the paradise paradox – Page 27 – worldliness & spirituality

Episode 70 – Glencore Risk: Credit Crunch Crisis Crash

by Kurt Robinson on November 18, 2015 in Podcast • 0 Comments

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The Cash:

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The Story:

How do bubbles blow up, and how do they pop? Why do booms boom and eventually go bust? There are many reasons behind this. One is the oligopoly that many banks enjoy in many countries, meaning they don’t necessarily have to stay competitive to maintain their market share. Another reason is the fact that many banks’ deposits are guaranteed by law, such as in the USA and in Australia – reducing the incentive for depositors to be careful about where they put their money. A third reason is bail-outs by central banks, in what was once known as a “Greenspan put”, where bankers can take profit for themselves, but if they lose, they can rely on Federal Reserve to get them out of a jam.

All of this irresponsible money floating around can mean that sometimes banks get involved in assets which perhaps they shouldn’t. The story of the investment bank Lehman Brothers holding sub-prime mortgages, leading to the GFC in 2008, is one of the best examples. Today we have another example, where banks around the world, including Deutschebank, are holding extremely risky assets issued or derived from the Swiss multinational mining giant Glencore. As faith in these banks drop, we may see Glencore, Deutschebank and other institutions throwing in the “kitchen sink” – that is, releasing all of their bad news at a time when investor expectations are already at a tremendous low.

In this episode, we discuss the financial state of Glencore, and how it might have a role in the next “seven year cycle” financial crisis. Join us in a boom-bust rollercoaster on the next episode of … The Paradise Paradox!

The Links:

George Soros – system collapsed quote

Deep Dive: Glencore Implied Volatility, Growth for Autos – Weird Bloomberg video

Economists expect Fed to raise interest rates

Banks’ Glencore exposure is a $100 Billion Gorilla on Bloomberg

Glencore chases credit rating upgrade

Kitchen sink expression

Child labour and paramilitary allegations against Glencore

Glencore closes below one pound

Why did the Australian stockmarket lose so much money yesterday? (30 Sep 2015) on Vice

Glencore shares tumble on Hong Kong stock exchange (13 Nov 2015)

Glencore “Social value creation”

Here We Go: Fund Manager Warns “Something Just Blew Up In The Global Financial System”

Part 3: 20 More Signs That The Global Elite’s Ship Is About To Sink

Glencore: how did it go so wrong, again?

Commodities Prices Tumble as Investors Worry About 2016 Growth

Manufacturing matters: why it is important for an economy to have a manufacturing base

Episode 69 – Ayahuasca Diaries Part 3

by Kurt Robinson on November 11, 2015 in Podcast • 0 Comments

The Episode:

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The Story:

Madre Ayahuasca has friends in high places. One becomes informed of this as you begin to question your own free will. The decision is made and you think that you chose to take part in this Ayahuasca ceremony. However, it is common knowledge among experienced travellers, that Madre Ayahuasca chooses you. Diving deep, peeling back all layers, it delivers a massage to your core seed, the personal connection to this world is disconnected and shakes clear all the cobwebs from your reality. Once all is clear, rattled and well shaken, the reconstruction begins. Literally your mind and your perceptions are rebuilt before the reflection in your mind’s eye.

It’s safe to say that the medicine works in mysterious ways – the effect is felt days before the ceremony. This is well before anything is even digested. Obviously, this is one mother that does not respect clockwork, as if ‘father time’ had been escorted out of the room. The symptoms can be uncomfortable and you might feel not quite right. However, it’s what comes in the following weeks that cannot be explained. Things begin to change.

Madre Ayahuasca leaves you homework with various methods used for the teachings. Usually in the form of a mixed bag of feelings, old and distant memories and direct clear visions. For some psychonauts this is straightforward and almost like a well thought-out lesson plan, whereas, for others, it can be slippery dip of deep forgotten traumas – either way, there is nothing random here. The medicine knows you too well.

In this episode, we discuss the week after drinking the medicine and the experience of ayahuasca homework. Using the metaphor of a Rubik’s cube clicking into place, to explain the wonderful ways life influenced by your new insights. As always prepare to be connected to the dis-connected through another exciting episode of … The Paradise Paradox!

