If you were born in 1980 you will be hitting 40 in 2020. Generally speaking, this is the age of full ripeness for most women and a few men (who usually take a while longer to fully mature, say around 44). In effect, yours is the generation that will spearhead the radical changes necessary as we quantum shift into a whole new spiral of evolution.
Beginning in the mid-1960s many advanced souls began incarnating on this planet - eager to either help with a tumultuous transition between zodiacal ages and frequency zones, or to witness what some say is an incredibly rare cosmic event, the mass awakening of an entire species within a two or three generation span.
At first, these evolutionary agents passed unnoticed, and many chose to arrive as the Flower Power era was peaking; and, for sure, a large number were conceived by parents who had themselves undergone a significant psycho-spiritual shift - whether through rediscovering ancient meditation techniques or through exposure to psychotropic and entheogenic drugs like marijuana, mescaline, peyote, psilocybin mushrooms and LSD.
In the 1980s, the term "indigo children" began to circulate as a description of these incoming souls - initially within New Age and esoteric circles, then gradually finding its way into the mainstream. Much has been speculated about this phenomenon, none of it definitive, but this paragraph I found in Wikipedia serves nicely as a brief summary:
Descriptions of indigo children include the belief that they are empathetic, curious, strong-willed, independent, and often perceived by friends and family as being strange; possess a clear sense of self-definition and purpose; and also exhibit a strong inclination towards spiritual matters from early childhood. Indigo children have also been described as having a strong feeling of entitlement, or "deserving to be here." Other alleged traits include a high intelligence quotient, an inherent intuitive ability, and resistance to authority. According to Jan Tober and Lee Carroll, indigo children function poorly in conventional schools due to their rejection of (fake) authority, being smarter than their teachers, and a lack of response to guilt-, fear- or manipulation-based discipline. [Source: Wikipedia]
I have chosen the year 1980 as a hypothetical turning point when the number of incoming "indigo children" began to reach a critical mass. Prior to that, of course, there were many who fit the general description of "indigo child" (and I'm inclined to include myself as one of the forerunners of this mutant breed of human beings). Perhaps even as far back as 500 B.C. there were already a handful of indigos appearing in our midst: somebody like Socrates or Prince Siddhartha, to name but two prominent examples, most certainly would have been exceptions to every established rule in their day. (In the Malaysian context, I would classify strong-minded moral warriors like the late Irene Fernandez and Ambiga Sreenevasan as early Indigo incarnations.)
A large number of the indigo wave that came in during the mid-1960s might have found themselves smashed to smithereens against the jagged reefs of societal miscomprehension - many ending up as junkies, jailbirds, sociopaths and psychotics. In America, the indigo child was often misdiagnosed with some fictitious disease called Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD) and prescribed zombifying drugs like Ritalin. Sadly, some of these kids subsequently turned into serial killers (ref. the shocking 1999 Columbine High School and 2007 Virginia Tech massacres).
Nurul Izzah Anwar, future prime minister?
Well, I would like to believe that the Indigos who arrived after 1980 have another significant attribute - Christ-like compassion and unity consciousness, meaning the capacity to feel and express universal love. That's why they have been dubbed "Indigo Crystals." Indigo Crystals are also known for their fearlessness and deeply ingrained sense of natural justice. A classic example of an Indigo Crystal would be Nurul Izzah Anwar (born 19 November 1980).
2020 is the year of the Indigo-Crystal-Rainbow Child!
Starseed KeRa (Christy Tice) and her amazing Indigo-Crystal-Rainbow son, Akyuna Akish
I sense that very vividly, after encountering a great many young people ranging in age from 15 to 40. They may appear outwardly unmotivated, even a bit lost, but they all have a powerful core of empathy, compassion and a deep commitment to doing whatever they can to heal the emotional cancer that has brought humanity to the edge of self-destructive inhumanity.
These mutant young humans grew up in the digital age, many of them computer literate by the time they entered school or in their early teens. They are the generation of internet savvy, plugged-in youth that claimed Facebook, then Instagram, as their own preferred means of communication and took to Twitter like a flock of chattering birds. They are the ones inspired by movies like The Matrix, V for Vendetta, or Avatar. They are the ones you see wearing yellow, mocking false authority, and demanding regime change. They are equally at home in virtual as well as actual reality and are capable, not only of multitasking, but also of multidimensional consciousness.
Freedom fighter in Tahrir Square, Cairo, January 2011
They have access to far more information at their fingertips than all previous generations of humans - thanks to search engines like Google and online databases like Wikipedia. They also have access to YouTube - one of the greatest ideas since Web 2.0 was launched.
Hugo Farrant, visionary rapper
This is the generation that will end artificial barriers and boundaries; that will refuse to be categorized by race, skin color, and religion - and, if they had their way, even national identities will swiftly become irrelevant, as they become planetary nomads - relocating to wherever their hearts lead them. Truly, this phenomenon has long been prophesied in indigenous legend as the advent of the Rainbow Tribes on Earth.
As we embark on yet another bumpy orbit of the Sun, I feel a profound gratitude that "changing the world" is no longer one of my life missions - I gleefully pass the scepter of power to these Indigo Crystal Rainbow warriors, for the 21st century is theirs to claim and reshape.
The best thing any parent or grandparent can do is to quickly recognize that the youngsters are capable of far greater understanding than all their ancestors put together. Don't stifle their imaginations - for that is the one ingredient dangerously lacking in the previous generations, the ability to imagine heaven on earth; and to invent technologies that benefit and liberate, rather then despoil and enslave.
The preceding generations have bequeathed to these Indigo Crystal rainbow starseeds a very bleak prospect indeed - a planet in the grip of massive eco-apocalypse, poisoned and ideologically fragmented - constantly on the brink of mutual assured destruction - with more and more species becoming extinct by the month, and ugly rumors of population culling as the only way to solve all our self-created problems.
Let the old ways be fondly remembered, carefully preserved in public archives and museums - but let them no longer be an obstacle to radical transformations of the human soulscape. What may have served our forefathers no longer serve our grandchildren.
