Long time no posts. I've been busy. So here's a little potpourri of what's been accumulating.

This is a recommendation to read Greg Palast's new book, Armed Madhouse. As the world becomes more insane I become less inclined to read what documents the horrors, but this o­ne I couldn't put down. In laying out a clear map of the power dynamics in the world, it goes beyond what we are familiar with. Palast is a brilliant investigative journalist, an American who broadcasts o­n BBC because he's too hot for our media to handle, who has his wiles and his ways, not least among them how he skewers the bad guys with wit and charm.

Am off to England, to crop circle country, to fill in some blanks in the 90-minute rough cut I have of the documentary I'm finishing. I've been trying to get Greg Palast to investigate the various tracks of disinformation that prevent people from taking the phenomenon seriously. Here's what I wrote to him, along with my appreciations for the book:

“Where exposing the reality is square o­ne, changing things comes next. It must be a function of our dualistic worldview, where opposition rules the day, that there is so little focus o­n where to from here. In a world so dysfunctional, fingers in the dyke will never save us. Recalibrating who we are and what our place is in the universe, where we see we're not here to rape the earth and each other, is essential. Crop circles can get attention o­nto the bigger cosmos of which we are a part. What would our worldview be, beyond scientific materialism? There's no public conversation about this. It should be o­n Larry King and Charley Rose…and o­n the BBC.”

Here's a short piece that transcended my over-saturation in reading about what's awful: “Our Dumb President.”

This is an 11-minute promo for my film: http://www.mightycompanions.org/cropcircles/trailer/cc.html. Even with a fast connection it takes awhile to load, so watch your timer.

“Inside the Circles, Outside the Box is a documentary that probes the still unsolved mysteries of crop circles and looks at how they could shift our perception of reality. 'Croppies,' colorful and highly intelligent people who study the circles, reveal findings about the curriculum in number and geometry the phenomenon is delivering. Revelations about information encoded in the circles lead to questions about what is creating them and why. And croppies speculate about what the effect would be if evidence we've gotten from the circles convinced everyone that we aren’t the o­nly intelligent occupants of the cosmos. In this wider view of our place in the universe, might we begin to think as a planet, and to work cooperatively to solve the problems we all share? Could 'CONTACT,' in headlines, give rise to an era when awe and wonder would supplant the oppositional behavior we are engaged in today?”

And for the latest from the circle front, there's a new formative type that recently arrived: http://www.cropcircleconnector.com/2006/uffington1/uffington2006a.html.

If you want to read somebody smart reflecting o­n what we take to be reality, pick up Daniel Pinchbeck's new book, 2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl.  If anyone can do anything to promote this book, contact Jennifer Levy [mailto:Jennifer.Levy@us.penguingroup.com] for a copy. Here's some guidance from her:

“I'd be glad to send free copies to educators, bloggers and newsletter editors o­n psychedelic/crop circle/consciousness topics, etc., as well as traditional 'book reviewers.' But I'd hate to give away too many books to people who are willing and able to buy it, since, alas, sales numbers are part of the equation – if we sell more, the books gets more visibility and we're able to devote more resources to promoting it. Would you feel all right about saying that this books is available at both chain and indie bookstores, and that I can be contacted for review copies?”

Daniel, who has become my friend since writing a crop circle piece for WIRED in 2001, and is in my film, is speaking about things that are very much in the continuum of what I've been posting for the last while. The writings about daily happenstances that I used to post have given way to pieces that let us see the evolution of our thought and thus of our values, to help us understand how our current worldview has us stuck in scientific materialism. o­nly in a bigger picture, where the sacred and the mundane aspects of ourselves are unified, could we do more than flail at the problems and the horrors of our day. All are held in place, resistant to change, by the beliefs we entertain about what it is to be a modern human being. Daniel dives into the modern mythos, and supports his vision with material from the sages of the ages who saw beyond the veil of modernity. The fabric of possibility that Daniel weaves is a mindscape that's beyond where people are “spectators of their culture rather than active participants in a planetary ecology.”

Suzanne, so EXCITED! I don't need any further proof that the circles are harmless and creative — same thing that creates nature, no source of fear for me, o­nly beauty. A site of mine: http://byzantineconservatory.blogspot.com/. These brilliant nature archetypes form the very backbone of our well being, silently supporting all of us.

Never have I regretted stretching my mind and joining in The Conversation, which did make me wake up to new ways of seeing things. A life changing period, this past year.

Also thrilled about Greg Palast and your connections with him. Also thrilled about Daniel Pinchbeck's latest book, and will spread the word and put some links out. Have read the first couple of pages o­n Amazon and it's great. LOVE the trailer, it's pure joy, and I can't wait to see the film — well really I am just full of wonder and amazement at this latest post.

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