Midwest Real
A podcast & blog with an unquenchable lust for rabbit holes, novelty and open-minded inquiry. Join us as we dig beyond the status quo! Hosted by Michael Phillip EST. 12/21/2012 in Milwaukee.

Dennis McKenna is an ethnopharmacologist, lecturer, founding member of the Heffter Research Institute, world traveler, mystic and author of Brotherhood of the Screaming Abyss, My Life with Terrance McKenna.

get the full write-up and links at midwestreal.net  

Direct download: DennisMckenna2_-_12_15_14_11.42_PM.mp3
Category:society and culture -- posted at: 6:30pm EDT

Scott Onstott is an Author and researcher with a background in math and architecture. Thanks to his proclivity for quantification, Scott has an aptitude for tracking down, highlighting and making sense of truly unbelievable numerological and geometrical synchronicities that reverberate throughout manmade structures, nature and the cosmos. His self-produced film, Secrets in Plain Sight is an exploration of these and many other phenomena and has been viewed over 4 million times on Youtube.

head to midwestreal.net for links and a full write-up

Direct download: Scottonstott_-_12_3_14_10.54_PM.mp3
Category:society and culture -- posted at: 12:40am EDT

Alexandre Tannous is one of those guys whose insight just continually surprises you. 
He holds multiple degrees in music and philosophy. More importantly, he has traveled to over 40 of countries where he has participated in dozens of shamanic, meditative and initiatory ceremonies. Alexandre also researches the esoteric and therapeutic properties of sound from scientific and shamanic perspectives. He has lectured at many major universities including Georgetown, Princeton and NYU.
 
Head to midwestreal.net for a full write-up.
Direct download: alexandre__-_11_22_14_12.36_PM.mp3
Category:society and culture -- posted at: 2:13pm EDT

Author, 32nd degree Freemason and scholar Robert W. Sullivan IV is back to blast more hidden knowledge! This time, he takes a scalpel to your favorite films, exposing the cloaked allegory, messages, symbols and archetypes that fuel man's most powerful narratives.

As always, for a full write-up, head over to midwestreal.net 

Direct download: RWSIV2_-_111114_9.05_PM.mp3
Category:society and culture -- posted at: 10:38pm EDT

Within all of us, there's a chemical gateway to another dimension. It's called DMT. What is its purpose? Why is it so ubiquitous throughout nature? No one knows, but one thing's for sure- it can change your life in a matter of minutes.  

Dr. Rick Strassman has studied the substance for over 20 years. He's the author of DMT the Spirit Molecule and his new book, DMT and the Soul of Prophecy.

For a full write up, head to midwestreal.net ! 

Direct download: Strassman_-_103014_3.36_PM.mp3
Category:society and culture -- posted at: 7:12pm EDT

Our friend, Author Gabriel D. Roberts returns to the show. We discuss why we're all heroes in training, why fear is overrated and how to be the best, most authentic versions of ourselves. 

For a full write-up head to midwestreal.net

Direct download: GDR_Oct_-_102114_3.11_PM.mp3
Category:society and culture -- posted at: 4:48pm EDT

“In the first half of the 20th century, the prevailing idea was that humans could be masters of nature and the universe. We thought that human power was unlimited. We thought- ‘we can change rivers, we can move mountains—’ we can actually conquer nature. Then, sometime in the second half of the 20th century, we made the realization that the relationship between nature and humans is actually much more complex than that.  

 

 

We can learn a lot from nature. This is where the idea of biomimetics and harmony between man and nature came in.” 

Dr. Michael Nosonovsky

For the full article, head to midwestreal.net

Direct download: Biomimetics_-_xx.mp3
Category:society and culture -- posted at: 12:36am EDT

The show is joined by filmmakers Spencer Chumbley and Erik Ljung. They've shot for a variety of organizations including VICE, Al Jazeera and more. 

Head to midwestreal.net for a full write-up and links!

Direct download: Spencererik_-_10714_12.06_AM.mp3
Category:society and culture -- posted at: 1:36am EDT

David W. Mathisen's latest work, The Undying Stars dances comfortably where traditional historians wouldn't dare tread. The book ties together ancient megalithic structures with star myths and a holographic, worldview that's oddly similar to what modern science is finding.