The second MAGICKAL MYSTERY MASTERCLASS for 2019 has been scheduled for 20-22 September (with an optional free day on the 23rd for those who opt to stay back and integrate the experience). Star Commander Darien Nagle will join us on Sunday with a demonstration on how to clear your chakras and enhance your ability to manifest your desires.
Why am I facilitating these Masterclasses, you might wonder (as I occasionally do myself)? It's very simple, really. There is absolutely nothing wrong with the Reality Spectrum each of us accesses - the problem lies with the negative, disempowering programming ALL of us have been subjected to from birth (and even prior to our arrival via our parents' acquired and inherited baggage). With a tiny bit of effort – but, most importantly, the conscious decision to reclaim our individual destinies and debug our operating systems - we can begin to expand our awareness and truly enjoy being alive at this unprecedentedly exciting juncture of human evolution - instead of being a passive consumer of prepackaged truth, habituated to moaning and groaning about how fucked-up everything appears to be.
The Upper Deck of The Fusion Longhouse has witnessed a great many Reality Shifts!
Truth be told, a single weekend doesn't allow us much time to unravel an entire lifetime (or many lifetimes) of confusion, perplexity and systematic indoctrination. In the old days, an undertaking of this nature could stretch over 25 years or more (much of it spent on ascetic practices and osmotic absorption of cellular wisdom from some venerable sage). But we are, for better or worse, living in the Digital Era, where compression (and decompression) technology has made it possible to pack several lifetimes of experience into a painless weekend (with healthy and tasty meals thrown in).
And while it's true that an entire week would be far more intensive and comprehensive, that's a luxury few of us can afford. Most of us (including myself) are bound by domestic and professional commitments that make setting aside an entire week extremely difficult, except under exceptional circumstances. So we must do what we can within the confines an extended weekend.
MOVING BEYOND DOUBT AND FAITH INTO DIRECT INNER KNOWING
"Core Essence" by Ravin Sikander (acrylic on canvas 3' x 5')
In the brief but intensely compressed space of a single weekend you will experience full body-mind-soul immersion within a transformational vortex, a safe nonjudgmental space in which you can release and transmute societally ingrained beliefs and behaviors - especially those involving your own sexuality. This is an opportunity to integrate fresh inputs that will support your liberation from enslavement to an illusory system called The 3D Matrix.
You will begin to reclaim your unique individual sovereignty, molecular integrity and innate nobility - perhaps even befriend your own shadow self (your “Mr Hyde” side) - and reconnect with your core essence as a constantly evolving, wholeheartedly loving, human animal with a dynamic mix of diabolical and divine potentialities.
I co-facilitated the first MAGICKAL MYSTERY MASTERCLASS @ The Fusion Longhouse with Star Commander Darien Nagle in March 2019. The maximum intake was 10 participants and we actually had 9, but 3 canceled, leaving 6, which turned out to be just the right number (at least for that particular episode). Here are excerpts from the encouraging feedback we received from The Intrepid Fusion Timeship Crew (that's what I call the courageous humans who signed up for our maiden Masterclass):
"Keep up the good work. It’s very enlightening and mind boggling. More people should experience and hear about it. Great for networking with likeminded people. Great environment. Good food and unique accommodation with views upstairs where the cat also keeps you company at night. I had a great time. Thanks for making it memorable! 👍🏻👍🏻😬" ~ Roger Young
"Thank you again to Antares, Darien and all my fellow Crew members for a life-changing and enriching weekend. I'm keen to see which new frontiers this Ship will go to!" ~ Lukas Angelo Yap
"It was fun! The river magick! And fellow Timeship passengers joyous company 😘😘😘 and non-stop awesome great meals from the chef supremo Emanar! 🙏😘" ~ Lim Hean Beng
"After being in quite a few workshops and classes of the spiritual kind, I found that I was most nervous about this one but only because I knew in my heart there would be a significant shift when I left. I have to say my nervousness was arrested when I met everyone. I have never felt at ease quite so quickly as I have with everyone in this group including the teachers. I feel put back together and this is the shift I needed. So Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you from my heart ❤ I would also like to acknowledge Emanar for holding the space for all of us with her nurturing nature and feeding us with love. I am grateful to have had her with us." ~ Dawn Marie Ng
View of misty hills from the front deck of The Fusion Longhouse
"Dear Magickal Mystery Teachers (& Fellow Crew Members): I thank you from the bottom of my heart for an “out-of-this-world” class which is a huge milestone marker in my life. I learned new information & new practices that I can take home. I also appreciated the personalised feedback about myself & how I can move forward in my life. Most importantly, I had the opportunity to be with & observe 2 Master Teachers over a weekend & that had to be the most precious experience of all - that you are BOTH a living inspiration of what I can aspire to be. I feel honoured & humbled that I could participate." ~ A. M. Saniman
"Thanks, Darien and Antares, for the course. It was great! 👍🏻👍🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻 And I am still astounded by the uniqueness of everyone involved. Love the Fusion Longhouse design - simple, elegant, nice artistic touches. I appreciate the healthy, clean, tasty and carefully prepared food from Emanar. It's extremely rare to meet people who are aligned, that share many uncommon personal interests and such usually taboo topics, etc, so it's great to have the fellowship. The informal talks we had among the participants and with Antares and Darien, the deep sharing and personal feedback were much needed to deal with my own issues and shadows, while learning from others' journeys too was great. These informal sessions were intimate, gloriously organic and one of a kind, while being thoroughly insightful and filled with so much knowledge and wisdom. That really made the course truly special and outstanding. Ever since my journey started a year ago, I've been quietly observing and filtering many mystics and 'masters' whom I learned from a great deal. I have to honestly say that Antares is really up there among the wisest, definitely the wisest I've ever had the chance and honour to meet." ~ Yik Boon Tan
NOTE: Passengers on The Fusion Timeship are limited to TEN only. Download the e-brochure and registration form by clicking on the links!
Somebody pointedly asked a few days ago: WHERE IS MALAYSIA HEADING? My response is: if Umno/BN continue to hog the political stage (not to mention the public purse and the police force), we're headed straight for unmitigated disaster.
Rather than waste more energy whacking those scaly-skinned troglodytes (or tempurung dwellers) who cling like overfed, bloated ticks to power, I decided to start jotting down my thoughts on where I'd like to see this country headed.
