Minutes before 11:11 am, I realized the significant one-second moment was coming up; 11:11:11 a.m. on 11/11/11. I waited, watched, secretly relished it by myself. Then it was over. Immediately I noticed my loud open-mouthed breathing, cleared my throat, and languidly got out my clothes for work.

I spent some time today looking over digg.com and found a lot of articles about world events regarding 11/11/11, mostly relating to people’s superstition of the date (labeled as examples of apophenia and/or pareidolia). Today the Egyptian Pyramids were closed to the public because of the rumors that a bunch of hoo-ha new-agers were going to perform rituals with intentions of opening a portal that would allow in all the positive energy we’d need to accelerate the enlightenment of the entire human race. Unfortunately security guards kept all of them out, as well as the potential widespread nirvana because of it. Better luck next century.

The crazy stuff I read is that a high number of pregnant mothers around the world purposely scheduled C-sections today to cut their babies out early, all so the beloved date would be printed on their birth certificate, therefore enhancing their child’s numerology-based destiny. I also read that a bunch of people decided to schedule marriages today, some in extremely lavish golden cathedrals with 11 total bride/groom combos. The same thing also happened at Disneyworld (the possibility is assumed the each groom must be required to bang 11 times within 11 hours, or he be punished by twin mantis-gods of the skies who stand wrathfully together, skinny as 1′s).

Among the same news topic, a movie came out called 11-11-11 where some kind of portal to hell is opened up and dark forces wreak havoc on all humanity. I think today is also National Metal Day… and I’m pretty sure that you can get a car at a discount somewhere, all because it’s 11/11/11.

(A beer Kevin bought today, released only on 11/11/11)

There hasn’t really been a surge of synchronicities for me, just the usual… such as seeing hexagons everywhere, noting it, and discovering this bee (or wasp) hive while Josh and I bashed holes in walls and ceilings while remodeling a bathroom.

As this date passes, and/or any other Mayan-related dates, I wonder what’s going to happen to the people who actually make a living off of it.

I never gave much thought to this beyond the scope of what the mass media now presents to the public, versus when I was a kid. Maybe I was lucky enough to not have cable as a kid. At one point I really wanted cable TV (even to the point of tears), but that was only because I was missing out when nickelodeon would play hours of Looney Tunes every single day.

Endless Cartoons. That’s what I wanted. What worries me now can mostly be found in the encapsulated life of kids who ingest extreme doses of spongebob and sugar, left alone with blinders attached, until the only real human interaction that occurs involves rage-fits followed with being spoiled with parental-quenchings to their every impulse.

Ouroboros? Maybe. That may be the best metaphor of that situation, if I ever fully understood this symbol.

Allow me to be cliché and say that modern TV is bullshite for kids. When I was younger I recognized the trashiness of Barney and Teletubbies. When I was a kid it was Mister Rogers and Sesame Street (still weird for me), but those are pure gold compared to what’s aired today. I don’t know why I invest so much thought into the importance of child development with TV/Cartoons, but kids today are still soaking up 5 hours/day of television, and it still blows my mind that I did the same up until high school. For every 5 hours of television, there’s an hour and 15 minutes of commercials absorbed into a person’s brain. I’ve still retained multiple jingles from beer commercials, commercials for McDonald’s, and the catch phrases for the same, cereals my mom would never let me eat, the previews for baywatch (the best boob a kid could get pre-internet), learning new words like “constipated” and “douche” which quickly became a sources of amusement for my siblings and friends at school.

Humanity is presented in a way on TV, magazines, and newspapers that is still intertwined with self-dissatisfaction and shame. Shamefulness is taught to us early because of TV and then is reflected in our “authority figures” and peers at school. Reebok Pumps were a fad when I was in 4th grade, and to encounter the select few elite 9-year-olds who owned them struck a jealousy-chord in me, while my soul simultaneously told me that a child with divorced parents may have been wearing $100+ dollar shoes probably for other reasons.

Pull harder, mum!

It’s a memory like this that quickly helps me remember that the capacity for intelligence and understanding in a child should never be underestimated by the fear-ridden adults who spend their lives trying to tell kids who to be and how to live their lives, usually by a series of standards that are acquired within random institutions and lapped up by a de-volving demographic of human-beings. We can only pump our fists in the air and root for the few said “9-year-olds” who remain on their natural track towards genius and progress.