Still not sexy enough? The Undying Stars also argues that this ancient wisdom was deliberately suppressed by forces who took over the Roman empire, which launched a ruthless campaign to eradicate this esoteric system of knowledge.

We also talk about dolphins.

For a full write-up and links, head to midwestreal.net 

Direct download: DavidMathisen_-_9_28_14_5.25_PM.mp3
Category:society and culture -- posted at: 7:07pm EDT

Tom Campbell has had an impressive career in applied physics. He has worked in military intelligence, he has reverse-engineered the weapons technology of rival governments, he has worked in national missile defense, even on huge engineering projects for NASA— impressive stuff. 

 

But what makes Tom an even more interesting and rare specimen is that he has also spent three decades researching the nature of consciousness and reality. He has done so by remaining open-minded about topics that many scientists and snopes frequenters would greet only with a scoff and a pompous finger wave— Out of body experiences, altered states of consciousness, the statistically measurable power of intent and a bunch of other stuff that sounds like it’s straight out of an episode of FRINGE. 

 

Tom has chronicled has his experiences, findings and anecdotes in a three-part series of books- My Big Toe (Theory of Everything).

 

Spoiler- the sum total of Tom’s research can be summed up by saying that "reality" as we know it is basically a simulation. 

 

Head to Midwestreal.net for the full write-up and links!

 

Direct download: Tom_Campbell_-_8_26_14_1.34_AM.mp3
Category:society and culture -- posted at: 3:17am EDT

Randall finishes the brain melting he started in the second part of our conversation. Head to MidwestReal.net for the full write-up!

Direct download: randall_2_-_8314_10.40_PM.mp3
Category:society and culture -- posted at: 12:12am EDT

Every night we go to bed taking it for granted that tomorrow will come. Worst case scenario, our heart will give out and we won't wake up.

But, what if that wasn't the worst case scenario?

As we speak, massive chunks of instant extinction are flying by the vessel we inhabit at preposterous speeds. If one of them crosses the earth's path, it could easily be game over for the human race.

As long as we've been aware of that inconvenient fact, it's been good for precisely one thing- apathy. That's because the ability to do anything about it was completely absent. Well, that's not the case anymore. We do have the technology and intelligence to do something about it. However, thus far, we've shown a complete and total lack of will to even discuss it seriously.

What will it take to pay attention? A 9/11 scale tragedy? A Hiroshima scale tragedy? Worse? Unfortunately when you're talking about asteroids, all are very possible.

If you know anything about my guest on this show, Randall Carlson, it's probably because he's become a living library of brain melting knowledge. He's as an architect, master builder, Free Mason, globe trekking scholar, a geology and history enthusiast and many other things. Yet, of everything he's learned, there's clearly one matter of paramount importance- The ancients left of clues about world-wrecking cataclysms and it's just a matter of time until history repeats itself. That is, unless we do something about it.

As sprawling and deep as this conversation with Randall is, it only scratches the surface of what's available over at Sacred Geometry International. There's literally hundreds of hours of mind blasting information at SGI, much of it free.

For a full write up and links head to midwestreal.net

Direct download: Randall1_-_72914_4.09_PM.mp3
Category:society and culture -- posted at: 5:40pm EDT

Liam Wilson is best known for playing bass in the spastic, technical, AMAZING progressive metal mainstay, Dillinger Escape Plan. If you're a fan of heavy music and you somehow haven't heard of them over the course of the last 15 or so years, I don't even know what to say. 

If you're not so much into the metal, fear not, for this man is likely the opposite of what comes to mind when you imagine a guy with millions of head bangs under his belt. He's a voracious reader, a practitioner of Transcendental Meditation, a yogi, a psychonaut, a student of many philosophies, and a bunch of other things I can guarantee he'd never be comfortable calling himself. 

Liam and I spent very little time hovering around the surface in this conversation. In fact, I think Liam might have been a little bit excited to be on a show that welcomes fare beyond his bass rig.

Go give my new friend (and I do mean that) Liam some love on Twitter, Facebook and on some of his articles over at Talkhouse. If you want to see what his band is up to, head to their site!

(Head to Midwestreal.net for links and a full writeup!) 

