Ethnic Nick

 Friends of the (human) family—

When August and I first got together she encouraged me to examine and appreciate my ethnic roots which are Slovak on my mother’s side and Ukrainian on my dad's side. For both of my parents English was their second language and among themselves they spoke some sort of Slavic tongue none of us five kids could understand. I grew up with Slovak conversation as a kind of soothing background music.

Both sets of grandparents came to America around 1900 and both worked in (separate) coal mines in Ohio and Pennsylvania. My parents met not in some mining town but in the steel-making city of Lorain, OH where a lot of Slovaks migrated after the mines.

There was a shop in Capitola where August lived that sold all sorts of curious objects among which were the flags of various nations and to humor Nick August bought me a Ukrainian flag which I hung outside on my deck next to my bath pavilion. Years of Boulder Creek rain, wind and summer sun gradually deteriorated that flag until it turned into tatters and I threw it away. But about a year or so ago I ordered a fancier version from Amazon which I hung out on nice days and kept inside when it rained.

This flag was more than just the simple blue and gold but also featured the Ukrainian trident and the words Ukraina in Cyrillic characters.

The fate of Ukraine in modern times has been to be sandwiched between two greater powers. Russia on one side and Lithuanians, or Poles, or Germans on the other. Lately the United States has taken an interest in this resource-rich land and managed to violently overthrow its democratically-elected president in 2014, replacing him with a vassal more compliant to the entities who run America. Not entirely innocent, these Ukes, as they call themselves, they treat their Russian-speaking minority somewhat the way Israelis treat Palestinians, as an unfavored underclass, using heavy artillery in this case to murder thousands of Russian-speaking civilians in the Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts with the tacit approval of our hypocritical American government.

Today I unfurled my ethnic flag and mourned the sad entangled fates of Ukraine and Russia. But more mourned the sad descent of the country of my birth into a terrible New Dark Age.

Good luck to us all.
Nick

What Does Nature Want?

 

Classical Tantra

CLASSICAL TANTRA

Every glance is Her Glance

Every touch is Her Touch

Every smell is Her Sexual Attractant

Every meeting a Teaching.

A Calculus of Kisses

 

Zeno of Elea (500 BC): Ancient Greek logician

 

 

A CALCULUS OF KISSES

 

In a foot race

Achilles can never catch the tortoise

Let alone outrun him.



For Achilles gets half way in one slice of time

And half way more in slice number two

And half way again in slice number three

After an infinite number of slices

Achilles merely gets to where tortoise has been

Not to where he's at now.



Thus no matter how fast Achilles can hurtle

He can never outrun the much slower turtle.

So argued the famous Greek philosopher

Zeno of Elea.



Lat's you and I set a timer for sixty seconds.



In the first 30 seconds I'll kiss you just once

Kiss you twice in the following fifteen

Four kisses during next seven point five

Then in half that time, we'll squeeze in sixteen.



If one takes this game to its ultimate limit

We can fit infinite kisses into only one minute.

So following what Zeno's logic allows

We'll be tasting infinity using our mouths.

Which of Your Body Parts Needs More Amour?

Nick Herbert contemplates his 108 chakras

 Quantum Tantra represents an as yet unrealized new kind of physics that hopes to connect with Nature in a direct and more intimate way than merely "physicists making measurements". Quantum tantrikas seek a new way of knowing the "inanimate world" analogous to the mysterious way we presently experience our own bodies. Systematically experiencing our own bodies could be good practice for some day experiencing the physical world in a brand new (quantum) way.

To that end, Nick Herbert has been developing an original system of body chakras to aid in exploring this great corporal gift we've been given, both for its own sake and in preparation for a new (possibly quantum) way of enjoying our own body and the physical world.

This chakra project began when Nick was studying for his physics degree in the '60s while at the same time working at a psychic book shop (East-West Books) in Menlo Park, California. At that time so many new particles were being added to the physicist's worldview, Nick wondered why the number of bodily chakras had remained the same for centuries despite advances in meditation techniques and yes, the advent of new and more efficient psychedelic drugs.