It's going to be a many-layered, multidimensional, non-linear exercise in visionary thinking and there's no way I can cover sufficient ground with just one blogpost. So I'll make this the first of a series, to be written and uploaded as and when inspiration strikes. In between I shall be posting other material, including other people's work, whenever I stumble upon something that says more or less what's on my mind.
The most essential human quality that's grotesquely lacking in Malaysia (indeed, the whole world) appears to be HONESTY.
We would like our public servants to be honest - whether they happen to be a minister, an office clerk, or just a police constable. But how honest are we? I mean, really...
I have dear friends who are for the most part truly decent folk and as honest as humanly possible - yet they conceal trivial things from their parents.
One, for instance, has never smoked in front of his parents - though he's been a regular smoker for more than 40 years. Other friends never once revealed their own sexual preferences to their parents for fear of shocking them. So the old folks died wondering why their offspring never reproduced.
A few other friends confessed that their parents don't know they're actually cohabiting with their boyfriends. I had a friend once who dated a guy for five years before finding out the fellow was already married with 3 or 4 kids. She immediately ditched him and married a man of dubious character who already had two or three other wives - but that's a whole different story.
I've made a lifelong study of why humans become dishonest and the conclusion I've reached is extremely straightforward: Humans lie mostly to avoid punishment - or to save others from pain.
The only way we can unlearn this deeply ingrained survival mechanism is to disinvent the punitive god who punishes the disobedient (or mutinous) and rewards the docile (or hypocritical).
Imagine, instead, a completely simpatico deity who's more like a trusted confidant(e). One who is totally aware of your little quirks and shortcomings - and loves you all the same without harsh judgment. Such an intimate friend can be relied upon to stick with you through thick and thin. However, if you abuse this trust by doing something terribly stupid and shortsighted - let's say you cheat this dear friend or tell ugly untruths about him or her - the only consequence would be the loss, temporary or permanent, of your cherished friendship, and that would be punishment enough.
There are specific instances when being honest is countersurvival and universal laws are supended: for instance, if you're traveling in a train and bandits come aboard to rob the passengers. You wouldn't be labeled "dishonest" if you failed to hand over the diamonds hidden inside your boots. Nor would you be required to reveal to the bandits that you just saw your traveling companion stuff a thick wad of currency notes inside her brassiere.
In effect, the more accommodating our fellow humans become, the more likely we are to become truly honest.
Here are some imaginary scenarios that graphically illustrate the tremendous benefits of rejecting and disabling the punitive deity program hardwired in our DNA from countless generations of hand-me-down erroneous data.
Let's say your 16-year-old daughter goes to a friend's birthday party. She's supposed to come home before midnight but doesn't show up till way past two in the morning. As a worried father, the programmed response would be to interrogate her sternly and demand to know where she has been and what she has been doing and with whom. What if your daughter is innately honest and simply says: "I know I was supposed to get back at midnight, dad, I'm sorry to be so late. But I met a really goodlooking guy named Joe, he's about 20, and he suggested I go for a drive in his new car. We had such a great time talking and looking at the stars from the hilltop, neither of us remembered to look at our watches. Suddenly it was 2:00AM and he drove like the wind to deliver me safely back to my doorstep. He told me to apologize to my parents on his behalf for bringing me home so late, and he would really like to take me out again next Friday."
An enlightened father would take a deep breath, sigh, and smile. He might mutter: "Well, you got me really worried, you know. Next time you do something like this, at least send me an SMS before turning off your cellphone!" It's always a shock to realize your baby has grown up, and is ready to do adult things.
However, an unenlightened father would slap his daughter around and threaten her with the wrath of god, thereby forcing her to become a compulsive liar and a sneak. You can bet your last dollar all the lying politicians in our midst had fathers who were in the habit of slapping, caning or humiliating them for every minor transgression.
Let's see how problems easily resolve themselves as soon as HONESTY is brought to bear on the issue...
The biggest problem I can think of right now is that Malaysia is saddled with a crime minister instead of a prime minister.
Allow me to take on for a moment the role of God (I've had lots of practice and it comes natural to me). One morning, the crime minister gets up after a sleepless night in a cold sweat and decides to pray to me. Because I can sense he is sincere in pleading for some sound advice, I decide to manifest in human form in his bedroom.
The crime minister is stunned. "Dear G-g-g-god," he stutters. "Forgive me, please forgive me for never having actually believed in you... till NOW!"
"It's okay, Pink Lips, you aren't the only one!" I chuckle benignly, patting him on his bald pate. "If I had a dollar for every human who only pretends to believe in me, I'd be billionaire several times over. Not that I'd know what to do with all that cash."
The crime minister is silent and contrite. Obviously, he's unaccustomed to conversing with God.
"So... what's the problem, kiddo?" I enquire gently, though I already know what's troubling the poor rascal.
"I-I-I... I've been a very b=b-b-bad boy," he begins. "Done so many terrible things. I know I'm not f-f-f-fit to be leader of this country...."
"Well, it's a good start you're admitting to this. Where's that witchy wife of yours?"
"Oh, er... she's... she's in the bathroom.... stomach upset... be out in a minute, I think."
"Well, let's wait for her," I suggest, "since the worst of your really serious problems began when you met and mated with her."
The crime minister's wife emerges from the bathroom and screams.
"Who the hell is that?" she quizzes her trembling spouse more in anger than in shock.
"Er... er... you won't believe this, honey... but it's God... it's really God! I asked for help... but didn't expect him to show up so soon!"
"We don't need his help!" the witchy wife shrieks. "Tell him to leave at once or we'll get Khalid to deal with him!"
"I don't know how he can live with someone as uncouth as you," I say quietly.
"Listen, you!" the witch shrills, approaching me with her chubby arms akimbo. "Shut the fuck up, bitch, and plonk your fat arse on the bed... right now!" I order.
Her eyes widen in horror and for a moment she is struck dumb. Whimpering audibly, she obeys, casting an anxious glance at her husband who, at this moment, does not at all resemble a real crime minister. Indeed, he looks just like a fat choir boy who's been caught wanking behind the altar.
