When you need a distraction, RAVE! (video)

Caitlyn Trudnich (kroq.cbslocal.com); Dev, Crystal Quintero (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

(Tove Lo) "Habits (Stay High)" She's Not on Drugs, just in love. See Sunset Strip Music Festival

Summer concerts, Los Angeles (Frazer Harrison/Getty Images/kroq.cbslocal.com)

Sigh. Coachella, Outside Lands, and HARD Summer have officially come and gone.  We’ve hung up our flower headbands and put away our wellies.  But don’t worry, there are still plenty of awesome music festivals coming up in a nearby location. From indie rock, to hip hop, to EDM, these upcoming events have something for every type of music-lover.

DIY Fest, Pomona

What's so "spiritual" about a concert? It's a communal experience with matching physical moves to a single cue, dancing to the beat. That's a way of peacefully nonverbally communicating, NVC, it's fun, it's a distraction, it can even be a celebration. We get out of our left brains and into our bodies. Then there are the lights, the stars, the other people coming together for a single purpose. It doesn't have to be a spiritual experience, but it can be!

• Dead Kennedys' singer Jello Biafra
• Unlocking The Truth to play Hollywood! (Coachella)
• Sweden's Lykke Li in L.A. ("Get Some")

Together Pangea

Echo Park Rising – August 15th-17th

Now in its fourth year, Echo Park Rising is a FREE festival, combining live music, art, food, and activities celebrating the eclectic neighborhood that is Echo Park.  Live performances from over 200 of LA’s best up-and-coming acts, including Local’s Only band Together Pangea. Enjoy strolling the local businesses and restaurants, including Blue Bag Records, Origami Vinyl, and Mohawk Bend. And it wouldn’t be a festival without yummy food!  Food trucks in attendance include Coolhaus and The Grilled Cheese Truck – mmm!

Located on main routes of Sunset Blvd., Glendale Blvd., Alvarado Ave. and Echo Park Ave. Friday 4:00-10:00 pm, Saturday 12:00-10:00 pm, Sunday 12:00-10:00 pm. Free Admission.

(Courtesy of Getty Images/Kevin Winter)

Uforia Music Festival – August 16th

Sponsored by the Hispanic American music service Uforia, this festival includes two stages, featuring popular acts in both Latin and hip hop genres, including Kid Cudi, Ludacris, and Mexican rock group Camila. Held at LA’s Exposition Park, the festival will also include a Vendor’s Village and tons of food-trucks all day.

Exposition Park, 700 State Dr., Los Angeles. 2:45 pm-12:00 am. Gen. Admission $46.05 + fees.

(Courtesy of Getty Images/Robyn Beck)

Venice Beach Music Fest – August 23rd

Whenever we visit Venice Beach, it’s guaranteed we’ll find an eclectic mix of cultures and unique arts.  The 9th Annual Venice Beach Music Fest perfectly reflects the spirit of the area, with an all-day fun and FREE experience! Live performances include legendary singer Willie Chambers, funk rockers Zen Robbi, and Middle Eastern bellydancing from Ya Harissa Bellydance Theater.  And don’t forget to hit up the after-party, featuring a founding member of Black Flag, Chuck Dukowski!

Windward Plaza Park, 1 Windward Ave., Venice Beach. 11:00 am-7:00 pm. Free admission.

(Courtesy of Getty Images/Trixie Trextor)

FYF Fest – August 23rd-24th

What began as a small music event in Echo Park created by an 18 year-old Sean Carlson, has now become a massive music festival that tons of LA festival goers look forward to every year!  Now in its 11th year and located at The LA Sports Arena and Exposition Park, this upcoming SOLD-OUT festival (like all other sellouts has lots of tickets available at the window, scalpers out front, people with a few extras, dealers, brokers, and craigslisters) promises to be a massive talent fest. With names like The Strokes, Phoenix, Interpol, Haim, Against Me!, and more, it’s sure to be a blast.

 

LA Sports Arena and Exposition Park, 3939 S. Figueroa St., Los Angeles. Saturday & Sunday, 2:00 pm-12:00 am.

