Fishy goes to Iran -- Background Story

Dear friends, this is probably as shocking to you as it was to me when I first heard the news. I am at once excited, nervous, and deeply honored to be a part of this amazing opportunity.

As many of you know, I have had an obsession with Iranian culture for the last three or four years. It is very similar to the way I felt about Africa, about Italy, and about Brasil before that. I have been studying their history, music, and language ravenously for four years. I find them to be some of the wittiest, deepest, warmest, soulful people I know. They are also extremely FUNNY!

Their music strikes a chord in me that feels karmic. Ironically, in 2005 I applied to the Iranian Embassy for a Visa. My plan was to attend a school there for a month or two to study Classical Persian Music and to learn more of their language of Farsi to better communicate with the people. I also hoped that my being there would create my own little ripple in the bigger pond as it were to show that we are pretty nice people and have sincere interest in them as people as well.

My Visa of course was rejected. This was 2005, and though they were intrigued by my strange inquiry, relations between Iran and the United States have not been great lately as most know so they told me to try again in a year or so.

Through a rather strange series of circumstances, out of literally nowhere came this opportunity. It was entirely unplanned truth be told and I am shocked at how beautifully odd, or oddly beautiful, things work out sometimes. I was at a two day Community Building Leadership conference being held at a beautiful convent that sits upon fifty acres in the middle of the woods in upstate New York a few months back. That's a loaded statement I know, but I have a deep love for this particular place of peace and serenity in the middle of the woods, and for the kind-hearted, open-minded, intelligent, and generous Sisters who live there. It is a deeply spiritual and relaxing place to retreat to when one can.

There happened to be one who I had never met before, Sister Ellen Francis, because she was "just visiting that weekend" (talk about destiny) and we became fast friends. We spoke a lot about our love of other cultures, of technology and the internet, our love of connecting to the Divine, and our various volunteer and activist activities around the world, and she asked me if I would be interested in applying to go on some Peace Delegation Trip to Iran that she was going on in 2008. One has to wonder if angels weren't laughing their wings off in hysterics in that moment at the sight of my dropped jaw and wide eyes. Of course I began speaking a million miles an hour telling her how I know all of the famous Persian composers and poets and writers through the centuries and how I had spent the last three years studying the language of Farsi and how I even applied for a Visa on my own. Neither of us could help but smile.

She then explained that there would be a lengthy application process and there was no guarantee that my application would be accepted out of all the hundreds that they probably receive for such trips. (It took over a month, and felt more like a college entrance exam to be perfectly frank, but I was accepted). She then told me that each delegate pays a fee for the trip. My jaw went back up and my heart went back into my brain. A friend of mine who was sitting at the table with us casually commented, "Fishy I'll contribute $50 myself if you are actually selected. No harm in at least applying. Just do it." So I did.

And there it is in a nutshell. Of course, the band still has two new CDs coming out early next year and who knows where this little side road fits in with all of that. But I will bring along the usual arsenal of cameras and tripod and create YouTube videos of the trip to keep you all as close and connected to the trip as I possibly can. Most of all, I hope we are really able to connect with the Iranian people in a sincere and impactful way and help do our small part to bridge us closer together, and one step further from conflict. To all of you are contributing and have contributed to past adventures of yours truly, thank you!

Fishy to Go to Iran on Peace Delegation

On February 25th, Fishy will be one of 13 delegates from the United States to go to the country of Iran with an organization called the Fellowship of Reconciliation. This organization, FOR, was started in Switzerland and England in 1914 in order to prevent war in Europe at the time. It is still going strong and now has branches in over 40 countries. It's mission is to spread peace and build diplomacy and solidarity among nations of the world in an attempt to prevent war.

The organization has made six trips to Iran like the one coming up on February 25th, 2008. The mission is for American citizens to go to Iran, visit holy sites and towns, universities and schools, and as many media outlets like television and newspapers as possible in order to connect and dialogue with the Iranian people in hopes of finding common ground and creating more understanding between Americans and Iranians.

Fishy was chosen to be one of the delegates to go on this trip with the Fellowship of Reconciliation on February 25th through March 10th 2008. We are using the ChipIn widget to raise the funds necessary to pay for the expenses. All you have to do is click and donate any amount you desire and it goes right into a special fund especially created for this cause.