Por la vida!

The Links:

Innerspace (1987)

One Consciousness which Everything exists From

Documentary: Inner and outer worlds

Aubrey Marcus – What is a Warrior?

Ayahuasca taught me learning manifests itself once the individuals behaviour changes

Graham Hancock The War On Consciousness TEDx Talk

Episode 68 – Ayahuasca Diaries Part 2

by Kurt Robinson on November 6, 2015 in Podcast • 0 Comments

The Episode:

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The Story:

When you first mention ayahuasca to someone, it’s normal to hear them say “What is it? It’s just a drug, isn’t it?” The common refrain all through Latin America is, “It’s not a drug – it’s a medicine.” Of course, in the broad and literal sense of the word “drug”, ayahuasca is indeed a drug. But it can never be “just a drug”. Is the drug that saves your life “just a drug”? What about the drug which undoes your assumptions about living in this world, rewiring your brain to cast aside negative or destructive thought patterns – the drug that takes you from “surviving” to “living”. Ayahuasca cannot be called “just a drug” any more than a Michelangelo or an Alex Grey can be called “just a painting”. The only way “just” can possibly apply, is if you take it to mean “merciful”.

In this episode, we describe the process of going through an ayahuasca journey, what’s it’s like to prepare for the ceremony, to choose a clear purpose, to go to the house of a shaman, to respect the ritual nature, to learn about the tradition, to take the sacred medicine, to start the magical process of washing clean the dark mirror of the self, and to experience some unusual synchronicities.

Join us in our journey to meet Mother Ayahuasca, the all-loving, all-forgiving spirit of the Earth, on this mind-exposing episode of … The Paradise Paradox!

The Links:

I Kill My Kids video

Graham Hancock The War On Consciousness TEDx Talk

Magicians of the Gods: The Forgotten Wisdom of Earth’s Lost Civilization

DMT: The Spirit Molecule: A Doctor’s Revolutionary Research into the Biology of Near-Death and Mystical Experiences

Episode 67 – The Ayahuasca Diaries Part 1

by Kurt Robinson on November 1, 2015 in Podcast • 0 Comments

The Episode:

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The Story:

Ayahuasca is a medicine that has been used by indigenous Amazonians for 5,000 or possibly even 10,000 years. But it’s not really the kind of thing you can get over the counter. Ayahuasca is seen as sacred, and must be given respect – a brew of pure life in a cup that has the power to show us things that we’d forgotten, memories that we had tried to bury, and hidden wounds that still need healing.

What lurks in the deepest recesses of our minds, our shadows, our occult sides, our basest secrets? Mother Ayahuasca knows, and she will never judge us for it.

Join us as we prepare for our first journey with the sacred medicine, preparing ourselves mentally and physically for a long trek through unknown lands. Join us, on The Paradise Paradox.

The Links:

Graham Hancock – The War on Consciousness banned TEDx talk

Ayahuasca on Wikipedia

DMT: The Spirit Molecule: A Doctor’s Revolutionary Research into the Biology of Near-Death and Mystical Experiences

Metamorphosis – Ayahuasca Documentary

Episode 66 – Guns and the Law

by Kurt Robinson on October 25, 2015 in Podcast • 0 Comments

The Episode: Guns and the Law

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The Story:

The simplest argument against gun control is an argument for justice, an argument that a person who has harmed no-one should not be punished. If you accept as a premise the maxim of law that the burden of proof falls on him who claims, not on him who denies, then likewise you will accept the principle of the presumption of innocence, because in the absence of evidence of guilt, one must be assumed to be innocent. Then, if you accept the premise that innocent people should not be punished, then you must draw the conclusion that gun-owners, weapons manufacturers and retailers should not be punished unless there is evidence of their guilt. That means there should be no violence or threats of violence against them, no fines imposed, no restrictions on their liberties, and certainly no imprisonment, unless there is evidence of wrong-doing.