Long Beach Psyclone August 29th-31st

SoCal rockabilly lovers will definitely love this music festival, featuring tons of rockabilly and psychobilly performances happening all Labor Day weekend long. Held at the Seaport Marina Hotel, the weekend includes internationally known performers like The Sharks (UK) and The Long Tall Texans (UK), as well as fun record hop events, and a pool party and BBQ to culminate the weekend!

Seaport Marina Hotel, 6400 E. Pacific Coast Hwy, Long Beach. Weekend Pass Admission $80 + fees.

Shoreline Jam Music Festival – August 30th-31st

This awesome, Labor Day Weekend event, sponsored by KROQ, features a jam-packed live music lineup, including KROQ favorites The Dirty Heads, Pepper, and Seedless!  Located at the historic Queen Mary in Long Beach, festival-goers can enjoy a cold drink and yummy food as you stroll through the many vendors and take in the scenic views of the Long Beach harbor!

The Queen Mary, 1126 Queens Highway, Long Beach. General Admission $25.  VIP Admission $75 (includes 2 drink tickets, VIP Lounge access, and access to explore the Queen Mary!)

(Courtesy of Getty Images/Theo Wargo)

Made In America Festival – August 30th-31st

Co-created by hip hop mogul Jay Z in 2012, this successful festival originated in Philadelphia. But this year marks the first time the festival will be held in Los Angeles at Grand Park. The Rocky Stage, Liberty Stage, and Freedom Tent will feature performances from some of the best in rock, hip hop, and EDM, including Imagine Dragons, Kayne West, John Mayer, Iggy Azalea, Weezer, Rise Against, Capital Cities, Steve Aoki, and many more.

Grand Park, 227 N. Spring Street, Los Angeles. 2-Day Pass Admission $200 + fees.

Mad Decent Block Party – September 13th

Created by Mad Decent founder Diplo in 2008, this Block Party tour will be visiting Los Angeles in September. Taking place at the LA Center Studios, this vibrant event will include performances from members of the Mad Decent family, including Laidback Luke, singer Elliphant, and Diplo himself!  Hey, who knows?  Maybe even rapper Riff Raff will make a guest appearance.

LA Center Studios, 1201 W. 5th Street, Los Angeles. Doors 1:00 pm

(Britt Bickel)

Sunset Strip Music Festival – September 20th-21st

One of the most happening music events in LA is the SSMF! Since 2008, the iconic Sunset Strip has been filled with performances on the street and on the legendary stages of venues such as the Whiskey A Go-Go, The Roxy Theatre, and Rainbow Bar & Grill. This year, expect the Strip to get rocked with major performances including, Jane’s Addiction, Empire Of The Sun, Cold War Kids, Mayer Hawthorne, Tove Lo of "Habits (Stay High)" fame, and more.

Saturday, 2:00-11:00 pm, Sunday, 2:00-10:00 pm. 2 Day Pass Admission $125 + fees.

What is Nirvana? Complete freedom!

Bhikkhu Bodhi (beyondthenet.net); Ashley Wells, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

The Buddha says that he teaches only two things, disappointment (dukkha, suffering) and the end-of-disappointment (nirvana).

That is, he only finds two kinds of questions important. "What is suffering?" and "How do we achieve the end of suffering?"

In the First Noble Truth the Buddha deals with the problem of disappointment. But this truth is the first word, not the final word, of the Buddha's Teaching, the Dharma.

It is the starting point. Here the Buddha begins by talking about the unpleasant, the miserable, which many of us might feel is hopeless or pessimistic.

Yoga Rave (artoflivingla.org)


• "Hey cheer up, Buddha, and party with us -- not that you would know anything about 'partying' having spent 29 years as a prince living in three massive party palaces full of dancing girls, fabulous food and drink, musicians, minstrels, and the surfeit of princely trappings. It was a right royal rave in your private kingdom somewhere between Egypt and India. Never mind about that then. Hey, Buddha, teach us! We want to be free! We want to be liberated from this lack-of-fulfillment, this misery without end. Show us the way!"

