internet virtual worlds had exploded as hundreds of thousands of users, clothed in digital representations called avatars, had homesteaded their way into second lives in Cyberspace. Well before Internet voice chat and video, social networks, and networked games these worlds hosted group building, families, football games, school classrooms, architecture competitions and even the youngest ever user of the Internet. It was a wonderful pioneering time as the Contact Consortium had just held its first conferences and Dr. Bruce's first book "Avatars" had just been published. Credits: Dr. Moira Gunn (interviewer for NPR-KQED San Francisco), Bruce Damer (interviewee), Bo Millward (sound editing). [released 30 October 2015]

In the next of our "Deep 90s" episodes join Dr.Bruce back in 1995 and '96 in two seminal conversations with journalist Darek Milewski on the emergence of a new medium: Internet virtual worlds with users represented as "avatars". Dreams of Neal Stephenson's "Snow Crash" metaverse were being realized by users placing millions of 3D objects into personal homesteads in Alphaworld. Bruce relates how his new organization, the Contact Consortium, was also building its first experimental project: Sherwood Forest Towne and planning its first real-world conference. Hear some of the first musings of the medium that later grew into popular platforms like Second Life and Minecraft. Credits: Darek Milewski (interviewer for KALX Radio at UC Berkeley), Bruce Damer (interviewee), Bo Millward (sound editing). [released 24 September 2015]

Teleport back to the Deep 90s in March of 1996 when Dr. Bruce and the founder of Craigslist Craig Newmark were interviewed for UC Berkeley radio KALX by journalist Darek Milewski. They opined on the future of publishing and whether the printed book would survive in the future. This brief dialogue with Craig, now a household name on the Internet, captures that innocence and dreamy time of all possibility. Craig is optimistic that many more people would soon be hooked up the Internet and that some might even take their computers to bed. This is the first in our Deep 90s series which will continue with Dr. Bruce and Darek talking about the medium of virtual worlds. Credits: Darek Milewski (host and interviewer), Dr. Bruce Damer and Craig Newmark (interviewees), Bo Millward (sound editing). [released 29 August 2015]

Dr. Bruce presents his most deeply held idea: a new hypothesis for how life began on the Earth, The Coupled Phases model was developed over thirty years of inquiry and completed with the collaboration of his mentor and colleague at the University of California at Santa Cruz, Professor David Deamer. Hear how the model works and how it might help us refigure our civilization, first in his TEDx Santa Cruz talk, then in an interview on the Midwest Real podcast, and finally from his presentation of at the Astrobiology Science Conference in Chicago. It's been a truly stunning three months for Dr. Bruce from April to June of 2015. Credits: Dr. Bruce Damer (introducer and presenter), TEDxSantaCruz (event host), Ryan Norkus (TEDx graphics and animation), Reno de Caro (Photography), Bo Millward (sound editing), Michael Phillip (Midwest Real Podcast segment), Jacob Aman (site). [released 7 July 2015]

Dr. Bruce presents his greatest idea yet for spaceflight in the first of two TEDx talks given for TEDxSantaCruz on April 24, 2015. Hear how humanity might create a sustainable presence in the solar system in this century through SHEPHERD, an innovative new type of spacecraft. After the TEDx talk we continue with an extended discussion about new possibilities in space with Michael Phillip of the Midwest Real podcast. Credits: Dr. Bruce Damer (introducer and presenter), TEDxSantaCruz (event host), Ryan Norkus (TEDx graphics and animation), Reno de Caro (Photography), Bo Millward (sound editing), Michael Phillip (Midwest Real Podcast segment), Jacob Aman (site). [released 12 June 2015]

Dr. R.P. Kaushik returns to the Levity Zone in what I call "the Long Minding Road to Freedom", He first recounts the long history of spiritual traditions in India and the West all of which eventually devolve into limited products of Mind and Ego. He then examines the nature of the mind itself showing that this most sensitive instrument can become our guru, if we will only choicelessly follow its meanderings until the end. In this way we will open out into a new space: the flow of universal energy some call freedom or enlightenment. Credits: Dr. Bruce Damer (introducer), Dr. R.P. Kaushik (presenter), Bo Millward (sound editing), Mystical Sun (music), Jacob Aman (site and cover art). [released 28 May 2015]