I never enjoyed how the majority of teachers looked at me throughout my school experience as a child. You can, no matter what phase of life, recognize when somebody sees the light in you or they don’t. Those who don’t see it in you (or your kid) are those you should be weary of. The greatest gift a person can give to a child is to offer an attention which brightens that light/brilliance within them in a way that makes their inner-intelligence feel acknowledged so they know that this intelligence is something real within them, something that can be embraced, and then can grow, expand and shine brighter into the world.

The natural creativity of a child is, and can be, the scariest thing for an adult to acknowledge when it has long been out of touch within themselves. It is, in my opinion, the duty of adults to feel it and recognize it again within ourselves, unleash our “inner-child” and inner brilliance, so that we may continue to evolve as a race, progress, and grow towards our potential as a whole.  This inner brilliance and inner intelligence, I believe, is what is naturally intertwined in love, kindness, and compassion, and when activated can bring out the natural morality and good will within a child.

The mass media is on a path of de-evolution, quickly becoming a more pertinent source of the suffocation of human creativity, progress, and self-knowledge. Ceaseless cravings, consumption, and an accompanying sense of lack is a result of a block in humanity’s inherent light, intelligence, brilliance, genius, creativity, spirituality, whatever you want to call it. A source of information that is rooted in insecurity can do nothing more to help the progress of humanity but to eventually awaken a person to the overall ridiculousness of an over-dramatized induction of a sense of lack. It is my hope that those who have or have not remained rooted in themselves (their real selves) can be humble enough to learn from children, allow them to contribute to unlocking our inherent intelligence and creativity, and we return the favor to them through nothing more than developing the skill of intense, pure, conscious attention.

I may or may not have just blacked out.

Lots of contemplation happening these days. Life-long friends seem to be asking the same questions and running into similar confusions, experiencing similar epiphanies.

If there really is something dramatic happening in the collective, it’s not enough for anybody to freely talk about. I also doubt the importance of advertising it here. Then I often question whether I am a victim of my own subjectivity, taking my mental filter of reality too seriously.

TV and movies are talking about the similar subject matter… secrets revealed, the mayans exposed, what 2012 means, the paranormal, the unexplainable, doomsday.

Does nobody else think this is strange?

Does anybody else think this should have been on the news more than Tiger Woods?

It blows my mind what the media brushes aside, what they fixate on, and what the mass is okay with absorbing every single night on the tube.

It also blows my mind that we still play the game of following or voting for politicians, pastors, or school faculty who often make a valiant effort to hide anything human about themselves.

Why don’t we think rituals like church communion or even the opening ceremonies for the Olympics are a little strange (i.e., people in white robes zombie-flocking to the speech-master)? Do we ignore original ideas or questions in our mind relating to why we do things the way we do?

Why do priests wear conical hats and peculiar robes, and carry that staff around? Why does the clergy stick to the same structure that breeds child molesters? What is psychological reason for it, despite its self-declared connection to God? What if God doesn’t like religion? What if God doesn’t “like”?

Why does a graduating class wear a square hat at graduation, move the tassel to the side, and throw it up in the air? Why do we agree to participate in rituals without asking or knowing what it all means?

Why does the newspaper blatantly insist that we drink fluoridated water? Is it really good for us? If so, why did the Nazis immediately add fluoride to their prisoners’ water supply?

Why do so many relationships end with break-up lines from movies or t.v. shows? Why does anybody think “The Bachelor” is reality/real? Why are extremo-masculine and extremo-feminine themes in movies something enjoyed and sought after in real life? See: The Transporter or The Time Travelers Wife.

Why are we okay with repeating empty catch-phrases when giving somebody advice?

Why Bill O’Reilly? Why not Marilyn Manson?

Why are we okay with presidents hiring speech-writers instead of saying their own words?

Why do we try to find security or salvation in other people or things?

Why do sunsets make sense?

I decided to re-watch Zeitgeist The Movie last night, mainly because it is the new remastered version, and has a little bit extra added to it.

Zeitgeist is not for the feeble, or even strong set-in-stone minded people. It challenges the biggest things relating to the conditioned mind of humanity, and most likely, even you have some of it.

It confronts what many Americans think we know about religion and government. So if you feel offended or irritated by those kinds of things, you probably won’t want to watch it.