[to be continued... first posted 12 April 2009, reposted 12 April 2013]
Thanks to digital tech and YouTube, indie bands the world over (including Malaysia) can now create funky music videos on hardly any budget and still reach a global audience. I found these well crafted music videos produced by the MTV generation invigorating and very watchable. You're doing a great job of claiming your planet, all of you!
[Cheers, Free Malaysia Today, for alerting me to these cool vids! First posted 8 June 2012, reposted 17 April 2015]
May I? - KEVIN AYERS & THE WHOLE WORLD (featuring Mike Oldfield on bass and Lol Coxhill on soprano sax)
Way back in 1971 or thereabouts I found an LP called Shooting at the Moon by Kevin Ayers and the Whole World. It was in the cheap bin (I remember paying something like 5 bucks for it!). When I put the record on back home, I was immediately hooked on Ayers' totally laid-back, basso profundo singing style, especially on a song called "May I?" A couple of hours ago I stumbled on this video clip on YouTube, featuring the original Kevin Ayers and the Whole World line-up, including the legendary Mike Oldfield on bass, and Lol Coxhill on soprano sax. Treasure to share!
I figure not too many are familiar with this great singer-songwriter who was truly a pioneer in his day, forming mythical bands like Soft Machine and hanging out with the likes of Daevid Allen of Gong. So here's an interview with Kevin Ayers I unearthed, slightly dated but it gives a pretty good overview of the man's work.
THE KEVIN AYERS INTERVIEW
by Jimmy James (May 1998)
As bassist, frequent songwriter, and occasional vocalist in the original Soft Machine, Kevin Ayers was a key force in early British psychedelia and progressive rock. In just two years the group had evolved from the goofy, effervescent psychedelic pop of their 1967 debut single "Love Makes Sweet Music"/"Feelin' Reelin' Squealin'" to the dada jazz-rock minimalism of Ayers' infamous "We Did It Again." After the Soft Machine opened for the Jimi Hendrix Experience across the States in 1968 and recorded their first studio album, Ayers left the group to establish a long-running solo career with more pop-oriented material, delivered in a witty, near-bass profundo voice.
On most of his albums he explored the little-trod midpoint between weird pop and the most accessible, humorous face of prog-rock, crafting bouncy songs of indolence and whimsy that often tapped island rhythms. Leading British experimental musicians like Lol Coxhill, David Bedford, and a pre-Tubular Bells Mike Oldfield passed through his band while he veered between sunnier variations of Syd Barrett and dissonant experimental jams. He never did land a hit album or single in Britain, despite issuing numerous LPs on Harvest, and in the US he was a definitive '70s cult artist. He's only recorded sporadically in the 1980s and 1990s, with his more recent efforts even harder to locate in the import bins than his early solo material.
Now 63, Ayers made a rare visit to the States to play a few gigs in California in May 1998. Backed by the SF band Mushroom at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco, he was in merry form as he went through a set of some of his more well-known vintage tunes, such as "Lady Rachel," "Stranger in Blue Suede Shoes," as well as the Soft Machine cuts "Why Are We Sleeping?" and "Save Yourself." Before soundcheck he found a few minutes to talk about the Canterbury scene with a few local fans and writers.
Q: What was unique about the Canterbury scene?
KA: Mike Ratledge from the Soft Machine had a degree in Oxford University in philosophy at 22. I mean, he won a scholarship and then said, fuck that, I'm going to play the organ. This was unique in pop. You don't find many people with honor degrees playing pop, even from that kind of literary background. Normally it was sort of art school. England is so defined, the class system, your education. I think what was unique about the Canterbury scene...these were all middle-class kids from literary backgrounds, joining this sort of train going by, this pop train, jumping on. Whereas the rest of the rock scene, you'll find that there's mostly working-class people.
Q: Did you have a similar kind of literary upbringing to Robert Wyatt?
KA: Not from my parents, no. Robert had his from his parents, 'cause his parents were middle-class intellectuals. I was brought up in Malaya. But that is the difference, that this was the first time that anybody from the middle class, well-educated, joined the pop scene. This was comfortable kids who went to university.
Q: I'm surprised you call it pop.
KA: Well, I don't know, what else would you call it? Plop? (laughs) The whole thing about Soft Machine was that it had all these people from, as I said, middle-class literary educated backgrounds, suddenly going "fuck it, I'm not going to join med school, I'm not going to become a lawyer or a doctor. I'm not going to be a professional." And this hadn't happened anywhere else in pop. That's why the Canterbury scene was unique, because that is what happened there.
Q: You started off in the Wilde Flowers, then you showed up in Majorca to find Daevid Allen to put the band together. What made you go find him?
KA: Daevid Allen was the first hippie that I'd met. He was straight out of the beat scene, and he was very convincing (laughs). He read a lot. He was articulate. He turned us on, Robert and me and Mike, to all this - especially American - beat literature. And we suddenly thought, wow...you have to imagine, just out of an English private school, and suddenly you get this sort of exotic person coming through, who says, "fuck this, fuck that. Smoke pot, read this." He actually had something to say, he actually had a viewpoint. I suppose everybody else had no idea. All these people just came out of school, sort of wandering around in the job market, "what do I do now"- suddenly Daevid Allen's going, "Smoke pot now, peace love and fuck your neighbor." That was something. As opposed to nothing.
Q: Is that hippie ethic something that still motivates you?
KA: I think that the basic philosophy was very good. It was just be nice to each other, and don't step on other people's toes and infringe on their freedom. I think that's still valid. It just made sense, especially when... I keep talking to you about English schools. Unless you've been to one, you have no idea how bad they are. I mean, you just would not believe them. You only start learning when you leave school.
Q: The Soft Machine had a whimsical feel. Was that influenced by your literary background?
KA: We just had different references. We had literary references, so we knew what we were talking about. We could quote things, talk about books we'd read; you can say something, you don't have to explain it. If you have the same background, it doesn't matter which school you've been to, if you've read the books, have the knowledge, and you have the intellectual curiosity, you can talk to anybody who has the same thing, and you know what you're talking about. So you relate that way.
