BROADCASTS.com

Join The Higherside Chats podcast as Greg Carlwood hosts returning guest Gordon White. As we know by now, the once widespread and celebrated activities of ritual dances, powerful enchantments, communal entheogenic exploration, peering through multi-dimensional window areas, imagination cultivation by the flickering glow of the campfire's edge, and a whole grab bag of shamanic activities have largely faded to the brink obscurity. As a learned Wizard, curator of Runesoup.com and author of three books, including Star.Ships, Chaos Protocols, and his most recent book Pieces of Eight: Chaos Magic Essays and Enchantments, it's clear, now more than ever a resurgence of the magical perspective from Gordon White is needed. Back in the THC saddle for a sixth time and ready to ride the wave once again as he runs away with the title of "returning champion" Gordon joins Greg for another go round on the magical carousel. 3:00 Diving directly into the belly of the beast, Greg begins by discussing Gordon's presentation, Campfire's Edge. Listen as Gordon expands on the idea that magic is not something we "created" and that by widening our perspective to include the entire population of humans throughout the history of time, we come to realize we are a minority existing in a time where there is no presence and acknowledgement of the magical universe. Keeping this fact in mind, we can start to better understand and reformulate our ideas or modern and ancient history. 10:20 Elaborating on the concept of alien ghosts, Greg and Gordon discuss the possibility that inter-dimensional contact with beings may simply be the projected consciousness of physical beings on another planet. Could the these beings simply be plugged into the same server in another realm? 13:50 Listen as Gordon helps Greg rectify the concept of dead spirits with the evidence that suggest multiple lives. Listen as Gordon contends that if reincarnation is real, it may not function as the outward Tibetan Buddhist model suggests, but perhaps instead is more intentional. 17:57 Instead of steering away from the physical ET hypothesis, Greg and Gordon decide to take the topic head on. After closely studying a star in the Cygnus constellation that may be home to a Dyson sphere, Gordon elaborates on the likelihood of it's existence. 20:45 Armed with the realization that Materialism is false, listen as Greg and Gordon discuss the specifics of Idealism and Animism. Rooted in the concept that everything is consciousness rather than matter, Idealism contends the physical world is a secretion from one's divine mind. Whereas, an Animist model is one better suited for a magical perspectives. 23:50 Listen as Gordon describes the bend of Idealism with the Hermetic magic techniques of fetishizing objects and drawing spirits into inanimate objects, and how and the Animist view fits more seamlessly with these practices. 26:42 Elaborating on the concept of physical and living systems being an outpost of the spirit world, Gordon explains that everything falls on a spectrum between real and unreal. Gordon contends, this model in which we naturally Goldilocks ourselves to, is the one that best describe reality, and can be best used in the application of chaos magic. 29:35 Greg and Gordon discuss the model of Animism in contrast to the works of Materialists such as Richard Dawkins and their differing views on topics including animals. Expanding on the Animist model, they discuss the work of Rupert Sheldrake, the thought provoking evidence he presents, and how this comes full circle with Animism. 33:00 Getting back to Campfire's Edge, Greg and Gordon discuss the utility of fire and it's role in both magical and cultural development. As Gordon explains, we do fundamentally different things by daylight than by the light of the campfire. This difference gave way to the spiritual development and education within societies. 35:15 Greg and Gordon discuss the details of the ritual...