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LF195 Mark Olly - Revealing the Green Man

Mark Olly discusses his book Revealing the Green Man.
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To many, The Green Man is little more than a chubby face peering through a veil of leaves. Sometimes cute, sometimes vaguely sinister, he is nonetheless widely regarded as merely a meaningless symbol from an age long lost. In reality, however, he could rather be said to be the esoteric embodiment of the very essence of life itself, an ancient archetype once known the world over.
On a journey through myths and legends, magic and folklore, we explore the mystery of The Green Man. From the time of the Celts and Druids, the rise of the Roman Empire, the Anglo-Saxon annals, and the descent into the Dark Ages and beyond, we meet with Robin Hood, Herne the Hunter, King Arthur, and many other colourful characters along the way. It is a tale pregnant with arcane symbolism, cultish rites, the perennial wisdom of 'as above - so below', and the final revelation of the Earth's eternal cycle of destruction and rebirth.
Thousands of years ago, man went to war with nature, and thus to war with himself. Lost to the land as once was, he became Master of the World, for a while. Blinded by arrogance, hobbled by hubris, and emboldened by his technological toys, he brought the biosphere to the brink of oblivion, to exalt himself at the Earth's expense. This is our story, and we are not as clever as we might like to believe. In a timely re-learning of The Green Man's lessons, in the twilight of the industrial age, we are being invited, perchance for the final time, to change our ways, or perish.
Bumper music: Cliff Martinez 'Traffic OST'Clannad 'Herne'

LF125 Aaron Franz - History of a Time to Come: Transhumanism and Popular Culture - Part 1

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In a follow-up to our previous interview Transhumanism: Man's Scientific Rise to Godhood, Aaron Franz returns to discuss transhumanism and popular culture. This is a two part interview. Part two is here
Whether prophecy, predictive programming or outright propaganda, cinema, television and literature both past and present are rife with visions of a future in which humanity is transformed, enslaved or even annihilated by technology run amok. Science fiction, fantasy and other speculative forms foresee a time when robots, cyborgs and genetically engineered supermen manipulate the masses, artificial intelligence arises to rival and even surpass human intelligence, and humanity finally merges with machines to achieve Godlike immortality. It's a dream to some, a nightmare to others. From Brave New World to Blade Runner, from The Machine to Metropolis, and from Star Trek to The Six Million Dollar Man, we explore the hopes, fears, threats and promises of a future in which being human may no longer be enough.
www.theageoftransitions.com
Bumper music: Cliff Martinez 'Traffic OST'Brad Fiedel 'Terminator 2' OSTHawkwind 'Utopia'

LF123 Aaron Franz - Transhumanism: Man's Scientific Rise to Godhood

Aaron Franz discusses his book Revolve: Man's Scientific Rise to Godhood.
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Artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, implantable chips, and life extension. These and many other technologies are being promoted as the way for humanity to become something radically different. The transhumanist movement claims that by applying such technologies to our biology, we will become post-human. But behind this techno-utopian vision lurk the spectres of eugenics, mind control, police state propaganda, the end of privacy, and maybe even the end of the human race itself.
A new religion for a new age is being born, arising from a scientific and increasingly sinister quest for eternal life. The Philosopher's Stone of the alchemists now appears to be within reach, as man strives to transcend Earthly limitations and merge at last with the Godhead itself. In Revolve, Franz moves beyond the typical Singularity sales pitch and artificial intelligence hype to bring us face to face with something far more profound, disturbing, and ancient.
www.theageoftransitions.comHumanity+
Bumper music: Cliff Martinez 'Traffic OST'Brad Fiedel 'Terminator 2' OSTLee Rosevere 'The Machine That Won the War'

LF99 John Michael Greer - Decline and Fall

John Michael Greer discusses his book Decline and Fall: The End of Empire and the Future of Democracy in 21st Century America.
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'''Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.' Although he was writing nearly a century ago, William Butler Yeats could just as easily be describing the United States today. The decline and fall of America's global empire is the central feature of today's geopolitical landscape, and the nature of our response to it will determine much of our future trajectory, with implications that reach far beyond the limits of one nation's borders.
Decline and Fall challenges the conventional wisdom of empire. Using a wealth of historical examples combined with ground-breaking original analysis, it shows how the United States has backed itself into a blind corner in the pursuit of political and economic power, explores the inevitable consequences of imperial collapse, and proposes a renewal of democratic institutions as the only constructive way forward. By shifting the conversation from whether today's American empire should survive to whether it can survive, and arguing persuasively that the answer to the latter question is 'no', Decline and Fall makes an invaluable contribution to the body of speculative post-industrial literature. It is a must-read for anyone concerned about where the world is headed and what, if anything, we can do about it.
Bumper music: Cliff Martinez 'Traffic OST'Cyberchump 'The Long Goodbye'