The music we made then was so amateurish, compared to the rest of mainstream pop or rock and roll. But what differentiated us from what everybody else was doing in the business was the fact that you could tell that these people came from different reference areas. They'd read different books. So we actually got away with making a lot of crap. I don't mean crap - I mean that it wasn't professionally as good as what other people were doing. Other people had much better sound, and they had good producers. We worked alongside the Pink Floyd, we played gigs together, and we suddenly saw them go, whooosh!! with huge sales. But we were just dancing in the dark. There were groundbreaking ideas, musically and intellectually. Post-war generation asking serious questions.
Q: When you made your first solo record, you were obviously still on good terms with the Soft Machine, since they play on a lot of it.
KA: It was family for me - the only family I knew. We all lived together in one house.
Q: When you went solo, was it because you wanted to play and write different material than what the Soft Machine were doing on their first album?
KA: Soft Machine were going more in the direction of fusion jazz and I didn't like that. They were going more in the direction of jazz, which didn't interest me. I was strictly pop. They were into what I consider really to be incredibly self-indulgent music. It's stuff you play for yourself, and "fuck the audience."
Q: What about playing "We Did It Again" for half an hour for Brigitte Bardot?
KA: That's a serious statement. I think she said to get those wankers off or something.
Q: In an interview you said all your songs, except for a few romantic ones, were pataphysical. Where did you come across pataphysics?
KA: I think that was just a literary thing. The fact that you actually string a few sentences together was important in those days. Soft Machine became famous in France before anything else happened. They adopted us. The French like arty things, they like something a little bit different. In fact, what made Soft Machine was an article in Nouvelle Observateur, which at that time was a very... in those days, things like Melody Maker and NME, it mattered then. If someone wrote something about you, it could make or break you. Now it doesn't matter at all. We got written up, I think, 'cause Mike was fucking the journalist, actually. So we got a good review, and that was it. Suddenly France just opened up. We were the darlings of the literary scene there.
Q: Who were your main literary or formative influences?
KA: Philosophically, the only person that influenced me was Gurdjieff. What he said made sense to me. What I really liked about him was, he was a total charlatan. He didn't make any bones about it. His thing was that you cannot present the truth to people in simple form. You have to elaborate. Otherwise they're not interested. Did you ever read his book? It's just bullshit, absolute bullshit. But he says, you have to write 100 pages to say one sentence, to make it interesting for people. Otherwise they won't accept it as real. You have to say a lot in order to get a little across.
Q: Are you still inspired by things like that when you write?
KA: It's still there. I mean, I still think he was absolutely right. His two premises were, you have to say a lot to get a little across. you have to excite people. The other thing was, we're only working at five percent of our potential, which made total sense. What I loved about him... he came to America, you know, and he was very good at raising money. One of the things he did here was, he was in New York, he invited a bunch of people, saying, "this is the time of your life." And he made them have sex, and charged them a lot of money for it. And they were saying, "Wow, thank you, this is the best night of our lives." He just talked dirty to them, so they all had sex with each other and [said] "wow, this is so good," and they gave him thousands of dollars. What he did was say, "Look, this is what you really want to do. I'll organize it. Just give me the money."
Q: When do you think you most fully realized your own potential with your music?
KA: I don't think I can answer that. It's hypothetical, one will never know. I mean, some days you wake up and you think, Jesus, I could be a really good comedian. Then half an hour later, you forget the idea. People who really want to make money in this world make it. You have to have tunnel vision. You have to say, this is what I want to do. I believe that. If you wanted to make money, you would make it.
Don't you ever wake up in the morning and think, geez, I could really do with a lot of money? You think, I have a brain, I could use it, I could actually do this, I could play the stock market, I could be a televangelist or something. You could actually do it if you really wanted to do it. But you would have to really want to it. So basically you wake up in the morning and say, "oh, I don't really want to do anything."
Q: Is commercial success something you still aspire towards?
KA: No no no. It's all been a total fluke. I would have liked to have made more money, 'cause I think everybody has a creative period, normally between about 19 and 30. That is the time when you have to establish yourself in life. If you haven't made it by the time you're thirty, you never will, basically. Okay, forty (laughs). If you wind up forty and you don't have a house and a car and life insurance and health insurance, you know, you're fucked.
Q: Was it frustrating for you not to have much success in the States?
KA: I didn't really have that much exposure here. It would have been good. Basically the idea is to make a bunch of money with the creative talents you have before you're forty. I'm not answering your question, am I? This is the underlying thing, this is what is behind it. Whatever it takes, whether it's America or Holland, I don't know, it doesn't matter. You have a certain window in your life where you're intellectually curious, you have energy, and you're not blase, and you're not tired of life. That's when you have to do it. That still doesn't answer your question. It does, actually, really.
Q: You're talking about hitting thirty - were you conscious of the British underground that had started around '67 losing momentum around that time?
KA: You only become conscious of things that you have things to compare them to. You can't make assessments if you don't have something to compare them to. I think that what happened with post-war society - suddenly young people were going, we don't like what our parents are doing. We don't like war. The war was over, people had money, and they had time. It was like a one-off. My youngest daughter says to me, geez dad, I wish I'd lived in the sixties. I know what she means, because there was a whole bunch of stuff happening. People were pre-video and people read books in those days, and talked to each other. It was a unique time. In fact, if you check the history of human beings, you'll find it's the only time that young people ever got up and had any effect at all. What happened was that the establishment moved in and discredited them - "they're hippies, they don't wash, they smoke pot." But there were huge advances in human rights and basic freedoms. It never happened in the history of man, never.
Q: Are you going to do more stuff with the people you worked with in the Canterbury scene?
KA: No.
Q: Do you communicate with them?
KA: No, I don't know where they are these days. It's very sad, 'cause we were very close to start with. That's okay, it happens to the best of lovers.
Kevin Ayers, an influential musician in the Sixties psychedelic scene, has died aged 68. The English singer-songwriter was found dead at his home, where he lived alone, in the South of France around lunchtime on Tuesday by a neighbor. It is thought he died on February 18, 2013.
Bernard MacMahon, from Ayers's record label Lo-Max Records, told the Telegraph that the musician had not been ill, but had "lived a rock'n'roll lifestyle." A note was found by his bed which said, “You can’t shine if you don’t burn.”
MacMahon said that Ayers was “the ultimate product of the Sixties generation,” and that he was a “proper artist,” not motivated by the prospect of fame, but by a “turmoil to create something he was happy with”.