 

Direct download: Liam_Wilson_-_72114_9.21_PM.mp3
Category:society and culture -- posted at: 11:44pm EDT

Ancient languages like Hebrew had a numerical values embedded into every character. This added levels of meaning and allegory to the bible that gave people like Sir Isaac Newton and many other scholars a life-long headache.

But, numerical value is totally absent from the English language... right?

I don't know.

But, Author and researcher Marty Leeds has some pretty god damn interesting thoughts, videos and books that argue for it.

Head to midwestreal.net for links, and a full write-up!

Direct download: martyleeds_-_7914_6.57_PM.mp3
Category:society and culture -- posted at: 8:50pm EDT

I spoke with Closure in Moscow about their highly intelligent, psychedelic, satyrically lased new masterpiece of a record, Pink Lemonade. Go buy it right now on iTunes or your local record store. 

See the full article at Midwest Real.

Direct download: PINKUREMONAIDO_-_62814_4.38_PM.mp3
Category:society and culture -- posted at: 6:08pm EDT

Direct download: Bolelli3_-_62114_3.17_PM.mp3
Category:society and culture -- posted at: 4:38pm EDT

 

 

Direct download: maps2_-_61014_6.54_PM.mp3
Category:society and culture -- posted at: 7:21pm EDT

LISTEN

People are evil, violent, greedy, hopeless bastards.  Even as a prepubescent flesh ball that would experience withdrawal symptoms if you took away his Super Nintendo controller for more than five seconds, I knew that.  How could I not?  Fear of the “bad guys” was embedded into roughly 99.9% of the mega-tons of media I consumed on a daily basis.  As a tyke I'd often lie in bed at night fearing a who’s who of boogie men with all manner of otherworldly weaponry that I could never hope to defeat.  But, thankfully, I somehow managed to survive the onslaught of demonic hordes that plagued my mind, the news, movies and the games I so eagerly devoured. I'd even argue that some of it made me a better person.   

More recently, from firsthand evidence, I've learned that as scary as the world can be, it’s actually a pretty awesome, dare I say, cooperative place.  I buy shit on Craigslist. I get rides from Uber drivers. And you know what?  I’ve never once been shanked, scammed or raped by a devil worshipper masquerading as a guy with speakers for sale. In fact, it seems like the best things humans can do are usually accomplished collectively.  Thankfully, we live in an era where we actually have the ability to supercharge our collective efforts through open-source, or consensus based platforms.  Just look the wild power and success of media like Twitter, Reddit, Bitcoin and crowd-funding.  Yet, even these vessels would be truly toothless and impossible without mass participation and trust.  

Our guest on this episode, Jeffery Tucker has been labeled a lot of things- Economist, Libertarian, Anarchist, Entrepreneur, Publisher, Bitcoin expert, the list truly goes on.  However, I’ve found that rather than putting him in a ideological box, it's more accurate to call him a human that trusts other humans, despite all the fear-mongering and propaganda that reverberates throughout the mainstream discourse.  Though he and I may not agree on every philosophical point, we agree on the most important thing.  We’re all in this together and if we’re going to make this exponentially more interconnected world harmonious, we’re sure as hell going to need to trust one another. 

Cumbauya. 

For more on Jeffrey, you can follow him on Twitter, or visit his latest venture, liberty.me 

You can also say hi, to my well-read, Bitcoin-mongering co-host Will Pangman on Twitter!

Join the thousands who already support Midwest Real. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook and don’t forget to subscribe and review on iTunes!

P.S.-You can now tip the show at midwestreal.net

 

Direct download: TUCKER1_-_52514_4.52_PM.mp3
Category:society and culture -- posted at: 6:41pm EDT

Direct download: ERWAN_-_51614_3.26_PM.mp3
Category:society and culture -- posted at: 7:28pm EDT

041. Author, Mason and Brain Melter Robert W. Sullivan IV, Michael Phillip

LISTEN.

image

 

image  image

I remember it well- the first time I heard the phrase “Freemason”.  Sure, it came from an uneducated mouth at a college party, but it was enough to make me rush to Google for enlightenment.  My 20-year-old brain couldn’t believe what it had read.  Masons seemed to be a real-life shadowy cabal of powerful men linked to basically every major event that lead to the establishment of the United States.  It's well known that George Washington, Ben Franklin and and a slew of other founding fathers we worship were members of this secretive fraternal order shrouded in creepy symbols, weird phrases and secret handshakes.  How could I NOT have known this?  Then I came across the claims that masons were devil worshipers, prayed to idols and practiced black magic.                               

