Four on the Floor

Nick Herbert at Perihelion Party 2018

FREUDIAN PHYSICS

Our most dangerous patients
are experts
at keeping their sicknesses hid.
If Jack Sarfatti's the New Physics Ego
does that make Nick Herbert
the Id?


MY STRUGGLE
(For Jeffrey Kripal and Dale Pendell)

I want to become a second Heisenberg
the Walter White of tantric history
by devising a clever new path
for exploring the body/mind mystery.

A tantra path inspired by quanta
as open and easy as breath
convincingly beautiful
breathtakingly erotic
as addictive as crystalline meth.

The addictive religion of materialism
constipates our strong and deep imaginings.
Will this brash new way of flirting with Nature
help us feel and touch the dear reality of things?
 

PAGING FRANCIS BACON

Herr Professor
You are now world famous
for discovering
the Black Cosmic Crack.

Now please tell us your secret:
Which Alma Mater
best taught you
how to put Frau Natur
to the rack?


EMPTINESS LESSON

Like the Dalai Lama.
I too am a student
of tantric Buddhism.

Empty the mind of thought
Empty the mind of words
That's plenty for tonight, pilgrim,
Let these teachings stick.
Next session we'll be tackling
Empty the mind of "Nick".

Deer Dalai Lama: Camp Climax, Boulder Creek

Love (Planet-Earth Style)

Dragon's Heart Nebula in Ara, the Altar

LOVE (PLANET-EARTH STYLE)

For the love of my extended tribe
My nation ruthlessly smothers all others.
For the love of our own kind
With corn, wheat, rice, roads and cities
My species carelessly drives
Numerous non-human beings
From their homes.

For the love of this lucky embodiment
Predator Nick feasts on tasty prey.
For the love of me (their sovereign)
Nick's personal antibody assassins wage
Hundreds of necessary genocides.

Someday I too will die
From a greater love than me
Wondering whether other worlds require
A love based on biology.

Quantum Tantra: Five Opening Moves

Nick Herbert, Boulder Creek Bistroscene, 1997

QUANTUM TANTRA: FIVE OPENING MOVES

Over the past thirty years my friend Allan Lundell (known today as "Doctor Future") has been videoing the goings-on at the fringes of contemporary culture, from Luc Sala's visionary video station in Amsterdam to Alison Kennedy's Mondo 2000 salon in Berkeley, to Ken Kesey, Terence McKenna and Tim Leary productions in San Francisco, California and other altered states here and abroad. Allan is currently archiving and standardizing his videos (which were captured in many formats and media over the years) and occasionally sharing a few clips from these "Future Peak Video Archives" with his friends. Thanks, Al.

For instance, Allan recorded many performances of the long-running legendary Bistroscene in Boulder Creek, CA and environs, during which a large number of locals released their pent-up creative energies into an wide-open and enthusiastic audience, many of whom were themselves waiting to mount the stage. Yesterday at the gym, Allan handed me a thumb drive of a few of these video clips, including one of my own Bistroscene performances two decades ago, which I now call Quantum Tantra: Five Opening Moves. 

For fans of quantum tantra and for posterity's sake, I now post the text of that reading plus Doctor Future's valuable video of that splendidly memorable event:

QUANTUM TANTRA: FIVE OPENING MOVES

The purpose of yin-style Ki Gung
a practice I've barely begun
is to open up holes
whose delicate roles
will surpass the tact of the tongue.

To the novice the biggest surprise
is to see without using his eyes
the numerous threads
connecting our heads
and the ribbons entangling our thighs.

With new orifices, apertures, holes
new meanings, new purposes, goals
we've opened our hearts
and our new private parts
to an invisible Network of Souls.

Thru our tantric antenna array
we find new things to hear and to say
to our lovers in bed
to the recently dead
to our friends from the Deep Milky Way.

We fornicate photons in chemical trances
we welcome fresh alien sexual advances
we're big girls and boyses
who've outgrown our toyses
we've extraterrestrially opened our pantses.

Delight in Disorder

Robert Herrick, Cavalier poet (1591 - 1674)

DELIGHT IN DISORDER

A sweet disorder in the dress
Kindles in clothes a wantonness :
A lawn about the shoulders thrown
Into a fine distraction :
An erring lace which here and there
Enthralls the crimson stomacher :
A cuff neglectful, and thereby
Ribbons to flow confusedly :
A winning wave (deserving note)
In the tempestuous petticoat :
A careless shoe-string, in whose tie
I see a wild civility :
Do more bewitch me than when art
Is too precise in every part.

Sweet Disorder by Diana Warnok