If you formulate a law that says everyone who owns a certain model of firearm should be arrested, then you have made a declaration contrary to justice, for even if a single person possesses that model and only ever uses it responsibly, you have declared that that innocent person should be punished. You might make the argument that, even an excellent court system is not going to be absolutely correct, 100% of the time, and that doesn’t make it a bad court, and likewise, the failure of this law does not make it a bad law. I agree no court system is perfect, however, that is a failure of implementation, not a failure of principle. If a court is good, then the intent of the court was to provide justice, whether they do or not in any individual case. However, the intent of this hypothetical law, and all gun control laws, is to punish people – whether or not they’re guilty, and there is no way that it can ever improve the state of justice.

In this episode, Kurt explores some of the ideas about gun control, why some people think control of firearms is a good idea, and why they are very wrong. Join us in a transcendental journey to freedom, in the next explosive, on-point, hollowpoint episode of … The Paradise Paradox!

The Links:

The Most Dangerous Superstition

The Iron Web

How to Be a Successful Tyrant (The Megalomaniac Manifesto)

Anatomy of the State

Freedom!

The Law

More Guns, Less Crime: Understanding Crime and Gun Control Laws, Third Edition (Studies in Law and Economics)

The Law by Frederic Bastiat

Monash University Shooting on Wikipedia

The Truth About Gun Control by Stefan Molyneux

Episode 65 – The Ghost of Music Industry Past

by Kurt Robinson on October 20, 2015 in Podcast • 0 Comments

The Episode:

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The Story:

In 1992, Steve Albini wrote his famous piece, “The Problem with Music”, giving the graphic image of a bunch of hungry artists clambering through a trench full of excrement in order to vy for a recording contract with uncertain and questionable terms. He explained how the music industry is full of a special kind of corruption, that takes advantage of the very people which make the entire industry possible by providing them with a healthy line of credit, then selling them back all the services needed to create an album at an extremely inflated price. One figure that has been thrown around is that record companies, on average, have a 5% success rate – 5% of all records go gold or platinum, and 95% well, they don’t. In any other industry, that would send a company down shit creek pretty fast, but in the record industry, most of the costs are borne by the artist, making the record label a rather undesirable business partner.

Music is a powerful tool in manipulating minds. Might some unscrupulous A&Rs decide to change how people think, act, what they glorify? Perhaps by using overt themes in music, or perhaps even by subliminal messages. There might be a lot of pressure on record labels from certain nefarious and hidden interests.

Now of course, the music industry has been forced to change, under the pressure of Internet piracy and the decay of copyright laws as any meaningful deterrent. But that is a story for another time… For now, let’s explore how the music industry screwed over many artists as we journey through another exciting episode of … The Paradise Paradox!

The Links:

Manual: How to Have a Number 1 the Easy Way
EM-ELECTRONIC MUSICIAN OCTOBER 2008-MAGAZINE
Beat It (Single Version)
In Utero
The Paradise Paradox – Episode 52 – The Panopticon & Your Privacy: Juan Galt
The Paradise Paradox – Episode 50 – Ethereum & The Future: Juan Galt
The music industry is a parasite and copyright is dead – Steve Albini
The problem with music has been solved by the Internet – Steve Albini
Courtney Love’s speech about piracy 2000
RT – Autotune and lip-syncing
Manipulating the charts – Neil Strauss
Unethical practices in the record industry
The Problem with Music – Steve Albini
The secret meeting that changed rap music

Episode 64 – Tlaltecuhtli Earth Father

by Kurt Robinson on October 17, 2015 in Podcast • 0 Comments

The Episode:

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The Story:

Every year in Guadalajara, they hold the Romería festival, and every year the danzantes dance from the Cathedral in the city centre, all the way to the Basílica in Zapopan. It can be tough walking five kilometres, even more so when you’re taking two steps forward and one step back, and tougher still when the construction of a new subway line forces you to take a fifteen kilometre detour.

Aaron had some interesting experiences, preparing his costume, trying to find all the right feathers for an (more or less) authentic native American headdress, and dancing himself into a trance for an intense journey that might end up binding him to the Earth Father Tlaltecuhtli, Our Lady of Guadalupe, or the Virgin of Zapopan.