                          OMG, THEY'RE TOTES WATCHING US RIGHT NOW

              (OMG THEY'RE TOTES WATCHING US RIGHT NOW)

After a couple of months of being sufficiently freaked out, I gained enough reliably sourced knowledge to see that the truth (as usual) lay somewhere in the middle.  No, “they” don’t orchestrate world events, worship the devil, or practice black magic (I don’t think).  So what do they do?  Well, a lot of it has to do with networking.  

Imagine yourself in the year 17-hundred-and-something.  You’re an English well-to-do sort and you’re about 310 years short of Linkedin being a thing.  Wouldn’t you want to belong to an exclusive, secretive club of like-minded men?

Of course, there’s more to it than just the fraternal aspect.  There’s real ancient knowledge linked to a wide variety of cultures from Europe to Asia and everything in between.  Today’s masons are some of the few that continue to communicate these transcendent truths through the powerful vessels of myth, drama, allegory and initiation.  Even Linkedin can't do that (yet).

                           

Robert Sullivan IV comes from a long line of masons, so the craft is in his blood.  He himself has received the 32nd degree (the highest you can earn).  The sum of his nearly 20 years of toil is his book, the Royal Arch of Enoch.  Within which, he thoroughly dissects how ancient mysteries, ceremonies, sages and even astral bodies have influenced the very foundation America was built upon.

In this cast, Robert sums up much of the knowledge from his book, his masonic studies and beyond.  He evokes dozens of historical figures, locales and philosophies and modern day depictions that will have you writing furiously as you struggle to keep your brain from melting.  

Strap in. 

Join the thousands who already support Midwest Real. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook and don’t forget to subscribe and review on iTunes!

P.S.-You can now tip the show in Bitcoin!

image

Direct download: RobertwSullivanIV_-_42514_6.04_PM.mp3
Category:society and culture -- posted at: 9:21pm EDT

LISTEN.

image  image

All comedy is not created equal.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m always ready for (and often partaking in) some cheap chuckles facilitated by potty humor, but I have a deeper appreciation for the type of biting satire and commentary that actually opens your mind, forcing you to think whilst giggling.  

 

I’m no expert on the history of comedy, but there seems to be something more poignant stirring in the hearts of (some of) today’s comedians.  Maybe it was all made possible by trail-blazers like George Carlin and Bill Hicks.  Or, perhaps it’s a natural byproduct of the unbelievably troubled, yet amazing moment in history we dwell within.  Whatever the case, thank god for today’s satirists.  Their craft provides a truly valuable, yet digestible context for the crazy, revolution-ridden times we’re living in today. 

 

Lee Camp is a part of this silver-tongued coterie of counterculture comedians.  In his early days behind the mic, he was doing just fine for himself with more traditional material, but as he woke up to the injustice and hypocrisy running through society, he just couldn’t keep his mouth shut.  Lee now puts out a razor-sharp weekly rant dubbed “Moment of Clarity,” via his YouTube channel, which boasts tens of thousands of subscribers.  

 

 

Keep up with Lee through his websiteTwitterFacebook and over at disinfo.com.  

 

Join the thousands who already support Midwest Real. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook and don’t forget to subscribe and review on iTunes!

P.S.-You can now tip the show in Bitcoin!

image

Direct download: leecamp_-_4914_9.02_PM.mp3
Category:society and culture -- posted at: 10:53pm EDT

LISTEN

 

image  image

 

This bag of meat we drive around sure is complicated.  We’ve had millions of years to figure it out, yet we still don’t know all the ins and outs of caring for this body we’ve got.  To make matters worse, it seems like every week there’s some new piece of medical or nutritional research that contradicts a long-held truth about what it is means to be healthy- Fat has gone from bad to good.  Many grains have gone from the cornerstone of a healthy diet, to something you should probably NEVER eat.  It almost seems like we have no idea what we're doing. 

 

Of course, there’s a whole host of hugely important factors beyond nutrition like sleep, lifestyle, relationships, genetics, environment and roughly a million more things.  But, who has time to worry about all of that?  If there’s not a pill that fixes it, it’s probably too much trouble for the majority of us an our equally jiggly neighbors.