I came around to watching Zeitgeist years ago because a friend of mine posted a link to it on myspace. I had a long phase of reading about religion and “the worlds biggest secrets”, and this came at an interesting time.

Whether or not you buy into this stuff, there is a clear sign of insanity in the way things are run in this world.

I feel like I’ve always known it, and have been fascinated by it in a way. Unfortunately, sometimes I’m so repulsed by human behavior that it causes problems of their own and doesn’t really help anything. My theory is that the ego’s problems can’t be solved by the ego. There has to be a new way of thinking, or even no thinking at all; that is, settling down the compulsive conversations we carry in our heads.

If the planet were small enough to study under a microscope, humans would look like little cells. We move about, build things, are drawn to other humans, repelled by others, and we reproduce. Our actions may even be recognized similar as the behavior of cancer cells, because, like cancer, humans are not working in harmony with life around it.

Ego appears to be the problem, because we’re so invested in it’s beliefs and self-image. We could still have egos and function fine, but without keeping the ego in check, or even recognizing its behavior, we are owned by its fears and limitations. A false sense of identity is steering the human vehicle. We are not free, but at the mercy of our ego-based neural wiring to make decisions. That includes all of the conditioning of our past, and preoccupations about our future. If you don’t think you’re a prisoner of your conditioning, try to notice when you get angry or defensive about something you believe, and see if it makes any sense to you.

Then there’s affirmations, the attempt at re-conditioning the mind to something of a more positive nature. “I love myself,” or “Everyday, in every way, I’m getting better and better.” Those hypnotic phrases might help you become productive for a while. The problem is, there’s nothing integrative about affirmations. You can pump your mind with positive reinforcement all day long, but you still have the polar opposite lingering around somewhere in the shadows. And when it rears it’s ugly head, you’re like the Patrick Swayze character on Donnie Darko; a self-help guru catatonically rocking back and forth, crying in his bedroom.

There’s an intelligence that is completely unique to our mammal-hood; one where new ideas are formed, intuition is developed, and flow is experienced. And it’s been proven that it only arrives when the mind enters small windows of silence amongst the internal conversational mind-chatter.

In my own rare experience, it’s those times of clarity when a new perception arises, and nothing more is needed. People on the outside even react to your state. It’s almost like the exaggerated portrayal of a monk walking amongst the forest with birds and squirrels perching on his shoulder, displaying an auric sheen. If a person can hold this state long enough, included that past and future are no longer a concern, then new experiences unfold. There is a whole new respect and appreciation for life, nature, animals, even for the squarish assholes on T.V.

I once read something where a guy had an epiphany. He suddenly considered that if he experienced life through another human being, from birth to death, same physiology and life-events, he would BE that person. He would act, look, dress just like them, and completely 100% be them, inside and out. It was a sudden paradigm shift from judgment to compassion. It was Joe Rogan who wrote that on his blog.

What is the part of you that could possibly experience the life of another person? It’s essentially what is experiencing your own life now. The part of you that is aware of what you see, touch, feel, taste, etc. It is what every single human, animal, and plant have. It is awareness capable of observing. It’s the lingering “something” that’s under the mind-chatter, and what steers your cells into the proper places for your body to even exist.

Then there is the trick of becoming aware of awareness. This awareness can expand or we can confine it within our own little mind-based world. But if it expands enough, that’s when we get a sense of being plugged in to the whole, and we start living in harmony with our surroundings. It can only happen when the mind is immersed in the present moment. The same idea is in the beginning of Zeitgeist.

I’m not a big fan of getting entangled in worrying about petty things, or getting involved with human micro-dramas. A lot of people experience a strange pleasure in living dysfunctional lives. I can’t say co-dependency and power-struggles have had lasting positive results for me. Human insanity is starting to rear it’s ugly head at this point in time, I think to the point where humanity might be forced into a major shift in direction before we all destroy ourselves.

Weird times.

So the solution to human crazy-ness is always a foggy one. But I think we can have confidence enough in ourselves to remember an experience or state of mind that may have once harmonized on a much deeper level than any words can ever describe. If we’re lucky enough, we may find it again hidden in our present experience. Then, life may be so kind to bestow the next little piece of the puzzle.

Work was easy today. I slept in till 8 a.m. (a luxury), and only worked 3 hours because we were snowed in. How cute, six grown men snowed in together.

