En el interior ... No hay ningún interior.

Este es un video increíble en muchos aspectos, no tan sólo en cuanto documentación de los resultados del ácido lisérgico. En esta época se llevaron a cabo multitud de experimentos de los que se podría cuestionar la eticidad como la involucración del científico en el experimento. Pero no se puede negar que el análisis de los mismos, de las actitudes de los científicos que los llevaron a cabo, de las respuestas de los participantes, son de un interés enorme. El doctor, que obviamente conoce bien los efectos del ácido, la guía en algunas preguntas "Dr. ¿Es todo uno?" mientras que trata de ser más aseptico en otras. 

Luego tenemos el concepto de "normalidad" A.C. "él me dijo que estaban buscando a gente normal"

En resumen, un video excepcional documentando los comienzos del viaje psicotrópico.

Esta es la transcripción del video:

Dr. Sidney Cohen interviews a research subject and administers LSD to her at the  Los Angeles Veterans Administration Hospital.

Here is an interview with a subject just before LSD is about to be administer.

HouseWife: My husband is an employee here at the D.A. And he told me that they were looking for normal people, … hehehe and I volunteered.

Doctor:. I see, Do you feel you are normal?

HW. hehehe, I hope I´m normal, I think so.

Dr. Well, a little while back you took quite a series of psychological tests, and I can asure you that you are a very stable and well balance person, as a result of the test. And, how do you feel about coming here and drinking this strange material?

HW. well... I´m a little nervous, perhaps

Dr. Well, I think that´s normal. I think is time for you to have your lisergic acid. Drink this down and we´ll be back to see how you´re doing.

Voice over. This is a glass of water. Colorless, Tasteless, contains one hundred gamma of LSD 25, one tenth of a milligram, equivalent of one six hundredth of a gram. A ounce of this material would make a hundred and fifty thousand of such doses. Let us observe the effect some three hours later.

Dr. what's happening?

HW. I couldn´t. I couldn´t possibly tell you. It´s here, Can´t you feel it?. This whole room everything is in colour. I can feel the air, I can see it. I can see all the molecules. I mean... I´m part of it. Can´t you see it?

Dr. I´m trying.

HW. Ohh it´s just like you´re released, free or... I don´t know I can tell you.

Dr. How do you feel inside?

HW. Inside... I don´t have any inside.

Dr. Is It all one?

HW. It would be all one if... if... if you weren´t here and if... if... if nobody else... Yes, yes everything is one. You have nothing to do with it, I am one with what I am. I can see everything in color. Everything, you have to see the air. You can´t believe it! And the dimensions! All the prisms and the rays and everything coming down through you and moving...

Dr. What does this all mean to you?

HW. I´ve never seen such infinite beauty in my life. It´s like a curtain or spider-web. Can you see it´s right here in front of me, right now! Watch! No! Good heavens! You know it went through me? It passed right through me!

Dr. Could you feel it?

HW. I wa.. ah... wa... a... me!? There wasn´t any me.

DR. Is all this pleasant or unpleasant or aren´t these the right words?

HW. What seems pleasant or unpleasant?... there isn’t anything pleasant and unpleasant. It is too beautiful. It´s... it´s... how can you think in... I mean... can´t you feel it? Everything is so beautiful and lovely and alive! you shouldn’t say anything about anything not being. This is reality, this is... If you look right over there... are you looking?

Dr. Yes, what should I see?

HW. I wish I could talk in technicolor or... let you see it... Did you say you can see it?

Dr. No, I can´t quite see it, tell me about it.

HW. It´s... I can´t tell you about it. If you can´t see it then you just never know it. I feel sorry for you.

Transcrpción traducida al español:

El doctor Sidney Cohen entrevista a un sujeto de investigación y administra LSD en el Veterans Administration Hospital de Los Ángeles.
Aquí se muestra una entrevista con el sujeto poco antes de administrar el LSD.

Ama de Casa.Mi esposo es un empleado aquí en el D.A. Él me dijo que estaban buscando a gente normal, ... jejeje y me ofrecí.

Doctor. veo, ¿Siente usted que es normal?

A.C. jejeje, espero ser normal, creo que sí.

Dr. Bueno, hace un tiempo realizó bastantes series de pruebas psicológicas, y puedo asegurarle que usted es muy estable y muy equilibrada, viendo los resultados de la prueba. Y, ¿cómo se siente acerca de venir aquí y tomar esta materia extraña?