Best of all as soon as you donate, you get to watch your contribution raise the meter that much higher and closer to the goal! And your name appears on the list of contributors if you so desire (optional).

Yes ladies and gentlemen we have already crunched the numbers and had our fun with the math. If everyone contributes $5 we will need 600 contributors. $10? Only 300 contributors. $20? Well now we're down to only 150 contributors. Etc. So give if you can and most of all have some fun with it. And thank you for taking part in this fantastic adventure!

Message to the world: SOS! America has been taken over and we need your help!!!

Well if we had any doubts before today... they have certainly been quenched by this late breaking news. as if we needed confirmation. funny thing is that there are still plenty of sheeple running around blind and dumb to the whole thing. They'll tell you everything's going to be alright. no big deal if OUR government commits fraud, torture, all sorts of felonies and then covers them up, destroys the evidence, etc. You wanna a beer bro? What are you so worried about? Let's go see the christmas tree in rockefeller center. But if another country does that, now thats a whole different thing. And if one of us does it, now that's a crime, that's treason. What's good for the goose aint good for the gander in the fascist republic. not no more. The selected officials do whatever the hell they want and baby it's alright. Sleep tight america. Death comes a'knockin in the night and has no mercy. Half our family is in prison for protesting but we still salute the ole red white and blue. Cause we aint got shit for brains and dont know no better.

SOS SOS SOS SOS SOS SOS SOS SOMEBODY HELP US PLEASE!!! SOS SOS SOS SOS SOS SOS SOS
Message to the rest of the world: There are still some intelligent people left in america. stop. We are being held captive by a fascist junta regime that has taken over our government. stop. they are breaking every law we have on our books and reversing every law we had in our constitution. stop. we know you see it. stop. what we want you to know is that some of us see it too but we don't know what to do. stop. please stop patronizing america's phoney government, stop caving into their bullying threats and taking bribes from these criminals disguised as our elected officials. stop. stop doing business with this government, stop buying their weapons of mass destruction. stop participating in their unjust and inhuman wars. stop. stop appearing on television with them and stop taking meetings with them. stop all communication with them until they agree to STEP DOWN. stop. that is the only thing that will help save our once great nation. We are relying on you the rest of the civilized world community to save the american people from a government taken over by an inhuman multi-national military industrial corporate controlled group who call themselves our leaders. stop. we feel helpless and we need your assistance. stop. end of communication.



Breaking News Alert
The New York Times
Thursday, December 6, 2007 -- 4:54 PM ET
-----

C.I.A. Says It Destroyed Tapes of Harsh Interrogations

The C.I.A. destroyed the tapes in 2005 in the midst of congressional and legal scrutiny about its secret detention program, according to government officials.

Read More:
http://www.nytimes.com/?emc=na

The Future

the thought occurred to me last night as i typed yet another communication to yet another associate how ridiculous it is that i was TYPING WORD BY WORD to get my simple message across. one or two ideas... simple enough. and here i was having to actually sit there and TYPE. letter by letter. word by word. absolutely insane when you think about it. why are we so far back still in our evolution that we are still forced to type our communications? or voice them over the phone?

the future? aw man, that's an easy one. you think it and it is.

later that night i am watching the movie FAST FOOD NATION as i lie half asleep i notice a few people in a van crossing the border from mexico to the US. on their way to colorado. the american dream and all that. and im watching them drive. and this thought occurrs to me. again. coincidence? nah. i just think it's where i'm at now. im thinking, people have to fucking drive to get from one place to another. look at those porr old-timers sitting in that automobile for hours to get from one place to another. how old school is that? i was just in shock.

not that i have been to the other side yet. not that i have been there. seen it. not in real life anyway. but i can tell you this much. we aren't going to be driving in cars to get from a to z forever. and we aren't going to be sitting here typing our ideas into little boxes with our fingers. if you ask me this is all quite ridiculous. i can see the future and it doesnt look like this.

you know, it is no wonder that more advanced civilizations in the universe find their physical bodies less and less important. as we progress mentally emotionally and spiritually we will be able to accomplish that much more without much need for these physical tasks and there will be less and less of a need for them. the bodies served their purpose fine for the last million years or so but alot of these mundane-linear-time-tasks are tired to me. so old school that they make me yawn.