Ayers founded Soft Machine and played early gigs with Syd Barrett's band Pink Floyd in the Sixties, paving the way for a wave of psychedelic pop music. Soft Machine's self-titled debut album is considered a psychedelic classic, and music critic Nick Kent said that Ayers and Barrett "were the two most important people in British Pop music. Everything that came after came from them."
When Jimi Hendrix moved to London in 1968 he became good friends with Ayers. Hendrix encouraged Ayers to write music, giving him a Gibson guitar to do so, and the two musicians toured America together that year.
In 1970, Soft Machine made history by being the first band invited to play at the Proms. Ayers’s first solo album, Joy of the Toy, was very influential for future rock bands Sonic Youth and Teenage Fanclub. He went on to write music with Brian Eno and Elton John, before retiring for 15 years in the 1990s, when he moved to the South of France. In 2007, Ayers released critically acclaimed album The Unfairground, but was reluctant to perform.
Hall of Fame Speaker, Virtuoso Guitarist and Comedian, Mike Rayburn performs his hilarious, motivational "What If?" keynote. Setting big goals, peak performance; opening or closing events, churches, theaters - mailto:mike@mikerayburn.com
[Brought to my delighted attention by Hock Soh. First posted 15 August 2014]
The children of the Establishment tackle some difficult issues.
IN the strident and unnecessarily unpleasant debate over the concept of ketuanan Melayu and the Malay community’s political future, the quiet voices of urban middle-class Malays have yet to make themselves heard.
As a partial corrective, I spoke to several members of a tribe that, while small in number, is intriguing from a social anthropology perspective.
The Malays of the anak Datuk class – the children of senior civil servants and technocrats whose parents’ careers in public service predated the Mahathir era – are interesting in that their values and ideas about Malaysia must have been formed at least in part by their families’ experiences of nation building.
As their parents made the country, it stands to reason that they would have a considerable emotional stake in how it develops in the future.
Even within this rarefied sub-caste of children of the Establishment who are not themselves involved in politics, however, their feelings about ketuanan Melayu show a marked diversity.
Fahmi Fadzil, 27, is a writer and performer. He is the son of Datuk Fadzil Yunus, the former director-general – and later general manager – of the Felda group of companies, and Datin Fauziah Ramly, a senior civil servant who was most recently a Commissioner with the Public Service Commission.
I asked him what he makes of the concept of ketuanan Melayu.
“I never grew up thinking about it very much. My parents never spoke to me about it. Even when I was in college the whole matter was never really present in how I saw things.
“I think because I live in KL – and especially because my parents came from that group of earlier middle class Malay civil servants – I don’t think I would subscribe to ideas of ketuanan Melayu.”
But does he subscribe in any way to the idea that the Malays are the natural leaders – or in some way the owners – of Malaysia?
“No. On my father’s side I’m the fourth generation born on this peninsula, on my mother’s side just the third generation, so I see myself as a pendatang too. I don’t subscribe to the idea of a natural leadership role for the Malays.
“More than that, as a Muslim, I don’t see the need for this. There is no such thing as one group being ethnically superior to another.
“The thing I remember most from school, from kelas agama, (is that) from the early days of Islam there was a clear message that you were all the same. Whether you were Arabs or not, you are all the same now.
“We should be talking about values and principles held by people rather than subscribing to simplistic ideas of certain ethnicities being the owners of the land. I don’t subscribe to that, and even if I did, I think the rightful owners would be the Orang Asal.”
Datuk Zahim Albakri, 45, the director and actor, is the son of Datuk Ikmal Hisham Albakri, the first Malay architect and the first President of Pertubuhan Akitek Malaysia, who designed the National Library, Putra World Trade Centre, and the Bank Bumiputera headquarters in KL.
Zahim’s grandfather, Datuk Seri Mustafa Albakri, of the Malayan Civil Service, was the first Commissioner of the Election Commission and the first Keeper of the Ruler’s Seal.
For Zahim, coming to grips with the concept of ketuanan Melayu means dispelling ambiguity: “There seems to be a confusion between the bumiputera policy (the New Economic Policy) and the idea of ketuanan Melayu. The bumiputera policy was a reaction to the riots of 1969, whereas ketuanan Melayu, in the Constitution, I don’t think is particularly giving special privileges or rights to the Malays, it’s to ensure that the Malay Rulers have a certain place, to ensure that those institutions continue.
“I grew up in a family where we were brought up with the understanding that the Malay rulers are there, and this is our history, our culture.
“I grew up with my granddad being proudly Malay, and proudly Orang Perak. There was this sense of being proud of our culture. But never were we made to think that being Malay gave us a right to something beyond.
“I was brought up (to believe) that every citizen in Malaysia was equal. I was never brought up believing that Malays should have more than everyone else.”
How would he feel about a non-Malay Prime Minister?
“I have no problem with a non-Malay PM. It should be about their competence. It should be the best person for the job.”
Saidah Rastam
The composer Datin Saidah Rastam comes from a family steeped in public life. Her maternal grandfather was Perak’s 14th Datuk Panglima Kinta, who held 56 public service posts at the time of his death. Her father is Datuk Rastam Hadi, the former managing director of Petronas and former deputy governor of Bank Negara. Her husband is the urbane lawyer-turned-banker Datuk Charon Mokhzani (who, with exquisite politeness, declined to be interviewed for this article).
Says Saidah, “I think the races should be treated equally and the biggest thing that makes me uneasy about the concept of ketuanan Melayu is that it’s increasingly being used in fascist ways.”
She believes that the NEP “was a necessary thing at the time, given the racial tensions, but that’s different from the concept of Malay supremacy”.
She points to the historical record: “Tun Razak said that that was only for that time, and this NEP thing would end at some point, so that’s different from the notion that there’s an inherent Malay supremacy that can’t be questioned, which I’m very uneasy with.
“I’m somebody who benefited from the policies which favoured Malays – at the outset I’m happy to admit that. But looking at things today, my personal view is that we should give everybody equal opportunities because the policies favouring Malays haven’t been used properly.
“And given that the people who are supposed to safeguard the correct implementation of the policies are the same ones who benefit from them, I’m not optimistic that those policies will be correctly implemented.”