A.C. Esto... Estoy un poco nerviosa, tal vez

Dr. Bueno, creo que eso es normal. Creo que es hora de que usted tome su ácido lisérgico. Beba esto y estaremos de vuelta para ver cómo va la cosa.

Voz en off. Se trata de un vaso de agua. Sin color ni sabor, contiene cien gamma de LSD 25, una décima parte de un miligramo, equivalente a 1/600 de un gramo. Un gramo de este material sería equivalente a ciento cincuenta mil de tales dosis. Vamos a observar el efecto unas tres horas más tarde.

Dr. ¿Qué es lo que está pasando?

A.C. No podría. Yo no podría decirte. Está aquí, ¿no puedes sentirlo? Toda esta habitación, todo está en color. Puedo sentir el aire, lo puedo ver. Puedo ver todas las moléculas. Quiero decir ... Yo soy parte de ella. ¿No puedes verlo?

Dr. estoy tratando.

A.C. Ohh es como si estuviera liberada, libre o ... Yo no sé que puedo decirte.

Dr. ¿Cómo se siente por dentro?

A.C. En el interior ... No hay ningún interior.

Dr. ¿Es todo uno?

A.C. Sería todo uno si ... si ... si usted no estuviera aquí y si ... si ... si nadie más ... Sí, sí, todo es uno. Usted no tiene nada que ver con eso, yo soy una con lo que soy. Puedo ver todo en color. Todo, tienes que ver el aire. ¡No lo puedo creer! ¡Y las dimensiones! Todos los prismas y las rayas y todo lo que viene a través de ti y en movimiento ...

Dr. ¿Qué significa todo esto para usted?

A.C. Nunca he visto una belleza tan infinita en mi vida. Es como una cortina o tela de araña. ¿Puedes ver que está justo aquí delante de mí, ahora mismo? ¡Mira! ¡No! ¡Dios mío! ¿Sabes que pasó por mí? ¡Pasó a través de mí!

Dr. ¿Pudo sentirlo?

A.C. Yo qui .. ah … eh ... a. .. ¿¡Mí!? No hay ningún mi.

Dr. ¿Todo esto es agradable o desagradable o estas palabras no son adecuadas?

A.C. ¿Qué parece agradable o desagradable? ... no hay nada agradable o desagradable. Es demasiado hermoso. Es ... es ... ¿cómo se puede pensar en...? Quiero decir ... ¿no puedes sentirlo?¡Todo es tan bello y hermoso y vivo! No deberías decir nada de nada no siendo. Esta es la realidad, esto es ... Si te fijas por allá ... ¿lo estás viendo?

Dr. Sí, ¿qué debería ver?

A.C. Me gustaría poder hablar en technicolor o ... dejar que lo vieras ... ¿Has dicho que puedes verlo?

Dr. No, yo no puedo verlo, cuéntamelo.

A.C. Es ... Yo no puedo contártelo. Si no lo puedes ver, entonces nunca lo sabrás. Lo siento por ti.

An Anonymous message to the Spanish political class

              

English transcript:
This is an anonymous message to the Spanish political class.

    We warned you, "Did you believe you could deceive everybody all the time? It seems you have not understood anything. Your continuous efforts to stifle freedom of speech and the rising tide of indignation against the corrupt system are completely useless. The more you become complacent to the plutocracy and their absurd demands, the more exposed you are to the public opinion. The more you make the people pay for the criminal greed of a small untouchable elite, the more it will reveal your obvious inability to lead the change required and that we demand.

    The more force you use against peaceful and unarmed people, the more you undermine your own authority. For every corporate misinformation that you or your backers issue or publish, citizens create hundreds of channels to ensure that the truth will be heard. The people have evolved. Now we are a distributed network that combine social networking with technology, sharing information as a global conscience. Your attempts to divide and alienate us and will not be effective anymore. Instead, you are exposing your strategy of attrition to the world.

    In the last elections on the 22nd of May you, the major parties, abandoned your smile and fighted for a seat at the right hand of the economy, your only and true god. The decadent and incapable Spanish parliamentary monarchy is unable to understand the desire of the awakened crowd, you can only try to discredit a movement that you do not understand, that you can not fight,  nor mute or stop. Your outdated labels, which only seek to sow a discord that favors yourselves, are an insult to the intelligence of your constituents. The people's struggle continues on and the message continues to surpass any obstacle. By itself, this revolution is a clear demonstration of the immaturity of a political class that lives by your own internal struggles and do not represent or work for us.