The Buddha begins with suffering because Buddhism is designed to bring about an end to ALL suffering. The Dharma, the Teaching, leads those who practice it to liberation.

Hey, A, please no Buddha selfies (AK)

In order to get us there, the Buddha gives a reason for seeking freedom. For example, if a person does not know that the roof is on fire, one lives in that house enjoying oneself, playing, joking, and laughing. To get someone to come out, that person must first become aware that the house is burning, a dangerous smoldering mass soon to collapse and engulf everyone inside.

In the same way, the Buddha announces that our lives are burning. They are burning with rebirth, old age (decay), sickness, and death -- full of loss, separation, weeping, doing anything we can to never think about it, to divert ourselves with addictive sensual delights which we lose, which are hard to come by, and which we are often willing to kill for, to steal, to engage in misconduct, to lie, and to become intoxicated to get. We find temporary relief through them but never gain release.

 

Meditation Barbie: breatharian Amatue

Our hearts/minds are aflame with greed (craving), hatred (fear and aversion), and delusion (confusion). It is only when we become aware of these perils that we have any chance of beginning to seek a way to release and freedom.

In the Second Noble Truth, the Enlightened One points out that we can do something about one of the causes of suffering and thereby undo all suffering. This weak link we can undermine is our craving, which we have been depending on for relief like drug addicts do their drug of choice.

Novices full of devotion (Dietmar Temps)

It is our insatiable desire for a world of sights, sounds, fragrances, flavors, touch sensations, and ideas. Since one of the causes of disappointment is craving (along with aversion and delusion, spelling out as the key in the 12 links of the dependent origination of suffering), the key to reaching the end of disappointment is to undermine this very painful craving.

In the Third Noble Truth the Buddha, therefore, explains nirvana (nibbana) as the extinction of craving because it results in enlightenment and the end of suffering. [To break the chain of dependently arisen suffering only takes breaking one link, and the Buddha saw that it was here with this link, this obsessive craving, that we could make a complete end of suffering].

In the Fourth Noble Truth, the Buddha explains how, namely, the Noble Eightfold Path.

Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi, what is Nirvana? What is the end-of-all-suffering? (Angelina K)

• Psychological Dimension of Nirvana
• Philosophical Dimension of Nirvana
• Nirvana is an existing reality
• Is Nirvana conditioned by its path
• Is Nirvana mere annihilation ?
• The story of the Turtle and the Fish
• Two elements of Nirvana
• Experience of an Enlightened Person
• State of an enlightened person after passing away
• Mind Stilled

Brokechella: $10 Coachella alternative (video)

Ashley Wells, Seth Auberon, Wisdom Quarterly; Alex Cohen, A Martinez (Take Two, scpr.org)

Brokechella: Where Angelenos can get a music fest fix this weekend (brokechella.com)

  

Be sure to wear a flower in your hair! (NME)

Can't make it out to Coachella this weekend or drop $350+? Don't worry. There is still hope for everyone who wants to see a music festival.

Head to downtown Los Angeles for Brokechella (only $10). The one-day event started four years ago as an alternative to Coachella, and has been growing ever since.

 

Negin Singh, Executive Director of cARTel: Collaborative Arts LA is one of Brokechella's organizers.

When Take Two spoke to her yesterday, she began by explaining how Brokechella was born after an event she was throwing happened to land on Coachella weekend. LISTEN

Back for its fourth year! Four MONSTER stages. All new World Initiative. Vendor marketplace with the best of boutique LA shops:
 

cARTel: Collaborative Arts LA, Brownies and Lemonade, and Shifty Rythms, in conjunction with LA Weekly, Eventbrite, and Lagunitas are proud to announce BROKECHELLA 2014 FEST!

• Tickets and INFO: $10 adv., $20 door
• Saturday, April 19, 2014, 3:00 pm-1:00 am
• 590 Sante Fe Ave., Downtown LA

• Brokechella 2014 lineup, new DTLA location
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Coachella Music Festival 2014 starts (watch)

Amber Larson, Dev, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly; Youtube.com/user/Coachella (Ch. 1, 2, 3)

Watch the California desert festival streamed live on youtube both weekends.