LF105 James Howard Kunstler - Too Much Magic in The Long Emergency

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James Howard Kunstler discusses some of the issues raised in his books The Long Emergency (2005) and Too Much Magic (2013), examining how the global crises in energy, the economy and the environment have unfolded in the interim.
The last two hundred years have seen the greatest explosion of progress and wealth in the history of mankind, but the age of oil that fuelled this expansion is rapidly coming to an end. The depletion of fossil fuels is about to transform life as we know it, and do so much sooner than we think. Kunstler explains what to expect after we pass the tipping point of peak oil production, setting out to prepare us for economic, political, and social changes on an unimaginable scale.
www.kunstler.com
Bumper music: Cliff Martinez 'Traffic OST'Jeff Grace 'Cold in July OST'

LF103 Simon G. Powell - Darwin's Unfinished Business: The Self-Organizing Intelligence of Nature.

Simon G. Powell discusses his book Darwin's Unfinished Business - The Self-Organizing Intelligence of Nature.
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Darwin's theory of evolution is undoubtedly one of the most important scientific ideas of the modern age, explaining the existence of both life and consciousness without recourse to divine intervention. Yet how do we interpret evolution? How do we evaluate the ability of Nature to engineer something as exquisite as the genetic code or the human brain? Could it be that evolution is an intelligent process? Is Nature smart? According to most scientists, the answer is no. While humanity may be intelligent and purposeful, the natural processes that crafted us are deemed to be devoid of such attributes.
In a radical move away from orthodoxy, Powell extends Darwin's vision by showing that evolution is not just about the survival of the fittest but rather the survival of clever and sensible behaviour. Revealing the importance of the context in which things evolve, he explores the intelligent learning process behind natural selection. Rich with examples of the incredibly complex plants, animals, insects and marine life designed by Nature - from the carnivorous Venus flytrap and the fungus-farming leafcutter ant to the symbiotic microbes found inside the common cow - he shows Nature as a whole to be a system of self-organising intelligence in which life and consciousness are always destined to emerge.
Examining the origins of life and the failure of artificial intelligence to compete with natural intelligence, he explains how our scientifically narrow-minded views on intelligence are now acting as a barrier to our own evolution. As Darwin's unfinished business comes to light and Nature's intelligence is embraced, we learn that Nature's agenda is not simply the replication of genetic matter, but of expanding consciousness. By working with Nature's creative and innovative powers instead of against them, we can address today's social and environmental challenges with a new green science of evolution.
www.simongpowell.comwww.plantconsciousness.com
Simon's documentaries Metanoia and Manna
Bumper music: Cliff Martinez 'Traffic OST'Klaus Schulze 'Sense'

LF82 Gary Evans - Listening to the Past

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Many ancient sites such as the Great Pyramid in Egypt and Stonehenge in England appear to have unusual acoustic properties which suggest that these places had a purpose not yet recognised by mainstream archaeology. Resonating frequencies and other forms of sound have long been associated with altered states of consciousness and other spiritual and mystical experiences. Certain properties of many ancient sites indicate that they were designed to focus, concentrate and in some cases generate powerful energies including sound. Is it possible that they served a sacred ceremonial function intended to affect the brain and body, taking us beyond our crude intellect and into a more intuitive state of mind?
The building methods used on many ancient sites also remain a mystery to us. Is it possible that sound played a part in their construction? Were the massive blocks of stone used in places like the Great Pyramid and Stonehenge perhaps quarried, transported and lifted into place by some subtle technology now lost in the mists of time?
Although there appear to be more questions than answers, the evidence suggests that in high antiquity, humans thought very differently than they do now. Their entire worldview and concept of what was possible seems radically different from our own, based on a more integrated state of mind unburdened by the left brain dominance that is responsible for much of the chaos and destruction in the world today. In looking back, maybe can we learn how to move forward.
www.infinite-connections.co.ukConference on Precession and Ancient Knowledge
Bumper music: Cliff Martinez 'Traffic OST'Stellardrone 'The Divine Cosmos'