Dain Said
Dain-Iskandar Said is a writer and film director. His father was Datuk Mohamed Said Zain, a diplomat and intelligence officer.
He sees the concept of ketuanan Melayu as “outmoded, out of step with the times we live in, when the world is becoming more and more global. The world over, people are bringing down barriers of race, yet we are trying to instill and install those outmoded values.”
In his eyes, there are many aspects to the problem. “First, what is a Malay? Most Malays I know are some kind of mix, so who defines being Malay? Who are the guardians of the definition?
“The definition of ketuanan Melayu seems to be Umno; it always seems to lead back to Umno’s agenda.
“I’m not saying that outside of it it’s not valid; it may be valid to a lot of people. I can understand that. The main problem is the way it’s implemented. The tone of it is fascistic.”
Mahathir Mohamad: the ultimate Melayu?
For him, the promotion of the tenets of ketuanan Melayu “exposes deep insecurity, because if you really believe you are leading this country, what are you so scared of? I don’t think any of the other races want to take that away from you. They can’t, because in the Constitution are enshrined certain precepts.”
Dain argues that our debate is impoverished. “While many of us middle class Malays can be liberal and open, there’s never been any kind of infrastructure that supports ideas or traditions of openness.
“So on the one hand you have people who are willing to be open and liberal, but on the other hand it is so easy to destroy it, because there is no critical, intellectual or educational infrastructure to support those ideas.
“When you attack something that has no support, it is so easy to play to the rural Malay masses, to instill that kind of fear, and make people feel extremely powerless.
“There’s no tradition of talking critically about race and identity politics. You’re almost suspended in a vacuum.”
This is a vacuum that we need to fill with the plurality and diversity of our opinions. It has always been the position of Wide Angle that Malaysia’s many problems and tensions should not be ignored; they need to be addressed by continued, forthright yet respectful debate by citizens, and the issue of ketuanan Melayu is no exception.
----- Huzir Sulaiman writes for theatre, film, television, and newspapers. [First posted 18 May 2012, reposted 11 July 2014]
"The Ancients" knew much more than given credit for regarding Life, The Universe, Astronomy, Advanced Mathematics, Magnetism, Healing, Unseen Forces, etc.
Encoded knowledge is information that is conveyed in signs and symbols and we can find this knowledge all over the world. All these ancient sightings and geometric patterns (Sacred Geometry) symbolize unseen forces at work. We are being lied to by the media. Modern archaeologists don't know what they're talking about. "The Ancients" were not stupid or primitive. We just failed to decode this knowledge conveyed in signs, symbols and ancient artwork. This kind of information is kept hidden from the public.
Scientists dont know what holds the universe together: the answer is sound and unseen forces. Matter is governed by sound frequencies. There is much more to life than we can perceive with our 5 senses. The question then becomes "Who or what governs unseen forces?" What is behind the symmetry throughout nature? (Golden Ratio, Phi, Fibonacci Sequence etc.) It simply can't be just coincidence. In my opinion there is an intelligent mind/consciousness behind all this that keeps it all together.
[Brought to my attention by Lawrence Hultberg. First posted 28 July 2012]
WHY THE SERPENT IS THE EMBLEM OF THE HOUSE OF ENKI
A long, long time ago (in a galaxy not so far away - in fact, in the Milky Way itself), there was a "rebellion" amongst the Archangelic Host, as a result of which certain Aspects of the All-Being One "separated" from Source and began an experimental evolutionary spiral which eventually led them into the Metatronic Waveform Universe (where geometric structures, i.e. forms, take on a significance of their own).
Over countless aeons, these "Sons of God" (or, rather, SUNS of God) came to be known collectively as the Hosts of Lucifer - the Most Brilliant Lieutenant of the Most High.
Anyway, to fast-forward a little.... out of these so-called Luciferic Intelligences many technically proficient races evolved, and they began to colonize and inhabit suitable planets in various star systems. As they gained mastery over the elements and ways to apply their arcane knowledge, there was a corresponding loss of ability to FEEL. Cold logic gradually replaced the warmth of love pure and simple in these worlds.
Some of these technology-using races, like the Nibiruans (who had modified an entire planet into a bionic starship) eventually found themselves with serious environmental and atmospheric problems. Of course, they came up with a scientific solution: they needed gold particles to build a radiation shield around Nibiru. Lots and lots of gold particles - which their geological surveys found in abundance on the 7th planet (counting towards the Sun from Pluto) - which they called Ki (Firm Lands). Later Ki became Ge, and then Gaia-Terra, and so on.
And so about 440,000 years ago, Anu the God-King of Nibiru despatched his quarrelsome sons Ea and Enlil to Ki - their mission was to establish a base on this mineral-rich planet and dig for precious metals. Enlil (Lord of the Winds) was in charge of the orbiting station, while Ea (Lord of the Waters) landed on Ki to begin exploring and exploiting her mineral resources. Once the first Nibiruan Earth base - Eridu - had been established, Ea became known as Enki (Lord of the Firm Lands) while Ki became identified with Eridu (Erde/Eretz/Aratha/Earth) - the Sumerian word for "cultivated land."
More Nibiruans arrived on Ki - and they became known in Sumerian as the Anunnaki (Those Who From Heaven To Ki Descended), and in Hebrew as the Nefilim (Those Who Descended From The Sky).
For 144,000 Earth Years they toiled (1 Nibiruan Year = 3,600 Earth Years, so it was actually only 40 years to the Anunnaki) - until the atmosphere and magnetic field of the planet made them feel disgruntled and dissatisfied with their lot (this is the origin of the Greek myth of the Lotos-Eaters, retold in Tennyson's poem). The Anunnaki miners went on strike - and Enlil and Enki got into a huge argument about what to do.
Enlil was all for punishing the "mutineers" while Enki sympathized with his workers. He knew what a tough job theirs was. Finally, their half-sister Ninhursag had to intervene. She was a brilliant geneticist and healer, and she remembered that on some other colonies, android workers had been successfully created to perform menial tasks. At this, Enki's eyes lit up. He had spent a great deal of time studying the flora and fauna on Ki - and he had been observing a simian species that was well on its way to becoming hominid. Perhaps they could be genetically modified.....?
