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LF228 Gary Lachman – Beyond The Robot: The Life and Work of Colin Wilson – Part Two

Gary Lachman discusses his book Beyond the Robot – The Life and Work of Colin Wilson. This is a three part interview. Part one is here. Part three will be released shortly.
Colin Wilson was a literary and cultural rebel, and one of the most adventurous, hopeful, and least understood visionary intellects of the past century. Author of over a hundred books including the 1956 classic The Outsider, Wilson purveyed a philosophy of mind power and human potential that made him arguably the only optimistic existentialist. In part two, we discuss the relationship between mind and matter and how reality is apparently becoming more malleable, the science of self-actualization, the evolution of consciousness and the cosmos, and the future – or not – for humanity.
Colin Wilson WebsiteColin Wilson WorldPauper’s Press
Bumper music: Cliff Martinez ‘Traffic OST’Tangerine Dream ‘Wavelength’
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LF227 Joanna Demers – The Sound of the Apocalypse

Joanna Demers discusses her books Drone and Apocalypse and Anatomy of Thought Fiction.
The idea of apocalypse is truly ancient. Although the word essentially translates as a revelation of knowledge, today the term is commonly used in reference to end-time scenarios or to the end of the world in general. Almost every culture and civilization has or has had its own apocalyptic tradition, often believing the end-time already begun and the end itself imminent. Whether self-inflicted or supernatural, cosmic or divine, apocalyptic thinking infuses all corners of culture. From the mysteries and meanings of religion and art, to our beliefs about the past, present and future, and the values which guide how we see ourselves, others, and the world at large, the dread of impending doom never seems far away.
During the late 20th and early 21st Centuries, this once unspoken unease grew into a pervasive terror. Nuclear annihilation, dehumanizing technology, ecological disaster, and rampant totalitarianism now apparently conspire to deliver, at best, the dystopian nightmares of Brave New World or Nineteen Eighty-Four or, at worst, the complete destruction of all life on Earth. Roaming through this forbidden zone Joanna Demers takes a sideways look at apocalyptic culture. Our discussion today centres mainly on music and the fear of the future which has given us both an unhealthy obsession with the sound of the past, and bleak but often beautiful new sounds reflecting the contradictory dread and longing which characterise our species at this moment time.
Featuring music by: Cliff Martinez, Cwtch, Glass Candy, William Basinski, Robert Rich and Oneohtrix Point Never.

LF226 Gary Lachman – Beyond The Robot: The Life and Work of Colin Wilson – Part One

Gary Lachman discusses his book Beyond the Robot – The Life and Work of Colin Wilson. Colin Wilson was a literary and cultural rebel, and one of the most adventurous, hopeful, and least understood visionary intellects of the past century. Author of over a hundred books including the 1956 classic The Outsider, Wilson purveyed a philosophy of mind power and human potential that made him arguably the only optimistic existentialist.
In part one, we outline Wilson’s core philosophy and worldview which saw the purpose, meaning, and destiny of humanity – and indeed all life – in the evolution of consciousness toward ever more expansive states of complexity and awareness. Although Wilson felt that in many ways Western civilization has hit a dead end, he ultimately rejected responses rooted in nihilism and negativity. For Wilson, consciousness does not passively reflect the world, rather it reaches out and grabs it. Perception, he believed, is participatory, and we are active agents in shaping reality. However, our inculcated fear of responsibility, of freedom, and of our own creative capacity for greatness, keeps most of us mired in a meaningless, mechanistic view of the Universe drifting between hedonism and despair. Many of us ask if there is more to life than this, and the answer is a resounding ‘Yes!’ As Wilson himself wrote ”’My life’s task is to light a fire with damp sticks. The drizzle falls incessantly. Yet I feel that if only I could really get the blaze started, it would become so large and fierce that nothing could stop it.’
Colin Wilson WebsiteColin Wilson WorldPauper’s Press
Bumper music: Cliff Martinez ‘Traffic OST’
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LF225 Brendan Howlin – Modern Druidry

’Have you ever thought that there must be a better way to live your life?’
In his 2014 book The Handbook Of Urban Druidry – Modern Drudiry For All and its 2016 follow-up The Urban Ovate – The Handbook Of Psychological Druidry, Brendan Howlin holds up a lens through which you and I, if we so choose, may reconsider the path that we are on. Distracted by rampant consumerism, browbeaten by scientific materialism, and fearful of a hostile world apparently plunging into chaos, a corrosive malaise is upon us in this still-new millennium, our lives stripped of meaning and purpose by superficial societies which deny the significance of either.
With its reverence for nature, deep ecological awareness, and belief in respect for all beings, the ancient spiritual order of Druidry offers a set of guiding principles which can be adopted and adapted by anyone, religious or otherwise, to help cope with the challenges of modern life and live in harmony with the natural world, reconnecting with wholeness and, ultimately, with ourselves.
Bumper music: Cliff Martinez ‘Traffic OST’Dovinia ‘The Way of Wyrd’