Nick's immediate goal was to expand the number of classical chakras using two rules: 1. As in particle physics where each (fermionic) particle has an antiparticle, each chakra should possess an antichakra; 2. Each chakra should be represented by its own symbol (preferably some simple geometric form) with its "antichakra" represented by a black-white reversal of that form.

Progress in this program has been reported in three previous blog posts: Sixty-four Chakras, Eighty-four Chakras and Ninety-nine Chakras along with more background and justification for this unusual project. After working and playing with this notion for more than fifty years, Nick has finally decided on a total of 108 chakras -- 108 different places to situate your awareness and your willed action. 108 different playgrounds in which to exercise your imagination.

One Hundred and Eight Nick Chakras

 The lighter symbols are chakras, and the darker versions are antichakras. This convention is maintained for the first 72 chakras but is slightly modified for the rest of the group.

Seven classic Hindu Chakras plus one

The seven classic Hindu Chakras plus a "Ground chakra" added as antichakra to the classic Hindu "Crown chakra" makes Eight Hindu Chakras.

 Eight Spinal Chakras

The Eight Spinal Chakras: "Will" and "Auto" represent the voluntary and involuntary nervous systems as objects of conscious attention. Note the nice chakra and antichakra organization.

Eight Sensory Chakras

 The Eight Sensory Chakras. Note that the Lungs and the Bowels are highlighted as two important ways our bodies interact with the outside world.

Twenty-four Hand & Foot Chakras

Twenty-four Hand & Foot Chakras. Six chakras each: whole hand plus five fingers; whole foot plus five toes. Note that the antichakra of each hand is the corresponding foot chakra.

Twenty-four Arm and Leg Chakras

 Twenty-four Arm and Leg Chakras. Six chakras each: whole arm plus shoulder joint, upper arm, elbow, forearm and wrist; whole leg plus hip joint, thigh, knee, calf and ankle. Note that the leg parts are the anti-chakras of the corresponding arm parts.

Thirty-six Special Chakras

Thirty-six Special Chakras plus the foregoing Seventy-two chakras round out the total to one hundred and eight. The Special Chakras include the two Girdle Groups: Eight Pelvic Girdle chakras and Eight Shoulder Girdle chakras; the Eighteen Cranial chakras; the single Full-Body chakra plus the final No-Body chakra.

Sixteen Girdle Chakras

 

The Eight Pelvic Girdle chakras are antichakras to the Eight Shoulder Girdle chakras. Note that in this system, the sternum is homologous to the sacrum and the two clavicles are homologous to the two pubic bones.

Eighteen Cranial Chakras

 

Eighteen Cranial Chakras. In this special case, the chakra/anti-chakra convention does not apply. Here the light circles/ dark circles correspond to paired and unpaired anatomical forms. For instance there is only one inion and two temporal lobes. The former is symbolized by a dark circle; the latter by a light circle. The cranium itself is single (should be a dark circle) preserving the symmetry: six paired and six unpaired Cranial Chakras.

The final two chakras represent 1. The Whole-body Chakra, experiencing your entire body without breaking it into parts, and 2. Its antichakra the No-body Chakra symbolizing the contemplation of the entire physical universe with a small you-shaped piece cut out of it. 

Purely by accident these 108 Nick chakras correspond to the 108 beads in a traditional Indian japamala. 

You Might Want To Know What Tantra Means

 Many thanks to Prem Ashoka for videoing this at Baron's birthday party.

Amazed by the Muse

Erato, Muse of Poetry: Sir Edward Poynting (1836-1919)

 In science, music, art and even in ordinary conversation, where does inspiration come from? Often fresh ideas that well up in my mind both in dreams and in waking life seem so strange that it is easy to imagine that they come from somewhere outside myself. Thus the notion of a Muse is born, an actual disembodied entity, conventionally female, who favors the artist from time to time with hints and nudges of where to go next.