    Despite the published insinuations and aggression towards the camps by certain groups or infiltrators, with attitudes that might jeopardize the public image of rebellion, no one has stopped moving. Surprise, we need not sit on any committee. The changes demanded by the people are more than clear:

        Participatory democracy.
        Electoral law reform.
        Real separation of powers.
        Absolute transparency and fiscal policy.
        Tight controls on banks and corporations.

    Even as just a start, these changes are already much better than any of the reforms with which the de facto economic power subject to the country.

    While you are struggling to fight your true rulers as if we were the enemy, human and digital sides narrowed over the world in synergy with a will for peaceful change. The people’s Heterogeneity, spontaneity, capacity and preparedness exponentially exceeds any human or material resources that could be used against them. Ergo any attempt to fight it will be in vain.

    Maybe the people will remain camping, or they may leave and become peaceful and invisible guerrillas. The camps are only a symbol. Actually we are everywhere. You are persecuting those on whom you depend. We educate your children, prepare meals, gather your rubbish, connect your calls, we drive your ambulances and even protect you while you sleep. So start sweeping at home. Today is Spain, tomorrow Europe and maybe the world will be next.

    If you do not hear the clamor of the people, if you do not behave accordingly,  you should think for a moment: The people are now aware of our power and we know can do a much better job than you have done so far. Remember, change is happening, with or without you. The people should not fear the government, the government should fear its people.

    We are the people, we are the system, we are anonymous and we are legion. We do not forget, do not forgive, expect us.


An Anonymous message to the Spanish political class by Juan Enrique Ordóñez Arnau is licensed under a Creative Commons

The Cartesian Problem of the Body: an introduction

Martin Heidegger and Nishitani Keijii

My work always takes place between disciplines. I firmly believe that the most interesting things happen at the borders of what is stable and safe. I do not see myself as a master of any of these areas, but a bridge-builder. By walking across the frontiers of philosophy, literature, arts and martial disciplines I have tried to find ways that connect and enrich these different practices. The most powerful foundation I have found so far to all of them is the body.

The body is, in my opinion, the neglected foundation of the self in the Cartesian, rationalist and idealist traditions of philosophy. Since Descartes conceived the body as a machine, controlled by the soul, and focused the ‘sum’ in the ‘cogito’, the body became a problem, a burden, an obstacle, and it is still seen as such for most schools of philosophy to this day.

For the martial arts there is only the body. Self-development through the body is one of the roots of the Sino-Japanese martial disciplines. I am aware that in my research on philosophy of the mind my conceptions of the body are very different to those of my colleagues because of my martial arts background.

This drew me to Japanese culture and philosophy, how they understand the European schools of philosophy, and more specifically to the Kyoto School. Not very surprisingly, they were very interested not only in German idealism and romanticism but in figures critical of the Enlightenment tradition, such as Nietzsche, Heidegger or Jünger. Some of them, like Tanabe Hajime and Nishitani Keijii even became students of Heidegger. But I also noticed a deep difference. All these philosophers belonged to the Zen Buddhist tradition.

Authors like Nietzsche - and following him Heidegger - had a different conception of the body than the Cartesian one. The body is present in many passages of Nietzsche’s work, but is not fully developed as a theme. The same notions of the body are present in Heidegger’s text, but they are barely mentioned.

Nishitani Keijii was one of the most important philosophers of the Kyoto School. He was student of both Heidegger and Nishida Kitaro, the founder of the school. He was deeply influenced by Nietzsche, too, and he made a revealing study of Nietzsche’s conception of the body in his book The Self-Overcoming of Nihilism. This book is revealing not only of Nietzsche’s position, but also of Keijii’s interests and problems. In his works the body is not much mentioned, but fully present; the difference to his German counterparts is his perfection and consistency. This is because in the Zen sect the body-mind relationship is a central theme. It is fully developed theoretically and practically in a holistic method. This methodology leads to a certain conception of the body, where it is the body itself who speaks. When Keijii mentions the body he uses, in a very Heideggerian way, a neologism. He renames it the ´mind-and-body´ (in the English translation, obviously). He himself states that this ´mind-and-body´ is the same as what Nishida Kitaro called the ´Historical Body´. Therefore, in the Kyoto School’s interpretation the body-mind relationship is not essential but existential. This means, there is not one essential relationship, but a process that can lead to certain unity (or fail in the path of obtaining it).