LF224 Amit Goswami – Quantum Physics and the Meaning of Life

Amit Goswami discusses The Everything Answer Book: How Quantum Physics Explains Love, Death and the Meaning of Life.
Goswami s basic premise is that quantum physics is not only the future of science, but also the key to understanding consciousness, life, death, God, and the meaning of life. Quantum physics offers an antidote to the moral sterility of scientific reductionism and mechanistic materialism, and holds the key to the clearest, most coherent understanding of our universe. In short, quantum physics is indeed the theory of everything. In The Everything Answer Book Goswami and his colleagues discuss, among other things, how quantum physics affects our understanding of thoughts, feelings and intuitions, karma, death and reincarnation, dreams, evolution and the purpose of existence. Crucially, it points the way towards the spiritualization of politics, economics, business, education, and wider society itself, all of which are vital steps if our species is to survive and thrive through the challenging times ahead.
Previous interviews with Amit Goswami:Quantum EconomicsQuantum Consciousness – The Mind of God
www.amitgoswami.orgwww.quantumactivist.com
Bumper music: Cliff Martinez ‘Traffic OST’Christina Vantzou ‘Entanglements’

LF223 Phil Escott – What is Awakening?

Phil Escott and I ask ‘What is awakening?’
From the New Age movement to the 2012 phenomenon, and across the spectrum of belief that is contemporary spirituality, in recent decades there has been a lot of talk about awakening. But just what is it, and how do you get there? Exploring Eastern mysticism? Meditating on a mountaintop? Becoming a hermit, hiding in the woods? It could be any or all of these, and also none. What if awakening is nothing like you’ve been led to believe? Like the ordeal of transformation through trauma, awakening can be difficult, unexpected, and at first, even unrecognised. Although sometimes sudden, it can also be slow, and often more subtle than expected. It may even take place at the moment of your death, but it is always incomplete. Typical traits such as the dissolution of desire and the death of ego may not transpire, and the hoped-for end of human faults and frailties may be an illusion.
In the quest for an answer, the mystery only deepens, and the esoteric elements of all this will, for the time being, likely remain meaningless and irrelevant to most. We remain prisoners to fear and resistance, unwilling to grasp the vast totality of that which is always there. But in the end, whatever the truth, should such a thing exist, the fact that you are a sense organ of the infinite and that the Universe is waking up through you, remains undimmed.
Previous interview with Phil Escott:Holistic Health and Natural Healing
Bumper music: Cliff Martinez ‘Traffic OST’Stellardrone ‘The Edge of Forever’

LF222 Courtney Brown – Remote Viewing Roswell, Rethinking Reality – Part Two

Courtney Brown discusses the Farsight Institute’s recent remote viewing project Roswell – Crash at Corona. This is a two part interview. Part one is here.
If you are unfamiliar with remote viewing we recommend that you first listen to our show Remote Viewing, Consciousness, and Reality.
In July 1947, an airborne object crashed at a ranch near Roswell, New Mexico in the United States. Following intense initial interest in the object which was rumoured to be a ‘flying disc’ of unknown origin, the US military stated that it was merely a conventional weather balloon. Although interest in the incident persisted, it waned somewhat until the late 1970s, when ufologists began claiming that one or more alien spacecraft had crash-landed at Roswell, and that the extraterrestrial occupants had been recovered by the military, who then engaged in a cover-up. Then, during the 1990s, the US military published two reports insisting that the true nature of the crashed object was in fact simply a nuclear test surveillance balloon. However, controversy still surrounds Roswell with many researchers continuing to claim that the official story hides a much stranger and more shocking secret.
As well looking at some of the results of Farsight’s Roswell and Time Cross projects, we discuss the possible nature of alien spacecraft, space travel, and the warping of space-time itself. We ask whether the potentially inter-dimensional nature of extraterrestrial life could be linked to parallel realities that we cannot ordinarily perceive, and what quantum physics is currently suggesting about the true nature of reality. Keeping in mind the adage ‘Science advances one funeral at a time’, we also ask how our world might change if remote viewing was finally accepted by science, academia, and society at large.
Previous interviews with Courtney Brown:Remote Viewing, Consciousness and RealityAtlantis: The True StoryThe Mystery of the Great Pyramid Solved9/11: What Really Happened?Remote Viewing Cydonia, MarsAliens on Iapetus
Bumper music: Cliff Martinez ‘Traffic OST’Dionysiac ‘Iota Ceti Contact’
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LF221 John Michael Greer – Beyond Collapse: The Future of Civilization