its time we get on with the next phase of our evolution. obviously in place of typipng or speaking via phone we will be able to communicate through space-time with our minds. and again jsut as obvious instead of sitting in a metal box for hours either driving or flying to get from a to z we will be teleporting ourselves somehow in an instant. now im no inventor. so i cant muster up the technology. but i can see it as clear as day. and if it aint going to happen tomorrow i can guarantee it's on the horizon. just as surely as we saw electricity or flying or faxing or the internet as big-time revolutionary inventions we will see these other ideas come to pass soon enough.

on with the show people. inventors start your engines and let's get on with it. the ambassador is bored with the old. bring on the new.

Before i forget...

It had been happening for a few months, only late at night so by the time i would awake in the morning i would always forget. Every now and then i would see the visions during the day and remember to attempt to go there again that night. After a while it became a regular practice. Been months now. It has become part of my natural thinking as i fal asleep each night.

Don't know what made me think of it. Riding the subway earlier today i had the recollection. Been meaning to make a note of it. What will come of it.... what can come of it... isn't that ever the holy grail of questions.

I cannot say what prompted it. It was not a conscious thought. It was never a conscious intention. As I was falling asleep one night a few months back i disctinctly remember watching the thought-dreams and images pass before my mind's eye as every night before. But this night i actualy became conscious of it. perhaps for the first time. recognized that at some point before we fall into what we call "sleep" we go from conscious thinking to unconscious observing. just random pictures, scenarios, images, thoughts, ideas, all scrambled together and utterly random and unintentional. before we know it, next thing we know, we are out. But this particular night i recognized that was happening.

Keenly aware from studying it that in some circles psychiatrists and neuro-scientists will call this state of mind the 'hypnogogic state.' legends abound how edison, da vinci and nostradama would create elaborate systems to send themselves off to the hynogogic state with a bell attached to their wrist or head to awaken them so they could then scribble down any thoughts they could remember having during that state of half-consciousness. i was familiar with it. Other artists like Neitsche or Poe used more direct methods such as morphine or heroine or LSD. i've never been too partial to any particular method as long as i get THERE. which is the point of it. once conscious thought stops and this other mechanism takes over, this unconscious awake-but-dreaming mode, miraculous ideas transpire, things we would never normally conceive of. It's where songs come from.

We could spend hours talking about it of course. and if we ever get a chance to meet in person, please let's do. But here now let's move on. So on this particular night I consciously popped myself out of it for a moment just long enough to actually observe it. I noticed that i was struggling in the vision that i was having... something wasnt working out. something had fallen and i was trying to bend over to reach it and i couldnt. Again, not sure what prompted this, but a voice in my head just said "well then, just use your mind to pick it back up and put it in its place." which i then did in the vision. it was that simple. i made a mental note to remember to start doing that in all of my dreams and pre-dream visions. i am, as most, not able to do this in my waking state. move objects with my mind. but i was clearly able to do it in my mind. in my dreams. in my visions. could i do it in my unconsciouus random pre-dreams and visions as well.

A year before i had started having dreams of bouncing hundreds of feet up in the air and landing softly only to bounce up again. these eventually turned into a very real conscious deliberate flying dreams. now they are common for me to have. i fly around or bounce for miles into the air and traverse the earth as if i am some sort of extraterrestrial being with super-powers on a regular basis. So i assume that this new form of telekinesis is just the next step from that.

a few nights later i remembered this new found ability to do this and attempted to do it again as i was falling asleep. The key was this: whatever i was envisioning or experiencing i would consciously attempt to do it easier, more magically, more super-naturally using my mind. if i saw myself in a vision or scenario walking down the street to get somewhere i would tell myself "why not just go from here to there like BAM without walking but rather just literally go from here to there in an instant." and then i would just instantly transport from one place to another like magic.

