The iffy part of the (peer reviewed) article:
""Perhaps Marx wasn't too wrong when he called religion the opium of the people: morphine comes from poppies, cannabinoids from marijuana, and LSD from mushrooms; each of these has been used in one or another religious ceremony." said Gerald Weissmann, M.D., Editor-in-Chief of The FASEB Journal. ""
(Find the grave error)
"The Linguistics of DNA: Words,Sentences, Grammar, Phonetics, and Semantics"
dig! thanks!
i hardly ever capitalize when online/posting. people have commented that it's simple grammar and i should really do it (i guess). it's hard to care when it's just us (and those fb fwends 
). as a full time student i write a lot. it is upper-division MLA yada yada (and prolly not masters level, yet! i just got taxed for writing in MLA when it was supposed to be APA, and it got me hard! however, when my posts are lengthy and i actually have much to say, i want my readers to be able to respond critically. just a point to add because my brain can't take in one giant paragraph but i am curious whats going on there!
"Aegis wrote:
For me, my "hypotheticals" always fall silent in the face of present reality and practical necessity."
ha! that's my fb status tonight (by chance!):
"let's be practical and realistic shall we?"
my motto for sun in virgo! though yours sums it up better (i was talking to myself in that status and stated so...
"when I ask myself if I am behind the concepts of The Book of The Law, or Thelema in general, I have to understand what those concepts are in order to answer that. And though I feel that it resonates with me a great deal, and I am very much in harmony with the ideas presented, I am, to the greatest degree, basing that on what I "think" I understand about what it is trying to say (aren't we all?)"
how i answer that for myself is, i state that to this point this makes sense (whatever it is, thelema, the book of the law, etc...). if i am not grasping a concept, i just consider that fact and more often than not, i become clear for myself. it will. beyond thinking, maybe look at your life as it is. can you find your place contextually among "the law"? harmony and resonation are great markers! where i find sparks, i explore! it's not about understanding the words but more the life it breathes within us.
wow... great thread!
from my experience, honestly, i agree with dar. i've been married twice. my first relationship ended pretty quickly, child in hand. we're still friends and are co-parents and housemates. it's great actually because i know my place as a woman and it ain't what the classical institution has offered. my second marriage ended 6 months ago. this is the tricky one because he came into it knowing my interest in thelema. he had/has one too so it seemed ideal until one of us was willing to take it to the next level. it was ok at first, but when you make arrangements with your HGA and those who are there to assist and guide, it became very clear that my time couldn't really be split into raising a pre-teen, doing my work, being a college student (and really fostering my will and to be the change in the world i said i would) and catering to marital needs (which to me meant you do your will i do mine together) that were not anything i've experienced. i come from "broken" (non-nuclear) families, but as i move along i realize that from my culture, these ideals were newly introduced and my families have had a hard time being "married". however, i do know a few dynamic couples that work and play together and are interdependent, which i think is a key. all the thelemic couples i know are right on, super magical people. i have no regrets in any case, some really valuable experience that have only strengthened my Will. to be honest, it was after listening to vere chappell talk about ida craddock and marriage that gave me the courage to see clearly (no implications, this is just a personal take).
"
But consider - how in this story potlatching accrues negative connotations because the populace is trying to escape from the traditional hierarchical 'top down' model. They try and come up with an alternative model but the 'top down' model comes back to life - as it does in any revolution. Even a velvet one. And even on Mars."
true true. i do consider! it's a part of my life's work (in conjunction with thelema, it blends nicely! it is similar in many ways). the lack part is that potlatch society does what thelema is working on achieving, the 4 L's. crowley woulda loved a hamatsa! he liked those other indians... 
the apocalyptic nature of humans is addressed in a lot of cultures as a part of it, not something we're waiting for later on (as a whole, perhaps as an individual, we work and wait). it can be potentially addressed as an art form also. (?)
well dar, i've investigated this novel since it doesn't make sense to me in the least how the term "potlatch" is used in this story! (confused). it's like saying that thelema is almost like wicca. they both do rituals right? there are some things similar, but i wouldn't take it there really. 
but i have a new interest where this word is being utilized to the masses...
gift economy is a multi-faceted art-form. i am skeptical society at large could actually manage the responsibility of giving away everything to be at the top of the totem pole (which is what causes that position).
now about the apocalypse...