Influenced by this perspective the artist and monk Omori Sogen developed an interesting and unique practice. He was personal friend of some of the Kyoto School philosophers, and a Zen adept himself. He linked his shodo (Japanese calligraphy and painting) with his kenjutsu (Japanese traditional swordmanship) and his Rinzai Zen Buddhism meditative practice. He believed that there was a deep connection between each of these disciplines, and that practicing them together in a unified method would enable him to master all of them. On the top of this, he was a firm believer in the internationalization of his disciplines. He was the founder of the Daihonzan Chozen-ji in Hawaii, the first Japanese Zen Buddhist temple outside of Japan.

Omori Sogen and Terayama Tanchu

When in 2005 I met Terayama Tanchu sensei, Omori Sogen’s disciple and leader of his school after he passed away in 1994, something caught my attention. By a friend´s invitation, I attended a Shodo workshop, and what I found was very different to what I had expected. We did bodily preparation that included breathing exercises as one of the key components. I recognised the exercises immediately from my experiences in martial arts. When the master painted, I was shocked by the precise use of the body and the breathing technique. As far as I was aware, he was using what is called ibuki, a basic breathing technique used in martial practice, the same projected in fighting.

Afterwards, when a couple of months later I joined the school and practiced zazen and kenjutsu, everything became clearer for me. The breathing techniques ibuki and Nogare were the base of the whole practice, the bodily foundation of the ken, the zen and the sho. And the starting point for any theoretical explanation.

Back in Europe, I tried to make sense of all these experiences for my own practice. The obvious analogue in philosophy was Michel Focault. He was deeply influenced by Heidegger and Nietzsche, and was very interested in the Japanese experience, to the extent that he practiced zen under Omori Sogen. Sadly he passed away while developing these interests, although they are already very present in his late work the History of Sexuality. Certainly, Foucault was developing the tools to be able to think of a new conception of the body.

Trying to trace a new history for a different body, I look back to the key moment of the early European modernity. Guided by Bakhtin, I found an alternative to Descartes in Rabelais´ idea of the ‘carnavalesque’. The excessive body, the eating, the scatology, the full embodiment. Guided by Ortega y Gasset, I found yet more inspiration in Velázquez, the fencing painter, the painter who painted with a bold attitude, whose body movements can be seen in his brush marks, the painter who painted the dwarfs of the court in a carnavalesque, yet realist, manner, portraying the dignity of their disgraced bodies. The potential for a new body has always been there, and with it the possibility of a conversation between the European and the Japanese traditions, a debate fruitful for both of them. It could be antedote for the deadend that both analytic and continental philosophies have been in for the last century.

This problem was already noticed by people such as Ernst Jünger, a friend and peer of Heidegger. His criticism of the machine and dehumanization, which influenced the more widely known work by Walter Benjamin, was profusely read and discussed by the philosophers of the Kyoto School.

Nishitani Keijii on philosophy and Omori Sogen on art and religion are unique figures for a European researcher. They lived in a key historical moment for Japan and the world. They had a very strong relationship with European philosophy. They were in contact with key philosophers like Husserl, Heidegger or Foucault. They were very aware and well trained on their own tradition. They had an extremely original and successful practice, and they noticed what they personally, and Japanese culture more widely, could provide to the world. Their work presents a great opportunity to build those necessary bridges between Japanese and European philosophy. 

The Cartesian Problem of the Body by Juan Enrique Ordóñez Arnau is licensed under a Creative Commons

The Revolution Will Not Be Televised

                                           


The Revolution Will Not Be TelevisedBy Gil Scott-Heron, RIP 

You will not be able to stay home, brother.
You will not be able to plug in, turn on and cop out.
You will not be able to lose yourself on skag and skip,
Skip out for beer during commercials,
Because the revolution will not be televised.

The revolution will not be televised.
The revolution will not be brought to you by Xerox
In 4 parts without commercial interruptions.
The revolution will not show you pictures of Nixon
blowing a bugle and leading a charge by John
Mitchell, General Abrams and Spiro Agnew to eat
hog maws confiscated from a Harlem sanctuary.
The revolution will not be televised.

The revolution will not be brought to you by the 
Schaefer Award Theatre and will not star Natalie
Woods and Steve McQueen or Bullwinkle and Julia.
The revolution will not give your mouth sex appeal.
The revolution will not get rid of the nubs.
The revolution will not make you look five pounds
thinner, because the revolution will not be televised, Brother.