In the 1990s, I took part in an exciting public poetry movement in Boulder Creek, CA which was centered around the Boulder Creek Brewery, the Boulder Creek Bistro, and J.J. Webb's Poetry Grove a few miles north of town. As a frequent contributor to this poetic action, I was continually looking for inspiration and often appealed to my poetry Muse, in whatever realm She dwelt, for just one more original spark to light my lyre.

Since these poetry sessions were rather frequent, I practiced keeping my versical antennas open for Muse reception wherever I went. Which, in this particular case, happened to be a seaside gathering of the Holy Hemp Sisters.

In an era of severe marijuana prohibition, including daily military-style helicopter surveillance and the classic midnight "knock on the door" of families caught growing the forbidden flower, the Santa Cruz Holy Hemp Sisters responded with fun and good humor, their insignia being a strand of artificial hemp leaves worn in the hair, as a necklace or as a waistband. To get a sense of the HHS activities, here's a recent Facebook post by LB Johnson a prominent member of that Holy Sisterhood.

 

"Seems like another lifetime... The Holy Hemp Sisters, educating about the virtues of cannabis through outreach and events, 1990s. Special thanks and gratitude to Theodora Kerry for her tireless leadership, creativity and vision. Also to Sandra Pastorius for her wisdom words and tech skills at the time.

We put on some well attended creative events, Hemp Hop Heaven, and The Hallowed Weed (Oct 31), come to mind, along with many booths at festivals and street corners. One year we had a booth at the county fair and a fundamental Christian group labeled us witches and put out a flyer using the cauldron photo that we created for the Hallowed Weed event. Teehee... we got a kick outta that!

When Theodora and I were at the Jazz Heritage Festival in New Orleans, 1991, we got the news that the HH Sisters were mentioned in an article on the front page of the Wall St Journal. That was an awesome time, the good ol' days."

 

LB Johnson at the Seabright Beach Holy Hemp Sisters gathering

 Some time in the '90s I attended a Holy Hemp Sisters gathering on Seabright Beach just north of the Santa Cruz Yacht Harbor. As the festivities were taking shape I decided to break from the group and walk along the ocean towards the Yacht Harbor. I was barefoot and enjoying the sensation of cold water washing over my feet as I walked along the shore.

As I was enjoying my salt-water foot bath, I noticed a beautiful woman in a long flowered skirt walking towards me from the opposite direction, a woman whom I surmised had nothing to do with the Hemp celebration. Then just as this woman approached within a yard of me, a larger than usual wavelet swept across the sand. The woman instinctively raised her long skirt out of reach of the water, affording a quick glimpse of her lovely legs just above above the knees. As we passed each another going our separate ways, I smiled at this accidental little erotic gift at the edge of the Pacific Ocean.

i had not waded more than a few yards past this raised hem line encounter when I noticed, scratched in the sand in two-inch-high block letters, the following message, just seconds before it was erased by the incoming tide: WILL YOU MARRY ME? it said. Then the next wave swept the message away. Perhaps, I reasoned (my mind inclined to think in mythological terms by the cannabis molecules I had previously inhaled) the first encounter had signaled the presence of my Muse; while the second encounter showed me Her message. (Thank you, Sophia!) Which message I was eventually able to expand into this:

THE MAN WHO MARRIED THE SEA

 

Will you marry me? said the sea

Will you take my name?

Yes I will, I answered back

And to the sea I came.

 

Will you marry me? said the sea

Will you be my fiancée?

I've spread myself beneath the moon

In kelp and coral lingerie.

 

Will you marry my estuary?

Will you copulate with my slough?

Do you take my foamy white breakers?

I will, said I, and I do.

 

But would you dare to wed the sea?

We practice deep polygamy

So He, She, It would marry thee

And no one ever leaves the sea.

 

Will you marry me? said the sea

Will you share my deep salty life?

Would you be the sea's newest husband?

Would you be the ocean's next wife?

 

Will you marry me? said the sea.