Join us as we put our feet to the concrete in another exciting adventure of … The Paradise Paradox!

The Links:

Impro: Improvisation and the Theatre
Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience (Harper Perennial Modern Classics)
Fingerprints of the Gods
Serpent of Light: Beyond 2012 – The Movement of the Earth’s Kundalini and the Rise of the Female Light, 1949 to 2013
Commedia dell’arte

Episode 63 – Split Realities

by Kurt Robinson on October 11, 2015 in Podcast • 0 Comments

The Episode:

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The Story:

Alternate realities, parallel dimensions, inner and outer worlds, this is all crazy talk, at least it seems that way. Until one has a first hand experience of something weird, something not quite right, something that cannot be explained. Where things just don’t add up and it can’t be helped, you feel obliged to tell all your friends, even if they are not interested, just a glitch in the matrix they said. Followed by laughs of course.

Everyone is involved in interpreting, creating and controlling their reality. The funny thing is very few of us are aware of it. The great religion of science is doing well in catching up, where many theories are constantly being tested. It is often said that at best we only use 8-10 percent of our brain, leaving many asking the question, How do we activate the other 90 percent? and those who don’t ask may be at 6-8 percent. A quick investigation illustrates this to be completely false.

Sigmund Freud, an Austrian neurologist created a structural model of the human psyche, often informally referred to as, the consciousness iceberg metaphor. This 5-10 percent of active brain function can be interpreted as an immediate awareness of consciousness. Where the remainder brain function is very much active, however unconscious and therefore one unaware of it.

There is too much information in the matrix to be processed, so one adopts a level of perception – this is our personal construct or reality filter. Perception is limited by what one is conscious of, or what the mind can process. We are constantly bombarded by infinite information, here our unconscious mind selects what is relevant for our conscious mind to process and therefore our immediate reality. This becomes the personal world that is generated which one operates in.

This knowledge is not all that fresh. A movement coined ‘New Age’ is made up of people striving to stretch and grow their immediate awareness, striving to expand the capacity of absorbed reality. This new age movement has inspired all types of life connoisseurs, creating music, films, activities and lifestyles. This is the practice of mindfulness, which traditionally includes many activities like meditation, yoga, tai chi and various activities of relaxation. In turn expanding ones immediate awareness and lifting operating consciousness within moment to moment, individually witnessing one self with higher perception. Be careful with new vision there is a chance the view may not be favourable and appreciated. Stay calm, clear your mind and attempt not to judge, become your very own objective critic and build your new self.

This is the new reality, where one can watch the mind, then control, dismiss and explore their thoughts and feelings. Reactions can be experienced, modified and contemplated in real time. This is the real superpower and it is addictive. Be conscious of yourself via a detachment of all expectations and outcomes, and access the holy grail of personal power!

Now this becomes interesting by creating a multi player game, adding more minds and more players to the experience. Creating a collective reality in which we all operate in, this playing field – referred to as Earth, and we are a mixed bag of stars. Super heroes walk amongst the crowds changing and shifting realities as they wish. Others continue with no control over thoughts, feelings or reactions. Awareness is the new choice, to believe or no to believe in ourselves or others, understand that everyone is limited by their own personal perception, which will never be experienced by no one else by one, in this case you. We are not all living in the same reality and this is simply because we are all unique.

In this episode we discuss this phenomena with a few stories from personal experiences. So, maybe some people are invisible or can read minds, maybe there are those who can fly or talk to aliens or time travel, in their mind reality. We are our own super hero, choose your powers.

The Links:

The Hatha Yoga Pradipika

Flim-Flam! Psychics, ESP, Unicorns, and Other Delusions

Uri Geller’s Little Book of Mind-Power: Maximize Your Will to Win

The Conscious, Subconscious, And Unconscious Mind – How Does It All Work?