   

Dave Asprey himself was among the pilled-up, overweight, misguided masses for many years.  But, all that changed when he began hacking his body, treating it as if it were a computer.  He spent over 300 thousand dollars trying everything he could get his hands on and some of it really worked.  Dave began reporting his findings and recommendations in his now wildly successful blog.  He's since branched out further with his own line of human optimization products

 

The ever-dashing Former MMA fighter, fitness expert and all around scary (but nice) dude, Adam Von Rothfelder also joined me in hosting this show.  If you’re in the Milwaukee area, go check out his amazing gym, Drench Fitness

 

 

Dave really covers all the major bases in this talk- nutrition, sleep hacking, smart drugs, recent controversies and even his own personal experiences with smart drugs and learning disabilities.

Join the thousands who already support Midwest Real. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook and don’t forget to subscribe and review on Itunes!

P.S.-You can now tip the show in Bitcoin!

image

 

Direct download: Aspreyedit_-_32814_4.52_PM.mp3
Category:society and culture -- posted at: 1:09am EDT

LISTEN.

 

 

image  image

 Life can be a bastard.  It has a way of sucker-punching you in the nethers just when you least expect it, leaving you confused and scrambling for answers.  Life gets nasty, period.  Death, disease and trauma don’t wait until you’ve fortified yourself with a daily meditation routine, or had some sort of life-affirming existential breakthrough.  Most of us learn this truth the hard way- in lieu of a personal, transcendent experience that no one can take away, philosophies and religious creeds often amount to squat when life gets dark. 

Enter Gabriel D. Roberts.  Raised a fundamentalist Christian, Gabriel’s religious identity was well-defined and static for decades.  But, intelligence and dogma have a way of repelling one another, and by his late twenties he rejected spirituality completely.  What followed, was an ugly period for Gabriel.  He devoted himself to more materialistic endeavors, all while self-medicating with harmful substances. Eventually, after finding his own transcendent experience, he was able to right his ship.  He has now devoted his life to spreading his story of awakening to others in hopes that they might make contact with their own, personal spiritual truth. 

Gabriel’s third book, The Quest for Gnosis will be released wherever digital books are sold on March 20.  For more information, check out his website and give him plenty of digital smooches via his Facebook and Twitter accounts.

Join the thousands who already support Midwest Real. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook and don’t forget to subscribe and review on Itunes!

P.S.-You can now tip the show in Bitcoin!

image

 

 

Direct download: GDRfinal2.mp3
Category:society and culture -- posted at: 5:13pm EDT

Bitcoin is immortal, so you might as well embrace it.

LISTEN

   

New technologies almost always follow a predictable pattern.  They start off exclusive, expensive and as something that grants power to a privileged few, all while some lucky nerd sits atop an ever-growing pile of money at the top of the pyramid.  But eventually, those very same pieces of innovation become cheap, ubiquitous and totally standard until they’re replaced by the next big thing.  It’s happened so many times in the last couple of decades that it almost seems like a requirement.  But every now and then, something so disruptive and novel comes along that it transcends all convention- The PC, the Internet, email, cellular phones Napster- the list goes on.  Will the next addition to that list be Bitcoin?

Spoiler: yes.

In just a few years, Bitcoin went from a thought-provoking paper, to some clever coding worth a fraction of a penny, to “nerd money,” to disruptive technology worth billions, to the number one consumer of raw computing power in the entire world; 256 times more than the world’s top 500 super computers combinedEven more than porn.  Yes, seriously.  This has given rise to a guerrilla economy that circumvents the need for any traditional fiat currency. Sure, you can buy with it, invest in it, sell it, trade it and speculate about its future until your eyes bleed, but that’s far less exciting than the community that has sprung up around it.

Bitcoin is not just a defiant, decentralized currency.  It has spawned a tangible, global movement of the most potent sort- smart, tech savvy, passionate, highly engaged and young. Every day, people gather by the thousands to discuss, teach, create and philosophize around it and in just a couple of years, this community has accomplished a considerable amount.  They’ve given birth to new businesses, technologies and dozens of crypto-currencies.  But, that’s just the tip of the ice burg.

Join Chris Ellis, Will Pangman and myself as we dig oh so much deeper in this episode.