Would you offer me your heart?

Why get married? my heart replied

I've belonged to the sea from the Start.

 

Nick, amazed by the Muse

Sex Manual

Nick Herbert, Quantum Tantric Philosopher

 As long as I've known him, my friend Alan Lundell has always carried a video camera on his person to record a kind of visual diary of the many events he originated or participated in from numerous Burning Mans, to lots of private parties, to lifting weights at the gym, to backstage celebrity scenes. So ubiquitous is Alan's camera that the word in philosophy circles became this: if a tree falls in the forest, and Alan doesn't video it, then that tree never fell.

One of the events that Alan happened to memorialize was the Boulder Creek Bistroscene where for ten or fifteen years, crazy poets came out of the woods to share their outpourings with one another and with an enthusiastic audience. Al managed to video a number of these gatherings and so convey on them a concrete reality they otherwise would never possess.

I recently ran across one of these Lundell-memorialized events on my computer while searching for something else. This one is myself reading a recipe for the best possible sex.

Thank you, Alan Lundell, for recording this historic event.

Here's how it goes:

SEX MANUAL

Love is the best lubricant

Mind the best sex toy

Darkness the best light

Spirit the hottest erogenous zone

Smell is the best sex drug

Eye-play the warmest caress

Touch the best language

Taste the most intimate gesture

Silence the best music

Desire the best teacher

Yes, naked desire is the best teacher

And silence the best music

Taste the most intimate gesture

Touch the best language

Eye-play the warmest caress

Smell the best sex drug

Spirit the hottest erogenous zone

Darkness the best light

Mind is the best sex toy

Love is the best lubricant.

Nick Herbert: The Lex Files Interview

,

Lex Pelger, Summer 2017

 

Lex Pelger is a longtime explorer of forbidden medicine, outlawed sacraments and unconventional behavior, both as chronicler and participant. I first met Lex in 2017 at Bruce Damer's Digibarn in Boulder Creek where he was researching a section of Damer's Timothy Leary archives. Recently he's created his own Lex Files, a series of audio (and now video) interviews with persons working at the edge that have attracted his interest. Lex began this project in January 2020 and has since produced nearly 50 high quality interviews with a variety of individuals which include Britta Love on Sex as a Psychedelic (#11), Erik Davis on UFOs as Spiritual Objects (#16), Mike Crowley on The Psychedelic Roots of Buddhism (#30), Jeffrey Kripal on Mysticism, the Supernormal and Books from the Future (#34), Harald Atmanspacker on The Mind/Matter Problem (#48) and, most recently, Nick Herbert on The Poetry of Quantum Reality (#49).

The Lex Files: Season Finale: The Poetry of Quantum Reality with Dr. Nick Herbert 

 

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHir4Hvjdow

 

Audio: https://directory.libsyn.com/episode/index/id/19524485 

Dr. Nick Herbert is one of the original bad boys of quantum physics. He's written one of the most readable textbooks on quantum reality and is featured as a countercultural hero in David Kaiser's book: How the Hippies Saved Physics. Today he explains quantum reality, quantum tantra, and his pursuit of the riddles of consciousness. He also performs his quantum poetry and explains some of the history behind Kaiser's book. It's a grand talk with a marvelous old wizard -- and the ideal way to end our second season.

 

Nick Herbert, seeking inspiration

Color Lines

Fractal-prism Bubbles by Tammy Wetzel

 COLOR LINES

 

If you can choose your gender 

Why can't I choose my race?

When asked about ethnicity

I''m everywhere in color space.

 

I'm just as red as any Russian

And sometimes, Miles, I'm kinda blue

My grandsire killed in Ohio coal mine

I'm just as anthracite as you.

 

My ancestor's the famous Green Man

Striding through some Irish bog

My uncle's the Jolly Green Giant

I'm cousin to Kermit the Frog.

 

No color is to me unbeautiful

I'm your rainbow troubadour

Call me Homo spectral  

Hear me roar!