Art, music, lovemaking, yoga, desert communing, shouting, contemplating, staying hydrated

These are the LINKS to Day 1, Channel 1. Channel 2. Channel 3. More

 

Girls of Coachella rave and barf on lawn

We can think, think, think, but sometimes we just have to dance. What is dancing? Rhythmic movement to cues coming in through other senses. Such movement makes us human, bonding large groups. Go tribal, go rural, go aural, but go. It need not make sense to the CPU. As long as the senses can sense it, our bodies can make sense of it. It's part of what the body is for, and there are many beings without bodies for lack of use. So use it. Schedule

Colbchella: Dancing to "Get Lucky" with Colbert (Daft Punk)

 

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Disney to capitalize on RAVE music (EDM)

Dev, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly; Gerrick Kennedy, Los Angeles Times

Do we have to go to Disneyland to listen to it? No, Cherry Glazerr, just go corporate.

Wooo, Mickey Deadmau5, yeah! (Hard)

“Let It Go,” the soaring showstopper from “Frozen,” has an unlikely remix coming out soon.

 

The Academy Award-winning smash sung by Idina Menzel got a reworking by Dutch electronic dance music DJ Armin van Buuren.
 

Dconstructed morphs Disney tunes into EDM

His remix is just one of more than a dozen that Walt Disney Records commissioned for “Dconstructed,” a compilation album that placed Disney tunes, including several beloved classics, into the hands of EDM (electronic dance music) stars.
 
Songs have been pulled from older Disney films: “Dumbo,” “The Lion King,” and “Toy Story,” and more recent hits, such as “Monsters University” and “The Incredibles.”

The 14-track set will include contributions from Buuren, Avicii, Kaskade, Mat Zo, and Unkle. More

• Raves: Electric Daisy Carnival auditions, Hard Summer

RAVES: Electric Daisy Carnival, Hard (video)

Amber Larson, Seth Auberon, Dev, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly; Gustavo Turner (LA Weekly)

EDC 2014 hopefuls wait to be called in (Gustavo Turner, 1 of 49 photos in SLIDESHOW)

 
EDC Auditions

Raver hopeful in front of Budai (G. Turner)

Years ago, buses full of hopefuls (males and females) arrived in Hollywood every day. They were the most beautiful young people in America carrying but a ratty suitcase, an "act" or a "talent," and The Dream -- making it "in the movies." 

 

These days, the movies ain't what they used to be. But the hopefuls keep coming to events like the open auditions call put out by Insomniac, the unstoppable creators of mega dance festival Electric Daisy Carnival (EDC). The auditions were held last Tuesday and Wednesday (March 5-6, 2014) at Create Nightclub, in the heart of Hollywood, next door to the Museum of Death.

The Insomniac auditioners the ravers are trying to impress (Gustavo Turner, laweekly.com)

 

Wholesome "Yoga Rave" (Art of Living, L.A.)

Budai (Hotei) and ravers getting ready (LAw)

The tryouts were also being filmed for Insomniac's new YouTube show "#EDCAuditions," a sort of "America's Got Talent" for go-go dancers in tiny bikinis, contortionists, clowns, magicians, stilt walkers, guys who blow up enormous balloons and then get inside them, and...

 

A man in an old-timey explorer outfit who can chug-a-lug a whole gallon of white liquid and vomit it into a bucket while his friend tries to juggle a bowling bowl and a giddy redhead in a skintight dress jumps around. [They were our favorite.] More

(InsomniacEvents) Electric Daisy Carnival Las Vegas 2014 official announcement

(Art of Living TV) Inspired by Indian teacher Sri Sri Ravi Shankar emerging out of the rich, pro-Buddhist Vedic Hindu yoga tradition, particularly as synthesized by the Sage Patanjali, this course teaches the initial steps of meditation, which is cultivation of mind/heart.