There’s not much privacy in Cozy Cowboy Cottage. There are 4 of us in one room. There was one point where I was obligated to entertain 2 of my roommates while I was playing guitar. I played Hendrix and Weezer for them. They were attentive, belly-down on their own beds with fists digging into their cheeks. I soon discovered that all they craved was Volver, Volver, a Vincente Fernandez hit. I don’t really know why I expected any different.

Brian told me about meeting Wiley Brooks, of the Breatharian Institute. If you are curious about the following, I highly recommend visiting his website:

• How you can get initiated into an accelerated ascension process to reach the 5th dimension before 2012, when the Mayan Calendar ends, and hence, the world.
• How Wiley can lift 1200 pounds without any previous weight training.
• How Wiley can survive every week with only 7 hours of sleep (total).
• How Wiley can go inhumanly long periods of time without eating or drinking anything.
• Why consuming nothing but McDonald’s Quarter Pounder with Cheese and a Diet Coke is necessary for enlightenment.

…And finally, how he’s charging one million dollars, that’s $1,000,000, to learn how to do all of it.

Just keep going, dude, for the love of Pete...

We (Americans) are all alive today, which means I think I can quit paying attention to death-and-destruction conspiracy theories. Because we all know that prophecies of destruction and massive casualities are for people who don’t take responsibility for the banality in their own lives.

After work, I went down to the practice space before Coma practiced to rock Casey’s drums. Dustin showed up and started jamming with me. He had some nice riffs, but he doesn’t ever keep going when we are nailing the fun parts.

Coma plays a local reunion show with Left Unsaid and A Summer Ends this Friday at the Launchpad. Flooding Sunkins is Saturday on Halloween. Music and Bricks all week.

Since we all know that there is a Pinchbeckian Noosphere that contains every human thought that ever existed (of course), and that it affects matter/events/reality, supposedly Web-bot can make psychic predictions based on text-based thought-forms, and potentials of human emotional upheaval.

According to the dudes who developed Web-bot at Half Past Human, Web-bot has been very accurate in the past. He predicted 911, tragedies in the middle east, and many other upsetting events.

Well, I found out we’re screwed tonight or tomorrow, thanks to Web-bot’s intelligence. But let me add, I have fallen for Web-bot’s shenanigans once, and I wasn’t very happy about it…

…sort of like how I’m not too happy about this video right now:

Apocalypse Windshield Ad

Today I went to the bank and saw this car in the grocery store parking lot. Normally I see car decals like this when somebody is advertising Avon or some other pyramid program. This time somebody was advertising their brand on the end of the world. I decided to call it.

While I thought it would be more ridiculous than it really was, the conversation reminded me of something I hadn’t experienced in a while. I remembered, why argue about this type of thing? It reached a point where the guy was talking about the need for faith, but also the need to supercede faith and “grow” enough to his level of spiritual attainment, to KNOW. “I KNOW, and you can KNOW too like I do by doing this that, etc. etc…”

His whole thing was genuine and articulated well, but it came back to the same marketing tactics that I’m familiar with from advertising pyramid programs on the internet for a while. He said “this is what we’re taught in the doctrines, so it must be true.” He invited me to join his club that meets every week. The thought of sulking together about how much our world sucks, and how much Christians are going to be tortured and martyred in the end was a real bummer. It’s so fear-based that it’s a bumout.

I read a book recently by J. Krishnamurti called Freedom from the Known. I resonate with the idea that when we “know” something, that is, form a mental concept about anything, we place another brick on the wall around our imaginations, intuition, and creative unique thought.

I often think about, why are kids so free, and then why are adults so square? I was laying cinder block at an elementary school yesterday (mainly because I thought it’d be ironic for this entry), and I saw all of the kids in single file, prancing around enjoying the rain, while the less-animated teacher herded them to another part of the building.

Of course you can’t expect a teacher to get excited and scream about the dripping sky, but the image of the children living fancy-free in imagination while confined to single file seemed to be only the beginning of a long period of conditioning. Eventually this system of do’s and don’ts, rewards and punishments, most likely will have it’s way into their minds, turning them into docile office-working consumers, all for the sake of the economy. That’s my apocalyptic vision.

But… the good news is, unlike Hell, we can still get out.