Or perhaps i had seen myself balancing some things but was struggling for the keys in my pocket. i would just tell myself to let go of all the items and let them all balance in mid air as if by magic while i looked for my keys and they would all just float there. or sometimes i just tell the door to open without me even reaching for my keys to open it. i just think the thought, "door open now" and the door opens and i walk through it. it goes on and on. there seems to be no end to what we can do with our mind as opposed to doing it with our bodies as we are currently limited on earth in our current state of mind or conscious awareness.

now after a few months of this there is almost nothing that i haven't pulled off in these random dreams and visions. and here's the catch. i am not talking about anything conscious as if in meditation which i would assume might be the next step. or perhaps it is the step before, i dont know. i am not talking about consciouusly sitting down to meditate and attempt to envision yourself pulling off telekinetic stunts deliberately. what it is showing up as for me is a conscious decision to have it happen unconsciously as if it is a natural ability that i possess. no matter what the circumstance. if i encounter a "a bad guy" in a dream, we all know how dreams are, filled with ghosts and dream girls and wizards and freinds and enemies and good guys and bad guys, just the mind messing about with itself really, well now a voice in my head says "just make him dissappear. and he dissapears. or "make her appear. make her come over to you." and WHAM she (whoever she happens to be in that particular dream) just appears right in front of me. as if by magic. like some teleportation.

telekinesis. teleportation. at least now we know it is indeed possible. at least in our minds. i have seen it for myself. it becomes easier and easier once you begin to practice it. and it all happens quite unconscoiusly which is what gives me hope for the future. if i was still in a state of having to go into a meditative mind-set and deliberately try to picture it or envision it, i would say that it was jsut imagination. whereas now it has become a new way of thinking. just as breathing is ... after all, something that at some level we are having to think about doing, but we just arent conscious of having to think about it. having thoughts in fact is something that we arent consciously thinking thoughts about. we just have thoughts. (some would argue thats not such a good thing, but we'll save that for another conversation.) the point is that if we consciously tell ourselves that we want this ability in our half-conscious state we can indeed acheive that ability.

now again, what will come of it? what can come of it? im not sure yet. i do know that it has given me a tremendous feeling of power and confidence in general. as if i have crossed a new threshold of some kind mentally. But no i have not been able to pull it off in the real waking world. though when i do attempt it on occasion i fully expect to see it happen. which is a good sign. it means my waking mind is ready for it. no hangups about it.

Fuck For Nature

An interesting idea to say the least, the Norwegian environmental activist group Fuck FOr Forest is a non-profit that asks other activists to send in photos and videos of themselves in the buff or having sex so they can post it to their website and then nature lovers can pay a small membership fee to view the material. All the proceeds go towards protecting the forests. They are currently working on buying up land to protect in Ecuador and Costa Rica acres at a time. I love the idea. Bold. Fun. Creative. Downright jolly. Check it out here: www.fuckforforest.com

Teaching Thanksgiving?

Dear Princess Little Tree,
FYI -- its that time of year again. Madelynne O'Ryan is trying to create a more accurate way to teach her classes about thanksgiving than the traditional American gov way which is so off base. So she emailed me a bunch of articles about it to ask what i thought. It made me think of you since your kids are also learning about it in school every year. Obvioulsy the way that it is currently being taught is similar to what the Americans teach about Iran right now -- just total bogus bullshit, so i am sure you can relate and also thought that you would want them to know the truth about the native americans jsut as you do in regards to iranians. I did about five hours of research for her last night and found the article that she sent me below fairly accurate and verified by other sources.

But there is so much contention out there regarding certian facts. but sadly none abouut the slaughter of the 700 native americans that started the whole thanksgiving celebration for the european settlers.

Of course I don't know how YOU would approach it with your kids but I do think it is important to tell them the truth so they aren't walking around dressed up like Indians (since "indians" come from "india" not america, nor pilgrims (since they were murderous dogs)... you know?

I'm so torn by things like this because the kids are so young... how do we tell them the truth about thanksgiving when so many schools are still lying to them? It ends up setting them up to be outcasts in their school which is not what anyone wants. But at the same time we cannot continue to perpetrate government myths and propaganda either. The people cannot wait for the government to revise history more accurately. We have to set the example ourselves and if the government never climbs aboard the peace train or the truth train, fuck em.

It is unsettling though to consider what someone in your position might do...

The article is below, originally published in Alternative Press. You can find it all over the internet.

THE REAL STORY OF THANKSGIVING

by Susan Bates
Most of us associate the holiday with happy Pilgrims and Indians sitting down to a big feast. And that did happen - once.