Chris Ellis is one of the driving forces behind the crypto-currency, Feathercoin.  He’s also a Bitcoin enthusiast and expert who has spoken extensively on the subject.

Will Pangman has gone from an entrepreneur with a Bitcoin hobby, to a local authority on the subject here in Milwaukee. He appears regularly on the Let's Talk Bitcoin podcast.

Join the thousands who already support Midwest Real. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook and don’t forget to subscribe and review on Itunes!

P.S.-You can now tip the show in Bitcoin!

 

Direct download: bitcoin.mp3
Category:society and culture -- posted at: 9:28pm EDT

LISTEN

There’s a stupid old expression that says “time is the coin of life, be careful how you spend it.” I’m not sure if there’s a soul on Earth that reads that and thinks “yes, I’m definitely spending my time in the wisest way possible.”  After all, how can we?  Life requires us to have many obligations we don’t really want to deal with- school, debt, jobs, families- they just seem to keep piling up, burying us in a stinky heap of duty (pun fully intended).   But, every now and then someone manages to dig their way out of the rubble.  Mr. Greg Carlwood would be one of them.

A couple of years ago, with nothing more than an idea, an anxious middle finger and a desire to better his life, Greg started his own show called The Higherside Chats.  The show now boasts thousands of listeners from all over the world and it’s quickly becoming one of the most popular destinations on the net for alternative media and conspiracy chatter.  Oh, and it also enabled him to quit his fulfilling, soul-sucking day job in retail. 

 If you’d like to take the plunge into Greg’s deep and murky waters (you do), check out the following-

Higherside chats

Conspiratees

Twitter

Facebook

Join the thousands who already support Midwest Real. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook and don’t forget to subscribe and review on Itunes!

 

 

Direct download: HIGHERSIDECHATSII.mp3
Category:society and culture -- posted at: 6:37pm EDT

LISTEN

Compared to the rest of the world, the west has reached a very cushy state, but things haven't always been all corn, beef and football.  Getting to this warm, chubby place required revolution, civil war and plenty of good old fashioned dissidence.  Indeed, many heads were bashed in the name of liberties we now take for granted. 

Thankfully, most of us don’t have to take to the streets to fight for basic rights anymore, but there's still plenty of controversial, if not totally backwards, philosophies being preached on all sides of the political spectrum. The government can still chill dissent, ban firearms, give unfair tax breaks to giant conglomerates, spy on us, tell us who we can and can’t marry, what women can and can’t do with their bodies, even mandate what substances we can and can’t use to explore our own consciousnesses. 

We all have our own opinions with respect to the ethical, ideological and political debates surrounding such subjects, yet there’s only one that regularly lands thousands of people in handcuffs each year.  Here's a hint- it's a little green plant.  Inexplicably, with very minimal digging, it becomes obvious that cannabis has cultivated a persona and a legal treatment based almost completely on falsehoods disinformation and nonsense.  Though more than half of our population (55-58% according to the latest polls) has woken up to this fact, the caricaturization, misunderstanding and demonizing never seems to end.  

Our guest, Adam Scorgie has probably done more to shed light on the truth behind cannabis than 99% of humanity.  (Which, I guess makes him a one-per-center of a different kind).  He’s is one of the main driving forces behind the critically acclaimed cult-classic documentary film, The Union, the Business Behind Getting High and its upcoming sequel, The Culture High.  Of course, there's so much more to this man, but you'll have to listen to learn more about that.

For more on Adam, check out the following-

The Culture High

The Union

Adam's Twitter

The Culture High Twitter

The Culture High Facebook

Please, support Midwest Real and join in the conversation! Follow us on Twitter and Facebook and don’t forget to subscribe and review on Itunes!

Direct download: Adamsocreg.mp3
Category:society and culture -- posted at: 9:09pm EDT

LISTEN.

SUBSCRIBE/REVIEW.

image

We humans have an amazing amount of rational knowledge; painstakingly poking, prodding and measuring basically everything we can get our hands on for generations has brought us to some pretty concrete, indisputable truths about the way the world works.  The rational human mind has cured diseases, coded the human genome and begun mapping the billions of neurons in our own brains.  We have so much objective knowledge we forget that society is practically rotting under the weight of its own increasingly ill, obese, depressed mass. 