@Dar said
"What do people think of the idea of a dual run 'Gift Economy' with a 'Resource Dollar Economy'?
i.e. - as proposed by the Science writer Kim Stanley Robinson in the 'Mars' trilogy?
Or how about the model of democratic business - as proposed by Ian Banks in the novel 'The Business'?"
all for the gift economy. in my culture we have the potlatch. it's an amazing thing to experience. it was banned in the 50's (the ban has been lifted fairly recently so we potlatch again) because it wasn't taxable. heathens...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potlatch
it works though. no one left behind. *it's also a society built on hierarchy, status positions and secret societies. theres a trick in how it is maintained and has for thousands of years. no one gripes about the top people, aka chief famlies because they do well to take care of everyone-- we just have the most copper shields and bragging rights.<< an important element!
@fool said
"Wine, song, food, fire, clothes, shelter and seed. No mourning for the old empire when the indigo children come: www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kntk-APTfg
By the lead singer of tool. Is a member of a TOTO offshoot lodge. Lives in the hills of Arizona which he's jokingly referred to as future beach property. This song gets at the idea of a future where an electromagnetic pulse is emitted from the sun and destroys our digital world."
lives in jerome, near sedona and hopiland. caduceus cellars in-between. i like tool a lot, unsure if maynard is actually a thelemite due to the new age-ness of some lyrics. the sedona new age gets infiltrated into their music being that it's 5 miles down the road. i am opinionated (admitting).
hangar 18, i know too much (megadeth).
i read all the posts to find out what others think about the zeitgeist movement. all i'm gonna say is, i don't like it. it's half truths blended with propaganda and misses an important aspect of story telling. it lacks a certain kind of magic it purports to have, in my opinion, of course.
sustainability is where it's at. it's fun to do. an elder recently told me though, he doesn't think focusing on the ecology is where it's at. all you have to do is love your mother. so then i thought, being he's an indian, he is speaking about mother earth and taking care of her. but he wasn't. it made me wonder lots of things. especially since i was an enviro. major (sustainable communities). i wonder if everyone loves their mother. i wonder if there is any aspect that this particular message (a lot of tribes talk of this as a part of prophecy) has value in relationship to mother earth and her ability to tend to her children? shrug
o.k., i'll bite.
you do sex magick for telephones?
"In a properly functioning orchestra, sometimes there's harmony, sometimes there's dissonance. Sometimes notes compete, sometimes they blend or play in unison. Sometimes they have to observe rests."
beautiful! symmetry in diversity! chaos and order! unite thine opposite!
i agree hugely danica. it's a magical system apart from another anyway.
it does seem as though you are defining it, to a degree... but there are holes in your theory, or lack of certain types of application with regard to the great work. i assume you know that though. there is no easy access. it's not a belief system. have you tried the silent approach?
i do yoga otherwise, with that in mind... do you work out or are you flow fit? circulation is essential for proper yoga. just doing a series of sun salutations (surya namaskar) can make asana much more simple/easy since this particular exercise moves through the body and gets the circulation flow going. it's a common practice these days, it seems. it's so resh... doing flex and point and ankle circles, standing on the tip toes and reaching high helps loads...
"One wonders how things would have gone if France or Spain had gotten the upper hand in the America's."
canada and mexico?
a golden thread!
what an enjoyable read! the breaks... over. thanks!
93!
One of the largest massives (rave, party, gathering, what have you) is happening at Palenque on the Dec. 2012 date (already 800 confirmed guests on fb alone). I wonder how that will be managed. it's odd to think about considering the nature of the gathering. I think it would be fun to go, and at the same time, very dangerous, mostly because of the self fulfilling prophecies, the amount of psychedelics involved, and the expectations (of which there are many, including slipping on into our luminous bodies full time, thus, instant enlightenment, as if!) Often, these dates also involve "untimely" deaths. What we are gearing for is millennium madness, again. And so far within my own community of 2012'ers, anytime I have questioned authority (mind you, these are the same folks who have bumper stickers saying, "question authority") they have been easily offended.
Some peoples minds are so open their brains are falling out.
(disclaimer: I'm open to be wrong)
that sounds a bit like witchcraft to me... ?
excellent and timely advice/reminder!
"When you start of with adversarial, damaged sides, the first thing to do is separate the two fighters, and make sure that one can't hurt the other."
could you elaborate a bit more here?
93 93/93