The Five Steps to Shamanic Manifesting

The Ten-Percent Myth

Sigmund Freud

Sigmund Freud the Controversial Pioneer of Psychology: The Famous Psychosexual Stages of Child Development

Episode 62 – Global Crisis: A False Economy

by Kurt Robinson on October 5, 2015 in Podcast • 0 Comments

The Episode:

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The Story:

Many people poking around the Internet have been acutely aware that something big might happen around September 13th or September 23rd 2015, having watched Jeff Berwick’s Shemitah videos or read “The Harbinger”, or having calculated the days between financial collapses in the Wall Street “Seven Year Cycle”. Then the dates passed, and, depending where you were, it might have seemed like absolutely nothing happened. Another December 2012, another non-event, no end of the world and no financial collapse. However, when we look at the news a little more closely, we can see that something did happen, and the events may have put the world economy onto the edge of a precipice.

Sharemarket corrections occurred in the USA, the UK, Australia, and China, among others. Australia’s stockmarket has been plummeting down since April, and on September 29 the ASX 200 took a 3% hit, sending its price down below 5000 for the first time since July 2013. The market recovered, but still seem reminiscent of sudden recoveries that happened right before the Global Financial Crisis really set in.

A few months ago, the Greek government instated capital controls, preventing the flow of money, restricting withdrawals to 66 euros per day. A few days ago, the Chinese government took a similar measure, restricting transactions to 50,000 yuan ($7,800) from October 1st till the end of the year, and 100,000 yuan ($15,600) for the whole of 2016. Capital controls are commonly a desperate measure, an indication that a currency is failing – that too much damage has already been done. If Greece finds itself in such a position, and China finds itself in a similar position, shall we see the same fate for the rest of the PIIGS, and the rest of the BRICS?

It’s a great show, and if you’ve been smart, hopefully you don’t have front row seats, because people in the first three rows will get wet. Could we be heading for the next global financial crisis? We explore this economic rollercoaster on the next episode of … The Paradise Paradox!

[Edit: Kurt said in this episode that it’s not possible to buy physical silver in Russia, but it turns out that is inaccurate. Many Russian banks will sell silver certificates, or allocated holdings, but at certain branches you can also buy physical silver, and there are coin shops and online outlets as well.]

The Links:

The Harbinger: The Ancient Mystery that Holds the Secret of America’s Future

Currency Wars: The Making of the Next Global Crisis

The Synchronicity Key: The Hidden Intelligence Guiding the Universe and You

Jeff Berwick – Shemitah Exposed

Jeff Berwick – Shemitah Exposed II

Corruption Perception Index on Wikipedia

Indonesia bans foreign currencies

China Imposes Capital Controls, Selling Billions of Dollars

Bartering Platform Offers Way To Sidestep Capital Controls in Greece

Why Did The Aus Sharemarket Lose So Much Money on Vice

Meet the Venezuelan Rebel with the Unofficial Exchange Rate

Dolar Today – Venezuelan exchange rates

Cover image used and modified under Creative Commons.

Episode 61 – Hidden Forest Secret Garden

by Kurt Robinson on October 3, 2015 in Podcast • 0 Comments

The Episode:

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The Story:

Walking or driving through your own city, you may have lived there for years, but it’s possible that your city holds secrets which you have no awareness of. Turn down the wrong street one day, and find yourself in some place exciting, or dangerous. Everything looks familiar, but everything looks a little strange. What mysteries are waiting for you, hiding within your own city, tucked away behind a facade, obscured from view by just the right wall or hill?

In th is episode we recount the tale of how we came to know the secret forest of Guadalajara, Colomos III, a garden of pedagogy maintained and improved by a horizontal organisation of volunteers, putting in all their effort to keep a slice of paradise tucked away in the city, winning the community’s attention and warding off the corrupt government, which is constantly trying to unjustly acquire and sell off the forest to cunning property developers.

What medicinal herbs can you find there? What is the value of the forest that the people living around it don’t yet understand? Who are those strange men who set up makeshift temples there after midnight? We ask all these questions and more, on the next thrilling chapter of … the Paradise Paradox!

The Links:

The Homestead principle on Wikipedia

The Advantages of Horizontal Structures

Adverse possession on Wikipedia