Perhaps that’s because humanity’s quantifiable victories are rivaled only by the crushing defeat our subjective, inner-selves have suffered.  We give little credence to our, unique experiences, yet it’s they that truly define and satisfy us.  Indispensable, unquantifiable phenomena like our relationships with others, ourselves, and even the meaning we find in life itself are the things we will inevitably lay thinking about as we take our last breaths, still they take a backseat to mundane accomplishments we will one day find trivial.

If, however, we consider ourselves to be both objective and subjective beings, living in a world that is both objective and subjective, we encounter an interesting paradox.  We find that each is necessary and useful for shaping a fully-realized life.  Philosopher and author Tim Freke calls this “paralogical thinking.”  If we embrace the paradoxes that surround us, he states, we’ll begin to find mystery, meaning, fulfillment and wonder.

For more on paralogical thinking, Tim’s books and other philosophies, click the magical blue words below.

http://www.themysteryexperience.com/

twitter.com/timfreke

facebook/authortimfreke

Please, support Midwest Real and join in the conversation! Follow us on Twitter and Facebook and don’t forget to subscribe and review on Itunes!

Direct download: Timfreke.mp3
Category:society and culture -- posted at: 7:26pm EDT

LISTEN

Truth.  Is there even such a thing?  At times, objectivity seems like a given, but with a deeper look, we often find shades gray and learn that the “truth” looks quite different depending upon your point of view.  But, is there such a thing as a greater, transcendent, immutable truth?  Something we can know and take solace in, maybe even aspire toward throughout our lives?  Obviously there’s no clear answer, but if it does exist, you’re sure as hell never going to find it without looking.   

For Android Jones, catching a glimpse of that deeper truth required sacrifice, toil and even grief.  But, now that he’s scratched the surface of it, he strives to foster a deeper relationship with truth by channeling it in every piece of art he creates.  As esoteric and ambitious as that may sound, take one look at Android’s recent art and you’ll find that somewhere within his delicate dance of color where the micro and macro merge it becomes clear that he’s expressing something of a higher order.

For more on Android’s art and his personal philosophies, check out the following:

androidjones.com

androidjones.com-obtain

Android Jones on Twitter

Android Jones on Facebook

What on Earth is Happening

Please, support Midwest Real and join in the conversation! Follow us on Twitter and Facebook and don't forget to subscribe and review on Itunes!

 

Direct download: android1.mp3
Category:society and culture -- posted at: 10:55am EDT

LISTEN

I have some bad news.  The kind of bad news you’re actively putting off thinking about at this very moment.  Fear and misfortune are lurking just around the corner.  Something bad can and will happen to you, it’s just a matter of time.  As if that weren’t bad enough, most threats to our well-being are totally beyond our control.  So, now that you’re thinking about it, how will you react?  Put it out of your mind? Curl up into a ball and try to hide from it?  Or think to yourself, why not just leave life’s unpleasantness until the last possible second?

The fact of the matter is that we fortunate first-worlders need a reality check.  The societal armor that surrounds us makes us soft, detached and totally unprepared for life’s inevitable nastiness.  We rarely if ever confront the dead, the suffering or the starving, though we intellectually know the ills of the world are coming for us all sooner or later.

This is one of those moments: will you choose the blue pill or the red pill?  Will you try to suppress the fear by going back to watching ESPN and eating beef jerky until the wheels fall off?  Or will you wake up every morning embracing the risks, thinking about how you can grab your day by the balls and squeeze every last bit of impermanent happiness out of it?

Truth be told, I’m far from an expert. I owe most of this insight to this week’s guest, Daniele Bolleli, who as it turns out, is no stranger to fear (or grabbing life by the balls).  In fact, he’s writing a book about it (fear, not ball-grabbing).  Daniele is the author of several books including Create Your Own Religion and On the Warrior’s Path.  He is also a professor who lectures on history and philosophy.  As if that weren’t enough, he has his own podcast, The Drunken Taoist.  Above all else, he’s unbelievably humble and down to Earth.

As you likely know, you can find the show on Twitter and Facebook.  If you like what you hear, click here and leave some Itunes feedback!

Hokahe!

Direct download: bolleli2.mp3
Category:society and culture -- posted at: 10:37pm EDT

1