What's that, some effete San Fran essential-oil accoutrement?
Nah, it's for inhaling dope without smoke - much better for the lungs.
'I'd like a supply of grass on my desert island" he added.
All across the BBC you could hear the buttocks tightening...
Here it again this friday 30th Nov at 9.00am.
Research
Centre for Religion and Popular Culture
_________________________
Altered
States
Reflections
on Induced Transcendence in Popular
Culture
_________________________
1-3
February 2008
_________________________
Throughout the history of religion thinkers have
sought and recorded altered states as well as, of
course, warning of the dangers of so doing. It is not
surprising, therefore, that over the last two hundred
years, there has accumulated a vast body of work
exploring altered states and transcendence. From
Thomas De Quincey and Charles Baudelaire to Aldous
Huxley and William S. Burroughs, and from Ken Russell
to The Beatles, psychedelic art and contemporary
electronic dance music, there is a rich vein of
popular culture devoted to the spiritual significance
of induced altered states.
_________________________
St.
Deiniol’s Library
Church
Lane, Hawarden, Flintshire, North Wales CH5 3DF, UK
Tel:
+ 44 (0)1244 532350
Fax:
+ 44 (0)1244 520643
Conference
fee (including bed, dinner, and continental
breakfast): £100
To book, please email Ms Karen Parry:
deiniol.visitors@btconnect.com
Website:
http://www.st-deiniols.org/
Programme
Friday 1 February 2008
5:30 Welcome
Drink
7:00
Dinner
8:00-9:00
Dr Brian Baker (Lancaster University)
The
Pleasures of Dissolution:
2001: A
Space Odyssey, Solaris, Altered States
Saturday
2 February 2008
8:30
Breakfast
10:00–11.00
Anna Powell (Manchester Metropolitan
University) Pharmacoanalysis
and Ken
Russell’s
Altered States
11:00-11:30
Coffee
11:30-12.30
Charlie Blake (Liverpool Hope University)
The
Elves Of Disintegration:
Immanence,
Transcendence and The Spirit Of Velocity
12:30-1.30
Rina Arya (University of Chester)
Transcendental
States in Surrealism
1:30-3:30
Lunch
3:30-4:30
Fabrizio Ferrari (University of Chester)
‘No
sex, no drugs: just do something
mystical!’. The cultural rehab of the Bauls of
Bengal, from esoteric practitioners
to bourgeois heroes and world music icons.
4:30-5:00
Coffee
5:00-6:00
Chris Christodoulou (London South Bank
University) Warrior
Stance: Kinesis,
Control,
and Martial Arts Spirituality in Drum ‘n’
Bass
6:00-8:00
Dinner
8:00-9:00
Hillegonda
Rietveld
(London South Bank University)
Cyborg
Spirituality in
Nomadic Electronic Dance Cultures
Sunday
3 February 2008
8:30
Breakfast
9:30-10.30
Andy Letcher Hyperspace
or hyperbole? Terence McKenna’s debt to
Teilhard
de
Chardin and what this implies about psychedelic
consciousness
10.30-11:00
Coffee
11.00-12:00
Stella
S. Lau (Hong
Kong University)
Club Culture and Christianity: The Altered
States and ‘Spirituality’ in Electronic
Dance Music
12:30-1:30
Lunch & Departure
I got asked to do an interview as part of the promotion surrounding the teen horror-flick, Shrooms. Went down to a swanky office in Kentish town and did my three minutes - look out for it on youtube - it should be up soon. Have to say that teen-horror movies, erm, aren't my thing, but I'm sure Shrooms is destined to become a friday night student classic. No, really.
And I'm getting ready to appear at Synergy this coming friday. Jeff has assembled an excellent panel so should be a good night. See you down there, and do come and say hello.
TURN ON, TUNE IN, DROP OUT-MODED THINKING: THE SYNERGY 'FUTURE OF PSYCHEDELICS SYMPOSIUM'
A panel of seasoned UK Psychedelic voyagers from various generations will help us look into the future of Psychedelics in general and into the future of the UK Psychedelic scene specifically. We will go backwards to go forwards, in time and place and see how the ideas of 'psychedelic gurus' such as Aldous Huxley,Tim Leary,Terrence and Dennis McKenna, Ken Kesey, Fraser Clark and others relate to the coming generation of psychedelic users.
We will look at the history of the Psychedelic scene (particularly in the UK) and what went right and what went wrong.
We will also look at Psychedelics in the context of women and various 'ethnic' groups, subject too often ignored.
Both the first and second Summers of Love will be explored in relation to Psychedelic usage and the development of the role of Psychedelics in Alternative Clubbing and Alternative Festivals will also be analysed.
Various Psychedelic drugs old and new, synthetic and natural will be looked at and analysed for their future role in the Psychedelic scene. LSD, DMT, Magic Mushrooms, Ayahuasca, MDMA, Psilosybin, Mescaline, Cannabis, Ecstasy and many others. Synergy clubbers will be encouraged to relate their experiences with various Psychedelics.
We will also look at the changes in the legal situation on relation to psychedelics over the last 60 years focusing on the UK. Education about Psychedelics, a rarely discussed topic will be explored.
Then the Synergy panelists and the Synergy audience will brainstorm together to see how the Psychedelic scene might look in the future.
The panel will include Fraser Clark (former editor of 'Encyclopedia Psychedelica' and the founder of UK Alternative Psychedelic clubbing via 'Megatripolis' and 'The Warp Experience'), Mark Heley (who brought Alternative Psychedelic clubbing to America from the UK via 'ToonTown' and has recently been involved in the Sunrise Celebration and WaveForm Festivals), Andy Letcher (author of the controversial best seller 'Shroom which has upset some well established psychedelic icons), Samantha Bennett (who has led Ayahuasca workshops at Synergy) and others to be announced.
This is a don't miss event.