The 4th International Amazonian Shamanism Conference:

Magic, Myths and Miracles.  The 4th IASC, organized by Alan Shoemaker, will be held in the shamanic center of the Upper Amazon in Iquitos, Peru from July 19 to 27, 2008. The Conference website is: www.soga-del-alma.org.

 

I’ll be speaking on medieval mysticism and its kinship to ayahuasca experiences. The 4th IASC is thrilled that John has agreed to give a talk on Near-Death Experiences (NDE’s) as well as two workshops on Remote Viewing! John will also preside over an evening PK Party.

 

The 4th Conference will be opened by the illustrious visionary scientist, Dr. Dennis Mckenna (I have a copy of the landmark work, The Invisible Landscape, written with his brother Terence McKenna). Some of the other presenters include Dr. Richard Grossman, the brilliant entheo-scientist and lecturer, Peter Gorman, scientific researcher on brain states while taking ayahuasca, and director Jan Kounen. I watched Kounen’s film (on YouTude) Renegade (Blueberry) and it is the closet thing to an actual ayahuasca experience I have ever witnessed.

 

And, I am looking forward to meeting Robert Forte. My copy of the book Forte edited, Entheogens and the Future of Religion, is well-marked and a valuable resource of information. You can contact Alan directly at alanshoemaker@hotmail.com.

 

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Movies This Week

 

On Monday, I saw 3 movies:

 

“Redbelt” (NO)

 

 

 

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“The Visitor” (NO)

 

 

 

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“88 Minutes” (YES)

 

 

 

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On Tuesday, it was

 

“Iron Man” (YES)

 

 

 

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and Wednesday

 

“Snow Angels” (NO)

 

 

 

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Redbelt. A Gandhi-like martial arts teacher gets hoodwinked by Hollywood. David Mamet’s ‘Redbelt” is about a marital arts teacher who does not wear a gee ever or have his students address him as “sensei”. No one bows upon entering and exiting the dojo. Mike Terry (Chiwetel Ejiofer), is a jiu-jitsu teacher who runs a storefront school in Los Angeles with his unhappy Brazilian wife, who is the academy’s bookkeeper. Terry cares only about the honor of his school and the sacred principles of marital arts. He cares nothing about money!

 

The last time the stars were aligned just right, Three Wise Men from Persia journeyed to Jerusalem to worship the Savior, Jesus Christ.

 

Too many bizarre coincidences line up in “Redbelt” that sets up the story. A frantic woman, running around in the pouring rain looking, I think, for an on-the-down-low pharmacist who will accept a suspicious prescription for something, for somebody, runs into Terry’s school. In a weird move she grabs a gun lying around and nearly kills a cop – one of Terry’s students. The crazy lady shoots out the glass window and leaves. Does Terry care about the cost of replacing the window? Nope. He’s channeling Gandhi.

 

With financial problems mounting, he gets hoodwinked by a movie star into revealing his marital arts secrets. Then his wife borrows $30,000 from a loanshark, Terry has only one thing to do – fight in a mixed martial arts under-card tournament and perhaps win $50,000. But, according to Mamet, the mixed martial arts world is “fixed.”

 

Iron Man.

For those of us without one single comic book in a protective clear shield, this is the comic book superhero movie to see.

 

He’s not a boy, he’s always got a drink in his hand, he’s egoistical, vain, and middle-aged. He’s a diva with a lot of different hairdos.

 

And, as Robert Downey Jr plays him, he’s in on the superhero joke. But there’s a terrific hook here - Tony Stark (Downey) is obsessed with pushing the bounds of technology. That is what is driving him – and the sudden realization that his weapons are killing people.

 

Stark always thought his company’s missiles – which he designed, built and gloriously promoted - were merely “deterrents”. A high-tech sword-rattling endeavor, if you will.

 

Sure, Tony is given a very good reason for deciding to save the world but he’s going to do it with his body and with his feet on the ground. According to the image we are shown of babe-magnet - yet misogynist - Stark, his Iron Man suit is the ultimate expression of his penis – it’s even given a red, shiny finish! 

 

What led Stark to become Iron Man and the tech journey is really what makes “Iron Man” a terrific, crowd pleasing movie.

 

Stark has two devoted people around him – both in love with him. He also has a robot he talks to but doesn’t dress in clothes like people do to their beloved dogs. While Stark was held captive in Afghanistan for three months, he admitted to missing his robot-buddy.

 

Directed by Jon Favreau, playing Stark’s limo driver, “Iron Man” has a strong dramatic frame. This is a movie for adults.

 

Let’s face it - once the superhero suit goes on – it’s the stunt guy. It’s CGI. It’s all fake. Its miniatures. There is no further acting or character development necessary. So the four writers give Downey a lot of time to develop Stark’s pre-and-post conversion.  

 

It’s not as dramatic as Saint Paul’s Road to Damascus conversion, but it is convincing.

 

After a bravado performance of Stark’s newest weapon-toy in Afghanistan for the U.S. military, he gets kidnapped and is forced to make another one for an evil gang of peace-heating thugs. Instead, Stark builds a suit of armor.

 

Destroying Afghanistan during his escape, Stark is rescued by his devoted friend, Col. Jim Rhodes (Terrence Howard). They go way back to boarding school days and lonely nights with no one to hug but each other. Stark has a saintly assistant, Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow), and his father’s best friend and now his partner Obadiah Stane (Jeff Bridges).

 

Stark dumps the good life of wine, women, and fast cars, and sets about building an iron Frankenstein with a twist. He’s inside it!  And he can fly as fast as a jet on steroids!

 

Except for the inevitable iron fist fight, where we collapse into mayhem and throw the smart story in the shredder, the ending is really a clever twist.

 

Penis Snatching Not Uncommon in West Africa.

 

If you think civilization is advancing, here is an item that might very well course-correct your ideology about the further of mankind.

 

Unless, of course, it’s valid. In that case, there is a booming business potential in this country that could cater to unhappy ex-wives.

 

Police in Congo have arrested 13 suspected sorcerers accused of using black magic to steal or shrink men's penises after a wave of panic and attempted lynching triggered by the alleged witchcraft.

 

Reports of so-called penis snatching are not uncommon in West Africa, where belief in traditional religions and witchcraft remains widespread, and where ritual killings to obtain blood or body parts still occur.

 

Rumors of penis theft began circulating last week in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo's sprawling capital of some 8 million inhabitants. Purported victims, 14 of whom were also detained by police, claimed that sorcerers simply touched them to make their genitals shrink or disappear, in what some residents said was an attempt to extort cash with the promise of a cure.

 

Police arrested the accused sorcerers and their victims in an effort to avoid the sort of bloodshed seen in Ghana a decade ago, when 12 suspected penis snatchers were beaten to death by angry mobs.

 

"It's real. Just yesterday here, there was a man who was a victim. We saw. What was left was tiny," said 29-year-old Alain Kalala, who sells phone credits near a Kinshasa police station. (Photos from our trip to Mali, West Africa: Urban sprawl and the Mali salt mines.)