A Complaint is a Gift, Back from Peru, My Work with Ayahuasca Continues, International Alchemy Conference at Palace Station, Buddha-Dharma Lecture in Las Vegas, 50 Months Left of Life on Earth, Cuil Threatens Google, Andres Serrano, Why One’s Religion Meant Life, Movies This Week, and more…

 

A Complaint is A Gift

 

My friend Janelle Barlow, Ph.D. will be signing copies of her new book, A Complaint Is a Gift: Recovering Customer Loyalty When Things Go Wrong at bookstores around Las Vegas. My complaints are mainly with tour companies, airlines, and hotels. My letters and emails have all gone unanswered. I guess threatening a voodoo curse is not the proper approach to having a problem solved. So Janelle’s advice to companies helped me to understand how businesses think and in the future I will approach them in a positive way. They should be grateful to get a complaint!

 

Janelle is a world traveler who travels over 150 days a year giving seminars and workshops. Janelle gives advice to companies and consumers and explains how to get the kind of satisfaction you not only expect but deserve. So, bring your complaint to a book signing and listen to Janelle’s advice. She’s the acknowledged expert on how to turn around a company’s reputation and what they must do to hold on to customers. And for the consumer how to be a more productive complainer! www.tmius.com

 

Janelle’s book signings:

 

B. Dalton. Saturday, August 16. Noon-4PM. B. Dalton, 3680 S. Maryland Parkway.

 

Borders McCarran Airport. Thursday, August 21. Noon-2PM.

 

Borders. Saturday, August 23. 1PM. Borders, 10950 W. Charleston Blvd.

 

Barnes & Noble. Saturday, August 30. 1PM. Barnes & Noble, 8915 W. Charleston Blvd.

 

Living Buddhas

 

Over 100 enlightened Buddhist leaders have acknowledged and recognized Master Wan Ko Yee as the third incarnation of Dorje Chang Buddha, the greatest Buddha in the Universe. Zhaxi Zhuoma Rinpoche (pictured), a close disciple of His Holiness, gave a free lecture on Buddha-dharma on Wednesday, August 6 from 7-9 p.m. at Spa Floetry, 6574 West Cheyenne, in Las Vegas.

 

Zhaxi Zhuoma Rinpoche is one of the ten eminent monastics at Hua Zang Si, a Buddhist temple in San Francisco. She has dedicated her life to propagating the dharma as taught by Shakyamuni Buddha and Dorje Chang Buddha and helping living beings take the “Quick Path to Enlightenment.” I need the Quick Path to Enlightenment since we may only have 50 months left!

 

50 Months or 50 Years Left!

 

Professor Rossler argues that a micro black hole created by the Large Hadron Collider would destroy the planet in 50 months to 50 years. He also has explained why the current safety arguments defending LHC are invalid and destruction may be inevitable. Dr. Otto E. Rossler is famous for his contributions to theoretical sciences as noted on Wikipedia and Scholarpedia.

 

I agree with Dr. Rossler and the many other theoretical scientists who believe that planetary destruction is highly conceivable and the LHC is an unknown gamble. On August 8, an auspicious date, the first protons tests spun into the LHC. But these are merely the test runs. The tests will take a couple of months and when the tests are complete, the particle-smashing will begin in earnest! LHCFacts.org.

 

The 4th International Amazonian Shamanism Conference:

 

Magic, Myths and Miracles. I’m back from another Peruvian adventure! The 4th IASC, organized by Alan Shoemaker (pictured), and held at the Hotel Parthenon in Iquitos, Peru, was fantastic! Along with a terrific group of speakers, I met many interesting people. Alan Shoemaker had nearly 225 attendees and managed to handle the guests and shamans with ease and organizational patience. The Parthenon, only open for weddings and conference events, was a perfect setting. There were 3 nights set aside for ceremonies with various shamans. The website has clips of the speakers from the Conference. Next year the theme of The 5th International Amazonian Shamanism Conference will be The Art of Healing.  

