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Wed

Jun

Episode 44: East Star & the Deep Self

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itunes pic

In this episode, KMO gets together with Viking Brian to talk about sensory deprivation tanks and to interview Jan Irvin of Gnostic Media. Loads of listener email and a return of the long silent soap-box theme.

Viking Brian is a founding member of the Viking Youth.

Jan Irvin is the co-author of Astrotheology and Shamanism: Unveiling the Law of Duality in Christianity and other Religions. You can find all kinds of good stuff from Jan and his co-author, Andrew Rutajit, including numerous audio interviews at Gnostic Media.

Email from Black Beauty:

Hi KMO,

Please accept this small donation as a humble gesture of my gratitude for the time and effort you spend in bringing your listeners regular C-Realm installments. I see a definite value (both tangible and intangible) in the knowledge and discussions shared with listeners like me through your shows. I have even started my own herb garden for our cooking and go out of my way to frequent Organic and 'Slow Food' Farmer's Markets here in Melbourne - a far cry from having chickens but being an 8-to-6 corporate-type, living just 5 minutes from the inner city it's all I can manage right now! I listen to your shows quite regularly and make a point to be doing nothing else but listening and walking or sitting. Often it is on my 45 minute bus trip to work or perhaps during a forced lunch break at the large park behind my corporate offices.

Going for a walk in this park and listening to my MP3 player is a fortune that many take for granted but each time I step foot outside, it is with humility that I thank the powers that be for allowing me to do so. Free from torture, slavery, unemployment and poverty.

My mother came to this country (Australia) from a remote area of Indonesia where healthcare, schooling, clothing and education have been a rarity up until the last few years. Each time I visit, I am awed that my mother came up against such adversity to leave this small town and consequently prospered in Australia. My mother is one of only 2 or 3 others that managed to make a life for themselves outside of Indonesia and I am so proud of what she achieved. My mother worked hard and long as a factory worker, kitchen hand and cleaner up until weeks before her death in April 2006 from a long fight with cancer. Even to the end, she refused to stop working - seeing having a job as a privilege.

So many people around me take employment for granted. Instead, choosing to complain about their boss, their colleagues, their commute to work, the rising coffee prices at the cafe downstairs.

In her home town in Indonesia, unemployment is high. There is no social welfare system and combined with a lack of education and professional* healthcare, I see the increasing population being a further strain on the resources and lack of infrastructure growth in the region. In my family house alone, there are close to 6 related families staying on the property. On my recent visit, I shrugged off suggestions of staying at a hotel, instead offering to 'camp out' in one of the small rooms in the house. My father quickly chided me, reminding me that to stay in one of the rooms would be literally forcing a family out first! (I have attached a photo of the 'kitchen' at our house in Indonesia - that's me standing up with the fan in my hand. My family have a roof on their house (many houses do not even have a door). They are fortunate also to have many of the second-hand clothes passed on from my mother and I but we still struggle to provide them with things such as shoes and optical aids).

With the expanse of the internet, I have stumbled upon an increasing number of resources about women who are happy with being 'Childfree', either by deliberate choice, circumstance or health problems such as infertility. However, it wasn't until now that I am facing my 30th birthday and many of my friends are having children that I feel uncomfortablly compelled to conform to society's view of females as being mothers.

Strangely, your recent Podcast (Episode 42: Tragedy of the Bathroom) has prompted me to make this much-overdue donation and write you this email. Since I was about 18, I have pondered the idea of choosing to be 'childfree'. Our favourite reference Wikipedia says 'A person who has no desire or plans to have children is called childfree'.

Of course, those of us who chose to be childfree or at least investigating the idea like I am, have no shortage of criticism nor parents calling us selfish. The main reason I am pondering this choice is purely out of selflessness. Why would I want to further increase the load on this world when resources are finite and the issue of overpopulation is increasing. Why am I any more worthy than the next person of demanding more resources just so I can have someone to 'carry on my legacy'? To this end, I wanted to share a few links with the C-Realm and hope that others do not take offence at any of my ramblings, especially as I understand you are a wonderful father and husband to your family.

'Please, let me be childless in peace'
http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/please-let-me-be-childless-in-peace/2005/08/13/1123353541279.html

'Selfish?'
http://www.childfree.net/potpourri_selfish.html

Wiki Definitions:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Childfree
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Childless

*I say 'professional healthcare' as many still consult the local 'bomo' or witch doctor for health and/or family concerns. Even my mother consulted a bomo a few years before her cancer returned, having started to doubt the effectiveness of Western medicine. He touched her feet and proclaimed 'the cancer will come back'. This psychological ploy of his had my mother spiral into doubt and despair for her future health. And without a doubt, I believe this to have had a detrimental effect on my mother's mental disposition, causing the disease to return.

Before I go, I wanted to wish you a productive and enjoyable time in Peru - I would like to go one day on this journey but am just an infant when it comes to the realm of psychedelics. Honestly, I don't feel a strong calling for this guide in my life right now. For now, I keep my mind open by listening to the C-Realm Podcast, Psychedelic Salon and Psychonautica for more inspiration.

By the way, JB's book 'He Died with a Felafel in His Hand' waspublished as a book in 1994. In 2001 it was made into a play, before being made into a movie. I have just picked up a second-hand copy as I haven't read it in almost 10 years but once I am finished I'd be more than happy to post it to you free of charge.

Peace and Happiness,
BB