There will be no pictures of you and Willie May
pushing that shopping cart down the block on the dead run,
or trying to slide that color television into a stolen ambulance.
NBC will not be able predict the winner at 8:32
or report from 29 districts.
The revolution will not be televised.

There will be no pictures of pigs shooting down
brothers in the instant replay.
There will be no pictures of pigs shooting down
brothers in the instant replay.
There will be no pictures of Whitney Young being
run out of Harlem on a rail with a brand new process.
There will be no slow motion or still life of Roy
Wilkens strolling through Watts in a Red, Black and
Green liberation jumpsuit that he had been saving
For just the proper occasion.

Green Acres, The Beverly Hillbillies, and Hooterville
Junction will no longer be so damned relevant, and
women will not care if Dick finally gets down with
Jane on Search for Tomorrow because Black people
will be in the street looking for a brighter day.
The revolution will not be televised.

There will be no highlights on the eleven o'clock
news and no pictures of hairy armed women
liberationists and Jackie Onassis blowing her nose.
The theme song will not be written by Jim Webb,
Francis Scott Key, nor sung by Glen Campbell, Tom
Jones, Johnny Cash, Englebert Humperdink, or the Rare Earth.
The revolution will not be televised.

The revolution will not be right back after a message
bbout a white tornado, white lightning, or white people.
You will not have to worry about a dove in your
bedroom, a tiger in your tank, or the giant in your toilet bowl.
The revolution will not go better with Coke.
The revolution will not fight the germs that may cause bad breath.
The revolution will put you in the driver's seat.

The revolution will not be televised, will not be televised,
will not be televised, will not be televised.
The revolution will be no re-run brothers;
The revolution will be live.

¡Ay, democracia!

El Espíritu del 15 de Mayo

El 15 de Mayo de 2011 comenzó un movimiento llamado a regenerar la democracia en España y devolvernos la esperanza en sus valores. Después de una semana de combate sin violencia, sólo nos queda preguntarnos, ¿Y mañana, qué? 

Los resultados de las elecciones de hoy tendrán una fuerte influencia sobre el movimiento. Una victoria de los partidos mayoritarios, esto es, que mantengan sus posiciones con cierta soltura, y un no avance de partidos minoritarios sería un duro golpe moral para el espíritu de estas protestas. 

Yo, desde aquí, reivindico lo que he reivindicado muchas veces estos días de palabra. Este debe ser un movimiento inclusivo. Debe aceptar ser espíritu y no atarse a puntos de actuación concretos que puedan ser puntos de división. Debe dar puntos programáticos, una guía para el camino democrático que nos incluya a todos. Yo soy laicista, de izquierdas, ecologista y comparto muchas de esas propuestas de izquierdas que se han hecho. Pero si estas se incluyen en el Espíritu de este Movimiento del 15 de Mayo, traicionaremos a muchos que nos acompañaron en el camino. Muchas personas de derechas, neoliberales, monárquicos y católicos, con los que he compartido buenos momentos, para descubrir que sí, que tenemos muchas cosas en común. Y que ellos también están indignados con la corrupción, con la falta de valores democráticos de nuestra casta política, con los tejemanejes de la banca y las multinacionales para evadir impuestos y ganar dinero de manera ilícita, a costa de todos nosotros. 

Las instituciones políticas, comenzando por el gobierno y apoyados desde los medios de comunicación, se han dedicado los últimos años a ignorar esta indignación que recorría nuestro país. Ahora no pueden ignorarlo. Debemos continuar. La retirada es una derrota. Pero cuidado; la traición a su espiritu también lo es. Una traición a lo que nos ha unido todos estos días.

Por una regeneración democrática, por la dignidad de ser un ciudadano libre, por la demanda de la toma de responsabilidad política, económica y penal de los que nos han llevado a esta situación, 

Debemos luchar hasta el final, 

por el Espíritu del 15 de Mayo.

El Espíritu del 15 de Mayo by Juan Enrique Ordóñez Arnau is licensed under a Creative Commons

#acampadalondres

Emabajada de España en Londres, 20 de Mayo

Desde Londres, en apoyo a #acampadasol y a tantos otros movimientos de protesta en España, manifestaciones frente a la embajada española. Muy buen ambiente, bien organizado, los que vivimos aquí en Londres hemos podido por fin mostrar nuestra indignación y librarnos de frustraciones. Gente de derechas e izquierdas, de todas las generaciones, juntos por algo nuevo. Pelearemos hasta el final por mantener el Espíritu del 15 de Mayo.