LF81 Walter Cruttenden - Lost Star of Myth and Time

Walter Cruttenden discusses some of the ideas in his 2005 book Lost Star of Myth and Time.
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The myth and folklore of ancestral peoples around the world hints at a vast cycle of time, with alternating Dark and Golden Ages. Plato called it the Great Year. Long believed to be a fairy tale, there is now new astronomical evidence to show it has a basis in fact. Moreover, because it is caused by the acceleration of our Sun around another star, we learn that the Earth should soon be carried into a region of space that will have a beneficial effect on our atmosphere, nudging mankind into a higher state of consciousness.
Lost Star of Myth and Time weaves together some of the latest archaeological evidence with cutting-edge astronomy to reveal a history of the world that finally fits with myth, folklore and the archaeological record. While the book explores some of the most interesting aspects of a once advanced civilization that covered the Earth, it is really about what happens to the Earth and consciousness as our solar system moves through space in the mysterious motion known as the precession of the equinox. Since the days of Isaac Newton, this astronomical phenomenon has been attributed to local gravitational forces wobbling the Earth's axis. Lost Star now shows us in no uncertain terms that the Earth's axis does not change orientation relative to objects inside the solar system at the same rate as it changes orientation to objects outside the solar system, meaning precession must be due to our Sun's binary motion around another star.
Chapter by chapter it becomes clear that ancient cultures knew of precession, used it as the clock of the ages, understood it to be due to the solar system's motion through space, and realized this subjects the Earth to a cycle of waxing and waning stellar influences. It is these forces that affect our magnetosphere, ionosphere and indirectly create the larger seasons of the Great Year. This not only gives cause for a major rethink of human history and potential, but indicates we are approaching a tipping point in the awakening of consciousness.
Bumper music: Cliff Martinez 'Traffic OST'Cwtch 'What Do Robots Dream About?'

LF211 Mark Olly - The Life & Times of the Real Robyn Hoode

Mark Olly discusses his book The Life & Times of the Real Robyn Hoode, a detailed investigation of a character who represents resistance to powerful and corrupt authority the world over.
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Robin Hood is a heroic outlaw in English folklore who, according to legend, was a highly skilled archer and swordsman. Traditionally depicted as being dressed in Lincoln green, he is often portrayed as 'robbing from the rich and giving to the poor' alongside his band of Merry Men. He became a popular folk figure in the late-medieval period and continues to be widely represented in literature, film and television.
Delving deep into the history and archaeology of people and places, we attempt to separate fact from fiction in the possible or probable lives of Robin and the familiar cast of characters such as Little John, Friar Tuck, Will Scarlet, Maid Marion, the Sheriff of Nottingham, and King Richard the Lionheart. Along the way we visit locations such as Sherwood Forest and the city of Nottingham, exploring the momentous change, conflict and power struggles of Medieval England. Although Robin's true identity may never be known, the tale which emerges is every bit worthy of the high adventure and wild romance of a centuries old legend that lives on to this very day.
 
Previous interviews with Mark Olly: Revealing the Green Man The Disappearing Ninth Legion
Bumper music: Cliff Martinez 'Traffic OS

LF206 John Michael Greer - Dark Age America: Part One

John Michael Greer discusses his book Dark Age America - Climate Change, Cultural Collapse, and the Hard Future Ahead.
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As we lurch on into the early part of the 21st Century, converging crises in energy, economy, and environment are rapidly undermining the foundations of industrial civilization and the materialistic way of life which so many of us take for granted. Energy - because cheap, easily accessible fossil fuels are running out and industrial civilization as we know it simply cannot be sustained by renewables. Economy - because at almost every level, global, national, corporate, and personal, we are drowning in debt that cannot and therefore will not be repaid but whose unravelling will cause mass destruction of governments, banks, entire industries, and millions of lives. Environment - because centuries of industrial civilization have wreaked havoc on the biosphere, triggering catastrophic climate change while poisoning the ecosystems on which life on Earth depends.
Factor in population growth, mass migration, and escalating terrorist threats, and you have a dangerously unstable situation. Despite the protestations of puppet politicians, elite economists, and utopian scientists, no amount of wishful thinking, money printing or shiny new technology will ride to the rescue. The Prius of our dreams is heading straight for the brick wall of reality, and the current convulsions such as the Brexit referendum in the UK, the impending implosion of the European Union, and the election of Donald Trump as US President are but the latest wave of woes crashing on the shore of a fantasy future we fashioned for ourselves in a brief moment of gas guzzling madness. Under the illusion of invincibility we still tell ourselves that 'this time it's different' but as we shall soon discover, forces far beyond our control have other ideas. In his most uncompromising work to date, John Michael Greer maps possible futures for America during the hard times ahead and it's clear that before things get better, they're going to get a lot worse.
The Archdruid Report
Previous interviews with John Michael Greer: The Truth About Brexit After Progress The Long Descent The Ecotechnic Future Green Wizardry Decline and Fall
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