 

The Conference website is: www.soga-del-alma.org.

 

I spoke on medieval mysticism and its kinship to ayahuasca experiences. The 4th Conference opened with the illustrious visionary scientist, Dr. Dennis McKenna.

 

I chose to drink with “Gringo” Shaman Ron Wheelock. Below is a photo of my first ceremony with Ron. In one of my ceremonies was 74 year old Gladys, who chose Ron for her first ayahuasca ceremony. While there was an opportunity to drink with different shamans, I chose to stay with the energy and “medicine” of one curandero.

 

Ron came to Peru in 1996 with the intention to become a healer. His first experience drinking ayahuasca was in Tamshiyacu with famous curandero Don Agustin Rivas Vasquez. Ron then made arrangements to return some months later to begin his studies as a curandero.

 

 

Ron stayed in Peru for 5 months doing many plant diets. After studying with Don Agustin and Don Jose Coral Mori (the teacher of former curandero and now famous artist Pablo Amaringo, as well as Eduardo Luna), Ron started working on his own. He has lived in Iquitos since 2000 where he holds ceremonies twice a week on Tuesdays and Fridays. Don Agustin and Pablo Amaringo were speakers at the Conference. I had both gentlemen sign copies of their books for me.

 

International Alchemy Conference at Palace Station

 

On October 10 to 12, 2008, Palace Station in Las Vegas will host the International Alchemy Conference. Since last year’s Conference was sold out, I have gotten fans of TDH a special discount of $55 over the admission price for the conference. Just register under the Member/Student discount page online at www.AlchemyConference.com/discounts2.htm. In the comments section of the order form use the code "Alexander2".  This is a special price since registration for all three days is $235! This is a rare opportunity to meet and work with practicing alchemists from around the world!

 

Practitioners will share both practical and spiritual techniques in this intensive, multimedia event. The emphasis is on real alchemy, and the goal is to inform and empower individuals with the ancient wisdom. Practical methods of transformation in both laboratory and inner work will be featured throughout the event.

 

An alchemist was a person versed in the art of alchemy, an ancient branch of natural philosophy that eventually evolved into chemistry and pharmacology. Alchemy flourished in the Islamic world during the Middle Ages, and then in Europe from the 13th to the 18th centuries.

 

According to legend, Albertus Magnus is said to have discovered the philosopher's stone and passed it to his pupil Thomas Aquinas, shortly before his death. Magnus does not confirm he discovered the stone in his writings, but he did record that he witnessed the creation of gold by "transmutation."

 

Cuil

 

The hunt for information on the internet has been synonymous with Google. The search engine has maintained a clear lead; however, a team of former Google engineers and others who worked at eBay, IBM and AltaVista have come up with an alternative called Cuil (pronounced cool). Cuil plans to not only break the monopoly of Google, but also change the surfing culture among users. At Cuil, search index spans over 120 billion web pages, which is much larger than any existing search engine including Google (almost thrice its index span). The results are based on content and relevance. Popularity and audience traffic take a backseat.

 

One’s Religion Meant Life

 

Richard Dawkins, you may be wrong! Christopher Hitchens may have to amend his anti-religious tirades. Religion does have a purpose and a very practical reason. Religion may have helped halt spread of disease and may have helped protect ancient humans from disease, a new scientific report has claimed. Divisions between people caused by religion may have actually helped reduce the spread of infections. Scientists claim this is why hotter countries which are more prone to disease have more religions when compared to similar-sized nations from cooler climates.

 

'Why does Cote d'Ivoire have 76 religions while Norway has 13, and why does Brazil have 159 religions while Canada has 15 even though in both comparisons the countries are similar in size?' the report asked.

 

The scientists found that across many societies the number of different religions was directly linked to the number of pathogens found in the area.