Hard Summer announces new home and dates
Dennis Romero (laweekly.com)

Hard Summer 2013 (Timothy Norris). The mega rave is coming to El Monte, L.A. for 2014 to the location that hosts the annual mega Vesak, the threefold celebration of the Buddha's birth, enlightenment, and final nirvana.

  

Music, dance, yoga: Eat Pray Love

With Los Angeles State Historic Park closed for a one-year renovation, the Hard festivals and other big events previously held there (including FYF Fest, H20 Fest) have had to look for new venues for 2014.

Hard has solved its problem by adopting as its home for their Hard summer event -- held August 2 and 3 -- the 1,492-acre Whittier Narrows Recreation Area in South El Monte, east of downtown L.A. It sounds to [L.A. Weekly] like a novel use for the public park.
 

Hindu Shiva-Shakti merging under the Moon

A source with knowledge of the news pointed to the Ticketmaster listing, saying that it wasn't initially clear if the event would face resistance from South El Monte city officials. (Hard officials will announce that news).
 
While "raves" have become a bad word with politicians around Los Angeles, Hard was purchased in 2012 by the nation's largest concert promoter, Live Nation, signaling that it's a highly professional (and money-making) operation. More

 

(Hardfest) 2014 Teaser: HARD Summer 2014 - August 2 and 3, Whittier Narrows Recreation Area. LA's largest music festival is moving to a BIGGER home just 10 minutes east of downtown L.A. at a beautiful park making the fest harder, better, bigger, and greener with more artists and more stages (facebook, twitter, instagram, soundcloud, tumblr, hardfest.com).

 

Did the Buddha dance?

Dhr. Seven and Amber Larson, Wisdom Quarterly

Dancing Tara Bodhisattva, Nepal (ebay.com)

Why do human beings dance? Synchronized movements, particularly to rhythmic music or a unifying beat as our cue, are a natural ritual for nonverbal expression and communication. 

 

We are making use of these incredible bodies, which may seem feeble now in the Kali Yuga ("Age of Vice" or "Dark Age") but were and will certainly be much more incredible in earlier and future Golden Ages. (It's cyclical, so all ages repeat).

 

Shakyamuni Buddha was not Shiva Nataraja ("Dancing Shiva," lit. "Shiva Lord of the Dance [of Life]"). According to Hinduism the Buddha was the ninth avatar of Vishnu, the great sustaining god. 

 

The Buddha, however, made it very clear that he is NOT a god/deva, not a messenger angel, not a mythical being, no longer an ordinary human being, not an anything other than "AWAKENED" (Dona Sutra, AN 4.36). Because of this, he came to be called the Buddha, a title which means the "Awakened One."
 

Dancing Shiva Nataraja, India

But if GOD (Brahman, godhead) is an acronym, G.O.D. -- the Generator (Brahma), Operator (Vishnu), and Destroyer (Shiva) of the universe -- then by this logic the historical Buddha was a force for the steady maintenance of this world-system, our universe or, at least, our solar system.
 
(According to whistleblower and former CIA pilot John Lear, our solar system actually has more than 30 planets, which if true might correspond to Buddhist cosmology's 31 Planes of Existence, assuming a "world-system" is only the size of a solar system rather than a galaxy, constellation/celestial sphere like Orion, or a universe).
 