Rejoin Dr. Bruce during his 2015 Levity Zone Tour in Australia for part 2 of the Sydney Serenade. Ray trace a visionary beam through the crystalline structure of Endo, diffracting through the azure jewel of civilization, passing back through ancient Australian zircons to the origin of life, completing our photonic journey in a glint off Incan temple foundations. The crystal sphere then went out to dance by moonlight and found itself in a Gaian dialogue with the local Lukuma and together they paced out a five hundred year runway to the stars. The beautiful monkeys, greatest creation of Gaia's tool of evolution, turned the serpent to the favor of life's future. Credits: Dr. Bruce (presenter), Vince Polito (host), DJ Tzentsak (music), Bo Millward (sound editing), Craig Brown (aka Slinky and Snudis-photography), Jacob Aman (site and cover art). [released 25 April 2015]

Join Dr. Bruce midway through his 2015 Levity Zone down under tour of eastern Australia. In an artsy warehouse in the artsy Sydney district of Newtown Dr. Bruce presented an evening serenade of visionary story threads woven with the chill tones of live DJ Tsentsak (aka Richard Baron). Lie back with the Aussies and take in part one of a trip through our deepest history hyperdriving up through to the fragile but potent present, riding the liminal zone between reason and magick. Credits: Dr. Bruce and Vince Polito (intro), DJ Tzentsak (music), Bo Millward (sound editing), Craig Brown (aka Slinky and Snudis-photography), Jacob Aman (site and cover art). [released 27 March 2015]

UK-Australian performer Hugo Farrant teams up with DJ Treats and enters the Levity Zone with his unique visionary rap. Hugo takes us back way before Eleusis to Mesopotamia's Spring Goddess Ishtar. We fall into his spell of words and music and journey as the grateful pilgrim in search of the divine feminine and our collective rejuvenation from Mother Nature herself. Hugo also raps with whimsical world band Dub The Magic Dragon, and PhD historian and musician Giordano Nanni, co-creator of Juice Rap News, a ship of the spoken word that pilots us through a cosmos of ideas. Hugo's own journeys have taken him afar, even featuring Mr. Julian Assange in a Rap News telling of the 2010 launch of Wikileaks' Iraq War Logs. Yours truly, Dr. Bruce was personally moved by Hugo and Treat's performance at the Rainbow Serpent Festival among the gum trees of Victoria, Australia and and thrilled to bring him and his mates to the Levity Zone. Credits: Dr. Bruce (intro), Hugo (spoken word performance), DJ Treats (music), Jacob Aman (site and art). [released 6 February 2015]

In April, 2014 the members of the Boston-based Jellicle Literary Guild met to consider a question posed virtually by Dr. Bruce on: can we remake our communities in the old model of the closely knit circle? See how a group of intelligent New Englanders tackle this question. Host and publisher of Scriptor Press Raymond Soulard has guided the guild since its founding in New Britain, Connecticut in 1988. If you would like to host your own salon with a question posed in the Levity Zone, let us know! Credits: Dr. Bruce Damer, Raymond Soulard (recording, hosting, cover art) Catfilsh Rivers (music). [released 9 jan 2015]

Join us for part 2 of the controversial Radical Remake show with Dr. Bruce, and KSCO Radio's Michael Zwerling as they take on a barrage of callers from a mostly politically right of center listenership. As a preamble Dr. Bruce summarizes the five points his Radical Remake blueprint as well as Lawrence Lessig's book Republic Lost. Both documents outline how a constitutional convention might be held in the USA to deal with corruption and reboot the country's system of governance. Credits: Dr. Bruce Damer, Michael Zwerling, Jacob Aman (cover art). [released 11 Dec 2014]

In November 2011 at the peak of the Occupy movement Dr. Bruce was moved by the protesters who so bravely spoke truth to power. Occupy represented deep dissatisfaction with a nation and a system deeply riddled with corruption that even the founding fathers of the Republic had feared and foretold. So he penned a five part document: "By and for the 99%, a visionary Blueprint for a Radical Remake of America (or any country)" which drew enough attention that he ended up on conservative talk radio. Hear Dr. Bruce in conversation with Michael Zwerling of KSCO AM 1080 bravely put forth the idea that America needs a second constitutional convention to radically remake itself. Credits: Dr. Bruce Damer, Michael Zwerling, Jacob Aman (cover art). [released 30 Nov 2014]

The Eleusinian mysteries of ancient Greece initiated an awakening into civilization, science and art but were lost when fanatical Christians and savage tribes smashed the temple as the Roman empire fell. Are we living in an inferior culture driven by non-initiates subjecting our world to the worst juvenile destructive tendancies? Dr. Bruce explores the return of Eleusisinian initiation through rites in circles held around the world in this talk from Burning Man 2014, Credits: Dr. Bruce Damer, Jacob Aman (cover art), Kyle Espenshade (music). [released 14 Nov 2014]