After repeated attempts, Enki and Ninhursag finally created the first Adama - an ape-angel hybrid. Fallen angels though they be, the space-orbiting Nibiruans - known as the Igigi or Watchers - who occasionally landed on Earth were described as Angels or God's Emissaries in the scriptures.
At first the Adama was sterile and was cloned in batches, a tedious process indeed. Eventually, Enki and Ninhursag came up with a self-reproducing model - and, voila! they had created our ancestors, Adam and Eve!
To the first humans, of course, the Anunnaki were literally Gods, Makers. In Hebrew the word God is usually the plural form Elohim (from which the Arabic form of Allah derives) - only much later did the "gods" divide up the colonized Earth into tribal zones - each tribe being subservient to a single, "jealous" God - like Abraham's Yahweh or Jehovah (known to the Greeks as Zeus and to the Romans as Jove or Jupiter).
Again, we must fast-forward to a period when the rival gods Enki and Enlil each had their own children, who unfortunately inherited their fathers' intense sibling rivalry. Enki was of somewhat different lineage from his half-brother Enlil (a full-blooded Nibiruan with "angelic" golden locks). Anu had taken a subsidiary wife named Id (or Ida) on Earth from amongst an ancient star tribe known as the Snake People. They were a subterranean species, dwelling in complex underground cities in the 4th Dimension and working with electromagnetic fields and crystals.
From this union Enki was born, and although he arrived before his half-brother Enlil, the latter took precedence in the Nibiruan succession because Enlil's mother Antu was Anu's half-sister (this genetic tradition was subsequently practised amongst the royal families of Akkadia, Babylon, Mitanni, Egypt and Assyria, and even amongst the Inca and Azteca). Anyway, these Sky Gods had countless offspring with their own kind as well as with the Lulus (a pet name for the domestic worker race evolved from the prototype Adama slave-android).
Enki, Lord of the Firm Lands, took on his mother's family emblem, the Serpent. Enlil, Lord of the Winds, had as his emblem, the Eagle.
Enki had four sons who were candidates for his dynastic succession: Ningishzidda (whose mother was of the Snake Race), Marduk, Nergal, and Dumuzi (or Tammuz). It was Marduk whose overweening ambition and arrogance made him vie for the Rulership of Egypt against his elder brother Ningishzidda. (In Egypt Marduk called himself RA and Ningishzidda was THOTH, god of scribes and esoteric wisdom). Not satisfied with being the Overlord of Egypt, Ra/Marduk plotted against the sons of Enlil and before long there were horrendous wars amongst the divine rulers of the entire planet - culminating in a nuclear attack on the Anunnaki spaceport in the Sinai Peninsula which caused untold havoc and misery for centuries - and which accounts for the arid conditions throughout the Middle East.
Once, and once only, Marduk was nearly destroyed when Enlil's granddaughter Inanna trapped him in the Ekur (the Great Pyramid) and ordered that he be buried alive. But after a while the Elder gods relented and released Marduk. From that moment Marduk became a fanatical Goddess-hater (his rise to power marked the beginning of a New Patriarchal Era wherein women were mercilessly oppressed, raped, and burnt as "witches").
Ra became known as Amen-Ra (Ra the Unseen) and relocated to Babylon where, as Marduk, he claimed supremacy over all the other gods, declaring war even against his own grandfather Anu. Such was Marduk's ruthlessness and singleminded will to rule that he eventually prevailed, causing Anu and Antu to flee Nibiru, which Marduk then captured and turned into a "Death Star" which enabled him to take virtual control of the Pleiades (of which our Solar System is part).
Today, Marduk has insinuated his influence into every facet of corporate existence - for he feeds on the negative emotional discharge of humans. FEAR, GUILT, ANXIETY, HATE, VIOLENCE, PAIN, WORRY, MISERY are Marduk's staple diet. As the masses of humanity succumb to a feeling of helplessness or powerlessness, Marduk's legions are thereby strengthened. The strength of the tyrant comes from the life force of his followers, which he sucks vampire-like from them via seemingly "legal" means.
In the old days, Marduk manipulated through brute force and raw terror. These days, he uses Advertising, PR, and his absolute control of Mass Media to achieve his ends... except in some countries (we don't have to name), where Marduk's principle of MIGHT IS RIGHT still manifests on the crude level of brute force.
Please bear in mind that 'Marduk' is an Archetype - a general principle that can operate through any number of willing or unwilling, conscious or unconscious human agents. Marduk's domains are ideological. He rules all the world's financial, military, academic and religious institutions (which includes, of course, the chief religion of our time, Mammonism - the worship of Money).
Through his vassal princes - the media moguls (including one named Murdoch) - Marduk has almost absolute control of the planet's mass communications systems - and therefore humanity's collective unconscious, the Matrix of Apparent Reality in which we enact our petty melodramas.
However, the Internet - thank Goodness - is still more or less uncontrollable (despite Echelon - an electronic surveillance system programmed to police the Information Superhighway). And remember: so long as we accept full responsibility for the way we experience and interpret the sensory data we call Reality, no one can hijack our higher evolutionary destiny. Not for long, in any case!
[Here's a badly written but informative essay on our extraterrestrial origins. First posted 19 January 2007]
Water burns? Water has a memory? Water can be effected by cell phones? It seems that there is much more to know about water than what we are taught about in science class at school. In this video you will learn about how water is affected by electricity and microwaves and that the water will carry that information and pass it along to other water. You will learn about an Austrian inventor by the name of John Grander who invented a way to "revitalize" dead water.
If you were born in 1980 you will be hitting 40 in 2020. Generally speaking, this is the age of full ripeness for most women and a few men (who usually take a while longer to fully mature, say around 44). In effect, yours is the generation that will spearhead the radical changes necessary as we quantum shift into a whole new spiral of evolution.
The best thing any parent or grandparent can do is to quickly recognize that the youngsters are capable of far greater understanding than all their ancestors put together. Don't stifle their imaginations - for that is the one ingredient dangerously lacking in the previous generations, the ability to imagine heaven on earth; and to invent technologies that benefit and liberate, rather then despoil and enslave.