So did the Buddha dance? Find out here: More

RAVE NEWS

• The Ultra Music Festival, Los Angeles (March 28, 29, 30)
• VIDEO: Electric Daisy Carnival 2014 dates announced Electric Daisy Carnival mega-rave will take place in Las Vegas from June 20 to 22, 2014, West Coast Sound has announced. Tickets start at $249 for general admission and $499 for VIP tickets, in addition to service fees. (Over 21) The lineup...
• Why Is Everyone So Pissed About the EDM Reality Show? As the Hollywood-based casting guru behind Jersey Shore and A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila, Doron Ofir knows how the lowbrow culture game is played. But even the man who gave the world Snooki might have been caught off-guard by the outrage over one of his latest projects: a...
• Jason Bentley on the Music That Is the Core of His Being Our music feature this week breaks down the career of KCRW Music Director and Morning Becomes Eclectic host Jason Bentley, who has been a central figure in the L.A. electronic scene since almost before Skrillex was born. We spoke with Bentley a number of times for this story, including in... 
• Lightning in a Bottle 2014: new location and dates announced Lightning in a Bottle is moving to central California. This year's installment of the Do Lab-produced music and arts festival will take place May 29-June 1, 2014 at Monterey County's Lake San Antonio Rec Area, Bradley, California. Last year's festival, held at Temecula's Lake... 
• The Evolution of Rave Fashion When deciding what to wear to a rave, it helps first to consider your objective: Do you want to look hot? Dress for the weather? Hook up? Express your personal style? Or should your outfit simply complement the illegal drugs you plan to do? Since raves kicked off in late-1980s England, fashion trends have... 
• Here's what happened to all those people ARRESTED at Lightning in a Bottle last year Organizers recently announced that the 2014 incarnation of the arts and music festival will be held at a new location in Central California. More restrictive sound rules at last year's location were given as the reason. But the elephant in the room is all the arrests of attendees... 



Don't do bad dope, man

• Ravers and Rappers: Quit glorifying DRUGS that kill people Are ravers the modern day hippies? There are plenty of parallels, from the flower imagery to the PLUR mentality. Then, of course, there's the idea of using drugs as a path to enlightenment (or, at least, amazing vibes). But when it comes to drugs there's a key difference: The hippies were safer [using natural DMT-containing substances rather than petrochemical pharmaceuticals]...

-@West Coast Sound

TOP PIC: Downtown L.A. viewed from Native American land now L.A. State Historical Park

No sex, but DRUGS and rock 'n roll (video)

Dev, Irma Quintero, CC Liu, Seven, Wisdom Quarterly; Coachella.com; Dr. Gabor Mate (Zeitgeist); Prof. Carl Hart (DemocracyNow.org); Christian (Off the Record/crschools.net)

Coachella concert crowd 2013 (Scott Gold/Los Angeles Times)

(TR) Southern California's desert festival is now a two-weekend duplicate event featuring a mix of techno, hip-hop, electronica, and rock on a lawn during the day under a scorching sun.

  

According to the New York Times (via Off The Record) the number of high school students smoking marijuana on a daily basis is at a 30-year high. Meanwhile, the number of students drinking, smoking cigarettes, or snorting cocaine is on the decrease! Progress?

 

The study, conducted by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) shows that about 25% of 8th, 10th, and 12th graders (what, no 11th graders?) are smoking cannabis, up from 21% four years ago. 

(Arkiharha Saara/weekday-illusion)

Drinking alcohol has fallen by almost half among 8th graders and is steadily dropping in other demographics as well.

 

Doctors and officials blame the rise on medical marijuana and synthetic (toxic) marijuana-substitutes like Spice and K2.

 

“We’re clearly seeing an increase in teenage marijuana use that corresponds pretty clearly in time with the increase in medical marijuana use,” said Dr. Christian Thurstone, medical director of the adolescent substance abuse treatment program at Denver Health and Hospital Authority, who was not involved in the study.

Recreational pot experiment makes first sales

Patrons smoke pot at a Prohibition-era-themed New Year's Eve party in Denver, Colorado to celebrate the start of retail pot sales in 2014 (Brennan Linsley/AP).

   
(Los Angeles Times) Marijuana retailers open their stores -- and a new chapter in the debate over legalizing pot -- as Colorado becomes the first state where specialty stores may sell small amounts of pot for recreational use. [Possession is legal in Washington state, decriminalized but not yet legal in Ecuador, and will soon be coming medicinally to New York if Cuomo and the bankers get their way. It is decriminalized and legal in Uruguay, and neighboring countries are looking to do the same. Even South Africa is considering it.] More

• Rethinking pot: Colorado has retail, NY wants medical
• Obama commutes 8 "unfair" crack cocaine sentences; ACLU calls for more reforms to drug laws

"Drugs Aren’t the Problem"

Addiction specialist Dr. Gabor Mate as featured in Part 1 of "Zeitgeist: Moving Forward"

 

Trauma sets us up for addiction, sex, shopping...