 

The research suggests that local groups who didn't deal with neighbors who worshipped a different god, for example, were less likely to pick up new diseases. Over the longer term this approach would also gradually alter the group's genetic make-up.

 

The report continues: "Our analysis suggests that the nature of religion needs to be reconsidered. Although religion apparently is for establishing a social marker of group alliance and allegiance, at the most fundamental level, it may be for the avoidance and management of infectious disease.”

 

The new findings are similar to the team's recent study which claimed that swathes of parasites are what have historically kept populations of the same species apart. They claimed that the findings explained why it is that biological diversity decreases as you move away from the equator and towards the poles.

 

Practitioners of Candomblé believe in one all powerful God, Oludumaré, who is served by lesser deities called orixas. Candomblé practitioners believe that every person has their own individual orixa which controls his or her destiny and acts as a protector. I have mine I attend to at an altar in my house.

 

 

 

Movies This Week

 

This week I saw two R rated comedies, “Pineapple Express” and “Tropic Thunder”. Here are my capsule review. Both are not your standard comedy. Both are very funny and highly, raunchy originals.

 

 

 

“Pineapple Express” is about a happy loser named Dale Denton (Seth Rogen). He is a process server who is a constant pot smoker. His new pot dealer is Saul (James Franco), who is the exclusive distributor of a highly potent brand of pot called Pineapple Express.

 

One night, while waiting to serve a summons on a drug lord, Dale witnesses him and a female cop kill a guy. Hysterical, he drops his Pineapple Express joint out the window and takes off to hide at Saul’s place. Saul tells Dale that his friend Red is the middleman between him and Ted. When Ted finds that PE joint, he is going to know the witness was one of Saul’s customers.

 

They go on the run with a gym bag filled with Pineapple Express. Considering the stressful circumstances, they smoke a lot of Pineapple Express to relax.

 

Walking out of the theater and waiting around since I had to “valet my cell phone”, I heard the comments. Everyone under 35 said they were going to see PE again. It’s the return business that makes a blockbuster. That, and pot smoking audiences on the weekends. A past generation had audiences singing along with at “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” and taking LSD while watching “2001”. “Pineapple Express” should launch another audience tread.

 

 

 

Tropic Thunder

 

Remember a few years ago when Ben Stiller was in every movie made in Hollywood? He was a Jedi in “Revenge of the Sith” and I spotted him in the crowd in “The Passion of the Christ” mouthing “Let his blood be on us and on our children!"

 

In “Tropic Thunder” Stiller does everything and sings the theme song. I read Stiller wanted to play his character as a Tibetan monk but Robert Downey Jr. had already did makeup tests as a white man who becomes black in his contract-stipulated De Niro tribute.  

 

Once again Stiller plays a self-involved, self-deluded character named Tugg Speedman with a mega-franchise that has worn out its welcome with audiences. He decides to go the “Rainman” - “I am Sam” route by playing a retarded character called Simple Jack. When his bid for an Oscar fails, Speedman signs on for a war movie co-starring beloved comedy fart-king Jeff Portnoy (Jack Black) and five-time Oscar-winning thespian Kirk Lazarus (Robert Downey Jr.). Since Lazarus is the only serious “actor” in the movie, he goes the hyper-realism road by medically becoming a black man. As a Daniel Day-Lewis tribute, Lazarus insists on staying in character and must be addressed by his character’s name at all times.

 

With the prima donna stars complaining on the set and the money man (Tom Cruise) threatening to close down the production, the movie’s technical advisor (Nick Nolte), whose life is being played by Speedman, suggests that they actually dump the stars in an actual war zone and film that.

 

Whenever Downey is on screen, his co-stars are like shadows. He is wisely kept away from the astonishing Tom Cruise. Cruise’s performance is so devastating that you could easily forget the rest of the movie. His dance in “Risky Business” might have once been seen as iconic, but he erases the memory of it here and then dances off with “Tropic Thunder”.