John Michael Greer discusses the retirement of his popular blog The Archdruid Report, his latest venture Ecosophia, and the future of our civilization.
Over the years, John has written more than most and about as much as can be said concerning the decline and fall of industrial civilization. As the converging crises in energy, economics, and the environment continue to unfold, and politics plunges to new lows, he is making a shift in emphasis away from past paradigms and towards a spiritual perspective which may help salvage some meaning and purpose from the wreckage of our doomed society. Reflecting the subject matter of John’s regular column in the post-apocalyptic periodical Into The Ruins, we also discuss how the dystopian science fiction of the past presciently described the dysfunction and disintegration of the present. On a plastic planet of suburban sprawl, metastasizing strip malls, and streets paved with cheeseburgers, the fast food fantasy land where anything goes and nothing matters is fast going away. As we sift through our hopes and fears for the future and strive to see beyond collapse, can we somehow survive the coming storm?
Previous interviews with John Michael Greer:Dark Age AmericaThe Truth About BrexitAfter ProgressThe Long DescentThe Ecotechnic FutureGreen WizardryDecline and Fall
Bumper music: Cliff Martinez ‘Traffic OST’Oscob / Digital Sex ‘Echoes Through the Forest’
Listen to more shows on Legalise Freedom Dot Com.

LF220 Courtney Brown – Remote Viewing Roswell, Rethinking Reality – Part One

 
Courtney Brown discusses the Farsight Institute’s recent remote viewing project Roswell – Crash at Corona. This is a two part interview. Part two is here.
If you are unfamiliar with remote viewing we recommend that you first listen to our show Remote Viewing, Consciousness, and Reality.
In July 1947, an airborne object crashed at a ranch near Roswell, New Mexico in the United States. Following intense initial interest in the object which was rumoured to be a ‘flying disc’ of unknown origin, the US military stated that it was merely a conventional weather balloon. Although interest in the incident persisted, it waned somewhat until the late 1970s, when ufologists began claiming that one or more alien spacecraft had crash-landed at Roswell, and that the extraterrestrial occupants had been recovered by the military, who then engaged in a cover-up. Then, during the 1990s, the US military published two reports insisting that the true nature of the crashed object was in fact simply a nuclear test surveillance balloon. However, controversy still surrounds Roswell with many researchers continuing to claim that the official story hides a much stranger and more shocking secret.
As well looking at some of the results of Farsight’s Roswell and Time Cross projects, we discuss the possible nature of alien spacecraft, space travel, and the warping of space-time itself. We ask whether the potentially inter-dimensional nature of extraterrestrial life could be linked to parallel realities that we cannot ordinarily perceive, and what quantum physics is currently suggesting about the true nature of reality. Keeping in mind the adage ‘Science advances one funeral at a time’, we also ask how our world might change if remote viewing was finally accepted by science, academia, and society at large.
Previous interviews with Courtney Brown:Remote Viewing, Consciousness and RealityAtlantis: The True StoryThe Mystery of the Great Pyramid Solved9/11: What Really Happened?Remote Viewing Cydonia, MarsAliens on Iapetus
Bumper music: Cliff Martinez ‘Traffic OST’Dionysiac ‘Iota Ceti Contact’
 
Listen to more shows on Legalise Freedom Dot Com.

LF219 Andy Duncan - The Alternative 2017 UK Election Special

Andy Duncan discusses the 2017 UK General Election and the wider political and economic scene past, present and future.
Like many political systems around the world, UK politics is deeply divided and in a growing state of disarray. Many feel that voting today has become all but irrelevant and in future may, at best, achieve little more than cementing a series of conflict-ridden coalitions. At worst, the current schizophrenic state of paralysis and upheaval may trigger the rise of a party – perhaps as yet unknown – of the ultra-extreme right or left.
In the face of enormous global challenges – in energy, economy, and environment in particular – we hear little from the political class beyond predictable, pie-in-the-sky promises and empty rhetoric about values, aspirations, and hard working families. And yet many citizens still believe that their vote actually counts for something when in the vast majority of cases it rarely – if ever – makes any real difference to anything. Who can blame them? We have long surrendered our sovereign status and personal agency to a kleptocratic elite obsessed with power, wealth, and self-aggrandisement. Now, entire generations know nothing else.
We explore these and other related issues including why the differences between the main political parties are disappearing, where we are headed if things continue as they are, and how the global financial crisis of 2007/8 – which was not allowed to run its rightful course – is coming back to bite us – hard. In a system where voters can see no real alternatives and increasingly resign themselves to disillusion and apathy, what will so-called representative democracy and indeed industrial civilization itself look like in the coming decades?
www.finlingo.com
Previous interviews with Andy Duncan:Democracy – The God That FailedThe Myths and Mysteries of Modern MoneyIndependence for Scotland?The Alternative 2015 UK Election SpecialA Greek Tragedy: Bankers, Bailouts and Bureaucracy
Bumper music: Cliff Martinez ‘Traffic OST’Rainbow ‘Land of Hope and Glory’Hubert Parry ‘Jerusalem’
Listen to more shows on Legalise Freedom Dot Com.