Addiction specialist Dr. Gabor Mate, M.D. makes the outrageous claim that there are NO addictive drugs. This is shocking, but it is true, and the proof is easy: If drugs themselves were addictive, everyone who used them would become addicted. But most users do not become addicts. Why do some? It is because some have been set up for addiction by early childhood stress and trauma. Such users, and there are a great many of them, are very susceptible to becoming addicted to self-soothing substances and behaviors. Addiction is not in the drugs. It is not in our genes. It is not in the trauma. It is in the interaction of exposure to early trauma AND exposure to drugs.

• An "interaction" is the phenomenon of, for example, not being harmed by nitro, and not being harmed by glycerin, but being blown up by nitroglycerin. Or take salt; it is composed of two caustic substances that become harmless together.

Societies traumatize children, expose and tacitly encourage young adults to try drugs, then jails (further traumatize) them for liking drugs as if punishment could ever cure the craving for being soothed. It is a vicious circle. Sadly, most drug abusers do not become intoxicated to "expand" their minds and enhance consciousness or explore dimensions, alternate realities, or go more deeply into this reality. No, most of us abuse drugs to obliterate consciousness, to go numb, to go unconscious. We are then susceptible to a great deal of further harm, like violating other precepts and suffering the many consequences of that bad karma. And our physical and mental health suffers. And our social life, which was helped at first, suffers. And our circles suffer. And society suffers. But FTW, we say. Party!

They are a symptom

Columbia University neuroscientist Carl Hart on brain science and myths about addiction 

Neo-hippies high on drugs (dudespaper.com)

There is a nationwide shift toward "liberalizing" drug laws. Neuropsychopharmacologist Dr. Carl Hart -- the first tenured African-American professor in the sciences at Columbia University -- is an associate professor in the Psychology and Psychiatry Departments. He is also a member of the National Advisory Council on Drug Abuse and a research scientist in the Division of Substance Abuse at the New York State Psychiatric Institute.

(highpricethebook.com)

However, long before he entered the hallowed halls of the Ivy League, Dr. Hart gained firsthand knowledge about drug usage while growing up in one of Miami’s toughest neighborhoods. He recently wrote a memoir titled High Price: A Neuroscientist’s Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society. In the book, he recalls his journey, how he escaped a life of crime and drugs, and how he avoided becoming one of the crack addicts he now studies. More
 
Going to Coachella 2014

2014 is the best lineup ever!

Why pay $375.00 for GA to get in when you can pay $799.00 for VIP passes? Sorry, too late, it's sold out! Then there's the driving and fuel charges, parking and camping, shuttle passes ($60), food and water, and the illegal drugs won't be buying themselves. This is the "Woodstock" of our generation -- except for the MTV concert and all the policing, radio chipped wristbands, NSA spying, and herding people onto a giant lawn with an in loco parentis curfew.
 
Here's a "deal," ravers: one tee pee (as seen above) and two GA passes only $2,200 or for just an additional $900, make that VIP. Think of what "rebel rebels" you'll be! See more about prices, heatstroke risks, overdosing, dehydration, and other troubles concertgoers can expect to encounter at coachella.com. Remember to shower before day two of the weekend, and "no sex please. We're Ameboids and Gatchularians." - HHGTTG 
 
The most important thing is this, as when visiting Disneyland, BRING MONEY! That junk food and those glow sticks aren't going to buy themselves. And just on the off chance, for sensibilities' sakes, bring condoms. Never know, this could be the year. See, if you forget to pack a parachute, don't jump.
 
What's the moral to our story? Avoid drugs. But if you don't avoid drugs, make sure to have had avoided early childhood traumas like stressed parenting, abandonment, sexual molestation, physical abuse, economic hardship, emotional abuse, incest, codependence, bullying, and so on.

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  Microsoft's Bill Gates

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