The story began in 1614 when a band of English explorers sailed home to England with a ship full of Patuxet Indians bound for slavery. They left behind smallpox which virtually wiped out those who had escaped. By the time the Pilgrims arrived in Massachusetts Bay they found only one living Patuxet Indian, a man named Squanto who had survived slavery in England and knew their language. He taught them to grow corn and to fish, and negotiated a peace treaty between the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag Nation. At the end of their first year, the Pilgrims held a great feast honoring Squanto and the Wampanoags.

But as word spread in England about the paradise to be found in the new world, religious zealots called Puritans began arriving by the boat load. Finding no fences around the land, they considered it to be in the public domain. Joined by other British settlers, they seized land, capturing strong young Natives for slaves and killing the rest. But the Pequot Nation had not agreed to the peace treaty Squanto had negotiated and they fought back. The Pequot War was one of the bloodiest Indian wars ever fought.

In 1637 near present day Groton, Connecticut, over 700 men, women and children of the Pequot Tribe had gathered for their annual Green Corn Festival which is our Thanksgiving celebration. In the predawn hours the sleeping Indians were surrounded by English and Dutch mercenaries who ordered them to come outside. Those who came out were shot or clubbed to death while the terrified women and children who huddled inside the longhouse were burned alive. The next day the governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony declared "A Day Of Thanksgiving" because 700 unarmed men, women and children had been murdered.

Cheered by their "victory", the brave colonists and their Indian allies attacked village after village. Women and children over 14 were sold into slavery while the rest were murdered. Boats loaded with a many as 500 slaves regularly left the ports of New England. Bounties were paid for Indian scalps to encourage as many deaths as possible.

Following an especially successful raid against the Pequot in what is now Stamford, Connecticut, the churches announced a second day of "thanksgiving" to celebrate victory over the heathen savages. During the feasting, the hacked off heads of Natives were kicked through the streets like soccer balls. Even the friendly Wampanoag did not escape the madness. Their chief was beheaded, and his head impaled on a pole in Plymouth, Massachusetts -- where it remained on display for 24 years.

The killings became more and more frenzied, with days of thanksgiving feasts being held after each successful massacre. George Washington finally suggested that only one day of Thanksgiving per year be set aside instead of celebrating each and every massacre. Later Abraham Lincoln decreed Thanksgiving Day to be a legal national holiday during the Civil War -- on the same day he ordered troops to march against the starving Sioux in Minnesota.

This story doesn't have quite the same fuzzy feelings associated with it as the one where the Indians and Pilgrims are all sitting down together at the big feast. But we need to learn our true history so it won't ever be repeated. Next Thanksgiving, when you gather with your loved ones to Thank God for all your blessings, think about those people who only wanted to live their lives and raise their families. They, also took time out to say "thank you" to Creator for all their blessings.

It is sad to think that this happened, but it is important to understand all of the story and not just the happy part. Today the town of Plymouth Rock has a Thanksgiving ceremony each year in remembrance of the first Thanksgiving. There are still Wampanoag people living in Massachusetts. In 1970, they asked one of them to speak at the ceremony to mark the 350th anniversary of the Pilgrim's arrival. Here is part of what was said:

"Today is a time of celebrating for you -- a time of looking back to the first days of white people in America. But it is not a time of celebrating for me. It is with a heavy heart that I look back upon what happened to my People. When the Pilgrims arrived, we, the Wampanoags, welcomed them with open arms, little knowing that it was the beginning of the end. That before 50 years were to pass, the Wampanoag would no longer be a tribe. That we and other Indians living near the settlers would be killed by their guns or dead from diseases that we caught from them. Let us always remember, the Indian is and was just as human as the white people.

Although our way of life is almost gone, we, the Wampanoags, still walk the lands of Massachusetts. What has happened cannot be changed. But today we work toward a better America, a more Indian America where people and nature once again are important."

MSNBC Anchor Woman Refuses to Read News about Paris

Fantastic moment of personal expression on overdrive! Let us hope this is only the beginning of the news anchors standing up for news.

Ed Hale on Amazon.com

Transcendence: Somebody Killed the DJ -- Music Video

Ed Hale - White House Jihad